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Q&A How find an appropriate vocabulary

Write for your audience plus a little. If you're writing a book for five-year-olds, you don't want to use "sesquipedalian," but there's nothing wrong with "lengthy." Part of how we expand our voc...

posted 8y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:36Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23267
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:19:11Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23267
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T05:19:11Z (almost 5 years ago)
Write for your audience plus a little.

If you're writing a book for five-year-olds, you don't want to use "sesquipedalian," but there's nothing wrong with "lengthy." Part of how we expand our vocabularies is by seeing new words in context (and looking them up if we have to). I remember learning _guerdon_ (a reward or gift) and _gravid_ (pregnant) from Anne McCaffrey novels.

You are correct in thinking that too many unusual words may break the reader's flow, so unless it's jargon (all the various terms for horse accessories or armor, for example), try not to overdo it. But the occasional stretch word is a good thing.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-06-08T09:53:12Z (over 8 years ago)
Original score: 2