Sketchplanations
Big Ideas Little Pictures
Get the book!
Sketchplanations podcast photo of Rob Bell, Tom Pellereau and Jono Hey
Prefer to listen?
🎉 Help keep Sketchplanations ad-free by supporting me

Words sketches

Explore sketches, drawings, and illustrations that simplify ideas related to Words.

What are collective nouns for animals? Illustration of African animals showing examples of collective nouns: a tower of giraffes, a crash of rhinos, a pride of lions, a dazzle of zebra, a murder of crows, a bask of crocodiles, and others.Collective Nouns: Examples, meanings, and the best ones for animalsWhat is chiasmus? Illustration showing JFK's quote "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" arranged as A-B-B-A symmetry of thoughts.ChiasmusWhat are topography and bathmetry, and their meaning, shown as land elevation and ocean depthTopography and BathymetryBASE jumping is an acronym for Building, Antenna (like a radio or communication tower), Span (such as a bridge), and Earth (a cliff or natural formation)—the four types of fixed objects people jump fromBASE Jumping — Building, Antenna, Span, EarthSnerdle meaning in English: To wrap up snugly beneath the covers and ignore the world. 18th Century dialect. By SketchplanationsSnerdleEponym examples, explanation and etymology explained in a sketch with Erno Rubik of the Rubik's Cube, the Jacuzzi brothers, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, Lázló Biró, Etienne de Silhouette and Rudolf Diesel and his diesel engineEponymVorfreude explanation and example: what is vorfreude? the pleasure in anticipation shown by someone looking enjoying looking forward to their upcoming holidayVorfreudeKawaii examples - the Japanese culture of cute explained with lots of cute sushi with adorable facesKawaiiWord spectrum examples and explanation showing what is a word spectrum as gradations of description and examples of different word spectrums for size, frequency, talk volume, intelligence and tasteWord spectrumHara Hachi Bu meaning summary showing a person, perhaps in Okinawa Japan, declining food at 80% fullHara Hachi BuRAS Syndrome illustration: Redundant Acronym Syndrome shown with a person using their PIN Number in an ATM MachineRAS SyndromeAmphitheatre and theatre (or amphitheater and theatre): an open theatre like the Minack theatre is shown on the coast on the left, contrasted with a larger amphitheatre with seating on both sides (or all the way round) on the land on the right.Amphitheatre and theatreGreeble or greeblie illustration: showing a panel of buttons on a wall and a ship in a spaceport rather like the Millenium Falcom full of small elements that give detail and scaleGreebleFortnightly: a person considers whether 'biweekly' really means "twice a week" or "every two weeks" and resolves to use fortnightly for "every two weeks" in the future.FortnightlyAnadiplosis illustration. Yoda speaks his famous lines: Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering—on a dusty desert planet with two moonsAnadiplosisWhat does a Pyrrhic victory mean example: King Pyrrhus laments a victory that wasn't worth winning as he surveys the remains of his troops after a victory on the battlefieldPyrrhic victoryTwo people are loving soaking up the low winter rays of sun in a parkApricityWhen to use advise vs advice, licence vs license, practice or practice explained. Fellow devising a device as a way to illustrate how Devise, Advise, License, and practise (with an s) are all verbs in British English and device, advice, licence and practice (with a c) are all nounsAdvise vs advice and other s and c'sWhat are the NATO phonetic alphabet words: helping two pilots correctly identify Y I V B D T which is easily misheardPhonetic alphabetWhat is phubbing - snubbing someone or ignoring them for your phone - example: Someone sat in a cafe being phubbed by their friends on their phones while a parent and child walks by, gently heartbroken by being upstaged by a phonePhubbing: What It Means and Why It MattersTwo people enjoying a dialogue, one falling asleep to a monologue, and one being distracted from their book by a halfalogueHalfalogueWhat does pleonasm mean? An unexpected surprise seeing a personal friend in a museum with exact replicas and free giftsPleonasmKintsugi: A bowl repaired with kintsugi with bright gold seams visible next to a flowerKintsugiMicro-Editing Redundant Words illustration: A list of frequently used phrases in web copy is shown, with redundant words highlighted in red. A good reminder when writing these image captions! Micro-editing redundant wordsWhat is the meaning of Flotsam and Jetsam illustration: a bright yellow rubber duck floating in the sea is flotsam; as it is an item of cargo accidentally lost overboard from a container ship listing heavily to one side (left). This is contrasted by jetsam; green crates, actively being thrown overboard by a team of sailors desperately trying to avoid their small boat from sinking (right). Flotsam and jetsamWhat is Ablaut reduplication example explained: showing zig-zag, hip-hop, and splish-splash-sploshAblaut reduplicationLabyrinth maze: A person lost in a maze with many choices and a person thoughtfully walking through a labyrinth following the path inexorably and peacefully towards the centre Labyrinths and mazesWhat is wabi sabi Japanese wisdom meaning and definition with an old bonsai tree in a bowl and some fallen leaves in wabi-sabi styleWabi sabiDays of the week and their Norse Gods: Tyr for Tuesday, Odin for Wednesday, Thor for Thursday and Frigg for Friday. And the Sun, Moon and Saturn for Sunday, Monday and Saturday.Days of the weekWhat is the meaning of Schadenfreude with an example: a double layer of schadenfreude as an onlooker laughing at someone tripping is about to fall into a hole and get their comeuppanceSchadenfreudeChindogu example: A t-shirt with a labelled grid on the back could be a useful tool to guide someone to the exact coordinates you'd like your back scratched. ChindoguApophenia example: two hikers look up into the sky with surprise to see a cloud in the form of Godzilla!ApopheniaOrdering adjectives in English example - opinion, size, age, shape / colour, origin, material, purposeOrdering adjectivesCapitonym illustration: a large turkey and a map of the country Turkey shows how adding a capital changes the meaningCapitonymWhat is Tsundoku meaning and example: the act of collecting books without reading them shown by a person snoozing happily on their bed surrounded by books, books and booksTsundokuAcronym vs initialism illustration: comparing the acronym laser—pronounced as a word— and the initialism FBI—pronounced by saying the lettersAcronyms and initialismsMatrix of spelling and sound showing the place of homonyms, homographs, homophones, heteronyms, synonyms and antonymsHomonyms, homographs, homophones, heteronyms… The Oxford Comma illustration: in the acknowledgements at the beginning of a book, the oxford comma, used after the penultimate item in a list, clears up any confusion as to whether God is a parent of the author. The Oxford commaKaffikok meaning - what is a kaffikok - the distance you can go before needing a cup of coffeeKaffikokKayak vs Canoe: what's the differenceKayak vs Canoe: What's the difference?Nominative determinism examples — or an aptronym — with 3 books and their nominatively deterministic authorsNominative determinismSea horse, sea jelly rather than jellyfish or jelly fish, sea star rather than starfish or star fishSea jelly, sea starWhat is Muphry's Law example explained: a reviewer of a manuscript makes a spelling mistake in their reviewMuphry’s LawHow to speak plainly illustrated by Owl-speak and Pooh-speak from Winnie-the-PoohHow to speak plainly, by Pooh BearIdempotence, or idempotent, illustrated with an idempotent action of look_at_cake that always has the same effect, compared with a non-idempotent action of eat_slice_of_cakeIdempotenceA visual guide to the Greek alphabet against the Roman alphabet used in EnglishKnow your Greek alphabetHow to remember if it's a Stalactite or Stalagmite (or stalagtite or stalacmite): Stalactites Cling tight to the Ceiling of a cave. Stalagmites Grow on the GroundStalactites, StalagmitesContranym explainedContranymThe different faces of downhillHow to say ghoti as fish from George Bernard ShawCrazy English: ghotiQuotiquette: The etiquette of quotingPOSH: Port Out Starboard Home (apocryphal)Heteronym illustration with the examples: present, windy, read, and close Heteronym: spell it the same, say it differentlyUK vs US date writingOrigins of mandarins world map: including Tangerine from Tangiers, Morocco, Mandarin from China, Clementine from Oman and Satsuma from JapanOrigins of mandarinsSpoonerismsLearn kind words first in new countries: a backpacker says nice things to a local seller with a cart, no doubt gets smiles in returnLearn kind words first in new countriesEuphemisms for losing moneyLess and fewer illustration showing when to use each. Less is measured by mass eg less sugar and fewer is countable eg fewer sugar cubes. Nouns for less don't go plural eg less furniture vs fewer eg fewer chairsLess and FewerMetaphors for Ideas: Ideas Are Locations, Ideas Are Objects, Ideas Are FoodMetaphors for ideasThe folk economics of ins and outsStationary and StationeryPortemanteau food examples: tofurkey, turducken, cambozolaPortemanteau foodPalindromes and SemordnilapOmit unnecessary wordsUse styling instead of colonsHow to make a portemanteau - by smashing words together inluding Oxbridge, brunch, and sketchplanationsMake a portemanteauPhD metaphors: a journey, product and quiltSomeone gets a much better response by asking 'How was your day?' instead of 'Good day?'Prefer open-ended questionsThe difference between compliment and complement explained with someone complimenting a shirt and a wine complementing a cheeseCompliment and ComplementWhen to use Affect vs effect: one person affects another by pushing them into the water. The effect is a big splash.Affect. EffectAmateur vs professional meaningFor the amour of it
Buy Me A Coffee