1. Avant-Garde

Something in French always sounds smarter, right!? Avant-garde is a term for anything in a unconventionally experimental or unorthodox way.

2. Bravado

You might use the word bravado to describe a person who is full of a false kind of courage that masks a hidden fear.

3. Caustic

Instead of saying that somebody is sarcastic or over-critical in an annoying way, you can describe them as being very caustic.

4. Ennui

This is a really interesting word that is used to capture that feeling you sometimes get of weariness, discontent or a real lack of interest in the thing that you are supposed to be doing.

5. Esoteric

Something can be described as esoteric when it is created solely for the understanding or enjoyment of a set of people with a very specific knowledge or interest.

6. Fastidious

A fastidious person is a person who is very hard to please and likes things to be done a particularly high level.

7. Hedonist

A hedonist is the type of person who lives their life to the full, in pursuit solely of things that will bring them gratification and pleasure.

8. Idiosyncratic

This word alludes to a particular characteristic or quirk that a person might have that is completely individual to them and tells them apart from others.

9. Maudlin

The word maudlin can be used to describe any person or thing that is sentimental to the point of foolishness, or overly emotional and tearful.

10. Nouveau Riche

This is term that is used to describe anybody who is newly rich rather than from rich stock. Sometimes used in an offensive way to highlight a lack of etiquette or class.

11. Quintessence

A word that means the very most perfect embodiment of a particular thing.

12. Scintillating

Something can be said to be scintillating if it is particularly brilliant, witty or clever.

13. Elucidate

To elucidate something is to make it as perfectly clear as you can for the person to whom you are explaining it.

14. Liminal

Liminal means maintaining a position that is on both sides of a particular situation or argument, such as being stuck in the middle of two fighting friends.

15. Perfunctory

To perform a task with as minimal effort as is possible to get it completed.

16. Equidistant

Being at equal distance from one place as you are from another. This can allude to physical position or something more psychological and emotional.

17. Polemical

Something becomes polemical if it garners strong criticism, controversy and debate.

18. Vitriol

To spout vitriol at somebody means to say the meanest things possible in order to try to upset them.

19. Solipsistic

This word describes an elevated kind of narcissism, the theory that your own existence is the only existence that can be proved to be real.

20. Tenuous

Something can be described as tenuous in a conversation if it had extremely little to do with the original talking point.

21. Obfuscate

If your obfuscate something, you make it unintelligible or really unclear.

22. Anomaly

An anomaly is something that stands out of the normal in a particular situation. For example, a point on graph that is vastly different to the rest of the data.

23. Harbinger

A harbinger is something that signals that arrival or event of another thing. For example, lightning is the harbinger of thunder.

24. Cavalier

If you are cavalier about something, it means that you go in to it head first without thinking about the consequences.

25. Litany

The word litany is used to describe something that is frequent and incessant, like receiving a litany of complaints or a litany of insults.

I love all these words. Please share some of your favourite not-so-ordinary words.