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: coruscating… I briefly worked for Conrad Black. Not face-to-face (thank goodness); he owned the newspaper chain where I was an editor. Black once controlled Hollinger International, which published The Daily Telegraph (UK), Chicago Sun-Times (U.S.), 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: splenetic… When my reader, John Friesen, emailed me the word splenetic I had to confess I hadn’t encountered it before. He discovered it in the March 19/16 Washington
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Reading time: Just over 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: mondegreen. I learned a new word last week, as a result of my recent obsession with podcasts. Sadly, I can no longer remember which program I heard it
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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: exiguous… I didn’t enjoy the plot of the novel Saving Agnes by Rachel Cusk. But I found her writing remarkable. You can see some examples of her superb figurative language here.
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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: tenebrous… Loyal reader John Friesen likes to send me words he collects in his reading. The latest? Tenebrous. It comes from the book The Making of Home by
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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: petard. You’ve probably heard the expression “to be hoisted by your own petard” on many occasions. It means to be injured by the device that you used in
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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: brumous… My husband is extraordinarily interested in birds. I am not, although I don’t mind the creatures. But on his request I gave him the book H is
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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: hermetic… I’m a bit of a foodie so I read New York Times restaurant reviews with particular interest. Not that I’ll ever likely be able to eat at
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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: listicle… I’m not a morbid person. But following the deaths of my father, my father-in-law and my mother, I’ve taken more of an interest in end-of-life issues. Perhaps
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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: logorrheic… Despite my habit of reading voraciously and widely, I don’t always accumulate enough words for this column. Thus, I’m always grateful when readers send me interesting words
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