Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Also known as: Tip of the tongue, Presque vu
The maddening state of knowing a word but being unable to retrieve it.
What it means
The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is a temporary, frustrating failure to retrieve a well-known word despite a strong feeling that recall is imminent, often accompanied by partial information such as the first letter, number of syllables, or similar-sounding words. The leading account is a transmission deficit: the word's meaning is fully activated but the link to its phonological form is weakly or incompletely transmitted. It is a vivid window onto the partial, two-stage nature of lexical retrieval and onto metacognitive monitoring, since people accurately sense an impending success. Its frequency rises with age and with low-frequency words and proper names. Resolution often comes spontaneously once attention is diverted.
Examples
Straining for an actor's name, you're sure it starts with 'B' and has three syllables but cannot quite produce it.
Introducing a colleague at a conference, you freeze on their surname — you know it is Italian, four syllables, starts with a 'C' — and it arrives an hour later, unbidden.
You describe the spice as 'the yellow one in curry', certain the name is on its way; 'turmeric' surfaces ten minutes later while you are washing up.
First described in Brown & McNeill (1966).