100 Words That Make You Say “There’s a Word for That?”

No.	Item	Definition
1.	aglet	The protective tip of a shoelace.
2.	akrasia	Acting against your own better judgment.
3.	alexithymia	Difficulty identifying and describing your own emotions.
4.	amphigory	Nonsensical writing that imitates meaningful literature.
5.	anhedonia	Inability to experience pleasure.
6.	anosmia	Loss of the sense of smell.
7.	apophasis	Mentioning something by claiming not to mention it.
8.	aposiopesis	Deliberately breaking off a sentence unfinished.
9.	backronym	An expanded phrase invented for an existing word.
10.	borborygmus	A rumbling sound from your intestines.
11.	Brocken spectre	An enlarged observer’s shadow cast onto cloud.
12.	bruxism	Habitual teeth grinding or clenching.
13.	canthus	Either corner where your upper and lower eyelids meet.
14.	caret	A mark showing where text should be inserted.
15.	coeval	Someone or something of the same age.
16.	colophon	A statement identifying a book’s production details.
17.	contronym	A word with two opposite meanings.
18.	crepitus	A crackling or grating sound within the body.
19.	defenestration	The act of throwing someone through a window.
20.	deliquescence	Absorbing airborne moisture until dissolving into liquid.
21.	diastema	A gap between two teeth.
22.	dinkus	A small decorative mark separating sections of text.
23.	doggerel	Clumsy or deliberately comic verse.
24.	earworm	A tune that keeps repeating in your mind.
25.	echolalia	Automatic repetition of words spoken by others.
26.	efflorescence	A powdery salt deposit appearing on a surface.
27.	eggcorn	A mistaken phrase substitution that seems logically plausible.
28.	endpaper	Paper joining a book’s cover to its pages.
29.	escutcheon	A protective or decorative plate around a keyhole.
30.	ferrule	A ring or cap strengthening a shaft’s end.
31.	fleuron	A flower-shaped ornament used in printing.
32.	flibbertigibbet	A flighty, excessively talkative person.
33.	fore-edge	The edge of a book opposite its spine.
34.	formication	The feeling of insects crawling on your skin.
35.	foxing	Brownish spots that develop on aging paper.
36.	frisson	A sudden shiver of excitement or emotion.
37.	fuller	A groove running along a blade.
38.	glabella	The smooth area between your eyebrows.
39.	glory	Colored rings surrounding a shadow on mist.
40.	graupel	Soft pellets formed when frozen droplets coat snowflakes.
41.	grommet	A ring reinforcing a hole in material.
42.	guillemet	An angled quotation mark, like « or ».
43.	gusset	An inserted fabric panel adding room or strength.
44.	hoarfrost	Feathery ice crystals deposited directly from water vapor.
45.	hypnic jerk	An involuntary twitch as you fall asleep.
46.	interrobang	A punctuation mark combining question and exclamation marks.
47.	iridescence	Shifting rainbowlike colors as the viewing angle changes.
48.	jetsam	Goods deliberately thrown overboard to lighten a ship.
49.	kakistocracy	Government by the least qualified or most unscrupulous.
50.	lagan	Sunken goods marked by a buoy for recovery.
51.	lethologica	Temporary inability to recall a particular word.
52.	lickspittle	Someone who flatters powerful people for personal advantage.
53.	limerence	Intense romantic obsession with another person.
54.	logorrhea	Excessive, often incoherent talking.
55.	lunula	The pale crescent at a fingernail’s base.
56.	malapropism	Mistaken use of a similar-sounding word.
57.	manicule	A pointing-hand symbol directing attention to text.
58.	marginalia	Notes or markings in a book’s margins.
59.	meniscus	The curved surface of liquid in a container.
60.	moiré	An interference pattern created by overlapping regular patterns.
61.	mondegreen	A misheard lyric or phrase.
62.	nap	The raised fuzzy surface of certain fabrics.
63.	nibling	A gender-neutral word for a niece or nephew.
64.	nyctinasty	Nighttime folding or closing movements of plants.
65.	obelus	The division symbol, ÷.
66.	octothorpe	The hash symbol, #.
67.	omphaloskepsis	Contemplation of your navel as a meditation aid.
68.	oronym	A phrase sounding like another with different boundaries.
69.	parapraxis	A minor error interpreted as revealing unconscious feelings.
70.	pareidolia	Seeing recognizable shapes in random patterns.
71.	petrichor	The earthy smell after rain on dry ground.
72.	philomath	A person who loves learning.
73.	philtrum	The groove between your nose and upper lip.
74.	phosphene	A light sensation produced without light entering.
75.	pica	Persistent eating of substances that aren’t food.
76.	piloerection	The raising of body hairs, producing goosebumps.
77.	quidnunc	Someone excessively curious about other people’s affairs.
78.	retronym	A new name distinguishing something from newer versions.
79.	rime	Ice deposited when supercooled droplets freeze on contact.
80.	schadenfreude	Pleasure at someone else’s misfortune.
81.	selvedge	A woven fabric’s finished edge that resists unraveling.
82.	sesquipedalian	Characterized by the use of long words.
83.	sillage	The scent trail left by someone’s perfume.
84.	snollygoster	A shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician.
85.	solidus	The forward slash symbol.
86.	spoonerism	An accidental swapping of sounds between words.
87.	susurrus	A soft rustling or whispering sound.
88.	tang	The blade extension secured inside a tool’s handle.
89.	teknonymy	Naming parents after their children.
90.	thenar	The fleshy area at your thumb’s base.
91.	thixotropy	Becoming less viscous when agitated, then recovering.
92.	tittle	The dot above a lowercase i or j.
93.	tmesis	Inserting a word inside another word or phrase.
94.	tragus	The small cartilage flap before your ear canal.
95.	ullage	The unfilled space inside a liquid container.
96.	ultracrepidarian	Someone who gives opinions beyond their expertise.
97.	virga	Rain that evaporates before reaching the ground.
98.	welt	A leather strip joining shoe upper and sole.
99.	wrack	Seaweed and debris washed onto a shore.
100.	zeugma	One word linking others in different grammatical senses.