Retrieving a word: fixing a tip-of-the-tongue moment

It wasn’t kind of me to describe an episode when five people failed to retrieve the simple word “marinate” from the recesses of our brains, not without offering some help.

So I googled around and here is a summary of tips for overcoming that disturbing tip-of-the-tongue experience. There’s a wonderful word for this. Remember? (I’m joking.) It’s lethologica.

No guarantees that any of these tips will work! I have no idea which ones will be effective for you—but personally, I’m going to try drawing next time.

Psychology Today suggests:

1. Keep talking, don’t pause.
2. Find a synonym.
3. Let it marinate!
4. After you find the word, examine it and draw it. Then use it in conversation or emails to reinforce it.
5. Make sure you’re sleeping well.

Psychologists Karin Humphreys and Amy Beth Warriner say:

1. Give up. Don’t struggle to find the word: it’s counterproductive.
2. When you find the word, repeat it to yourself, silently or aloud.

Other psychologists and speech therapists have found that drawing is a useful tool to help people with chronic aphasia. Well, chronic aphasia is a condition far beyond the universal tip-of-the-tongue moment—but next time, I’ll try it.

Stress and tiredness increase the chances of a tip-of-the-tongue moment: have you noticed that? Interestingly, the 5-person failure to retrieve the word “marinate” which I described in the previous post happened after some of us were recovering from a weekend of dance performances. So three of us can blame our tip-of-the-tongue moments on exhaustion 🙂

Good luck! No stress, remember. Everyone forgets words, but only older people let it stress them out.