It has happened to all of us. You want to talk about an object, but you forgot the name of it. Or you never knew the name at all. Maybe you are not even sure there is a word for it.

For example, that thing that you need to fix your bicycle. Or perhaps it is something you need for your computer. Or that part on your motorcycle  that never, ever seems to work.

What are these things?

They are called “doohickies.” A  doohickey  is a word you use when you do not know, or you have forgotten, the real name of an object.

The Mac Millan Dictionary defines doohickey as “something such as a small object or tool that you cannot remember the name of.” The American Heritage Dictionary says it is “something, especially a small device or part, whose name is unknown or forgotten.”

Language experts say the word first started being used in the United States in the early 1900s. But other experts say they have seen examples of words like these in writings from the middle 1800s.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary for Learners of American English gives this example of how native speakers might use  doohickey: “I need one of those doohickeys, you know, with the long  handle.”

Merriam-Webster adds that doohickey may be a combination of two other words: “doodad” and “hickey.” Strange as it may be, both of these words mean the same as doohickey. The dictionary lists a lot of strange words as synonyms for doohickey. The most common are whatchamacallit, whatnot and whatsit.

You will probably never see these words in official documents or news paper reports. But you might hear them in informal American English, when people are talking to each other.

“Hey, what does this doohickey do, anyway?”

“Dude, bring me that thingamajig, willya?

“Janine, can you get me one of those  whatchamacallits?”

Most Americans will know what you are talking about if you use one of those words. Just point at the object, use one of these words, and they will bring it to you.

Doohickey and words like it have their own page on the Wikipedia website.Wikipedia calls them “placeholders.” It says words like these are usually nouns and “can be used for people, objects and places.”

Unofficial studies show Americans are using words like  doohickey less than they once did. The decline seems to have started a few years ago. Still, a recent search of Google News showed the word was used in more than 1,000 news articles in just a couple months.

One story told about a store where you can buy  a  cable  that connects a  thingamajig  to a  doohickey. Another told about a  doohickey for eggs and even a  doohickey   that connects to a camera.

Workers who repair Kawasaki motorcycles use the word doohickey  to describe the vehicle’s “counter balancing chain adjustment mechanism.”