ten-cent words
ten-cent words is the plural of ten-cent word.
Meaning of ten-cent word
Noun
ten-cent word (plural ten-cent words)
- A long word used in place of a short one with the intent to appear sophisticated.
- Synonyms:
- five-dollar word, ten-dollar word, twenty-five cent word
- A short and common word used in place of a longer and more uncommon one.
- One important note: Exchanging a ten-cent word (“chew”) for a ten-dollar synonym (“masticate”) is NOT the point here. Overly fancy words are just that—overly fancy.2013, Boris Fishman, The Creative Writer, Level Three: Building Your Craft, Peace Hill Press, →ISBN
- Antonyms:
- five-dollar word, ten-dollar word, twenty-five cent word
Questions about ten-cent words
- What is ten-cent words the plural of?
- Ten-cent words is the plural of ten-cent word.
Words near ten-cent words in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ten-cent words (page history and authors); ten-cent 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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