There are over 171,000 words in the English language so far, and about 1,000 words are added every year, so it’s safe to assume there are several that you have never heard of. Here are ten strange words that you never knew existed. *cue drumroll*

1. Petrichor

After it rains, there’s always a fresh, natural smell. But did you know that there is a specific word for that? It’s called “petrichor.”

2. Interrobang

Turns out there’s another punctuation mark that you can use. It’s the interrobang. It’s  when you ask a question, but you exclaim it. Yep, an interrobang basically means: “?!”. It even looks like an exclamation mark and a question mark combined. So instead of typing “?!” you can type “‽” However, it’s not a good idea to use this on your essay that’s if you care about your grade, because it’s considered nonstandard, kind of like slang punctuation.

3. Tittle

Wait, what‽ (And here we see the interrobang being properly used). “Tittle” just refers to the dot above a lowercase “i” or “j”. But seriously, out of all the possible combinations of letters out there, they just had to make the word, “tittle.”

4. Anatidaephobia

There are some pretty strange phobias out there. This word is definitely one of the weirdest phobias. Anatidaephobia is an extreme fear of ducks or geese. To be more exact, it’s the fear of ducks/geese looking at you. Staring at you. Watching you. Forever….

5. Otalgia

This word is a pain in the ear. No, literally, the definition of otalgia is “earache.” It’s the medical term for when your ear hurts.

6. Defenestrate

Throwing people out of windows? Yep, there’s a word for that, too!  Defenestrate means throwing someone out of a window. That would probably be very pane-ful! You probably want to defenestrate me now…

7. Muktuk

This strange word is talking about the skin or blubber of a whale. It’s typically from a narwhal or beluga, and is used as food by the Inuit. Another food item to try that you can add to your bucket list!  Probably tastes like chicken, too.

8. Tittynope

At this point, I’m pretty sure this is just the result of people running out of ideas for words. But seriously, who comes up with these words? Despite the weird name, tittynope means something quite normal. It means leftovers that are very small. It could range from a drop of water left in your water bottle, or one noodle that’s leftover from your pasta.

9. Prasine

If you’re an artistic person, you know that there are so many different shades of color. Prasine refers to a shade of green, but not just any type of green… it means the green color of a leek. That’s right, a leek.

10. Pahoehoe

After reading that word, I know you’re thinking, “Why would anyone ever make a word with that name?” It has a Hawaiian origin, which you can tell from it’s odd spelling. It’s a “basaltic lava that forms smooth undulating or ropy masses,” according to the Oxford Dictionary.

Now you can add ten more words to your range of vocabulary! Time to wow your parents with your newfound knowledge.