When you repeat a totally normal word so many times that your brain glitches and starts hearing it as something completely different — sometimes even something cursed, offensive, or socially-dangerous — despite zero actual change in pronunciation.
It’s basically the auditory version of seeing faces in clouds, except your ears decide to hallucinate new words because repetition makes the original one lose meaning. Linguists call this “semantic satiation,” but Articulatory Pareidolia is the moment when your brain goes, “Okay, fine, I’ll just make up a new word then.”
This can lead to harmless words like “gurney” suddenly sounding suspiciously like a hard-R term, which is not the speaker’s fault, not your fault, and not reality — it’s just your neuro-auditory system throwing hands.
It’s basically the auditory version of seeing faces in clouds, except your ears decide to hallucinate new words because repetition makes the original one lose meaning. Linguists call this “semantic satiation,” but Articulatory Pareidolia is the moment when your brain goes, “Okay, fine, I’ll just make up a new word then.”
This can lead to harmless words like “gurney” suddenly sounding suspiciously like a hard-R term, which is not the speaker’s fault, not your fault, and not reality — it’s just your neuro-auditory system throwing hands.
Person A: “I swear I heard a different word, but nobody said it.”
Person B: “Yeah, that’s articulatory pareidolia — your brain re-rolls the audio after too many repeats.”
Person B: “Yeah, that’s articulatory pareidolia — your brain re-rolls the audio after too many repeats.”
by Doorknob Denthead November 19, 2025
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