For example, someone trips and falls and skins their knee, instead of saying, "I'm sorry you got hurt" (since I didn't have anything to do with them skinning their knee)

Or: someone is going through a tough time in life, maybe they have cancer or are going through depression. Instead of, "I'm sorry you're going through that" (since it's not my fault)

I always wish there were a different phrase in English to express empathy towards someone in these situations other than "I'm sorry."

Like the container itself not the snack, I need it to buy some of the containers themselves

For example, at the beginning of the TV show Fawlty Towers, pranksters rearrange the sign of the titular BnB to read “Fatty Owls”, “Play Otters”, “Farty Towels” etc

Is there a name for this specific type of word play? “Near-anagram” and “partial-anagram” are closest thing I find online but they sound clunky.

Cheers

I know what this word sounds like out loud but have no idea how to spell it. Something like “zuhsh”?? I’ve also heard this word used when a woman scrunches her hair upwards to provide volume.

Edit: solved!! Thanks guys 😁😁

What is the word for songs that are a long list. It’s the End of the World as We Know It by REM, We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel, Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan. What are they called?

You often get this with cabin crew…
'Yourseatbeltfasnslkthsnunfasnslkths'

Like I started going to an event that happens weeky, but ive consistently showed up early enough to be in the room while the event volunteers would have a quick stand-up meeting before the official event start.

Eventually I was invited to join in on the meeting, and now im considered part of the volunteer team

Is there a word for that?

EDIT: so far Absobed or Assimilate is the closest ones

There has to be a much less offensive term for this concept (giving, and then taking back) but it escapes my grasp. I first thought fickle might be what I'm looking for but it's not.

I mean things like where something went on for so long that nobody knows why it's being done. Like fighting for so long you forget what started the fight.

I swear that I've seen a word like this before somewhere, but now I can't find it and I'm wondering if it even exists.

I'm trying to find a word or phrase that can describe a person who's nice, charismatic, and makes you feel welcomed but occasionally kinda sets off alarm bells in you?

Some context: this person is very warm and can make friends with just about everyone but sometimes there's just something that seems off about them that you can't quite pin... or maybe you can but they're so charismatic, people tend to look past it.

The best thing I've heard to describe it was the phrase "the uncanny valley of charisma" but if anyone has something more specific or a word that you can use to refer the person to that'd be great.

Or alternatively, for a woman who holds someone else's fate in their hands?

I'm not really looking for "amazon", as that implies physical prowess, athleticism, and warrior skill. I'm looking more for someone with rulership and authority of some sort, as perceived by someone who hopes to stay on her good side.

The specific use case is in this sentence, from the POV of a character who's trying to become an artist. She had a meeting with the curator of a local gallery, and the curator is very no-nonsense, but said the viewpoint character should bring some samples. Now the viewpoint is trying to decide which of her paintings to use, and I wrote this, with the absolute wrong word capitalized:

Which pieces to show to the ice-eyed ODALISQUE who held Jessie’s artistic fate in her pale hands?

At the time, I thought an odalisque was similar to a caryatid, maybe somewhat statuesque even. Then I looked it up and discovered this word is 100% wrong for this situation!

I don't mean a termagant, or a harridan, or a harpy. She's not mean or nasty, just... in charge.

What's the opposite of an odalisque? (The "dissimilar words" section of a thesaurus lookup on "odalisque" had absolutely nothing useful.)

Edit: I'm sorry, I should have made clear, I'm looking for a noun, not an adjective.

Basically my friend and i both had separate sexual experiences at the same time in the same house. We did not sleep with the same people. Kinda double dated then both got separately lucky at the same time same place lol. Any ideas?

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The example in my case is that I work for a group home. There's a weekly rec night for the residents with activities.

Residents can say no if they don't want to go and that's fine, however we're required to take all non-verbal residents to rec night every week, because as management says, "they can't say no".

This is because having more residents attending recreational activities hits metrics mandated by the government. We need to provide a certain amount of recreation for residents, and it only counts if they attend, not just if it's offered, so the people who can't say no are forced to attend.

Don't get me wrong, recreation is of course valuable to people's wellbeing and there's a lot of positive from this.

However if staff fail to take the "mandatory attendees" to rec night, there's penalties, and circumstances aren't taken into account. The biggest example being that some of these people have health issues that flare up from time to time and make them extremely ill. It's obvious that they need to stay home and rest and won't enjoy being out at rec night, but management doesn't care, they have to go anyway and if we don't take rhem we're written up or given unpaid suspensions for as they put it, neglecting the needs of residents.

I mean obviously they're just pretending to help these people just to meet metrics and sometimes doing them harm in the process. Is there a word or phrase to describe this kind of thing?

Malicious compliance seems close, but it isn't quite right.

A word or short phrase to drop in almost anywhere, if you can't be bothered to think of the actual word. I have a feeling that there are hundreds of these in every language if we really put some thought into it.

English by way of British Polari: Zhuzh (up)

English: Thing - "I got the thing."

Hawai'i Creole English / "Pidgin": Da Kine - "Kimo and I went da kine at da kine yestaday. Was choice!"

French: je ne sais quoi (I don't speak French; this might have a more concrete meaning than other items on this list)

Ok, your turn!

Omniscient isn’t it because that’s knowing everything, including the future. I need a word specifically for knowing everything from the past and present, but not the future.

The Germans probably have one. It's work related but a mouthful to say.

Simply put there's a policy that ends a day before a specific birthday but idk how to put that professionally

Hoping for something like "the policy will run [skadookey] your 65th birthday". I don't have the power to make Skadookey happen

This has been killing me all day.

It's a word that's most often used in academic/ philosophical contexts I think.

Similar to effective or practical.

If you want to achieve a certain goal you would say that you should take a BLANK approach, that it would be an issue of BLANKness or BLANKity

Also has an element of adeptness and competence; it means the most best set of actions you would take to achieve that goal

The specific context im thinking of is in ethics. If someone has some kind of moral anti-realist stance, they might say that actions are not a question of MORALITY (i.e. whether they are bad or good) but a question of BLANKity (i.e. whether or not they are the correct actions to take to achieve your intended goal

I hope these bad clues are enough for someone to go off

It might be a phrase and not a single word.

I’m trying to describe these types of people I have encountered:

My neighbor (not a legal professional in any way) who keeps giving me unsolicited and incorrect legal advice, despite knowing that I’m an attorney. He doubles down if I correct him.

Someone I know who confidently tells me my home country does not have running water or electricity, even though they know it’s my home country so I have lived there with running water and electricity. They themselves have never been.

It’s similar to the people who confidently say “that never happened” to you just because a specific experience did not happen to them.

My coworker spelled my name with a “y” and I politely corrected him and responded with the correct spelling, an “i”. I told him it’s a preference and he said it wasn’t. Maybe preference wasn’t the right word to use?

Scent and Taste Synesthesia?

Lofthouse Sugar cookies taste the way a can of Play Doh smells.

What’s the formal term for violence in a family?

I have found various phrases and such to describe this psychological phenomenon, but I can't help but wonder if there is a more accurate word for what I mean.

Specifically, I am referring to the tendency in some part of humanity to respond to any group or individual they see as "other" or "unknown" with hostility, aggression, and potentially even violence. I feel that willful ignorance is part of it, but I'm hoping for a word or phrase that is more succinct.

This topic is also the kind of thing that surely must have been brooched at some point in human literature, especially in psychology and philosophy.

Any sources that go into this topic at length would also be welcome, even if unnecessary!

Stuff like credit cards, IDs, debit cards, hotel room keys, gift cards, licenses ect. Basically everything that goes in a wallet outside of money.

I’ve been using this too much in my writing; but I never seem to find a synonym or close synonym to describe something the way I would with “couldn’t help but”.
Are there any words you know of?

I appreciate the help ♡