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 |
|---|---|
| dikamalli | Hindi, the gum resin of a Gardenia |
| dikeria | Greek, two-branched liturgical candlestick |
| dikerion | Greek, two-branched liturgical candlestick |
| dipetto | Italian di petto, "of the chest" (voice) |
| diplois | Greek, a doubled cloak or mantle |
| discantus | Latin, medieval descant part |
| discobolos | Greek diskobolos, discus-thrower |
| disgracia | Spanish/Italian, misfortune, disgrace |
| dissava | Sinhalese, a provincial governor in Ceylon |
| divata | Visayan, a nature deity or spirit |
| divorceuse | French, a divorced woman |
| djagoong | Javanese-Malay djagung, maize |
| djave | W. African, tree yielding djave butter |
| djelab | Arabic, a hooded cloak, djellaba |
| djellab | Arabic, a hooded cloak, djellaba |
| doarium | medieval Latin, a dower |
| docmac | Arabic, a Nile catfish, Bagrus docmac |
| dolentissimo | Italian, music, very sorrowfully |
| domnei | Provencal, courtly love service |
| dooli | Hindi doli, a covered litter |
| doorba | Hindi, doob or Cynodon grass |
| doryphorus | Greek, spear-bearer (statue by Polyclitus) |
| doucin | French, dwarfing apple rootstock |
| doundake | W. African, bitter tonic bark of Sarcocephalus |
| douzainier | Channel Is. French, member of a Douzaine |
| doxasticon | Greek, hymn sung after the Doxology |
| dracontites | Latin, gem said to come from a dragon's head |
| drostden | Afrikaans, landdrost's seat or district |
| duftery | Anglo-Indian, office attendant (Hindi daftari) |
| duftry | Anglo-Indian, office attendant (var. of duftery) |
| dugdug | Chamorro, a Marianas breadfruit tree |
| dugento | Italian, the 13th century (var. of duecento) |
| dukhn | Arabic, pearl millet |
| dunziekte | Afrikaans, "thin sickness" of stock |
| duoviri | Latin, a board of two magistrates |
| duplicitas | Latin, "doubleness" (teratology) |
| duplone | Swiss, gold coin worth sixteen francs |
| dusack | German (from Czech), a short sabre |
| dustoori | Anglo-Indian, a commission or perquisite |
| dustour | Anglo-Indian, customary commission, dastur |
| dustuk | Anglo-Indian, a pass or permit, dastak |
| dvaita | Sanskrit, "dualism", a Vedanta school |
| dzerin | Mongolian, the dzeren or goitered gazelle |
| dzeron | Mongolian, the dzeren antelope |
| echea | Latin, sounding vases in an ancient theatre |
| eclegma | Greek, a lambative medicine, linctus |
| ecphasis | Greek, rhetoric, an explicit declaration |
| edea | Greek, the external genitals |
| eiresione | Greek, olive branch wreathed with wool |
| elaeothesium | Latin, the anointing room of a bath |
| elatcha | Turkestani, a striped silk fabric |
| elechi | Hindi, cardamom |
| elotillo | Mexican Spanish, dim. of elote, young maize |
| embacle | French, an ice jam in a river |
| embaphium | Latin, a small saucer or vessel |
| emboscata | Spanish, an ambush |
| embrocado | Spanish, a downward fencing thrust |
| empeirema | Greek, an argument drawn from experience |
| enami | Anglo-Indian, of an enam (land grant) |
| encaustes | Greek, an encaustic painter |
| encinal | Spanish, a live-oak grove |
| encinillo | Spanish, a small oak shrub |
| endrumpf | German, final peneplain (Penck) |
| energeia | Greek, actuality, activity (Aristotle) |
| engjateigur | Icelandic, a strip of meadow |
| enigua | Spanish/Taino, the chigoe flea (nigua) |
| entredeux | French, lace insertion between two pieces |
| entrefer | French, air-gap of a magnetic circuit |
| epagomenae | Latin, the intercalary days of the year |
| epanagoge | Greek, a leading back; Byzantine law book |
| epeisodia | Greek, pl. of epeisodion, dramatic episodes |
| epeisodion | Greek, an episode in Attic tragedy |
| ependytes | Greek, an outer garment or vestment |
| ephetae | Greek, the Athenian judges called Ephetae |
| ephete | Greek, one of the Athenian Ephetae |
| ephphatha | Aramaic, be opened (Mark 7:34) |
| epigoneion | Greek, ancient forty-stringed instrument |
| epigonos | Greek, a descendant, sing. of epigonoi |
| epikia | Greek, epikeia, equitable reading of a law |
| epilegomenon | Greek, a thing said in addition |
| epinette | French, a spinet; in Canada, the spruce |
| epiparodos | Greek, chorus's second entrance in drama |
| episyntheton | Greek, a thing compounded of others |
| epitonion | Greek, tuning peg or stopcock |
| epitrachelia | Greek, Orthodox priests' stoles |
| eponymus | Latin, the eponymous hero or archon |
| ergasterion | Greek, "workshop" |
| escambron | Spanish, a thorny shrub |
| eschoppe | French, an etcher's graver (échoppe) |
| escobadura | Spanish, a sweeping (from escoba, broom) |
| escobita | Spanish, "little broom", a plant |
| eslabon | Spanish, chain link or fire steel |
| espave | Spanish, the tree Anacardium excelsum |
| espavel | Spanish, the tree Anacardium excelsum |
| espinette | French, a spinet |
| essede | Latin, Celtic war-chariot (essedum) |
| estamene | Spanish estameña, coarse woolen cloth |
| estampedero | Mexican Spanish, one who stampedes cattle |
| estivage | French, summer pasturing of stock |
| estramazone | Italian, a slashing sword cut |
The other lists filed alongside this one.
