The Phrontistery: Obscure Words and Vocabulary Resources 100 Exquisite Adjectives By Mark Nichol Adjectives — descriptive words that modify nouns — often come under fire for their cluttering quality, but often it’s quality, not quantity, that is the issue. Plenty of tired adjectives are available to spoil a good sentence, but when you find just the right word for the job, enrichment ensues. Practice precision when you select words. Here’s a list of adjectives: Subscribe to Receive our Articles and Exercises via Email You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed! 21 Responses to “100 Exquisite Adjectives” Rebecca Fantastic list!
Color Words Colour Terms This list contains 168 definitions of obscure colour terms using combinations of 'normal' colours of the rainbow and descriptive adjectives; e.g. cardinal = deep scarlet red; russet = reddish brown. Note that most English speakers outside the U.S. spell colour with the added British 'u' rather than the American version color. Don't worry if the colours (or colors) in your universe don't match up with the definitions I've given for these words, though - I've been known to have skewed perceptions of reality ... I hope you have found this site to be useful.
Wordy English: Vocabulary Compilation with Usage Examples A collection of five thousand English words with usage examples. For a intro, see: How to Increase Your English Vocabulary?. For daily musings, subscribe at Xah's Belles-lettres Blog. When using this site, you should have a dictionary software installed. SAT Words Words commonly found in magazines or newspapers. GRE Words Similar in nature to the SAT group but more difficult. Writer's Words When i cannot find a categorical basket to put a word in, i dump it here. Writer's words are often found in fictions, novels. I want more… Special Words: Hyphenated words, Slang, Nouns, Arcane, Poesy, … Hyphenated Words What a strung-out tongue-in-cheek booby-trap! Combination Words I daresay the forthcoming outlook of a headstrong crackpot is oftentimes a polymath not unlike the foresight of yours truly. Compound word or portmanteau words. Special Meaning Words Familiar words with unfamiliar meanings or likely to be misunderstood. English Vocabulary: Special Meaning Words Foreign Words Slang Informal Yup! Arcane
100 Mostly Small But Expressive Interjections David Bier Thanks for this – what a fun post considering there’s no actual narrative in it! Cecily Some of these interjections are quite culturally and age specific, so if people need to be told what they mean, they should probably not be using them.For example, to many Brits, va-va-voom is not old-fashioned at all, but instead is firmly linked to the long-running ads that footballer Thierry Henry made for the Renault Clio. Himanshu Chanda Whoa ! What a biiiig list. And yes this ones really great. Oxford Dictionaries Online 3Q2013 update 28 August 2013, Oxford, UK Today Oxford University Press announces the latest quarterly update to OxfordDictionaries.com Online (ODO). If buzzworthy vocabulary makes you squee, set aside some me time to explore the latest words which have made their way into common usage. Picture this. You’ve just uploaded a selfie to your favourite social media website using your phablet when your FIL (that’s your father-in-law) shares a supercut of a srsly mortifying twerking session. You immediately unlike his page because there isn’t an emoji capable of expressing your desire to vom: apols, but it’s time for a digital detox. The linguistic influence of the world of gastronomy can be seen in a number of this quarter’s new entries, from cake pops and blondies to street food and guac; it might be wise to wash that down with a pear cider or a michelada before you show signs of a food baby. The Oxford Dictionaries UK Word of the Year 2012, omnishambles, is also among the new entries. • apols, pl. n.
45 ways to avoid using the word 'very' Writers Write is your one-stop resource for writers. Use these 45 ways to avoid using the word ‘very’ to improve your writing. Good writers avoid peppering their writing with qualifiers like ‘very’ and ‘really’. They are known as padding or filler words and generally add little to your writing. According to Collins Dictionary: ‘Padding is unnecessary words or information used to make a piece of writing or a speech longer. Synonyms include: waffle, hot air, verbiage, wordiness.’ Adding modifiers, qualifiers, and unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, weakens your writing. This post gives you 45 ways to avoid using the padding word ‘very’. Three Telling Quotes About ‘Very’ “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. If you enjoyed this, you will love: Top Tip: If you want to learn how to write a book, sign up for our online course. by Amanda Patterson © Amanda Patterson
Unusual Words Unusual Words A by no means exhaustive list of rare, obscure, strange and sometimes funny words and their meanings that only seem to crop up in crosswords and dictionaries. Words that are used so seldom, you wonder who invented them and why. Home ~ The Stories ~ Diversions ~ Links ~ Contact Short Story Ideas and Creative Writing Prompts Here are lots of short story ideas that you can use as writing prompts. Use these story starters on their own or to get ideas for the CWN online writing courses. You'll also find links to more creative writing prompts at the bottom of the page. Any of these ideas can be used either humorously or dramatically... or you can try both. Do you like this page? Story ideas - three elements Choose a set of three elements and write a story that contains all three of them! Extreme challenge: combine three of the elements with one of the other short story ideas on this page. A stolen ring, fear of spiders, and a sinister stranger. More short story ideas Challenge: 4 stories in 4 weeks using these short story ideas. Extreme challenge: Why not write a book of short stories? A babysitter is snooping around her employer's house and finds a disturbing photograph... Even more short story ideas Your character starts receiving flowers and anonymous gifts. And still more short story ideas
Word Spy The Top 10 Elements of Setting In a Story No matter if you are just getting started or want to break into fiction writing, setting is a crucial element to any story. In order to create an imaginary world for your story, you’ll need to know the fundamental elements of setting first. Discover the basic elements of setting in a story from Between the Lines. Fiction has three main elements: plotting, character, and place or setting. But setting is more than a mere backdrop for action; it is an interactive aspect of your fictional world that saturates the story with mood, meaning, and thematic connotations. Here is a list of the specific elements that setting encompasses: Locale. Plus, read more daily writing tips. This excerpt comes from Between the Lines by Jessica Morrell, from which you can learn more about the craft of writing. Buy Between the Lines now! You might also like:
101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips, Part I What if someone went through the biggest and best blogs on the internet, and pulled out the very best-of-the best tips for fiction writers? That’s what I’ve attempted to do here. I can’t guarantee there aren’t some amazingly helpful writing tips that I haven’t included, but this is a good start. I’ve also tried to steer clear of really obvious tips like “show, don’t tell” or “make your characters unforgettable,” in favour of ones that are less often discussed. To learn more about the tips, click through to their original articles. Thanks to all these amazing bloggers for their valuable advice! Now, head over to: Connecting Your Characters to Settings in Your Novel We’ve been looking at settings in your novel: the overall milieu or locale that your story takes place in, as well and the various locations your scenes are set in. I’ve encouraged you to take the time to come up with fresh, significant settings instead of defaulting to the easiest and first location types that come to mind, such as restaurants and coffee shops. We spend a lot of our time at work and home, and occasionally at those restaurants and coffee shops, but that is ordinary life. So the challenge for novelists is to come up with settings that are interesting. Settings That Trigger Emotion I had you think about places in your past that are emotionally charged to you. Does your protagonist, for example, have a strong emotional connection to one or both parents (who may still be living or have died before your story starts)? Let’s say your protagonist has just had a huge fight with her mother over the man she plans to marry. Conflict, Conflict, Conflict! One Last Very Important Thing