xkcd.WTF!?

Explanation ➲

Branko Grünbaum's multi-set Venn diagram strategy from 1975, less symmetric than Randall's.

This comic is a Venn diagram illustrating the complete set of possible intersections of five different size adjectives: "little", "large", "small", "great" and “big”. Each unique intersection contains a short list of nouns that can be preceded by each of its intersecting adjectives.

For example, "flying fox" (a type of bat) appears at the intersection of "large", "small", and "great", because the species large flying fox, small flying fox, and great flying fox all exist, but there is no such species as a "big flying fox" or a "little flying fox". Similarly, humans have organs named the small intestine and large intestine, but no "little intestine", "great intestine", or "big intestine".

Some descriptors are applied in combination to their noun, rather than individually; for example, "planet" is placed in both the "little" and "big" groups in reference to the 2008 video game Little Big Planet.

In the title text, Randall declares that he will start intentionally using term combinations that don't appear in the above diagram, presumably to ensure every intersection contains at least one term. A slightly more reasonable solution is to publish books/songs/films/etc under these titles (details needed), as many of the entries in this comic are titles.

A similar concept can be seen in 181: Interblag, but in a tabular form rather than a Venn diagram.

List of items in the diagram

The following table lists all size/noun combinations that the Venn diagram can generate, with a description of each.

Item	Big	Great	Large	Little	Small	# Regions
Aunt		sister of one's grandparent				1
Bang Theory	currently-accepted scientific theory that explains the origin of the universe; also a TV sitcom					1
Barrier Reef		world's largest coral reef system, off the coast of Australia				1
Bear Lake	a lake and surrounding community in California, in the mountains	a lake in Canada, in the Northwest Territories -- the largest lake entirely in Canada, and the fourth-largest in North America				2
Bend	several geographic locations, including a US National Park in Texas	several geographic locations, including a city in Kansas and the description of the S-shaped curving of the Nile River in Egypt and Sudan				2
Billed Seed Finch		species of finch, described in 1851	species of finch, described in 1789			2
Blue	nickname for IBM and the New York Giants, also a movie and a stage in F-Zero and borrowed into Mario Kart		various different butterflies		butterfly, smallest found in the UK	3
Blue Heron		species of heron that measures 91–137 cm (36–54 in) long		species of heron that measures about 60 cm (24 in) long		2
Board	nickname for the New York Stock Exchange					1
Cardiac Vein		left coronary vein			heart vein on the right side	2
Circle		largest possible circle that can be drawn on a sphere; the equator is an example of one on the Earth		The Little Circle, a group of political reformists based in Manchester, UK in the early 1800s	a circle that lies on a sphere without passing through its center (which would make it a great circle); also a 2010s emo band	3
Claims Court					judicial court that handles cases involving only relatively small amounts of money	1
Depression		period of prolonged economic downturn that affected the world economy in the 1930's				1
Dipper	subset collection of stars in the constellation Ursa Major			name for the constellation Ursa Minor		2
Emerald			Geometra papilionaria, a bright green moth of the family Geometridae	Jodis lactearia, a light green or white moth of the family Geometridae	Hemistola chrysoprasaria, a light green or yellow-white moth of the family Geometridae	3
Enchilada	The term "Big Enchilada" means a person or thing of great importance.					1
End	The bearing connecting a connecting rod to the crank shaft of a reciprocating engine.	Mountain in England			The bearing connecting a connecting rod to the gudgeon pin and hence the piston in a reciprocating engine.	3
Eyed Conger	type of eel, found in the western Pacific Ocean		type of eel, found in the northwestern and eastern central Pacific Ocean		type of eel, found in the eastern Indian Ocean	3
Flying Fox		Great flying fox	Large flying fox		Small flying fox	3
Foot	The well known folk-lore monster Bigfoot			Main character in the Land Before Time film series	Smallfoot is an animated film that inverts the Bigfoot legend, focusing on a group of yetis that tell stories about humans.	3
Forest Bat			A common bat found in Southeastern Australia	A related bat also found in Southeastern Australia		2
Format			anything larger than 4x5 inches in photography			1
Foundation	The BIG Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit charity	May be a reference to Asimov’s Greater Foundation	May be a typo. Could possibly be a reference to the Lange Foundation			3
Frog	Refers to someone who is important but only in a small group (Big frog in a small pond)		A South-East Asian frog species	children's book "The Little Frog" by Crista R. Stewart	An Australian frog species	4
Game	Large animals hunted for sport or food, usually referring to the African big five game (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, cape buffalo); can also refer to the NFL's Super Bowl	19th Century geopolitical competition between the British and Russian Empires over control of Afghanistan	Large animals hunted for sport or food, such as bears or moose		Small animals hunted for sport or food, such as rabbits or ducks	4
Hadron Collider			particle accelerator			1
Hearted	kind, generous, selfless, noble	generous, selfless, noble	generous, benevolent, noble			3
House on the Prairie				novel (later made into a TV show)		1
Intestine			The Large Intestine or colon is the last part of the digestive system.		The Small Intestine is the part of the gastrointestinal tract (gut) immediately after the stomach, where most absorption of nutrients takes place	2
Island	largest island in Hawaii, or numerous other islands: Big Island	in Cork Harbour, Ireland	island in the Antilles, owned by Grenada	several islands named such, plus a song in Randy Newman's Faust	novel which was made into a movie	5
League	Nickname for top-level competition	One of the leagues in Pokemon Go		Youth baseball organization		3
Lies	Big Little Lies, a novel made into a TV series; also a form of propaganda			Big Little Lies, a novel made into a TV series; also a Fleetwood Mac song		2
Magellanic Cloud			A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way		Another satellite galaxy of the Milky Way	2
Millimeter Telescope			radio telescope			1
One	Nickname for any large natural disaster that is expected to happen in the future, such as a tsunami or an earthquake in California	Nickname for Wayne Gretzky, considered by many to be the greatest ice hockey player of all time, also comedian Jackie Gleason and many other people (Wikipedia disambiguation page).		affectionate term for a small person	A Disney animated short directed by Don Bluth	4
Orphan Annie				comic strip		1
Planet	Part of the video game Little Big Planet			Part of the video game Little Big Planet		2
Potatoes					something relatively unimportant	1
Pox		an old name for syphilis			a deadly disease which was effectively eradicated by 1977	2
Professor			rap artist	educational math toy (also "Little Professor Syndrome", an informal name for autism)		2
Richard				musician		1
Room		a McMansion's signature space		Track 6 on "White Blood Cells," the third album by The White Stripes	"The Small Room", a novel by May Sarton, also various songs: Small Room	3
Screen	another name for movies				another name for TV	2
Sister	older female sibling; also a character from the influential video game Bioshock			younger female sibling; also another character from the influential video game Bioshock		2
Soldiers				1996 Telugu drama film	1998 movie about sentient animated toys at war	2
Sur	coastal region of California famed for its mountain scenery. It also contained a Little Sur River (not on the comic)					1
Terror		One of two periods of violent political repression; one during the French Revolution between 1793 and 1794, the other in the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin between 1936 and 1938				1
Time	major, the highest level of a field				minor, or modest, level of achievement	2
Toothed Aspen	A tree native to North America		Another name for the same tree			2
Wall of China		Series of fortifications over 13,000 miles long that served to protect various Chinese empires from raids and invasion from their north				1
White	ski resort in British Columbia	species of shark or a rock band	a butterfly or a common breed of pig		multiple species of butterflies are known as small whites	4
Wonder				"Little Wonder" is a song and single by David Bowie, from the 1997 album Earthling.	American sitcom	2
World	Australian company BigWorld which develops development tools for MMOs; also a 1986 live album by Joe Jackson.	Reference to either Great World City or Great World Amusement Park, a Chinese shopping mall or amusement park, respectively		A 2013 Catalan documentary film	Board game by Days of Wonder, ride at Disney parks, type of mathematical graph.	4
no items present	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	0
no items present	n/a	???	???	???	n/a	3
no items present	???	???	???	???	n/a	4
no items present	n/a	???	???	???	???	4
Item	Big	Great	Large	Little	Small	# Regions