Some of us really are smart, but many of us have to fake it. Faking it just got easier thanks to a book from the editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries called "100 Words to Make You Sound Smart." Just think! Learn one word a day--while you're cooking dinner, riding the train to work or taking care of business in the bathroom--and in just over three months, you'll sound educated, articulate and literate. Can sophisticated be far away? So what kind of words are on this list? They are real words. Words that you can actually use in conversation and writing that do sound smart, but not ostentatious. A colorful variety of words have been chosen, including handy words of just one syllable (such as "glib") and words derived from the names of famous people (such as "Freudian slip" and "Machiavellian"). There are expressions from popular culture ("Catch-22") and words that date back to classical civilization ("Spartan" and "stoic"). Here are 15 of the 100 words that will make you sound smart:
Acrimony(noun): rancor, spite, bitterness, hostility, ill will
Dichotomy
(noun): division into two contradictory or exclusive entities; something with two contradictory qualities
Equivocate
(verb): prevaricate, beat around the bush, vacillate
Esoteric
(adjective): obscure, mysterious, cryptic, arcane
Euphemism
(noun): inoffensive or agreeable substitute for an expression that may be distasteful or offensive
Fastidious
(adjective): fussy, finicky, particular
Finagle
(verb): obtain by indirect or convoluted means or through trickery
Glib
(adjective): persuasive, smooth, slick
Harbinger
(noun): herald, portent, omen, forerunner
Idiosyncratic
(adjective): individual, personal, distinctive, eccentric, peculiar
Insidious
(adjective): sinister, menacing
Lurid
(adjective): shocking, explicit, vivid, sensational
Maudlin
(adjective): overly sentimental, mawkish, soppy
Non Sequitur
(noun): a response unrelated to or not following logically from a previous statement
Ostentatious
(adjective): showy, flamboyant, pretentious, grandiose
Ostracize
(verb): exclude, shun, snub
Panacea
(noun): cure-all, magic potion, universal remedy
Sycophant
(noun): flatterer, toady
Ubiquitous
(adjective): everywhere, ever-present, omnipresent
Zealous
(adjective): enthusiastic, passionate, fervent, ardent, obsessive, fanatical, extreme
Here is the full list of words from the book, 100 Words to Make You Sound Smart:
accolade
acrimony
angst
anomaly
antidote
avant-garde
baroque
bona fide
boondoggle
bourgeois
bravado
brogue
brusque
byzantine
cacophony
camaraderie
capricious
carte blanche
Catch-22
caustic
charisma
cloying
déjà vu
dichotomy
dilettante
disheveled
élan
ennui
epitome
equanimity
equivocate
esoteric
euphemism
fait accompli
fastidious
faux pas
fiasco
finagle
Freudian slip
glib
gregarious
harbinger
hedonist
heresy
idiosyncratic
idyllic
indelicate
infinitesimal
insidious
junket kitsch
litany
lurid
Machiavellian
malaise
malinger
mantra
maudlin
mercenary
minimalist
misnomer
narcissist
nirvana
non sequitur
nouveau riche
oblivion
ogle
ostentatious
ostracize
panacea
paradox
peevish
perfunctory
philistine
precocious
propriety
quid pro quo
quintessential
red herring
revel
rhetoric
scintillating
spartan
stigma
stoic
suave
Svengali
sycophant
teetotaler
tête-à-tête
tirade
tryst
ubiquitous
unrequited
untenable
vicarious
vile
waft
white elephant
zealous
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