Home / The notebook / Funny words kids make up, and why they make them up
Funny words kids make up, and why they make them up
Every kid does it. Somewhere between first words and first grade, they build their own, and the good ones are better than the real ones. This is a page about those words: where they come from, the kinds there are, and how to keep them.
Eric, Philadelphia · October 13, 2026
Why kids invent words
Most made-up words are not mistakes. They are a kid applying a rule they have just worked out, a little too well. Once a two-year-old learns that you add -ed to make something past tense, you get "I likeded it" and "me did". Once they learn that -er makes a comparison, "awesome" turns into "awesomer". Linguists call this overregularization, and it is a sign of a brain that is doing exactly what it should: finding the pattern and running with it.
The second kind is a blend. Two words the kid knows get squeezed into one. "Yesterday" and "sometime" become "yestertime", which turns out to be a better word than either, because it means any time before right now. "Difficult" picks up a syllable from "terrific" and comes out as "trifficult".
The third kind is pure sound. A word that is hard to say gets the hard part swapped for an easier one, or a whole sentence comes out as one word because that is how the kid hears it. "Lifety guard". "Gymnapstix". Nobody taught them these. They just arrived.
The ones we wrote down
One kid, one notebook, a few years. Yestertime (any time before right now). Awesomer (more awesome than that). Trifficult (difficult, the way he said it). Gooder & Gooder (how things are going). Sidewards (toward the side, but with feeling). I Likeded It (a five-star review). Happy Ever Again (what comes after happily ever after), which is what comes after happily ever after and might be the best of the lot.
Every one of those has a page on this site with a dictionary line, the way a real word would, and you can see them below. Read them to a parent you know and watch them come back with one of their own. Everybody has one.
How to catch them before they go
The words do not last. Somewhere around five or six the kid hears the real word enough times and quietly corrects. The ones that survive are the ones a parent kept saying on purpose.
So write them down the day you hear them. A note on your phone is enough: the word, what it meant, and the date. The date matters more than you think, because in ten years you will want to know how old they were.
Keep the definition in their terms, not yours. "Sidewards: toward the side, but with feeling" is better than "sideways". The feeling is the whole point.
And use the word. Say it back to them. A made-up word that the family adopts becomes part of how that family talks, and it outlives the phase that made it. We still say yestertime. We will always say yestertime.
What to do with them
A list in a notebook is good. A word you can see is better. The reason this site exists is that one Christmas we put one word on three hoodies, one for each of us, and strangers stopped us to ask what it meant. Every one of them had a word of their own.
If you have one, you can put it on a hoodie, a tee, a hat or a mug in about a minute on the Your word page, and see it in the lettering before you buy anything. No one here will ever see it but you; it prints and ships, that is all.
The words in this one
Good to know
Is it normal for a toddler to make up words?
Completely. Between about two and five, nearly every child invents words, most of them by applying a real grammar rule too broadly (likeded, gooder) or blending two words into one. It is a normal part of learning the language, not a sign of a problem.
Should I correct a made-up word?
You do not have to. Kids correct themselves once they have heard the standard word enough times. Many families deliberately keep one or two of the made-up ones, and they become part of how that family talks.
How do I remember the things my kid says?
Write them down the day you hear them, with the date and what the word meant. A note on your phone is enough. Then say the word back to them so it sticks.
Written by a parent, not a content team. Something wrong in it, or a word you want to see here? 7echome@gmail.com.