Definitions
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek; παρα (para, "amiss, wrong") + εἴδωλον (eidōlon, "image"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The term pareidolia (pronounced pæraɪˈdoʊliə) describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant.”
“This psychological phenomenon is called pareidolia.”
The Huffington Post: Alejandro Rojas: Recording Ghost Voices: The Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)
“You will never find the word pareidolia in a print dictionary because it is only used on the internet.”
“The process by which people see emotionally significant images in random patterns is called pareidolia, and is well-known to psychologists.”
“Maybe birds or insects have the same kind of pareidolia, and the plant takes advantage of that?”
“I meant "pareidolia" above, not paedolia, which isn't a real word.”
“Michael Jackson face appears in Muhammed Ali video: hoax or pareidolia?”
“You decide whether this is a case of pareidolia, radio interference or voices from beyond.”
The Huffington Post: Alejandro Rojas: Recording Ghost Voices: The Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)
“As the title suggests, this story centers on pareidolia; the main character has the ability to see everything from Italy in clouds to the Shroud of Turin in a coffee stain, and her boyfriend Claude is able to turn her visions into cash.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pareidolia’.
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T:PSYCHO - misinterpretations
Cognitive and social biases. Primary source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
actor-observer bias, ambiguity effect, anchoring, attentional bias, availability cascade, availability heur..., backfire effect, bandwagon effect, base rate neglect..., belief bias, bias blind spot, change bias and 151 more...
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 346 more...
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
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longer new words in Scrabble
these were collected recently
mostly from Chambers and some
from Collins dictionaries.acathisia, acathisias, acentrics, aciclovir, aciclovirs, acidically, acinetobacter, acinetobacters, acrophobics, aculeates, advertizings, aerodigestive and 1320 more...
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I didn't know there was a word for that!
interdigitate, aspheric, benthos, reptation, pastiche, pandiculate, agelast, obdormition, dysania, armscye, phosphene, etiolation and 62 more...
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perfectly plosive p's
positively p's, please!
perdurable, penultimate, proscenium, pysmatic, petaliferous, pogoniasis, pyx, palimpsest, pareidolia, perspicuous, pauciloquy, pococurante and 14 more...
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There's a word for it
catkin, pastiche, badonkadonk, biome, omphaloscopy, pogonophobia, reptation, anathema, xyst, commodify, commoditize, monetize and 69 more...
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Fancy Foreign Words
de facto, Zeitgeist, schadenfreude, apropos, per se, Auteur, tookus, de rigueur, xyst, arrivederci, sotto, troika and 15 more...
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My favorites
foible, sidereal, amygdala, woodnote, cogitate, silvern, ollalieberry, ramify, diaphanous, surreality, myopia, subcelestial and 75 more...
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Remember Not To Forget
Sephardic, Umwelt, amphiboly, untrammeled, sequela, pandiculation, tensegrity, syncretism, pugilism, shemagh, disquisition, perspicacity and 65 more...
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Specificity
Words that have with subtly different meanings from other words.
vestibule, commoditize, commodify, monetize, corroborate, mezzanine, apposite, irony, calefacient, maxim, pandiculate, rarefaction and 40 more...
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difficult words
ordure, tatterwallop, callipygian, odious, colophon, cynosure, hardener, emollience, valetudinarian, demonym, volage, polysemantic and 260 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 476 more...
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delightful descriptors
petrichor, omphaloskepsis, ouroboros, oneiric, flaneur, saunter, dishabituation, fractalization, eudemony, phosphorescence, holographic, umwelt and 136 more...
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Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
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Real words that I love
Words that make me happy in my pants AND have a place in the dictionary.
enervate, efficacious, basilisk, minotaur, elfin, elephantine, schadenfreude, enigma, emasculate, acidic, appalling, ridiculous and 102 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pareidolia.
hernesheir Who knew that a cheese grater could be such an eidetic eidolon. Jun 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi I *love* those cheese graters! May 28, 2010
ruzuzu You're awesome, treeeees.
You're awesome too, a. May 28, 2010
reesetee I do what I can. May 28, 2010
ruzuzu Aha! Not only is there a word for that, but it's already on reesetee's It has a name?? list.
Thank you, a.
May 28, 2010
reesetee My right shoe has a scuff in the exact shape of the Loch Ness Monster, if the Loch Ness Monster were a black leather shoe. Oct 9, 2007
uselessness I have a smudge of somethingorother on my living room window that looks like a faerie (or at least what I would imagine one to look like). Oct 9, 2007
skipvia I once found a likeness of Richard Nixon in a hush puppy. Really. Oct 9, 2007
chained_bear Those kooks! Hmph. Everyone knows the Virgin Mary appears only in grilled cheese sandwiches, not pizza. Sheesh! Oct 9, 2007
uselessness These pictures are all real, I know because I found them on the internet! Oct 9, 2007
arby Ooh, glad to have a word for this phenomenon. Oct 9, 2007
seanahan A psychological phenomenon by which people perceive random scatter as being a distinguishable object, such as a face.
This is what is going on when people see the Virgin Mary in their pizza. Oct 9, 2007
freshelectrons most recently seen on www.avantgame.com, Jane McGonigal's website. context: "Ceci n'est pas un pareidolia" Mar 28, 2007