Cultivate a Love of Words

There are over one million words in the English language. There are so many incredible, diverse, quirky, unusual and awe-inspiring words that the human race has constructed, with so many fantastic pronunciations and definitions, that it's worth extending your word knowledge and truly embracing words as a passion. Keep reading for detailed instructions on how to foster this love of words.

Steps

  1. When speaking or writing, try to think of more interesting terms in place of the over-used, basic ones. An example of an irritatingly overused word is "amazing", used by hundreds of thousands of people just to mean "good". But instead of "amazing", you could use such words as: terrific, incredible, wondrous, stupendous, extraordinary, remarkable, tremendous, exceptional and so forth; try to think of more! Replacing everyday words will help to boost the meaningfulness of the message you're putting across to others and will help to make your thoughts seem a lot more unique and well-considered.
    • Find replacements for another basic word: Rotten. Instead of this word you could have diseased, contaminated, infected, poisoned, decaying, or afflicted, and so forth.
    • See? You've found so many fabulous words already, and all of those came out of just two regular words! Now it's your turn. If you're looking for synonyms of your favorite words, just read a thesaurus. There are plenty of intricate, uncommon substitutes out there that you might that have even heard of, nouns especially!
  2. Think of the words in your head with your eyes closed and watch them paint a picture in your head. When you think of a basic word like "chair", all that pops into your head is... a chair. But when you think of a more uncommon word "nebula" you'll see a starry universe. The best words that tend to allow us to paint a picture in our mind include foreign-origin words, fantasy words, Write a Scientific Paper words, geographical words, and words that aren't much in use anymore but sound glorious when spoken, etc.
  3. Beef up your word knowledge by learning new words. There are many ways to improve your knowledge of words, such as visiting lists of words on the Internet, reading the dictionary, and looking for vocabulary specific to interests or pastimes that you're keen on. Do some research to find the words you like best and make a list of them for learning from. The best words are those with unusual letters, funny sounds, or ones that have truly bizarre definitions aimed at boggling the minds of those who hear or read them!
    • Read How to expand your vocabulary for more ideas on building up your vocabulary.
    • Wikipedia has a very good article called "List of English words with uncommon properties". This is a fascinating article containing a large list of strange, unique and curious words that have special quirks of interest; for example, words that start or end with rare letters, words with unusual amounts of the same letter, words that have gimmicky qualities, works with many consonants, isograms, etc.
    • Consider resurrecting old words that haven't been used in ages. Flummox your friends!
  4. Play with words. This is a big part of being a word lover. In what ways can you push words to their absolute limits and make them work hard for their worth? There are quite a few fun ways to do this, from puzzles to games and just a few of them are mentioned here:
    • Invent new words. How often have you said something that you think ought to be a word because it so aptly describes what you need to say? Think about recording your word inventions and try sneaking them into the conversation with friends. You never know what might just get picked up! Read Invent a Word for more details.
    • Play word games. Great word games include board games, card games, and online games. For example, there is Scrabble, Hangman, Boggle, Upwords, Apples to Apples, BuyWord, Balderdash, word search, crossword puzzles, ciphers, etc. And there are plenty more! Do a search online for "Word Games" to find a huge assortment you can play online or on your phone.
    • Craft poems or jokes that play on the sounds and meanings of words. These types of jokes or poetical phrases are quite clever and take some thought, so you get a great chance to indulge in your love of words as well as creating smart word connections. This is also called being a "backward poet", because you're writing inverse.[1]For example: A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion. With her new marriage, she got a new name and a dress. Local Area Network in Australia: The LAN down-under. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.[2] And, "If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine" or "Take your laptop for a run and jog your memory."[1] You get the drift!
    • Use words to their limit in poems, puns, limericks, haiku, and creative writing. Make your work as original and exciting as possible by substituting the basic, everyday words with much more interesting ones.
    • Find song lines that are a play on words. For example: "If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"
    • Think of your own word games and share them with your friends.
  5. Home Decorating with words. There are many ways that you incorporate words into your everyday life and home décor. There are statue signs made from single words that say beautiful things like "love", "passion", and "welcome". You could also find pictures and paintings that include words as a key element of the image, with words forming a meaningful statement or graphic. Then there are doodles, that often include words as part of the overall doodle. For your fridge or other magnetic spaces, purchase magnetized words that can be rearranged constantly on the fridge; don't limit these to English alone but add other languages and mix them up! The more words and the more connections you make, the better.
    • If you're handy with crafts, why not consider making some items that feature words? You could sew a cushion with words on it, cross stitch a sampler with your favorite words, or make a quilt of words.
    • If you enjoy drawing or painting, make your own word-infused painting or drawing.
  6. Look for language/word blogs and websites. There are many people devoted to the love of words and who are sharing a lot of word love online. There are top 10, top 100, etc. lists of such blogs and websites, which you can find doing a simple search for "lexiophile", "lexiphile", or "a love of words". It's likely that you'll want to spend hours poring over the fascinating tidbits of information on the origins, pronunciation, and meanings of words you've yet to meet!
    • Keep a notebook of your favorite word discoveries for words found online and elsewhere.
  7. Make word clouds. There are several online facilities for creating word clouds but Wordle is a very popular one. Using this you can write in all of your favorite words and have a really lovely collection of words placed together in myriad ways and colors. Select the ones you like the most and display them on your contributor pages or websites online, or print them off and use them as decorations, prints, and fridge inspiration.
  8. Grow your love of words into a career. If you love words so much that you want to fulfill this passion throughout your life, then consider a career that positively embraces your word love. The perfect careers for word lovers include: Teacher (especially language teacher), journalist, writer/author, psychologist, sociologist, lawyer, artist, poet, interpreter/translator, publisher, editor, critic, philosopher, academic, sign-writer, advertiser or marketer, salesperson, dictionary compiler, grammar book author, government policy adviser, orator, politician, and so forth. Being good with words can often lead to leadership roles because you're comfortable with using motivating, apt, and interesting words that inspire those listening. Words can take you far if you're good with them!



Tips

  • Read lots of books. This will expand your vocabulary massively and the great thing is that you'll get the context easily. Also read books about the origins of words and grammar so that you have an exceptional feel for how the words have evolved and for ways that they might be better used in your own conversations and writing.
  • Load new word lists onto your iPod or MP3 player and learn them while you move about.
  • Consider obtaining a thesaurus. This is a collection of words that are related in some way with each other. Often you can find words that are 'shaded' differently or that mean the same thing but have different contexts or subtexts.
  • Share your love of words with other people. They might not get your passion at first but persevere and help them to see how much more interesting it can make both conversation and creative writing. Be sure to share with them some of your favorite words!
  • Words are such beautiful wonders, use them like magic spell on the people around you.
  • A lover of words is said to be called a "lexiophile" or a "lexiphile".[1]

Warnings

  • Bone up on your spelling when you start using uncommon words. Everyone in the office or any other social situation will start treating you as a walking dictionary, so you might as well be good at it. It'll make life easier when you're writing or editing WikiHow articles!
  • Having a love of words is not nerdy or square, so don't feel down if people say this is true. Having a larger vocabulary doesn't just make you smart, it makes you funny, eccentric and interesting. A conversation with a person who uses a varied selection of unusual and powerful words is much more exciting and inspiring than a person that uses simple, everyday words.
  • It is commonplace to have people who don't recognize "big words" or difficult words to be condescending and to claim that the words either don't exist or that you're being too academic. Explain to them that you love words and use them to their best ability and that you're happy to help them learn new words too. Ask that they be open to the possibilities!

Things You'll Need

  • Dictionary
  • Access to word sites and blogs
  • Notebook and marker for recording your favorite words (or use a portable electronic device for this)
  • Word puzzles, games, and jokes
  • Books - literature and poetry

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://www.listmyfive.com/12beed7e/The-Top-Five-Lexiphile-Surprises
  2. ↑ Lines courtesy of IncaProphet, http://incaprophet.blogspot.com/2006/12/lexiophile.html
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