Some words are used as ‘catch-alls’, when a little thought would suggest a better word. Sometimes associate, involve, concern and regard are appropriate; but often they indicate laziness. If you find the following words in your first draft, think carefully about whether they could be replaced by more precise ones. Just as we reckon novel the exemplar of the misused word (p. 47), so address and target are the exemplars of the imprecise word: address can replace just about any verb, and target can be a noun, verb or adjective.

ACHIEVE, ATTAIN

[PubMed® achieved 1.5-fold, reached 0.6-fold. Ngram achieved 0.7-fold, reached no change. Achieved:reached ratio PubMed® 3:1, Ngram 1:2.]

If achieve cannot be replaced by reach or obtain, then it might indicate that the construction of the sentence should be altered. Achieve is commonly superfluous.

Attain, achieve and reach can all mean to get there but reach means just that; it is a good simple word that does not colour its surroundings. A guide to the best verb can be the noun formed from it: the achievement of a lifetime’s ambition; the attainment of a great, perhaps metaphorical, height. Looked at in this way, these words are not good ones for our rather more mundane purpose. Maximum pressures are said to be attained after . . . is rather grand for a scientific report. The best verb here, though, is occur: are said to occur after . . . (even though occur is suffering from overuse (see p. 81)).