Uncommon Words for Everyday Things
- Dec 15, 2025
- 3 min read
Things we see every day but never knew they had an "official" name:
1. Glabella - The space between the eyebrows.
2. Petrichor - The way it smells after the rain.
3. Aglet -The plastic or metallic coating at the end of the shoelaces.
4. Wamble -The rumbling sound that the stomach makes.
5. Vagitus -The first cry of a newborn baby.
6. Tines -The prongs on a fork.
7. Phosphenes -The sheen or light that you see when you close your eyes and press your hands on them.
8. Tent- The tiny plastic table placed in the middle of a pizza box.
9. Overmorrow - The day after tomorrow.
10. Minimus -The smallest finger or toe.
11. Agraffe -The weird cage that holds the cork in bottle of champagne.
12. Vocables -The ‘na na na’ and ‘la la la’ which don’t really have any meaning in the lyrics of a song.
13. Interrobang -When combine an exclamation mark with a question mark (i.e. ?!).
14. Columella nasi -The space between the nostrils.
15. Armscye -The armhole in clothes where the sleeves are sewn.
16. Dysania -The condition of finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morning.
17. Griffonage -Illegible handwriting.
18. Tittle -The dot over an “i” or a “j”.
19. Crapulence -The utterly sick feeling you get after eating or drinking too much.
20. Bannock device -The metallic device used to measure your feet at the shoe store.
21. Steatopygic -Having a large bottom.
22. Purlicue -The space between the thumb and forefingers.
23. Chanking -Spat-out food.
24. Lunule -The white, crescent-shaped part of the nail.
25. Peen - The side opposite the hammer’s striking side.
26. Souffle cup - A ketchup/condiment cup.
27. Natiform - Something that resembles a butt.
28. Nurdle - Tiny dab of toothpaste.
29. Cornicione -The outer part of the crust on a pizza.
30. Barm -The foam on a beer.
31. Rasceta -The lines on the inside of your wrist.
32. Ferrule - The metal part at the end of a pencil.
33. Punt -The bottom of a wine bottle.
34. Keeper -The loop on a belt that keeps the end in place after it has passed through the buckle.
35. Zarf -The cardboard sleeve on a coffee cup.
36. Rectal Tenesmus - The feeling of incomplete defecation.
37. Lemniscate -The infinity symbol.
38. Desire path- A path created by natural means, simply because it is the “shortest or most easily navigated” way.
39. Collywobbles - Butterflies in your stomach.
40. Nibling -The non-gender-specific term for a niece or nephew — like sibling.
41. Defenestrate - To throw out a window.
42. Muntin - The strip separating windowpanes.
Philtrum -The groove located just below the nose and above the middle of the lips.
44. Snood -The fleshy thing around the neck of a turkey.
45. Morton’s toe - When your second toe is bigger than your big toe.
46. Snellen chart - The chart you look at when you take an eye exam.
47. Obelus - The division sign (÷).
48. Phloem bundles -Those long stringy things you see when peeling a banana.
49. Semantic satiation - What happens when you say a word so long it loses meaning.
50. Octothorpe - The pound (#) button on a telephone.
51. Gynecomastia - Man-boobs.
52. Mondegreen -Misheard song lyrics.
53. Scurryfunge -The time you run around cleaning frantically right before company comes over.
54. Aphthongs - Silent letters.
Obelus - Division Sign
Ideo locators - the bright red "You are Here" markers on maps
Octothorpe - the pound symbol
PIPS - The bumps on the surface of a ping pong paddle
Acnestis - That hard-to-reach spot on your back.
Ullage - that space between the top of your drink bottle to the liquid inside
Vibrissae - The whiskers on a cat.
Grawlix - The symbols used to replace profanity like @$#%!
Kakorrhaphiophobia - A fear of failure
Dottle - The little pile of unburned tobacco and ash left in the bowl of a pipe.
Psithurism - The sound of leaves rustling on trees or bushes as they are disturbed by wind
Apricity - The warmth of the sun in winter.
Glabrous - Skin completely void of hair
Dongle - A small device that plugs into a computer and serves as an adapter or security measure to enable the use of certain software
Parasthesia - A pins and needles or numb feeling, particularly in fingers or limbs
Tmesis - When you seoarate a word into two parts for effect and then add an extra syllable in between. Example - "Abso-freaking-lutely!"
Very unusual...I, personally knew 5 or 6 of these words. The one that really amused me was there is a word for butterflies in your stomach...Collywobbles. who would have known?