Real Words Without Definition
This one is a judgement call.
A foreign word used in English without ever being translated.
adelphoi is Greek for brothers. aburabozu is a Japanese fish. achtelthaler is a German coin worth an eighth of a thaler. afghanets is a Russian word for a dusty Central Asian wind.
They turn up in English books, so somebody wrote them down. They never became English words, so no dictionary lists them.
2,016 words · sorted A to Z · each with a line on why it is here
Matches the word itself, not the note beside it. Case does not matter.
| Word, sorted Z to A | Language and meaning |
|---|---|
| chirinola | Spanish, a trifle, a squabble |
| chirivita | Spanish, the daisy |
| chitak | Hindi, the chhatak, a unit of weight |
| chivarra | Mex. Spanish, goatskin leggings |
| cholum | Tamil, sorghum grain |
| chopdar | Anglo-Indian, a mace-bearer, chobdar |
| choragion | Greek, a building for chorus equipment |
| chorizontes | Greek, "separators", critics who split Homer |
| chorobates | Latin, Roman levelling instrument |
| chremzel | Yiddish, Passover fritter |
| chremzlach | Yiddish, plural of chremzel |
| chria | Greek/Latin chreia, rhetorical anecdote |
| chrismale | Medieval Latin, chrism cloth or vessel |
| christianomastix | Greek/Latin, "scourge of Christians" |
| chronomastix | Greek/Latin, "scourge of the age" |
| chronostichon | Greek/Latin, verse containing a chronogram |
| churruck | Bengali, the hook-swinging festival |
| chutzpanik | Yiddish, one full of chutzpah |
| chytroi | Greek, "pots", third day of the Anthesteria |
| cigarito | Spanish, a little cigar |
| cimelium | Latin, a church treasure or relic |
| circumlitio | Latin, the tinting of marble statues |
| circumquaque | Latin, "round about", a roundabout way |
| clairseach | Irish, the Gaelic harp |
| clochan | Irish, dry-stone beehive hut (clochán) |
| cloghad | Irish, a round bell-tower |
| cloghaun | Irish, stone beehive hut (clochán) |
| cloghead | Irish, round tower, variant of cloghad |
| cluricaune | Irish, cellar-haunting sprite (clurichaun) |
| cobcab | Arabic qabqab, an Eastern wooden clog |
| cockerouse | Virginia Algonquian, a man of importance |
| cocuisa | Am. Spanish, a Venezuelan agave (cocuiza) |
| cocullo | Spanish, West Indian fire-beetle (cucullo) |
| coenacula | Latin, upper rooms, dining rooms (coenaculum pl.) |
| cohanims | Hebrew, priests (kohanim), with English -s |
| cohitre | Spanish, a West Indian herb (Commelina) |
| cojudices | Latin, joint judges (cojudex, pl.) |
| colatorium | Latin, a strainer or filter |
| colibertus | Latin, a medieval semi-free tenant |
| collutoria | Latin, mouth-washes (collutorium pl.) |
| collyba | Greek, boiled wheat eaten at memorials (kollyva) |
| colophonium | Latin, colophony or rosin |
| colorin | Mexican Spanish, the coral tree (colorin) |
| columbeia | Greek, baptismal fonts (kolymbeion pl.) |
| columbeion | Greek, a baptismal font or basin |
| columbier | French, a dovecote; also a large paper size |
| colymbion | Greek, a font or bathing basin |
| combasou | French, the combassou or indigo finch |
| combite | Haitian Creole, a cooperative work party |
| comediette | French, a little comedy (comediette) |
| commers | German Kommers, students' drinking festival |
| commissoria | Latin, lex commissoria forfeiture clause |
| commorth | Welsh cymhorth, a benefit gathering |
| compert | Old Irish, conception, a tale-type title |
| concordatum | Latin, a concordat or agreement |
| conditivia | Latin, plural of conditivium, burial vaults |
| conditivium | Latin, a tomb or burial vault |
| confricamenta | Latin, plural of confricamentum |
| confricamentum | Latin, a rubbing, a liniment |
| congoni | Swahili kongoni, the hartebeest |
| contemplamen | Latin, an object of contemplation |
| contrafissura | Latin, fracture opposite the blow |
| contraposita | Latin, things set opposite |
| coobah | Australian Aboriginal, Acacia salicina |
| cooboo | Australian Aboriginal, a native child |
| coolaman | Australian Aboriginal, wooden dish (coolamon) |
| cooliman | Australian Aboriginal, wooden water vessel |
| cooree | Australian Aboriginal, a native person (koori) |
| coothay | Indian, a kind of silk fabric |
| copaiye | Brazilian name for the copaiba tree |
| copalche | Mexican Spanish, copalchi bark |
| copalchi | Mexican Spanish, a medicinal Croton bark |
| copalcocote | Mexican (Nahuatl), a resin-yielding tree |
| copaljocote | Mexican (Nahuatl), variant of copalcocote |
| coquita | Spanish-American, the little coco palm |
| coragio | Italian, courage! an interjection |
| coralita | Spanish-American, the coral vine |
| corcir | Gaelic, a purple dye-lichen |
| cordonazo | Spanish, a west-coast Mexican hurricane |
| corge | Anglo-Indian, a score of twenty pieces |
| corial | Guiana, a dugout canoe |
| corita | Spanish-American, a woven basket bowl |
| coromell | Spanish-American, a land breeze at La Paz |
| coroplasta | Greek, a maker of terracotta figures |
| coroplastae | Latin plural of coroplasta |
| corpsbruder | German, fellow member of a student corps |
| coruco | Mexican Spanish, a poultry louse or tick |
| corupay | Guarani, a South American tree (curupay) |
| cosmete | Greek kosmetes, Athenian official over ephebi |
| coteline | French, a corded cotton fabric |
| cotonier | French cotonnier, the cotton plant |
| cotoro | Sp.-Amer. cotorra, a parrot |
| coulibiaca | Russian kulebyaka, a fish pie |
| coumara | Tupi coumarú, the tonka-bean tree |
| coumbite | Haitian Creole, a communal work party |
| courida | Guiana name for the black mangrove |
| couril | Breton, a dancing dwarf or elf |
| coustumier | Old French, a book of customary law |
| coutelle | French, a small knife or blade |
| couxia | S. Amer. name for the saki monkey |
The other lists filed alongside this one.
