inkhorn
- adjective
- /ˈɪŋkˌhɔrn/
- Archaic
:
pedante
- The professor's inkhorn style made his lectures difficult for most students to understand.
Examples
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Critics found the author's inkhorn vocabulary distracting from the main story.
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His speech was filled with inkhorn phrases that confused the audience.
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She avoided inkhorn expressions in her writing to make it accessible to everyone.
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The professor's inkhorn style made his lectures hard to follow.
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The professor's inkhorn language often alienated his students rather than engaging them.
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Many readers found the author's inkhorn prose difficult to appreciate due to its complexity.
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She preferred clear communication over inkhorn terminology that might confuse her audience.
Synonyms
13
8.1
Paying too much attention to small rules or details, often annoying others
Using long, difficult words in speech or writing
Too academic and formal for general readers to understand
Using special words from a certain job that most people find hard to understand
Antonyms
How Pedantic
Surface Forms
Etymology
Inkhorn comes from a small horn that held ink for writers' quills. People began to call writers 'inkhorns' when they used rare, showy words from their inkhorn, so today inkhorn describes speech or style that is 'showing off learning' by using too many difficult or old words.