Real Words Without Definition
This one is a judgement call.
Old English that fell out of use and got dropped from later dictionaries.
abush is an old form of ambush. absee was the alphabet. abiston was a name for asbestos. abbroachment was the offence of buying wholesale to sell on at retail.
These were normal words with normal definitions. People stopped using them and the dictionaries stopped carrying them.
2,710 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 | What it meant |
|---|---|
| vitial | pertaining to a vice or defect, Latin vitium |
| vitilitigate | to wrangle, to litigate vexatiously |
| vitrean | glassy, vitreous |
| vitremyte | Chaucer's obscure word, a glass cap or headdress |
| vituper | to vituperate, to revile |
| vizament | advisement, in Shakespeare's comic dialect spelling |
| viznomy | physiognomy, the face; also visnomy |
| volacious | apt or able to fly, from Latin volare |
| volation | the act of flying, from Latin volatio |
| volupt | pleasure, delight |
| vorage | a gulf, an abyss, from Latin vorago |
| vowson | advowson, in its aphetic form |
| vulnose | full of wounds, from Latin vulnosus |
| walspere | Middle English wal-spere, a war spear |
| waltron | an old name for the walrus |
| wanlas | old hunting term, a manoeuvre for driving game |
| wardatour | obsolete, one who holds or keeps in ward |
| wardcors | obsolete, a bodyguard (Old French garde-corps) |
| wardwite | old law, a fine for neglect of ward duty |
| warentment | obsolete, warrantment, a guarantee |
| waried | obsolete, cursed (from warien, to curse) |
| warlow | obsolete form of warlock, a traitor or the Devil |
| warnish | obsolete, to furnish or warn (Old French warnir) |
| warnison | obsolete, a garrison or store of provisions |
| warniss | obsolete, a form of warnish, to furnish or warn |
| warryn | obsolete, to curse (Middle English warien) |
| wedbedrip | old law, a customary reaping service for the lord |
| wellqueme | Middle English, pleasing, agreeable |
| wemodness | obsolete, the quality of being wemod, angry |
| wenchel | Middle English, a child or maidservant |
| wenliche | Middle English, pleasant, beautiful |
| wepmankin | Old English waepmancynn, the male sex |
| wermethe | Middle English, wormwood (OE wermod) |
| westme | Middle English, growth or fruit (OE waestm) |
| whangam | nonce word, an imaginary animal (Goldsmith) |
| whereforth | obsolete adverb, forth from which, whence |
| wherehence | obsolete adverb, from where, whence |
| wheretill | obsolete adverb, to which, whereto |
| whileas | obsolete conjunction, whereas, while |
| whirlicane | obsolete, a whirlwind or hurricane |
| whiskerando | jocular, a heavily whiskered man, after Sheridan's Whiskerandos |
| whoope | obsolete spelling of whoop |
| whosome | obsolete, whoso, whosoever |
| wigeling | Middle English, sorcery or divination (OE wiglung) |
| wilcweme | Middle English, pleasing or agreeable |
| wilning | Middle English, desiring, from wilnen to wish |
| wilrone | Middle English, wild or savage |
| wilroun | Middle English, wild or savage, variant of wilrone |
| winare | Middle English, a winner or gainer |
| windring | obsolete, winding or wandering, Shakespeare's windring brooks |
| winemay | Middle English, a beloved maiden (wine, friend + may, maid) |
| wisshe | Middle English spelling of wish |
| witepenny | obsolete, a fine or penalty payment (OE wite, a fine) |
| witereden | Middle English, knowledge or testimony |
| withbeg | Middle English, to beg off or renounce (with-, against) |
| witherblench | Middle English, to flinch back (wither-, against) |
| withercraft | Middle English, hostile or evil craft |
| witherdeed | Middle English, a hostile or evil deed |
| withergloom | poetic, hostile gloom (wither-, against) |
| witherly | Middle English, fiercely or hostilely |
| witherwards | Middle English, in the opposite direction |
| withgate | Middle English, a way out or going away |
| withhele | Middle English, to conceal (with + helen, to cover) |
| withnay | Middle English, to deny or refuse |
| withnim | Middle English, to take away |
| withslip | Middle English, to slip away or escape |
| withspar | Middle English, to bar or shut against |
| witlosen | Middle English, witless or out of one's senses |
| witsafe | obsolete form of vouchsafe |
| witterness | Middle English, certainty or knowledge (witter, sure) |
| wlatful | Middle English, loathsome or disgusting |
| wlecche | Middle English, lukewarm |
| wlench | Middle English, pride or wantonness (OE wlenc) |
| wlity | Middle English, beautiful (OE wlitig) |
| wlonkhede | Middle English, splendour or pride |
| wodeleie | Middle English, a woodland clearing, wood-lea |
| woghness | Middle English, wrongness or iniquity (wogh, wrong) |
| wohlac | Middle English, wrongdoing (woh, wrong + -lac) |
| wonned | dwelt, past of won (to dwell) |
| wonning | dwelling, a habitation; from won, to dwell |
| woodbound | of land, hemmed in by tall woody hedgerows |
| woodsere | the season when trees carry no sap |
| woodwale | the green woodpecker |
| woom | the fur of the beaver |
| worssett | old spelling of worset, worsted yarn |
| worthship | worthiness or dignity, the older form of worship |
| wostteth | archaic form of wot, knoweth |
| woundly | excessively, extremely |
| wraist | obsolete form of wrest, to twist |
| wraker | an avenger, from wreak |
| wrast | obsolete form of wrest |
| wrayful | accusing, from wray, to betray or accuse |
| wreat | obsolete spelling of wreath |
| wrible | to warble or quaver in singing |
| wrihte | Middle English wrihte, a wright or workman |
| wyson | obsolete form of weasand, the windpipe |
| ycleping | naming or calling; from clepe, to call |
| yederly | Middle English, promptly or quickly |
| yemeless | Middle English, careless or negligent |
| yeming | Middle English, caring for or heeding |
The other lists filed alongside this one.
