Missing Words
A Pen & Muse dispatch series in 4 parts. Best read in order, starting with Part 1.
In This Series
Best read in order. Each dispatch builds on the one before it.
The Reference Words English Doesn’t Have (But Your Life Really Needs)
A sharper vocabulary for living English is brilliant—until it isn’t. Sometimes the feeling you mean exists in the world, named and precise… but your language shrugs and hands you a…
12 Work Words English Still Doesn’t Have (and Borrowed Ones That Explain Everything)
The language of work is older than our jobs We talk about “productivity,” “performance,” and “alignment,” but we still reach for slang when we’re overwhelmed. That’s a clue: Englis…
The Anatomy of Absence: Why Our Social Vocabulary is Half-Empty
We spend our lives navigating a complex web of human connection, yet when it comes time to label those connections, we are remarkably clumsy. English is a language of business and …
The Missing Word: How Identity Vocabulary Changes Success and Failure
The problem isn’t vocabulary. It’s identity. English can be precise about outcomes and vague about the interior life that creates them. We have plenty of words for what happens. We…