Have you ever completed the Word Power feature in Reader’s Digest? I’m not much interested in such games – I don’t even do crosswords! – but I am committed to increasing my own vocabulary. Why? Because if I know more words, I’ll be able to read more fluently. But even more important, I’ll be able to write better. Knowing lots of words allows me – and you — to be more precise in writing. In my word-of-the-week feature I share a word with you that I’ve discovered in my own reading.
Reading time: About one minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: educe… I like being able to figure out the meaning of words from context. This challenge presented itself to me most recently when I was reading the novel […]
‘Educe’ — what does the word mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: trygghet… When I encounter a word I don’t recognize, I sometimes feel a sense of inadequacy. As a professional writer and editor, shouldn’t I know more words?
What does the word ‘trygghet’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: roshambo… A charming novel by Sameer Pandya — a creative writing and Asian American literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara — gives me my word of
What does ‘roshambo’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: synecdoche… When I read Rumaan Alam’s latest novel Leave the World Behind, the word synecdoche, rang a dim bell in my mind, although I couldn’t remember what it
What does synecdoche mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: susurrus. I love onomatopoeia which occurs when words phonetically imitate, resemble or suggest the source of the sound that they describe. Some of these words are related to water: splash, spray and sprinkle. Others recall the human voice: giggle, growl and grunt. Still
What does the word ‘susurrus’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: enterotomes… When I encounter what appears to be a highly technical word — like enterotomes — my eyes tend to glaze over a little bit. In the past,
What are ‘enterotomes’? Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: reliquary… The remarkable writer Meredith Hall became a published author relatively late in life. I haven’t yet read her memoir (about having become a mother at the age
What’s a ‘reliquary’? Read More »
Reading time: Not quite a minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: slaked…. I have always associated the word slake or slaked with thirst. But when I recently encountered it in a recent and highly engaging book by Michael
What does the word ‘slaked’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: chivvied… I love encountering words for which I already know the meaning but have no idea about their history or etymology. Chivvied is one such word. I read
What does the word “chivvied” mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: shillelagh…. As soon as I read the exotic-looking word, shillelagh, I knew I had heard it before. I just couldn’t put my finger on the meaning. The word
What’s a ‘shillelagh’? Read More »
