POLYSYLLABLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does polysyllable mean? 

• POLYSYLLABLE (noun)
  The noun POLYSYLLABLE has 1 sense:

1. a word of more than three syllables

  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)