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Word Elements
Monmouth College
List
of Important Terms
Be prepared to DEFINE or IDENTIFY each of
the following terms (based on Richard Lederer's Word Circus). Where
appropriate, give a linguistic example.
1
grammagram: (pg. 4) Words that when they are pronounced, consist
entirely of letter sounds. Ex.: SA = essay
homophone: (pg. 7) Words that are
pronounced alike but are spelled differently and with different meanings. Ex.:
isle/ aisle.
heteronyms: (pg. 17) words with the same spelling as other
words with different pronunciations and meanings. Ex.: content (adj.) and
content (n.).
capitonym: (pg. 23) a word that changes pronunciation and meaning when it is capitalized. Ex.
Colon and colon.
2
anagram: (pg. 28) the rearrangement of all the letters in a
familiar word, phrase, or name to form another word, phrase, or name. Ex. shore
and horse.
aptagram: (pg. 32) a rearrangement of all the letters in a familiar word,
phrase, or name to form anothe rword phrase, or name which has a meaningful
arrangment to the original. Ex. aboard/abroad
antigram: (pg. 41) The converse of the aptagram is the antigram, in
which a word or phrase gets rejuggled into another word or phrase that bears a
meaning opposite to that of the base. Ex. : teacher/cheater
looping anagrams (or looper): (pg. 44) words in which the first letter can be
moved from frontword to backword to produce another word. Ex.: evil/vile.
3
palindrome: (pg. 49) A word, a word row, a sentence, or a longer
statement that communicates the same message when the letters of which it is
composed are read in reverse order. Ex.: "A man, a plan, a canal,
Panama!"
semordnilap: (pg. 68) While a palindromic word conveys the same
message left to right and right to left, a semordnipal becomes a new word when
spelled in reverse order. Ex.: bats/stab.
4
5
charade word: (pg. 92) a word in which a larger word can be
divided into smaller parts that are themselves words. Ex.: mustache / must ache
6
beheadment: (pg 110) The chopping off of the first letter of a
word to create a second word. Examples: bone/one, cache/ache,
devil/evil, potter/otter
curtailments: (pg. 115) Words in which the last letter or
letters may be removed and still remain words (examples: brass/bass,
suite/suit, pearl/pear/pea).
7
kangaroo words: (pf. 128) words which conceal within their letters
smaller versions of themselves. Ex.: clue and cue in disclosure.
8
acrobat words: (pg. 144) Words in which the change of a single
letter causes a dramatic shift in the meaning. Ex.: poison/prison
spoonerism:
(pg. 158) switching letters and syllables between words to create slips
of the tongue; i.e., bartender and tar bender, tollbooth and bowl tooth,
ghost town and toast gown
9
abstemious words: (pg. 164). Word
which lack any major vowel. "With tongue firmly planted in cheek,
some call these vowel-less words “abstemious” words, a facetious
label since abstemious (along with facetious) is fraught with every
major vowel, and in sequence. Ex.: by, cry, cyst, etc.
mirror
words: (pg. 166) Words which are composed entirely of letters which read the
same way in a mirror. Ex.: mouth-to-mouth.
pangram: (pg. 169) A
sentence which contains every letter in the alphabet at least
once. The shortest known pangram in English is "Mr. Jock, TV
quiz Ph.D, bags few lynx." (26 letters!)
pyramid word: A word
that contains one occurrence of one letter, two occurrences of a second
letter, and so on. Ex. In "banana"
there are one b, two n’s, and three a’s.
isogram: (pg.
191) a single word in which no letter of the alphabet appears more than
once. The longest example in English is "uncopyrightable."
10
acrostic: (pg. 198) a composition, usually a poem, in which the first
letter of each line spells out a hidden word or message.
lipogram: (pg. 199)
a statement or poem from which a key letter has been excluded
11
logology: (pg. 210) the study of words
This material was placed on the web by
Professor Tom Sienkewicz for his students at Monmouth College Monmouth,
Illinois. If you have any questions, you can contact him at toms@monm.edu.
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