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: ginnel… When I read English authors, I often encounter words that are idiosyncratically British. Of course I can figure out the obvious […]
What’s a ‘ginnel’? 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: infanta… When I stumbled across the word infanta, I knew I’d seen it before (and probably looked up its meaning) but I
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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: nictitating… My reading last week once again proved the limits of a liberal-arts-oriented education. I encountered the fascinating word nictitating in the
What does ‘nictitating’ 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: spraddling…. Something about the pandemic is causing me to read more murder mysteries than usual. I’m not sure why except perhaps that
What does ‘spraddling’ 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: scarpered… I don’t read many murder mysteries but when a book is recommended by the New York Times, I’ll consider spending some
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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: speculaas… I picked up the new novel Akin by Emma Donoghue with eager anticipation. I’d enjoyed her earlier book Room (although I
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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: schist… My uncle was a geologist but I never even took a basic overview course while in school. (A die-hard ‘artsie,’ I
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: tamasha…. I don’t typically read murder mysteries, particularly not ones in a series, which I often find a bit too predictable 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: shura… I enjoyed Amy Waldman’s remarkable first novel, Submission, so much that I asked for a copy of her second book, A
What does ‘shura’ 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: fatberg…. You’ll certainly be familiar with the word iceberg, but have you ever heard of a fatberg? I hadn’t until I received
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