The value of a word is the idea it represents

Words are everywhere but we barely notice them. How many times do you see the word ‘if‘ in a day? Do you ever ponder on what it means?

So, as you’re reading this sentence, your eyes are jumping ahead to the next word trying to digest all its meaning. Your brain’s carefully separating the spaces from the short and long words, and ultimately you know that this sentence will eventually end with a little dot ‘.’

As a rule, we pay very little attention to this process – but we know that by the end of a paragraph we’ll have interpreted what was written and extracted its meaning… hopefully.

The dictionary defines a word as:

A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing that symbolises and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or of a combination of morphemes; a unit of language that native speakers can identify; the blocks from which sentences are made.

So the value of a word is not how it’s written but in the idea it represents. If a picture paints a thousand words then a word can paint a thousand pictures! A single word can contain a powerful message that can release all forms of emotions. What do you think of when you see the words ‘change‘, ‘one‘, ‘blue‘ or ‘Obama‘?

Words can build bridges or knock down barriers. When used correctly they can be extremely powerful. They can communicate a lifetime of knowledge or capture a single moment in time.

So can someone explain why this happens?

Joking aside, what you write, both offline and online, will be around for a very, very long time – even if you’re not…! So the moral is before posting get someone to check what you’ve written – you don’t want to stir the wrong emotions…

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Tagged as: communication, words