How and where to use 500 of the words that make you sound more cultured, worldly, and downright smart.
Whoever said sounding smart had to be painful? It's all in how you acquire the "ten-dollar words" of English. Smart Words makes fast and smooth learning of words such as prelapsarian, sedulous, sybaritic and draconian. How? By sticking to ultra-simple definitions, then offering a memorable--and often funny--description of when or why to use the word. A sample sentence shows you how. And the phonetics are a snap.
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How to sound like you're from here, no matter where you are in America
"Simultaneously full of witty asides and linguistic erudition, Wicked Good Words is one of those rare books that you will read too fast and will find yourself wishing you could read for the first time all over again."
-Ammon Shea, author of Reading the OED
"As someone who grew up in the land of wicked pissa Sox games, what a delight it was to read about alligator pears, sundogs, piggling, sad cakes, doodinkus, jacklegs, and so many other American regionalisms."
-David...