| code word |
a politically acceptable word or phrase that conveys a hidden meaning or disguises the truth by indirection; euphemism. |
| counter word |
(chiefly American) a commonly used word whose current meanings have little relationship to its original meaning, such as "nice" or "terrible". |
| curse word |
a word that is considered to be obscene or profane, esp. when it is used to condemn or to express anger. |
| dirty word |
a word considered obscene, rude, or offensive in a particular language, culture, or situation; obscenity. |
| four-letter word |
any of several short English words that are considered offensive or obscene. |
| function word |
a word such as an article, conjunction, or preposition that indicates grammatical structure or relationships but has little or no independent meaning. |
| guide word |
one or two words printed at the top of the page in a reference book to help the reader find the right page. In this dictionary, the guide words at the top of each page show what the first and last entries on that page are. |
| household word |
a well-known, commonly used word, phrase, name, or thing. |
| last word |
the final sentence or phrase with which one person ends an argument. [3 definitions] |
| loanword |
a word that one language has adopted from another and at least partly naturalized. |
| mum's the word |
keep this a secret. |
| nonce word |
a word invented for temporary or one-time use. |
| portmanteau word |
a word formed by combining the sounds and meanings of two other words, such as "smog" from "smoke" and "fog". |
| sight word |
in vocabulary learning, a word, usually short and basic, that a reader recognizes visually, without having to decode it phonetically or otherwise. "The," "we," "their," and "have" are typical sight words. |
| word list |
a set of words constructed for a particular purpose or collected from a particular source or sources. |
| word of honor |
a statement, pledge, verbal commitment, or the like that is backed by one's honor; sworn oath; solemn promise. |
| word order |
the way in which words are arranged, or their grammatically correct sequence, in a phrase, clause, or sentence. |
| word problem |
a mathematics exercise in which a hypothetical situation expressed in words must be solved mathematically. |
| word processing |
the creation of typed documents on a computer. |
| word processor |
a computer or a computer program that can be used to write, change, print, and save text that one writes. |