Last year sometime (we?re very exact here at VERBATIM world headquarters) we asked you to send us your favorite words. Not necessarily the words whose meaning you most admired, but the words you found a joy to say, write and hear (and as some of you pointed out, to sing and read as well).
We got quite a few responses, both from subscribers and from people who stumbled across our contest on the website. And now, after tallying the responses, we have winners.
The winning word is mellifluous, both by name and by nature. Preposterous, you say? Well, that was number two, along with ubiquitous (it?s everywhere!) It probably is more than serendipitous that serendipitous is the number three word. The other top vote-getters, in alphabetical order, are callipygian, conundrum, delightful, flummox, hope, ineffable, isthmus, language, lovely, murmur, oxymoron, quintessential, squelch, and tintinnabulation. Winners all!
Here is the complete list of words entered, occasionally with comments from the enterer: accoutrements, Aconcagua, adrift, aedeagus, amanuensis, amaranth, amaryllis, anemone, anhedonia, anomaly, antepenultimate, anthropomorphic, aphrodesiac, asunder, banshee, bedraggled, billows, blessing, bombast, boomerang, brio, brutual, calla lily, calliope, callipygian, careen, carfuffle, cataclysm, catafalque (at the wake, have a bier!), charisma, charity, chasm, chicanery, chimera, cicisbeo, compassion, compelling, conundrum, crapulent, crapulous, curmudgeon, cuspidor, d?oh, daft, dast, dayspring, defile, delicious, delightful, desultory, dimity, discombobulate, dream, ebullient, eek, electric, endorphin, entrancing, epizootic, esperanza, eternity, euphoria, eureka, exacerbate, faith, fascination, fathomless, felicity, firkytoodle, flabbergasted, flim-flam, flophouse, flugelhorn, flummox, fogy, forfend, forlorn, fortuitious, frumious, fuck, galactic, gracious, graciousness, halcyon, harmony, heart, heliotrope, hella, hope, huggle, humanity, hurdy-gurdy, hyacinth, idiosyncrasy, imagination, imagine, incomprehensibility, ineffable, infinite, infinity, insidious, ironic, isthmus, Jabberwocky, jeepers, jibber-jabber, justice, kinesthetic, kiss, lackadaisical, language, laugh, lexicon, liminal, lollapalooza, lovely, ludicrous, luminescent, lush, lust, lustworthy, melancholy, mellifluous, meow, mercenary, Merioneth, mindful, Monongahela, muggle, murmur, myrmidon, myrrh, mystery, naysay, nepenthe, nifty, oligodendroglioma, omphaloskeptic, onomatopoeia, orthography, owl, oxymoron, pachyderm, painting, palpable, pandaemonium, paper, pariah, passionate, pellucid, performance, perspicacious, philanthropist, pickle, plethora, polynya, pop, preposterous, presidential, prestidigitation, prolixity, punctilio, pungent, purr, quaff, quagga, qualm, quintessential, quirk, radiance, rainbow, rampage, rapture, rhythms, rutabaga, saliva, satiate, schmuck, scrimshandrix, segue, serendipitous, serendipity, serene, Shakespeare, she, Shenandoah, shibboleth, shinny, shopworn, sibilant, silken, sinuous, sizzle, skulduggery, sockdolager, somnambulist, soothing, spaghettio (origin: Franco-American), splendor, squeamish, squelch, stillslop, subsume, surreptitious, susurrus, swivet, synchronicity, syzygy, Tantalus, tintinnabulation, toady, totally, triskaidekaphobia, twilight, twitter, ubiquitous, universe, usufruct, vacuous, verdure, verity, vespertilian, vitality, vortex, waffle, weird, whisper, wilderness, yclept, yearning, yummy, and zest.
The winners of the new desk dictionaries (of their choice) are Geoff Martin, who entered crapulous, and Linda Besnette, who chose mercenary.
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