Stress Words (with Quiz)

As finals week approaches for all you college students out there, I thought I’d share some favorite “stress words”—that is, words that as a writer you can stress over to no end without ever deciding which one is best. To help take the pressure off, here’s a mini-exam that’s less pass-fail and more Choose Your Own Adventure.

The word(s) of the day is Someone/Somebody

 Grammatically interchangeable, not even an English handbook will help you with this one. Somebody connotes a body, perhaps

a).  The victim of a gruesome crime

b). a dead body washed ashore by the tide

c). an anesthetized patient on the operating table

d). an unnamed soldier carried by his comrade across a battlefield

 

Someone emphasizes a person’s “oneness,” meaning they are:

a). A loved one

b). A pantheist

c). The chosen one

d). Completely unique