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Q&A Should I avoid "big words" when writing to a younger audience?

I was writing the other day and I used the word "ubiquitous". While I don't think "ubiquitous" is the most egregious example of "Using Big Words To Sound Intelligent", and would be perfectly acce...

6 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by klippy‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T13:06:28Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/48422
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar klippy‭ · 2019-12-08T13:06:28Z (almost 5 years ago)
I was writing the other day and I used the word "ubiquitous".

While I don't think "ubiquitous" is the most egregious example of "Using Big Words To Sound Intelligent", and would be perfectly acceptable in most novels, it's just, my novel's demographic would be young teenagers, and I definitely did not know what ubiquitous meant when I was a young teenager.

Personally, when I come across an unknown word in a book, I have to take a minute to research what that word means, taking me away from the book.

On the other hand though, this could be seen as a teaching moment where I can teach young readers the meaning of new words

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-10-07T08:10:37Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 28