- Smart sounding nouns, verbs and adjectives to enhance your writing - eekim via Flickr
A list of nouns, verbs and adjectives that will strengthen your writing and will make you sound smart in any setting, without sounding overbearing.
The American Heritage Dictionaries editorial staff has compiled a list of 100 words they believe make writers and speakers sound intelligent without being pompous or resorting to obscure terminology.
I came across this book while searching for lists of the most beautiful words in the English language, and subsequently became interested in why some words made the cut and others didn't, given that the choices must be somewhat subjective.
Below is a selection of words that aren't in the 100 Words list but that are often found in strong academic writing, along with synonyms or brief definitions. If you have any favourite "smart" words you'd like to add to the list, please feel free to post them in the comments.
Smart Nouns
- Consternation – dismay, disquiet, concern
- Conundrum – puzzle, riddle, mystery, challenge, problem
- Credulity – gullibility, naivety
- Diatribe – tirade, invective, harangue, rant
- Foreboding – apprehension, premonition
- Hubris – exaggerated self-confidence, excessive pride
- Hybrid – cross, mixture
- Implication – insinuation, inference, suggestion
- Lassitude – tiredness, fatigue, lethargy, inertia, apathy
- Mnemonic – memory aid (i.e., rhyme or formula)
- Paradigm – theoretical or philosophical framework
- Paragon – model, ideal, epitome
- Pastiche – an artistic, architectural, or literary work that imitates or is comprised of a hodgepodge of selections from prior works
- Panegyric – speech offering elaborate or formal praise
- Pathos – sorrow, grief, pity, suffering, tragedy, misery
- Paucity – scarcity, lack, rarity, dearth
- Phalanx – an arranged group of things, animals, or people; a digital bone in the foot or hand
- Pique – temper, resentment, annoyance, anger
- Plasticity – flexibility, agility, smoothness, grace
- Predilection – fondness, partiality, preference, penchant
- Privation – hardship, deprivation, adversity, poverty
- Proclivity – liking, appetite, inclination
- Propensity – tendency, inclination, predisposition, predilection
- Ramification – consequence, result, implication, effect
- Stratagem – trick, ruse, ploy, scheme
- Surfeit – excess, surplus, glut
- Temerity – nerve, audacity, gall
- Umbrage – offense, resentment, indignation
- Xenophobia – hatred, fear of, and/or prejudice against strangers or foreigners
Smart Verbs
- Atrophy – waste away, wither, weaken, shrivel, degenerate
- Construe – interpret, take to mean
- Galvanize – spur, stimulate, rouse, electrify, incite
- Impel – push, force, drive, compel, urge, force, coerce
- Palliate – ease symptoms without curing a disease; moderate the intensity of something; make apologies or excuses in order to hide the magnitude of something
- Postulate – assume, hypothesize, suggest, propose
- Proliferate – propagate, multiply, reproduce, breed, grow, flourish, increase
- Recapitulate – summarize, recap
- Ruminate – ponder, reflect
- Stultify – impair, invalidate, have a dulling effect on
- Transpose – swap, reverse, switch, invert
- Vacillate – waver, hesitate, be indecisive, fluctuate
Smart Adjectives
- Aberrant – abnormal, deviant, anomalous, irregular, atypical
- Amicable – friendly, harmonious, cordial, agreeable
- Asinine – silly, stupid, foolish, idiotic
- Astute – shrewd, smart, perceptive, judicious, incisive, wise
- Audacious – daring, bold, overconfident, impudent
- Belligerent – aggressive, argumentative, quarrelsome
- Boisterous – energetic, animated, lively, rowdy
- Cantankerous – bad-tempered, irritable, crabby, argumentative, difficult
- Capacious – large, voluminous, roomy
- Circuitous – roundabout, indirect, meandering, winding
- Culpable – guilty, to blame, responsible, liable
- Dogmatic – rigid, inflexible, narrow-minded, authoritarian
- Dour – sour, stern, grim, severe, harsh, unfriendly
- Eclectic – diverse, assorted, miscellaneous
- Fallacious – untrue, misleading, erroneous, wrong
- Florid – elaborately decorated; ruddy
- Fractious – irritable, peevish
- Frenetic – frantic, hectic, frenzied
- Garrulous – talkative (to an annoying level)
- Gauche – awkward, tactless, graceless, crude
- Guileless – honest, straightforward, open, innocent, naive
- Ignoble – dishonourable, shameful
- Inane – silly, ridiculous, idiotic, frivolous
- Innocuous – inoffensive, harmless, innocent, safe, bland
- Insipid – dull, bland, wishy-washy, trite
- Inviolable – unbreakable, sacred, unassailable
- Irresolute – indecisive, vacillating, unsure
- Lackadaisical – apathetic, careless, lazy, relaxed, laissez-faire, casual, lax, easy-going
- Loquacious – talkative
- Malleable – impressionable, acquiescent, flexible, pliable
- Nascent – budding, promising, emerging
- Nonchalant – casual, offhand, laid back, blasé
- Obdurate – obstinate, stubborn, inflexible, unyielding, immovable
- Oblique – slanted, sloping, at an angle, leaning
- Odious – horrible, loathsome, revolting, detestable, repulsive, obnoxious
- Omnipresent – ubiquitous, all-pervading, universal
- Overweening – arrogant, pompous, haughty, presumptuous, conceited
- Parochial – narrow-minded, close-minded, provincial, insular, hidebound
- Pejorative – derogatory, negative, depreciatory
- Peripheral – tangential, marginal, nonessential, side-line
- Pernicious – destructive, harmful, evil, insidious, spiteful, malicious
- Pithy – terse, to the point, concise, succinct
- Pivotal – essential, crucial, key, critical, central
- Plausible – reasonable, believable, credible, conceivable
- Poignant – moving, touching, emotional, sad, tender
- Preternatural – extraordinary (often used in relation to psychic or supernatural phenomenon)
- Prodigious – extraordinary, exceptional, phenomenal, impressive
- Profane – blasphemous, disrespectful, sacrilegious
- Profligate – extravagant, wasteful
- Prophetic – visionary, predictive
- Prosaic – mundane, banal, dull, ordinary
- Pungent – strong smelling, acrid
- Raucous – harsh, rough, strident, grating; wild, boisterous, disorderly, riotous, unruly, noisy
- Rudimentary – basic, simple, elementary, undeveloped
- Sacrosanct – sacred, holy, untouchable
- Salient – most important, significant, relevant
- Slipshod – careless, slapdash, shoddy, sloppy
- Solicitous – considerate, attentive, concerned, caring
- Specious – false, erroneous, baseless, inaccurate, unfounded, misleading
- Surreptitious – furtive, secret, sneaky, covert
- Tangential – peripheral, divergent
- Tantamount – equivalent, the same as, synonymous, identical, indistinguishable
- Tenacious – persistent, stubborn, resolute, dogged, determined, steadfast
- Unilateral – one-sided, independent
- Vacuous – empty-headed, stupid, inane
- Variegated – multicoloured
- Virulent – venomous, bitter, vituperative, spiteful; dangerous, potent, strong
- Vituperative – insulting, abusive, malicious, slanderous, scathing
- Vociferous – loudly vocal, raucous, strident
- Voracious – insatiable, ravenous
Copyright Jennifer Copley. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
Jennifer Copley - Jennifer Copley, BFA, BEd, has a diverse base of expertise that includes research, writing, education, pet care, and various other ...
Comments