Civilisation/Words

A

Abasia – inability to walk

Abaya – a loose robe covering most of the body, worn in Saudi Arabia

Abecedarius – a special type of acrostic in which the first letter of every word follows the order of the letters in the alphabet

Ablutophobia – fear of washing

Absolution – remission of sins

Abstemious – eating and drinking in moderation

Accolade – an embrace formerly used in conferring knighthood

Achluphobia – fear of darkness

Achromatopsia – the inability to see colour

Acre – the amount of ground an ox could plough in a day

Acrophobia – fear of heights

Acrostic – a poem or other form of writing in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message

Acrylic – a clear plastic used as a binder in paint and as a casting material in sculpture

Adjunct – an optional part of a sentence, clause, or phrase that, if removed or discarded, will not otherwise affect the remainder of the sentence

Adobe – a sun-dried, unburned brick of clay and straw

Adonism – a Neopagen religion that reveres Adonis

Adumbrate – to outline

Advertorial – an advertisement written in the form of an objective opinion editorial, and presented in a printed publication

Advocate – a barrister in Scotland

Aedile – an elected official of ancient Rome who was responsible for public works and games and who supervised markets, the grain supply, and the water supply

Aegrotat – an unclassified university degree granted to a candidate who is prevented by illness from attending examinations

Aeolipile – a rocket-like jet engine invented in the first century by Hero of Alexandria. It is considered to be the first recorded steam engine and reaction steam turbine

Aestivation – summer hibernation

Affidavit – a written declaration made under oath

Affinity – related by marriage

Affirmation – taken by people who cannot swear on oath for religious reasons

Affluenza – an extreme form of materialism resulting from the excessive desire for material goods

Afghan – a knitted or crocheted woollen blanket

Afrofuturism – a cultural movement that uses science fiction and fantasy to reimagine the history of the African diaspora

Afterburner – a device for augmenting the thrust of a jet engine by burning additional fuel with the uncombined oxygen in the exhaust gases

Aftermath – a new growth of grass following one or more mowings

Aibohphobia – fear of palindromes

Agister – someone who looks after New Forest ponies. To agist is, in English law, to take cattle to graze, for remuneration

Agitprop – agitation and propaganda used to educate people after 1917 Russian Revolution

Agnosia – the inability to process sensory information

Agnosticism – a denial of knowledge about whether there is or is not a God

Agora – the public open space that formed the heart of ancient Greek cities

Agoraphobia – fear of public places

Ague – fever in which sufferer feels alternately hot and cold

Aichmophobia – fear of needles and other pointed or sharp objects

Ailurophile – a cat-lover

Ailurophobia – fear of cats

Alb – a white vestment worn by clergy and servers in some Christian churches

Alektorophobia – fear of chickens

Alethiometer – device which measures the truth. Featured in The Golden Compass

Algophobia – fear of pain

Algorave – an event where people dance to music generated from algorithms, often using live coding techniques

Alkaloid – a naturally occurring chemical compound

Allegory – word with an alternative symbolic meaning. For example, an eagle can represent the abstract concept of ‘freedom,’ a witch can represent ‘evil’

Allegory – fable: a short moral story (often with animal characters)

Allision – the striking of one ship by another

Alliterate – a person who can read, but chooses not to do so

Alliteration – when a number of words begin with the same letter, e.g. Peter Piper Picked

Allometry – the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and behaviour

Alloy – a mixture or solid solution composed of a metal and another element

Allusion – a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication

Almoner – an official in a hospital who looks after the social and material needs of the patients

Altimetry – the measurement of altitude

Altruism – the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others; behavior of an animal that benefits another at its own expense

Ambigram – a visually symmetrical word. When flipped, it remains unchanged

Ambit – an extravagant initial demand made in expectation of a counter-offer

Amenuenis – a literary assistant, in particular one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts

Amethyst – purple or violet form of transparent quartz used as a gemstone. Means ‘not intoxicating’

Ammonite – the coiled, flat, chambered fossil shell of an extinct cephalopod mollusc, named after the Egyptian god Ammon

Amortisation – the process of decreasing, or accounting for, an amount over a period

Anamorphosis – a distorted image where the viewer must use special devices or be in a specific place to see the image undistorted, e.g. the skull in the painting The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein

Animadvert – to criticize

Aphonia – loss of voice

Amphora / Ampulla – a two-handled pottery jar with a narrow neck used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to carry liquids, especially wine and oil

Ampoule – a small, sealed glass capsule containing a liquid, especially a measured quantity ready for injecting

Anabasis – a large-scale military advance, specifically the Greek mercenary expedition across Asia Minor in 401 BCE

Anadem – a wreath for the head; a garland

Anadrome – a word which forms a different word when spelled backwards. Portmanteau of anagram and palindrome

Anaglypta – wallpaper designed to be painted over

Analogous – structures which perform similar functions but have different evolutions, e.g the wing (see homologous)

Anaphora – the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses e.g. “every day, every night, in every way, I am getting better”

Anathema – something or someone that is detested or shunned, or a formal excommunication

Andabatae – gladiators who fought with helmets with no eye holes

Angelica – licorice flavored stalks from the Angelica plants are candied and used primarily in pastry making. Angelica is also used to flavor liqueurs

Angelus – a devotional prayer in the Roman Catholic Church at morning, noon, and night to commemorate the Annunciation

Anglish – linguistic purism in the English language. A movement that promotes using words of native (Anglic, West Germanic) origin

Aniline – oil-based solvent (quick drying) used in the preparation process of dyes and inks

Anime – a style of animation characterised by colourful art, futuristic settings, violence and sex

Anisotropy – having properties that differ according to the direction of measurement, e.g. conductivity

Anneal – heat (metal or glass) and allow it to cool slowly, in order to remove internal stresses and toughen it

Annual – a plant that flowers and dies within a period of one year from germination

Annunciation – the revelation to Mary, the mother of Jesus by the archangel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born the Son of God

Anodyne – capable of soothing or eliminating pain

Anomie – social disorder. Term coined by Emile Durkheim

Anosmic – relating to an impairment or loss of the sense of smell

Anoxia – a total decrease in the level of oxygen; an extreme form of hypoxia

Anthropoid – resembling a human being in form

Anthropometry – the study of human body measurement for use in anthropological classification and comparison

Anthroponomy – the study of anthroponyms, the proper names of human beings

Anthroposophy – a system of beliefs and practice based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner and maintaining that by correct training and personal discipline one can attain experience of the spiritual world

Anthropothegy – cannibalism

Antimacassar – a piece of cloth put over the back of a chair to protect it from grease and dirt or as an ornament

Antinomy – contradiction or opposition, especially between two laws or rules. Used in the philosophy of Kant

Antioxidant – a chemical compound or substance that inhibits oxidation

Antipenultimate – last but two

Antipodal – opposite point on a sphere

Antonyms – word pairs that are opposite in meaning, e.g. fast and slow

Apercu – a witty comment

Apocryphal – of questionable authorship or authenticity

Aphonic – having no voice or sound; mute

Aphorism – a tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage

Apologue – an allegorical narrative usually intended to convey a moral

Apoplectic – furious

Aposematism – most commonly known in the context of warning colouration, describes a family of antipredator adaptations where a warning signal is associated with the unprofitability of a prey item to potential predators

Apostasy – the state of having rejected your religious beliefs or your political party or a cause (often in favour of opposing beliefs or causes)

Apostle spoon – has an image of an apostle or other Christian religious figure as the termination of the handle

Applique – material is cut out and sewn, embroidered or pasted onto another material

Apse – a semicircular recess in a church covered with a hemispherical vault

Aptonym – (or aptronym) a name aptly suited to its owner, e.g. Chip Beck

Aquafaba – the liquid from canned chickpeas. Used as an egg substitute in vegan recipes

Aquaponics – a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment

Arabesque – a form of artistic decoration consisting of plant tendrils, leaves and flowers, common in Islamic art

Arbitrage – the purchase of securities on one market for immediate resale on another market in order to profit from a price discrepancy

Arcadia – an image or idea of life in the countryside that is believed to be perfect

Arctophile – a collector of teddy bears

Argot – the jargon or slang of a particular group or class

Arguido – a named suspect in Portugal

Artwashing – the gentrification of areas by the arrival of art galleries

Aruthophobia – fear of blushing

Aryan – Indo-Iranian. A member of the people who spoke the parent language of the Indo-European languages

Asana – a yoga posture in which a practitioner sits

Asceticism – a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various worldly pleasures, often with the aim of pursuing spiritual goals

Ashram – a religious hermitage

Assegai – a spear used by Zulu warriors

Assemblage – making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects

Assonance – repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words, e.g. Do you like blue?

Astraphobia – fear of thunder and lightning

Astrolabe – a historical astronomical instrument used by classical astronomers and astrologers. It was the chief navigational instrument until the invention of the sextant in the 18th century

Astrometry – the branch of astronomy that deals with the measurement of the position and motion of celestial bodies

Astrophobia – fear of thunder and lightning. Also known as brontophobia

Astrophysics – the branch of astronomy concerned with the physical and chemical properties of celestial bodies

Astroturfing – political, advertising or public relations campaigns that are designed to mask the sponsors of the message to give the appearance of coming from a disinterested, grassroots participant

Atavism – the tendency to revert to ancestral type

Atrium – a rectangular court

Atropine – alkaloid extracted from Deadly Nightshade, named after Atropos, the Fate who chose how a person was to die

Aubade – a love song or poem performed in the morning

Augury – the practice from ancient Roman religion of interpreting omens from the observed flight of birds

Aumbry – a cabinet in the wall of a Christian church or in the sacristy which was used to store chalices and other vessels

Auscultation – the action of listening to sounds from the heart, lungs, or other organs, typically with a stethoscope

Autarchy – economic independence as a national policy

Auteur – a filmmaker whose individual style and complete control over all elements of production give a film its personal and unique stamp

Autoclave – a pressure chamber used to carry out industrial processes requiring elevated temperature and pressure different from ambient air pressure. Used to sterilize equipment

Autocracy – government by one individual

Autological – a word (also called homological word) is a word expressing a property which it also possesses itself (e.g., the word ‘short’ is short. The opposite is a heterological word; one that does not apply to itself (e.g., ‘long’ is not long)

Autophobia – fear of isolation

Auroch – large, extinct type of cattle, originally prevalent in Europe

Autarky – the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic systems. The latter are called closed economies

Autodidactism – self-directed learning

Avuncular – like an uncle in kindness or indulgence

Axilla – armpit

Axiology – philosophical study of value

Axiom – a self-evident or universally recognized truth; a maxim

B

Backburning – lighting small fires to keep a larger fire under control

Backdraft – situation when a fire that has absorbed all available oxygen explodes suddenly when more oxygen is introduced, e.g. by opening a door

Backronym or bacronym – a phrase constructed after the fact to make an existing word or words into an acronym

Badinage – banter

Bailiwick – the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff. The term survives in administrative usage in the Channel Islands, which for administrative purposes are grouped into the two bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey

Bajans – inhabitants of Barbados

Bakelite – a mouldable plastic invented by Leo Baekeland in 1909. It was used in jewellery extensively during the US Great Depression of the 1930's

Balconing – an activity that involves jumping from a balcony towards a swimming pool

Baldachin – a canopy of state over an altar or throne

Baldric – a belt worn over one shoulder that is typically used to carry a weapon (usually a sword)

Ballista – a device, resembling a large mounted crossbow, used in ancient warfare to hurl heavy stones and similar missiles

Baluster – a single leg, spindle, or post

Balustrade – several balusters connected to form a decorative railing

Banderilla – a decorated barbed dart that is thrust into the bull's neck or shoulder muscles by a banderillero in a bullfight

Bang – a fringe

Banlieue – suburb of a city

Banjolele – a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. Played by George Formby

Banquette – a long bench with an upholstered seat

Bard – the winner of a prize for Welsh verse at an Eisteddfod

Banshee – a female spirit in Gaelic folklore whose appearance or wailing warns a family that one of them will soon die

Bantustan – a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia), as part of the policy of apartheid

Barette – a hair-slide

Bargello – a type of needlepoint embroidery consisting of upright flat stitches laid in a mathematical pattern to create motifs

Barista – a person who prepares and serves coffee

Barograph – a recording instrument that provides a continuous trace of air pressure variation with time

Bassinet – a helmet, in heraldry

Bast – fibrous material from the phloem of a plant, used as fibre in matting, cord, etc.

Bastinado – beating the soles of the feet

Bathos – a ludicrous descent from the sublime to the ridiculous

Bathymetry – the measurement of depth of water in oceans, seas, or lakes

Batik – a method of printing patterns on cloth, in which wax is put on the cloth before it is put in the dye

Beam – of a ship is its width at the widest point

Beatboxing – a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines

Beatification – a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven. A stage in the process of canonization

Bedlam – name comes from the lunatic asylum of St Mary of Bethlehem, in London

Beeswax – the yellow to grayish-brown wax secreted by the honeybee for constructing honeycombs

Beguine – popular ballroom dance in St Lucia and Martinique

Bellwether – placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (a wether) leading the flock of sheep

Beltway – American word for ring road

Benchmark – surveyor’s mark cut in a rock

Benediction – a short prayer for divine help, blessing and guidance, usually at the end of worship service.

Bey – a Turkish title for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders or rulers in the Ottoman Empire

Bezoar – a mass found trapped in the gastrointestinal system

Bhang – an edible preparation of cannabis originating from India

Biannual – occurring twice a year

Bicameralism – the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers

Bicorne – Napoleon hat

Biennial – occurring every two years

Biga – two-horse chariot

Bigot – a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own

Bilking – making off without payment

Bimestrial – occurring once every two months

Bijouterie – a collection of trinkets or jewellery

Binge-watching – the practice of watching television for longer time spans than usual, usually of a single television show

Biodiesel – a fuel that is similar to diesel fuel and is derived from usually vegetable sources (as soybean oil)

Bioethanol – a biofuel derived from the fermentation of sugars from cereals or sugar-producing plants. In the European Union, bioethanol can be blended with gasoline in a proportion of up to 5%

Biometrics – the technique of studying physical characteristics of a person such as finger prints, hand geometry, eye structure or voice pattern

Bionics – (also known as biomimicry, biomimetics) is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology

Biopsy – the removal and examination of a sample of tissue from a living body for diagnostic purposes

Biltong – dried and salted meat in South Africa

Biotope – synonymous with habitat

Bindi – red sticker worn on forehead by Hindu women

Bindle – the bag, sack, or carrying device stereotypically used by American hobos

Biogenesis – the process of life forms producing other life forms, e.g. a spider lays eggs, which develop into spiders

Birching – a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks

Biretta – a square cap with three or four ridges or peaks, sometimes surmounted by a tuft, traditionally worn by Roman Catholic clergy. There are different colours, according to rank

Blackdamp – a noncombustible carbon dioxide mixture occurring as a mine gas

Black Knight – someone who makes a hostile takeover approach for a company

Blanching – putting food items in boiling water for a short time

Blessed – someone who has gone through beatification

Bletting – over-ripening of fruit

Blobject – a design product, often a household object, distinguished by smooth flowing curves, bright colors, and an absence of sharp edges

Blowout – the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems have failed

Blue on Blue – friendly fire

Bocage – a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture, with tortuous side-roads and lanes bounded on both sides by banks surmounted with high thick hedgerows limiting visibility. During the Battle of Normandy bocage made fighting and forward progress against entrenched opposition extremely difficult

Bodega – a small Hispanic shop selling wine and groceries

Bodging – a traditional wood-turning craft, using green (unseasoned) wood to make chair legs

Bodhran – Irish drum

Bogan – Australian slang for an uncouth or unsophisticated person regarded as being of low social status

Bonanza – a rich vein of precious ore

Boreal – of the north or northern regions

Borsalino – a type of felt hat

Boscage – a mass of trees or shrubs; a thicket

Bossa nova – a style of popular Brazilian music derived from the samba but with more melodic and harmonic complexity and less emphasis on percussion

Bothy – a small Scottish cottage

Botnet – a large number of compromised computers that are used to create and send spam or viruses or flood a network with messages as a denial of service attack. Short for ‘robot network’. Also called a ‘zombie army’

Botox – commercial name for botulinum, a powerful toxin that causes botulism

Botryoidal – shaped like a bunch of grapes

Bowdlerise – remove material that is considered improper or offensive. Named after Thomas Bowdler, who published an expurgated version of Shakespeare’s plays

Bower – a place enclosed by overhanging boughs of trees or by vines on a trellis

Bower – heaviest anchor of a ship

Bowline – type of knot used to form a fixed loop at the end of a rope

Bowser – mobile water dispenser

Bowsprit – a spar projecting from the bow of a vessel

Boyar – a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes, from the 10th century through the 17th century

Brachial – of the arm

Brachiate – move by using the arms to swing from branch to branch

Braggadocio – boasting or arrogant behavior

Braising – slow cooking of inexpensive cuts of meat

Brake horsepower – power needed to stop an engine

Brassard – or armlet, is an armband or piece of cloth or other material worn around the upper arm, used as an item of military uniform to which rank badges may be attached instead of being stitched into the actual clothing

Breastsummer – in timber-building, a beam in the outward part of the building, and the middle floors, (not in the garrets or ground floors) into which the girders are framed. In the inner parts of a building, such beams are called ‘summers’

Bridge – a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument

Brindisi – drinking songs in operas

Brindled – tawny or greyish with streaks or spots of a different colour

Brocade – a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and with or without gold and silver threads

Broch – an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland

Bromatology – the study of food

Broch – an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland

Bronco – an untrained horse or one that habitually bucks

Brony – a male who watches My Little Pony

Brumby – free-roaming feral horse in Australia

Brunoise – vegetables cut into cubes

Brushing – stealing identities to give false reviews

Bruxism – grinding of the teeth

Bryology – the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts)

Buccal – of or relating to the cheeks or the mouth cavity

Buckler – a type of shield

Bucolic – a short poem descriptive of rural or pastoral life

Buckram – coarse cotton fabric heavily sized with glue, used for stiffening garments and in bookbinding

Bulla – papal seal, hence papal documents are called papal bulls

Bumsters – low-cut trousers

Bunnet – a flat cap

Bunraku – a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in 1684

Bunyip – (usually translated as ‘devil’ or spirit’) is a mythical creature from Australian folklore

Buoyancy – the phenomenon (discovered by Archimedes) that an object less dense than a fluid will float in the fluid

Bureaucracy – government by clerks

Burgee – the name of the distinguishing flag, regardless of its shape, of a recreational boating organization

Burh – Anglo-Saxon name for a fortified town or other defended site, such as a hill fort

Burka – a loose garment (usually with veiled holes for the eyes) worn by Muslim women

Burkini – Muslim swimsuit

Burlesque – a parody

Bustle – a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress

Byssus – both the silky filaments by which certain bivalve molluscs attach themselves to hard surfaces, and a rare fabric, also called sea silk made from that fibre source

C

Cabal – a small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority. The term took on its present meaning from a group of ministers of King Charles II

Caballero – Spanish gentleman

Cabana – a cabin, hut, or shelter, especially one at a beach or swimming pool

Cacophony – a harsh discordant mixture of sounds

Cabotage – the right to operate sea, air, or other transport services within a particular territory

Cadency – any systematic way of distinguishing similar coats of arms belonging to members of the same family

Cadre – a key group of officers and enlisted personnel necessary to establish and train a new military unit

Caduceus – a short herald's staff entwined by two serpents in the form of a double helix, and sometimes surmounted by wings. Carried by Hermes

Cakewalk – a dance developed from the ‘Prize Walks’ held in the late 19th century, generally at get-togethers on slave plantations in the Southern United States

Caesura – a complete stop in a line of poetry

Calcography – the art of engraving on copper or brass

Calends – the first days of each month of the Roman calendar

Calico – a plain-woven textile made from unbleached and often not fully processed cotton

Caliph – a leader of Islam; the title literally means the successor to Mohammed

Calisthenics – systematic rhythmic bodily exercises performed usually without apparatus

Callipygous – having well-shaped buttocks

Caloptrics – the science of manipulating light using mirrors

Calumet – a ceremonial smoking pipe used by some Native American Nations. Known as a ‘peace pipe’

Calumny – defamation

Calx – a residual substance, sometimes in the form of a fine powder, that is left when a metal or mineral combusts

Cam – an eccentric or multiply curved wheel mounted on a rotating shaft, used to produce variable or reciprocating motion

Camber – 1. to bend or curve upward in the middle. 2. the angle between the plane of a wheel and the vertical

Campanile – a bell tower not attached to main building

Canard – a small winglike projection attached to an aircraft forward of the main wing to provide extra stability or control

Candlewick – a soft cotton embroidery yarn

Canicross – cross country running with dogs

Cannula – a small tube for insertion into the body to draw off fluid or to introduce medication

Canon – a priest who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule

Canonization – the act of admitting a deceased person into the canon of saints

Canophile – a dog lover

Cant – a secret language used only by members of a group

Canticle – a hymn taken from the bible

Cantor – an ecclesiastical officer leading liturgical music in several branches of the Christian church

Capacitance – an electrical phenomenon whereby an electric charge is stored

Capellmeister – the musical director in royal or ducal chapel; a choir-master

Capon – a rooster or cockerel that has been castrated

Capotain – a tall-crowned, narrow-brimmed, slightly conical hat, usually black. Associated with Puritan costume in England in the years leading up to the Civil War

Carpology – the study of fruits and seeds

Caprine – of, relating to, or characteristic of a goat

Caravel – a small, highly manoeuverable, two or three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish for long voyages of exploration from the 15th century

Careen – to put (a ship or boat) on a beach especially in order to clean, caulk, or repair the hull

Caricature – a representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect

Carolean, Caroline – refers to reign of Charles I and Charles II

Cartogram – a map on which statistical information is shown in diagrammatic form

Cartophilist – a person who collects cigarette cards

Cartouche – an oval which was drawn to contain the hieroglyphs that spelt out a king's or queen's name

Castell – a human tower built traditionally in festivals at many locations within Catalonia

Catafalque – the platform on which a person who has died rests before their funeral, usually while they are lying in a coffin

Catechism – a Christian doctrinal manual often in the form of questions followed by answers to be memorized

Caterwauling – the shrieking and yowling made by a cat, for example when it is on heat or fighting

Catfishing – a type of deceptive activity where a person creates a sockpuppet social networking presence

Catharsis – the process of releasing emotions

Cathedra – a bishop’s chair or throne

Caucus – a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement

Cauterization – sealing wounds by heating or freezing

Caveat – caution: a warning against certain acts

Cay – a small, low-elevation, sandy island formed on the surface of coral reefs

Celadon – a term for ceramics denoting both a type glaze, and a ware of a specific jade-green colour, also called celadon

Celerity – very fast motion

Cereology – study of crop circles

Ceromancy – fortune telling by inspection of dripping wax

Ceroplastics – modelling in wax

Cerulean – a sky-blue colour

Chad – a derogatory slang term referring to a young urban white man, typically single and in his 20s or 30s. Originated in Chicago. The female counterpart is the ‘Trixie’

Chador – loose black robe covering most of the body, worn in Iran

Chandler – a candle maker

Charcoal – a black, porous, carbonaceous material, 85 to 98 % carbon, produced by the destructive distillation of wood

Centuria – consisted of originally 100, later 80, men distributed along 10 contubernia. Each contubernium lived at the same tent

Chamfer – a transitional edge between two faces of an object

Changeling – the offspring of a fairy, troll, elf or legendary creature that has been exchanged for a human child

Chantry – a chapel founded by endowments from a benefactor

Chapters – canons who administer a cathedral

Charivari – a French folk custom in which the community gave a noisy, discordant mock serenade, also pounding on pots and pans, at the home of newlyweds

Chasuble – a long sleeveless vestment worn by a priest when celebrating Mass

Chattel – personal property

Chemtrail – contrail-like cloud that contains toxic chemicals left by aircraft

Chemise – a woman's loose-fitting, shirtlike undergarment

Cheroot – a cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture

Chessel – a press used to make cheese

Cheugy – Internet neologism that means ‘the opposite of trendy’ or ‘trying too hard’

Chevauchee – a raiding method of medieval warfare for weakening the enemy, focusing mainly on wreaking havoc, burning and pillaging enemy territory

Chiasmus – the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point, e.g. ‘...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country’

Chickenhawk – epithet used in the United States to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who strongly supports a war or other military action, but has never personally been in a war

Chignon – a popular type of French bun hairstyle

Chillaxing – a state of ultimate chill and relaxation

Chimenea – a freestanding earthenware or metal fireplace

Chine – a steep-sided river valley where the river flows through coastal cliffs to the sea

Chinoiserie – the imitation or evocation of Chinese motifs and techniques in Western art, furniture, and architecture

Chintz – a cotton fabric, usually glazed and often printed in bright patterns

Chionophobia – fear of snow

Chiromancy – palm reading

Chiroptophobia – fear of bats

Chitin – a tough semitransparent horny substance; the principal component of the exoskeletons of arthropods and the cell walls of certain fungi

Chitting – a method of preparing potatoes or other tubers for planting. Most of the sprouting parts are removed, leaving the strongest growths only

Chorophobia – fear of dancing

Chortle – to chuckle. Coined by Lewis Carroll

Chrometophobia – fear of money

Chryselephantine – the sculptural medium of gold and ivory

Chrysopoeia – turning base metals into gold, in alchemy

Chthonic – pertains to deities or spirits of the underworld

Chugger – a charity street collector

Chullo – an Andean style of hat with earflaps

Chuppah – a canopy under which a Jewish couple stand during their wedding ceremony

Churlish – rude

Cist – a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead

Claymore – a broadsword formerly used by Scottish Highlanders, typically double-edged

Cleat – 1. a T-shaped piece of metal or wood on a boat or ship, to which ropes are attached. 2. a protrusion on the sole of a shoe or on an external attachment to a shoe that provides additional traction on a soft or slippery surface

Clemmed – starving

Clepsydra – a water clock

Clerihew – a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Cleromancy – divination that produces random numbers

Cliometrics – the systematic application of economic theory, econometric techniques, and other formal or mathematical methods to the study of history

Clough – a type of ravine

Cicerone – an archaic term for a guide

Circumlocution – using many words when only a few are needed

Claque – a group of people hired to applaud a performer or public speaker

Cloisonne – enamelware in which coloured areas are separated by thin metal strips

Cloister – a covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle

Cloy – disgust or sicken (someone) with an excess of sweetness, richness, or sentiment

Clue – a ball of yarn etc, used to trace a path through a maze (as in the Greek myth of Theseus in the Labyrinth)

Coasteering – exploring the coast by swimming, jumping and climbing cliffs

Cockatrice – a mythical beast, essentially a two-legged dragon or serpent-like creature with a rooster's head

Cochleate – spiral or twisted like a snail shell

Codex – a manuscript volume, especially of a classic work or of the Scriptures

Cognomen – a nickname

Cohort – 480 infantrymen. Divided into six centuries of 80 men, each commanded by a centurion

Colloquial – characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation

Colonnade – a series of evenly spaced columns

Colophon – a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book. A colophon may also be emblematic or pictorial in nature

Colporteur – old bible seller

Columbarium – a place for the respectful and usually public storage of urns

Compline – the final church service (or Office) of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours

Compote – a dessert of stewed fruits

Concordance – an alphabetical list of the principal words used in a book or body of work, with their immediate contexts

Concretion – the act or process of concreting into a mass; coalescence

Condenser – a piece of laboratory glassware used to cool hot vapours or liquids

Condign – (of punishment or retribution) appropriate to the crime or wrongdoing; fitting and deserved

Condominium – rule of a territory by two or more states

Coney – a rabbit

Confabulation – filling in of gaps in memory through the creation of false memories

Consanguinity – related by blood

Consecotaleophobia – fear of chopsticks

Consigliere – member of a Mafia family who serves as an advisor to the boss

Consonance – a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable (at rest), as opposed to a dissonance

Consul – the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. New consuls were elected every year. There were two consuls and they ruled together by mutual consensus

Contemnor – a person who commits contempt of court

Conterminous – sharing a common boundary

Contessa – an Italian countess

Contingent Legacy – in a will, a bequest that takes place only if a specific event takes place

Contranym – a word having two meanings that contradict one another, e.g. finished

Contretemps – an unforeseen event that disrupts the normal course of things; an inopportune occurrence. Term originally used in fencing

Contusion – a bruise

Conurbation – an extended urban area. Coined as a neologism in 1915 by Patrick Geddes in his book Cities In Evolution

Convection – the transfer of heat through a fluid (liquid or gas) caused by molecular motion

Convocation – a large formal assembly of people, also an assembly of the clergy of part of a diocese

Coombe – a steep-sided valley

Cope – a liturgical vestment, more precisely a long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp

Coping – the capping or covering of a wall

Copita – tulip-shaped sherry glass

Copoclephilist – a collector of keyrings

Copra – the kernel of a coconut used to extract coconut oil

Coprolalia – involuntary swearing

Coprolite – fossilized animal dung

Copyleft – putting a program into the public domain and choosing not to enforce any copyright on the program. Formerly known as GPL (general public license)

Corbel – a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any extra weight

Cordilera – an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges, especially the principal mountain system of a continent or large island

Cordwainer – a shoemaker

Cordite – a smokeless explosive made from nitrocellulose, nitroglycerine, and petroleum jelly

Corniche – a road on the side of a cliff or mountain, with the ground rising on one side of the road and falling away on the other

Corniculate – horn-shaped

Cornrows – a style of hair braiding in which the hair is braided very close to the scalp

Cornucopia – or horn of plenty, is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce

Corollary – a proposition that follows with little or no proof required from one already proven

Corpsing – theatrical slang for unintentionally breaking character by laughing

Corsage – a bouquet of flowers worn on a woman's dress or worn around her wrist

Cortege – a funeral procession or a train of attendants

Cortisol – hormone produced principally in response to physical or psychological stress and secreted by the adrenal glands

Corvus – a Roman military boarding device used in naval warfare during the First Punic War against Carthage. Gangplank with a spike that was designed to pierce the enemy ship's deck when the boarding-bridge was lowered

Cosmogeny – any scientific theory concerning the coming into existence (or origin) of either the cosmos (or universe), or the so-called ‘reality’ of sentient beings

Cosset – a lamb reared by hand, which then becomes a family pet

Cotillion – a type of patterned social dance that originated in France in the 18th century. It was originally made up of four couples in a square formation, the forerunner of the quadrille

Cougar – a woman over 40 who pursues younger men

Coulrophobia – fear of clowns

Coulter – a cutting tool attached to a plough

Countersinking – process of making a cone shaped enlargement at the entrance of a hole

Coven – a group of witches

Covenant – a solemn agreement to engage in or refrain from a specified action. It is commonly found in religious contexts, where it refers to sacred agreements between a god and human beings

Coverture – refers to a woman’s legal status during marriage

Cowling – the removable cover of a vehicle engine

Cowrie – type of sea snail. Shells of certain species have historically been used as currency and jewellery in several parts of the world

Craftivism – the activity of using crafts to try to achieve political or social change

Crankshaft – is used in a piston engine to convert linear piston motion into rotational motion

Crannog – Gaelic for a dwelling built on an artificial island

Crapulent – suffering from excessive eating or drinking

Cravat – necktie worn by Croatian mercenaries in the service of France

Craven – cowardly

Creationism – a religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their original form by a deity or deities (often the Abrahamic God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam), whose existence is presupposed

Creel – large wicker basket, used for fish

Creep – the tendency of a solid to undergo gradual deformation under stress

Cremains – the ashes that remain after a dead body has been cremated (portmanteau of ‘cremated remains’)

Creosote – a colourless or yellowish oily liquid obtained by distillation of wood tar

Crepe – a silk, wool, or polyester fabric of a gauzy texture, having a peculiar crisp or crimpy appearance

Crepuscular – twilight

Cretonne – a strong, white French fabric

Crew cut – a haircut named after rowing crews

Crinoline – originally a stiff fabric with a weft of horse-hair and a warp of cotton or linen thread. The fabric first appeared around 1830, but by 1850 the word had come to mean a stiffened petticoat or rigid skirt-shaped structure of steel designed to support the skirts of a woman’s dress into the required shape

Crochet – a quarter note

Crowdfunding – the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations

Crowdsourcing – the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community (crowd) through an open call

Crozier – a staff carried by a bishop

Cruciverbalist – a crossword compiler

Cryogenics – the science that deals with the production of very low temperatures and their effect on the properties of matter

Cryonics – low-temperature freezing (usually at −196°C) of a human corpse, with the hope that resuscitation may be possible in the future

Cryotherapy – the use of low temperatures in medical therapy

Cryptid – a creature or plant whose existence has been suggested but that is unrecognized by a scientific consensus, and whose existence is regarded as highly unlikely

Cryptozoology – the search for animals whose existence has not been proven

Cuckold – a married man with an adulterous wife. Cuckolds have sometimes been written as ‘wearing the horns’

Cud – a portion of food that returns from a ruminant's stomach in the mouth to be chewed for the second time

Cullet – recycled material used in glass

Culverin – a type of cannon

Cultivar – a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because it has desirable characteristics (decorative or useful) that distinguish it from otherwise similar plants of the same species

Culvert – a tunnel carrying a stream or open drain under a road or railway

Cummerbund – a sash worn around the waist as part of a man’s formal dress

Cuneate – wedge-shaped

Cuneiform – the earliest standardized writing system, first used in ancient Mesopotamia, and later throughout the Ancient Near East. A form of writing on wet clay tablets using a wedge-like writing tool called a stylus

Cupidity – excessive desire

Cupola – a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building

Curia – a governing body and name of the building which housed it. The Curia was a meeting place for the Senate or the town council of a Roman town

Cursive – a style of writing with successive letters joined together

Cryophobia – fear of cold

Cuticle – the dead skin at the base of a fingernail or toenail

Cuvee – contents of a vat

Cyberchondriac – a person who develops extreme anxiety by using the internet to search for medical information

Cyberloafing – employees who surf the net, write e-mail or other Internet-related activities at work that are not related to their job

Cybernetics – the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems

Cyberphobia – fear of computers

Cyberpunk – a science fiction genre noted for its focus on ‘high tech and low life’. The name is derived from cybernetics and punk

Cybersquatting – registering an internet domain name that is likely to be wanted by another person or organization

Cyborg – a being with both biological and artificial (e.g. electronic, mechanical or robotic) parts

Cyclorama – a panoramic image on the inside of a cylindrical platform

Cynophobia – fear of dogs

D

Dabbawallah – a tiffin-box carrier in Mumbai

Dactylography – fingerprinting

Dactylology – (or fingerspelling) is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands

Dado – the lower part of an interior wall

Damask – a reversible figured fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibres, with a pattern formed by weaving

Dargason – English folk-tune, used from the 16th century onwards for a country dance or as a ballad tune

Davenport – a writing desk

Deaccession – the official removal of an item from a library, museum, or art gallery in order to sell it

Deadlock – a lock that requires a key to open and close it

Dean – a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy

Debasement – the practice of lowering the value of currency

Decantation – a process for the separation of mixtures, by removing a top layer of liquid from which a precipitate has settled

Decennial – occurring every ten years

Decurved – curved downwards

Deemster – a judge in the Isle of Man

Deepfake – a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness

Defibrillator – an electrical device used to counteract fibrillation of the heart muscle and restore normal heartbeat by applying a brief electric shock

Deglazing – a technique for removing and dissolving browned food residue from a pan to make a sauce

Deltiology – collecting picture postcards

Demagogue – a leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace

Deme – a political division of Attica in ancient Greece

Demijohn – a large narrow-necked bottle usually enclosed in wickerwork

Demography – statistical study of human populations

Demonym – denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. In English, a demonym is often the same as the name of the people's native language: e.g., the ‘French’

Demurrage – a charge payable to the owner of a chartered ship in respect of failure to load or discharge the ship within the time agreed

Dendrology – the science and study of wooded plants

Denizen – an individual permanently resident in a foreign country where he or she enjoys certain rights of citizenship

Denouement – a series of events that follow the climax of a drama or narrative, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story

Deontic – of, relating to, or concerning duties or obligations

Deontology – the theory or study of moral obligation

Deposition – a painting showing Christ being taken down from the cross

Derby – American name for a bowler hat

Dermatoglyphics – the study of the whorls and loops and arches in the fingertips and on the palms of the hand and the soles of the feet

Desi – people from the Indian subcontinent

Destrier – a war horse in medieval warfare

Dewclaw – a vestigial digit of the foot of many mammals, birds, and reptiles

Dhabihah – ritual slaughter of animals in Islam

Dhol – a two-sided drum, played with two sticks (one held in each hand). Associated with the Punjab

Dhoti – a loin cloth

Dhow – generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region

Diacritic – an ancillary glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph

Diadem – jewelled crown

Diaeresis – diacritic mark used to denote the separation of two consecutive vowels. Consists of consists of two dots placed over the letter, which is the same symbol used for an umlaut

Digestif – a drink, especially an alcoholic one, drunk before or after a meal in order to aid the digestion

Diorama – a model representing a scene with three-dimensional figures

Diarchy – a form of government in which two individuals, the diarchs, are the heads of state

Diastema – a gap or space between teeth

Dibber – a tool that makes holes to plant seedlings

Dicennial – occurring every 10 years

Diffusion – the movement of molecules from a high concentration to a low concentration

Digerati – the elite of the computer industry and online communities

Digraph – a pair of characters used to write one phoneme (distinct sound) or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined, e.g. Ll in Welsh

Dihedral – the angle between an upwardly inclined aircraft wing and a horizontal line

Dioptre – a unit of measurement of the optical power of a lens or curved mirror, which is equal to the reciprocal of the focal length measured in metres

Dioptrics – the study of the refraction of light, especially by lenses

Diphthong – a vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or ‘glides’, with a smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow

Dirndl – a type of traditional dress worn in Germany and Austria

Discombobulate – to throw into a state of confusion

Discourse – written or spoken communication

Dissectologist – a jigsaw puzzle enthusiast

Dissonance – lack of harmony among musical notes

Distemper – has a variety of meanings for paints used in decorating and as a historical medium for painting pictures

Distressing – the activity of making a piece of furniture or object appear aged and older, giving it a ‘weathered look’

Dithyramb – an ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility

Ditloid – a type of word puzzle, in which a phrase, quotation, date, or fact must be deduced from the numbers and abbreviated letters in the clue, e.g. 26 L of the A

Djellaba – long loose-fitting unisex outer robe with full sleeves, of middle-eastern origin

Doctrinaire – dogmatist: a stubborn person of arbitrary or arrogant opinions

Doctrine – a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions

Dogaressa – the official title of the spouse of the Doge of Venice

Dolly Varden – hat named after a character in the Charles Dickens novel Barnaby Rudge

Dolmen – a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone

Dorsal – of, on, or near the back

Doublet – a close-fitting jacket, with or without sleeves, worn by European men between the 15th and17th centuries

Doughnuting – surrounding an MP by colleagues to give the impression of a packed House of Commons

Doula – a nonmedical person who assists a woman before, during, and/or after childbirth

Dowager – a widow holding property received from her deceased husband. Usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles

Dowry – (also known as trousseau or tocher) the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage

Dowsing – a form of divination involving a rod or wand, especially the art of finding underground supplies of water

Doxology – a hymn of praise to God

Doxxing – the Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting personally identifiable information about an individual

Dragoman – an interpreter and guide in the Near East

Dreich – Scottish word for dull or gloomy weather

Drone – a male honey bee that develops from an unfertilized egg

Dross – the scum formed by oxidation at the surface of molten metals

Drumhead – a court-martial held on a battlefield

Drunkorexia – self-imposed starvation or binge eating/purging combined with alcohol abuse

Drupe – a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed (kernel) inside

Dyad – a group of two people

Dryad – a tree nymph, or female tree spirit, in Greek mythology

Dubbin – tallow mixed with oil; used to make leather soft and waterproof

Dumbledore – a bumble bee

Dutch barn – a barn with tall open sides and a curved roof

Dynasty – a succession of rulers who belong to the same family for generations. A dynasty is also often called a house

Dysgraphia – inability to write coherently

Dysphemism – purposefully unpleasant or objectionable language. Opposite of euphemism

Dysphonia – any impairment of the voice or speaking ability

Dystopia – a fictional society where the people lead dehumanised, fearful lives. Opposite of Utopia

E

Earworm – a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing

Easement – a right that a person has on another person’s land

Ebullism – the formation of gas bubbles in bodily fluids due to reduced environmental pressure, for example at high altitude

Ecdysiast – a stripper

Echolocation – animals sending out a high-pitched sound, and using its echo to locate an object

Eclectic – deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources

Eclogue – a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject

Ecocide – destruction of the natural environment by deliberate or negligent human action

Ectopic – occurring in an abnormal position. Ectopic pregnancy is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus

Ectotherm – a cold-blooded animal

Ecumenical – representing a number of different Christian churches

Edacity – greed

Edentulous – without teeth

Edutainment – a portmanteau word of education and entertainment

Egestion – defaecation

Eggcorn – a word or phrase that results from a mishearing or misinterpretation of another

Eggshell – paint with a finish midsheen between matt and gloss

Ekistics – the science or study of human settlements

Ekphrasis – the graphic, often dramatic, description of a visual work of art

Electra complex – female equivalent of Oedipus complex

Elevon – a portmanteau word of elevator and aileron

Elision – refers to when a sound or syllable is lost or omitted e.g. I will to I’ll

Emendation – a correction by emending; a correction resulting from critical editing

Emeritus professor – a professor who has retired, but is allowed to keep the title

Emery – a very hard rock type used to make abrasive powder. It largely consists of the mineral corundum (aluminum oxide)

Emoji – ideograms or smileys used in Japanese electronic messages and web pages

Emoticon – a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters. Precursor to the emoji

Emolument – payment for work

Empiricism – the idea that all knowledge is derived from experience

Emulsion – a suspension of small globules of one liquid in a second liquid with which the first will not mix

Enamel – a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing

Enclave – any portion of a state that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state. When an enclave additionally borders a body of water that is not enclosed by a different state, it is termed a pene-enclave or "practical" enclave

Encomium – a poem in praise of a person

Encyclical – a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Christian church

Endemic – of or relating to a disease constantly present to greater or lesser extent in a particular locality, or the ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location

Endogamy – the practice of marrying within a specific ethnic group, class, or social group

Endonym – name given by an ethnic group to its own geographical entity, or the name an ethnic group calls itself

Endoscope – an instrument used to examine the interior of a hollow organ or cavity of the body

Engram – a hypothetical permanent change in the brain accounting for the existence of memory; a memory trace

Enochlophobia – fear of crowds

Ensiform – having sharp edges and tapering to a slender point, having a shape suggesting a sword

Ensign – name given to the boy who carried the regimental colours

Enteric – relating to the intestines

Entomophily – a form of pollination whereby pollen or spores are distributed by insects

Entrepot – a term used for international trade where goods are shipped to a centre for re-export. Hong Kong engages in significant amounts of this form of trade

Envoi – a short stanza at the end of a poem

Ephemera – things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time

Epicene – having characteristics of both sexes or no characteristics of either sex; of indeterminate sex

Epidemiology – the study of the patterns, causes, and control of disease in groups of people

Epiglottis – the flap that covers the trachea during swallowing so that food does not enter the lungs

Epigram – a short, witty poem expressing a single thought or observation. A concise, clever, often paradoxical statement

Epigraph – a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document

Epigraphy – study of inscriptions

Epistemology – concerned with knowledge

Epistle – a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually a letter

Epitasis – the middle part of a play that develops the action leading to the catastrophe

Epithalamia – a song celebrating marriage

Epithet – an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned

Epitome – a person or thing that is a perfect example of a particular quality or type

Epizeuxis – repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, e.g. “Education, education, education”

Eponym – a noun named after a person or town

Equerry – an officer of honour. A personal attendant, usually upon a Sovereign, a member of a Royal Family, or a national representative

Ergometer – a device which measures the amount of energy or work performed

Ergophobia – fear of work

Ertomania – a delusional belief that a person is in love with the affected individual, despite contrary evidence

Eschatology – a branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind

Eschew – to avoid something intentionally

Escrotoire – a writing desk

Escrow – safekeeping of money with a third party

Esotericism – the hidden meanings and symbolism of various philosophical, historical, and religious texts

Espagnolette – a locking device, normally mounted on the vertical frame of a French door or casement window

Esquire – an attendant and shield bearer to a knight; a candidate for knighthood

Ethnography – a qualitative research method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group

Ethnomusicology – the study of the music of a particular region or people from the viewpoint of its social or cultural implication

Ethology – the scientific study of animal behavior, especially as it occurs in a natural environment

Etui – a woman's ornamental case, usually carried in a pocket or purse

Etymology – the origin and history of words

Etymon – a word from which a later word is derived

Eucharist – a Christian sacrament commemorating the Last Supper by consecrating bread and wine

Euphemism – a mild word of phrase which substitutes for another which would be undesirable because it is too direct, unpleasant, or offensive

Euphobia – fear of hearing good news

Euphony – a pleasing sound

Excarnation – the act of removing flesh, especially from a corpse

Exclave – a portion of a state geographically separated from the main part by surrounding alien territory. Many enclaves are also exclaves

Exedra – a semi-circular apse

Exonumismatics – collecting commemorative coins and medals

Exonym – name given to an ethnic group or to a geographical entity by another ethnic group, e.g. Germany is an English exonym corresponding to the endonym Deutschland

Expiation – the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing

Extrait – a weak perfume

Extremophiles – organisms that live in extreme conditions

Exurbia – the region outside a city and its suburbs where wealthier families live

Eyas – an unfledged hawk

F

Facepalm – the act of covering your face with your hand because you are embarrassed

Facet – the cut surface of a gemstone

Factoid – a spurious statement formed and asserted as a fact, but with no veracity. The word was coined by Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe

Fado – a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal

Faience – tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff body

Fakir – a Muslim or Hindu religious ascetic who lives by begging

Falchion – a type of sword

Fallacy – a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning

Fanfare – a loud flourish of brass instruments, especially trumpets

Fanlight – window, often semicircular, with radiating glazing bars suggesting a fan that is placed over a door

Farthingale – a term applied to any of several structures used under Western European women's clothing in the late 15th and 16th centuries to support the skirts into the desired shape. Also known as a hoop skirt

Fasces – bundle of rods containing an axe with the blade protruding; in ancient Rome it was a symbol of a magistrate's power

Fatwa – ruling on a point of Islamic law

Fecundity – the potential reproductive capacity of an organism or population

Fedora – a soft felt hat that is creased lengthwise down the crown and pinched in the front on both sides. It was invented in the 1910s. Known as a trilby in Britain. Comes from the title of an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou, Fedora, written for Sarah Bernhardt

Fellahin – a peasant or agricultural laborer in an Arab country

Fellow traveller – name given to a non-card carrying member of the Communist Party in the 1950s. Term was coined by Leon Trotsky

Felt – a fabric of matted, compressed animal fibres, such as wool or fur, sometimes mixed with vegetable or synthetic fibres

Felucca – a Nile sailing boat

Feretory – a portable shrine holding the relics of a saint

Fermentation – a process that converts sugar to acids, gases, and/or alcohol

Ferrule – a metal band or cap strengthening or forming a joint

Fess – a wide horizontal band on a heraldic shield

Fey – the quality of being mysterious and strange

Fiat – decree: a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record

Fibril – a small slender fibre or filament

Fifth column – a clandestine subversive organization working within a country to further an invading enemy's military and political aims

Fiasco – a traditional Italian straw-covered wine bottle

Filigree – fine wires soldered onto a design, often gold or silver

Finial – carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods

Firedamp – a mixture of gases (mostly methane) that form in coal mines and become explosive when mixed with air

Firman – an edict or administrative order issued by or in the name of a Middle Eastern sovereign (formerly by an Ottoman Turkish sultan)

Firth – an estuary

Fixie – a bike without a front brake

Flageolet – a small flute blown at the end, like a recorder but with two thumb holes

Flambe – to pour alcohol over food and set fire to it during cooking

Flaneur – a rich Parisian ‘stroller’ in the 1860s

Flash – a lake caused by excavation of mining works

Flatware – implements that are used for eating or serving food

Fleadh – a festival of Irish or Celtic music, dancing, and culture

Flexitarian – a person who has a primarily vegetarian diet but occasionally eats meat or fish

Flipping – 1. a technique whereby a Member of Parliament switches his second home between several houses, which has the effect of allowing him to maximize his taxpayer funded allowances 2. buying houses off plan and selling at a profit

Flocking – the process of depositing many small fibre particles (called flock) onto a surface

Flocculent – made of wool

Floret – a small flower which is part of a much larger compound flower head

Flotsam – goods which float upon the sea after a ship is sunk (see jetsam and lagan)

Fluke – either of the two horizontally flattened divisions of the tail of a whale

Flywheel – a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy. Flywheels have a moment of inertia and resist changes in rotational speed

Focimeter – measures the focal length of a lens

Fogle-hunter – a pickpocket

Foliage – the leaf mass of a tree

Foley – the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in filmmaking

Fomite – any nonliving object or substance capable of carrying infectious organisms

Foot – basic unit of a line of poetry. Common types – iamb (a short syllable followed by a long one), trochee (a long syllable followed by a short one), dactyl (a long syllable followed by two short ones), anapest (two short syllables followed by a long one), spondee (two long syllables)

Forcene – heraldic term for rearing

Foreboding – a feeling that something very bad is going to happen

Foreclosure – US equivalent of house repossession

Foreshadowing – an indication of something that will happen in the future, used as a literary device to hint at future plot developments

Formateur – a politician who is appointed by the head of state to lead the formation of a coalition government, after either a general election or the collapse of a previous government

Forthwith – as soon as can be reasonably done

Fortification – adding alcohol to wine, e.g. Madeira, port and sherry

Fossicking – prospecting by sifting, e.g. for gold

Fragging – the act of deliberately assassinating another member, or members of the military, particularly a member of one’s own command or fighting squad

Frangipane – almond-flavoured paste, named after noble Frangipani family of Rome

Fratricide – the killing of one’s own brother

Freecycling – the act of giving away usable unwanted items to others

Freedman – a man who has been freed from slavery

Freeganism – involves choosing to salvage discarded, unspoiled food from supermarket dumpsters. The word ‘freegan’ is a portmanteau of ‘free’ and ‘vegan’

Freemium – a business model that works by offering a game, product or service free of charge while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services. Portmanteau of the two aspects of the business model: ‘free’ and ‘premium’

Fret – a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck

Fromologist – a collector of cheese labels

Fronting – parents saying they are main driver of children’s cars to cut insurance costs

Frost – ice crystals formed by condensation on surfaces below freezing

Frotteurism – an interest in rubbing, usually one's pelvis or erect penis, against a non-consenting person for sexual gratification

Frugivore – a fruit eater

Fruit – a structure of a plant that contains its seeds

Fulsome – complimentary or flattering to an excessive degree

Funambulist – tightrope walker

Furlough – a temporary leave of absence from work

Fusilatelist – a collector of phone cards

Fustian – a coarse sturdy cloth made of cotton and linen

Fyrd – a type of early Anglo-Saxon army that was mobilized from freemen to defend their shire

G

Gaff – a pole with a sharp hook on the end that is used to stab a large fish

Galette – a type of pastry

Gallimaufry – a hotchpotch

Galvanize – to stimulate or shock with an electric current

Galvanometer – a device that detects and measures electric current

Gamophobia – fear of marriage

Gamp – an umbrella, named after the nurse Sarah Gamp in the Charles Dickens novel Martin Chuzzlewit

Garret – a small room at the top of a house

Gauze – thin, loosely woven cloth used for dressings and swabs

Gazanging – where a seller withdraws the property from the market at the last minute

Gazette – an official journal

Gazumping – where a seller accepts a better offer than a previously accepted offer

Gazundering – homebuyers reducing their offer at the last minute

Gearing – used to describe the relationship between debt and equity and is calculated by dividing the company debt by common shareholders’ equity

Gematria – assigning numeric values to letters of the alphabet in order to find some hidden meaning in them

Genal – of the cheeks

Generalissimo – Commander of a large force, consisting of more than one Army, or both Land and Naval forces with their Air units included

Genericide – the historical process whereby a brand name or trademark is transformed through popular usage into a common noun, e.g. Xerox, Escalator

Genophobia – fear of sex

Gentile – a person who is not Jewish

Gentle – a maggot used as bait in angling

Genuflection – bending on one knee as a sign of reverence, in the Roman Catholic Church

Geoblocking – technology that restricts access to Internet content based upon the user's geographical location

Geocaching – participants use a GPS receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called ‘geocaches’, anywhere in the world

Geocentric – theory that the Earth is at the centre of the Universe

Geoengineering – proposals to deliberately manipulate the Earth’s climate to counteract the effects of global warming from greenhouse gas emissions

Geoglyph – figure or shape produced on the ground by the clearing of stones or the building of stone alignments, e.g. Nazca lines in Peru

Geomancy – handful of dust thrown to ground and read, as a prophecy

Geomatics – the discipline of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering of geographic information, or spatially referenced information

Georgette – a thin silk or crepe dress material

Georgic poem – a poem that describes rural life

Geribanger – a woman who furthers her career by seducing older men

Gerontology – the study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging

Gerrymander – political manipulation of electoral boundaries. Portmanteau of Gerry and salamander

Gerund – the usage of a verb as a noun (for example, the verb ‘learning’ in the sentence ‘Learning is an easy process for some’

Gesso – a preparation of plaster of Paris and glue used as a base for low relief or as a surface for painting

Gewgaw – a decorative trinket; a bauble

Ghetto – originally used to refer to the Venetian Ghetto in Venice where Jews were forced to live

Gibbet – gallows on which prisoners were hung

Giclee – fine art digital prints made on inkjet printers

Gig – boat in the Scilly Islands

Gigolo – a man who has a continuing sexual relationship with and receives financial support from a woman

Gigue – a lively piece of music in the style of a dance

Gimbal – an appliance that allows an object (such as a ship's compass) to remain horizontal

Gingham – plain-woven cotton cloth, typically with a check pattern

Glair – egg white

Glaive – a type of sword

Glamping – portmanteau of glamorous and camping

Gleave – a tool used to catch eels

Glengarry – a boat-shaped cap without a peak

Glitterati – the fashionable set of people engaged in show business or some other glamorous activity

Globophobia – fear of balloons

Glottophobia – discrimination against people on the grounds of their accent

Glyph – an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written

Glyptotheque – a collection of sculptures

Gnomon – the finger on a sundial

Golem – in Jewish folklore, an animated being created entirely from inanimate matter

Gonfalon – a type of heraldic flag or banner, often pointed, swallow-tailed, or with several streamers, and suspended from a crossbar

Gongoozler – a person who enjoys watching boats and activities on canals

Googleganger – a person with your name who shows up when you Google yourself

Googlewhacking – using two words in a search engine to find fewer results, or exactly one result

Googol – one followed by 100 zeroes

Gorget – a steel or leather collar designed to protect the throat

Gorgon – a female monster with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes

Gouache – or bodycolour, is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water (see tempera)

Graft – a form of political corruption, the unscrupulous use of a politician's authority for personal gain

Graminivore – a herbivorous animal that feeds primarily on grass

Grammagram – a word (or words) which, when pronounced, consists entirely of letter sounds, e.g. INVU is ‘I envy you’

Granivore – animal or bird that feeds on seeds

Grapeshot – a cluster of small projectiles fired together from a cannon to produce a hail of shot

Grapheme – a fundamental unit in a written language. Examples of graphemes include alphabetic letters, numerical digits, and punctuation marks

Graphesthesia – the ability to recognize writing on the skin

Graphology – the study of handwriting especially for the purpose of analyzing the writer's personality

Gratin – a dish with a light browned crust of breadcrumbs or melted cheese

Greave – a piece of armour that protects the leg

Greenwashing – a form of spin in which green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization's products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly

Gregarious – sociable

Griffin – a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle

Grifter – a person who swindles another out of money

Grist – grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding

Grok – to intimately and completely share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity. Robert A. Heinlein coined the term in his book Stranger in a Strange Land

Growler – the smallest type of iceberg

Gubernatorial – relating to a governor

Guidon – a heraldic flag

Guipure – a type of lace

Gunwale – the top edge of the side of a boat

Gustatory – relating to the sense of taste

Guyliner – eyeliner used by men

Gymnophobia – fear of nudity

Gynaecide – killing a woman

Gynophobia – fear of women

Gyre – any large system of rotating ocean currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis Effect

H

Habanero – a resident of Havana

Haboob – a type of sandstorm or dust storm

Hacienda – an estate or plantation with a dwelling-house

Hacktivism – the subversive use of computers and computer networks to promote a political agenda or a social change

Hadith – oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic prophet Muhammad

Hafiz – a person who knows the Koran by heart

Haiku – a mode of Japanese poetry with the pattern 5, 7, 5

Hair shirt – a coarse haircloth garment worn next to the skin by religious ascetics as penance

Halberd – a two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 14th and 15th centuries

Halftone – the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size, in shape or in spacing

Halter – a device made of rope or leather straps that fits around the head or neck of an animal and is used to lead or secure the animal

Halyard – a rope for raising or lowering a sail or flag

Hand planing – bodysurfing with a small float

Haphephobia – fear of being touched

Haptics – any form of interaction involving touch

Hardwood – the wood of broad-leaved dicotyledonous trees

Hart – a male red deer over five years old

Haruspicy – a form of divination using the inspection of animal entrails

Haunch – the area of the body which includes the hip, buttock, and upper thigh

Hawk – plasterer’s mortar board

Hawse – part of a ship’s bow through which the anchor cables pass

Hazing – to force a new or potential recruit to the military, a college fraternity, etc. to perform strenuous, humiliating, or dangerous tasks

Heathen – a person who does not belong to a widely held religion (especially one who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim)

Heckler – term originates from the textile trade, where to heckle was to tease or comb out flax or hemp fibres

Hedging – taking a position in a futures market opposite to a position held in the cash market to minimize the risk of financial loss from an adverse price

Hegemony – leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group

Heifer – a young female cow that has not borne any young

Helot – one of a class of serfs in ancient Sparta, neither a slave nor a free citizen

Henge – a large prehistoric earthwork

Henotheism – the belief in and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities

Hentai – sexually explicit anime

Hermeneutics – the art and science of text interpretation

Hermetic – an airtight seal

Herpetology – the study of reptiles and amphibians

Hessian – a coarse woven fabric usually made from jute or other vegetable fibres. Hessian is also known as burlap

Hetacomb – an ancient Greek public sacrifice

Heterograph – words that are spelled differently, but sound the same

Heteronym – one of two or more words with identical spelling, but different meanings and pronunciations, e.g. bow (the front of a ship) and bow (a type of knot). Subset of homographs

Heuristics – experience-based techniques that help in problem solving, learning and discovery. A heuristic method is particularly used to rapidly come to a solution that is hoped to be close to the best possible answer, or 'optimal solution'

Hexameter – a line of poetry with six metrical feet

Hibakusha – survivors of atomic bombs in Japan

Hidalgo – the lowest rank of the Spanish nobility

Highball – a family of mixed drinks that are composed of an alcoholic base spirit and a larger proportion of a non-alcoholic mixer

Hijab – a scarf that Muslim women use to cover their hair

Hikkomori – modern-day hermits in Japan

Hilt – (sometimes called the haft) of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard, grip and pommel

Hinny – the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey (jennet or jenny) (see mule)

Hippogriff – a legendary creature, supposedly the offspring of a griffin and a mare

Hijra – a transgender individual who was assigned male at birth, in South Asia

Hobnail – a heavy nail used in horseshoes

Hogget – a sheep between one and two years of age

Hogwash – was originally swill fed to swine that had no nutritional value

Holocaust – a burnt sacrifice; an offering, the whole of which was consumed by fire

Holograph – a document written entirely by the author, e.g. a will

Homecoming – the tradition of welcoming back alumni of a school

Homeopathy – a system for treating disease based on the administration of minute doses of a drug. Based on the principle of ‘like cures like’ (the law of similars)

Homiletics – the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific department of public preaching

Homograph – a word with multiple meanings, based upon how it is pronounced, e.g. minute

Homologation – to approve or confirm officially

Homologous – structures which have a common evolutionary origin, but perform different functions, e.g. forearms (see analogous)

Homophone – a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose, or differently, such as caret and carrot. Homophones that are spelled the same are known as homonyms

Honeydew – a sweet sticky substance excreted by various insects, especially aphids, on the leaves of plants

Hongi – Maori greeting of rubbing noses

Honorific – a title that conveys esteem or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person

Hootenanny – an informal performance by folksingers, typically with participation by the audience

Hoplite – foot soldier in ancient Greece. Hoplites were primarily armed as spear-men and fought in a phalanx formation

Hoplophobia – fear of firearms

Hostelaphilist – a collector of pub signs

Hotte – a picking basket worn on the back of French grape pickers

Houndstooth – a large check pattern with notched corners, typically used in cloth for jackets and suit

Howdah – a seat for riding on the back of an elephant or camel

Hubris – excessive pride or self-confidence

Huckaback – a type of coarse, absorbent cotton or linen fabric used for making towels

Hulling – removing green calyx from strawberries, and shelling peas

Humblebrag – a statement on social media in which you pretend to be modest but which you are really using as a way of telling people about your success or achievements

Humidor – a container designed for storing cigars or other tobacco products at a constant level of humidity

Hydrophilic – having an affinity for water; readily absorbing or dissolving in water

Hyetometer – a device for measuring rainfall

Hygrometer – a device for measuring humidity

Hyperbole – use of exaggeration for effect, e.g. I’ve told you a hundred times

Hyperosmia – heightened sense of smell

Hypertension – high blood pressure

Hypertrichosis – excessive hair growth

Hypnogogic – relating to the state immediately before falling asleep

Hypnophobia – fear of sleep

Hypocaust – an ancient Roman heating system, comprising a hollow space under the floor of a building, into which hot air was directed

Hyponym – a word whose meaning is included in that of another word: scarlet, vermilion and crimson are hyponyms of red

Hypostasis – the essential nature of a substance as opposed to its attributes

Hypotension – low blood pressure

Hysteresis – the lagging of an effect behind its cause, as when the change in magnetism of a body lags behind changes in the magnetic field

I

Iatrogenesis – illness or injury caused by medical activity

Ichor – the ethereal golden fluid that is the blood of the gods and/or immortals

Ichthys – a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs, the ends of the right side extending beyond the meeting point so as to resemble the profile of a fish, used by early Christians as a secret Christian symbol. Known as the ‘Jesus fish’

Iconoclast – one who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions

Iconostasis – a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church

Idiocracy – a society governed or populated by idiots

Idiolect – the speech habits peculiar to a particular person

Idiom – a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language

Idiophone – any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself

Idyll – a short poem, descriptive of rustic life

Ikat – a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles

Imbroglio – an extremely confused, complicated, or embarrassing situation

Impeachment – the first of two stages in a specific process for a legislative body to remove a government official without that official's agreement. The second stage is called conviction

Impedance – electric resistance: a material's opposition to the flow of electric current

Imperialism – a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force

Imprecate – to invoke evil upon; curse

Impunity – exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss

Incel – involuntary celibate. A slang term for a sexist male

Incense – a material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt

Inch – the name for a small Scottish island

Inchoate – incomplete documents in law

Incipit – the first few words or opening line of a book, poem or song

Incubus – a demon in male form who lies upon sleepers, especially women, in order to engage in sexual activity with them

Inculpate – to accuse

Incunabula – a book printed before 1501

Indenture – a legal contract between two parties, particularly for indentured labour or a term of apprenticeship but also for certain land transactions

Indictment – a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime

Ineffable – incapable of being expressed in words

Infomercial – direct response television commercial which generally includes a phone number or website

Infrasound – a wave phenomenon sharing the physical nature of sound but with a range of frequencies below that of human

Ingenue – an innocent or unsophisticated young woman

Initialism – an abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately

Insolation – exposure to sunlight

Intaglio – glyptic art consisting of a sunken or depressed engraving or carving on a stone or gem (as opposed to cameo)

Interferometer – an instrument that combines the signal from two or more telescopes to produce a sharper image than the telescopes could achieve separately

Intercalation – the insertion of a leap day, week or month into some calendar years to make the calendar follow the seasons or moon phases

Intercession – prayer on behalf of someone else

Intermercial – Internet commercial

Interpol – International Criminal Police Organisation. HQ in Lyon

Interregnum – the interval of time between the end of a sovereign's reign and the accession of a successor

Interrobang – punctuation mark (?!) intended to combine the functions of the question mark (also called the ‘interrogative point’) and the exclamation mark or exclamation point (known in printers’ jargon as the ‘bang’)

Interstice – an empty space or gap between spaces full of structure or matter

Interweb – the internet; used in a humorous way to suggest you do not really understand technology

Intarsia – a knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours. As with the woodworking technique of the same name, fields of different colours and materials appear to be inlaid in one another, but are in fact all separate pieces

Invacuate – to confine (people) to a closed area in an emergency situation

Invagination – to fold inward or to sheath

Iridescent – displaying a play of lustrous colours like those of the rainbow

Isogloss – the geographical boundary of a certain linguistic feature

Isogram – word in which no letter appears more than once (see pangram)

Isometrics – a type of strength training in which the joint angle and muscle length do not change during contraction

Isopleth – contour lines that depict a variable which cannot be measured at a point, but which instead must be calculated from data collected over an area. An example is population density

Isotonic – having the same salt concentration as blood

Isotropy – having physical properties that are the same regardless of the direction of measurement. Opposite of anisotropy

Isthmus – a narrow strip of land connecting two larger masses of land

J

Jacinth – a red transparent variety of zircon used as a gemstone

Jack – press used for Monterey Jack cheese

Jainism – an ascetic religion of India, founded in the 6th century BC as a revolt against Hinduism

Japanning – the European imitation of Asian lacquer work, originally used on furniture

Japonisme – the study of Japanese art and artistic talent

Jardiniere – a flower box

Jeggings – tight-fitting stretch trousers for women, styled to resemble a pair of denim jeans. Portmanteau of jeans and leggings

Jejune – not nourishing; barren; not interesting or satisfying; dull or empty; childish

Jeremiad – a prolonged lamentation or complaint. Named after the biblical prophet Jeremiah

Jerky – meat that has been cut into strips, trimmed of fat, marinated in a spicy, salty, or sweet liquid, and dried or smoked with low heat, or is just salted and sun-dried

Jetsam – goods thrown overboard (see floatsam and lagan)

Jiffy – an informal term for any unspecified short period of time

Jilbab – any long and loose-fit coat or garment worn by Muslim women. It covers the entire body, except for hands, face, and head

Jingoism – nationalism in the form of aggressive foreign policy

Jinn – supernatural creatures in early Arabian and later Islamic mythology. An individual member of the jinn is known as a jinni, djinni, or genie

Jota – a genre of music and the associated dance known throughout Spain, most likely originating in Aragon

Juju – a supernatural power ascribed to an object

Jurisprudence – the branch of philosophy concerned with the law

K

Kafir – an Islamic term referring to those who reject Islam

Kakistocracy – government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state

Kalevala – epic poem from Finland

Kalpak – hat worn by men throughout Central Asia and the Caucasus

Kamal – a celestial navigation device that determines latitude. The kamal was used primarily by the Chinese and Arabs in the 18th and 19th centuries

Kaolin – china clay

Kapok – a silky fibre used for stuffing pillows. From the Ceiba tree

Karakul – an Afghan hat

Katana – a samurai sword

Kayfabe – scripted performances in wrestling

Kazoo – a simple musical instrument (membranophone) that adds tonal qualities when the player hums into it

Kelpie – a water spirit in the form of a horse

Kenning – a term in poetry associated with Old Norse

Keraunothnetophobia – an abnormal fear of being hit by man-made satellites

Kerning – the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font

Kerosene – American name for paraffin. Thin oil distilled from petroleum or shale oil, used as a fuel

Kersey – a type of cloth

Ketch – a two-masted rigged sailboat

Kettlebell – a large cast-iron ball-shaped weight with a single handle

Kettling – a police tactic for controlling large crowds during demonstrations. It involves the formation of large cordons of police officers who then move to contain a crowd within a limited area

Kilim – Turkish rugs that look like tapestry

Kinaesthesia – the perception of body position and movement and muscular tensions

Kinesics – body language and gestures

Kirigami – a variation of origami that includes cutting of the paper

Kissing crust – a crust that overhangs the upper crust of bread

Kleptocracy – a government that extends the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class at the expense of the population

Kleptoparasitism – a form of feeding in which one animal takes prey or other food from another that has caught, collected, or otherwise prepared the food, including stored food (e.g. cuckoo bees). The term is also used to describe the stealing of nest material or other inanimate objects from one animal by another

Klezmer – a musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe

Knapping – the process of chipping away material from high silica stones like flint in a carefully controlled manner

Kohl – used as eyeliner. A black powder used by Saudi Arabian women that goes on the eyelid of the eye to enhance the beauty of a woman

Kolkhoz – a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz

Kora – a 21-string harp-lute used extensively by peoples in West Africa

Kosher – food prepared for consumption according to Jewish laws (See trefah)

Kraken – a mythical sea monster believed to have been a giant squid

Kris or keris – a Malaysian dagger

Krumping – a form of dancing that originated in the African-American community of South Central Los Angeles

Kufi – a brimless cap traditionally worn by Muslim men

Kulfi – a popular frozen dairy dessert from the Indian Subcontinent. It is often described as "traditional Indian Subcontinent ice cream"

Kunqu – ancient Chinese opera

Kyle – a narrow passage of water between islands, or between islands and mainland

L

Lac – a resinous substance secreted by various scale insects

Laconic – using few words; terse or concise

Lacuna – a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or a musical work

Lagan – goods cast to a buoy and thrown into the sea (see flotsam and jetsam)

Lagares – traditional troughs used in the production of sherry and port

Lagniappe – a small gift given to a customer by a shopkeeper

Lagoon – a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs

Lanyard – a cord worn around the neck to carry identification cards

Lapidary – an artist who forms stone, mineral, and gemstones into decorative items such as engraved gems, including cameos

Lapidation – stoning to death

Larboard – an archaic version of port (opposite of starboard)

Larceny – a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person

Larrikinism – the name given to the Australian folk tradition of irreverence, mockery of authority and disregard for rigid norms of propriety

Larvae – any young insect from the time that it hatches

Lateen – a triangular sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction

Latex – a milky fluid found in many plants which exudes when the plant is cut and coagulates on exposure to the air

Lather – a worker who installs the strips used in lath and plaster wall construction

Laudanum – also known as opium tincture or tincture of opium, is an alcoholic herbal preparation of opium. It is made by combining ethanol with opium latex or powder

Layette – clothing for a new baby

Legalism – a philosophy emphasizing strict obedience to the legal system. It was one of the main philosophic currents during the Warring States period of China

Legal tender – money that must be accepted in payment of debts

Legerdemain – sleight of hand

Legion – ten cohorts, i.e. 4800 men

Lei – a welcome garland in Hawaii

Leitmotif – a theme or other musical idea that represents or symbolizes a person, object, place, idea, state of mind or supernatural force in a dramatic work. An idea used widely throughout German opera, though associated with Richard Wagner in most of his operas

Lek – an aggregation of males that gather to engage in competitive displays (lekking) that may entice visiting females who are surveying prospective partners for copulation

Lemniscate – a figure that looks like the infinity symbol

Lesion – any abnormality in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by disease or trauma

Leucipottomy – the cutting of White Horses on hillsides

Leveraging – investing with borrowed money as a way to amplify potential gains (at the risk of greater losses)

Lexophile – a lover of words

Liberty horse – a riderless horse in a circus

Libido – a Freudian term for sexual urge or desire

Lictor – a Roman functionary who carried fasces when attending a magistrate in public appearances

Lien – a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt

Ligament – fibrous tissue that connects bones to other bones (see tendon)

Ligature – two or more letter-forms are joined as a single glyph, e.g. ae

Lightermen – workers who transferred goods between ships and quays, aboard flat-bottomed barges called lighters in the Port of London

Lights – the lungs of game or livestock as used in cooking and butchery

Lignin – substance in trees that holds cellulose fibres together

Limbo – a state of awaiting a decision or resolution

Limelight – a type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. Also known as calcium light

Liminality – the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete

Limner – an illuminator of manuscripts

Linguistics – the scientific study of languages

Lintel – a horizontal support of timber, stone, concrete, or steel across the top of a door or window

Lipogram – a composition from which the writer systematically omits a certain letter or certain letters of the alphabet

Lipspeaker – a hearing person who has been professionally trained to be easy to lipread

Litany – prayer dialogue in which the worshippers take responsive parts

Lithography – a printing process in which the image to be printed is rendered on a flat surface, as on sheet zinc or aluminum, and treated to retain ink while the non-image areas are treated to repel ink

Litmus – a water-soluble mixture of different dyes extracted from lichens, especially Roccella tinctoria

Litotes – use of understatement for effect. Opposite of hyperbole

Liturgy – the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group

Loanword – a loan borrowed from another language

Locovore – someone who is interested in eating food that is locally produced

Lodestone – a piece of intensely magnetic magnetite that was used as an early form of magnetic compass

Loggia – a gallery or room with one or more open sides

Logophile – a lover of words

Logrolling – exchanging political support for political favours, especially by members of Congress and other legislatures

Loiner – a native of Leeds

Lorelei – a siren on the Rhine river

Lorimer – a person who makes the bits and other metal parts of a horse's bridle, and other small metal pieces

Loupe – a special magnifying glass that enables you to take a closer look at a gemstone or other object

Lovat – a muted shade of green

Lumbersexual – a man who has adopted style traits typical of a traditional lumberjack, namely a beard and plaid shirt

Lupa – she-wolf. Roman slang for a prostitute

Lurker – one who frequents a message board without participating in discussions

Lusophone – a Portuguese speaker

Lustrum – a term for a five-year period in Ancient Rome

Luthier – a maker or repairer of stringed instruments

Lycanthrope – a person who turns into a werewolf

M

Macaroni – an English fop or dandy

Macaronic – a mixture of vernacular words jumbled together with Latin

Macerate – to leave food in a liquid so that it absorbs the liquid and becomes soft

Maceration – process in wine making where the tannins are leached from the grape skins into the must

Macuahuitl – a wooden sword with obsidian blades. The weapon was used by many different civilizations in Mesoamerica

Maccaboy – a type of snuff

Machiavellian – a term describing someone who aims to deceive and manipulate others for personal advantage

Macrame – decoratively knotted rope or cord forming a harness-like structure for hanging pots

Mahdi – a messianic leader who (according to popular Muslim belief) will appear before the end of the world and restore justice and religion

Mahout – a person who works with, rides, and tends an elephant

Mascara – a cosmetic for darkening and thickening the eyelashes

Maulstick – or mahlstick, is a stick with a soft leather or padded head, used by painters to support the hand that holds the brush

Makoro – a type of canoe commonly used in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Mamaguy – to deceive

Mandala – a schematized representation of the cosmos, chiefly characterized by a concentric configuration of geometric shapes

Manga – Japanese word for comics and print cartoons. Outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to comics originally published in Japan

Mandir – Hindu temple

Manger – a trough or box of carved stone or wood construction used to hold food for animals

Mangonel – a large catapult

Manicule – a symbol in the shape of a pointing hand, used to draw attention to a section of text

Maniform – hand-shaped

Maniple – narrow embroidered band worn hanging from left arm by celebrant priest

Maniple – two centuria within a single cohort

Mankini – a type of sling swimsuit worn by men. Popularized in the film Borat

Mansplaining – a man explaining something to a woman in a condescending way

Manspreading – a man sitting on public transport with legs wide apart

Mantilla – a lace or silk veil or shawl worn over the head and shoulders, often over a high comb called a peineta, popular with women in Spain

Mantique – an antique or collectible that appeals mainly to men

Mantle – an ecclesiastical garment, joined at the neck, sleeveless and open in the front, that is worn over the outer garments

Mantra – a religious or mystical syllable or poem, typically from the Sanskrit language

Manumission – the formal act of freeing from slavery

Manzilian – male Brazilian waxing

Maquette – a small model of a planned sculpture or building

Maracas – a musical instrument made from dried Cuban gourds, filled with beans

Margrave – lord or military governor of a German medieval border province

Marimba – a percussion instrument set up in the form of a keyboard whose bars are made of wood. Similar to a xylophone

Marination – also known as marinating, is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking

Mariticide – the act of killing one’s husband

Marmite – a traditional crockery casserole vessel found in France

Marquetry – inlaying of multi-coloured woods

Martinet – 1. whip with a wooden handle 2. a strict disciplinarian, especially in the armed forces

Martlet – a heraldic charge depicting a stylized bird similar to that of a house martin or swallow, though missing legs

Mascara – a cosmetic for darkening and thickening the eyelashes

Masher – a man who attempts to force his unwelcome attentions on a woman

Mastaba – a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with outward sloping sides

Matelot – a sailor’s dance from Holland

Matilda – (as in ‘Waltzing Matilda’) is a knapsack

Matins – a service of Morning Prayer

Mattock – a hand tool similar to a pickaxe

Matricide – the act of killing one’s mother

Matzah – (or matzo) Jewish unleavened bread eaten during Passover

Maverick – a cowboy who refuses to brand his cattle

Mavis – poetic name for song thrush

Mazarine – a deep rich blue colour

Megacity – a metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people

Meiosis – a euphemistic figure of speech that intentionally understates something

Mellification – the making or production of honey

Mellotron – an electro-mechanical, polyphonic keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard

Mendacious – lying

Menhir – a tall upright stone of a kind erected in prehistoric times in Western Europe

Mercer – a trader in textiles

Mercerization – a treatment for cotton fabric and thread that gives fabric or yarns a lustrous appearance and strengthens them

Meridian – a line of longitude

Meritocracy – a political philosophy which holds that power should be vested in individuals almost exclusively according to merit

Merkin – a pubic wig

Mesmerism – a strong or spellbinding appeal; fascination. Hypnotic induction believed to involve animal magnetism. Named after German physician Franz Mesmer

Mestizo – a term traditionally used in Spain and Spanish-speaking America to mean a person of combined European and Native American descent. In the Philippines, referred to a person of mixed native Filipino and any foreign ancestry

Metallic – resembling metal or metals

Metallography – the study of the structure of metals and alloys

Metalpoint – a small, sharp rod of metal used for drawing used since Middle Ages

Metaphor – an expression in which a word is used in a non-literal sense, e.g. life is a minestrone

Metaverse – a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users

Methitic – foul

Metonym – the use of a word for a concept with which the original concept behind this word is associated, e.g. Downing Street is used to mean the Prime Minister

Metopic – of the forehead

Metrology – the science of weights and measures

Metrosexual – a heterosexual male who is acutely aware of appearance and upholds that image through clothing and personal grooming

Mettle – a person's ability to cope well with difficulties

Mezzotint – a printmaking process of the intaglio family. It was the first tonal method to be used, in 1642

Miasma – poisonous or toxic atmosphere. Referred to the fog over London in the 1850s

Mica – a silicate mineral group

Microbiome – the ecological community of microorganisms that literally share our body space

Microcredit – the extension of very small loans to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty

Microkini – a very small bikini

Micromort – a unit of risk measuring a one-in-a-million probability of death

Midden – also known as kitchen middens. A dump for domestic waste

Mihrab – a niche in the wall of a mosque or a room in the mosque that indicates the direction of Mecca

Millefiori – decorative glass made by fusing multicoloured glass canes together

Milt – the seminal fluid of fish, mollusks, and certain other water-dwelling animals who reproduce by spraying this fluid, which contains the sperm, onto roe (fish eggs)

Minaret – the tower on a mosque from which calls to prayer are made

Minaudiere – a women's fashion accessory, generally considered a jewelry piece, intended to substitute for an evening bag

Minim – a half note

Minnesinger – one of the German lyric poets and singers in the troubadour tradition who flourished from the 12th to the 14th century

Minster – any of certain cathedrals and large churches; originally connected to a monastery

Minuet – a stately court dance

Minuscule – 1. tiny 2. a manuscript used by monks

Misandry – the hatred or dislike of men or boys

Misericord – a small wooden shelf on the underside of a folding seat in a church, installed to provide a degree of comfort for a person who has to stand during long periods of prayer. Sometimes called the mercy seat

Misfeasance – improper and unlawful execution of an act that is itself lawful and proper

Misogyny – hatred of women

Mithridatism – the practice of protecting oneself against a poison by gradually self-administering non-lethal amounts

Mizzenmast – the third mast, or mast aft of the mainmast, on a ship

Mocha – a type of coffee, named after a seaport in Yemen

Mocktail – a cocktail-style beverage made without alcoholic ingredients

Modello – a preparatory study for work of art

Mohel – a Jew trained in the practice of circumcision

Mojo – a magical charm bag used in voodoo

Momme – a measure of silk density

Mondegreen – the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase, in a way that gives it a new meaning. It most commonly is applied to a lyric in a song

Monochromacy – the ability to perceive only light intensity. Affected people can distinguish light, dark, and shades of grey but not colour

Monocoque – a metal structure, such as an aircraft, in which the skin absorbs all or most of the stresses to which the body is subjected

Monoglot – a person who only speaks one language

Monokini – the lower part of a bikini worn without the upper part

Mononym – person known by a single name, e.g. Voltaire

Monopoly – a situation in a market where a single seller or producer assumes a dominant position in an industry or a sector

Monopsony – a situation in a market in which there is only one buyer for goods or services offered by several sellers

Monseigneur – a title or form of address used of or to a French-speaking prince, cardinal, archbishop, or bishop

Montage – a cinematic device used to show a series of scenes, all related and building to some conclusion

Montera – a hat worn by bullfighters

Moped – portmanteau of motor and pedal

Morion – open helmet worn by Swiss Guard

Mortpanteau – a reversed portmanteau, e.g. foke instead of smog

Mortician – a funeral director in the United States

Moshav – Israeli town or settlement, similar to a kibbutz

Moshing – a style of dance where participants push or slam into each other. Usually happens in a mosh pit

Mossad – Israeli secret security service

Mote – a particle or speck of dust

Motley – clothes worn by a jester

Mottled – marked with spots or smears of colour

Moue – a pout

Muddler – a bartender's tool, used like a pestle to mash – or muddle – fruits, herbs, and/or spices in the bottom of a glass to release their flavour

Mudlark – someone who scavenges in river mud for items of value, a term used specially to describe those who scavenged this way in London during the late 18th and 19th centuries

Mufti – a person responsible for interpreting Muslim law and was held in high esteem by the population

Mukluks – or Kamik, are a soft boot traditionally made of reindeer skin or sealskin and were originally worn by Arctic peoples, including the Inuit and Yupik

Mule – the offspring of a male donkey (jackass or jack) and a female horse (see hinny)

Muleta – the stick that the red cloth hangs from in a bullfight

Mullet – five or more pointed star, in heraldry

Mulligan – in a game, happens when a player gets a second chance to perform a certain move or action, e.g. in golf

Mullion – a vertical member, as of stone or wood, dividing a window or other opening

Muriform – resembling courses of bricks or stones in squareness and regular arrangement

Muselet – a wire cage that fits over the cork of a bottle of champagne, sparkling wine or beer

Museology – study of museums

Muslin – cotton fabric of plain weave. Corruption of ‘Mosul’, where it was first encountered by European traders

Must – freshly pressed grape juice, containing the skins, stems and stems of the grapes

Myrmecochory – seed dispersal by ants

Mysophobia – fear of dirt

N

Nabob – formerly, a provincial governor or viceroy who lived luxuriously in India. Later, an Englishman who returned wealthy from a tour of duty in India

Nacelle – a cover housing (separate from the fuselage) that holds engines, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft

Nacre – mother of pearl

Naevus – a birthmark

Naming – procedure whereby the speaker or one of his deputies proposes a vote on the suspension of a member of the House whom he believes has broken the rules of conduct of the House of Commons

Nanotechnology – the science and technology of building electronic circuits and devices from single atoms and molecules. Precision engineering of substances at the molecular and atomic level

Nawab – a deputy ruler or viceroy in India

Neat – in a drink, pure or undiluted

Necromancer – a person who practices necromancy, a discipline of black magic used to communicate with the dead to foretell the future

Nectar – a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries

Negus – a former ruler of Ethiopia

Neophyte – someone who is new to a particular activity

Nephomancy – divination by clouds

Neroli – essential oil from the blossom of the bitter orange tree

Netizen – a portmanteau of the words Internet and citizen as in ‘citizen of the net’

Netsuke – miniature sculptures that were invented in 17th century Japan to serve a practical function, i.e. to hold personal belongings

Neurodiversity – variations in individual brain function and behavioural traits

Neuroeconomics – combines neuroscience, economics, and psychology to study how we make choices

Newel – the upright post which supports the handrail of a stair banister

Nidification – nest building

Nidology – study of birds’ nests

Ninja – a member of a class of 14th century Japanese mercenary agents who were trained in the martial arts and hired for espionage or sabotage or assassinations

Niqab – face veil, worn with a hijab. May cover the lower half of the face only, or the entire face with exception of the eyes, or may cover the face including the eyes

Nizam – title of the native sovereigns of Hyderabad State

Nocebo – a negative placebo effect as, for example, when patients taking medications experience adverse side effects unrelated to the specific pharmacological action of the drug

Noisette – a chocolate made with hazelnuts

Nomophobia – the fear of being out of mobile phone contact

Nonet – a composition that requires nine musicians for a performance

Noodling – catching catfish with your bare hands

Notary – someone legally empowered to witness signatures and certify a document's validity

Notaphilist – a collector of banknotes

Noumenon – a posited object or event that is known (if at all) without the use of the senses. Contrasted with phenomenon

Novella – a prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel

Nugatory – of little value

Nuggar – a sailing vessel used to navigate the Nile river

Numeronym – a number-based word, e.g. K9

Numismatist – a collector of coins and medals

Nuncio – diplomatic representative of the Pope

Nyctophobia – fear of darkness

O

Oakum – a preparation of tarred fibre used to seal gaps, traditionally in ships

Obelus – 1. division sign 2. alternative name for the dagger typographical symbol

Obfuscation – the concept of concealing the meaning of communication by making it more confusing and harder to interpret

Obi – a sash for traditional Japanese dress

Oblast – type of administrative division in Slavic countries and in some countries of the former Soviet Union

Oblateness – the flattening of a planet from spherical form because of the centrifugal effect of rotation

Oboe – an improved navigational device based on radar that increased bombing accuracy

Obsidian – a usually black or banded, hard volcanic glass that displays shiny, curved surfaces when fractured and is formed by rapid cooling of lava

Occidentalism – stereotyped and views on the Western world

Ochlophobia – fear of crowds

Ochlocracy – rule by the mob

Octoroon – a person who has one black and seven white great grandparents (see quadroon)

Octothorp – hash sign (or number sign or pound sign)

Ocularist – a person who makes artificial eyes

Oculus – an eyelike opening or ornament; a round window, or a circular opening at the apex of a dome

Odalisque – a virgin female slave, who could rise in status to being a concubine or a wife in Ottoman Seraglios, but most of whom tended to the harem of the Turkish sultan

Odeon – ancient Greek and Roman buildings built for singing exercises, musical shows and poetry competitions. It was provided with a roof for acoustic purposes

Odometer – an instrument that indicates distance travelled by a vehicle

Oenology – study of wine making

Oenomel – an ancient Greek beverage consisting of honey and unfermented grape juice

Ogee – a curve shaped like an S, consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite senses. In architecture, the principal use of the term is to describe an arch composed of two ogees

Ogive – the roundly tapered end of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object

Oleaginous – oily

Oligarchy – government by the few

Ombre – blending of one colour hue to another

Ombrophobia – fear of rain

Ombudsman – a person who investigates, reports on, and helps settle complaints. Another term for Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration

Omerta – code of silence used by the Mafia

Onager – a torsion-powered siege engine used by the Romans to catapult heavy projectiles such as rocks

Onchyophagia – nail biting

Oneiromancy – divination by dreams

Oneirophobia – fear of dreams

Onesie – a one-piece garment combining a top with trousers, worn by adults as leisurewear

Onomastics – or onomatology, the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names

Ontology – branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being

Ophidiophobia – fear of snakes

Ophthalmoscope – a lighted instrument used to examine the inside of the eye, including the retina and the optic nerve

Or – gold, in heraldry

Orbuculum – a crystal ball

Organza – a sheer dress fabric traditionally made from silk

Orientalism – the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists

Orlop – the lowest deck on a ship

Ormolu – an 18th century English term for applying finely ground, high-carat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze

Ornithopter – an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings

Orrery – a mechanical device that illustrates the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons in the solar system in the heliocentric model

Orthography – a standardized system for using a particular writing system (script) to write a particular language

Orthotics – the science and technology of braces, especially when supporting weak or injured joints and muscles

Ossuary – a container or receptacle, such as an urn or a vault, for holding the bones of the dead

Osteoarchaeology – the study of bones from archaeological sites

Osteopathy – emphasizes the interrelationship between structure and function of the body and recognizes the body's ability to heal itself

Osteria – Italian restaurant

Ostracon– a piece of pottery (or stone), usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel

Oubliette – a type of dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling

Outspan – an area on a South African farm kept available for travellers to rest and refresh animals

Overtone – any frequency higher than the fundamental frequency of a sound

P

Pacyderm – any of various non-ruminant hoofed mammals having very thick skin: elephant; rhinoceros; hippopotamus

Paean – a song or lyric poem expressing triumph or thanksgiving

Painter – a rope that is attached to the bow of a boat and used for tying up or for towing

Paisan – a fellow countryman or friend

Palaeography – study of ancient and medieval writings

Palaeontology – study of fossil animals and plants

Palanquin – a covered litter for one passenger, consisting of a large box carried on two horizontal poles by four or six bearers

Palapa – an open-sided dwelling with a thatched roof made of dried palm leaves

Paleopathology – the study of disease of former times (as inferred from fossil evidence)

Palfrey – a type of horse highly valued as a riding horse in the Middle Ages

Palimony – compensation paid by one member of an unmarried couple to the other after separation

Palimpsest – a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text

Pandiculation – the act of yawning and stretching simultaneously

Panegyric – a formal public speech, or (in later use) written verse, delivered in high praise of a person

Pangram – a sentence containing all the letters of the alphabet (see isogram)

Panjandrum – 1. an important or self-important person 2. a massive, rocket-propelled, explosive-laden cart designed by the British military during World War II

Pannage – ancient tradition allowing pig farmers to graze their animals through the New Forest, eating acorns which could prove deadly to ponies

Pantile – roofing tile with a S-shape; laid so that curves overlap

Pantograph – 1. an instrument for copying a plan or drawing on a different scale 2. an apparatus mounted on the roof of an electric train, tram or electric bus to collect power through contact with an overhead line

Papakha – a wool hat worn by men throughout the Caucasus. Also known as astrakhan hat

Paper tiger – the nature of a person or organization that appears powerful but is actually powerless and ineffectual

Papilla – a small nipple-like projection

Parabasis – a point in a play when all of the actors leave the stage and the chorus is left to address the audience directly

Parable – a short moral story

Paraclete – the Holy Spirit as advocate or counselor

Paradiddle – a type of drum roll

Paragon – a model of excellence or perfection of a kind; a peerless example: a paragon of virtue

Paralanguage – the non-verbal elements of communication used to modify meaning and convey emotion

Paramagnetism – a form of magnetism which only occurs in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field

Paramour – an adulterous lover

Paraphilia – sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not part of normative stimulation

Parapraxis – a Freudian slip. A slip of the tongue

Paraskavedekatriaphobia – fear of Friday the thirteenth

Parasomnia – sleep disorders

Parataxis – a literary technique, in writing or speaking, which favors short, simple sentences

Palmate – web-footed

Pardoner – a person licensed to sell papal pardons or indulgences

Pareidolia – the phenomenon of discerning a clear image or pattern where it does not exist is known e.g., seeing the face of Jesus in a piece of toast

Pargeting – a decorative or waterproofing plastering applied to building walls

Pariah – a social outcast

Paronomasia – a pun, or play on words

Parquet – a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect in flooring

Parsimony – the quality of being careful with money or resources

Partisan – a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation

Parturition – childbirth

Partwork – series of magazines on a particular topic

Parvenu – a person who has suddenly risen to a higher social and economic class and has not yet gained social acceptance by others in that class

Pasha – a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries

Pashmina – a type of fine cashmere wool and the shawls made from it. The wool comes from the pashmina goat

Passant (of predators) – walking: standing on three feet, one forefoot raised

Pastel – an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder

Pastiche – describes a literary or other artistic genre. The word has two competing meanings, meaning either a ‘hodge-podge’ or an imitation

Pastrami – spiced, smoked beef

Patchouli – a small Southeast Asian shrub in the mint family, having leaves that yield fragrant oil used in the manufacture of perfumes

Paternoster – a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping

Pathos – a quality that evokes pity or sadness

Patina – the change in an object's surface resulting from natural aging due to wear and oxidation

Patka – a piece of cloth which fits snugly over the kesh, worn by Sikhs

Patna – long-grained rice named after a city in India

Patois – speech or language that is considered nonstandard, e.g. pidgins or creoles

Patrician – the original aristocratic families of Ancient Rome

Patristics – or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers

Patrial – a person who has right of abode in the United Kingdom

Patrilineality – a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage

Pawnee – a Plains Indian tribe who are headquartered in Pawnee, Oklahoma

Payola – in the American music industry, is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio

Payot – the Hebrew word for sidelocks or sidecurls

Pavee – Irish travelers

Paywall – a system that prevents Internet users from accessing webpage content without a paid subscription

Peal – a ringing of a set of bells, especially a change or set of changes rung on bells

Pebbledash – cement or plaster with small stones embedded in it, used as a coating for exterior walls

Peculation – embezzlement of public funds or property

Pedagogue – 1. a schoolteacher; an educator 2. one who instructs in a pedantic or dogmatic manner

Peel – a long-handled pole used by a baker

Peerage – the peers of a kingdom considered as a group

Pejorative – tending to make or become worse. Disparaging; belittling

Pejorative – a word expressing contempt or disapproval

Peladophobia – fear of bald people

Pelagianism – the theological doctrine propounded by Pelagius, a British monk, and condemned as heresy by the Roman Catholic Church in 416 AD. It denied original sin and affirmed the ability of humans to be righteous by the exercise of free will

Pelotherapy – therapeutic treatment using mud

Pellucid – transparent

Pemmican – a concentrated mixture of fat and protein used as a nutritious food. Used by Arctic and Antarctic explorers

Peng – slang for an attractive girl

Penology – the study, theory, and practice of prison management and criminal rehabilitation

Pentadactyl – having five fingers or toes on each hand or foot

Pentimento – an underlying image in a painting, as an earlier painting, part of a painting, or original draft, that shows through

Pentasyllabic – having or characterized by or consisting of five syllables, e.g. 77

Peon – a day labourer in Spanish countries

Peplos – a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece

Peripatetic – teacher who works at more than one college. Also – walking or travelling about. Of or pertaining to Aristotle, or the Aristotelian school of philosophy, who taught philosophy while walking in the Lyceum in ancient Athens

Periphrasis – a roundabout way of saying something, e.g. he’s passed away

Peristyle – a columned porch or open colonnade in a building surrounding a court that may contain an internal garden

Periwig / Peruke – wig fashionable in 17th and18th centuries

Persona – a character played by an actor. Term coined by Jung

Personification – giving human qualities to an inanimate object or an abstract idea, e.g. Keats’s To Autumn

Pescetarian – a person who eats seafood, but not the flesh of other animals

Petard – an explosive device used to break down doors or walls. Hence – hoist

on ones... Used by Shakespeare in Hamlet

Petrology – study of rocks

Pettifogger – a quibbler of details. Used to refer to lawyers

Pewter – any of numerous silver-grey alloys of tin with various amounts of antimony, copper, and sometimes lead

Phalanx – an ancient military formation of infantry in close, deep ranks with shields overlapping

Phantosmia – smelling an odour that is not actually there

Pharology – the study of lighthouses

Phasmophobia – fear of ghosts

Philology – the study of language in written historical sources

Philophobia – fear of love

Phishing – scammers fishing for account information by sending email, e.g. pretending to be a bank

Phizog – slang term for face

Phonetics – the study and classification of speech sounds

Phonology – study of the sound systems of a particular language

Photomontage – the process (and result) of making a composite photograph by cutting and joining a number of other photographs

Photometry – the science of measurement of light, in terms of its perceived brightness to the human eye

Phreaking – phone hacking

Phrenology – a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions

Phylactery – either of two small leather cases containing texts from the Hebrew Scriptures

Physiology – study of the functions of living organisms and their parts

Picador – a horseman in a bullfight who lances the bull's neck muscles

Picaresque – romantic novel that deals with rogues and rascals

Piccadilly – 17th century word for a shirt collar

Piccaninny – a small black child

Pickling – a metal surface treatment using acid to remove impurities

Pictogram or Pictograph – a pictorial symbol for a word or phrase

Pied – having two or more colours

Pieta – artwork or sculpture which portrays the Virgin Mary cradling the lifeless body of Christ upon her lap

Pigeon Pair of twins – one boy, one girl

Pilaster – rectangular column with a capital and base, projecting only slightly from a wall as an ornamental motif

Pilcrow – also called the paragraph mark, is a typographical character commonly used to denote individual paragraphs. Looks like a backwards P

Pillory – a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation

Pilum – a Roman legionary's six foot javelin

Pinata – a container, often a donkey, filled with sweets or toys at Mexican festivals

Piriform – egg-shaped

Pirogue – a canoe made from a hollowed tree trunk

Pithos – a large Greek storage container

Pizzo – protection money paid to the Mafia

Plaid – chequered or tartan twilled cloth

Planchet – a round metal disk that is ready to be struck as a coin. An older word for planchet is flan

Planganologist – a collector of dolls

Plantigrade – walking with the entire sole of the foot on the ground, as humans, bears, raccoons, and rabbits do

Plasticity – a property of a material to undergo a non-reversible change of shape in response to an applied force. Plastic deformation occurs under shear stress, as opposed to brittle fractures which occur under normal stress

Platen – the roller in a typewriter that serves as the backing for the paper against which the type bars strike

Platitude – a worn-out cliche

Plebiscite – a direct vote in which the entire electorate is invited to accept or refuse a proposal

Pleonasm – the use of more words or word-parts than is necessary for clear expression: e.g. burning fire

Pluralism – the recognition and affirmation of diversity within a political body

Plus fours – trousers that extend four inches below the knee

Plutocracy – government by the wealthy

Pnyx – the hill near the Acropolis where the Assembly of the Athenians held its meetings

Podcast – an audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback

Pokey – a slot machine in Australia

Polemic – a controversial argument, especially one refuting or attacking a specific opinion or doctrine

Polemology – study of conflict and war

Polenta – a dish made from boiled cornmeal

Polari – a form of cant slang used in the gay subculture in Britain. It was revived in the 1950s and 1960s by its use by camp characters Julian and Sandy in the popular BBC radio shows Beyond our Ken and Round the Horne

Poleyn – a piece of armour that protects the knee

Polity – a state or one of its subordinate civil authorities, such as a city, or district. It is generally understood to mean a geographic area with a corresponding government

Polka – an energetic Bohemian dance performed in the round in 2/4 time

Pollard – an animal without horns

Pollarding – cutting off the top and branches of a tree to encourage new growth at the top

Polonaise – a stately, marchlike Polish dance, primarily a promenade by couples

Polyamory – the practice of engaging in multiple romantic (and typically sexual) relationships, with the consent of all the people involved

Polyandry – a form of polygamy where a woman is married to more than one man

Polychromy – the use of many colours in decoration, especially in architecture and sculpture

Polydipsia – excessive thirst or excess drinking

Polygamy – having more than one spouse

Polygon – a closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments

Polygyny – a form of polygamy where a man is married to more than one woman

Polyphobia – fear of many things

Polyptych – a painting which is divided into four or more sections, or panels

Polysemy – the capacity for a sign (e.g., a word, phrase, etc.) or signs to have multiple meanings, e.g. crane. Similar to homonymy

Polysyllabic – having more than one and usually more than three syllables

Pomade – a waxy substance used to style hair

Pommel – counterweight at the top of the handle of a sword

Pomology – the science of growing fruit

Pontoon – a floating bridge

Popinjay – a parrot, or dandy

Poplin – a strong fabric in plain weave with crosswise ribs

Porron – a traditional glass wine pitcher, originating in Catalonia

Portico – a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls

Portmanteau word – formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two or more words, e.g. smog, genome (gene and chromosome), animatronics (animation and electronics)

Porphyrophobia – fear of the colour purple

Postern – a secondary door or gate in a fortification

Postpartum – occurring after childbirth

Postprandial – after eating a meal

Potwalloper – an archaic term referring to a borough constituency returning members to the House of Commons before 1832 and the Reform Act

Poultice – a soft moist adhesive mass that is usually heated, spread on cloth, and applied to warm, moisten, or stimulate an aching or inflamed part of the body

Praetor – an ancient Roman magistrate ranking below a consul

Praxis – the practical application or exercise of a branch of learning; Habitual or established practice

Pratfall – a ridiculous tumble in which someone, especially a clown or comedian, lands on their bottom

Prebendary – a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon who receives a prebend (a stipend) for serving the church

Precariat – a social class formed by people without predictability or security. The term is a portmanteau of precarious and proletariat

Prelap – a screenwriting term that means the dialogue from the next scene precedes the cut, and the beginning of the dialogue is heard in the outgoing scene

Prelapsarian – of or relating to the period before the fall of Adam and Eve

Prescient – having or showing knowledge of events before they take place

Presenteeism – turning up for work when ill

Pressgang – the act of forcibly conscripting people to serve as sailors, abolished in 1853

Priest – a mallet used to kill fish caught when angling

Primogeniture – the common law right of the first-born son to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings

Privateer – a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime

Probate – proving a will

Probiotics – dietary supplements of live bacteria or yeasts thought to be healthy

Progeria – premature aging

Prolegomenon – an introduction

Proletariat – the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live

Prolix – tending to speak or write at excessive length

Prone – lying down with the face down

Prorogation – period between two sessions of a legislative body

Prorogue – to stop the activities of a parliament for a period of time without dissolving it

Proscenium – arch in a theatre separating the stage from the auditorium

Proscribe – 1. to denounce or condemn. 2. to prohibit; forbid

Prose – written or spoken language in its ordinary form

Proselyte – a new convert; especially a gentile converted to Judaism

Prosody – the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Includes poetical metre

Prosopagnosia – inability to recognize faces

Prosthetics – replacement of body parts with artificial parts

Protagonist – the chief character in a play

Prophylactic – a course of action intended to prevent disease

Protoscience – historical philosophical disciplines which existed prior to the development of scientific method, which allowed them to develop into science proper, e.g. alchemy or astrology

Provenance – a record of ownership of a work of art or an antique, used as a guide to authenticity or quality

Provost – a mayor in Scotland

Psalm – a sacred song or poem

Psephology – scientific analysis of political elections and polls

Pseudocide – faking your own death

Psithurism – the sound made by rustling of leaves

Pterophobia – fear of flying

Publican – a collector of public taxes or tolls in the ancient Roman Empire

Pudenda – the human external genital organs, especially of a woman

Puggle – a crossbreed dog with a beagle parent and a pug parent

Pullet – a female chicken (sometimes applied to other species) under one year of age

Punic – Carthaginian: of or relating to or characteristic of ancient Carthage or its people or their language

Punkah – a type of fan

Punty – a tool used in glassblowing

Purdah – screening women from the public eye

Purdah – restriction on policies during election campaign

Purgatory – a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are expiating their sins before going to heaven

Pusillanimous – lacking courage; cowardly

Putative – commonly accepted as true on inconclusive grounds

Putsch – uprising or insurrection

Puttee – a covering for the lower part of the leg from the ankle to the knee, consisting of a long narrow piece of cloth wound tightly and spirally round the leg

Putto – (plural – putti) a figure of a small boy or cherub

Pylon – a monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple

Pyrography – the art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks resulting from the controlled application of a heated object such as a poker

Pyromancy – divination by fire

Pyrometer – a device which measures high temperatures

Pyrophoric – liable to ignite spontaneously on exposure to air

Pyx – a small container holding the consecrated bread in church

Q

Qiviut – wool from a muskox

Quadriga – a four-horse chariot

Quadrille – a historic dance performed by four couples in a rectangular formation, and a precursor to traditional square dancing

Quadroon – has one black and three white grandparents (see octoroon)

Quaestor – any of several public officials of ancient Rome (usually in charge of finance and administration

Quaich – a Scottish drinking cup

Quant – a pole used to propel a barge or punt through water

Quarrel – a crossbow bolt

Quarry – an animal pursued or hunted

Quash – reject or void, especially by legal procedure

Quatrain – a poem or a stanza within a poem that consists of four lines

Quaver – an eighth note

Quenching – the rapid cooling of a workpiece to obtain certain material properties

Quilling – an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs

Quilting – a sewing technique in which two layers of fabric, usually with an insulating interior layer, are sewn together with multiple rows of stitching

Quincunx – tactical formation for a Roman legion. The pattern corresponds to the five-spot on dice

Quintain – a post that was used by medieval knights for jousting practice, commonly using a shield as the target

Quipu – recording devices used by Incas. Consists of coloured threads with numeric and other values encoded by knots

Quixotism – impracticality in pursuit of ideals. Named after Don Quixote

R

Radiometry – the science of measurement of light in terms of absolute power

Railgun – a device that uses electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles

Rampant – standing on left hind foot, other feet raised to fight

Ratchet – a mechanical device that allows continuous linear or rotary motion in only one direction while preventing motion in the opposite direction

Rawhide – a hide or animal skin that has not been exposed to tanning

Realpolitik – politics or diplomacy based primarily on practical considerations, rather than ideological notions, e.g. Richard Nixon’s dealings with China

Recap – state again as a summary; recapitulate

Recess – legislative bodies, such as parliaments, assemblies and juries, that are released to reassemble at a later time

Recidivist – a habitual criminal

Rector – an Anglican cleric who has charge of a parish and owns the tithes from it

Redaction – 1. a form of editing in which multiple source texts are combined (redacted) and altered slightly to make a single document 2. edited especially in order to obscure or remove sensitive information

Redemption – the deliverance of Christians from sin

Redoubt – a temporary fortification

Reduplicative – words that repeat themselves, e.g. bye bye

Reed – vegetable tissue that vibrates, in a musical instrument

Reflux – the flowing back of a liquid, especially that of a fluid in the body

Refusenik – a person in the former Soviet Union who was refused permission to emigrate, in particular, a Jewish person forbidden to emigrate to Israel

Regicide – killing a monarch

Rehook – a film which is so powerful and appealing that cinema goers go back for repeat viewings

Reification – making something real, bringing it into being, or making something concrete

Renegade – someone who rebels and becomes an outlaw. Originally a Christian who converted to Islam

Reredos – a screen or decoration behind the altar in a church, usually depicting religious iconography or images. Also known as an altarpiece

Restitution – the restoration of something lost or stolen to its proper owner

Retiarius – a gladiator armed with a piece of netting and a trident

Reticulated – net-like

Reticule – a drawstring handbag

Retifism – shoe fetishism

Revenant – a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead

Rhadamanthine – showing stern and inflexible judgement. Named after a king in Greek mythology

Rhetoric – the art or study of using language effectively and persuasively

Rhoticism – difficulty in pronouncing the sound r

Ridibund – inclined and brought easily to laughter

Rider – a list of requirements demanded by celebrities before they appear on a TV show

Riff – a repeated chord progression, pattern, refrain or melodic figure

Rifling – the process of making spiral grooves in the barrel of a gun or firearm, which imparts a spin to a projectile

Ringfort – a circular fortified settlement mostly built during the Bronze Age

Robocall – a phone call that uses a computerized autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message, as if from a robot

Rolling – dog fights

Rondeau – a short, lyrical poem of usually fifteen lines (three stanzas)

Ronin – a roving, mercenary samurai who serves no master or warlord

Rood – a cross or crucifix

Rostrum – platform for public speakers in ancient Rome, adorned with beaks of captured ships

Rowel – a wheel on a spur

Rubenesque – plump ladies, derived from ‘in the style of Rubens’

Rubric – a word or section of text that is traditionally written or printed in red ink for emphasis

Rufous – reddish-brown in colour

Ruminant – a mammal that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first compartment of the stomach, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again

Runcible spoon – a spoon that has two sharp prongs and a curved prong

Rupophobia – fear of rubbish or dirt

Russeting – an abnormality of fruit skin which manifests in russet-colored (brownish) patches

Rutilant – glowing red

S

Sabaton – part of a knight's armour that covers the foot

Sable – a small carnivorous mammal, closely related to the martens. It has historically been harvested for its highly-valued fur

Sabra – a slang term that refers to Israeli Jews born in Israel

Sabrage – opening a champagne bottle with a sabre

Sacrament – a religious ceremony or act of the Christian Church that is regarded as an outward and visible sign of divine grace, in particular

Safranin – any of a class of chiefly red organic dyes

Saga – ancient Icelandic literature

Sakoku – the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner or Japanese could enter or leave the country on penalty of death

Salient – a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory

Salient – most noticeable or important

Sallet – head armour

Samhain – a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter

Samovar – a Russian tea urn

Sampan – a flat-bottomed Chinese and Malay wooden boat

Sampler – a piece of embroidery produced as a demonstration or test of skill in needlework

Sapiosexual – a person who finds intelligence sexually attractive

Saponification – process used to make soap

Sarabande – a dance in triple metre

Sardonic – grimly mocking, or cynical

Sarisa – a 5 metre long spear used in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic warfare. It was introduced by Philip II of Macedon and was used in the traditional Greek phalanx formation

Satrap – the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Median and Persian Achaemenid empires and in several of their heirs, the Sassanid and later Hellenistic empires

Satsuma – a type of Japanese pottery

Saunter – a leisurely stroll

Saute – fry quickly in a little hot fat

Scale – a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order

Scallywag – a Southern white who joined the Republican Party in the ex-Confederate South during Reconstruction

Scapular – a short monastic cloak covering the shoulders

Scarab – a dung beetle worshipped by the ancient Egyptians as an embodiment of the god Khepri. Also, an amulet modeled upon the dung beetle

Scattergood – a spendthrift or wastrel

Schlock – cheap or inferior goods or material

Scholasticism – the system of theological and philosophical teaching predominant in the Middle Ages

Sciagraphy – the art or science of projecting or delineating shadows as they fall in nature

Scion – a descendant (of a notable family), a son or daughter

Sciophobia – fear of shadows

Sconce – a bastioned fort

Scotopic – vision in dim light

Scotophobia – fear of darkness

Scrag-end – a cut of mutton from the neck

Screever – an artist who draws chalk pictures on pavements

Scripophilist – a collector of stocks and paper money

Scrivener – a person who could read and write or wrote letters to court and legal documents

Scrunchie – a fabric-covered elastic hair tie, commonly used to fasten long hair

Scuppers – openings used to drain water from a ship

Scutage – money paid by a vassal to his lord in lieu of military service

Scutorium – a room for copying manuscripts

Seax – a heraldic charge consisting of a curved sword with a notched blade

Secession – the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity

Securitization – a structured finance process, which involves pooling and repackaging of cash flow producing financial assets into securities that are then sold to investors

Sedilia – seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass

Sedition – a revolt or an incitement to revolt against established authority

Seersucker – a thin, all-cotton fabric, commonly striped or checkered, used to make clothing for spring and summer wear

Seguidilla – a Spanish dance

Seigneur – a hereditary ruler of Sark

Selachophobia – fear of sharks

Selvedge – an edge on woven cloth

Semantics – the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning

Semiotics – the study of signs and symbols

Semisomnia – low grade exhaustion caused by inadequate rest

Sendal – a thin light silk used in the Middle Ages for fine garments, church vestments, and banners

Sentience – able to experience feelings

Sepoy – an indigenous soldier serving in the army of a foreign conqueror, especially an Indian soldier serving under British command in India

Sequestration – the seizure of property for creditors or the state

Seraglio – the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish household

Serge – a durable twilled woollen or worsted fabric that has diagonal lines or ridges on both sides

Sestina – a structured 39-line poetic form

Sexting – the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between mobile phones

Serendipity – the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. Coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. From ‘serendip’, an archaic name for Sri Lanka

Sericulture – production of silk. Named after the Chinese people called the Seres, who produced silk in ancient times

Sexton – a person who looks after church buildings and churchyards

Sgraffito – the form of decoration made by scratching through a surface to reveal a lower layer of a contrasting colour

Shagreen – a type of roughened untanned leather, formerly made from a horse's back, or that of an onager (wild ass), and typically dyed green. Shagreen is now commonly made of the skins of sharks and rays

Shaman – a member of certain tribal societies who acts as a medium between the visible world and an invisible spirit world and who practices magic

Shambles – an obsolete term for an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market

Shantung – a heavy fabric made with raw silk or with cotton substitutes

Sharecropping – a form of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land

Shebagging – the practice of women reserving seats in public transport by means of placing bags upon them

Shebeen – an illicit bar or club where excisable alcoholic beverages were sold without a licence

Shechita – Jewish animal slaughter

Shellac – a purified lac in the form of thin yellow or orange flakes

Sheet – a line (rope, cable or chain) used to control the movable corners of a sail

Sheitel – a wig worn by Orthodox Jewish married women

Shill – a person who is paid to help another person or organization to sell goods or services. The shill pretends to have no association with the seller/group and gives onlookers the impression that he or she is an enthusiastic customer

Shire – old word for a county

Shiv – a slang term for any sharp or pointed implement used as a knife-like weapon

Shtetl – a small town with a large Ashkenazi Jewish population that existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust

Shoddy – woollen yarn made from scraps or used clothing, with some new wool added

Shofar – a horn, traditionally that of a ram, used for Jewish religious purposes

Shogun – ,a military rank and historical title in Japan. The rank is equivalent to general

Shoji – a door, window or room divider consisting of translucent paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo

Shotcrete – concrete conveyed through a hose and pneumatically projected at high velocity onto a surface

Showrooming – the practice of examining merchandise in a traditional brick and mortar retail store without purchasing it, but then shopping online to find a lower price for the same item

Showrunner – the leading executive producer of a TV series

Sibyl – a prophetic woman resident at shrines or temples throughout the Classical World

Sidewinder – 1. a rattlesnake 2.an air-to-air missile

Sienna – a form of limonite clay most famous in the production of oil paint pigments. Its yellow-brown colour comes from ferric oxides contained within

Sigillography – study of wax seals

Sillage – the trail of scent left behind from a perfume

Silviculture – care and cultivation of forests and woodlands and forests

Simile – a figure of speech that expresses itself as a comparison, e.g., dead as a dodo

Simony – the buying or selling of ecclesiastical pardons, offices, or emoluments

Simulcast – portmanteau of ‘simultaneous broadcast’, refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium

Sindoor – a red powder usually worn by married Indian women on the parting of the hair on the head

Sinus – a cavity without a bone

Sirloin – a cut of meat between rump and fore-rib

Size – thin, weak glue

Skeuomorph – a physical ornament or design on an object made to resemble another material or technique, e.g. pottery embellished with imitation rivets reminiscent of similar pots made of metal

Skiplagging – purchasing a cheaper ticket through its multi-trip fares system with no intention of flying on the last leg

Skirmish – a fight between small bodies of troops

Skirt – a cut of beef

Slamming – moving a customer from one phone company to another without them knowing

Slip – a suspension in water of clay and/or other materials used in the production of ceramic ware

Sloop – a small to mid-sized sailboat larger than a dinghy

Smelting – the process of extracting a metal from its ore

Smocking – an embroidery technique used to gather fabric so that it can stretch

Snowclone – a type of cliche which uses an old idiom formulaically in a new context, e.g. ‘grey is the new black’

Sobriquet – a nickname

Sockpuppet – an online identity used for purposes of deception

Soffit – the underneath part of the edge of a roof

Softwood – the wood of a coniferous tree

Solastagia – distress caused by environmental change

Solecism – a phrase that trespasses the rules of grammar

Solenoid – a magnetic switch that closes a circuit, often used as a relay

Solidus – 1. a gold coin issued by the Romans 2. a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams

Solidus – forward slash (/) punctuation mark

Soliloquy – an actor’s speech only heard by the audience, and not by other actors

Solitaire – the mounting of a single gemstone on jewellery

Sologamy – marrying yourself

Sonar – a measuring instrument that sends out an acoustic pulse in water and measures distances in terms of the time for the echo of the pulse to return

Songkok – an Indonesian hat

Sonnet – a poem of 14 lines

Sophistry – a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone

Sophists – a group of teachers of philosophy and rhetoric in Ancient Greece

Sorbitol – a sweet-tasting crystalline compound found in some fruit

Soring – the practice of applying irritants (including objects such as nails) or blistering agents to the front feet or forelegs of a horse, making it pick its feet up higher in an exaggerated manner

Sororicide – the act of killing one’s own sister

Sortition – selection of political officials by lottery

Soubrette – a coy and flirtatious female character in a comic opera

Soundtrack – the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized recorded sound

Souq – (also souk) is a commercial quarter in an Arab, Berber, and increasingly European city. The term is often used to designate the market in any Arabized or Muslim city

Spall – flakes of a material that are broken off a larger solid body and can be produced by a variety of mechanisms, including as a result of projectile impact, corrosion, or weathering, Spalling and spallation both describe the process of surface failure in which spall is shed

Spandex – a synthetic fibre or fabric made from a polymer containing polyurethane, used in the manufacture of elastic clothing

Spangle – a sequin without a hole in it

Speakeasy – a drinking den in the Prohibition era

Spelter – zinc treated to look like bronze and used as an inexpensive substitute in Art Nouveau applique ornament and Art Deco figures

Spermophile – a collector of trivia

Spillway – the channel around or over a dam through which excess water is released or ‘spilled’ past the dam without going through the turbines

Spindrift – spray, particularly the spray blown from cresting waves

Spinneret – a silk-spinning organ of a spider

Spiralizer – a kitchen device used to cut vegetables into spirals resembling noodles

Splicing – joining two ropes by interweaving of strands

Spoffle – the foam cover at the end of a microphone

Spokeshave – a tool used to shape and smooth wooden rods and shafts

Spraints – otter droppings

Sprites – bolts of positive lightning from the upper atmosphere

Spurtle – a wooden dowel used for stirring porridge

Squamous – covered with or formed of scales

Stabile – an abstract sculpture, usually of sheet metal, resembling a mobile but having no moving parts

Statism – the principle that the government should own or control most of a country's industry and economy. The opposite of laissez-faire

Staycation – vacation at home and day trips

Steelbook – a casing in steel for either a DVD or a Blu-ray movie

Steer – a castrated bull. Also known as a bullock

Stele – a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes

Steganography – the practice of concealing messages or information within other non-secret text or data

Stepwell – a well in which the water can be reached by descending a set of steps. Common in the west of India

Stereotype – a plate cast from a printing surface

Stetson – a brand of hat named after Philadelphia hat maker John B. Stetson

Stevedore – a docker who loads and unloads ships

Stevia – a sweetener and sugar substitute extracted from the leaves of the plant species Stevia rebaudiana

Stigmata – marks corresponding to those left on Christ's body by the Crucifixion

Stimpmeter – a device that measures speed of a golf green

Stipend – settled pay or compensation for services. Salary paid to a vicar

Stipendiary – salaried magistrates

Stippling – the creation of a pattern simulating varying degrees of solidity or shading by using small dots

Stockman – a person who drives stock, in Australia

Stola – a female toga

Stoop – the high-speed attack dive of a bird of prey

Strand – a sandy beach or shoreline in Ireland

Stratocracy – government by the armed forces

Stridulation – to produce a shrill grating, chirping, or hissing sound by rubbing body parts together

Stupa – an early Buddhist religious monument

Subclavian – below the clavicle

Subwoofer – a woofer that is dedicated to the reproduction of low-pitched audio frequencies known as bass

Succubus – a female incubus

Sucker – a shoot or cane which grows from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from its roots

Sublime – of high spiritual, moral, or intellectual worth

Sufism – Islamic mysticism

Sulky – a light two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for one person, used chiefly in trotting races

Super-injunction – stops journalists writing about legal proceedings, and forbids them mentioning the injunction as well

Supine – lying down with the face up

Surtitles – lyrics or dialogue projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, commonly used in opera

Suzerainty – a sovereign or state having some control over another state that is internally autonomous

Swami – an ascetic or yogi who has been initiated into the religious monastic order founded by some religious teacher

Swatch – a textile sample

Swatting – the act of deceiving an emergency service into dispatching an emergency response based on the false report of an ongoing critical incident

Swazzle (swatchel) – a device made of two strips of metal bound around a cotton tape reed. The device is used to produce the distinctive harsh, rasping voice of Punch and is held in the mouth by the Professor (performer) in a Punch and Judy show

Sweepstake – a form of gambling where the entire prize may be awarded to the winner

Swishing – swapping items of clothing or shoes or an accessory with friends or acquaintances

Switch – a flexible rod which is typically used for corporal punishment, similar to birching

Syllabub – a beverage made from a mixture of sweetened milk/cream, wine and spices

Syllogism – a kind of logical argument in which one proposition (the conclusion) is inferred from two others (the premises) of a certain form, i.e. categorical proposition

Syncretism – the attempt to reconcile contrary beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought

Synecdoche – a form of metonymy, but specifically ‘a whole for the part of a part for the whole’, e.g. describing a complete vehicle as ‘wheels’

Synesthesia – a neurological condition in which two or more bodily senses are coupled. In a form of synesthesia known as grapheme color synesthesia, letters or numbers may be perceived as inherently coloured, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities

Synonyms – word pairs that have a similar meaning, e.g. spooky and scary

T

Tabard – a short coat, either sleeveless, or with short sleeves or shoulder pieces, which was a common item of men's clothing in the Middle Ages, usually for outdoors

Tabloid – comes from the name given by the London based pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Co. to the compressed tablets they marketed as ‘Tabloid’ pills in the late 1880s

Tachograph – a device fitted to a vehicle that automatically records its speed and distance

Tachometer – an instrument measuring the rotation speed of a shaft or disk, as in a motor or other machine. Rev counter

Tachycardia – a heart rate that exceeds the normal range for a resting heart rate. A resting heart rate over 100 beats per minute is accepted as tachycardia in adults

Tacking – sailing into the wind with a zig-zag movement

Tacueria – a restaurant that specializes in tacos and other Mexican dishes

Tagelmust – a cotton garment, with the appearance of both a veil and a turban. It is mostly worn by Tuareg Berber men

Tajine – a type of North African dish (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) as well as the special pot to cook them in. Tajine dishes are slow cooked at low temperatures, resulting in tender, falling-off-the-bone meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce

Talkbox – an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument

Tallit – a Jewish prayer shawl

Tallow – hard fat obtained from parts of the bodies of cattle, sheep, or horses, and used in foodstuffs or to make candles, leather dressing, soap, and lubricants

Tambour – a small drum

Tankini – a two-piece bathing suit with the upper portion resembling a tank top

Tannoy – portmanteu of tantalum alloy

Tantalize – to tease, after Tantalus, a son of Zeus who was punished by being ‘tantalized’ with hunger and thirst in Tartarus

Tantalus – wooden display cabinet that holds decanters of spirits

Tantra – any of a comparatively recent class of Hindu or Buddhist religious literature written in Sanskrit and concerned with powerful ritual acts of body, speech, and mind

Taphophilia – a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries

Taphophobia – fear of being buried alive

Tarantass – a four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle on a long longitudinal frame. It was widely used in Russia in the first half of the 19th century

Tasseography – fortune telling by inspection of tea leaves

Tatami – a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms

Tatting – a decorative form of lace, usually made by hand with a small shuttle

Tautology – needless repetition of the same sense in different words

Tautonym – a scientific name in which the same word is used for both genus and species

Taxol – a chemical substance derived from a yew tree of the Pacific Coast: used experimentally as a drug in the treatment of cancer

Technosexual – an individual who has a strong aesthetic sense and a love of gadgets. Also used to refer to robot fetishism

Tefal – portmanteau of Teflon and Aluminium

Teg – a sheep in its second year or before its first shearing

Tegestologist – a collector of beer mats

Telesphobia – fear of coming last

Tell – a type of archaeological mound. The term is mainly used of sites in the Middle East, where it often forms part of the local place name

Telenovella – a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America

Tempera – a water-based paint that uses egg, egg yolk, glue, or casein as a binder. Many commercially made paints identified as tempera are actually gouache

Tempering – a process of heat treating, which is used to increase the toughness of iron-based alloys. It is also a technique used to increase the toughness of glass

Temple – either of the flat surfaces alongside the forehead, in front of each ear

Tempura – Japanese deep fried batter-dipped seafood and vegetables

Tendon – a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that usually connects muscle to bone. Also known as sinew (see ligament)

Tenterhook – a hook used to fasten cloth on a drying frame

Tepee (or tipi) – a tent used by indigenous peoples of North America

Teratology – the study of abnormalities of physiological development

Teratophobia – fear of monsters

Termagant – a scalding woman

Tercentenary – 300 years

Terry towelling – a fabric with loops that can absorb large amounts of water. Also known as terrycloth

Terylene – a synthetic polyester fibre or fabric based on terephthalic acid, characterized by lightness and crease resistance

Tessellation – a repeated geometric design that covers a plane without gaps or overlaps

Tessera – an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a cube, used in creating a mosaic

Tester – a canopy above a four-poster bed

Thalassophobia – fear of the sea

Thane – a local royal official in medieval Scotland

Thanatology – the scientific study of death

Thanatopraxy – preparing the dead for viewing by mourners prior to burial

Theocracy – government by religious law

Theodicy – a vindication of God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil

Theremin – a musical instrument played by moving the hands around antennae

Thinning – a term used in agricultural sciences to mean the removal of some plants, or parts of plants, to make room for the growth of others

Threnody – ode of lamentation, usually to the dead

Threshold – the sill of a door

Tines – 1. parallel or branching spikes forming parts of various tools, e.g. forks 2. the branched bony antlers of deer

Tipstaff – a person who arrests people in contempt of court

Tithe – a tenth part of one's annual income contributed voluntarily or due as a tax, especially for the support of the clergy or church

Titian – a shade of brownish orange, named after the Italian artist

Titration – a procedure which is used to determine the concentration of an acid or base

Tittle – a small distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic or the dot on a lowercase i or j

Tmesis – the interpolation of one or more words between the parts of a compound word, for example 'abso-bloody-lutely'

Tocsin – an alarm bell or signal

Toile – a transparent linen or cotton fabric

Tondo – a Renaissance term for a circular work of art, either a painting or a sculpture

Tog – a measure of thermal insulation

Toilette – a cloth cover for a ladies’ dressing table

Tokophobia – fear of pregnancy and childbirth

Tombstoning – jumping into the sea off cliffs

Tonsure – the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics

Toponymy – the scientific study of toponyms (place names)

Toque – a chef’s hat

Torero – a bullfighter in Spain

Torii – a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine

Torpor – a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually by a reduced body temperature and metabolic rate

Torrid – parched with the heat of the sun

Totter – a rag and bone man

Touchstone – a small tablet of dark stone used for assaying precious metal alloys

Toxiphobia – fear of poison

Tracery – an architectural term used primarily to describe the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window

Traduce – to make false or malicious statements about someone in order to cause humiliation or disgrace

Tranche – a portion of a total, especially of a block of assets such as securities

Transept – either of the two parts forming the arms of the cross shape, projecting at right angles from the nave of a church

Transfiguration – a marked change in form or appearance; a metamorphosis

Transliteration – the conversion of a text from one script to another

Transom – the horizontal member which is framed across a window, dividing it into stages or heights

Travesti – the portrayal of a character in an opera, play, or ballet by a performer of the opposite sex

Trebuchet – a large catapult

Treen – small objects made of wood

Triangulation – the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline

Tribology – the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear

Tribune – 1. an official in ancient Rome chosen by the plebeians to protect their interests 2. an area within a vault or semi-domed apse

Triclinium – a formal dining room in a Roman building with three couches

Tricolon – a sentence with three clearly defined parts (cola) of equal length, usually independent clauses and of increasing power

Triforium – a gallery of arches above the side-aisle vaulting in the nave of a church

Triga – a three-horse chariot

Triglyph – an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of a Doric frieze

Trimmer – a politician who changes allegiances

Tripoint – (also known as tri-border area) is a geographical point at which the borders of three countries or subnational entities meet

Trireme – an ancient Greek or Roman galley or warship, having three tiers of oars on each side

Triskelion – an ancient motif consisting of a triple spiral exhibiting rotational symmetry

Triumvirate – a political regime dominated by three powerful political and/or military leaders

Triskaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13

Troika – 1. a committee consisting of three members in the Soviet Union 2. a Russian carriage pulled by three horses abreast

Troll – a commenter whose sole purpose is to attack the views expressed on a blog and incite a flame war

Trope – a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression

Troubadour – one of a class of 12th century and 13th century lyric poets in southern France, northern Italy, and northern Spain, who composed songs about courtly love

Trousseau – clothes collected by a woman for her marriage

Trug – a shallow oblong basket made of strips of wood, traditionally used for carrying garden flowers and produce

Truthiness – the quality of knowing something in your gut, or your heart, as opposed to in your head

Trypanophobia – fear of needles

Trypophobia – fear of objects with small holes

Tsarevich (czarevich) – the title of the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the emperors of Russia

Tubercle – a wart-like projection

Tulle – a lightweight, very fine netting, which is often starched. Tulle is most commonly used for veils, gowns (particularly wedding gowns), and ballet tutus

Tumbril – a cart that took prisoners to the guillotine at the time of the French Revolution

Tumi – a Peruvian sacrificial ceremonial knife with a semi-circular blade

Tup – a male sheep

Tuque – a Canadian knitted woolen cap

Turgid – tediously pompous or bombastic

Turophile – a lover of cheese

Turpentine – a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees

Tweeter – a speaker driver designed to reproduce high frequencies (see woofer)

Twerking – to dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance

Twilight – the time of day immediately following sunset

Twine – a light string or strong thread composed of two or more smaller strands or yarns twisted together

Twinsie – a garment that has three legs, four arms, two hoods. A onesie for two people

Tyrant – one who illegally seized and controlled a governmental power in a polis

U

Uhlan – a mounted lancer or a cavalryman in Poland or Prussia

Ullage – headspace in a barrel or bottle of wine

Ultrasound – cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing

Umbilicus – navel or belly button

Umiak – a type of open skin boat used by the Inuit

Umber – a natural brown earth pigment. Two different tones are raw umber and burnt umber

Unciform – hook-shaped

Undercroft – a church crypt

Ulama – a group of scholars in Islam

Ululation – a long, wavering, high-pitched vocal sound resembling a howl with a trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high-pitched loud voice accompanied with a rapid movement of the tongue and the uvula

Umlaut – a diacritic mark to indicate the vowel-fronting sound change. Consists of two dots placed over the letter

Unicameralism – the practice of having only one legislative or parliamentary chamber

Unitarianism – a religious theological movement named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism, which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one being

Unitard – a skintight, one-piece garment with long legs and sometimes long sleeves, usually stopping at the wrists and ankles. It differs from a leotard which does not have long legs

Univocalic – a piece of writing that uses only one of the vowels

Upbraid – to criticize

Upcycle – recycle or reuse something in a way that increases the original object's value

Upspeak – a linguistic occurrence in which a speaker uses a rising inflection at the end of a declarative sentence. Also known as uptalk or high rising terminal (HRT)

Uranian – a 19th century term that referred to a person of a third sex – originally, someone with "a female psyche in a male body" who is sexually attracted to men

Urbexer – an individual who explores man-made structures, often as a hobby

Urtication – flogging with nettles

Ushanka – a Russian fur cap with ear flaps

Utopia – an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect

Uxoricide – the act of killing one’s wife

Uxorious – excessive devotion to a wife

V

Vajazzle – a beauty treatment in which a woman's pubic hair is adorned with crystals, glitter, or other decoration

Valentines – love notes

Vambrace – a piece of armour designed to protect the wrist and forearm from impact

Vaporetto – a motorboat for transporting people along the canals in Venice

Vascular – in zoology and medicine means ‘relating to blood vessels’. In botany, plants with a dedicated transport system for water and nutrients are called vascular plants

Vector – an organism that transmits diseases or infections

Vedette – a mounted sentry or outpost, who has the function of bringing information, giving signals or warnings of danger, etc., to a main body of troops

Veduta – a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or print, of a cityscape or some other vista

Veilkini – an Islamic swimsuit similar in style to the Burkini

Veldt – open grassland in South Africa

Velology – the study and collection of vehicle tax discs

Venal – open to bribery; mercenary

Venial – a wrong action that is not serious and can be forgiven

Verbosity – speech or writing which is deemed to use an excess of words. Adjectival forms are verbose, wordy, prolix and garrulous

Verderer – an English judicial officer in the royal forests

Verecund – modest

Verisimilitude – the appearance of being true or real

Vermeil – a combination of sterling silver, gold, and other precious metals, commonly used as a component in jewellery

Vernacular – the everyday language spoken by a people

Vernissage – a preview of an art exhibition

Vespers – evening church service

Vestibule – a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building

Vexillology – study of flags

Vicarious – experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person

Vicennial – occurring every 20 years

Vicenarian – a person aged 20 to 29

Vintitulist – a collector of wine labels

Virement – the process of transferring items from one financial account to another

Viridescent – a shade of green

Virtus – Roman manliness

Visceral – coming from strong emotions and not from logic or reason

Vishing – voice phishing, the criminal practice of using social engineering over the telephone system to gain access to private personal and financial information from the public

Viscosity – the thickness or resistance to flow of a liquid

Vitrification – the transformation of a substance into a glass

Vitrine – a glass-paneled cabinet or case for displaying articles

Vizier – a high-ranking political advisor or minister

Vomitorium – a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre in ancient Rome, through which crowds can ‘spew out’ at the end of a performance

Vuvuzela – a horn, commonly blown at South African football matches

W

Wain – a usually large and heavy vehicle for farm use; a hay wain

Wainscoting – wood panelling

Wainwright – a wagon maker

Wampum – beads of shells strung in strands and used by American Indians as money

Wanderlust – a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world

Wapentake – a subdivision of some English shires corresponding to a hundred

Warp – threads that run lengthwise along a cloth (see weft)

Wassailing – carol singing

Watermen – river workers who transfer passengers across and along city centre rivers and estuaries

Wattle – a mat of woven (willow) sticks and weeds; used in wall and dike construction

Wayland – a supernatural blacksmith and king of the elves

Webcast – a broadcast of an event or a recording of an event over the World Wide Web

Webinar – portmanteau of web and seminar

Webisode – an episode of a TV programme that is shown first on the Internet

Weft – horizontal threads interlaced through the warp in a woven fabric

Wheelbase – the distance from the centre of the front wheel to that of the rear wheel in a motor vehicle

Wherry – a type of boat particularly associated with the River Thames

Whey – the watery part of milk that is separated from the curd in making cheese

Whitebait – the young of various fishes, especially the herring

Wicker – a hard woven fibre formed into a rigid material, usually used for baskets or furniture

Wideawake – a type of hat, with a broad brim made of black or brown felt

Wiki – a website or similar online resource which allows users to add and edit content collectively

Winnowing – the act of separating grain from chaff

Winsome – attractive and pleasing, with simple qualities

Winterbourne – a stream that is dry through the summer months

Wishcycling – placing something in a recycling bin with the hope it will be recycled. Also known as aspirational recycling

Woad – a blue dye used by ancient Britons to colour clothes and skin

Woke – a political term of black origin which refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice

Wonk – an overly studious person, particularly a student; a nerd

Woofer – a speaker driver designed to reproduce low frequencies (see tweeter)

Wrangler – a student who gains first-class honours in the third year of Cambridge University’s undergraduate degree in mathematics

X

Xenia – the ancient Greek concept of hospitality

Xiphoid – sword-shaped

Y

Yakuza – members of traditional organized crime groups in Japan

Yarmulke – a Jewish skullcap. Also known as a kippah

Yarn – 1. spun thread used for knitting or sewing 2. A long or implausible story

Yashmak – a double veil worn in public. Only the eyes are uncovered

Yazidi – primarily ethnic Kurds, mostly living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq

Yodeling – a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch

Z

Zealot – a member of an ancient Jewish sect in Judea in the 1st century who fought to the death against the Romans

Zeugma – a figure of speech describing the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with a single common verb or noun

Zucchetto – a small skullcap. The Pope's zucchetto is white, those worn by cardinals are red, bishops wear violet, and priests and deacons wear black