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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...
Question
word-choice
#3: Attribution notice added
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
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.