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Word Lab

Short, simple meanings for the words you meet in Darklabs. Press Listen to hear a word. No hard words are needed here.

Make it easier to read

What is a portmanteau?

A portmanteau (say: port-MAN-toh) is a new word made from two words.

You take a piece of one word and a piece of another word. You join them. The new word means both things.

  • breakfast + lunch = brunch (a meal between the two)
  • smoke + fog = smog (a dirty fog)
  • motor + hotel = motel (a hotel for people with cars)

At Darklabs, the robots have names made from two whole words. We write them as one word, and the second word starts with a capital letter in the middle. This is called CamelCase, because the capitals look like the humps of a camel. The two words also start with the same sound. That is called alliteration.

ClankCog = Clank + Cog. BeepBolt = Beep + Bolt. Programmers use CamelCase too, because names in code cannot have spaces.

Make your own robot name

Type two simple words. Letters only. For an alliteration, start both with the same letter.

SparkSprocket

Meet the robots

Press a robot on the Darklabs home page to hear it talk. Each one teaches one word.

Words you may meet

A word is missing?

Tell me the word. I will add it. It is sent through ntfy.sh, a free notification service. Please do not write personal details.

Help for reading and using this site

  1. Another language? Your browser can translate this page. In Chrome, open the menu (three dots) and choose Translate. The short sentences here help the translation.
  2. Hear it. Press Listen on any word. The voice comes from your own device, so it works offline and sends nothing anywhere. If you see no Listen buttons, your device has no voice for English.
  3. Too much movement? Press Calm. The robots stop, the glitch effects stop, and nothing flashes. Your device’s “reduce motion” setting does this by itself.
  4. Keyboard. Use Tab to move and Enter to press. The right-click menu opens with the Menu key.
  5. The right-click menu. Darklabs has its own menu with the usual things (copy, paste, back, reload, open link). To use your browser’s menu, hold Shift while you right-click, or use the link at the bottom of the home page.
  6. Tell me what is hard. If something on Darklabs is hard to read or use, please tell me. I want to fix it.