Whenever I write a story or an article, I keep a running “discard pile” of words that I crosscheck in the Microsoft Word thesaurus. I reference multiple thesauri and dictionaries hundreds of times a week for my job as a reporter. Writers should constantly check these sources to keep their minds elastic.
This list, which I kept for my last entry on the pope, is not particularly exciting, but I thought twice before deleting it this time.

unfurl
vice
institution
culture
downfall
inundation
overindulge
edict
silence
sadness
rawness
sheer
literal
experience
exclaim
innovation
unmistakable