The Best Words: More than 200 of the Most Excellent, Most Desirable, Most Suitable, Most Satisfying Words

The point of learning new words is not to impress your friends or to seem more intelligent than they. The point is to see more, to understand more. An ever-increasing vocabulary uncovers connections, introduces spheres, and -- in reminding us that there are words for all thoughts, all feelings, all behaviors, all things -- upholds all humankind. Since the average English speaker has a vocabulary of 10,000 to 20,000 words, and uses far fewer than that, learning these best words may be a very good use of your time -- better, certainly, than reading about the mind-numbing tedium of your friends' daily lives on Facebook or Twitter. -- From the Introduction Nominated by Vocabula Review readers and selected by the author, The Best Words includes choice expressions useful for everyday speaking and writing. Concluding with 150 challenging quiz questions to test comprehension, this collection also features sidebars with further explanation, derivations, and literary asides, making it ideal for students, writers, grammarians, and word lovers alike.