X If you have enjoyed this page and want to say thank you, please consider donating $1 or £1 to this science charity.

Top tips

• 'Technical' words can be 'enclosed' in single quotes if, for example, you need to 'define' them. 'Phrases_need_underscores'.
• You can refer to people by calling them Mr Surname or Mrs Surname (e.g. Mr Obama). If you want you can cheat slightly using this, for example referring to Mr Hydrogen and Mrs Oxygen.
• If you're stuck for something to write about try: your favourite food, the plot of a good book, or your area of expertise.
• Once you have come up with something amazing, click Perma-link and you can then copy the URL and share it with your friends

(Close)

Try it yourself!

Our team all agreed it was surprisingly difficult to define a term using only the ten hundred most common English words.Try it yourself and type your definition in the box below to find out whether you managed it...