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: exegetical. Recently, I’ve become a fan of the very fine American writer Nicholson Baker, pictured here. A winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award (for […]
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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: hoyden. I read the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger when I was about 13-years-old. I enjoyed it moderately, as I recall,
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: threnody. I read Anne-Marie MacDonald’s landmark novel, Fall on Your Knees, back in 1997, the year in which it was published. Set largely
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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: swards. I read William Trevor’s 1994 novel Felicia’s Journey in a mad panic last November. I was desperate to hit my goal of 52 books
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: prodome. In early November, I was in a panic. I resolve to read 52 books every year — and, in fact, I resolve
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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: catercornered I love regional variations in language. In the US (and Canada), for example, some places call the sugary drink “pop,” others
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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: adumbrate. I’m looking forward to reading David Mitchell’s new book The Bone Clocks, a gift to me, from my husband. Billed by 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: kerplooie. I enjoy watching movies but I’ve never approached them with the same enthusiasm I have for reading books. That may change, now that I’ve
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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: gleeking… When I read the word gleeking, in the Joshua Ferris novel To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, I knew it had nothing
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: fandangle… Occasionally, in my search for a word-of-the-week, I look not for unusual words, whose definitions lie just outside my grasp. Instead, I
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