Definitions of Bokononist Words

From Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
(in order of appearance, of course)

1. karass: "teams that do God's Will without ever discovering what they are doing"

2. kan-kan: the instrument that brings one into a karass

3. sinookas: the tendrils of one's life

4. wampeter: the pivot of a karass

5. busy, busy, busy: "what we Bokononists whisper whenever we think of how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is"

6. vin-dit: "sudden, very personal shove in the direction of Bokononism, in the direction of believing that God Almighty knew all about me, after all, that God Almighty had some pretty elaborate plans for me"

7. wrang-wrang: "a person who steers people away from a line of speculation by reducing that line, with the example of the wrang-wrang's own life, to an absurdity"

8. duprass: a karass composed of only 2 persons

9. granfallon: "a false karass, ...a seeming team that was meaningless in terms of the ways God gets things done"

10. hy-u-o-ook-kuh: "the hook," punishment for following Bokonon

11. bok-o-maru: "the mingling of awarenesses"

12. zah-mah-ki-bo: "fate - inevitable destiny"

13. foma: lies

14. duffle: "the destiny of thousands upon thousands of persons when placed in the hands of a 'stuppa'"

15. stuppa: a fogbound child

16. sarooned: "...acquiesced to the seeming demands of my vin-dit"

17. sin-wat: "a man who wants all of somebody's love"

18. pool-pah: "wrath of God" or "shit storm"