Sesquipedalianism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The practice of using long, sometimes obscure, words in speech or writing. uncountable
"His voice here is a marvelous juxtaposition of cool elegance, unaffected hipness, unabashed sesquipedalianism ("the rich bouquet of exuded sebaceousness") and swell conversational slang (...)"
- 2 A very long word. countable
Example
More examples"His voice here is a marvelous juxtaposition of cool elegance, unaffected hipness, unabashed sesquipedalianism ("the rich bouquet of exuded sebaceousness") and swell conversational slang (...)"
Etymology
Surface form analyzed as sesquipedalian + -ism, from sesqui- (“one and a half”) + pedalian (“of the foot”). From Latin sēsquipedālis (“a foot and a half long; in metaphorical use, “of an unnatural length, huge, big””), from sēsqui (“one and a half times as great”) + pedālis (“foot”).
More for "sesquipedalianism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.