About the Verbs
Where these verbs come from and why we’re illustrating them.
When Claude Code is working on a task, it doesn’t just say Loading… or Processing…. It picks a verb. A different verb every time. Sometimes that verb is reassuringly normal — Calculating, Composing, Analyzing. And sometimes it’s Flibbertigibbeting, or Whatchamacalliting, or Razzle-dazzling. Same spinner, very different vibe.
This site is a gallery of those verbs. Almost two hundred of them, in present continuous tense, each one given an illustration that takes its meaning at face value — a kind of visual etymology for an evolving piece of software whimsy.
What kind of verbs are these?
If you watch Claude Code long enough, you’ll notice the verbs cluster into a handful of moods:
- Thinking-out-loud verbs — Pondering, Ruminating, Cogitating, Mulling, Cerebrating, Considering. Slightly old-fashioned, slightly professorial.
- Cooking verbs — Caramelizing, Julienning, Marinating, Whisking, Zesting, Sautéing, Flambéing. As if the model is in a kitchen.
- Motion verbs — Skedaddling, Galloping, Moseying, Scurrying, Slithering, Pouncing. Each implies a different speed and dignity.
- Magical verbs — Transfiguring, Transmuting, Prestidigitating, Enchanting, Levitating. The “something is happening I cannot explain” family.
- Made-up verbs — Combobulating, Recombobulating, Quantumizing, Symbioting, Gitifying, Clauding. Coined for the occasion.
- I-forgot-the-word verbs — Whatchamacalliting, Wibbling, Boondoggling, Hullaballooing. Sounds like a verb. Almost is.
- Weather verbs — Billowing, Gusting, Thundering, Misting, Precipitating, Ebbing.
Some are clearly playful (Beboppin’, Boogieing, Jitterbugging). Some seem like they were chosen by someone who really enjoys reading 19th-century novels (Bloviating, Pontificating, Perambulating). And a few are the kind of word that makes you blink and reach for a dictionary — which is part of why we built this gallery.
Why illustrate them?
Some of these verbs aren’t obvious. What is it doing right now? Whatchamacalliting? Is the model stuck? Is it joking? Is it both?
Illustrating each verb gives it a face. A scene. A moment. It makes the strange ones less strange, and the familiar ones a little more vivid. It also turns out to be unreasonably fun.
A few examples
An evolving list
The verbs are not a fixed set — Anthropic adds and tweaks them as Claude Code evolves. The full list as of this gallery is on the All Verbs page; illustrated ones are highlighted, the rest are awaiting their portrait.
If you spot a verb in the wild that isn’t in our list, we’d love to know about it.