Expand Your Vocabulary — Funny Words

Expand Your Vocabulary — Funny Words
English has a great deal of downright silly-sounding words. You know what it’s like when you have to repeatedly use one word over and over, it starts to look nonsensical and loses all meaning. These words, even though some are words we use often (awkward and skirt, for example), all sound funny. Well, they do to us anyway! We hope you enjoy this list as well. Try slipping a few of the more outlandish terms into your everyday conversation!

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

source: english-language-skills.com