Sent Across the Wire

Eight words for the act of sending, and six ways to make them yours.

Meet each word one at a time, then take the quiz to lock them in.

1. 1 transmission noun
2. 2 commission noun
3. 3 transmit verb
4. 4 reject verb
5. 5 transient adjective
6. 6 provisional adjective
7. 7 comprehensively adverb
8. 8 inherently adverb

Nelson's word

noun

Transmission. A noun. I file it under the act of sending a signal, a force, or a message across some distance. A radio broadcast is a transmission. The passing of power from an engine to the wheels is a transmission. The spread of an idea from one mind to another is a transmission too. Look at the front, trans, which means across, joined to miss, which means to send: a sending across, filed under one tidy word. When you read that a transmission was lost, picture a message that started out and never arrived. State it precisely: transmission is the sending itself, and the record of it lands squarely on my desk.

The station lost the transmission for a full minute during the storm.

Nelson's word

noun

Commission. A noun. I file it under an authority granted to send someone to a task, an official charge handed down and put on the record. When the council issued a commission, it did not merely wish the officer well; it granted the power that sent her out with orders. Look at the root, miss, which means to send, and the prefix com, which means together: a commission sends someone forth with authority behind them. An artist works on commission when a patron charges them to make a thing. A committee is a commission of another kind. File it near mission and permit, its relatives in the sending business, and remember: a commission is not a favor, it is a formal grant of authority.

The council issued a commission that sent the young officer to the frontier.

Vinny's word

verb

Transmit! To take a signal, a message, a pulse of force, and SEND it hurtling from one place to another! When the relay towers transmit the alert, they do not sit on it; they fling it across three counties before you can blink. That is the verb, and it is mine, a heroic act of delivery. Break it open and you see the secret: trans means across, and mit means to send, so to transmit is, at its heart, to send across. That same root hides inside permit, admit, and submit, a whole team of sending words. Learn where transmit comes from, and you learn the family it commands.

The relay towers transmit the alert across three counties in seconds.

Vinny's word

verb

Reject! To throw a thing BACK, to refuse it, to send it away unaccepted! When the board rejects the plan, they hurl it back across the table and demand better. That is the verb, and it is a decisive one, because a hero knows what to refuse. Look at the root, ject, which means to throw, and the prefix re, which means back: to reject is to throw back. But beware, because this word has a secret identity. Say it one way and it is my verb, an action; but a factory reject, an item thrown out for a flaw, is a naming word, and that hat belongs to Nelson. Same spelling, two jobs. We sort those hats in Practice.

The board rejects the plan and sends it back for a full rewrite.

Jake's word

adjective

Transient. Ah, a subtle one, and it is mine. As an adjective, transient describes a thing that lasts only a short time, that passes quickly and does not stay: a transient appearance, a transient mood, a transient guest who is gone by morning. Its family carries that same trans, the sense of crossing over and moving on. Could we be more specific than saying a feeling was brief? We could call it transient, which tells the reader it not only was short but was always going to pass, always in motion toward its own end. Its Frown is permanent, the thing that stays for good. Same picture, sharper edges. Magnifique.

The comet made a transient appearance and vanished behind the hills.

Jake's word

adjective

Provisional. A careful, grown-up word, and it is mine. As an adjective, provisional describes a thing accepted for now but not yet made final, a decision that holds until something confirms it: a provisional spot in the finals, a provisional agreement, a provisional license that a full one will replace. It comes from the same root as provide and vision, the idea of seeing ahead and making an arrangement to bridge the gap. Could we be more specific than saying a plan was temporary? We could call it provisional, which tells the reader it is not merely short-lived but deliberately in place until the real thing arrives. Say it, and you name the in-between exactly.

The team earned a provisional spot in the finals, pending one last review.

Benny's word

adverb

Comprehensively. Now this is an adverb worth adding to your game, and I own it the way Nelson owns his nouns. It tells you a thing was done in a thorough way, a way that covers everything and leaves nothing out. When the inspector comprehensively checks every wire, she skips not a single one. Hear the word comprehend inside it, to grasp fully, and the ending ly that turns the whole idea into how an action happens. Here is my coaching: do not settle for saying you studied. Say you studied comprehensively, and the reader knows you covered the whole field, corner to corner. Make it sharper, and this is the word that sharpens it.

The inspector comprehensively checks every wire before she signs off.

Benny's word

adverb

Inherently. A strong adverb, and one I coach my best players to use, because it names a quality that lives inside a thing from the start. When something is inherently harder, it is harder by its own nature, built that way, not made that way by anything outside it. Hear inherent tucked in there, meaning belonging by nature, and the ending ly that puts it to work on a verb or an adjective. Here is the coaching point: there is a difference between a thing that becomes difficult and a thing that is inherently difficult, hard in its bones. Reach for inherently when you mean built in, and you will say exactly what you mean. You can do better than by nature, and this is how.

A rushed message is inherently harder to trust.