/r/whatstheword

Photograph via snooOG

Welcome to r/whatstheword, a community where users help each other to come up with the [perfect, best, ideal, most suitable] word or phrase. Earn community karma by submitting a comment that OP indicates solves their post.

We're a subreddit dedicated to helping you find the right word, phrase, or synonym.

Rules

Click the header to view the full rules

  1. Posts must search for a word, phrase or synonym.
  2. The title must start with WTP for, ITAP for WTW for, or WAW for.
  3. Top-level comments must be genuine attempts to find the word. Joke answers, political dunks, or other nonsense will be met with a ban.
  4. Mark your posts as solved by replying !solved to the comment that found your word.
  5. No ChatGPT/AI answers.

Flair Descriptions

When you submit a post, it will go through several stages. Progressing to the next stage will be marked via a flair change. All flairs are assigned and updated automatically. Below is a description of all of them.

  • Unsolved - Applied when post is submitted. This means that the poster has not replied to any responses since posting or there are currently no answers.

  • Solved - Automatically applied when the poster replies with the word solved anywhere in the comments. This means that the query has been solved.


Q: I see a post with a wrong flair. What should I do?

A: Please let us know. We'll quickly hop in and override the flair manually.

Additional resources

Got part of the word but can't remember the rest? Try OneLook Dictionary

Look up synonyms at Thesaurus

Use Merriam-Webster Dictionary to find definitions of words.

Use Vocabulary Dictionary to find easy to grasp definitions and use cases for words.

Ask questions about language over at English StackExchange

Want to learn some latin phrases to impress your colleagues and sound like a smartass? Check out the List of Latin Phrases

Have two similar-sounding words and not sure which one to use? Look them up in the Choose Your Words dictionary.

Related subreddits

Get into word science at r/words

/r/Logophilia is a subreddit for interesting or novel words and for the lovers of words themselves.

Are you fascinated by profound quotes that use obscure locution? /r/LexiconicPorn is the place for you.

Are you wondering if the word in your head even exists? Come check out /r/neology and find out!

And if you're especially interested in sincere talks of Literature and writing, check out /r/TheArtifice.

/r/whatstheword

168,065 Subscribers

15

WTW for a wall of tv screens

like in a spy movie or something

18 Comments
2025/01/19
03:22 UTC

1

WTP for why change bad behavior if it's working for you

Someone just asked me why their partner thinks it's ok to treat them badly.

16 Comments
2025/01/19
01:44 UTC

3

WTW for ganging up against a person?

I’m looking for a some good phrases referring to someone who picks out a bunch of people to fight against or or squabble against someone. Edit: I usually never ask for “phrases”, so yeah I should’ve began the title with “WTP” for… and not used that, as I’m looking for a phrase.

12 Comments
2025/01/18
23:23 UTC

6

ITAW for something like standoff that indicates violence but isn't so modern?

Standoff only came about in the 1800s and is quite coded into the Mexican standoff. When I look up synonyms, I get impasse, stalemate, and such which don't hold the idea of violence/danger in the standoff that "standoff" does. Is there another word that would basically mean "two ready to attack each other but waiting for the other to make the move first or see if they'll both be dropping it"?

25 Comments
2025/01/18
22:41 UTC

6

WTW for being both angry and sad?

9 Comments
2025/01/18
20:19 UTC

12

WTW for getting the result you want but via less than admirable means

Like, "okay you didnt fire my husband but i had to sleep with you"

28 Comments
2025/01/18
17:46 UTC

42

WTW for someone who redirects an argument by pointing out a trivial fact?

Looking for a word or phrase that describes when, during an argument about a large or very consequential problem, someone changes the topic to a very minor or trivial detail which then derails the entire conversation.

e.g. Martha hates that Tom is always using dishes and very rarely washes them. Just this morning Martha found a plate that Tom had left out used and unwashed. Tom’s response is that “it wasn't a plate, it was a saucer.” The conversation turns into a fight about the definition of plates instead of Martha’s original issue with dish washing.

35 Comments
2025/01/18
17:18 UTC

4

WTW for when you are looking forward to going back to work since your will be you're last day until you're days off?

My days off are Sunday and Monday . But I'm looking forward to going back to work later on tonight so I can hurry up and get to my days off.

16 Comments
2025/01/18
17:08 UTC

5

WTW for describing how we know that we are thinking

I’m taking a course that has us reading a book on critical thinking. The authors of the book (Paul & Elder, 2012) come up with a provisional definition of the topics as “the art of thinking about thinking while thinking to make thinking better” (p.xix). Another word for it would be metacognition, but the discussion got me to thinking if there were another word that would fit into the following analogy: epistemology:knowing::ontology: being::wtw:thinking. Any ideas?

13 Comments
2025/01/18
16:24 UTC

29

WTW for the feeling a person gets after surviving a brush with death?

A friend of mine had to be hospitalized for several days after routine surgery nearly killed him. His world basically shrunk down to that hospital bed. He couldn’t eat solid food for days, was attached to an IV and drains, and was stuck in this sterile, bland environment until discharge. When he finally left the hospital, he said it felt like he was walking for the first time and seeing the world for the first time. He described the feeling as almost a euphoria. He wasn’t an emotional guy but he would burst into tears because something was so overwhelmingly beautiful or intense. Eating a simple bowl of soup had him in tears. He said it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. When I relayed this story to a psychologist acquaintance, she said “oh, that’s…”

I can’t remember what she called it. Help me, please!

26 Comments
2025/01/18
14:22 UTC

11

WTW for the feeling after Flash Blindness when you think you're still blinded but it's now just dark?

I was riding a ride at an amusement park, and they take your picture at the end with a flash that causes temporary Flash Blindness. But in that section, it is also pitch black after the flash guess off, so you can't tell if your vision had come back or not... Is there a word or phrase for this Schrodinger's blindness?

17 Comments
2025/01/18
07:25 UTC

11

ITAW for this particular type of smile?

So the situation is this: the guy is 18 years old with a 4 year old sister. She has just said something that, to her, is serious, but to him, is funny. He doesn't want to laugh at her, so he is holding it back. The smile is kind of like a smirk, but 'smirk' is too negative for the situation. So, imagine that one side of the mouth is lifted, but instead of the lips being relaxed like with a smirk, they are more pursed. I hope I explained this well enough to make sense. Thanks!

13 Comments
2025/01/18
06:48 UTC

8

WTW for when you do something only because you also do it yourself?

ex: someone has a privacy screen protector only because they also look at other people’s phones

or someone hides their snacks because they also look for other people’s snacks to eat

i don’t think it’s a hypocrite i just can’t describe it well enough for google

7 Comments
2025/01/18
05:53 UTC

15

WTW for when you can't stop crying uncontrollably, ending in the suffix -rrhea?

(sorry if I used suffix wrong I'm stupid) So I saw this VSauce video about how Diahrrea isn't the only word with the suffix -rrhea, so I tried to find what uncontrollable crying was because it rhymes well in a rap I'm making, but it just shows up with some sort of pseudobulbar effect or something like that I don't remember

36 Comments
2025/01/18
02:15 UTC

2

WAW for friendship but more intense

I want to describe a connection with someone but I don’t want to use the word “love”. This is more than friendship, almost like kindred souls, but I don’t want the word to be obviously romantic. Is there a word that exists such as this?

24 Comments
2025/01/18
00:44 UTC

9

ITAW for a person favoured by god?

I heard someone compliment another person on their success and they said “when I see you, I just feel like you’re someone favoured by god”. I felt that was kind of nice. And I would like to know if there is one word to sum that up.

Also, the word doesn’t necessarily have to be in English.

26 Comments
2025/01/18
00:21 UTC

5

ITAP for the fiction trope where characters allude to something that is never shown/explained to the audience (because it's more entertaining that way)?

The closest term I know of is the TVTropes term Noodle Incident, but that refers specifically to a past event that characters occasionally reference. But I'm wondering if there's more of an umbrella term for this kind of writing technique, where something is vaguely alluded to in-story but never elaborated on or shown to the audience, and the writer chooses against ever revealing what the thing is because the entertainment value is in what the audience imagines in their head.

For one example (inspired by a nostalgia bender I've been on lately), the character Double D from Ed Edd n' Eddy wears a beanie at all times. The rare instances when his hat is removed, there is a cutaway or his head is covered up, so it's never revealed what he looks like without his hat on, but it's alluded to by multiple characters to be something shocking and possibly grotesque. I remember as a kid the ambiguity around this was a source of frustration to me, but now as an adult I recognize it as an example of this trope, and that no definitive answer given by the creator himself would be anything other than a disappointment.

Another version I see a lot in sitcoms is that a character will occasionally be referenced, and usually be hyped up as exceptionally quirky in some way, but never shown onscreen. Like Dorothy's brother Phil from The Golden Girls, or Spencer's friend Socko in iCarly.

Now this is probably something different, but tangentially I'm also thinking of this trope in literature where things are described vaguely so readers can apply their own image to it, like "it was so beautiful/horrifying that words cannot do it justice."

2 Comments
2025/01/17
23:45 UTC

10

WTW for someone who runs a business but does not own it... like a super high up assistant that the owner fully trusts

The can handle the money, know all details, handle the employees, make executive decisions, do the actual hands on work because they are so familiar with what is going on,

31 Comments
2025/01/17
23:40 UTC

12

ITAP for "when there are no good options, bad options look good"?

I feel like there is a phrase for this, but the closest I can get is "In a country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," which is totally wrong.

But, when you're desperate, you'll grasp at straws.

Is there a phrase like that, but that implies you think you are making a smart choice, not a desperate one?

38 Comments
2025/01/17
22:27 UTC

48

WTW for being totally caught off guard when someone chastises you?

You are joking around with coworkers. You leave the office thinking everything is fine and you even have a smile on your face. Five minutes later one of your coworkers messages you and says "You know exactly what she meant. She meant no ill will and you know that. She is worried unnecessarily that she upset you, and that's not fair." I replied "Huh? What happened? What did I do?"

All I can think of is gobsmacked.

57 Comments
2025/01/17
21:41 UTC

7

WTP for That Mocking Voice/Face

When someone says something, and then someone else repeats it back to them with pursed lips and a mocking voice.

What's that called?

(i don't know Tommy what's that called?)

19 Comments
2025/01/17
21:19 UTC

7

WTW for feeling proud of someone you don't know well or had no input in?

WTW for the pride feeling when one of your new friends/co-worker or acquaintance. Does or attempts something amazing.

Like a girl I travelled for a week with attempted to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. I didn't help, or train or join etc, but kind of feel proud of her via proxy?

Thanks

12 Comments
2025/01/17
21:00 UTC

36

WTW for the opposite of a laxative?

My wife and I have been discussing this all day, what is the word for a drug that makes you constipated.

Codeine is a _______, which makes you constipated. It's been driving us mad. Not anti-diarrheal or anti-mobility.

48 Comments
2025/01/17
17:15 UTC

2

WTW for the person behind the straw man

We have the word (two words) for a straw man but do we call the person behind the straw man? This has come up in my work and there isn't a great word that I can find for it.

I just say guy behind the guy? which isn't all that eloquent

31 Comments
2025/01/17
17:05 UTC

50

WTW for when you’re sort of insulted, but also kind of amused?

One of my high school teachers asked the girls why everyone was wearing Uggs. One of the girls said that sneakers were kind of bulky and unattractive, and I looked down at my own sneakers and thought, “well, f me then.”

I was kind of bothered by it, but I also just had to laugh at how the moment played out.

Is there a word for that?

52 Comments
2025/01/17
16:45 UTC

5

WTW for to hungry to eat?

I have appetite fatigue or maybe hunger-induced nausea. Looking for more expressive words and phrases. The emotion associated is rage. Literally that: when you hate everyone, then eat feeling.

My character is really going through it and I'd like to make fun of him.

10 Comments
2025/01/17
16:29 UTC

8

WTW for when you think someone sucks and everyone else thinks they're great, but then they do something that shows everyone they suck?

Like someone who never liked Bill Cosby even from the early days, and then his true history comes to light and the person who never liked him was right about not liking him all along. Not Schadenfreude.

12 Comments
2025/01/17
16:11 UTC

7

WTW for a tiny, preferably cylindrical, container?

So for context I'm writing a fantasy novel, and there's this small vessel characters can use to both store and release magic spells. To activate it, they would need to say "release" followed by thhe spell's name (e.g. Release, Fireball!) then throw the vessel towards the intended target, or at least the general direction of it. It is small enough in shape that you can hold it with only two fingers. Anyways, for now I call it "spell canisters" but it being a "canister" doesn't sit right with me. "Vial" and "flask" are already taken, nevertheless it still doesn't seem right, since the thing's typically not made out of glass. And it certainly isn't a "potion" lol. Anybody knows another word for it?

51 Comments
2025/01/17
13:33 UTC

3

ITAP for when someone hints something another person is doing wrong by describing someone else acting very similar to them/what they're doing?

For example if someone borrowed their friend money a while ago, they might casually say to them, "One of my old friends really annoyed me, they never paid me back when I'd borrow them money."

5 Comments
2025/01/17
13:03 UTC

0

ITAW for sorcerers?

Is there a word for sorcerer but as a female? If there's version of it like any words [e.g Actress, vampiress, witch, etc..]

7 Comments
2025/01/17
10:41 UTC

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