Thesaurus of the Day

1-5-14

FIGURATIVE

High level meanings:

representational, indicative, meaningful, symbolic, tropologic (I had to look up that definition), ornate, numeric

WORDS TO USE INSTEAD

(a definite "increase my vocabulary" day!) pictographic - symbolic - connotative - implicative - allegorical - referential

Now to use some of these words. Can you just hear it now? Instead of "figuratively speaking", I pipe up with "allegorically speaking". Booya!

1-4-14

Another word I use too often:

MORTIFIED

diseased, distressed, humiliated, decayed

Since I use this mostly to mean I was humiliated, I didn't grab alternate words for diseased or decayed.

WORDS TO USE INSTEAD

put-upon - perturbed - disquieted - chagrined - humbled - red-faced - hang-dog

I'm sure I'll encounter at least one of these emotions something before the weekend is over.


1-3-14

Today's word is one I use waaaaaaay too often, so this one is for me. I want to learn some different descriptors to use in its place.

INCREDIBLE

High level meanings:  wonderful, remarkable, fantastic, absurd, unbelievable, improbable

Since I almost always us this word in the positive (wonderful) sense, I'm only listing alternate words for those meanings

WORDS TO USE INSTEAD

marvelous - brilliant - singular - enigmatic (! flashback to yesterday) - extraordinary - striking - noteworthy - formidable - astonishing - egregious - unexpected

There are some fun words in that list. I'll be trying them out during the day.

1-2-14

Some words are just plain fun to use. However, they, like "awesome" can become meaningless when repeated in every sentence. Today's word is one I'd like to use more often (I like the way it sounds), but not run into the ground.

ENIGMA ("a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" - Churchill)

High-level meanings: secret, mystery, the unknown, bewilderment, dilemma

WORDS TO USE INSTEAD

obscure - unfamiliar - terra incognito - confoundment - cognitive dissonance - puzzlement (can you just imagine if Yul Brenner, in The King and I, would have said "Is. An. Enigma." instead of "Is. A. Puzzlement."?) - conundrum - can of worms (I threw this one in because it's an overused phrase, too. I'll start using some of the other words in its place.)

Try using some of these words to replace tired phrases.

Thanks for stopping by.



1-1-14

The first time I saw Big Sur, California, I decided right then to stop using the word "awesome" to describe everything. "Awesome" had become a word that one used to describe the hamburger they'd just had at lunch. After seeing some of nature's truly spectacular beauty, I didn't have a word to describe it, so I put "awesome" on a shelf until it is actually needed.

That's the long intro to one of my 2014 projects: Thesaurus of the Day. I'm going to expand my vocabulary this year by finding other words to use via my handy-dandy thesaurus. (By the way, the -aurus suffix is certainly fitting; these things are just about as big as a dinosaur!) It's only fitting that my first word to expand is "awesome". So here we go.

AWESOME

It's high-level meanings can be: terrible, venerable, large, grandiose, eminent, and sacred.

WORDS TO USE INSTEAD

immense - enormous - monumental - prodigious - splendacious - noble - majestic - deluxe - sublime - inviolate - inexpressible

I didn't choose any of the words for "terrible", because most of us tend to use "awesome" in a positive way.  I'm going to find some way to use one of those words today instead of "awesome". Care to join me? If you have a word you want to be the Thesaurus of the Day, just let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by.

No comments:

Post a Comment

I love getting feedback, and hearing from you about life in general. Leave a comment when you can. Thanks so much for taking your time to read my blog.