Vocabulary

There’s a perfect word for every situation, and here’s where you’ll build your lexicon from loanwords to Americanisms.

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Vocabulary 4 min read

11 English Words That Sound Completely Made Up

In his 1871 poem “Jabberwocky,” Lewis Carroll famously coined a variety of nonsensical words that essentially sound like gibberish. While Carroll brilliantly came up with those terms on his own, he could’ve simply consulted a dictionary to achieve the same effect. Open any English dictionary and you’ll find a laundry

list of words that sound as if they were made up, even though they’re 100% legitimate. Let’s look at 11 of those examples. Don’t be confused — “bumfuzzle” is a real transitive verb meaning “perplex” or “fluster.” It can also be written as the adjective “bumfuzzled,” defined as being “in...

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