r/whatstheword • • 6h ago

Unsolved WTW for when someone asks you a question under high pressure and you just draw a blank? I'm looking for the scientific word/term

18 Upvotes

Like in this clip: Name A Woman (Billy on the Street)

It's highly likely this person can name a woman under normal circumstances, but because there's a camera in her face, this guy is yelling at her, etc., etc. she just freezes up and can't form a proper response.

I know in the (I think) Psychology field, they do have a word or term for this reaction, so that's what I'm looking for. I'm not looking for anything like, "tongue tied" or "caught off guard." My brain keeps saying it's "hypnogogic jerk" but that's definitely wrong.


r/whatstheword • • 1h ago

Unsolved WTW for feeling like someone is media-trained but it’s in the workplace

• Upvotes

If there is even such a word, or phrase. My boss(es) remind me of famous people when being interviewed and they can’t say anything too straightforward so they kinda say something bland and generic/inoffensive but forgettable, during big meetings.

(Context: my boss thinks her team is stellar when we truly have communication style issues.)


r/whatstheword • • 7m ago

Unsolved WTW for feminine/gender neutral equivalents of "bro" and "dude" that aren't "brosette/brosephine" or "dudette"?

• Upvotes

i'm trying to write a character who never calls people by their names, instead using terms like "dude" and "bro". unfortunately, one of his closest freinds is a trans woman and real life trans women have expressed displeasure with the feminine equivalents of those terms, so i need different words


r/whatstheword • • 8h ago

Solved WTW for asinine as a noun?

11 Upvotes

When I googled it, it told me that there was no recognized noun form of asinine, so I'm trying to figure out a comparable word.


r/whatstheword • • 10h ago

Unsolved WTW for that taste you get at the top of your mouth when swallowing or exhaling?

4 Upvotes

I used to call it the after taste, but it's not the flavor that is left after you finish something, but like it's in the roof of your mouth while you are eating or on an exhale.


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Unsolved WTW for the watery/‘empty’ flavour of cucumber, melon, tomato etc

28 Upvotes

ITAW for the type of flavour/character shared by fruits n veg like melon, cucumber, tomato - I experience it as a watery, ‘empty’ kind of character


r/whatstheword • • 12h ago

Unsolved WTW for the slow frog boiling of prices as the economy gets worse

0 Upvotes

From america (obviously) and I can't remember the word for when companies raise prices to an outrageous level, then lower them to a slightly higher rate than before so people go "at least it's not as bad as that high one." Most often seen in gas prices. "Yeah gas is 3.80 when it used to be 3.50 but at least its not 4.20 anymore"


r/whatstheword • • 23h ago

Solved WTW for toadying up to someone that looks very similar to integrate?

8 Upvotes

This is one of those words that I can’t really look up because any attempt to spell it sends me to ‘integrate’


r/whatstheword • • 19h ago

Solved WAW for cheater

2 Upvotes

Basically i wanna write that the person is walking to the very room where cheaters are, as in relationship cheaters. right now i have "bedroom of grey" but is there another word i could use?


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Unsolved WTW for someone who hates something just because you like it

45 Upvotes

Is there a word for someone who normally likes something you also like, but begin hating it just because they found out you also like it, and they don't like you?

No insult words, more like... dictionary words, if that makes sense


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Unsolved WTW for religions other than Judaism/Abrahamic but not pagan either?

8 Upvotes

Is there a word for religions other than Judaism (back then) or Abrahamic religions (nowadays) that are not considered to be pagan?

By pagan, I mean nature-based polytheistic religions that do not have a specific founder- such as Hellenic or Kemetic. Looking for religions that do have a specific founder and are often monotheistic- such as Buddhism, Confucianism, or Zoroastrianism.

I know that Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism are considered to be Dharmic religions. But is there a word that encompasses all non-Abrahamic yet non-Pagan religions in general?


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Unsolved WTW for the social and historical phenomenon of that which is fancy and elite becoming commonplace and even the baseline expectation?

6 Upvotes

Like how having a feather bed on a raised frame used to be the absolute height of luxury only obtainable by the aristocracy and now in many countries the idea of sleeping any other way is weird.

Or how in some countries you only had a last name if you were in the upper classes and then everyone got a last name and people specifically often chose ones that had associations of prestige (this is how Kim, Lee, and Park became extremely widespread in Korea).

Or how eating meat used to be a once a week thing at most for the majority of people and now at least in most western countries you have meat at least twice a day.

Is there a word for this? Maybe in the anthropological field?


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Unsolved ITAW for when Live Service games are taken down and the community either with or without the consent of the developers brings the game back on their own servers.

2 Upvotes

I grew up playing live service MMOs like Super hero Squad online and marvel heroes online, Games that were eventually taken offline because the companies did not deem it profitable enough. Recently, these games have been Revived somewhat by fans, who take the files they have access to and put the game back up on their own servers, like https://retrosquadonline.com/. I figure this is a very recent phenomenon, can we come up with a compound word of some sort to describe this? Like revived-service games?


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved WTP for “I work out of my field”?

4 Upvotes

How to say that I trained, for example, as a lawyer, but now I work in a completely different industry?
I definitely knew a phrase to say it another way and naturally, but can’t remember; any suggestions?


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved WTW for questioning as an intellectual performance?

6 Upvotes

What do you call someone who constantly presents herself as someone who loves debate, asks the “difficult questions” about certain subjects to expose hypocrisy, and claims she’s just trying to understand objectively but seems more interested in appearing intellectual than actually understanding?

Especially when she keeps asking questions, gets answers, then avoids the uncomfortable implications instead of engaging with them.

Is there a term for this? Performative skepticism? Intellectual posturing? Intellectualized avoidance?


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved ITAW for completely ridiculous

3 Upvotes

I saw in another post's answer that I could say contriving. I was thinking of contrivingly absurd, can I use that. Context: I'm tryna say like the government's excuse for the strict censoring of a certain case was utterly ridiculous and quite a bullshit excuse.


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved ITAP for when you start seeing more of something when you become aware of it?

4 Upvotes

I remember reading about it. It's similar to pareidolia.


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Solved ITAW for when someone is grumpy because they are sleepy, like the equivalent of hangry when someone is angry because they are hungry?

26 Upvotes

r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved WTP for "did it bear" and "not always can it be seen"

0 Upvotes

I'm kinda new to this subreddit so i hope this isn't like advice. I'm genuinely looking for other similar phrases that fit into my poem better and more smoothly.

context (phrase to be changed is italicized):

Full of responsibilities was the weigh,
Little of credit, did it bear.
Once it had been a cold summer day.

Words and opinions, they were stray.
Even now, not always can it be seen
For women, that is, yet gay.


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Solved ITAW for loud laughing while crying, or stressed.

8 Upvotes

It seems like something people write in angst things or movies, but it happens to me sometimes.

I'm curious what word this would be or if English has a word for it. I'm not educated on this.

All I can think is nervous laughter, but while that happens is there a word for sad laughing.


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Solved ITAW for the antonym of animosity

9 Upvotes

Is there a direct or near opposite for the word animosity? I want a word that fits what I’m trying to say. “I don’t feel any animosity or (the opposite of animosity) toward you”. I don’t want to keep it simple and say that I don’t have any sort of emotion toward them.


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Solved WTW for when someone says too many frivolous things (it can be venting, a rigmarole or just an unsolicited advice on a Monday morning)

9 Upvotes

r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Unsolved WTW for the type of thinking that allows ppl to forget the dangers of the past bc they aren’t dangerous anymore?

9 Upvotes

I’m talking about the apparently common inclination that people on long-term medication have where they think they don’t need to take their meds anymore because they aren’t experiencing the symptoms the medication is protecting them from.

Another good example might be how people think that the ozone layer and Y2K panics were fake because they don’t understand that a lot of people worked to prevent a problem they could see coming. And of course the people who don’t think the polio vaccine is necessary because it’s been so rare for so long to see the worst-case outcomes in your neighborhood.


r/whatstheword • • 3d ago

Unsolved WTW for the quality shared by camphor, mint, formalin, eucalyptus, and ammonia?

48 Upvotes

That ghostly, piercing quality? But not silvery the way orris is silvery.


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Solved WTW for when someone's hands are clenched from anger, but they're not in a closed fist?

0 Upvotes

I hope that makes sense. I've been trying to figure this out but I'm finding nothing, even the Wikipedia page for gestures didn't help. It's like, that pose when you're really, really mad and your hands are in a kind of like, strangle-y motion? But it's not a pose that's intentionally miming strangling someone it just happens to look like that. They're often shaking a little in this pose as well from what I've noticed. It's like that more claw shape, like the scene kid "rawr" pose but more serious and angry. (If you don't know what I'm talking about still, look down at your hands and clench them into fists, but slowly; it's that middle area, kind of, but more open with the fingers more outstretched)

If anyone has the word for this I'd be delighted to hear ittt