What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Sesquipedalian vs Null - What's the difference?

sesquipedalian | null |

As nouns the difference between sesquipedalian and null

is that sesquipedalian is a long word while null is zero, nil; the cardinal number before einn.

As an adjective sesquipedalian

is (of a word or words) long; polysyllabic.

sesquipedalian

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A long word.
  • * 1830 , On the Art of Rising in Prose The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, part 2, v. 29, Henry Colburn and Co., page: 162:
  • “The fine old fellow,” as a Northern contemporary of ours patronizingly calls him, certainly rolled out his sesquipedalians with a majesty previously unknown, and gave a fine organ-like swell to his full-blow periods;
  • * 1927 , John S. Farmer, William Ernest Henley, A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English: Abridged from the Seven-volume Work, Entitled "Slang and Its Analogues" , Taylor & Francis, page: 164:
  • Fleet-streetese , the so-called English written to sell by the Fleet-streeter (q.v.), or baser sort of journalist: a mixture of sesquipedalians and slang, of phrases worn threadbare and phrases sprung from the kennel;
  • * 1952 , Hannah More , Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, page: 220:
  • ‘Sometimes we converse in ballad-rhymes, sometimes in Johnsonian sesquipedalians ; at tea we condescend to riddles and charades.’
  • A person who uses long words.
  • * 2008 , Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing ,Oxford University Press, page: 106:
  • Word-watchers, verbivores, and sesquipedalians love a challenge.
  • * 2009 , Sally Adams, Wynford Hicks, Interviewing for Journalists , Taylor & Francis, page: 97:
  • ‘What sort of writer is the English professor looking for?’ / ‘He wants a sesquipedalian , of course.’
  • * 2012 , Jonathan Herring, How to Argue: Powerfully, Persuasively, Positively , FT Press, chapter 8, page: ?:
  • Don’t be a sesquipedalian'! / Yes, you guessed right. A ' sesquipedalian is a person who enjoys long words.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (of a word or words) long; polysyllabic.
  • More people know the sesquipedalian word "antidisestablishmentarianism" than know what it means.
  • Pertaining to or given to the use of overly long words.
  • Our dinner guest was so sesquipedalian that no one could understand what he said.
  • * '>citation
  • Synonyms

    * (of long words) polysyllabic * (given to the use of long words) bombastic, grandiloquent, long-winded, florid, prolix

    Antonyms

    * (of long words) monosyllabic, brachysyllabic * (given to the use of long words) brief, terse, laconic

    Derived terms

    * sesquipedalianism – literary style characterised by the use of long words. * sesquipedalianist – a writer using sesquipedalianism. * sesquipedalophobia – fear of long words.

    null

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A non-existent or empty value or set of values.
  • Zero]] quantity of [[expression, expressions; nothing.
  • (Francis Bacon)
  • Something that has no force or meaning.
  • (computing) the ASCII or Unicode character (), represented by a zero value, that indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator.
  • (computing) the attribute of an entity that has no valid value.
  • Since no date of birth was entered for the patient, his age is null .
  • One of the beads in nulled work.
  • (statistics) null hypothesis
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having no validity, "null and void"
  • insignificant
  • * 1924 , Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove :
  • In proportion as we descend the social scale our snobbishness fastens on to mere nothings which are perhaps no more null than the distinctions observed by the aristocracy, but, being more obscure, more peculiar to the individual, take us more by surprise.
  • absent or non-existent
  • (mathematics) of the null set
  • (mathematics) of or comprising a value of precisely zero
  • (genetics, of a mutation) causing a complete loss of gene function, amorphic.
  • Derived terms

    * nullity

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to nullify; to annul
  • (Milton)

    See also

    * nil ----