Unusual English words
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The following are words that are not very common in English, especially in normal usage. Some are rather specialized, a few are not used anymore, but most of all, these are words with unusual and interesting meanings, and make for good trivia knowledge.
Word | Meaning |
---|---|
Acnestis | The unreachable spot between the shoulders |
Aglet | The plastic or metallic coating at the end of shoelaces |
Agraffe | The wire that holds the cork in a champagne bottle |
Aphthongs | Silent letters in words (like the ‘’k’’ in “knight”) |
Apricity | The warmth of the sun on a cold day (an obsolete word) |
Arachibutyrophobia | An excessive, irrational fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth |
Armscye | The armhole in clothes, to which sleeves are sewn |
Barm | The foam on the top of beer |
Berm | A level strip of ground or dirt, e.g., along the base of a wall, hill or slope, or between a hole and the mound of dirt from the hole |
Biblioklept | A person who steals books |
Box tent, tent, or pizza saver | The small plastic table-like piece that placed in the center of a pizza box |
Brannock Device | The metallic device used for measure foot sizes in shoe stores |
Caruncule | The triangular bump inside the corner of the eye |
Chanking | Food that has been spat out |
Collywobbles | The feeling of butterflies in the stomach (an old British term) |
Columella (or columella nasi) | The area of the nose between the nostrils |
Contronym | The word that has two opposite meanings (e.g., “sanction” can mean to approve, or to impose punishments; “to seed” can mean to plant seeds, or to remove them from fruit or vegetables) |
Cornicione | The outer part of the pizza crust |
Crapulence | The sick feeling that one gets after eating or drinking too much |
Defenestration | Jumping out of a window, or throwing someone or something out of a window |
Desire path | A shortcut path created by pedestrians walking through an area, e.g., through grassy areas, because it is shorter than the regular footpath |
Dysania | The state or condition when you find it too difficult to get out of the bed in the morning |
Ereyesterday | The day before yesterday (an obsolete term) |
Ferrule | The metal band that connects the eraser to a wooden pencil |
Filled pause | A filler syllable used when speakers need time to think of what to say next (e.g., ‘’uh, um, er’’) |
Glabella | The space between the eyebrows |
Googleganger | A person with the same name as you who shows up when you Google your own name |
Grawlix | A string of non-letter characters (like !@#$%^*&, or “holy %$&!”) that are used in place of profanity (e.g., in comics) |
Griffonage | Unreadable, illegible hand-writing |
Gynecomastia | Man-boobs |
Interrobang | A combination of an exclamation mark and a question mark (‽, or ?!) for an emphatic question |
Karoshi | Death due to being overworked (from Japanese) |
Keeper | The loop of a belt that holds the end in place after passing through the buckle |
Kummerspeck | Excess weight due to emotional overeating (from German, meaning “grief bacon”) |
Lawn mullet | A neatly mowed front lawn, with an unmowed messay back lawn (say, at a North American house) |
Lemniscate | The infinity symbol (∞) or similar figure-eight shapes |
Lunule | The white, crescent-shaped part of a fingernail or toenail |
Minimus | Your small pinky finger or toe |
Mondegreen | Misheard song lyrics |
Mononymous | A person known by only one name (rather than a first and last name), such as Adele, Madonna, Voltaire, or Nero (though they have full names that are not commonly known); in some cultures, mononomy is actually the norm (e.g., Sudharto, former president of Indonesia) |
Morton’s toe | When the second toe is bigger than the big toe. |
Muntin | The strip separating window panes. |
Murder | A group of crows |
Natiform | Resembling the buttocks, buttocks-shaped (adjective) |
Nibling | The non-gender-specific term for a niece or nephew — like sibling |
Niddick | The nape or back of the neck |
Nurdle | A small dab, e.g., of toothpaste |
Obelus | The division sign (÷) |
Octothorpe | The pound (#) button on a telephone |
Oldfangled | Old-fashioned |
Overmorrow | The day after tomorrow (a somewhat old term that has fallen out of use, but needs to be brought back into regular English usage) |
Palindromes | A word or phrase that reads the same way forwards and backwards (e.g., mom, racecar, taco cat) |
Paper-belly | A person who is unable to drink liquor straight (or pure, in British), or who grimaces after drinking |
Paresthesia | The feeling of one’s hand or foot being aslep |
Paresthesia | The feeling of pins and needles, or crawling skin |
Peen | A semi-spherical side, e.g., of a ball-peen hammer |
Peladophobia | An excessive, irrational fear of bald people, or of becoming bald |
Pentheraphobia | An excessive, irrational fear of one’s mother-in-law |
Petrichor | The smell of the air after it rains |
Philtrum | The groove between the nose and the middle of the upper lip |
Phloem bundles | The long strings of a banana peel that are seen when peeling a banana |
Phosphenes | The sheen or light that you see when you close your eyes and rub them or press them with the hands |
Pips | The small dots on dominoes, dice, or ping pong paddles |
Punt | The indentation at the bottom of a glass bottle (partly to reduce the liquid content, but more so to make the bottom stronger) |
Purlicue | The empty space between an outstretched thumb and the forefinger |
Quincunx | The five dot pattern on dice |
Rasceta | The lines on the inside of the wrist |
Rectal Tenesmus | The feeling of incomplete defecation |
Rhinotillexomania | Compulsive nose-picking |
Scandiknavery | Deceit by Scandinavians (which is odd, as they have a reputation for being very honest) |
Schadenfreude | The joy felt when a person you dislike experiences hardship or tragedy (from German, meaning “harm joy”) |
Scroop | The swooshy sound made by long gowns, or the movement of silk |
Scurryfunge | When one goes around frantically cleaning before a visitor arrives |
Semantic satiation | The feeling you get when you keep repeating a word so that it seems to lose its meaning |
Semordnilap | A word or phrase that means one thing forward but something else backwards (e.g., stressed – desserts; diaper – repaid; parts – strap; semordnilap – palindrome) |
Snellen chart | An eye exam chart |
Snood | The fleshy appendage around a turkey’s neck |
Souffle cup | A small cup for ketchup or other condiments |
Steatopygic | Having a large bottom (adjective) |
Tines | The prongs of a fork |
Tittle | The dot over the letter “i” or the letter “j” |
Trypophobia | An irrational fear, aversion, anxiety, or feeling of disgust, from objects with patterns of holes or bumps (e.g., honeycombs, wasp nests, certain foods like strawberries or pomegranates, certain flowers like lotus seed heads, coral, bubbles, sponges, clusters of eyes) |
Ulage | The empty space between the top of a bottle and the liquid inside it |
Vagitus | The cry of a new born baby |
Vibrassae | A formal term for a cat’s whiskers (vibrissa = a singular whisker) |
Vocables | Filler syllables like ‘na na na’ and ‘la la la’ in song lyrics, which really have no meaning |
Vorfreude | The joy felt when thinking about good things that will happen (from German, meaning “fore joy”) |
Wamble | The rumbling of one’s stomach |
Zarf | A cup holder (for use inside a car), or a cardboard sleeve for a coffee cup |
Zugzwang | The painful feeling you get when playing a game, and any move you make with your game piece would hurt (e.g., in chess) (from Germn, meaning “forced move”) |