14 Authors Reveal Their Favorite Words

What’s your favorite word?

Mine has, for probably two decades now, been chagrin. 

Though I had not, before sitting down to write this, given much thought to exactly why this word is my favorite, I suppose that I just like the way it sounds, all soft and flowy. And I like the formality of it — how it feels like a relic of a fancier time when people dressed for dinner and social gatherings ended with attendees retiring to the parlor for tea and cocktails.  

I had always assumed that, just like everyone has a favorite color, we all had a favorite word.

Recently I discovered that that was not the case.

And I. Was. Shook.

As I worked to come to terms with the reality that not all people keep beloved words like pets, I began to feel a compulsion to do something about this. I would, I decided, compile a list of the words that people love the best. This would serve as a starting off point, for people who don’t have a favorite word and are endeavoring to select one.

But whose favorite words should this list include? 

Authors, obviously. 

After all, who knows words better?

So here’s what they had to say. Do any of their favorite words strike your fancy?

Kit Frick

Author of I Killed Zoe Spanos

vivid

I've always loved this particular descriptor. The experience of saying the word packs a lot of punch; there's a bright interplay between meaning and mouthfeel, if you will. Plus, you get two "v"s in one little word! How cool is that?

Check out these novels by Kit Frick

Robyn Harding

Internationally bestselling author of The Party

sassy

I like the sibilance of this word (it’s just fun to say!). And there are a lot of negative adjectives to describe females with an attitude, and ‘sassy’ has a positive connotation.

Check out these novels by Robyn Harding

Lydia Kang

Author of Opium & Absinthe

kerfuffle

One of my favorite words is kerfuffle. It means a disorderly outburst or commotion. And let me say for the record, I always mispronounce it "kerfLufffle" as if it's describing Kermit the Frog as if he'd sprouted a very large head of super frizzy hair, freaking out about something in public. I will probably mispronounce it forever, it's so much cuter that way. 

Check out these novels by Lydia Kang

Leslie A. Kelly

New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author

syncopation 

I love the way that word feels in my mouth when I say it. I love the immediate understanding. I am a fan of onomatopoeia and that word just pops because of the way it's pronounced. I don't know that I've used it many times in my writing--or had reason to--but I must say it makes me smile when I read or hear it.

Check out these novels by Leslie A. Kelly

Emily Liebert

USA Today bestselling author of Perfectly Famous 

hustle 

Never stop challenging yourself. Don’t rely on others to make things happen for you. Make things happen for yourself.

Check out these novels by Emily Liebert

Aimee Liu 

Author of Glorious Boy

lugubrious

I love the mouth-feel of lugubrious, with all its hard consonants teetering around that long pivotal vowel. I also love that it doesn’t mean what it sounds like, which is a cross between gooey and delicious –  perhaps juiced by inebriation. Instead, this verbal contrarian means the opposite of sybaritic pleasure. To be lugubrious is to be bleak, sullen, wretched, and somber, but with the redeeming twist of indulging in this misery. It’s by wallowing in mournful darkness that the lugubrious earn the dramatic brio of their description!

Check out these novels by Aimee Liu.

Dan Mayland

Author of The Doctor of Aleppo 

equanimity

Calmness and composure in the face of adversity is a state of mind that the heroine and hero of my novel The Doctor of Aleppo struggle to maintain over the course of the civil war in Syria, even when the world they love is crumbling around them. While I’m grateful to live in a different corner of the world, where neither I nor my family are threatened by such violence, nonetheless with political polarization in the United States at record levels, and now with all the coronavirus-related upheavals, equanimity is both a word and state of mind that I find my mind reflecting upon with increasing frequency.

Check out these novels by Dan Mayland.

Eileen Moskowitz-Palma

Author of Camp Clique and School Squad, The Popularity Pact series

pivot

Pivoting used to be something I watched my daughter perfect during pole vault practices. But when COVID-19 canceled just about everything, including my book tour, I was forced to pivot and connect differently with young readers. Leaning on my skills as both a former elementary school teacher, and a current creative writing teacher for adults, I started offering free virtual writing camps to help get kids through the sudden school closures and months later, my program has been brought to six public libraries, the Providence Children’s Museum, Sarah Lawrence College and the Rhode Island Department of Education, and I hope to work with schools and homeschooling pods this fall. What I thought was a temporary diversion, has turned into a bright spot in my day, a time for me to share my love of reading and writing with kids. This pivot and the feeling I have when a parent emails weeks after camp to tell me that their kid is still writing, is my silver lining of this incomparable time. “

Check out these novels by Eileen Moskowitz-Palma.

Kelly Rimmer

USA Today and worldwide bestselling author of contemporary and historical fiction

love 

It’s an unusual word, especially in English, because of its incredible versatility. It can mean something so casual (I do “love” it when plans fall through and I get to stay home and read!), but it can also be used to reflect the deepest of all human emotions. And even when we’re talking about love between people - that one word can describe so many different forms of emotion. The “love” I have for my husband is so different to the “love” I have for my siblings, which is different again to the “love” I have for my children, and the “love” I have for my friends. I love love!

Check out these novels by Kelly Rimmer.

E.G. Scott

Authors of The Woman Inside and In Case of Emergency

sinister

E:  'Sinister' is an entire writing prompt all in one word and it has provided many fertile seeds for the villains in our books, past and present. I've loved the word sinister since high school, when I learned that it was a synonym for left-handedness. As a southpaw, this felt extremely validating given my love of ominous and macabre subject matter. I’m not sinister, but my writing hand definitely is.

G: The word 'sinister', when spoken aloud, slips from the tongue quite nicely, no? The repeated hissing 's' sound imbues it with an onomatopoeia quality, and a dictionary definition, which pegs its meaning as 'presaging ill fortune or trouble', deftly sums up the ominous nature of the term while also providing a succinct description of how we as a writing duo attempt to construct our tales of intrigue and suspense.

Check out these novels by E.G. Scott.

Karin Slaughter

Bestselling author with more than 35 million copies sold

snick 

I used it a lot in Grant County, like the a “sneaker made a snicking sound,” and the copyeditor said “I think you mean ‘squeak’” and I’m like “snick” is gonna be in every book from now on, and it is. I like to make up words, so if anybody says anything, I’m like “do you understand the word in the context?” because that is what a definition is.

Check out these novels by Karin Slaughter.

Julia Spiro

Author of Someone Else’s Secret 

inflection 

Though the literal definition of ‘inflection’ involves grammar and pitch, I like to use the word to describe figurative crossroads in life. An inflection could be any deviation from a straight line, and I’ve always believed that the most important personal journeys we have are not linear ones, but rather ones that veer us off course many times. In my book, both of the main characters are at inflection points in their lives, in the sense that they are trying to figure out who they want to be in the future and what they need to do to achieve that.

Check out Julia Spiro’s debut.

Nancy Star

Bestselling author The Rules for Moving

effervescent

Despite my insecurity about spelling it correctly, I love the word effervescent! Do I love it because in these long summer days of shut-down that bubbly word feels almost exotic? Is it because the word itself feels bubbly on the tongue? Or is it because of nostalgia, the word holding the memory of how my mother came home from a parent/teacher conference with my seventh-grade homeroom teacher to report that after the teacher told her I was very effervescent, she asked the teacher, “Did you effer see her ven she effer vasn’t?” Effervescent, a word with the magical ability to transport me back to that special bubbly feeling teenagers get when their mothers embarrass them!” 

Check out these novels by Nancy Star.

Tori Whitaker

Author of Millicent Glenn’s Last Wish

dichotomy

Twenty years ago, a girlfriend and I were at a bar when we decided over wine that dichotomy was our favorite word; it defined how we saw dual sides of ourselves. Now, as I consider fiction—the strong protagonist who's also vulnerable or the despicable villain who secrets a soft spot—I find that for me, our favorite word holds true.”

Check out Tori Whitaker’s debut.

How about you? Do you have a favorite word? Tell me about it in the comments, below.