Ten More Ways to Improve Your Vocabulary

Long and exotic words (like defenestration or sesquipedalian) are often more fascinating than useful. By comparison, this list offers more words that can enrich conversations without sounding ridiculous.

Definition:

a theory or a group of ideas about how something should be done, made, or thought about

Words It Might Replace:

idea, theory, concept

Example:

Astronomy has witnessed numerous groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting discoveries in our understanding of the cosmos. One such shift began in June 1990, when Astronomy revealed initial results from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), recently launched to observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation left by the Big Bang.
— Alison Klesman, Astronomy (Milwaukee, WI), Aug. 2023

Definition:

a statement that seems to be contradictory or opposed to common sense yet is perhaps true

Words It Might Replace:

puzzle, surprise

Example:

The style of "After Work" is sometimes unpalatably academic - the word "imaginary" is frequently deployed as a noun, and "hegemonic" is a favorite adjective - but the book's reasoning is both rigorous and absorbing. It begins with a particularly arresting puzzle: the Cowan paradox, named for the historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan, who first demonstrated that "despite all the new labor-saving devices, labor did not appear to have been saved in the home.”
— Becca Rothfield, The Washington Post, 9 Jul. 2023

Definition:

a very small difference in color, tone, or meaning

Words It Might Replace:

aspect, thing, detail

Example:

There is always a temptation to turn her sordid and theatrical story into a caper, not least in a production like this which was originally made for American audiences less familiar with the nuances of Irish history.
— Eilis O’Hanlon, Sunday Independent (Dublin, IR), 9 Jul. 2023

Definition:

a person whose interest in an art or in an area of knowledge is not very deep or serious

Words It Might Replace:

dabbler, amateur, hack

Example:

The funniest of the episodes may be "Mr. Mayor's Magical L.A. Christmas," with a script written by Janine Brito and the show's co-creator, Tina Fey. The series, which stars the ever-popular Ted Danson as the very wealthy, dilletante-ish mayor of Los Angeles, makes its setting the principal butt of its jokes.
— John Anderson, The Wall Street Journal, 15 Dec. 2021

Definition:

luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for

Words It Might Replace:

luck; chance; good fortune

Example:

Serendipity is the name of the game in the shops of Antique Alley. If you have your heart set on finding a Steiff teddy bear or a Civil War officer's sword, you could be disappointed. But if you're open to discovering an item that you didn't know you couldn't live without, then this roughly 30-mile stretch of road from Lee to Concord, N.H., is, at least figuratively speaking, right up your alley.
— Patricia Harris & David Lyon, The Boston Globe, 9 Jul. 2023

Definition:

a mild or pleasant word or phrase that is used in place of one that is offensive or unpleasant

Words It Might Replace:

alternative, "another way of saying"

Example:

The government jargon for this is "downloading." How cute. It sounds as victimless as queuing up a Marvel movie. But what that euphemism really means is "this is expensive and hard to do well, so we are going to make it the city's problem.”
— George Affleck, The Vancouver Sun, 8 Jul. 2023

Definition:

a division into two mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or things

Words It Might Replace:

split, division, contrast

Example:

While Nigeria was under British rule before independence, the British had already created a dichotomy, which introduced religion and ethnicity in the formative years of the country we called Nigeria today.
— The Sun (Lagos, NG), 7 Jul. 2023

Definition:

a statement that doesn't logically follow from or is not clearly related to anything said before it (literally, 'it does not follow' in Latin)

Words It Might Replace:

nonsense, stumper, "huh?"

Example:

Sitting across from me at a small round table, glass in one hand and phone in the other, she is a force of personality – charming, chatty, a whirlwind of laughter and hustle – so I don’t mind when it becomes clear that we’re only going to get through about five of my questions in the time she has. Or when she’s straining so hard not to answer directly that she runs us both around a loop of half-thoughts and non sequiturs until I agree that, yes, yes I do know what she means.
— Nosheen Iqbal, The Guardian (London, Eng.), 3 Jul. 2023

Definition:

a moment in which a person suddenly sees or understands something in a new or very clear way

Words It Might Replace:

realization, insight, breakthrough

Example:

It was an invaluable lesson about how the planets don't revolve around them and their whims. And it was a lesson we're all learning every day as we strive to find better ways to appreciate our blessings and look out for each other like it's our full time job. I had one of those epiphanies when we attended the funeral of my husband's 94-year-old grandfather.
— The Daily News Journal (Mufreesboro, TN), 9 Jul. 2023