Words play an important role in conveying an idea. Without them, it will be extremely difficult to express thoughts and emotions.
They can be fascinating, scintillating, emotive, multifaceted and poignant—all at the same time.
Linguistically, a word is a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with space on either side when written or printed.
There are thousands of words that form a part of our vocabulary and thousands more that do not.
While some words are very common and in use, many are lesser-known but interesting. Many of them might seem unfamiliar and bizarre to many of us, but they are fascinating for sure.
Here are 10 weird and wonderful words that you never knew existed.
1. Balter
Definition: Dancing clumsily without any particular grace or skill but usually with enjoyment.
Example: ‘Tracy doesn’t dances, she balters.’
2. Defenestrate
Definition: Throwing a person or thing out of a window.
Example: ‘Harry made me so irritated, I had to fight the urge to defenestrate him.’
3. Nibling
Definition: The gender-neutral term for nieces or nephews
Example: ‘My wife has five niblings.’
4. Griffonage
Definition: Careless or illegible handwriting.
Example: ‘My brother’s griffonage is a heavy task to decipher.’
5. Dysania
Definition: The state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning.
Example: ‘Ronald is always late for work because he suffers from Dysania.’
6. Pentapopemptic
Definition: A person who has been divorced five times.
Example: ‘Did you know that your new neighbor is a pentapopemptic?’
7. Cancatervate
Definition: Heaping things into a pile.
Example: ‘How many times do I have to tell you to arrange your stuff properly and not just cancatervate everything?
8. Paresthesia
Definition: The prickly feeling when your limb ‘falls asleep’ – also known as pins and needles!
Example: ‘Can you please go and get my wallet? I can’t stand up because of paresthesia.’
9. Cachinnate
Definition: To laugh very, very loudly.
Example: ‘The movie was so funny that we just couldn’t stop cachinnating all the time!’
10. Phosphene
Definition: The stars or dots you see when you rub your eyes.
Example: ‘I can’t see clearly due to all the phosphenes’
