Word

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There it was, word for word,
The poem that took the place of a mountain.


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 – Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
 – The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain [1952], st. I

“Be careful what you say—you may have to eat your words.”

I don’t think so much about eating my words as about wearing them. When someone sees me, the words come back to haunt like a miasma around me. No matter how colourful my dress, bad words turn everything grey and muddy brown.

Words beginning with the »sn« sound in English are often unpleasant: snide, snob, snigger, sneer, snicker, snub, snert, snotty, snippy, snit, snarl, snore, sneak, snag. »Snow« is a word over which there is debate and even an annual change of heart. The first snowfall is almost always welcomed. Christmas snow is considered magical. But too much of a good thing for too long and March blizzards push »snow« into line with the rest of the »sn« words.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

(Mark Twain)

Words are the best toys you can give your brain.

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Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

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 – Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
 – An Essay on Criticism [1711], pt. II, l. 109

Think how much acceptance Mary showed when she said:

»Let it be done to me according to thy word.«

The web of words wraps round the whole wide world, concealing the secret numbers underneath.

1001 1001 0110 1001 1010 1001

Which is more useful to you: a dictionary that tells you how to use a word or a dictionary that tells you how a word is used?

There is a purity in words that cannot be sullied by their use.

Rotor is a fine palindrome, thought Frank Leigh Dearie as he ambled down the Lost Highway.

And then some more words come along and a paragraph is born.

What I feel for you,
I can't put in words,
language won't hold
my desire.

Have you ever noticed that the only difference between »word« and »weird« are the vowels?