300+ Unique Words You Can Use To Impress People
Review this list of unique words if you want to sound super educated and impress your friends with your fancy language skills. No matter how learned you are, you’ll find dozens of words below that you’ve never EVER heard of. Add them to your vocabulary or just skim for fun.
If you want to expand your vocabulary, this list is just what you need. It will teach you plenty of new words you can use in everyday conversations. Here are some of the most unique words in the English language:
Unique Words You Should Start Using
If you want to educate yourself, you can find words in the dictionary. But you can also find them right here!
Abaya
A full-length, sleeveless outer garment worn by Arabs.
Abomasum
The fourth stomach of a ruminant, such as a cow or sheep.
Absquatulate
To leave somewhere abruptly.
Adscititious
A unique word that means additional.
Afreet
A powerful jinn or demon in Arabian and Muslim mythology.
Albertopolis
A group of museums and other cultural institutions in South Kensington in London, named after Prince Albert.
Alcazar
A Spanish palace or fortress.
Amphibology
A phrase or sentence that is grammatically ambiguous, such asShe sees more of her children than her husband.
Amphisbaena
A mythical serpent with a head at each end.
Anfractuous
Winding or circuitous.
Anguilliform
Resembling an eel.
Apoptosis
The death of cells which occurs as a normal part of an organism’s growth or development.
Apple-knocker
Informal an ignorant or unsophisticated person.
Argle-bargle
Copious but meaningless talk or writing.
Argus-eyed
Vigilant, referring to Argos, a Greek mythological watchman with a hundred eyes.
Argute
Shrewd.
Aspergillum
An implement used for sprinkling holy water in religious ceremonies.
Astrobleme
An eroded remnant of a large, ancient crater made by the impact of a meteorite or comet.
Attic salt
Refined, incisive wit.
Autotomy
The casting off of a limb or other part of the body by an animal under threat, such as a lizard.
Badmash
A hooligan.
Bandoline
A sticky preparation used for setting hair.
Bardolatry
A humorous excessive admiration of Shakespeare.
Barmecide
Illusory or imaginary and therefore disappointing.
Barn burner
A very exciting or dramatic event, especially a sports contest; first used of an exceptionally good hand at bridge.
Bashment
A large party or dance.
Bawbee
Scottish a coin of low value.
Benthos
The flora and fauna on the bottom of a sea or lake.
Bergschrund
A type of crevasse.
Bezoar
A small hard, solid mass which may form in the stomachs of animals such as goats or sheep.
Bibliopole
A person who buys and sells books, especially rare ones.
Bilboes
An iron bar with sliding shackles, used to fasten prisoners’ ankles.
Bindlestiff
A tramp.
Bingle
Informal a collision.
Blatherskite
A person who talks at great length without making much sense.
Bleeding edge
The very forefront of technological development.
Blind pig
Informal a place where alcoholic drinks are sold illegally.
Bobsy-die
A great deal of fuss or trouble.
Boffola
Informal a joke that gets a loud or hearty laugh.
Boilover
Informal a surprise result in a sporting event.
Borborygmus
A rumbling or gurgling noise in the intestines.
Breatharian
A person who believes that it is possible, through meditation, to reach a level of consciousness where one can exist on air alone.
Brobdingnagian
Gigantic, from Brobdingnag, a country in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
Bruxism
Involuntary and habitual grinding of the teeth.
Bumbo
A drink of rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg.
Burnsides
A mustache in combination with whiskers on the cheeks but no beard on the chin.
Cacoethes
An urge to do something inadvisable.
Callipygian
Having shapely buttocks.
Callithumpian
Like a discordant band or a noisy parade.
Camisado
A military attack carried out at night.
Canorous
Melodious or resonant.
Cantillate
To chant or intone a passage of religious text.
Carphology
Convulsive or involuntary movements made by delirious patients, such as plucking at the bedclothes.
Catoptromancy
Foretelling the future by means of a mirror.
Cereology
The study or investigation of crop circles.
Cerulean
Deep sky blue.
Chad
A piece of waste paper produced by punching a hole.
Chalkdown
Informal a teachers’ strike.
Chanticleer
A rooster in a fairy tale.
More Unique Words In The English Language
Chiliad — a thousand things or a thousand years
Claggy — ialect sticky or able to form sticky lumps
Clepsydra — an early clock using the flow of water into or out of a container
Colporteur — a person who peddles books, newspapers, or other writings, especially bibles and religious tracts
Comess — a confused or noisy situation
Commensalism — an association between two organisms in which one benefits from the relationship and the other derives neither harm nor benefit
Comminatory — threatening, punitive, or vengeful
Concinnity — elegance or neatness of literary or artistic style
Congius — an ancient Roman liquid measure equal in modern terms to about 6 imperial pints
Conniption (or conniption fit) — informal a fit of rage or hysterics
Constellate — to gather together in a cluster or group
Coprolalia — the involuntary repetitive use of obscene language
Coriaceous — like leather
Couthy — Scottish (of a person) warm and friendly; (of a place) cosy and comfortable
Criticaster — a minor or incompetent critic
Crore — ten million
Crottle — a lichen used in Scotland to make a brownish dye for wool
Croze — a groove at the end of a cask or barrel in which the head is fixed
Cryptozoology — the search for and study of animals whose existence is unproven, such as the Loch Ness monster and the yeti
Cudbear — a purple or violet powder used for dyeing, made from lichen
Cupreous — of or like copper
Cyanic — blue; azure
Cybersquatting — the practice of registering well-known names as Internet domain names, in the hope of reselling them at a profit
Dariole — a small round metal mould used in French cooking for an individual sweet or savory dish
Deasil — clockwise or in the direction of the sun’s course
Decubitus — the posture of someone who is lying down or lying in bed
Deedy — industrious or effective
Defervescence — the lessening of a fever
Deglutition — the action or process of swallowing
Degust — to taste food or drink carefully, so as to fully appreciate it
Deipnosophist — a person skilled in the art of dining and dinner-table conversation
Deracinate — to tear something up by the roots
Deterge — to cleanse something thoroughly
Didi — an older sister or female cousin
Digerati — people with expertise or professional involvement in information technology
Dight — clothed or equipped; also, to make something ready for use
Discobolus — a discus thrower in ancient Greece
Disembogue — to emerge or pour out (used of a river or stream)
Disenthral — to set someone free from enslavement
Divagate — to stray or digress
Divaricate — to stretch or spread apart
Donkey engine — a small auxiliary engine on a ship
Donkeyman — a man working in a ship’s engine room
Doryphore — a pedantic and annoyingly persistent critic of others
Dotish — stupid or silly
Douceur — a financial inducement or bribe
Draff — dregs or refuse
Dragoman — an interpreter or professional guide for travellers, especially one in countries in which Arabic, Turkish, or Persian is spoken
Dumbsize — to reduce the staff numbers of a company to such low levels that work can no longer be carried out effectively
Dwaal — a dreamy, dazed, or absent-minded state
Ecdysiast — a striptease performer
Eunoia — beautiful thinking. This word comes from a Greek word that means well mind.
Edacious — having to do with eating or fond of eating
Effable — able to be described in words.
Emacity — fondness for buying things
Emmetropia — the normal condition of the eye: perfect vision
Empasm — a perfumed powder sprinkled on the body to prevent sweating or for medicinal purposes
Ensorcell — to enchant or fascinate someone
Entomophagy — this literally means the eating of insects, especially by people
Erf — a plot of land
Ergometer — an apparatus which measures energy expended during physical exercise
Erubescent — reddening or blushing
E-tailer — a retailer who sells goods on the Internet
Etui — a small ornamental case for holding needles, cosmetics, and other articles
Eucatastrophe — a happy ending to a story
Eurhythmic — in harmonious proportion
Eviternity — eternal existence or everlasting duration
Exequies — funeral rites
Exsanguine — bloodless or anaemic
Extramundane — outside or beyond the physical world
Eyewater — W. Indian tears
Famulus — an assistant or attendant, especially one working for a magician or scholar
Fankle — Scottish to tangle or entangle something
Fipple — the mouthpiece of a recorder or similar wind instrument
Flatline — to die
Flews — the thick pendulous lips of a bloodhound or similar dog
Floccinaucinihilipilification — the action or habit of estimating something as worthless (a word generally only quoted as a curiosity)
Flocculent — having or resembling tufts of wool
Force-ripe — West Indian old or mature in certain respects without having developed fully in others
Forehanded — prudent or thrifty
Frondeur — a political rebel
Fugacious — transient or fleeting
Funambulist — a tightrope walker
Furuncle — a boil
Fuscous — dark and sombre in colour
Futhark — the Scandinavian runic alphabet
Futz — to waste time or busy oneself aimlessly
Gaberlunzie — archaic a beggar
Gaita — a kind of bagpipe played in northern Spain and Portugal
Galligaskins — a type of loose breeches worn in the 16th and 17th centuries
Gallus — Scottish bold or daring
Gasconade — extravagant boasting
Glabrous — (of skin) hairless or (of a leaf) having no down
Glaikit — foolish, or thoughtless
Gnathic — having to do with the jaws
Gobemouche — a gullible or credulous listener
Goodfella — a gangster, especially a member of a Mafia family
Guddle — Scottish to fish with one’s hands by groping under the stones or banks of a stream
Habile — deft or skilful
Hallux — Anatomy the big toe
Haruspex — a religious official in ancient Rome who inspected the entrails of sacrificial animals in order to foretell the future
Higgler — a person who travels from place to place selling small items
Hinky — US informal dishonest, suspect, or unreliable
Hoddy-noddy — a foolish person
Hodiernal — of today
Hoggin — a mixture of sand and gravel, used especially in road-building
Hongi — a traditional Maori greeting or salutation made by pressing or touching noses
Howff — a favourite meeting place or haunt, especially a pub
Humdudgeon — an imaginary illness
Hunt-and-peck — using only one or two fingers on a computer keyboard
Hwyl — a stirring feeling of emotional motivation and energy which is associated with the Welsh people
Illywhacker — informal a small-time confidence trickster
Incrassate — thickened in form or consistency
Incunabula — books printed before 1501
Ingurgitate — to swallow something greedily
Inspissate — to thicken or congeal
Inunct — to apply ointment to someone or something
Jumbuck — Austral. informal a sheep
Jumentous — resembling horse’s urine
Jungli — Indian uncultured or wild
Karateka — a person who performs karate
Keek — to peep surreptitiously
Kenspeckle — conspicuous or easily recognizable
Kinnikinnick — a substance consisting of dried sumac leaves and willow or dogwood bark, smoked by North American Indians
Minacious — menacing or threatening
Minibeast — informal a small invertebrate animal such as an insect or spider
Misogamy — the hatred of marriage
Mistigris — a joker or other extra card played as a wild card in some versions of poker
Mixologist — informal a person who is skilled at mixing cocktails and other drinks
Mollitious — luxurious or sensuous
Momism — excessive attachment to or domination by one’s mother
Monkey’s wedding — simultaneous rain and sunshine
Monorchid — having only one testicle
Moonraker — a native of the county of Wiltshire
Mouse potato — a person who spends large amounts of their leisure or working time on a computer
Mudlark — a person who scavenges in riverside mud at low tide for anything of value
Muktuk — the skin and blubber of a whale, eaten by the Inuit people
Mumpsimus — a traditional custom or notion that is adhered to although it has been shown to be unreasonable
Nacarat — a bright orange-red colour
Nagware — computer software which is free for a trial period and thereafter frequently reminds the user to pay for it
Nainsook — a fine, soft cotton fabric, originally made in the Indian subcontinent
Natation — swimming
Nesh — dialect weak, delicate, or feeble
Netizen — a habitual or keen user of the Internet
Noctambulist — a sleepwalker
Noyade — an execution carried out by drowning
Nugacity — triviality or frivolity
Nympholepsy — passion or rapture aroused in men by beautiful young girls
Obnubilate — to darken, dim, or obscure something
Ogdoad — a group or set of eight
Omophagy — the eating of raw food, especially meat
Omphalos — the centre or hub of something
Onolatry — the worship of donkeys or asses
Operose — involving or displaying a lot of effort
Opsimath — a person who begins to learn or study late in life
Orectic — having to do with desire or appetite
Orrery — a clockwork model of the solar system, or the sun, earth, and moon
Ortanique — a cross between an orange and a tangerine
Otalgia — earache
Oxter — a person’s armpit
Paludal — living or occurring in a marshy habitat
Pantagruelian — enormous
Panurgic — able or ready to do anything
Parapente — an aerofoil parachute, used for gliding
Paraph — a flourish after a signature
Patulous — (of the boughs of a tree, for example) spreading
Pavonine — to do with or resembling a peacock
Pedicular — to do with lice
Sangoma — a traditional healer or witch doctor in southern Africa
Sarmie — informal a sandwich
Saucier — a sauce chef
Saudade — a feeling of longing or melancholy that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament
Scofflaw — a person who flouts the law
Screenager — a person in their teens or twenties who has an aptitude for using computers and the Internet
Scrippage — one’s baggage and personal belongings
Selkie — a mythical sea creature like a seal in water but human on land
Serac — a pinnacle or ridge of ice on the surface of a glacier
Sesquipedalian — (of a word) having many syllables or (of a piece of writing) using many long words
Shallop — a light sailing boat used chiefly for coastal fishing
Shamal — a hot, dry north-westerly wind that blows across the Persian Gulf in summer and causes sandstorms
Shavetail — US military slang a newly commissioned officer, or any inexperienced person
Shippon — dialect a cattle shed
Shofar — a ram’s-horn trumpet used in Jewish religious ceremonies and, in ancient times, to sound a battle signal
Skanky — informal revolting
Skelf — a splinter or sliver of wood
Skimmington — a kind of procession once undertaken to make an example of a nagging wife or an unfaithful husband
Skycap — a porter at an airport
Snakebitten — informal unlucky or doomed to misfortune
Snollygoster — a shrewd or unprincipled person
Sockdolager — US informal a heavy blow
Solander — a protective box made in the form of a book, for holding items such as botanical specimens, maps, and colour plates
Soucouyant — a kind of witch, in eastern Caribbean folklore, who is believed to shed her skin by night and suck the blood of her victims
Soul case — the human body
Serein — fine rain falling after sunset from a sky where no clouds are visible. This word has origins in the French language.
Soul catcher — a hollowed bone tube used by a North American Indian medicine man to keep a sick person’s soul safe while they are sick
Spaghettification — the process by which (in some theories) an object would be stretched and ripped apart by gravitational forces on falling into a black hole
Spitchcock — an eel, split and then grilled or fried
Splanchnic — having to do with the the viscera or internal organs, especially those of the abdomen
Spurrier — a person who makes spurs
Stercoraceous — consisting of or resembling dung or faeces
Sternutator — something that causes sneezing
Stiction — the frictional force which hinders an object from being moved while in contact with another
Strappado — a punishment or torture in which the victim was hoisted in the air on a rope and then allowed to fall almost to the ground before being stopped with an abrupt jerk
Strigil — an instrument with a curved blade used by ancient Greeks and Romans to scrape sweat and dirt from the skin in a hot-air bath or after exercise
Struthious — having to do with or resembling an ostrich
Studmuffin — humorous a sexually attractive, muscular man
Stylite — a early Christian ascetic who lived standing on top of a pillar
Subfusc — the dark formal clothing worn for examinations and ceremonial or formal occasions at some universities
Submontane — passing under or through mountains, or situated on the lower slopes of a mountain range
Succuss — meaning to shake something vigorously, especially a homeopathic remedy
Sudd — an area of floating vegetation that impedes navigation in a stretch of the White Nile
Suedehead — a youth like a skinhead but with slightly longer hair and smarter clothes
Sun-grazing — (of a comet) having an orbit which passes close to the sun
Superbious — use this to describe someone proud and overbearing
Superette — a small supermarket
Taniwha — a mythical monster which, according to Maori legend, lives in very deep water
Tappen — the plug by which the rectum of a bear is closed during hibernation
Tellurian — of or inhabiting the earth, or an inhabitant of the earth
Testudo — a device used in siege warfare in ancient Rome, consisting of a wheeled screen with an arched roof (literally a ‘tortoise’)
Thalassic — relating to the sea
Thaumatrope — a scientific toy devised in the 19th century. It consisted of a disc with a different picture on each of its two sides: when the disc was rotated rapidly about a diameter, these pictures appeared to combine into one image.
Thirstland — a desert or large arid area
Thrutch — Na narrow gorge or ravine
Thurifer — a person carrying a censer, or thurible, of burning incense during religious ceremonies
Tiffin — chiefly Indian a light meal, especially lunch
Tigon — the hybrid off spring of a male tiger and a lioness (the offspring of a male lion and a tigress being a liger)
Tokoloshe — in African folklore, a mischievous and lascivious hairy water sprite
toplofty — informal haughty and arrogant
Transpicuous — transparent
Triskaidekaphobia — extreme superstition about the number thirteen
Triskelion — a Celtic symbol consisting of three radiating legs or curved lines, such as the emblem of the Isle of Man
Tsantsa — a human head shrunk as a war trophy by the Jivaro people of Ecuador
Turbary — the legal right to cut turf or peat for fuel on common ground or on another person’s ground
Ulu — a short-handled knife with a broad crescent-shaped blade, used by Inuit women
Umbriferous — shady
Uncinate — (of a part of the body) having a hooked shape
Uniped — a person or animal with only one foot or leg
Uroboros — a circular symbol depicting a snake (or a dragon) swallowing its tail, intended as an emblem of wholeness or infinity
Ustad — Indian an expert or highly skilled person, especially a musician
Vagarious — erratic and unpredictable in behavior or direction
Velleity — a wish or inclination which is not strong enough to lead one to take action
Verjuice — a sour juice obtained from crab apples or unripe grapes
Vicinal — neighbouring or adjacen
Vidiot — informal a habitual, undiscriminating watcher of television or videotapes
Vomitous — nauseating or repulsive
Wabbit — Scottish exhausted or slightly unwell
Waitron — a waiter or waitress
Wanderlust — a strong desire to travel
Wakeboarding — the sport of riding on a short, wide board while being towed behind a motor boat
Wayzgoose — an annual summer party and outing that used to be held by a printing house for all its employees
Winebibber — meaning a heavy drinker
Wittol — a man who knows of and tolerates his wife’s infidelity
Woopie — an affluent retired person able to pursue an active lifestyle (from the initials of well-off older person)
Wowser — chiefly Austral./NZ a puritanical, prudish person or a killjoy
Xenology — the scientific study of extraterrestrial phenomena
Ylem — (in big bang theory) the primordial matter of the universe
Zetetic — proceeding by inquiry or investigation
Zoolatry — the worship of animals
Zopissa — a medicinal preparation made from wax and pitch scraped from the sides of ships
Zorro — a South American kind of fox
Zyrian — a former term for Komi, a language spoken in an area of Russia west of the Urals; at present the last entry in the Oxford English Dictionary