stentorian having a loud, powerful voice.
uvular sound a sound produced by the uvula or by the back of the tongue touching the uvula.
velar produced by the back of the tongue on the soft palate, as the letter g in "great." Also known as a guttural sound.
voiceless spoken without the use of the vocal cords, as the consonants t and p.
vowel a sound or letter produced by the passage of air through the larynx, as distinguished from consonants.
WORD GAMES
acrostic a poem, paragraph, or other composition in which initials or other conspicuous letters combined spell out a word or message.
alternade the creation of two words from one by assembling alternate letters, as in "calliopes": CLIPS ALOE
anagram a word or phrase created by transposing the letters in another word or phrase.
antigram same as an anagram but with an altered word or phrase that is the opposite or reverse in meaning to the original word or phrase.
beheadment the removal of an initial letter of a word to form a new word, as in blather to lather.
charade dividing a word—without changing letter placement—to form multiple words, as in "significant": sign if I can't.
charitable word a word that remains a word when any one of its letters is removed, such as "seat": eat, sat, set, sea.
curtailment removing the last letter of a word to leave another word, as in "goon" to "goo."
kangaroo word a word that contains within itself another word that is a synonym of itself, as in "evacuate" to "vacate."
letter rebus a rebus composed of letters only, as in a "B" standing for "abalone" (a B alone).
linkade joining two words with one overlapping letter to create a new word, as in "pass" and "sing" to form "passing."
lipogram a composition written entirely without the use of a particular letter, such as Ernest Wright's Gadsby, which does not contain the letter e anywhere in its text.
metallege transposing two letters in a word to create another word, as in "nuclear" to "unclear."
nonpattern word a word in which each letter is used only once.
palindrome a word spelled the same backwards as forwards, such as "redivider" or a phrase spelled the same each way, as in "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama."
pangram a phrase or sentence containing all the letters of the alphabet, constructed with as few letters as possible.
paronomasia making a pun out of a popular expression, as in "the rock-hunting nudists left no stone unturned and no stern untoned."
piano word a word in which all of its letters can be played as notes (a, b, c, d, e, f, g) on a musical instrument, such as "cabbage."
rebus a visual puzzle using pictures, symbols, letters, numbers, characters, and so on, that must be deciphered by reading it aloud, as in YYURYYUBI- CURYY4 me = too wise you are, too wise you be, I see you are too wise for me.
reversal a word that becomes another word when read backwards as, in "live" to "evil."
stinky pinky a noun joined with an adjective that rhymes, such as "fat cat."
Tom Swiftie the creation of a quotation followed by a punning adverb, such as "'Your eggs are on fire,' he said hotly."
transposition creating new word by rearranging the letters of another word, as in "ocean" from "canoe."
typewriter word a word that can be typed on a single row of a typewriter, such as the word "typewriter."
univocalic of a sentence in which only one vowel can be used, as in "it sits in its pit."
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
accidence area of grammar that deals with the inflection of words.
A-copy new reporting term for trite or "lazy" copy lifted directly from a public relations press release.
acronym a word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) or MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving.) adage a frequently quoted saying or proverb.
addendum something added or that will be added, as a supplement.
ad hominem appealing to emotion rather than logic or reason, as when assaulting an opponent's character rather than his arguments.
ad ignorantium Latin term referring to a statement made by a speaker that is true only to the degree of the listener's ignorance.
ad infinitum to infinity; going on forever, without end.
ad-lib to make an impromptu, unrehearsed, or improvised remark, speech, and so on.
ad nauseam to the degree of nausea; to a sickening or ridiculous degree.
adnomination punning.
affectation in speech or writing, an unnatural, pretentious, or show-offy style that calls attention to itself.
affix an element of a word that is attached to other elements, such as a prefix or suffix.
agglutination the formation of new words by the combining of other words or word elements, as in disfigure-ment or broncho-scope.
allegory a story or anecdote that uses metaphor to illustrate a deeper truth.
alliteration in speech or writing, a string of two or more words with the same-sounding initial consonants, as in "the silly sods sunk Sally's ship Sunday."
allonym a pen name that is the borrowed name of another, as distinguished from a pseudonym.
allusion an indirect, incidental, or casual reference that is more meaningful or significant than its presentation would imply.
alphabet soup the extravagant use of initialisms or acronyms, a common practice of the government and the military.
altiloquence any pompous speech or writing.
ambiguity a wording, remark, speech, story, or similar term having more than one meaning.
amphibology an unintentional ambiguity resulting from poor sentence construction, as in "faulty propellers will ground beef lift rescue plan."
anachronism a person, thing, word, saying, and suchlike placed in the incorrect time in history, as a character in a World War II novel who uses the words "groovy" or "floppy disk."
anacoluthon in speech or writing, an unexpected change of syntax arriving at midsentence, such as "the flowers were in—but no, they weren't in bloom, come to think of it."
analogy a similarity in comparison between two different things or concepts; making a point by illustrating the similarities between two dissimilar things.
ananym one's name spelled backwards, sometimes used as a pseudonym.
anaphora the repetition of words or phrases for effect, as in "a big, bad man with a big, bad idea for a big, bad world."
anastrophe the reversal of the normal or standard order of words in a sentence construction, for effect, as in "off his rocker he goes."
anecdote a short, interesting account of an incident, often illustrating someone's personality or some historical event.
Anglicize to alter a word or name so that it sounds English, as in Arthur Greenburger to Art Green.
annotation a critical or explanatory note accompanying a literary work.