We ran a contest recently asking readers to reshape some of the words they use every day, and the results were both surprising and funny. The game was based on a favorite word-wrangling exercise developed by those brains at Mensa, the long-running cabal for the intelligentsia. To play, you take a word, then add, subtract, or change one letter of it to create a new word—one that begs a clever or humorous definition. Quality professionals had no trouble with this, and we were soon inundated by a lineup that we couldn’t resist publishing in bona fide glossary format. We’re quite pleased with it. Judging by the number of page views, so are readers. (The winning word, by the way, was “hypnothesis.”)

A
Abjective evidence: Tending to degrade, humiliate, or demoralize
Algoreithm: Computer code designed to show that life on Earth is doomed due to global warming
Anulysis: Studying a problem but finding no answer
Assorance: Painful confirmation of quality
Attributte: A characteristic that has plateaued at a new, higher level
Auditour: The circuitous route one must take while trying to find the auditor in your facility.
Augitor: A boring inspector
Axceptance report: The follow-up reversal after you realize you made a mistake accepting a part

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