Small words have the largest impact. Small words can become the hammer to drive your point home, while big words tend to soften the blow.
Culled from a recent paper: “The panel felt the Senator was being disingenuous.”
What? Lacking in frankness or candor? He prevaricated? Equivocated? Misrepresented? Fabricated? Do any of those words come close to the power of, The panel felt the Senator lied? Everyone understands the word lie. None of the other words carry the clear meaning that lie conveys.
Large words tend to creep in when we write because we’re showing off, or we think our writing sounds better, or we look smarter if we use large words. Trade your syllables for clarity.
Instead of utilize, use.
Trade terminate for end. Don’t eliminate larger words, get rid of them. Don’t substantiate the facts, prove them. People aren’t impecunious, they’re poor. The writer wasn’t assiduous, he took great care. The lady at the DMV wasn’t obstinate, she was stubborn.
No one wants to read the words of a lexiphanicist…
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[...] that said, Doug from Speaking Freely writes a post labeled Never Use a Large Word when a Diminutive (small) One Will Suffice. Example – “fabricated” = [...]
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January 4, 2008 at 5:08 pm
So DG…
What does “Culled” mean?
January 4, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Culling is the process of selection. Usually, to kill off the culls. ;)
January 11, 2008 at 3:37 am
DG, Spot on! Some folks love using big words unnecessarily when small ones can do the trick
March 4, 2008 at 7:36 am
Hmmm. I do suffer from this problem occasionally. Is something I am trying to rectify. Have no idea why I use things such as ‘I want to defenestrate that ****” when “I’m going to throw him out the window” would have done :)
July 22, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Being disingenuous isn’t the same thing as lying. It means playing dumb, pretending you don’t know about some particular likely outcome even though you do.
August 5, 2008 at 6:26 am
In the spirit of learning, large words expand the mind, using them and understanding them encourages brain activity that lends to brain cell production which in the end helps keep the mind sharp even in old age. So if we start eliminating large words we are restricting our abilities to learn and grow. Come on fellas I get that there are some pompus use of words out there but lets err on the side of learning and get over it!