This page collects words similar in one way or another: synonym, paronym, homonym, homophone, homograph, and other kind of nameless nymphs of my fancy, including: near synonyms, near homonyms, words likely mixed up, specialized technical jargons, etc.
• Animalistic Cries: roar, bray, hiss, coo, buzz, howl...
• Brutal Appellatives: feline, canine, avian, equine, asinine...
• Brutes: dam, kid, bitch, pussy, stud, mare...
• Name callings: honky, gringo, wetback, redneck, white trash...
• Chantable Couplets: nature or nuture, friend or foe, nook and cranny, cease and desist ...
• names of similar words: synonym, paronym, homonym, homophone, homograph ...
• “Synonymous Antonyms or Antonymous Synonyms”: cry, decry; linear, rectilinear; flammable, inflammable; famous, infamous; title, entitle; shamed, ashamed ...
ails ills aisles isles
polyhedra = polyhedrons vertices = vertexes foci = focuses radii = radiuses programming = programing collinear = colinear rectilinear = linear. vendor = vender colour = color unixen = unix emacsen = emacs Try to use the logical form.
The other thing that so irate is that the s in possesive of _a word ending in s_ is to be dropped off. For example, we write “that waiter's pen dropped to the floor”, but for waitress it should be: “that waitress’ pen dropped to the floor”. Not all author observe this. On occasion i see just “waitress's”. The reason for dropping the “'s” is i suppose to make it seems not to confuse the pronounciation. Similar reasoning goes for the choice of “a” and “an”. I would clamor, for all writers, to simply insist using just “a”, and “'s” for all occasions when you aren't trying to show off. Let's call for a revolution of the Rectification of English. I conjecture that the problem is that writers intend to show off, being a desirable side effect of their jobs — communication notwithstanding.
there's “a” and “an” confusion. Pedantically speaking, generally use “an” if the next word's pronunciation begins with a vowel. So, an egg, an hour, an once, an iota, but a atypical, a unusual, a eccentric, a errie, a aberrant, a bent rule. One should always us “a”.
autocracy | by single person, monocracy, depotism aristocracy | by lineage plutocracy | by rich democracy | by populace mobocracy | by mobs, ochlocracy, democracy run amuck anarchy | no ruling. Alternative democracy hagiocracy | by church leaders, hagiarchy, hierocracy, theocracy technocracy | by technicians or experts, often in communism contexts meritocracy | by merits, ability kakistocracy | opposite of meritocracy or technocracy. What the context of this word? corpocracy | by corporate bureaucracy, paperwork gerontocracy | by old people gynecocracy | by woman (gynocracy) kleptocracy | corrupted-cracy narcokleptocracy | by drug lords slavocracy | by slave holders stratocracy | my military people thalassocracy | naval stuff timocracy | Plato fancy
founder, flounder
twirl, whorl, whirl, swirl
parlay, parley
consul, council, councel
lass, lassie, wench, dame, femme, chit, colleen, damsel, demoiselle; broad; minx, coquette, hussy, bint, bimbo
maiden, virgin, houri
demimonde (demimondaine), paramour, ladylove, sweetheart
popsy | doxy, sexpot | chanteuse | ingenue | frump
fleshpot; harlot
trull | And let my spleenful sons this trull deflower [William Shakespeare in Titus]
A trull is a prostitute. Synonyms for prostitute varies in context and connotation. There's tramp, harlot, courtesan, call girl, prostitute, whore.
vis-a-vis = face-to-face, bona fide = genuine, et al = and others, etc. = et cetera; and so forth, per se = as such, i.e. = id est; that is, e.g. = exempli gratia; for example, viz. = videlicet; namely, MIA, g.o.p., AWOL
crochet, crotchet
knoll, hillock, hummock
perorate, harangue, tirade, diatribe, rant, rave
skulduggery, hanky-panky, prestidigitation
dextral, sinistral , deasil, widdershins | all these are hardly used.
ophthalmologist, optician, optometrist
remunerate, requite, repay, redeem, compensation, recompense, reparation, atonement
rump, hip, buttocks, bottom, cheeks, derriere, ass, breech
epee, rapier, scimitar, cutlass, dagger, foil, stiletto, stylet, halberd, pike, lance, spear, bow, crossbow | there are good varieties of words for varieties of swords used around the world.
tot, tote, toot, tout | Price has a song called _Sing of the Times_; the lyrics talks about a tot whose favorite game is about toting a machine gun. Owls hoot, whistles hoot. Merchants tout. | in describing small child, there's also tyke and kid, with kid also being a young goat.
podium, rostrum, lectern, dais, pulpit, soapbox
caustic, mordant, trenchant, acrid, scathing
shrewd, sagacious, perspicacious, astute | Jon, this is your chance to smite the world's eggheads with your prowess and perspicaciousness. (Announcing a programing contest to a brash hotshot Perl programer)
pope, pontiff, prelate, bishop, priest, deacon, subdeacon, vicar, rector, curate, pastor, sexton, diocese, parish, chapel
flair, flare, blare
club, mace, maul, cudgel, bludgeon, truncheon
balustrade, parapet, rampart, bulwark, palisade, stake
dapple, dapper, dabble, dabber
depredate, deprecate
varnish, burnish, furbish, tarnish, garnish, furnish
dozen/gross/score, team of horses, span of mules, yoke of oxen, brace of partridge, pair of shoes, couple of days, raft, horde, throng, mound
flock, flight, herd, drove, pack, gang, gaggle, bevy, brood, school, swarm, throng..
A group of owls is called a parliament.
See Notes of American Heritage Dictionary: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=flock
See also:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_for_non-human_mammals
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd
grumble, babble, mumble, murmur, mutter, stammer, prattle, blather, drivel, drool, prate, twaddle, gab, chatter, blabber, burble, jabber, gibber, maunder, patter, yak, yammer, twiddle, twitter, smatter, tinkle, ramble
English has lots words describing these. They may indicate a commen need to describe such slacking talk. Oftentimes we can glimpse a culture or human nature from languages. Other examples are the plethora of words for decribing stupidity or fools, and as well women as sex objects.
By the way, “women as sex objects” is not to be frowned upon. Men love it, and women love it too. It is the nature of things. Think about this: why is it that women, not men, are conceived as sexual objects? It is because the biology of things. It is women who gets pregnant, and thus they are the essence of sexual effects if it must be fixiated upon one sex. Men can whittle away or be trampled upon carelessly in multitude, but women must be cared and loved, for it is they, nurish the seeds that bloom.
This we can observe in nature's lion packs or farm ranches. There is usually one male, coupling many females. Perhaps you think of polygamy unethical or unfair to women, but where did all the other males go? They, being miserable wreched lesser beings who lives a miserable life or fell under human's castrating knives. Now, that is nature, and human nature too.
coruscate, scintillate, shimmer, glisten, glint, glimmer, glean, garner, muster
thong, throne, throng, thorn
fiddle, fumble, botch, bumble, blunder, bobble, boggle, bungle, cobble, flounder
refection, ration, sustenance, provision, viand, morsel, victual, repast, elixir, arcana, libation, nectar, ambrosia, panacea
veldt, prairie, savannah
gaggle, gobble, gulp, gurgle, gargle, goggle, gargoyle
cranny, crevice, fissure, nick, gash
dock, jetty, quay, wharf, harbor, estuary, inlet, bay, promontory, cape, peninsula
crater, furrow, valley, chasm, gorge, canyon, ravine, gulch, gullet, gully
tomb, vault, sepulcher, catacomb
epigram, epigraph, epitaph, epitome, epithet
recipient, incipient, percipient
admonish, upbraid, scold, chide, berate, vituperate, blame, reprehend, reproach, reproof, reprove, censure, excoriate, rebuke, objurgate, reprimand, chastise
bespeak, divination, presentiment, premonition, presage, portend, prognosticate, predict, foretell, forecast, forebode
jangle, joggle, jiggle, jounce, giggle
admonish, demolish, abolish
exalt, extol, exhort, exult, extort
prodigious, prodigal, profligate, reprobate
ingenious, ingenuous, indigenous
repentant, penitent, deplore, doleful, melancholy, mourn, sorrow
compunctious, regretful, deplore, remorseful, contrite
malign, traduce, asperse, vilify, calumniate, defame
facetious, felicity, felicitous
mantel, mantle
acclaim, declaim, exclaim, proclaim, announce, denounce, belittle, deprecate, depredate
dispel, disperse, dissipate, disseminate
cheap, thrifty, niggardly, penurious, parsimonious, frugal, Spartan, provident
swagger, trod, tread, tramp, trample, trudge, stamp, limp, lope, amble, saunter, scamper, scuttle, scurry, scoot, shamble, shuffle, slouch, traipse
strut | she struted with her new heels stalk | the predator stalks its prey plod | plodding thru snow sashay | sashaying through the street struting her figure wade | wading through the river shuffle | the prisoner shuffled to the gallow scurry | mouses scurried around stomp | the angry kid stomped away from her mom stamp | stamping out of the office clomp | she clomped down the steps trot | the kid is emulating horse trot gallop | the horse breaks into a gallop (gait: trot, canter, gallop) wobble | earth wobbled around the sun waddle | Linux waddles from obscurity [USA Today, tech news headline, 2002] trek | trek across Africa
dawdle, doodle | in Alice in Wonderland, i believe the white rabbit said to Alice “don't dawdle, Alice”
allay, alleviate, palliate, sooth
thorn, throne, throng
chemise, corset, peignoir, lingerie
swamp, mash, marsh, pulp, quagmire, mire
canary, cardinal, catbird, cock, cockatoo, condor, coot, crane, crossbill, crow, curlew, eagle, falcon, finch, grouse, harrier, hawk, jay, kea, kite, kiwi, lark, linnet, loon, macaw, magpie, mynah, nightingale, oriole, osprey, owl, parakeet, parrot, peacock, raven, robin, shrike, songbird, sparrow, swallow, tanager, vulture, warbler, wren
basilisk, brownie, centaur Chimera, Cyclops sprite, elf, pixie, fairy dwarf, faun, fay, troll, giant, goblin, griffin, Hydra, manticore Gorgon, Medusa mermaid, minotaur, dragon, phoenix, sphinx, succubus, incubus unicorn, Pegasus ogre
some color names. In general, i find that color names are derived from things of that color. Don't know how accurate this is. No research on the primary color names, like white, black, green, red, blud, yellow...
green, chartreuse, white, ivory, silver, grizzle, gray, black, jet, ebony, sepia, brown, bister, beige, dun, ecru, flaxen, tawny, gold, bronze, yellow, maize, orange, titian, umber, amber, ocher, russet, ruddy, pink, red, carmine, sorrel, scarlet, henna, garnet, claret, fuchsia, vermillion, magenta, mauve, sanguine, maroon, cardinal, purple, violet, lavender, turquoise, azure, blue, teal, sapphire, indigo
Last Updated:2003-04-14. © 1995-2001 by Xah Lee.