# Is there a word for words which describe themselves?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 14, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965 "2010-01-14T18:55:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965/1 "2010-01-14T18:55:38Z")

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For example “oxymoron” is an oxymoron (since it comes from the greek words “Oxy” meaning sharp and “moron” meaning blunt. “Tautology” is a tautology (“Something which is true is true”). etc.

Is there a word to describe words that fit their own definition? For that matter are there related words for ones that don’t?

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**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965/2 "2010-01-14T18:58:09Z")

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[autonym](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonym_(word))

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**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965/3 "2010-01-14T19:03:54Z")

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I thought it would be something like that. Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965/4 "2010-01-14T20:06:25Z")

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As an adjective for such words you can say self-referential. One of my favorite self-referential words, IIRC, comes up in Douglas Hofstadter’s _Gödel, Escher, Bach_–“awkwardnessfull”.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965/5 "2010-01-14T20:39:43Z")

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My favorite example is sesquipedalian.

My second favorite example is anapest.

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**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965/6 "2010-01-14T20:55:58Z")

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[Onomatopoeia](http://www.examples-of-onomatopoeia.com/) might also fit this description - words like “bang” and “woof” where the word is also the sound associated with the word.

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**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965/7 "2010-01-14T22:31:04Z")

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> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#):
>
> [Onomatopoeia](http://www.examples-of-onomatopoeia.com/) might also fit this description - words like “bang” and “woof” where the word is also the sound associated with the word.

That would be a hyponym of what I was after, yes.

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**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-words-which-describe-themselves/524965/8 "2010-01-15T02:38:50Z")

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I thought that the term “homological” described a word that was true of itself and the term “heterological” described a word that was not true of itself.

For example, the word “short” is homological whereas the word “monosyllabic” is heterological.

Here’s a fun question: Is the word “heterological” homological or heterological?