quasiword

A quasiword is a term used in linguistics and psycholinguistics to describe a string of letters that is pronounceable and conforms to the phonological rules of a given language but is not a real word in that language's lexicon. Essentially, it looks and sounds like it could be a word, but it has no established meaning. For example, "blick" or "frove" might be considered quasiwords in English.

The concept of quasiwords is important in studies of reading and language processing. Researchers use quasiwords in experiments to investigate how readers process unfamiliar letter strings and how they distinguish between real words and non-words. By presenting participants with a mix of real words, quasiwords, and non-pronounceable non-words, scientists can observe differences in reaction times and brain activity, which helps in understanding the mental lexicon and the mechanisms of word recognition. The ability to pronounce a letter string often influences how quickly it is processed and categorized, even if it lacks a recognized meaning.