Search us!

Search My Favorite Word. Results will open in a new window or tab.

 

 

 

 

And don't forget to visit

How Come?

for answers to the science questions you've always wondered about.

Ask a question, win a book!

 

 

 

Recent Comments

 

 

Roborant

Roborant – adj. Restoring vigor or strength, a restorative or tonic.

It’s a soothing word about soothing things. It’s a more subtle word to use when “innervating” or “invigorating” are too strong. It’s from the Latin robustus, the word for oak or strength.

Rob

Coelacanth

This was the imaginary fish that existed. How wonderful, to be thought extinct, then show up in a net in 1938! It’s enough to make one want to drop out of sight for fifty years, only to make a grand re-entry off Africa’s coast. Of course, this only works if there’s some previous fossil [...]

Claptrap

It has the hollow sound of its meaning: early on was considered as the first applause-getter, laugh-track style. As used by an old friend of mine, claptrap refers to the emptiness of insincere words.

Nicole Harvey

Plethora

I’ve always had a love of plethora. I’m not really sure why. Maybe I think it makes me sound smart to use it in situations where other people would just say “a bunch of.”

Mike Vacca

Sludge

It’s sludge. You say the word and you automatically think of what it is. Sludge is one of those word that is that it sounds like what it is. Sludge couldn’t be anything else BUT sludge!

Greg

Episcopalian

How can you not love Episcopalian? The ppp-ps . . . the crisp c . . . the hiss of the s . . . the piquancy of the a. It is simply a swell word.

Robin Thompson

Oxygen Thief

In moments of complete and utter condescending superiority, when calling someone “stupid” or “idiotic” will not cut it, this little phrase is a true wonder of an insult.

Reverend Douglas William Mowbray Baltimore, Maryland

Bloviate

To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner. It instantly paints a picture of most politicians that resonates with most of us.

Jim Averill

Diligent

It’s an onomotopaeier or whatever, but nobody knows it. It trudges along. It takes work. It’s harsh. It’s trite. There’s no flourish at the end, but it finishes with that nice, decisive “t.” And as compliments go, it’s one of my favorites, because there’s always the lurking suspicion that it’s backhanded — “He’s not [...]

Hypotenuse

I used to sing this word to myself as a child, to the tune of “we’re gonna be on Ed Sullivan,” which doesn’t make much sense. When I took geometry years later and found out it was an actual word instead of one I thought made up, I was partially disappointed, partially thrilled.

Jesica [...]

Weltschmerz

Weltschmerz is one of those great German words (Schadenfreude is another) that is more than the sum of its parts, those parts in this case being “world” and “pain.”

Strictly speaking, only those people who can imagine a better world can actually suffer because of its current imperfection. And so, in any searing moment [...]

Turquoise

Because it has that deep first syllable, that exquisite twist in the middle, and then it rhymes with “poise.” (I also love the stone it stands for, but as is often the case with me, I may love the stone because I love the word, at least as much as the other way around. [...]