Category:What's the Word?

Listed below are all of the What's the Word segments from episodes 531-617.

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• Exaptation (617) – An organ that has a function that is not what it was originally evolved for
• Pathology (607) – The nature of a disease, or the study of the nature of a disease.
• Impedance (605) – The effective resistance of an electric circuit to alternating current
• Parallax (601) – Apparent movement against a background as an observer moves
• In Situ (597) – Being in its original position or place
• Phylogenetic (596) – The evolutionary history of a species
• Endemic (595) – Restricted to a particular region
• Autopoiesis(594) – A system that is self-regulating
• Autological (594) – A word that describes itself
• Isotropy (593)
• Xerophile (592) – An organism that thrives in dry environments
• Relict (591) – Something that has survived from an earlier period of time
• Taphonomy (589) – The study of fossilization
• Autophagy (588) – The self-digestion of a cell's organelles
• Ultracrepidarian (587) – One who expresses opinions outside their area of expertise
• Apophenia (586) – Perceiving a connection between random things
• Superfecundation (585) – Successive fertilization of multiple ova from the same ovulation
• Comorbidity (584) – Multiple simultaneous diagnoses
• Thanatosis (583) – When an animal plays dead
• Glycolysis (582) – The metabolic pathway that breaks down glucose
• Inquiline (581) – An animal that exploits the living space of another species
• Flocculation (580) – The production of fluffy masses from a colloidal suspension
• Hypnagogia (579) – The state of drowsiness that immediately preceeds sleep
• Mondegreen (578) – Word / phrase resulting from a mishearing of something that was said or sung
• Neoteny (577) – Retention of juvenile characteristics in adult individuals of a species
• Estivation (576) – Entering a dormant state when in a hot, dry environment
• Apoptosis (575) – Programmed cell death
• Paroxysmal (574) – Relating to a sudden fit, or attack during illness
• Alluvium (573) – Clay or silt that's deposited by running water
• Crepuscular (572) – Of, relating to, or resembling twilight
• Eschatology (571) – In theology, the final destiny of the soul, and of mankind
• Iatrogenic (570) – An infection or injury produced inadvertently by a physician
• Cauliflory (569) – Production of flowers or fruits directly from the branches or trunks of plants
• Autotomy (568) – The reflexive separation of an appendage, or other part of the body
• Group animal names (589) – An obstinacy of buffalo, etc
• Amphidromic (566) – A point where there's almost zero tides
• Propaganda (565) – Spreading ideas to promote an institution
• Hyperthymesia (564) – Extremely efficacious autobiographical memory
• Geodesic (563) – The shortest distance between two points
• Homophily (562) – The theory that people tend to form connections with others who are similar to them
• Foreign words that lack English equivalents (561)
• Chemiosmosis (560) – Turning ADP into ATP in mitochondria
• Equilux (559) – The day in which the length of dark and light are equal
• Sciolism (558) – Opinionating on subjects of which one only has superficial knowledge
• Thixotropy (557) – A property where shaking a substance thins it out
• Pleochroism (553) – The way crystals show different colors when viewed from different directions
• Epistasis (552) – When combined genes have a dominant effect over other combinations
• Words from science fiction (551) – Robotics, for example
• Agnatology (550) – The study of willful acts to spread confusion
• Algorithm (549) – A set of prescribed rules for solving a problem
• Fugacity (548) – The pressure of a hypothetical ideal gas that would correspond to the real gas as it exists at a given temperature, pressure, and composition
• Obligate (547) – A creature that is restricted to one characteristic mode of life
• Consilience (544) – Linking together principles from different disciplines to form a theory
• Hysteresis (543) – The lag in a variable property of a system with respect to the effect producing it as this effect varies
• Homeostasis (542) – The maintenance of internal stability in a system or organism
• Albedo (541) – The intensity of light that's reflected from an object
• Formication (540) – The feeling that insects are crawling all over your skin
• Indolent (539) – Causing little or no pain, inactive, or relatively benign
• Canonical (538) – According to recognized rules or scientific laws
• Isograd (534) – A line connecting points on the Earth where metamorphism of rocks occurred under the same conditions
• Efferent (533) – A body part that projects outward
• Anosmia (532) – The loss of the sense of smell
• Stochastic (531) – A process that is a random in the particulars, but is statistical in the aggregate

Trivia

• The longest What's the Word segment was 9 minutes and 55 seconds long, in episode 543
• The shortest was a tie at 1 minute and 50 seconds in episodes 534 and 558