Ask Lemmy

niggardly

Miscellaneous, no one that isn't a native English speaker knows how to pronounce that word

Acknowledge, no one that isn't a native English speaker knows how to write that word

" sesquipedalian "

I was just thinking "umbrella" is weird. It just seems so random.

Onomatopoeia - the word for making a word for a sound

I think "once" is spelled strangely. In Spanish it's 11 and pronounced as you would expect.

In English the same string of letters is pronounced wonss. Plus the whole once twice thrice for one time two times three times is odd, though at least consistent but then no fourse or anything it just stops.

"Fuck"

I think adjective is the only grammar variation it doesn't cover.

strengths

it breaks so many linguistic rules yet feels just fine to say

Dyslexia - it's hard to spell even if you're not dyslexic.

Glossolalia

"Kitsch" is hard to define weird. "Absquatulate" is the weirdest word I use on a semi-regular basis because it just means to leave quickly.

Most of the examples here are perfectly cromulent words.

Myrrh

"Winningest"

Vainglorious.

Isthmus. I don't claim to know if it's the weirdest, but it's gotta be one of the most difficult to pronounce!

Flabbergasted

onomatopoeia (edit) - the word should have been something akin to soundsalotlikea but no one consulted me.

noun

1. The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
2. The property of a word of sounding like what it represents.
3. A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle" or "hiss".

Kumquat

"Weirdest"

I dunno if it's the weirdest but "pronunciation" is pretty weird.

Why is it "pronUnciation" but "pronOUnce"?

Tabernacle

pwn

When I run grep -v "[aeiouy]" /usr/share/dict/words|less on my system, it's the only non-abbreviation word that comes up that doesn't have a "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", or "y" and is a real word -- like, Mirriam-Webster lists it:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pwn

slang

: to dominate and defeat (someone or something) : OWN sense 1b, ROUT entry 2 sense 1a

Online gamers use "pwn" to describe annihilating an opponent, or owning them. The word came from misspelling "own" by gamers typing quickly and striking the letter P instead of the neighboring letter O.
— Christopher Rhoads

No government, including Britain's, should have the power to pwn the Internet, and destroy it in the process.
— Amie Stepanovich

Why pwn the noobs from your couch when you could do it in front of an audience at New York's first-ever Fortnite In The Heights Tournament?
—Eva Kis

Then, a bunch of federal attorneys general got pwned in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding their prosecution of medical marijuana businesses, which is a pretty big deal.
—Vince Silwoski

Syzygy

Just for the spelling really.

"fine"

because it can mean so many different things, like if you say something is fine, it's not very good, but "fine dining" is fancy and good.