Reading is not a simple task, and it’s easy to skim through pages whose printed black coalesce with your pitch-black room hours past midnight. Then a word appears. It’s more than eight letters and you rush to Merriam-Webster; you could skip it, but the sound captivates you, encouraging you to jot it down somewhere. Here are five words that encapsulate that feeling.
Starting off strong with acquiescence. ˌa-kwē-ˈe-sᵊn(t)s. We’ve all seen it in “Pride and Prejudice.” Acquiescence, with its vowels stacked in a row and rhyming with “essence,” is too beautiful to speak of given that acquiescence can be the silence that adheres to complacency.
What’s a good story without verisimilitude? ˌver-ə-sə-ˈmi-lə-ˌtüd. If verisimilitude materialized, it would probably be red (this isn’t because of its apparent similarities with vermilion). Verisimilitude can be defined as the particularity of novels that makes them feel real.
Chiaroscuro (cue the flashbacks to AP Art History). kē-ˌär-ə-ˈskyu̇r-(ˌ)ō,. Derived from Italian words “chiaro” and “scuro” — translating to “light-dark” — chiaroscuro is the light and shadows of a painting. Chiaroscuro is present in our daily lives and can be found in every aspect of the environment.
On to our next word: ephemeral. i-ˈfe-mə-rəl. Ephemeral, the fleeting, brief nature of life. Ephemeral even sounds like the vanishing breeze with its soft “e” sound and flighty ending, almost as if it’s reminiscing or yearning after its regrettably small sliver of peace.
Last, but not least, we have reticence. ˈre-tə-sən(t)s. In addition to how easily it rolls off the tongue, we all have some reticence in our demeanor, unless you happen to be a social butterfly. Reticence is defined as the reservedness that sneaks out whenever we meet a stranger, perform a speech and greet distant relatives at gatherings.
Runners-up/Honorable Mention: efficacious (unfortunately, having two words that start with “e” in this list would be unfair to the others), limerence (for all the delusional crushes out there) and mellifluous (sounds pretty and is pretty).
