One Word: Contemporary Writers on the Words They Love or Loathe

"Readers will find that the words profiled here have a new trace of meaning, warmth, and a time-worn glow."—John Morse, publisher of Merriam-Webster, Inc.

In One Word: Contemporary Writers on the Words They Love or Loathe, Molly McQuade asks the question all writers love to answer: what one word means the most to you, and why? Writers respond with a wild gallimaufry of their choosing, from ardor to bitchin' to thermostat to wrong to very. There is corn, not the vegetable but the idea, defini...