What is a bumbershoot? Or a moonbow? And what does it mean when someone absquatulates...?

Find out all this and more in The Dictionary of Difficult Words. Test your knowledge with more than 400 words to amaze, confuse and inspire budding wordsmiths (and adults).

Some jobbernowls say dictionaries are anachronistic, or even obsolete, but it's kenspeckle to real bibliophiles that those vociferous ninnyhammers are just metagrobolised by the plethora of portmanteaus, neologisms and jargon they offer. Next time you find yourself wrangling with one of these ultracrepidarians, no need to imagineer a sockdolager: just show them this book.

All of the words featured in this book are difficult to spell, hard to say and their meanings are obscure to most children (and most adults) Written with simple, easy-to-understand definitions by lexicographer (yes, that's in there too ) Jane Solomon, this dictionary celebrates the beauty of the English language for family trivia time spent around the printed page.