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: paladin. This Friday, November 22, marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. I remember being in grade 2 and having […]
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: minatory. I go to a lot of opera these days. Not because I’m highly cultured (and, in any case, before the 20th
What does minatory 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: ochre. Elizabeth Smart lives up to her last name with remarkable aplomb. Kidnapped as a 14-year-old in 2002, the remarkable young woman managed
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: bibelots. When I studied French in high school, I loathed the subject. I think I might even have had a mild learning
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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: bisque. When I read the 1965 novel, Stoner, by John Williams, I disagreed with the characterization of it as the “perfect novel.”
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: scalawag. I’m the eldest of five children and, when I was a youngster, my parents used to call all of us kids
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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: faience. When I read Ian McEwan’s wonderful new novel, Sweet Tooth, I encountered a word I’d never seen before: faience. Here is
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: bildungsroman. My son is studying to become an opera singer so we hear lots of languages in our house — Italian, German, Spanish
What’s a bildungsroman? Read More »
Word count: 232 words 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: balustrade. I’ve known for years — decades, even — that the group of spindles underneath the railing in
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Word count: 271 words 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: quixotic. I’ve encountered the adjective quixotic in my reading practically since I started reading, almost 50 years ago. I can
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