Questions tagged [single-word-requests]
This tag is for questions seeking a single word that fits a meaning. To ensure that your question is not closed as off-topic, please be specific about the intended use of the word. INCLUDE A SAMPLE SENTENCE demonstrating how the word would be used. Click on "Info", or "View Tag" and "Learn more..." for more information. Please use the [phrase-requests] tag if you seek a phrase and the [terminology] tag if you seek a term in a specialized subject also.
20,832
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What's the origin of the term "grand piano"?
Is there any information on how the adjective "grand" came to be added to "piano" to refer to a type of pianoforte where the frame and strings are horizontal (which in turn was a ...
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1
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84
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What's a word for the feeling when a friend doesn't share grief or sadness and acts like nothing happened? [duplicate]
Imagine you have two friends. The three of you are driving to a party, in good spirits, until you crash. Your friend, the driver, dies; but you and your other friend survive. The next day you begin to ...
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Is there a word for using purposefully incorrect grammar to suit a particular vernacular?
I am thinking of an educated person who knows better purposefully using "me" incorrectly in the subject of a sentence where "I" would be grammatically correct. In doing so they are ...
-1
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3
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Word for a person who researches everything with full details, to learn all information about a subject going back to its existence [duplicate]
What's a word or words to describe a person who researches everything with full details, to learn all information about a subject going back to its existence? For example I'm researching about one ...
0
votes
1
answer
116
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How do you greet someone at noon hours?
Noon hours refer to the hours between 12PM and 4PM. It's very common to say "Good morning" for a greeting during the hours of 6AM until 12PM or "Good afternoon" for a greeting ...
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2
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What do you call a biased mediator?
My client was the owner of the land and the shrubs that grew from it, but the branches encroached onto his land she decided to take them all down to stop any further unpleasantries. Where upon the ...
4
votes
4
answers
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What is a natural-sounding verb form for the word dorveille?
I am writing a poem and I found the word dorveille, which means to be in a state of being half asleep and half awake. Here's an example text:
In the preindustrial West, most people slept in two ...
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1
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2
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90
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A word to use when something is easily spoken?
I need a good descriptor for an idea or thought being present in one's mind without thought, or as if the idea existed without any active effort, such as one breathes without thinking and knows up and ...
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0
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52
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A single word to describe someone that does not compare themselves with others [closed]
I am looking for a single word that describes someone that does not compare themselves with others. Happy with themselves and their lot in life.
1
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4
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126
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Noun for someone who is condescending or patronizing?
What noun can be used for a person who talks in a way that implies they are in the senior position? If someone often lectures other people, or acts like their listeners are their juniors or students, ...
- 3,807
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3
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148
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Non-hyphenated word for "equal-length" (not longer and not shorter)
Let's say we have two sequences A and B of differently coloured but equally big marbles.
If A has fewer marbles than B, we say that A's length is smaller than B's, and we would say that A is shorter ...
- 323
2
votes
1
answer
139
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What's a word for an operation or protocol that doesn't really matter but is done out of habit, tradition, or law, ceremonial, perfunctory?
I'm looking for a word to describe an action, such as a vote by the board, that's required, but not meaningful because the issue is already settled, or the vote cannot but go a particular way. Just ...
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13
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What's "the archetypal book" called?
If a book sets the standard of a field, i.e. it is the most important book that students of subject X would all read, what can that book be called?
I've thought of gospel, archetype, exemplar, ...
- 3,807
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10
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Word for when someone tries to make others hate each other
Is there a single word in English that describes when someone tries to make others hate each other or fight? So, for example, If person A and B are neighbors, so in this situation Person C tries to ...
- 273
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1
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Scientific / academic word for date-rape for accounts involving someone asleep
There are a handful of Greek myths that I want to address in a professional tone that involve a divinity sexually exploiting a sleeping maiden.
Sometimes these accounts are precipitated by the use of ...
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8
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Word to describe telling yourself that you are not, and will never be, good enough
If you are saying to yourself things like:
You messed up this job.
You are not good enough.
It is your fault.
You are the reason this happened.
What's a word for when you are doing this to yourself?
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3
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The word for a serious situation that doesn't look it [closed]
Is there a term or word for a very serious situation that doesn't look serious, like a situation that needs or should have been attended to as early as possible but wasn't, because it doesn't seems ...
1
vote
0
answers
94
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What is it called when the day and month you were born in are the same as the year? [closed]
For example: if some one were to be born on the 20th of January of 2001 20/01/2001(DD/MM/YYYY).
5
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9
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Word for a collection of awards, such as an Olympic athlete’s earned medals
Seems like there should be a word when referring to a person’s collection of earned awards.
Example:
I was awed by the display of Olympic athlete Michael Phelps’ collection of medals ______.
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10
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How would you say a couple of letters (as in mail) if they're not necessarily letters?
I'm used to saying "a couple of pieces of mail".
But thinking of it, "pieces" seems a bit strange. But "mails" sounds even stranger. And "packages" would be ...
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What’s a word for deliberately slow and sexy?
I’ve been trying to spice up my word choice this and surprise myself. Right now I’m having writer’s block; I need a good word that describes doing something slow and sexy. Words like languid come to ...
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Noun form of Obsolescent
When a thing becomes obsolete, it is obsolescent.
The process of a thing becoming obsolete is an obsoletion.
What I'm looking for is a noun for a thing that that has become obsolete.
As a parallel, ...
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0
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24
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What is the word to describe someone that rise up from scratch? [duplicate]
I am looking for a word to describe someone that starts from zero and grow up out of something small. Like a plant growing out of a seed.
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2
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93
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Word for Crediting the wrong Person
What is it called when you wrongly credit someone for an idea or work they didn't do? I remember that is often used when characters realize that the person they were crediting stole it from someone ...
1
vote
1
answer
117
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The equivalent of a paraprosdokian at the beginning of sentence?
What is a literary technique that is like paraprosdokian but used at the beginning of the sentence for a similar effect?
I'd love to know what the term for this is, and there are certainly styles of ...
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898
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What's the counterpart to "spheroid" for a circle? There's no "circoid"
I'd like to know for the word for a deformed circle. Considering the prevalence of "spheroid", I'm amazed that I've been unable to locate an equivalent for a circle.
I realize that, ...
0
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0
answers
53
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Is there any word for a person who is not updated on new things? because outdated doesnt sound very right to use
I want to use a word that is similar to outdated but not outdated because it does not sound very right if we are referring to a human.
Example: "She is too outdated to know what is happening ...
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0
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21
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How to describe someone who acts like they are of a higher social class while they are not? [duplicate]
I want to know the adj that describe someone who acts like they are of a higher social class while they are not.
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2
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1
answer
113
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What are the words that mean to make something (look) smaller?
There are plenty of words that means to make something (look) bigger, but I can't find their exact antonyms.
magnify - make something look bigger
enlarge - make something bigger
zoom in - move the ...
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3
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Is there a word/phrase that describes things people say to be "the smartest person in the room"? [duplicate]
Examples would be
(1) The tomato is not a vegetable
(2) Washington didn't really cut the Cherry Tree
(3) no evidence that Marie Antoinette said "let them eat cake"
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1
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112
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What is a verb for "to hold or carry food in one’s pocket/pouch for some time"?
There is a verb in French called pocheter. Its meaning (taken from here), as well as an English translation, are as follows.
Serrer, porter pour quelque temps dans sa poche. Il ne se dit proprement ...
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0
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33
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Literary term for Subversion of Expectations? [closed]
Is there a literary term for subversion of expectations, or is it just that?
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2
answers
102
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Bad to Badly, please help
What is it called when you change bad to badly? Bad is an adjective and badly is an adverb. What is the process of changing from an adjective to an adverb called? Is it conjugation?
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Word to classify what powers a god is associated with?
I need a word to classify the things that a god is the god of. Lets take Zeus and lightning for example. If Zeus is god of lighting, what does that make lightning to him. It is one of his ???.
For a ...
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0
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What is it called when the inference is biased internally but accurate externally?
Let say you are to make some inference about something, say a population. Typically you would take a small sample of that population and then make some inference. How you analyze that sample basically ...
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8
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What is a word/phrase that best describes a "blatant disregard or neglect" for something, but with the connotation of that they should have known?
There's a word/phrase that I feel is on the tip of my tongue. How would you describe someone being unacceptably neglectful, disregarding, unprepared, or purposefully acting irresponsibly? Similar to ...
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0
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Term for a person who can access someone's information on their behalf, but not make decisions for them
I work for an insurance administrator, and I am creating a form for the clients to grant access to someone else (usually, but not exclusively, a spouse) to have permission to access information from ...
5
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7
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What type of concept is "mad scientist"?
What is the category that "mad scientist" belongs to? I think "mad scientist" is a concept that is understood by every member of a particular culture, it puts the same image into ...
- 3,807
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2
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52
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Better term for a stop on the route? [closed]
I am working on a software project and have a problem to find a name for entity that holds location (address, longitude, latitude etc) and time range (from time, to time).
The location entity is ...
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Word/phrase for avoiding a task because it has a lot of unknowns
Have you ever needed to do a task/chore that has a lot of unknowns, and because of that it created a mental barrier to getting started?
For example,
You have to clean out a shed but you can't even ...
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5
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268
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What's another word for utopian [closed]
I've forgotten what it was, but I know there was a word used creatively in the 19th or early 20th century to describe in a mocking way the wishful thinking, and wildly optimistic expansive progressive ...
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Is there a name for words that differ only in character case?
How can I to refer to the difference between Hello and hello? These words strings aren't exactly duplicates. What are they?
The context is I am writing software that needs to handle case-insensitivity....
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66
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Term for someone who dislikes many things vocally [duplicate]
I'm looking for a term that describes someone who not only dislikes many things or categories of things, but expresses these dislikes frequently. I'd prefer a noun, but an adjective will do.
The ...
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5
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132
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What is a word for someone who uses power/authority for good? [closed]
I am looking for a word or term for someone who is powerful or holds authority and also uses it with good morality.
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1
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A word combining 'menacing' and 'trashy'
I'm doing some proofreading and suggestions for a friend who's writing a book. In it, a rather vanilla middle-class white male American sees a Gothy punk woman (I'm butchering his description) with a ...
0
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2
answers
141
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I'm looking for a word that describes someone who dislikes change/is afraid of it [duplicate]
I'm looking for a word that describes someone who dislikes change even while their current situation is less than favorable and keeps things even if they are old, worn and crumbling.
The closest thing ...
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1
vote
3
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121
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Word that describes whether a cost is per item or for the total
As per the title, if I'm in a grocery store and there is a basket of 10 apples and a sign that simply says $1, that might mean $1 per apple or $1 for the whole basket. Is there a single word that ...
- 11
1
vote
2
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70
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Single word for 'listening history' [closed]
I am beginning a software project to track one's listening history—that is, a record or timeline of the auditory media one has listened to. See last.fm for an example of an existing service that ...
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4
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63
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Is there a word or expression that describes a person who demands that something needs to be a certain way yet they wont help to get it that way?
For example: If someone demanded to another person that they will only communicate with them using a specific phone app and is fully aware that this person is unable or has forgotten the group ...
- 11
0
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1
answer
59
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To Find a Word Beginning with B: Adjective, in the Shape of a Grape [closed]
Probably spelled like biutyrial (only a reference), not included in dictionaries. But I remembered I have seen an article on merriam-webster.com about different shapes and funny insults. There are ...
