A word is a sequence of letters that means something. Our list below contains over 20 different types of words. We intentionally excluded parts of speech.
Different Types of Words
| Type of Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | A word that has been shortened. |
| Acronym | A word formed from the first letter or letters of a compound term and pronounced as a word. |
| Anagram | A word formed by rearranging the letters of another word. |
| Antonym | Words that have opposite meanings. The antonym may be for only one meaning of a word that has other meanings. |
| Clipped Words | A word that has been shortened or clipped due to use, e.g., ad – advertisement, bike – bicycle. |
| Compound Words | A word created by joining two or more words. They do not always retain their original meaning, e.g., brainstorm. |
| Collocation | Words that are frequently used together. |
| Contractions | A word that is formed by shortening words, replacing one or more letters with an apostrophe. |
| Emordnilap (Reverse Pair) |
A word that reads differently in reverse, sometimes these words are referred to as reverse pairs. Emordnilap is palindrome spelled backwards. |
| Eponyms | A word based or derived from a person’s name. |
| Heteronym | Words that are spelled the same but have a different pronunciation, meaning and origin. |
| Homograph | Words that are spelled the same but have a different meaning and origin. |
| Homophone | Words that sound alike, but have a different meaning and usually spelling. |
| Onomatopoeia | A words that resembles the sound to which they refer; the noise they depict, e.g., boom. |
| Oxymoron | Words that contradict each other; clashing ideas. |
| Palindromes | A word or sentence that read the same way forward and backward. |
| Portmanteau | A word that is formed by combining two or more words; the words morph into one word, e.g., moped = motor + pedal. |
| Sesquipedalian | A word that is very long. The shortest word on our list has only 12 letters. |
| Sight Words | Common words that are often not spelled phonetically but must be learned, so they can be recognized automatically on sight. |
| Synonym | Words that have similar meanings. |
| Word Pairs | A pair of words that always appear in the same order. |
