What Are Kangaroo Words?

To a linguist, kangaroo words and joey words have nothing to do with Aussie slang. Instead, they come from the idea that mother kangaroos carry their young joeys inside their pouches. In a similar vein, kangaroo words contain joey words within themselves. Here’s what we mean.

Kangaroo and joey words are always synonymous with one another, and the joey word is a shorter version of the longer kangaroo word. One example of a kangaroo word is “action,” as it contains the synonymous joey word “act.” Among many other examples: “discordance”/“discord,” “superb”/“super,” and “devilish”/“evil.”

But joey words don’t have to be written in a single block. The letters can be separated as long as they’re still written in order from left to right. “Charisma” is one example of this — we find the joey word “charm” by removing “is” and “a” from the kangaroo word. Other cases include “rotund”/“round,” “dismayed”/“sad,” and “observe”/“see.” 

There are also different forms of kangaroo words, including a concept known as twin kangaroo words. These contain two different joey words — for example, “community” contains both “county” and “city.” Similarly, “diminutive” has both “minute” and “mini,” and “deteriorate” contains “die” and “rot.” Naturally, there are fewer examples of twin kangaroo words than standard kangaroo words. 

Then there are grand kangaroo words, which also contain two joey words. The difference here is that one of those joey words is contained entirely within the other joey word. “Alone” is an ideal example of a grand kangaroo word, as it contains “lone,” which itself contains the synonym “one.”

Finally, let’s discuss anti-kangaroo words, which have joey words that serve as antonyms instead of synonyms. Examples of these words include “bearded,” which contains “bare”; “feast,” which contains “fast”; and “there,” which contains “here.”

It’s important to note that kangaroo and joey sets aren’t necessarily etymologically connected (although they can be). Mostly, they serve as an interesting bit of wordplay.