Please don’t actually burn your thesaurus! Just put it to the side or close the online thesaurus tab whilst we have a little think together over the use of ‘better’ words. It’s a problem that writers can easily fall into, especially younger or beginner writers, and can annoy a reader whilst weakening your writing.
‘Better’ words, you ask, what ever could I be on about! A good observation, when I say ‘better’ words I’m talking about the words that you’d find listed as an alternative in a thesaurus, they’re sometimes longer (though not always) and less used in an everyday situation. Lower frequency words is the term you’d use if you were writing an essay on them. Some examples would be obliterated for destroyed, hyperborean for cold or deliquescent for liquid. They’re all great words, so what’s the problem?
Using these words excessively can make it seem like you’re trying too hard. It just doesn’t sound natural and can obscure the meanings that you’re trying to convey, there’s also the risk that you might use the new word incorrectly. All of these negatively affect your writing.
Firstly, I’m not telling anybody off with this, it would be incredibly hypocritical of me (I would constantly use the synonyms Word suggested in the past). There comes a time in most writer’s lives and development that they stumble upon a thesaurus and it vastly expands the arsenal of words at their disposal, which is great! Instead, this is intended to be a bit of advice to help avoid the two common problems that occur when you get so many interesting words to play with. Overuse and incorrect usage.
Overuse
This is something that you’ll often pick up on if you read over your work, but, if it’s paired with misuse, it can make it difficult to decipher what you meant to say. As it says on the tin, overuse is when you use an excess amount of lower frequency words which can make your sentences difficult to follow. Often your meaning can get lost within the words as well. As a reader, this can be off putting, you don’t want to have to keep referring to a dictionary throughout the story, it breaks the immersion and leaves you frustrated. As a result, they may give up on reading your story.
To demonstrate this problem, here is an example of the same sentence, the first was created using lower frequency words suggested in a thesaurus, the second with more common words:
- It is permissible to enhance through the application of transparent lexicon the manifestation of an unequivocal denotation.
- It may be better to use simple words to create a clear meaning
Hopefully, you’ll agree that for this scenario sentence 2 is the better version, it clearly conveys my idea in a way that is also more concise (the sentence is half the length of the first). Consider your own characters or situations, would your character talk to their friends in the style of sentence 1? Would they ever talk like that? As always, it’s important to keep the context and the character voice in mind whilst writing, as well as whether or not your writing and meanings are understandable.
There are instances where overuse may be acceptable, which I discuss later, but most times it is best to use lower frequency words sparingly. This adds emphasis to those words, helping you to highlight ideas or situations, whilst preventing your writing from becoming overly complicated.
Misuse
Out of the two problems, this one is worse. Often with lower frequency words, their definitions are very, very specific and we may not be fully aware of this. A thesaurus doesn’t normally highlight this fact either, as word definitions are the purpose of a dictionary.
In the examples I gave earlier, deliquescent is a perfect instance of this. When I searched ‘liquid’ on Thesaurus.com, deliquescent was a listed synonym. I have honestly not seen this word before today and there’s a reason for this, it is highly specific. When I looked up the definition of deliquescent it is “becoming liquid or the tendency to become a liquid“, so it more often refers to a solid that turns into a liquid. It’s also a scientific term, referring to a solid absorbing air moisture and dissolving in it (so what some dehumidifiers use to reduce air moisture). If I described water as deliquescent, then I’d technically be incorrect.
Now most readers won’t pick up on this example that I’ve used, but this can happen with any lower frequency word you may select at random from a suggestion list. It will break your story’s immersion and the reader may walk away. Always check the definition of the words you use! It’s better safe than sorry and you will learn something new as well, so you only gain from this!
With anything in writing, this is not a definitive rule, there are none for that matter. You may be writing an experimental piece that is purposefully trying to confuse the reader, or you might have a character who uses pretentious language. That’s wonderful! For the second situation, do use it sparingly, as it could still turn readers away.
Equally, do not be scared to use a thesaurus, it is a wonderful tool that has helped me greatly. If you are trying to expand your vocabulary, in fact it was how I expanded my own, make sure you look up the definitions to ensure you know how to use them! As I said, it is all dependent on circumstances. The main idea is to consider the reader and your intention; is the meaning clear? Does the ‘better’ word add something else to the sentence or scene, such as an association, alliteration or other effect with sounds, etc? Balance is key, which requires some trial and error but over time you will begin to pick up a feel for it!
I hope that this look into using lower frequency words was useful, do play around with new words, but make sure to consider when and where to use them within your stories.
What is your favourite lower frequency word? Mine is discombobulated, it’s just so much fun word to say!
-S
2 Pen 