# Words that look like the thing they spell **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2024, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046 "2024-08-22T12:37:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nate/32/13085_2.png) [@nate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nate)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/1 "2024-08-22T12:37:20Z")
Words like bed, eyes, and shark. Is there a term for these? Any more examples? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/2 "2024-08-22T12:53:08Z")
In Hebrew (but only with cursive letters) the word elephant, “pil” פיל, can be drawn to look like an elephant’s head. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/3 "2024-08-22T13:19:30Z")
If you give up the requirement for an alphabet, you have discovered pictographic writing! (e.g. old Sumerian, Chinese, Egyptian, etc.) Otherwise, there is a whole genre of zoomorphic calligraphy: [![](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/animal-typography-animal-calligraphy-animal-logo-animal-logotype-rooster-typography-rooster-calligraphy-rooster-logo-rooster-133786327.jpg) ](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/animal-typography-animal-calligraphy-animal-logo-animal-logotype-rooster-typography-rooster-calligraphy-rooster-logo-rooster-133786327.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/4 "2024-08-22T14:35:48Z")
I get bed, and possibly eyes, but not shark. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/5 "2024-08-22T14:56:26Z")
Looks like a shark swimming left to me. The “h” is the front dorsal fin. The top of the “k” can be a rear dorsal fin and the chevron part of the “k” is the tail. All these are kind of a stretch to me, but I can see it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/6 "2024-08-22T15:17:43Z")
> [@nate](#): > > Words like bed, eyes, and shark. Is there a term for these? Any more examples? **BOOBS** (ducks and runs) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/7 "2024-08-22T15:20:40Z")
True story; a co-worker shared a photo of the sign to the women’s clinic/mammography clinic at a hospital they were visiting. It was located in Suite 800B. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/8 "2024-08-22T15:47:45Z")
This reminded me of a strong memory from when I was quite young. I observed that to my eye, the word **ugly** looked, well, ugly. It has a peculiarly nasty set of broken symmetries, and seemed to exactly exemplify its meaning. As to whether there is a word for this, I would be amused to know. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/9 "2024-08-22T15:58:50Z")
My mother complained about my 1st grade teacher telling us that the word ‘look’ could be remembered because it looked like a pair of eyeglasses instead of concentrating on teaching phonics. That’s the one I remember but she did do that with other words too, possibly ‘eyes’. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/10 "2024-08-22T16:05:20Z")
The Arabic script presents lots of opportunities for this kind of thing. Here are some beautiful examples: [Designer Creates Arabic Illustrated Words that Show Their Literal Meaning (mymodernmet.com)](https://mymodernmet.com/arabic-illustrated-words/) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/11 "2024-08-22T16:45:13Z")
Not a word, but there’s a little man living inside your digital clock and twice a day at one minute past ten he spies on you: I O:O I ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/12 "2024-08-22T17:15:22Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > I observed that to my eye, the word **ugly** looked, well, ugly. > It has a peculiarly nasty set of broken symmetries, and seemed to exactly exemplify its meaning. > > As to whether there is a word for this, I would be amused to know. “Self-descriptive.” The opposite of which, naturally, is “non-self-descriptive.” Which itself is - [oh no I’ve gone cross-eyed](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grelling%E2%80%93Nelson_paradox). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/13 "2024-08-22T21:19:06Z")
Para||el. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/14 "2024-08-23T11:24:40Z")
elongated bit ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/15 "2024-08-23T12:35:39Z")
The word ‘four’ is a collection of four different things. The word ‘up’ and the abbreviation ‘dn’ illustrate their relationship jointly in that one is the upside-down (well, rotated rather than flipped) version of the other. (And if we think of the vertical bar in each as a sort of pole, ‘up’ it up the pole, ‘dn’ slid down.) And a little differently, the word ‘queue’ tells you how queues work: all the action is in the front, on the first letter, while all the others just line up silently behind it. But here, it’s rather the pronunciation that resembles the thing denoted, or perhaps the combination of pronunciation and spelling. I don’t think these are exactly examples of autological terms; in those, it’s the meaning, rather than the form, that is self-referential, although that meaning may refer to characteristics of the form, as with ‘polysyllabic’. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/16 "2024-08-23T12:51:06Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Not a word, but there’s a little man living inside your digital clock and twice a day at one minute past ten he spies on you: > > I O:O I And then there’s the meme’d beachside sign instructing people about what to do if they see someone in distress in the water, with a stylized symbol of a drowning person on it: **If you see someone drowning** | o | **Dial 911** Which of course looks like it says “If you see someone drowning, laugh out loud, then dial 911” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/17 "2024-08-23T14:28:08Z")
> [@nate](#): > > Words like bed, eyes, and shark. Is there a term for these? From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autological_word), “An autological word (or homological word) expresses a property that it also possesses. For example the word “pentasyllabic” has five syllables, the word “writable” is writable, and the word “English” is in English.” ---
**Author:** ![nate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nate/32/13085_2.png) [@nate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nate)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/18 "2024-08-23T14:34:38Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > The word ‘up’ and the abbreviation ‘dn’ illustrate their relationship jointly in that one is the upside-down (well, rotated rather than flipped) version of the other. (And if we think of the vertical bar in each as a sort of pole, ‘up’ it up the pole, ‘dn’ slid down.) Very neat. Too bad it would be terrible to use in situations where you wanted to ensure the true up label is pointing up. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/19 "2024-08-23T14:41:15Z")
“eyes” doesn’t look like real eyes to me, in Spanish though, “ojo” looks exactly like 2 eyes divided by a nose. (but it means only one eye, “ojos” the plural is not so perfectly matching) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/20 "2024-08-23T15:11:26Z")
Someone else needs to call 911 because I can’t stop lol-ing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046.md?page=2)