Word of the Day - 12/30/25
mojibake
/ˌməʊʤiˈbɑːkeɪ/(n.): in computing, corrupt characters or letters, especially resulting from being displayed or transferred through an inappropriate character set or encoding
If your computer has mixed up its character set, your fiancée will become a fiancée and your façade a façade as cases of mojibake!
Word Origin
The word 'mojibake' originates from Japanese. It is a compound word formed from 'moji' (文字), meaning 'character,' 'letter,' or 'script,' and 'bake' (化け), which is derived from the verb 'bakeru' (化ける), meaning 'to change,' 'to transform,' or 'to disguise.' Thus, 'mojibake' literally means 'character transformation' or 'changing characters,' referring to the display of garbled text when a computer program attempts to render text using an incorrect character encoding.
Words with similar origins or structures include 'emoji' (絵文字), also from Japanese, combining 'e' (絵, 'picture') and 'moji' (文字, 'character'). Other words of Japanese origin include 'karaoke' (カラオケ), from 'kara' (空, 'empty') and 'oke' (オーケストラ, 'orchestra'), and 'sudoku' (数独), from 'su' (数, 'number') and 'doku' (独, 'single').