ped-, pedi-, -pedal, -ped, -pede, -pedia

A reference to a very, very long word.

The use of very, very long words.

Someone who uses very, very long words.

An abnormal dread of exceptionally long words: Suffering from hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, Jack is always very distressed with very long terms, so when he writes he aways uses language terminology with no more than 3 syllables!

Anyone who has a fascination for, or who enjoys using, excessively long words: "Mrs. Jones was a hyperpolysyllabicsesquipedalianist who loved to challenge her students to determine the meanings of big words and to determine their etymologies so they could comprehend the multitudes of English words that have come from Latin and Greek sources and are used in medical, scientific, and additional sophisticated applications."

Burning pain in the soles of the feet, in multiple neuritis; hotfeet, burning feet.

1. To charge a serving government official with serious misconduct while in office.
2. To remove someone; such as, a President or a judge from public office because of having committed serious crimes and misdemeanors or because of other gross misconduct.
3. To charge someone with a crime or misdemeanor.
4. To question a person's good character.
5. United Kingdom law: to accuse someone of a crime; especially, treason or another crime against the state.
6. Etymology: "to impede, hinder, prevent", from Anglo-French empecher, from Old French empeechier, "hinder" (12th century), from Late Latin impedicare, "to fetter, catch, entangle", from Latin in-, "in" plus pedica, "shackle", from pes (pedis), "foot".

The sense of "accuse a public officer of misconduct" was first recorded in 1568, because of confusion with Latin impetere, "to attack, to accuse".

The situation of being liable to prosecution; indictability: Because her misconduct in office was proven on many points, she did not resist such an impeachability taking place in the near future.

1. Capable of bringing a formal charge against a government officer for misconduct or corruption: There has been much talk about the present President being impeachable regarding his latest active wrongdoings.
2. Disposed to or deserving to warrant an accusation or an indictment: The offence committed was certainly impeachable as defined and explained in the constitution.

1. Someone who challenges or discredits another person's honor, reputation, etc.
2. Anyone who challenges the practices or honesty of; to accuse; especially, to bring (a public official) before a proper tribunal or legal authority on a charge of wrong-doing.

Whenever anyone demands that a public official should be impeached, that person usually intends for the official to be immediately removed from office.

This general use of impeach as a synonym of "throw out" does not agree with the legal meaning of the word. When a public official is impeached or formally accused of malfeasance, it is just the beginning of what can be a lengthy process that may or may not lead to the official's removal from office.

Legal usage refers to an official who is impeached (accused), tried, and then convicted or acquitted.

1. Something that delays or prevents progress, or the preventing of progress.
2. Electricity opposition to flow of alternating current; the opposition in an electrical circuit to the flow of alternating current, consisting of resistance and reactance.
3. The ratio of the pressure to the volume displacement at a given surface in a sound-transmitting medium.
4. Opposition to blood flow in the circulatory system.
5. Resistance of an acoustic system to being set in motion.
6. Etymology: formed from Latin impedire, "to entangle, to ensnare, to hinder"; literally, "to put feet into fetters"; from Latin im-, "in", and pedis, "chain for the feet" + -ance, "an action, state, condition".

1. An instrument that uses gas-to-tissue ratio to set an alarm or to measure a volume.
2. A technique for determining blood vessel occlusion that determines volumetric changes in a limb by measuring changes in its girth as indicated by changes in the electric impedance of mercury-containing polymeric silicone tubes in a pressure cuff.

1. To retard in progress or action by putting obstacles in the way; to obstruct; to hinder; to stand in the way of.
2. Etymology: impede means "to tangle the feet" or "to obstruct" the movement of the feet.

1. That which impedes or hinders; obstructive, hindering.
2. An impeding or hindering agent.

1. The fact of impeding or condition of being impeded; hindrance, obstruction; or something that impedes, hinders, or obstructs; a hindrance, an obstruction.
2. Something that impedes the functions or health of the body; a (physical) defect; an affection or malady.