300 Words to Sound Smarter and Be More Respected

Summary

This title is laser focused on making you sound smarter become more respected by using them. Simply systematically eliminated words that did meet this model that are perfectly good words for other purposes. First excluded were slang and popular culture words such as angst, avant-garde, Catch 22, kitsch, red herring, and white elephant. These are all useful words to know, just not in this context. Then eliminated were those words whose meanings are often misconstrued such as disinterested and complement/compliment. And finally eliminated were those words that sound awkward in speech such as accolade, baroque, epiphany, philistine, tete-a-tete, tryst, unrequited, and waft. Included words must sound appropriate, work seamlessly, and not be "show off" words. The final test is the words had to be those that people nodded slightly at when heard because they enhanced meaning and not elicit a slight grimace. So we worked hard to eliminate grimace words.