The phrase "helter skelter" is strange because you don't see the word "helter" or "skelter" used anywhere, and when I searched Merriam-Webster dictionary for either word it links me to the definition of "helter skelter."    Since helter and skelter are separated by either a space or a hyphen whenever it's used, it seems like a "compound word," but compound words are made up of other words, whereas "helter skelter" is made up of two "non-words" (for lack of a better word (so far)).   What do we call this?  Is there a term for a word like "helter" that is only a word when it's paired with another, "skelter?"
121844
The Japanese language has a special group of words which repeat mostly two syllable word like pera pera, para para, don don, suku suku, that are used adverbially for examples;  Pera pera eigowo hanasu– speak English fluently.  Iki Iki shiteiru – look vivid (fresh)  Don don iku – go fast  Para para furu – rain drizzlingly  Muka muka suru – feel sick (angry)  Pera pera mekuru – turn the page at random  Zuki zuki itamu – ache acutely  Suka suka tooru - pass smoothly  They look like onomatopoeias, but they are not. They don’t reflect any sound, and they are all used adverbially, not as interjections.  I don’t know whether such usage is special to Japanese language or not. Are there a lot of similar form of refrains of nonsensical (on their own) two - (sometimes one) syllable words in separation (unlike the type of crisscross, dillydally, riffraff which are single word) used exclusively adverbially except onomatopoeia (which is not my concern) in English and other languages. If there is, I'm curious to know how we call such a group of words or usages.
61477
Is there a term for a word that occurs unbroken within another word? For example, the word "fun" in "funeral", or "drag" in "hydragog".  The closest thing I could find from my search was the term "", which refers to a word that contains the letters of its synonym, in the correct order (though not necessarily consecutively).  I am currently using "substring" as a substitute in my essay. Unfortunately, "substring" applies to any selection of consecutive characters from the containing word, and doesn't convey the fact that the subset is a complete English word.  I have tagged this , but I would appreciate single words as well. I will have to use the term quite often, so the less awkward it is, the better.
89060
I am referring to a set of words that wouldn't make sense if one word or the other was omitted. Like barbershop quartet, or Cyber Security. What do you exactly call this set of words?
38890
I have the distinct feeling there's a word often used when two people type the same thing at the same time in Internet chat contexts. Not necessarily exactly the same words, but closely related.  Maybe I've even come across it myself but forgotten it. All I can think of now is "Snap!", but that sounds a bit lame in this day and age (who plays cards nowadays, with all these video games?).
55990
I am not a native speaker and it sometimes surprise me how many different meanings some words have. An example is the word call - when I was learning English I thought it was only "shout" or "to ring someone" but the list of meanings is almost endless:  .  What are some other such words so that I can be careful when interpreting their meaning? As if I could execute the query "give me a top ten list of words with most definition lines on TheFreeDictionary".
26944
If multiple hyphenated terms share the same latter half, and I wish to list them without repeating that latter half, how should the hyphens be placed?  For example:     I will be investigating control issues in ground-based, water-based, and air-based robots.   If I do not want to repeat based, could I write:     I will be investigating control issues in ground-, water-, and air-based robots.   Is it correct to just leave a hyphen dangling after ground and water?  If not, how should it be written? I know the original sentence doesn't sound too bad, but I really just want to know the punctuation rule (or the convention in American English if there is no rule).
68165
I would expect the term "inspector general" to be "general inspector" instead.    In part, that may be because I know the German variant as "Generalinspekteur" of "Generalinspektor".  But I'm pretty sure it would be like this without knowing the German word, just from general language intuition.  So, why does the order of words make sense?    It would be interesting how it came to be like that - but that would not answer it alone. (An answer to  indicates it may be a method distinguish titles from general desrciptions.)
67075
What is the term for words that can be used as the opposite of themselves?  I know there are a few of them out there, it is possible to 'Dust a cake with Icing' and if the cake were on a shelf for a long time (must be a bad bakery) then it would be acceptable to 'Dust the cake' to remove any dust particles...  In this case, 'Dust with Icing' implies the addition of something to the cake where 'Dust the cake' implies the action of removing dust from the cake  Other examples:   Bolt - To hold in place or to Run away with haste... Trim - To remove a small portion or to add small bits that make it pretty...
113563
Is there a technical name for the play on words where someone would substitute a word for a similar one (or add a common word to the end of one) in order to express their opinion about the subject in question?  For example:   Not being a fan of Facebook's privacy rules, and calling the site Facecrook instead Feeling that people are too lazy to search before posting here, so calling this site "Slack Exchange" Calling a Didgeridoo a "Didgeridont" because you can't stand the sound it makes   The closest things I could find were a "sniglet" and a "protologism", but I'm not sure if they're it. Any thoughts?
77541
I am looking for a list of all English words that are their own antonyms. Off the top of my head, I can only think of "either", "fast", "to dust" and "to lease", but there must be dozens more. Can you provide a link to a comprehensive list, if such exists?  Also, what are such words most commonly called? I like the term "Janus word" I once heard, but is that widely understood?  Edited by popular demand to make it absolutely clear that this is not a community wiki poll.
22821
What exactly are "noun compounds"?       Is it possible to use any words to construct a noun compound?   How we can distinguish between a noun compound and an adjective compound?
10753
What is it called when you use many words to describe the word you want to use?  I know there is a technical word that's used in foreign language acquisition that means using many words to describe a word you don't know.  I'm doing it now, just talking and beating around the bush until someone can tell me the word I'm looking for.
104495
Is it allowed to have multiple hyphens in one word? I want to use the word semi-self-sustaining in the sentence     However, the ability to produce semi-self-sustaining stations is   possessed by up to a quarter of all nations.   Should we use semi-selfsustaining or avoid it by using partially self-sustaining?
8052
I assume that in English there is a word for everything, and I am looking for one that roughly means "of few words" or "of no words". The closest I could think of is non-verbal, but it sounds a bit too dry. Is there a better word?  Note: I did check for antonyms of "verbal" before I posted here, but didn't find any.
123607
When two phrases are pronounced alike but have different spelling and meaning, can we call them homophones?  e.g. "ice-cream" and "I scream", "nitrate" and "night rate", "that's tough" and "that stuff".  Or is there another term for them?  What linguistic phenomenon distiguishes these near homophones?  I've checked the putative duplicate at  but it isn't exactly what I'm asking here.
112940
"whitened", "blackened", and "reddened"; but "yellowed", "grayed", and "blued".  Is there some rule or is it just one of those things?  "Greened" makes sense; no one is going to say "greenened".  "Pinked" or "pinkened"?  "Purpled" or "empurpled"?  First person to not make an Arrested Development joke gets a +1 from me.
26480
I've been trying to find a way to filter a line that has the word "lemon" and "rice" in it. I know how to find "lemon"  or "rice"  but not the two of them. They don't need to be next to the other, just one the same line of text.