30 Words to Sound Smarter at Work (With Example Sentences)

Sounding smart at work has very little to do with long words. It comes from saying exactly what you mean, in fewer words than the person before you. The words below help with that. None of them is obscure, all of them are used in meetings, emails and reports every day, and each one replaces a vaguer phrase you probably use now. Each comes with a plain meaning and an example sentence you could actually say out loud.

The short version

• Precise beats impressive. A word that says exactly what you mean sounds smarter than a long one used loosely.
• Learn a few at a time. Pick three words from the list below and use each one this week.
• Use them in writing first. An email gives you time to check that the word fits.
• Know the meaning exactly, including the small ways it differs from the words around it.

30 words that make you clearer at work

Word	Meaning	Example
concise	Giving a lot of information clearly in few words	Can you send a concise summary before the call?
succinct	Brief and clearly expressed	Her update was succinct: two lines and a date.
cogent	Clear, logical and convincing	He made a cogent case for delaying the launch.
articulate	To express an idea clearly in words	Let me articulate what I think the real problem is.
salient	Most noticeable or important	Here are the salient points from the client meeting.
nuance	A small but meaningful difference	The data is fine; the nuance is in how we present it.
pragmatic	Dealing with things in a practical, realistic way	Let's take a pragmatic approach and fix the urgent bugs first.
candid	Honest and direct	I'd appreciate your candid view on the proposal.
feasible	Possible to do in practice	Is a two-week timeline feasible with the current team?
viable	Able to work or succeed	We need a viable plan B if the supplier is late.
tenable	Able to be defended or maintained	Keeping prices flat is no longer tenable.
plausible	Seeming reasonable or likely	That's a plausible explanation for the drop in sign-ups.
rationale	The reasons behind a decision	Can you share the rationale for the new structure?
substantiate	To support a claim with evidence	We'll need numbers to substantiate that in the report.
corroborate	To confirm with additional evidence	The survey results corroborate what support has been hearing.
scrutinize	To examine closely and carefully	Legal will scrutinize the contract before we sign.
meticulous	Showing great attention to detail	Thanks for the meticulous review of the slides.
judicious	Showing good judgment	A judicious use of the budget got us through the quarter.
prudent	Careful and sensible about the future	It would be prudent to wait for the final figures.
mitigate	To make something less severe	A second server would mitigate the risk of downtime.
exacerbate	To make a problem worse	Rushing the fix could exacerbate the issue.
expedite	To make something happen sooner	Is there a way to expedite the approval?
delineate	To describe or mark out precisely	The brief should delineate who owns each task.
ambiguous	Open to more than one interpretation	The deadline in the email was ambiguous: this Friday or next?
inherent	Existing as a natural, permanent part of something	There is an inherent risk in any new market.
tangible	Clear and definite; real	We need tangible results by the end of the month.
consensus	General agreement	We reached a consensus on the new pricing.
imperative	Of vital importance	It's imperative that the client sees this before Monday.
cursory	Quick and not thorough	I only gave it a cursory read; I'll check it properly tonight.
ostensibly	Apparently, but perhaps not really	The meeting was ostensibly about budgets, but it was really about headcount.

How to use them without sounding forced

A new word sounds forced when it is doing a job a simpler word does better. A few rules keep you on the right side of that line.

• Replace, do not decorate. Use mitigate instead of "make it a bit less bad", not instead of "reduce" when "reduce" says it.
• Watch the pairs. Feasible means possible to do; viable means likely to work once done. Exacerbate makes something worse; mitigate makes it less bad. Mixing them up is what makes a word sound borrowed.
• One new word per message. Three in one paragraph reads like a thesaurus. One reads like you.
• Say it out loud first. If you are unsure how a word is pronounced, check before a meeting. A word you hesitate over loses its effect.

Making them stick

Reading a list once will not put these words in your mouth when you need them. Meeting them repeatedly will. Pick three, write each on a sticky note or set them as reminders, and use each one in a real email this week. Then pick three more.

That is what Markword is built around: one word at a time, on your home screen through the day, with a definition and an example written for the app, and a short daily practice that tests you on words you have already seen. You can choose topics such as work and communication, so the words you get are the ones you will use. How the practice helps is explained in how to remember new words, and putting a word on your home screen is covered in how to add a word of the day widget on Android.

Quick answers

What words make you sound smarter at work?

Precise, everyday words such as concise, salient, feasible, mitigate and rationale. They sound smart because they say exactly what you mean in fewer words, not because they are rare.

Is using big words at work a good idea?

Only when they are the most accurate word. A long word used loosely sounds worse than a short word used well.

What is the difference between feasible and viable?

Feasible means something can be done. Viable means it is likely to work or succeed once it is done.

How many new words should I learn at a time?

A few. Three words a week that you actually use beat thirty that you read once.

How can I improve my vocabulary for work?

Learn words in context, use each new word in your own writing soon after you meet it, and review them a few days later. A word of the day app makes the repetition automatic.

Three words this week

Choose three words from the list and use them before Friday. Get Markword on Google Play, free to download, for one new, useful word every day.