Don’t Hate The Dictionary

Whenever I encounter a word that I’m not familiar with, my first instinct is to derive its meaning through the context in which it is used. This approach is perfectly serviceable from the perspective of a reader since, by and large, the gist of a word’s meaning can indeed be determined through context. However, from the perspective of a writer who might be interested in using that word in the future, this approach is often less than satisfactory.

Words possess a certain nuance, and merely gue...