Writers, What Words Do You Love?

Ever discovered a new word, then immediately fell head-over-heels for it? Would you rather say "pulchritudinous" than "beautiful" while writing? "Happenstance" instead of "coincidence?" Or is your favorite word far more specific or obscure? Here are some answers from Reddit (vocabulary lesson time!), and I would love to know your own answers, writers!
Link to the original r/writing thread: / whats_a_word_that_youv...
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[@tonkajoey08]

You guys will probably enjoy really roasting my accent/pronunciation with a video like this, haha. I hope you enjoy the video! I appreciate you all so much 💛

[@thirstys]

i will roast you SO HARD

[@prageruwu69]

hearing "ayyg" is always so fun

[@UltimateDespairado]

Hey! Can you do letterbox review videos on Disney Direct to Dvd sequels Despicable me Star Wars Megamind (if Mean girls gets one, then Megamind should get one too) (For laughs) Trolls and Boss Baby I thought your letterbox review videos are pretty funny and are really good background noise

[@tonkajoey08]

Sorry it bothers everyone so much 🥚

[@tonkajoey08]

Most of those are on my to-do list!

[@Oko_doesnt]

One time my sister said that if chlorine and asthma didn’t have meanings she would name a child that.

[@Reiiven]

I’d still name a child Chlorine tbh, You could call them Chloe or Rin for short

[@dr-amethyst-77]

Arsenic and Cadmium are such great names.. but they’re also heavily toxic elements so I wouldn’t name a kid after them. but if some trans or nonbinary person names themself Arsenic that’d be very slay of them

[@Cinnamonraisin_Bagel]

diarrhea would be a great child name if not for the meaning and i'm tired of pretending it's not

[@requiemthethethe]

@@dr-amethyst-77I would like to mention the very vague limits on what you could change your name to, at least in the US. Imagine meeting some dude and he goes like “hey my name’s meth” 😭😭

[@keroppib4ptista]

*a* child

[@_AstaLily]

5:29 In my seventh grade Latin class, my class’s word of choice was defenestration. It came about because of the Latin for window being fenestra, and soon the class had devolved into “Do you wish to be defenestrated? Then learn to quiet yourself!”

[@-alovelygaycat-]

Amazing word

[@warcatfurever101writeroffanfic]

Everyone sharing their words feels like I’m in a surreal episode of Wordgirl. Ifykyk

[@apocalypseofplush]

Unbeknownst. It's just one of those big words that simplifies your writing to be more cohesive while also making you sound smart, and I absolutely love it.

[@micmac274]

Also extremely Germanic, with that -st suffix there.

[@thunderstudiosyt6197]

I love the word “yikes” because you can say it to any scenario “The cops are hunting you down” - “Yikes!” “How are you?” - “Yikes…” “I broke my arm!” - “YIKES!”

[@happyconstructor]

well maybe not *any* scenario lol: “it’s a girl!” “yikes!”

[@Foebee]

I often say "shivers"

[@giantpinkcat]

​@@Foebee Shiver me Timbers!

[@prageruwu69]

​@@happyconstructorwell, it's possible to say if you're sexist 🤷‍♂️

[@micmac274]

@@happyconstructor Unless you're in a country where they allow unreasonable dowries.

[@narwhalwithaknife9465]

Cornobble: the act of hitting someone in the face with a dead fish Defenestration: the act of throwing oneself out of a window Chrath: the urge to hit someone with a chair And my absolute favorite: wlonk (plural and weak singular wlonke): noble, highborn. fair, beautiful, gorgeous. fine, excellent, splendid. proud, boastful.

[@JustFeatherPen]

I am so gonna save this list of words

[@narwhalwithaknife9465]

@@JustFeatherPen glad to be of service

[@Igetobsessedtooeasilylmao]

...English rly is a violent language huh? lmao

[@Creatorsan]

I honestly saved like 50 word screenshots in my gallery thanks to this video and comment section to try and spice up how I write or text people.

[@aromanticfranziskavonkarma]

aaand i think to myseellff... what a wlonkderful world...

[@sapix6937]

My favorite Word is “Catharsis” meaning the process of releasing strong emotions through some kind of activity or experience. It’s one of the main reasons I like writing and reading in the first place.

[@thenumbertwo9136]

In the song Banks by Lincoln theres a line thats "I want the catharsis of knowing something bad's about to happen, but also knowing that I can't do anything about it" and it gives me huge chills every time

[@EllpaFox47]

catharsis is just so fun to say frfr

[@Mariasouza-um8cx]

One of my favorites is cacophony, that acording to google is a harsh discordant mixture of sounds. "a cacophony of deafening alarm bells"

[@ambysta7602]

Same! I use this word every time I need to describe a barrage of gunshots, or projectiles

[@static_theshapeshifter]

I love vellichor! 'The strange wistfulness of used bookstores.' And I also love rubatosis. 'The unsettling awareness of your heartbeat.'

[@chloenguyen6398]

Some of my favorite words: -mellifluous -superfluous -meticulous -xeric -quotidian -sesquipedalian -monochromatic -quondam -erstwhile -whimsical -winsome -diaphanous -voluminous -pragmatic -antiquarian -bioluminescent -personification -aftermath -draconian -arbitrary -effervescent -wistful -scintillating -evocative -atmospheric -paraphernalia -rivulet -melancholy/melancholia -wisteria -tome -penchant -inclination -phantasm -wizened -sere -austere -stentorian -pensive -authoritarian -quintessential

[@KaylaCautio]

Never had much chance to use it, or at least haven't found the right place for it, but my word for this is "Crestfallen." "Sad and disappointed," perfect for that moment where your character finds a goal just out of their reach. Makes me think of Moonlight Sonata or something of that nature.

[@acidbunny5]

I love the word fawn, as in fawning over another person

[@frankiemanki7536]

Petrichor: the smell of rain, not only is the smell of rain like one of my fav smells but it is also a really fun word to say

[@blepz8606]

not a writer, but a typist. I speed type for fun and one of my favourite words to see on the prompt is "alright" since it brings your fingers to a rest position at the end of the word and makes it easier to type the next word. Kinda different perspective on words from two hobbies which both involve putting words in front of each other.

[@ejsuperstar]

I'm a huge fan of tentatively, I like using it in scenes where a character is feeling sensitive or vulnerable, it feels slow, deliberate, hesitant, nervous, calm. I love tentatively

[@ariaz1112]

I’ve loved the word “rankle” since I first found it in a book, it means, (of a comment, event, or fact) cause annoyance or resentment that persists. It’s also just so much fun to say. Another, more stupid, word that I love saying, is “ladle”, it’s just fun

[@Misty_Grey744]

I’m in love with ichor and petrichor. Also the word blood just sounds and looks nice

[@realdragon]

I love the words that I can actually understand

[@rynebarfield3171]

Personally began using "uncouth" recently. As someone who likes to insult with Shakespeare words, it's nice to have a fancy way to call someone rude.

[@micmac274]

Since people generally say uncouth about the youth, I'll say one of my favourites is Curmudgeon, as in "Victor Meldrew is a Curmudgeon"

[@chiliwithonel]

Theres a sort of satisfaction that comes from using a word someone else doesn't know and getting to explain what it means. Maybe it's just the inherent smugness that comes with being a recovering gifted kid, but it's also a good feeling to be able to dissect the meaning of things I say. A word that people ask about a lot is "litigious", which is a descriptor for someone who's prone to issuing lawsuits over seemingly minor things. It comes up in conversation a lot more than you'd expect.

[@gabbithealicorn7327]

“Copacetic” is such an awesome word.

[@lizanna6390]

Captivating is a current favorite

[@xeldrine66]

Not a writer, but there's a word that I really love the sound of (BTW, it's in French): Coquelicot, which is a poppy in English. I love the sound of the repeated c consonances. It's very satisfying to say.

[@user-sp3mr3zr6v]

coquelicot is honestly such an adorable word i love it, i personally love the word "écarlate" in french, which means "Scarlet" (both words are very cool to say honestly)

[@RivertedYT-]

mania - it’s just one of my favorite words that has almost no synonyms I do also like it’s different variations of Manic and Maniac

[@Gkvfflowergirl]

Some of my favorite words: Redundant, Tangent, and Rant were taught to me by WordGirl as a kid and I use them often because I, too, am a Captain Tangent. Thank you WordGirl.

[@ChristineSG19]

-brandished -discombobulated

[@ballpitwater]

Frivolous is my bbg

[@gretarreynisson3280]

Save, not as in the noun or the verb, but as in the preposition meaning “except”.

[@OrganismAssemblyLine13]

entropy, entropic, words like that. I love them. I don’t know why. Edit: I also love the phrase “mutually exclusive”. It’s fun to say or smth idk

[@ekaterinaobraztsova4631]

yeea I love this word too :D

[@what-hq1gl]

1:56 i absolutely love the word for its meaning. the smell is so heavenly

[@Ciara_Turner]

Thrice will always be my love

[@cac_deadlyrang]

based

[@watchmelaughh]

Incase. Ever since I heard it I've loved hearing it, and saying it to myself. It's become a vocal stim, I don't do it as much, but I used to just sit there and go "Incase.. incase, case- incase.."

[@rainewhispers739]

oh my god my list i’ve been slowly adding to for months finally comes in handy. catalyst, demonym, echelon, exasperated, invoke, finagle, mcgyver, contrived, arbitrary, tertiary, sapient, spitball, mortifying, omit, contrarian, titular, catatonic, mccarthyism, posit, oft, insignia, palpable, perpetual, rawdog, per, and poorly are my all time favorite words ever and i can go into depth on why i love each and every one. delicious words

[@gabbithealicorn7327]

What a great way to kick off my spring break!

[@anerdwithaswitch9686]

I think my favorite that I've learned as of recent is "zugzwang" (pronounced tsooks-vong; it's a loanword from German). It originated as a chess term, and is a position where a player has to make a move, but all legal moves are bad options (specifically, for chess, you are in zugzwang if it is your move and any legal move will worsen your position, and is most commonly used when any legal move will lead to the opponent checkmating you). Other neat words I like quite a bit (though they aren't exactly recent) are a few mathematical terms: "quaternions" are a 4D extension of the complex numbers, a "transcendental" number is any number that is not the root of a finite polynomial with rational coefficients (for example, π, e, and ln(2) are all transcendental), and a "bijection" is a one-to-one mapping between two sets (for example, the function f(x) = ln(x) is a bijection mapping (0,∞) → ℝ, while f(x) = sin(x) is not bijective, along with all other periodic functions). As an interesting note for the last one, given a bijective function, its inverse is also bijective (i.e. sinh(x) is a bijection from ℝ → ℝ, so arcsinh(x) is also a bijection from ℝ → ℝ). In general, if a map is a bijection from A → B, its inverse is a bijection from B → A.

[@vortexwriting1026]

None of these are new but my favorite word of all time is Phantasmagoria And the list continues like Periwinkle Sequoia Velvet Dominion Enthralling Calico Parasol Marshmallow Winding Beseeched Textile Pumpernickel Amethyst Bemused Enchanting concubinus Ivy Buttons Alluring Folktale Megafauna Vampiric Spun Ephemeral

[@wings-of-waffles]

Not necessarily a word I discovered, but a phrase I _re_ discovered-- [their face] lit up. I don't know, but it just provides such a lovely image, of somebody's face going from bored or sad to full of joy and excitement. Also pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, in part because I actually have a valid excuse to use it, and another because the word was invented to troll people, which I find very funny. Two very different examples, but they both have a place in my heart.

[@Zhavari]

Love using “their face lit up” tbh, it’s really cute to imagine

[@wings-of-waffles]

@@Zhavari ^^^

[@foxonfire7]

In what context is that monstrum the best choice of word? It intrigues me greatly., genuenly

[@wings-of-waffles]

@@foxonfire7 For the sillies, in a context where a character is suffering from the long term consequences of inhaling volcanic ash and developing lung disease. The word could be used for some much-needed levity. Of course, it would be used sparingly-- probably only once, to avoid running the joke into the ground, but still. Maybe my sense of humour is broken, but I think it's great.

[@foxonfire7]

That definitely sounds like something i would laugh my head of at with the right delivery, so either my sense of humor is broken too (likely) or this is peak comedy

[@CassiDS]

6:35 Ah, yes, my favorite literary character - Don "Quick-sote"

[@aliciam6145]

that is actually the standard pronunciation! though from a quick google it seems like it's just because people didn't know its origins and pronounced it with English phonetics rather than Spanish

[@snailstrailz9394]

delicatessen is such a fun word

[@aromanticfranziskavonkarma]

i used to watch a channel that made compilations of google translate doing weird things and i can't hear that word without thinking about that one time they keyspammed into the input and got "DELICATESSEN BEANS" over and over again as a result

[@JustFeatherPen]

Kaleidoscopic or iridescent They taste good Or Sardonic (or Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious) For obvious reasons And Defenestration! My friend introduced me to the word and I love it

[@Arpiyen]

I really like the words Odyssey and Saga; they feel much greater than just “story” The words “Aurora” and “Jaundice” sound really pretty; even though their meanings fall on the opposite ends of the beauty scale I also really like the word “Betwixt” for some reason; betwixt is an old way of saying Between

[@aromanticfranziskavonkarma]

if jaundice didn't mean what it means i would name myself or a kid that tbh

[@hypphen]

my favorite is probably "conjured", it means to make or call upon something usually within magical contexts but its just so fun to use

[@slytherinlady3907]

i played fauré’s elegy like 5 years ago and the word elegy has really stuck since, sick word

[@lyssiroldan]

Brooooooo!!!! I literally learned what a tupla was (a being/creature made real from someone's thoughts) and as someone that studies mythology in their free time I couldn't stop thinking about it.

[@leafyshrub]

Smorgasbord. It is a nightmare to spell but so fun to say

[@benjamincooper358]

Eccedentediastic, or hiding one's pain behind a smile.

[@whentheskittlesfightback]

my favorite word is unfathomable. use it so much

[@Fayanora]

Not recent, but I love "persnickety." Whenever people stupidly say they're "a little OCD," I say "No, you're not a 'little' OCD, OCD is a debilitating mental illness, there's no 'little' about it. You are persnickety."

[@alyssa8167]

I really love "lest" and "albeit" too

[@dutch_asocialite]

Not exactly _new_ words but words I really, really like: *Saturnine,* meaning of Saturn but I like it specifically in the context to mean melancholy or solemn. I like it because I'm often quite melancholic but it also aptly describes a certain group. *Sobriquet,* which is a nickname used in place of one's name that also describes the subject, like Land of the Rising Sun for Japan or the King of Rock for Elvis Presley. I can pronounce it either way and no one can stop me but I also only realised what the difference between a sobriquet and epithet is recently so I've been having fun with it. *Antidisestablishmentarianism,* denoting proponency against disestablishing the UK government as the patron of the Church of England. It's very long.

[@rowan404]

That last comment is kinda based tbh. One of my favorite words is “ricochet” because I have a crush on an online friend whose username is “RIKOchet” and it reminds me of him.

[@veggieboysupreme]

man. It can be used for so much, man.

[@kathgon]

I love how many of these words have gone through my head (viscera, mellifluous, ichor in the comments) They're just objectively good words 😌

[@marblespines6996]

Just…any gemstone name. I’ve been a sucker for gemstones for a while now (Steven Universe is partially to blame for that one lol) and a lot of their names are just really pretty, even the ‘basic’ ones. Pearl, emerald, rose quartz, sugilite, lapis lazuli, sapphire, padmaraga, thulite…I could go on all day!

[@tired-theater-dog]

My absolute Favorite Word is mithridatism (the act of ingesting small non-lethal amounts of poison in order to build up immunity to said poison) but I never get to use it. My current top word is much more useful; hypnopomic. The word relating to having just woken up. It's the best.

[@sura5803]

I love the way soliloquy sounds. It,s essentially talking with yourself.

[@modcrypt4]

I love phobia words. Can't explain it, but any *prefix*phobia is amazing

[@AcrylicThePartygoer]

hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia =) but ye, my personal favs are apeirophobia, the fear of infinity, or ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes (i adore snakes)

[@UltimateDespairado]

@@AcrylicThePartygoer the irony of that word is that it’s the fear of long words

[@AcrylicThePartygoer]

@@UltimateDespairado yeeee ik

[@elhazthorn918]

Omori used the word pulchritudinous, and I've never been able to forget it.

[@LakituAl]

I'm fond of "philistine" and "neophyte". Also everything Bentley the Yeti said in Spyro 3. He calls Moneybags a "duplicitous avaricious ursine" and bashes his head in. What an icon.

[@nugget8967]

Petrichor is my favorite word. I hardly ever have a use for it, I’m bad at describing scents always, but when I remember it I am delighted. I love it. It’s such an excellent word. I am ecstatic beyond reason whenever I see it used

[@Puellaphantasia]

I've recently fallen in love with the word Vicissitude "a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant."

[@daynamorris2399]

One of my favourites is ornithophobia. It means an extreme fear of birds

[@RaichuWizDom]

A few words I've fallen in love with, but don't get to use very often: Mayhaps, catawampus, hullabaloo, capybara, androgen, tepache... honestly, 'Tepache' sounds like it should be an awesome character name. On that note, do foreign words count? Because I always liked 'querida' more than 'mon cher,' blame Raoul Julia for that. The Finnish word for reindeer sounds so nice and gentle, too: poro. Smuggling that in somewhere when I can. But my absolute favorite has to be a German word: Meerschweinchen. It rolls off the tongue so perfectly, and when you say it in an aggressive tone it ends up sounding hilarious. Just write the words "German gibberish, German gibberish, a very loud 'Meerschweinchen!' and possibly more Germanic expletives that are best left in the mires of ignorance" and you have yourself a perfectly serviceable comedy scene.

[@ballpitwater]

AAAAA, I LOVE CALLING MY FRIENDS QUERIDO/QUERIDA MY BRAIN GOES BOING BOING

[@Cinnamonraisin_Bagel]

catawampus sounds like it be a cute water type pokémon

[@RaichuWizDom]

@@Cinnamonraisin_Bagel I know, right? Cute name for a little monster with sound-based tantrum attacks.

[@Cinnamonraisin_Bagel]

@@RaichuWizDom yesssss it'd be so cute istg

[@AcrylicThePartygoer]

i like the word "halcyon", it means happy, bubbly, or cheerful, and i used it as a name for one of my ocs =)

[@summerheart9834]

i thought halcyon meant happy and hazy

[@AUCreatoer]

Flabbergasted is my favorite word ever. It's so formal and has that offended air that I love lmao.

[@thealiencosmo358]

My favorite is “akimbo”, which literally means “standing with your hands on your hips” (example of using it would be “she stood akimbo”)

[@XxXInf3CTeDXxX]

not really my favorite word when writing. BUT it is my favorite word and has been for YEARS. The word is toyetic. It is such a good word and I use it whenever I can. it is also just kind of funny sounding and fun to say

[@EllpaFox47]

Catharsis and schadenfreude are my favorite words and I do not get enough opportunity to use them catharsis is honestly so fun to say and I just find it so funny that english didn't even try to hide the fact that schadenfreude was just ripped straight from german. like not even a single change to spelling. its so blatant and I love it

[@hyzmarie]

I love “petrified” when it means afraid. It’s so useful for the type of stories I write (I torture my main characters aha)

[@lastchanc3stars]

Serendipitous. I never get to use it often, but it's such a wonderful word.

[@CosmicTherian]

I like using the word “Xanadu”. It’s a specific shade of green that I really like, and it’s fun to say and type.

[@fa1ryf0x3s]

Extraordinarily. It's long, it's hard to spell, it makes my eyes happy and it can describe so much. Not even just for writing.

[@brightboi4291]

Shimmer/Shimmering or glimmer/glimmering (fun to say especially in sequence, & rhyming the two is also fun. I almost always use this when describing water or anything shiny.) Majestic, shadow (I use this literally every time I describe a dark area), any complicated color (ie. Magenta, cerulean, indigo, crimson, vermilion, lavender) Melodic, (fun to say, I'm also a very musical person) Flash (either super fast, or very fancy.) splatter (especially when describing blood)

[@adaralevine781]

“Apprehensive” But I will regularly get a word stuck in my head and have to include it in everything that I write.

[@rixci]

Here's one I heard for the first time today. Spasmodic. It means something occurring or done in brief, irregular bursts.

[@FromtheTriangle]

1:24 As an Omori fan: THANK YOU FOR NOT ONLY EXPLAINING WHAT IT MEANS BUT ALSO PRONOUNCING IT

[@futurestoryteller]

"Ostensibly" is a really good for me but only because I rarely find a word with that kind of specificity that can be used so frequently that it also becomes fairly easy to remember.

[@clonnie-cloo]

i'm a big fan of onomatopoeia. both words that are onomatopoeia, and the word itself. it's very fun to say

[@HallowIsSmol]

my favorite word at the moment is gossamer. very pretty word

[@candydandysstudio7543]

I love 'superfluous', it's fun to say, and is ironically rather useful :)

[@happyconstructor]

this reminds me of the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, it’s a book of made up words with specific definitions just like these. i’ve spotted a comment on this video referencing two words which originate from the Dictionary, tho i’m not sure if the commenter knew lol

[@writeronartblock8948]

I don't really have a favorite word per se, but while watching this video, I got reminded of the word "Menagerie". I keep forgetting what it meant so I looked it up and it means "a collection of captive animals kept for display", now I'm kinda sad because it sounds like such a cute word but... Also, "Miscellaneous/Miscellany", absolutely love that word.

[@Lord_No-brainer]

My favorite word is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. I remember when I spent spring break learning to pronounce it

[@KatChats456]

Hiraeth. Technically not an English word, it's Welsh, but it describes a mix of nostalgia and longing in a very specific way. Saw it described as "Homesickness for a how you can't return to, and maybe never was" once and have been obsessed with it ever since. I swear I will find a way to incorporate this into a fic someday. I HAVE to.

[@arcadeinvader8086]

I like obfuscate, which is to render something ambiguous. a common example is giving a vague answer to a question. There are so many good words for dunking on someone's writing.

[@amycox5733]

Verdigris. The green of copper. I’ve always loved green copper as used in Architecture, and verdigris just seems a perfect word for the way it looks

[@null9014]

For some reason I literally cannot get over the word languish. I JUST LOVE IT

[@sketchycat6223]

As a writer I have a document full of vocabulary on my phone that I constantly add to when I encounter a word I don’t know. My favorites are ardently (meaning to do something passionately) & besotted (meaning to be infatuated with). At this point I use them both in almost all of my fics. I just can’t get enough of them

[@flowerism9898]

Nacre, Entendre, Waltz. All very flavorful words I drop whenever and wherever possible. Why walk when one can *waltz*?

[@isabellasumner1715]

When I started writing Encanto fanfics I loved the word clairvoyant. I would go out of my way to make sure I could use it

[@goldheartinc.1726]

I really enjoy finding these videos cause they make me learn new words. This has inspired me to collect these videos in a playlist! To use when I cannot remember a specific big word I wanted to use in a character description.

[@thisurldoesnotexist]

Quest has always been a favorite word of mine

[@Man-ej6uv]

my favorite word is wicked. it's not that complicated but it's... wicked cool

[@Mx.muffin]

Vivisection. Fun to say, and it appeared in a song I like, so it stayed in my head for a while. Vivisection:)) Also Pantomime. Very fun :))

[@sufferfrosteffect]

is the song Ghost's "Honey, I'm Home"? vivisection's really neat to sing

[@Mx.muffin]

@@sufferfrosteffect *correct ding button* YEP!

[@theaceguitarist]

I like to use the word ‘visceral’ when describing emotions

[@razpb3rry_shortcak3]

i love the word soliloquy(i think it means when a character goes on a big rant to themself)

[@GrapeFanta5]

I don't use it a lot in my stories, but spontaneous combustion always gets a giggle out of me

[@prageruwu69]

words are nice sometimes

[@tineboes2726]

I'm a non-native English speaker who has recently discovered the word 'brusque'. I have not been the same since

[@Zhavari]

Every time I write an AkiToya AU fanfic I have to include that Akito’s hair is a “vivid shade of orange” Vivid I guess

[@Lemchi217]

It isn’t new to me but the word “critter” makes me feel all warm in cozy inside