17 words that describe themselves

Autological words are a self-centered, self-referential bunch

Hellenic sculpture
(Image credit: (Corbis))

Most words have a rather abstract connection to the things they describe. The word "yellow" is not actually yellow. The word "square" is not a square. Nor do we expect them to be. That's the way of the world and the arbitrary nature of language. But some words do embody the properties they denote. We call them autological words, and they are a self-centered, self-referential bunch. Here are 17 of them.

1. WORD

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Arika Okrent

Arika Okrent is editor-at-large at TheWeek.com and a frequent contributor to Mental Floss. She is the author of In the Land of Invented Languages, a history of the attempt to build a better language. She holds a doctorate in linguistics and a first-level certification in Klingon. Follow her on Twitter.