Apologies to Alex for breaking the chain of SEO-related posts, but…

As one of these irritating people who constantly claims to ‘love words’ (’words’ said in that horribly reverential way, as if somehow… Welsh), stumbling across this site not only gave me an opportunity to learn a few new ones, but also to help out those who are significantly worse off.

FreeRice.com gives you a word and 4 possible synonyms, and simply asks you to pick the one closest to the meaning. The simple way in which it works means that you will find your vocabulary increasing unconsciously; and what’s more, for every word you get right, they’ll donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. New words are constantly being added by ‘a team of professional lexicographers’, which sounds like a wonderful job.

20 grains of rice doesn’t sound that much, but over a few months you can really make a difference. Plus today I learned that a ‘bluestocking’ is another word for a ’scholarly woman’. Incredible.

But then again, I do love words. And we like charities.

So, why not do your bit? Even if it’s just a couple of words a day, you’ll be helping yourself and others, and you don’t even need to get your cheque book out. Win-win!