Make Your Point > Archived Issues > BEDROCK

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pronounce BEDROCK: Say it "BED rock." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: Bedrock joins lodestone and touchstone on a list of words for natural items with metaphorical applications. Could you explain what literal lodestones and touchstones are, as well as figurative ones? If you're not sure, give them a click. definition: We can refer to any flat base or flat surface as a "bed," and that's what geologists did around 1850 when they described a layer of rock deep under the ground as "bed rock."  Over time, the phrase "bed rock" fused into a hyphenation ("bed-rock"), then further fused into the compound word we use today ("bedrock"). Literal bedrock is still the layer of solid rock that's often hidden under other features on the earth's surface. And a figurative bedrock is a strong, solid basis or foundation of anything. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Noun, usually the countable kind: "A relationship must sit on a bedrock of respect." "The extended family is still the bedrock of Indian society (New York Times)." Sometimes we use "bedrock" as an adjective: "a bedrock theme," "these bedrock values," "the bedrock questions that guide our research." Other forms:  None. The plural would be "bedrocks," but we don't need it. how to use it: "Bedrock" is common, easy to understand, and very often positive in tone. It's a great metaphor when you need to express just how vast, strong, basic, and ever-present some particular idea or principle is. We often refer to something as the bedrock of something else. "Beautiful harmonizing remains the bedrock of singing a cappella." "Iron Man, the bedrock of a massive empire (Time)." "Education is the bedrock of Ithaca's economy, with two major universities operating in the town of 30,000 (The Guardian)." examples: "They have always sounded to me like the names by which the Three Musketeers really should have been known: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. These three fellows are the absolute bedrock of written and spoken persuasion."    — Sam Leith, Words Like Loaded Pistols, 2011 "America was shaped by extreme religious movements... these Puritans weren't oppressed because they were religious; they were oppressed because they were fanatics. They fled Europe to build a 'city upon a hill,' a new and 'primitive' Church in which equality reigned... their exceptionalism remains a vital layer of the American bedrock."     — Tom Bissell, The New Yorker, 24 April 2019 has this page helped you understand "bedrock"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "bedrock" without saying "backbone" or "mainstay." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "(Something very basic and simple is true), the bedrock idea of (the whole field, subject, or theory)." Example 1: "Different people express love in different ways, the bedrock idea of love languages." Example 2: "Species evolve by natural selection, the bedrock idea of evolutionary biology (New York Times)." 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 for September is "Four Quick Ways to Wreck a Sentence: From Professionally Polished to Strategically Sabotaged." In each issue this month, compare two versions of a description of a popular movie. See if you can determine which is the real one (the professionally polished version from IMDB.com) and which is the fake one (the strategically sabotaged version from yours truly). The fake one will demonstrate one of the four quick ways to wreck a sentence, listed below. So, for an extra challenge, see if you can identify which of these four has been employed in the act of sabotage. Here are the four quick ways to wreck a sentence: 1. Make the details fuzzier or fewer. 2. Jumble the order of information, forcing the reader to slow down or back up. 3. Ruin the rhythm by breaking a pattern in a pair or list. 4. Make the whole thing a chore to read by swapping in a subject that's long or abstract, and/or a verb that's vague or passive. Make it even worse by pushing the subject and the verb really far away from each other. (Naturally, if you invert each item above, you get Four Quick Ways to Strengthen a Sentence.) Here's an example: Version A: "The Shawshank Redemption: Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency." Version B: "The Shawshank Redemption: Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding eventual redemption and solace through acts of common decency." Which is real, and which is fake? And in the fake one, which of the four quick ways to wreck a sentence have I employed? Answer: A is real; B is fake. The fake was created with #2, "Jumble the order of information." Readers find it easier to process information when it's in a logical or chronological order, and when they can start with the shorter, simpler words and phrases before moving on to the longer, more complex ones. Here, it's better to write "solace and eventual redemption" instead of "eventual redemption and solace," for three reasons. One, the characters in the story probably achieve solace before they achieve redemption; two, solace as a concept is less intense and less abstract than redemption; and three, "solace" is many syllables shorter than "eventual redemption." Try this one today: Version A: "12 Angry Men: An attempt to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing colleagues to reconsider the evidence is made by a jury holdout." Version B: "12 Angry Men: A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence." Which is real, and which is fake? And in the fake one, which of the four quick ways to wreck a sentence have I employed? To see the answers, scroll all the way down. review this word: 1. A near opposite of BEDROCK could be A. END GOAL or HIGHEST PEAK. B. SUNRISE or SOFTEST CLOUD. C. DEEP SLEEP or TRANQUILITY. 2. A writer for the New York Times described American currency as "a national bedrock," one that seems "_____." A. solid, official and enduring B. stained, outdated and inflated C. polarizing, beloved and abhorred Answers to review questions: 1. A 2. A Answers to the game question: A is fake; B is real. The fake was created with #4, "Make the whole thing a chore to read by swapping in a subject that's long or abstract." Readers can breeze right through a sentence when the subject is short, concrete, and human, like "A jury holdout." They have to slog unpleasantly through a sentence when the subject is long, abstract, and nonhuman, like "An attempt to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing colleagues to reconsider the evidence." 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. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. 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.