Once upon a time I enjoyed flipping through a dictionary to discover new words and their meanings, but when I was told writing was not a real job, I stopped. After all, I trusted those people because they were in more authoritative jobs and made more money than I made. But putting our life choices in someone else’s hands robs us of the life we are meant to have and no one pays a higher price than we do.
Back on my own path now, I’m diving back into word exploration with a dictionary and a thesaurus because I realized my language had become lazy and nondescript, which is not a good thing for a writer or even for someone who wants other people to better understand what they are saying or writing.
Listening to the non-defining and/or approval words coming out of my mouth or sliding off my fingers onto the keyboard, I am aghast realizing how much I’ve succumbed. And knowing change happens only with conscious effort, one of the first words I want to eliminate from my vocabulary is “awesome.” Making the task easier is discovering a long list of alternative words to choose:
Formal Adjectives:
Alarming
Amazing
Awe-Inspiring
Beautiful
Breathtaking
Daunting
Dreadful
Exalted
Fearsome
Formidable
Frantic
Frightening
Grand
Horrifying
Imposing
Impressive
Intimidating
Magnificent
Majestic
Moving
Overwhelming
Striking
Stunning
Stupefying
Stupendous
Terrifying
Unforgettable
Wonderful
Non-formal adjectives:
Clean outta sight
Far-out
Mind-blowing
From the Fitzhenry & Whiteside Canadian Thesaurus, Revised & Updated 2010
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Shared by
KAITLIN ANN TREPANIER
Advocate Innovator Writer Social Entrepreneur & Founder
Connecting The Dots With The Respect Principle
Smashwords interview @ www.smashwords.com
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June 2, 2019
Revised June, 6 2019