Analysis Of Merriam-Webster's How Strong Is Your Vocabulary

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The timer ticks on the corner of the screen. The room is silent. It’s the last question, and I’m so close to breaking the leaderboard.

A cry breaks out.

“Argh! Why did I click ‘corrupt’ instead of ‘clever’? I knew that perspicacious meant clever!”

Merriam-Webster’s “How Strong is Your Vocabulary?” quiz—a 10-question test of both reflexes and knowledge—has once again bested me, but I refuse to admit defeat.

I am a lexophile—a lover of words. Catch me at any moment of the day and you’ll find me hunched over a crossword puzzle, word search, or my laptop, taking the aforementioned quiz. I collect words; anagrams, palindromes, and other quirky terms make up my lexicon.

I’ve always had a unique relationship with words. When I was younger,