“Is there anyone alive who has more fun with words than Richard Lederer? In dozens of books, from Crazy English to The Word Circus, he has continually entertained and amazed us with his boundless knowledge of and enthusiasm for all things linguistic. Now, in Amazing Words, Lederer puts on yet another dazzling display, elucidating the wondrous stories and secrets that lie hidden in the language. There’s an ooh! and an ah! and a hearty ha-ha-ha! on every page.”
“Richard Lederer has outdone Richard Lederer. Amazing Words is clever, compelling, and totally captivating. This book is for anyone and everyone who loves the English language. It is one of a dozen books I would select to take along if I were exiled to a desert island.”
“This is not simply a book about Amazing Words, it is also an amazing book about words—and one that could have only been written by the inimitable Richard Lederer. Enjoy, word lovers, enjoy!”
“Amazing Words is chock full of constant surprise. Each entry is a font of delight and knowledge. I had to keep reading because I unfailingly wanted to see how the next word would bedazzle, beguile, and bewitch me.”
“Every page instructs, delights, and entrances readers—often all at once.”
“Words are wonderfully interesting, yes, but only Richard Lederer makes them amazing.”
“Richard Lederer’s Amazing Words is amazing indeed. He introduces you to new and unfamiliar words, and teaches you things you didn’t know about familiar ones. You’ll learn the surprising origins of words we use every day and the meanings of common expressions you probably took for granted. There’s much more in these pages that will make you a better writer or reader: grammar and style advice, literary and rhetorical devices, vocabulary, slang. Best of all are the puns, games, wordplay, and other forms of recreational linguistics that reveal just how much fun our wonderful English language can be. It’s a cliché (one of the topics discussed, of course) to say that something is ‘as entertaining as it is educational.’ But that description applies perfectly to Amazing Words.”