Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.
| abracadabra | a magic word, used as a charm. |
| acronym | a word formed from the initial letters of other words. |
| acronymania | a craze for acronyms. |
| acronymic | relating to an acronym, a word fabricated from the initial letters of a name or phrase. |
| acronymically | (Adv.) ACRONYMIC, relating to an acronym. |
| acronymous | of or like an acronym, a word formed from the initial letters of other words. |
| acrophonetic | relating to acrophony, the use of a word starting with a letter of the alphabet as the name of the letter. |
| acrophonic | relating to acrophony, the use of a word starting with a letter of the alphabet as the name of the letter. |
| acrophony | the use of a word starting with a letter of the alphabet as the name of the letter. |
| adage | a traditional saying expressing a common observation. |
| adagial | pertaining to an adage, proverbial. |
| anagram | a word or phrase formed by the letters of another in different order; (verb) to transpose the letters of a word or phrase to form a new one. |
| anagrammatic | like an anagram. |
| anagrammatical | like an anagram. |
| anagrammatise | to make into an anagram. |
| anagrammatism | the practice of constructing anagrams. |
| anagrammatize | to make into an anagram. |
| aphorise | to make an aphorism. |
| aphoriser | one who makes aphorisms. |
| aphorism | a pithy saying, orig a medical maxim. |
| aphorist | one who makes aphorisms. |
| aphoristic | relating to aphorism. |
| aphoristically | (Adv.) APHORISTIC, relating to aphorism. |
| aphorize | to make an aphorism. |
| aphorizer | one who makes aphorisms. |
| apophthegm | (Greek) a short, pithy and instructive saying or formulation. |
| apothegm | (Greek) a short, pithy and instructive saying or formulation. |
| apothegmatic | of or like an apothegm. |
| apothegmatical | of or like an apophthegm. |
| archaicism | an archaic expression. |
| archaism | the use of an older or obsolete form. |
| ayword | (Shakesp.) a byword, proverbial reproach. |
| backronym | an acronym formed using the initial letters or syllables of an existing word. |
| bacronym | an acronym formed using the initial letters or syllables of an existing word. |
| buzzword | a word used to impress someone. |
| byword | a well-known saying. |
| calembour | (Fr.) a pun. |
| cataphor | a word that has the same reference as another word used later. |
| catchcry | a well-known phrase associated with a particular group. |
| catchline | a slogan, esp in advertising or politics. |
| catchphrase | a word or expression that is used repeatedly and conveniently to represent or characterize a person, group, idea, or point of view. |
| chyron | a group of words that appears on a television screen. |
| cliche | (Fr.) a stereotyped expression. |
| colloquialism | a colloquial expression. |
| concetto | (Ital.) an ingenious expression, a witticism. |
| conundrum | (Lat.) a riddle, esp one whose answer is a play on words. |
| conversationism | a colloquialism. |
| counterword | a word widely used in a sense much looser than its original meaning, such as 'tremendous' or 'awful'. |
| cussword | a swearword. |
| definiendum | (Lat.) a word or phrase that is to be defined in a dictionary. |
| definiens | (Lat.) a word or words used in a dictionary definition. |
| echoism | the formation of imitative words. |
| epitheton | an epithet. |
| expletive | filling out (noun) a swearword |
| expletively | (Adv.) EXPLETIVE. |
| gnomic | signifying general truth; relating to aphorisms or proverbs. |
| gnomical | signifying general truth; relating to aphorisms or proverbs. |
| gnomically | (Adv.) GNOMIC, relating to aphorisms or proverbs. |
| headword | a word forming a heading in a dictionary. |
| hispanicism | a Spanish phrase. |
| holophrase | a single word expressing a sentence or phrase. |
| holophrastic | of or like a holophrase, a single word expressing a sentence or phrase. |
| ideophone | a word that is spoken but not written. |
| idiom | a group of words whose meaning cannot be deduced from the constituent words. |
| idiomatic | peculiar to or of the nature of an idiom. |
| idiomatical | peculiar to or of the nature of an idiom. |
| initialism | an acronym formed from initial letters. |
| interjection | a word or phrase used in exclamation. |
| interjectionary | like an interjection. |
| interjectural | like an interjection. |
| keyword | a significant word. |
| laconic | of a person's speech, using few words, terse. |
| laconical | of a person's speech, using few words, terse. |
| laconically | (Adv.) LACONIC, terse. |
| laconicism | a vigorous, brief manner of expression. |
| laconism | a vigorous, brief manner of expression. |
| lemma | (Lat.) a word or phrase defined in a dictionary, glossed in a glossary etc. |
| lexical | of or relating to words or the vocabulary of a language as distinguished from its grammar and construction. |
| lexically | (Adv.) LEXICAL, pertaining to the words of a language. |
| literaryism | a bookish expression. |
| loanshift | the adaptation of a word from one language to another. |
| locution | a form of expression, a phrase. |
| logo | a small design used as the symbol of an organisation etc. |
| logodaedalus | one skilled in the manipulative use of words. |
| logodaedaly | verbal legerdemain, esp in the imaginative or capricious coining of new words. |
| logoed | having a logo. |
| logogriph | a riddle in which a word is found from other words' letters. |
| logogriphic | like a logogriph, a riddle in which a word is found from other words' letters. |
| malaprop | a humorous misuse of a word. |
| malapropian | relating to malapropism. |
| malapropism | a humorous misuse of a word. |
| marrowsky | a spoonerism; (verb) to utter a spoonerism. |
| maxim | a brief expression of a general truth, principle, or rule of conduct. |
| metaplasm | the alteration of a word by adding, subtracting, or transposing letters or syllables eg saying 'relator' for 'realtor'. |
| metaplasmic | relating to metaplasm. |
| mondegreen | a phrase, often humorous or nonsensical, that results from mishearing the lyric of a song. |
| motto | a maxim adopted as a rule of conduct MOTTOED. |
| mottoed | having a motto. |
| nayword | a proverbial reproach. |
| nonword | a word that is not a recognised word. |
| obsoletism | a disused word or phrase; an archaism. |
| palillogy | the repetition of a word or word or phrase. |
| palindrome | a word or statement that communicates the same message when the letters of which it is composed are read in reverse order. |
| palindromic | of or like a palindrome. |
| palindromical | of or like a palindrome. |
| pangram | a sentence that makes use of all the letters of the alphabet. |
| pangrammatist | a person composing sentences, verses, etc., containing all the letters of the alphabet. |
| paragram | a play on words consisting in the alteration of one letter or group of letters of a word, esp an initial letter. |
| paranym | a euphemism; a word whose meaning is altered to conceal an evasion or untruth eg liberation for conquest. |
| parasyntheton | a word derived from a compound, eg come-at-able. |
| paroemia | (Greek) a proverb, adage or saying. |
| paroemial | relating to paroemia, a proverb, adage or saying. |
| paronomasia | a play on words, a pun. |
| paronomastic | relating to paronomasia, play on words. |
| paronomastical | relating to paronomasia, play on words. |
| paronomasy | (Obs.) paronomasia. |
| phraseless | indescribable. |
| phraseograph | a phrase for which there exists a phraseogram. |
| phraseographic | of or like a phraseograph. |
| phraseography | the making of phraseographs. |
| platitude | a commonplace or trite remark made as if it were important. |
| platitudinous | characterized by or resembling a platitude. |
| platitudinously | (Adv.) PLATITUDINOUS, characterized by or resembling a platitude. |
| pluriliteral | of more than three letters. |
| polysemant | a word with many meanings. |
| pun | a play on words (verb) to make a pun |
| pundigrion | (Obs.) a play on words, a pun. |
| punner | one who makes puns. |
| punningly | (Adv.) PUNNING, playing with words. |
| punny | involving a pun. |
| punster | one who makes puns. |
| rebus | (Lat.) a representation of syllables or words by means of pictures or symbols; also, a riddle made up of such pictures or symbols. |
| reiterative | repeating (noun) a word formed by reduplication, the second element usually differing from the first eg helter-skelter |
| reiteratively | (Adv.) REITERATIVE, repeating. |
| retronym | a word coined for an existing thing to distinguish it from a new thing. |
| ruralism | a country idiom or expression. |
| rusticism | a rustic saying or custom. |
| shibboleth | (Hebrew) a slogan, catchword; a custom or usage regarded as a criterion for distinguishing membership |
| siddhuism | (Hinglish) any contrived metaphor or simile. |
| slogan | a motto adopted by a group. |
| sloganeer | to invent or make heavy use of slogans. |
| sloganise | to utter or repeat slogans. |
| sloganize | to utter or repeat slogans. |
| sniglet | a humorous word to describe some thing or concept that has no "official" word. |
| snowclone | a kind of cliche in which an existing cliche or pop culture catchphrases is turned into a modern analogy. |
| spoonerism | a transposition of initial sounds of spoken words, eg 'shoving leopard' for 'loving shepherd'. |
| synonymity | the state of being synonymous. |
| telestic | of or pertaining to religious mysteries; (noun) a type of acrostic. |
| triticism | a trite remark. |
| truism | an undoubted or self-evident truth; a proposition needing no proof or argument. |
| univocal | having only one meaning (noun) a word with only one meaning |
| untruism | something not true; a false statement. |
| word | a speech sound that communicates meaning (verb) to express in words |