Frazz by Jef Mallett for March 04, 2025

16 new words is better than relying on AI and spellcheck to do it for you. They are BOTH really dumb!

I usually learn new words by looking them up when I find a strange one while reading.

That is strange to me: I never had vocabulary learning or testing for German in school. Only for the foreign languages.

I don’t know what Frazz is getting at here. Any ideas?

Use each new word three times in a day. You’ll remember them but sound funny and people will avoid you.

What! Nobody did the math… how many words are on the list in total?

Mrs Olsen, your package was misdelivered to today’s Baby Blues

A list of words with definitions doesn’t work. Reading adult level writing (which provides context) works.

Thus, I treat such lists with floccinaucinihilipilification.

“Incongruous” – isn’t that how the Declaration starts? :)

Sneaky, working in a math problem! If 2/3 of the list is 16 words, how many words are on the list? On tomorrow’s pop quiz …

That poor little girl looks like she’s gonna have a melt down. She needs a hug!

One of the most challenging words I’ve ever seen for kids on a spelling test was “Chrysalis”. It was on my daughter’s vocabulary list for her spelling test. I had never heard of the word before and didn’t know what it meant. She was in the third grade. That was about 30 years ago. I’ve kept my ears alert for 30 years and I’ve only hear that word used once on a science show, but never in casual conversation.

Too bad Reader’s Digest discontinued “It Pays to Increase your Word Power”.