Notes on words
Ideas, histories, and practical ways to make a richer vocabulary last.
Why building your vocabulary is still worth it
The case for deliberately growing your vocabulary as an adult: sharper thinking, deeper reading, and the quiet confidence of the right word.
Read the essay →Seven words with stories you won't forget
Seven English words whose origin stories are better than fiction, from dilettante to demagogue.
Ten words that make people ask “wait, what does that mean?”
Ten conversation-stopping words with real definitions and pronunciation, including limerence, sprezzatura, and apricity.
Ten SAT-grade words that actually show up in real life
SAT vocabulary that keeps paying off long after the test: laconic, obfuscate, tenacious, candor, and six more.
How to actually remember new words
Why cramming fails, what spaced repetition actually is, and how ambient learning makes vocabulary stick.
Word families: six Latin roots hiding in plain sight
Learn one Latin root and a whole family of English words comes with it. Six families, starting with aequus and clemens.
Words for feelings you could never quite name
Precise words for the moods everyone has and almost nobody can label, from acedia to schadenfreude.
Seven words English borrowed and never gave back
Loanwords that earned permanent residency in English, from ennui and sangfroid to chiaroscuro and schadenfreude.
How many words do you actually know?
Passive versus active vocabulary, what the research says about counting words, and how much one new word a day really compounds.
Say it better: eight precise upgrades for tired words
Trade talkative, quiet, smart, and gloomy for garrulous, taciturn, astute, and lugubrious — precision upgrades for everyday words.