When One Word Is Enough For a Podcast: The Word-A-Day Podcast

 Here are some facts for you about your everyday word usage. First, there are approximately 170,000 words in the English language. Second, the average American possesses an active vocabulary of about 20,000 words. Third, English is a language that has the most words, with Russian a distant second at 150,000. English is awash in synonyms, most of which people do not use. 

Because of the large number of words in the English language, word-a-day calendars, apps, and websites are popular with English speakers wishing to expand their vocabulary.

Dictionary.com is the world’s leading digital dictionary. They provide millions of English definitions, spellings, audio pronunciations, example sentences, and word origins. Dictionary.com’s main, proprietary source is the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, which is continually updated by our team of experienced lexicographers and supplemented with trusted, established sources including American Heritage and Harper Collins to support a range of language needs. 

Dictionary.com also offers a translation service, a Word of the Day, a crossword solver, and a wealth of editorial content that benefit the advanced word lover and the English language student alike.

Along with Dictionary.com's Word of the Day service, it also offers a short daily podcast of that word. The podcast is only two minutes in length and can help you better understand the proper usage and meaning of the word that day.

 

The Word of the Day podcast is another example of the flexibility of podcasting as a medium format. 

Here's the word of the day for May 31. Syncope -- the contradiction of a word by omitting one or more sounds from the middle. Examples given are "bizness" for business, "labratory" for laboratory and "Wenzday" for Wednesday.

There's nothing more annoying than a person who uses big words to impress or degrade others. Yet, the depth of meaning in all the 170,000 words in the English language means that we have the unique ability to speak with an exactness and nuance not available in other languages. We should take advantage of it.

Try Thesarus.com for synonyms and antonyms. 

 

Just be careful. If you start using more words in your daily vocabulary, people may accuse you of being a sesquipedalian.