"big word" meaning in All languages combined

See big word on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: big words [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} big word (plural big words)
  1. An erudite word, especially a Latinate or multisyllabic one; a word used by scholars, intellectuals, etc., but that is not commonly known outside of academia. Related terms (multisyllabic word): sesquipedalian
    Sense id: en-big_word-en-noun-en:unsimple_vocabulary_item Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 74 26 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 85 15 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 89 11 Disambiguation of 'multisyllabic word': 95 5
  2. (in the plural) Boastful or exaggerated statements. Tags: in-plural Synonyms: big talk
    Sense id: en-big_word-en-noun-en:boastful_or_exaggerated_statements Categories (other): English terms with collocations
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms (boastful language): talk big
Disambiguation of 'boastful language': 48 52

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "big words",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "big word (plural big words)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "sense": "boastful language",
      "word": "talk big"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "74 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "85 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "89 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The customer complained that the instructions were incomprehensible, and our office tried to provide remedial help, but when they complained that “supplementary” and “atmospheric” were big words, we knew that they were beyond help.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1860 October 19, The Mount Alexander Mail, page 6:",
          "text": "The object of the writer is to show that preachers need not use big words to teach the truth.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 118:",
          "text": "`Naturally society frowns on such capers, and your experts have to think up big words to keep their jobs.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Harold Barrett, Practical Uses of Speech Communication, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, page 173:",
          "text": "Communication can often break down if the terminology is too technical, if a speaker uses “big words” for their own sake and lets the language become overly complex.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Binoo K. John, Entry from Backside Only, page 97:",
          "text": "The sudden interjection of big words or complicated usages is a clear instance of the writer taking outside advice[.]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An erudite word, especially a Latinate or multisyllabic one; a word used by scholars, intellectuals, etc., but that is not commonly known outside of academia."
      ],
      "id": "en-big_word-en-noun-en:unsimple_vocabulary_item",
      "links": [
        [
          "erudite",
          "erudite"
        ],
        [
          "Latinate",
          "Latinate"
        ],
        [
          "multisyllabic",
          "multisyllabic"
        ],
        [
          "scholar",
          "scholar"
        ],
        [
          "intellectual",
          "intellectual"
        ],
        [
          "academia",
          "academia"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "sense": "multisyllabic word",
          "word": "sesquipedalian"
        }
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:unsimple vocabulary item"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with collocations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with collocations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "big words from a little man",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1888 July 13, The Petersberg Times, South Australia, page 4:",
          "text": "Then you said in your paper that there was a paucity of variety and the length of the programme made the latter part to say the least rather monotonous. Now those are big words for a little chap like me, but I say they are very unfair and very misleading.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 266:",
          "text": "The big words were beginning to sound empty in his mouth.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Boastful or exaggerated statements."
      ],
      "id": "en-big_word-en-noun-en:boastful_or_exaggerated_statements",
      "links": [
        [
          "Boastful",
          "boastful"
        ],
        [
          "exaggerated",
          "exaggerated"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(in the plural) Boastful or exaggerated statements."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:boastful or exaggerated statements"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "big talk"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "in-plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "big word"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "big words",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "big word (plural big words)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "sense": "boastful language",
      "word": "talk big"
    },
    {
      "sense": "multisyllabic word",
      "word": "sesquipedalian"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The customer complained that the instructions were incomprehensible, and our office tried to provide remedial help, but when they complained that “supplementary” and “atmospheric” were big words, we knew that they were beyond help.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1860 October 19, The Mount Alexander Mail, page 6:",
          "text": "The object of the writer is to show that preachers need not use big words to teach the truth.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 118:",
          "text": "`Naturally society frowns on such capers, and your experts have to think up big words to keep their jobs.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Harold Barrett, Practical Uses of Speech Communication, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, page 173:",
          "text": "Communication can often break down if the terminology is too technical, if a speaker uses “big words” for their own sake and lets the language become overly complex.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Binoo K. John, Entry from Backside Only, page 97:",
          "text": "The sudden interjection of big words or complicated usages is a clear instance of the writer taking outside advice[.]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An erudite word, especially a Latinate or multisyllabic one; a word used by scholars, intellectuals, etc., but that is not commonly known outside of academia."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "erudite",
          "erudite"
        ],
        [
          "Latinate",
          "Latinate"
        ],
        [
          "multisyllabic",
          "multisyllabic"
        ],
        [
          "scholar",
          "scholar"
        ],
        [
          "intellectual",
          "intellectual"
        ],
        [
          "academia",
          "academia"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:unsimple vocabulary item"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with collocations",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "big words from a little man",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1888 July 13, The Petersberg Times, South Australia, page 4:",
          "text": "Then you said in your paper that there was a paucity of variety and the length of the programme made the latter part to say the least rather monotonous. Now those are big words for a little chap like me, but I say they are very unfair and very misleading.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 266:",
          "text": "The big words were beginning to sound empty in his mouth.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Boastful or exaggerated statements."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Boastful",
          "boastful"
        ],
        [
          "exaggerated",
          "exaggerated"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(in the plural) Boastful or exaggerated statements."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:boastful or exaggerated statements"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "big talk"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "in-plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "big word"
}

Download raw JSONL data for big word meaning in All languages combined (3.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (95d2be1 and 64224ec). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.