Weird Words

By Ian Miller

With the Spelling Bee behind us, the newspaper staff thought it would be appropriate to share some interesting words with our readers! After lots of scrutiny, we narrowed it down to eight. Without further adieu, here are our top eight words!

Portmanteau (pohrt-man-toh) A portmanteau is when two or more words squeeze together into one. The word brunch is a portmanteau.

Borborygmus (bohr-buh-rig-mus) Borborygmus is the rumbling sound that comes from someone’s stomach.

Interrobang (in-ter-uh-bang) An interrobang is a combination of a question mark and exclamation point as one piece of punctuation

Ambidextrous (am-bi-dek-struhs) If someone is ambidextrous, they can use both of their hands equally well to write or draw.

Yomp (yahmp) A yomp is a long and difficult hike with lots of heavy equipment. Zonk (zongk) If someone zonks out, they fall asleep very quickly and suddenly.

Triskaidekaphobia (tris-kuh-dek-uh-foh-bee-uh) Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number thirteen.

Whangdoodle (whang-dooh-duhl) A whangdoodle is an imaginary creature. (Be on the lookout for some drawn by CFI students hidden in this month’s paper!)

Congratulations! You are now a Sesquipedalian! (Ses-quip-e-day-lian) Someone who knows and loves lots of big words!

All words and definitions came from “The Dictionary of Difficult Words” written by Jane Soloman. Check it out if you want to know more weird words!

These Wangdoodles are from Mrs. Hammon's class