Your favorite ten WORDS in the English language

[Crying_Crimson_Tears]

1. Fragile
2. Death
3. Beauty
4. Grace
5. Suicide
6. Acceptance
7. Synapse
8. Ambiguity
9. Bisexual
10. Midnight

[sheridan]

Originally Posted by Alaizabel Cray

Hah, a Monstresacré is a public person who is considered to be above criticism despite eccentric behavior, controvery, etc. Heh, I just realized I used an "a" instead of an "e" originally, sorry 'bout that.

No problem - still can't find /much/ mention of it online though (and if you search for "monstresacré dictionary" one of the two results is this very thread), guess it doesn't see much use in English...

[Don't Look Behind You]

Here's my list:

1. diabolic
2. creepy
3. sinister
4. schizophrenia (if anyone in a book is described as being schizophrenic, then that is immediately my favorite character)
5. fluffy
6. sanity
7. railroad
8. "miaow"
9. mascara
and:
10. gothic ( I am really attracted to anything that is considered "gothic". The word and the thoughts that appear in my head when I hear it are really beautiful. That is why I have trouble calling myself gothic... it is something too sacred and of high nature to be a person).

[PersephoneX]

1. Pudding
2. Impropriety
3. Ravenous
4. Hypodermic
5. Halo
6. Redeemer
7. Vendetta
8. Chemical
9. Prolific
10. Vicious

[Veira]

It was fairly difficult to pin down just 10 favorite words, but just browsing through my poems I can immediately tell which ones they are.
Most of these I love because of a distinct image they bring to mind, for no particular reason.
Interesting, though, how the words with the more negative meanings/associations are often the more beautiful ones.

1. Corridor
2. Static
3. Disease
4. Hysteria
5. Dreary
6. Gutter
7. Writhe
8. Waltz
9. Clock
10. Decadence

[Child_of_Fury]

1. Insanely
2. Maniacal
3. Rampage
4. Serenity
5. Silence
6. Strength
7. Perpetual
8. Chronical
9. Eternal
10. Infinite

[sunbound]

1) Apocalypse

Without any biblical references, it’s just a powerful sounding word… but at the same time, to me, it brings to mind something that it powerful, but gentle.

2) Enthralled

To me, it sounds like someone is so mesmerized by something, it drives them crazy.

3) Vulgar

It’s not naughty, or cheeky, or bad… it’s beyond all of those… its blatantly vulgar

4) Cackle

the scratchy, fingernails on the chalkboard type of maniacal laughter

5) Venomous

I just love the way it sounds

6) Ravage

The pictures that come to mind when I hear this word always bring a smile to my lips... to me its more of a sexual term

7) Prosthesis

I just like the way it sounds

8) Deceit

It implies something worse than lying or simply being mean… pre-meditated

9) Macabre

It’s not gruesome, or dark…its much worse, it’s macabre

10) Wretched

It brings to mind something or someone so hated or repulsive that no-one can go near him without convulsing… or retching.

Bonus words I have on my list.

Solace
Brooding
Abyss
Vacant
Asphyxiation
Nonconformist
Monolithic
Sprunt (George Carlin reference… I realize it isn’t a real word)
Geek
Thorn
Quad
Flaccid
Crank
Writhing

[GirlsNotMe]

Oh man, what a great topic. As for the reasons behind the words I like, most of them just have to do with how they sound unless noted otherwise.

1. Elusive.
2. Salacious.
3. Vindictive.
4. Odious.
5. Innate.
6. Spurn.
7. Intricacy
8. Prominence.
9. Ludicrous.
10. Rage!

With the exception of number ten, I love all of these words mostly because I love feeling like a pretentious jerk when I use them in a school paper.

-GNM

[owlx]

Awesome thread...I LOVE words.

1. hence
2. agathokakological : "composed of both good and evil."
3. hedonism
4. antithesis
5. deplore
6. lust
7. annihilate
8. taciturn
9. ethereal
10. ecureuil - French for squirrel. So I cheated, but it's so fun to say. It's pronounced kind of like "eh-kee-ray" with that throaty French 'r.' My favorite word in all 4 years of French classes =D

[om3gag0th666]

1. Anti
2. Establish
3. Disestablish
4. Establishmentarian
5. Ment
6. Tab
7. Tar
8. An
9. Est.
10. Antidisestablishmentarianism

[om3gag0th666]

Seriously though, here is my list:

1. Deplorable
2. Geegaw
3. Pseudo
4. Faux
5. Quasi
6. Bulwark
7. Causality
8. Entropic
9. Magniloquence
10. Colloquial

[MollyMac]

grace
undertow
universe
flux
autumn
wherewithal
ethereal
flood
blythe
unabashed

[Pyre]

Originally Posted by owlx

10. ecureuil - French for squirrel. So I cheated, but it's so fun to say. It's pronounced kind of like "eh-kee-ray" with that throaty French 'r.' My favorite word in all 4 years of French classes =D

Eh. . . I learned to pronounce it "eh-cuh-ray-uh".

[Mir]

Originally Posted by sunbound

Sprunt (George Carlin reference… I realize it isn’t a real
Flaccid

I love George Carlin and I laughed out loud when I read flaccid. Rhymes with acid, antacid, placid.. *bulb lights up*

[raggedyanne]

absquatulate (sp?) - To get up and squat somewhere else
e.g. GET OUT OF MY CHAIR AND GO ABSQUATULATE SOMEWHERE ELSE!

It's fun to say!

[emeraldlonewoulf]

yay! thank you for bringing this thread back! its one of my favorites. I posted a list a while back, but here's a new list to continue the spirit of things, although some are repeats, and/or cool but not absolute favorites:


macabre

lascivious

candelaria (yes, its a word, a city in PR)

inscient ( I love the directly contradictory meanings, in addition to how it sounds)

smaddished (smashed (i.e. high) on "radishes", a friends' euphemism for weed, used in the presence of little ones)

dysphoria

eidolon

masochistic

cul (because everyone thinks you've misspelled something else)

Etheldreda (I just kind of like the name)


have i reached ten already? maybe i like words too much. :P

[Godslayer Jillian]

Damn it, how can you choose only ten words?
I have not been able to choose them since this thread first started.
I only have four so far:
Lust
Sin
Anachronism
Macabre

[Circle V]

Originally Posted by om3gag0th666

Seriously though, here is my list:

1. Deplorable
2. Geegaw
3. Pseudo
4. Faux
5. Quasi
6. Bulwark
7. Causality
8. Entropic
9. Magniloquence
10. Colloquial

Can 'pseudo' and 'quasi' stand alone, or are they always prefixes? I don't mean to be antagonistic; I'm merely curious.

[emeraldlonewoulf]

pseudo can now be considered an adjective, but didn't receive stand alone status until the mid forties. quasi can be considered an adverb, and used as such, without hyphenation, but rarely takes that form. At least, according to Dictionary.com. but you are right in that both are usually used as prefixes, I've never seen either one used as a stand alone word, at least not in common usage.

[BlackButterfly]

I have tried for long and found that indeed, I canNOT choose only ten words!

I love words for too many different reasons; the way some roll off the tongue and caress the ear, the way others look on paper, and others for the way they are complemented by their definitions. I can narrow it down to 25 maaaybe, but perhaps if I pare off the words that have already shown up in this thread at least once I can manage...

So, in no particular order, here goes:

• harsh - like "mellifluous", its definition and the way it sounds are one and the same.
  
• ailurophilia - the love of cats deserves such a cool name as this...
  
• diaeresis - it makes a vowel special! I had always wondered that those two little dots were called that sometimes appeared over vowels in foreign languages. When I found out, I fell in love (it's the "iae", like in "minutiae").
  
• dextral/sinistral - it's far cooler saying the "dextral/sinistral __" than saying "the __ on the right/left side"
  
• phaneromania - I am actually afflicted with this particular mania (which starts with one of my favorite letter combinations - phan). It's a form of OCD where you basically just can't keep your hands off yourself. Any minor flaw on the body must be caressed, touched, and/or picked at. It's part of the reason I learned to do so many crafts that keep my hands busy...
  
• amaranth - ah, the unfading flower whose very name falls so sweetly upon the ears... a beautiful concept to go with a gorgeous word.
  
• adamantine - far prettier than "like a diamond", with the same meter!
  
• decimate - I love the origin of this word (to kill every tenth person). It amuses me to no end to think of invaders rampaging on their horses and counting to themselves, ".... five, six, seven, eight, nine, HAH!!! ::deals death::" (It very likely didn't happen that way, but the thought is fun.)
  
• arboreal - this is one of those words that accents the majesty and splendour of the very essence of the tree. Trees deserve that.
  
• cellophane - not a very pretty thing, but it's lovely to say, and beautiful on paper. Script does wonders for the word "cellophane"!

Words I could have used, but didn't:
mellifluous, eidolon, apocalyptic/apocalypse, anima, eidetic, melancholy, aesthetic, oblivion, zephyr, mnemonic, meme, cruciform, quixotic, cacophony, macabre, anachronism, evanescent, catastrophe, metamorphose, labyrinthine, splendour (with the "u"), ululation, susurration, diaphanous... (et al.)

[HumanePain]

I cannot narrow down my list to ten either, but I have four that I must mention now:

Voluptuous - the way it rolls off the tongue and what it means are both sensual.

Eclectic - love the images it calls up in my mind, and the teeth-tongue combination in pronouncing it.

Obviously - this receives mention because I use it so often in written form.

Lethologica - because I suffer from it so often in my advanced age!

[MollyMac]

Originally Posted by HumanePain

Eclectic - love the images it calls up in my mind, and the teeth-tongue combination in pronouncing it.

Although not a favorite word of mine due to a few personal associations, I must throw in with you in that "Eclectic" sounds like what it is... three almost disjointed, almost non-related syllables that shouldn't form one word- and yet they do. The same with eclectic people being comprised of facets that don't seem to fit.

[JCC]

Antidisestablishmentarianism. It always makes me laugh how it means exactly the same as establishmentarianism, and it also makes me laugh how people are shocked when I can spell it.

Norwegian. I have no idea why, but the word Norwegian just makes me laugh. Immature, I know, but I can't help it.

I'll think of some others later.

[MollyMac]

i love all of the pretentiously long words, especially the ones which we should be so dazzled that you can spell.

[Aetheldreda]

Originally Posted by Mr E Nigma

Actually it isn't the longest.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (I've actually learned how to pronounce this word although most the time I fuck up) and tied for it is it's plural counterpart

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses (which the i is changed to an e)

and the word you have stated isn't even a word, 2 anti's cross eachother out and as well you misspelled and left out a few letters. (not trying to flame you, just giving you the facts.) I flame with legomen, so you'd know =D

[brag] I learned to spell that one in the second grade. [/brag]

As for my ten words...

1) Mercurial
2) Omniscient
3) Alluvium
4) Caustic
5) Integral
6) Iconoclast
7) Fugitive
8) Cathartic
9) Interminable
10) Therumin