It’s not clear how many words there are in the English language. Some sources report a rough number of 470,000 words, while others estimate our vocabulary includes about 1 million words. But some linguists have shared that they wouldn’t be surprised if the number was off the mark by a quarter-million.
Words are the building blocks of a language, and with so many terms, it’s no surprise that some of them can get a little… creative, if not utterly weird. When it comes to strange words, our dear English language is a whole treasure chest of oddities.
If weirdness is your cup of tea, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most unusual, creative, and downright funniest words in English, each with its own meaning explained. Whether you’re looking for some lesser-known words to spice up a conversation or just want to be able to say, “Wait, I know what that means”, these are the words for you!
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Collywobbles
Meaning: icky feeling due to illness or anxiety.
Gobbledygook
Meaning: a language that is incomprehensible or is made unintelligible by excessive use of technical terms.
Snollygoster
Meaning: a shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician.
Brouhaha
Meaning: a noisy and overexcited reaction or response to something.
Everywhen
Meaning: an unusual way to say “always” or “all the time."
Rigamarole
Meaning: a long and complicated and confusing procedure.
Lackadaisical
Meaning: a person who is lacking enthusiasm and determination; carelessly lazy.
Pretty sure lackadaisical is an adjective, not a noun. Remove the 'a person who is' from the definition and it's fine.
Whippersnapper
Meaning: a young and inexperienced person considered to be presumptuous or overconfident.
ATLA, The king of Omashu, Aang says, "Get over here you young whippersnappers!" also in Tintin and the Crab with the Golden Claws I think it could be a different one when tintin and haddock are on the boat and haddock starts a fire he calls tintin a whippersnapper.
Dragooned
Meaning: coerce (someone) into doing something.
Dragoons - mounted soldiers at times used for law enforcement before police forces were formed. Horses can be quite effective at crowd control.
Canoodle
Meaning: kiss and cuddle amorously.
Lollygag
Meaning: This word describes a person that is messing around and doing something that isn’t useful.
Shenanigans
Meaning: high-spirited or mischievous activity.
Bamboozle
Meaning: to confuse, frustrate, or throw off thoroughly or completely.
Cantankerous
Meaning: difficult or irritating to deal with.
Wassail
Meaning: spiced ale or warmed wine drunk during celebrations for Twelfth Night and Christmas Eve.
Quomodocunquizing
Meaning: making money in any way you can.
Malarkey
Meaning: insincere or foolish talk.
Bloviate
Meaning: talk at length, especially in an inflated or empty way.
Lickety-split
Meaning: at great speed.
As in, "let's get going lickety-split" to hurry people up, rather than, "well he's going lickety-split" which I've never heard used. Just my experience
Argle-bargle
Meaning: Meaningless gibberish — whether done by talking or writing.
Bumbershoot
Meaning: an umbrella.
Spondulicks
Meaning: money, cash.
There was an episode of Daria where Jane and Daria kept making bets, with the 'currency' differing each time, spondulicks being one of them. Think they included Simoleans.
Hullaballoo
Meaning: a commotion or uproar that's on the unpleasant side.
Not always unpleasant, if used in a jokey way or for example, referring to a noisy fun party that got a bit mental but not dangerous
Ill-willie
Meaning: having an unfriendly disposition.
Hoosegow
Meaning: Jail or prison.
"Low brow but I rock a little know-how No time for the piggies or the hoosegow Get smart, get down with the pow wow Never been a better time than right now!"
Yooper
Meaning: a native or resident of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Stumblebum
Meaning: a clumsy or inept person.
Lickspittle
Meaning: a person who reveres authority.
Penuche
Meaning: sort of fudge that is made from brown sugar, buttercream, and nuts.
Eeksie-peeksie
Meaning: absolutely equal or even.
Skirl
Meaning: to play music on the bagpipe.
Batholith
Meaning: a very large igneous intrusion extending to an unknown depth in the earth's crust.
Spleenwort
Meaning: type of fern, often growing on rocks or walls.
Herky-jerky
Meaning: moving in irregular or unpredictable movements.
Diddly-squat
Meaning: the least amount.
Fartlek
Meaning: endurance training in which a runner alternates periods of sprinting with periods of jogging.
Widdendream
Meaning: state of mental agitation or confusion.
Vomitory
Meaning: an entrance piercing the banks of seats of a theater, amphitheater, or stadium.
This is actually from the Latin ' Vomitorium', meaning the entrance to and from an Amphitheatre or Gladiotorum.
Mollycoddle
Meaning: treat someone in an indulgent or overprotective way.
Bumfuzzle
Meaning: a state of bewilderment, confusion.
Blatherskite
Meaning: a person who talks at great length without making much sense.
Buttress
Meaning: a structure of stone or brick built against a wall to strengthen or support it.
Granny-dumping
Meaning: the abandonment of an elderly person, especially a relative, at a hospital.
Gazump
Meaning: to demand a higher price from (the buyer of a house) than that agreed on.
No. It means to cut someone out of a deal by offering a higher price than them.
Gardyloo
Meaning: used in Edinburgh as a warning cry when it was customary to throw slops from the windows into the streets.
Widdershins
Meaning: in a direction contrary to the sun's course, counterclockwise.
Salopettes
Meaning: trousers with a high waist and shoulder straps, typically made of a padded fabric and worn for skiing.
Palaver
Meaning: unproductive conversation or long dispute between people from different worldviews or cultures.
Potvalor
Meaning: boldness or courage resulting from alcoholic drink.
Airy-fairy
Meaning: impractical and foolishly idealistic.
Borborygmus
Meaning: a rumbling or gurgling noise made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines.
Cleek
Meaning: a large hook.
Flummery
Meaning: meaningless or insincere flattery.
Syzygy
Meaning: celestial phenomenon in which three celestial bodies are lined up in an almost perfectly straight line.
Crapulence
Meaning: a lack of self-restraint, especially when drinking.
Boondoggle
Meaning: an unnecessary, wasteful, or fraudulent project.
Jackalope
Meaning: a mythical animal depicted as a hare or rabbit with horns.
Mugwump
Meaning: a person who is independent (as in politics) or who remains undecided or neutral.
A lot of these sound like they are from 1920s political cartoons.
Its from1880’s New York State politics, where tribalism borrowed or made up Native American names. Also “Sachem” for political boss.
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Winklepicker
Meaning: a shoe or boot that features a sharp-pointed toe, popular in the 1950s.
Go up to a well-dressed woman wearing pointy-toed high heels and say loudly “NICE WINKLEPICKERS!” to see if she knows this word.👍 (Nice conversation starter.)
Tittynope
Meaning: a small quantity of anything left over.
Wabbit
Meaning: weary or exhausted.
Wabbit... thats wht the hunter dude calls bugs bunny!! ... this def dont fit bugs lol
Gubbins
Meaning: miscellaneous bits and pieces or gadgets.
Finifugal
Meaning: the resistance to an end of something.
Tweep
Meaning: a person who uses the Twitter.
Cutesy-poo
Meaning: embarrassingly or sickeningly cute.
Maybe we should use “-y poo” as a suffix on any word to mean “too much.” IE “Enough with the talky-poo already!”
Gaberlunzie
Meaning: a former licensed professional beggar.
Pettifogger
Meaning: an inferior legal practitioner, especially one who deals with petty cases or employs dubious practices.
Was that what the lawyer was described as being in Great Expectations?
Rigmarole
Meaning: a lengthy and complicated procedure or a lot of rambling.
Fanty-sheeny
Meaning: anything showy or impressive, fanciful, absurdly over the top.
Foggy Bottom
Meaning: term that refers to the U.S. Department of State.
Callipygian
Meaning: having well-shaped buttocks.
Ragamuffin
Meaning: a ragged often disreputable person.
Impignorate
Meaning: to pawn off or mortgage something in your possession.
Snickersnee
Meaning: a knife, especially one used as a weapon.
Cabotage
Meaning: the right to operate sea, air, or other transport services within a particular territory.
“To deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct someone’s cabbage.”
Godwottery
Meaning: an affected quality of archaism, excessive fussiness, and sentimentality.
It seems to me that the majority of this list can be described as godwottery!
Slumgullion
Meaning: cheap or insubstantial stew.
Soup you make at the end of the week, emptying all your leftovers in a big pot.
Waesucks
Meaning: used to express grief or pity.
Ballyrag
Meaning: to intimidate by bullying
We use this term more to describe statements or actions used to incite or provoke strong reactions in others
Dottle
Meaning: a remnant of tobacco left in a pipe after smoking.
Confabulate
Meaning: engage in conversation; talk.
In medical terms it means to fill in the gaps (due to memory loss) with imaginary things.
Peccadillo
Meaning: a slight offense, a lapse in judgment.
Inkle
Meaning: a colored linen tape or braid woven on a very narrow loom and used for trimming.
Cattywampus
Meaning: refers to “an imaginary fierce wild animal,” or may mean “savage, destructive.”
Maltipoo
Meaning: a dog that is a cross between a Maltese and a poodle.
Wamble
Meaning: to feel nausea.
Anybody remember the kids show called the Wombles? Miss those furry guys.
Blunderbuss
Meaning: a short large-bored gun firing balls or slugs.
Bailiwick
Meaning: the sphere in which one has superior knowledge or authority.
Knickerbocker
Meaning: a descendant of the early Dutch settlers of New York.
Knurly
Meaning: Gnarled or knotty; hard and misshapen.
Panjandrum
Meaning: a powerful personage or pretentious official.
Half of these are still in use in Britain, and occur frequently in the sort of books that I read (few of which were written in the current century). Most of the rest are just weird.
A lot of them are used in the US, too. At least, in the northeast they are.
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Wazzock - a foolish or annoying person.... eg "You utter pea brained wazzock"
Armed with this list I shall be a wazzock to all my family and friends!
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yikes! what does it say about my age or background that I know most of these words, and even use many of them?
You are Stephen Fry and I claim my five pounds.
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One of my favourites: Gongoozler - an idle spectator, originally used to refer to a person idly watching activity on a canal
A few I use in conversation, some I knew but could never find a place to say.Most of them however, I have never heard of before
At the age of 63, I knew around half of these words, most of which were very familiar.
One of my faves is "Finagle" (to obtain by deceptive means), and goes well with "Payola" (under the table payment/the practice of bribing someone in return for the unofficial promotion of a product in the media) ... they work hand in hand.
Would be cooler if they explain the origin of all these words, what language they originate from and what's the breakdown of their meaning
My favourite is "Scurryfunge", which seems to be something that only women are taught to do. It's really quite silly.
Discombobulated - the disconcerting feeling that your brain has shredded itself. Spondonicles - tools of uncertain usage invented by backyard mechanics to solve some esoteric problem that would otherwise require the simultaneous use of four separate tools.
diph·thong /ˈdifˌTHäNG,ˈdipˌTHäNG/ noun a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves toward another (as in coin, loud, and side ). a digraph representing the sound of a diphthong or single vowel (as in feat ). a compound vowel character; a ligature (such as æ ).
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Half of these are still in use in Britain, and occur frequently in the sort of books that I read (few of which were written in the current century). Most of the rest are just weird.
A lot of them are used in the US, too. At least, in the northeast they are.
Load More Replies... Wazzock - a foolish or annoying person.... eg "You utter pea brained wazzock"
Armed with this list I shall be a wazzock to all my family and friends!
Load More Replies... yikes! what does it say about my age or background that I know most of these words, and even use many of them?
You are Stephen Fry and I claim my five pounds.
Load More Replies... One of my favourites: Gongoozler - an idle spectator, originally used to refer to a person idly watching activity on a canal
A few I use in conversation, some I knew but could never find a place to say.Most of them however, I have never heard of before
At the age of 63, I knew around half of these words, most of which were very familiar.
One of my faves is "Finagle" (to obtain by deceptive means), and goes well with "Payola" (under the table payment/the practice of bribing someone in return for the unofficial promotion of a product in the media) ... they work hand in hand.
Would be cooler if they explain the origin of all these words, what language they originate from and what's the breakdown of their meaning
My favourite is "Scurryfunge", which seems to be something that only women are taught to do. It's really quite silly.
Discombobulated - the disconcerting feeling that your brain has shredded itself. Spondonicles - tools of uncertain usage invented by backyard mechanics to solve some esoteric problem that would otherwise require the simultaneous use of four separate tools.
diph·thong /ˈdifˌTHäNG,ˈdipˌTHäNG/ noun a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves toward another (as in coin, loud, and side ). a digraph representing the sound of a diphthong or single vowel (as in feat ). a compound vowel character; a ligature (such as æ ).
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