word choice
Picking your terms
Word choice is the selection of particular words to convey meaning, whether in writing or speech.
Good word choice considers precision, tone, and audience: Her word choice made the technical concept accessible to beginners.
Also called diction.
The phrase often appears in feedback on writing: Watch your word choice—"smell" is neutral, but "stench" implies something unpleasant.
- dictionChoice of words
- mot justeIdeally suited expression
- precise languageExact, unambiguous expression
- toneQuality of sound
- connotationImplied sense, not dictionary
loaded words · appropriateness · register · specificity · clarity · nuance · audience · terminology · accuracy · careful wording · formality · plain English · polysemy · voice · conciseness · ambiguity · eloquence · purpose
- Speech Elementsspeech, diction, pronunciation, articulation, enunciation
- literary analysisliterary analysis, character analysis, book review, plot, critical analysis
- authorial purposepurpose, intent, aim, goal, meaning
- dialect featuresregionalism, localism, colloquialism, vernacular, patois
- language intuitionfluency, naturalness, sentence structure
- language normscorrectness, usage, standard language, proper grammar, prescriptivism
word choicegrammar
Language's structural rules
syntax · sentence structure · punctuation · phonology · pronunciation
word choiceverbal slip
Unintended spoken error
malapropism · word salad · aphasia · verbal tic · Freudian slip