Why you should vary your use of “very”

#wordchoice #synonyms

First, a disclaimer – I’m not here to hate on “very.”

It’s a splendid word that hails from the Latin verus, meaning “true.” So when you call someone “very smart,” a painting “very beautiful,” or a dish “very tasty,” you are paying homage to the ideal of truth itself – as if to say, “I really mean it, without any flattery or puffery.”

My only complaint here is that we often ask this four-letter intensifier to do way too much heavy lifting.

When someone says, “That chemistry exam was very difficult,” you’ve gotta wonder: How bad is “very”? Did you sweat a bit whilst calculating the pH of a buffer solution but still wind up getting a 95/100? Or did you grab a trauma-induced cappuccino afterwards and cry tears of existential shame, knowing you likely failed the test?

Turns out “very” is pretty subjective (hopefully not like your chem teacher’s grading).

One thing you could do here is replace “very” with another more clarifying adverb: “mildly difficult,” “moderately difficult,” “brutally difficult,” “fiendishly difficult,” etc.

Not a bad approach. But for your college essays, you could turn up the heat even more.

Think about completely different words or phrases that capture what you want to express with greater precision and pizzazz.

Here are some such alternatives to “very difficult”:

✤ Example 1: “My marathon training program was relentless.”

“Relent” means “ease up,” so “relentless” means your instructors didn’t give you an inch of leeway. They pushed you to your limits and beyond.

✤ Example 2: “The first few days at wilderness camp proved disorienting.”

“Orient” is another word for “East.” When you “orient” people, you act as their metaphorical compass, helping them get their bearings. If your experience was “disorienting,” it means you were struggling to find yours.

✤ Example 3: “Relearning Mandarin after a decade of disuse has felt like a battle against attrition.”

“Attrition” is a military strategy that gradually wears down an opponent until they can no longer sustain a defense. Years of not speaking a language didn’t erase it from your memory overnight but rubbed it out, bit by bit. Now, you’re tenaciously reclaiming it, one forgotten word at a time.

In short, sometimes the very thing your essay needs is one less “very” (see what I did there?).You’ve got a gazillion other options to spice up your essay!