Today (September 19, 2025, at home), I learned the word that describes something that often happens to me (and to people, in general): pareidolia. It appeared in a YouTube video that I just watched.

I am a writer, a poet, and somewhat of a linguist, as well as a journalist from September 1982 to April 2017. I have a strong fondness for language, so this fascinates me.

Here is the Google explanation:

"Pareidolia is the psychological phenomenon of perceiving familiar patterns, such as faces or words, in random or ambiguous stimuli, like clouds or static. It is a normal human tendency, likely an evolutionary survival mechanism for quickly identifying threats or meaningful social cues. Examples include seeing a face in the clouds, the "man on [in?] the moon," or even hearing faint voices in white noise."

Here is an example. Do you see the face (two eyes and open mouth)? I do.