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: Les 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: fetid…. My daughter plays soccer and ultimate (she didn’t get her athleticism from me — it comes from her dad) so I […]
What does ‘fetid’ 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: hew…. I learned the verb “to hew” when I was in grade school — as a result of the country I was
What does ‘hew’ 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: euchred…. The sad, cautionary and yet deeply funny story of Lee Israel is one of my favourite memoirs. You may be more
What does ‘euchred’ 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: badinage… When I read the word badinage I could guess at its meaning from context. It appeared in the highly-praised new novel
What does the word ‘badinage’ 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: birl… The contemporary definition of the word birl, refers to a boy(ish)-girl or girl(ish)-boy. In other words, it is someone who falls
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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: farrago… I thought I knew the word farrago but it turns out the only word I knew was fargo, as in the name
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: suzerainty… I knew of the late Clark Davey back in the 1980s when he must have been a ‘youngster’ of only 60 years old.
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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: comity…. When I read the fascinating Danish novel — shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize — Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors, I was
What does ‘comity’ 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: carnelian…. I have a pretty good vocabulary with a few gaping holes. I was a Liberal Arts student in school, favouring literature
What does ‘carnelian’ 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: augural…. When I encountered the word augural, I assumed I didn’t know what it meant. I found it in the moving and
What does ‘augural’ mean? Read More »
