About


The Idea

Words For That is designed to be the definitive source of newly-minted words for the English language. This platform was originally imagined to find words for common situations which did not have a name (the word for that is "lexical gap", by the way), but Words For That is so much more. You can:

  • Get that, omg-I've-totally-had-that-happen-to-me feeling.
  • Try to get a word you've made up into the dictionary.
  • Create a word with your buddies about that thing your friend does all the time.
  • Finally settle, once and for all, what you should name your softball team.
  • Use Words For That as a reverse-dictionary to see if there is actually a word for that.
  • Laugh at the endless wit of other people's submissions.
  • Discuss the nuanced relationships between language and the corners of the human experience.

The Gist

Words For That is pretty simple. You submit scenarios and other people submit words for that. You can submit words yourself and you can also submit words to your own scenario if you really want. Commenting has been added for each scenario so users can discuss what makes each word and each scenario awesome or not. Voting on scenarios, words, and comments is how the popularity of each is determined. When you search for that, you're really doing three searches. One for scenarios, one for words, and one for usernames. You'll see the different tabs on the search results page. For more information, see the Tips page.

To submit, an account must be created, but it's super easy and obviously free. This helps keep the site a nicer place, and also allows us to provide you guys more functionality and options. If you prefer not to sign up, the voting system is still available, because something as widely used as a language should be open to everyone. Check out our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service pages for more info.