Weather and Whereabouts

Eight words for the places we live and the way the years go by.

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

1. 1 climate noun
2. 2 decade noun
3. 3 notify verb
4. 4 hesitate verb
5. 5 captive adjective
6. 6 remarkable adjective
7. 7 mentally adverb
8. 8 promptly adverb

Nelson's word

noun

Climate. A noun. I file it under the usual weather of a place, measured not by a single day but by many years. Weather is what happens this afternoon; climate is what happens on average, season after season, decade after decade. A rainforest has a wet climate, a desert has a dry one, and neither changes because of one odd storm. When a report describes the climate of a region, picture the long record, not the forecast. State it precisely: climate is weather kept over time.

The desert climate stays hot and dry for most of the year.

Nelson's word

noun

Decade. A noun, and a tidy one. I file it under a period of exactly ten years, no more and no less. The dec- at its front means ten, the same ten you find in a decimal or a decathlon. When someone says a bridge stood for a decade, they mean it stood for ten years running. Three decades make thirty years, and half a decade makes five. File it near year and century, and you will always know the length of the stretch a writer means.

The town changed a great deal over the past decade.

Vinny's word

verb

Notify! To tell someone about something, and to tell them OFFICIALLY, on the record, so no one can say they never heard! When the school officials notify the parents, they do not whisper a rumor; they send the word out plainly for all to receive. That is the verb, and it is mine, a heroic duty, because a warning that never arrives is no warning at all. Notice and notify share a root that means to make known; to notify is to make a thing known to the very person who needs to know it.

The school officials notify the parents whenever a snow day arrives.

Vinny's word

verb

Hesitate! To pause, to hang back, to hold still for a beat because doubt has crept in! When the runners hesitate at the edge of the icy trail, they do not freeze forever; they stop just long enough to wonder whether the footing is safe. That is the verb, and even a hero hesitates, because a wise pause can save you. But do not confuse a hesitation with a surrender; to hesitate is to think, and then to act. Weigh the risk, gather your nerve, and go.

The runners hesitate at the edge of the icy trail.

Jake's word

adjective

Captive. An adjective, and mine, describing a thing that is held prisoner and not free to leave. A captive bird in a cage, a captive audience that cannot walk out, a captive prince locked in a tower: none of them can simply go. Look at the front of the word, capt-, a root that means to take or hold. You will meet it again in capture, when someone takes hold of a thing, and in caption, the words that hold a picture in place. Could we be more specific than saying an animal was stuck? We could say it was captive, and let the reader feel the cage.

The captive bird beat its wings against the cage.

Jake's word

adjective

Remarkable. Oh, this is a fine one, and it is mine. As an adjective, remarkable describes a thing so out of the ordinary that it is worth remarking on, worth stopping to mention out loud. A remarkable sunset, a remarkable act of kindness, a remarkable climb: each one makes you turn and say, did you see that. Its Frown is ordinary, the thing that draws no notice at all. Could we be more specific than saying a view was nice? We could call it remarkable, and tell the reader it was worth the trip. Magnifique.

The climbers made a remarkable climb up the frozen waterfall.

Benny's word

adverb

Mentally. An adverb, and I own it the way Nelson owns his nouns. It tells you a thing happens in the mind, in your thinking, not out loud or out in the world. When she mentally rehearsed the speech, her lips stayed still; the whole run-through happened inside her head. That is good practice, and here is the coaching note: a strong writer shows the reader where the action lives. Say she mentally counted the steps, and we know the counting was quiet and inward. Make it sharper by naming the place, and mentally names the mind.

She mentally rehearsed the speech before she stepped on stage.

Benny's word

adverb

Promptly. An adverb, and one of my favorites, because it praises the very thing a good coach praises: doing it right away, without delay. When the team promptly returned every call, they did not let the message sit; they acted at once. That is hustle, and hustle wins. Here is the push: do not just tell me a thing was done, tell me it was done promptly, and the reader feels the speed of it. You can always be quicker off the mark, and promptly is the word that shows it.

The team promptly returned every call the same afternoon.