100 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language

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I found this list from a suggestion by StumbleUpon.  The spotter was a fellow named Shonara, and his source is credited at the end.

It’s a lovely list.  Got any favorite words you’d like to add?

Ailurophile A cat-lover.
 
Assemblage A gathering.
 
Becoming Attractive.
 
Beleaguer To exhaust with attacks.
 
Brood To think alone.
 
Bucolic In a lovely rural setting.
 
Bungalow A small, cozy cottage.
 
Chatoyant Like a cat’s eye.
 
Comely Attractive.
 
Conflate To blend together.
 
Cynosure A focal point of admiration.
 
Dalliance A brief love affair.
 
Demesne Dominion, territory.
 
Demure Shy and reserved.
 
Denouement The resolution of a mystery.
 
Desuetude Disuse.
 
Desultory Slow, sluggish.
 
Diaphanous Filmy.
 
Dissemble Deceive.
 
Dulcet Sweet, sugary.
 
Ebullience Bubbling enthusiasm.
 
Effervescent Bubbly.
 
Efflorescence Flowering, blooming.
 
Elision Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.
 
Elixir A good potion.
 
Eloquence Beauty and persuasion in speech.
 
Embrocation Rubbing on a lotion.
 
Emollient A softener.
 
Ephemeral Short-lived.
 
Epiphany A sudden revelation.
 
Erstwhile At one time, for a time.
 
Ethereal Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
 
Evanescent Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
 
Evocative Suggestive.
 
Fetching Pretty.
 
Felicity Pleasantness.
 
Forbearance Withholding response to provocation.
 
Fugacious Fleeting.
 
Furtive Shifty, sneaky.
 
Gambol To skip or leap about joyfully.
 
Glamour Beauty.
 
Gossamer The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.
 
Halcyon Happy, sunny, care-free.
 
Harbinger Messenger with news of the future.
 
Imbrication Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.
 
Imbroglio An altercation or complicated situation.
 
Imbue To infuse, instill.
 
Incipient Beginning, in an early stage.
 
Ineffable Unutterable, inexpressible.
 
Ingénue A naïve young woman.
 
Inglenook A cozy nook by the hearth.
 
Insouciance Blithe nonchalance.
 
Inure To become jaded.
 
Labyrinthine Twisting and turning.
 
Lagniappe A special kind of gift.
 
Lagoon A small gulf or inlet.
 
Languor Listlessness, inactivity.
 
Lassitude Weariness, listlessness.
 
Leisure Free time.
 
Lilt To move musically or lively.
 
Lissome Slender and graceful.
 
Lithe Slender and flexible.
 
Love Deep affection.
 
Mellifluous Sweet sounding.
 
Moiety One of two equal parts.

Mondegreen A slip of the ear.
 
Murmurous Murmuring.
 
Nemesis An unconquerable archenemy.
 
Offing The sea between the horizon and the offshore.
 
Onomatopoeia A word that sounds like its meaning.
 
Opulent Lush, luxuriant.
 
Palimpsest A manuscript written over earlier ones.
 
Panacea A solution for all problems

Panoply A complete set.
 
Pastiche An art work combining materials from various sources.
 
Penumbra A half-shadow.
 
Petrichor The smell of earth after rain.
 
Plethora A large quantity.
 
Propinquity Proximity; Nearness
 
Pyrrhic Successful with heavy losses.
 
Quintessential Most essential.
 
Ratatouille A spicy French stew.
 
Ravel To knit or unknit.
 
Redolent Fragrant.

Riparian By the bank of a stream.
 
Ripple A very small wave.
 
Scintilla A spark or very small thing.
 
Sempiternal Eternal.
 
Seraglio Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.
 
Serendipity Finding something nice while looking for something else.
 
Summery Light, delicate or warm and sunny.
 
Sumptuous Lush, luxurious.
 
Surreptitious Secretive, sneaky.
 
Susquehanna A river in Pennsylvania.
 
Susurrous Whispering, hissing.
 
Talisman A good luck charm.
 
Tintinnabulation Tinkling.
 
Umbrella Protection from sun or rain.
 
Untoward Unseemly, inappropriate.
 
Vestigial In trace amounts.
 
Wafture Waving.
 
Wherewithal The means.
 
Woebegone Sorrowful, downcast.
 
 
 
Source: So Much To Tell You

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• Weekend Assignment: 100 Beautiful Words (barbaratyler.wordpress.com)

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Mutilated, Misplaced and Missing Modifiers…Unattached Pronouns and Distanced Antecedents…Dirty Dangling Participles…and Other Messy Mouthfuls.

Welcome back to Raya’s Dungeon.  Today we are visiting Chamber 3:  MUTILATED, MISPLACED AND MISSING MODIFIERS…UNATTACHED PRONOUNS AND DISTANCED ANTECEDENTS…DIRTY DANGLING PARTICIPLES…AND OTHER MESSY MOUTHFULS.  We’ll have four visits altogether.  If you are stout of heart and not squeamish at the sight of a writer’s life’s blood, after a brief introduction, we will be visiting *gasp* Mutilated, Misplaced and Missing Modifiers.

By popular request, Raya’s Dungeon is featuring a selection of side-splitting and highly inaccurate offerings to illustrate what exactly a misplaced modifier, unattached pronoun, and a dangling participle are.

 

 

 

Man trying to communicate

Before we dive into our mirthful mayhem, let’s take a look at what writing is supposed to do. Anyone? Anyone know what writing is supposed to do? hmmmmm…yes, entertain, that’s a good one. Yup, inform. But what is the basic thing that writing needs to achieve. YES!!! oh yes!! *pumps fist in the air* COMMUNICATE…the more clearly the better. If we don’t communicate, we don’t…really, we don’t exist. We can do all we want but where is the satisfaction unless we communicate? Humans are social creatures and, without communication, our existence is solitary and to some extent unfulfilling.

And we writers…we are the communicators. So let’s all repeat the Hippocratic oath of writing…I promise to excise dirty dangling participles, to exterminate uncoordinated clauses and massacre misplaced modifiers. Good!!! Now on to finding out what these miscreants are.

Mutilated, Misplaced and Missing Modifiers

A modifier is anything that gives some details about something else. I won’t go into whether it is adjectival or adverbial or even noun phrase modifiers, because I can hear the bodies hitting the floor as I even mention them. Instead, let’s resort to hormones…good old standbys:

Modifiers are like teenagers: they fall in love with whatever they’re next to. It’s up to you to make sure these modifiers are placed next to something they ought to modify!

Put another way, make the meaning clear, so that your readers don’t fall out of their chairs laughing, especially when you didn’t MEAN to be funny.

Here are some examples of what we’re talking about. Study each sentence in red for a minute, try to figure out WHY it’s funny, and see if you can come up with a better sentence than I have in small print beneath the original. These hilarious offerings are more common than you think; actually, mending mutilated modifiers could become a life-long hobby.  By the way, ALL the examples are advertisements or signs taken from real life…

A superb and inexpensive restaurant. Fine food expertly served by waitresses in appetizing forms. (So don’t drool on the waitresses.)

A superb and inexpensive restaurant. Fine food in appetizing forms, expertly served by our waitresses. (Okay, I got a little creative here, but the meaning is much clearer now, albeit not quite so funny.)

For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers. 
(How rude!)

For sale: an antique desk with thick legs and large drawers, suitable for lady.

Wanted. Man to take care of cow that does not smoke or drink. (Good lord, what are the other cows like?)

Wanted. Man who does not smoke or drink, to take care of cow.

Have several very old dresses from grandmother in beautiful condition. (Way to go, granny!)

Have several very old dresses in beautiful condition from grandmother.

Mixing bowl set designed to please a cook with round bottom for efficient beating. (Nothing like beating those round-bottomed cooks!)

Mixing bowl set designed with round bottom for efficient beating to please a cook.

3-year-old teacher need for pre-school. Experience preferred. (Is it just me or are teachers getting younger and younger?)

Pre-school teacher needed for 3-year-olds. Experience preferred.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community. (Don’t go away mad, k?)

Remember in prayer the many of our church and community who are sick.

On a New York convalescent home: “For the sick and tired of the Episcopal Church.” (They have homes for this?)

On a New York convalescent home: “For Episcopal Church parishioners who are tired and sick.” (This one is tricky…I would actually rewrite this whole thing, but I suspect they wanted to conserve space).

 

 

Dancing Bones

Notice sent to residents of a Wiltshire parish: DUE TO INCREASING PROBLEMS WITH LETTER LOUTS AND VANDALS WE MUST ASK ANYONE WITH RELATIVES BURIED IN THE GRAVEYARD TO DO THEIR BEST TO KEEP THEM IN ORDER

 

 

 

. (Nothing worse than hootenannies in the graveyard — and what the heck is a letter lout??)

Notice sent to residents of a Wiltshire parish: DUE TO INCREASING PROBLEMS WITH LETTER LOUTS AND VANDALS, WE MUST ASK ANYONE WITH RELATIVES BURIED IN THE GRAVEYARD TO DO THEIR BEST TO KEEP THE GRAVE PLOTS IN ORDER.

 I bet you get the idea by now. All of the above examples were misplaced modifiers.

 

* Lonely Hearts Club for Unattached Pronouns (aka “Distanced Antecedents) – Part 2 to follow tomorrow.
* Missing or Mutilated Modifiers – Part 3.
* Dirty Dangling Participles – Part 4.

Thanks for reading.  If you like these articles, please vote.  To support the ongoing effort, your subscription would be very helpful (see top right of page below calendar).

The Terrible Cries of the Traumatized Comma

WELCOME TO RAYA’S DUNGEON – CHAMBER 02

The Terrible Cries of the Traumatized Comma

Welcome to Raya's Dungeon - enter if you dare muahahahahaha

THE TRAUMATIZED COMMA – Part I The traumatized comma Probably the MOST maligned punctuation mark in the history of the English language, the comma has been abused, misused, kicked, neglected, and otherwise dealt terrible damage to. And yet it is not a mob [game talk for the enemy in battle], but a veritable fount of helpfulness and aid to breath-saving. Yes, breath-saving. Without commas, we would have to talk non-stop, racing until we reach the period before we can take a breath. And yet, the comma is the hardest working punctuation mark YOU’ll ever see. I’m not going to go into all the uses of the comma right now because there are too many of them. However, I’ll take a few so that you can start today to save the comma from all this abuse. Series No, I am not talking about the next exciting adventure of the Sopranos on TV nor your electrical wiring setup. I’m talking about words and using them in series. Always use commas to separate a list of things in a sentence, such as: I love to eat hot dogs, corn bread, and liver and onions. In the above example, the comma sets off the items in the list. In modern usage, the comma before the first “and” is optional. You could have written…“corn bread and liver and onions.” However, in this instance, it makes the meaning clearer to have the comma before the “and.” This example also illustrates when you do NOT put a comma before the second “and” –i.e. this second “and” (which, by the way is called a conjunction because its only purpose in life is to join words)–when the item referred to is a unit, i.e. liver and onions is a unit. You can also have a series of phrases, and even full-fledged sentences, which, again, are separated by commas to keep the meaning clear. (Note: In some cases, you get the shy semi-colon (;) which can be used to keep the phrases or sentences separated–however, the semi-colon is not as hard-working as the comma, so we will deal with this miscreant at arm’s length–and mercilessly–in another chamber.)  My favorite pastimes are playing MMORPGs, walking in the park, and rollerblading with my friends.  Once you get the hang of punctuation, you can use commas like a pro, you can create masterpieces of sizzling dialogue, and you can dazzle your readers with your unique style.  Okay, how about a series of adjectives that modify the same noun?  The rule is…if you can replace the comma with an “and,” then you put in a comma, eg: The sly and evil rogue backstabbed his way to success. This is therefore eligible for commatization (made-up word alert!), thusly: The sly, evil rogue backstabbed his way to success. If, however, you can’t replace a supposed comma with “and,” then you leave the comma out, eg: The cloak cost 50 gold pieces at the tavern. You cannot insert “and” between “50” and “gold.” Therefore, no comma. After thinking of ALL the uses of the comma, I decided not to go any further here, because I can already hear the bodies hitting the floor as they drop from boredom. However, the comma is probably the most important punctuation mark (perhaps excepting only the period) in the English language. Super Comma getting ready to work her magic powers. Therefore, for homework (no no no, I musn’t use that term)…um…for a special excursion into the wonderful world of the superhero COMMA (not to be confused with COMA), please run through the above list of very helpful hints on when to use the comma. Don’t let the names of the word parts bother you any more than you let the names of the different ways to slay your enemies in your favorite MMO bother you. I’m sure you recognize the result, if not the names they are called…remember them. They just may save your dying prose some day.

If you have any questions about commas, please don’t suffer in silence…put them in a comment below or email me at raya at fantasyfic dot com.

Welcome to Raya’s Dungeon

When I was just starting out as the editor for a gaming news website, I discovered that the young writers were enthusiastic, knew the games inside out, and were great players themselves.  I also discovered that they and the English language were minimally on speaking terms.  Article after article became my personal penance as I corrected the same misconceptions over and over.  I wracked my brains trying to come up with a “nice” way to tell them they needed to actually read my notes when they got my redraft, but they never did.  Then it dawned on me – these were young guys, passionate about playing games, enamored of Middle Ages fantasies, and not interested in much of anything outside of that.  So I invented “Raya’s Dungeon.”  (Raya is my online name.)  To my surprise, the guys loved it, and it even seemed to work to a certain extent.  I thought you might get a laugh out of it.  Following is the introductory page of the site.  In the next few days, I will bring you the rooms of the dungeon 🙂

 

Welcome to Raya’s Dungeon

Don’t be fooled by outward appearances. This is not your usual glimpse into the convolutions of the English language. This is, as the name implies, a dungeon. And Raya is the cruel dungeon mistress. If you enter these depths, you will be stretched on the rack of nouns and adverbs, pierced by the darts of exclamation marks and *shudder* commas. You will be impaled upon the prongs of teasers and *gasp* voice. You will be tortured by allusions to redundancy and possession…yes, possession. I have warned you. Enter these halls at your own peril. If you survive, you may emerge, pale and shaken (by laughter), possessed by a new knowledge that might, just might, limber your tongue and jumpstart your pen.

The chambers of the dungeon

	Chamber 01 – Raya’s Pleasure Palace of Perfect Punctuation
	Chamber 02 – Raya’s Terrible Cauldron of Traumatized Commas
	Chamber 03 – Mutilating Modifers and Damaging Dirty Dangling Participles
	Chamber 04 – Being Beheaded on the Writer’s Block

If you have any questions on any of the foregoing, please write me at raya@fantasyfic.com