Words can evoke thoughts of different colours, sizes, shapes and even tastes scientists have claimed.

Researchers say that on hearing a word, we all assign it different characteristics producing a jumble of simultaneous sensations.

It had previously been thought that only 1 percent of the population had synaesthesia - a condition which makes people see shapes and colours when reading words.

But boffins from Oxford University now think we are all "synaesthetes" up to a point after tests showed people associate lower-pitched sounds with larger and more rounded shapes.

The researchers think this new finding could lead to a new dining experience which uses words to prompt enhance or even evoke tastes ... but haven't McDonald's already done it, I get a nasty taste in my mouth every time I hear the word BigMac.