Word.ws English Dictionary

big word

big word noun: an erudite word, especially a Latinate or multisyllabic one; a word used by scholars, intellectuals, etc., but that is not commonly known outside of academia.

Noun

big word (plural big words)

  1. An erudite word, especially a Latinate or multisyllabic one; a word used by scholars, intellectuals, etc., but that is not commonly known outside of academia.
    • The customer complained that the instructions were incomprehensible, and our office tried to provide remedial help, but when they complained that “supplementary” and “atmospheric” were big words, we knew that they were beyond help.
    • The object of the writer is to show that preachers need not use big words to teach the truth.1860 October 19, The Mount Alexander Mail, page 6
  2. (in plural) Boastful or exaggerated statements.
    • big words from a little man
    • Then you said in your paper that there was a paucity of variety and the length of the programme made the latter part to say the least rather monotonous. Now those are big words for a little chap like me, but I say they are very unfair and very misleading.1888 July 13, The Petersberg Times, South Australia, page 4
    Synonyms:
    big talk

Examples of big word in a sentence

  • `Naturally society frowns on such capers, and your experts have to think up big words to keep their jobs.'1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 118:
  • Communication can often break down if the terminology is too technical, if a speaker uses “big words” for their own sake and lets the language become overly complex.1981, Harold Barrett, Practical Uses of Speech Communication, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, page 173:
  • The sudden interjection of big words or complicated usages is a clear instance of the writer taking outside advice[.]2007, Binoo K. John, Entry from Backside Only, page 97:
  • The big words were beginning to sound empty in his mouth.1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 266:

Synonyms of big word

Forms of big word

pluralbig words

Questions about big word

What does big word mean?
Big word means an erudite word, especially a Latinate or multisyllabic one; a word used by scholars, intellectuals, etc., but that is not commonly known outside of academia.
How do you use big word in a sentence?
`Naturally society frowns on such capers, and your experts have to think up big words to keep their jobs.'
What part of speech is big word?
Big word is a noun.
What is the plural of big word?
The plural of big word is big words.

Words near big word in the dictionary

  1. big wig
  2. big wigs
  3. Big Willy
  4. Big Woods
  5. big woop
  6. big word
  7. big words
  8. big wow
  9. Big Yahu
  10. big year
  11. big years

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: big word (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “big word.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/big_word. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.