Complex word for different

In English grammar and morphology, a complex word is a word made up of two or more morphemes. Contrast with monomorphemic word.

A complex word may consist of (1) a base (or root) and one or more affixes (for example, quicker), or (2) more than one root in a compound (for example, blackbird).

Examples and Observations

«[W]e say that bookishness is a complex word, whose immediate components are bookish and -ness, which we can express in shorthand by spelling the word with dashes between each morph: book-ish-ness. The process of dividing a word into morphs is called parsing.» (Keith M. Denning et al., English Vocabulary Elements. Oxford University Press, 2007)

Transparency and Opaqueness

«A morphologically complex word is semantically transparent if its meaning is obvious from its parts: hence ‘unhappiness’ is semantically transparent, being made up in a predictable fashion from ‘un,’ ‘happy,’ and ‘ness.’ A word like ‘department,’ even though it contains recognizable morphemes, is not semantically transparent. The meaning of ‘depart’ in ‘department’ is not obviously related to the ‘depart’ in ‘departure.’ It is semantically opaque.» (Trevor A. Harley, The Psychology of Language: From Data to Theory. Taylor & Francis, 2001)

Blender

«Let us consider the complex word blender. What can we say about its morphology? One aspect we can mention is that it consists of two morphemes, blend and er. Besides, we can say that blend is the root, since it is not further analysable, and at the same time the base to which the suffix -er is attached. To conclude, if we carry out morphological analysis, we usually show what morphemes a word consists of and describe these morphemes in terms of their type.» (Ingo Plag et al, Introduction to English Linguistics. Walter de Gruyer, 2007)

The Hypothesis of Lexical Integrity

«The lexicon . . . is not just a set of words, but also comprises word combinations. For example, English (like most Germanic languages) has many verb-particle combinations, also called phrasal verbs of the type to look up which clearly consist of two words which are even separable:

(20a) The student looked up the information
(20b) The student looked the information up

The verb look up cannot be one word since its two parts can be separated, as in sentence (20b). A basic assumption in morphology is the hypothesis of Lexical Integrity: the constituents of a complex word cannot be operated upon by syntactic rules. Put differently: words behave as atoms with respect to syntactic rules, which cannot look inside the word and see its internal morphological structure. Hence, the movement of up to the end of the sentence in (20b) can only be accounted for if look up is a combination of two words. That is, phrasal verbs such as lookup are certainly lexical units, but not words. Words are just a subset of the lexical units of a language. Another way of putting this is to say that look up is a listeme but not a lexeme of English (DiSciullo and Williams, 1987).

«Other examples of lexical multi-word units are adjective-noun combinations such as red tape, big toe, atomic bomb, and industrial output. Such phrases are established terms for referring to certain kinds of entities, and hence they must be listed in the lexicon.» (Geert E. Booij, The Grammar of Words: An Introduction to Linguistic Morphology, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2012)

Can you relate to those moments when you come across some complex words with big spellings or confusing pronunciation and go “Oh my God!” Well, then, you aren’t alone. That’s the nature of these words; to scare us by the looks of it. But here’s a secret- not all these words have a complicated meaning. It’s just our first idea that it’s a difficult one to understand when we see a term brimming with letters or with a confused placement. But that is not true.

There are some words in the English language, that sure look scary, but their meanings are no match. They’re so simple that one couldn’t imagine it on the first look. We thought it would be fun to bring together 10 such words. Not just will it show us how the language isn’t as complicated as it seems, but also teach us some new words. Who would say no to an entertaining session of vocabulary upgrade? Let’s do this then!

1. Querulous

Did we get you right from the beginning? We did indeed! So here is the first one on our list. We promise it has the simplest meaning that you can use in your daily conversations. The simplest explanation of the word is fussy. When someone cannot stop complaining about something, you can describe them with this adjective.

Example Sentence: Newman was very querulous and irritating at the party last night. 

2. Desideratum

Before you learn a word, always try and pronounce it several times. It helps retain the word in your personal glossary. The noun Desideratum refers to something that is wanted or needed. It finds a place on our list of complex words because it is a difficult-looking word with a simple meaning.

Example sentence: If you want to be a member of our team, then honesty and hard work is a desideratum.

3. Antediluvian

Also, belonging to the category of words we would usually skip on the first look, antediluvian has a beyond easy meaning. It is an adjective, which is a beautiful substitute for saying old-fashioned or outdated. It refers to something very old.

Example sentence: My company maintains antediluvian stereotypes when it comes to diving work between males and females. 

4. Floccinaucinihilipilification

Alright, let’s take a deep breath before we even attempt to pronounce this word. Hands down, this does seem like it can be nowhere else but this list of complex words. Are you ready for its straightforward meaning now? Floccinaucinihilipilification is a noun, which means the action or habit of estimating something as worthless. 

Example Sentence: I am very offended by my friend’s floccinaucinihilipilification of my amazing new vocabulary.

5. Pulchritudinous

Here is a break from the lengthy word we read above with a very usable adjective word. Could you have guessed that the word pulchritudinous means beautiful? Not at all, right? Well, take a sigh then. Giving a compliment to someone that sounds fancy, and yet very to-the-point just got easy.

Example Sentence: Dan gazed admiringly at the pulchritudinous sunset.

6. Idiosyncratic

At first glance, doesn’t it seem like the word Idiosyncratic comes from science? Drumroll then! The word has nothing to do with any field of science. Also, an adjective, you will find it surprising that this word from our complex words list has one of the very basic meanings. It means peculiar. 

Example sentence: She turned out to be one idiosyncratic talent in our society, which we didn’t know of until the day of the function. 

7. Milieu

You will be so glad that you came across this word because you will want to use it time and again. A noun word, Milieu, means one’s social environment. Our social media posts are going to be a notch cooler now that we know how this word related to our social world.

Example Sentence: Jessica never felt happy in a student milieu.

8. Sesquipedalian

Sesquipedalian is also an adjective word that has a lot to do with this article. An exceptionally long word made up of several letters is a sesquipedalian. Not that you would have to use this word every day, but then, you could use it as a vocabulary upgrade.

Example sentence: The word Floccinaucinihilipilification included in this article is a sesquipedalian.

9. Gasconade

Here is another word that you can regularly use from this list of complex words. Gasconade is a noun word that means boastful talk. There are some people we come across in our routine lives whose boasting we cannot stand.

Example sentence: The politician loved to gasconade about his poll numbers, high donations, and success to anyone who would listen.

10. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

For sure, not many of us would choose to use this word in our daily lives by looking at the length of this word. But it does indeed fulfill the idea of this lesson, which is that it has a very simple definition. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust. What better way to finish this lesson? Count, and you will find 45 letters in this word!

11. Conundrum

Conundrum is a noun.  It means, a problem or situation that is difficult to understand or solve.  An example, “The conundrum of how to balance work and family life is a common one for many people.”

12. Disenfranchised

Disenfranchised is an adjective.  It means, deprived of the rights and privileges of a citizen, especially the right to vote.  An example, “Many marginalised communities feel disenfranchised from the political process.”

13. Proclivity

Proclivity is a noun.  It means, a natural inclination or tendency towards something.  An example, “He has a proclivity for adventure and travel.”

14. Salubrious

Salubrious is an adjective.  It means, promoting health or well-being.  An example, “The salubrious climate of the mountains is good for those with respiratory problems.”

15. Perspicacious

Perspicacious is an adjective.  It means, having the ability to see through things and understand them quickly and well.  An example,”She is a perspicacious businesswoman who can spot opportunities quickly.”

If you enjoyed this lesson, then let us know!

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In this paper, we challenge the widespread view that the distinction between endocentric and exocentric compounds is fundamentally semantic. On the basis of data from Greek and Cypriot we propose, instead, that this is a structural distinction and that semantics cannot be a safe criterion for classifying exocentric compounds into various categories. We show that morphological features, e.g. gender and inflection class, cannot define exocentricity, since both Greek and Cypriot have many endocentric compounds displaying different features from those of their head. We suggest that exocentricity might be an epiphenomenon of the order of application of the word-formation processes, according to which, when compounding and derivation co-occur within the same morphologically-complex item, compounding precedes derivation. In contrast, a structure is endocentric, if it contains only compounding, or involves derivation and compounding, in this particular order. Finally, we provide evidence that exocentric compounds may belong to the productive word-formation mechanism.