Kcecelia
Subscriber since: June 2008
Location:
San Francisco,
CA
About Me
I am a writer living in San Francisco, California. I love words and dictionaries, and I own many wonderful hard copy dictionaries. In the last few years I have expanded my love of dictionaries to the online versions. I encountered the Visual Thesaurus accidentally when Googling a better word for "lengthy." (I chose "protracted.") I am entranced by the way the Visual Thesaurus works. It will be a further aid in my quest to find just the right word to communicate each idea I wish to share.
My Word Lists
Recent Comments
My Favorites
Favorite Word:
vividVivid is an intense, crisp little word as bright and full of life as its synonyms reveal. It is brilliant, bright, intense; graphically packing worlds into its five characters with one pointy repeated V. It possesses a smoothed sharpness in its aurally graphic internal alliteration. It is a pleasure to speak the world aloud, as well as to repeat it: vivid, vivid, vivid. It is from the Latin word vividus,"spirited, animated, lively," and from vivus, "alive," and its utterance fills one with life.
Least Favorite Word:
loadLoad is a small word that is excessively unattractive in its pronunciation as well as in its meanings. Its poor little rounded shoulders are weighted with more sadness of expression than it should be expected to support: onus, encumbrance, warhead. Just being in its neighborhood begins to weigh one down with its burdens. I feel sorry for it as I malign it, but it is a homely word.
Favorite Quote:
"The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
- John Milton
Favorite Topics:
Blogs:
Ben Zimmer on How Technology is Shaping Language
October 8, 2013
- 2 Comments
On Slate, Lexicon Valley Launches a New Language Blog
September 10, 2013
Books:
A Powerful Debunking of Whorfian Exaggeration
April 14, 2014
- 5 Comments
Copywriting:
Score One for the Apostrophe
October 19, 2011
- 9 Comments
The Case of the Lay Flat Collar
June 29, 2010
- 19 Comments
Creativity:
Calling All Writers: Introducing Figment
May 16, 2011
SciPlay, So Far
November 30, 2010
- 2 Comments
Fiction writing:
The Power of General Statements
January 23, 2012
- 15 Comments
The Writer-Reader-Character Bond
August 8, 2011
- 12 Comments
Fun:
Scrabble Showdown: "Zen" Versus... "Geocache"?
April 9, 2014
Baseball Lingo, from "Cup of Coffee" to "Southpaw"
April 8, 2014
Grammar:
"Over" Reaction: Copy Editors Gasp at AP Ruling on "Over"/"More Than"
March 21, 2014
- 6 Comments
Language:
A Powerful Debunking of Whorfian Exaggeration
April 14, 2014
- 5 Comments
Language arts:
The Problem with Punctuation: Some Classroom Findings
March 14, 2014
- 3 Comments
The Vocabulary of Test Directions
March 6, 2014
- 4 Comments
Libraries:
Librarians Suggest Good Books for Kids of All Ages
January 15, 2013
Love Your Librarian
September 26, 2011
- 4 Comments
Linguistics:
A Powerful Debunking of Whorfian Exaggeration
April 14, 2014
- 5 Comments
Linguists:
A Linguist Answers, "Why Do I Do What I Do?"
January 17, 2011
Telling the Life Stories of Words
December 7, 2010
Marketing copy:
Copywriting Case Study: Building Business Success
March 17, 2008
- 1 Comment
Business Communicators: Got Metaphor?
February 25, 2008
- 3 Comments
Online:
Selfie's Children: The Productive "-fie" Suffix
January 13, 2014
- 2 Comments
Ben Zimmer on How Technology is Shaping Language
October 8, 2013
- 2 Comments
Poetry:
Celebrate National Grammar Day with a Haiku Cornucopia
March 4, 2014
Politics:
Nobody Likes a Whistleblower (or a Wrayer, Quadruplator, or Emphanist)
February 24, 2014
February 24, 2014
5 Years After Its Discovery, a Washingtonian Typo Lingers
February 17, 2014
- 10 Comments
Puzzle:
The Visual Thesaurus Crossword Puzzle: March Edition!
March 21, 2008
The Visual Thesaurus Crossword Puzzle: February Edition!
February 13, 2008
Reading:
Strangers in Our Midst: Words We Skip While Reading
April 9, 2014
- 4 Comments
For National Reading Month, Finding Vocabulary All Around Us
March 20, 2014
Self-publishing:
The March of the E-Books
March 25, 2013
- 15 Comments
Self-Publish Your Writing!
November 28, 2011
- 3 Comments
Storytelling:
Type Casting
January 24, 2012
- 2 Comments
Shakespeare and the Hurricane
October 12, 2011
- 5 Comments
Teachers:
Small Things That Change Lives: How Teachers Make a Difference
November 21, 2013
- 4 Comments
Triple Play: Teaching Words in Threes
July 9, 2013
- 5 Comments
Teaching:
The Problem with Punctuation: Some Classroom Findings
March 14, 2014
- 3 Comments
The Vocabulary of Test Directions
March 6, 2014
- 4 Comments
Usage:
"Staycation," "Bleisure," and Other Made-Up Travel Words
April 15, 2014
Visual Thesaurus:
Word Cloud: A Film Inspired by the Visual Thesaurus
August 24, 2012
- 5 Comments
Reconsidering the Thesaurus
April 2, 2012
Web tools:
Twitter Me This: New Technology in the Language Arts Classroom
November 15, 2011
- 3 Comments
Tracking Dialects on Twitter: What's Coo and What's Koo?
November 4, 2011
- 4 Comments
Word Origins:
Baseball Lingo, from "Cup of Coffee" to "Southpaw"
April 8, 2014
A "Final Four" of March Madness Lingo
March 31, 2014
WordMasters:
WordMasters: Grade 8 Gold Division Jan-Feb '11
January 31, 2011
WordMasters: Grade 5 Gold Division Jan-Feb '11
January 31, 2011
Words:
"Staycation," "Bleisure," and Other Made-Up Travel Words
April 15, 2014
Scrabble Showdown: "Zen" Versus... "Geocache"?
April 9, 2014
Writer's block:
Getting Unstuck
July 24, 2008
Why You Should Think of Yourself as an Orange
June 4, 2008
- 11 Comments
Young readers:
Fifteen Ways of Looking at "The Woods": Jumpstarting Poetry in the Classroom
July 23, 2013
- 4 Comments
Turning the Page: Short Fiction for English Language Learners
June 17, 2013
- 2 Comments
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