topic Re: Pareidolia in Share Your Photos

Pareidolia

Ramsden — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 12:14:04 GMT

Hi folks

This community continues to give as I learned a new word this week from the thread on Beauty thanks to SignifDigits.

So now my obsession with rolling clouds is now enhanced by trying to give their shape a name. And we pronounce pareidolia differently!

Sunset last night. EOS90D with kit lens 18-135 attached.

Can't give those clouds a name though!

Ramsden

Re: Pareidolia

LeeP — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:59:02 GMT

As a freshly retired English teacher, I love archaic words. Arcane knowledge of a word like "pareidolia" is fun for trivia but utterly useless for communication given that the word is not widely used. As an ice breaker, I would sometimes display a word to students. The rule of the game was that they couldn't search it up on their phones or Chromebooks. The first decision was "Is the word real or fake?" So they may see a gibberish word like "percifunctant" or a real word like "zzyzx" and have to make a decision. If they guessed wrong, they were out of the game. Then those who were still in the game had to create a plausible definition and students would then share their definitions. It was 100% a thinking exercise. I once displayed "syzygy" and nearly all of the students said it was fake, but one student could actually define it. I was shocked and impressed.

Re: Pareidolia

SignifDigits — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 16:28:35 GMT

Thanks for the mention! I see Stitch in the bottom cloud pics 🙂

Re: Pareidolia

Ramsden — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 16:58:05 GMT

Hi Lee

I have to agree, and your story made me smile.

You'd probably have enjoyed the conversation over our breakfast table this morning, when both my son and Polish wife said 'what's that word' looking at my scribble on a post it note.

My Polish wife (who's much cleverer than me) worked its meaning out from its Latin roots!

Ramsden

Re: Pareidolia

SignifDigits — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 19:24:41 GMT

Clever indeed! (And much more knowledgeable than me, certainly. I never learned Latin)