20 Funny English Words That Are Actually Real
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A joyful roundup of 20 genuinely funny English words that sound made up but are 100% real, from codswallop to collywobbles. Learn each one and drop it into your next conversation.
20 Funny English Words That Are Actually Real
English has a gift for the ridiculous. Tucked between the everyday words are gems so silly they sound made up — yet every single one of these is real, dictionary-approved, and just waiting for the right moment to slip into conversation.
Here are 20 genuinely funny words that will make you sound clever and a little bit mischievous. Try dropping one at dinner tonight and watch the confusion turn into delight.
Perfect Words for Talking Nonsense
1. Codswallop (n.) — Utter nonsense; empty, foolish talk you can happily dismiss with a wave of the hand.
2. Tommyrot (n.) — Foolish talk or sheer rubbish — a slightly old-fashioned cousin of codswallop.
3. Brouhaha (n.) — A noisy, overexcited uproar over something that rarely deserves the fuss.
4. Shebang (n.) — The whole affair or lively situation, as in the delightful phrase “the whole shebang.”
5. Badinage (n.) — Light, playful teasing and witty back-and-forth banter.
Words for Wonderfully Odd People
6. Fussbudget (n.) — Someone who frets and fusses endlessly over the tiniest of details.
7. Quidnunc (n.) — A nosy busybody who is desperate to know everyone else’s news.
8. Fop (n.) — A man utterly obsessed with his clothes, his hair, and his own reflection.
9. Bumptious (adj.) — Arrogantly self-assertive in a way that is more amusing than intimidating.
10. Grobian (n.) — A clumsy, boorish person with all the grace of a bull in a china shop.
11. Sobersides (n.) — A solemn, humorless person who never seems to crack a smile.
Quirky Words for Life’s Strange Moments
12. Collywobbles (n.) — The butterflies — that nervous, rumbling feeling in your stomach before a big moment.
13. Tarantism (n.) — An uncontrollable urge to dance — historically blamed on a spider’s bite.
14. Ergophobia (n.) — The fear of work, a condition many of us suspect we contract every Monday.
15. Eructation (n.) — The grand, formal word for the very ordinary act of belching.
16. Somniloquy (n.) — Talking in your sleep, often to no one in particular about absolutely nothing.
17. Paronomasia (n.) — A play on words; the fancy, scholarly name for a good (or terrible) pun.
18. Sashay (v.) — To strut and glide along with exaggerated, unmistakable confidence.
19. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (adj.) — Extraordinarily wonderful — the joyful mouthful made famous by a certain magical nanny.
20. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (n.) — Ironically, the fear of long words — a word almost cruel enough to trigger it.
Learning words this fun is dangerously addictive. The Vocabulary app serves you a delightful new word every day.
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