Find the one exact word
After you've cut the deadwood, some five-word phrases still hide a single exact word; trade the phrase for the word.
On this page
Cutting redundancy gets you only so far. Even a lean draft is full of phrases standing in for a single word the writer didn't reach for: "the reason for" is why, "despite the fact that" is although, "in the event that" is if. This is the part of concision you can't do by deleting — you have to replace, and that takes vocabulary and the alertness to use it.
How it works
It's the difference between a cross-country road trip and a direct flight: you can't make the road trip efficient by trimming it — you change the vehicle. When a phrase is really one idea wearing many words, find the exact word for it. "Thoroughly review what you have written to improve it" is revise; "use X instead of Y" is replace; "concrete illustrations" are examples. Whole clauses collapse: "As you thoroughly review what you've written… the thing to do before anything else is to see whether you could use concrete illustrations instead of abstractions" becomes "As you revise, first replace abstractions with examples." When you edit, look through the words to the ideas — many words for few ideas is the signal that a single word is hiding.
Why it matters
A wide vocabulary isn't for showing off; it's for compression. The writer who knows the exact word says in one beat what a vaguer writer takes a clause to circle, and the reader feels the precision as authority. Trading a wordy phrase for its exact word often also lets you turn a limp noun back into a verb, sharpening the sentence twice over.
Try it
- When editing, look through the words to the ideas; where you're using many words for one idea, a single word is probably hiding.
- Keep a short list of stock offenders — "the reason for" → why, "in a situation where" → when, "concerning the matter of" → about.
- Reach for the exact word, not the fanciest — a five-dollar word beats a fifty-dollar one when it's the right one.
Common pitfalls
Abusing the thesaurus — swapping a plain word for an obscure one just because you can. The goal is the exact word, not the rare one: precision, not decoration. There's also no formula here; the move takes vocabulary and wit, so treat it as something to stay alert for, not a rule to apply mechanically.
Even after cutting all that redundancy, many writers still use five words when they could just use one.
WILLIAM · HOW TO ARTICULATE YOUR THOUGHTS · 2026
A road trip can't be flown. Change the vehicle: find the word.
Drawn from
- William, How to Articulate Your Thoughts More Clearly than 99% of Writers (Writer Science, 2026).
- Joseph M. Williams, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace — replacing a phrase with a word.
- Related: Cut what the reader can infer, Characters as subjects, actions as verbs.