Study guides › Level 10 · Wordsmith

Positive or negative?

Level 10 · Shades of Meaning · for questions like “Which sounds the most positive: thrifty, cheap, stingy, miserly?”

💡 The idea

Words can describe the same thing but carry different feelings. This feeling is called connotation. A thrifty person and a stingy person both spend little, but only one is a compliment.

🪜 The steps

1. Imagine someone said each word about you.
2. Which would make you smile? That’s the positive one.

Handy pairs

⚠️ Watch out

• It depends a little on the sentence, so the app asks which word usually sounds most positive. Neutral words sit in the middle: “old” is neither kind nor unkind; “vintage” is kind; “worn-out” is not.

🎯 Try these

1. thrifty · cheap · stingy · miserly
2. assertive · bossy · pushy · domineering

Answers: 1) thrifty 2) assertive

This guide is also in the 10WordsQ app: tap “📖 Study guide” after a question.