Dr. Willard Funk, the widely admired dictionary publisher, was once asked to perform a monumental task on the part of a wordsmith: choosing the 10 most expressive words in the English language. Here, to entertain and engage you, is our boy Willard’s top 10 list:

the most bitter word — alone

the most tragic — death

the most reverend — mother

the most beautiful — love

the most cruel — revenge

the most peaceful — tranquil

the saddest — forgotten

the warmest — friendship

the coldest — no

the most comforting — faith

Mmmm … what a fascinating exercise! Which words would I choose, I wonder? To my mind, there’s something powerful, provocative, and useful about this challenge — something that might enliven our work. It may be worth coming up with our own expressive-word entries. Which would you choose? Something to ponder and play with as we all write on!