Words,words, words. KnowWords. Linguistic philosophy. PAROLE NO. 50 Most Challenging Words. Back in 2010 The New York Times published a list of 50 fancy words that most frequently stump their readership.
The New York Times 50 Fancy Words (defined and used) 1. Inchoate: just begun and so not fully formed or developed I am glad your inchoate proposals for integrating the company were not accepted this time, thus saving us face. 2. Anderson’s profligacy cost him his job and its better you tighten up your belt before you go the same way. 3. Mr. 4. Every major war on this planet were followed by many years of austerity. 5.
The firm’s profligate spending only hastened its downfall. 6. Humpty Dumpty’s antics remain a constant source of baldenfreude for children and adults alike. 7. His ludicrous attempts at mimicry in the office only earned him the opprobrium of his colleagues. 8. The millionaire technocrat and his cronies were publicly derided for being apostates, after they were exposed of polluting the environment while purporting to have spent large sums for water conservation. Randomly Awesome Words. Word Root Of The Day. The IKEA Dictionary. By Lars Petrus This site is not affiliated with IKEA in any way.
Part of what makes IKEA unique is their product names. Each name means something, often in a funny or ambigious way. When IKEA went international, they decided to use the same Swedish names everywhere. This makes sense from an organizational sanity standpoint, but it deprives most of the world of this particular joy. Until now! IKEA product names fall into a few main groups.❞ Proper Swedish words.❞ Improper Swedish words.
Even the defined words can be incomplete (or wrong), since the words are deliberately ambigious, and several places have the same name. AGAM❞the Agama Agama lizardW AGEN✖a city in France? AGNARYD✖uninhabited place in Småland AKURUM★a kind of big bottle used by the Turkana people in east Africa AKUT❞acute ❞emergency room ALG❞alga (singular of algae)W ALLAK✖mountain in arctic Sweden ALSVIK✖place in Stockholm archipelago ALVE☺Old Swedish boy name ALÄNG✖part of the town of Västervik in Sweden ARV❞inheritance ❞heritage. Transitional Words & Phrases. Using transitional words and phraseshelps papers read more smoothly, and at the same time allows the reader to flow more smoothly from one point to the next.
Transitions enhance logical organization and understandabilityand improve the connections between thoughts. They indicate relations,whether within a sentence, paragraph, or paper. This list illustrates categories of "relationships" between ideas,followed by words and phrases that can make the connections: Addition: also, again, as well as, besides, coupled with, furthermore, in addition, likewise, moreover, similarly When there is a trusting relationship coupled with positive reinforcement, the partners will be able to overcome difficult situations. 12 Awesome Language Resources for the Word Nerd.
I’m an unabashed word nerd.
I majored in English and have been a high school English teacher for almost 30 years. I run an online program helping homeschoolers develop writing skills, and I manage this wordy blog and a wordy Facebook page. I have become, over the years, something of an expert on grammar and usage, but it’s not due to any particular cleverness on my part. I have simply learned how to ask good questions and find reliable answers. Here are a dozen of my favorite resources. I own three fat dictionaries, and on just about every word question, I consult all three. The first Webster’s Dictionary was published in 1928.
The last unabridged dictionary published by Merriam-Webster is their rather controversial Third New International Dictionary of the English Language that was published in 1961. In the meantime, they keep revising their abridged but useful Collegiate Dictionary–now in it’s 11th iteration. I particularly like the many usage notes included in this Dictionary. Persuasive Writing - Emotional vs Intellectual Words. I have written about persuasive writing in an article where I discuss Ethos, Logos, Pathos.
Persuasive writers use words to convince the reader to listen or to act. I found this useful list of words in an interesting article called Common words that suck emotional power out of your content by John Gregory Olson. He explains how words have emotions attached to them, and that you should choose the correct ones for the response you want to elicit from your reader. Use these words if you want to get an emotional, rather than an intellectual, response from your readers. Click on the link to read the full article. by Amanda Patterson © Amanda Patterson. Stuck for a word?