Fiction Made-Up Words
Obligallop
(n.) The small, entirely unnecessary jog you perform when a stranger holds a door open for you from an unreasonable distance.
Fiction — invented for fun
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Made-Up Words
New words for feelings the dictionary forgot.
Made-Up Words invents the words the language forgot to make: a name for sitting in the car because the song is not over yet, for the polite dance of two people trying to pass each other, for the pause before you admit you have forgotten someone's name. Every word here is invented, and none of them is in a dictionary — yet.
Each entry gives the word, how to say it, a definition, an invented history and examples of it in use. The words are made up for fun, but the feelings they name are real and familiar, which is the point. Every piece is labelled Fiction and written with the help of AI, and new pieces are approved by an editor before they are published.
What makes them more than a joke list is the care: each word is built so that it sounds as if it could exist. Feel free to use them. For the true stories of real words, see Word Journeys.
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Three good first reads, picked by the editor.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Melodwell: The Art of the Car-Stereo Stall
Have you ever arrived at your destination but found yourself utterly unable to open the car door? You might be experiencing a sudden, beautiful bout of melodwell.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Quombilate
(v.) To stand in front of an open fridge, lit by its light, having forgotten what you wanted.
Articles
Fiction Made-Up Words
Tapeskate: Hunting for the End of the Sticky Tape With Your Thumbnail
(n.) The slow, patient circling of a thumbnail around a roll of clear sticky tape, hunting for an end that is certainly there and absolutely refuses to be found.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Turnalibi: Checking Your Phone Before You Turn Round in the Street
(n.) The small show of glancing at your phone, frowning and nodding before you turn round on the pavement, so that nobody thinks you were simply walking the wrong way.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Melonknock: Tapping a Watermelon as if You Knew What to Listen For
(n.) The grave, expert-looking knock given to a watermelon in a shop, followed by a slow wise nod, by somebody who has no idea what a good one is supposed to sound like.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Cracklecreep: Opening a Noisy Wrapper Very Slowly in a Quiet Room
(n.) The painfully slow opening of a noisy sweet wrapper in a hushed room, done in the firm belief that slow means silent, which it never does.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Footfrontier: The One Foot That Guards the Edge of the Duvet
(n.) The single bare foot sent out from under the duvet on a warm night to patrol the cool air at the edge of the bed, while the rest of you stays safely tucked in.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Peelgrace: Lifting the Film Off Something New in One Perfect Sheet
(n.) The small, glowing joy of peeling the clear film off a brand-new screen in one unbroken sheet, without a single tear or bubble.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Tabhoard: The Forty Browser Tabs You Are Definitely Going to Read
Tabhoard is the quiet row of open browser tabs you are keeping for later, each one a small promise that later will somehow arrive.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Stairhoard: The Pile That Lives at the Bottom of the Stairs
(n.) The small, patient heap at the foot of the staircase, made entirely of things that belong upstairs, which the whole household steps over for six days.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Echowish
(n.) The reflex that fires a good wish straight back at the person who offered it, so that a waiter setting down your dinner is warmly told to enjoy his meal too.
Fiction Made-Up Words
Plugspin
(n.) The ritual of trying a plug one way up, then the other, then the first way again, which somehow now works perfectly.