big words
Polysyllabic language choices
Big words are lengthy or scholarly terms, especially when used to impress rather than communicate: He's always throwing around big words to sound smart.
The phrase often carries a hint of suspicion—that someone is being pretentious or obscuring simple ideas behind complicated vocabulary.
Just say what you mean without all the big words.
- verbosityUnnecessary word excess
- bombastPretentious hollow language
- sesquipedalianGiven to lengthy vocabulary
- dictionaryAlphabetical word reference
- circumlocutionIndirect, wordy expression
mouthful · hard to pronounce · polysyllabic · grandiloquence · showing off · jargonistic · academic speak · obfuscation · pretentious · highbrow · inkhorn · talking down · rhetoric · syllable · erudite · loquaciousness · pontificate · terminological
- pretentiousnesspretentious, pretentiousness, pretension, pompous, pomposity
big wordssimple words
plain language · basic vocabulary · small words · everyday words · monosyllables
big wordsplain speech
Unembellished verbal expression
plain talk · straight talk · direct speech · simple language · clear communication
big, bigger, biggest, word, words, wordy, wordier, wordiest, wordily