Is there a word to describe a scenario where two people having a conversation utter the same word/phrase together, simultaneously, and unconsciously? Something else than just a coincidence.
Lisa
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asked Mar 20, 2011 at 19:31
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A jinx.
A common slang term used when two people say the same thing at the same time, said as a game among children.
answered Mar 20, 2011 at 19:38
CallithumpianCallithumpian
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A phrase often used for saying or thinking the same thing as someone else is «great minds think alike», which is like the German phrase @user3448 pointed out in a comment.
Great minds think alike has a history back to at least the 17th century:
Dabridgcourt Belchier wrote this in Hans Beer-Pot, 1618:
Though he made that verse, Those words were made before. Good wits doe jumpe.
That citation uses ‘jump’ with a meaning long since abandoned in everyday speech, that is ‘agree with; completely coincide’.
In my experience as an American English speaker, it’s often acceptable in places, such as with professional colleagues, where calling «Jinx!» might come across as childish or inappropriate.
answered Aug 24, 2011 at 2:29
aedia λaedia λ
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A certain stripe of person will refer to this as a hivemind moment. Others would call it a synchronicity, though I’m a little dubious that the event calls for that word’s vaguely mystical implications, and might prefer synchronism.
answered Mar 20, 2011 at 19:36
chaoschaos
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You could say the two people said [the same word] in stereo. Or one of the speakers could just say Stereo! as noted here from Urban Dictionary:
When two people say the same word or phrase simultaneously during a conversation (usually by coincidence), the word «stereo» would then be uttered immediately by one or both parties to acknowledge this phenomenon.
Of course, if both parties say stereo in stereo, then one would have to say Jinx!
answered Mar 23, 2011 at 4:07
CallithumpianCallithumpian
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What one says is «snap» — based on the card game of the same name. (British/Australian English — cf. «jinx» in US English.)
RegDwigнt
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answered Mar 13, 2013 at 22:12
Jinx. (It’s a race to see which of the two people says «jinx» first after they’ve unintentionally but simultaneously said exactly the same thing. The victor may add something like «you owe me a Coke.»)
answered Mar 22, 2011 at 22:50
People simultaneously utter exactly the same word, phrase or exclamation especially when they are thinking [of] the same thing in exactly the same way. The best word I can think of at the moment to describe this situation is telepathy/telepathic. I use this word all the time to describe situations such as this, using sentences like:
- Wow, that was telepathic!!
- Ooh, some telepathy at work!
- We got some telepathy going.
Another adjective that could be used to describe this context is psychic:
- Wow, you guys said exactly the same thing at the same time! That was soooo psychic!
answered Mar 20, 2011 at 20:02
Jimi OkeJimi Oke
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You could try «concurrence». Or more awkwardly, a «convergence of events».
answered Mar 22, 2011 at 23:02
You could say that they spoke in unison:
simultaneous performance or utterance of action or speech:
‘Yes, sir,’ said the girls in unison
Chorus might be a stretch. But it is related:
a simultaneous utterance of something by many people:
a growing chorus of complaint
‘Good morning,’ we replied in chorus
answered Dec 6, 2012 at 5:37
coleopteristcoleopterist
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#4
In my childhood, somewhere back in the 2nd Millenium, kids used to say «bread and butter» when that happened.
It’s a gnomic phrase, like «jinx!» or «apple core,» meant to dispel bad vibes. A young couple are walking down the street holding hands. They have to let go briefly to get past an obstruction— to dispel the bad karma of temporarily going their separate ways, they also say «bread and butter!»
«Great minds think alike» is humor that shows a more modern mindset, and I don’t associate this set phrase with your example, of saying the same thing simultaneously. It’s the element of coincidence that conjures a slight eerieness, and the reversion to a gnomic expression.
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16 Answers
Coincidence usually…same train of thought at the same time? I mean, if you’re having a conversation with someone you’re bound to be thinking similar thoughts a majority of the time.
So we can get a free Coke.
[whatever absalom said]
Too bad there’s no time listed for answers, got it exactly!
There is nothing new under the sun.
Pure statistics dictates that sooner or later you will say the same word as someone else at the same time.
“Why are some people born on the same day?” has the same answer, because there are more people than days to be born, it is a close statistical certainty (probability very close to 1) that with enough people some will be born on the same day.
Because sometimes, that’s just the thing there is to say.
Also, what @nisse said.
That’s what she…
Oh, what a terrible joke.
That’s what she…
Oh, what a terrible joke.
@nisse i agree, cuz theres more people than english words as well right? So your bound to end up saying the same thing. Also you and the person are talking together (alone or in a gorup) so if your on the same subject the words get narrowed down to whaetver you’re talking about, making the chance higher.
Well. Technically, the analogy isn’t 100% correct as there are more instances of time * words than there are people (we might even want to limit ourselves to people speaking at the same instance). But the factors you point out increase the probability, as well as the fact that some words are more common than others. As time goes to infinity the probability gets closer and closer to 1. Then again there will be probably not be anyone around to speak words at time=infinity.
Without digging deeper in the philosophical issues we can conclude that the longer 2 or more people speak, the probability that they say the same word at the same time increases.
We can also conclude that the initial questioner probably wasn’t looking for a quasi-mathematical argument.
As being an arse is one of my favourite pasttimes, here is a calculation on the probability of saying the same word as someone else over time.
Frequency of a common word ‘you’=5% *)
Frequency of approximately the 1000’th most common word ‘upstairs’=0.009% *)
Estimated time you are engaged in conversation/day = 1 hr
Say you interrupt someone by saying a random word.
The probability of him saying ‘you’ at the instance of interruption is 5%,
The probability of you interrupting with ‘you’ is also 5%
so the probability of you saying the same word is 5%*5% = 0.25%,
The same calculation for the word ‘upstairs’ equals = 0.00000081%
Estimated number of times you interrupt someone/hour of conversation = 10 times
So you have 10 chances per hour of conversation of interrupting someone,
This means you have somewhere between 2.5% and 0.0000081% chance of
saying the same word as someone/day.
1 year is 365 days, so the probability of saying ‘you’ at the same time
as someone else during one year is 1—((1–0.025)^365) =~ 99.9%
And the probability of saying ‘upstairs’ at the same time
as someone else during one year is 1—((1–0.000000081)^365) =~ 0.3%
If we increase the time span to 10 years the calculation becomes
1—((1–0.025)^3650) =~ 100% and
1—((1–0.000000081)^3650) =~ 3%
Saying the average person lives 70 years this equals 25550 days, so your chance
of saying one of the 1000 most common words at the same time as someone else during your lifetime is somewhere between 20% and 100%.
As RAWRxRandy and others pointed out, people talking to eachother are prone to be using the same vocabulary, so the true probability is probably in the higher portion of this range.
*) Source: Most common words in TV and movie transcripts:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists/TV/2006/1-1000
It’s not like people have an equal chance of spouting any random word at any time. If t’were so, to spout the same word at the same time would be truly interesting. However, people generally tend to say words that relate to the conversation at hand. The conversation smooths the paths for words to flow, narrowing it down like a funnel. That’s what I mean by, “that’s just the thing there is to say.”
Example: You walk up to two friends and start a conversation. Say, “Hey, guys, how are you?”
Friend 1: “Fine, thanks.”
Friend 2: “Fine, thanks.”
This is a simplified thought experiment, but of course they were going to say that. That’s what you say when someone asks you how you are, you say, “Fine.” Because you don’t have an equal chance of saying “radiator” or “the rain in Spain” or even “blempglorf.” The number of words to appropriately choose in a given situation is smaller than the number of actual words in that, or any, language.
because great minds think alike.
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level 1
· 4 yr. ago
What am I thinking
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level 2
· 4 yr. ago
Man, that was a classic! Not as classic as “would you rather”, but classic in its own respect, classically classic class ass
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level 2
· 4 yr. ago
Is it a classic improv game? Scott Aukerman has claimed he invented it on a road trip or something.
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Continue this thread
level 1
· 4 yr. ago
Jizzum
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level 1
· 4 yr. ago
What am I thinking
1
level 1
· 4 yr. ago
What is it wearing
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level 1
· 4 yr. ago
its called «mind meld» and is used in warm-ups and to get into the group mind
1
level 1
· 4 yr. ago
It’s called What Am I Thinking on the show, though I’d always heard it called The 1-2-3 Game before.
1
What it is: A cooperative talking game where players try to say the same word at the same time.
Best for: Two players. I’ve seen it done with three, which is more difficult but could be doable.
What you need: You don’t need anything to play, other than your brains.
How to play: This is a simple game that can provide hours of fun. It’s kind of addicting, almost, once you get started.
After I learned the game, I found out it’s from the band OK Go (you know, the ones with all the awesome music videos?). (This one isn’t really official, but I think it’s my favorite…except a lot of them are kind of my favorite.) OK Go actually has a video that explains the game really well, as well as an app that lets you play even when you’re not with friends. Go check them out! So though I know this post won’t be as entertaining as OK Go’s video, I’ll go ahead and explain how to play here, too.
You start by having two people each say a word at the same time. Any word. It will be a random pair, and that’s okay.
Let’s say Adam and Liz are playing. These are the two words they say:
- Adam: See saw
- Liz: Trip
To make sure they say their words at the same, one or both of them can snap their fingers three times. After the third snap, or on an optional fourth snap, they each say their word.
After that first round, Adam and Liz go again. But this time they’re going to try to say the same word. They do this by trying to find a word that connects the first two words, or something they have in common. You could also think of it as finding the intersection between the two words. So the second round might look like this, with the players’ thought process included:
- Adam: Playground (because this is where you’d trip over a see saw)
- Liz: Fall (because if you tripped over a see saw, you would fall)
Everyone thinks a little bit differently, so it might take a while for Adam and Elizabeth to finally say the right word.
- Adam: Push (because if you fall at a playground, someone might have pushed you)
- Liz: Merry-go-round (the most likely place to fall at a playground)
It’s good for them to take time between rounds to think and come up with the right word. Otherwise, if it’s just about speed, it could get difficult.
- Adam: Exercise (because pushing a merry-go-round is essentially exercise)
- Liz: Spin (because when you push a merry-go-round, it spins)
But it can be a little bit about speed. They don’t want to sit around waiting forever.
- Adam: Treadmill (a form of exercising that involves spinning equipment)
- Liz: Dancing (because this is a way you can spin and exercise at the same time)
Finally, though, they’ll end up on the same word.
- Adam: OK Go! (because they have the best treadmill dance music video of all time)
- Liz: OK Go! (because they have the best treadmill dance music video of all time)
It’s a very rewarding feeling.
This game could be over quickly, in three or even two rounds. Or it could drag on for a while. It’s fun to see the way someone else thinks, and to laugh (or get frustrated) when you think an opposite way. It can also lead to some funny moments, too. Once my husband and I were playing and, I can’t remember what the preceding pair was, but we said Luke Skywalker and Mark Hamill at the same time. (We weren’t sure if that should count as a win.) Another time my sister and I had the words love and brown to work with, and we both came up with chocolate.
I like this game because it’s cooperative instead of competitive. It’s a great time-killer and fun to play. So thank you, OK Go!