Do you double check definitions a lot? Mainly asking younger people.

I have this small issue that I'm going to try and work away. I keep looking up words I already know just to double check that I'm using them correctly in sentences.

In school when I had this big clumsy dictionary, I almost never double checked myself. But now that I have easy access to the internet while writing I almost always feel the need to verify some words I don't often use. In 90% of the cases that I double check, I am correct in my usage. So it has become a time consumer that slows down my writing.

Asking younger people mainly, because I'm hypothesising that we are getting so familiar with having the internet around that we no longer need to remember things properly.

I'm just curious, do other people have the same problem? Is it an internet problem? Is it a problem for young people mainly? Or is it just I who suffer a lot of self-doubt?

I imagine all I have to do is just stop my behaviour. Maybe easier said than done.

 

I thought you meant during the course of reading and I was ready to go on a rant about people who use SAT words in the middle of a sentence like I'm supposed to remember that shit.

But as a writer, I tend to use my thesaurus more than my dictionary, honestly. I use too many words too often within a chapter and it gets tiresome with all the "looking" people do. I have, however, in the past used my dictionary when I use words that I think are correct, but I've gotten it mixed up with another one. I think the one I used recently was... maligned or something. And I had it confused with something else. Bit sad because maligned sounded better in the sentence, but wouldn't make sense if I left it.

I don't know if I qualify for answering as I'm in my thirties, but I hope this helps.

 

I'm 25. I use the thesaurus a lot.
Also, i get homophones confused like "effect" and "affect" and "segway" and "segue" (I ALWAYS have to look up the definitions to those to make sure I'm using the right one). I tend to second guess myself on those

 

I'm 23. I use the thesaurus because as Dogberry said, I use too many of the same word. I also use the dictionary for words I think I know but I've never heard aloud or seen the actual definition of, so I go like, "Let me make sure I know this word." I also tend to make up words a lot. A recent one that comes to mind is, "surlish." I had sworn it was a word but the little red line told me it was not, and so I had to look up what I was trying to say. I guess I remembered the word 'surly' and I remembered the word 'churlish' and just combined the two. Ever since that moment, I've been checking word definitions more and more, but I'm also the kind of person who has to recount things three times to make sure I've counted correctly, so...

 

I do consult my Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedic Dictionary.
since it is from the '70s and comes in far handier on the
old timey words, as well as those I am unsure of.

 

Younger than what? Colonialism? Yes. Despacito? No.

But the 10% you weren't correct probably pays for the rest. Before I had reliable access to internet, I looked up words in my massive dictionaries/thesauri, now I look up a lot of things online just because it's faster. There was a time before I really started writing seriously that I barely double checked my meanings at all, but I also made far more mistakes back then, too.

Socrates argues something similar about learning to read and write . Plato recorded his argument saying this:

If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.
What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only the semblance of wisdom, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much while for the most part they know nothing. And as men filled not with wisdom but with the conceit of wisdom they will be a burden to their fellows.​

 

And even then, some words refuse to stick. I have no explanation for why I keep thinking erstwhile means arguable. It does not mean that. And in the other direction, for whatever reason intuitive and unintuitive are two words that run away from me every time I want to talk about the sentiments they each deploy.

Other than that, no, I don't make too much of a habit of looking up the meanings of words when writing fiction.

 

I'm somewhere below thirty.

I look up definitions out of wisgnorance (knowing that you might not know things), not forgetfulness. The vast, vast majority of my vocabulary has been learned through context from other people who've in turn learned through context. That's okay until my working definition is tested. Just today, I had a feeling that efficacy was a better word than effectiveness for a post in another thread, but I wasn't sure why. I was right, but I had to actually learn the difference.

Not only do people not have to remember things, they don't have to know how to spell, perform unit conversions, or do basic math any more. Personally, my weakness is spelling. I get S and Z usage mixed up all of the damn time. And I don't have to learn the difference for each case because of that handy red line.

Even grammar and structure are under attack, which I find most concerning because applications like Grammarly pass an individual's own expression though a filter. When I read her email, it has been depersonaliz(s?)ed into mushy rice pudding via code under the presumption that any deviation or error will hurt the message.

The degenerative (eh, harsh word) aspect is certainly present, but I personally think it would be obtuse to solely blame technology. It's just a tool. There's something much worse at play that I have a hard time defining.

 

I'm an old bird, and I end up looking up words I run across because they are being used in weird ways ...only to find that the meaning or usage has changed in recent years. What used to be plain 'wrong' is now acceptable in many cases. Not sure how I feel about this.

I'm not happy if the 'new' meaning dilutes the old meaning. "Awesome" is my go-to word in this category. Not all that long ago it meant something like, you know, Mount Vesuvius erupting, a glacier breaking apart and thundering into the sea. Now it means a pretty decent piece of pie or a nice dress. So how do you describe Mount Vesuvius or the glacier without sounding banal?

"It's exploding. I've never seen anything like it. It's an awesome sight, isn't it?"
"So are you, Sweet Cheeks."
"Awww ...really? ...geez...."

 

I'm 36, so do I qualify as younger? I read lots of books and will use the Kindle dictionary feature to look up word meanings if it is not a very common word to make sure I understand it(or if used in a context I am not familiar with). For my own writing? Not so much because most of my characters are not people who are going to be throwing out those 50 pt scrabble words too frequently

 

I'm 23 and I don't look up definitions hardly ever. If I include a word in my writing I (feel like I) know it well enough I don't have to look it up.

 

I look up stuff probably more than most. It's partly curiosity, partly insistence on accuracy. When we don't, we get incorrectly overused words like "epic" and "literally" and then it adds to the zeitgeist.
Oh... just a sec. * looks up zeitgeist *
Yeah. Zeitgeist.

 

I have a terrible habit of using the wrong words in conversation. They're usually similar in spelling or pronunciation, but are definitely the incorrect words. For example, my husband and I were discussing our dog's end of life (when it gets to that) and I had said, "When he becomes inconstant..." and my husband cut me off and said, "You mean, incontinent?" Of course, that's what I meant. I think my mouth is too fast for my brain and that's the result. I knew the word, I just said something similar instead. I usually respond with "That too." I do it occasionally when writing as well, and in that scenario, I need to look the word up because it sounds correct, but something is off. I wonder sometimes if it is a legitimate dysfunction...

 

I'm older (sorry), but I check all the time. Before the internet, I was looking in my dictionary and thesaurus. Now, Google is my friend. Quicker than flipping pages.

I think it's more to do with being anal about writing well, and I don't see much wrong in that. Editors are for sissies!



P.S. I actually love editors.

 

I basically live inside Merriam Webster, and the thesaurus xD
26 yo

 

If I am discombobulated, I scrutinise my dictionary to ascertain the veracity of the matter. It helps to elucidate me.

 

I rarely, although I'll admit, sometimes use words I'm not entirely sure what they mean. In that case, I'll look them up so if someone more educated reads my writing and sees that word and actually knows it, it will make sense. But I usually find myself looking up the definition, or rather the difference between, past and passed. I've looked it up so many times and I just can't grasp the concept of it. Anytime I use them it still feels wrong.

 

I'm not young, but I'll throw in my two cents...

If you mean an ink and paper dictionary...well, no. I'm sure I have one somewhere. That said I'm a religious regular at not only most dictionary and thesaurus websites, but also a big fan of vocabulary.com. Mostly because I can't always keep track of a word's nuances or second definitions. And sometimes larger more unfamiliar words blur in my memory. Peregrination versus prestidigitation or anamnesis versus atavism, for instance.

-SIN

 

Yes, and no. Words, not so much, once I look up a definition once, I tend to remember it. However, I do look up conjugation quite a bit. Particularly since I write my main plot in past tense, so any backstory to that happens in the past perfect tense. And even worse is when things are to happen in the character's future. Then I have to figure out the future past tense which gets annoying. I keep saying things like "XXX will YYY" where I mean "XXX was going to YYY".

 

I am 28 and have to admit that I spend more time looking for synonyms than definitions (I really hate repetitions).
My alpha readers said to me that sometimes I'm using the wrong word and do too many typos, so I am more meticulous now. But still, as I will get one or two other corrections if published well I relativise about it (ok maybe too much...)

 

I don't think I'd consider myself young seeing as I'm forty, but yes I can relate to your concern and my over reliance on the internet became something I could no longer ignore. For that reason I've trained myself out of it in the past couple of years, which allows me to write more freely. The trade off is now I feel compelled to quickly skim read any draft or submission I make to see if any words seem misused. So rather than looking up definitions in the process of writing I'm now looking them up after the fact. Fortunately, this is quicker and the number of words I deliberate over and scrutinize tends to go down. Like you said, you usually discover that your first instincts and usage is correct. Only once in a while do I find myself using a word in the incorrect way or without a nuanced understanding of what it really means.

 

31. I have always double checked. On the contrary, I think the internet has made it silly not to double check. I think it's essential to reinforce a correct understanding of words to maximize your effective use of them.

As for thesauri, I find a lot of people misuse them. They should be used as a way to remember words you can't quite remember. If you do use it to discover new words, don't simply substitute the new one for one you already know. Investigate the word. Find examples of its use. Make the unfamiliar familiar.

Example: brief, laconic, short, terse, concise. These five words are synonyms, but their meanings are subtly different, and it's impossible to understand the nuances without studying the words.

Verb aspect is one of the more slippery aspects of grammar (indicative, perfect, progressive, perfect progressive, arguably the participle and gerund). I think the most important thing to remember about it is that its purpose is syntactic, not semantic. Aspect provides information about how a verb fits into the context of the rest of words in the sentence, and doesn't really contain meaning outside of that context.