Top Ten Best Words to Say Out Loud

  1. Discombobulated
  2. Paraphernalia
  3. Flibbertigibbet
  4. Propinquity
  5. Lackadaisical
  6. Prestidigitation
  7. Kerfuffle
  8. Efficaciousness
  9. Onomatopoeia
  10. Mellifluous

Do you have a favourite word you like to enunciate at full volume? 

Top Ten Eggcorns (Mispronounced Phrases)

  1. A damp squid. (Should be a damp squib. A firework. Let's face it, a squid is always going to be damp!)
  2. Like a bowl in a China shop. (Instead of a bull in a china shop, which is much more likely to be a problem!)
  3. For all intensive purposes. (Should be "For all intents and purposes" of course!)
  4. Be more pacific. (Specific!)
  5. I’m extremely high rate. (Irate!)
  6. Going off on a tandem. (...at a tangent!)
  7. Biting my time. (Biding!)
  8. Playing Devil’s avocado. (My favourite! Devil's advocate, of course!)
  9. We have to nip it in the butt. (Ouch! They mean bud!)
  10. Trouble with his prostrate. (Prostate, as opposed to having trouble lying down!)

 

A few more: 

I’ve been passed from pillow to post.

It's just rubbing salt into the womb.

I'm on tender hooks.

I want some cold slaw on my salad.

I feel like a social leopard

Have you heard some you would like to let us know about?

 

Top Ten "Willy-Nilly" Pairs of Words (Reduplicatives).

 

  1. Willy-nilly
  2. Shilly-shally
  3. Hunky-dory
  4. Namby-pamby
  5. Easy-peasy
  6. Argy-bargy
  7. Nitty-gritty
  8. Topsy-turvy
  9. Airy-fairy
  10. Itsy-bitsy

The origin of many of these phrases was a children's word game from several centuries ago.
Can you think of more word pairs that follow this pattern?  We're sure there's plenty more!

Top Ten Collective Nouns
Part One: Birds

 

  1. A Flamboyance (of Flamingos)
  2. A Pandemonium (of Parrots)
  3. An Ostentation (of Peacocks)
  4. A Convocation (of Eagles)
  5. An Exaltation (of Larks)
  6. A Charm (of Goldfinches)
  7. A Paddling (of Ducks)
  8. A Tittering (of Magpies)
  9. A Lamentation (of Swans)
  10. A Murmuration (of Starlings)

 

 

Top Ten Football Cliches

Top Ten Football Cliches 

  1. They’ve set their stall out early doors.
  2. He’s just extended his contract.
  3. It’s all because of the inconsistency of VAR.
  4. I’ve seen them given.
  5. He’s a bargain at 150 million.
  6. The ref’s had a directive.
  7. The goalkeeper’s done his homework.
  8. He's finding pockets of space.
  9. The striker needs to be more clinical.
  10. That one’s straight out of the training ground.

Top Ten Oxymorons

 

  1. original copy
  2. almost exactly
  3. plastic glass
  4. practice test
  5. virtual reality
  6. live recording
  7. open secret
  8. living dead
  9. deafening silence
  10. passive aggressive

 

Awfully good some of these, aren't they? ;)

The extract on the left shows how William Shakespeare used oxymorons to great effect in one of the earliest speeches from Romeo and Juliet. 

 

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