Avoid ten dollar words

A ten-dollar word is one that helps the speaker sound smart and makes the listener confused. You’ll hear it in business jargon, academic terminology, or loanwords from ancient languages. It doesn’t necessarily mean any word with more than three syllables—something can be a mouthful without being mystifying. But ten-dollar words add complexity where none is required.

Dropping a term like “sine qua non” in front of your friend leaves him three options: he knows what it means, he interrupts you to admit he doesn’t, or he says nothing and scans the rest of the conversation for context clues.

Two out of three paths break your connection. The third, the say-nothing path, the easiest one, pulls him quietly out of connection with you.

We are already so alone in this world. Why would you say anything to make you feel even less understood?