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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/32938
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There are some works that have a certain kind of voice, which is due to their rhythm. But is this due only to word order and like things, or do their authors actually choose synonyms to achieve rhythm?

When I read certain things, I find it hard to see how a more common or obvious word could be chosen, yet I hear a certain kind of rhythm. So is this feeling that the most common word was chosen a failure of the imagination? Did the author in fact use a word different than what might have originally occurred to him?

Some people might say that using synonyms is bad because it detracts from clarity, many people not knowing the meaning of the words.

Please know that I am not talking about the metrical rhythm of verse, but the more flexible, albeit poetic rhythm of prose, based on the patterns of stress and non-stress, and perhaps their grouping into certain types of units.

Original score: 5