Descriptionary

lallation lulling sounds, as with a baby; baby sounds.

linguistics the science of language and speech.

mellifluous of a tone of voice, rich, smooth, or resonant.

modulation the variation of volume, tone, or pitch; a variation of inflection.

monotone a tone of voice lacking inflection or expression.

morpheme the smallest meaningful unit of language.

nasal resonating through the nasal activities, as the pronunciation of the suffix "ing" or the letter n.

orotund forceful and resonant.

paralinguistics all forms of communication that accompany speech, as in tone of voice, speech tempo, gestures, facial expressions.

phoneme the smallest unit of speech.

plosive designating a burst of air, as produced by pronouncing the letter p.

sibilant suggestive of a hissing sound, as in s, sh, z, zh. sibilate to hiss.

singsong a rising and falling of voice pitch, often used when taunting another.

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.