# Single adjective for "always has the right word for the occasion"



## JamesM

My son asked me for an adjective that meant "always has the right word for the occasion." I can think of phrases to say this, but I couldn't really think of a good single word. I tried "glib" and "articulate", but that didn't have quite the meaning he was looking for. Obviously the word would not be used to describe me. 

I'm sure there are probably a few words that match the description, but i'm at a loss to think of any of them. Any suggestions?


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## chat9998

all-knowing?     It seems like there is a word for it, and I almost have it, but I can't think of it for sure.


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## coiffe

If you don't want "eloquent" or "Ciceronian" because they're too broad, then how about "pithy"?


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## coiffe

And if that fails, you could try "exactolocutionastic."


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## .   1

How about;
dictionary.  Tish boom

On a more serious note.
The Collins dictionary;
*wit* _n_ *1* the talent or quality of using unexpected associations between contrasting or disparate words or ideas to make a clever or humorous effect.  *2* speech or writing showing this quality.  *3* a person possessing, showing or noted for such an ability, especially in repartee.  *4* practical intelligence (especially in the phrase *have the wit to*).

Would wit work?

.,,


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## GuitarMaestro

It's not exactly what it means, but "erudite" can fit the bill - it refers to extremely knowledgeable.  I also think of it as extremely well spoken - William F Buckley being a prime example.


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## coiffe

GuitarMaestro said:


> It's not exactly what it means, but "erudite" can fit the bill - it refers to extremely knowledgeable.  I also think of it as extremely well spoken - William F Buckley being a prime example.



No, "erudite" is about KNowledge (emphasize the "K" and the "N"), it's not about finding the perfect word. "Pithy" and "laconic" get the arena down to the single word, but I don't think there is a single perfect word for the idea!

The problem stated is therefore a paradox!


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## .   1

Dunno about Billy Buckley the second.
I just read a short piece by him.
http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley200602241451.asp

It is not very long yet he manages to cram three postulates and one postulate within the space of three or four sentences.

This doesn't seem like a bloke who has a word for every occasion.  He reads more like a fella who swallowed a thesauras (or maybe has an overused electronic version)

I would go with Oscar Wilde as a prime example of a bloke with the perfect word at the tip of his tongue.

.,,


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## coiffe

. said:


> Dunno about Billy Buckley the second.
> I just read a short piece by him.
> http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley200602241451.asp
> 
> It is not very long yet he manages to cram three postulates and one postulate within the space of three or four sentences.
> 
> This doesn't seem like a bloke who has a word for every occasion.  He reads more like a fella who swallowed a thesauras (or maybe has an overused electronic version)
> 
> I would go with Oscar Wilde as a prime example of a bloke with the perfect word at the tip of his tongue.
> 
> .,,



Thanks for this. I was forced to watch Buckley on TV by my guardians, who worshipped his large vocabulary. When I got a little older (as in, a teenager), I reexamined his putative rhetorical powers and decided that "supposed" was more powerful than "putative," "roundabout" was more powerful than "circumlocutory," and "over-refined" was more powerful than "recherché." As Holden Caulfield would have said, you don't sound like a master if you have a poker up your ass.


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## elroy

I thought "laconic" was just about not speaking too much, not about the quality or appropriateness of what you do say. 

"Pithy" also implies brevity, but to me it has more of a "less is more" connotation than "laconic."


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## coiffe

elroy said:


> I thought "laconic" was just about not speaking too much, not about the quality or appropriateness of what you do say.
> 
> "Pithy" also implies brevity, but to me it has more of a "less is more" connotation than "laconic."



Yes, I think you're right, which is why they don't fit the bill. But I don't know if there is a single word that does ....


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## languageGuy

How about diplomatic?


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## .   1

Nah, that can almost be a polite euphemism for liar. 

.,,


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## languageGuy

. said:


> Nah, that can almost be a polite euphemism for liar.
> 
> .,,


Interestiing! It doesn't have that meaning here.


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## GEmatt

JamesM said:


> "always has the right word for the occasion."


_Suave_? I think it carries connotations of the person's general manner, too, though..


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## coiffe

How about "exactamundoverbalistic"?


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## JamesM

What an interesting collection of answers!   I'm glad to see that it wasn't something that was solved in two seconds.  It's strange that we don't seem to have a precise word for this.

I think people use "articulate" sometimes to mean "always has the right word", but it's not exclusively that.  Isn't it odd when you stumble across one of these concepts that surely must have a word for it and then can't find one?


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## cuchuflete

For consideration:

Fluent-


able to speak or write smoothly, easily, or readily: a fluent speaker; fluent in six languages.    3.easy; graceful: fluent motion; fluent curves.


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## .   1

JamesM said:


> Isn't it odd when you stumble across one of these concepts that surely must have a word for it and then can't find one?


English must terrify learners for this reason.  English could probably be described as a contrary language.

I before E except after C but weird has no C.
Onomatopea doesn't sound even vaguely like the sound of a word that sounds like the sound it is describing.
Phoenetic spelling devotees need to start with the word describing the activity.
Now we trip over the oddity that we probably don't have the right word for a person who always has the right word so we need to find one of these undiscribed people to have them tell us the word but if they don't know the word then they don't exist and neither does the word and I just got a headache.

.,,


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## maxiogee

I like 'fluent' but feel it lacks something which refers to the person's ability to call up the apt word at the right moment. 
I would offer the word 'precise', but that doesn't describe the 'always' part of the question.
Bewildered!


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## Joelline

Is "*well-spoken*" too obvious or too literal? It was the first adjective I thought of. "*Articulate*" was the second.


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## JamesM

Joelline said:


> Is "*well-spoken*" too obvious or too literal? It was the first adjective I thought of. "*Articulate*" was the second.


 
I think a well-spoken person is someone who speaks well, not to be silly about it.  In other words, it's a person whose speech is probably elegantly appropriate to the occasion, but it doesn't necessarily mean he has that certain knack of selecting exactly the right word to describe something.


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## AngelEyes

*Word: per·spi·ca·cious* 

The problem is that you can be a shrewd and perceptive person and not even know how to spell.

But a person who was so quick and intelligent that he would always have the right word at the right time would also have to be perspicacious. It would come with the territory. Wouldn't it?

This is a fancy word I can't imagine ever using again after I post this post.


*AngelEyes*


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## Thomas Tompion

. said:


> English must terrify learners for this reason. English could probably be described as a contrary language.
> 
> I before E except after C but weird has no C.
> 
> .,,


 
The 'verse' has a second line 'when the sound is 'ee', which it isn't in the case of weird, though it is in the case of 'seize', so this part of your point stands.


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## JamesM

Thomas Tompion said:


> The 'verse' has a second line 'when the sound is 'ee', which it isn't in the case of weird, though it is in the case of 'seize', so this part of your point stands.


 
As I learned it, it was "I before E except after C / and in words that sound "ay", like neighbor and weigh".   My son, when he was 11, added one more line which was "but weird is just weird."     It's actually been a great help to have that final line.


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## .   1

Thomas Tompion said:


> The 'verse' has a second line 'when the sound is 'ee', which it isn't in the case of weird, though it is in the case of 'seize', so this part of your point stands.


Weird and seize don't rhyme for me.  Weird has a weird sound all of it's own.

I am having trouble improving on the 
portmanteaux, perhaps inelegant, wordsmith.

.,,


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## curly

I'd say smart-arse, but it's perspicacity in a negative way,

Or Glib


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## okey-dokey

About the closest I can get is the adverb 'pithily' as in, "She speaks pithily."


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## .   1

AngelEyes said:


> This is a fancy word I can't imagine ever using again after I post this post.


Lisa Simpson feared losing her perspicacity when she could think of only two examples of a word rather than three.

.,,


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## cuchuflete

Quick-witted came to mind, but that wouldn't cover a fluent mute, or a quick-minded blabbermouth in stony silence.


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## The MightyQ

So, let's move away from the words and offer a different approach.
Sympathetic?


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## .   1

cuchuflete said:


> or a quick-minded blabbermouth in stony silence.


That looks like a description of a Mad Magazine drawing of an exploding brain.

.,,


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## cuchuflete

Politician: One always in search of the occasion for the right word.  

Lexicographer: One always in the right, searching for the occasional word.


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## HistofEng

hmm...

How about *verbose?*


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## cuchuflete

HistofEng said:


> hmm...
> 
> How about *verbose?*



Verbose: "always has too many words for any occasion."


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## guixols

Joelline said:


> Is "*well-spoken*" too obvious or too literal? It was the first adjective I thought of. "*Articulate*" was the second.


 
I would add eloquent or well-expressed.


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## cuchuflete

He was well-expressed, having been properly squeezed and filtered, while being converted to juice.  Not!

She was well-expressed, and DHL delivered her to Omaha before noon the next day.


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## maxiogee

JamesM said:


> My son asked me for an adjective that meant "always has the right word for the occasion." I can think of phrases to say this, but I couldn't really think of a good single word. I tried "glib" and "articulate", but that didn't have quite the meaning he was looking for. Obviously the word would not be used to describe me.
> 
> I'm sure there are probably a few words that match the description, but i'm at a loss to think of any of them. Any suggestions?



Okay - now that you've heard from such a widely read (and well endowed with dictionaries) body of people, I think you can tell your son that he can have the honour of creating a new word for this. 
If he offers us a nice one we'll do our best to promulgate it for him.


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## clairenz

eloquent maybe? although this is more a well spoken person than a person who has a word for every occassion


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## Josh_

I've been racking my brain and agree that there probably isn't a single word to describe this concept.  The closest words I can think of are 'tact' and 'savior faire'.  They aren't exact, but they come fairly close.  They have to do with knowing what to do in a given situation as well as knowing what to say.


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## mgarizona

There's 'wordsman' ... the OED defines it "A man who deals with or has a command of words, a master of language." And when a wordsman does what he does, it's called 'wordsmanship.'


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## Orange Blossom

How about this?

exactoword

Orange Blossom


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## cuchuflete

mgarizona said:


> There's 'wordsman' ... the OED defines it "A man who deals with or has a command of words, a master of language." And when a wordsman does what he does, it's called 'wordsmanship.'


 And when he's done with his tongue, does he put it back in its....

Oh, never mind.


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