The Dictionary of Difficult Words - by Jane Solomon (Hardcover)

About the Book

Kids can test their knowledge with more than 400 words to amaze, confuse, and inspire budding wordsmiths (and adults). All of the words featured in this book are difficult to spell, hard to say, and their meanings are obscure to most children (and most adults). Full color.

Book Synopsis

What is a bumbershoot? Or a moonbow? And what does it mean when someone absquatulates...? Find out all this and more in The Dictionary of Difficult Words.

Test your knowledge with more than 400 words to amaze, confuse, and inspire budding wordsmiths (and adults). All of the words featured in this book are difficult to spell, hard to say, and their meanings are obscure to most children (and most adults)! You can master them with the simple, easy-to-understand definitions and pronunciations written by lexicographer (yes, that's in there too!) Jane Solomon. Fun, colorful illustrations add whimsy to the pages.

Some jobbernowls say dictionaries are anachronistic, or even obsolete, but it's kenspeckle to real bibliophiles that those vociferous ninnyhammers are just metagrobolised by the plethora of portmanteaus, neologisms, and jargon they offer. Next time you find yourself wrangling with one of these ultracrepidarians, no need to imagineer a sockdolager: just show them this book.

This captivating dictionary celebrates the beauty of the English language for family trivia time spent around the printed page.

Review Quotes

'a fantastically fun family book'

--Let Them Be Small

'fantastic for dipping into or reading right through ... some wonderful notes at the beginning about the parts of speech, and how to work out what a word means and how to pronounce it, as well as some simple notes at the end about usage, and all written in a bouncy light tone, which feels friendly and yet still authoritative. Quite a frabjous book.'--Minerva Reads

'will amaze even the most eloquent wordsmith (adult or child!)'--Angels and Urchins

'A brilliant way to encourage children to appreciate the beauties of our language and to extend their vocabulary and improve their writing skills. Wonderful!' --Parents in Touch

'A fun, playful and clever book brimming with perplexing words ... You could have a lot of fun just pronouncing the words, as well as trying to get them into everyday language. A wonderfully whimsical celebration of words.' --Just Imagine

'EXCEPTIONAL. My mam and I just sat for a good half an hour finding new words.'--Steph, alittlebutalot, Twitter

'GORGEOUS book. We started out with me quizzing 11-year-old, but she found it more fun to quiz me.'--Lynne Murphy, Professor at Sussex University, Twitter

'Highly recommended'--Gretchen McCulloch, Twitter

About the Author

Jane Solomon is a lexicographer based in Oakland, California. She spends her days writing definitions and working on various projects for Dictionary.com. She's a member of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, the group that decides what new emoji pop up on our devices. Jane has a twin sister who is also a lexicographer.

Louise Lockhart is an illustrator living in an old mill in a small town in England. She spends her days creating designs from little paper cutouts and line drawings. Her books include The Dictionary of DifficultWords (published in 2019 by Frances Lincoln Children's Books) and her clients include: Heal's, Mini Boden, Flow Magazine, Anthropologie, The Independent, Anorak Magazine, Mollie Makes Magazine, Donna Wilson, Graniph, Little Otsu, and Liberty.