sesquipedalianism
UK/sɛz.kwɪ.pəˈdɛl.i.ən.ɪsm̩//ˌsɛskwəpəˈdeɪli.ənɪzm̩/
sesquipedalianism noun: the practice of using long, sometimes obscure, words in speech or writing.
Noun
sesquipedalianism (countable and uncountable, plural sesquipedalianisms)
- The practice of using long, sometimes obscure, words in speech or writing.
- His voice here is a marvelous juxtaposition of cool elegance, unaffected hipness, unabashed sesquipedalianism ("the rich bouquet of exuded sebaceousness") and swell conversational slang (...)1995, Michael Cart, From Romance to Realism, →ISBN, page 257
- A very long word.
Forms of sesquipedalianism
| plural | sesquipedalianisms |
|---|
Origin of sesquipedalianism
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”).
Questions about sesquipedalianism
- What does sesquipedalianism mean?
- Sesquipedalianism means the practice of using long, sometimes obscure, words in speech or writing.
- What part of speech is sesquipedalianism?
- Sesquipedalianism is a noun.
- How do you pronounce sesquipedalianism?
- Sesquipedalianism is pronounced /sɛz.kwɪ.pəˈdɛl.i.ən.ɪsm̩/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sesquipedalianism?
- The plural of sesquipedalianism is sesquipedalianisms.
Words near sesquipedalianism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sesquipedalianism (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sesquipedalianism.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sesquipedalianism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sesquipedalianism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.