Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows

adj. Shocked upon noticing an obvious detail in something you see daily that you had never seen before.... more

n. The point in your mid-twenties when accountability for your own station in life sets in.... more

n. A long-forgotten mistake from your past that could reappear at any time and rip your life apart.... more

adj. Finding a person so attractive it actually kinda pisses you off.... more

n. Curiosity about the impact you've had on the lives of the people you know.... more

n. A kind of mistake you wouldn't take back even if you could.... more

n. The feeling of loss for not meeting someone before their death, leading to an attempt to know them through stories and memories.... more

n. The fear of major life changes, even ones you've been anticipating for years.... more

vy. To look around in mild astonishment that your life is still ongoing.... more

n. The sense of being born too early in history and feeling impatient with the present.... more

n. The fear that learning the name of something will ruin its mystery.... more

n. The degree to which your view of the world is warped by your own presence in it.... more

adj. Feeling a sense of loss upon finishing a good book.... more

n. A wistful omen of the first sign of autumn.... more

n. A random image that becomes lodged deep in your brain and grows into a wild and impractical vision.... more

adj. Feeling wistful upon encountering a past love and realizing the changed significance of familiar gestures.... more

adj. Feeling lonely in a crowd; unable to communicate with anonymous faces.... more

adj. Frustrated that you can't force yourself to remember something, even though it's right on the tip of your tongue.... more

n. A knee-jerk territorial reaction to a friend's casual interest in one of your obsessions.... more

adj. Inexplicably moved by predictable and well-worn sentiments.... more

adj. Feeling uneasy when socializing with incompatible groups of people.... more

n. The meditative atmosphere of being alone in a bathroom.... more

adj. Feeling small and alone in a bustling city.... more

adj. Exhausted by endless reviews and secondhand impressions, eager to explore the unknown.... more

n. The awareness that you are not at home in the wilderness.... more

adj. The wish for the modern world to feel as epic as old stories and folktales.... more

n. A twinge of sadness that there's no frontier left.... more

adj. Feeling guilty for prioritizing personal concerns over global issues.... more

n. The paradoxical urge to avoid doing something you've been looking forward to.... more

adj. Awed at the impact someone has had on your life, feeling intimidated by how profoundly they helped shape your identity.... more

n. A person who has no idea where their home is, leaving their emotional compass free to swing wildly as they move from place to place.... more

n. Regret at having cracked the code of something, leading to a desire to forget the pattern.... more

n. A person embodying your worst traits, serving as a negative role model.... more

n. A long-overdue argument that shakes up a relationship, burning wildly through your issues.... more

n. Someone whose mood is perpetually out of sync with others, prone to various emotional states.... more

n. The primal longing for a home village to return to, a place that no longer exists, if it ever did.... more

n. An odd interval of blankness felt after a significant event but before the emotional response.... more

n. The unsettling awareness of the world moving on in your absence.... more

n. A feeling of resonant connection with an author or artist you'll never meet.... more

n. The state of feeling trapped inside your own subjective tastes.... more

n. The imaginary committee of elders that keeps a log of your mistakes, building a case against you.... more

n. Anger about an injustice discovered long after the fact, leaving you seething with awkward righteousness.... more

n. The sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule.... more

n. The desire to care less about things and hold life loosely and playfully.... more

n. The peculiar quality of never having chosen to be born, shared by everyone else around you.... more

n. A glint of goodness you notice in someone unexpectedly.... more

n. The wistful feeling of looking around a gathering of loved ones, knowing that it won't always be this way.... more

n. The eerie tranquility of fast-moving clouds passing through the sky.... more

n. The weird hollowness of trying to imagine the distant future.... more

n. The shock of meeting someone and realizing your mental image of them is outdated.... more

n. A conversational hint indicating a personal insight without further elaboration.... more

n. The bittersweet awareness that all things must end.... more

adj. Mildly disappointed that you'll never be able to attend your own memorial service.... more

n. The sense of improvisation in your actions without a clear explanation.... more

n. The sudden realization of being over someone.... more

n. The fear that you're no longer able to change.... more

n. The awareness of how few days are memorable.... more

n. The moment of realization that your ideal future self will not materialize, leaving you to take on the role yourself.... more

n. A solitary experience you wish you could have shared with someone else.... more

n. The eeriness of places left behind.... more

n. The fear that the role you once occupied in someone's life could be refilled without a second thought.... more

v. Compulsively turning away from works of art that are frustratingly good.... more

n. The maddening sense that the world is too complex to even begin to understand.... more

n. An unassuming feature of our daily lives that will eventually seem bizarre in the future.... more

n. The bitter disappointment upon finding no new messages after being out of contact.... more

n. An itchy sense of dread when life feels just a hint too peaceful.... more

n. The strange wistfulness of used bookstores, infused with the passage of time.... more

n. The maddening thrill of an ambiguous flirtation, quivering between platonic and romantic.... more

n. The feeling of emptiness after completing a long and arduous process.... more

n. The anxiety of not knowing "the real you".... more

n. An important part of your personality that remains hidden from others.... more

n. A place that seems significant to others but not to you, leaving you trying to feel something.... more

n. A feeling of irrelevance from the broader forces of history.... more

n. The unconscious habit of seeing someone as a representation of someone else, obscuring their true identity.... more

n. The state of being simultaneously entranced and unsettled by the vastness of the cosmos.... more

n. The set of living people who have known you all your life, all the way back to your infancy.... more

n. The otherworldly aura of seeing recordings of a friend in early childhood.... more

n. The habit of falling hard for a new acquaintance and imagining an elaborate future together.... more

n. A resurgent emotion that you hadn't felt in years, that you might have forgotten about completely if your emotional playlist hadn't accidentally been left on shuffle.... more

n. The longing to be free of responsibility.... more

n. A pang of shame from an embarrassing adolescent memory.... more

n. The half-remembered acquaintances you knew years ago.... more

adj. Wondering what our ancestors would think of all this.... more

adj. Feeling the primal satisfaction of being needed by someone.... more

n. The fear that your deepest connections with people are ultimately pretty shallow.... more

adj. Anxiously excited to introduce a friend to something you think is amazing, only to cringe when flaws become apparent.... more

n. The fear of irrevocable actions and irreversible processes.... more

n. The tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because others cannot relate to it.... more

n. The tipping point when your brain becomes overwhelmed with tasks, leaving you immobilized.... more

n. A state of confusion when your internal sense of time does not align with the calendar.... more

n. A dizzying sense of awe at the sheer scale of modern society.... more

n. The nagging sense that you never quite manage to immerse yourself in a foreign culture.... more

n. Something you've misunderstood for years without knowing it.... more

n. The awareness that your partner perceives the relationship from a different angle.... more

n. A hollow place in your psyche that can never be filled; a bottomless hunger for more.... more

n. The primal trance of watching a campfire in the dark.... more

n. The longing to feel things intensely again.... more

n. Fear of the prospect of not existing one day.... more

n. The weird loneliness of antiquated fads and memes and one-hit wonders.... more

n. The awareness that someone you've known for years still has a private and mysterious inner life.... more

n. The irrational fear that someone you know is angry at you, leading to a frenzy of outrage.... more

n. The moment a conversation becomes real and alive.... more

v. The habit of taking stock of your life on your birthday.... more

n. A state of exhaustion inspired by senseless tragedies and acts of violence, which force you to abruptly revise your expectations of what can happen in this world.... more

n. The wish for people to prioritize physical interactions over social norms.... more

n. The sense that you're more than the categories that society puts you in.... more

n. The feeling that everything you do is always somehow wrong.... more

n. The maddening inability to understand why someone loves you.... more

n. The age at which you become older than your parents were when you were born.... more

n. The state of having lost all control over how you feel about someone.... more

n. The unhinged delirium of being alone for an extended period of time.... more

v. The practice of making offhand comments that sound sarcastic but are actually sincere and deeply felt.... more

adj. Humbled by readily entrusting your life to strangers without a second thought.... more

n. The state of being so familiar with someone that you can be in a room with them without thinking or speaking.... more

n. The otherworldly atmosphere just before 5 a.m.... more

n. The awareness of how little we really know.... more

n. The anxiety of never knowing how much time you have left.... more

n. To wander through a cemetery imagining the lives of the deceased.... more

adj. Feeling a vague longing for a distant monarch to simplify life's complexities.... more

n. The sense that your life doesn't fit into a story.... more

adj. Astonished to think back on the bizarre sequence of accidents that brought you to where you are today.... more

n. A momentary trance of emotional clarity.... more

n. The fear of being powerless to change the world around you.... more

n. An abrupt collapse of trust in yourself, resetting expectations and making it harder to guarantee your word's value.... more

adj. Nervously aware of untested assumptions about yourself that form your self-image.... more

n. The poignant humanness beneath the spectacle of society.... more

n. The habit of believing that a single change could solve all problems, leaving you perpetually on the verge of a better life.... more

n. The point in early adolescence when you realize that adults are no less lost and insecure than you.... more

n. Feeling torn between the life you want and the life you have.... more

n. The desire to hold on to time as it passes.... more

n. The atmosphere of camaraderie when people are stuck together in a certain place.... more

n. The disillusionment of revisiting a pop-culture touchstone of your youth and finding that it hasn't aged well at all.... more

n. A surge of energy upon catching a glance from someone you like.... more

n. A complicated feeling of envy and admiration for younger individuals.... more

v. Finding yourself bothered by somebody's death more than you would have expected, even if they were only an abstract presence in your life.... more

n. An incantation whispered privately to celebrate the loss of something or someone loved.... more

n. An unexpected surge of emotion triggered by seemingly insignificant stimuli.... more

n. A state of exhaustion with human cruelty, leading to appreciation for kindness and joy.... more

n. The fear that everyone around the world is essentially the same, limiting opportunities for reinvention or seeking a better society elsewhere.... more

n. The desire to capture a fleeting experience.... more

n. A feeling of queasiness while offering advice, realizing the advice may not apply to the recipient's situation.... more

n. A feature of modern civilization that strikes you as absurd and grotesque.... more

n. The anxiety of being an individual.... more

n. The disorienting feeling of meeting an old friend and realizing you've both changed.... more

n. A feeling of quiet amazement that you exist at all.... more

n. A conversation that spans huge intervals of time, kept alive by contributors who casually overlay their thoughts.... more

n. A tiny jolt of awareness that someday you will die, leaving you with a profound realization of life's impermanence.... more

adj. Sensing the judgment of your future self looking over your shoulder.... more

n. An excuse to rationalize a disappointing outcome by convincing yourself of alternative explanations.... more

n. The moment you realize you are changing as a person, outgrowing your old problems.... more

n. Nostalgia for a time you never experienced.... more

n. The heartbreaking simplicity of ordinary things.... more

n. A condition of having an active social life but very few close friends.... more

n. Longing for the clarity of disaster.... more

n. A fleeting glimpse of what might have been.... more

adj. Anxious to imagine how many times you must've barely avoided catastrophe.... more

n. A painful memory that is now remembered fondly due to the pride, camaraderie, or storytelling it brought.... more

n. The frustration of unintentionally embodying a stereotype.... more

n. The hidden vulnerability of others.... more

adj. Longing to disappear completely and become invisible in a crowd.... more

n. A sense of loneliness looking up at the night sky.... more

n. The unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat.... more

n. An imaginary conversation with an old photo of yourself, offering advice or seeking validation.... more

v. To mindlessly perform a tedious and unnoticed task in pursuit of unwanted outcomes.... more

n. The inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends.... more

n. The brilliant artistry hidden all around you.... more

n. Curiosity about the real people behind internet usernames and a technique in digital graphics to smooth the appearance of jagged pixels in low-resolution images.... more

n. The fear of speaking off the cuff or from the heart.... more

n. The fear that you've lived an ordinary life.... more

n. The fear that your connections with people will diminish as you age.... more

n. The sheepish casual vibe between two people who've shared an emotional farewell but then unexpectedly have a little extra time together.... more

adj. Struck by the poignant strangeness of other people's homes.... more

n. A crisis of self-doubt emphasizing the need for balance in self-perception and actions.... more

n. A humble pulse of gratification felt when participating in civic duties.... more

n. The mystery of what goes on behind the scenes of your social life.... more

n. The brooding delirium of being sick that makes time slow and tasks monumental struggles.... more

adj. Suddenly aware that you're more than halfway through a positive experience.... more

n. The frustration of being unable to fly despite shedding the burden of your own weight.... more

adj. Intimidated by the awareness of being in the present moment.... more

adj. Mysteriously compelled to wave to passing strangers in remote locations.... more

n. A recurring thought that strikes late at night, often forgotten but resurfaces, quietly building a nest.... more

n. The dread of finally pursuing a lifelong dream and facing the test of your true abilities.... more

n. The total set of human beings alive at any given time.... more

n. Frustration with the slow process of getting to know someone deeply.... more

n. A moment that seemed insignificant at the time but led to a significant change in your life.... more

n. A sense of paradoxical relief when something bad happens to you.... more

adj. Suddenly aware of the limitations of your social circles.... more

n. A state of instinctive restlessness due to society making choices on your behalf.... more

n. The bittersweetness of finally learning the outcomes of events in the future but being unable to inform your past self.... more

n. The fear of being shaped by circumstances and stimuli rather than by conscious choice.... more

n. A sense memory drained of emotion due to excessive contemplation.... more

n. The half-forlorn, half-escapist ache of a train whistle howling in the distance at night.... more

adj. Feeling the loneliness of having to keep a secret to yourself.... more

n. A quiet jolt of recognition signaling the need to improve oneself.... more

adj. Afraid to relax your body and drift off to sleep due to the association with death.... more

n. Vivid memories of a certain experience that may be disputed by others, leading to a reevaluation of one's worldview.... more

n. A relationship or friendship that lingers in your thoughts, despite seeming to have ended.... more

n. A moment you instantly wish you could take back, feeling a pulse of dread right after crossing the point of no return.... more

n. The sadness of forgetting sense memories of the departed.... more

adj. Beginning to suspect that you're living in a bizarre alternate reality.... more

n. A disconcerting cluster of simultaneous endings.... more

n. The melodramatic thrill of unrequited love.... more

n. The hollow feeling of having gotten exactly what you thought you wanted, only to learn that it didn't make you happy.... more

n. The smallest measurable unit of human connection typically exchanged between passing strangers.... more

n. An unexpected burst of good news that makes you skeptical and uneasy.... more

n. An unexpected twinge of attraction for a friend.... more

n. The ambiguous intensity of eye contact.... more

n. A caricature of yourself that went out of date years ago, though nobody around you seems to have noticed.... more

n. The longing to see how other people live their lives when they're not in public.... more

n. The instinctive tendency to see someone as you knew them in their youth.... more

n. The desire to see your memories in advance.... more

n. A flash of real emotion glimpsed in someone across the room.... more

n. The dispiriting awareness that your life experiences are not unique but rather common to many others.... more

n. The self-contained pajama universe shared by two people on a long weekend morning.... more

n. The phenomenon of observing your parents interact with people they grew up with, which reboots their personalities into youth mode.... more

adj. Proud of a certain scar on your body, seen as an autograph from a grateful world for your willingness to play, even if it hurts.... more

n. The satisfaction of things worn down by time.... more

n. The act of trying to keep an amazing discovery to yourself.... more

n. The disquieting awareness of mismatched importance in relationships.... more

n. The post-distraction effort to recall the reason for heightened emotions.... more

n. The quiet poignance of your own responsibility for someone, with a mix of pride and fear and love and humility.... more

n. The ethereal feeling of looking down at the world through an airplane window.... more

n. The feeling of being stuck on Earth.... more

n. The feeling that time is getting faster.... more

n. The phenomenon of seeing a stranger when looking at your own reflection in the mirror.... more

n. The lulling sound of a running dishwasher that brings peace with not having circumnavigated anything solo.... more

adj. Unable to settle the question of whether you're doing okay in life.... more

n. The awareness that the present moment will eventually turn into a memory.... more

adj. Wondering if you could leave without being noticed.... more

n. The longing to wander off your career track in pursuit of a simple life.... more

n. The moment you consciously try to savor your current happiness, only to have it slowly dissolve into an aftertaste.... more

n. A condition of scanning faces in a crowd for a specific person who would have no reason to be there.... more

n. The state of not knowing how you truly feel about something, leading to self-analysis based on behavioral clues.... more

n. The tendency for social networks to magnify unexpected personality traits of people you know.... more

n. The fear that emotions are biologically driven rather than philosophical.... more

n. The act of deliberately refusing to learn scientific explanations to preserve the magic.... more

n. The wish to see statistics overlaid on every person you meet.... more

n. The act of deliberately squandering your time.... more

n. The art of dwelling on the past.... more

n. An activity loved since childhood that loses its enjoyment due to fanatics' obsession with technique.... more

n. The pang of loneliness felt after an intensely social event.... more

n. The terror of the blank page, which can feel both liberating and confining.... more

n. The fear that society is breaking apart into factions with nothing in common.... more

n. The off-putting awareness of how deeply your culture's norms are ingrained in your psyche.... more

n. The sadness of never knowing how history will unfold.... more

n. Hunger for mystery in a time of easy answers.... more

n. The tendency for future goals and benchmarks to feel huge when viewed in advance, only to fade into banality as soon as you've achieved them.... more

n. Fear experienced while leaving a loved one, uncertain if it will be the last time you see them.... more

adj. Feeling ashamed after revealing too much of yourself to someone.... more

n. The ambient feeling of being a human being.... more

adj. Feeling trapped inside your own language, struggling to break free from its age-old structures and melodies.... more

n. The unease of knowing how quickly your circumstances could change on you.... more

n. The fear that originality is no longer possible.... more

n. The complicated solitude of hotel rooms late at night.... more

n. The scattering of memories that your brain is actively forgetting.... more

n. A random image from your distant past that leaps back into your attention.... more

adj. Curious to know what someone else would do if they were in your shoes, eager to watch another actor put their own spin on the character of You.... more

n. A mysterious aura of loneliness felt in certain places.... more

adj. Feeling quietly overjoyed to be the only one awake in the middle of the night.... more

n. The delirium of having spent all day in an aesthetic frame of mind that infuses the world with an aura of meaning.... more

n. A sense of weariness with long-standing problems and a desire for new challenges.... more

n. A sincere emotion that seems to wither into mush as soon as you try to put it into words.... more

n. An innocuous touch by someone just doing their job that you find more meaningful than you'd like to admit.... more

n. The awareness of how fundamentally limited your senses are.... more

n. The haunting sense of mystery infused into certain random details that beckons you to wonder how it ended up here at this point in time.... more

n. The reservoir of all possible opportunities still available to you at this point in your life.... more

n. A moment of panic regarding the potential lack of returns on invested time and effort.... more

n. The moment you wake up from an immersive dream and have to abruptly recalibrate to the real world.... more

n. A pulse of shame felt despite being innocent.... more

n. A musical flavor found in electric guitar solos that compels you to snarl, squint, and arch your spine like a yowling jungle cat.... more

n. An ill-fated attempt to reenact a beloved memory years later.... more

n. The wish for a trial run of life before experiencing it for real.... more

n. The feeling of returning from a trip and quickly forgetting the experience.... more

n. The lulling isolation of driving late at night.... more

n. The frustration of never being able to truly understand another person's pain.... more

n. The fantasy of an elaborate diagnosis that neatly captures the kind of person you are.... more

n. A moment of sudden involvement in a stranger's personal life that breaks down barriers.... more

n. The sorrow of imagining the wealth of knowledge forever lost to history.... more

n. The fear that your partner is changing in ways you don't understand, even though they might be changes for the better.... more

adj. Longing for certainty in a relationship.... more

v. Trying to improve yourself in secret to avoid judgment or attention.... more

n. The frustration of not fully enjoying an experience.... more

n. A conversation where everyone talks but nobody listens, each borrowing bits of others' anecdotes to build their own.... more

adj. Feeling the haunting solitude of extremely remote places.... more

n. Alienation from the crude machinery of your own body.... more

n. The awareness that seemingly unremarkable experiences may have a profound impact on others.... more

adj. Afraid that your life is predetermined by predictable milestones, wishing for a break to reassess your path.... more

n. The amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.... more