14 Interesting Words 

How many words are in your vocabulary? The average high school graduate is said to know about 10,000 words. The average 4-year college graduate is said to know about 20,000 words. Do you have room for any more words in your vocabulary?Here are some interesting words, which you may not know.Upon learning an interesting word, if you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to work it into a conversation to improve your vocabulary or just to see the expression on your friends’ faces.

Since this is an online conversation, maybe you’re feeling a little motivated now.If after reviewing this list of 14, you feel up for a challenge, please read through to the Word Power Exercise. 

14 Interesting Words

1. Abligurition  - Spending an inconceivably large amount of money on food.

2. Cereologist  - A person who is unctuous and hypocritical.

3. Jectigation – A movement that’s like wagging or trembling

4. Muculency- Acting very snotty

5. Pulveratricious – Dust-colored

6. Rident - Laughing or cheerful

7. Uliginous - Oozy, slimy, swampy

8. Zoilist – A person who takes joy in finding fault

9. Burgoo – A stew or thick soup

10. Ensorcelled – Bewitched, enchanted

11. Hwyl – A stirring feeling of emotional fervor or energy

12.  Termagant – A harsh-tempered or overbearing woman

13. Vellicate – To irritate

14.  Ullage – The unfilled space in a barrel or wine barrel

Word Power Exercise:

See how many of these 14 Interesting Words you can include in a 100 word (or less) comment. The only two rules are:

1. Your comment must make sense, and

2. You may not use any of the EIWs directly beside another one, such as in a list.

Have fun, and add your blog address, so visitors can stop by and say Hi.

For more word fun, check out my Eight Interesting Words post here.

 1. My wife, a termagant, cow, called me a zoilist yesterday.  Although her remark vellicated me, I was too busy stirring with jectigation the uliginous burgoo I had whipped up into a pulveratricious ullage.  Buying ingredients for it was an exercise in abliguration, but, rident as usual, I countered with muculency the hwyl she projected at me.  “You’re just a cereologist,” I told her, munching corn flakes…………………ian in hamburg: http://lettershometoyou.wordpress.com

 

2. Ensorcelled as I was at first, with rident muculency, by this vellicating challenge, as I begin the task, it feels like a zoilist, or cereologist termagant is over my shoulder looking to cause me hwyl, her pulveratricious jaw jectigating with crtiticsm should I fail, just as she might react to my capacityfor abligurition. (For I have a sick penchant for uliginous burgoos.) However, as I complete this, the last eight of my hundred words seem a mere ullage for others to fill with strange words even my spellcheck does not comprehend…………..David: http://davidweedmark.com

 

3. I was so vellicated that I had an ullage in my brain, but now I’m rident because it is filled with these ensorcelling new words. Now I can act muculent around my friends, even though it’s a little cereologist of me to do so. They’ll have a hwyl and act all termagant towards me, especially my uliginous, zoilist friend, Mike. He’s the one with pulveratricious hair who loves burgoo in the winter. He’s like a dog with a jectigating tail when he smells it. In fact, he’s been known to abligurite on it from time to time…..Auhsoj Sivart: http://webs.calumet.purdue.edu/ifs

 

4. I woke up groggy, feeling ensorcelled, when my wife, a termagant decided to vellicate me with chores today.With her being a zoilist I was filled with hwyl and got out of bed. As I left, I yelled “Good Morning!” as she ducked under the pulveratricious comforter. I threw a shoe at the bed bump for her muculency and saw her painful jectigation in response. I wasn’t very hungry after her burgoo ,which was uliginous,  the night before. She has abligurtion so I had to eat something. Being a cereologist at times, I felt rident at my comment and ate Cheerios….Shell Harris http://www.toptenz.net

5. These words fill me with hwyl and I’m rather rident to enter these words to fill the ullage of my mind’s dictionary and applying them in coversations like a muculent termagent to vellicate and ensorcell others. Its sort of like abliguration to be using these uliginious words in coversations, like a cereologist speaking. But at least those zoilist acquaintances of mine would be left jectigating their nerve endings  trying to comprehend the meaning of what I speak. Oh pleasure! Like having pulveratricious soup burgoo on a cold winter evening!   Monika Kadam

6. Sitting at my pulveratricious couch after abligurition at the grocery store, I watched tv.  My daughter watched as the cereologist looked in her mirror. While the termigant queen’s attempts vellicate SnowWhite a bit, good triumphs finally.  The woodsman with jectigation finds an impasse via hwyl.  She thought his words were full of muculency but she was wrong.  An uliginous forest left her rident and singing, King Zoilist himself, Grumpy, would prove ensorcelled.  She made a burgoo for the dwarves after work.  Snow White was first Disney’s barrel, since his death many filled the ullage. Damien Riley – http://www.damienriley.com/ 

  

 

 

 

(This deep-links post revisits some of my previous posts)

Good writing requires tools, rules, and jewels.

 I hope you’ll find a new tool here to help craft your next masterpiece. Many of us have the same tools in our writing toolbox, but some may have gotten a little rusty. Rules were made to be broken, but when communication is key, rules are more of a friend than a foe. Dust off the manual next time you’re in trouble and you’ll achieve precision and clarity. Many of us stop writing too soon. Polish those pearls of wisdom, your ideas deserve your best writing, and from time to time you’ll uncover a real gem.

1. English Handbook for the game of your life - Nobody needs to memorise all the grammar rules, just know when to refer to the manual.

2. If Punctuation Marks Were People – they might be easier to understand.

3. We hear and read incorrect grammar so often that Does it sound right? doesn’t work anymore

4. The Problem with Pronouns is that they can be tricky

5.  Tools for Fine Tuning helps polish those gems

6. Layers of Revision is an often neglected step that can catch careless errors.

7. Evolving Language offers a basic foundation for building . . . . and a quiz or two

8. Got Style - there are more rules for writing than just grammar. Do you have style?

9. Commonly Confused Words can ambush an otherwise articulate article – take the challenge!

10. Using News Values - consider these tools when gathering material for your writing.

11. Overcoming Writer’s block - we all need to refresh, reset, and refocus from time to time.

12. To improve writing, first improve listening

Good writing is like serving a tennis ball. If you practice everday, but you never learned the correct way to serve in the first place, you may simply get really good at serving incorrectly.

Here are some of my recent mental meanderings on mixed up meanings.

Confusing homophones

1.                  This bimonthly publication comes out every other month, and that bimonthly publication comes             

                              out twice a month. Both sentences are correct.

2.                  Loan (verb) me the money, or I’ll need to get a loan (noun)

Homophones that are antonyms

3.                  I buckle (bind) my seatbelt so I won’t buckle (fall apart) under pressure

4.                  This Christmas, we will have to trimfrom the real evidence.

Same phrase that means the opposite thing

6.                  Watch out for (look forward to) opportunities to volunteer, but watch out for (avoid) over committing.

7.                  Person 1: Did you see all the fuss about the new employee.  

                             Person 2: Tell me about it?

                             Person 2 could be saying “I already know” or “I want to know more”

Opposite phrase that means the same thing

8.                  The two houses met the same fate. This house burned up, and that house burned down.

Not true homophones, but stated orally, these sentences could be confusing.

9.                  I was thinking of moving a broad

10.              It is apparent that you are a parent

If you liked this you might also be interested in

1. Word Power

2. English is Nutty 5

3.Evolving Language

Just for today, let’s embrace the cliché.

I’ve written that a cliché and is an expression that at its birth was both original and clever. But clever expressions spread like wildfire (I couldn’t resist that one!), and over the passage of time such expressions become trite and overused. Readers often see clichés as signs of laziness and/or lack of creativity. http://robsmegaphone.com/2008/02/21/layers-of-revision/

But just for today, let’s embrace the cliché.

Below I’ve written a paragraph using 25 clichés that begin with the letter A. If you would like to do the same, I’ll add you paragraph to this post.  Here’s a partial list of clichés that begin with the letter A.

He was at wits end.  She was the apple of his eye but he always had ants in his pants.  He had always been all talk and no action, but now he had an ace up the sleeve.  Actions speak louder than words he thought.  He decided absence makes the heart grow fonder, so he would walk as far as the eye can see.  Then he thought perhaps presents were her Achilles’ heel but that could cost an arm and a leg.  He could get a second job, but all work and no play make Jack a dull boy.  He decided to ask his dad for advice “well son, the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree does it?”I was all thumbs when I met your mom.  I was at the end of my rope before I realized that all that glitters is not gold.  The answer is as plain as the nose on your face, expensive presents are as useful as a lead balloon if you’re not there to share them.  Your time is as good as gold.  His dad was right. He would go see her, but he decided to take a small present -an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  So he picked some fruit and ran to her as the crow flies.  He saw her standing there with his best friend.  His heart sunk, but he had no ax to grind with his friend.  So he handed her the fruit and said an apple a day keeps the doctor away.  She said to his friend any friend of yours is a friend of mine.  My friend turned to me, winked and said all’s well that ends well. And she and he, well now they are as snug as a bug in a rug.

You’re invited to add your paragraph and blog address.

interesting words

 How many words are in your vocabulary? The average high school graduate is said to know about 10,000 words. The average 4-year college graduate is said to know about 20,000 words. Do you have room for any more words in your vocabulary?

 

 

 

Here are some interesting words, which you may not know.

Upon learning an interesting word, if you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to work it into a conversation to improve your vocabulary or just to see the expression on your friends’ faces. Since this is an online conversation, maybe you’re feeling a little motivated now.

If after reviewing this list of eight, you feel up for a challenge, please read through to the Word Power Exercise.

Eight Interesting Words

Zymurgy:  The art or practice of fermentation

Accismus: When you pretend not to be interested in something – when you really are

Snollygoster – A shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician

Josser – One not born to circus life

Tyrotoxism: To be poisoned by cheese

Winklepicker  a style of shoe worn by British rock and roll fans

Defenestrate: To throw out a window

Unobtanium: A material that is unobtainable, often because it doesn’t exist

Word Power Exercise:

See how many of these Eight Interesting Words you can include in a 50 word (or less) comment. The only two rules are: 1. Your comment must make sense, and 2. You may not use any of the words directly beside another one, such as in a list. Have fun, and add your blog address, so visitors can stop by and say Hi. For more word fun, check out my Eleven Interesting Words post here.

 Waiting my next batch to zymurgy, I was talking with a friend about a snollygoster, I find that accisumus.  This snollygoster was a josser.  They told me this snollygoster suffered from tyrotoxism.  My friend was dressed in an unobtanium winklepicker which made me feel like I wanted to defenestrate him.

Sensfaction: http://262291.blogspot.com

 Son, the worst form of josser is a snollygoster, from whom integrity is unobtanium, and who is more interested in zymurgy than even the trapeze. Their disinterest isn’t accismus; like those winklepickered punks in Clockwork Orange, they could defenestrate August Ringling and still have the appetite to dine unto tyrotoxism.

Drew  http://www.reddit.com/user/drewcamealong/

Politics are the pits these days. All the candidates are a bunch of snollygosters. I am sure some wish they got a case of tyrotoxism. They act so accismus in their speeches. They also try to look cool by wearing winklepickers.

 Mike  http://geography-trivia.blogspot.com

Recovering from a nasty case of tyrotoxism, I put on my winklepickers and set out to hoodwink a couple of jossers into divulging their zymurgy secrets. Then I ran into Colonel Fraudy, a local snollygoster usually out for cash. Sensing accismus on his part, I defenestrated the unobtanium. Close call.

Angry Max pterodactylpuke.com

In celebration or our ability to communicate effectively, I’ve put together this deep links post to spotlight the wonderful world of words.

Morphology or the study of words can be fun as well. Here are some interesting and curious observations about some of the more special words in the English language. I’ve nicknamed them: wacky, crazy, random,  weird,and  unique.

There are also wonderful words with silent letters. There’s the world’s longest word, and the word consider most difficult to translate.

Different levels of education are often associated with the extent of a person’s vocabulary. However, reading and other exercises can increases the size of your vocabulary as well. It seems logical that the more words a person knows the easier it would be to communicate with other. But that’s not always the case. Here are three fun exercises on interesting words that can give you more word power (if the folks your talking to happen to know them as well): Exercise one, two and three.

After you’ve become satisfied with the depth and breadth of you English vocabulary, it might be rewarding to consider the importance of learning a new language. Besides the satisfaction of speaking to foreigners in their native tongue, a side benefit of tackling a second or third language is that mastery of one’s native language is often improved. Check out these easy (and tricky) Spanish words that you may come across in your travels.

For those interested in digging a little deeper. Exploring the origins of words can give us an insight into how the English language evolves over time to accommodate the needs of its users. Here’s a fun column on the etymology of English words as well as another post on the power of popular usage.

The potential for miscommunication is multiplied by some particularly pesky words which seem to be uniquely effective in confusing even the most careful communicator. Have a look at this post of commonly confused words and then have a go at the quiz at the end to see how your fare.

Finally, even the best of us run into a little writer’s block every now and then when you feel like you’ve just run out of words to say. Fortunately it’s usually not so much that you don’t have anything important to say, it’s more likely that you just haven’t tapped into your reservoir of ideas. If you fit this description from time to time, a look at overcoming writer’s block might be helpful.

Words are wonderful when used wisely. Here are three wise and wonderful resources that I recommend for further consideration.

World wide words, Wordsmith.org, Word spy

 How many words are in your vocabulary? The average high school graduate is said to know about 10,000 words. The average 4-year college graduate is said to know about 20,000 words. Do you have room for any more words in your vocabulary?

Here are some interesting words, which you may not know.

Upon learning an interesting word, if you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to work it into a conversation to improve your vocabulary or just to see the expression on your friends’ faces. Since this is an online conversation, maybe you’re feeling a little motivated now.

If after reviewing this list of twelve, you feel up for a challenge, please read through to the Word Power Exercise.

Twelve Interesting Words

1. Nudiustertian  - The day before yesterday

2. Pronk  - A weak or foolish person

3. Pettifogging – Something petty or trivial

4. Inaniloquent - Pertaining to idle talk

5. Mesonoxian - Pertaining to midnight

6. Tyrotoxism – To be poisoned by cheese

7. Nihilarian  A person who deals with things lacking importance.

8. Scopperloit – Rude or rough play

9. Gargalesis – Forceful tickling

10. Dumbledore – A type of bee

11. Humdudgeon - An imaginary illness

12.  Mungo - A dumpster diver – one who extracts valuable things from trash

Word Power Exercise:

See how many of these Twelve Interesting Words (EIW) you can include in a 75 word (or less) comment. The only two rules are: 1. Your comment must make sense, and 2. You may not use any of the EIWs directly beside another one, such as in a list. Have fun, and add your blog address, so visitors can stop by and say Hi. For more word fun, check out my Eight Interesting Words post here.

Nudiustertian I met a Pronk who was talking about a pettifogging subject. Inaniloquent, he went on and on about Dumbledores and mungo. Then he proceeded to Gargalesis of me. Since it was around Mesonoxian and I was coming down with Humdudgeon and he was a Nihilarian prone to scopperloit and I had to perform Tyrotoxism on him.

http://www.blogbydonna.com

Nudiustertian just about mesonoxian walking down the street to my home I saw a mungo collecting cans which I found to be pettifogging. This mungo stopped what he was doing, and decided to inaniloquent with me about his humdudgeon. This nihilarian was telling me that while he was digging, he found some food and ate it, and then got Tyrotoxism. He also told me that a Dumbledore stung him and he had a allergic reaction. This guy was a real pronk!

http://www.skyewolfwrittenworks.com

Nudusterian a pronk was inaniloquently pettifogging aboud the mesonoxian.
The Nihilarian dumbledore scopperloit the pronk with gargalesis.

That’s about the best I could do;p The first one I think has them in too much of a consecutive order… Violates rule 2.. Anyway.. There’s my attempt at it;p

http://www.movies4wholesale.com

It was no humdudgeon that hit me the other day, in fact, it was a case of tyrotoxism!! I felt like such a pronk. I should have known that my mungo brother would have brought me a snack of cheese that he found in the nudiustertian trash.
Not wanting to make him feel like a Nihilarian, I broke down and ate it.

After our snack we started engaging in gargalesis, like we did as children, but when it turned into a scopperloit brawl, I started to feel sick and called it quits.

Now, I am stuck in bed pettifogging through inaniloquent magazines, and reading about the mesonoxian habits of the Dumbledore to stay busy while trying to recover.

http://www.hiddenstreamsproductions.com/thevillag…

Being an avid nihilarian and a young pronk, I’m inclined to attempt the activity of pettifogging, which is better than the follies of scopperloit and safer than gargalesis, a symptom of humdudgeon (a disorder some claim is acquired when dumbledores, who live in dumpsters, attack mungos).
Of course, this monologue is rather inaniloquent; provoked by an onset of tyrotoxism I caught at a filthy diner nudiustertium. I’ll go to bed, as it’s nearly mesonoxian. 

Shadow Crystal

I loved this post from One Cool Site. Please have a look on how to become a better blogger. This post (part 4) deals with the essentials of branding, organizations, content, and seo elements. I use this blog often for tips to improve my blog and my writing.

Branding: Defining your blog’s uniqueness is difficult but critical. It’s what makes your blog memorable.

When crafting blog posts the better blogger considers: The organization of your blog post is an essential part of conveying your message clearly.

Flagship Content (Pillar Posts) In blogging content is king.

Essential SEO Elements Of A Blog Post Unlike normal web pages, blog posts are easier to create and do not require extensive knowledge of HTML to create a search engine friendly page.

Check it out, HERE. ]]> http://www.robsmegaphone.com/2008/07/26/check-out-one-cool-post/feed/ 1 http://www.robsmegaphone.com/2008/06/30/eleven-interesting-words/ http://www.robsmegaphone.com/2008/06/30/eleven-interesting-words/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:49:19 +0000 robertstevenson http://robertstevenson.wordpress.com/?p=1041  How many words are in your vocabulary? The average high school graduate is said to know about 10,000 words. The average 4-year college graduate is said to know about 20,000 words. Do you have room for any more words in your vocabulary?

Here are some interesting words, which you may not know.

Upon learning an interesting word, if you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to work it into a conversation to improve your vocabulary or just to see the expression on your friends’ faces. Since this is an online conversation, maybe you’re feeling a little motivated now.

If after reviewing this list of eleven, you feel up for a challenge, please read through to the Word Power Exercise.

Eleven Interesting Words

Lamprophony  Loudness and clarity of voice

Floccinaucinihilipilification   Estimation that something is valueless.

Rhinotillexomania  Habitual or obsessive nose-picking  

Honorificabilitudinitatibus  In honor

Deipnosophist   One who excels at conversations at the dinner table 

Sesquipedalian   Using long words 

Farctate  Full (as from eating) to the point of bursting; completely satiated

Onychophagist  Person who bites his fingernails 

Bloviate  To Speak or Discourse at Length in a Pompous or Boastful Manner 

Dextrorotatory Turning Clockwise or to the Right 

Eleemosynary Relating to Charity, Alms, or Almsgiving 

Word Power Exercise:

See how many of these Eleven Interesting Words (EIW) you can include in a 50 word (or less) comment. The only two rules are: 1. Your comment must make sense, and 2. You may not use any of the EIWs directly beside another one, such as in a list. Have fun, and add your blog address, so visitors can stop by and say Hi.

In the back of the top shelf of your writing toolbox, sits three writing tools that often get dusty due to neglect. This post is meant to be a stepladder to help reach these tools to prepare them for more frequent use. If you’re like most people, alliteration, parallelism, and variety in sentence structure, are not the hammers, nails and wrenches of writing, but rather the left handed ceramic tile cutters of composition.

Tool #1 – Alliteration: There’s something subliminally soothing connected to the repetition of consonant sounds. There’s also something blatantly bothersome with badly built alliteration. Alliteration is the process of repeating the same consonant sound multiple times in one sentence. When done right, readers rarely notice alliteration; they just know they enjoy the writing. When writers stretch the definition of a word just to achieve alliteration, well – fingernails screeching on the blackboard comes to mind. In the example, Michael gave us many memories for munching, alliteration is achieved, but the sentence doesn’t make much sense. It’s better to avoid alliteration altogether, than to include forced construction. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers is a famous example of alliteration, but perhaps there’s too much repetition of the same sound in that sentence to be effective. Remember alliteration works because it is a treat; too many treats aren’t good for anyone. Moderation is the key.    

Tool #2 – Parallelism: The repetition of two or more of the same parts of speech within a sentence is another tool to take your writing from good to great. And like alliteration, when parallelism is done well, it is rarely noticed by the reader. Importantly, faulty parallelism is analogous to hitting a wrong note while singing a beautiful song.. In the example: The boy enjoys singing, playing, and reading, parallelism was achieved by repeating the three gerunds: singing, playing, and reading. An example of faulty parallelism is: The boy enjoys singing, playing, and he likes to eat as well. “To eat” is an infinitive phrase, so it doesn’t match the gerunds. To correct this example for parallelism, simply change “to eat” to “eating” or change “singing and playing” to “to sing and to play.”

Tool #3 – Variety in sentence structure. English prefers subject, verb object sentence construction because it is the way we speak; however combining simple sentences with compound sentences and complex sentences adds interest and rhythm to your writing. When preparing your post, you may choose to write a simple sentence (one subject and one verb):  such as: The girl enjoys reading poetry. You may choose to write a compound sentence (two independent clauses joined by a semicolon or a coordinating conjunction), such as: The girl enjoys reading poetry, and she loves creating her own poems. You may also choose to write a complex sentence (at least one dependent clause and one independent clause) such as: Because the girl enjoys reading poetry, her writing has improved significantly. Including these different sentence structures in your posts makes for more enjoyable reading. Furthermore, consider the length of your sentences. It is beneficial to include short sentences (just a few words) and longer sentences (20 to 25 words).

Many of us already have the right tools, but we forget to use them. Consider searching through your toolbox and taking out that left handed ceramic tile cutter every now and then. With the right tools, you can create a masterpiece.