When you don't mind using an odd, rare word, and when you want to emphasize that some place is not just fancy and luxurious but also fully isolated and protected from the outside world, call it a Xanadu.

You might describe some fancy indoor shopping mall or some flashy exclusive night club as a Xanadu. Or, you might actually name some business or home Xanadu. Bill Gates did—or maybe the media did it for him. Either way, his property is very much a Xanadu: safe and secure, and ridiculously ostentatious, with a private beach and a manmade stream.

I should probably mention that while the word "Xanadu" probably gives most of us poetic Coleridge vibes, it's also likely to give some of us cheesy 1980's vibes. "Xanadu" was a bizarre, dreamy, retrofuturistic musical starring Olivia Newton-John as a roller-skating muse. Although I haven't seen it, the Internet promises me that it's one of film's most epic flops. But the soundtrack is super. So you may take that little tidbit of pop culture into consideration when you call some place a Xanadu.

"Last week Nixon signed a bill accepting an official new winter hideaway for the Presidents. It is Cereal Heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post's 110-room, $7,000,000 Mar-A-Lago, in Palm Beach, a kind of Moorish Xanadu built on 17 acres of hard coral between the Atlantic ocean front and Lake Worth."
 — Staff, Time, 13 November 1972

"Fossils are often preserved as bits and pieces or fragments. Occasionally you might get a whole organism. But this is truly exceptional preservation... You have complete organisms ... soft tissue ... cellular preservation. There's a spider with its breathing system beautifully preserved. It's a Xanadu."
   — Matthew McCurry, as quoted by Graham Readfearn, The Guardian, 7 January 2022

has this page helped you understand "Xanadu"?

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If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "Xanadu" without saying "dreamland" or "utopia."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Some character, person, or group) seems to live in a Xanadu, walled off from the harsh realities of (something)."

Example: "Lucille Bluth seems to live in a Xanadu, walled off from the harsh realities of working for a living and knowing how much a banana costs."

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Market That Makeup!"

Check out the names given to the shades in a palette, and decide what to call the shade with the missing name. You might channel the vibe established by the other shade names, or just pick the weirdest or most grandiloquent name you can think of. To see the shade's real name—the one that the marketing team picked—scroll all the way down. 

Try this one today:

Ofra Cosmetics's "Lotus Palette" includes shades like "peace," "sacred," "rising," "tranquility," and "wisdom."

Invent a name for the shade on the top row, third from the left:

(Source)

review this word:

1. The opposite of XANADU could be

A. NECTAR or AMBROSIA.
B. HELL or PRISON CAMP.
C. KNOWLEDGE or SAVOIR-FAIRE.

2. The estate in Citizen Kane is called Xanadu, a pointed reference to its _____.

A. crumbling statues
B. splendor and isolation
C. exotic birds and snakes

Answers to the review questions: 1. B 2. B Answer to the game question: Any name you chose is great! Did you choose "Xanadu"? I would! Or maybe "Lotusland"? The company chose "serenity." (Source)

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.