You don’t always have to be the smartest person in the room. But you can sound like you are with a few changes to your vocabulary. When you’re trying to stand out amid the noise at work, a smart use of your vocabulary can give you a slight edge. While you still want to remove excess words, the right word will succinctly communicate your thoughts and make you sound smarter, too.
Here are eight easy vocabulary words to work into your communication at the office:
Short-sighted
Every day is another opportunity to be frustrated by coworkers, clients, and upper management. Resist the urge call a person, process, or project stupid. Swap out stupid and insert short-sighted. You are no longer abrasive and seemingly less educated.
Perfunctory
Next time you need to ask someone to do an initial or required review, instead ask them to do a perfunctory review. Cursory works for this situation too. Both of these words actually better explain your expectations.
Quintessential
Instead of saying an agency, project, or tool is considered the standard, model, or stereotype, say quintessential. Be careful though. This word is like the word “epic.” It feels like a big word when you say it, and when you throw it out all the time, it sounds overused and doesn’t have the same impact.
Caustic
Similar to the word stupid, adjectives generally used to describe an individual or office’s rudeness or arrogance often come across as uneducated or hostile. Caustic (meaning sarcastic, scathing or abrasive) has an educated sound to its delivery. It usually requires less words to accompany it too…so you can use your speech to quickly communicate but not belabor your point.
Beleaguer
It’s not hard to find ways to use this word when you work for the federal government. Beleaguer means to be beset with difficulties or to be hard-pressed or under pressure…which could easily describe some agencies, offices, individuals, or projects.
Exacerbate
Here’s another word that you can probably put to use right away in the DoD. Anytime someone comes along and makes a problem worse, just say they have exacerbated the problem. It’s a tricky word to spell, but it communicates succinctly.
Innocuous
Anytime the client has an innocent question or harmless requirement, just call it an innocuous request or requirement.
Idiosyncrasies
There are times when we might like to call our coworkers or clients odd or weird. But there’s a way to point out someone’s peculiarities without calling them peculiar. Just talk about someone’s idiosyncrasies, and you instantly sound kinder. You can also throw this word out there when you’re talking about a project or work product – not just a person.
Don’t try to insert too many new words into your day-to-day interactions with your coworkers. Pick a few that seem to fit with your personality, and add more over time. You don’t want your coworkers discussing your vocabulary idiosyncrasies over lunch.
