Hello, wonderful SEers! Mae here with word problems, cats, and a call for opinions. If that sounds like a good combination, I hope you’ll take the time to weigh in with your comments.

Let me trot out the situation:

Have you ever been stuck for the right word? Ever think you have the right word only to have someone tell you it doesn’t fit? Today, I’d like you to weigh in on a specific word. One that’s been problematic for me, and that continues to rear its troublesome head in my writing.

I think we can all agree that different regions of the country, even the world, frequently use different words to express the same idea. A few examples of these include soda vs. pop; asphalt vs. macadam; shore vs. beach, etc. These are colloquialisms. If you’re in the U.S., you open the “trunk” of your car. In the U.K…