画鋲・がびょう・drawing pin, thumb tack
燥ぐ・はしゃぐ・to be in high spirits, to frolic
見え見え・みえみえ・obvious, transparent
わたわた・flustered, confused
引き付ける・ひきつける・to attract, to charm, to entice
多彩・たさい・varied, diverse
誘導・ゆうどう・guidance, leading
初日・しょにち・first day, opening day
くぐもった声・くぐもったこえ・muffled voice
愛好家・あいこうか・amateur, lover, worshipper
黒板消し・こくばんけし・blackboard eraser
引き付け・ひきつけ・convulsions
見舞われる・みまわれる・to experience, to undergo, to suffer
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嘆願書・たんがんしょ・ (written) petition
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座薬・ざやく・suppository (medicine)
If you know what a zabuton (座布団) is, you can remember that a 座布団 and a 座薬 are both applied to roughly the same area. -
面皰・にきび or めんぽう・acne; pimple
I wear my bikini upside-down, to hide the 面皰 on my face. -
石鹸・せっけん・soap
I always clean my 石剣 with 石鹸, for clean cuts. -
玄武岩・げんぶがん・basalt
玄武岩 is a pretty bad-ass name for a mineral. It is so-called because it is plentiful at 玄武洞 (which Tofugu has an article about). It has these awesome hexagonal rock formations called columnar joints, which supposedly made Confucian scholar Shibano Ritsuzan think of the shell of the Black Tortoise, which is ridden by the god Xuánwǔ (玄武).
Meanwhile, “basalt” comes from an Egyptian word meaning “hard rock”.
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修飾 - 修飾 - modification, but in the grammatical sense of modifying another word.
Seen here:
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It’s not an actual new word, because I’ve seen it on Wanikani, but 転がる is also the name of the Pokémon attack Rollout. Everybody who played GSC knows it 
To elaborate on this: In the game the attack names are all written in Kana, even in the new games. So I read ころがる and needed to use the attack some time to recognize the word. Kanji are such a big help haha, you really need to KNOW a word to recognize it in Kana only.
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迷子・まいご・lost child
Learned from a friend while eating 回転ずし. There was a chunk of rice on the belt, so I said it was a プレゼント for her and she countered that it was a 迷子 instead
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屏風・びょうぶ・folding screen
It’s portable, so you can BYOB (“bring your own bulwark”). -
魚拓・ぎょたく・1) fish print; 2) web archive, snapshot of a web page (a.k.a. ウェブ魚拓)
If you’re curious, here is a video on the subject. -
手並み・てなみ・skill, ability, level
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腕試し・うでだめし・to test one’s skill
Compare with 腕を上げる. -
通じ合わせる・つうじあわせる・to communicate, to reveal, to put into contact (with)
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へそ曲がり・へそまがり・contrariness; stubbornness; perverseness
Literally “navel-bending”. -
屁追い比丘尼・へおいびくに・female servant hired to take the blame for a noblewoman’s flatulence
Stumbled upon this when I misspelled へそ, and felt I had to record it for posterity. -
糸口・ひとぐち・1) clue, lead, opening (for an investigation); 2) conversation starter, conversational gambit, ice-breaker, broaching a subject; 3) beginning
Example sentences (from Weblio):
話の糸口を切る
to broach a subject; to break the ice
This is like starting a new thread on a forum … only you do it with your mouth.
彼の発言がその後の交渉の糸口となった.
His remark broke the ice for further negotiations.
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あぐらをかく = to sit cross-legged
I thought I was alone in the teachers room so I was sitting criss-cross-applesauce on my chair… until a math teacher walked in. He laughed and taught me a new word. 
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It never ceases to perplex me how America managed to take a perfectly good three-syllable word (cross-legged) and turn it into a five-syllable… that.
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Even to me it sounds like something you say to a group of kids to get them to sit and you’re doing “fun” teacher voice.
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圧縮ファイル - Compressed File
解凍ファイル - Unzipped File
Learned from my Japanese friend.
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白血病 はっけつびょう leukemia
found from the little slip cover thing on Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes
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小馬鹿・こばか・fool
所詮・しょせん・after all, anyway, (cannot) possibly
大人気ない・おとなげない・immature
浅知恵・あさぢえ・shallow thinking
クグモル・to mumble
墨汁・ぼくじゅう・ink
ぽふぽふ・feeling of touching something soft
無様・ぶざま・unshapely, clumsy
不覚にも・ふかくにも・though one didn’t intend to
攻撃力・こうげきりょく・offensive ability
ぎらり、ぎょろり・staring
乱発・らんぱつ・reckless firing
言いがかり・いいがかり・false accusation
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珍紛漢紛 - チンプンカンプン - gibberish; “all Greek to me”
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- 紐・ひも・string, cordNormally spelled using kana.
I don’t produce my own hemoglobin. Instead, I have cords of it that I eat whenever I feel weak.
* 靴ひも・くつひも・shoelaces
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発掘・はっくつ・1) excavation, exhumation; 2) discovery
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スター発掘・スターはっくつ・star-search, star-finding, discovering new talent
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候補・こうほ・candidate
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臨時・りんじ・temporary, provisional, interim (の adjective)
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気負い・きおい・eagerness, enthusiasm, fighting spirit
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荒野・こうや・wasteland, wilderness, wilds
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へぼい・clumsy, unskillful, puny
He-Boy is a bit like He-Man, but not nearly as strong. -
無邪気・むじゃき・innocent, simple-minded
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あどけない・innocent, cherubic
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満場一致・まんじょういっち・unanimity
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本命・ほんめい・favourite, likely winner, first choice
百般・ひゃっぱん・all, every, all kinds of
釣られる・つられる・to be lured, to be drawn in
やられる・to suffer damage, to be deceived
狡猾・こうかつ・sly, cunning
始末・しまつ・management, dealing with, course of event, end result
痛いの痛いの飛んでいけ・いたいのいたいのとんでいけ・a phrase meaning “pain, pain, fly away”
これ見よがし（に）・これみよがし・showy
硯・すずり・inkstone
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I remember that when I first learned about Japanese Valentine’s Day traditions, I always thought ほんめいチョコ was wasei-eigo for “home-made chocolate”. It turns out that was wrong, but in hindsight, it might have been useful as an accidental mnemonic 
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塀・へい・wall, fence
I want to protect my lantern (开) from getting covered in dirt (土), so I build a wall of corpses (尸); it’s smelly, but effective.
As I’m sitting there, enjoying my lantern-light, I hear somebody calling out: “Hey! Hey!” I look over at the wall, and the lantern-light falls on a pale, emaciated face. “Hey! Hey!” There’s somebody still living in my wall … or is there?
Suddenly I hear a second voice, and then a third. “Hey! Hey!” The entire wall is writhing now; I want to get away, but I’m paralyzed with fear. The last thing I hear before the wall comes tumbling down on me is a cacophony of “Hey! Hey! Heeeeeey…” -
弾む・はずむ・to bounce, to spring
“With a bow, this is easy.” The answer to this riddle is, of course, firing bouncy balls.
I mostly use this to let my neighbors know that I want to have a Zoom meeting (ha Zoom-möte); I just fire a bouncy ball off the house across the courtyard, and then it bounces into the apartment next to mine and bops my neighbor on the head. When that happens, he/she/they* knows that I want to ha Zoom.
*I don’t actually know any of my neighbors. -
弾・だん・counter for bullets, events, parts of a story
Uses 単 as a phonetic component, and this reading is just slightly different.
My bow is so easy to use, I can fire many bullets with it. When I do, I count the number of times my bow goes “DUN!”
I use my bow to mark important events in my calendar; it saves me the trouble of getting out of my chair. If you hear something go “DUN-DUN-DUN”, it means I’ve marked three events in my calendar. -
弾薬・だんやく・ammunition, ammo
When do you use bullets as medicine? When your gun is malnourished! -
火薬・かやく・gunpowder
You should take this fire drug; it’ll blow your mind. -
弾性・だんせい・elasticity
The nature of bouncy things is called elasticity. It is so called because men (男性) are very elastic; that is why they tend to be taller than women, statistically speaking.
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Came across a short text today with a lot of slang terms. (Don’t ask me if these are out-dated or still in use, who knows this might all be equivalent to the “bee’s knees” and similar ilk), but found it fun to read about something completely different from normal. There are a few I won’t post, because I don’t know the specifics of the forum guidelines.
ラブホ (or ラブホテル) – The phenomenon of love hotels, didn’t know about this!
コロン this word took me longer than I’d like to admit given the context of smelling nice (eau de cologne)
Apparently there is the same system as the American First, second … base system in slang, using A, B and C followed by した (I got to X base)
ホストクラブ (host club), these are a type of bar where you go to share a drink with good-looking men. (same exists for drinking with women ホステスクラブ)
ベロンベロン dead drunk / smashed
夜明けのコーヒー found in the sentence 一緒に夜明けのコーヒー飲まない。Love it when idioms have the same meaning in different languages (wanna stay over for coffee?)
あそこ - turns out the same type of euphenism is used as the english downstairs, down there.
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あまねく - widely, extensively, far and wide, all over
In an explanation of the kanji for sea bream (鯛 たい). It’s 魚 + 周, with 周 representing a meaning of “in balance all over”
あまねく調和が取れている
I’m not sure if sea bream are worthy of such a meaning, but it taught me a new word.
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From accidentally throwing my work trousers in the dryer, I learnt パツパツ「と」.
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知らぬが仏・しらぬがほとけ・ignorance is bliss
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土蜘蛛・つちぐも・1) tsuchigumo, a type of yōkai; 2) term used ti describe people who lived outside the rule of Yamato
It is unclear which of these terms that came about first. -
大土蜘蛛・おおつちぐも・tarantula (family)
Named due to its similarity with the mythical 土蜘蛛. -
段取り・だんどり・procedure, protocol, method
These are the steps you take. And the moves you make. And the vows you break.And the smiles you fake. I’ll be watching you. -
順序・じゅんじょ・order, sequence, procedure
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眩しい・まぶしい・brilliant, radiant
Can be used literally or figuatively -
冴えない・さえない・drab, boring, dull
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弟分・おとうとぶん・friend whom you regard as a younger brother
There is also 妹分, 兄分 and 姉分, with corresponding meanings. 兄分 can also mean the older male in a homosexual relationship; not sure how likely that is to cause confusion. -
体質・たいしつ・1) constitution (physical); 2) character, nature, type, innate characteristic
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一山百文・ひとやまひゃくもん・dime a dozen; “100 mon for one heap”
The version I heard was 一山百円, but this appears to be less commonly used. -
呼び捨てにする・よびすてにする・to address somebody without a polite name ender (such as -さん)
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一躍・いちやく・suddenly, instantly, immediately, overnight
Literally “one leap”. -
躍起・やっき・desperate, frantic, worked up, eager
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欣喜・きんき・pleasure, joy
Coming up with a keyword mnemonic for this is almost too easy … and it also works for 禁忌. -
欣喜雀躍・きんきじゃくやく・jumping for joy
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海図・かいず・sea chart
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貝塚・かいづか・shell mound; midden
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掻い摘む・かいつまむ・to sum up, to summarize
Often spelled using kana.
Kan be used in phrases like 「かいつまんで言えば…」 (“to sum up”, “briefly stated”).
The last few words came as I was trying to parse a phrase that to me sounded like 「デュエルアカデミアの*かいずま*」, which was translated as “the icon of Duel Academy”. I spent quite a lot of time going over the line over and over again, trying different near-homophones, and looking for possible literary references involving people named “Kaizuma”.
Finally, I decided to just keep watching the video, and a few lines later they repeated the phrase, but this time it was clear that they were saying 「デュエルアカデミアのカリスマ」
- カリスマ・1) charisma; 2) charismatic person; 3) star, celebrity, icon, talent, phenom
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