A Creative Journal

Word Definitions as Prompts

by Heather Goldsmith on June 22nd, 2006

Words have power. One word can mean something to me, yet to another person, that same word can hold an entirely different meaning from what I understand. It doesn’t mean either of us are necessarily incorrect in our thinking. It does mean we have assigned different emotions to these words.

This couldn’t be any clearer than when two people argue, in particular if the two are male and female. I find it endlessly fascinating that certain words make my husband see red, yet those words don’t seem to evoke a similar response from me.

That’s why it’s interesting to spend time writing in your journal using word definitions as prompts. You can pull out your dictionary, open to a random page, select a word with eyes closed and finger pointed, only revealing the word once you’ve opened your eyes. Or you can collect words that intrigue you, in your journal, of course, and write what you take them to mean as your journal entry, only using the dictionary to define the meaning at the end of what you have written.

I actually prefer writing the second way. I enjoy the time getting to know what the word means to me before revealing if I assign the word far more emotional impact than it actually has.

I hope you find this journal writing prompt useful for your journal writing.

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