Interesting Words
Another way to approach a “Word of the Day” routine is to use an “interesting words” site. After marveling over the Weird Words websites I found yesterday, I ended up testing out similar phrases and found some good interesting word websites you could use as a resource. Sites like “Factacular” and “Vocabula Review” offer all kinds of new and interesting words for you to learn.
Word of the Day
Several weeks ago, I covered ways to improve one’s vocabulary through word-of-the-day exercises. That’s where you learn a new word every single day by browsing a dictionary until you find a word you don’t know. You learn the word’s definition, learn its spelling and pronunciation, and learn how to use the new word in a sentence. Interesting word sites are a greaty way to learn a new word every single day, because they often generate a list of interesting words each time you visit, or allow you to generate your own list of interesting words.
Factacular Interesting Words
For instance, when I went to “Factacular dotcom”, one of the first words listed was “abasia”. Abasia means “inability to control muscles in walking”. If ever somebody tells me they suffer from “mild abasia”, I won’t have to ask what they’re talking about, but instead say, “That’s got to be difficult. My aunt dealt with abasia.”
Or if someone uses the adjective “algedonic”, I’ll know that it “pertains to both pleasure and pain”. That might require a more complicated response, but I guess it’s not entirely negative.
There aren’t all “A” words, either. I learned that a “piton” is a metal spike with a hole for a rope that’s used by mountain climbers. While I suppose that climbers use that term all the time and therefore it’s commonplace among a certain crowd, I’ve never climbed a mountain, so it’s new to me.
The next word in line was “plangent”, which means “having a loud or deep sound”. That’s one I never would have guessed at. It sounds like a cross between “plant” and “pungeant”, so I probably would have guessed plangent had to do with an earthy smell. Or I might have thought it was a mispelling of the royal house that Richard the Lionheart belonged to.
Vocabula Review Interesting Words
Over on “Vocabula Review”, I found a whole other of new and ineteresting words. These layout is essentially the same on Vocabula, though I’m sure two different people would prefer one of the two different aesthetics on the sites. Factacular has each word surrounded by a yellow line box, while Vocabula has a more straightforward listing like one would see on a dictionary page.
I found a great word scrolling down the Vocabula home page: “antilogy”. Antilogy is a contradiction in words, statements or ideas. People use antilogies in my life all the time and I never knew what to call them. The next time I want to get really verbose when I tell someone they are contradicting themselves, maybe I’ll throw out the word antilogy.
Another word I found, and one I’m occasionally prone to myself, is “lethologica”. Lethologica is the inability to remember the right word. Of course, the next time I forget the word I’m trying to remember and I want to say “I’m suffering from lethologica” to my friend, I’m likely going to have lethologica trying to remember the word lethologica.
I know, I was just trying to see how many times I could use that intersting new word in one sentence.
Two other words I learned on Vocabula Review were “struthious” and “susurrus”. One means a “soft whispering or murmurring sound; a murmur”, while the other means “of or relating to an ostrich or related bird”. Those are two somewhat similar interesting words that have nothing to do with one another.
Care to guess which one’s which without looking?
It probably doesn’t matter. I’m likely to get the two of those mixed up when I try to use them later. But for those who want to know, struthious has to do with ostriches, while susurrus has to do with a murmur or whisper.
So there you have it: two interesting words sites and eight new words-of-the-day.