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: 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: interstices… Some authors use unusual words multiple times in a single book. No reader is surprised to see words like “it” or “that” or “was” a multitude of times. […]
What does ‘interstices’ 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: clerisy… I regularly read the New York Times but, as a Canadian, don’t have the time for many other American newspapers, excellent though they may be. Thus,
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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: samizdat…. I haven’t yet watched The Handmaid’s Tale on television (I’m a slow enough TV watcher that I’m still making my belated way through a boxed set of
What is ‘samizdat’? 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: doughty… I don’t watch much TV but I was sick with food poisoning last week and that was enough to keep me in bed for two days. What else
What does ‘doughty’ 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: blackbirding… Set in Australia, in the middle of the 19th century, David Malouf’s award-winning novel, Remembering Babylon, explores both the subtleties and the gross injustices of racism. The
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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: phalanx… I enjoy literary mystery stories. One of my longtime favourites has been A.S. Byatt’s Booker-Prize winning novel Possession, the story of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives
What’s a ‘phalanx’? 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: doppelgänger… I wasn’t terribly impressed by the novel The Twilight Wife by A.J. Banner. I can’t recall where I picked it up but I know I found it
What’s a ‘doppelgänger’? 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: cack-handed… I get a great deal of pleasure — and useful information — from my online subscription to the New York Times. Installed, as it is, on my cell
What does ‘cack-handed’ 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: effulgent… I can no longer remember how I discovered the heartbreaking New York Magazine story “The Day I started Lying to Ruth,” written by cancer doctor Peter Bach.
What does ‘effulgent’ 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 phrase: etymological fallicist… As a result of my own recent foray into video —you can see my work here — I’ve started watching more Internet videos. No cat videos for me, unless they
What’s an ‘etymological fallicist’? Read More »
