Dictionary.com Is My Friend

I remember the days when Tina and I tried to memorize vocabulary words for the SATs. I got up to the word, "abate." Yeah, that was like the third word on the list. But I always remembered what it meant. =) Teachers and my parents would say that I should get in the habit of looking words up as I am reading books or magazines or whatever. But I didn't care about vocabulary. It was so boring.

Now years later, I've found that words are important to me. Important for my education. My job. This blog. I look words up on dictionary.com almost everyday. I want to know more words and definitions and idioms. Yeah, I am a big ol' nerd! And I am proud of it.

My vocabulary was so limited before. There were a lot of common words that I didn't know. I am sheepish to admit it. Furthermore, there were a lot of words I didn't know how to pronounce. Dictionary.com has this neat function where you can hear the pronunciation. One day in a panic, I thought I had been pronouncing "comparable" and "applicable" wrong for years. After I looked it up, I realized that they had two pronunciations. Whew! I thought I was a big idiot. Well, I am but not for that.

Oh, and I have another dictionary I use all the time. My husband. When I am at home blogging, I often randomly ask him to spell something for me or ask if I used a word in the right context. He is so helpful...and wonderful too. He's such a smartie. And he doesn't say "you're an idiot" when I ask him to spell words like "whine." (Haha! It looked weird, okay?!) He's my kind of nerd.