# Words that look like the thing they spell

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046>\
**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:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**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 23, 2024, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/21 "2024-08-23T16:56:39Z")

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The Danish word for “island” looks kind of like a bird’s-eye view of an island:

**ø**

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**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/22 "2024-08-23T17:52:35Z")

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> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> BOOBS

You are supposed to capitalize it “Boob” and note that it has views from three different directions all in one.

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/23 "2024-08-23T21:07:48Z")

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> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> 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.”

All other words (with one exception) are heterological.

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**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/24 "2024-08-24T01:04:19Z")

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I don’t think “autological” describes what the OP is asking for. An autological word is one in which the word’s **meaning** describes the word, like “short”, “English”, “pentasyllabic”, etc. The OP is asking about cases where the word’s **orthography** , the actual sequence of letters, physically resembles what the word refers to.

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**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/25 "2024-08-24T08:30:33Z")

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I’m not a linguist, but I theorize, based largely on having owned a dog, that “poo” is a valid answer.

In dog terms, that is more normally “oop”, with a nugget or two, followed by one with a tail (this could be endogenous, or caused by, the dog haven eaten grass recently). Regardless, the first few turds tend to be pellet shaped, and the last to have a misshapen aspect.

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-look-like-the-thing-they-spell/1006046/26 "2024-08-24T11:01:11Z")

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Automorphic, then.

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