Words that make you sound intelligent

Nefarious

Strategery

Silence makes one sound like a genius.

This thread is very innersting.

sometimes the word "essentially" is used too often

When talking literature I like to argue for "the wheel of fortune" and instead with history I surmise "the web of causation".

In statistics I pontificate about "coincidences not implying causation" and in logic I mention about the possibility of "false predicates".

On politics I despair of the "democratic deficit" and with economics I theorise on the role of "micro-decisions on macro-behaviour".

At law I posit "hard cases make bad law" while in equity I just use some maxim like "equity will not allow a statute to be used as an instrument of fraud".

If asked about philosophy I claim that "unintended consequences are never too remote" while theology leaves me alternating between "the sanctity of man" and the "humanity of the devine".

The French say that "noblesse oblige" while with Italians I claim I'm a "ragazzo terra terra".

I don't know anything about climate science so to annoy people I just talk about how cold it's been in London lately and how I think that means that climate change is a hoax.

Axe..as in "Can I axe you a question?"

Strenff as in "long runs give me the strenff I need"

Baffroom as in "I need to go to the baffroom"

two fiddy as in "I can bench two fiddy"

Very nice.

I had a high school teacher who would tell us that we a didactic exigency coming up. If a prof had said that in some of my grad school classes half the room probably would have cleared out.

"that we had a"

unbenonced

unbeknownst

At least I think that's what you were trying to say, but it's hard to tell with how badly you butchered it.

how about the common overused ones: "pushing the envelope"

or "going forward". Then there's the phrase: "Well to be honest with you" ( you weren't honest with me before?)

The really annoying ones where people end sentences with the useless phrase "...and stuff" or "It was like really awesome.

"like" "like" "like".........please get rid of that word!!!

Communicating intelligently is a matter of knowing your audience and matching their level of communicative ability. The majority of readers on this board are college educated, middle class folks, so, a few big words here and there may pepper up the conversation without coming across as a vocabulary nut hellbent on making people realize how much of the dictionary they have memorized just for those special occasions. However, if you're talking to a bunch of fifth graders coming off as a human thesaurus will not communicate anything at all. If you want to talk to a bunch of academics, that's another story.

Furthermore, why are you trying to communicate? That affects how language should be used. Are you scolding children (or senators)? Are you try to negotiate a car deal? Are you trying to interogate someune in a legal anquiry? If you are trying to shut someone up, talking over their head may do just the trick. If you're trying to drag a convesation along then prolixity may have absolutely no place in your arsenal.

To put a finer point on appropriate terms--quixotic would be the most apropos word for letsrun.

start with things like this

http://www.satvocab.com/vocabulary-lists/barons-high-frequency-wordlist/

and read, read, read, read and read more. for every one contemporary work, read two classics.

talk to people smarter then you...not just more educated. smart and intelligent are two completely different things, if you haven't stumbled onto that realization yet.

an interesting thing is that lots of those high iq test require that you not only know the words but the appropriate context and usage. for example quixotic may make sense to someone with a literary background whereas impractical would suit a business person and capricious may suit a lawyer or ceo type. subtleties like that distinguish people who know words and people who know when, where, why and how to use specific words.

i always thought guys who spoke in parables were the smartest personally.

While this is an interesting thread its foundation is built upon a basic conundrum. The most intelligent way to communicate is to select your words and phrasing in a manner that will most clearly and directly communicate your thought. It you select a word to both show you are intelligent and communicate your idea it might not be the most intelligent choice.

Will Hunting wrote:

I thought the intelligent readers of letsrun could help some of us with our vocabulary. I mean we have all witnessed the grammar critics across numerous threads on this board. Maybe everyone could share some words that can help us all appear to be a little more intelligent.

I'll start.

mendacious: lying, untruthful

My teammate denied all accusations of doing training outside of practice, but his mendacious tendencies caught up to him when I witnessed him doing a tempo later that night.

I like 'sanguine,' as in "I'm feeling rather sanguine about health care reform these days.".

Another nice one is 'truculent,' as in "I was a fairly truculent little bastard in grade school."

A word you will likely never hear in conversation is 'uxorious' but I love it. Said of a man, it means one who is overly fond of his wife. Interestingly, I don't know of a similar word applied to a woman.

I've generally found that Brits are much more comfortable with a rich vocabulary than are Americans.

I just heard a good example. Cognitive. In 30 minutes the lady must have used that word 7 - 8 times.

spank