five-dollar words
Unnecessarily complex language
Five-dollar words are fancy, impressive-sounding words used where simpler ones would do: He kept throwing around five-dollar words like "perspicacious" and "verisimilitude".
The phrase gently mocks pretentious vocabulary, implying the speaker is showing off rather than communicating clearly.
The dollar amount varies—ten-dollar words suggests even more pomposity.
- sesquipedalianGiven to lengthy vocabulary
- big wordsElaborate, showy vocabulary
- pretentiousFalsely grand or important
- showing offOstentatious self-display
- grandiloquentPretentiously elevated in speech
lexicon · bombastic · circumlocutions · polysyllabic · word salad · verbose · vocabulary · jargon · pedantic · highfalutin · inkhorn · terminology · florid · dictionaries · ornate · elitist · academic writing · ivory tower
five-dollar wordsplain speech
Unembellished verbal expression
simple words · plain language · everyday words · basic vocabulary · small words
five-dollar wordsplain talk
Simple, direct language
straight talk · common parlance · vernacular · colloquialisms · slang