whatchamacallit

Wikipedia

English

Etymology

Shortened version of "what you may call it" or "what you might call it".

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈwɒtʃ.ə.mə.kɔːl.ɪt/ X-SAMPA: /"wQtS.@.m@.kO:l.It/
• (US) IPA: /ˈwʌtʃ.ə.mə.kɑl.ɪt/ or IPA: /ˈwʌtʃ.mə.kɑl.ɪt/

Noun

whatchamacallit (plural whatchamacallits)

1. a metasyntactic term used for any object whose actual name you don’t know or can’t remember. There are many spellings and many synonyms.

Synonyms

• dohickey, doohickey
• doober
• doodad
• doover (Australia)
• doomaflatchy
• gizwiz
• thingamabob, thingumabob, thingummybob
• thingamajig
• thingo (Australia)
• thingummy
• whatchamahoozie
• whatnot
• whatsit
• See also Wikisaurus:thingy

Translations

an object of unknown name

• Danish: dingenot (da) c, dimsedut (da) c, dippedut (da) c
• French: truc (fr) m, machin (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Dingsbums (de) n, Dingsda (de)
• Hungarian: izé (hu), hogyishívják (hu), hogyhívják (hu)
• Italian: coso (it) m

• Neapolitan: chilleto
• Polish: wihajster (pl)
• Russian: как его (ru) (kak ego), её (ru) (jejó), их там (ru) (ikh tam)
• Slovak: oné (sk)
• Spanish: chisme (es) m, (Mexico) chunche (es) m, (River Plate region) coso (es) m, (Central America, Caribbean, Colombia) vaina (es) f, chingadera (es)
• Ukrainian: як його (uk) (jak joho), її (uk) (jiji), їх там (uk) (jix tam)

See also

• gadget
• gimmick
• gizmo