My Top Ten Favourite Words

Gosh, language can be both a beautiful and disgusting thing, don't you think? It can make you feel all the feels; love, hurt, joy, anger, embarrassment, and all that's in between. 

Words like mellifluous, diaphanous, serendipity and sumptuous feel lush and can conjure up images of succulent feasts, shimmery, floaty and sweet things. On the other hand, certain words can make my mouth pucker like I’m sucking on a cat-haired Warhead I found beneath the couch cushions. A few of my main offenders are moist, riddled, bulbous, maggot and orifice. All these words represent things, feelings and images both tasteful and distasteful to me, hence the reaction. I'm sure I'm not alone here.

One word can make an excellent replacement for a sentence or phrase in writing, and, being on the verbose side, it's probably something I should think about when I speak, too. I find myself studying books now to ponder how beautiful sentences are constructed. I do believe that the trick is to make it look effortless, when really, finding the right words at the right time is a bloody hard job! If you're a writer you can find a great article by Shane Arthur on the 'Smart Blogger' website here about what he calls unnecessary 'flabby' words. (The list is a goldmine but a little overwhelming, and I'm sure I've used some of his flabby words in this post, but hey!)

So anyway, I thought I'd do some sharing and tell you what my favourite English words are. It was difficult choosing only ten when there are so many but I gave it a good crack. You can find them below in no particular order.

Do you have any favourite words? I’d love to hear what they are in the comments, or come on over to my Instagram page and join the favourite words conversation!

See you there!
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Lisa x