100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know

A delightful experience for lovers of language everywhere.

The Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries have carefully selected 100 words sure to be appreciated by language lovers, word mavens, and anyone who enjoys the variety and richness of the English language.

From aesthetic to zenith and chortle to lagniappe, the words herein have been specially chosen for their unusual histories, interesting meanings, and appearance in literature.

100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know is the perfect book for people who enjoy reading about words that have absorbing histories, great sounds, surprising but useful meanings or that have been used by famous writers throughout the history of English— words like cruciverbalist, fusty, and humuhumunukunukuapuaa.

Additionally, 100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know features scores of quotations from classical and contemporary authors, from Henry James and Jane Austen to Sylvia Plath and William Golding, James Joyce and Harriet Beecher Stowe to Douglas Coupland and Donna Tartt.

Engaging noes explain how words enter the language and how meaning and usage develop over time. 100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know is for people who love language and literature and all who take pride in a vibrant, active vocabulary.

Review of the print version:
"The editors of the American Heritage dictionaries are inveigling us into a little volume presenting the hundred words that they find interesting for their origins, their meanings, their sounds, a feast for linguistic epicures." - Baltimore Sun

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100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know

A delightful experience for lovers of language everywhere.

Review of the print version:
"The editors of the American Heritage dictionaries are inveigling us into a little volume presenting the hundred words that they find interesting for their origins, their meanings, their sounds, a feast for linguistic epicures." - Baltimore Sun

List by Publisher

List by Title

100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know

A delightful experience for lovers of language everywhere.

Review of the print version: "The editors of the American Heritage dictionaries are inveigling us into a little volume presenting the hundred words that they find interesting for their origins, their meanings, their sounds, a feast for linguistic epicures." - Baltimore Sun

Review of the print version:
"The editors of the American Heritage dictionaries are inveigling us into a little volume presenting the hundred words that they find interesting for their origins, their meanings, their sounds, a feast for linguistic epicures." - Baltimore Sun