Words About Words - Word of the Day Special

For every literary geek out there, and also those who are not so literary and geeky, here is a one of a kind 'word of the day' post just for you. Useful in essays, poetry analysis, and just in general conversation, if you care about words, you'll care about words about words too.

Be prepared:

Acronym: A word formed by the first letters of the phrase that it represents.
Example - 'NASA' stands for 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration'


Anagram: A word which is just another word with its letters jumbled up.
Example - 'married' and 'admirer'

Antonym: A word which means the opposite to another word.
Example - 'light' and 'dark'

Capitonym: A word whose meaning depends on whether or not it is capitalised.
Example - to 'polish' the brass is not the same as a 'Polish' man

Heteronym: A word with the same spelling as another word, though they are pronounced and mean different things.
Example - 'so' as opposed to 'sew'


Holonym: A word whose meaning denotes it as the whole that another word is part of.
Example - 'bedroom' as it relates to 'bed'

Homonym: A word which is pronounced and spelt the same as another word but means something different.

Example - a dog with a 'bark' as opposed to 'bark' on a tree

Homophone: A word which is pronounced the same as another word but means something different.
Example - 'witch' and 'which'

Isogram: A word or phrase with no repeated letters.
Example - 'botany'


Logogram: A symbol that represents a written and spoken word
Example - '&' relating to 'and'


Meronym: A word whose meaning denotes it as a part of another word's meaning.
Example - 'bed' as it relates to 'bedroom'


Neologism: A newly invented word or phrase.
Example - Shakespeare made up words such as 'submerge' and 'majestic'. A full post to come on this soon.


Onomatopoeia: A word which is a sound.
Example - 'cluck'


Palindrome: A word or name which is spelt the same backwards as it is forwards.
Example - 'Hannah'

Paronym: A word from a foreign language that is not changed when used in a different language
Example - 'tsunami'


Portmanteau: A word formed by mixing other words, whose meanings relate to the word
Example - 'telethon'


Retronym: A word that is the adapted form of an older term.
Example - 'bar soap' only became a term when soap started to appear as liquid or gel


Synonym: A word which means the same as another word.
Example - 'tedious' and 'monotonous'

I know these sorts of words can be a wee bit mind-boggling, but just think if you knew them all and just included them in general conversation. You would be a legend.

By Jess