Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In pathology, an abnormal subjective sensation, referred to the skin, resembling the feeling of ants creeping over the body.
Wiktionary
- n. An abnormal skin sensation similar to that of insects crawling over or within the skin; a tactile hallucination involving such a sensation. A common side-effect of substance abuse, it can also be experienced with high fever, menopause, skin cancer, diabetic neuropathy, or herpes zoster.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Med.) A sensation resembling that made by the creeping of ants on the skin.
WordNet 3.0
- n. hallucinated sensation that insects or snakes are crawling over the skin; a common side-effect of extensive use of cocaine or amphetamines
Etymologies
- c. 1700, From Latin formica (ant) + -tion. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Check out the post on "formication". posted by sydney on”
“The phenomena persisted from periods of a few hours to two or three days, return of function being first noticeable in the sensory nerves, and often with modification in the way of lowered acuteness, or minor signs of irritation, such as formication, slight hyperæsthesia or pain, pointing to a combination with the least extensive degrees of hæmorrhage; later, motor power was rapidly regained.”
“No change except a deepening of the anæsthesia, and the development of formication on manipulation of the wound occurred, and at the end of three weeks the nerve was exposed (Mr. Watson), and it was found that”
“The early return of sensation, even if modified in acuteness, was always a very hopeful sign; also the production of formication in the area of distribution of the nerve on manipulation of the injured spot.”
“When in a position allowing of direct examination, the contused portion of the nerve sometimes developed a palpable fusiform thickening, manipulation of which might give rise to formication in the area of distribution -- a favourable prognostic sign.”
“The track was now hard and palpable, but there was no hyperæsthesia in any area; when the track was manipulated slight formication in the hand was experienced.”
“A fortnight later this pain still persisted; there was lowered sensation in the ulnar area with formication, also lowered sensation in the internal cutaneous area of distribution; sensation in the lesser internal cutaneous area was normal.”
“I dozed until the ants found me out, when, unable to lie quiet under the formication, I got up and passed hours walking up and down till I was so tired that I almost fell asleep walking; then I lay down again and slept for an hour, but the cold and the ants awoke me again, and I spent the rest of the night by the camp-fire.”
“The same author speaks of a gentleman under treatment for stricture who could not eat figs without experiencing the most unpleasant formication of the palate and fauces.”
“A woman of fifty-two, married but having no children, and of negative family history, six years before the time of report showed the first symptoms of the affection, which began with formication in the finger-tips.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘formication’.
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phrontistery - f
from phrontistery.info
fabaceous, fabiform, fabulist, faburden, face-cord, facetiae, facia, facinorous, factious, factitious, factitive, factive and 418 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
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Words that sound dirty but aren't.
When you want to be pedantic AND childish.
titular, masticate, condiment, titmouse, penal, formication, social intercourse, assassination, cacophony, lucubrate, rectify, banal and 131 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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The Bucolic Abattoir
Words which, when spoken, suggest something other than their real meaning.
bucolic, fungible, brouhaha, narthex, restive, inflammable, invaluable, raze, pulchritude, noisome, fatuous, terrific and 21 more...
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Talking About Words
The favorite words of Talking Tyrants
dolorous, parsimonious, apotemnophilia, odalisque, tuberoinfundibular, morass, ostentatious, sybaritic, vermilion, onomatopoeia, eschatology, teleology and 49 more...
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Originventory
Beformitables; previousness, past-referents, and origins.
erstwhile, formication, quondam, atavistic, umquhile, yestreen, hesternal, hesternopothia, pridian, ere, retrophilia, ante mortem and 72 more...
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Seeing Things
Or hearing, smelling, etc. Types of hallucinations.
hallucination, photism, zoöscopy, zoopsia, acousma, akoasm, parosmia, phantosmia, paracusia, formication, trip, mirage and 7 more...
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juv3nal's Words
ligature, hermeneutic, caduceus, prelapsarian, apophenia, pataphor, lipogram, epinephrine, ludic, samizdat, oulipo, oulipopo and 194 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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exlotuseater's Words
autocthonous, anacoluthon, benthic, bactrian, caryatid, chiastic, dryad, dromedary, effulgent, elixir, fricative, fungible and 145 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 1: Less Common
These are words that I have learnt over the years and want to remember
epithalamium, hustings, verger, atheling, moue, pendulous, pendragon, funicular, pericope, fettle, eleemosynary, moot and 160 more...
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epeolatrist's list
epeolatry, syzygy, sphallolalia, lucubration, lugubrious, cacology, mellifluous, tmesis, synecdoche, anathema, eschatological, razbliuto and 349 more...
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sick
"Sick" is probably not the right word, but this is where I put diseases, problems and abnormalities until I find a better way to sort them.
atavism, pareidolia, apophenia, echolalia, glossolalia, alogia, dysthymia, euthymia, synesthesia, Stendhal syndrome, cryptomnesia, analgesia and 356 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for formication.
super-logos The mathematician was charged by the judge with five counts of formication, and two counts of bad taste. Aug 15, 2008
Prolagus Thou shalt not formicate. Apr 3, 2008
joannasephine how disturbing that there's a word for it ... Apr 3, 2008