Word of the day | East Edit

Welcome to our growing collection of obscure, yet useful, words of the day!

Commit these to memory to become the life of the party, while others gather around, swooning with delight at your witty, erudite banter.

Or perhaps use them to craft creative insults for your geeky friends… (It’s ok; this is a safe place!)

Word of the Day: Agathism

Definition: The doctrine that everything tends towards an ultimate good According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the difference between agathism and optimism is that optimism sees the good in everything that happens. Agathism recognises that [...]

Word of the Day: Heterophemy

Definition: Unintentionally using a word or phrase that means something different to what you mean to say One example is saying 'literally' when you really mean 'figuratively'. However, heterophemy can strike anyone at any time—no [...]

Word of the Day: Apricity

Definition: The warmth of the winter sun. A related word is 'apricate' meaning to bask in the sun. This got me thinking about apricots—because they look a bit like a sun, if you hold one [...]

Word of the Day: Kankedort

Definition: An awkward situation or affair So, I was born in Australia but I look a bit Indian. People on buses in Sydney think I can't speak English. So do shopkeepers in Kolkata. Slight kankedorts [...]

Word of the Day: Cacoethes

Definition: An urge to do something inadvisable. Audrey was walking down the highway when she espied a grasshopper-infested cornfield. It was the meaning of life. She was a chicken, you see, and her mother had [...]

Word of the Day: Ablutophobia

Definition: Fear of bathing My cat has ablutophobia.

Word of the Day: Accismus

Definition: Insincere refusal of a thing that is desired Even though Walter's mum was chief cake maker at a prize-winning bakery, Little Billy didn't much like Walter. This is because Walter: (a) was 6 and [...]

Word of the Day: Pandiculate

Definition: To stretch—like you do after waking. Tiffany had woken at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. After work, she'd gone with her brother to see a rugby game—it was his birthday. The thing [...]