DailyWritingTips

Top 10 Websites for Book Lovers

There is something magical about reading books. Whether you like fiction or non-fiction, fantasy or sci-fi, there are many books out there. Still, it isn’t always easy to make a trip to the bookstore or library to find that specific book that you are looking for. If you find yourself itching for a new read, … Read more

5 Examples of Repetition and Redundancy

In each of the following sentences, repetition of words or phrases or redundant use of similar terms is easily eliminated, as described in the explanations and shown in the revisions that follow each example. 1. This procedure is called an assay. An assay determines the purity of a precious metal. The repetition in this sentence … Read more

Tradition and Treason

Curiously, a word referring to the handing down of beliefs and customs and one pertaining to a breakdown in fidelity to a political system, which is based on beliefs and customs, though they are not antonyms, have a common etymology. This post discusses these words and several others with the same ancestor. The words listed … Read more

Zero and Its Synonyms

The word zero has a small but distinctive set of synonyms, which are listed in this post. Zero is the word for the symbol 0, representing the absence of magnitude or quantity and the value between positive and negative numbers. The word also represents the lowest point or the starting point for measurement or, as … Read more

Take a Stand for Language Standards

English usage is always evolving, but the rate of evolution seems to accelerate all the time, and careful observers will note in a wide variety of content pervasive examples of the relaxation of standards for written English. This post discusses several categories in which it appears that even professional writers often seem unaware of basic … Read more

Visions and Visits

Vision and visit both pertain to seeing something, and that’s no coincidence, because they are cognates, both stemming from the Latin verb videre, meaning “see.” A discussion of the words, their variations, and some related terms follows. The word vision describes the literal ability to see and the figurative sense of something conjured by the … Read more

Vocabulary Quiz #10: Commonly Confused Words

In each sentence, choose the correct word from the pair of similar terms. (If both words possibly can be correct, choose the more plausible one.) 1. The roll-top desk was made by an exceptionally skilled ________. a) artist b) artisan 2. Drink, drank, (have) drunk are the ________ parts of the verb “to drink.” a) … Read more

Political Terms Dominate New Dictionary Entries

Dictionary.com’s newest set of entries to its lexicon, and some revised definitions for existing terms, reflect the politically themed discourse that has dominated the media over the past year. This post shares and defines some of those terms. Alt-right, discussed in this DailyWritingTips.com post, is not new to Dictionary.com, but its definition has been extended … Read more

How to Treat Complex Phrasal Adjectives

Numerous DailyWritingTips.com posts have addressed hyphenation of phrasal adjectives such as “long range” when they precede a noun, as in “long-range missile.” But what about when the phrasal adjective includes more than two words? As this post explains, it depends on the interrelationships of those words. The simplest multiword phrasal adjective to construct is one … Read more

The Proud and the Prudish

This post discusses two words that because of their disparate meanings are not easily recognized as cognates, as well as a couple of others that are, as a result of disguised spelling, perhaps equally unlikely to be associated. The words detailed here derive ultimately from the Latin verb prodesse, meaning “useful,” by way of prode … Read more

55 “House” Idioms

The integral nature and the ubiquity of houses in our culture has given rise to a number of idiomatic expressions that include the word house. This post lists such terms. 1. A house divided against itself cannot stand: A statement from a speech by Abraham Lincoln based on biblical scripture and alluding to the impending … Read more