Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A What is an alternative for "the size of a pack of cigarettes"? [closed]

Often when trying to give a reader an approximate size for something that fits in your hand that they can visualize and quickly understand, a writer might describe it as "about the size of a pack o...

1 answer  ·  posted 9y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question word-choice
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:41:28Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/19292
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:41:28Z (almost 5 years ago)
Often when trying to give a reader an approximate size for something that fits in your hand that they can visualize and quickly understand, a writer might describe it as "about the size of a pack of cigarettes".

Unfortunately, many people today have a good deal of emotions attached to cigarettes and tobacco products. It is a charged word, so its use in descriptive writing may detract from the work's objective.

So what is an alternative for this old colloquialism that would be just as quickly understood? I first thought cell phone, but today's phones are quickly getting flatter and broader, while cigarette packs are closer to the cell phones of 15 years ago.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-10-11T22:37:05Z (about 9 years ago)
Original score: 0