Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Understandable English Podcast. I'm Oliver, and today we are going to be talking about words that make you sound smarter. OK, this sounds a little bit strange or a different kind of strange topic for the podcast today, but what I am going to be doing is reading or looking at an article from Prepley which is based on a study of words that make you sound smarter. This study study is some research.
It is an experiment or a trial or an academic paper which is looking at results. It is testing something and analyzing or seeing the results from it. So that is how I would explain a study or a scientific study, and this study was carried out in America to see what words that people used to sound smart and what words that people think make others sound more intelligent or smarter.
I thought this might be interesting because perhaps you would want to use some of these words or understand them. So let's take a look. First, the article talks about how using some of these advanced words can show others that you are quite intelligent or smart, or it can also kind of give the impression that you are trying very hard to appear smart, so to make people think that you're smart even if you aren't. And it can be viewed negatively as well.
From the study carried out, they find that almost three out of five people used complex, so complicated or difficult vocabulary to try to appear smarter. That's very interesting. And almost 60% of people have used a word to sound more intelligent or smarter, even if they didn't know what the word meant.
That's crazy. But there was another question in this study and they asked people that if someone uses complex so more difficult or complicated vocabulary or words, does it make them seem smarter to you? And almost 80% of people said yes, that they do think that someone is more intelligent or smarter if they use complex vocabulary. So let's take a look at the top five words from the survey of which people use to sound smarter from this research of speech.
OK, so we'll look at 5. I will read each one and then explain what it means and we will start for #5 and work our way up to #1 which is the most popular. OK, Are you ready? Let's go #5 is adulation. Adulation. It will be in the subtitles on this podcast and if you're watching on YouTube, you can see the correct spelling. So adulation and what this means. The exact definition is
excessive admiration or praise. So when someone is like really a big fan, they are admiring and loving what you do or who you are. For example, a rock star or an actor may dislike adulation from their fans because the fans care or love so much the rock star or the actor or the star. It's too much praise, too much attention and love from those fans. So that's what adulation is. It's like intense or too much admiration or praise.
OK #4 The 4th most commonly used complicated word to sound smart or intelligent is anomaly. Anomaly and anomaly from the official definition is something that deviates so is different from what is standard, normal or expected. For example, he was an anomaly in the group because he was the only one that had blue eyes. Everyone else had brown eyes. He had blue eyes, so he was the anomaly. OK, number free is the word brevity, brevity.
And Simply put, to say something or write something with brevity is to not use too many words and to be very exact or precise with your use of words. So you're being very straight to the point and not over explaining or over using words. And #2 is accolade accolade. An accolade is an award or maybe a prestige or a privilege which is given to someone to acknowledge or recognize something that they have done or
achieved. So you can think of it really in general, in most cases as an award or a prestige. So that is accolade. For example, he has won a number of accolades for his work, so a number of awards. And finally, the number one most used more complicated vocabulary or word to sound more smart is articulate. Articulate. So this is actually a great word
in my opinion. I think it's a very good description word and it is an adjective to sort of show the ability that someone speaks fluently and clearly, like very well. So this speaker is articulate, they speak fluently and very well, very clear, easy to understand, perhaps a great communicator. OK, so that was the top five words that people use to sound smarter. These were difficult, so let me know if you will try to use them or maybe you just want to
understand them. But always remember, communicating in English is not about using fancy words or complicated vocabulary. It's about understanding each other and speaking in a way that is natural and comfortable for ourselves. If we try to speak in an overcomplicated way in situations or social positions where we don't have to, it will sound quite strange.
You know, perhaps when we are doing academic English or business English, using more complicated words is fine, but if we are just talking with friends or having a casual conversation in a shop, it's a little bit strange to use words that people might not even understand. So do keep that in mind as you study English. Don't overcomplicated what? Oh, don't overcomplicate what you are trying to say. Say it clearly, directly, and in a way that is natural for you and to others.
I hope this was interesting in some way. If you are new, make sure to check out my YouTube channel in the description below. I post real life vlogs in English on that Channel. They are easy English vlogs where I speak just like here in a clear and easy way to understand. So please check that out. And if you love this podcast and want to support it, please consider subscribing to the podcast for just £0.99 or less than $1.00 almost per month for extra podcast episodes and
content every week. Thank you very much for listening and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.