THE WORD FOR WORD IS WORD
12 fun language paradoxes and words that describe themselves
Published on November 13, 2023
Image: Ryoji Iwata
Autological words? Language paradoxes? Join us in this article to explore the fun consequences of self-referential language.
Autological words or homological words are words that happen to express a property that they themselves possess. Like noun is a noun, or English is actually English, these examples of recursive meaning within a word can be quite fun to think about.
The opposite of an autological word would be a heterological word, meaning one that doesn’t apply to itself. For example, the word long isn’t a long word itself, and monosyllabic has more than one syllable.
A paradox arises when one tries to answer the question: "Is heterological a heterological word itself? Before reading further, try to make the math in your head, and you will soon find that giving a straight answer is almost impossible without modifying the original definitions of heterological and autological.
Before this starts giving you a headache, we are not here to rummage into borderline mathematical problems within the logical structure of modern English, so don’t worry! Autological words can be a lot of fun on their own, even without pesky paradoxes popping up. Here are some examples.
Embiggened
Image: omid roshan
This is a real word present in the English dictionary, in case you are wondering. Humorously popularized by The Simpsons, embiggened is quite a fun example, since it is a sort of ungainly enlargement of itself.
Interesting
Image: Eliott Reyna
This could very much depend on context, but interesting derives from the Anglo-Norman word interesse, and a blend of an older Latin word that referred to something important and an Old French expression relating to damage or loss. So, interesting is a somewhat interesting word by itself, at least if you like etymologies. Arguably, one could also say that it is a heterological word, since interesting is the go-to word for most people when they don’t really have anything interesting to say about something.
Pronounceable
Image: Jeremiah Lawrence
Not for you maybe, but pronounceable is a difficult word to pronounce for many people, particularly for people who aren’t native speakers of English.
Lexiphanic
Image: K. Mitch Hodge
Ever heard of this one before? Don’t worry, me neither. Lexiphanic means something - or someone - that uses pretentious or bombastic language.
Included
Image: Denis Agati
In this list! Ha!
Unhyphenated
Image: Tim Mossholder
Could we give unhyphenated a hyphen just for the sake of ruining this self-descriptive madness? Maybe. But it wouldn’t make too much sense. Hyphenated, on the other hand, is heterological, as it fails to describe itself.
Pentasyllabic
Image: Sincerely Media
I love this one. If you don’t get it, count the syllables! Multisyllabic is also a related autological word.
Sesquipedalian
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A long, unnecessary word that literally means "a long word". It also derives from the Latin root sēsquipedālis, which means "a foot and a half long".
Vowelled
Image: Afif Ramdhasuma
Lots of vowels in this one, so… it passes the autological test.
Frankenword
Image: freestocks
Who even conceived this word? Just like the literary monster, this word is exactly what it means, a combination of two other words, or a portmanteau (that just happens to be autological too!).
Penultimate
Image: Thomas Bormans
In the context of this list. Don’t worry, we are almost at the end.
Buzzword
Image: Hitesh Choudhary
Funnily enough, this word also happens to be a buzzword. It may be even more popular than the actual buzzwords it refers to.
If you loved these autological words, check out our other articles! At Dictionary Scoop we explore all language-related topics and trivia, from words with strange properties like the ones in this list to untranslatable ones, or the history and etymology behind many English words.
