Note: Troy and I recommend only products that we have tried and tested. These include the popular vocabulary-improvement software Ultimate Vocabulary.*
- absquatulate — leave abruptly
- anomalous — deviating from normal
- argle-bargle — extensive meaningless writing or talk
- argy-bargy — noisy arguing
- awkward — causing difficulty
- bauble — small trinket or decoration
- blimp — an inflated airship
- blubber — the fat of sea mammals, or to cry noisily
- blue-footed booby — large tropical seabird
- bodacious — excellent, attractive
- bouffant — hairstyle with a rounded puffed up shape
- brouhaha — loud, overexcited display
- bumblebee — large bee
- bumf — useless and dull documents
- bungalow — low house
- burgoo — stew or thick soup
- cahoots — conspiring (in cahoots)
- canoodle — kiss and cuddle
- cantankerous — grumpy and argumentative
- chinchilla — South American rodent with soft fur
- chocks — wedges to stop a wheel from moving
- codswallop — nonsense
- collywobbles — stomach pain, queasiness from anxiety
- conniption — fit of rage or hysterics
- crapulent — relating to drinking alcohol
- cummerbund — a wide sash
- defenestrate — throw out of a window
- diphthong — sound made by combining two vowels in one syllable
- discombobulate — confuse someone
- dollop — blob of soft food
- doodle — draw absentmindedly
- doozy — outstanding or unique thing
- drizzle — light rain, or to trickle a thin stream of something over food
- effluvium — unpleasant smell or secretion
- ensorcell — enchant, captivate
- euphonium — small tuba
- fartlek — distance runners' training system
- fatuous — foolish
- feeble — lacking physical strength
- finagle — get by dishonest means
- firkin — small cask
- flabbergasted — greatly astonished
- flibbertigibbet — frivolous, chatty person
- flume — narrow water channel
- flummox — greatly perplex
- flunk — fail
- foibles — minor failing or eccentricity
- folderol — trivial fuss
- furbelows — gathered strip or pleated border of a skirt
- furtive — secretive
- gallivant — gad about in pursuit of pleasure
- gazebo — roofed garden structure
- gazump — cheat a buyer in a house sale
- gewgaw — useless or worthless things
- glabella — area between eyebrows
- glockenspiel — percussion instrument
- glom — steal
- gobbledygook — nonsensical language
- gobsmacked — utterly astonished
- goggles — protective eyewear
- gubbins — small useless bits and pieces
- hogwash — ridiculous
- hoi polloi — the common people
- hoity-toity — snobby, haughty
- hootenany — informal party with folk music
- hornswoggle — cheat or deceive someone
- indubitably — without a doubt
- jalopy — old broken–down car
- jerboa — desert rodent
- jiggle — shake, wriggle
- kazoo — small wind instrument
- kerfuffle — commotion or fuss
- knickerbockers — pants gathered at the knee
- kumquat — small citrus fruit
- liripoop — string on graduate's hat, or a smart trick, acuteness
- logorrhea — tendency to talking to much
- lugubrious — looking mournful and gloomy
- masticate — chew food
- mollycoddle — overindulge or overprotect someone
- morass — boggy ground
- namby-pamby — weak, feeble
- niggle — cause slight but constant annoyance
- nincompoop — stupid or silly person
- oblong — having an elongated shape
- occiput — back of the head
- peeve — irritate
- periwinkle — flower
- petcock — small valve in steam engine or boiler
- phalange — finger bone
- philtrum — groove above top lip
- pilcrow — paragraph mark
- pinking shears — scissors that cut a zigzag edge
- pluck — pull out quickly, or courage
- poppysmic — the sound of smacking lips
- quack — the sound a duck makes
- quaff — drink quickly
- quagga — extinct South African zebra
- quibble — slight objection
- quokka — Australian short-tailed wallaby
- rapscallion — mischievous person, rascal
- razzamatazz — showy, exciting, loud spectacle
- rhubarb — plant whose stems are eaten as a fruit
- rickshaw — two—wheeled vehicle pulled by a person
- samovar — Russian tea urn
- sassafras — North American tree, flavouring
- schnitzel — thin fried crumbed meat
- shenanigans — secret activity, mischief
- shrubbery — a bunch of small bushy plants
- skedaddle — run away
- skirt — woman's garment
- snarky — cutting, critical
- snickersnee — long knife
- snorkel — swimmer's breathing tube
- snout — animal's nose and mouth
- sousaphone — type of tuba
- spam — tinned meat brand, or irrelevant junk emails
- spew — expel rapidly in great quantities
- spry — lively
- squabble — noisy quarrel over something trivial
- squeegee — window cleaning tool
- tittle-tattle — gossip
- toupee — small wig
- turducken — a turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken
- turgid — swollen and distended, or pompous language
- volvox — spherical microbe
- wharf — pier where a ship can be moored
- widdershins — counterclockwise direction
- winkle-pickers — shoes with long pointed toes
- zaftig — having a pleasingly curvaceous figure
You can, of course, copy and paste this list into a program such as the popular vocabulary-building program Ultimate Vocabulary, and use its features to help you add this list of funny words to your vocabulary.
*Troy and I have agreed to receive a commission from some sales of the Ultimate Vocabulary software because we are happy to endorse that vocabulary-building software.
