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| Strawberries get a thumbs up from me. Not when they commit a robbery, though. |
Take a look at the following words and try to work out whether they're real words, or whether they're fictitious made up creations...
1) Strobbery
A strobbery is a robbery committed by a strawberry.
True or false?
2) Vocables
Vocables are the nonsensical words you sometimes hear in songs which don't have any meaning, such as 'la la la la' or 'na na na na', or my personal favourite, 'do do de da dum'.
Genuine or made up?
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| Thankfully, David didn't suffer from feefiphobia. |
3) Feefiphobia
If you're afraid of giants then you suffer from 'feefiphobia'.
True or false?
4) Alethophobia
Here's another phobia, and this is a phobia that BBC journalists suffer from. That's because alethophobia is a fear of the truth!
Accurate or erroneus?
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| A seagull shows off its pinions. |
5) Pinion
Bird lovers may know that the big feathers at the end of a birds wing are known as pinion feathers.
But is that true, or have I just made it up?
True or false?
6) Wamble
Not a womble (which is a fictitious long nosed furry creature that picks up litter on Wimbledon common), but a wamble. A wamble is the sound your stomach makes when it rumbles.
But is it a real word, or just a misspelling?
Authentic or bogus?
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| A cat kindly demonstrating how to pandiculate. |
7) Pandiculate
If you wake up in the morning feeling tired, and yawn and stretch at the same time, then you're pandiculating.
True or false?
8) Glabella
You may be surprised to learn that there's a word to describe the space between your eyebrows, and that word is glabella.
Legitimate or phony?
9) Lukemoist
Most people will have heard of the word 'lukewarm', but there's a similar word which many people perhaps won't have heard of. Lukemoist.
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| A tittle. In fact, several tittles! |
True or false?
10) Tittle
A tittle is the dot over an i or a j.
Real or fake?
- - - - - - - - - -
Scroll down the page to find out which of the words were real, and which words were made up...
Answers:
 |
| Mmm, strawberries. |
1) Strobbery
A robbery committed by a strawberry.
True or false?
False - As you probably guessed, this was made up. Strawberries can't commit robberies. Strawberries are in fact extremely honest, and never steal.
2) Vocables
The nonsensical words you sometimes hear in songs which don't have any meaning.
Genuine or made up?
True - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yup, uh-huh. Vocables are indeed the nonsenical words that occasionally feature in songs.
I used to write a lot of songs when I was younger, and I often included vocables in my songs. Usually when I was feeling a bit lazy, and couldn't be bothered to think of proper lyrics.
3) Feefiphobia
A fear of giants.
True or false?
False - There are many phobias in the world and many cool words to decribe these phobias, but sadly, feefiphobia isn't one of those words. It's a play on the famous phrase 'Fee fi foe thumb, I smell the blood of an Englishman,' which was said by the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk. Coincidentally, 'fee fi foe thumb' is another example of vocables!
Anyway, feefiphobia isn't a real phobia. It's just made up.
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| BBC journalists, look away now. |
4) Alethophobia
A fear of the truth.
Accurate or erroneus?
True - It's true. For the benefit of any BBC 'journalists' who may be unfamiliar with the term 'true', think of the propaganda that you publish, and then imagine the opposite of that.
5) Pinion
The big feathers at the end of a birds wing are known as pinion feathers.
True or false?
True - Yes, pinion feathers are real. Incidentally, a crow has 16 pinion feathers, and a raven has 17 pinion feathers, so the difference between a crow and a raven is a matter of a pinion!
6) Wamble
 |
| This cartoon cat's stomach will soon be wambling. |
Authentic or bogus?
True - I don't know why we need the word 'wamble' because surely we can just say, "My stomach is rumbling."
Anyway, if you want to look really clever, then instead of 'rumbling' you could say, "My stomach is wambling." Unless your stomach isn't rumbling. In that case, you would just look stupid for using the word 'wamble' incorrectly.
7) Pandiculate
When you wake up in the morning feeling tired, and yawn and stretch at the same time.
True or false?
True - To clarify, if you yawned and stretched at night when you were feeling tired, you would still be pandiculating. The time of day is irrelevant. The important thing is that yawning and stretching at the same time is known as pandiculating.
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| Fish: "Fish haven't got eyebrows, so does that mean I haven't got a glabella?" Charles: "Wow! A pandiculating fish!" Fish: "You didn't answer my question." |
8) Glabella
The space between your eyebrows.
Legitimate or phony?
True - It's true. I wonder, does that mean that someone with a unibrow doesn't have a glabella?
9) Lukemoist
Not too wet and not too dry.
True or false?
False - Lukemoist isn't a real word. Even if it was a real word, which it's not, then I can't think of a situation where it would be useful. In general, things are better when they're either dry or wet, depending on what they were designed for.
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| Free bonus tittle. |
10) Tittle
A tittle is the dot over an i or a j.
Real or fake?
True - I can't imagine there are many occasions when you would ever need to describe the dot over an i or a j, but if you do ever find yourself in such a situation, then 'tittle' is the word you're looking for.
- - - - - - - - -
If you fancy putting your detective skills to the test with more true or false questions, then my book 'True Or False: A Collection Of 100 Light-Hearted Facts And Bluffs' is available for kindle from Amazon.
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As I mentioned in the introduction, I've featured words in many of my blog posts. Most of them are real words, but some of them are fake! If you want proof, and would like to verify this for yourself, then check out the blog posts below.
Real words or made up? (part 1)
Real words or made up? (part 2)
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