“Words are small shapes in the gorgeous chaos of the world. They bring the world into focus; they corral ideas; they hone thoughts; they paint watercolors of perception.”

– Diane Ackerman, author, poet, and naturalist

When I was growing up, one of the most popular board games was Scrabble. This game brought families and friends together to test our abilities to take those small shapes and find focus from initial chaos.

Today, the number of popular word games is staggering, with some of the most popular being Words with Friends, Wheel of Fortune, Bookworm, Boggle, and the ever-popular crossword puzzle.

Exercise:

To build up your word-power muscle, keep an old-fashioned dictionary or thesaurus handy to review daily when you identify a word you don’t know, or when you are writing.

For those of you who are more tech-savvy, check out www.dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday or a similar site or app.