There are so many wonderful words that you hardly ever hear in casual conversation. When I was in high school, I remember an English teacher talking about $50 words, meaning words that are meant to sound fancy but usually come off as pretentious. I guess that’s a sign of inflation, as it’s been said that Mark Twain once said, “Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.”
I’m always torn on that idea about vocabulary. While I don’t want to be pretentious, I love words and love having a wide range of words to better express myself. Of course, that only works if those words are known by most people.
Here are 20 wonderful words I would love to hear more often:
Bemused – feeling wry amusement especially from something perplexing or bewildering
Churlish – rude, lacking civility or grace
Dolor – deep sorrow or mental anguish
Droll – funny in an odd or whimsical way
Enervated – lacking physical or mental strength or vitality, utterly worn out
Ersatz – an artificial or inferior substitute
Grok – to deeply understand, intuitively or through personal experience
Frenetic – fast, energetic, disordered activity
Inane – lacking substance or meaning, empty, silly
Ken – a range of knowledge, a particular skillset
Languid – drooping from exhaustion, sluggish
Palaver – idle, empty talk
Pedantic – overly concerned with minor details, strict rules, and academic meaning
Prosaic – ordinary, dull, and unimaginative
Quixotic – foolishly impractical, having lofty romantic ideals
Risible – humorous, provoking laughter
Sardonic – cynically or skeptically humorous, wryly mocking
Simper – to smile in an affected, ingratiating, or silly way
Wangle – to get through trickery or devious means
Vex – to bring distress, to irritate or annoy
Do you already use some of these words in your daily life? Are there other words you’d like to hear more often?
There are lots of ways to learn new words, like keeping up with Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day. If you have some favorite words, feel free to share them in the comments!