adjective

• 1 formal (of a word) polysyllabic; long.

  ‘sesquipedalian surnames’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Helplessly, he would manipulate every sesquipedalian word he encountered until he had wrung all possible combinations out of it.’
  • ‘Geologists (who never shy away from sesquipedalian words) call the process ‘differentiation.’’

  Synonyms

  bombastic, pompous, overblown, overripe, inflated, high-flown, affected, pretentious, grandiose, florid, flowery, ornate, magniloquent, grandiloquent, rhetorical, oratorical, orotund

  1. 1.1Characterized by long words; long-winded.
     ‘the sesquipedalian prose of scientific journals’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The work started as a monologue, a rather sesquipedalian, somewhat dithering Englishwoman's reverie about Kabul based on a 1965 guidebook to that city.’
     • ‘The English of the New Jerusalem Bible and New American Bible is sesquipedalian and nearly impossible to read aloud at times.’
     • ‘This isn't some pretentious, sesquipedalian piece of drivel, but a mad, inspired, fun must-read.’
     Synonyms

     lengthy, long, overlong, prolonged, protracted, long-drawn-out, interminable, tedious, wearisome, boring