Leitwort · canonical
Living Word Test
A word is alive only if it changes noticing, action, and evidence.
Living Word Test
Living Word Test
A word is alive only if it changes noticing, action, and evidence.
- When I see
- A phrase that sounds powerful but produces no behavioural change.
- I do
- Ask: When I see ___, I do ___, producing visible evidence ___. If the slots cannot be filled, the word is not yet alive.
- Visible evidence
- A specific change in the world: a different decision, a different sentence, a different moment of teaching.
Plain meaning
A word earns its life by changing something.
Working meaning
The Living Word Test is the discipline of refusing decorative language.
Advanced meaning
A living word preserves enough of the tacit whole to guide use, without pretending to contain the whole.
Danger meaning
Used as a rhetorical test only. If you only say the slots, you have not done the test.
Example
“Borrowed clarity” is alive because when I see a polished phrase that no one can use, I now slow the room down and ask for the example.
Misuse
Treated as a slogan. The test only counts when the evidence slot is filled with a real change.