2025 A to Z Challenge Blog From the Letter W

April 26, 2025. We’re rapidly nearing the end of the month and the end of the alphabet. I’m assuming I survived Thursday’s surgery, and while I probably don’t feel great, the surgical pain will be different and of shorter duration than the arthritic pain has been. I’m curious to see if my knee will be less sore, too since sometimes knee pain is actually pain created in the hip. Either way, the deed is done, and it’s time to move into recovery mode, doing my physio three times a day, using my 4 point walker, and doing my best to remember not to bend over. It’s going to be an interesting six weeks.

But enough of that. Today’s letter is W. This morning, instead of talking about weird, wild, or weddings, I’m going to talk about words. When I was teaching senior English long ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth and no one had cell phones, one of the things I did was introduce my students to the two books they would need for the rest of their academic lives: the dictionary and the thesaurus. Words are important, but their importance lies in the way they are used. While I will admit that I’m addicted to the use of adjectives and adverbs in my writing as well as my everyday speech, I still make a point of using the most accurate words in my descriptions — at least I try to do so.

I came across this list of better words to use to replace common words used in everyday conversations. I can add a few more. For example, very annoying might be obnoxious, very stupid could be idiotic, and so on. When I write, I visualize the setting and the way my characters interact with it, then I select the words that best suit my image. If my character is reluctant to do something, he or she might move at a snail’s pace. The words themselves can draw the pictures. Occasionally, I will use a word that isn’t one used frequently but fits the situtation. A grumpy old man can be a curmudgeon, a bitchy woman can be a shrew, and a rundown cottage can be dilapidated.

Since it’s my constant companion these days, let’s have a closer look at the word pain. According to the Merriam- Webster dictionary, there are more than 200 words that mean pain, ranging from those that describe an unpleasant sensation in a specific part of the body, such as an ache, a pang, or a sting, to the great level of emotional and physical distress caused by major trauma, such as torturous, excruciating, anguish. Pain can also mean a strict adherence and concentration on what one is doing, as in scrupilous, meticulous, watchful. It can also refer to the amount of energy expended to complete a task or do some kind of work, as in sweat, toil, or labor. Finally, it can mean annoying, like nuisance, tormenter, and pain in the neck. So what’s the take away here? When you use a thesaurus, make sure that the vocabulary word you use is the correct one for the context it’s in. If the pain in your neck was caused by a pain in the neck, then maybe pain isn’t the word you need.

And on that note, here’s today’s musical memory.

Come back tomorrow to see what I have to say for the Letter X. Here’s the MASTER LIST https://tinyurl.com/tauke86z