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| Favorites: Words |
| ♪ I’m a word watcher. I’m a word watcher. Watchin’ words go by. My, my, my. ♪ |
| Click on any letter to go directly to my corresponding list of collected words: |
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
| Rarely does an assonance or alliteration pass me by… or a mispronunciation for that matter (see Rosie Right in Style Weekly). One summer I spent every spare minute going through the dictionary and recording all my favorite words. Words I wanted to incorporate into my everyday vocabulary as well as words I didn’t know and found interesting. I ended up with five 90-minute audio tapes. I would listen to the tapes while I worked in my Father’s warehouse performing mundane tasks such as stamping prices onto merchandise or bundling it. |
| My next word learning endeavor included going through the dictionary again, but this time, instead of taping the words, I typed them into a Microsoft WORD file (pun intended) as a reference tool. An exercise to broaden my vocabulary as well as to create my own personal file of words. This is the file linked alphabetically above. I’ve found that just reading through a list of words or listening to words on tape helps me incorporate them into my speaking and writing vocabularies. |
| I know a lot more words than I use, but every so often I surprise myself when a word pops out of my mouth that is exactly the right word. I love it when this happens! |
| Caveat: All printed dictionaries, a.k.a., lexicons, are not alike. You have to read the guidelines to know the conventions your particular dictionary abides by. (I took a dictionary class many years ago and it was quite illuminating.) Dictionaries use different pronunciation keys and some will list the original pronunciation first and others will list the variant (more common) pronunciation first. |
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Then there’s the Oxford, the granddaddy of all printed dictionaries. I love it because it includes real world examples of words used in sentences extracted from newspapers, magazines, academic journals and fiction. I love this passage about the Oxford by Richard Burton in his diary on his 46th birthday in 1971: “…but the present of presents is the Complete Oxford Dictionary in microprint, the 17 (I think) volumes [actually 13] being reduced to two with a magnifying glass on a little wooden stand. You have to close one eye. To a bibliomaniac it is a thrilling present. Not to be all stingy about it E [Elizabeth Taylor] gave me three sets, one for Gstaad, one for the yacht and one for Vallarta.” |
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Today, most people look up words online. Here are a few of the best online resources I think since they offer not only definitions, but audio pronunciations, too! Macmillan, Howjsay, Merriam-Webster, The Free Dictionary by Farlex, and Cambridge Dictionary. And for audio pronunciations in many languages, try Forvo. I’ve also attached for your enjoyment the out-of-print hilarious comical book, Word-A-Day, by Mickey Bach. |
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