Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Plural form of
polysyllable .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word polysyllables.
Examples
-
Animal nick names (Moose), someone who's gotten a "neither female nor male name", polysyllables, "K or C or Y", "shortened, not stirred" names, "I'm calling you Bob" etc.
-
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but polysyllables will never hurt me,” Manni retorted.
-
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but polysyllables will never hurt me,” Manni retorted.
-
Do you really think William F. Buckley Jr. or George Will would just trash, or at least trash in polysyllables rather than invective?
-
The first thing ‘Rhyme’ does is define itself: “when we speak of rhyme, we usually have in mind only two types of agreement: different initial sounds and identical following sounds,...or polysyllables which correspond at every point except one...”
THE PROSODY HANDBOOK: A GUIDE TO POETIC FORM by ROBERT BEUM & KARL SHAPIRO
-
That makes it hard for a translator to stick with the polysyllables that Chaucer often used for rhythmic effect.
-
Winston Churchill, who wrote a treatise on the use of rhetoric in political speech at the age of 22, himself once opened an attack on his political opponents, saying "These professional intellectuals who revel in decimals and polysyllables ...."
Joseph Romm: Why Smart Talkers Lose Debates and How Obama Can Beat McCain Anyway
-
There may be a point or two in there, but between the banal thoughts, the crashing polysyllables, and the air of insulting hostility, no person who values his or her time would waste it on this nonsense.
"This man is a clear-eyed pragmatist who will get the job done" — says Biden of Obama.
-
We can use short, plain words or sesquipedalian polysyllables; we may want to use both.
-
Hugh had spoken in polysyllables about a surgical procedure.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.