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Unusual Words

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Here are a few very unusual or seldom used English language words. Astonish people by correctly using them.

Acersecomic: A person whose hair has never been cut.

Biblioclasm: The practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media.

Cacodemonomania: The pathological belief that one is inhabited by an evil spirit.

Dactylion: An anatomical landmark located at the tip of the middle finger.

Enantiodromia: The conversion of something into its opposite.

Fanfaronade: Swaggering; empty boasting; blustering manner or behavior; ostentatious display.

Gorgonize: To have a paralyzing or mesmerizing effect on. Synonyms: stupefy or petrify.

Hamartia: The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall.

Infandous: Unspeakable or too odious to be expressed or mentioned.

Jettatura: The casting of an evil eye.

Ktenology: The science of putting people to death.

Leptosome: A person with a slender, thin, or frail body.

Montivagant: Wandering over hills and mountains.

Noegenesis: Production of knowledge.

Ostentiferous: Bringing omens or unnatural or supernatural manifestations.

Pogonotrophy: The act of cultivating, or growing and grooming, a mustache, beard, sideburns or other facial hair.

Quockerwodger: A rare nineteenth-century word for a wooden toy which briefly became a political insult.

Recumbentibus: A knockout punch, either verbal or physical.

Scripturient: Possessing a violent desire to write.

Tarantism: A disorder characterised by an uncontrollable urge to dance.

Ultracrepidarian: A person who gives opinions and advice on matters outside of one’s knowledge.

Vernalagnia: A romantic mood brought on by spring.

Welter: A confused mass; a jumble; turmoil or confusion.

Xenization: The act of traveling as a stranger.

Yonderly: Mentally or emotionally distant; absent-minded.


Zugzwang: A position in which any decision or move will result in problem.


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