Definitions
Etymologies
- From the Ancient Greek φίλτρον (philtron), from φιλέω ("to love, to kiss"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“She said that it was called the philtrum, that it was one of the places where the soul lived.”
“For some reason that made me Google "philtrum" -- I guess people must Google their "favorite body parts" -- and the incredibly weird thing is that it took me here.”
“Yet four members of the group shared a kind of family resemblance: they were stunted in stature, with small heads, flattened faces, drooping eyelids, and smooth upper lips lacking the groove known as a philtrum.”
“The right cheek, then the left, feeling for missed spots along the jaw line, and next the upper lip, the sides and that middle dent called the philtrum, and finally the fussy section, where most cuts occur, between the lower lip and the knob of the chin.”
A Toast to the Visible World: Remembering John Updike - Paper Cuts Blog - NYTimes.com
“The interval between the two medial bands corresponds with the depression, called the philtrum, seen on the lip beneath the septum of the nose.”
“And, my favorite, the midline indentation in the upper lip, is termed the philtrum ` love potion. ”
“I also like philtrum, which is the vertical indentation above one’s upper lip.”
“The strangely stiff white ruff, rather coarsely painted, is a perfect foil for Rosalba's gorgeously lustrous eyes, philtrum and ringlets.”
The Washington Post: Gopnik's Daily Pic: Rosalba Peale by Rembrandt Peale
“From Middle French philtre, from Latin philtrum, from Greek philtron; akin to Greek philosophy dear.”
“A child lounging by his locker a few minutes after the late bell lashes out at me--I notice the thin upper lip, the erased philtrum, the impulsive behavior, all suggestive of prenatal alcohol exposure.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘philtrum’.
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Not in the Periodic Table
Words that sound like they might be the names of elements of the periodic table, but that aren't. Many of the words listed here were actually proposed as names for substances their creators thought...
tentorium, columbarium, nasturtium, deuterium, caladium, valerian, concordium, synangium, chorium, geranium, hymenium, pyrenium and 310 more...
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Any words List Its open!!
Im savin it for later
awesepoto
cooliest
sup
a-w-e-s-o-m-e
cool beans dude
hit me man
Rock on
Get a life dude
book timeweird, mongolian, 7457, saitin, toejam, aver, misanthrope, blandishment, cadge, fuschia, fuchsia, discotheque and 367 more...
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Quashmonger's Word-O-Rama
defenestration, procrustean, schadenfreude, philtrum, earworm, mondegreen, corpulent, miasma, preantepenultimate, déjà visité, jamais vu
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schnoz
Nose-related words
quidnunc, conk, philtrum, snub, aquiline, Roman, Greek, Nubian, button, honker, sniffer, pointer and 7 more...
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•body-related words that make lovely ...
With thanks to quinn for the idea, seen here. It's true that most diseases cannot double as names for baby boys—but some can. And anyway in their absence I nominate (thanks to Colon/Colin) body p...
colon, lung, langerhans, cuticle, spleen, glottis, calyx, anus, peter, pertussis, strabismus, erysipelas and 26 more...
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Words for everyday things
tittle, lunule, crepuscular ray, ferrule, gynecomastia, muntin, akimbo, skeuomorph, paresthesia, obdormition, phosphene, armscye and 9 more...
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The Fantastic Chiliastic
chiliastic, hapax legomenon, anosognosia, jactitation, infundibular, twee, callipygian, tintinnabulation, prestidigitation, anhedonia, coprolalia, parapraxis and 15 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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Physical anthropology
acclimatization, adriatic, aegyptid, aeta, aethiopid, africoid, ainuid, aistin, alae, alare, albino, allele and 202 more...
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QI words
tongue-pad, jigger, haptodysphoria, vomitorium, tmesis, philtrum, callipygian, zopissa, borborygmus
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Anatomically Correct
canthus, vibrissa, femoral, sphenoid, dura mater, pia mater, epiglottis, glottis, mons veneris, plaque, tibia, ulna and 96 more...
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via Weird and Wonderful Words
Catch-all for things culled from Weird and Wonderful Words, More Weird and Wonderful Words, and Totally Weird and Wonderful Words, by Erin McKean, et al.
aboulia, alexiteric, angletouch, dactylion, alveary, sparlire, glabella, philtrum, pallium, heart-spoon, hyperprosexia, paraprosexia and 438 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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Useful
parkour, diegetic, callipygian, dasypygal, hypnagogic, hypnopompic, antejentacular, postprandial, perspicuity, perspicacity, föhn, traceur and 115 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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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1401 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for philtrum.

reesetee Believe me, it's better that way. ;-) Apr 8, 2008
angharad I don't. I didn't know it had a name, until I saw it in a Superman novel. Oct 6, 2007
reesetee The groove in the upper lip that runs from the top of the lip to the nose.
Yes, we all have rather less appealing names for this, don't we? ;-) Feb 23, 2007