Words for a feeling English has no word for
Feelings everyone knows and English cannot catch in one word, from Welsh hiraeth to Korean han. Each with its meaning and the story behind it.
- boketto3 Nov 2026gazing into the middle distance with nothing at all going on inside
- prisiri2 Nov 2026fun, festivity, and the enjoyment taken in it
- kefi1 Nov 2026the high spirits that make a night take off — the will and the gusto to enjoy it
- Kopfkino27 Oct 2026the film that runs behind your eyes — the private screening nobody else sees
- hüzün25 Oct 2026the shared, low-grade sorrow a city carries about with it
- han24 Oct 2026a knot of long grief and grievance, carried by a family or a whole country
- resfeber21 Oct 2026the fizzing nerves of the hours before a journey
- pyt19 Oct 2026a shrug in one syllable — let it go, it does not matter
- goesting18 Oct 2026an eager wanting — appetite for the food and for the day itself
- overskud16 Oct 2026the surplus that leaves you something to give to somebody else
- tampo13 Oct 2026quiet, hurt withdrawal, held until somebody comes to coax you out of it
- davka10 Oct 2026precisely this one, and often precisely to annoy
- tarab9 Oct 2026the state music can put you in when it takes you over completely
- gunnen7 Oct 2026to be glad that somebody has something good, with no envy in it at all
- desabafar6 Oct 2026to get the whole thing off your chest and breathe again
- hiraeth2 Oct 2026a deep longing for a home you cannot return to — or that never was
- dépaysement30 Sept 2026the pleasantly strange feeling of being far from everything familiar
- firgun27 Sept 2026open-hearted, ungrudging delight in another person's success
- toska26 Sept 2026a vague, aching restlessness of the soul, longing for it knows not what
- gigil21 Sept 2026the overwhelming urge to squeeze or pinch something unbearably cute
- myötähäpeä11 Sept 2026embarrassment on someone else's behalf — pure cringe
- voorpret7 Sept 2026the pleasure you take in something before it happens — anticipation
- ikigaipractice wordwhat makes a life worth living — a reason to get up
- scunneredblind wordthoroughly fed up, sick of it
- þetta reddastblind wordit will all work out somehow