About
Feltwords is a dictionary of words for feelings that don't have one.
Each entry is one word: what it means, what it is made of, how to say it, what it is easily confused with, and where it has turned up. Definitions are written here, not copied, and every entry lists its sources.
Five labels
Every word carries exactly one label, in the margin beside it.
- loanword
- A real word in ordinary use in its own language, like hygge or saudade.
- coined by John Koenig
- From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Invented, recent, and credited to him on every entry.
- coined here
- Ours. Dated, published at most once a week. See how we coin words.
- viral fabrication
- Passed around online as a real foreign word. It isn’t one, and the entry says where it came from.
- dialect
- Real, but regional: a dialect or slang form rather than the standard language.
Pronunciation
Entries give IPA and a plain-English respelling, with the stressed syllable in capitals. The recordings are synthesized speech, checked against the IPA. They are a guide, not a native speaker.
Search
Search takes a description rather than a word. It matches what you type against definitions, feeling families and the meanings of each word’s parts, entirely in your browser.