English Dictionary

POLYSYLLABLE

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

 Dictionary entry overview: What does polysyllable mean? 

POLYSYLLABLE (noun)
  The noun POLYSYLLABLE has 1 sense:

1. a word of more than three syllablesplay

  Familiarity information: POLYSYLLABLE used as a noun is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


POLYSYLLABLE (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A word of more than three syllables

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

polysyllabic word; polysyllable

Hypernyms ("polysyllable" is a kind of...):

word (a unit of language that native speakers can identify)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "polysyllable"):

jawbreaker (a word that is hard to pronounce)

sesquipedalia; sesquipedalian (a very long word (a foot and a half long))

Derivation:

polysyllabic ((of words) long and ponderous; having many syllables)

polysyllabic (having or characterized by words of more than three syllables)


 Context examples 


The first project was, to shorten discourse, by cutting polysyllables into one, and leaving out verbs and participles, because, in reality, all things imaginable are but norms.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today." (English proverb)

"Five minutes of health comfort the ill one" (Breton proverb)

"Call someone your lord and he'll sell you in the slave market." (Arabic proverb)

"A good dog gets a good bone." (Corsican proverb)



ALSO IN ENGLISH DICTIONARY:


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