"Dad, what does epizeuxis mean?"

"Go look it up."

"Does that mean you don't know what it means, or are you trying to make me learn?"

"Go look it up."

I didn't mind looking words up in the dictionary—especially after Dad got his big dictionary. As a youngster, I thought that book was huge. It even came with a magnifying glass so you could read the tiny print.

Dad had that crazy dictionary because he liked words as much as I did. We had fun trying to stump each other with giant or obscure words. Decades later, we still play this game.

That is to say, I love big words.

Yet, I rarely use them. Look at the sentences above. The only word anyone over the age of 8ish would need to look up is epizeuxis. (Epizeuxis is a figure of speech when you use the same word together without something separating it.)

Why deny myself big words?

(Big words are sesquipedalian words, by the way.)

➤ The goal of writing and speaking is to share ideas.

➤ Making people look up words reduces comprehension.

➤ Lots of big words can make you seem pompous.

➤ Lots of big words can make your reader/listener feel dumb.

That said, I appreciate novels that make me look up a few words.