Re: any writers?
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you use a word a lot of people wouldn't know - best replace it!
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What? Why?
Obviously you don't want your writing to be incomprehensible but that doesn't mean it always has to be incredibly simple. There are lots of words that lots of people that certainly shouldn't be omitted/replaced just because of people's ignorance. I mean, even very intelligent people learn new words from books, in fact, reading is the way that most people with a wide vocabulary got one. If writers start dumbing down their books, learning through the pleasure of reading will no longer be possible.
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If you want to write to educate (or show off) rather than entertain and engage without interruption, or if you're writing a technical work, then ignore first advice.
Some of the most simple works ever written are the most beautiful or most striking.
Examples:
Silas Marner
Old Man and the Sea
Lord of the Flies
Using a vocabulary that requires a dictionary to be on hand does not necessarily make a book 'less dumb'. Please don't equate simplicity of language with 'dumbing down'.
PS. The odd word is fine. More than 1 every 20 pages (in fictional works), you're reading a book by a show-off.
Clockwork orange, 1984 and books using their own created words are obvious exceptions.
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