Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT)

The Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) phenomenon occurs when a person cannot recall a specific word or term even though they are aware that they know the word. Often times similar words and concepts or even the first letter of the word can be recalled just not the specific word that one is searching for.

This is a type of metacognition ('thinking about thinking') because you are aware that you know the word and just can't recall it. This is thought to be cognitively related to the concept of retrieval induced forgetting.