26 Longest Words to Describe Someone (Explained!)

There are many adjectives to describe people in the English language. Yet, some of the longest words are the most striking.

Either positive or negative, adjectives are the perfect tool to describe a human being’s appearance, behavior, and personality. These paint a vivid picture of the person. 

We can say that someone is hard-working, short-tempered, or nurturing and caring. Note how the specific words describing a person can tell us who they are. 

Keep reading to learn some of the longest adjectives you can use to describe people and give a good impression next time you want to describe someone.

1. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious describes someone too good

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a silly 34-letter phrase describing someone remarkable. Someone too good.

You pronounce the silly phrase as super-cali- fragilistic-expi-ali-docious. It’ll have your tongue twisting when you say it out loud. 

The word sprung into fame in the 1964 movie “Mary Poppins” when Julie Andrews performed a musical about the word in one scene. Attempt to say it backward like Julie, or say it with a child for fun.

2. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia describes the fear of long words

One of the longest words in the dictionary is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. The word means the dread of long words and is a noun.

When the phobia describes people who fear encountering long words when meeting and talking to new people in a social context, it can also be considered a social phobia

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobics fear people will judge them. They hate it when you use long words in sentences. The fear of long words is also known as sesquipedalophobia.

3. Sesquipedalian describes a person who loves big words

A sesquipedalian is someone who uses big words excessively. Sesquipedalian orators will get you lost in many incomprehensible, long talks.

4. Otorhinolaryngological describes a medical specialty

The next time you visit your ear, throat, and nose doctor, ask to see the otorhinolaryngologist. That’s a mouthful for the ENT specialist.

5. Floccinaucinihilipilification, the character of finding things worthless

Floccinaucinihilipilification means a habitual pattern of deciding something is of no value. Below is an example of the long word in a sentence. 

“I could only transport some of my cosmetics in my overflowing makeup bag. So, I gave my stash of makeup and other beauty supplies a good floccinaucinihilipilification.”

6. Trichotillomania is the disorder of pulling out hair

Trichotillomania is a disorder primarily among teens and young adults. It can be caused by hormonal imbalance during puberty, anxiety or OCD due to chemical imbalances in the brain. 

You’ll know you suffer from this disorder if you often have an irresistible urge to pull out your hair. The hair could be from your head, eyelashes, eyebrows, genitals, or beard. You’ll experience instant relief after pulling out your hair. Seek medical attention if this is you.

7. Circumlocution describes the love for many words

Circumlocution is using wordy sentences where fewer words can give the same meaning. You’ll learn one adjective or more from this post to replace your many words.

Those who love circumlocution use many adjectives in unnecessarily long sentences. The adjectives describe people or things. For example, drab unpolished mud-caked high-heel boots.

8. Tergiversation describes dubious characters

Looking for a phrase to describe a person who avoids making a definitive claim? Consider tergiversation.

People who tergiversate usually make conflicting statements, failing to commit to a claim. It describes a person’s personality of fickleness.

9. Pusillanimous describes a person with a weak character

This word means a timid person who lacks courage. It has a contemptuous tone. Rather than saying he chickened out of the negotiation, say, he was too pusillanimous to negotiate further.

10. Brobdingnagian describes a huge person

Brobdingnagian relates to anyone who is gigantic. It is the best word to describe the world’s tallest man, who also has enormous hands.

This word originates from Gulliver’s Travels. Thus, you write it with the capital letter ‘B.’ Its synonym, bunyanesque, is similarly long.

11. Incomprehensibility is the quality of being not easily understood

Incomprehensibility is a long word describing the quality of being incomprehensible. Not easy to understand. It best describes people who are incoherent in speech. 

See these examples: “He said incomprehensible things that made no sense.”

“Some students find math and science concepts incomprehensible.”

12. Eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious describes someone good

This 30-letter positive word means very good or fine. But don’t worry, no one, not even a professor of English, will expect you to use it in daily conversations, or to pronounce it. It’s also not in any dictionary. 

Eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious is pretty long and challenging to spell and pronounce. You may use it to describe someone fantastic.

The word comes close to pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which has 45 letters. It is the longest word in the English language describing a lung disease caused by inhalation of fine quartz.

13. Gasconade describes someone with braggadocio behavior

Gasconade can be used to describe someone who likes to brag a lot. Those people don’t give you peace as they constantly blow their trumpets.

For example, I don’t mean to gasconade, but my skills in internet research are top-notch.

14. Discombobulate describes embarrassment and confusion

This word means to confuse someone to the point that they’re embarrassed to say they missed most things.

There are those shrewd insurance salesmen who discombobulate you with their terms and conditions. You end up buying a policy less informed or halfheartedly.

15. Quintessential describes the perfect reflection of a trait

A quintessential person is a person who embodies something or someone perfectly. For instance, someone can be your quintessential street-smart broker.

16. Pulchritudinous describes a beautiful female

Pulchritudinous means physically attractive. 

Here is an example in a sentence: “He didn’t mean to stare at the pulchritudinous fair lady.”

17. Polyphiloprogenitive is a person who loves to procreate

Looking for a word to refer to someone who is extremely prolific? Try polyphiloprogenitive. It means someone who loves to bring forth offspring. 

Here is the word in a sentence. “For polyphiloprogenitive American parents who love reading, speed reading is a must-learn skill. That’s because they have little time to themselves.”   

18. Conversationalist describes a person who loves bantering

A conversationalist is someone who loves to talk and is a skillful speaker. They are funny and witty and will tell you interesting stories. For them, small talk and banter come effortlessly.

19. Reprehensible describes someone who is morally wrong

This word means the quality of being reprehensible. That is being morally wrong and deserving of strong criticism or reproof. 

Here’s an example in a sentence: “The jury found the defendant to be very reprehensible.”

20. Valetudinarian describes a person who is always worried about health issues

Have you met a sickly person, and all they seem to excessively worry about is their poor health? That’s a valetudinarian. Their weak body and poor health state is valetudinarianism.

21. Obstreperousness describes loud rebuts

Obstreperousness is a negative noun meaning noisy defiance. It’s the quality of protesting loudly intentionally, in contemptuous behavior.

See its use in a sentence: “In the following weeks, Pollard and Smith discovered that Seabiscuit’s obstreperousness wasn’t his only bad quality.”

22. Honorificabilitudinitatibus describes someone deserving honor

Literature students know Shakespeare coined this word in “Love’s Labor Lost.” It means the state of being able to receive honors. We don’t expect you to use it in real-life conversations, but it’s a great vocabulary addition.

After reading this article and learning all the long words, you are honorificabilitudinitatibus!

23. Nincompoop describes a silly person

You’ve probably blurted this out when talking. It refers to someone who is being foolish.

24. Antidisestablishmentarian describes a person in ancient England

An antidisestablishmentarian is a person who supports antidisestablishmentarianism. That is the withdrawal of state support from the church in England. 

The 25-letter-long word is not commonly used, but it would describe individuals who supported the policy in the 19th century.

25. Uncharacteristically describes strange behavior

This word is used to describe someone who has atypical behavior. For instance, after the death of a spouse, a widow is uncharacteristically quiet. We expect she would be wailing while grieving.

26. Squirreled or squirreling describes the action of hiding something

These words refer to hiding something valuable in a secure location. For instance, we found the soldier squirreling away some of the treasure from the burnt-down Old Summer Palace. 

Takeaway: Learn new words to describe human beings

It’s always a challenge to remember new words when hearing them for the first time. Especially if we’re talking about long adjectives that describe human beings. 

The Iris Reading Maximizing Memory Course is here to help you recall all the long English words you’ve learned today. Use them with confidence in daily conversations to appear intelligent, but don’t be a sesquipedalian.