23 Useful Words You Didn’t Know Existed
![23 Useful Words You Didn’t Know Existed](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/2/1129792_320x180.jpg)
The English language can feel woefully insufficient sometimes. Like, right there — “woe” is a feeling we can declare ourselves full of with just one word, but not other feelings. Something else can be “painful,” but we’re just “in pain.” We can say someone is “short” or “freckled” or “sticky,” but there’s no compact word for “Jeff Goldblum-y around the eyes.” And dammit, there should be!
Often, that’s where other languages come in. English just kind of sucks at compounding, but other languages excel at it. Or maybe there was an English word for the concept you were trying to express all along and you just didn’t know it. Quick, look up “blummy-eyed,” and maybe sing it to the tune of “Hungry Eyes” while you’re at it.
Whatever the case, after user Nicekicksbro asked r/AskReddit, “What’s your ‘there’s a word for that’ word?” they declared, “I’m like a master of all crosswords now. Hell. Yes.”
![holographic_meatloaf 9y ago Backpfeifengesicht: A face badly in need of a fist](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/9/1127839.jpg)
![TransitRanger_327 9y ago Edited 9y ago Lacuna: a word for when there is no word for something. IE: there is no word for non-virgin. This is a lacuna.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/8/1127838.jpg)
![OhMyGillett 9y ago Syzygy-combination of opposites, and the alignment of 3 celestial bodies](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/7/1127837.jpg)
![notonebuttwobears 9y ago The word Sitzpinkler from German. It literally translates as 'one who sits to pee'](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/6/1127836.jpg)
![survivalothefittest 9y ago Fiaca (Argentine Spanish) - the pleasant feeling of being relaxed with no urgency to do anything in particular.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/3/1127833.jpg)
![GiraffeCubed 9y ago Pâlegg - Norwegian word for anything you could conceivably put on a sandwich](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/2/1127832.jpg)
![ABCDE_FC 9y ago Weltschmerz. Mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/5/1127835.jpg)
![caliber38 9y ago Griffonage - a fancy word for bad handwriting to the point of a crude scribble.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/4/1127834.jpg)
![alapicasso 9y ago Entlistungsfreude - the satisfaction you get from crossing something off your list.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/1/1127831.jpg)
![snoopac 9y ago Treppenwitz: when you think of your comeback way later than when you actually need it.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/9/1127829.jpg)
![JuliusTommeter 9y ago L'appel du vide - That sudden urge you have to do something odd. Like jump off a cliff or punch your roommate.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/8/1127828.jpg)
![Mark_Zajac 9y ago susurration: the sound of dry leaves rustling in a breeze](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/0/1127830.jpg)
![pandacatapus 9y ago Komorebi- Japanese word for the sunlight that gets filtered through the leaves of trees.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/8/1127818.jpg)
![ashtonb95 9y ago Edited 9y ago Gloaming. The word for the time of day when waning light hits trees from the side and creates a dappled effect.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/3/1127823.jpg)
![TrebeksUpperLIp 9y ago Apricity. The warmth of the sun on a winter day.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/9/1127819.jpg)
![9y ago Borborygmus (plural Borborygmi): Rumbling sounds caused by gas moving through the intestines, commonly referred to as stomach growling.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/7/1127827.jpg)
![DoriclonicCorinthian 9y ago Tmesis. When you separate a word into two parts, with another word between. For example. Absolutely, becomes Abso-fucking-lutely.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/1/1127821.jpg)
![HandsLikeLuke 9y ago Semantic satiation: the phenomenon of repeating the same word over and over again until it loses meaning/sounds weird.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/0/1127820.jpg)
![skullturf 9y ago Diegetic If you're watching a movie or a TV show, and there's music that can be heard by the characters (e.g. because one of them turned on the radio or something), then that music is diegetic. Non-diegetic would be music that we the viewers hear, but it's just intended to set the mood or something, and is not something that the characters themselves can hear.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/5/1127825.jpg)
![CuntyMcGiggles 9y ago Yūgen - a Japanese word pertaining to a profound awareness of the universe which evokes feelings that are inexplicably deep and too mysterious for words. The word itself is like an extension of awareness, the aesthetic perception which allows us to conceive of the vastness of the universe](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/6/1127826.jpg)
![pilows 9y ago The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon is the phenomenon where you learn something new, and then see it everywhere. It can be a person, a word, a phrase, etc.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/7/1127817.jpg)
![ajefx 9y ago Mondegreen: mishearing a word or phrase, often in song, that creates a new meaning E.g. Jimi Hendrix scuse me while I kiss this guy vs kiss the sky](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/2/1127822.jpg)
![Riiuuyoaie 9y ago Edited 9y ago Poronkusema (Finnish, literally reindeerpissful): the distance that a reindeer can run before it must take a pissing break, up to 7.5km depending on the reindeer. If you force the reindeer to run longer than a poronkusema and not allowing it to piss, you might cause a kusiumpi. Kusiumpi (Finnish, literally piss-shut): A painful paralysis-like condition that prevents the reindeer from running, basically trapping you in the middle of cold tundra. It can be cured by letting the reindeer rest for hours and rubbing it's belly, or if you are really, really in a hurry](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/4/1127824.jpg)