Somehow

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As a French major, I can really appreciate some words and constructions in English that don’t necessarily exist elsewhere. “Somehow” means in one manner or another or by one method or another. But it also means determination. It means hope. It means a resolution to pursue all possibilities until the goal is attained.

Josh

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Smitten

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My favorite word is smitten. I love the way it sounds and that it rhymes with mitten. It sends delicious shivers down my spine, similar to how I felt when Robin Ventura hit his grand slam single against the Braves in the NLCS in 1999.

E. E. Grimshaw

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Diatribe

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I could just go on and on about this word.

Chuck Boulais

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Galoshes

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My favorite word is “galoshes.” It sounds so noble, and rolls off the tongue in an almost exotic way. Especially the “oshes” part. It also evokes rainy days, when, as children, we look forward to slipping on our galoshes, which gave us the freedom and protection to walk anywhere.

Dan, Arkansas, USA

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Entice

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As a child, I read this word in a block of copy on the side of my favorite cookie (the Pepperidge Farms Milano). I think the phrase was something like “The nice vice that entices.” Say it out loud — Entice — and note how one’s teeth come together, lips apart, hissing, at the the end. The facial expression is enticement itself!

Stacy, San Francisco

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Laeotropic

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It means “leftward-turning,” and is usually used to describe shells and things pertaining to marine life, biology, and so on. Like anti-clockwise things, it’s a word given because it’s denoting a rarer state, but without defining it as ‘not [the usual state.]’ It evokes stairwells under the ocean made of coral or calcium carbonate, and scientists and collectors in the Victorian era. Being left-handed it appeals personally to me enough that I used it in the title of my webpages.

Jen

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Defined by the OED as the state or act of being overly nitpicky. I was told by my high school English teacher that the longest (excluding technical terms like chemical names and such) word in the English language is “antidisestablishmentarianism,” which is 28 characters long. The large word meaning “overly nitpicky” beats it out by 1 character.

Randy

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Spackle

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Just say it … let it roll out of your mouth like it wants to. Spackle. Spackle… SssssssPACKle! It’s such a powerful sounding word.

Jeremy Fuksa

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Pedantic

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I like the word because it is what it means. If you’re using the word pedantic then most likely you are being pedantic. I have often been called pedantic, and I wear it like a badge of honor.

Richard

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Orthogonal

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Orthogonal (link) — “At right angles. The term is used to describe electronic signals that appear at 90 degree angles to each other. It is also widely used to describe conditions that are contradictory, or opposite, rather than in parallel or in sync with each other.”

Why? I love the way it sounds, the way it rolls off my tongue. It also has a great sound of authority and knowledge — you don’t pull that one out unless you really, really mean what you’re saying. I use it occasionally in conversation for the “contradictory” definition, to my own thrill, usually accompanied by a single raised eyebrow.

Bunk Trudy

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