You’re gonna need to step up your game in the language department….

The trick to using words that make you sound smart like a pro is to make sure you’re completely on point and use them sparingly. Know that fool who managed to drop the word strategy in every paragraph at work? Yeah, we all think they’re a bozo too. Everything isn’t a strategy and you don’t need to demonstrate you can turn strategy into a verb, adjective, adverb, and pronoun (we’re pushing it with that one, but you get my point). Say it ONCE and be completely right….

So without further preening, her’s our list of a dozen words that make you sound smart:

1 – Pontificate

Definition of Pontificate: To speak in a strong and proud fashion. To present your thoughts with complete confidence as if they were absolutely correct and command the attention of those present.

This word originated from the traditions of the Catholic popes, who were frequently consulted on messy religious disputes that lower priests in the Catholic church hadn’t been able to agree about. Unlike lower priests, the pope has a trump card he can use to settle these arguments. The pope has the option of issuing a solemn papal definition on a particular question, which is automatically viewed by the church as being infallible and without error. Boom! Argument Over…

This policy is part of the official dogma (another great word) of the church, which is a set of beliefs which are accepted without being questioned or doubted. While not particularly democratic, it does have the benefit of letting the pope settle an argument and tell people to start moving forward again.

So the definition of pontificate is to speak as if you were the pope, with the expectation that you are completely correct and your audience has no other option but to listen to you. It is a strong assertive style which commands respect. Or you can use it sarcastically to talk about someone who likes to talk but doesn’t have a clue what they are doing.

Sample Uses:

“We gave her a microphone and an audience. I expect she will pontificate for a while…”

Our second word is very similar to this, giving you two ways to discuss this kind of behavior….

2 – Dogmatic

Definition of Dogmatic: Expressing your personal opinions or beliefs as if they were absolutely correct and immune to doubt or error…

This word arrived in the English language about four hundred years ago,  borrowed from the Greek language dogmatikos which means “pertaining to doctrines”.  This is another reference to the concept of church dogma, the set of beliefs which all church members are expected to accept without question.

The meaning of this word has evolved a bit since then. It was originally a very positive compliment – a dogmatic person was one who stood their ground in arguing for things most people thought were right. It’s modern usage has a negative slant: while a dogmatic person is expressing a strong opinion, it now has the implication that they haven’t spent much thinking for themselves and are merely repeating what others have told them to say. OUCH……

Sample Uses:

“She dogmatically repeated her belief that the books should be removed from the school library.”.

Our cat is looking at me funny, so it’s time to throw her a bone… (Next Word)

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Lets start with a handful of direct anagrams:

For example, we find that INGRATES are often some of the ANGRIEST people around. The second word is a direct anagram of the first. For the musically inclined, we observe that NOTES represent TONES. Except of course, you are dealing with the ONSET of STONE deafness.

A king REIGNS unless they RESIGN; this may occur after an affair with a SINGER. Naturally, if you HASSLE the wrong person about this topic, you might get LASHES.

People with DEPOSIT accounts tend to be the DOPIEST savers, at least at current interest rates. That being said, PIRATES are well known for their PARTIES, so we should avoid critiquing their archaic investment practices.

In any event, these TALES are getting STALE.

Moving onto the word fragments:

We fed the word “lie” into the word pattern finder; interestingly enough, we noticed that aliens popped up early on the list.  One of the UGLIER implications of this is: You can’t have aliens without lies. The word LIEGE also appeared. As we see in the MILIEU of Game of Thrones, you may not want to blindly trust your liege lord either!

For the cynic, BELIEF is based on lies. CLIENTS should beware as well – the promises of a snake-oil salesman cannot be RELIED upon. May the WILIER party win! FLIERS are used to this sort of behavior: yeah, sure, the plane will board in twenty minutes.

We should have probably ended this article EARLIER but the word pattern finder came back with a total of 768 words which contain the word “lies”. SUBLIEUTENANTS was one of the longer ones. Along with DOLICHOCEPHALIES, which apparently means “long headed”….

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We’ve had a lot of wordplay and puns at the house this summer but not much actual word games with the kids. My wife and I do play regularly – my preference is for Boggle and she prefers Scrabble and Hangman. The kids aren’t quite at the point where they can play. My daughter is able to play Draw Something, where the visual element and limited dictionary makes this a decent entry level word game for kids.

Clue has emerged as the early favorite for games the entire family can play – my daughter played it at her school during the final week of school this past year and came home wanting more. Was It Mrs. White in the conservatory with the revolver? Or Ms. Scarlet with the pipe in the kitchen? And what exactly was Professor Plum up to anyhow? It brings back memories

Blokus has also become popular – in this game, you have to lay down as many of your tiles (shaped like tetris pieces) as possible in a board of squares. The goal of the game is to lay down your tiles in such a fashion that you can force the other player “out” – where they cannot lay down any additional tiles. The person with the most squares remaining loses. I was actually surprised at how quickly my kids picked this one up – I figured the geometry would make it difficult for young kids. But hey – apparently you can learn something playing Tetris

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A simple example is GOAT, which is a direct anagram of TOGA. Makes you wonder exactly how wild those ancient parties got.

You can also have indirect anagrams – where you split the original word into multiple words. WINE => WE IN, clearly a reference of the bonding value of drinking with your clients and prospects. In contrast BEER => BE ER, a ominous note. So the next time you’re trying to close a deal, break out the good stuff!

Scotch was a non-starter – no direct anagrams and the single vowel made it hard to build a set of indirect anagrams. I tried a couple of other forms of hard liquor with similar results.

To play along at home, you can use our Scrabble Helper – enter the letters in the word you are interested in and look at the items on the list of possible words which use all the letters in your hand.

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