Today we're pulling back the veil on the difference between the verbs show and reveal. To show something is to make it visible or known. The verb reveal is very close in meaning, but implies an element of discovery: items that are revealed have, up to the point of revelation, been invisible or concealed. Reveal comes from Latin verb revēlāre meaning "to unveil." The Latin term offers helpful imagery: when someone reveals something, they are in a sense removing a covering, whether literal or figurative, to show what lies beneath. Reveal is often found with stealthy adjectives, such as secret and hidden.

If you're looking for a way to describe something as larger than life, try the storied adjective colossal. Colossal means "gigantic" or "extraordinarily great in size, extent, or degree." It comes from the noun colossus, "a statue of gigantic size," which is most often used in reference to the legendary bronze statue of the sun god Helios in the ancient Greek city of Rhodes. This statue stood approximately 105 feet tall and was among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Less than sixty years after its completion, the statue collapsed in an earthquake. While the adjective colossal is occasionally used in happy contexts, the term seems to have carried some of that early wreckage into modern use. You'll most often find colossal describing failures, mistakes, and losses.

The verb create, at its most general, means to bring something into being. To devise something is to plan it or think it up. The main action of devise occurs in the mind. An economist may devise a plan or a strategy, for instance, with the goal of creating jobs or wealth. In some older uses, devise carried nefarious and deceptive undertones, as in "The conspirators devised the downfall of the ruler." Nowadays, devise is more neutral, though it may still have a plot or two up its sleeve.