Readers: By “Roget,” we are talking about Peter Mark Roget, who in 1852 first published one of a writer’s best friends: a thesaurus. That’s a book of synonyms. A collection of words that have the same meaning. A gathering of similar vocabulary terms. You get the idea. 

We writers and copy editors sometimes have lots of fun with synonyms. Today, we offer a list of some of the different ways to describe a fight. Let us know if we missed one!

Pretty much all of them are clichés, so we hope you never actually use them! We didn’t. One editor told Eliot that if he ever used “kerfuffle,” he’d be fired, sacked, terminated, dismissed. And immediately. At this point in time. On the spot. Now.

• Fight

• Spat

• Confrontation

• Scuffle

• Brouhaha

• To-do

• Brawl

• Fracas

• Melee

• Tussle

• Scrum

• Donnybrook

• Rumpus

• Contretemps

• Kerfuffle

Watch this on video! https://youtu.be/8QDLqNscym8

Next time: Play ball.

Readers: "Something Went Horribly Wrong," features samples of bad writing we see nearly every day. You can participate! Be our duly deputized “grammar police:” Your motto: “To protect and correct.” Send in your photos of store signs, street signs, menus, TV news graphics, newspaper headlines, tweets, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a grammatical error. It can be just what we call “cowardly writing.” Include your name and home town so we properly can credit you. You're free to add a comment, although we reserve the right to edit or omit. Now get out there! Send to Eliot@eliotkleinberg.com

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NOTE: Eliot and Lou Ann are available for speaking engagements, and can travel. Reach us through the comments section. Just think of all of your employees getting back to work on a Monday, their heads filled with all the ways we’ve shown them to be better communicators!