DEFINITIVE A - WORD SMART - MASTER

Autonomous

(A.) Independent, self-governing.

Avunvular

(A.) Kindly, like an understanding uncle.

Archaic

(A.) Little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type; so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period. Syn: primitive, antediluvian, antiquated, old-fashioned, ancient, out dated.

Acrimonious

(A.) Marked by strong resentment or cynicism. Syn: bitter, hurtful, nasty.

Aboriginal

(A.) Native; dating back to the very beginning.

Apocryphal

(A.) Of doubtful autheticity, mythical.

Aristocratic

(A.) Of noble birth; very refined or just acting that way.

Ascetic

(A.) Practicing great self-denial; pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the practice of rigorous self-discipline; (N.) someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline. Syn: ascetical, austere, spartan, abstainer, monklike.

Antithetic

(A.) Sharply contrasted in character or purpose. Syn: Antithetical, disparate

Abstemious

(A.) Sparing in consumption of especially food and drink; marked by temperance in indulgence. Syn: light. Temperate.

Abstruse

(A.) difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge. Syn: deep, recondite

audacious

(A.) disposed to venture or take risks; unrestrained by convention or propriety; invulnerable to fear or intimidation. Syn: daring, venturesome, venturous, barefaced, bodacious, bald-faced, brassy, brazen, brazen-faced, insolent, brave, dauntless, fearless, intrepid, unfearing. Word Master: Recklessly brave, insolent.

Agnate

(A.) from the father's side of a family; (N.) an actual relative from the father's side of the family

ancillary

(A.) furnishing added support. Syn: accessory, adjunct, adjuvant, appurtenant, auxiliary, subsidiary. Word Master: Auxiliary, in a supporting role.

Altruism

(N.) Selflessness, generosity, serving others without expectation of person gain.

Antiquary

(N.) Someone who studies the past.

Ascendancy

(N.) Supremacy, domination.

Aversion

(N.) The act of turning yourself (or your gaze) away; a feeling of intense dislike. Syn: averting, antipathy, distaste, abhorence

Ablution

(N.) The ritual washing of a priest's hands or of sacred vessels. Word Master: Washing or cleansing of the body.

AMBIGUITY

(N.) a lack of clarity; something that can be interpreted in different ways

Armistice

(N.) a truce; an agreement to lay down one's weapons

Avatar

(N.) an archetype; a temporary incarnation of a continuing entity; the embodiment of a Hindu deity (esp. Vishnu)

ANTECEDENT

(N.) an earlier, ftofe primitive model (person or thing) for that which came after; adi. preceding, going before

Approbation

(N.) approval, praise

Accoutrements

(or ACCOUTERMENTS) (N.) trappings, fashionable accessories, equipment.

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ASSUAGE

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Apprise

1. (V.) Increase the value of; gain in value. Syn: appreciate, apprize, revalue. 2. (V.) Make aware of; inform (somebody) of something. Syn: instruct, advise, notify, give notice, send word.

Abnegation

(N.) Renunciation of your own interests in favor of the interests of others; the denial and rejection of a doctrine or belief. Syn: self-abnegation, denial, self-denial, self-renunciation. Word Master: Self renunciation.

Atavism

(N.) The reappearance or return of a previous trait after a period in which the trait had not appeared; an individual or part that exhibits atavism.

Adulation

(N.) Wild or excessive admiration.

ALTRUIST

(N.) a benefactor

Ailurophile

(N.) a cat lover.

Aspect

(N.) a characteristic to be considered; a distinct feature or element in a problem; the beginning or duration or completion or repetition of the action of a (N.); the feelings expressed on a person's face; the visual percept of a region. Syn: facet, expression, look, facial expression, face, view, prospect, scene, vista, panoram, feature, trait.

Aristocracy

(N.) a class of people considered aristocratic; the nobility

amity

(N.) a cordial disposition; a state of friendship and cordiality. Syn: cordiality

animosity

(N.) a feeling of ill will arousing active hostility. Syn: animus, bad blood

Affinity

(N.) a natural attraction or feeling of kinship; inherent resemblance between persons or things; the force attracting atoms to each other and binding them together in a molecule; (immunology) the attraction between an antigen and an antibody; a close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character; (biology) state of relationship between organisms or groups of organisms resulting in resemblance in structure or structural parts; (anthropology) kinship by marriage or adoption; not a blood relationship. Syn: chemical attraction, kinship, phylogenetic relation. Word Master: A natural liking or attraction. Word Smart: (N.) Attraction; sympathy; kinship; similarity.

Aficionado

(N.) a serious devotee of some particular music genre or musical performer; a fan of bull fighting. Word Master: A fan, an admirer.

ANGUISH

(N.) agonizog physical, mental, or emotional pain; (N.) to Buffer

Assailant

(N.) an attacker

atoll

(N.) an island consisting of a circular coral reef surrounding a lagoon. Word Master: A ring shaped coral riffed, nearly or entirely surrounding a lagoon within.

archetype

(N.) an original model on which something is patterned. Syn: original, pilot

ANOMALY

(N.) irregularity, abnormality, deviation, abhorrence, aberration

Alacrity

(N.) liveliness and eagerness. Syn: briskness, smartness

ANTIQUES

(N.) pl. furniture from an earlier period

ambience

(N.) the atmosphere of an environment; a particular environment or surrounding influence. Syn: ambiance, atmosphere

antipathy

(N.) the object of a feeling of intense aversion; something to be avoided; a feeling of intense dislike. Syn: aversion, distaste. Word Smart: (N.) A firm dislike

Admonishment

(N.) warning. caution, censure

Aver

(V.) To declare, to assert; to assert formally or to prove (in low).

Ascertain

(V.) To determine with certainty.

Allocate

(V.) To distribute, to assign, to allot.

Abet

(V.) To encourage, support, help, aid, promote, assist in achieving a purpose. Be in favor of. Word Master: Bolster

Aspire

(V.) To have an earnest desire, an ambitious plan or a lofty goal. Syn: draw a bead on, aim, shoot for.

Augur

(V.) To predict or foretell.

Alleviate

(V.) To relieve (usually temporarily or incompletely).

Admonish

(V.) To reprove gently, to caution, to warn. To express disapproval. Take to task; admonish or counsel in terms of someone's behavior; warn strongly; put on guard. Syn: reprove, warn, discourage, monish, caution.

Appease

(V.) To soothe or pacify by giving in.

Assimilate

(V.) To take in and incorporate as one´s own, to absorb; to learn thoroughly. Become similar to one's environment; make similar; become similar in sound; take (gas, light or heat) into a solution; take up mentally. Syn: imbibe, absorb, ingest, take in.

Abrade

(V.) Wear away; rub hard or scrub. Syn: corrade, abrase, rub down, rub off, scour. Word Smart: To wear away the skin of. To denounce scathingly.

Abdicate

(V.) give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations. Syn: renounce, relinquish, give up.

Accede

(V.) take on duties or office; to agree or express agreement; submit or yield to another's wish or opinion. Syn: enter, assent, acquiesce, submit, bow, defer, give in. Word Master: To give up or surrender something.

ANTEDATE

(V.) to be older than, to have come before

Acquiesce

(V.) to comply passively, to assent quietly, to agree (V.) To agree or express agreement. Syn: assent, accede.

atone

(V.) turn away from sin or do penitence; make amends for. Syn: repent, expiate, aby, abye

ameliorate

(V.) get better; to make better. Syn: better, improve, meliorate, amend. To make more tolerable.

Ardent

(A.) Glowing or shining like fire; characterized by strong enthusiasm; characterized by intense emotion. Syn: warm, burning, fervent, fervid, fiery, impassioned, perfervid, torrid, intense, passionate, devoted.

Antediluvean

(A.) "before the flood"; incredibly old.

AMENABLE

(A.) Agreeable to another's wishes. Word Smart: (A.) disposed or willing to comply; liable to answer to a higher authority; open to being acted upon in a certain way; readily reacting to suggestions and influences. Syn: conformable, responsive, tractable

Apprehensive

(A.) Anxious or worried (from feeling powerless).

Auspicious

(A.) Auguring favorable circumstances and good luck.

Acerb

(A.) Bitter, sour, severe (synonym of ACERBIC)

autocratic

(A.) offensively self-assured or given to exercising usually unwarranted power; characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule; having absolute sovereignty. Syn: bossy, dominating, high-and-mighty, magisterial, peremptory, authoritarian, dictatorial, despotic, tyrannical. Word Master: Holding absolute power. Dictatorial. Word Smart: (A.) ruling with absolute authority, extremely bossy. Word Smart: Holding absolute power. Dictatorial.

AMBIGUOUS

(A.) unclear in meaning, capable of being interpreted in different ways

anomaly

(N.) (astronomy) position of a planet as defined by its angular distance from its perihelion (as observed from the sun); a person who is unusual; deviation from the normal or common order or form or rule. Syn: unusual person, anomalousness

Artifice

(N.) A clever trick; cunning, guile.

Anthology

(N.) A collection of selected literary passages (extracts).

Aristocrat

(N.) A noble.

Affray

(N.) A noisy fight; noisy quarrel. Syn: disturbance, fray, ruffle, altercation, fracas.

Archives

(N.) A place where historical documents or materials are stored, or the documents in that place. Syn: Annals.

Axiom

(N.) A self-evident truth, widely accepted saying.

Apprehension

(N.) A sense of fear or hesitation.

Apathy

(N.) A state of wariness or fatigue. Indifference. The trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally; an absence of emotion or enthusiasm. Syn: indifference, numbness, spiritlessness

adversity

(N.) A stroke of ill fortune; a calamitous event; a state of misfortune or affliction. Syn: hardship, hard knocks. Word Master: A condition of hardship or affliction, misfortune.

Ascribe

(V.) Attribute or credit to. Syn: impute, assign, attribute.

Abate

(V.) Become less in amount or intensity; make less active or intense. Syn: let up, slack off, slack, die away, slake

Augment

(V.) Enlarge or increase; grow or intensify.

Abjure / Abhore

(V.) Extremely detest. Avoid completely.

Abjure

(V.) Formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure. Syn: recant, forswear, retract, resile.

Administer

(V.) Give or apply (medications); administer ritually; of church sacraments; work in an administrative capacity; supervise; administer or bestow, as in small portions. Syn: dispense, administrate, distribute, mete out, deal, parcel out, lot, shell out, deal out, dish out, allot, dole out, direct, carry out, manage, supervise.

Accrue

(V.) Grow by addition; come into the possession of. Syn: fall. Word Master: To accumulate, to increase, to grow.

Absolve

(V.) Let off the hook; grant remission of a sin to. Syn: justify, free. Word Smart: (N.) to forgive; to free someone of sin, blame, or responsibility.

Adorn

(V.) Make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.; furnish with power or authority; of kings or emperors; be beautiful to look at. Syn: decorate, grace, ornament, embellish, beautify, invest, clothe, deck, enhance.

Assuage

(V.) Provide physical relief, as from pain; satisfy (thirst); cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of. Syn: relieve, alleviate, palliate, quench, slake, allay, pacify, lenify, conciliate, appease, mollify, placate, gentle, gruntle, mitigate, abate

Abscond

(V.) Run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along. Syn: bolt, absquatulate, decamp, run off, go off, make off. Word Master: To depart suddenly and secretly.

Allege

(V.) To accuse someone of a crime but not to prove it.

Assail

(V.) To attack vigorously, physically or otherwise.

Annihilate

(V.) To completely destroy.

VICISSITUDE

A change, variation. / Synonyms of vicissitude include alternation, fluctuation, and mutation. / By derivation, vicissitude means "change," and in modern usage a vicissitude is a change, variation, or an alternating condition occurring in the course of something. The word is perhaps most often used in the plural, vicissitudes, to refer to the changes that occur during the course of something, the ups and downs. We speak of the vicissitudes of daily life, the vicissitudes of the stock market, or of a business surviving the viccissitudes of twenty turbulent years. /

MACHINATION

A crafty or treacherous plot, malicious scheme, cunning design or plan to achieve a sinister purpose. / Synonyms of machination include stratagem, conspiracy, contrivance, ruse, and cabal. / Machination comes from the Latin verb machinari, to plot, devise, contrive to do evil, which comes in turn from the noun machina, a device or contrivance for performing work. From the spelling of the Latin machina it's easy to deduce that it is also the source of the familiar and versatile word machine, something devised to perform work. / The Latin machina also appears in a phrase that has been taken whole into English: deus ex machina, which means literally "a god out of a machine." In his delightful book Amo, Amas, Amat: / How to Use Latin to Your Own Advantage and to the Astonishment of Others, Eugene Ehrlich translates deus ex machina as "an unlikely and providential intervention," and explains that the phrase "describes an unexpected occurrence that rescues someone or something from an apparently hopeless predicament." Although deus ex machina is Latin, Ehrlich tells us that "the expression has its origin in ancient Greek theater.... / When the complexities of plot and character appeared incapable of resolution, a god was set down on stage by a mechanical crane to sort out things and make them right." / Our keyword, machination, means a crafty plot, malicious scheme, cunning plan to achieve a sinister purpose, as a machination to seize power. In current usage the singular form is less common than the plural, machinations: "Ralph's deviousness enabled him to climb the company ladder, but when his machinations finally were exposed he found himself demoted to the mailroom." You might think that machinations are confined to the crafty worlds of business and politics and to the sinister arena of international espionage, but the word is also sometimes used in a literary or metaphorical way, in such phrases as "the machinations of love," which can often be a treacherous business, or "the machinations of our dreams," which are often devious, or "the machinations of destiny," which may seem to plot against us. / I shall conclude this crafty lesson with an important pronunciation tip. / Certain educated speakers, probably misled by the sound of the ch in machine, have adopted the pronunciation mashination. This beastly mash ination is a classic example of what happens when people learn the meaning of a word but don't bother to check the pronunciation in a dictionary. They simply looked at machination, saw the word machine inside, and decided to say mashination, blithely assuming that their false analogy was right without pausing to consider that the pronunciation they have just invented might not be the one most educated speakers prefer. / That, in a nutshell, is how eccentric pronunciations are born—and the worst thing about it is that the mispronouncers often flaunt their inventions, as if to show that they have placed their personal stamp on the language by making up a bizarre way to say a word. / Some dictionaries now recognize mashination, but list it after the preferred pronunciation, in which the ch is pronounced like k:. /

attrition

A gradual decrease in numbers.

MYRMIDON

A loyal follower, faithful servant or subordinate, especially someone who is unquestioningly obedient. / In ancient Greek legend, the Myrmidons were a people of the region of Thessaly who fought in the Trojan War under their king, the great warrior Achilles. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable notes that the Myrmidons "were distinguished for their savage brutality, rude behaviour, and thirst for rapine." / The Oxford English Dictionary traces Myrmidon back to the year 1400, and shows that by the seventeenth century it had come to be used in a general sense to mean "an unscrupulously faithful follower or hireling; a hired ruffian." The Myrmidons were perhaps in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's mind when he composed the famous lines in his 1855 poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade": "Theirs not to make reply/Theirs not to reason why/Theirs but to do and die/Into the valley of Death/Rode the six hundred." / In current usage, a myrmidon, with a small m, is a loyal follower or an obedient servant, a person who follows orders or executes commands without question and, if necessary, without scruple. /

amity / rapprochement

A reestablishment of peaceful relations.

PEDANTIC

Absurdly learned; scholarly in an ostentatious way; making an inappropriate or tiresome display of knowledge by placing undue importance on trivial details, rules, or formalities. / After that definition, you're probably thinking that your guide through Verbal Advantage sometimes is pedantic about language. All right, it's true. As we pedantic types like to say, mea culpa, which is Latin for "my fault." On the other hand, I am also erudite, which as you learned in Level 3 means scholarly, possessing extensive knowledge acquired chiefly from books. That's not such a bad combination for someone whose job is to help you navigate the stormy sea of English words. / So, my verbally advantaged friend, if you want to emulate my grandiloquent erudition, then please pardon my pedantry as I explain that the adjective pedantic, and the corresponding nouns pedant and pedantry, come through Italian and Latin from the Greek paidagogos, a tutor of children, the source also of the word pedagogue, which may mean simply a teacher, or a teacher who is narrow‑minded, dogmatic, and—you guessed it—pedantic. / If we further break down the Greek paidagogos, we see that it is composed of pais, paidos, a boy or child, and agein, to lead or conduct, and means literally a leader or conductor of youngsters. For the significance of that derivation, let's turn to the erudite and only occasionally pedantic Century Dictionary. "Among the ancient Greeks and Romans," says the Century, "the pedagogue was originally a slave who attended the younger children of his master, and conducted them to school, to the theater, etc., combining in many cases instruction with guardianship." / This servile tutor of classical antiquity eventually rose to become the modern pedagogue, a teacher or schoolmaster, but a stigma of pedantry— meaning a slavish or dogmatic attention to rules and minor details of learning—remained on the word. Perhaps that explains why, when certain members of the teaching profession went looking for a more dignified word for themselves than teacher, they eschewed pedagogue and settled on three terms: educator, which is a good alternative; educationist, which is a pompous one; and educationalist, which is preposterous. But unless you happen to be a pedagogue, that's neither here nor there, and being the verbose pedant that I am, I digress. / A pedant was originally a pedagogue or teacher, but that sense soon fell into disuse and a pedant became, as the Century Dictionary puts it, "a person who overrates erudition, or lays an undue stress on exact knowledge of detail or of trifles, as compared with larger matters or with general principles." The noun pedantry refers to the manners or actions of a pedant. According to the eighteenth‑century Irish essayist and dramatist Sir Richard Steele, "Pedantry proceeds from much reading and little understanding." Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels, defined pedantry as "the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to." And the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote that "pedantry consists in the use of words unsuitable to the time, place, and company." / The adjective pedantic means absurdly learned; scholarly in an ostentatious way; making an inappropriate or tiresome display of knowledge by placing undue importance on trivial details, rules, or formalities. /

EXPIATION

Atonement; reparation for a sin, crime, or offense. / Expiation comes from the Latin expiare, to atone for, purify, engage in a ritual cleansing. The corresponding verb is expiate, to atone for, make amends for. / Have you done anything wrong lately? Alienated a loved one? Offended a coworker? Told a lie? Broken a law? If you're feeling guilty about anything, if you have a compunction, a twinge of regret caused by an uneasy conscience, then Dr. Elster has the verbal cure for you: / expiation, the act of atonement or reparation for a wrong done. Depending on the nature and severity of your offense, your expiation may require an apology, a punishment, or the wearing of sackcloth and ashes. /

Aggregate

Collection of things. Sum, total, whole.

DEFUNCT

Dead, extinct, obsolete; no longer in existence, effect, operation, or use. / Defunct comes from the Latin defunctus, dead, departed, finished. A defunct law is no longer in existence or effect; a defunct organization is no longer functioning or doing business; a defunct factory is no longer in operation; a defunct procedure is no longer in use; a defunct species is extinct; a defunct expression is no longer in use; a defunct idea is no longer useful or popular; and a defunct person is dead. /

SOPHISTRY

Deceptive reasoning, subtle and misleading argument: "Voters today want candidates who address the issues, not ones who engage in mudslinging and sophistry." / Sophistry comes ultimately from the Greek sophos, clever, wise, the source also of the word sophisticated. The corresponding adjective is sophistic or sophistical. / In ancient Greece, the Sophists were teachers of rhetoric, politics, and philosophy who were notorious for their deceptive and oversubtle method of argumentation. The Sophists eventually came into contempt for accepting payment for their instruction. The word sophistry retains the stigma imputed to the clever Sophists so long ago. Today sophistry refers to speech or writing that is clever and plausible but marred by false or deceptive reasoning. /

ambience / milieu

Environment, surroundings.

PRODIGIOUS

Enormous, huge, tremendous, immense; extraordinary in size, extent, force, or degree. / Synonyms of prodigious include mammoth, monumental, colossal, gargantuan, elephantine, herculean, and Brobdingnagian. / The last four synonyms are interesting words worthy of brief comment. / Gargantuan comes from the name Gargantua, the hero of the famous satirical romance by Franois Rabelais, published in 1532. Gargantua, says the Century Dictionary, is "a giant of inconceivable size, who could drink a river dry. The name is doubtless from Spanish garganta, [throat], gullet." In modern usage gargantuan sometimes suggests gluttony, as a gargantuan feast, but it is perhaps most often used as a stronger synonym of gigantic or enormous, as a gargantuan house or a gargantuan achievement. / Elephantine may mean pertaining to an elephant, but the word is most commonly used to mean resembling an elephant, and therefore huge, heavy, and awkward. / A person may be of elephantine proportions or walk with an elephantine gait. A king‑sized bed or an overlarge couch might also be described as elephantine, suitable for an elephant, immense. / The adjective herculean comes from the name Hercules, the famous hero of Greek mythology renowned for his great feats of strength and courage. By derivation herculean means worthy or characteristic of the mighty Hercules. A herculean task demands all your strength and stamina; a herculean effort is a mighty, powerful effort. / The unusual word Brobdingnagian refers to the gigantic inhabitants of the imaginary land of Brobdingnag in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, or to anyone or anything equally enormous. Because of its literary flavor and peculiar sound, Brobdingnagian is probably best reserved for situations in which you want to achieve a humorous or satirical effect. For example, when your very large, very formidable Aunt Eloise makes her thunderous entrance at your next family reunion, you might greet her by saying, "My dear, you look positively Brobdingnagian this evening!" The antonym of Brobdingnagian is the more familiar word Lilliputian, which also comes to us from Swift's Gulliver's Travels. / And now back to our keyword. Prodigious comes through the Latin prodigiosus, strange, wonderful, marvelous, from prodigium, an omen, portent, sign. From the same source we have inherited the word prodigy, a person of marvelous talent or wonderful ability. / Since about 1600, prodigious has been used to mean huge, enormous, of extraordinary size or extent, and also marvelous, wonderful, phenomenal, causing wonder or amazement. In modern usage the context often suggests both senses: a prodigious talent is both enormous and amazing; a prodigious accomplishment is both phenomenal and huge; prodigious energy is both astonishing and tremendous; and a prodigious event or a prodigious undertaking is often both extraordinary and wonderful. / When you think of the word prodigious, consider this: William Shakespeare composed twenty of his plays in only ten years, an output that can only be described as prodigious. /

anomaly / aberration

Extraordinary. Out of the normal.

HYPERBOLE

Exaggeration in speech or writing; especially, extravagant exaggeration that is intentional and obvious. / The corresponding adjective is hyperbolic, or, less often, hyperbolical. / Occasionally, you will hear an educated speaker who has learned this word from reading, but who has not bothered to check its pronunciation in a dictionary, say hyperbowl. Any sports fan will tell you that there's a Super Bowl, a Sugar Bowl, a Cotton Bowl, and a Rose Bowl, but there is no Hyper Bowl. The only recognized pronunciation is hy‑PUR‑buh‑lee, and anything else is downright beastly. / Hyperbole comes from a Greek word meaning an excess, something that overshoots the mark. This Greek word comes in turn from a verb meaning to exceed or throw beyond. By derivation, hyperbole is extravagant language that exceeds what is necessary or overshoots the mark. / As Bergen Evans explains in his Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, "Hyperbole is the term in rhetoric for obvious exaggeration. / There is no intent to deceive. The extravagant language is for emphasis only." / Because hyperbole heightens the effect of what we say without obscuring its meaning, it's a popular rhetorical device, and many of the most shopworn expressions in the language are hyperbolic. Here are just a few examples of hackneyed hyperbole: I owe you a million thanks; she waited for an eternity; he was eternally grateful; we are forever indebted to you; I am so tired I could sleep for a week; they ran faster than lightning; he's as strong as an ox; your briefcase weighs a ton; my feet are killing me; he said he'd do it or die trying. These and many more hyperbolic expressions are acceptable in informal speech and excusable in the most casual forms of writing, but in situations that demand more formal and precise expression, or in which an exaggerated effect would be inappropriate, they should be scrupulously avoided. / Not all hyperbole is cliché. There are many memorable statements, withering insults, and powerful speeches that manifest an original, effective, and often striking use of hyperbole. In The Elements of Speechwriting and Public Speaking, Jeff Scott Cook defines hyperbole as "an exaggeration used to emphasize a point," and offers the following examples, among others: / Former Texas senator, vice‑presidential candidate, and secretary of the treasury Lloyd Bentsen once said, "The thrift industry is really in terrible shape. It's reached the point where if you buy a toaster, you get a free savings and loan." / Faye Wattleton, former president of Planned Parenthood, once said, "Those 'just say no' [to sex] messages are about as effective at preventing [teen] pregnancy as saying 'have a nice day' prevents chronic depression." / And the actor Robert Redford once quipped hyperbolically, "If you stay in Beverly Hills too long, you become a Mercedes." / Some of the finest English poetry ever written also makes stunning use of hyperbole. One of Shakespeare's most glorious and hyperbolic passages occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, when Enobarbus describes the wondrous, irresistible beauty of Cleopatra, who has sailed down the river Cydnus on an opulent barge. Here is a selection from that passage: / The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfum'ed that The winds were lovesick with them.... / The city cast Her people out upon her; and Antony, Enthroned i' th' marketplace, did sit alone, Whistling to th' air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, And made a gap in nature. /

CANDOR

Frankness, openness, sincere expression. / Synonyms include straightforwardness, outspokenness, forthrightness, and ingenuousness. Candor is the noun; the adjective is candid, frank, open, sincere. / The candid person expresses his or her thoughts frankly and openly, with no hesitation. The forthright person speaks directly to the point, plainly and sometimes bluntly, in a no‑nonsense manner. The ingenuous person speaks honestly and sincerely, with no hint of evasiveness or deception. /

GRATUITOUS

Free, given without charge or obligation; also, without legitimate cause or reason, uncalled‑for, unjustified, baseless, unwarranted. / Gratuitous comes from the Latin gratuitus, meaning not paid for, unprovoked, or spontaneous. Related English words include the adjective gratis, which means free, without charge, and the noun a gratuity, a gift or favor given in return for a service. After dining in a fancy restaurant, you leave the waiter a gratuity; after eating in a greasy spoon, you leave the server a tip. / In modern usage, gratuitous may be used to mean either given without charge or obligation, or given without legitimate cause or reason. / When your boss gives you an unexpected pay raise, it's a gratuitous blessing; if a friend offers you a free pair of tickets to a ballgame, they're gratuitous. On the other hand, a gratuitous remark or gesture is not given freely; it's uncalled‑for, unwarranted. Likewise, a gratuitous assumption is baseless, and a gratuitous criticism is unjustified. / Whenever you see or hear gratuitous used, be sure to consider the context carefully to determine in which sense you should construe the word. / I shall conclude this discussion by offering you some gratuitous advice on usage. After you hear it, you may decide whether it was gratuitous in the sense of "given freely" or gratuitous in the sense of "unjustified, uncalled‑for." / Have you ever received a "free gift" or been given something "for free"? / Of course you have, but are you also aware that when you accepted that "free gift" or that whatnot "for free," you acquiesced in two of the most preposterous redundancies in the English language? / Think about it for a moment. A gift is something given free, a present. You wouldn't say a "free present," would you? That would sound ridiculous, which it is. Similarly, "free gift" is ridiculous because the phrase literally means "something given free without charge." So why do so many people insist on saying "free gift" when a gift already is free? / I'll tell you why: because for years marauding hordes of advertising copywriters and marketers have assaulted us with this redundant phrase in every sleazy, gratuitous pitch they make on radio or television or drop into our mailboxes, until our brains are so saturated with it that we can't look a gift horse in the mouth without calling it free. That, in a word, is mind control. / The question now is, Shall we continue to let ourselves be subjugated by the mind‑numbing mannikins of Madison Avenue, or shall we strike a blow for freedom in our own writing and speech by striking free from the redundant "free gift"? / I hope you will consider that question the next time someone offers you "something free for nothing." / Likewise with the phrase "for free" used to mean "for nothing." William Safire, the columnist on language for The New York Times Magazine, calls "for free" a joculism, which he defines as "a word or phrase intended to be an amusing error that is taken up as accurate by the unwary." Safire posits that this joculism arose from a joke line from the 1930s: "I'll give it to you free for nothing." Just as irregardless began as a jocular play on the words irrespective and regardless and then weaseled its way into the speech of those who didn't realize irregardless was a joke and not a legitimate word, so did the joke‑phrase "for free" mutate from a facetious usage into a widely accepted one. / Everywhere you turn today you hear educated speakers saying "I'll give it to you for free" or "Only a fool works for free" without giving a second thought to the fact that, as Safire puts it, "something is either free or for nothing—not both." To that I would add that if the pure and simple word free by itself doesn't satisfy your verbal appetite and you yearn for something more verbose, then use the formal "without charge," the trendy "cost‑free," or the emphatic "at no cost to you." / So remember, my verbally advantaged friend, that there's no such thing as a free lunch, and there's no such thing as a "free gift," because nothing in this world is "for free." When it comes to language, one word is almost always better than two, even when they're free, without charge, and at no cost to you. /

AVARICIOUS

Greedy, money‑grubbing, miserly, consumed with a selfish desire to accumulate money or property. The corresponding noun is avarice, greed, an inordinate desire for wealth. / Greedy, covetous, and avaricious all apply to people who eagerly want to acquire more than they have or are entitled to have. / Greedy is the general term for an excessive desire for anything. A person can be greedy for approval, greedy for success, or a greedy eater. / Covetous suggests an excessive and sometimes immoral desire for what another person has: "Steve wasn't sure if his neighbor Dave was more covetous of his new sports car or his attractive wife"; "When Anne was promoted to vice president, she could tell that most of her former coworkers in middle management were covetous of her spacious office and impressive salary." / Avaricious implies an excessive and selfish drive to accumulate wealth and valuable possessions, and often suggests an accompanying desire to hoard them: "Any observant person could see plainly that the city was run not by the people or the politicians but by a few avaricious developers who controlled most of the real estate, and a few avaricious bankers who were tight with credit and charged outrageous interest rates." /

SALUBRIOUS

Healthful, wholesome, favorable or conducive to well‑being. / Antonyms of salubrious include insalubrious, deleterious, pernicious, noxious, baneful, malign, and noisome. / Salubrious, salutary, and wholesome all mean good for your health. / Wholesome refers to that which benefits or builds up the body, mind, or spirit, as a wholesome diet, wholesome recreation, or the wholesome effects of building your vocabulary. Salutary refers to that which has, or is intended to have, a corrective or remedial effect upon the health or general condition of someone or something, as salutary advice or a salutary proposal to revitalize the inner city. Salubrious refers to that which is healthful, invigorating, or promotes physical well‑being, as salubrious air, a salubrious climate, or salubrious exercise. / Both salutary and salubrious come from the Latin salus, health. The noun corresponding to salubrious is salubriousness. /

Awry

In a position that is turned or twisted toward one side; askew.

ANOMALOUS

Irregular, abnormal, out of place; deviating from what is usual or expected; not fitting in with a common type or conforming to a general rule. / Synonyms of anomalous include inconsistent, unnatural, eccentric, and aberrant. / Anomalous comes from Greek and means literally "not the same." Something that is anomalous stands out because it is not the same; it is irregular, abnormal, or out of place: "Compared with the last five years, these statistics are anomalous." "In that neighborhood full of ticky‑tacky houses, the imposing old Victorian mansion was architecturally anomalous." "Sometimes he was reluctant to express his opinion because he thought it would be perceived as anomalous." / The corresponding noun is anomaly, which means a deviation from the norm, an irregularity: "As the only female executive in a company dominated by men, Harriet was an anomaly." "His penchant for flamboyant clothes made him an anomaly in his conservative profession." "If there is no other life in the universe, then our planet is an anomaly." /

PEEVISH

Irritable, cross, complaining, fretful, ill‑humored and impatient, difficult to please. / There are peevish moods, peevish remarks, and peevish looks. A peeve is something that irritates or annoys: "Her pet peeve is a wet towel left on the bed." Peevish means irritable, ill‑humored, full of complaints. /

STOLID

Not easily moved, aroused, or excited; showing little or no feeling or sensitivity; mentally or emotionally dull, insensitive, or obtuse. / Synonyms of stolid include unemotional, unresponsive, sluggish, apathetic, impassive, indifferent, and phlegmatic, word 33 of Level 9. / Stolid comes from the Latin stolidus, stupid, dull, unmoving. According to Webster's New World Dictionary, third college edition, stolid applies to a person "who is not easily moved or excited," and suggests "dullness, obtuseness, or stupidity." Unlike stoic people, who display firmness of mind and character in their thick‑skinned, unflinching indifference to pain and suffering, people who are stolid are not easily moved because they are oafs, dolts, louts, or half‑wits. In other words, a stolid person shows little feeling or sensitivity because the light's not on upstairs. / Stolid is sometimes also applied figuratively to behavior or things that are unresponsive, insensitive, or not easily moved. A stolid countenance or expression is unresponsive. A stolid bureaucracy is dense and insensitive to the needs of individuals. And stolid opposition is not easily moved. /

APOCRYPHAL

Not genuine, counterfeit, illegitimate; specifically, of doubtful authenticity or authorship. / Spurious is a close synonym of apocryphal. Other synonyms include unauthorized, unauthenticated, fabricated, fraudulent, and supposititious. / Antonyms include genuine, authentic, valid, and bona fide. / The Apocrypha are fourteen books of an early translation of the Old Testament into Greek called the Septuagint. The authenticity of these books was called into question, and they were subsequently rejected by Judaism and considered uncanonical, or not authoritative, by Protestants. However, eleven of the fourteen Apocrypha are accepted by the Roman Catholic Church. Today, apocrypha refers to any writings of doubtful authenticity or authorship, and the adjective apocryphal means not genuine, counterfeit, spurious: an apocryphal document, an apocryphal statement, or an apocryphal story. /

MUNDANE

Of the world, worldly, earthly, material as distinguished from spiritual. / Synonyms of mundane include terrestrial, temporal, and secular. An unusual and literary synonym is sublunary. Sublunary means literally beneath the moon, and so of the world; sublunary beings are creatures who abide on Earth. / Antonyms of mundane include lofty, heavenly, sublime, celestial, ethereal, and extraterrestrial, which means literally beyond the earth. / Mundane is often used today to mean ordinary, humdrum, commonplace, banal, unimaginative, prosaic. All current dictionaries list this meaning, but some commentators on usage object to it. They argue that mundane's specific meaning should be protected, and the word should not be lumped with the many other words that mean ordinary and dull. It is a criticism I would advise you not to take lightly. / Jacques Barzun offers this sentence as an example of the debasement of mundane: "A mundane sex life can be compared to a TV dinner, but it's not a gourmet banquet." According to Barzun, "sex life, of whatever kind, is inescapably mundane, and so is a gourmet banquet." / In strict usage, mundane is reserved for things that are worldly as opposed to heavenly, material as opposed to spiritual, secular as opposed to religious. Mundane affairs are worldly affairs, not ordinary affairs. / Mundane writing is not unimaginative or prosaic; it is concerned with worldly matters. Business is by nature mundane because it deals with concrete, material things rather than nebulous spiritual values. Politics is also mundane because it focuses on the issues and problems of the world. /

Affronted / Aggrieved

Offended, insulted.

IMPECCABLE

Perfect, faultless, flawless; free from faults or imperfections. Also, unable to do wrong, incapable of sin. / Equally challenging synonyms of impeccable include unimpeachable and irreproachable. Challenging antonyms of impeccable include reprehensible, censurable, and culpable. / Earlier in this level I told you about the prefix in‑, which may mean "in" or "into" or have a privative function, depriving or taking away the meaning of what follows. Impeccable combines this privative prefix in‑, meaning "not," with the Latin peccare, to make a mistake, do wrong, blunder, sin. By derivation, impeccable means not able to make a mistake, incapable of sinning or doing wrong; hence, perfect, faultless. / Now, if you've been reading carefully I bet you're wondering why in the world I'm talking about the prefix in‑ when the prefix in impeccable is im‑. / Well, my verbally advantaged friend, your exemplary guide through the oddities of the English language has the answer, and here it is: / When the prefix in‑ is attached to a word beginning with the letter b, p, or m, the n changes to an m. Thus, imbalanced means not balanced; impossible means not possible; and immutable means not mutable, not changeable, fixed. Similarly, when the prefix in‑ appears before a word beginning with l or r, the n changes to an l or an r: illogical means not logical; irreproachable means not reproachable, without fault or blame, and therefore impeccable, perfect, flawless. / So now that you know how the spelling of the prefix in‑ changes, I suppose you're wondering why it changes. The answer is simple: ease of pronunciation. If we had to say in peccable and in reproachable, it would be not only in logical but also nearly in possible. The altered spelling of the prefix makes these and dozens of other words easier to pronounce. / Now let's take a look at the closely related words impeccable, immaculate, and infallible, all of which employ the privative prefix in‑, meaning not. / The adjective fallible comes from the Latin verb fallere, to deceive, lead astray, cause to make a mistake. In modern usage fallible means capable of error or likely to be wrong, as human beings are fallible creatures. Attach the prefix in‑to fallible and you have the word infallible, not fallible, not capable of making an error, unable to fail. As your infallible guide through Verbal Advantage, I assure you that this program is an infallible method of building your vocabulary. / The unusual noun macula means a spot or stain. Its direct Latin root, macula, meant either a physical spot or blotch or a moral blemish, a stain on one's character. In current usage macula refers specifically either to a blemish on the skin or to a sunspot; the corresponding adjective maculate means stained, blemished, impure, corrupt. Attach the prefix in‑ to the adjective maculate and you have the word immaculate, not maculate, unstained, spotless. An immaculate house is spick‑and‑span; an immaculate complexion has no blemishes; an immaculate reputation or background is spotless, clean as a whistle. In Roman Catholicism, the Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was miraculously conceived without the moral stain of original sin. / And now for our keyword, impeccable. From its Latin root, peccare, to make a mistake, blunder, sin, English has also inherited three other words: / the noun peccadillo means a small sin, minor fault or flaw; the adjective peccant means guilty, sinful, culpable; and the adjective peccable means liable to sin or do wrong. Slap the privative prefix in‑ onto the unfortunate peccable and you have its more pleasant antonym, impeccable, incapable of sin, unable to do wrong, and therefore free from all faults or imperfections. Impeccable taste is faultless; impeccable speech is flawless; an impeccable performance is perfect. /

URBANE

Polished, sophisticated, suave, cosmopolitan. / Urbane is related to the adjective urban, pertaining to or living in a city. Urbane suggests the polite, polished style of a sophisticated city dweller. / The word may be used either of suave, socially refined behavior or of expression that is polished and elegant: "Mary's stunning designer dresses and witty, urbane conversation made her a popular guest at all the high‑society parties." /

BOMBASTIC

Pompous, pretentious, inflated, overblown. / Bombastic applies to speech or writing that is pompous, overblown, or pretentious, or to people who express themselves in this way. / Bombastic, grandiloquent, and turgid all denote extravagant language. Turgid, which by derivation means swollen, is used of an inflated style that obscures meaning. Grandiloquent suggests a self‑conscious effort to be eloquent through the use of high‑flown language. Bombastic suggests pomposity and pretentiousness that masks a lack of substance; the bombastic person speaks in a verbose and self‑important way, but says little or nothing. / The corresponding noun is bombast. Originally, bombast was a soft, silky material used for padding. The word now means verbal padding, speech or writing that is wordy, puffed up, and pretentious. /

HIERATIC

Priestly; pertaining to or used by priests; reserved for holy or sacred uses. / Synonyms of hieratic include clerical, ministerial, pastoral, ecclesiastical, and sacerdotal. / The prefix hiero‑, often shortened to hier‑, comes from Greek and means sacred, holy, divine. This prefix appears in several interesting English words. Hierocracy means rule by priests, ecclesiastical government. Hierarch means a person who rules over sacred things, a high priest, and also a person who occupies a high position in a hierarchy. Hierarchy may denote religious rule or the organization of a religious order into ranks and grades, as the Roman Catholic hierarchy, but today hierarchy commonly refers to any organized body or system strictly arranged in order of rank, power, or class. / Hieratic means pertaining to priests or to the priesthood, as hieratic vestments or hieratic rituals. Hieratic may also designate a form of ancient Egyptian writing in which the traditional hieroglyphics took on a more cursive, or flowing, form. The hieratic style was opposed to the demotic style. / Demotic comes from the Greek demos, the people, and means of the people, popular. From the same source comes democracy, which means literally rule by the people, popular government. The words demotic and vernacular are synonymous. In ancient Egypt, the demotic style of writing was used by the people, the laity; the hieratic style was used by the priesthood. In modern usage, demotic may refer to speech or writing that is vernacular, popular, characteristic of the people. Hieratic writings are priestly, sacred, holy. /

LUCRATIVE

Profitable, producing wealth, money‑making, financially productive, remunerative. / You've probably heard the phrase "filthy lucre," which comes from Shakespeare. Lucre is an old word for money, profit, wealth. In modern usage lucre used alone usually implies filthy lucre, tainted money, ill‑gotten gains. / Lucre and the useful adjective lucrative come from the Latin lucrum, gain, profit. That which is lucrative is likely to make money, turn a profit. A lucrative job pays well; a lucrative business deal is profitable; a lucrative enterprise is a money‑making enterprise. /

RISIBLE

Provoking or capable of provoking laughter. / Synonyms of risible include laughable, amusing, ludicrous, hilarious, ridiculous, and droll. / Risible, ridicule, and ridiculous all come from the Latin ridere, to laugh at. To ridicule is to laugh at, make fun of. Ridiculous means extremely laughable, preposterous, absurd. And risible means provoking or capable of provoking laughter, amusing, as a risible thought; a risible face; a risible speech: "When Ted's supervisor told him that his risible remarks during staff meetings no longer would be tolerated, Ted decided that if his supervisor couldn't see that a staff meeting was one of the most risible forms of human interaction, then he would simply quit and take his sense of humor elsewhere." /

Celerity

Rapidity. Swiftness in action or motion.

GLABROUS

Smooth and bald. / Glabrous comes from the Latin glaber, without hair, bald, and is used chiefly in biology of something that has a smooth surface without hair, down, fuzz, or other projections. In my humble opinion, a refined word meaning "smooth and bald" has the potential for many applications outside the realm of science. I offer two examples to point you in the right direction: / "The amazing Michael Jordan's glabrous head," and "The glabrous bodies of maidens in bikinis practicing heliolatry on the beach." /

MERETRICIOUS

Tawdry, gaudy; attractive in a flashy or cheap way; falsely alluring; deceptively enticing. / By derivation, meretricious means pertaining to or like a meretrix, a prostitute. This unusual meretrix comes directly from Latin and has been in the language for nearly five hundred years, but it is so rare today that you won't find it listed in most dictionaries. / Meretricious is still sometimes used in its literal sense, but most often the word refers to someone or something that has the gaudy appearance or tawdry qualities of a prostitute, especially in a false or deceptive way. / Meretricious eyes are falsely alluring; a meretricious idea is deceptively attractive; a meretricious style is cheap, flashy, and insincere. / Meretricious and meritorious are often confused, but they are nearly opposite in meaning. Meritorious means worthy of merit, deserving praise; a meritorious action is a commendable action. / Meretricious actions are falsely alluring, superficially attractive, flashy but insincere. /

TRANSIENT

Temporary, passing away with time, lasting only a short while, momentary, fleeting, short‑lived—in which ‑lived is commonly mispronounced with a short i as in give, when it should have a long i as in strive. / Does that pronunciation pronouncement surprise you? In short‑lived and long‑lived, the ‑lived does not come from the verb to live, as many think. It is formed from the noun life plus the suffix ‑ed. That is why pronunciation authorities and careful speakers have long preferred short‑LYVD and long‑LYVD, and why nearly all current American dictionaries give priority to the long‑i pronunciation. / Since we're discussing pronunciation I should point out that you will often hear educated speakers pronounce our keyword, transient, as TRAN‑zee‑int or TRAN‑see‑int, especially when the word is used as a noun to mean a homeless person, vagrant, or vagabond. Despite the popularity of these three‑syllable variants, I recommend TRAN‑shint, with two syllables, because it is the traditional American pronunciation and the one listed first in all the major current American dictionaries. Remember, transient sounds like ancient. / Challenging synonyms of the adjective transient include transitory, evanescent, ephemeral, fugitive, and fugacious. All of these words mean lasting only a short while, but let's examine the fine distinctions in their meanings. / Transitory applies to something that by its nature is bound to pass away or come to an end. All life must by nature end; therefore life is transitory. When Andy Warhol said everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes, he was describing the transitory nature of fame —here one moment and gone the next. / Evanescent applies to that which fades away like vapor or vanishes as if into thin air: the evanescent beauty of springtime flowers. / A shooting star creates an evanescent trail of light. An intense experience, no matter how brief and evanescent, can become a lifelong memory. / Ephemeral by derivation means literally "living or lasting for only a day." Newspaper writing used to be called "ephemeral literature" because the articles had a lifespan of only one day, with one day's reportage ostensibly erased by the next day's edition. From this original sense of lasting only a day, ephemeral has evolved to mean short‑lived, existing for a short while. If when you meet people you have trouble remembering their names ten minutes later, you could say that you have an ephemeral memory for names. / Fugitive and fugacious come from the Latin fugere, to flee, run or fly away, the source also of the Latin expression tempus fugit, "time flies." By derivation fugitive and fugacious mean fleeting, disposed to fly away or disappear. A fugitive, from the same Latin fugere, to flee, is a person who eludes pursuit, who flees from captivity or danger. The adjectives fugitive and fugacious both refer to things that are elusive, that are hard to catch or perceive because they happen or pass by so quickly: a fugitive smile; the fugitive colors of the sunset; our fugacious memories of childhood. We may pursue happiness, but it is fugacious. / Our keyword, transient, applies to anything that lasts temporarily or that is in the process of passing on. A transient guest stays for a while and moves on. A transient event is fleeting, momentary. A transient condition lasts for a short time. / Antonyms of transient include permanent, timeless, eternal, and everlasting. /

VANGUARD

The forefront of an action or movement, leading position or persons in a movement: "They were in the vanguard of the war on poverty." / In its strict military sense, vanguard means the troops moving at the head of an army, the part of the army that goes ahead of the main body, an advance guard. /

CHRYSALIS

The pupa of a butterfly; the stage in the development of the insect between the larval and adult stages, during which the insect is enclosed in a case or cocoon. / Chrysalis is now also used in a figurative sense to mean a sheltered and undeveloped state or stage of being: "Promising young artists and writers have always had to break out of their creative chrysalis to achieve the recognition they deserve"; "After four years at college she emerged from her chrysalis in the ivory tower into the wide‑open world, fully mature and ready to accomplish great things." / In this general sense, chrysalis is a useful word that can add a nice touch of style to your expression. Be careful, however, to use it precisely. The danger lies in confusing chrysalis with the words transformation and metamorphosis. / Listen to this sentence, which was written by a theater critic about a performance of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion: "Dirickson is convincing and eminently likable as Eliza, deftly handling the chrysalis from street urchin to lady while, along the way, growing in confidence and independence." / You cannot "handle" a sheltered and undeveloped state "from" one thing to another. What the critic meant to describe was a change that resembled the transformation a butterfly undergoes from its larval stage, when it is but a caterpillar, through its chrysalis, its stage of development in the shelter of the cocoon, and then to fully formed adulthood. The proper word for that transformation is metamorphosis. Chrysalis means a sheltered state or undeveloped stage of being. /

DISHABILLE

The state of being partly clothed; partial undress. / Dishabille may also mean the state of being casually or carelessly dressed, as in one's night clothes or lounging attire. / Dishabille comes from a French verb meaning to undress, which explains why it has all those silent letters. Dishabille entered English in the late 1600s, and as you can imagine, the word usually has a slightly sexy or titillating connotation. / Here are a few examples cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, which specializes in displaying the language in historical dishabille. From 1684: / "To surprise his mistress in dishabille." From 1708: "What would she give now to be in this dishabille in the open air?" From 1796: "His lady made a thousand apologies for being [caught] in such a dishabille." From 1861: / "The easy, confidential intercourse of her dishabille in the boudoir". And from 1885: "The shortcomings of English costume pale before the dishabille of the Dutch colonial ladies." / Little could the writer of that last example have imagined the sometimes shocking dishabille, partial undress, that is commonplace in the worlds of entertainment and publishing today. And now, seeing as we've just discussed a rather prurient word, it seems fitting to invite you to learn... /

ASSIMILATE

To absorb, take in, incorporate, appropriate. / In physiology, assimilate means to absorb into the body, convert to nourishment, digest. In general use, assimilate has two senses. It may mean to absorb or take into the mind, comprehend, as to assimilate ideas, to assimilate new words into your vocabulary. It is also commonly used to mean to adapt to or become absorbed by a system or culture: "American society is composed of generations of immigrants, some more assimilated than others." "He feared that if he accepted the job, he would have to assimilate into the faceless machine of the bureaucracy." /

PENSIVE

Thoughtful, absorbed in thought, especially in a deep, dreamy, or melancholy way. / Synonyms of pensive include reflective, meditative, wistful, and contemplative. / Pensive comes through an Old French verb meaning to think from the Latin pensare, to ponder, consider, weigh in the mind. When you are pensive, you are thinking deeply about something, pondering it, weighing it in your mind. / Pensive, contemplative, and wistful all mean thoughtful, but in different ways. / Wistful, which is related to the word wishful, suggests thoughtfulness marked by a strong and often sad longing or desire. When two lovers are apart, they are often wistful. / Contemplative, the adjective corresponding to the noun contemplation, suggests profound reflection usually directed toward achieving deeper understanding or enlightenment. Philosophers and prophets are contemplative. / Pensive suggests a deep, dreamy, and often melancholy thoughtfulness. / A pensive mood is characterized by dreamy seriousness. When you grow pensive you become lost in thought, and probably have a slightly sad, faraway look in your eyes. / The corresponding noun is pensiveness: "The most salient characteristic in the poetic temperament is pensiveness." /

MINATORY

Threatening, menacing; having a threatening or menacing aspect or nature. / Minatory and the even more unusual adjective minacious are synonymous and may be used interchangeably. Both words come from the same source—the Latin minari, to threaten—and are related to the word menace. Minatory clouds have a threatening aspect, indicating heavy rain or snow. Minatory people are menacing by nature. A minatory look is a menacing look. Minatory words are threatening words. /

REMONSTRATE

To object, protest, reprove, rebuke, argue or plead against. / To expostulate and to remonstrate are close in meaning. To expostulate suggests an earnest and sometimes passionate attempt to change someone's views or behavior by pleading and argument. / To remonstrate suggests a calmer and more reasoned attempt to show that someone is wrong or blameworthy. /

ENERVATE

To weaken, drain of energy, deprive of force or vigor. / Synonyms of enervate include exhaust, deplete, devitalize, and debilitate. Antonyms include energize, invigorate, stimulate, revive, enliven, animate, vitalize, and fortify. / Whenever I am asked to appear on a radio show to discuss language or speak to a group about vocabulary building, I like to point out that the simple act of reading is probably the best yet most underrated method of building word power. If you want to learn more words, then you should read more and study words in context; at the same time, however, when you come across a word you don't know, or a word you think you know, it's essential that you make the effort to look it up in a dictionary, because the context can often be misleading or ambiguous. / To illustrate that point, I like to relate an anecdote about a woman—the mother of a teenager—who came to one of the author signings for my book Tooth and Nail, a vocabulary‑building mystery novel designed to teach high school students the words they need to know for the Scholastic Assessment Test. / "I think your idea of teaching vocabulary in the context of a story is great," the woman told me. "I can almost always figure out what a word means from context, and I hardly ever need to use a dictionary." / Whenever people assert that they can guess what a word means or that they rarely need to use a dictionary, I see a big red flag with the words "verbally disadvantaged" on it. / I looked at the woman and said, "I always encourage people to check the dictionary definition of a word, even if it's a word they think they know. It's not always so easy to guess what a word means from context, because the context doesn't always reveal the meaning. May I give you an example?" / "Sure," the woman said, confident of her ability to guess what words mean and unaware of my devilish plot to expose that practice as a fallacy. / "All right," I said. "I'll give you a word in the context of a complete sentence, and you tell me what the word means. Here's the sentence: 'After her exciting night on the town, she felt enervated.' Can you tell me what enervated means?" / The woman frowned, realizing that she had volunteered to go wading in verbal quicksand. "Um, well, I guess if her night on the town was exciting, she must have felt stimulated, or keyed‑up, or maybe energized. Is that what enervated means?" / Coldhearted inquisitor and unflinching defender of the language that I am, I told her the truth. Because enervate sounds like energize, many people are tempted to think the words are synonymous when in fact they are antonyms. From my sample sentence, "After her exciting night on the town, she felt enervated," if you don't know precisely what enervated means there's no way you can guess because the context is ambiguous—it's vague and capable of being interpreted in more than one way. / The point is, as I've said several times before in this program, if you want to build a large and exact vocabulary, don't rely only on context or on your intuition or on someone else's definition of a word. When you have even a shred of doubt about a word, look it up. It won't cost you anything to do that, and no one's going to peer over your shoulder and say, "Hey, what's the matter, stupid? You don't know what enervated means?" On the other hand, someone might say "Whoa, get a load of Verbal Advantage‑head digging through the dictionary again." / If something like that should ever happen, you can throw the book at the person—literally—but why ruin a good dictionary? Instead, you can rest easy in the knowledge that the insolent dullard already is eating your intellectual dust—for you, as a verbally advantaged person, know that reading, consulting a dictionary, and studying this book will invigorate, not enervate, your mind. / To enervate means to weaken, drain of energy, deprive of force or vigor. / The corresponding adjective is enervated, lacking energy, drained of vitality or strength. /

WRY

Twisted, crooked, lopsided, askew, distorted in an odd, amusing way. / By derivation wry means twisted, but in modern usage it has come to imply twisted in a peculiar and often humorous manner. / A wry smile or grin is crooked, lopsided, and therefore comical. A wry remark has a funny or sarcastic twist to it. A person with a wry sense of humor is capable of twisting or distorting things in a laughable way. /

AMBIGUOUS

Uncertain, unclear, doubtful, dubious, questionable, puzzling, having an obscure or indefinite meaning. / By derivation, ambiguous means having two or more possible meanings, capable of being understood in more than one way. An ambiguous intention is uncertain, difficult to determine, and therefore questionable, dubious. An ambiguous statement is puzzling because it can be interpreted in more than one way; it is unclear and indefinite. / More difficult synonyms of ambiguous include enigmatic, cryptic, and equivocal. Antonyms of ambiguous include distinct, apparent, evident, conspicuous, and manifest. /

PHLEGMATIC

Calm and unemotional; having a sluggish, apathetic temperament; difficult to move to emotion or action. / Phlegmatic comes from the Greek phlegmatikos, pertaining to the humor phlegm. This phlegm is different from that slimy stuff you cough up when you have a cold. / In ancient and medieval physiology, there were four humors, or bodily fluids, thought to determine a person's health or disposition: blood, also known as the sanguine humor, which made you upbeat, cheerful, and confident; choler, also known as yellow bile, which made you passionate or irascible; melancholy, also known as black bile, which made you gloomy or dejected; and phlegm, which made you either cool and indifferent or dull and sluggish. / From this humor phlegm we inherit the adjective phlegmatic, which by derivation means full of phlegm; hence, having a sluggish, apathetic temperament, calm and unemotional, difficult to move to emotion or action. /

PROPINQUITY

Nearness in place or time, proximity; also, nearness or similarity in nature, kinship, close relation. / In Latin, propinquitas means either nearness, proximity, or friendship, relationship. From this Latin word comes the English adjective propinquity, which is used to mean either nearness in place or time, or nearness of blood or nature. / According to the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary, proximity "denotes simple nearness," as the proximity of their houses, or living in proximity to downtown. Propinquity "connotes close neighborhood" and "personal vicinity," as the propinquity of marriage, the propinquity of brothers and sisters, the propinquity of vice on the mean streets of the big city, or the hebdomadal propinquity of Christmas and New Year's Day. /

DIURNAL

Daily, recurring each day, performed or happening in the course of a day. / Diurnal comes from the Latin diurnus, belonging to or lasting for a day. / The ocean's tides and the rotation of the earth are diurnal; their cycles are completed in the course of a day. At work your diurnal duties are the tasks you perform every day. If your coworker Joanne complains every day about not getting a raise, that's her diurnal complaint. Perhaps if Joanne made reading Verbal Advantage part of her diurnal routine, she might eventually get that raise and get off your back. / Diurnal is also used to mean active during the day, as opposed to nocturnal, active during the night. /

QUOTIDIAN

Daily, recurring every day or pertaining to every day, as a quotidian ritual; a quotidian record of events; a quotidian update or report; the quotidian call to order. / Quotidian, daily, and diurnal are synonyms. / Quotidian comes from the Latin quotidianus, daily, of every day. / Because something that recurs daily soon becomes routine and ordinary, quotidian has also come to mean of an everyday nature, and therefore ordinary, commonplace, trivial: "The first presentation was eloquent, but the second was dull and quotidian." "As he walked he heard the quotidian clamor of the marketplace, where money is forever changing hands." /

PERNICIOUS

Deadly, fatal, destructive, causing great harm or injury. / Synonyms of pernicious include injurious, ruinous, deleterious, noxious, baneful, malign, and noisome. Antonyms include healthful, wholesome, salutary, and salubrious. / Pernicious comes through the Latin perniciosus, destructive, ruinous, and pernicies, destruction, disaster, ultimately from nex, which means a violent death. By derivation, that which is pernicious leads to destruction, ruin, or death. / In modern usage pernicious suggests an insidious, evil, or corrupting influence that harms or destroys by undermining and weakening. The disease called pernicious anemia weakens the body's ability to absorb vitamin B12. A pernicious influence is a deleterious, corrupting, or deadly influence. A pernicious habit is a harmful and potentially fatal habit. A pernicious rumor is insidious or evil. And a pernicious practice is destructive; it undermines the good intentions of others or corrupts society. /

CANTANKEROUS

Difficult to deal with, disagreeable, argumentative, quick to quarrel or to exhibit ill will. / A cantankerous old man is ill‑tempered and disagreeable. Cantankerous relatives are argumentative and hard to get along with. / Cantankerous comes from a Middle English word meaning strife, contention. Synonyms of cantankerous include contentious, which means quarrelsome, prone to argue or dispute; malicious, which means mean‑spirited, nasty, spiteful; and irascible, which means quick‑tempered, easily angered, extremely irritable. /

ABSTRUSE

Difficult to understand, hard to grasp mentally, deep, profound, incomprehensible, unfathomable. / Antonyms of abstruse include manifest, discernible, lucid, and perspicuous, which I'll discuss later in this level. / Challenging synonyms of abstruse include inscrutable, esoteric, and also occult, cryptic, enigmatic, arcane, recondite, and acroamatic. /

DESICCATED

Dried or dried up, dehydrated, deprived of moisture. / The adjective desiccated is also the past participle of the verb to desiccate, to dry thoroughly. Both words come from the Latin desiccare, to dry completely. / Desiccated may apply to food that has been preserved by drying or dehydration, such as fish, cereal, soup, or fruit. It may apply literally to anything that has been thoroughly dried or deprived of moisture, as a desiccated plant, a desiccated mummy, or a steak desiccated on the barbecue. It may also be used figuratively of something that is dried up or deprived of vital juices, as a desiccated affection, a desiccated culture, or a desiccated mind. The corresponding noun is desiccation, the act of drying or dehydrating. /

WIZENED

Dried up, shriveled, withered, shrunken and wrinkled. / The verbs to wither, to shrivel, and to wizen all imply drying up. / Webster's New World Dictionary, second college edition, explains that wither suggests a loss of natural juices: "The grapes were left to wither on the vine." Shrivel suggests shrinking and curling as from exposure to intense heat: "With a heavy sigh, Scott removed the shriveled steak from the barbecue." Wizen suggests shrinking and wrinkling from advanced age or malnutrition. / Although the verb to wizen now is somewhat rare, its past participle, wizened, is still often used of persons or parts of the body to mean shrunken and wrinkled, dried up by age or disease: An old person's face may be wizened, or someone's body may be wizened by cancer. / Here is a passage from my vocabulary‑building mystery novel, Tooth and Nail, in which the context attempts to illustrate the meaning of wizened: "An ancient, wizened man shuffled into the room, supporting his stooped and shriveled frame with a stout oaken staff...His face was sallow and deeply wrinkled; his cheeks were sunken and his crown was entirely bald. But for his eyes, which twinkled roguishly, he was a picture of death." /

MORASS

Literally, a swamp, marsh, bog; figuratively, something that traps, confines, or confuses, a sticky situation or troublesome state of affairs: "There was always a morass of paperwork on his desk"; "She penetrated the morass of red tape at city hall"; "Some people consider middle age the morass of life"; "The project got bogged down in a morass of trivial details." /

TURBID

Literally, muddy, clouded, roiled, murky, as if from stirred‑up sediment; figuratively, muddled, obscure, confused, not lucid. / Turbid is often used of liquids to mean muddy or clouded from having the sediment stirred up: a turbid river; turbid wine. It may also apply to air that is thick or dark with smoke or mist. Figuratively, turbid means muddled, disturbed, or confused in thought or feeling. / In this figurative sense, turbid sometimes is confused with the words turgid and tumid. / Both turgid and tumid mean swollen, inflated, and both may be used literally or figuratively. However, tumid, perhaps because of its relation to the word tumor, usually is used literally to mean swollen or distended. / Turgid usually is used figuratively of language or style that is inflated, pompous, pretentious, bombastic. / Turbid never suggests swelling or inflation, but rather muddiness, cloudiness, disturbance, or confusion, as in the nineteenth‑century poet Matthew Arnold's line "the turbid ebb and flow of human misery." /

TRANSITORY

Passing, temporary, fleeting, not permanent or enduring. / The words transitory, transient, ephemeral, and evanescent all mean passing, temporary. / Evanescent comes from the Latin verb evanescere, to vanish, disappear, and refers to something that appears briefly and then fades quickly away: evanescent memories, evanescent joy. / Ephemeral means literally lasting only a day, but in a broad sense it refers to anything conspicuously short‑lived: Our precious youth is ephemeral—lasting, it would seem, but a day. / Transient refers to anything that lasts or stays only for a short while: a transient occupant, a transient event. / Transient and our keyword transitory both come from the Latin transire, to go or pass over, the source also of the familiar words transit and transition. Transitory refers to something that by nature must pass or come to an end: Life is transitory, and sometimes so is love. /

INDIGENT

Poor, needy, penniless, impoverished, down‑and‑out. / Challenging synonyms of indigent include destitute and impecunious. The impecunious person has little or no money: / "Many great writers have suffered through long periods of impecunious obscurity"; "He is a lazy, impecunious wretch posing as a gentleman." The destitute person has no visible means of support: "Ralph's addiction to booze and gambling eventually left his family destitute"; "the starving, destitute refugees of a war‑torn nation." / Indigent comes from the Latin indigentis, in need, wanting. The indigent person is down‑and‑out and in need of assistance or relief: "They built a new shelter for the homeless and the indigent"; "Some people resent paying taxes to support the indigent members of society." /

PITTANCE

A small amount, portion, or share, especially a small or meager amount of money. "Her inheritance was only a pittance"; "He received a pittance for his services"; "Some people will work for a pittance if the job is rewarding." / Think of the pit of a fruit, which is small and hard, and you'll easily remember that a pittance is a small amount of money that is hard to live on. /

NOMENCLATURE

A system of names, especially a system of names used in a science, art, or branch of knowledge. / Nomenclature combines the Latin nomen, meaning "name," with calare, to call, and by derivation means "name‑calling," not in a negative but in a neutral, disinterested sense. From the same source comes the unusual English word nomenclator. According to the Century Dictionary, "in ancient Rome candidates canvassing for office...were attended each by a nomenclator, who informed the candidate of the names of the persons they met, thus enabling him to address them by name." From that sense nomenclator came to be used to mean one who invents names for things, specifically a person who assigns technical names in scientific classification. / Nomenclature is the system of names used by a nomenclator, the whole vocabulary of names or technical terms used in a given science, art, or branch of knowledge. Engineering, philosophy, economics, and chemistry all have distinct nomenclatures, as do music, carpentry, computer science, and plumbing. In the eighteenth century, the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus founded the binomial system of nomenclature, which has since been adopted by many sciences. /

CROTCHET

An odd notion or whim that one clings to stubbornly. / The corresponding adjective is crotchety. A crotchety person is full of crotchets, and therefore stubbornly eccentric. Crotchety is often applied to cantankerous old people who are set in their eccentric ways. / Crotchet comes from a Middle English word meaning a staff with a hook at the end. It is related to the familiar word crochet, the form of needlework in which thread is looped with a hooked needle. Crotchet was once used to mean a reaping hook or a hooklike instrument. In modern usage, however, the most common meaning of crotchet is an odd notion or whim that hooks you or that you cling to stubbornly, as if with a hook. / Webster's New World Dictionary, third edition, says that crotchet "implies great eccentricity and connotes stubbornness in opposition to prevailing thought, usually on some insignificant point." A crotchet may appear insignificant to others, but if it's your crotchet, it's far from trivial. / Think of all the eccentric people you know, young or old, who cling to some odd notion or peculiar way of doing something and you will see that to the people who hold them, crotchets are heartfelt convictions. / In The Writer's Art, James J. Kilpatrick includes a long chapter in which he lists, without excuses or apology, one hundred of his crotchets about usage. "Every one...is as dear to me," he writes, "as Audrey, the country wench, was dear to Touchstone. She was an ill‑favored thing, sir, but his own. If I am tetchy about the placement of only, that's it. I'm crotchety." / And before your verbally advantaged guide gets crotchety about usage too, let's move on to the next word. /

SATURNALIA

An orgy, licentious merrymaking, unrestrained revelry. / Saturnalia, with a capital S, denotes the seven‑day festival of Saturn celebrated in December by the ancient Romans. According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the Saturnalia was "a time of licensed disorder and misrule.... During its continuance no public business could be transacted, the law courts were closed, the schools kept holiday, no war could be commenced, and no malefactor punished." / That week of abandon in ancient Rome has led to a second sense of the word. When spelled with a small s, saturnalia means any period or occasion of unrestrained revelry or licentious merrymaking; hence, an orgy. / Among American college students, the saturnalia is celebrated during the vernal equinox, and goes by the name of "spring break." /

PERSONABLE

Attractive, pleasing in appearance, handsome, comely, fair, presentable. / In recent years, personable has come to be used to mean having a nice personality. You should avoid using the word in that way. The words sociable, affable, and amiable already suggest people who are friendly, pleasant, and approachable. There is no need for personable to take over this sense. An awkward or unbecoming person, no matter how friendly and pleasant, cannot correctly be personable. Reserve personable for someone who is either attractive in appearance or attractive both in appearance and personality. /

TEMERITY

Recklessness, rashness, foolhardiness; reckless disregard for danger, risk, or consequences. / Synonyms of temerity include nerve, cheek, gall, audacity, heedlessness, imprudence, impetuosity, presumptuousness, and effrontery. / Antonyms include timidity, bashfulness, faint‑heartedness, sheepishness, apprehension, diffidence, and timorousness. / The corresponding adjective is temerarious. When George Washington led his troops across the Delaware River, at the time it must have seemed temerarious, but history has since proved it was a sagacious military maneuver. / Temerity comes from the Latin temere, rashly, blindly, heedlessly, and by derivation refers to rash or foolish boldness, a reckless bravado that underestimates the danger or consequences of an action. Do you remember the end of the movie The Graduate, when Dustin Hoffman runs into the church, bangs on the glass, stops the wedding in progress, and then jumps on a bus with Katherine Ross, the intended bride? That was an act of temerity. /

REDRESS

Reparation, compensation, satisfaction for a wrong done. / Synonyms of redress include amends, recompense, retribution, rectification, requital, and quittance. / Redress may take the form of a monetary compensation or it may be an act or statement that makes amends, that repairs or compensates for a wrong. One may seek redress for a loss or injury, or one may demand redress for an insult. Webster's New World Dictionary, third edition, notes that redress "suggests retaliation or resort to the courts to right a wrong." / The verb to redress means to repair, set right, make amends for, as to redress grievances, to redress one's losses, to redress a wrong. /

OBLIGATORY

Required, necessary, binding, mandatory. / Obligatory duties are those you must perform to fulfill an obligation or responsibility. Doing miscellaneous paperwork is an obligatory function of the clerical worker. / Do not pronounce the initial "o" in obligatory like the "o" in open. Pronounce it like the "a" in above. /

CAPACIOUS

Roomy, spacious, ample, able to contain or hold a great deal. / Capacious may be used either literally or figuratively. When used literally it is a synonym of spacious and roomy: a capacious house; their capacious office; an overcoat with capacious pockets. When used figuratively, it is a synonym of broad and comprehensive: a capacious intellect; a capacious embrace; a capacious view; a capacious treatment of a subject. /

CIRCUITOUS

Roundabout, indirect, not straightforward, following a roundabout and often extended course. / Challenging synonyms of circuitous include devious, meandering, sinuous, tortuous, serpentine, and labyrinthine, which means like a labyrinth or maze. / The adjective circuitous is formed by adding the suffix ‑ous to the familiar noun circuit. A circuit is a line or route that goes around and returns to where it started. Literally, circuitous means like a circuit, going around, following a roundabout and often lengthy course: "They took a circuitous route to avoid traffic"; "His argument was circuitous, going round and round and never getting to the point"; "Looking back on her career, Pamela realized that her path to success had been circuitous." /

SURREPTITIOUS

Stealthy; characterized by secrecy and caution; done, made, obtained, or enjoyed in a secret and often sly or shifty manner, so as to avoid notice. / Synonyms of surreptitious include crafty, furtive, covert, underhand, and clandestine. Antonyms include evident, unconcealed, overt, aboveboard, and manifest. / Stealthy, furtive, clandestine, covert, and surreptitious all mean secret, hidden from the knowledge or view of others. Let's examine their connotations in order. / Stealthy is used of any secret or deceptive action that is careful, quiet, slow, and designed to conceal a motive: a cat stalks its prey in a stealthy manner; she heard the stealthy footsteps of a prowler outside the house. / Furtive adds to stealthy the suggestion of quickness and cunning. The word comes from the Latin furtum, theft, and that which is furtive exhibits the craftiness, dishonesty, and evasiveness of a thief: "Their furtive glances at each other during the meeting convinced Jim that there was something fishy about the deal"; "Suzanne knew her date with Arnold was going to be a disaster when she caught him making a furtive attempt to look down the front of her dress." / Clandestine applies to that which is done secretly to conceal an evil, immoral, or illicit purpose: a clandestine love affair; a clandestine plot to overthrow the government. / Covert applies to anything deliberately covered up or disguised, and often suggests an effort to conceal something illegal or unethical. When we speak of an undercover operation, we usually mean a secret operation sanctioned by law, but when we speak of a covert operation, we usually mean one that is kept secret because it is criminal or corrupt. / I'd like to take a moment to explain why I prefer and recommend the pronunciation KUH‑vurt. This is the traditional pronunciation, and it was the only way of saying the word recognized by dictionaries until the 1960s. / Since then—and especially since the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, when "KOH‑vurt operation" was heard repeatedly on radio and television— the variant KOH‑vurt has become so popular that several dictionaries now list it first. / Although few people today are aware that KUH‑vurt was the earlier and only standard pronunciation, dictionaries still list KUH‑vurt and many older educated speakers prefer KUH‑vurt out of respect for the word's tradition, which dates back to the fourteenth century. If you'd rather go with the flow on this issue, that's fine—no one can say you're wrong; however, keep in mind that while KOH‑vurt is recognized by current dictionaries, another popular variant, koh‑VURT, is often not listed at all. On the other hand, if you are not afraid to distinguish yourself as a cultivated speaker at the risk of raising a few eyebrows, then I invite you to join me in the righteous cause of preserving the traditional pronunciation, KUH‑vurt. / And now let's wind up this not‑so‑undercover discussion with a look at our keyword, surreptitious. It comes from a Latin word meaning stolen, kidnapped, and ultimately from the Latin verb surripere, to snatch, pilfer, take away or withdraw secretly. By derivation surreptitious means snatched while no one is looking, and in modern usage the word combines the deliberate, cautious secrecy suggested by stealthy with the crafty, evasive secrecy suggested by furtive. That which is surreptitious is done or acquired under the table, in a sly or shifty way, so as to avoid detection: / "For years Paul was so surreptitious about his drinking that no one at work knew he had a problem"; "The general decided to launch a surreptitious attack under cover of darkness"; "Larry was afraid the IRS would find out about his surreptitious real estate deals." /

TENUOUS

Thin, slender, slight, flimsy, weak, not dense or substantial, lacking a strong basis. / At high altitudes, air is tenuous, thin. In chemistry, certain fluids or compounds are said to be tenuous, not dense. In general, nonscientific usage, tenuous refers to something weak or flimsy, that has little substance or strength: a tenuous grip, a tenuous proposal, a tenuous argument, or tenuous construction. /

REPROBATE

Thoroughly bad, wicked, corrupt, morally abandoned, lacking all sense of decency and duty. / Synonyms of reprobate include unprincipled, shameless, base, vile, degenerate, depraved, irredeemable, and incorrigible. Antonyms include virtuous, pure, righteous, honorable, chaste, unsullied, and exemplary. / Reprobate comes from the Latin reprobare, to reprove, disapprove of strongly. In theology, the adjective reprobate means damned, predestined for damnation, and the noun a reprobate means a person rejected by God and excluded from salvation. / In general usage, the noun a reprobate means a corrupt, unprincipled person, a scoundrel, and the adjective reprobate means morally abandoned, bad‑to‑the‑core, lacking all sense of decency and duty. /

PROVIDENT

Thrifty, economical, saving or providing for future needs. / Synonyms of provident include prudent, word 47 of Level 1, and frugal, word 35 of Level 2. / Provident and the verb to provide both come from the same Latin root. / One meaning of the verb to provide is to prepare for some anticipated condition in the future, as to provide for a rainy day. Provident means providing for the future, especially in the sense of saving money for some anticipated need: "After the birth of their first child, Sam and Sarah vowed to be provident and start putting aside some money every month for college and retirement." /

ABROGATE

To abolish by legal or authoritative action or decree. / Synonyms of abrogate include cancel, revoke, repeal, annul, nullify, and rescind. / To abolish means to do away with: to abolish slavery, abolish cruel and unusual punishment. / Rescind, revoke, and repeal all suggest a formal withdrawal. Rescind means literally to cut off: you rescind an order. Revoke means literally to call back: you revoke a contract. To repeal means literally to call back on appeal, and applies to something canceled that formerly was approved: we repeal a law or an amendment. / To annul and to abrogate mean to cancel or make void. A marriage may be annulled. Rights and privileges are abrogated, abolished by authoritative action or decree. /

ATTEST

To affirm to be true, genuine, or correct; certify or authenticate officially; stand as proof or evidence of. / Attest comes from the Latin ad, to, and testari, to bear witness, and ultimately from testis, a witness. From the same Latin testis, witness, English has inherited a number of other words, including testify, testimony, testimonial, and the legal terms testator, a person who has made a valid will, and intestate, which means not having made a legal will. / By derivation, attest means to bear witness to, give testimony, and today the word may be used in this literal sense, as to attest to someone's whereabouts, to furnish references who will attest to your skills and qualifications. Attest is also used to mean to affirm to be true, genuine, or correct, or to stand as proof or evidence of: "Many studies attest the deleterious effects of saturated fat and cholesterol"; "Michelangelo's David is but one of many masterpieces that attest the greatness of this Renaissance artist." /

ACQUIESCE

To agree without protest, accept without argument or resistance, give in quietly. / Synonyms of acquiesce include consent, comply, submit, assent, and accede. The corresponding noun is acquiescence. Acquiescence means the act of acquiescing, passive agreement, quiet acceptance. / Assent, accede, and acquiesce all mean to agree in slightly different ways. Assent implies agreement reached after careful consideration or deliberation: "The president of the company predicted that the stockholders would assent to the proposed merger." Accede implies agreement in which one person or party gives in to persuasion or yields under pressure: / "Management is not likely to accede to the union's demands." Acquiesce implies agreement offered in spite of tacit reservations. The person who acquiesces often is unwilling to agree but lacks the will or energy to resist: / "Despite her doubts about the plan, Lucy acquiesced"; "Bob wasn't happy with the salary that Mercenary Media had offered him, but he knew he would have to either acquiesce or take an even lower‑paying job." / Acquiesce is sometimes followed by the preposition in: "One member of the jury remained obstinate and would not acquiesce in the verdict"; "The chief executive officer acquiesced in the board of directors' decision." /

CONCUR

To agree, be in accord with, unite in opinion. / Concur comes from the Latin con‑, together, and currere, to run, flow, and means literally to run or flow together, go along with. That derivation has led to three slightly different meanings of the word. / First, concur may be used to mean to act together, combine in having an effect, as "Time and chance concurred in our success." / Second, concur may be used to mean happen together, occur at the same time, coincide, as "His pay raise concurred with his promotion." / The third and most common meaning of concur is to agree, as "Your story concurs with theirs"; "We concurred on almost every point of negotiation." /

SUCCOR

To aid, help, relieve, give assistance to in time of need or difficulty, as to succor the wounded or succor the sick. / The noun succor means help, aid, relief, assistance in time of need or distress, as to give succor to the homeless on Thanksgiving. / Both the verb and the noun come from a Latin verb meaning "to run to the aid of." Although succor and the slang verb sucker have the same pronunciation, they are not related and are virtually opposite in meaning. /

PROPITIATE

To appease, gain or regain the goodwill or favor of, cause to become favorably inclined. / Synonyms of propitiate include conciliate, pacify, mollify, placate, and assuage. Antonyms include alienate, offend, antagonize, estrange, and disaffect. / The corresponding noun is propitiation, appeasement, conciliation, the act of getting into the good graces of. / The verb to propitiate comes from Latin and means literally to soothe, appease, render favorable. From the same source comes the adjective propitious, which refers to favorable conditions or a favorable time for doing something, as a propitious time for buyers in the real estate market. / In modern usage, to propitiate means to cause to become favorably inclined, to win the goodwill of someone or something despite opposition or hostility. Typically, you propitiate a higher power, such as your boss, your parents, the Internal Revenue Service, or your god. /

SANCTION

To approve, allow, permit, authorize, certify, ratify. / To sanction, certify, and ratify all mean to approve. Ratify means to officially approve something done by a representative: to ratify a treaty. / Certify means to officially approve compliance with requirements or standards: a certified public accountant. Sanction means to give authoritative approval: the company's board of directors sanctioned the merger; many religions do not sanction unmarried sexual relations; the law sanctions free speech but not antisocial behavior. /

LACONIC

Using few words, briefly and often bluntly expressed. / Laconic comes from the Greek lakonikos, a Spartan, a resident of the ancient city state of Sparta, which was renowned for its austere and warlike people. By derivation laconic refers to the Spartans' reputation for rigorous self‑discipline and reticence. / Synonyms of laconic include succinct, concise, terse, and pithy. We discussed some of these words earlier in this level, under terse, but it's worth going over them again so you can clearly distinguish their meanings. / Succinct means expressed in the briefest, most compressed way possible: a succinct update on the issue. Concise implies expression that is free from all superfluous words: a concise letter of resignation. Terse adds to concise the suggestion of pointedness and polish: a terse presentation. Pithy refers to concise expression that is full of meaning and substance, that is both brief and profound: pithy advice. / Laconic expression may be either terse or pithy, but it also implies an abruptness that can seem brusque or indifferent. Julius Caesar's three‑word pronouncement, "Veni, vidi, vici", is one of the most famous laconic statements of all time. There is also the anecdote about Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth president of the United States, who was legendary for his taciturnity, extreme reluctance to speak. As the story goes, someone once approached Coolidge and said, "Mr. President, I bet I can make you say more than three words." Without hesitating or even cracking a smile, Coolidge shot back, "You lose." Now that's laconic wit. / Like the ancient Spartans, the laconic speakers and writers of today are determined to use no more words than are necessary to get the point across, even at the risk of giving offense. /

Acrimony

(N.) Bitterness, harshness

Acerbity

(N.) Bitterness.

Acquiescence

(N.) Consent, submission

Aborigines

(N.) Earliest known human inhabitants of Australia.

Autonomy

(N.) Freedom, independence.

Affability

(N.) Graciousness, friendliness.

Aplomb

(N.) Great coolness and composure under strain. Syn: assuredness, cool, poise, sang-froid, mettle

Apotheosis

(N.) Ideal, the perfect or divine version, avatar, embodiment.

Assimilation

(N.) Incorporation; absorption.

Aphasia

(N.) Loss of the ability to speak or understand spoken or written language.

Altercation

(N.) Noisy quarrel. Syn: affray, fracas

Aegis

(N.) Protection or sponsorship.

Affable

(A.) Diffusing warmth and friendliness. Easy to talk to, pleasant. Syn: Amiable, cordial, genial.

AMIABLE

(A.) Friendly, genuinely likable (often used to describe a relationship)

Acerbic

(A.) Harsh or corrosive in tone; sour or bitter in taste. Syn: acerb, acid, acrid, bitter, blistering, caustic, sulfurous, sulphurous, venomous, virulent, vitriolic, astringent. Word Master: Severe of temper disposition or mode. Sour, harsh. Word Smart: (A.) bitter, sour, severe. Word Smart: Severe of temper disposition or mode. Sour, harsh.

Antipathetic

(A.) Hostile, antagonistic.

Austere

(A.) Of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect; severely simple; practicing great self-denial. Syn: stern, severe, stark, ascetic, ascetical, spartan.

Antiquated

(A.) Old-fashioned; obsolete.

Abject

(A.) Showing humiliation or submissiveness; of the most contemptible kind; most unfortunate or miserable; showing utter resignation or hopelessness. Syn: low, low-down, miserable, scummy, scurvy, resigned, unhopeful, debased, despicable, ignoble, groveling, servile, squalid. Ant: noble, dignified, lofty, majestic, eminent illustrious.

Ascendant

(A.) Superior, dominant.

Acetous

(A.) Tasting or smelling like vinegar. Syn: acetose, vinegary, vinegarish. Word Master: Vinegary, sour, harsh.

Abstract

(A.) Theoretical, not concrete.

Assiduous

(A.) Unceasing in effort. Marked by care and persistent effort. Syn: sedulous, constant, persistent.

ANOMALOUS

(A.) abnormal, unconventional

AESTHETIC

(A.) artistic; of or relating to beauty

ALTRUISTIC

(A.) charitable, selfless

acrid

(A.) harsh or corrosive in tone; strong and sharp; "the pungent taste of radishes". Syn: acerb, acerbic, acid, bitter, blistering, caustic, sulfurous, sulphurous, venomous, virulent, vitriolic, pungent. Word Smart: (A.) Bitter, stinging, or caustic.

Autocracy

(N.) A system run by a person with absolute authority.

Allegation

(N.) Accusation or assertion yet unsupported.

Assent

(N.) Agreement with a statement or proposal to do something; (N.) To agree or express agreement. Syn: acquiescence, accede, acquiesce, agree, go along with, consent, submit.

Archivist

(N.) An individual who curates or cares for archives.

Adage

(N.) An old saying, familiar bit of wisdom

Antiquity

(N.) Ancientness, having to do with ancient times.

Apogee

(N.) Apoapsis in Earth orbit; the point in its orbit where a satellite is at the greatest distance from the Earth; a final climactic stage. (N.) the point of a moon or an artificial satellite when it is as far away as possible from the center of its orbit. The apex or highest point. Syn: culmination, acme, zenith, summit.

NEOPHYTE

A beginner, novice, amateur, tyro; specifically, a new member of or convert to a religion. / There are several interesting words for various types of inexperienced persons. / Tyro comes from a Latin word meaning a recruit in the Roman army, a newly enlisted soldier. Tyro is used today to mean a raw beginner, one who may be eager to learn but who is utterly incompetent. / Amateur comes from the Latin amare, to love. By derivation an amateur is a person who does something for the love of it rather than for money. An amateur may or may not be skilled, but the word often implies a lower level of competence than expert or professional. / A dilettante is an amateur practitioner of an art, such as music, painting, acting, dancing, or literary composition. / Dilettante is often used disparagingly of someone who dabbles in something and lacks the serious discipline necessary to excel. / Like tyro, both novice and neophyte refer to a person just starting out at something. Tyro emphasizes the beginner's incompetence; novice emphasizes the beginner's inexperience; and neophyte emphasizes the beginner's enthusiasm. /

PERQUISITE

A benefit, incidental gain or reward; specifically, an expected or promised benefit, privilege, or advantage received in addition to one's normal salary or wages. / You may not have heard the word perquisite before, but I'll bet you're familiar with the noun perk, as in the phrase "a job with good perks," meaning a job with good benefits and privileges. Just as the word bennies has today become the popular, informal substitute for benefits, the word perk was created as a shorter, snappier, and informal synonym for perquisite. But unlike benny meaning benefit, which is recent slang and has yet to make it into a dictionary, perk dates back to the 1820s. Nevertheless, perk did not appear in an American dictionary until the 1960s, when Merriam‑Webster's Third New International recorded it along with the label "chiefly British." Since then, however, perk has become fully standard in American usage, and because it has retained its informal flavor it is now more widely used than the original word, perquisite. / Perquisite comes from a Latin noun meaning acquisition, and ultimately from a Latin verb meaning to ask or search for diligently. In modern usage, perquisite refers to a benefit or privilege accompanying a position. The perquisites of a job are the nice things you expect or that have been promised in addition to your salary. An expense account, a company car, a commodious office, and a profit‑sharing plan all are nice perquisites—if you can get them. /

VENDETTA

A bitter, protracted feud or rivalry. / Vendetta comes through Italian from the Latin vindicta, revenge, vengeance, the source also of the English word vindictive, vengeful, seeking revenge. The vindictive person feels he has been wronged and is disposed to retaliate; in certain cases this may lead to a vendetta, a long, bitter, and often violent feud. / Vendetta refers specifically to the violent tradition, formerly practiced in Italy, Sicily, and Corsica, of revenging the murder of a relative by killing the murderer or a member of his family. Of course, such private, extralegal vengeance usually leads to further retaliation, until a murderous rivalry ensues. Both in Italian and in English, these protracted blood feuds are known as vendettas. Anyone who's seen the Godfather film trilogy knows that vendettas are still common among the American Mafia, and they can last for generations. / In English, vendetta may also be used more generally to mean any long, bitter feud or rivalry, not necessarily between families and not necessarily attended by bloodshed: "The mayor accused her opponent of waging a vendetta instead of a campaign." "At first Steve was excited about his new managerial position with Eye‑for‑an‑Eye Incorporated, but he soon realized that the company was run by backstabbing executives engaged in vicious departmental vendettas." /

BOON

A blessing, timely and welcome benefit, something beneficial bestowed upon one, something to be thankful for. / A boon once meant a favor or request. In stories of yore—of time long past—knights, courtiers, and all manner of supplicants would bow before their kings and queens and say, "As your humble servant, I beseech you to grant me this boon." Are you wondering what supplicant means? A supplicant is a person who begs for something, and supplication is the act of begging for something humbly and earnestly. / Getting back to boon, the meaning "favor, request" is now archaic, or old‑fashioned, and today boon is used to mean a blessing, a timely and welcome benefit, something to be thankful for, as in "This good weather is a boon"; "His efforts were a boon to their enterprise." /

TROGLODYTE

A cave dweller; also, a person who lives or behaves in a primitive manner, or who lives in seclusion. The corresponding adjective is troglodytic, pertaining to or characteristic of a troglodyte. / Troglodyte comes from a Greek word meaning "one who creeps into holes." In modern usage, troglodyte may be used in three ways. It may refer specifically to a prehistoric cave dweller, as the Neanderthals were troglodytes. In a broader sense, troglodyte may refer to anyone who lives in a primitive, degenerate, or debased manner or condition, or who is primitive, brutish, and displays a crude lack of sophistication regarding intellectual or cultural matters: "Simone couldn't talk to her coworkers about the novels, plays, concerts, and exhibits she enjoyed because all the people she worked with were couch potatoes, soap opera junkies, mall rats, and troglodytes." Troglodyte may also refer to a person who chooses to live in seclusion, a hermit, recluse. The billionaire Howard Hughes was a notorious—and notoriously eccentric— troglodyte. / Would you like two challenging synonyms for a person who lives in seclusion? Try anchorite and eremite. /

CYNOSURE

A center of attention or interest, focal point. / Cynosure comes from the Greek kynosoura, a dog's tail, from kynos, a dog. From the corresponding Greek adjective, kynikos, we inherit the English adjective cynical, which means literally like a dog. / Pardon me if I digress for a moment, but the words cynical, cynic, and cynicism have an interesting history that I'd like to share with you. / Cynicism was a school of ancient Greek philosophy founded by Antisthenes of Athens, a pupil of Socrates. "The chief doctrines of the Cynics," says the Century Dictionary, "were that virtue is the only good, that the essence of virtue is self‑control, and that pleasure is an evil if sought for its own sake. They were accordingly characterized by an ostentatious contempt [for] riches, arts, science, and amusements." / The most famous exponent of Cynicism was Diogenes of Sinope, who took cynicism to an extreme. In his disdain for human selfishness and his pursuit of a simple life, Diogenes is said to have slept in a tub, thrown away his only utensil, a cup, when he saw a peasant drinking from his hands, and wandered through the streets at midday with a lantern, telling those who asked what he was doing that he was searching for an honest man. According to the third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, Diogenes is also "said to have performed such actions as barking in public, urinating on the leg of a table, and masturbating on the street." Apparently as a result of this doglike behavior, Diogenes was nicknamed kynos or kyon, meaning "a dog," and the nickname was extended to the philosophy of Cynicism and its adherents. Today when we call people cynical, we mean they are scornful or skeptical of people's motives or that they believe human beings are motivated only by selfishness—in short, that people are dogs. / You will recall that our keyword, cynosure, comes from the Greek kynosoura, a dog's tail. When spelled with a capital C, cynosure refers to the constellation Ursa Minor or to Polaris, the North Star, also called the polestar, which is part of this constellation. The North Star is the outermost star in the handle of the Little Dipper, which the Greeks apparently perceived as a dog's tail. / Since ancient times the North Star has been used as a navigational guide. / Thus, cynosure first came to mean anything that guides or directs, and then came to mean anything or anyone that is the center of attention or interest, a focal point: "He was the cynosure of the party"; "This issue is the cynosure of the campaign." /

GENESIS

A coming into being, beginning, origin, birth, creation. / The first book of the Judeo‑Christian Bible is called Genesis because it describes God's creation, the origin of the universe and humankind. In current usage genesis may refer in a general sense to any creation or process of coming into being: the genesis of an idea; the genesis of a work of art; the genesis of an important social movement; the genesis of a distinguished career. /

IMBROGLIO

A complicated or intricate situation; a difficult, perplexing state of affairs; also, a misunderstanding or disagreement of a complicated and confusing nature. / Synonyms of imbroglio include entanglement, embroilment, predicament, and quandary. / Imbroglio comes through Italian and Old French from Latin and means by derivation to entangle, confuse, mix up, embroil. When imbroglio entered English in the mid‑1700s, it meant "a confused heap," but this sense is now rare. The great Oxford English Dictionary shows that by the early 1800s imbroglio had come to mean "a state of great confusion and entanglement; a complicated or difficult situation; a confused misunderstanding or disagreement." The unraveling of an imbroglio is a common plot in many plays, novels, and operas, but there are plenty of imbroglios in real life as well. Open the newspaper on any given day and you will find stories of political imbroglios, financial imbroglios, marital imbroglios, and criminal imbroglios. /

EMENDATION

A correction, alteration, change made to correct or improve, especially a change made in a piece of writing to correct an error or restore the text to its original state. / The verb to emend means to make corrections in a text. / Emendation may mean the act of emending, correcting and improving a piece of writing, or it may mean a correction made in a text. /

RECRIMINATION

A countercharge or counteraccusation. / Recrimination combines the prefix re‑, which means "back" or "again," with the Latin verb criminari, to accuse, bring a charge against, and means literally to accuse in return, accuse again. The great Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition, defines recrimination as "an accusation brought by the accused against the accuser." / Recriminations, or countercharges, are perhaps most often heard today in political campaigns, international relations, and legal proceedings. In modern usage, when we speak of mutual recriminations the word usually suggests a series of bitter denunciations exchanged in the course of fervid debate. / Recrimination is the noun. The corresponding verb is recriminate, to bring a countercharge against, denounce in return. The corresponding adjective has two forms: recriminative and recriminatory. /

STRICTURE

A criticism, critical comment, especially an unfavorable or hostile observation or remark. / Synonyms of stricture include reproof, censure, condemnation, disapprobation, castigation, objurgation, and animadversion. Antonyms include praise, compliment, commendation, acclamation, and plaudit. / Plaudit, applause, and applaud all come from the Latin plaudere, to clap the hands, express approval. A plaudit is an enthusiastic expression of approval or praise. It's always pleasant to be on the receiving end of a plaudit, and it's always unpleasant to be on the receiving end of a stricture, an unfavorable criticism or hostile remark. / Stricture comes from the Latin strictus, the past participle of the verb stringere, to draw tight, bind, the source also of the English words strict and stringent. Stringent means tight, constricted, or rigorous and severe. We often speak of stringent laws, stringent measures, stringent regulations, or a stringent economic policy. / In medicine, stricture is used to mean a contraction or narrowing of a duct or passage in the body. Stricture is also sometimes used as a synonym of limitation or restriction, as "to place strictures on imported goods." Most often, though, stricture is used to mean a sharply critical comment, especially one that passes judgment or points out a fault in an antagonistic way: "During the debate, he displayed admirable equanimity when responding to his opponent's strictures." / Bear in mind that stricture is a noun, not a verb. In other words, you cannot stricture something, but if you have an unfavorable opinion of a person or a thing, you can express your strictures, sharp criticisms or hostile remarks. /

PANACEA

A cure‑all, universal antidote, remedy for all diseases and difficulties. / Panacea comes from the Greek pan‑, all, and akos, cure, and today retains its literal meaning, cure‑all. From the same Greek pan‑, all, comes the English prefix pan‑, which appears in front of a number of English words: a panorama is literally a view all around; pantheism, from the Greek theos, god, is the belief that all things are God, that God is universal; and a pantheon is a temple dedicated to all the gods, or all the gods worshiped by a given people. In current usage pantheon may also mean any group of highly respected or revered persons. When novelist Toni Morrison won a Nobel Prize in 1993, she earned a place beside such esteemed writers as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Mark Twain in the pantheon of American literature. / You have probably heard the common phrase "a panacea for all ills." The expression is redundant, because panacea by itself means a cure for all ills, a universal remedy. You may use panacea to mean either a cure‑all for physical ailments or an antidote for worldly woes: "His lawyer emphasized that filing for bankruptcy would not be a panacea for his financial troubles." /

SUBTERFUGE

A deception, trick, underhanded scheme. / Synonyms of subterfuge include stratagem, artifice, and ruse. / By derivation subterfuge means to flee secretly, escape. In modern usage the word applies to any secret or illicit plan or activity designed to conceal a motive, escape blame, or avoid something unpleasant: "Mystery and spy novels abound with myriad examples of the art of subterfuge." / Don't soften the g in this word and say SUHB‑tur‑fyoozh. The final syllable, ‑fuge, should rhyme with huge. /

CATACLYSM

A disaster, great mishap, catastrophe, violent upheaval. / A disaster, a catastrophe, a calamity, a debacle, and a cataclysm all refer to accidents, misfortunes, and sudden or violent changes. Let's examine these words in order. / The negative prefix dis‑ denotes the absence or reverse of what follows: / dislike is an absence of affection, discomfort is the absence of comfort, and disadvantage is the reverse of an advantage. In the word disaster, discombines with the Latin astrum, a star, to mean literally a reversal of the stars, an unfavorable horoscope; hence, an absence of luck, misfortune. / Today disaster refers to a great misfortune involving ruinous loss of life or property. The sinking of the Titanic and the stock market crash of 1929 were disasters. / Catastrophe combines the Greek kata‑, down, with strophe, turn, to mean literally a down‑turning. Originally catastrophe referred to the final turning point in a Greek tragedy where things go down the drain. Today catastrophe is used interchangeably with disaster, but properly disaster emphasizes the unforeseen, unlucky aspect of an event and catastrophe emphasizes its tragic and irreversible nature: The stock market crash of 1929 was a disaster for Wall Street, but it was only the beginning of the economic catastrophe we now call the Great Depression. / A calamity is an event that produces great distress, hardship, or misery, particularly on a personal level: The death of a loved one is always painful, but there is no greater calamity than the death of a child. / Debacle refers by derivation to a violent breaking up of ice in a river. It is often used today of any violent disruption or breakdown that leads to collapse or failure: "The breakup of the former Soviet Union was the debacle of communism"; "When Colosso Corporation laid off 20 percent of its workforce, company executives called it downsizing but employees called it a debacle." / Our keyword, cataclysm, comes from a Greek verb meaning to wash away or dash over. In its original sense, still in good standing today, a cataclysm is a great flood, a deluge, specifically the biblical flood that inundated the earth for forty days and forty nights. / In current usage, cataclysm most often refers to a violent upheaval that causes great destruction and change. The adjective is cataclysmic. A cataclysmic event may be geological—such as a devastating earthquake, fire, or flood—or it may be social or political. Many would say that World War II was the greatest cataclysm in the tumultuous course of twentieth‑century history. /

CHARLATAN

A fake, quack, imposter, fraud, humbug; specifically, a person who pretends to have a special skill or knowledge. / The words charlatan and mountebank are close in meaning and were once synonymous. Mountebank comes from the Italian montambanco, one who gets up on a bench. By derivation a mountebank is a person who mounts a bench or platform and delivers a flamboyant sales pitch to attract customers and hawk his wares. In its earliest sense, a charlatan was a huckster who made elaborate and fraudulent claims about his merchandise. In olden days, charlatans and mountebanks would travel about selling trinkets, relics, and panaceas; they were the proverbial snake‑oil salesmen. / Since the early nineteenth century, however, charlatan has been used to mean a fake or a quack, someone who pretends to have a special skill or knowledge and who covers up the fraud with an elaborate and sometimes intimidating verbal display. In The Wizard of Oz, the Wizard is a classic example of a charlatan. / Today charlatans and mountebanks continue to thrive not only at carnivals and on the street corner but in the office and the boardroom as well. / They're the ones who are always giving you the glad hand and handing you a line. The difference between them is that the mountebank makes an impressive verbal display in an attempt to sell you a bill of goods, while the charlatan makes an impressive verbal display to hide the fact that he doesn't have the skill or knowledge he claims to possess. /

PLATITUDE

A flat, dull, ordinary remark, a trite statement or hackneyed saying, especially one uttered as if it were original or profound: "Phil thought the management seminar was a big waste of time because the instructor kept repeating the same old platitudes he had heard many times before." / Platitude comes from the French word for flat, and means literally "a flat remark." Synonyms of platitude include cliché, truism, and bromide. / Platitude also has several useful relatives. The adjective platitudinous refers to speech or expression that is dull, ordinary, commonplace, insipid, banal. The verb to platitudinize means to utter platitudes. And a platitudinarian is a person who habitually utters platitudes —flat, dull, ordinary remarks. / In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the character Polonius is considered a platitudinarian. In bidding leave to his son Laertes, the pompous old adviser cannot resist sharing his favorite precepts, among them "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," "To thine own self be true," and "The apparel oft proclaims the man." These and many other expressions from Shakespeare have since become platitudes—dull, ordinary statements uttered as if they were still meaningful and fresh. /

SYCOPHANT

A flatterer, parasite, toady, fawning follower, hanger‑on. / No one knows the precise origin of the words sycophant and toady, but various theories and folk etymologies abound. According to most sources, the word toady is related to toad. As the etymologist Joseph T. Shipley recounts the story in his Dictionary of Word Origins, the charlatans and mountebanks of medieval times usually traveled with an assistant who would swallow, or seem to swallow, a live toad, "so that the master could display his healing powers. These helpers were called toad‑eaters; then the term came to mean a flattering follower," and "the word has been shortened to toady." / Sycophant is thought to come from a Greek word meaning to show figs. / As the legend goes, the Athenians passed a law prohibiting the export of figs from their city. Like many laws, this one was rarely enforced, but "there were always found mean fellows," says Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, "who, for their own private ends, impeached those who violated it; hence sycophant came to signify first a government toady, then a toady generally." Although by derivation sycophant means an informer, today the word refers to people who attempt to gain influence or advancement by ingratiating themselves through flattery and servility: "Joanne warned Lucy her first day on the job that Ralph and Diane were the office sycophants, always sucking up to the boss and stabbing people in the back." / The corresponding adjective is sycophantic. /

CHIMERA

A foolish fancy, fantastic notion or idea, figment of the imagination. / Synonyms of chimera include whimsy, crotchet, maggot, and caprice. / In Greek mythology, the Chimera was a fire‑breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent. In modern usage chimera may refer to that monster or a similar fabulous creature, but more commonly it means an absurd and fabulous creation of the mind. A chimera is a vain or idle fancy, an impossible or visionary idea. The corresponding adjective is chimerical, which means imaginary, fantastic, preposterous, absurd. /

DISQUISITION

A formal discussion of or inquiry into a subject; a discourse. / General synonyms of disquisition include treatise, critique, and commentary. More specific synonyms include lecture, thesis, oration, homily, tract, monograph, and dissertation. / Discourse, dissertation, and disquisition all refer to formal discussions of or inquiries into a subject. Discourse, which may refer either to writing or speech, means a formal treatise, lecture, or conversation. Dissertation may mean any lengthy discourse in writing, such as Noah Webster's Dissertations on the English Language, published in 1789; however, in current usage dissertation most often refers to a formal thesis written by a candidate for a doctoral degree. Disquisition applies to any formal treatment of a subject, usually but not necessarily in writing. /

OBEISANCE

A gesture of respect or submission, or an attitude of respect and submission. / Synonyms of obeisance include deference, homage, adoration, reverence, and veneration. / Obeisance comes from French and means literally obedience. It was once used to mean obedience, or the power or right to demand obedience, but these senses are obsolete. Obeisance now means a respectful, submissive attitude or a deferential gesture, one that shows respect for the superiority of another. / Obeisance is used chiefly of formal situations in which respect or homage is paid to a god, a ruler, a religious leader, or a person of great influence or power. A bow, a curtsy, and a genuflection, a deferential bending of the knee, are all examples of obeisance, a gesture or attitude of respect and submission. /

OBJURGATION

A harsh rebuke, vehement scolding or denunciation. / Synonyms of the noun objurgation include reproof, reproach, upbraiding, vilification, and vituperation. / The corresponding verb is objurgate. / To objurgate is to rebuke sharply, chide harshly, denounce vehemently. / Objurgate and objurgation come from the Latin ob‑, against, and jurgare, to scold or quarrel. In colloquial terms—that is, in the vernacular—when you are called on the carpet or you are read the riot act, you are on the receiving end of an objurgation, a harsh rebuke, vehement scolding or denunciation. /

CACOPHONY

A harsh, jarring sound, especially a harsh and unpleasant blend of sounds. / Synonyms of cacophony include dissonance, discord, disharmony, and stridency. Antonyms include silence, tranquility, serenity, placidity, and quiescence, the noun corresponding to the adjective quiescent. / Cacophony comes from the Greek kakos, bad, and phoné, sound, and by derivation means "bad‑sounding." / You can see the influence of the Greek phoné, sound, in the English words phonetic, pertaining to or representing the sounds of speech; symphony, which means literally "sounding together"; and telephone, which by derivation means "a voice from afar." / The Greek kakos, bad, is the source of the English prefix caco‑, which appears in front of a number of interesting English words to mean "bad" or "wrong." For example, cacography is bad writing; cacology is bad speaking or a bad choice of words; cacoepy is bad pronunciation, as opposed to orthoepy, good pronunciation; a caconym is a bad or erroneous name; a cacodoxy is a wrong or unacceptable opinion; cacoeconomy is bad economy or bad management; and, last but not least, we have the fascinating word cacoëthes. / Cacoëthes combines the Greek kakos, bad, with ethos, habit, and means a bad habit, incurable itch, or an insatiable urge or desire: "Mary could overlook John's fingernail biting, excuse his excessive smoking and drinking, and forgive his frequent use of foul language, but the one obnoxious habit she could not bring herself to condone was his addiction to channel surfing. That, in her estimation, was his most loathsome cacoëthes." / And now let's return to our keyword, cacophony. Any harsh, jarring sound, and especially any harsh and unpleasant blend of sounds, can be described as a cacophony: the cacophony of traffic; a cacophony of angry voices; the cacophony created by a major construction project; the cacophony of newborn babies crying in the nursery. / The corresponding adjective is cacophonous, having a harsh, unpleasant, jarring sound: "The hungry animals in the barnyard together raised a cacophonous complaint"; "It seemed that every day the tranquility of his well‑manicured suburban street was disturbed by a cacophonous orchestra of lawnmowers, blowers, and edgers." Synonyms of cacophonous include dissonant, discordant, raucous, and strident. /

DEARTH

A lack, scarcity, insufficiency, inadequate supply of something needed. / A more difficult synonym of dearth is paucity. Antonyms of dearth include abundance, surplus, excess, superfluity, plethora, and surfeit. / Dearth is a noun formed from the adjective dear. Something dear is precious, costly, highly valued. Literally, a dearth is a lack of something dear. Dearth is now used of any serious insufficiency or inadequate supply: / a dearth of supplies; a dearth of hope; a dearth of opportunities in the job market. /

PENCHANT

A liking, leaning, strong inclination, decided taste: "a penchant for sports," "a penchant for poetry," "a penchant for spicy food." / More difficult synonyms of penchant include propensity, a profound, often irresistible inclination; and proclivity, a strong natural or habitual tendency, especially toward something objectionable or wicked. Career criminals have a proclivity for violence. Successful businesspeople have a propensity for discerning the bottom line and making a profit. And many people have a penchant for chocolate, a strong liking, decided taste. /

TIRADE

A long‑drawn‑out speech, especially a vehement and abusive one: "After suffering through yet another one of his boss's frequent tirades, Joe decided it was time to quit and move on." / Tirades have three characteristics: they are protracted, drawn out to great length; they are vituperative, full of harsh, abusive language; and they are censorious, meaning that they tend to censure, to blame or condemn. / Tirade may also be pronounced with the accent on the second syllable: / ty‑RAYD. /

STIGMA

A mark of shame or disgrace, a moral blemish, a stain on one's character or reputation. / Stigma comes directly from Greek, and means literally a mark, brand, tattoo. In its original but no longer common sense, stigma refers to a brand or scar made with a red‑hot iron in the flesh of slaves and criminals. Later it came to be used of anything that branded a person as unwholesome or disgraceful, a mark of shame, stain on one's character or reputation: the stigma of divorce; the stigma of a bad credit rating. The corresponding verb is stigmatize, to brand as shameful, set a mark of disgrace upon: The media rarely have an indifferent view of celebrities and politicians; they either praise them or stigmatize them. / The plural of stigma is either stigmas or stigmata. Stigmas is the anglicized plural —to anglicize means to make English, conform to English modes of spelling, pronunciation, and usage. Stigmata, the Latinate plural, is also an interesting word by itself. Specifically, stigmata refers to marks resembling the wounds on the crucified body of Jesus Christ that are believed to have been supernaturally impressed on the bodies of certain persons, such as St. Francis of Assisi. / Now for a word of advice on pronunciation. For the plural stigmata, STIG‑muh‑tuh, with the stress on the first syllable, follows the Latin and Greek accentuation and is the traditional English pronunciation. The alternative pronunciation stig‑MAH‑tuh, with the accent on the second syllable, has been around since the 1920s; it is now standard and listed first in some dictionaries. Despite its popularity, however, stig‑MAH‑tuh is a pseudoclassical pronunciation; in other words, those who say it that way probably think they are following the proper classical accentuation. Although stig‑MAH‑tuh is not wrong, it carries a slight stigma of affectation. There is no such stigma associated with the pronunciation STIG‑muh‑tuh, which I recommend as having a longer tradition and greater authority. /

PETTIFOGGER

A mean, tricky lawyer; especially, a lawyer who handles petty cases in an unethical, unscrupulous way. / Pettifogger is synonymous with the more familiar word shyster. The proverbial ambulance‑chaser is also a breed of pettifogger. / The corresponding verb to pettifog means to carry on a law practice in a petty, tricky, unscrupulous way; by extension, it has also come to mean to engage in chicanery or unethical practices in a business of any sort. The noun pettifoggery means the unethical, unscrupulous practices of a pettifogger, legal tricks or chicanery. /

FARRAGO

A mixture, especially a confused or jumbled mixture. / Synonyms of farrago include conglomeration, medley, mishmash, hodgepodge, miscellany, potpourri, pastiche, and salmagundi. / Farrago comes from a Latin word meaning mixed fodder for animals, a jumbled assortment of grains. In modern usage, farrago may be used literally or figuratively of any mixture, especially a confused, jumbled, or miscellaneous assortment of things: "A computer is an amazing tool for storing or sorting through a farrago of information"; "Every day, the psychiatrist listens to an astonishing farrago of hopes, fears, dreams, wishes, doubts, and resentments." / The corresponding adjective is farraginous, mixed, jumbled, miscellaneous, heterogeneous, as a farraginous collection of notes or ideas. /

PARAGON

A model of excellence, perfect example. / Paragon applies to a person or thing so excellent that it serves as a model or example of perfection. The inventor Thomas Alva Edison is a paragon of American ingenuity. In her Camelot days, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was considered a paragon of beauty and style. The Gettysburg Address is a paragon of forceful, eloquent speechwriting. / A paragon is a model of excellence, a perfect example. /

ENIGMA

A mystery, puzzle, riddle, perplexing problem, something or someone hard to understand or explain. / Anything baffling, inexplicable, or inscrutable may be described as an enigma: "She is an enigma to me"; "Their motives are still an enigma"; "The case presents us with one enigma after another." /

IDIOSYNCRASY

A peculiarity, distinctive characteristic of a person or group, an identifying trait or mannerism. / An idiosyncrasy, an eccentricity, and a quirk all designate behavior that is peculiar or distinctive. / Quirk is a mild term for any unusual trait, characteristic, or mannerism. / Constant use of um, like, and y'know is a quirk of adolescent speech. Old people often have quirks, odd preferences or strange ways of doing things. / An eccentricity is a habit or characteristic that seems strange or peculiar because it differs from what is considered usual or normal. A friend of mine who is also a writer prefers to spell his name without the customary period after the middle initial. Of course, every time he publishes an article he winds up in a battle with some copyeditor who insists on "correcting" this eccentricity. / Our keyword, idiosyncrasy, comes from Greek and means literally "one's own peculiar temperament, habit, or bent." In modern usage the word suggests a distinctive characteristic or identifying trait that sets a person apart. An idiosyncrasy may appear somewhat strange or odd, or it may simply mark someone or something as individual and different from others: / a writer may have certain stylistic idiosyncrasies; a wine connoisseur can tell you the idiosyncrasies of a particular vintage; and to a person from the Midwest, the speech of someone from New England is full of idiosyncrasies, peculiar or distinctive characteristics. / Idiosyncrasy is the noun; the corresponding adjective is idiosyncratic, peculiar, distinctive, odd. /

ICONOCLAST

A person who attacks cherished or popular beliefs, traditions, or institutions; someone who destroys or denounces an established idea or practice. / Iconoclast comes from the Greek eikonoklastes, an image‑breaker, a person who smashes icons or images. Originally the word referred to a person who destroyed religious images, or who was opposed to the use or worship of religious images. In modern usage iconoclast refers to a person who attacks, denounces, or ridicules cherished ideas or beliefs, or to someone who advocates the overthrow or destruction of established customs or institutions. / Synonyms of the noun iconoclast include radical, extremist, insurgent, and firebrand. The corresponding adjective is iconoclastic, attacking or opposing established or popular beliefs, customs, or institutions. /

SCIOLIST

A person who has only superficial knowledge of a subject, or who pretends to have knowledge. / Sciolist and the corresponding noun sciolism come through a Latin word meaning "a smatterer," and ultimately from the Latin scire, to know. By derivation, and in modern usage, a sciolist is a person who has only a smattering of knowledge, and sciolism means superficial or pretended knowledge. / Sciolist may also apply to people who pretend to be more knowledgeable or learned than they are, or who make a pretentious display of what little they know. As the saying goes, "A little learning is a dangerous thing." The sciolist is a person you want to either avoid or watch carefully, because a small mind containing only a smattering of knowledge is likely to think mean, small‑minded thoughts. /

EXPONENT

A person who stands or speaks for something, a representative or advocate. / Exponent comes from the Latin exponere, to put forth, put on view, display. The Latin exponere is also the source of the English verb to expound, which means to explain, interpret, set forth point by point, as to expound an idea or to expound the principles of business management. An exponent may be a person who expounds, an explainer, interpreter, or commentator, but in current usage exponent more often applies to a person who stands or speaks for something, someone who represents, advocates, or promotes some idea or purpose: The leader of a political party is the exponent of its principles and goals; the pontiff is the exponent of Roman Catholicism; the framers of the U.S. Constitution were exponents of democracy and individual liberty; and Carry Nation, the austere and abstemious nineteenth‑century temperance crusader who chopped up saloons with a hatchet, was a radical exponent of abstinence from alcoholic beverages. /

SINECURE

A position that provides a good income or salary but that requires little or no work; in colloquial terms, a cushy job. / Sinecure comes from the Latin phrase beneficium sine cura, which means "a benifice without cure." And what does that mean, you ask? A benefice is an endowed church position or office that provides a member of the clergy with a fixed income or guaranteed living. A "benefice without cure" means a paid position for a member of the clergy that does not require pastoral work—in other words, the curing of souls. Pastors, vicars, rectors, and the like who were granted sinecures by their church did not have a congregation, and they were paid well to do little or nothing. / Sinecure is such a useful word that it was soon adopted by the laity to mean any position or office that has no specific duties or work attached to it but that provides an income or emolument. /

DILEMMA

A predicament. In general, any difficult problem or unpleasant situation; specifically, a predicament in which one must choose between equally undesirable alternatives. / As I mentioned in my discussion of quandary, dilemma is often used today of any difficult problem or troublesome situation, but many good writers and speakers object to that as loose usage. / Dilemma comes from the Greek di‑, meaning two, and lemma, a proposition, and by derivation means a choice between two propositions. / Strictly speaking, dilemma should be used only of situations in which one faces a choice between equally undesirable alternatives: Elected officials often face the dilemma of either voting for what their constituents want and going against their conscience, or voting their conscience and losing the support of their constituents. / Quandary, quagmire, and dilemma all refer to complicated and perplexing situations from which it is hard to disentangle oneself. / Quandary emphasizes confusion and uncertainty; someone in a quandary has no idea what to do to get out of it. / Quagmire emphasizes hopelessness and impossibility. Literally, a quagmire is a bog, a tract of soft, wet ground. When used in a figurative sense, quagmire refers to an inextricable difficulty. Someone in a quagmire feels hopelessly stuck and unable to get out. / By derivation, a dilemma is a choice between two equally undesirable, unfavorable, or disagreeable propositions. Hamlet's famous dilemma was "to be or not to be." / Colloquial or informal expressions for the state of being in a dilemma include "in a fix," "in a pickle," "between a rock and a hard place," and "between the devil and the deep blue sea." /

PREDILECTION

A preference, partiality, preconceived liking, an inclination or disposition to favor something. / Synonyms of predilection include fondness, leaning, bias, prejudice, predisposition, affinity, penchant, propensity, and proclivity. / Predilection comes through French from the Medieval Latin verb praediligere, to prefer. Unlike the words bias and prejudice, which are often used negatively, predilection has either a neutral or positive connotation and is used as a stronger synonym of preference and partiality. According to the third edition of Webster's New World Dictionary, a predilection is "a preconceived liking, formed as a result of one's background, temperament, etc., that inclines one toward a particular preference." You can have a predilection for anything you are naturally partial to or inclined to like, as a predilection for ice hockey, a predilection for solving crossword puzzles, a predilection for country music, or a predilection for Italian cuisine. /

NOSTRUM

A quack remedy or medicine; a panacea; hence, a dubious or dishonest plan or scheme for curing a social or political problem. / Nostrum comes from the Latin noster, which means "our." In days of yore, the charlatan and the mountebank—two unsavory types that I discussed in word 17 of Level 4—would sell their panacea or cure‑all by calling it a nostrum, meaning literally "our remedy." As a result, the word nostrum came to mean a medicine whose ingredients are kept secret and whose preparer makes exaggerated claims about its effectiveness, which has not been proved. / That definition is still in good standing, as a trip to any health‑food store will prove. Because quack remedies can be applied not only to the ills of the body but also to the ills of the body politic, in modern usage nostrum has also come to mean a dubious or dishonest plan or scheme for curing a social or political problem. Throughout society today, from the bars to the talk shows to the hallowed halls of government, you can hear quacks, eccentrics, and downright weirdos proposing their nostrums for the ills of the world. /

RETORT

A quick reply, especially one that is cutting or witty. / A retort and a rejoinder are similar in meaning but not quite synonymous. / Rejoinder may be used generally to mean any answer or response, but specifically it means a counterreply, an answer to a reply. A retort is a swift, pointed response. / Retort comes from the prefix re‑, back, and the Latin torquere, to twist, turn, and means literally "something turned back." In its most precise sense, a retort is a quick reply that counters or turns back a statement or argument: "Phil's clever retorts kept his opponent on the defensive." /

RENAISSANCE

A revival, rebirth, resurgence, renewal of life or vigor. / The Renaissance was a revival of classical forms and motifs in art, architecture, literature, and scholarship that began in Italy in the fourteenth century, spread throughout Europe, and continued into the seventeenth century. Historically, the Renaissance marked the end of the medieval era and the beginning of the modern world. / The word renaissance comes from a French verb meaning to be born again. When spelled with a small or lowercase r, renaissance may refer to any renewal or resurgence of life, energy, or productivity. Many types of renaissance are possible: a cultural renaissance, a moral renaissance, a spiritual renaissance, and even a renaissance in the economy. A renaissance is a revival, rebirth, resurgence. /

RECRUDESCENCE

A revival, renewal, fresh outbreak after a period of inactivity or quiescence. / Recrudescence comes from the Latin recrudescere, to become raw again, break out again, open afresh. In medicine, recrudescence is used of a wound or sore that partially heals and then reopens, or of a fever that abates and then breaks out again. / Does recrudescence strike you as a word you'd never use because you can't imagine how you'd apply it? Well, let me give you a few suggestions. / How about sports for the weekend warrior? "Whenever Ken played basketball or softball without warming up properly, he suffered from a recrudescence of lower back pain." / Now let's try economics: "Analysts disagree on whether the recrudescence of inflation will affect the stock market." / Are you in the retail business? Try this: "Booksellers are delighted with the recrudescence of interest in high‑priced coffee‑table volumes, which accounted for a 20 percent increase in sales this holiday season." / Now let's take a stab at the fine arts: "Some critics are disturbed by the recrudescence of classical themes in contemporary literature and art, though others applaud it." / And let's not forget fashion: "Madonna may have revolutionized our concept of fashion by turning underwear into outerwear, but it's unlikely that she alone can effect a recrudescence of that most alluring of all exterior female garments, the miniskirt." / And finally, we have romance: "Seeing John again after all these years, Sally felt a recrudescence of the love for him that she had suppressed since high school." / You see? Recrudescence isn't such an obscure, useless word after all, now is it? / The corresponding verb is recrudesce, to break out again, show renewed activity after an inactive period. The corresponding adjective is recrudescent, breaking out afresh, as a recrudescent epidemic or a recrudescent revolt. /

PECCADILLO

A small sin, slight offense, minor fault or flaw. / Peccadillo means literally "a small sin." It comes through Spanish and Italian ultimately from the Latin peccare, to make a mistake, blunder, sin. / From the same source English has also inherited three other useful words: / peccant, which means guilty, sinful, culpable; peccable, which means liable to sin or do wrong; and its antonym impeccable, which means incapable of sin, unable to do wrong, and therefore free from all faults or imperfections. / Synonyms of peccadillo include failing, frailty, and foible. All these words suggest a weakness, imperfection, or defect of character or habit. Failing implies a relatively minor but noticeable shortcoming: Parents are never perfect; all have their failings. Frailty implies a weakness that can be exploited or that leads one to yield to temptation: Frailties are an inescapable part of human nature. Foible suggests a harmless or trivial weakness or flaw that can be easily overlooked: You may regret your failings and try to keep your frailties in check, but you can laugh about your foibles. Our keyword, peccadillo, is a small sin or slight offense that is easily forgiven: A good manager knows how to distinguish between an employee who commits peccadilloes and an employee who causes problems. / The plural of peccadillo is peccadilloes, which is preferred by most American authorities and listed first in American dictionaries, or peccadillos, the British preference. /

SUSURRUS

A soft, subdued sound; a whispering, murmuring, muttering, or rustling sound. / A susurrus and a susurration are the same thing. / The corresponding verb is susurrate, to whisper, murmur; and the adjective is susurrant, softly whispering, rustling, or murmuring. All of these soft‑sounding words come from the Latin susurrare, to whisper, murmer, mutter. / A susurrus or a susurration—pick the soft‑sounding word you prefer— can apply to many things, because so many things create a whispering, murmuring, muttering, or rustling sound. Here are three possible applications: the susurrus in the library; the sussuration of the trees; as the lights dimmed and the curtain rose, a susurrus passed through the audience and then died away. /

QUANDARY

A state of uncertainty, perplexity, or doubt. / Predicament, dilemma, and quandary all apply to situations or conditions that are difficult and perplexing. / A predicament is a situation that is especially unpleasant or unfortunate: / "Larry looked at his smashed‑up car lying in the ditch, then at his mistress who was more smashed than his car, and he wondered how he had gotten himself into this predicament." / Dilemma is often used today of any difficult problem or troublesome situation, but many good writers and speakers object to that as loose usage. Dilemma comes from the greek di‑, meaning two, and lemma, a proposition, and by derivation means a choice between two propositions. Strictly speaking, dilemma should be used only of situations in which one faces a choice between equally undesirable alternatives, as "The soldiers who defended the Alamo faced a terrible dilemma: to surrender or die." / A quandary is a state of uncertainty or confusion that renders one unable to act. To be "in a quandary" means to be puzzled, full of doubts, and not sure what to do: "Julie was in a quandary over whether to look for a better job"; "the thought of buying a new house put them in a quandary: they wanted a nicer place with more room for the kids, but could they afford it?" /

apathy / habitude / torpor / dullness / lethargy / lassitude.

A state of wariness or fatigue. Indifference.

MARTINET

A strict disciplinarian, taskmaster, rigid enforcer of rules and regulations. / Martinet comes from General Jean Martinet, a seventeenth‑century French drillmaster who became legendary for subjecting his troops to harsh discipline and for his rigid adherence to military rules and regulations. In modern usage, martinet may refer to a strict military disciplinarian, or more generally to any rigid, authoritarian enforcer of rules and regulations. /

COMPUNCTION

A twinge of regret caused by an uneasy conscience; a pang of guilt for a wrong done or for pain that one has caused another. / Synonyms of compunction include remorse, misgiving, scruple, and qualm. A stronger synonym is contrition, word 9 of Level 5, which means repentance, deep and devastating sorrow for one's sins or for something one has done wrong. / Compunction comes through the Late Latin compunctio, a pricking of conscience, ultimately from the Latin verb pungere, to prick, sting, pierce, or stab. The Latin pungere is also the source of the English words puncture, meaning to prick, pierce, or stab; pungent, which means piercing or stinging to the smell or taste, as a pungent aroma; and poignant, which means piercing or penetrating to the senses, the emotions, or the intellect. / When you feel the prick or sting of conscience or a twinge of regret for something you have done wrong, or when you feel a pang of guilt for causing pain to another person, that is a compunction: "After a year, Ned still had compunctions about ending his relationship with Suzy." If your conscience is clear and you have no regrets, you lack compunction: / "Vanessa grew sick and tired of working for a martinet, and when she finally decided the time was right to quit her job, she did so without compunction." /

FOIBLE

A weak point, slight fault or flaw, minor failing, especially a weakness in a person's character. / By derivation foible means the weak part of a sword, and it is related to the word feeble, weak, frail. / A foible is not a serious defect in character but rather a minor flaw or weakness that is usually forgivable: "A penchant for rich desserts is her only foible." /

CATEGORICAL

Absolute, unqualified, explicit; without exceptions, conditions, or qualifications. / Antonyms of categorical include ambiguous, and doubtful, dubious, indefinite, enigmatic, and equivocal. / In the philosophy of logic, a categorical proposition affirms something absolutely without resorting to conditions or hypothesis. In the philosophy of ethics, Immanuel Kant's famous categorical imperative is, as the third edition of The American Heritage Dictionary puts it, "an unconditional moral law that applies to all rational beings and is independent of any personal motive or desire." / In general usage, categorical refers to statements or assertions that are absolute, unqualified, direct and explicit. A categorical reply is direct and explicit; a categorical refusal is complete and unconditional; a categorical denial is absolute and unqualified. / Although categorical may be used of any utterance that is absolute and unqualified, today it often suggests a statement or state of mind that is rigid, narrow, arrogant, or arbitrary. A categorical decision may seem universal to some but unfair and arbitrary to others. And when someone calls a creed or opinion categorical, the implication is that some assert that it is absolute while others believe it is narrow‑minded or false. /

APODICTIC

Absolutely certain, necessarily true, proved or demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt. / Synonyms of apodictic include incontestable, incontrovertible, and irrefragable. / Apodictic is chiefly a technical term used in logic of a judgment that asserts its own necessity. "Such judgments," cautions the Century Dictionary, "may be false." Apodictic is a lovely word, so much more forceful and decisive than certain or true, yet I wonder what in life honestly can be called apodictic, absolutely certain, necessarily true. Can you think of anything that is unarguably apodictic? Perhaps only death and taxes. /

COPIOUS

Abundant, plentiful, large in amount or number. / Synonyms of copious include ample, bountiful, and profuse. Antonyms include scanty, meager, sparse, and paltry. / Copious comes from the Latin copia, abundance, plenty, and means literally abundant, plentiful. From the same Latin copia, plenty, and cornu, a horn, comes the English word cornucopia, a horn of plenty. Historically, a cornucopia is a symbol of abundance and prosperity in the form of a goat's horn overflowing with fruit, flowers, and grain. In modern usage, cornucopia is often applied to any overflowing stock or supply, as a cornucopia of menu selections, or a cornucopia of products and services. / The adjective copious may be used of anything that exists or is provided in abundance. Copious praise is abundant praise; a copious harvest is a plentiful harvest; copious information is a great supply of information; copious speech overflows with words. /

ADVENTITIOUS

Accidentally or casually acquired, not belonging naturally to something, associated by chance, not inherent or integral. / Synonyms of adventitious include foreign, extrinsic, incidental, extraneous, fortuitous, and supervenient. / Adventitious comes from the Latin adventicius, which means "coming from without or from abroad," and by derivation is related to the word advent, which means an arrival, specifically the arrival or birth of Jesus Christ or the season preceding the celebration of His birth. / Adventitious suggests something added or imposed from without, something external or extrinsic that is accidentally or casually acquired. / Adventitious information is additional and often unrelated information that you acquire casually or by chance in the course of investigating something. / Adventitious blindness is caused by an accident, as opposed to blindness occurring at birth. Adventitious income or wealth is fortuitously acquired, and comes to you from some source other than wages or an inheritance. /

Actuarially

According to probability. Statistically demonstrated.

SENESCENT

Aging, growing old, on the decline. / The adjective senescent comes from the Latin senex, which means "old." Senex is also the source of senile, exhibiting mental impairment due to old age, and senate, which means literally "a council of elders." / Senescent may be used of persons, things, or ideas that are growing old, decrepit, or outworn, as a senescent leader, a senescent forest, a senescent custom, or a senescent industry. / The antonym of senescent is juvenescent, growing younger. The corresponding noun is senescence, which means the process of becoming old or the state of being old. Wrinkles, hair loss, persistent aches and pains, and the inability to remember what you ate for breakfast are all telltale signs of senescence. /

OMNIPOTENT

All‑powerful, almighty, having unlimited power or authority. / Omnipotent is formed from the word potent, powerful, and the combining form omni‑, all. Whenever you see omni‑ in a word you have a good clue to its meaning, for you know that half the word means "all." / For example, omnidirectional means all‑directional, as an omnidirectional microphone, one that picks up signals from all directions. Omnipresent means all‑present, present everywhere at once. Omniscient means all‑knowing, having universal knowledge. Omnivorous means eating all kinds of food or taking in everything: "She is an avid reader with an omnivorous mind." Our keyword, omnipotent, means all‑powerful, almighty. /

DROLL

Amusing, humorous, comical; especially, funny or witty in an odd or outrageous way. / Synonyms of droll include ridiculous, ludicrous, farcical, and waggish. / Antonyms include sober, sedate, staid, and austere. / Droll comes from a French word meaning a buffoon, a jester, or a wag. / Droll was once used as a noun to mean a buffoon, someone who clowns around telling jokes and performing amusing tricks—the kind of person that today we might describe as "the life of the party." The noun a droll is now old‑fashioned, and in current usage droll is used as an adjective to mean amusing or witty in a quirky, eccentric way. A droll person has a playful, lively sense of humor; a droll expression is an oddly comical expression; a droll remark is humorous in an offbeat way. / The corresponding noun is drollery, which may denote either an oddly amusing quality or something said or done in a slightly outrageous and amusing way. /

DEIPNOSOPHIST

An adept conversationalist, especially one who enjoys conversing at the table. / You'll need to check a hefty unabridged dictionary to find the unusual words deipnosophist, deipnosophistic, and deipnosophism, which come from the Greek deipnon, a meal, and sophistes, a wise man. Like the word symposium, which means literally a drinking party, and comes from the title of a Platonic dialogue, deipnosophist comes from the Deipnosophistai of the Greek writer Athenaeus, in which he details the conversation of a group of learned men who are dining together. For your next symposium, whether you plan to cook a gourmet meal or have a potluck, try inviting a few deipnosophists to liven up the conversation. / I have known many deipnosophists, I am something of one myself, and in my book they fall into three categories: the preprandial deipnosophists, who excel at conversation over cocktails before dinner; the postprandial deipnosophists, who hit their stride and wax eloquent after the plates have been cleared away; and the vulgar deipnosophists, who talk incessantly through the meal, usually with their mouths full. /

ALLEGATION

An assertion or declaration, especially one made without proof. / In law, an allegation is an assertion of what one intends to prove. Often the word implies an unsupportable assertion: "The judge dismissed the allegations, citing lack of evidence to support them." "A spokesperson for the company today denied the allegations of wrongdoing regarding the firm's hiring practices." /

SUPPOSITION

An assumption, theory, hypothesis. / To suppose means to assume as true, put something forward for consideration. A supposition is something supposed, an idea put forward for consideration. / A hypothesis, a conjecture, and a supposition are all assumptions or theories. / A hypothesis is a preliminary or incomplete theory based on insufficient evidence: "There are conflicting hypotheses about the origin of the universe." / A conjecture is an assumption based on so little evidence that it is merely an educated guess: "Every week we hear different conjectures about trends in the stock market." / A supposition may be based on ample evidence or no evidence at all, and may be either sensible or irrational: "His suppositions about the company's financial condition proved consistent with the facts." /

ACCOLADE

An award; sign of respect or esteem; expression of praise; mark of acknowledgment; anything done or given as a token of appreciation or approval: "At the ceremony she received an accolade from the president for her work"; "He was showered with accolades after the success of his project." / Here's an interesting word story for you: Accolade comes through French and Italian from the Latin accollare, to embrace, which comes in turn from ad‑, meaning "to," and collum, the neck, the source of the word collar. / Originally, an accolade was an embrace, specifically the ritual embrace used in conferring knighthood. At one time this consisted of a ceremonial kiss and a light blow on each shoulder with the flat side of a sword. Later the embrace was dropped and the ceremony was limited to the tap on each side of the collar with a sword. From this ritual the word accolade has come to mean any special recognition of merit, achievement, or distinction. / My preferred pronunciation for accolade is ak‑uh‑LAYD, but there are no fewer than three other established, acceptable pronunciations: AK‑uh‑layd, with the stress on the first syllable; ak‑uh‑LAHD, final syllable rhyming with rod; and AK‑uh‑lahd, stress on the first syllable. /

CONTRETEMPS

An embarrassing, awkward, unexpected situation or event; a sudden mishap or hitch; an inopportune occurrence. / In colloquial terms, a contretemps is something that happens in the wrong place at the wrong time, which leaves you high and dry: "There was a contretemps at the party last night when John got soused and started yelling at his wife." "The company can survive a contretemps, but it must avoid a scandal at all costs." / Contretemps comes from French and by derivation means something "against the time" or "out of time"; hence, something unexpected or inopportune. The Oxford English Dictionary shows that when the word entered English in the late seventeenth century it applied to the sport of fencing and meant "a pass or thrust...made at a wrong or inopportune moment." That meaning disappeared by the eighteenth century, and since then contretemps has meant something unexpected that occurs at an inopportune moment and creates an awkward or embarrassing situation. / Because it is an unusual word, not often used in conversation, its pronunciation has never been fully anglicized—that is, made to conform to English ways. Current dictionaries generally prefer the half‑anglicized KAHN‑truh‑TAH. The plural is spelled the same but pronounced KAHN ‑truh‑TAHZ. / Contretemps may vary in severity, but they are never on the same scale as a scandal or a crisis. Contretemps are the common stuff of newspaper stories, for they occur frequently in politics and business. Sitcoms and romantic comedies also rely on contretemps to generate laughs and move the plot. The workplace usually is good for one or two juicy contretemps a month, and if you like to socialize or get together with members of your family, then chances are you already are intimately acquainted with that utterly unexpected, embarrassing, and awkward situation known as the contretemps. /

MISCREANT

An evil, unscrupulous, vicious person; someone without principles or conscience; a villain, criminal. / Because the world contains so many evil, unscrupulous, vicious people, the language abounds with synonyms for the noun miscreant, including but not limited to scoundrel, rascal, rogue, hoodlum, hooligan, ne'er‑do‑well, varlet, rapscallion, blackguard, desperado, scapegrace, scofflaw, malefactor, and reprobate, word 17 of this level. / Miscreant, which entered English in the fourteenth century, comes through Old French from Latin, and combines the prefix mis‑, which means "bad" or "not," with the Latin credere, to believe. By derivation a miscreant is someone who does not believe. / For several centuries the word was used to mean a heretic, a person who rejects or flouts religious principles, but this sense is now archaic and since at least the time of Shakespeare miscreant has been used to mean a morally bad person, a vile wretch, detestable scoundrel. The adjective miscreant, pronounced the same way, means villainous, evil, destitute of conscience. /

PARADIGM

An example, model, or pattern. / Paradigm, which gets its unusual spelling from Greek, is used of an example that serves to illustrate or explain something or that serves as a model or pattern. Scholars develop paradigms for their theories; a novel may be a paradigm of contemporary morality; an important experience can serve as a paradigm for evaluating later experiences; and the successful strategy of one corporation may be the paradigm for another corporation's plan to restructure itself and redefine its goals. / The corresponding adjective is paradigmatic, which means exemplary, typical, serving as a model or pattern. / PAR‑uh‑dim is the original pronunciation, preferred by authorities of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The alternative pronunciation PAR‑uh‑dym came along sometime before 1900 and appears to have originated in Britain; it is now preferred by most educated speakers on both sides of the Atlantic. Modern authorities and current dictionaries countenance both pronunciations, and you may say the word as you please. /

PLETHORA

An excess, surplus, overabundance, oversupply. / Synonyms of plethora include superabundance, profusion, superfluity, and surfeit. / Antonyms of plethora include scarcity, insufficiency, dearth, and paucity: "The worst kind of boss is the one who offers a plethora of advice and a paucity of assistance." / Plethora comes from the Greek plethein, to be full. In medicine the word is used to mean an excess of blood in the body; in general usage plethora may refer to any excess, surplus, or overabundance: "This report contains a plethora of dull statistics." "Throughout her career she was blessed with a plethora of opportunities." "American consumers no longer give the bulk of their business to small, specialized retailers, but instead prefer to shop at superstores that offer a plethora of merchandise at discount prices." / Plethora is the noun; the corresponding adjective is plethoric. A plethoric harvest is an overabundant harvest, a bumper crop. Plethoric wealth is excessive wealth. Plethoric writing is verbose, inflated writing; it overflows with words or puffed‑up self‑importance. When used of language, plethoric is synonymous with the words bombastic and turgid. / Plethora is sometimes mispronounced with the stress on the second syllable, ple‑THOR‑uh. Dictionaries do not recognize this variant. Be sure to stress the first syllable: PLETH‑uh‑ruh. /

PRETEXT

An excuse, ostensible reason or motive, professed purpose. / Pretext comes through the Latin praetextum, an ornament, from the verb praetexere, to pretend, literally "to weave in front." By derivation a pretext is a front, a faade, something used for cover. As the Century Dictionary puts it, a pretext is "that which is assumed as a cloak or means of concealment; something under cover of which a true purpose is hidden." / Tyrannical leaders often invent pretexts for invading or declaring war on other countries. Irresponsible employees will invent pretexts for not coming to work. A supervisor who hates an employee's guts may try to come up with a pretext for firing the person. A pretext is an excuse, an ostensible reason designed to hide the real reason. /

PROCLIVITY

An inclination, liking, leaning; a strong natural bent or tendency, often toward something disagreeable, objectionable, or wicked. / Synonyms of proclivity include partiality, penchant, predisposition, predilection, and propensity. / By derivation proclivity means a sloping forward or downward; hence, a leaning, tendency, or inclination. In current usage the word may have a neutral connotation, as a proclivity to study, a proclivity for music. More often, however, propensity is used in this neutral sense, and proclivity usually suggests a strong natural bent or inclination toward something bad or wrong. For example, a person may have a proclivity for drinking or gambling, a proclivity to lie, or antisocial proclivities. /

EPIGRAPH

An inscription; especially, an inscription on a building or monument, or a brief quotation at the beginning of a literary composition that suggests or is germane to its theme. / Epigraph, epigram, and epitaph are close in meaning but sharply distinguished in usage. / An epitaph is an inscription on a gravestone or tomb in memory of the person buried. In The Devil's Dictionary, a classic work of satirical lexicography, the acerbic and crotchety humorist Ambrose Bierce defined epitaph as "an inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect." Dorothy Parker, another American writer famous for her quick, mordant wit, once proposed these two epitaphs for herself: "Excuse my dust" and "This is on me." / Epigram has two meanings. Originally it referred to a short, witty poem—for example, this two‑line ditty by Ogden Nash: "I like eels/' cept as meals." Later epigram also came to mean a short, pointed saying that displays terse wit or a clever twist of thought. One of the greatest epigrammatists, or writers of epigrams, who ever lived was the nineteenth‑century poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. Here are three examples of Wilde's epigrams: "When people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong." "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it." "[A cynic is] a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." / Our keyword, epigraph, is formed from the prefix epi‑, meaning "on" or "above," and the Greek verb graphein, to write. This Greek verb has influenced many English words, including electrocardiograph, an instrument for recording the beating of the heart; orthography, correct spelling; polygraph, otherwise known as a lie detector; and graphology, the study of handwriting. Whenever you see a word containing graph, you can reasonably assume that it has something to do with writing. / An epigraph by derivation means a writing on or above something; hence, an inscription. When you see words engraved on a building, a monument, or a statue, that's an epigraph. When you see a brief quotation placed at the beginning of a book, a chapter, a poem, or the like, that is also an epigraph. /

PAUCITY

An insufficiency, scarcity, especially a serious or extreme one, a dire lack. / Synonyms of paucity include dearth, shortage, deficie ncy, and the challenging word exiguity. The noun exiguity and the adjective exiguous come through the Latin exiguus, small, scanty, from exigere, to measure out, demand. Exiguous means extremely meager or scanty; an exiguity is an extremely small or scanty amount. Exiguity and paucity are close synonyms and are virtually interchangeable. / Paucity comes through the Latin paucitas, fewness, scarcity, from paucus, few. In modern usage, paucity may mean simply a scarcity or insufficiency, as a paucity of words, but it often suggests a serious or extreme insuffiency, a dire lack. We speak of a paucity of supplies; a paucity of information; a paucity of funds; a paucity of natural resources in the region; or a paucity of orders leading to the decision to take a product off the market. / Antonyms of paucity include superabundance, superfluity, and plethora. /

PARIAH

An outcast; a person despised or rejected by society. / Pariah entered English in the early 1600s from Tamil, one of the languages of India. In the traditional social system of India, people were divided into classes called castes. Unlike in the United States, where there has always been a great deal of class mobility, downward as well as upward, until recently the Indian caste system was rigid, and the pariah caste was one of the lowest on the social ladder. Its members worked chiefly as agricultural and domestic laborers and as servants to the British when India was a British colony. The third edition of The American Heritage Dictionary notes that until 1949 the pariahs "were also known as untouchables." / From this sense of social inferiority, the word pariah came to be used in English of any person despised or rejected by society, an outcast. / Although pariah is often used to describe criminals, outlaws, degenerates, and derelicts, the word does not always connote lawlessness, abject poverty, or antisocial behavior. Young people can become pariahs at school if they don't wear the right clothing or do what is considered "cool." In the 1960s, the hippies became pariahs in the eyes of the establishment because of their disdain for traditional values and opposition to the Vietnam War. And in the 1950s, during Senator Joe McCarthy's infamous witchhunt for Communist subversives, many people who worked in the Hollywood film industry were blacklisted and treated like pariahs, social outcasts. /

PARVENU

An upstart; specifically, a person who suddenly acquires wealth and power and rises to a higher class, but who is not accepted by the members of that class. / Parvenu comes from a French verb meaning to succeed, and means literally "a person newly come into success." Parvenu almost always is used in a negative sense of a person who gains wealth and standing, but who cannot gain the social acceptance of the wealthy and powerful. In the eyes of the established elite, the parvenu is an upstart—undeserving, uncultured, immodest, and often pretentious. / Those masters of the fine art of condescenscion, the French, have condescended to give English another useful term for this sort of person: / arriviste. As you may have deduced from that spelling, arriviste means literally "a person who has recently arrived." The word crossed the English Channel into the language about 1900, and is used today of someone who attains social prominence or a position of power sometimes by unscrupulous means and always without paying the necessary dues. / Both the parvenu and the arriviste are upstarts, but the difference between them is this: The parvenu usually acquires wealth and status by an accident of fate—for example, through an unexpected inheritance, a business windfall or promotion, or by cleaning up at Las Vegas. Once arrived, the parvenu makes an awkward or pretentious attempt to gain social acceptance from the members of the class into which he has risen. / The arriviste, on the other hand, is a vulgar and often ruthless social climber who has clawed his way to the top and doesn't care what anyone thinks or says about it. /

EXIGENCY

An urgency, pressing need; a situation demanding immediate attention or action. / Exigency comes from the Latin exigere, to demand, force or drive out, and by derivation means something one is demanded, forced, or driven to do. In current usage we speak of an unforeseen exigency; a financial exigency; front‑page newspaper stories focusing on the exigencies of the moment. The corresponding adjective is exigent, urgent, pressing, demanding immediate attention or action. / According to the Century Dictionary, an exigency is a situation of sudden urgency, in which something needs to be done at once. An emergency is more pressing and therefore less common than an exigency. For example, every day the federal government deals with exigencies in foreign affairs, but only occasionally must it respond to a national emergency. A crisis is an emergency on which the outcome of everything depends, as a midlife crisis, or an economic crisis. /

ALOOF

Apart, at a distance, removed, withdrawn, not wishing to speak or associate with others. / The aloof person is emotionally reserved and keeps a cool distance from others. Aloofness means reluctance to get involved or take an interest in something. / Synonyms of aloof include unsympathetic, unapproachable, standoffish, and indifferent. /

OSTENSIBLE

Apparent, appearing or seeming to be true, professed or declared as true without being demonstrated or proved. / More difficult synonyms of ostensible include plausible and specious. Specious, however, has the negative suggestion of using deception to make something false appear true. A specious argument is one that looks good on the surface but is flawed underneath. / Ostensible is often used in opposition to real or actual. An ostensible motive is not necessarily a real motive; an ostensible advantage is not necessarily an actual advantage. Ostensible means apparent, stated as true but not necessarily proved. /

SPECIOUS

Appearing to be true, genuine, or correct but actually false or deceptive; superficially just or reasonable but not so in reality. / Specious comes through Middle English from the Latin speciosus, beautiful, splendid, handsome. Speciosus comes in turn from species, outward appearance, and the verb specere, to look at. By derivation, something specious has an outward appearance that is beautiful, splendid, or handsome to look upon but that underneath is false, deceptive, or flawed. / In current usage, we speak of a specious argument, specious reasoning, a specious excuse, or a specious answer, meaning that these things seem reasonable, genuine, or true on the surface but in reality they are intended to mislead or deceive. / Specious and plausible are close in meaning but not quite synonymous. / Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition, explains that "specious implies a fair appearance assumed with intent to deceive; that is plausible which is superficially reasonable or pleasing, with or without deceit." / The third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary says "a specious argument is not simply a false one but one that has the ring of truth. [There is] a certain contradiction in hearing an argument described as obviously specious or specious on the face of things; if the fallaciousness is apparent, the argument was probably not plausible‑sounding to begin with." /

APPROBATION

Approval, acceptance; especially, official approval or authorization. / Synonyms of approbation include commendation, endorsement, sanction, ratification, and acclamation. / Antonyms include rejection, opposition, disapprobation, renunciation, repudiation, disavowal, and abjuration. / The noun approbation comes from the Latin approbare, to approve, and by derivation means approval. However, because of its Latin derivation, approbation is more formal and dignified than approval. Children seek the approval of their parents; the president of the United States seeks the approbation of Congress or the electorate. When you want the go‑ahead on a plan, you ask your boss for approval. When your plan succeeds and your boss rewards you with a raise or a promotion, that's approbation. /

CONTENTIOUS

Argumentative, quarrelsome, ready and eager to argue, bicker, or debate. / Contentious, litigious, pugnacious, disputatious, belligerent, and bellicose all refer to quarrelsome or hostile parties who are inclined to engage in argument or conflict. / Bellicose means having a warlike or hostile nature. The ancient Spartans were a bellicose people. / Belligerent may mean either participating in fighting or provoking a fight or a war. A belligerent nation either engages in conflict or provokes a conflict. A belligerent look or a belligerent remark can lead to a fight. / Pugnacious by derivation means ready to fight with the fists; it suggests a temperamental inclination to fight or quarrel: "As a child Melvin was unruly, as a teenager he was deviant, and as an adult he became a pugnacious barroom brawler." / Disputatious means inclined to dispute, and usually applies to people who engage in formal arguments or to anything involving formal debate. Scholars are often disputatious, and it goes without saying that politics is disputatious. / Litigious means tending to engage in lawsuits or litigation. / Although it is entirely appropriate to say that the legal profession is litigious, meaning that its business is to engage in lawsuits, in current usage litigious often implies an overeagerness to settle every minor dispute in court. / Contentious comes from the Latin contentio, striving, effort, and ultimately from contendere, to strain or strive against another. / From the same source we inherit the verb to contend, to struggle, fight, strive in opposition, and the noun contention, which may mean either a struggle, opposition—"They were in contention for the job"—or an assertion made in an argument: "It was his contention that if the company wanted to remain solvent, it should truncate its workforce." / The adjective contentious means always ready and willing to quarrel, and suggests a persistent inclination to pick fights or arguments. You can be in a contentious mood, meaning you are in an argumentative mood; you can have a contentious coworker, one who is quarrelsome; or you can make a contentious comment, one intended to provoke an argument. / Antonyms of contentious include peaceable, obliging, civil, tolerant, amiable, amicable, benevolent, equable, and forbearing. /

RODOMONTADE

Arrogant boasting or bragging. / Equally challenging synonyms of rodomontade include bluster, braggadocio, vainglory, gasconade, fanfaronade, and jactitation. / Rodomontade comes from Rodomonte, a boastful warrior king in Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. The name comes from the Italian rodomonte, which means literally one who rolls away mountains. By derivation, rodomontade is the arrogant boasting of someone who claims he can move mountains. /

INCORRIGIBLE

Bad beyond correction or reform, hopeless, irreformable; also, unruly, unmanageable, difficult to control. / Synonyms of incorrigible in the sense of "bad beyond correction or reform" include irredeemable, irreclaimable, unrepentant, inveterate, and unregenerate. / Synonyms of incorrigible in the sense of "unruly, difficult to control" include obstinate, willful, and intractable. / The adjective corrigible means "capable of being corrected, amended, or reformed." By adding the privative prefix in‑, meaning "not," to the adjective corrigible, we get its antonym, incorrigible, not capable of being corrected, amended, or reformed—and therefore hopelessly bad, irreformable, as an incorrigible drinker, an incorrigible practical joker. / Because incorrigible behavior cannot be corrected or reformed, it also cannot be managed or controlled, and from that logical inference grew the second meaning of incorrigible: unruly, unmanageable, difficult to control. / Wild, unruly teenagers and spoiled children who will not mind their parents are often called incorrigible. /

BADINAGE

Banter; playful, teasing talk; good‑natured joking or gently mocking conversation. / Synonyms of badinage include repartee, raillery, and persiflage. / The words banter, badinage, persiflage, and raillery all suggest "good‑humored jesting," says Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition. Banter implies light, playful mocking or ridicule; badinage suggests "more trifling and delicate" teasing or jesting; persiflage refers to "frivolous or flippant" talk or writing; and raillery implies playful mockery that is "keener and often more sarcastic." /

PULCHRITUDE

Beauty, loveliness, attractiveness. / Pulchritude comes directly from the Latin word for beautiful. In his famous and influential dictionary, published in 1755, Samuel Johnson defined pulchritude as the "quality opposite to deformity." / Pulchritude is a literary word that is usually applied to persons or things that have great physical beauty or external appeal: a woman of pulchritude; the pulchritude of nature. Occasionally it is used of something whose beauty manifests itself in a more subtle way, as the pulchritude of the soul. / What seems meretricious to you may possess pulchritude for another, for as the saying goes, "Pulchritude is in the eye of the beholder." / The corresponding adjective is pulchritudinous, physically beautiful or lovely. /

NASCENT

Beginning to exist or develop; in the process of being born or begun; coming or having just come into being. / Synonyms of nascent include emerging, dawning, developing, commencing, embryonic, incipient, and inchoate. / Antonyms include ancient, extinct, outworn, outmoded, antiquated, obsolete, senescent, and antediluvian. Antediluvian means of the time before the Deluge, the great flood described in the first book of the Bible, Genesis; hence, extremely old or old‑fashioned: "The horse and buggy is an antediluvian mode of transportation"; "Bob's father still prefers to write on an antediluvian manual typewriter." / There is nothing antediluvian about the word nascent, which comes from the Latin verb nasci, to be born. By derivation, nascent means in the process of being born, beginning to exist or develop. We speak of a nascent idea, a nascent republic, a nascent relationship, nascent anxiety, or nascent hope. The corresponding noun is nascency, which means birth or beginning: "The year 1776 marks the nascency of American democracy." /

CREDENCE

Belief, acceptance, especially belief in a published report or acceptance of another's opinion or testimony: "In recent years many medical studies have shown that reducing fat intake can help prevent heart disease, and there is now widespread credence among the public that a low‑fat diet is more healthful." / Credence, creed, credible, and credulous all come from the Latin credere, to believe. Credible means believable, and credulous means willing to believe without questioning. Creed, word 21 of Level 1, refers to a declared belief or formal set of opinions: "Conservatism is his creed." Credence refers to belief itself, to acceptance of something stated or heard: "It is dangerous to give credence to gossip." / Credence is often used with the verbs to give or lend. "She gave no credence to their claims." "His neat appearance and confident manner lent credence to his story." /

CREED

Belief, professed faith or opinion, especially a system of religious belief. / Synonyms include doctrine and dogma. / In the United States it is illegal to discriminate against someone based on race or creed, belief. / Creed comes from the Latin credo, "I believe," the source of the English word credo. A credo is a declared set of beliefs or opinions. / Credo and creed are synonymous. Credo is the more learned word, usually reserved for a formal declaration of belief. Creed is used more generally of any professed faith or opinion. / The Latin credo is also the source of incredible, not believable, credible, believable, and credulous. Credulous means inclined to believe, willing to accept something as true without questioning. Credulous and gullible are synonymous. To a credulous person, even the most outrageous tall tales seem credible. /

PLIANT

Bending easily, flexible, adaptable, workable. / Pliant comes from the French plier, to bend, the same source as pliers, the tool commonly used for bending or manipulating wires or metal pieces. / Pliant, pliable, and supple all mean bending or moving easily. Pliant and pliable usually refer to objects that are easily workable. Supple may apply to material things or to a human body that is flexible and limber. /

MORDANT

Biting, cutting, keen, sarcastic, scathing. / Additional synonyms of mordant include incisive, caustic, trenchant, virulent, and acrimonious. / When you think of mordant, think of gnashing teeth. Mordant comes from Old French and Latin words meaning to bite, cut into, nip, or sting. Today mordant is chiefly used of speech or writing that is biting or cutting in a bitterly sarcastic way. We speak of mordant satire, mordant wit, mordant criticism, or a mordant cross‑examination. /

CARNAL

Bodily, pertaining to the flesh as opposed to the spirit, sensual, corporeal. / Carnal is not used to mean bodily in a general or neutral sense; we do not say carnal functions or carnal aches and pains. Carnal refers to the basic physical appetites of the body, especially the sexual appetite. We speak of carnal desires, carnal lust, carnal knowledge. /

FRANGIBLE

Breakable, fragile, frail, delicate, easily damaged or destroyed. / Fragile applies to something so delicately constructed that it is easily broken. Frangible adds to this the idea of a susceptibility to being broken, even if the object in question is not inherently delicate. The solid steel of a car is frangible if struck by another car. The heart of a brave and sanguine person might be frangible in an especially sad and poignant situation. The unusual word friable means easily crumbled, crushed, or pulverized. Dried herbs are friable, as are the stiff, yellowed pages of an old book. /

TERSE

Brief and to the point, free of superfluous words, expressed in a pointed and polished way. / More difficult synonyms of terse include concise, pithy, succinct, and laconic. / Antonyms include long‑winded, redundant, verbose, and prolix. / Concise, succinct, and terse all suggest brevity, expressing something in a brief and direct way. Concise implies eliminating anything unnecessary or superfluous: "Her presentation was persuasive and concise." Succinct implies getting the point across in the fewest possible words: "An effective letter to the editor must be succinct." / By the way, I'm sure you've heard the beastly mispronunciation suh‑SINGKT, which in recent years has become widespread among educated speakers. Good speakers don't say ASS‑uh‑dent for accident, uh‑SEPT for accept, or suh‑SEED for succeed, so there's no logical reason for saying suh‑SINGKT. Take care to pronounce the cc in succinct like k‑s: suhk‑SINGKT. / But let's get back to our keyword, terse. Terse writing or speech is brief, pointed, and polished. It communicates smoothly and effectively, without digressions or excess words. Terse may also suggest expression that is blunt or brusque. A terse reply is brief and pointed, but it stops just short of being rude. /

ONEROUS

Burdensome, troublesome, oppressive, hard to bear, difficult to accomplish or endure: an onerous task, an onerous assignment. / Onerous comes from the Latin onus, a load, burden. Directly from the Latin comes the English word onus, a burden, obligation, especially a disagreeable responsibility. Onerous means like an onus, and therefore burdensome, troublesome, difficult to accomplish or endure. /

DEMONSTRABLE

Capable of being demonstrated, able to be proved. / Demonstrable is the noun corresponding to the verb to demonstrate. / Demonstrable facts can be demonstrated, presented clearly and shown to be true. A demonstrable statement or opinion is one that can be proved. / Because that which is demonstrable can be demonstrated or proved, the word has also come to be used to mean obvious, apparent, self‑evident, as in a demonstrable liar, a demonstrable fool: "When Joe asked Sheila if she would have dinner with him, she took it as a sign of his demonstrable interest in her." /

MALLEABLE

Capable of being shaped, able to be molded or manipulated, adaptable, impressionable. / Certain metals, such as gold and iron, are malleable; they can be molded or shaped. In a figurative sense, malleable can also apply to a person or abstract thing that can be molded or shaped. For example, a young person's mind may be malleable, impressionable, capable of being shaped, or an idea may be malleable, adaptable, capable of being shaped to fit various purposes. / Malleable and the challenging word tractable are close in meaning. Malleable comes from the Latin malleare, to hammer, and means literally "capable of being hammered into a desired shape." Tractable comes from the Latin tractare, to handle, manage, haul or drag along. From the same source comes the familiar word tractor, the farm vehicle used to pull wagons, mowers, and other agricultural equipment. By derivation that which is tractable can be pulled or hauled; hence, a tractable person is manageable, easily handled. A malleable person or thing is easily hammered into shape, and therefore is adaptable, impressionable. / Antonyms of malleable and tractable include inflexible, unyielding, stubborn, obstinate, and intransigent. /

INSOUCIANT

Carefree, nonchalant, lightheartedly unconcerned or indifferent, free from worry or anxiety, calm and unbothered. / The French phrase sans souci means without care or worry. The English word insouciant combines the privative prefix in‑, meaning "not," with the French souci, care, worry, to mean literally not caring, free from worry, lightheartedly unconcerned: "Nanette dismissed Albert's contentious interruption with an insouciant wave of her hand and went on with what she was saying." Insouciant sometimes implies a carefree indifference or lack of concern for consequences: "Jim drove with an insouciant disregard for the speed limit and the hazards of the road that Paula found frightening." / The corresponding noun insouciance means lighthearted indifference, nonchalance, a carefree lack of concern: "Basking in Angelina's ethereal presence, Peter experienced an insouciance he had never allowed himself to feel before." /

CIRCUMSPECT

Careful, cautious, wary, watchful, carefully considering all circumstances before acting or making a judgment. / Synonyms of circumspect include discreet, vigilant, and prudent. / Earlier in this level you learned the word circumscribe, to limit, confine, restrict. As in that word, the circum‑in circumspect means around. The second half of circumspect comes from the Latin specere, to look at carefully, observe. / The Latin specere is also the source of the words spectator, one who looks on; spectacle, something unusual to look at, an impressive display; and spectacular, wonderful to behold. By derivation, circumspect means looking around carefully before making a decision or taking action, and that's the meaning of the word today. / Careful implies close attention and concern; one is careful to pronounce words properly. Cautious implies guarding against danger and risk; you should be cautious when crossing the street. Circumspect implies a worried care, a nervous, wary cautiousness. The circumspect person is concerned about unforseen circumstances and unfavorable consequences, and so is careful to avoid making an ill‑considered move. /

IATROGENIC

Caused by medical examination or treatment. / Pathological, which means pertaining to or caused by disease, is the antonym of iatrogenic. / The word iatric means pertaining to medicine or medical doctors. The combining form iatro‑comes from the Greek iatros, a physician; in English iatro‑ means "medical" or "medicine." The combining form ‑genic means "producing" or "generating." By derivation, that which is iatrogenic is produced by a medical doctor or generated by medical treatment. / Iatrogenic is used of ailments, maladies, or symptoms caused by medical treatment, especially one caused by a drug or surgery. An iatrogenic disorder may be cause for a malpractice suit against the doctor whose treatment induced it. /

PRUDENT

Cautious, careful, planning wisely, exercising sound judgment in practical matters. / Synonyms include discreet, judicious, and circumspect. / Prudent may also mean spending carefully, using one's resources wisely. / Synonyms of prudent in this sense include thrifty, economical, and frugal. / Prudent and circumspect both refer to people who proceed cautiously. / Circumspect comes from the Latin circum‑, around, and specere, to look, observe. The circumspect person looks around carefully to make sure that no unforseen circumstance will frustrate a plan of action. Prudent comes from the same Latin source as the verb to provide. Prudent people are concerned with protecting their personal interest and providing for a rainy day. They are characterized by their sound, careful judgment in handling practical matters, especially money. /

VOLATILE

Changeable, unstable, inconstant, likely to change or shift rapidly and unpredictably: The stock market is often volatile; a person may have volatile moods; the weather in New England is notoriously volatile. / Synonyms of volatile include fickle, flighty, capricious, erratic, protean, and mercurial. / Antonyms include stable, fixed, steadfast, invariable, immutable, and quiescent. / Volatile, which entered English in the early 1600s, has a volatile history, full of many shifts and changes in meaning. The word comes from the Latin volare, to fly, and its original meaning was "flying" or "having the power to fly." Today volatile is rarely used in this sense, and instead we have the word volant, which came into the language shortly before volatile from the same Latin volare, to fly. Volant means flying, able to fly, or quick, nimble, agile. / The fickle, unpredictable volatile then came to mean evaporating quickly, easily vaporized, as a volatile oil or liquid. In the science of chemistry it is still used in this way, and today it would be unusual but not outlandish for an essayist to write about the volatile morning dew, or for a weathercaster to speak of volatile fog or clouds, or for a TV chef to discuss the volatile nature of wine used in cooking. / By the mid‑seventeenth century the inconstant volatile had acquired its most durable meaning: changeable, unstable, inconstant, likely to change or shift rapidly and unpredictably. In this sense it is a close synonym of capricious and mercurial. Out of this notion of changeability and inconstancy, volatile gained two more meanings: fleeting, vanishing swiftly, transient, ephemeral; and also lighthearted, lively and carefree, whimsical, prone to flights of fancy. / In the second half of the twentieth century volatile took on yet another meaning: explosive, likely to erupt into violence. You will often hear volatile used this way in news reports about domestic or international affairs characterized by tension and sporadic conflict. This sense is an outgrowth of the meaning "unstable, unpredictable," for when a situation is unstable or unpredictable it is often likely to explode or erupt in violence. / Finally, in the 1990s volatile acquired one more sense. According to Webster's New World Dictionary, third college edition, in the jargon of computer science volatile is used to mean pertaining to "memory that does not retain stored data when the power supply is disconnected." / Despite its capricious, changeable history, volatile has remained close to its roots. For as I'm sure you can see, all the various senses of volatile incorporate the notions of flight, flightiness, and swift, unpredictable change suggested by the word's Latin root, volare, to fly. When you see or hear volatile used, and when you use it yourself, remember that in all of its senses the word describes that which can swiftly fly away from one condition or mood into another. / Volatile is the adjective; the corresponding noun is volatility. /

GRANDILOQUENT

Characterized by lofty, high‑flown language; full of grand or high‑sounding words. / Synonyms of grandiloquent include bombastic, grandiose, florid, and turgid. All these words suggest speech or writing that is inflated, affected, or extravagant. / Antonyms of grandiloquent include plain‑spoken, forthright, unaffected, and candid. / Grandiloquent combines the word grand with the suffix ‑iloquent, which comes from the Latin loqui, meaning "to speak." By derivation, grandiloquent means "speaking in a grand manner." The Latin loqui is also the source of loquacious, talkative, and colloquial, which means pertaining to informal speech or conversation. / Believe it or not, the English language has more than twenty words that incorporate the suffix ‑iloquent and designate different ways of speaking. / Of course, most of them reside quietly in the depths of unabridged dictionaries and are rarely used, but here are a few you may find useful: / Magniloquent comes from the Latin magnus, meaning "great, large," and means speaking pompously, using grand or high‑flown language. Magniloquent and grandiloquent are virtually interchangeable. / From the Latin multus, meaning "many" or "much," comes multiloquent, using many words, talking up a storm; and from the Latin brevis, meaning "short," comes the word breviloquent, speaking briefly. / When you speak in an urbane, sophisticated manner, you are suaviloquent. When you speak like a scholar or an expert on some subject, you are doctiloquent. When you speak solemnly or of sacred matters, you are sanctiloquent. And if you talk in your sleep, you are somniloquent. /

PHILANTHROPIC

Charitable, benevolent, humane; motivated by or done out of a desire to help or improve the welfare of others. / The corresponding noun philanthropy means a desire to help others, especially through charitable giving. / Philanthropy and philanthropic both come from the Greek philein, to love, and anthropos, man. Philanthropy means literally "love of mankind"; the adjective philanthropic means literally "loving mankind." / You can see the Greek philein, to love, in such words as philosophy, literally love of wisdom; and philharmonic, literally loving or devoted to music. You can see the Greek anthropos, man, in anthropology, the study of mankind, of human customs, habits, and traditions; and anthropomorphic, shaped like or resembling a man or human being. / The words philanthropic, humanitarian, altruistic, and charitable all mean helping others. Charitable refers specifically to giving money to help others. Altruistic suggests unselfish giving. Humanitarian applies to persons or organizations devoted to reducing the pain and suffering of others. Philanthropic literally means motivated by a desire to help others; today the word is used chiefly of persons or organizations that make large charitable gifts, fund endowments, or finance humanitarian or cultural institutions. /

TAWDRY

Cheap and showy, gaudy, garish, sleazy. / Legend has it that tawdry comes from the phrase "tawdry lace," a corruption of "Saint Audrey lace," a type of lace sold at Saint Audrey's fair in England. Apparently the lace was of inferior quality, thus over time the word tawdry came to mean cheap and showy. Today the word may be used both literally and figuratively. A person may wear tawdry clothing or have a tawdry reputation. /

ALACRITY

Cheerful readiness, eagerness, or promptness in action or movement: / "The duty of the firefighter is to answer every alarm with alacrity." / Synonyms of alacrity include quickness, liveliness, briskness, enthusiasm, animation, zeal, and celerity According to Funk & Wagnalls Standard Handbook of Synonyms, Antonyms, and Prepositions, alacrity denotes "that cheerful and hearty willingness from which quickness and promptness naturally result; hence, a prompt response. Alacrity springs from some demand from without; eagerness is spontaneous, springing from within; eagerness to act may produce alacrity in responding to the call for action." / Alacrity and celerity are close in meaning. Both suggest "quickness in movement or action," says Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. Celerity "implies speed in accomplishing work; alacrity stresses promptness in response to suggestion or command." Because celerity emphasizes swiftness, you cross a busy street, complete a project, or run from danger with celerity. Because alacrity emphasizes eagerness, liveliness, or promptness, you meet a challenge, return a telephone message, or respond to a call for help with alacrity. /

PUERILE

Childish, immature; hence, foolish, silly. / Puerile comes through the Latin puerilis, meaning youthful, childish, from puer, a child. / Synonyms of puerile in the sense of "childish or immature" include infantile and juvenile. Synonyms of puerile in the sense of "foolish or silly" include inane, frivolous, asinine, fatuous, sophomoric, and callow. / Infantile, juvenile, and puerile all may be used in a general way to mean pertaining to childhood. Specifically, however, infantile means pertaining to infancy, to babyhood or very early childhood; puerile means pertaining to the childhood years, the time between infancy and puberty; and juvenile means pertaining to preadulthood, the teenage years. / You can see the words used in this specific way in the phrases "infantile paralysis," "juvenile court," and "puerile respiration," which is a respiratory murmur heard in healthy children that in adults is considered a sign of disease. / These three words may also be used in a general sense to mean childish, immature, foolish, characteristic of youth. In this sense, juvenile is the least negative; puerile implies harsher judgment; and infantile is the strongest, suggesting the most disagreeable characteristics of childhood— extreme silliness and immaturity. For example, juvenile desires may be simply youthful desires, childlike thoughts in an older head. Puerile behavior is childish and inappropriate behavior, unbecoming of one's years; it may refer to children who act younger than they are, and it may only be temporary. Infantile behavior, however, is extremely childish, and an infantile remark is foolish and stupid. / Puerile has two corresponding nouns: puerilism and puerility. / Puerilism is a psychiatric term for the abnormal appearance of childish behavior in an adult. In my considered but medically unsubstantiated opinion, puerilism is the chief occupational disorder of writers and actors. / Puerility may be used in a general sense to mean childishness, immaturity; in civil law, puerility refers to the status of a child between infancy and puberty. Between puberty and the established legal age of maturity, the child is a juvenile. /

UNEQUIVOCAL

Clear and direct, definite, straightforward, certain, having a single, obvious meaning, capable of being interpreted in only one way. / Unequivocal, clear and direct, and ambiguous, uncertain, unclear, are antonyms. / Unequivocal combines the common prefix un‑, which means not, with the word equivocal, a synonym of ambiguous. Equivocal language can be interpreted in several ways; it is deliberately vague, evasive, or ambiguous. / Unequivocal language is clear, straightforward, and direct: "Reporters are so accustomed to equivocal answers from government officials that they are often surprised and suspicious when they get an unequivocal response." / Now that you know the meaning of unequivocal I'd like to caution you about how you pronounce it. I have heard many educated speakers add a syllable to the word and say "unequivocable," and I have even seen the word misspelled that way in books and magazines. No matter whom you hear saying "unequivocable," it's incorrect—a beastly mispronunciation. / Unequivocal ends with ‑vocal, not ‑vocable, and has five syllables: / un‑e‑quiv‑o‑cal. /

LUCID

Clear, easy to see or understand, plainly expressed. Lucid is also commonly used to mean clear of mind, mentally sound, rational, sane: "His ninety‑year‑old mother is senile, but she still has some lucid days." / Synonyms of lucid in the first sense—clear, easy to understand—include intelligible, comprehensible, limpid, and perspicuous. / Antonyms include murky, obscure, befuddled, nebulous, ambiguous, and abstruse, which means complicated, hard to understand. / Anything that is clearly understood or plainly expressed can be described as lucid: a lucid explanation; a lucid question; a lucid account of the issues. / The unusual but useful word pellucid intensifies the meaning of lucid; pellucid means exceptionally clear, extremely easy to see or understand. /

AFFINITY

Close resemblance or relationship, a strong likeness, similarity, or connection, as the affinity of the Italian, French, and Spanish languages, an affinity among the painters of the Impressionist school, an affinity between the blues and early rock and roll. / Affinity may also mean a natural attraction to, or liking for, a person or thing, as an affinity for classical music, an affinity for the freewheeling literature of the Beat Generation, an affinity among neighbors in a close‑knit community. / Synonyms of affinity in the sense of "close resemblance or relationship" include kinship, correspondence, compatibility, and consanguinity. Synonyms of affinity in the sense of "liking or attraction" include penchant, propensity, and proclivity. / Affinity comes from a Latin word meaning "relationship by marriage," and dictionaries still recognize this literal sense although the word is not often used in that way. In current usage affinity usually means either a close relationship or likeness, or a natural attraction to or liking for a person or thing. /

BANAL

Common, ordinary, unoriginal; flat, dull, and predictable; lacking freshness or zest. / Synonyms of banal include trite, commonplace, conventional, humdrum, hackneyed, shopworn, stereotyped, insipid, vapid, and bromidic, which means like a bromide, a statement or idea that is stale and dull. / Antonyms of banal include creative, imaginative, unconventional, unorthodox, ingenious, innovative, novel, and pithy. / Banal, which came into English from French in the mid‑eighteenth century, originally referred to the facilities shared in common by the serfs and tenants of a feudal manor—such as the mill, the ovens, and the wine‑press. In this now obsolete sense, banal meant "shared by all; used by the whole community." From this notion of commonality, banal soon came to be used as a synonym of common in its sense of ordinary and unoriginal. Today banal is used of anything that is flat, dull, and predictable, that lacks freshness or zest: a television show, a song, a book, a movie, a remark, a conversation, a desire, a relationship, and even a person can be described as banal. When you consider how many things in this world are dull, ordinary, and unoriginal, banal suddenly becomes a useful word to add to your vocabulary. / Most educated American speakers pronounce banal either BAY‑nal or buh‑NAL. The variant buh‑NAHL, the British preference, is less frequently heard in American speech. The variant BAN‑ul, preferred by several older authorities, is nearly obsolete. / The corresponding noun is banality, which means the quality or state of being common, ordinary, and unoriginal, as the banality of prime‑time TV, or the banality of workaday life. /

Antithetic

Completely opposed, totally opposite.

EQUANIMITY

Composure, calmness, evenness of mind and temper. / Equanimity comes through French from the Latin aequanimitas, calmness, which in turn comes from aequus, which means "even" or "level," and animus, which means "mind" or "spirit." By derivation equanimity means precisely what it does today: composure, calmness, evenness of mind and temper. / Synonyms of equanimity include poise, self‑possession, serenity, tranquility, placidity, imperturbability, and sang‑froid. As I imagine you can tell from its peculiar spelling and pronunciation, sang‑froid comes from French. / Although sang‑froid means literally "cold blood," it is used figuratively to mean coolness of mind. / Equanimity and composure are close synonyms, but they differ slightly in their use. Composure implies self‑control. We maintain our composure under trying circumstances. Equanimity suggests an inherent mental and emotional balance, and applies to a person who stays calm and collected under all circumstances. /

PUSILLANIMOUS

Cowardly, lacking courage, timid, fainthearted, irresolute. / Pusillanimous is used of cowardly persons or actions that are especially ignoble or contemptible: a pusillanimous deserter of a cause; a pusillanimous surrender; a mean‑spirited and pusillanimous leader. The corresponding noun is pusillanimity. /

SOLICITOUS

Concerned, showing care and attention, especially in a worried, anxious, or fearful way. / Solicitous suggests great concern, usually displayed by thoughtful care or hovering attention. In this sense solicitous may be followed by the prepositions of, for, or about: one may be solicitous about the outcome of an event, solicitous of a child, or solicitous for the welfare of another. / Solicitous may also be used to mean eager, full of desire, willing. In this slightly different sense it is followed by the preposition to and still conveys anxious concern: solicitous to gain the advantage; solicitous to know the results of the election; solicitous to go ahead with the plan. /

SANGUINE

Confident, cheerful, hopeful, optimistic. / As you may recall from the discussion of phlegmatic, in ancient physiology there were four humors, or bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy. Early physicians believed that a person's health and disposition were determined by the relative proportions of these humors. / Sanguine originally meant having blood as the dominant humor in one's system; hence, having a ruddy, healthy complexion and a warm temperament. Eventually this sense evolved into the current meaning: / confident, cheerfully optimistic. / Sanguine and sanguinary are sometimes confused because of their common derivation, the Latin sanguis, blood. / Sanguinary means either bloody, accompanied by bloodshed and slaughter, or bloodthirsty, eager for bloodshed. Sanguine either means blood‑colored, ruddy, red, as a sanguine complexion, or, more often, filled with the uplifting humor of blood, and therefore confident, cheerful, optimistic. /

SALIENT

Conspicuous, noticeable, prominent; sticking or jutting out. / Synonyms of salient include protruding, manifest, obtrusive, and protuberant. Antonyms include inconspicuous, unassuming, unobtrusive, indiscernible, and unostentatious. / Salient comes from the Latin verb salire, to leap, jump, spring. That which is salient seems to leap out at you, jump into view, or spring forward to command your attention. People often have salient noses or other salient physical features. A salient characteristic is a person's most conspicuous or noticeable characteristic. A salient wit is forceful and prominent. / Salient may apply to things that are attractive or unattractive. Salient beauty and salient ugliness are both striking and conspicuous; they leap out at you with equal force. /

EGREGIOUS

Conspicuously bad, remarkable or outstanding for some undesirable or offensive quality. / Synonyms of egregious include flagrant, outrageous, excessive, shocking, gross, monstrous, notorious, grievous, and arrant. / Egregious comes from the Latin egregius, not of the common herd, and therefore select or outstanding. Egregious was once used to mean outstanding or remarkable, but this sense is long obsolete, and for at least three hundred years the word has most often been used to mean outstanding or remarkable in a bad way, conspicuously bad, offensive, or undesirable. / When you think of how many remarkably bad things there are in the world, it's surprising that egregious isn't used more often. Here are a few possible applications: an egregious crime, an egregious lie, an egregious insult, an egregious fool, an egregious oversight, an egregious mistake, and an egregious breach of human rights. /

COMPLICITY

Conspiracy, partnership in wrongdoing, criminal participation, direct association in guilt, the state of being an accomplice. / Conspiracy, confederacy, collusion, and complicity all refer to partnership or participation in disreputable or illegal activities. / Conspiracy means the act of plotting and cooperating secretly, especially to achieve an unlawful, evil, or treacherous purpose, as a conspiracy to commit murder. / Confederacy refers to people, groups, states, or nations united for a common purpose. It may be used neutrally to mean simply an alliance, as "OPEC is a confederacy of Middle Eastern oil‑exporting countries." Quite often, however, confederacy is used in a negative sense to mean an alliance in wrongdoing, as "a confederacy of terrorists bent on overthrowing the government." / A collusion is a specific type of conspiracy: a secret understanding in which one person or group plays into another's hands with the aim of defrauding a third party. For example, if witnesses in a legal trial or parties to a negotiation are in collusion, they are cooperating secretly while appearing to be adversaries. / Here it seems appropriate to digress for a moment to discuss the noun connivance and the verb to connive, which today are often used interchangeably with collusion and the verb to collude. Strictly and traditionally, however, these words are not synonymous. / Connivance and connive come from the Latin connivere, to wink at, and by derivation suggest the act of winking at wrongdoing. Originally, and in my opinion properly, to connive is not to conspire or cooperate secretly in an unlawful act but to wink at it, to pretend not to see it or know about it and so give tacit consent or encouragement: "They bribed the doorman so he would connive at the burglary"; "The police department connived at organized crime in the city." / In like manner, connivance properly means the act of conniving, feigning ignorance of wrongdoing: "Illegal gambling would not exist in this town without the connivance of the authorities"; "When investigators exposed the plot to embezzle company funds, they accused the vice president of connivance." / I should point out here that my opinion of how connive and connivance should be used is puristic, and to a certain extent wishful thinking. All current dictionaries countenance scheme, plot, and conspire as synonyms of connive and sanction conspiracy as a synonym of collusion. My point in raising this issue is not so much to condemn a minor implosion of language as it is to make you aware of the traditional definitions of connive and connivance, which current dictionaries also countenance but which you may not have known until now. My aim is not to prevent you or anyone else from using connive to mean to plot or conspire. My simple, earnest hope is only that you will learn and remember its other, original meaning: "to feign ignorance of wrongdoing." / And now back to our keyword, complicity. It comes from the Latin complicare, to fold up or fold together, the source also of the words complicate, which means literally "to fold or twist together," and accomplice, which means literally "a person who is folded up" and therefore involved. / Whereas connivance suggests passive cooperation in something unlawful, complicity denotes active participation or partnership in wrongdoing, the state of being an accomplice: "When charged with conspiracy, the defendant professed his innocence and denied any complicity in the plot." /

INCESSANT

Constant, uninterrupted, continuous, unceasing. / Incessant combines the privative prefix in‑, meaning "not," with the Latin cessare, to stop, cease, and means literally not ceasing, never‑ending. / Synonyms of incessant include interminable, relentless, and unremitting. Antonyms of incessant include occasional, irregular, intermittent, incidental, sporadic, fitful, and erratic. / Dictionaries often list the words continuous and continual as synonyms, and today many educated speakers use them interchangeably. They are not interchangeable, however, and the ability to distinguish continual and continuous precisely is one sign of a careful user of the language. / Continual means happening again and again at short intervals. We speak of continual reminders, continual attempts, continual laughter, or the continual ringing of the telephone. Continuous means uninterrupted or unbroken. We speak of continuous noise, continuous rain, a continuous effort, or the continuous rotation of the earth. / Continuous and incessant are close synonyms. The Century Dictionary explains that "continuous means unbroken, and is passive; incessant means unceasing, and is active." On one level that distinction is simple: we say a railroad track or telephone cable is continuous, not incessant, because tracks and cables are inactive. But on another level the distinction can be quite subtle and subjective. For example, we may say that a fever is continuous or incessant depending on whether we perceive it as a state or an activity. Similarly, the flow of a waterfall is continuous if viewed as a passive condition of a bucolic scene; it is incessant if looked upon as an active condition within that scene. The bland background music we typically hear in elevators, restaurants, and waiting rooms is continuous to those who don't mind it; but to those who are distracted or irritated by it, it's incessant, unceasing, constant, never‑ending. /

COLLOQUIAL

Conversational; pertaining to, characteristic of, or used in spoken language; hence, informal, casual, natural. / Colloquial, colloquium, and colloquy all come from the Latin loqui, which means to speak, converse. Loqui is also the source of the word loquacious, extremely talkative. / The noun colloquy is a dignified synonym for conversation, but while conversation may apply to any exchange of spoken words, colloquy usually refers to a more formal or intellectual discussion, the kind of talk that occurs between scholars or on television shows where journalists analyze the news. When you or I talk with people at a party or over dinner, that's a conversation, but when William F. Buckley, Jr., talked with his guests on "Firing Line," that was a colloquy. / The noun colloquium means a gathering in which a colloquy takes place, a conference or meeting for discussion, specifically a relatively informal meeting for the purpose of exchanging views on a subject. / The adjective colloquial means conversational, of the spoken language, and therefore informal or casual. Remember vernacular, word 15 of this level? Colloquial speech is speech that uses the vernacular, the common, everyday language of ordinary people. / The corresponding noun colloquialism means a colloquial expression, a bit of vernacular language, a word or phrase used in common, everyday, informal speech. There are many thousands of colloquialisms in the language, and you probably use dozens—maybe even hundreds—of them every day without thinking twice about it. For example, every time you say yeah instead of yes you are using a colloquialism, an expression more appropriate to informal speech than to more formal speech and writing. / Here's a dictionary usage tip: The next time you look up a word and preceding the definition you see the abbreviation coll. or colloq., that means the word—or the word used in that particular sense—is a colloquialism, and you may reasonably infer that it is characteristic of colloquial or conversational language. / In concluding this discussion, I would like to stress that colloquial speech and colloquialisms are not necessarily substandard or illiterate, as some ultrapurists might have you believe. To begin with, without the colloquial the English vocabulary would be circumscribed and stiff, and if there were some way to outlaw the use of colloquialisms then communication between people of different backgrounds and levels of education would soon become impossible. Then it probably would not be long before English went the way of Latin—into extinction. Most of our communication is spoken, not written, and a liberal dose of colloquial or conversational words and expressions is what keeps a language fluid, fresh, and vital. / Of course, not all colloquialisms are useful or acceptable to all speakers. / Some colloquialisms are objectionable because they suggest uneducated or coarse informality. A classic example of that sort is the word ain't. Other colloquialisms are objectionable because they're illogical, and here perhaps the best example is the expression "I could care less," which is commonly used in colloquial or informal speech to mean "I could not care less." If you can care less, then that means you still have some caring left in you, whereas if you cannot care less, then you do not care at all, which is the sense those who use the improper colloquialism mean to convey. / The point is, there are relatively few examples of exceptionable colloquial language. The vast majority of colloquial or informal expressions are not only acceptable but also useful and even necessary in conducting our day‑to‑day communication. /

VENAL

Corruptible, bribable, capable of being bribed or bought off, able to be obtained for a price. / Venal and mercenary are close in meaning. / Mercenary means done for payment only, motivated by greed or a desire for personal gain: "A mercenary writer writes not for love but for the money"; "When Jim discovered that Alice had three ex‑husbands who were all affluent plastic surgeons like him, he concluded that her interest in him was mercenary and called off their engagement." / Venal comes from the Latin venalis, for sale, and means literally able to be sold. The word is used today to mean able to be bribed, corrupted, or bought off, or characterized by corrupt, mercenary dealings. A venal judge is corrupt, capable of being bribed; a venal politician is corruptible, able to be influenced by money or favors; a venal administration or a venal business deal is riddled with corruption and bribery. / The corresponding noun is venality, a venal state or act. / Venal and venial are often confused. Venial comes from the Latin venia, grace, indulgence, and means excusable, forgivable, minor, as a venial sin, a venial offense, or a venial error. Venal means corruptible, capable of being bribed or bought off. /

MYRIAD

Countless, innumerable, infinite, consisting of a great or indefinite number. / Originally, the noun a myriad specified ten thousand; in ancient Greece a myriad was a military division composed of ten thousand soldiers. Today the noun myriad is most often used to mean a great or indefinite number, as a myriad of troubles, a myriad of details to attend to. / The adjective myriad means countless, innumerable, infinite, consisting of a great or indefinite number. "On a clear night you can see myriad stars twinkling in the sky"; "A chief executive officer has myriad responsibilities." /

COMITY

Courtesy, civility, politeness, respectful and considerate behavior. / Comity comes through the Latin comitas, courtesy, friendliness, from comis, courteous, kind, polite. / Comity may be used of courteous relations between spouses, roommates, neighbors, coworkers, and so on, but it is perhaps most often used in the expression comity of nations, which means courteous and friendly relations between nations involving recognition and respect for each other's laws and institutions. /

HISPID

Covered with stiff hairs, bristles, or small spines; rough and bristly. / Hispid and hirsute are close in meaning. / Hispid comes from the Latin hispidus, rough, hairy, bristly. Although the Oxford English Dictionary contains one figurative citation that refers to "a hispid law," hispid is used chiefly in a literal sense of leaves, plants, insects, animals, and occasionally human beings and inanimate objects to mean covered with rough, stiff hairs or bristles. The nettle, with its small, stinging spines, is a hispid plant; although the spines of the porcupine are relatively large, the animal can fairly be described as hispid. / Hirsute comes from the Latin hirsutus, covered with hair, rough, shaggy. / In botany and zoology, hirsute and hispid are synonymous. In general usage, however, hirsute means extremely hairy or covered with hair: / "Abigail told Angela that she did not care for hirsute men." /

DUPLICITY

Deceit, cunning, double‑dealing, hypocritical deception. / Synonyms of duplicity include trickery, dishonesty, fraud, guile, chicanery, casuistry, and mendacity. / The noun duplicity comes through the Latin duplicitas, doubleness, and duplicare, to double, ultimately from duplex, twofold, double. Literally, duplicity means doubleness of heart or speech; in modern usage it refers to double‑dealing, an act of deception in which one uses hypocritical or misleading words or actions to hide one's true intentions: "Steve was astounded at the duplicity of some of the salespeople, who seemed willing to say anything to close a deal." / The corresponding adjective is duplicitous, which means two‑faced, deceitful. The duplicitous person pretends to entertain one set of feelings while acting under the influence of another. /

CALUMNY

Defamation of character, slander, a false and malicious statement or accusation meant to injure a person's reputation. / Synonyms of calumny include backbiting, denigration, obloquy, and vilification. / The noun calumny, the adjective calumnious, and the verb to calumniate all come through the Latin calumniare, to accuse falsely, from calumnia, a trick. By derivation, and in current usage, calumny means a tricky, nasty, false, and malicious accusation designed to hurt someone's reputation. / In 1751, Samuel Johnson wrote that "to spread suspicion, to invent calumnies, to propagate scandal, requires neither labour nor courage." And 150 years earlier, in Hamlet, William Shakespeare wrote, "Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny." /

Advocate

Defend by argument. Syn: champion, endorse, espouse.

TENABLE

Defensible, reasonable; able to be defended, maintained, or upheld. / Tenable comes from the Latin tenere, to hold, grasp. From the same source come the unusual noun tenaculum, a pointed, hooked instrument used in surgery for lifting and holding parts, such as blood vessels, and the useful adjective tenacious, which means holding firmly, as a tenacious grip or a tenacious memory. / Tenable means defensible, able to be maintained or upheld. The logic behind a course of action may be tenable, defensible, or untenable, indefensible. The legislature may pass a tenable law, one that can be upheld in the courts, or an untenable law, one that will be struck down. A tenable reason is a reason that can be defended, maintained, or upheld. /

ABJECT

Degraded, brought low in condition or status; hence, lacking self‑respect, contemptible, wretched. / The corresponding noun is abjection, a degraded, wretched, contemptible state. / Synonyms of abject include debased, despicable, ignoble, groveling, servile, and squalid. Antonyms of abject include noble, dignified, lofty, majestic, eminent, and illustrious. / In Middle English abject meant "outcast." The word comes ultimately from the Latin ab, meaning "away" or "off," and the verb jacere, to throw, and means literally "thrown away, cast off." The abject members of society are the outcasts, the undesirables, and the indigent—the people who have been thrown away or cast off because they seem to have no social place or worth. / This literal sense of thrown away or cast off led to the modern meaning of abject: brought low in condition or status— hence, degraded, wretched, or contemptible. / Abject poverty is utterly wretched poverty. Abject conditions are hopeless and degrading conditions. An abject coward is thoroughly contemptible. An abject person has fallen so low that he has lost all self‑respect. / If you behave toward someone in an abject manner, you are behaving in a groveling, servile manner, like a defeated dog that bares its neck and belly to the vanquishing dog. /

DILATORY

Delaying, causing or intended to cause delay; also, slow, tardy, characterized by delay or procrastination. / Dilatory comes through the Latin dilator, a delayer, procrastinator, loiterer, from dilatus, the past participle of the verb differe, to delay, put off. / In current usage, dilatory has two senses. First, it may mean causing or intended to cause delay: The purpose of a dilatory tactic is to delay action; the aim of a dilatory policy is to gain time; and unforeseen circumstances may have a dilatory effect on a project, causing postponement or delay. / Second, dilatory may mean characterized by delay or procrastination. / When you put off doing something until the last minute, you are being dilatory; when someone responds to your urgent telephone message two days later, that's a dilatory response; and if you pay a bill a month after it's due, that's a dilatory payment. /

ALEATORY

Depending on luck, chance, or on some contingent event; hence, uncertain, unpredictable. / In law, an aleatory contract is an agreement whose conditions depend on a contingency, an uncertain event. An aleatory sale is one whose completion depends on the outcome of some uncertain event. Aleatory music leaves certain sounds up to the performer or up to chance. / Aleatory comes from the Latin aleator, a gamester, thrower of dice, crapshooter, which comes in turn from alea, a game of dice. Aleatory means literally depending upon the throw of the dice. In current usage, aleatory may mean gambling or pertaining to gambling, as Las Vegas is the mecca of aleatory activity, but the word is probably more often used to mean depending on luck or chance, uncertain, unpredictable. Aleatory investments are risky investments; an aleatory business needs good luck to succeed. /

TERGIVERSATION

Desertion; specifically, the act of deserting something to which one was previously loyal, such as a cause, a party, or a religious faith. / Synonyms of tergiversation include abandonment and defection. / The noun tergiversation and the corresponding verb tergiversate come from a Latin word meaning "to turn one's back." When you tergiversate, you turn your back on something to which you were previously loyal and become a deserter or a renegade. When tergiversate denotes the desertion of a religious faith or creed, it is synonymous with apostatize. Tergiversation means the act of desertion, and the word usually applies to the abandonment of a cause, a party, or a religion. / These words may also be used figuratively of language that is shifty and evasive, that does not take a firm stand. In this sense, tergiversate is a synonym of equivocate, which means to speak in a subtle and evasive manner; and the noun tergiversation is a synonym of equivocation, which means a shifty or evasive statement, language that does not come straight to the point or take a firm stand. /

SQUALID

Dirty and run‑down as a result of poverty or neglect, foul or filthy from lack of care, wretched, miserable, degraded. / Synonyms of squalid include seedy, unkempt, slovenly, and dilapidated. / Antonyms include unsullied, immaculate, and pristine. / Squalid is the adjective; the corresponding noun is squalor. Squalor means filthiness, foulness, degradation, a wretched, miserable condition resulting from poverty or neglect. / Squalid comes from the Latin verb squalere, which has various meanings, including to be rough or scaly; to be covered with filth; to be overgrown or dirty from neglect; and to wear mourning clothes. In modern usage squalid has retained a taste of all these senses. Squalid attire is rough and unkempt—or, to use an informal term, grungy. Squalid language is filthy or foul. A squalid neighborhood is slummy, dilapidated, dirty and run‑down from neglect. And just as a person in mourning is sad and forlorn, squalid people or squalid conditions are wretched and miserable because they are poor, degraded, and pitiable. / The adjectives squalid and sordid are close in meaning. Both words mean dirty, filthy, and run‑down, but squalid applies to that which is dirty and miserable because of poverty or neglect, while sordid suggests a filthy wretchedness resulting from a degraded or debased character. /

DISSIDENT

Disagreeing, disaffected, dissenting, nonconformist. / Dissident comes from the Latin dis‑, apart, and sedere, to sit, and by derivation means to sit apart; hence, to withdraw one's approval or belief, disagree. / The noun a dissident refers to a person who disagrees with a prevailing opinion, method, or doctrine. The word is commonly used today in politics and journalism of someone who opposes the policies and practices of his government. The adjective dissident refers to the nonconforming and disaffected attitude of the dissident. A dissident opinion expresses disagreement; it does not conform to accepted opinion. Dissident activities are activities undertaken in opposition to a prevailing doctrine or authority. /

FLIPPANT

Disrespectful in a frivolous way, treating something serious in a trivial manner. / Flippant refers to speech or writing that trivializes or makes fun of something that deserves respect. Flippant language is inappropriately lighthearted or disrespectful: "Everyone at the meeting gasped when Harry made a flippant remark about the board of directors." / Although flippant expression generally causes dismay or offense, occasionally it may be humorous, depending on your point of view. For example, many talk show hosts today are adept at making flippant comments to dismiss guests or callers with opposing points of view. / Synonyms of flippant include cheeky, fresh, thoughtless, and impertinent. Antonyms include solemn, sober, sedate, and grave. /

PROSAIC

Dull, ordinary, uninteresting, unimaginative. / Synonyms of prosaic include commonplace, humdrum, tedious, dry, stale, mediocre, and matter‑of‑fact. And those are only the prosaic synonyms of prosaic. More difficult and interesting synonyms include insipid, which means tasteless, bland; pedestrian; vapid, word 37 of Level 8; and jejune, word 1 of Level 10. / Prosaic may be used literally to mean consisting of prose or of the nature of prose, as opposed to poetry. Because poetry is considered lovely and lyrical and prose is considered uninteresting and unimaginative, prosaic has come to be used figuratively to mean dull and ordinary. Today prosaic is most often used in this figurative sense. A prosaic performance is mediocre; a prosaic style is dry and stale; a prosaic explanation is humdrum, tedious, or matter‑ of‑fact. /

JEJUNE

Dull, uninteresting, or unsatisfying; devoid of nourishment, substance, or significance. / Synonyms of jejune include flat, stale, arid, insipid, and vapid. / Jejune comes from the Latin jejunus, fasting, hungry, barren, dry. From the same source comes the anatomical term jejunum, the middle section of the small intestine, between the duodenum and the ileum. / The jejunum took that name, the dictionaries tell us, because in postmortem dissections it was found barren of digestive contents and therefore believed to be empty after death. / The adjective jejune was once used to mean hungry, fasting, without food, but that sense is obsolete and in modern usage jejune is used figuratively to mean barren of interest, dull and unsatisfying, devoid of nourishment, substance, or significance. A jejune diet lacks nourishment; jejune food is tasteless and unsatisfying. A jejune idea or a jejune method lacks appeal because it is devoid of substance or significance. A jejune movie or jejune novel is dull, uninteresting, insipid. / If you look up jejune in a current dictionary, you will also see another definition of the word: youthful, childish, immature, puerile, as jejune behavior or a jejune response to a serious question. Whence comes this sense of the word, which is so clearly unconnected to the root meaning, barren of substance or appeal? / For an answer let's turn to William Safire, the language maven of The New York Times, who writes a column for that paper's Sunday magazine called "On Language." On October 16, 1994, Safire reported that he had queried Jacques Barzun, one of the world's foremost authorities on English usage, about this extended sense of the word, and the venerable professor responded that "the meaning 'youthful, childish' for jejune" had gotten into the dictionaries "only as a concession to the misusers." / According to Safire, "the original meaning of jejune—'empty of food, meager'—led to its modern sense of 'dull, insipid.' Probably because the word sounded like juvenile, it picked up a meaning of 'puerile, childish,' which," Safire asserts, "is the way it is most commonly used today." / Safire then poses the eternal question regarding capricious usage: / "Should we stand with the prescriptivists, as Barzun suggests, and hold fast to the 'proper' meaning? Or do we go along with the language slobs, adopting as 'correct' a mistake merely because it is so frequently made?" / Here's how Safire answers his own question: "At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning. We should resist its adoption, pointing out the error, for years; mockery helps; if the meaning persists, though, it is senseless to ignore the new sense. I say jejune means puerile now," Safire concludes. / I disagree with Mr. Safire, and stand with Mr. Barzun on the side of reserving jejune for the meaning "devoid of nourishment, substance, or significance." That is my crotchet, and I'm proud of it. However, although few people know the word jejune, I will concede that many of those who do now use it to mean childish or immature; and therefore, as Mr. Safire suggests, resistance to this change in meaning may now be effete, and further mockery of it may be jejune—which you may take as meaning either dull, insipid, or juvenile, immature. / Welcome to the war of words, my verbally advantaged friend. What will be your strategy for this controversial word jejune? /

PRECOCIOUSNESS

Early development or maturity, especially in mental ability. / The noun precociousness and the adjective precocious come from the Latin praecox, which means premature, or literally, "ripening before its time." Precocious is most often used of children whose intellectual or emotional development is unusually advanced. Precociousness, early development, is the opposite of retardation, slowness in development. /

IRASCIBLE

Easily angered, hot‑tempered, extremely irritable or touchy. / Synonyms of irascible include cranky, testy, peevish, petulant, irate, cantankerous, contentious, snappish, choleric, captious, and splenetic. / Antonyms include calm, unruffled, placid, amiable, affable, and equable. / Irascible and irate both come from the Latin verb irasci, to be angry, which comes in turn from ira, anger, wrath. This Latin ira is also the direct source of the English word ire. / A person who is full of ire, anger, may be either irate or irascible. / Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition, explains that an irate person "is at the moment angry or incensed"; an irascible person "is by temperament prone to anger." Thus, when something infuriates you, you are seized by ire, anger, and you become irate, temporarily enraged. However, if ire burns within you constantly, if you are by nature easily provoked to anger, then you are irascible. Irascible may also apply to that which displays anger or extreme irritability: / "Steve put up with Randy's incessant stream of irascible remarks for as long as he could, but eventually enough was enough, and he became irate." /

GULLIBLE

Easily deceived, fooled, or cheated. / A more difficult synonym of gullible is credulous. / Credulous comes from the Latin credere, to believe, and means inclined to believe, willing to accept something as true without questioning. / To gull is to take advantage of someone who is foolish, unwary, or inexperienced. The gullible person is easily gulled, fooled, cheated. To dupe and to gull both mean to take advantage of. Dupe suggests unwariness on the part of the victim; gull suggests a willingness or readiness to be deceived. /

FACILE

Easy, easily done; performed or achieved in an easy, effortless way; working or acting in a smooth, free, and unrestrained manner. / Synonyms of facile include quick, ready, fluent, nimble, dexterous, expert, and adroit. / Antonyms of facile include difficult, awkward, unwieldy, laborious, irksome, obstinate, onerous, intractable, and refractory. / The adjective facile, the noun facility, and the verb to facilitate all come through the Latin facilis, meaning "easy to do," from the verb facere, which means "to make" or "to do." All three words suggest ease of performance or action. / Facilitate means to make easier, help along, as "She was hired to facilitate the project." When using facilitate, remember that the word applies to an action or operation, not to the performer of it. Installing new production equipment will not facilitate the workers on an assembly line; it will facilitate assembly of the product. / The noun facility means dexterity, aptitude, ease of movement or action. / The word usually suggests a practiced ability to do something with quick, skillful ease: he plays the piano with facility; her facility in handling a tricky situation; an impressive facility with words. / Our keyword, facile, is often used of speech or the mind to mean able to perform quickly and smoothly, as "a facile wit," or "a facile tongue." Facile is now often used in a negative sense to mean done or arrived at too easily, without sufficient care or effort: a facile answer is smooth and easy to the point of being glib; a facile solution is simplistic or superficial. / In Modern English Usage, the classic guide by H. W. Fowler, first published in 1926, Fowler notes that the value of facile "as a synonym for easy or fluent or [dexterous] lies chiefly in its depreciatory implication. A facile speaker or writer is one who needs to expend little pains. A facile triumph or victory is easily won." /

UNCANNY

Eerie, strange, weird, mysterious: "an uncanny experience." / Uncanny may refer to something that is strange in an unnatural or unearthly way, something whose strangeness is unsettling or even frightening. / Uncanny may also be used to mean beyond what is normal or expected, strange in a remarkable or marvelous way, as "an uncanny resemblance," or "uncanny ability." /

EFFICACY

Effectiveness; the power to produce a desired effect or result. / Efficacy applies to things that have the power to produce an intended effect. We speak of the efficacy of a drug, a scientific method, or an advertising campaign. The corresponding adjective is efficacious, which means effective, capable of producing a desired effect or result, as an efficacious law, an efficacious policy, or an efficacious marketing plan. /

VACUOUS

Empty, vacant; devoid of substance, interest, intelligence, expression, or meaning. / Synonyms of vacuous include blank, unintelligent, shallow, stupid, senseless, inane, and fatuous. The corresponding noun is vacuity, emptiness, an absence of matter or intellectual content. / Vacuous comes from the Latin vacuus, empty. In modern usage vacuous is not used where empty or vacant would be appropriate. An empty box or a vacant apartment cannot be described as vacuous. / Vacuous usually applies to a figurative lack of content, meaning, or interest. / We speak of vacuous eyes, a vacuous discussion, a vacuous mind, a vacuous remark, or a vacuous proposal. /

HORTATORY

Encouraging or urging to some course of action; giving earnest counsel or advice. / The verb to exhort, the noun exhortation, and the adjective hortatory all come from the Latin hortari, to encourage, incite. / To exhort means to urge or advise earnestly to do what is deemed right or proper, as public service announcements that exhort people not to drink and drive. / An exhortation is a statement that exhorts, or, as Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition, puts it, "language intended to incite and encourage." Adolph Hitler's racist and chauvinistic exhortations led the German people into World War II. / The adjective hortatory means characterized by exhortations. A hortatory speech or sermon encourages or urges the audience to some course of action. A hortatory disquisition gives earnest counsel or advice. /

TANTAMOUNT

Equivalent; having equal force, effect, or value. / Tantamount comes from an Anglo‑French phrase meaning "to amount to as much, be equal to," and ultimately from the Latin tantus, which means "so much" or "so great." In modern usage, when one thing is tantamount to another, it amounts to as much as the other, adds up to the same thing. / In his Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, Bergen Evans notes that the words paramount and tantamount "look deceptively alike but they mean very different things. Paramount means supreme in rank, preëminent [now written preeminent, without the dieresis]. / Tantamount means equivalent, as in value, force, effect, or significance. It is usually followed by to. / Tantamount is properly applied to acts and statements but not to material things." /

VENIAL

Excusable, forgivable, pardonable, able to be overlooked. / Venial comes from the Latin venia, grace, indulgence, and means excusable, forgivable, minor or trivial enough to be overlooked. A venial offense can be pardoned; a venial error can be overlooked; a venial insult can be forgiven; and venial negligence can be excused. / In theology, venial is opposed to mortal. Venial sins are committed without full awareness or consent, and therefore are pardonable. Mortal sins exclude one from grace, and cause the death of the soul. / Do you remember the word venal, keyword 14 of Level 9? Be careful not to get venal confused with venial. Venal means corruptible, capable of being bribed or bought off. Venial means excusable, able to be overlooked. /

UBIQUITOUS

Existing or seeming to exist everywhere at the same time. / Ubiquitous and nonexistent are antonyms. Synonyms of ubiquitous include ever‑present, universal, pervading, and omnipresent. The corresponding noun is ubiquity, the state of being or seeming to be everywhere at once, omnipresence. / Ubiquitous comes from the Latin ubique, everywhere. Its closest synonym, omnipresent, links the combining form omni‑, meaning "all," with present to mean present in all places at once. / Because few things other than the air we breathe can accurately be described as ubiquitous, existing everywhere at the same time, ubiquitous is often used to mean seeming to exist everywhere at once, extremely widespread. For example, when telephones and televisions first came on the market they were considered novelties and luxury items, but today we see them everywhere, so we could say they are ubiquitous. In George Orwell's classic novel 1984, which depicts the horrors of life in a futuristic totalitarian state, the image of the dictator, Big Brother, and the slogan "Big Brother is watching you" are ubiquitous; they seem to be in all places at once. / Ubiquitous is also often used to achieve an exaggerated effect. For example, a writer might state that the cockroach is a ubiquitous insect, or that graffiti has become ubiquitous in a neighborhood, or that fast‑food restaurant chains are now ubiquitous in our society. And if you ever have the experience of running across a certain person nearly everywhere you go, you could say that person is ubiquitous. /

EXTANT

Existing, still in existence, not extinct, not lost or destroyed. / Extant comes from the Latin exstare, to stand out, which comes in turn from ex‑, meaning "out," and stare, to stand. Extant originally meant standing out, but this sense is now archaic, and in modern usage extant means standing out through time, still in existence, not lost or destroyed: / "That law is no longer extant; it's not on the books"; "She was surprised and pleased to find several extant relatives in the village where she was born"; "The only extant writings by this early Greek philosopher may in fact be apocryphal"; "Although Shakespeare's plays have been performed and enjoyed for more than four hundred years, nothing in his handwriting has survived—not one extant manuscript." /

PERIPHERAL

External, outer, lying at or forming the outside or boundary of something; hence, not essential, irrelevant. / The noun periphery means the boundary, the external surface or area. It may be used literally, as in "exploring the periphery of the polar icecap," "situated on the periphery of the combat zone"; or it may be used figuratively, as in "the periphery of consciousness," "the periphery of one's sphere of influence." / Peripheral may mean external in the literal sense of lying at the edge or on the boundary, or external in the figurative sense of irrelevant, nonessential, as peripheral issues, a peripheral point, or peripheral considerations. /

FASTIDIOUS

Extremely delicate, sensitive, or particular, especially in matters of taste or behavior; dainty, fussy, finicky, overnice: fastidious table manners; a fastidious dresser; a fastidious worker who agonizes over every detail of the job. / Fastidious may also mean hard to please, extremely picky or demanding, exacting, critical to a fault: a fastidious ear for music; fastidious in one's choice of friends; a fastidious client for whom a good job is never good enough. / Fastidious descends from Latin words meaning squeamish, disgusted, disdainful, and conceited. More than a trace of these unpleasant words remains in the way fastidious is used today. The fastidious person is so excessively concerned with details that he may become squeamish or disgusted if things are not just right. The fastidious person may also be so hard to please, so critical and demanding, that she appears contemptuous of others. According to the great Century Dictionary, "Fastidious almost always means a somewhat proud or haughty particularity; a fastidious person is hard to please, because he objects to minute points or to some point in almost everything." / Scrupulous, meticulous, punctilious, and fastidious all suggest demanding standards and careful attention to every aspect or detail. / Scrupulous means having scruples or principles; hence, rigorously careful and exact about doing what is correct and proper: / "City officials called for a scrupulous investigation into the alleged embezzlement of public funds"; "All employees must follow company regulations scrupulously." / Meticulous is often used today to mean painstaking, taking pains to attend to details or exercise care, as in "The report showed meticulous research," or "Doctors must wash their hands meticulously before examining patients." Bear in mind, however, that meticulous comes through the Latin meticulosus, timid, from metus, fear, and by derivation properly suggests exaggerated attention to details or unimportant matters out of nervousness or timidity: "Albert dressed for the interview with meticulous care, all the while reminding himself that making a good first impression was the key to getting the job." / Punctilious comes from the Latin punctum, a point. / From the same Latin punctum comes the English word punctilio, a fine point, nice detail. By derivation, punctilious means exact and often excessive attention to punctilios, to fine points or minute details, especially in observing customs, ceremonies, or procedures: "The new executive director seemed to have Robert's Rules of Order memorized, for she cited chapter and verse as she guided the board through each item on the agenda with a stern and punctilious hand." / Fastidious means having extremely delicate, sensitive, or particular tastes; fussy, picky, or demanding in a condescending way. As Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition, puts it, fastidious suggests "a certain disdainfulness in rejecting what is displeasing to one's taste." /

FLAGITIOUS

Extremely wicked; shamefully and scandalously criminal, vice‑ridden, or corrupt. / Synonyms of flagitious include atrocious, egregious, heinous, diabolical, nefarious, odious, and execrable. / Flagitious comes through the Latin flagitiosus, shameful, disgraceful, infamous, from flagitium, a shameful crime, disgraceful action. / Flagitious may be used of persons who are grossly wicked and guilty of atrocious crimes or vices. For example, in different ways and on a different scale, Jack the Ripper and Joseph Stalin were both flagitious monsters. / Flagitious may also be used of actions or things to mean shamefully wicked, villainous, or evil, as a flagitious crime, a flagitious obsession, flagitious thoughts. The Holocaust was one of the most flagitious events in history. /

SPURIOUS

False, counterfeit, artificial; not true, authentic, or genuine. / Synonyms of spurious include sham, bogus, phony, fictitious, fabricated, fraudulent, illusory, apocryphal, and supposititious. Antonyms include genuine, authentic, valid, and bona fide. / Spurious by derivation means "false, illegitimate." Spurious was once used to mean of illegitimate birth, bastard, and although dictionaries still list this sense, it is now rare. Since it came into the language about 1600, and most often today, spurious is used to mean false, counterfeit, not authentic or genuine. / Spurious applies to that which is not what it claims or is claimed to be. A spurious document is not authentic or original, and may have been forged; spurious gems are counterfeit, not real or genuine; spurious statements are fabricated, made up; spurious feelings are affected or artificial; and a spurious charge is false, trumped‑up, and should be repudiated. /

FALLACIOUS

False, misleading, deceptive, invalid, based on a fallacy. / Synonyms of fallacious include erroneous, spurious, untenable, illusory, and sophistical. / The noun fallacy means a false or misleading idea, statement, or argument. Fallacy and sophistry are close in meaning. A fallacy is a misleading or deceptive argument that violates the laws of reasoning. Sophistry refers to reasoning that deliberately uses fallacies, misleading arguments, to confuse or deceive. / Both fallacy and the adjective fallacious come from the Latin fallere, to deceive, lead astray. That which is fallacious is based on a fallacy, and is therefore misleading, deceptive, false. To the skeptical person, all statements, assumptions, and notions are fallacious until clearly proved otherwise. /

CONVERSANT

Familiar, acquainted, well‑informed or well‑versed. / Conversant comes from the Latin conversari, to associate with, the source also of the verb to converse and the noun conversation. When you are conversant with something you have had a conversation with it; you have associated with it, and therefore you are familiar or well acquainted with it. The person who is conversant with astronomy or folklore or Russian history or the microcomputer industry is well informed and able to speak knowledgeably about the subject. / Conversant and versed are close synonyms. Conversant is usually followed by with; versed is usually followed by in. Versed often suggests the familiarity that comes from experience. You can be versed in the ways of life, versed in the techniques of marketing or public relations, or versed in the culture of a foreign country. Conversant often suggests the familiarity that comes from having studied something or acquired information about it. / You can be conversant with the work of a certain writer, conversant with economics, conversant with modern art, or conversant with current events. /

CAPTIOUS

Faultfinding, quick to point out faults or raise trivial objections. / Synonyms of captious include carping, quibbling, caviling, censorious, and querulous. / Critical, carping, and captious all mean "inclined to look for and point out faults and defects," says Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. / Critical, though often used in a negative sense, is in fact a neutral word: / the critical person tries to judge something fairly and objectively by weighing its merits and faults. Strictly speaking, a critical assessment is a fair, impartial assessment, and a critical examination may result in a supportive conclusion. Critical is so often used of harsh or unfavorable judgment, however, that the neutral sense of the word has nearly been lost; it would be nice if we took pains to preserve it. / Carping, says Webster's Ninth, "implies an ill‑natured or perverse picking of flaws." Captious, which comes from the Latin captus, the past participle of the verb capere, to take or seize, "suggests a readiness to detect trivial faults or raise objections on trivial grounds." / Here's an idea: The next time you find yourself about to use critical in a negative sense, how about giving carping or captious a try instead? /

AUSPICIOUS

Favorable, fortunate, marked by favorable circumstances or good fortune, conducive to success, boding well. / The ancient Romans were, by modern standards, a highly superstitious people who believed in supernatural signs and omens and who often consulted oracles, astrologers, clairvoyants, and soothsayers when they wanted to know what the future held in store for them. One of the most popular fortune‑tellers in ancient times was the auspex, who practiced a form of divination known in Latin as auspicium, which meant the act of predicting the future by observing the flight of birds. / In English, the word auspice means an omen or sign, especially a favorable one. From that sense auspice came to be used in the plural, auspices, to mean protection, guardianship, or sponsorship, as an investigation conducted under the auspices of the government. Both the noun auspice and the adjective auspicious come from the Latin auspicium, which in turn comes from avis, bird, and specere, to look at, observe. By derivation auspicious refers to that which an auspex, or bird‑watcher, has said will have a favorable outcome. / In modern usage auspicious applies to anything marked by favorable circumstances or good fortune. An auspicious debut is a favorable debut, one conducive to future success. When the telephone rings and the caller wants to buy your product or pay for your services, that's an auspicious call, one marked by good fortune. And when you meet someone at a party who later turns out to be an important business contact, that meeting can only be described as auspicious, favorable, fortunate. / The adjectives auspicious and propitious are close in meaning. Propitious by derivation means rushing forward or striving after something—in the vernacular or in colloquial terms, "going for it." In current usage propitious usually refers to favorable conditions or a favorable time for doing something: / fishermen hope for propitious weather; stockbrokers are always looking for the propitious moment to buy or sell. Auspicious means favorable in the sense of boding well, giving indication of success. An auspicious event is one that seems an omen of success, good fortune, or prosperity. /

NEPOTISM

Favoritism shown to relatives. / Nepotism comes through French and Italian from the Latin nepos, nepotis, a nephew or grandson. According to the Century Dictionary, "the word was invented [in the seventeenth century] to characterize a propensity of the popes and other high ecclesiastics in the Roman Catholic Church to aggrandize their family by exorbitant grants or favors to nephews or relatives." / In current usage nepotism denotes favoritism shown to any relative, and the word usually applies to situations in business and public life where relatives are shown preference over nonrelatives and receive privileges or positions that they may not necessarily deserve. Thus, if you give your niece money to help her buy a house or persuade a friend to hire your unemployed brother, it's not nepotism. However, when you hire your brother the bricklayer as vice president of your sporting goods company, and when you give your niece—the high‑school dropout who can't type—a secretarial job and six months later promote her to office manager, those are flagrant acts of nepotism. / The corresponding adjective is nepotistic. /

XENOPHOBIA

Fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners, or of anything strange or foreign: / "Their xenophobia and temerity led them headlong into war." / Xenophobia entered English at the beginning of the twentieth century. Its antonym, xenomania, an inordinate attachment to anything or anyone foreign, was coined thirty years earlier but is rarely used today. However, xenophilia, which came into the language in the 1950s, is still in good standing; xenophilia means love for or attraction to foreigners, foreign cultures, or foreign customs. / Xenophobia combines the prefix xeno‑, which means alien, strange, with the suffix ‑phobia, which means fear. By derivation, xenophobia is fear of anyone or anything alien or strange. A xenophobe is a person who fears or hates strangers: "An exclusive community filled with vigilant xenophobes who fear any unfamiliar face." The adjective xenophobic means affected with xenophobia: "During times of national crisis, people have a tendency to become hostile and xenophobic." / Many educated speakers—and for some reason, especially the highly educated ones—pronounce xenophobia, xenophobe, and xenophobic with a long e: ZEE‑nophobia, ZEE‑nophobe, and ZEE‑nophobic. These pronunciations were not recognized by dictionaries until the 1980s, and although all current dictionaries now list them, not one lists them first. / So take my advice and ignore those overeducated, innovative mispronouncers, who are probably foreign spies. Take a Zen approach and pronounce these words with a short e. Say ZEN‑ophobia, ZEN‑ophobe, and ZEN‑ophobic. /

TRUCULENT

Fierce, ferocious, especially in a brutal, bullying, threatening, or aggressively defiant way. / The corresponding noun is truculence, fierceness, ferocity, brutal aggression. / Synonyms of truculent include pugnacious, belligerent, malevolent, rapacious, and feral. / Antonyms include humane, merciful, compassionate, benevolent, and clement, all of which suggest mercy or mildness, and also timid, demure, diffident, apprehensive, and timorous, all of which suggest shyness or fear. / Truculent descends from Latin words meaning savage, fierce, cruel, or grim. In current usage truculent applies to fierce, savage, or ferocious people or to behavior that is brutal, threatening, bullying, or aggressively defiant: A truculent nation is a hostile, belligerent nation. A truculent look is a pugnacious or threatening look. A truculent philosophy of business is a brutal, aggressive, rapacious, winner‑takes‑all philosophy of business. In his Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, Bergen Evans offers this sentence to illustrate the meaning of truculent: "One of my superiors was a truculent fellow who would have loved being a storm trooper under Hitler." / Truculent is now also used of speech or writing to mean scathing, vicious, or vitriolic, as a truculent retort, a truculent editorial, or a truculent political advertisement. /

RESOLUTE

Firmly determined or settled, resolved, having a set opinion or purpose, steadfast, unwavering, persevering. / Resolute comes from the Latin resolvere, the source also of the verb to resolve, which means to decide, determine, settle once and for all: "After much debate, the board of directors resolved to go ahead with the five‑year plan." "The lawyers tried to resolve the case out of court." Resolute means resolved in one's opinion or purpose: "He was resolute about earning a master's degree and starting a successful business." / Antonyms of resolute include irresolute, unsteady, and vacillating. /

BLANDISHMENT

Flattering or coaxing speech or action; an ingratiating remark or gesture. / Blandishment comes through Middle English and Old French from the Latin verb blandiri, to flatter, caress, coax, which comes in turn from the adjective blandus, which means flattering, fondling, caressing. By derivation, blandishment means speech or action that flatters, fondles, coaxes, or caresses in an attempt to win over or persuade a person. / In current usage the word is usually employed in its plural form, blandishments, which the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary defines as "soft words and artful caresses." Unlike flattery, which is generally perceived as self‑serving, blandishments are not necessarily insincere. They may be expressions of honest affection, kindness, or desire. When you offer blandishments to your boss, to a friend, to your spouse, or to your lover, you are using gentle flattery and kind words to butter that person up. / The corresponding verb is blandish, to coax with flattering or ingratiating statements or actions. /

INGRATIATING

Flattering, attempting to win approval or curry favor, trying to gain acceptance, done to charm or please another. / The word unctuous, which was discussed under glib, keyword 8 in this level, is a close synonym of ingratiating. / Ingratiating comes from the Latin in, which means in or into, and gratia, grace. By derivation ingratiating means getting into the good graces of another. / Dictionaries and thesauruses often give charming, pleasing, and agreeable as synonyms of ingratiating, but today the word is rarely used in a positive sense. Invariably it has the negative suggestion of charming in an insincere way, pleasing in an attempt to win approval or curry favor, agreeable so as to get into the good graces of another: "Every time Don walked by the boss's office or passed him in the hallway, he would flash a fake, ingratiating smile. That, and other unctuous gestures, soon made Don's coworkers loathe him." /

FUGACIOUS

Fleeting, passing quickly away. / Synonyms of fugacious include transient, ephemeral, transitory, and evanescent. / The words fugacious and fugitive come from the same Latin source, the verb fugere, to flee, fly away. As a noun, fugitive refers to a person who flees, especially from the law; as an adjective, fugitive may mean either fleeing, running away, or passing away quickly, not permanent, temporary. / In this last sense it is an exact synonym of the more difficult word fugacious, fleeting, passing swiftly, lasting but a short time. /

MELLIFLUOUS

Flowing smoothly and sweetly, like honey. / The adjective mellifluous comes through Middle English from Latin and means literally flowing like honey. The word has stuck like honey to its root, and in modern usage mellifluous means honeyed or honey‑toned, flowing smoothly and sweetly. / Mellifluous often applies to sounds or words, as a mellifluous voice, mellifluous music, a mellifluous speaker, or mellifluous writing. /

QUIXOTIC

Foolishly impractical or idealistic, especially in an extravagantly chivalrous or romantic way; inclined to pursue lofty, unreachable goals or far‑fetched, unworkable schemes. / Synonyms of quixotic include fanciful, whimsical, visionary, utopian, impracticable, and chimerical. Antonyms include realistic, practical, pragmatic, and utilitarian. / Quixotic comes from Don Quixote, the hero and title of a seventeenth‑century satirical romance by Miguel de Cervantes. Don Quixote is an old man passionately devoted to the ideals of chivalry—fighting evil and rescuing the oppressed. The Don does not realize that his code of honor has become outworn and been replaced with far less lofty, mercenary goals. With his credulous but pragmatic squire, Sancho Panza, he sets forth on a quest to save the world from wickedness. / The world, however, holds only ridicule for the visionary Don, who winds up tilting at windmills and making speeches to the wind. / Today the adjective quixotic refers to a person who is extravagantly idealistic or romantic, like Don Quixote, or to an idea or goal that is so impractical and far‑fetched as to seem foolish. /

REDOUBTABLE

Formidable, fearsome, arousing awe or dread; hence, worthy of or commanding respect. / Redoubtable comes through Middle English from an Old French verb meaning to fear or dread, and ultimately from the Latin dubitare, to doubt, waver in opinion or action, the source also of the words dubious, which means doubtful or questionable, and dubiety, which means doubtfulness, uncertainty, wavering. / Perhaps because the things we find dubious or that make us waver are often the same things we find disturbing or frightening, redoubtable has come to apply to that which we fear and respect because we doubt our ability to match, oppose, or overcome it. In modern usage, redoubtable means fearsome, formidable, commanding respect, and may apply either to people or to things. / We speak of the legendary Hercules as a redoubtable hero; of drug abuse as a redoubtable social problem; of AIDS as a redoubtable disease; of the redoubtable genius of Albert Einstein; of a rivalry between two redoubtable football teams; or of small airline companies facing redoubtable competition from the big carriers. / In current usage redoubtable sometimes is used to achieve a humorous, gently mocking effect. For example, back when Johnny Carson was host of "The Tonight Show," on which the actress Shelley Winters was a frequent guest, I remember Carson once cut to a commercial with this quip: "Don't go away, because we'll be right back with the redoubtable Shelley Winters." /

SCURRILOUS

Foul‑mouthed, obscene; using or expressed in language that is coarse, vulgar, and abusive. / Synonyms of scurrilous include shameless, indelicate, lewd, smutty, ribald, irreverent, insolent, disparaging, derisive, and contumelious. / Antonyms of scurrilous include polite, refined, tasteful, cultured, sophisticated, cultivated, decorous, and urbane. / The adjective scurrilous comes from the Latin scurrilis, mocking, jesting, or jeering like a buffoon. Scurrilis comes in turn from scurra, a jester, comedian, buffoon, especially one employed to entertain a rich person. By derivation, scurrilous means talking like a buffoon. / And what precisely is a buffoon, you ask? Any dictionary will tell you that a buffoon is a person who amuses or attempts to amuse others by clowning around and cracking jokes; however, the savvy lexicographers, or dictionary editors, at Random House include a second definition: "a person given to coarse or offensive joking." That sort of buffoon is the one implied by the word scurrilous, which means, as the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary puts it, "using, or given to using, the language of low buffoonery; containing low indecency or abuse." Scurrilous language is coarse, vulgar, and abusive. A scurrilous rogue is a foul‑mouthed joker who spouts insolent obscenities. / There are two corresponding nouns, scurrility and scurrilousness; both may refer to coarse, vulgar, and abusive language, or to an expression of foul‑mouthed verbal abuse. /

PROLIFIC

Fruitful, fertile, productive. / Antonyms of prolific include unproductive, barren, sterile, impotent, and effete. / Prolific comes from a Latin word meaning offspring, children, progeny. / Prolific may mean producing many offspring or much fruit, as a prolific family or a prolific orchard. It may also mean producing many products of the mind, as a prolific writer, a prolific composer. A prolific worker is a productive worker, one whose labor bears much fruit. A prolific period is a fruitful period, one marked by inventiveness and productivity. /

REPLETE

Fully or richly supplied, well‑stocked, chock‑full, filled to capacity. / Synonyms of replete include stuffed, crammed, gorged, abounding, brimming, teeming, laden, and surfeited. / Replete comes from the Latin replere, to refill, fill again, from re‑, meaning "again," and plere, to fill. From the Latin plere, to fill, and the adjective plenus, full, come the familiar English words plenty and plentiful, and the more challenging words plenitude, an abundance, ample amount, and plenary, which means full or complete in all respects. Plenary powers are complete powers; a plenary session of Congress is a fully attended session of Congress. / Our keyword, replete, by derivation means filled to capacity, well‑stocked, abounding. A river may be replete with fish; a house may be replete with furniture; a conversation may be replete with humor; a book may be replete with insight; a mind may be replete with wisdom; and a life may be replete with experience. Verbal Advantage, of course, is replete with words. / The words replete and fraught are close in meaning but are used in different ways. / Fraught comes from Middle English and Middle Dutch words meaning "loaded, freighted, full of cargo." By derivation fraught suggests carrying a heavy load. That which is fraught is burdened or weighted down: a situation may be fraught with danger; a person's face may be fraught with worry; a life may be fraught with pain and suffering. Fraught suggests great weight or emotional intensity, and is usually used of that which is burdensome or distressful. Replete, on the other hand, suggests great volume or mass, and may be used of any abundant supply. A train overflowing with passengers is replete with passengers, not fraught with them, but a relationship full of conflict is fraught with conflict, not replete with it. / Recently, replete has come to be used to mean complete. The words are not synonymous or interchangeable. Complete means lacking nothing, having all necessary elements, ingredients, or parts. Replete means well‑stocked, fully or richly supplied. A multivitamin may come complete with all the minimum daily requirements. When your body absorbs those vitamins, it is replete with them. /

PUGNACIOUS

Given to fighting, combative, quarrelsome, ready and willing to fight. / Challenging synonyms of pugnacious include contentious, belligerent, and bellicose. / Antonyms include peaceable, clement, and amicable. / Pugnacious comes from the Latin pugnare, to box, fight with the fists, and still has the connotation of someone ready to put up his dukes. From the same Latin pugnare, to fight, we inherit the word pugilist, a boxer, someone who fights with his fists. /

MOROSE

Gloomy, moody, glum, grumpy, ill‑tempered, depressed. "After weeks of futile job‑hunting, he became morose." / More difficult synonyms of morose include dolorous, which means mournful, full of sadness; lugubrious, which means extremely gloomy or dismal; and saturnine, which means having a bitter disposition or sour outlook on life. / Antonyms—words opposite in meaning—include optimistic, jovial, and sanguine, which means having a cheerful, confident outlook on life. / Sullen and morose are close in meaning. When you refuse to speak or associate with people because you're in a bad mood, you are being sullen. When you are depressed and silent because you are feeling bitter or resentful, you are morose. Merriam‑Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, tenth edition, says that morose suggests "bitterness or misanthropy." Misanthropy is hatred of humankind, a spiteful or pessimistic attitude about the human race. Moroseness is ill‑tempered, bitter gloominess. /

SATURNINE

Gloomy, sullen, or somber in appearance, manner, or temperament. / Synonyms of saturnine include grave, melancholy, morose, taciturn, and phlegmatic. / Saturnine means literally of or pertaining to the planet Saturn; in astrology, it means born under the influence of Saturn. Apparently this is not a happy influence, for today saturnine is most often used figuratively to mean having a gloomy, sullen, or somber appearance or disposition. / Antonyms of saturnine include mercurial, and sanguine. /

OLIGARCHY

Government by a few; rule or control exercised by a few persons or by a small, elite group. / Oligarchy comes from the Greek oligos, few, little, and archein, to govern, rule, and by derivation means "government by the few." Oligarchy may denote rule or control exercised by a few people, a state or an organization run by a few people, or the few dominant people themselves, and the word often suggests the hoarding of power for corrupt or selfish purposes. Thus we speak of an oligarchy within organized crime; an oligarchy of the rich; or the oligarchy of the former Soviet Union. / For the corresponding adjective, both oligarchic and oligarchical are acceptable. / Here's a pronunciation tip: You may hear some speakers pronounce oligarchy with a long o: OH‑ligarchy. This recent variant is listed second in two current dictionaries; all other authorities, past and present, do not recognize it. Properly, the initial o is short, as in olive and college. /

MUNIFICENCE

Great generosity, lavish giving. / Synonyms of munificence include philanthropy, liberality, benevolence, bountifulness, bounteousness, beneficence, and largess, traditionally pronounced LAHR‑jis but now more often pronounced lahr‑JES. Either way, the g in largess should be said like the g in large. Do not soften or Frenchify the g and say lahr‑ZHES; this particular affectation is regrettably popular today. The word is sometimes spelled largesse, after the French, but the preferred spelling is largess, without a final e. / Antonyms of munificence include stinginess, miserliness, close‑fistedness, penuriousness, and parsimony. We will discuss the noun parsimony and the adjective parsimonious in the next set of keywords in this level. / The noun munificence and the corresponding adjective munificent come through the Latin munificus, generous, liberal, bountiful, from munus, a gift, present, or favor. Munificent means characterized by great generosity, as a munificent donation. The noun munificence suggests liberal or lavish giving, and may refer to the generous giving of money, favors, or hospitality. /

CUPIDITY

Greed, a strong desire for wealth or material things. / Synonyms of cupidity include avarice, acquisitiveness, covetousness, and venality. / Cupidity comes from the Latin cupidus, which meant desirous, longing, eager, and also eager for power or money, avaricious. The corresponding Latin noun cupido, which means "desire," is the source of Cupid, the cherubic god of love in Roman mythology, usually represented as a baby or chubby young boy with wings and a bow and arrow. Although Cupid and the English noun cupidity are related etymologically, in modern usage cupidity does not denote love or desire but rather an excessive love of money, a strong desire for wealth or material things. /

MERCENARY

Greedy, done for payment only, motivated by a selfish desire for money or other reward. Synonyms include covetous and avaricious, which are discussed in word 40 of Level 2. / Mercenary is also close in meaning to the challenging word venal. Venal means corruptible, capable of being bribed or bought off: / a venal social climber; a venal politician. / The noun a mercenary denotes a hired soldier, one who fights not for a cause or for love of country but for money. The adjective mercenary means done for payment only, motivated by greed: "Harry's interest in the deal was strictly mercenary." /

INSATIABLE

Greedy, hungry, unable to be satisfied or appeased. / Synonyms of insatiable include ravenous, voracious, unquenchable, and unappeasable. The direct antonym is satiable, capable of being satisfied. / From the Latin satis, which means "enough, sufficient," English has inherited the antonyms insatiable and satiable, the verbs to satisfy and to satiate, and the challenging noun satiety. / To satiate means to satisfy completely or somewhat to excess. When you fill your hungry belly with a hearty meal, you are satiated with food. If you occasionally feel that Verbal Advantage is stuffing your brain with more words than it can comfortably contain, then you're feeling satiated with words. But don't worry. I don't think you'll reach the point of satiety. The noun satiety means a state of excessive gratification, satisfaction beyond what one normally desires. / Our keyword, insatiable, means incapable of being satiated, not able to achieve satiety, unable to be satisfied or appeased— in short, greedy, hungry, ravenous. / The human animal can be insatiable in many ways. You can have an insatiable appetite for food, or drink, or sex; you can have an insatiable desire to make money or achieve fame; you can have an insatiable hunger for attention; you can have an insatiable longing for the way things were; and you can have an insatiable thirst for knowledge or for learning new words. /

EFFUSIVE

Gushing, overflowing, overly demonstrative, expressing emotion in an excessive or unrestrained manner. / Synonyms of effusive include exuberant, profuse, ebullient, impassioned, ecstatic, and rhapsodic. / Antonyms of effusive include undemonstrative, reserved, aloof, indifferent, reticent, diffident, taciturn, and laconic. / The adjective effusive and the corresponding noun effusion come through the Latin effusio, a pouring forth, from the verb effundere, to pour out or pour forth. / True to its origin, in modern usage effusion denotes a pouring or gushing forth. The word may be used of a literal gushing, as an effusion of gas or fluid, or it may be used figuratively of an unrestrained emotional outburst in speech or writing. / Effusive is nearly always used figuratively to mean gushing or overflowing with emotion, overly demonstrative, as effusive praise, effusive greetings, an effusive style of writing: "At the dinner party Dan's effusive host couldn't stop telling everyone at the table what a great guy he was." /

INTRACTABLE

Hard to manage or control, stubborn, unruly. / Antonyms of intractable include obedient, compliant, malleable, docile, and tractable. / The antonyms tractable and intractable come from the Latin tractare, to drag around, haul, and also to manage, control. The familiar words traction and tractor come from the same source. / Both tractable and intractable are used chiefly of persons rather than things: Tractable means obedient, compliant, easily managed; intractable means stubborn, unruly, hard to manage or control. /

ASSIDUOUS

Hardworking, industrious; done with persistent, careful, and untiring attention. / Synonyms of assiduous include diligent, painstaking, persevering, unremitting, indefatigable, and sedulous. / Antonyms include lazy, shiftless, indolent, languid, phlegmatic, and otiose. / Assiduous comes from the Latin adsiduus, which means sitting continuously in one place, engaged in an occupation, and ultimately from the verb sedere, to sit down, the source also of the English words sedate and sedentary. By derivation, assiduous means sitting down and working diligently until a job is done. / In modern usage assiduous means done with persistent, careful, and untiring attention, constant in application or effort. We speak of assiduous efforts, an assiduous reader, an assiduous student, or an assiduous worker. / The corresponding noun is assiduousness: "Pamela was delighted that her assiduousness earned her a promotion." /

NOISOME

Harmful to health or well‑being, unwholesome, dangerous, destructive; also, foul‑smelling, offensive, disgusting. / Synonyms of noisome in the sense of "harmful to health or well‑being" include injurious, ruinous, deleterious, noxious, baneful, malign, and pernicious. / Synonyms of noisome in the sense of "foul‑smelling, offensive, disgusting" include rank, rancid, putrid, fetid, malodorous, and mephitic. / Antonyms of noisome in both senses include salutary and salubrious. / Noisome comes from Middle English and by derivation means harmful, injurious, unwholesome, as a noisome pestilence, a noisome habit, or noisome beliefs. That has been the meaning of the word since it came into the language in the fourteenth century. Perhaps because it is related to the verb to annoy, by the sixteenth century noisome also came to mean foul‑smelling, offensive, disgusting, as a noisome stench or noisome breath. /

DELETERIOUS

Harmful, destructive, injurious, detrimental; especially, harmful to health or well‑being. / Synonyms of deleterious include ruinous, noxious, pernicious, and malignant. / Antonyms include healthful, advantageous, wholesome, and salutary. / Deleterious comes from a Greek word meaning destructive and may be applied to something that has a detrimental effect upon a person's health or well‑being or to anything harmful or destructive. Smoking is deleterious, harmful to health. A divorce may be deleterious to children, injurious to their psychological well‑being. An impetuous statement may have deleterious consequences. For example, you may daydream about stomping into your boss's office and giving the old pontificating windbag a piece of your verbally advantaged mind, but doing that probably would be deleterious to your career. /

IMPETUOUS

Hasty, rash, overeager, acting in a sudden, vigorous, emotional way, with little thought: "The impetuous shopper buys on impulse rather than out of necessity"; "A prudent investor is not likely to make impetuous decisions." / The words rash, impulsive, and impetuous all refer to hasty or sudden actions or to people who act first and think later. Rash suggests reckless haste and foolish daring: In the arena of international relations, rash statements can lead to war. Impulsive suggests an ungovernable inner force that drives one to act without thinking: He is an impulsive talker who often puts his foot in his mouth. Impetuous suggests great energy, eagerness, or impatience. Children are often impetuous, prone to act suddenly without thinking. Impetuous behavior in an adult is often considered overemotional or immature. / Antonyms of impetuous include prudent and circumspect. For more on those two words, review the discussion of prudent, keyword 47 in Level 1. /

ODIOUS

Hateful, detestable, offensive, revolting, arousing strong dislike or aversion. / The English language has a plethora of words that mean hateful or offensive, so odious has many synonyms. Here is a selection of them, ranging from the familiar to the not‑so‑familiar: disgusting, obnoxious, objectionable, disagreeable, contemptible, repellent, repugnant, loathsome, abominable, abhorrent, heinous, opprobrious, flagitious, and last but not least, the thoroughly damning word execrable. By derivation execrable means expressing a curse, and today the word applies to that which is so horrible or wicked that it deserves to be cursed or damned. / Odious comes from the Latin odiosus, hateful, which in turn comes from odium, hatred, the direct source of the English noun odium. / Odium and hatred are synonymous, but odium refers less frequently to hatred directed toward someone or something else and more often to hatred experienced or incurred: "Alan's supervisor was a supercilious, draconian tyrant who did not seem to care that her employees regarded her with odium." / The adjective odious refers either to that which arouses hate, disgust, or displeasure or to that which is regarded as hateful, detestable, or offensive. / An odious remark is extremely unpleasant or offensive; an odious practice is a disagreeable or disgusting practice; an odious person is a person that others find hateful or detestable. / The corresponding noun odiousness means the state or quality of being odious, as the odiousness of the crime. / Be careful to distinguish odious from odorous both in spelling and usage. / Odorous means emitting an odor, having a distinct aroma or smell. Odious means hateful, detestable, revolting. Odorous armpits or odorous garbage may be odious, but there is nothing odious, hateful or offensive, about odorous flowers. /

SUPERCILIOUS

Haughty, proud, scornful, contemptuous, disdainful. / Supercilious comes from the Latin super‑, meaning "over, above," and cilium, eyebrow; by derivation it means with raised eyebrows, and therefore proud, haughty, disdainful. Supercilious suggests the proud, contemptuous attitude or expression of someone who thinks he's superior and who looks down at others with scorn: "Lucy's new supervisor had seemed quite amiable in her interview, but to her dismay she soon found out he had a supercilious way of assigning her a project and then telling her, 'If I were you, I'd do it like this.'" /

EPICENE

Having characteristics or qualities of both sexes. / Epicene comes through Middle English and Latin from a Greek word meaning "in common." By derivation, that which is epicene has characteristics in common with both sexes. Many paintings and sculptures, both classical and modern, depict epicene figures. / Because something that displays characteristics of both sexes is, by all rights, not a member of one sex or the other, epicene has come to mean not having the characteristics or qualities of either sex, sexless, neuter, as an epicene hairstyle or epicene clothing. And because something sexless lacks sex appeal, epicene is also sometimes used disparagingly of style to mean lacking appeal or potency, feeble, flaccid, as an epicene novel or epicene architecture. Finally, when applied to a man—or at least to someone presumed to be a man biologically—epicene is always used disparagingly to mean not virile, effeminate. / Hermaphroditic and epicene both suggest having characteristics of both sexes, but in different ways. / Hermaphroditic is the adjective corresponding to the noun hermaphrodite. Hermaphrodite is an eponymous word; it comes from the name Hermaphroditus. In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. While bathing one day, Hermaphroditus was the victim of a contretemps that united him in one body with a water nymph named Salmacis. In modern usage, a hermaphrodite is a person who has the reproductive organs of both sexes. / Epicene does not usually suggest having both male and female reproductive organs but rather having a range of characteristics of both sexes, emotional as well as physical. Epicene may also be used as a noun to mean an epicene person, someone who has characteristics or qualities of both sexes. /

CLAIRVOYANT

Having exceptional powers of perception, unusually clear‑sighted or discerning; specifically, able to see objects or events that others cannot, having extrasensory perception or the power of divination. / Clairvoyant comes through French from the Latin clarus, clear, and videre, to see. By derivation clairvoyant means having the power to see clearly what others cannot. The corresponding noun clairvoyance means exceptional insight or perception, the ability to see things others can't. / Clairvoyant may also be used to mean a person who supposedly possesses the power to see into the future, a medium, soothsayer. / With the advent of modern science, clairvoyance has fallen into disrepute. Yet economists continually attempt to be clairvoyant, and many ordinary people experience occasional clairvoyant moments full of startling, exceptional insight. /

HETERODOX

Having or expressing an opinion different from the accepted opinion; not in agreement with established doctrine or belief. / As you may recall from the discussion of heterogeneous, keyword 6 of Level 3, the prefix hetero‑means other, different, unlike: heterosexual means attracted to the other sex; heterogeneous means consisting of different elements or kinds, diverse; and heterodox means having another opinion or different beliefs. / The ‑dox in heterodox comes from the Greek doxa, an opinion, which in turn comes from the verb dokein, to think. From the same source come the rare English words doxy, an opinion or doctrine, especially a religious opinion, and doxastic, which means pertaining to opinion or to the formation of an opinion. I wouldn't expect you to know those unusual words, but you may be familiar with doxology, which combines the Greek doxa, opinion, with the verb legein, to speak. Doxology is used in Christian worship to mean an expression of praise to God, usually in the form of a brief hymn or chant. / The antonym of heterodox is orthodox, agreeing with established opinion, adhering to accepted beliefs. A heterodox custom or a heterodox view goes against the prevailing norm; an orthodox custom or view is considered proper or correct. / The prefix ortho‑ means right, upright, proper, or correct. Ortho‑ appears in a number of useful English words. Orthodontics is the dental specialty of correcting irregularities of the teeth. Orthoscopic means having normal or correct vision. Orthography, which comes from ortho‑, right, correct, and the Greek verb graphein, to write, means correct spelling; an orthographic error is a misspelled word or typographical mistake. Finally, the word orthoepy, which comes from ortho‑ and the Greek epos, meaning "word," refers to the study of the proper pronunciation of words. By the way, did you notice that there are no fewer than three acceptable pronunciations of orthoepy? / It just goes to show you that when it comes to pronunciation, even the experts don't always agree. But that still doesn't mean you should embrace heterodox pronunciations, ones different from those acceptable to most educated speakers. / The adjectives heterodox and heretical both mean having or expressing a controversial opinion or belief, but the words differ in their intensity. Heterodox applies to that which differs in a way that does not necessarily challenge or threaten the norm. Heretical applies to that which differs from the norm in a way perceived as dangerously false, subversive, or evil. / The corresponding noun is heterodoxy, an opinion or belief contrary to what is accepted and established. /

Congenial

Having the same taste, nature, or temperament. Congenial persons have similar or sympathetic tastes, interests, or personalities. Congenial things agree, go well together. Syn: Kindred, sympathetic, agreeable, compatible affable, genial, harmonious, cheerful, cozy, gemütlich. Ant: alien, dissident, incongruous.

ETHEREAL

Heavenly, not earthly; hence, very light, airy, delicate, or refined. / Synonyms of ethereal include celestial, lofty, elevated, tenuous, rarefied, and sublime. / Antonyms include mundane, terrestrial, and sublunary. / In one of its senses, the word ether refers to an imaginary substance that the ancients believed filled the upper regions of space. In this primitive cosmology, ether was the lightest and most subtle of the elements, which included earth, water, and fire. At first the adjective ethereal meant pertaining to the ether, the upper regions of space, and therefore heavenly, celestial: ethereal beings are heavenly beings, creatures or gods that inhabit the upper regions. Out of this notion of elemental intangibility, ethereal came to mean very light, airy, of unearthly delicacy or refinement, as ethereal music, ethereal voices, ethereal beauty, or an ethereal presence or sensation. /

MNEMONIC

Helping or pertaining to the memory, assisting or improving the ability to recall. / The odd spelling of mnemonic, with its initial mn, comes from Greek. / Ultimately, mnemonic comes from a Greek verb meaning to remember, and by derivation means "mindful." In Greek mythology, Mnemosyne is the goddess of memory and the mother of the nine Muses who preside over literature, the arts, and the sciences. / The adjective mnemonic means assisting or pertaining to the memory. A mnemonic device is a memory aid, something that helps one to remember. / For example, the old rhyme, "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November" is a mnemonic device for remembering the number of days in a given month. The term mnemonics refers to any technique or system for improving the memory. / Now, if you can remember all that, you're doing well. /

PROTEAN

Highly variable or changeable; readily assuming different shapes, forms, characters, or meanings. / The adjective protean is an eponymous word, a word derived from a name. It comes from Proteus, the name of a sea god in ancient Greek mythology who could change his shape at will. That which is protean is changeable like Proteus, able to quickly take on different shapes, forms, characters, or meanings. A master of disguise is protean, taking on the appearance of different characters; words can sometimes be protean, taking on different meanings; dreams are often protean, assuming different forms; a person's career can be protean, full of changes; and in my house at least, leftovers are decidedly protean, readily assuming different shapes or forms. /

PROBITY

Honesty, integrity; fairness, straightforwardness, and sincerity in one's dealings with others. / Synonyms of probity include uprightness, trustworthiness, scrupulousness, veracity, and rectitude. / Antonyms include improbity, the direct opposite of probity, and also dishonesty, deceitfulness, unscrupulousness, duplicity, malfeasance, and perfidy. Perfidy means a breach of faith, treachery. / Honesty implies truthfulness and an unwillingness to lie, deceive, or do wrong. Integrity implies trustworthiness, reliability, and moral responsibility. / Probity implies unshakable honesty and integrity; the man or woman of probity has been put to the test and found to be incorruptibly honest and upright, through adherence to the highest principles of conduct. /

RIBALD

Humorous in a mildly indecent, coarse, or vulgar way. / Here's what three leading American dictionaries have to say about our humorously indecent keyword: The third edition of The American Heritage Dictionary says that ribald implies "vulgar, coarse, off‑color language or behavior that provokes mirth." Merriam‑Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, tenth edition, says that ribald "applies to what is amusingly or picturesquely vulgar or irreverent or mildly indecent." And Webster's New World Dictionary, third college edition, says that ribald suggests "mild indecency or lewdness as might bring laughter from those who are not too squeamish," and refers especially to that which deals with sex "in a humorously earthy or direct way." / Ribald has an appropriately earthy etymology. It comes from an Old French noun meaning a lewd or wanton person; this wanton noun comes in turn from an Old French verb meaning to be sexually abandoned; and this loose verb is related to an Old High German word that meant figuratively to copulate and literally to rub. Although Hamlet's oft‑quoted line "Ay, there's the rub" is not a reference to his ribald fantasies about Ophelia, many of Shakespeare's plays contain ribald jokes and puns whose mildly coarse and indecent sexual overtones have provoked laughter from audiences for more than four hundred years. / Synonyms of ribald include gross, indelicate, lewd, immodest, sensual, and obscene. Bear in mind, however, that obscene suggests lewdness or indecency that is strongly offensive, whereas ribald applies to coarse vulgarity that is humorous and only mildly indecent. / Antonyms of ribald include refined, decent, polite, tasteful, cultured, polished, cultivated, decorous, and urbane. / The corresponding noun is ribaldry, which means language or behavior that is humorous in a mildly indecent or vulgar way. /

ANIMOSITY

Ill will, hostility, antagonism, strong dislike or hatred: "There was long‑standing animosity between the two families." "After her coworker apologized for his rude remarks, she resolved not to harbor any animosity toward him." / More difficult synonyms of animosity include malice, aversion, malevolence, antipathy, rancor, and enmity. /

CALLOW

Immature, inexperienced, unsophisticated, green, naive, lacking experience in and knowledge of the world. / Callow comes from a Middle English word meaning bald, and the word was formerly used of very young birds to mean without feathers, unfledged. / Today both callow and the word fledgling are used of persons, behavior, or things that are immature or inexperienced. A fledgling is a young bird that has just acquired its feathers and is learning to fly. From that original sense, fledgling has come to refer either to a young and inexperienced person or to something that is just getting off the ground, as a fledgling enterprise. / Callow suggests an immaturity or inexperience manifested by a lack of sophistication. People who are callow know little of the ways of the world; they are green, still wet behind the ears. / Because callow means immature, it sometimes also suggests childishness or foolishness. For example, a callow remark may be not only unsophisticated but also downright silly. Synonyms of callow in this unfavorable sense include juvenile, sophomoric, and puerile. /

NONAGE

Immaturity, youth; especially the period of legal minority, the state of being a minor in the eyes of the law. / Nonage comes through Middle English from Anglo‑French, the language of the Normans, who conquered England in 1066. Nonage combines the prefix non‑, meaning "not," with the word age to mean literally "not of age." / Nonage may be used either generally to refer to any period of immaturity, or specifically to mean the state of being a minor. People in their nonage are under the lawful age for doing certain things such as marrying, making contracts, driving a motor vehicle, voting, or buying alcoholic beverages. /

IMPERVIOUS

Impenetrable, incapable of being entered or passed through; hence, unable to be moved or affected by something. / Synonyms of impervious include impassable, impermeable, and opaque. Antonyms include penetrable, passable, accessible, permeable, translucent, and diaphanous. / An impervious substance cannot be penetrated: certain fabrics are impervious to water; a recording studio must be well insulated and impervious to external noise. If you are impervious to pain, then pain does not penetrate your consciousness. And if your mind is impervious to reason, that means you cannot be moved or affected by any argument, no matter how persuasive. /

VARIEGATED

In a broad sense, varied, diverse, showing variety of character or form; in a strict sense, spotted, streaked, or dappled; having marks or patches of different colors, as a variegated quilt, a variegated cat, or a variegated design. / The verb to variegate is now often used figuratively to mean to give variety to, diversify. The adjective variegated is also frequently used in this way to mean varied, diverse, or multifaceted, as variegated interests, a variegated selection, or variegated accomplishments. /

PLEXIFORM

In general, complicated or elaborate; specifically, like a plexus or network. / According to Random House Webster's College Dictionary, the noun plexus means "a network" or "any complex structure containing an intricate network of parts," as "the plexus of international relations." In medicine, plexus is used to describe various networks of nerves and blood vessels. / Plexus comes from the Latin plectere, to braid, intertwine, interweave. / The adjective plexiform combines plexus and the suffix ‑form to mean formed like a plexus or network. Plexiform may be used in this sense, as the plexiform nature of computer bulletin boards and online services. / However, outside the fields of medicine and science, plexiform probably is more often used in a more general sense to mean having the qualities of a complex network, and therefore extremely complicated or elaborate. We speak of the plexiform nature of human relationships; a plexiform bureaucracy; plexiform negotiations; the plexiform operations of a multinational corporation; or the plexiform financial structure of Wall Street. /

IMPALPABLE

Incapable of being felt or understood, not able to be perceived either by the sense of touch or by the mind. / Synonyms of impalpable include untouchable, imperceptible, and intangible. Antonyms include palpable, perceptible, manifest, and tangible. / The adjective palpable means capable of being touched or felt, easily perceived or discerned. Palpable may be used either literally, as a palpable pulse or palpable heat, or figuratively, as a palpable error or palpable desire. / Impalpable combines palpable with the privative prefix im‑, meaning "not," and means not able to be felt or grasped, either with the fingers or by the mind. An impalpable pulse is a sign of heart failure; an impalpable breeze is so faint as to be imperceptible; an impalpable idea is not easily grasped by the mind. / Both palpable and impalpable come from the Latin palpare, to touch or stroke gently, the source also of the verb to palpate. Palpate is used chiefly in medicine to mean to examine or explore by touch, as to palpate a limb or an organ. The corresponding noun is palpation, the act of palpating, examining by touch. /

INSCRUTABLE

Incomprehensible, unfathomable, extremely difficult to understand, not open to investigation or analysis. / Synonyms of inscrutable include mysterious, impenetrable, esoteric, arcane, and abstruse. Antonyms include comprehensible, lucid, and perspicuous. / Inscrutable combines the negative prefix in‑, which means not, with the Latin scrutari, to examine, inspect, search thoroughly. Scrutari is also the source of the English words scrutinize, to investigate, examine closely, and scrutiny, a close examination. By derivation inscrutable means incapable of being scrutinized, not able to be examined or investigated. / Anything that cannot be fathomed, that does not open itself readily to the understanding, may be called inscrutable. Many of the workings of nature are inscrutable, even to biologists. Human nature and the functions of the mind are still inscrutable to psychiatrists and neurologists. And even to philosophers and theologians the meaning of life is still—and probably always will be—inscrutable. / Now for some advice on usage: Chances are you've heard inscrutable used in the phrase "an inscrutable smile." That's a cliché, a hackneyed expression. Unless you're trying to be humorous, it's best to avoid it altogether. When you use inscrutable, strive for an original turn of phrase. / And one other word of caution: In the past, perhaps because of the popularity of the fictional characters Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan, the word inscrutable was often applied to Asians or to the Asian race. You should be aware that today this use is considered not only cliché but also derogatory and offensive. /

AUTONOMOUS

Independent, self‑governing, not under the control of something or someone else. / Autonomous comes from the Greek autos, self, and nomos, law, and means literally self‑ruling. From the Greek autos, self, comes the English combining form auto‑, which also means self. Auto‑ appears in many English words, including autobiography, a story of oneself, of one's own life; autograph, one's own signature; automobile, literally a self‑moving vehicle; automatic, literally self‑thinking, done without conscious thought; and autocracy, not self‑government but rule by one self or one person—hence, dictatorship, tyranny, despotism. / The corresponding noun autonomy means self‑government, independence. / The heart is an autonomous organ; it functions by itself. An autonomous company is independent, not a subsidiary of another corporation. When the United States won its independence from Great Britain, it became an autonomous nation. /

INEFFABLE

Inexpressible, unable to be expressed or described in words. / Synonyms of ineffable include unutterable, unspeakable, and indescribable. / Ineffable comes from the Latin ineffabilis, which means unutterable, not able to be spoken. Once upon a prudish time, when Thomas Bowdler was bowdlerizing Shakespeare and the Bible and Anthony Comstock was committing Comstockery on the U.S. Mail, the more refined members of polite society would call the legs of a piano "limbs" and refer to a man's trousers as "ineffables." My, how times change. Today women also wear trousers, and hardly anything is ineffable, especially on late‑night TV. / Dictionaries note that ineffable may mean too sacred to be spoken, as the ineffable name of a deity or an ineffable curse, but this sense is now infrequent, and in current usage ineffable almost always means inexpressible, unable to be expressed or described in words. / Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition, notes that ineffable usually applies to "good or pleasant things," as ineffable beauty or ineffable joy, but it may occasionally apply to something unpleasant that is inexpressible, as ineffable disgust. /

DISINGENUOUS

Insincere, crafty, sly, not straightforward or frank. / Synonyms of disingenuous include wily, subtle, slippery, deceptive, hypocritical, fraudulent, and mendacious. / The direct antonym is ingenuous, sincere, open, straightforward, without artifice or guile. Other antonyms include truthful, frank, candid, unselfconscious, unaffected, and guileless. / The corresponding noun is disingenuousness. / Disingenuous combines the prefix dis‑, meaning "not," with the Latin ingenuus, which means freeborn, of free birth; hence, noble, honorable, upright. From the Latin ingenuus, by way of French, English has also acquired the word ingénue, which the Century Dictionary defines as "a woman or girl who displays innocent candor or simplicity; specifically, such a character represented on the stage, or the actress who plays it." / An ingénue is an ingenuous woman. An ingenuous person is a woman, man, or child who is free from restraint or reserve, and therefore innocent, straightforward, and sincere. A disingenuous person is not sincere or straightforward. Disingenuous words are crafty, subtle, or deceptive. /

DIDACTIC

Instructive, designed or intended to teach. / Synonyms of didactic include edifying, preceptive, expository, hortatory, and pedagogic. Pedagogic is the adjective corresponding to the noun pedagogue. A pedagogue is a teacher, but today the word is sometimes used disparagingly to mean a teacher who is strict, narrow‑minded, or dogmatic. / The adjective didactic comes from the Greek didaktikos, skillful or adept at teaching. In modern usage didactic means designed or intended to teach. A didactic paradigm is a model or example that serves to instruct. A didactic treatise is an instructive treatise, one that teaches a lesson, principle, or rule of conduct. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that art should be didactic, for one of his famous precepts is that art should "instruct as well as delight." / Didactic often connotes morally instructive or edifying. A great work of fiction may be as didactic as it is entertaining. Sometimes didactic has the negative connotation of inclined to lecture others in a tedious or excessively moralistic way: "The members of the committee soon grew weary of Barney's didactic manner of telling everyone how the organization should be run." / The corresponding noun didactics means the art or science of teaching. / The word pedagogy may also refer to the art or science of teaching, but more often pedagogy means the teaching profession: / "Vince and Janet decided that after they were married they would both pursue careers in pedagogy." /

LISSOME

Limber, flexible, moving with ease and grace. / Synonyms of lissome include nimble, agile, supple, and lithe. / Lissome, lithe, and limber are close synonyms. Limber suggests moving or bending easily, as limber muscles, or a limber bough. Lithe and lissome suggest moving with nimbleness, agility, and grace; of the two words, lithe is more literal, lissome more poetic. We speak of a lithe runner; a lithe deer; a lissome dancer; a lissome tongue. /

ESOTERIC

Intended for or designed to be understood only by a select group, known only by a few people; hence, not public, secret, confidential. / Synonyms of esoteric include mysterious, impenetrable, inscrutable, cryptic, abstruse, arcane, and recondite. / Antonyms of esoteric include plain, apparent, accessible, manifest, discernible, lucid, and perspicuous. / Esoteric comes from a Greek word meaning "inner," and by derivation means intended for or known only by an inner circle. According to the 1914 edition of the great Century Dictionary, the word esoteric "originally applied to certain writings of Aristotle of a scientific, as opposed to a popular, character, and afterward to the secret...teachings of Pythagoras; hence, [esoteric has come to mean] secret; intended to be communicated only to the initiated." / Because esoteric refers to that which is secret or understood only by a few select people, in recent years the word has come to be used more generally to mean beyond most people's knowledge or understanding, highly complex and difficult to comprehend, as an esoteric theory or the esoteric language of computer programming. / Many educated people now use the word in this more general way, and there is nothing wrong with that—except that I suspect most people who use esoteric today are not aware of the word's original, more specific meaning. Thus, you will have a leg up on them if you keep in mind the precise meaning of esoteric: intended to be communicated only to the initiated. / An esoteric theory is complex and impenetrable because it is designed to be understood only by a select group. An esoteric purpose is secret and mysterious because it is known only by a few chosen people. / The antonym or opposite of esoteric is exoteric. / Exoteric begins with the prefix exo‑, which means "outer, outside." Exoteric means external, popular, of the outside world or open to public view. / Exoteric writing is intended for the world at large; it is communicated to or suitable for the general public. Esoteric writing is intended for an inner circle; it is understood only by a few people. /

INCHOATE

Just begun; in an early stage of development; partly in existence; not fully formed; undeveloped; imperfect; incomplete. / Synonyms of inchoate include elementary, preliminary, nascent, rudimentary, and incipient. / Inchoate comes from the Latin incohatus, just begun, not finished, incomplete; incohatus is the past participle of the verb incohare, to begin, take in hand, start work on. / Since the sixteenth century, when inchoate entered English, the word has been used of that which has just begun or is in an early stage of development, and which is therefore imperfect or incomplete. An inchoate state is an initial, undeveloped state; an inchoate idea is an idea not yet fully formed; an inchoate project is a project that is just getting off the ground. /

TRENCHANT

Keen, penetrating, vigorously effective, sharp and to the point. / Synonyms of trenchant include forceful, acute, and incisive. / Incisive applies to expression that gets right to the point or penetrates the heart of the matter. Cutting and biting imply harsh or sarcastic expression that hurts the feelings. Trenchant, which comes from a French verb meaning to cut, suggests both the forcefulness of incisive and the sharp, painful implication of cutting and biting. / A trenchant analysis is keen and vigorous; a trenchant style is sharp and clear; a trenchant remark displays penetrating insight and has the ability to wound. /

CLANDESTINE

Kept secret, done in secrecy, especially for an evil, immoral, or illegal purpose: a clandestine affair; a clandestine business deal; a clandestine intelligence operation. / Synonyms include private, concealed, covert, underhand, sly, stealthy, furtive, and surreptitious. / Clandestine is sometimes pronounced klan‑DES‑tyn, klan‑DES‑teen, KLAN‑des‑tyn, or KLAN‑des‑teen. You should avoid all these recent variants. The traditional and preferred pronunciation is klan‑DES‑tin. /

BENIGN

Kindly, good‑natured, gracious, mild, having or showing a gentle disposition, as a benign old man, a benign smile, a benign intention, a benign government. / That is the first meaning of benign listed in dictionaries, and probably the most common. The word is also used in several other ways. It may mean favorable, positive, propitious: a benign omen; a benign view. It may be used of the weather or climate to mean healthful, wholesome, salubrious. / And in medicine benign means mild, not deadly or severe, as a benign tumor or disease. /

LETHARGY

Lack of energy, sluggishness, dullness, apathy, stupor; an abnormally dull, drowsy, inactive condition or state of mind. / The corresponding adjective is lethargic, which means sluggish, drowsy, dull, apathetic: "Dan always felt lethargic after a big business lunch"; "Whenever we visit the zoo, the bears and the lions seem lethargic"; "Weeks after getting over the flu, Emily still felt lethargic." / According to the third edition of The American Heritage Dictionary, lethargy "may be caused by factors such as illness, fatigue, or overwork, but it manifests itself in drowsy dullness or apathy." / Apathy and lethargy are close in meaning. Apathy suggests an indifferent state of mind, a thorough lack of emotion or concern: "Analysts predict that voter apathy will result in a low turnout for the election." Lethargy is a prolonged state of dullness, inactivity, or lack of energy, a sluggish condition either of body or of mind: "The Renaissance roused Europe from the intellectual lethargy of the Middle Ages"; "As every college professor knows, nothing can penetrate or cure the lethargy of the college student who has partied too hard the night before." / More difficult synonyms of lethargy include torpor, somnolence, lassitude, languor, and stupefaction. /

MONOTONOUS

Lacking variety, tediously uniform, unvarying and dull. / Monotonous means literally having one continuous sound or tone. It combines the word tone with the prefix mono‑, one, single. The prefix mono‑appears in many English words, including monogamy, marriage to one person; monocle, a single eyeglass; and monogram, two or more letters woven into one. / That which is monotonous is boring because it lacks variety. A monotonous speaker says the same thing again and again in the same tone of voice. Monotonous music is dull and repetitive. A monotonous job is one where the routine never changes. The corresponding noun is monotony, a tedious lack of variety. /

FAINEANT

Lazy, idle, sluggish, good‑for‑nothing: "When her thirty‑year‑old son refused to get a job and demanded more money as an allowance, Mrs. / Jones decided that enough was enough and it was time to kick her faineant offspring out of the house." / Common synonyms of faineant include do‑nothing, shiftless, slothful, and lackadaisical, which is often mispronounced LAKS‑adaisical. There is no lax in lackadaisical. / More challenging synonyms of faineant include lethargic, indolent, somnolent, torpid, otiose, and also hebetudinous, the adjective corresponding to the noun hebetude, word 20 of this level. / Faineant comes from a French phrase meaning "to do nothing." Faineant may be used as an adjective to mean lazy, good‑for‑nothing, or as a noun to mean a lazy person, an idler, sluggard. The corresponding noun is faineance. Faineance means idleness, inactivity, indolence, or the lazy, do‑nothing attitude of a faineant person. / If you look up faineant in a current dictionary, you may find it spelled with an accent, fainéant, and find the French pronunciation, fay‑nay‑AH, listed first or even listed alone. Frankly, I find that perplexing, because two of the twentieth‑century's most respected arbiters on pronunciation, the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary, published in 1934, and Kenyon and Knott's Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, published in 1949, both prefer the pronunciation FAY‑nee‑int. / Faineant entered English in the early 1600s. After nearly four hundred years, it's expected and sensible to anglicize a word, make it conform to English custom. And when an anglicized pronunciation has existed in educated speech for a half‑century or more, it doesn't make sense to retain or revive the foreign pronunciation. It's one thing to use a twenty‑dollar word in conversation; it's quite another thing to use it with a pretentious pronunciation. Faineant and faineance have earned their place in the language and they cry out for full anglicization. It's high time we spelled them without an accent and pronounced them as assimilated English words. /

ERUDITE

Learned, scholarly, possessing extensive knowledge acquired chiefly from books. / Erudite comes from the Latin erudire, to instruct, educate, polish, free from roughness or rudeness. The corresponding noun is erudition, extensive knowledge acquired from reading books: "He displayed his erudition with wit and grace." / People and things can both be erudite. For example, erudite professors often write erudite studies of obscure subjects. Reading Verbal Advantage will help you build an erudite vocabulary, which in turn will help you become a more erudite person, someone who possesses a wide store of knowledge. / I should point out that my pronunciation of erudite and erudition is slightly different from most educated speakers. Today most people pronounce these words with a long u: AIR‑yoo‑DYT and AIR‑yoo‑DISH ‑un. The interesting thing is that the speakers who prefer these long‑u pronunciations rarely take pains to preserve the traditional long‑u sound in duty, assume, student, opportunity, or prelude. Yet they have trained themselves to say AIR ‑yoo‑DYT and AIR‑yoo‑DISH‑un presumably because the cultivated sound of the long u complements the meaning of these words. / The long‑u pronunciations of erudite and erudition are not incorrect. In fact, they have been acceptable for several decades and all current dictionaries list them. However, to my hypercritical ear they smack of pseudosophistication, or sham erudition, because they ignore the etymologically significant rude dwelling within these words and illogically transform a short Latin u into a long English u. And so I remain faithful to the older, though now less popular, pronunciations ER‑uh‑DYT and ER‑uh‑ DISH‑un. /

VAPID

Lifeless, dull, boring, flat, stale; lacking spirit, interest, or flavor. / Synonyms of vapid include unsavory, insipid, unpalatable, trite, prosaic, pedestrian, and jejune. / Antonyms include lively, vigorous, vivid, animated, robust, vivacious, and emphatic. / Vapid comes from the Latin vapidus, which means spiritless, spoiled, flat. The word has remained true to its Latin root, and in modern usage vapid still applies to that which is lifeless, boring, or stale. Today we speak of vapid conversation, vapid beer, a vapid remark, or a vapid look in a person's eyes. /

LEVITY

Lightness or gaiety of manner or expression; specifically, a lightness or lack of seriousness that is inappropriate or unbecoming. / Levity comes from the Latin levitas, lightness, which in turn comes from levis, light, the source also of the familiar words levitate and levitation. / Levity occasionally is used literally to mean buoyancy, the state or quality of having little weight, and it is also sometimes used to mean inconstancy, fickleness, or flightiness. In current usage, however, levity most often denotes a figurative lack of gravity, a lightness or lack of seriousness unsuitable to the occasion. / Synonyms of levity in this most common sense include silliness, foolishness, frivolity, flippancy, tomfoolery, triviality, and jocularity. Antonyms include seriousness, earnestness, sobriety, solemnity, and gravity. / When you are trying to fix a word in your mind and make it a permanent part of your vocabulary, it helps if you can associate it with a vivid image or experience. The experience I associate with the word levity occurred way back in high school, which in my case was a small coeducational boarding school in western Massachussetts. / One night in the dormitory some friends and I were up late, several hours after "bedcheck," our prepschool term for "lights‑out time." We were shooting the breeze, laughing and joking, being loud and boisterous, and generally behaving in a puerile manner, when suddenly the door flew open and one of the English teachers stepped into the room. / Instantly, we all shut up. In the long moment of silence that followed, the teacher looked at each of us like Clint Eastwood trying to decide whether some deadbeat has enough brains to pack his lunch. Finally he spoke. / "This is no time for levity," he growled. "Go to your rooms and go to bed." / To this day, when I think of the word levity I think of what that teacher said, and with a chuckle I remember that levity means foolishness, frivolity, a lightness or lack of seriousness that is inappropriate or unbecoming. /

AVUNCULAR

Like an uncle, pertaining to an uncle, or exhibiting some characteristic considered typical of an uncle. / The noun uncle and the adjective avuncular both come from the Latin avunculus, a mother's brother. You may use avuncular to describe some characteristic of your own or someone else's uncle, but the word most often applies to anything suggestive or typical of an uncle. We speak of an avuncular smile, an avuncular slap on the back, avuncular concern, avuncular generosity, and avuncular advice. "I want you for the U.S. Army" is the finger‑pointing, avuncular injunction of Uncle Sam. /

EBULLIENCE

Lively enthusiasm, high spirits, bubbly excitement. Synonyms include exuberance, exhilaration, and effervescence. / The words ebullition, ebullient, and ebullience all come from the Latin verb ebullire, to boil, bubble. / The noun ebullition literally means a boiling or bubbling up. It may be used figuratively of an emotional outburst, as "Lisa was delighted with her husband's amorous ebullition on their anniversary." / The adjective ebullient means bubbling with enthusiasm, overflowing with high spirits: "The stadium was packed with thousands of ebullient fans." / The noun ebullience means bubbly enthusiasm, seething excitement, irrepressible exuberance: "When Jack won the lottery, he could not contain his ebullience." / Ebullience and ebullient are often mispronounced. Don't say i‑BOOL‑yints and i‑BOOL‑yint, or i‑BYOO‑lee‑ints and i‑BYOO‑lee‑int. The BOOL and BYOOL sounds are wrong. Also, take care to eschew the sloppy mispronunciations EB‑yuh‑lints and EB‑yuh‑lint, which move the stress to the first syllable. / In ebullience and ebullient, the stress should fall on the second syllable, ‑bul‑, in which the u may have the sound of the u in bulk or bull. /

LONGANIMITY

Long‑suffering patience; the ability to calmly endure hardship or suffering. / Longanimity and forbearance are synonyms. / Longanimity comes ultimately from the Latin longus, meaning "long," and animus, spirit, mind. By derivation, a person who displays longanimity has the strength of spirit and mind to endure hardship or suffering for a long, long time. /

STRIDENT

Loud and harsh‑sounding, grating, shrill. / Synonyms of strident include earsplitting, screeching, discordant, clamorous, cacophonous, vociferous, and stentorian. / Antonyms include faint, subdued, melodious, dulcet, and euphonious. / Strident comes from the present participle of the Latin verb stridere, to make a harsh noise. Apparently, stridere was a versatile word in Latin, for ancient Roman poets and writers such as Vergil, Lucretius, and Ovid used it to describe many sounds, not all of them harsh: the grating of metal on metal; the whistling of the wind; the scraping or whining of a saw; the creaking of a wagon, a rope, or a hinge on a door; the whirring of a rock or an arrow propelled through the air; the braying of an ass; the trumpeting of elephants; the grunting of a pig; the hiss of a snake; and even the humming of bees. / The words that English has inherited from the Latin stridere are not so versatile, and stick more closely to the core meaning of this ancient verb: to make a harsh noise. For instance, the noun stridor may mean a harsh grating or creaking sound or, in medicine, a harsh sound made when breathing in or out that indicates obstruction of the respiratory tract. The adjective stridulous means making a harsh or shrill noise. / And the verb to stridulate means to make a shrill, high‑pitched grating or chirping sound. Crickets and various other insects stridulate by rubbing certain body parts together. / Our keyword, strident, applies to any sound or noise that is disagreeably loud, harsh, and shrill: a piercing scream, the screeching of brakes, the grinding of gears, the whining of a power tool, the wailing of a baby, or any loud, gruff voice that grates on your ears can be described as strident. /

SUPINE

Lying down on the back, with the face turned upward: "He preferred to sleep in a supine position." / Supine, prone, prostrate, and recumbent all mean lying down in various ways. / Supine takes its meaning directly from the Latin supinus, lying on the back with the face up. / From the Latin pronus, leaning forward, we inherit the word prone, which may mean inclined or tending toward something, as in the phrase "prone to error," or it may mean lying on the belly, stretched out face downward: "The dog lay prone on the rug, its chin resting on its paws." / Prostrate means lying flat, stretched out, either prone or supine. Because the word comes from the Latin prosternere, to throw down in front, cast down, in modern usage prostrate denotes lying down flat either as the result of physical or emotional exhaustion, or as an expression of submission, humble adoration, humiliation, or helplessness. / Be careful not to confuse prostrate with prostate, the gland in men that contributes to the production of semen and helps control urination. After age forty, men should have regular checkups for prostate cancer, not prostrate cancer. / Recumbent comes from the Latin recumbere, to lie back, recline. When you are recumbent you are lying down in a comfortable position, usually supine or on your side: The ancient Greeks and Romans assumed a recumbent posture when taking their meals. Visit any art museum and you are likely to see a portrait of a recumbent nude. /

IMPROMPTU

Made up or done on the spur of the moment, uttered or performed without preparation, improvised for the occasion. / Synonyms of impromptu include offhand, spontaneous, and extemporaneous. / Impromptu comes from a Latin phrase meaning in readiness, at hand. By derivation, something impromptu lies close at hand, ready to use when the occasion arises. In modern usage impromptu may apply to either spontaneous expression or activity: an impromptu response is an offhand or off‑the‑cuff response; an impromptu performance is improvised for the occasion; an impromptu party is thrown on the spur of the moment. / Here's an image you can associate with the word impromptu that may help you remember what it means: Imagine yourself at a dinner party or wedding reception, chatting amiably with the people around you, when suddenly everyone in the room turns toward you and starts chanting "Speech, speech!" Although you are unprepared, you rise to the occasion and deliver a few urbane remarks. When your audience laughs at the right moment and applauds at the end, you are delighted. Your speech not only was impromptu, it was a triumph. /

PERFUNCTORY

Mechanical, routine, listless, done merely as a duty, performed in an indifferent, halfhearted, superficial, and often careless way, without interest or enthusiasm. / Perfunctory comes from a Latin verb meaning to get through, be done with. The perfunctory worker is just trying to get through doing the job; the perfunctory teacher just wants to be done with the lesson; a perfunctory speech is mechanical, routine, delivered in a halfhearted, listless manner. /

JOVIAL

Merry, full of good humor, hearty and fun‑loving, jolly, convivial. / The exclamation "by Jove!" means literally "by Jupiter," the name of the chief deity in Roman mythology, called Zeus by the ancient Greeks. From Jove, who was renowned for his love of feasting and merriment, we inherit the word jovial, literally like Jove, merry, good‑humored, convivial. /

CLEMENT

Mild, calm, tranquil, moderate, temperate, not severe or extreme; also, merciful, lenient, inclined to pardon or forgive. / Clement comes from the Latin clemens, mild, and may be used to mean mild in two ways. You may say the weather is clement when it's mild or temperate; when it's rough or stormy it's inclement, not clement, not mild and calm. Clement's second sense applies to a mild state of mind, one in which the person is inclined to be lenient or forgiving. / A convicted criminal can only hope for a clement judge. If you screw up at work, you hope your boss will be clement, lenient, merciful. / The corresponding noun is clemency, mildness, leniency, compassion: / "The lawyers asked the governor to show clemency and stay the execution." /

LUGUBRIOUS

Mournful and gloomy; expressing sadness or sorrow, often in an exaggerated, affected, or ridiculous way. / Synonyms of lugubrious include dismal, melancholy, dreary, funereal, doleful, dolorous, disconsolate, plaintive, woeful, lachrymose, and saturnine. / Antonyms of lugubrious include cheerful, jubilant, joyous, gleeful, mirthful, jovial, and sanguine. / Lugubrious comes ultimately from the Latin lugere, to mourn or lament. / The word was coined about 1600 and was at first merely a grandiloquent synonym for mournful and sorrowful. By the 1800s, however, it had come to suggest mournful, dismal, or gloomy in an exaggerated, affected, or ridiculous way. / According to the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary, the words lugubrious and doleful "have weakened from their original meaning, and are often used with a half‑humorous connotation." For example, lugubrious music is mournful or gloomy to an extreme; the expression "Woe is me" is now a lugubrious cliché; the mournful howling of a dog may be lugubrious; and if the expression on a person's face is lugubrious, it is sad or sorrowful in an affected, almost ludicrous way. The corresponding noun is lugubriousness; the adverb is lugubriously, as "He spoke lugubriously about the company's financial condition." /

PROXIMITY

Nearness, closeness, the state of being in the vicinity of something. / Proximity may be used either of persons or things to mean nearness in place, time, or relation: the proximity of their houses; the proximity of historic events; the proximity of two ideas. In modern society, marriage between first cousins is forbidden because of their proximity of blood relation. However, if you marry the girl or boy next door, it might be said that proximity was the deciding factor. / You will often hear proximity used in the phrase "close proximity." That is a redundancy. Proximity means closeness, nearness; therefore "close proximity" means "close closeness" or "near nearness." According to the second college edition of The American Heritage Dictionary, "the expression close proximity says nothing that is not said by proximity itself." / Usage tip: Drop close and let proximity do its work alone. /

MAGNANIMOUS

Noble, honorable, generous in overlooking injury or insult, high‑minded, unselfish. / People with an abiding faith in the goodness of human nature believe that we are noble, unselfish, and generous more often than we are ignoble, selfish, and grasping. The English vocabulary, however, suggests otherwise. In a language comprising well over a million words, there is a dearth of synonyms for magnanimous. Chalk up the words noble, honorable, generous, unselfish, and high‑minded, and the list is almost exhausted; if you stretch things a bit you can add courageous, exalted, and lofty for the noble, high‑minded connotation of magnanimous, and charitable, altruistic, and beneficent for the generous, unselfish connotation. / On the other hand, the language abounds with antonyms for magnanimous. Browse through any thesaurus and you will find a cornucopia of these ignoble, selfish words. / Here is a selection of my favorites: vile, contemptible, malicious, despicable, ignominious, covetous, avaricious, mercenary, venal, vindictive, churlish, sordid, abject, servile, sycophantic, and finally, because we can't go on with this forever, we have the utterly ignoble word pusillanimous, which means cowardly, weak, and mean‑spirited. We will discuss pusillanimous further in Level 9. / The noble word magnanimous comes from the Latin magnus, great, and animus, spirit, and means literally great‑spirited. In modern usage magnanimous means having or displaying a noble and generous soul; specifically, showing noble generosity in overlooking injury or insult. It applies either to persons who possess a generous, lofty, and courageous spirit, or to persons or actions that are unselfish, high‑minded, and free from pettiness or vindictiveness. / Noble and magnanimous are close in meaning. According to the Century Dictionary, noble expresses that which "in character and conduct...is appropriate to exalted place," and "admits no degree of the petty, mean, base, or dishonorable." Magnanimous "describes that largeness of mind that has breadth enough and height enough to take in large views, broad sympathies, [and] exalted standards. It generally implies superiority of position: as, a nation so great as the United States...can afford to be magnanimous in its treatment of injuries or affronts from nations comparatively weak." / The corresponding noun is magnanimity, noble generosity, greatness or dignity of mind or heart: "He is a man of such magnanimity that he will do everything in his power to aid a worthy cause, no matter how unpopular it may be." /

FACTITIOUS

Not natural or genuine, produced artificially. / Synonyms of factitious include sham, contrived, bogus, fraudulent, and spurious. / Factitious comes through the Latin facticius, made by art, artificial, from the verb facere, to make. A factitious word is not genuine; it has been made up. A factitious need is artificially produced. A factitious smile is unnatural and manufactured for the occasion. And when something has factitious value, its value is not genuine or intrinsic but has been artificially created or imposed. / According to the Century Dictionary, "an artificial or factitious demand in the market is one that is manufactured, the [factitious demand] being the more laboriously worked up; a factitious demand exists only in the invention of one and the imagination of another." /

LUCUBRATION

Nocturnal labor; study, writing, or work done late at night. / Lucubration comes from the Latin lucubrare, to work by candlelight. The corresponding adjective, lucubratory means literally done by candlelight; hence, pertaining to nocturnal study or labor. / The corresponding verb to lucubrate means to work, study, or write into the wee hours. / To use a vernacular expression, lucubration means burning the midnight oil. College students often engage in lucubration, and meeting a deadline for an important project may require an eleventh‑hour bout of diligent lucubration. / In current usage, the verb to lucubrate may also be used to mean to compose with laborious effort, and especially to write in a scholarly or pedantic fashion, as a professor of political science who lucubrates abstrusely from her ivory tower. The noun lucubration has also come to be used of anything produced by laborious study or effort, especially an elaborate, pedantic, or pretentious piece of writing. /

BLATANT

Noisy, disagreeably or offensively loud, boisterous, clamorous: "the blatant sound of horns honking in heavy traffic." / Blatant is also used to mean sticking out in a glaring way, obtrusive, flagrant, as in "a blatant lie," "a blatant error," "a blatant attempt to impress the boss." / In either sense, blatant suggests something conspicuous and disagreeable. /

LAITY

Nonprofessionals, laypeople collectively, all the people outside of a given profession or specialized field. / The adjective lay means nonprofessional, not belonging to a particular profession. A lay opinion of a legal case is an opinion from someone who is not a lawyer or a judge. A lay diagnosis of a disease is a diagnosis proffered by someone who is not a medical professional. / In its original and most precise sense, laity refers to all who do not belong to the clergy, to religious worshipers in general. Today laity may be used either in this way or to mean those who do not belong to a given profession. /

INDEFEASIBLE

Not capable of being undone, taken away, annulled, or rendered void. / The words defeasance, defeasible, and indefeasible come down to us through Anglo‑French and Middle English. They were used in Old English law and are chiefly legal terms today. Defeasance is the oldest of the three; it means either the annulment or voiding of a deed or contract, or a clause within a deed or contract that provides a means for annulling it or rendering it void. Defeasible means capable of being invalidated, undone, or rendered void. Our keyword, indefeasible, which employs the privative prefix in‑, meaning "not," means not defeasible, not capable of being undone, annulled, or rendered void. / Inalienable and indefeasible are close in meaning and are often used interchangeably. According to the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary, "that is indefeasible which one cannot be deprived of without one's consent; that is inalienable which one cannot give away or dispose of even if one wishes." / For example, the U.S. Constitution guarantees all citizens certain inalienable rights, such as personal liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and so on. When you pay off a mortgage on a house and own it outright, you have an indefeasible title to the house, although you may give up or transfer that title by selling your home or putting the deed in someone else's name. / Inalienable means not able to be given away or transferred. Indefeasible means not able to be taken away, undone, or made void. /

TANGENTIAL

Not closely related, only slightly connected, digressive, divergent. / In geometry, the word tangent refers to a line that touches a curve but does not intersect it. When you "go off on a tangent" you make an abrupt change of course in what you are saying; you diverge, digress. Tangential may mean going off on a subject that is only slightly connected to the one under consideration, or it may mean slightly connected to or touching lightly on a subject. Tangential remarks diverge from the subject in question; they are only slightly connected to it. Tangential information touches lightly on the subject but is not closely related or essential to it. /

MENDACIOUS

Not truthful, lying, false, dishonest, deceitful. / Mendacious comes through the Latin mendacium, a lie, from the adjective mendax, which means lying, deceitful. By derivation mendacious means given to lying, disposed to falsehood or deceit. A mendacious person is a dishonest person, one who is prone to lie or deceive; a mendacious statement is an untruthful statement, a deliberate falsehood or a lie. / Synonyms of mendacious include fraudulent, hypocritical, disingenuous, evasive, equivocal, duplicitous, and prevaricating. / Antonyms include truthful, honorable, upright, ethical, virtuous, scrupulous, and veracious. The corresponding noun is mendacity, untruthfulness, lying, deceit. /

MANIFOLD

Numerous and varied, consisting of many kinds, containing many elements, features, or characteristics: a large company with manifold operations and divisions; a challenging executive position with manifold responsibilities. / Manifold may sound like a fancy substitute for many, but it's not. While many simply means much, a lot, manifold emphasizes variety, diversity. If your job has manifold duties then the things you do are both numerous and varied. / Equally difficult synonyms of manifold are multifarious and multitudinous. Both manifold and multifarious mean having great variety or diversity: The human race is multifarious, and human nature is even more complex and manifold. / Multitudinous means containing a multitude, consisting of a great number of persons or things: "After his promotion to management, Bob was sometimes overwhelmed by mountains of paperwork and multitudinous administrative chores." /

SPORADIC

Occasional, infrequent, irregular, not constant, happening from time to time, occurring in a scattered or random way. / A business venture may have sporadic success. A gambler's luck may be sporadic. Sporadic crimes are crimes scattered throughout a city or neighborhood. Sporadic outbreaks of a disease in the population are occasional, isolated outbreaks. / Antonyms of sporadic include constant, incessant, and unremitting. /

UMBRAGE

Offense, resentment. / Synonyms of umbrage include displeasure, irritation, indignation, and pique. / Umbrage is most commonly used today in the phrase "to take umbrage," meaning to take offense. One takes umbrage at being slighted, either by a real or an imagined insult to one's dignity or pride: "He took umbrage at the criticisms leveled against him in the meeting"; "She took umbrage at his rude manner." You may also feel umbrage, resentment, at something, or give umbrage, offense, to someone else, but these constructions are less common. /

INCONGRUOUS

Out of place, inappropriate, inconsistent, unsuitable, lacking harmony of parts or agreement in character. / Incongruous comes from a Latin verb meaning to come together, fit in. / From the same source come the adjectives congruous and congruent, which mean coming together harmoniously, fitting in consistently. The in‑at the beginning of incongruous is called a privative prefix, which means it deprives or takes away the meaning of what follows. Thus, incongruous means not congruous, not appropriate, not consistent, out of place. / An incongruous remark is one that is inappropriate or not in keeping with the conversation. An incongruous element is out of place, not consistent with the elements around it. An incongruous action is unsuitable to the occasion or situation. An incongruous mixture lacks harmony or agreement. /

FERVENT

Passionate, having or showing great warmth or intensity of feeling, fiery, earnest, impassioned. / Synonyms of fervent include vehement, ardent, fervid, and zealous. / Antonyms of fervent include lukewarm, listless, apathetic, indifferent, impassive, and phlegmatic. / Fervent and fervid both come from the Latin fervere, to boil, glow, and both are still used to mean very hot, boiling, glowing, burning. When used of feelings, fervent suggests great warmth and earnestness. Fervid is stronger and suggests intense, even violent emotion. A fervent speech or a fervent belief is fiery and passionate, but a fervid debate or a fervid protest is vehement, overheated, boiling over with passionate intensity. /

REMUNERATION

Payment, compensation, or reward. / Remuneration is a suitable payment or reward for a service or something one has provided: "It is rare that the effort a writer expends in writing a book is commensurate with the remuneration received for writing it"; "When people volunteer their services for a cause, the satisfaction they get from doing something they believe in is more than enough remuneration"; "Mark took the job even though he knew the salary was not sufficient remuneration for the work he would have to do." / Synonyms of remuneration include reimbursement, recompense, consideration, indemnification, and emolument. / The corresponding verb is remunerate, to pay or compensate for services rendered, trouble taken, or goods provided. /

VERNAL

Pertaining to spring, occurring in the spring; also, having the qualities of spring: fresh, warm, and mild. / Vernal has two challenging antonyms: hibernal and hiemal. Hibernal and hiemal both mean pertaining to winter, wintry. / The ancient Romans gave Ireland the name Hibernia because the Emerald Isle seemed so cold and wintry to them. The familiar verb to hibernate means to spend the winter either in a dormant state, after the manner of bears, or in a place with a milder climate. / Would you like some words for your next summer vacation? Estival means pertaining to summer, like summer, or belonging to summer, as estival flowers or an estival holiday. The verb to estivate, which means to pass the summer, is the opposite of hibernate, to pass the winter. And moving right along through the year, we have autumnal, which means pertaining to autumn, to the fall. / Our keyword, vernal, means pertaining to spring. The vernal equinox, which occurs in March and marks the beginning of spring, and the autumnal equinox, which occurs in September and marks the beginning of fall, are the times during the year when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are approximately the same length. /

POIGNANT

Piercing, sharp, biting, penetrating, keen. / Poignant is used to mean piercing, sharp, or penetrating in three ways. / First, it may mean keenly affecting the senses: a poignant odor, poignant beauty, a poignant look. Second, it may mean piercing or penetrating to the feelings, emotionally touching, painfully moving: a poignant drama, a poignant family reunion. Third, it may mean biting, cutting, acute, piercingly effective: poignant wit, poignant delight, a poignant critique. / The odd spelling of poignant, with its silent g, comes from French; the word ultimately comes from the Latin pungere, to pierce or prick. Pungere is also the source of puncture, to pierce; pungent, piercing to the smell or taste; and expunge, to punch out, erase, delete: / "The editor expunged all potentially offensive and derogatory material from the book." / Poignant means piercing or penetrating to the senses, to the emotions, or to the intellect. /

PUISSANT

Powerful, mighty, strong, forceful. / Synonyms of puissant include vigorous, potent, dynamic, and stalwart. Antonyms include weak, feeble, infirm, debilitated, enervated, flaccid, and valetudinarian. / In the seventeenth‑century play The Alchemist, Ben Jonson writes: "I will be puissant, and mighty in my talk to her." / Puissant comes through Middle English from an Old French word meaning powerful. Because it is used chiefly in old poetry and scholarly disquisitions, current dictionaries sometimes label puissant poetic, literary, or archaic. That doesn't necessarily mean you should avoid using it. / Puissant is a lovely word that if used in the right place at the right time can add flair and a dash of style to your expression. The corresponding noun is puissance, power, strength, might. / There is also authority for the pronunciation PWIS‑int for puissant and PWIS‑ints for puissance. But to my ear, these two‑syllable variants sound pwissy and are best avoided. You are better off with one of the three‑syllable pronunciations sanctioned above, which most modern authorities favor. /

PRAGMATIC

Practical, having to do with actual practice, concerned with everyday affairs as opposed to theory or speculation. / Pragmatic comes from the Latin pragmaticus, which means skilled in business or law. The lawyer is concerned with evidence and proof; the businessperson is concerned with facts and figures. Both have little time for idle speculation or harebrained schemes. Both must be pragmatic, concerned with practical, everyday affairs. /

LAUDABLE

Praiseworthy, commendable, worthy of approval or admiration. / Synonyms of laudable include meritorious, exemplary, and estimable. Antonyms of laudable include contemptible, deplorable, and ignominious. / The verb to laud means to praise, commend, extol. The adjective laudable means commendable, worthy of praise. Laudable actions, laudable motives, and laudable goals all are praiseworthy, commendable, deserving of approval or admiration. / In Macbeth, Shakespeare writes, "I am in this earthly world, where to do harm/Is often laudable, to do good sometime/Accounted dangerous folly." /

OFFICIOUS

Pronounce the initial o of officious like the a in ago. / Meddlesome, nosy, intrusive, interfering, prying; specifically, offering unwanted advice or unnecessary services, especially in a high‑handed, overbearing way. / The officious person butts in and tries to tell others what to do, or offers help that others do not need. The officious person is a meddler, a busybody: "Lucy was sick and tired of her officious supervisor, who would constantly peer over her shoulder and in a single breath tell her what to do, offer to help her do it, and then upbraid her for not doing it right away." / A more difficult and unusual word for this type of unpleasant person is quidnunc. Quidnunc comes directly from Latin and means literally "What now?" The quidnunc always wants to know what's going on, the busybody is always sticking his or her nose into your business, and the officious person is always trying to manage your affairs. /

COMMENSURATE

Proportionate, corresponding in amount, measure, or degree; also, equal, of the same size or extent: "She wants to find a job commensurate with her abilities and experience"; "His paycheck was not commensurate with the number of hours he had worked." / By derivation commensurate means "measured together," and therefore corresponding or proportionate. /

MERCURIAL

Quick to change moods or change one's mind, having an unpredictable temperament. / Synonyms of mercurial include flighty, impulsive, fickle, capricious, volatile, erratic, and protean. / Antonyms include stable, fixed, steadfast, invariable, and immutable. / Does anything about the word mercurial sound familiar? Can you guess its derivation? If you're thinking that mercurial is related to the word mercury, then you are a sagacious person, both in the current sense of wise, shrewd, perceptive, and in the obsolete sense of quick in picking up a scent—in this case, an etymological scent. / The ancient Roman god Mercury, known to the Greeks as Hermes, was the messenger or courier of the gods, but he had many other responsibilities as well. He was the deity who conducted the souls of the dead to the underworld, and also the god of commerce, travel, eloquence, and thievery. / Mercury is usually depicted wearing a winged helmet and winged sandals to show his fleet‑footedness, and as Hermes he also carried a winged staff with two serpents coiled around it. That staff, which now serves as the symbol of the medical profession, is called a caduceus. / I'm sure that doctors today view the caduceus as a symbol of their devotion to providing swift, efficient health care, but I must confess I find it nothing short of hilarious that the medical profession has chosen a symbol from an ancient god who governed commerce, travel, eloquence, and thievery, and who escorted the dead to their final resting place. / Because of the various hats worn by the god Mercury, the adjective mercurial has been used to mean everything from swift, quick‑witted, and eloquent to shrewd, clever, and thieving. Dictionaries still list these words under the definition "having the characteristics attributed to the god Mercury," but in current usage the word most often is used to mean like the element mercury, which is also called quicksilver. As you know, mercury is used in thermometers, and it is highly reponsive to changes in temperature. / Like the mercury in a thermometer, that which is mercurial is changeable, fickle, or capricious. The mercurial person has an unpredictable temperament and is quick to change moods. /

CURSORY

Quick, hasty, not methodical, done rapidly with little attention to detail, passing quickly over or through something that deserves closer examination. / Synonyms of cursory include hurried, haphazard, slapdash, and superficial. Antonyms include thorough, careful, exhaustive, prolonged, and protracted. / Don't be fooled by the sound of the word cursory; it has nothing to do with curses or cursing. Cursory comes through the Latin cursorius, running, from the Latin currere, to run. This Latin currere, to run, is also the root of the words course, a path on which one moves or runs; curriculum, a course of study; and courier, a messenger who runs here and there delivering important documents or urgent news. / By derivation, cursory means "running about, not standing still," and the word was once used in this sense. Today, however, cursory is used to mean done rapidly with little attention to detail, passing quickly over or through something that deserves closer examination. / A cursory glance is a quick, passing glance. A cursory reading is a hasty, superficial reading. A cursory explanation is a hurried explanation, one that covers the subject in a haphazard way. A cursory investigation is not methodical; it is done rapidly with little attention to detail. /

DISCURSIVE

Rambling, roving, covering a wide range of topics, wandering from one subject to another. / Don't be confused by the presence of the word cursive in discursive. / Discursive has nothing to do either with cursing or with cursive script, in which the letters are joined or flow together. Discursive comes from the Latin discursus, running about, the past participle of the verb discurrere, to run to and fro or in different directions. In modern usage, discursive applies to speech or writing that runs to and fro or in many different directions. / Discursive, desultory, and digressive are close in meaning. / Digressive means straying from the point, wandering away from the topic under consideration. Digressive remarks about what you discussed in your last therapy session don't go over well in a job interview. / Desultory means passing or leaping from one topic to another in an aimless, disconnected way. Conversation at a lively party is often desultory, and many of our dreams have a desultory quality. / Discursive means rambling or roving over a wide range of topics without developing a unified theme or making a central point: "After dinner and a few drinks, Ben's father was prone to indulge in long, discursive monologues that always began with complaints about business and politics, then moved on to observations about sports, and eventually concluded— after several more drinks—with a detailed assessment of the physical attributes of various female celebrities." /

DISCERNIBLE

Recognizable, detectible, perceptible, capable of being recognized by the senses or by the mind. / Synonyms of discernible include apparent, evident, distinguishable, and manifest. Antonyms of discernible include obscure, invisible, indistinct, and imperceptible. / Discernible and the related words discern, discernment, and discerning come from a Latin word meaning to sift, separate, distinguish between, and all of these words pertain to sifting or separating things in order to distinguish them. / The verb to discern means to recognize with the senses or the mind, especially to perceive something hidden or obscure: the philosopher's goal is to discern the truth; the doctor's job is to discern the cause of a disease; the numismatist—noo‑MIZ‑muh‑tist, an expert on coins—can discern the genuine from the counterfeit. / The noun discernment denotes the ability to make accurate distinctions or discriminate keenly and wisely. Discernment is what enables a good manager to hire the most capable, loyal employees. The psychologist and the detective both must show discernment in reading people's character and assessing their motives. Challenging synonyms of discernment include astuteness, acumen, and perspicacity. / The adjective discerning means having or showing discernment, revealing knowledge or insight: a wine taster must have a discerning palate; the person with a discerning eye has an exceptional ability to make subtle judgments or distinctions. / The adjective discernible, our keyword, means distinguishable, perceptible, capable of being discerned: "The faint light of dawn was barely discernible on the horizon"; "Industry analysts concluded that there was no discernible difference between the company's performance before and after the merger." /

RAPPROCHEMENT

Reconciliation, a reestablishing of friendly relations: "She helped bring about a rapprochement between the hostile parties"; "In 1993, there was a historic rapprochement between Israel and the PLO, and in 1994, an equally significant rapprochement between Israel and Jordan." / Rapprochement comes from a French verb meaning to bring together, and means literally to approach again. The word has been used in English since the early nineteenth century, but it still retains its French flavor in pronunciation: ra‑ as in rap;‑proche‑ with an sh sound as in potion; and ment like maw with ‑aw stopped in the nose: RA‑prohsh‑MAW. /

GENTEEL

Refined, polite, well‑bred, sophisticated, elegantly stylish or fashionable, pertaining or belonging to high society. / Genteel came into English in the early seventeenth century from the French gentil, which at the time meant noble, polite, graceful. Originally genteel meant possessing the qualities of those of high birth and good breeding. That definition is still listed in current dictionaries, but today genteel usually suggests an excessive or affected refinement, and the word is often applied to someone or something that is trying to appear socially or intellectually superior. /

INEXORABLE

Relentless, unyielding, merciless; not able to be stopped, changed, or moved by entreaty or persuasion. / Synonyms of inexorable include unrelenting, unswerving, inflexible, immovable, uncompromising, intransigent, obdurate, and implacable. / Antonyms include flexible, compromising, obliging, compliant, docile, tractable, acquiescent, and complaisant. / Inexorable comes from the Latin adjective inexorabilis, not moved by entreaty or supplication. By derivation inexorable means not responsive to earnest pleas or humble prayers, and therefore relentless, unyielding. / Inexorable and implacable are close in meaning. Implacable is the stronger of the two; it applies to feeling, and means incapable of being pacified or appeased. An irascible person might express implacable hatred or implacable resentment. Inexorable means incapable of being moved or changed by petition or persuasion, deaf to all pleas. / According to the Century Dictionary, inexorable "expresses an immovable firmness in refusing to do what one is entreated to do, whether that be good or bad." It may apply to a person: "Joe pleaded with his manager to give him an extra day of vacation, but his manager was inexorable." It may also apply to a thing, as "an inexorable campaign to squash the competition and dominate the industry." It may also be used figuratively, as "The inexorable hand of fate, the inexorable voice of necessity, the inexorable drifting of the sands of time, and the inexorable winds of war all led him to his inexorable doom." And in my ability to produce clichés to illustrate this word, I am also inexorable, relentless, unyielding, merciless. /

GERMANE

Relevant, fitting, appropriate, precisely to the point. / Synonyms of germane include pertinent, suitable, applicable, apposite, and apropos. / Antonyms include inappropriate, unsuitable, irrelevant, inapplicable, alien, extraneous, incongruous, and malapropos. / Germane comes through Middle English and Old French from the Latin germanus, which means "having the same parents." When you have the same parents, you are closely allied by blood, and so related or akin. Out of this notion of family affinity grew the modern meaning of germane, having a close relationship to the subject at hand, closely tied to the point in question. / Germane, apposite, pertinent, and relevant are close in meaning. / Relevant is the weakest of the group and means simply related, connected, bearing upon a subject: "The chair of the meeting asked the participants to keep their comments relevant and to refrain from bringing up tangential issues." Pertinent implies immediate, precise, and direct relevance: "Emily made several pertinent suggestions during the meeting that helped us focus on the problem." Apposite implies relevance that is particularly appropriate, timely, or suitable to the occasion: "Emily made some apposite observations about the competition that made us reconsider our marketing strategy." Our keyword, germane, implies a close connection or natural relationship that is highly fitting or appropriate: "Emily also presented a great deal of germane information in her report"; "The judge chided the defense attorney for voicing opinions that were not germane to the case." /

CONTRITION

Remorse, penitence, repentance, deep and devastating sorrow for one's sins or for something one has done wrong. / Penitence is sorrow for having sinned or done wrong; it is often temporary. The penitent person may say "I'm sorry" today and sin again tomorrow. / Remorse is deep sorrow. The remorseful person is tortured by a sense of guilt, and wishes he could erase what he has done. / Contrition is even more intense than remorse. It comes from a Latin verb meaning to crush, and by derivation means a crushing sense of guilt accompanied by a sincere, earnest desire to repent, make amends, and change for the better. / Contrition is the noun; the corresponding adjective is contrite, remorseful, penitent, full of guilt, regret, and sorrow for one's sins or offenses: "When Larry's wife found out about his mistress and his sleazy real estate deals and threatened to leave him, Larry was contrite and swore he'd mend his ways." /

SONOROUS

Resonant; deep, full, and rich in sound; having, or capable of producing, a powerful, impressive sound: a sonorous voice; a sonorous speaker; the sonorous bells of a cathedral. / The pronunciation SAHN‑uh‑rus, with the accent on the first syllable, is a British import that began making its way into American speech in the late 1800s. The traditional American pronunciation is suh‑NOR‑us, with the stress on the second syllable. When it comes to American versus British pronunciation, my policy is that British speakers should use British pronunciations and American speakers should use American pronunciations. Perhaps indicating agreement with that dictum, the four leading current American dictionaries all list suh‑NOR‑us first. / Nevertheless, it must be said that first‑ syllable stress in sonorous is more commonly heard today, and probably will prevail. /

SUPERANNUATED

Retired because of age, weakness, or ineffectiveness; old and worn out; outdated, outmoded, obsolete. / Synonyms of superannuated include timeworn, antiquated, decrepit, passé, and effete. / Superannuated combines the prefix super‑, meaning "beyond," with the Latin annum, a year, and by derivation means beyond the useful years. / That which is superannuated is too old for use, work, or service. The word may be used of a person who has reached the age of retirement, or of anything that has outlived its usefulness, that is old and worn out, as a superannuated car, a superannuated custom, a superannuated technology, or a superannuated idea. /

OPULENT

Rich, wealthy, very well‑to‑do, having substantial means. / Antonyms of opulent include indigent, destitute, and impecunious, which are discussed under indigent, word 39 of Level 3. / The adjectives opulent, affluent, and prosperous all connote wealth and success. Prosperous often is used interchangeably with wealthy, but in precise usage prosperous means marked by continued success, thriving, flourishing. A prosperous business is a successful, thriving business, and because successful businesses are profitable it is also likely to be an affluent business. Affluent, which comes from the Latin fluere, to flow, suggests a constant flow or increase of wealth accompanied by free or lavish spending. / Opulent comes through the Latin opulentus, rich, wealthy, and opis, power, might, ultimately from the name Ops. In ancient Roman mythology, Ops was the goddess of the harvest and the wife of Saturn, the god of agriculture who presided over the sowing of the fields. / Because of this etymological connection to agricultural abundance, opulent is sometimes used to mean ample or plentiful, but in current usage opulent most often applies either to a person who possesses great wealth and property or to a luxurious or ostentatious display of great wealth. If your lifestyle is affluent, you are making and spending large sums of money. If your lifestyle is opulent, you already have plenty of moolah and you enjoy showing off what it can buy. / The corresponding noun is opulence, great wealth or a display of great wealth. A couplet from the eighteenth‑century English satirist Jonathan Swift nicely illustrates this word: "There in full opulence a banker dwelt/Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt." /

BUCOLIC

Rural, rustic, of or pertaining to country life. / Synonyms of bucolic include pastoral, provincial, agrarian, idyllic, and Arcadian. Antonyms include urban, municipal, civic, metropolitan, and cosmopolitan. / Bucolic comes from Latin and Greek words meaning a herdsman, shepherd, which in turn come from the Greek bous, an ox. Bucolic may mean either pastoral, pertaining to shepherds, or rustic, pertaining to farming and country life. Bucolic poetry is poetry about the country or country folk; bucolic scenery is rural or rustic scenery. Sometimes bucolic is used in a depreciatory sense to poke fun at people who live in the country. When supercilious city dwellers speak of bucolic manners or bucolic customs, they mean to imply that those manners or customs are crude or unsophisticated. /

LEGACY

Something handed down from the past, an inheritance. / Legacy may be used in two ways. It may mean a gift of money or property provided by a will, an inheritance, bequest: "Her wealthy uncle left her a generous legacy." It may also mean anything inherited or passed down through time: "The cultural legacy of ancient Greece and Rome has shaped Western civilization." /

INVIOLABLE

Secure, safe from assault, infringement, or destruction, sacred, untouchable, unassailable, incorruptible. / Inviolable combines the prefix in‑, not, the suffix ‑able, and the verb to violate, and means literally "not able to be violated." An inviolable peace between nations cannot be broken or disrupted. An inviolable contract cannot be breached, altered, or revoked. An inviolable oath or promise is sacred, secure, incorruptible. Inviolable rights cannot be abused or taken away; they are safe from infringement or assault. An inviolable place cannot be violated or trespassed upon; it is safe, secure, unassailable. /

VINDICTIVE

Seeking or wanting revenge, vengeful, characterized by a desire to get even. / Vengeful and vindictive are close in meaning, and both words are used of people who have a strong desire for revenge or retribution. / The vengeful person wants to inflict an equivalent degree of suffering upon the wrongdoer in accordance with the famous code of Hammurabi, the ancient Babylonian king, which stipulated "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." / The vindictive person is less rational and more fervent. When a vindictive person feels wronged he is driven to retaliate at all costs. Consequently, vindictive often suggests gratuitous or unjustified retaliation for an offense that is imagined rather than actual. /

ALTRUISM

Selflessness, unselfish concern for the welfare of others. / In the philosophy of ethics, altruism refers to the doctrine that promoting the welfare of society is the proper and moral goal of the individual. In this sense, altruism is opposed to egoism, self‑centeredness, specifically the doctrine that self‑interest is the proper goal of the individual, that the only sensible thing to do in life is look out for number one. / Egoism is distinguished from egotism, both in spelling and meaning. Egotism is extreme self‑involvement, excessive reference to oneself in speech or writing; the egotist cannot stop talking about himself. Egoism implies self‑centeredness, concern for oneself; the egoist cares only about his own needs, concerns, and goals. / Egoism is unpleasant but less intense and disagreeable than egotism. / On the opposite end of the spectrum is altruism. The altruist is selfless, highly moral, and puts the needs of others and of society first. Altruism is unselfish concern for others. /

NARCISSISM

Self‑love, excessive admiration of oneself. / Synonyms of narcissism include vanity, conceit, egotism, and amour‑propre. Antonyms include humbleness, modesty, and humility. / Narcissism comes from Narcissus, a character in Greek mythology who fell in love with his reflection in a pool of water. A narcissist is a person afflicted with narcissism, self‑love, excessive admiration of one's appearance, abilities, or achievements. Narcissistic is the adjective: / "Amy was sick of dating narcissistic men whose only topic of conversation was me, me, me." /

SANCTIMONIOUS

Self‑righteous; holier‑than‑thou; characterized by insincere or affected righteousness, virtuousness, or religious piety. / Sanctimonious comes from the Latin sanctus, holy, sacred, and the word was once used to mean holy or sacred. In modern usage, however, sanctimonious refers to insincere, affected, or hypocritical holiness or righteousness. People who are sanctimonious come off as self‑righteous and holier‑than‑thou but do not practice what they preach. / The corresponding noun is sanctimony, righteousness or virtuousness that is affected or hypocritical. / happy as a clam between a rock and a hard place eternally grateful to fight tooth and nail to do it or die trying pain in the neck to throw up one's hands 35.Which word does not precisely apply to a sanctimonious person? / hypocritical disingenuous unctuous redoubtable affected Answers Evaluation A score of 30-35 is excellent. If you answered fewer than thirty questions correctly in this test, review the entire level and take the test again. / Level 8 In this level the going gets even tougher, but the tough keep on going. Are you ready for a real word‑power workout? / If you've been adhering to a daily routine of reading and reviewing the material, as I recommended in the introduction, then by now you have approximately tripled your normal rate of vocabulary growth by adding dozens of new words to your active vocabulary and resurrecting others from your passive vocabulary. / If you haven't been sticking to a routine, however, don't be discouraged. / Even if you've been reading off and on and occasionally neglecting to review, it's still likely that since you began studying this book you've assimilated many more words than you would have in the same amount of time without the benefit of a disciplined, graduated program. And the fact that you've made it this far indicates that you're serious about improving your verbal skills and making a commendable effort to expand the boundary of your vocabulary. / So, can you feel your verbal muscles getting firmer? Have you been test‑driving some of your new words in your writing and conversation? I hope so, and I also hope that each time you try out a new word you will make sure to double‑check its definition and pronunciation in a dictionary to verify that you are using and saying it right. / Now let me tell you what you can expect from the last three levels of Verbal Advantage. The keywords, synonyms, antonyms, and related words that you will learn in Level 8 fall approximately between the 80th and 90th percentile of the English vocabulary. The words in Levels 9 and 10 range from the 90th to 99th percentile. What that means is that from here on in, we will be covering a selection of the most intellectually demanding words in the language, which are understood and used by the best‑educated and most well‑read members of society. / So prepare to be challenged by what you're about to learn in these last three levels, and hang on to your hat, or your seat, or something firm nearby, because the leisurely segment of our linguistic tour is over. From here on I intend to proceed with celerity, and I hope you will follow me with alacrity. / If you're already hurrying to keep up with the words celerity and alacrity, don't worry, because I'm going to tell you about them right now, as we begin our first set of ten keyword discussions. /

COMPLACENT

Self‑satisfied, smug, overly pleased with oneself. / Complacent suggests being so satisfied with one's abilities, advantages, or circumstances that one lacks proper concern for the condition of others and is unaware of the situation around one. A complacent smile is a smug, self‑satisfied smile. Complacent behavior is self‑centered and disregards others' concerns. A complacently ignorant person is completely satisfied with his ignorance; he does not know he lacks knowledge and would not care if he did. / Complacent and complaisant should be distinguished in spelling, pronunciation, and meaning. Complaisant, with a z sound for the s in the final syllable, means inclined to please, gracious, obliging, courteous, affable, urbane. It has a positive connotation. Complacent, with an s sound for the c in the final syllable, has a negative connotation. Complacent means self‑satisfied, smug, overly pleased with oneself. /

AUSTERE

Severe, somber, stern, serious, grim, grave, dour. / Austere may mean severe or stern in appearance, manner, or practice. / An austere person is forbidding, somber, grave. An austere lifestyle is characterized by strict self‑discipline or severe self‑denial. Austere surroundings have a dearth of creature comforts or decoration; they are grim and barren. /

ANALOGOUS

Similar, akin, comparable, corresponding partially, sharing some aspects of form, function, or content. / An analogy is a partial similarity, likeness, or resemblance that allows for a comparison between things: You can draw an analogy between the human brain and a computer, between the human heart and a mechanical pump, or between an airplane and a bird. / When we see an analogy between two things, we say they are analogous, similar but not entirely alike, comparable in some respects. Analogous does not apply to things that are identical. For example, brains and computers and birds and airplanes differ markedly in all but a few ways, but in those ways they are analogous. / When things are analogous they share certain features or particulars; they are similar enough to form the basis for a comparison. If you say your company's management style is analogous to Japanese management style, you mean the styles are alike in some respects but not in others. If you tell a coworker that your job descriptions are analogous, you mean they are similar, comparable, alike in certain ways. /

LICENTIOUS

Sexually abandoned; lacking moral restraint, especially in sexual conduct. / Apparently there is something sensual about the letter l, because there are no fewer than nine synonyms of licentious that begin with l: lewd, loose, lustful, lecherous, lascivious, libertine, lubricious, lickerish, and libidinous. Additional synonyms of licentious—and believe me, I'm selecting only the more challenging ones—include bawdy, wanton, ribald, prurient, debauched, dissolute, salacious, and concupiscent. / Had enough sexy words? All right, here are three antonyms of licentious to quell your lust: pure, chaste, and virtuous. / Licentious comes from the Latin licentia, freedom, leave, liberty, the source also of the English word license. By derivation licentious means taking license, and the word implies doing something one is not supposed to do, especially something sexually immoral. Dictionaries will tell you that licentious may be used to mean unrestrained by law, morality, or rules of correctness or propriety, as a licentious poet or a licentious rap musician. / But the truth is that in current usage licentious almost always connotes unrestrained sexuality. Licentious poets write lewd or lustful poems, and licentious rap musicians hip‑hop through their sexual escapades. A licentious person is someone who displays a lack of moral restraint regarding sexual conduct. /

SCIAMACHY

Shadow‑boxing; the act of fighting a shadow or an imaginary enemy. / Sciamachy comes from the Greek skia, a shadow, and mache, a battle, contest, struggle. This Greek mache is the source of the English combining form ‑machy, which, when tacked on to a word, denotes a battle, contest, or struggle. Theomachy is a battle against or between gods; gigantomachy is a war or battle between giants or superhuman beings; logomachy, from the Greek logos, meaning "word," is a battle of words; and our keyword, sciamachy, is a battle with a shadow, a contest with an imaginary enemy. /

PUNGENT

Sharp, penetrating, biting, acrid, caustic. / Pungent comes from the same Latin source as poignant and expunge—the Latin pungere, to pierce, prick. Pungent may refer to a literal piercing, to that which is sharp to the sense of taste or smell, or it may refer to a figurative piercing, to that which penetrates the mind or emotions. / A pungent sauce is sharp to the taste, perhaps spicy, sour, or bitter. A pungent critique or pungent humor is sharp and sometimes bitterly worded; it penetrates the mind or pierces the emotions in a direct and often painful way. /

REFULGENT

Shining brightly, brilliant, radiant, resplendent. / Additional synonyms of refulgent include gleaming, blazing, sparkling, luminous, incandescent, scintillating, and coruscating. In case you're wondering about those last three, allow me to explain. / Incandescent means extremely bright or glowing with heat. It may sound peculiar to say so, but a light bulb, a person's mind, and a spiritual truth all can be described as incandescent. Scintillating means throwing off sparks, sparkling or twinkling. You can have scintillating thoughts, scintillating conversation, or observe scintillating stars in the summer sky. Coruscating means giving off flashes of light, flashing or glittering. An impressive display of fireworks is a coruscating display; a flashy or brilliant performance can be described as a coruscating performance. / Antonyms of refulgent include dull, dim, obscure, gloomy, and murky, all of which I know you know, so I think I'll commit an unpardonable act of pedantic obfuscation by muddling and bewildering you with these mind‑boggling antonyms: tenebrous, which means dark and gloomy; umbrageous, which means shady or overshadowed; subfuscous, which means dusky or somber; and—do you have room upstairs for one more?—crepuscular, which means pertaining to twilight, hence, characterized by dim, waning, or glimmering light. / Our brilliant keyword, refulgent, comes from the present participle of the Latin verb refulgere, to shine brightly, which comes in turn from re‑, meaning "back," and fulgere, to shine, flash, or gleam. You may use refulgent literally to mean gleaming or shining brightly; for example, someone can give you a refulgent smile, or you can explore a cave with the refulgent beam of a powerful flashlight. You may also use refulgent to mean figuratively brilliant or radiant; for example, you may know someone with a refulgent wit, or a person of refulgent beauty. / The corresponding noun is refulgence, brilliance, radiance, resplendence. /

BREVITY

Shortness, briefness, as the brevity of life, the brevity of a child's attention span. / Brevity may also mean brief expression, shortness of speech, as "Forcefulness and brevity are the most important characteristics of a good speaker." Synonyms of brevity in this sense include conciseness, succinctness, terseness, and pithiness. / Brief and brevity both come from the Latin brevis, short, the source also of the unusual word breve. A breve is one of the diacritical marks or symbols used to indicate pronunciation. It's a small curve, like a tiny smile, placed over a vowel to indicate a short sound, as in the e in pet or the a in cat. You've probably seen the breve many times in your dictionary without realizing what it is. / Well, now when you see it again you'll know what it's called, and you will also know that the breve is a symbol for brevity, shortness, briefness. /

EPHEMERAL

Short‑lived, passing, fleeting, lasting for a short time. / Ephemeral comes from a Greek word meaning daily, lasting or living only for a day. Ephemeral is sometimes used in this literal sense, as in the phrase "ephemeral literature," publications that come out every day, such as newspapers. Ephemeral literature is opposed to periodical literature, which refers to anything published periodically—weekly, monthly, and so on. In fact, the familiar word journalism by derivation means ephemeral literature, writing that pertains to the events of the day. Journalism and journal come from the French jour, day, as in the restaurant menu item soup du jour, soup of the day. Thus the common expression "daily journal" is redundant, for by derivation journal means something written or published each day. / Today ephemeral is most often used in a general sense to mean conspicuously brief in duration. Ephemeral ideas are popular for only a brief while; the jokes of late‑night TV comedians are ephemeral, here today and gone tomorrow; an ephemeral trend in the economy or in fashion is one that passes swiftly away. / More difficult synonyms of ephemeral include transitory, evanescent, fugitive, and fugacious. For more on these words, review the discussion of transient, word 31 of Level 2. /

MYOPIC

Short‑sighted; not able to see the long‑range picture; having a narrow or circumscribed view; lacking discernment, foresight, or perspective. / Synonyms of myopic include narrow‑minded, purblind, and obtuse. Antonyms of myopic include broad‑minded, liberal, tolerant, catholic, and latitudinarian. / The adjective myopic comes from the noun myopia, the common medical disorder known as nearsightedness. In its literal sense, myopic means nearsighted, affected with myopia. In its figurative sense, myopic suggests mental nearsightedness, a lack of long‑range vision, a mental outlook that is limited or narrow. The myopic person lacks perspective and foresight; he can't see the big picture. A myopic approach to solving a problem is short‑sighted; it lacks imagination and does not address long‑term needs or goals. A myopic opinion is narrow‑minded and prejudiced; it reflects only what the person who expresses it wants to see. / The words purblind, obtuse, and myopic are close in meaning. Purblind means partly blind, dim‑sighted; like myopic, purblind may be used literally to mean half‑blind or figuratively to mean lacking insight or imagination. / Obtuse comes from a Latin word meaning dull, blunt, and in modern usage obtuse is used to mean mentally dull, slow to recognize or understand something. Myopic means short‑sighted, having a limited perspective or narrow view. /

STOIC

Showing no feelings, unemotional, unaffected by pleasure or pain, bearing pain or suffering without complaint. / Synonyms of stoic include impassive, dispassionate, indifferent, apathetic, placid, languid, phlegmatic, and imperturbable. / Antonyms of stoic include ardent, vehement, zealous, fervid, and fervent. / Stoic and stoicism come from the Greek stoa, a porch or covered walkway—specifically, the famous Painted Porch in ancient Athens where the doctrine of Stoicism was born. In his English Vocabulary Builder, Johnson O'Connor explains that "STOICISM... was a school of philosophy founded by Zeno about 308 B.C....STOICISM is so named because Zeno expounded his philosophy from the Painted Porch, one of the covered walks about the Agora, the public square of ancient Athens. A STOIC... was a follower of Zeno, one who believed that men should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to the unavoidable necessity by which all things are governed." / In modern usage, stoicism means indifference to pleasure or pain; the noun stoic refers to anyone who exhibits rigorous self‑control; and the adjective stoic means showing no feelings, unemotional, bearing pain or suffering without complaint. /

OSTENTATIOUS

Showy, extremely conspicuous, extravagant, flamboyant; specifically, displayed or done in a flashy, vain manner. / Antonyms of ostentatious include simple, plain, modest, and unassuming. / Pretentious, pompous, and ostentatious all refer to persons or things that are showy, extravagant, and self‑important. All three words are often used of style, as in writing, speech, fashion, art, music, or architecture. / Pretentious means laying claim to a level of distinction or worth that is undeserved. The pretentious person asserts his self‑importance in a demanding, arrogant way. That which is pretentious draws attention to itself by strutting and bragging. / Pompous means puffed up with exaggerated self‑importance. The pompous person is full of solemn reverence for himself or his opinions. / That which is pompous takes itself too seriously. / Ostentatious emphasizes conspicuousness and vanity. The ostentatious person puts on an extravagant show to impress others. Ostentatious clothing parades itself. An ostentatious display of wealth is an exaggerated, unnecessary show of wealth. /

ASTUTE

Shrewd, clever, perceptive, discerning, acute, keenly aware, quick‑witted. / More difficult synonyms of astute include sagacious, perspicacious, and sapient. / Astute usually is used in a positive sense to mean showing keen intelligence and a shrewd ability to protect one's interests or avoid being deceived: an astute investor; an astute negotiator; an astute observer of human behavior. Occasionally it has the negative suggestion of clever in a cunning or self‑serving way, as an astute self‑promoter, an astute political operator. /

DIFFIDENT

Shy, timid, bashful, lacking in self‑confidence, hesitant to speak or act. / Diffident comes from the Latin dis‑, which in this case means "not," and fidere, to trust, put confidence in. Diffident was once used literally to mean distrustful, but that sense is archaic, and diffident now suggests lacking trust or confidence in oneself to speak or act. Diffident people have difficulty asserting themselves or expressing their opinions. /

TACITURN

Silent, not talkative, holding one's tongue, reserved, uncommunicative, reticent. / Challenging antonyms of taciturn include garrulous, loquacious, effusive, and voluble. / Taciturn comes from the same Latin root as tacit. / Tacit means unspoken, done or made in silence. Taciturn means silent by nature, preferring not to speak. / Taciturn and reticent both mean not talkative, uncommunicative. Reticent suggests a disinclination to express one's feelings or supply information. / Taciturn refers to a person who is habitually silent and withdrawn. / A word of caution about reticent. Though you increasingly hear people use reticent to mean reluctant, in careful usage these words are not synonymous. Reluctant means unwilling, hesitant, disinclined. Reticent means reluctant to speak. /

ADEPT

Skilled. / Synonyms include handy, clever, able, deft, expert, adroit, dexterous, and proficient. / Adept comes from the Latin adeptus, an alchemist who has learned how to do the impossible—change base metals into gold. The noun an adept means a highly skilled person, an expert. The adjective adept means skilled, dexterous, proficient: "He was adept at managing his investments, and they always turned a handsome profit." /

ADROIT

Skillful, clever, dexterous; specifically, showing skill in using one's hands or in using one's brains. / Synonyms of adroit include deft, resourceful, ingenious, artful, and adept. Antonyms of adroit include awkward, clumsy, inept, and maladroit. / Adroit comes from Latin through the French droit, right, and means literally "to the right." Historically, the English language has always favored the right hand as the better, more skillful hand. Yes, I know that's unfair to southpaws, but my job is not to "say it ain't so" but to "call'em like I see' em." The fact is, a bias for right‑handed words is ingrained in the language, which is one reason we don't say "out in right field" to mean crazy, weird, unorthodox. /

LEGERDEMAIN

Sleight of hand, a cleverly executed trick or deception. / In a general sense, the simple word magic is a synonym of legerdemain. / More challenging synonyms of legerdemain include prestidigitation and thaumaturgy, which I'll discuss in a moment, after I tell you about the expression "sleight of hand." / The word sleight is related to the word sly, and "sleight of hand" means literally slyness of the hand, a clever trick or illusion done with the hands. / Legerdemain, prestidigitation, and thaumaturgy all refer to magic or deception, but each word has a more specific and precise meaning. Thaumaturgy comes from the Greek word for miracle, and by derivation means the working of miracles. The presti‑in prestidigitation comes ultimately from the Italian presto, meaning nimble, quick; the digit in the middle of prestidigitation is the word digit, which in one of its senses means "a finger." By derivation prestidigitation is nimbleness with the fingers, quick‑fingeredness. Prestidigitation is used as a general synonym for legerdemain, sleight of hand, but sometimes it refers specifically to the art of juggling. / Legerdemain comes from a Middle French phrase meaning "light of hand." Today the word may refer specifically to adroitness with the hands, as in performing magic tricks, or to any display of clever skill and adroitness. For example, a surgeon, a musician, and an athlete all may display legerdemain. In current usage legerdemain may also denote a cleverly executed trick or deception: "Larry hired a sleazy accountant who promised he could outwit the IRS by performing financial legerdemain"; "The first lesson of politics is 'Watch out for dirty tricks and other unscrupulous forms of legerdemain.'" / When you spell legerdemain, remember that it does not have an e at the end. /

GLIB

Smooth‑spoken, speaking in a ready, fluent manner, with natural or offhand ease, talkative in a nonchalant way. / Synonyms of glib include suave, facile, bland, voluble, flippant, and unctuous. / By the way, I really like the word unctuous. It comes from the Latin ungere, to anoint, which is also the source of the English word unguent, a medicinal ointment, salve. By derivation unctuous means oily, fatty, having a greasy or soapy feel, and today unctuous is used to mean having a slimy, slippery, or smarmy manner. The unctuous person appears agreeable or earnest, but in an affected, self‑serving, and insincere way. / Our keyword, glib, also has a slightly unpleasant aroma. In general glib refers to the ability to speak or to something spoken in a smooth, easy, nonchalant way, but the word usually suggests a manner that is too smooth and easy to be convincing. Glib answers may be thoughtless, ill‑considered; glib proposals or solutions may be superficial; and a glib salesperson or a glib politician may be persuasive but insincere. /

SATURATED

Soaked, thoroughly wet, full of moisture. / Synonyms include drenched, steeped, permeated, impregnated, imbued, and sodden. / Sodden may mean heavy with moisture, soggy, or dull, stupefied, expressionless, as from drinking too much liquor. To saturate means to soak or wet thoroughly, either literally, as in "My french fries are saturated with oil," or figuratively: "The company saturated the media with ads for its new product." Saturation is the corresponding noun. /

CONVIVIAL

Sociable, merry, festive. / Synonyms of convivial include jovial, and also genial, companionable, affable, and gregarious. Antonyms include unsociable, reserved, solitary, and aloof. / Convivial comes from the Latin convivium, a feast, banquet, which in turn comes from the prefix con‑, meaning "together," and vivere, to live. By derivation convivial means gathering together to eat, drink, and be merry. / In modern usage convivial may mean either "pertaining to a feast or festive occasion" or "fond of eating, drinking, and good company." A convivial atmosphere is a merry, festive atmosphere; a convivial person is a friendly, sociable person, especially someone who likes to socialize while eating and drinking. /

FULIGINOUS

Sooty, smoky; pertaining to, resembling, or consisting of soot or smoke. / Fuliginous comes from the Latin fuligo, soot. The word entered English in the 1600s and since then has been used both literally to mean sooty or smoky and figuratively to mean dark, dusky, or obscure. Fuliginous air is filled with soot or smog. When you clean the windows of your car, you wash off the fuliginous grime. A fuliginous bar is a dark and smoky bar. Fuliginous ideas or thoughts are darkened as if by soot, and therefore are muddled and obscure. /

ACERBIC

Sour, bitter, and harsh in flavor, tone, or character. / Synonyms of acerbic include tart, caustic, pungent, astringent, acrid, and acidulous. / The direct antonym of acerbic is sweet. / Acerbic comes from a Latin word meaning sour or bitter like unripe fruit. / Acerbic may be used literally to mean sour or bitter tasting, as the lemon is an acerbic fruit. However, the word acidic probably is more often used in this literal sense, and acerbic usually is used figuratively to mean sour, bitter, and harsh in tone or character: An acerbic mood is a sour mood; acerbic words are bitter words; and someone who is acerbic has a harsh, unpleasant personality. /

COMMODIOUS

Spacious, having plenty of room, comfortably convenient. Synonyms of commodious include ample and capacious. / Commodious comes through French from the Latin commodus, convenience, suitability, the source also of commode, a euphemism for toilet that means literally "something convenient or suitable." From the same Latin commodus, convenience, come the verb accommodate and the noun accommodations, sleeping quarters, lodging. If you find your accommodations accommodating—convenient, suitable to your needs— then chances are they are also commodious, spacious, roomy, comfortable, and convenient. /

ABSTEMIOUS

Sparing or moderate, especially in eating or drinking: "The doctor prescribed an abstemious regimen to reduce her cholesterol level." "After six weeks of being abstemious, he lost twenty pounds and felt ten years younger." / Abstemious may also mean characterized by abstinence, not partaking or indulging, especially in alcoholic beverages: "Their abstemious way of life was dictated by their strong religious beliefs." / Abstemious comes directly from the Latin abstemius, which means abstaining from liquor. The corresponding noun is abstemiousness: / "Vegetarianism is a form of abstemiousness." / Synonyms of abstemious include sober, temperate, and ascetic. Ascetic means rigorously abstemious, practicing strict and extreme abstinence or self‑denial. /

JARGON

Specialized and often pretentious language; speech or writing that is highly technical and difficult to understand. / Jargon refers especially to the specialized language or private vocabulary used and understood only by members of a particular group or profession. Medical jargon is the specialized vocabulary used by doctors; computerese is the jargon or highly technical language of computer science; legal jargon comprises the particular stock of Latin terms and complex phraseology used by lawyers. / Jargon develops initially as a means for the members of a particular group to communicate precisely and efficiently; its inevitable consequence, however, is to confuse and exclude those who are not members of the group and who are unfamiliar with the jargon. In current usage, therefore, jargon has come to mean any pretentious speech or writing that seems unnecessarily difficult to understand: "Savvy businesspeople know that using a lot of professional jargon will only alienate clients." /

FRUGAL

Spending carefully and wisely, thrifty, economical. / Frugal comes directly from a Latin word meaning economical, and ultimately from the Latin frux, fruit, produce. Frugal people are cautious and sparing with the fruit of their labors. / Thrifty, economical, provident, and parsimonious all mean frugal, spending carefully and wisely, but in slightly different ways and degrees. / Thrifty implies hard work and good management as a means to prosperity. The thrifty person spends only what is necessary and diligently saves the rest. / Economical implies the use of money or resources in the most advantageous way. An economical car uses fuel efficiently. An economical investment is one that generates a higher return. / Provident suggests providing for the future. The provident person spends carefully with a mind toward what may be needed later. / Parsimonious means extremely frugal, stingy, miserly. The parsimonious person keeps a wary eye on every nickel and dime. / Frugal, spending carefully, may also be used to mean involving little expense, not wasteful or lavish. A frugal meal is an economical, no‑frills meal. Flying coach rather than first‑class is a more frugal way to travel. /

QUIESCENT

Still, quiet, tranquil, inactive, at rest or repose. / Antonyms of quiescent include vigorous, animated, sprightly, vivacious, and ebullient. / The words latent, dormant, and quiescent are related in meaning. Latent applies to something that has not yet been revealed: a latent ability, a latent desire. Dormant applies to something inactive or that seems asleep: a dormant volcano, a dormant power. Quiescent suggests a temporary cessation of activity, a period of rest or repose: the sea was quiescent after the storm. /

PARSIMONIOUS

Stingy, miserly, extremely tight with money. / Antonyms of parsimonious include generous, liberal, open‑handed, bountiful, beneficent, magnanimous, and munificent. / Synonyms of parsimonious include grasping, money‑grubbing, penny‑pinching, close‑fisted, penurious, and niggardly. / Please note that niggard and niggardly are very old words of Scandinavian origin; other than an unfortunate resemblance in sound, they have nothing whatsoever to do with the offensive and derogatory term used by racists to insult African‑Americans. A niggard is a miser; niggardly means stingy, begrudging every nickel and dime. / The noun parsimony means excessive or unnecessary economy or frugality. The adjective parsimonious means very sparing in expenditure, frugal to excess. The eighteenth‑century English essayist Joseph Addison wrote, "Extraordinary funds for one campaign may spare us the expense of many years, whereas a long parsimonious war will drain us of more men and money." / If you've ever known someone who wanted you to do a demanding job and grudgingly offered to pay you half of what it was worth, and not a penny more, then you know well what parsimonious means. /

FETID

Stinking, foul‑smelling; having an extremely offensive odor, as of something rotten or decayed. / In Hamlet, Shakespeare could just as well have written "Something is fetid in the state of Denmark," except that if he had, probably no one would quote the line today. / Challenging synonyms of fetid include rank, rancid, malodorous, putrid, noisome, mephitic, and graveolent. Antonyms include fragrant, scented, perfumed, aromatic, and redolent. / Fetid comes through the Latin fetidus, which means "stinking," from the verb fetere, to stink, have a bad smell. In current usage, fetid is not used of any old bad smell but is usually reserved for an extremely offensive odor, such as that produced by rotting or decay. For example, bad breath makes you wrinkle your nose; fetid breath makes you gag. When your garbage is odorous, it smells; when it's malodorous, it smells bad; when it's rank, it's really going sour; and when it's fetid, you'd better get rid of it before your neighbors call the health department. / And now, because I can read your twisted, puerile mind and I know you are waiting for me to get to this: yes, it's also true that a fart can also be fetid, foul‑smelling. / I shall end this malodorous lesson with a pronunciation tip. You may occasionally see our keyword spelled foetid, and you may occasionally hear it pronounced FEE‑tid. That's the British spelling and pronunciation. In American English we spell it fetid and prefer a short e: FET‑id. /

VOLUBLE

Talkative, talking much and easily, characterized by a great and continuous flow of words. / Synonyms of voluble include long‑winded, glib, garrulous, loquacious, verbose, and effusive. / Antonyms include reticent, terse, laconic, and taciturn. / Voluble refers to a person who talks freely and easily, and usually at great length. It may also mean characterized by a great and continuous flow of words; in this sense either speech or writing may be voluble. /

REFRACTORY

Stubborn and disobedient, actively resisting authority or control, unruly, impossible to work with or manage. / Because the human animal is so often stubborn, disobedient, and unruly, English abounds with words for these qualities. Synonyms of refractory include willful, headstrong, ungovernable, rebellious, obstinate, intractable, perverse, recalcitrant, intransigent, and contumacious. / Antonyms of refractory include obedient, submissive, compliant, deferential, malleable, docile, tractable, acquiescent, and obsequious. / I know that's a lot of words to stuff in your head, so let's take a moment to clarify some of them. / Refractory, intractable, contumacious, intransigent, and recalcitrant all suggest stubborn resistance to control. / Recalcitrant comes from the Latin re‑, meaning "back," and calcitrare, to kick, and means literally to kick back. The recalcitrant person resists direction or control in a rebellious and sometimes violent manner. / Intransigent, both by derivation and in modern usage, means unwilling to compromise. The intransigent person takes an extreme position and will not budge an inch. / Contumacious means stubborn in an insolent way. The contumacious person displays willful and openly contemptuous resistance to established authority. Examples of contumacious behavior would include insulting a police officer and ignoring a summons to appear in court. / Intractable comes from the Latin tractare, which means to drag around, haul, and also to manage, control. Intractable implies passive resistance to direction. The intractable person refuses to cooperate and must be dragged along. An intractable problem does not respond to any attempt at a solution and stubbornly refuses to go away. / Our keyword, refractory, applies to anyone or anything that is stubbornly disobedient and that actively resists authority or control. Horses, mules, machinery, and children are often described as refractory, but the word may also be applied appropriately to many other things, such as materials that are resistant to heat or chemical agents, or a medical condition that resists treatment, as a refractory case of athlete's foot. /

OBSTINATE

Stubborn, inflexible, unwilling to give in or compromise, not yielding to argument or persuasion. / The obstinate person stubbornly adheres to a purpose or opinion, often regardless of the consequences: "First we reasoned with him, then we pleaded with him, but no matter what we said he remained obstinate and determined to have his way." / Obstinate is sometimes mispronounced as if it were spelled obstinant, with an n slipped in before the final t. Take care to spell and pronounce this word correctly. / Synonyms of obstinate include hidebound, intractable, intransigent, and adamant. /

HEBETUDE

Stupidity, dullness, obtuseness, lethargy of mind or spirit. / The corresponding verb is hebetate, to make or become dull, blunt, or obtuse. The corresponding adjective is hebetudinous, dull, stupid, obtuse. / Hebetude, hebetate, and hebetudinous all come ultimately from the Latin hebes, blunt, dull. They are great words to use superciliously, when you want to be haughty and make someone else look dumb—but don't tell anyone I told you that. /

DOCILE

Submissive, obedient, compliant; easy to direct, manage, or supervise; following instructions. / Synonyms of docile include amenable, deferential, malleable, tractable, acquiescent, and obsequious. / Antonyms include willful, wayward, headstrong, obstinate, intractable, intransigent, and refractory. / Docile comes through the Latin docilis, teachable, from docere, to teach, instruct. From the same source comes the word docent. A docent is either a teacher at a university who is not a member of the faculty, or a lecturing tour guide in a museum, cathedral, or some such place of cultural interest. By the way, in your travels through museums and the like, you may hear the phrase "docent guide," which is redundant. A docent guide is a "guide guide," because docent means a guide trained to lecture on what is being viewed. Think of me as your docent in the museum of the English language. / Our keyword, docile, by derivation means teachable. In modern usage docile has two closely related senses. It may mean easy to teach or instruct, as a docile pupil, or it may mean submissive, obedient, as a docile pet, or a docile employee—which is not to imply that employees in general are analogous to pets, but only that some employees are docile, easy to direct, manage, or supervise. / The corresponding noun is docility: "A dictatorship or totalitarian state derives its power only from the docility of the people." / Occasionally you may hear docile pronounced DOH‑syl. DOH‑syl is the preference of British and Canadian speakers. The preferred American pronunciation is DAHS‑'l. /

OBSEQUIOUS

Subservient, submissive, obedient; ready and willing to serve, please, or obey. / Here are some examples of how obsequious may be used: "When the king entered, all the members of the court bowed obsequiously." "Bill's supervisor expected the employees to be obsequious, attending to her immediate needs before dealing with anything else." "When his wife found out about his affair, Larry tried everything he could think of to persuade her to forgive him, but she scorned all his obsequious gestures and banished him from her bed." / The corresponding noun is obsequiousness, which means subservience, obedience, an eager desire to serve or obey: "Eleanor was disgusted with Michael's obsequiousness whenever they entertained his boss." "Some companies reward obsequiousness rather than initiative and independent work." / Synonyms of obsequious include compliant, servile, slavish, ingratiating, deferential, fawning, toadying, truckling, and sycophantic. Antonyms include unruly, defiant, intractable, refractory, recalcitrant, and intransigent. /

PUTATIVE

Supposed, reputed, commonly considered or regarded as such; deemed to be so but not proved. / Antonyms of putative include certain, definite, unquestionable, indisputable, indubitable, incontrovertible, and irrefragable. / Putative comes from the Latin putare, to consider, believe, think, suppose. That which is putative is commonly thought to be so, generally considered true but not conclusively proved. We speak of someone's putative parents; the putative perpetrator of a crime; a putative leader or a person with putative authority, meaning the person believed to be in control; and a putative discovery, meaning a discovery generally attributed to someone without proof. We might also speak of Zsa Zsa Gabor's putative age, the age she is commonly thought to be—but who can say for sure? /

CONGENIAL

Sympathetic, agreeable, compatible, kindred, harmonious, having the same taste, nature, or temperament. / Congenial persons have similar or sympathetic tastes, interests, or personalities. Congenial things agree, go well together. / Antonyms, or opposites, of congenial are alien, dissident, and incongruous. /

NACREOUS Pearly, consisting of or resembling mother‑of‑pearl.

Synonyms of nacreous include iridescent, which means having or displaying lustrous, rainbowlike colors, and the unusual word margaritaceous. / Random House Webster's College Dictionary defines mother‑of‑pearl as "a hard, iridescent substance that forms the inner layer of certain mollusk shells, used for making buttons, beads, etc." Mother‑of‑pearl also goes by the name nacre. The adjective corresponding to the noun nacre is nacreous, pearly, made of or Page 464 ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcepub.html ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, resembling mother‑of‑pearl. /

GARRULOUS

Talkative, especially in a rambling, annoying, pointless, or long‑winded way. / Garrulous comes from the Latin garrire, to chatter, babble, talk in a rambling and tiresome way. In zoology there is a genus of birds called Garrulus. This genus contains several of the common jays, which are known for their harsh, chattering call. Both by derivation and by association, garrulous means chattering like a jaybird. The garrulous person talks for the sake of talking, usually about trivial matters, and often babbles on when no one else is interested in listening. / Synonyms of garrulous include verbose, loquacious, voluble, and prolix. / Antonyms of garrulous include reserved, reticent, taciturn, and laconic. /

VERNACULAR

The native language of a people, especially, the common, everyday language of ordinary people as opposed to the literary or cultured language. / The noun vernacular may refer to a native language as opposed to a foreign one, and the adjective vernacular may mean native as opposed to foreign, as: English is my vernacular tongue. More often, though, vernacular is used of the common, everyday language of ordinary people. / A vernacular expression is a popular expression, one used by ordinary folk. / Vernacular literature is either popular literature or literature written in everyday as opposed to formal language. The phrase "in the vernacular" means in ordinary and unpretentious language. / "I'm not going to do it" is formal language. "I ain't gonna do it" is in the vernacular. "He doesn't wish to speak with anyone" is formal language. "He don't wanna talk to nobody" is vernacular. / These examples of vernacular English are considered ungrammatical and substandard, and I want to be careful not to give you the impression that bad English is the only form of vernacular English. The vernacular comprises all language that is common and informal, any word or expression that ordinary people use—whether it is considered bad or good, acceptable or improper. / In Modern English Usage, H. W. Fowler describes the vernacular as "the words that have been familiar to us for as long as we can remember, the homely part of the language, in contrast with the terms that we have consciously acquired." / Calling someone a "sharp cookie" is the vernacular way of calling someone intelligent, perceptive, judicious, or sagacious. Saying someone is a "phony" is the vernacular way of saying someone is a sham, an imposter, or a charlatan. The vernacular of the East differs from the vernacular of the West, and often residents of different parts of the same state or city have their own vernacular—common, informal, everyday language. /

ACME

The peak, highest point, summit, zenith, especially the point of culmination, the highest possible point in the development or progress of something. / Here's a funny story about vocabulary development. / I learned the word acme as a young boy watching the "Roadrunner" cartoons on television, in which Wile E. Coyote uses various products made by the "ACME" company in his obsessive quest to capture the Roadrunner. Of course the coyote's plans always backfire, and he usually winds up flying headlong over some precipitous cliff. Through the power of association I have since connected the height of those cliffs with the word acme, the peak, highest point. / You see, even watching television can help you build your vocabulary. / However, reading Verbal Advantage along with a regular diet of general reading is a far more effective method. / Acme comes directly from a Greek word meaning the highest point, extremity. The word is often used figuratively to mean the highest point in the development or progress of something, as in "the acme of his career," "a company at the acme of the industry." The corresponding adjective is acmatic: "Albert Einstein's theory of relativity was an acmatic scientific breakthrough." The antonym of the acme is the nadir, the lowest point. /

DENOUEMENT

The unraveling or resolution of a plot, as of a novel or a drama; the outcome or resolution of any complex situation. / As you can tell from its vowel‑laden spelling and nasalized final syllable, denouement comes from French. The word means literally "an untying," as of a knot. Since its introduction into English in the mid‑1700s, denouement has been used to mean the untying or unraveling of a narrative or dramatic plot, the final sequence of events leading to a resolution of the story. / The Century Dictionary offers this illustrative quotation from the Saturday Review: "The end, the climax, the culmination, the surprise, the discovery, are all slightly different in meaning from that ingenious loosening of the knot of intrigue which the word denouement implies." In current usage, denouement has also come to apply to the outcome or resolution of any complex situation, as the denouement of a sensational trial, or the denouement of the negotiations. /

PROLETARIAT

The working class, especially the industrial wage‑earning class, which earns its living by manual labor. The adjective is proletarian, of or relating to the working class. / In the philosophy of Karl Marx, the famous exponent of communism, the proletariat comprises those members of society without property or capital who must sell their labor to survive. Proletariat comes through French from the Latin proletarius, which means a Roman citizen of the lowest class. Today the word is still used to mean the lowest and poorest class of people in any society. /

SUPPLICATE

To ask, beg, or plead for humbly and earnestly. / Synonyms of supplicate include entreat, petition, importune, and beseech. / The verb to supplicate comes from the Latin supplicare, to kneel, get on one's knees, which in turn comes from supplex, kneeling, on one's knees. / By derivation, to supplicate means to beg or plead for something on bended knee. From the same source we also inherit the word supple. Occasionally supple is used to mean yielding, compliant, or obsequious, but it is now most often used either literally or figuratively to mean bending easily, limber, flexible, as a supple bough or a supple mind. / The corresponding noun supplication means either a humble and earnest request or the act of begging or pleading for something humbly and earnestly. A person who supplicates or who makes a supplication may be called either a suppliant or a supplicant. /

ALLOCATE

To assign, designate, earmark, set aside for a specific purpose. / Allocate comes from a Latin verb meaning to locate, determine the place of. That which is allocated has been assigned a special place or purpose. / A person might allocate a bedroom in the house as a home office. Busy parents try to allocate time to spend with their children. Voters pass bond measures to allocate funds for education, parks, or libraries. One measure of a successful company is how much money it allocates for product development. /

ESCHEW

To avoid, shun, abstain from; keep away from something harmful, wrong, or distasteful. / Don't be misled by the sound and spelling of eschew; the word has nothing to do with the act of chewing—for which the fancy synonym, by the way, is mastication. When you masticate your food, you chew it thoroughly. / Eschew comes through Middle English from Old French and Old High German words meaning to shun, avoid, or dread. According to the third edition of The American Heritage Dictionary, eschew suggests avoiding or abstaining from something "because to do otherwise would be unwise or morally wrong." Morally upright people eschew evil, teetotalers eschew alcohol, nonsmokers eschew tobacco, and vegetarians eschew meat— which doesn't mean they masticate it but that they avoid eating it. / In recent years some people have begun pronouncing eschew as es‑SHOO, like s plus shoe, so that in 1993 one dictionary, Merriam‑Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, tenth edition, recognized this mispronunciation along with the even more eccentric e‑SKYOO. For a thorough account of why you should eschew these variants, see the entry for eschew in my Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations. In the meantime, remember that there is no shoe in eschew. Put a chew in it. / You may recall that in the introduction to this level I noted that there are two bad habits you must eschew at all costs. First, don't invent your own pronunciations, and second, don't blindly imitate the way other people pronounce words. If you follow those two guidelines, you will have no trouble eschewing objectionable pronunciations and mastering the correct ones. /

OSTRACIZE

To banish, send into exile, expel from a place; to bar, exclude, or reject from a group or from acceptance by society: "His questionable conduct led to his being ostracized by the other members of his profession"; "After the embarrassing incident her friends began to avoid her, and eventually they ostracized her from their social life." / The verb to ostracize, the corresponding noun ostracism, and the related word petalism share an interesting history. Ostracism and petalism were forms of banishment employed by the ancient Greeks. Ostracize and ostracism come from the Greek ostrakon, a potsherd, a piece of broken pottery. Ostracism was practiced by the ancient Athenians as a way of removing from the city people considered dangerous or embarrassing to the state. Citizens would vote by writing the name of the person to be expelled on a potsherd or earthenware tablet. Banishment was for a period of ten years, after which time the person was considered vindicated and free to return. / Petalism was a similar mode of expulsion practiced in ancient Syracuse. / Petalism differed from ostracism only in the method of voting, which was done by writing on an olive leaf instead of on a piece of clay, and in the length of the exile, which was for five instead of ten years. The Century Dictionary notes that petalism was eventually repealed "on account of its deterring the best citizens from participating in public affairs." /

DISPARAGE

To belittle, depreciate, discredit, lower in estimation or value, speak of or treat as inferior. / Familiar synonyms of disparage include abuse, ridicule, scorn, slander, defame, and censure. Challenging synonyms of disparage include denigrate, malign, vilify, traduce, and calumniate. / You'd never guess from looking at it, but the word disparage is related to the noun peer, an equal, a person of equal status. Peer comes from the Latin par, meaning "equal," the direct source of the familiar English word par, which is perhaps most often heard in the phrase "on a par with," meaning on an equal footing. The meanings of par and peer sit quietly in the middle of the word disparage, which comes from an Old French verb that meant to marry unequally, marry a person who was not a peer or on a par with your rank in society. / To marry an inferior person, someone beneath one's station, was the meaning of disparage when the word entered English in the fourteenth century. Later it came to mean to degrade, lower in dignity or position, as "The prince disparaged himself by helping the servants prepare the meal." / From those now‑obsolete senses evolved the modern meaning of disparage, to belittle, depreciate, lower in estimation or value. When you disparage someone or something, you speak of it or treat it as inferior: / "Some people claim astrology is a legitimate science; others disparage it as foolish superstition." / The corresponding adjective is disparaging, as a disparaging remark or disparaging words. The corresponding noun is disparagement, as "The city council's plan for economic recovery received only disparagement in the press." /

CENSURE

To blame, condemn, find fault with, criticize harshly, express stern disapproval of. / Synonyms of censure include denounce, reprimand, and reprehend. Antonyms include commend, extol, and laud. / Censure is often used today to mean to reprimand formally, blame or condemn in an official manner, as "The Senate censured one of its members for unethical conduct." But you may also use censure less formally to mean to express stern disapproval of, criticize harshly, as to censure an employee for lackadaisical performance. Censure usually implies condemnation of irresponsible behavior rather than condemnation of character. / Be careful not to confuse the words censure and censor. To censor is to suppress or delete something objectionable, as to censor a book, or to censor unpopular opinions. To censure is to blame, condemn, find fault with. /

ENGENDER

To bring about, bring into being, give rise to, cause to exist, sow the seeds of. / Synonyms of engender include produce and generate. Antonyms include prevent, suppress, subdue, quell, and quash. / Engender comes through Middle English and Old French from the Latin generare, to beget, produce, bring to life. Originally, engender meant to beget by procreation, which is a fancy way of saying sexual intercourse. / Dictionaries still list beget, procreate, and propagate as synonyms of engender, but the sense of breeding offspring has fallen by the wayside, and since at least Shakespeare's day engender has meant to bring forth, give rise to, cause to exist. A rally in the stock market may engender hope among investors that the economy is improving. An exchange of invective between nations can engender war. /

MOLLIFY

To calm, soothe, pacify, appease, soften in feeling or tone, make less harsh or severe: "Nothing mollified his anger." / Mollify comes from the Latin mollis, soft, and facere, to make, and means literally "to make soft." Also from the Latin mollis, soft, comes the word emollient. As an adjective, emollient means softening, soothing, mollifying; as a noun it means a softening or soothing agent, such as a lotion or cream for the skin. / The verb to mollify once meant literally to make soft or tender, as to mollify meat, tenderize it. That sense is now obsolete and mollify today is used to mean to soften in feeling or tone, calm, soothe, make less harsh or severe: "The union leaders decided to mollify their demands"; "A good manager should be adept at mollifying conflicts that can damage morale"; "The plaintiff's attorney said that only a million‑dollar settlement would mollify her client"; "He was furious, and nothing she said mollified him." /

RESCIND

To cancel, take back, take away, remove; also, to render void, annul, repeal. / Rescind comes from a Latin verb meaning to cut, and by derivation means to cut back or away; hence, to remove, cancel, take back something one has said or done. When you rescind an order, rescind a contract, or rescind a law, you cancel it, make it void. When you rescind a statement you take it back, remove it from the record. /

IMPUTE

To charge or attribute, especially with a fault or misconduct, lay the responsibility or blame upon, ascribe, assign. / Unlike the verb to credit, which has a favorable connotation, and the verbs to assign and to ascribe, which are neutral, the verb to impute often has a negative connotation. According to the famous eighteenth‑century essayist and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, "We usually ascribe good, but impute evil." / To impute means to charge with something bad, attribute the blame for, lay the responsibility on: "They imputed their fourth‑quarter losses to sagging sales and fluctuations in the stock market"; "Some critics impute the decline in verbal skills among young people today to watching too much television." / The corresponding noun is imputation, a charge or accusation, the act of imputing, as "Company officials vigorously denied the imputation of mismanagement." /

INCRIMINATE

To charge with a crime, accuse of wrongdoing, implicate, present evidence or proof of involvement in a wrongful act. / You can see all but the last letter of the word criminal in the spelling of incriminate. When you incriminate someone, you accuse that person of doing something illegal or unethical. Incriminating evidence corroborates a person's involvement in a wrongful act. An incriminating statement is a statement that makes one appear guilty of wrongdoing. /

EXPURGATE

To cleanse by removing offensive material, free from objectionable content. / Synonyms of expurgate include censor, purge, and bowdlerize. / The verbs to expurgate and bowdlerize are close in meaning. / Thomas Bowdler was an English editor who in the early 1800s published expurgated, or cleansed, editions of the Bible and Shakepeare's works. People did not appreciate Bowdler's expurgation of the Good Book and the bawdy Bard, so they took his name and made a nasty word: bowdlerize. To bowdlerize is to remove material considered risqué, offensive, or obscene, but it connotes doing so out of a prudish or squeamish sense of morality. / Expurgate comes from the Latin expurgare, to cleanse, purify, and by derivation is related to the verb to purge, to free from impurities, and the adjective pure. To expurgate means to cleanse by removing that which is objectionable. / When something is bowdlerized, that which is considered morally offensive has been deleted. When something is expurgated, that which is considered objectionable for any reason has been deleted. You can bowdlerize Shakespeare by taking out the ribald humor, and you can bowdlerize D. H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover by removing the passages about sex; but you cannot bowdlerize a textbook because presumably it does not contain anything ribald, erotic, or obscene. / However, if people charge that a textbook displays a bias or draws conclusions that they find objectionable, they may attempt to expurgate it, cleanse it by removing the offensive material. /

VINDICATE

To clear from blame, free from suspicion of wrongdoing or dishonor, uphold or maintain the truth or innocence of something or someone in the face of criticism or imputations of guilt. / If you are accused of something but later the charge is dropped, then you have been vindicated. You can vindicate your good name or your reputation by clearing it from blame or suspicion. You can also vindicate a claim of ownership or your right to something by defending or upholding the truth of it. / The corresponding noun is vindication: "In a civil lawsuit, the plaintiff seeks restitution for an alleged wrong, and the defendant seeks vindication from the charges." / To vindicate, to exonerate, and to acquit all mean to free from blame. Acquit refers specifically to a judicial decision to release someone from a charge. Exonerate implies removing the burden of guilt for a wrongdoing that may or may not have been committed. / Vindicate means to clear from blame, criticism, or suspicion of guilt by bringing forth evidence and proving the unfairness of the charge. Someone may be acquitted by a jury and exonerated by his family and friends, but never vindicated in the eyes of the community. /

CORROBORATE

To confirm, support, make more certain or believable: "Six witnesses corroborated the victim's account of the crime." / Corroborate comes from a Latin verb meaning to strengthen. In modern use corroborate means to strengthen by providing additional evidence or proof. When you corroborate a story, you strengthen it, support it, help to establish it as true. / Authenticate, verify, substantiate, and corroborate all mean to confirm in slightly different ways. / To authenticate is to establish something as authentic or genuine: You authenticate a document, a signature, or a work of art. / To verify is to establish as true, confirm the accuracy of: Reporters have a responsibility to verify facts and quotations. / To substantiate is to support by supplying reliable evidence or proof: / Scholars and scientists must substantiate their theories. The investigation uncovered several key facts that substantiated the case against the company. / To corroborate is to substantiate what someone else has said by supplying additional evidence or proof. When you corroborate another person's statement, you make it more certain or believable. /

SUBJUGATE

To conquer, defeat, vanquish, overwhelm completely, bring under rigid control, make submissive, dominate, enslave. / Subjugate comes from the Latin sub‑, under, and jugum, a yoke, and means literally to place under a yoke. It is related to the noun a subject, which in one of its senses means a person under the control of a ruler, as a subject of the king. A subject is someone who has been subjugated, made submissive, brought under control, enslaved. / The words defeat, conquer, and subjugate are generally synonymous but are used in slightly different ways. Defeat suggests winning or beating an opponent in a single engagement; you can defeat a person in an argument, a contest, a game, or a fight. Conquer suggests achieving a final victory or gaining complete control over an opponent after a series of contests: "After a long and arduous campaign, Caesar conquered the Gauls." Subjugate adds to defeat and conquer the suggestion of domination, bringing the vanquished opponent under complete and rigid control: "During World War II, Hitler conquered most of Europe and then brutally subjugated its people." / Subjugation need not apply only to war; it may also refer to psychological domination. For example, you may subjugate an addiction, subjugate an impulse, or subjugate an emotion—yoke it, make it submit to your will, bring it under complete control. /

ACCEDE

To consent, yield, give in or agree to. / Synonyms of accede include comply, submit, assent, concur, and acquiesce. Antonyms include resist, disagree, oppose, protest, contradict, dispute, dissent, wrangle, and cavil. / The verbs accede, acquiesce, assent, concur, and consent all suggest agreement. Consent implies voluntary agreement: You consent to another's wishes. Concur implies agreement reached independently: When you concur with a statement, you agree on your own without pressure from the person who made it. Assent implies agreement reached after careful consideration or deliberation: When you assent to a plan, you agree to it after discussion or careful thought. Acquiesce implies agreement offered despite tacit reservations: the person who acquiesces often is unwilling to agree but lacks the will or the energy to resist. / Accede, our keyword, comes from the Latin accedere, to approach, come near. Accede implies agreement in which one person or party gives in to persuasion or yields under pressure. When you accede, you yield your position and give in to a demand or request, often under pressure: "They acceded to the proposal on certain conditions"; "After renegotiating various points, we acceded to the terms of the contract"; "The union refused to accede to the company's demands." / Accede may also be used to mean to attain or assume an office or title, as to accede to the throne, to accede to the presidency. /

VITIATE

To corrupt, spoil, ruin, contaminate, impair the quality of, make faulty or impure; also, to weaken morally, defile, debase. / Vitiate comes from the Latin vitium, a fault, vice. That which is vitiated may be literally faulty, defective, or spoiled, or it may be corrupt in a moral sense, vice‑ridden, debased. Illogical thought can vitiate an argument; editorial interpolation can vitiate a manuscript; noisome smog vitiates the air; a pernicious habit can vitiate a person's life. In law, a vitiated contract or a vitiated claim has been corrupted or violated and is therefore invalid, rendered ineffective. / The corresponding noun is vitiation, corruption, spoliation, the act of vitiating or the state of being vitiated. /

CREPITATE

To crackle; make a crackling, snapping, or popping noise. / The verb to crepitate comes from the Latin crepitare, to crackle, creak, rattle, or clatter. From the same source we inherit the word decrepit, which by derivation means having bones that creak and rattle from old age, and also the unusual word crepitaculum, the rattle or rattling organ of the rattlesnake. / To crepitate means to do what the ads tell us the cereal does: snap, crackle, and pop. The corresponding adjective is crepitant, crackling or creaking, as the crepitant stairs of an old house. The corresponding noun is crepitation, as the crepitations of firecrackers on the Fourth of July. In medicine, a crepitation is the grating sound or sensation produced by rubbing together the fractured ends of a broken bone. / Ouch! Let's leave that painful image behind and move quickly on to... /

CAVIL

To criticize or complain unnecessarily, point out petty flaws, raise trivial or frivolous objections. / Synonyms of cavil include nitpick, niggle, carp, and quibble. All these words suggest making unnecessary criticisms or complaining about trivial things. A good editor corrects your grammar and punctuation but doesn't nitpick every sentence. A boss who niggles about every detail will eventually exasperate the employees. Husbands and wives often carp at each other about household expenses and domestic chores. Professors quibble with their colleagues about minor points of scholarship. Newspaper critics will often cavil in their reviews just to assert their authority as critics. / To cavil means to complain unnecessarily, point out petty flaws, raise trivial or frivolous objections. /

WARRANT

To justify, give good reason for, authorize, sanction: the circumstances do not warrant such extraordinary measures; the evidence warrants further investigation; these safety procedures are warranted by company regulations. / Warrant may also mean to guarantee, promise, give formal assurance of: / the Postal Service will not warrant delivery on a specific day; the manufacturer warrants the safety of the product. / The adjective unwarranted means without good reason or authorization, unjustifiable: the U.S. Constitution protects citizens against unwarranted search and seizure; people resent unwarranted government interference in private enterprise. /

TRUNCATE

To cut short, shorten by cutting or lopping off. / Synonyms of truncate include condense, abridge, abbreviate, and curtail. Antonyms include lengthen, extend, elongate, prolong, and protract. / Truncate comes from the Latin verb truncare, to maim, mutilate, shorten by cutting off, which in turn comes from truncus. As an adjective, the Latin truncus means maimed, mutilated, cut short or lopped off; as a noun, truncus denotes a tree that has been cut down, so that only the stump remains. / Probably because the history of truncate contains so much maiming and mutilation, the word usually suggests a more severe or substantial cutting or shortening than its synonyms condense, abridge, abbreviate, and curtail. / Of all these words, curtail comes closest to the severity of truncate. / Truncate may refer to a cutting short in number, length, or duration. An editor truncates an article or a book by cutting out large sections of it. A heart attack or severe illness can truncate a life, cut it short early or in its prime. And a company might decide to truncate its workforce, perhaps by cutting out several departments. Of course, company executives would never use the word truncate. They would say they were downsizing, which makes it sound as if they're just putting the company on a low‑fat diet instead of engaging in an act of corporate mutilation. / The corresponding adjective truncated means cut short, abbreviated, terminated abruptly, as a truncated meeting, a truncated explanation, a brief period of economic growth and prosperity truncated by recession. /

BEGUILE

To deceive, delude, or mislead; also, to charm, amuse, or delight. / Synonyms of beguile in the sense of "deceive, delude, or mislead" include dupe and gull, which were discussed in word 11 of Level 2, and also hoodwink, swindle, bamboozle, ensnare, and cozen. Synonyms of beguile in the sense of "charm, amuse, or delight" / include enchant, enrapture, enthrall, and ensorcel, also spelled ensorcell, a poetic word that by derivation means to practice sorcery upon. / The word guile comes to us through Old French, probably from an Old English word meaning sorcery or divination. The notion that the practitioners of sorcery are evil wizards has led to the modern meaning of guile: deceitful craftiness, treacherous cunning. / The prefix be‑ at the beginning of the verb to beguile is an intensifier meaning "completely, thoroughly." You can see this intensifying prefix be‑ in the words besmirch, to smirch or stain thoroughly; befuddle, to completely fuddle or confuse; and beware, to be completely wary of, to be thoroughly on one's guard. / In its original sense the verb to beguile means to deceive completely by means of guile, crafty, treacherous cunning. In Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, Eve tells God, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Since Shakespeare's time beguile has also been used in a far less sinister way to mean to completely capture the attention of, to thoroughly divert or distract, and so to charm, amuse, or delight. / Depending on the motives of the beguiler, when you are beguiled you may either be thoroughly charmed and enraptured or completely distracted and deceived. Beguiling eyes are captivating, fascinating eyes; beguiling words are crafty, deceptive, misleading words. /

EMBELLISH

To decorate, dress up, adorn, enhance with ornamentation, make more beautiful, elegant, or interesting. / Embellish comes from an Old French verb meaning to make beautiful and has been traced back to the Latin bellus, pretty. By derivation, embellish means to beautify, make pretty. An embellishment, the corresponding noun, is a decoration, ornament, something that beautifies. / Embellish may be used in numerous ways to mean to decorate, make more beautiful or interesting. You can embellish your home by decorating it with beautiful things. You can embellish an outfit with ornaments or accessories. You can embellish your speech or writing with interesting words and elegant phrases. And you can embellish a story, dress it up with entertaining details or even things that aren't true: "Over the years the old fisherman had added many fanciful embellishments to his tale about 'the big one that got away.'" /

VILIFY

To defame, slander, attack with vicious, abusive language. / Synonyms of vilify include to disparage, denigrate, stigmatize, malign, revile, vituperate, calumniate, and traduce. / Antonyms include to praise, commend, laud, extol, glorify, eulogize, and venerate. / Vilify comes ultimately from the Latin vilis, cheap, worthless. The word vile, in one of its senses, means of little value, and vilify was once used to mean to make vile, render worthless, cheapen, degrade, but this sense is now obsolete. In current usage, vilify means to take cheap shots, make degrading or defamatory statements, render vile or worthless by attacking with vicious, abusive language. / Vilify is most often used of persons but it may also apply to things. A racist may vilify a certain ethnic group. A xenophobe may vilify foreigners or a particular foreign nation. And in America, the inalienable right of free speech allows a citizen to vilify the president, and most citizens seem to take advantage of that right at one time or another. / The corresponding noun is vilification, which means either the act of vilifying or a deliberate, vicious, and defamatory verbal assault: "Politicians and celebrities often find themselves subjected to vilification in the media." /

EXECRATE

To denounce vehemently, declare hateful or detestable; also, to loathe, abhor, detest utterly. / The verbs to curse and damn mean to denounce violently, specifically to call down evil upon out of a desire for revenge. Execrate, which by derivation means to put under a curse, suggests a furious or passionate denunciation, prompted by intense loathing: "The opposition execrates everything she stands for." "Citizens angry over the rise in violent crime gathered in the park to hear speakers execrate drug pushers and gangs." "When the dictator couldn't execute his enemies, he execrated them." / The corresponding adjective is execrable, which means abominable, abhorrent, loathsome, utterly detestable. The corresponding noun execration means a vehement denunciation or the act of execrating, declaring hateful or detestable. /

CACHINNATE

To laugh loudly and immoderately, laugh convulsively or hysterically. / To chuckle, giggle, cackle, chortle, titter, snicker, and snigger all suggest moderate, restrained, or self‑conscious laughter. / To guffaw suggests loud, boisterous, unrestrained laughter. / To cachinnate takes the joke one step further. When you cachinnate, you shake with laughter, split your sides. Can you think of the last joke you heard that made you cachinnate? / The verb to cachinnate comes from the Latin cachinnare, to laugh aloud. / The corresponding noun is cachinnation, immoderate, convulsive, or hysterical laughter. / My earnest hope is that at least once in the course of Verbal Advantage, something I've written will catch your funny bone off guard and induce a cachinnation. /

DISSEMBLE

To disguise; conceal under a false appearance; speak or behave hypocritically; cover up the facts or one's true feelings or motives; mask under a pretense or deceptive manner. / Synonyms of dissemble include to feign, affect, simulate, camouflage, equivocate, and prevaricate. / To disguise is the general word meaning to give something a false appearance so it won't be recognized. We disguise our physical appearance, disguise facts, or disguise intentions. / To feign means to represent falsely, pretend that something exists or is real, as to feign interest, feign illness, feign innocence, or feign sleep. / To affect means to put on a false appearance to make a certain impression, as to affect knowledge, affect a cultivated pronunciation, affect social superiority, or affect a carefree manner when your heart is breaking. / Our keyword, dissemble, comes from an Old French verb meaning "to appear different," and by derivation means to make something appear different from what it is. When you dissemble the facts or dissemble your feelings, you conceal them under a false appearance. The person who dissembles speaks or behaves hypocritically so as to cover up the truth. /

PROTRACT

To draw out, drag out, extend in time, lengthen, prolong, especially to excess. / Antonyms of protract include abbreviate, condense, curtail, and truncate. / Prolong and protract both refer to increasing the duration of something. / Prolong suggests making it longer than usual, lengthening it beyond ordinary limits: to prolong a meeting, a prolonged illness. Protract comes from the Latin tractare, to draw, drag around. It suggests drawing or dragging something out needlessly, often to the point of irritation or boredom. A protracted trial is long and tedious. A protracted debate seems to drag on forever. And now, before you accuse me of protracting this discussion, I shall curtail it—cut it short—and move on to the next word. /

EXPATIATE

To elaborate, speak or write at great length. / Synonyms of expatiate include discourse, expound, and descant. / The verb to expatiate comes from the Latin expatiari, to wander. / Expatiate originally meant to wander or walk about freely, but this sense is now rare. In current usage expatiate suggests wandering at will over a subject. When you expatiate on something, you elaborate, go into detail, speak or write about it at great length. The corresponding noun is expatiation. /

ABET

To encourage, support, help, aid, promote, assist in achieving a purpose. / Some dictionaries note that abet means especially to encourage or assist in wrongdoing, as in the legal cliché "to aid and abet," meaning to assist a criminal in the commission of a crime. That sense is perhaps more common, but abet may also be used favorably, as "to abet the cause of justice," "to abet the committee's efforts to get the plan approved." /

DELEGATE

To entrust with authority or power, deliver to another's care or management, hand over to an agent or representative: "The executive director delegated various managerial duties to her assistant"; "Our department chief has trouble letting go of the reins and delegating responsibility." /

EXPUNGE

To erase, delete, cancel; punch, strike, or wipe out; eradicate, obliterate. / To erase means literally to rub or scratch out. You erase a blackboard or a pencil mark. To cancel means literally to cross out with lines. You cancel a check or a clause in a contract. To delete means to remove written material. On a computer you can delete a word, a paragraph, or an entire document with a few keystrokes or clicks of the mouse. To expunge means to wipe out something completely so it appears as though it had never existed: to expunge a name from a list; to expunge all record of an event; to expunge a word from your vocabulary. /

FULMINATE

To explode, especially to explode with invective and denunciations; to shout forth condemnation and censure. / The verb to fulminate and the corresponding noun fulmination come through the Latin fulminare, to strike with lightning, from fulmen, a stroke of lightning, thunderbolt. Fulminate was once used to mean to strike with lightning, but this sense is obsolete and in modern usage fulminate suggests the throwing of verbal thunderbolts, and fulmination suggests a thundering verbal explosion: "The speaker fulminated against corruption and vice"; "The dispute between the two nations has not reached the point of war, but there have been fulminations from both sides." /

SUPPURATE

To fester, form or discharge pus. / This unusual word applies to wounds, boils, ulcers, or other lesions that become infected and discharge pus. / When a lesion suppurates, discharges pus, it is called suppuration; and suppuration, if untreated or unchecked, may lead to a state of putrefaction. The verb to putrefy means to rot or decay; the adjective putrid means rotten, foul‑smelling, fetid; and the noun putrefaction means rotting, decomposition, foul‑smelling decay. / Okay, you can stop holding your nose now because this suppurating, putrid lesson is over and we're moving on to... / /

EXONERATE

To free from blame, free from a charge or the imputation of guilt, declare blameless or innocent. / Synonyms of exonerate include acquit, absolve, and exculpate. / Exculpate comes from the Latin ex‑, meaning "out," and culpa, blame, and means literally to free from blame. The word onerous means burdensome, and the corresponding noun an onus means a burden. Exonerate combines the Latin ex‑, out, with onus, a burden, to mean removing a burden—in modern usage, removing the burden of guilt. /

TRITURATE

To grind, crush, or pound into fine particles or powder. / Synonyms of triturate include pulverize, comminute, and levigate. / To pulverize and to triturate are virtually interchangeable; both words suggest reducing something to fine particles or powder. Pulverize comes from the Latin pulvis, dust, and by derivation suggests reducing something to dust. Triturate comes from a Latin word meaning to thresh grain or tread out corn, and by derivation suggests a violent beating, bruising, pounding, crushing, rubbing, or grinding action. When used figuratively, pulverize is the more violent word, and means to destroy or demolish completely, as to pulverize an opponent. Used figuratively, triturate suggests either a grinding or crushing into small pieces or a wearing down to nothing by friction: "Her job was triturating all her creative abilities"; "He triturated his financial assets until he was bankrupt." / The corresponding noun is trituration. /

CONJECTURE

To guess; especially, to make an educated guess; to form an opinion or make a judgment based on insufficient evidence. / Familiar synonyms of conjecture include to suppose, imagine, suspect, and presume. / To guess, to speculate, to surmise, and to conjecture all mean to form an opinion or reach a conclusion based upon uncertain or insufficient evidence. / To guess is the least reliable and most random of these words. When you guess you have a roughly equal chance of being right or wrong, and there is ample room for doubt about your opinion. / To speculate means to make a judgment based on observation and reasoning. When you speculate you form a reasonable opinion by evaluating whatever facts are at hand, however dubious they may be. / To surmise means to come to a conclusion by using one's intuition or imagination. When you surmise, you use your instinct and power of insight to make a judgment based on slender evidence. / Our keyword, conjecture, comes from the Latin con‑, together, and jacere, to throw, and by derivation means to throw something together. In modern usage to conjecture means to take whatever evidence is available and quickly construct an opinion based on one's knowledge and experience—in short, to make an educated guess. / The corresponding noun a conjecture means an educated guess, an assumption or conclusion based on insufficient evidence. /

RECUR

To happen again, occur again, especially at intervals or after some lapse of time. / In The Careful Writer, Theodore M. Bernstein explains the difference between the words recur and reoccur: Both mean to happen again, he says, but reoccur "suggests a one‑time repetition," whereas recur "suggests repetition more than once." Thus you would say "the revolt is not likely to reoccur," but "as long as these skirmishes recur, the revolt will continue." / Here's another example: If economists predict that a recession will reoccur in this decade, that means they're predicting it will happen only one more time. If economists predict that recession recurs on average every ten years, then they're predicting it happens again and again at intervals. / "It is the ability to feel a fine distinction such as this," writes Bernstein, "and to choose the word that precisely expresses the thought that marks the writer of competence and taste." /

EXTEMPORIZE

To improvise, to speak or compose with little or no preparation or practice, perform something in an offhand or unpremeditated way: "She delivered her speech using notes, but during the question‑and‑answer session she extemporized." / To improvise is the general word meaning to make up on the spur of the moment. You can improvise a speech, a tune on the piano, or a plan of action. Extemporize usually refers specifically to speaking in an offhand, spontaneous way. The corresponding adjective extemporaneous means spoken or composed with little or no preparation or practice. / Extemporaneous remarks are impromptu, made up on the spur of the moment. /

INTERPOLATE

To insert, introduce; specifically, to insert words into a piece of writing or a conversation. / The corresponding noun is interpolation, an insertion of words into a piece of writing or a conversation. / The verbs to interpolate, interject, and interpose all mean to insert or place between. To interpose suggests the insertion of either a literal or figurative obstacle. You may interpose yourself between two people who are quarreling, or circumstances may interpose an impediment or stumbling block that hinders your progress toward a goal. / To interject suggests an abrupt insertion, and usually refers to speech. You interject an opinion, an idea, or a suggestion. To interpolate suggests a deliberate, careful insertion of words into a piece of writing or a conversation. Word‑processing programs make it easy to delete or interpolate material and reformat what you have written. Interpolate sometimes suggests altering a text by inserting something spurious, unrelated, or unnecessary: Lawyers may insist on interpolating clauses in a contract, or an author may object to an editor's interpolation. /

EDIFY

To instruct, improve, teach, enlighten; especially, to instruct or improve intellectually, morally, or spiritually. / Anything that improves the mind, the character, or the spirit can be described as edifying. If you find an experience instructive, eye‑opening, or uplifting, you can say that it edified you or that you found it edifying. You can be edified by a movie, a play, a book, a conversation, by traveling, or by working on an interesting project. As I noted in the first half of the program, if you want to learn more about the world and learn more words, then reading is the best way to edify yourself. But even entertainment can be edifying, although some forms of entertainment, such as watching reruns of "Wheel of Fortune," probably won't edify you at all. / The corresponding noun is edification, which means enlightenment— intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement: "Public libraries exist for the benefit and edification of all people"; "He was a philanthropist devoted not only to the material betterment of less fortunate members of society but also to their edification." / Except when used humorously, the phrase "for your edification" should probably be avoided. It has become a cliché, and often has a condescending overtone. /

CONSTRUE

To interpret, explain the meaning or intention of. / Construe comes from the same Latin source as the familiar words construct and construction. One less common meaning of the word construction is an explanation or interpretation; in this sense, to put a construction on something—such as a statement or an action—means to assign a meaning to it, explain its significance or intent. For example, in every case decided by the United States Supreme Court, the role of the justices is to put their particular construction on how the Constitution shall influence the law of the land. / By derivation, the verb to construe means to put a particular construction on something, to interpret it, explain its underlying meaning or intention. / Silence is often construed as agreement. An ambiguous reply is difficult to construe. Some men insist on construing that when a woman says no, she really means yes. If your boss asks you why you were late to work three days in a row, while you dream up an excuse you can buy time by responding, "I'm not sure how to construe your question." /

NETTLE

To irritate, annoy, vex, harass, pester, provoke: Their supervisor constantly nettled them about trivial or irrelevant details. / You may be familiar with the plant called the nettle, which has tiny hairs that sting and irritate the skin. The verb to nettle means to sting like a nettle, hence to irritate or annoy. Someone who is nettled is irritated to the point of silent anger or resentment. /

PALLIATE

To lessen the severity of, gloss over, make something seem less serious or severe, as to palliate suffering, to palliate an offense, or to palliate your troubles with drink. / Synonyms of palliate include soften, diminish, mitigate, and extenuate. / Antonyms include worsen, intensify, aggravate, and exacerbate. Exacerbate and acerbic, keyword 7 in this level, come from the same Latin root, and both suggest bitterness or harshness. The adjective acerbic means sour, bitter, or harsh in flavor, tone, or character. The verb exacerbate means to increase in bitterness or severity, as to exacerbate a problem or exacerbate a conflict. / The verb to palliate comes through the Latin verb palliare, to cloak or conceal, from the noun pallium, a cloak. Palliate was once used to mean to cover as if with a cloak, to shelter, hide, conceal. This meaning is now obsolete, and today palliate means to conceal or cloak the seriousness of something, make it appear less severe or offensive than it is, as to palliate a social indiscretion or palliate the enormity of a crime. / In modern usage, palliate often connotes glossing over or disguising the seriousness of something by making excuses or apologies: "Her press agent issued a statement in an attempt to palliate her role in the scandal." /

CIRCUMSCRIBE

To limit, restrict, confine, hem in, fix the boundaries of. / The scribe in circumscribe means to write, draw, and circum‑means around. Literally, circumscribe means to draw a line around, encircle; figuratively, it means to enclose within narrow limits, restrict, confine: the circumscribed routine of daily life; a law that circumscribes certain rights. / You can see the combining form circum‑ at work in many English words. / Circumstance combines circum‑, around, with the Latin stare, to stand, and means literally "that which stands around"; hence, a condition or factor influencing a situation or surrounding an event. Circumcision combines circum‑with incision to mean literally "a cutting around." Circumvent combines circum‑, around, with the Latin venire, to go, and means to go around, bypass, especially in a clever or resourceful way: "She had to circumvent a lot of red tape to get the job done." From this somewhat circumlocutory, or roundabout, discussion, can you guess the meaning of circumnavigate? That's right: It means to navigate or sail around, as to circumnavigate the earth. / Our keyword, circumscribe, means literally to draw a line around; hence, to enclose within narrow limits, fix the boundaries of: "A limited vocabulary can circumscribe your career and undermine your chances for success." /

RECONCILE

To make friendly again, restore friendly relations between, settle, resolve, bring into harmony or agreement. / Reconcile comes from the Latin reconciliare, to make good again, restore, repair. When estranged partners reconcile, they make their relationship good again by restoring it, repairing what was wrong with it. / When two parties in a dispute reconcile their differences, they settle them and restore friendly relations. The corresponding noun is reconciliation, a settlement, resolution, the act of restoring harmony or agreement. / Reconcile also has two other useful senses. It may mean to bring into agreement, make consistent: "The jury found it hard to reconcile the defendant's confession of guilt the night of the murder with his profession of innocence during the trial." Reconcile may also mean to resign oneself to accept something undesirable: "Nancy didn't want to live with her mother‑in‑law, but she reconciled herself to it and tried to get on with her life." /

PROMULGATE

To make known, publish, proclaim, make public in an official manner. / You may pronounce this word with the accent either on the second syllable or on the first. Pruh‑MUHL‑gayt is the original American pronunciation; PRAHM‑ul‑gayt was imported from Britain in the 1920s. / Since the 1960s, PRAHM‑ul‑gayt has steadily eclipsed the traditional pruh‑MUHL‑gayt, and today PRAHM‑ul‑gayt is sanctioned by all dictionaries and preferred by many educated speakers. / Synonyms of promulgate include announce, advertise, broadcast, disseminate, and bruit. All of these words share the meaning of bringing something to the attention of the public, making it widely known. / The verb promulgate has two corresponding nouns: promulgation is the act of making something public or widely known; a promulgator is a person who makes something widely known, who proclaims or publicizes it. / Promulgate comes from the Latin promulgare, to publish, proclaim. The word applies chiefly to making something known in a formal or official way: / the government promulgates a new law or policy; religions promulgate their doctrine or creed; a corporation promulgates its financial status in an annual report to stockholders; and people often promulgate their opinions on radio talk shows and on the editorial pages of the newspaper. /

OBFUSCATE

To make obscure, cloud over, darken, make unclear or indistinct. / Synonyms of obfuscate include confuse, complicate, muddle, bewilder, shroud, eclipse, and adumbrate. / Antonyms of obfuscate include expose, unveil, clarify, and elucidate. / The corresponding noun is obfuscation. Have you ever heard the joke‑phrase "Please eschew obfuscation"? That's an ironic way of advising someone to avoid jargon and communicate in clear and simple terms. / Obfuscate comes from the Latin obfuscare, to darken, and by derivation means to deprive of light, make dark or dim. In modern usage obfuscate may mean either to make something obscure or indistinct, or to make it confused, muddled, or unclear. You can obfuscate the truth, obfuscate your meaning, or obfuscate your intentions. Think of obscure when you think of the verb to obfuscate. / Obfuscate may be pronounced ahb‑FUHS‑kayt or AHB‑fuh‑skayt. The latter pronunciation, which has been heard in American speech since the early twentieth century, was originally British. Although AHB‑fuh‑skayt was criticized and called erroneous by authorities of the 1920s and 1930s, it is now fully standard and preferred by many cultivated speakers. /

AMELIORATE

To make or become better or more tolerable, improve, amend, correct, reform, rectify, raise the condition or state of. / Ameliorate is used chiefly of improving something that needs help because it is inferior, oppressive, or intolerable. City officials may decide to ameliorate a run‑down neighborhood. A charitable organization may work to ameliorate the hapless condition of the homeless or the poor. /

ADDUCE

To offer or cite as a reason, as evidence, or as authority for an opinion or course of action. / By derivation adduce means to bring forward. In modern usage, adduce means to bring forward or cite something as a reason, as an example, or as proof in a discussion, analysis, or argument. Lawyers adduce evidence to bolster their case. Politicians adduce facts to justify their position on an issue. Scholars and scientists adduce the results of their research to prove their theories. In writing a report proposing a new marketing plan for a company, an executive might adduce examples of similar marketing strategies that worked for other companies. /

DEFRAY

To pay, provide money for, cover the cost or expenses of. / Pay and defray are synonymous, but they are not interchangeable. You pay for a meal in a restaurant, you don't defray it. You pay your bills, you don't defray them. In current usage defray means to cover the cost or expense of something, especially to provide money for a portion of that cost or expense. For example, you might use an income tax refund to help defray the expense of a trip to Europe. A nonprofit corporation that receives a grant or donation might use it to defray the cost of office equipment and supplies. /

CULL

To pick out, select from various sources, gather, collect. / Cull comes from the Latin colligere, to gather, the source also of the familiar words collect and collection. / The verbs to cull and to glean are close in meaning. / Glean was originally used in farming to mean to gather up the stray bits and pieces of a crop that remained after the reapers or gatherers had done their work. From that sense, glean came to mean to collect or gather mentally, especially to learn or discover something bit by bit, in a laborious fashion: the investigator gathers facts to glean information; the historian gleans knowledge about the past by studying old records and documents. / The unusual noun a cull means something picked out or rejected as inferior or worthless, and in its original sense the verb to cull means to eliminate culls, as to cull livestock, to separate inferior specimens from the herd, or to cull lumber, to pick out and remove defective pieces. From that sense, cull came to mean to pick out so as to collect and keep, to select with an eye for retaining rather than rejecting. / Today we speak of culling useful information or culling ideas, meaning we gather that information or those ideas from various sources. When you cull flowers from a garden you select and gather them, and when you cull interesting words from reading, you pick them out and collect them in your mind. /

JUXTAPOSE

To place side by side or close together, especially so as to compare or contrast. / The first half of the word juxtapose comes from the Latin juxta, which means "near, close by." The second half, ‑pose, comes from the Latin ponere, to put, place, the source also of the familiar word position and the more challenging word posit. To posit means to put forward as true, set down as a fact, as the Declaration of Independence posits that "all men are created equal." By derivation the verb to juxtapose means "to place near, put close by." / When you juxtapose two or more things you place them side by side, usually for the purpose of comparing or contrasting them. Painters often juxtapose colors for a striking effect; philosophers and scientists juxtapose ideas so as to evaluate them; a consumer might juxtapose two products, place them side by side, to decide which one is better. / The corresponding noun is juxtaposition. /

PROGNOSTICATE

To predict; especially, to predict from signs, symptoms, or present indications. / Synonyms of prognosticate include foretell, forecast, foresee, prophesy, presage, and vaticinate. / Prognosticate comes through Latin from Greek, and by derivation means "a knowing beforehand, foreknowledge." From the same source we inherit several related words. / Prognostic, used as a noun, means an indication of something in the future. Used as an adjective, prognostic means pertaining to or serving as the basis of a prediction, as prognostic powers or prognostic evidence. / The noun prognostication means a prediction, prophecy, forecast, as the prognostications of economists are not always reliable. / Prognosticator is a lofty word for "a person who makes predictions." If you want to be grandiloquent, you could say the reporter who does your local weather forecast is a prognosticator, or that a coworker who is always making predictions about affairs in the office is the office prognosticator. / Finally, the useful noun prognosis means a prediction of the probable course and outcome of a disease or medical condition. / Prognosis and diagnosis should be sharply distinguished. A diagnosis is an assessment of a medical condition. When you ask your doctor, "What's the diagnosis?" you are asking for the doctor's opinion of what is wrong based on a clinical analysis of signs and symptoms. When you ask your doctor, "What's the prognosis?" you are asking the doctor to predict the likely course and outcome of the condition based on whatever treatment is administered—in other words, to tell you whether the problem will get better or worse. In short, a diagnosis describes the nature of the medical condition; a prognosis predicts its likely course and outcome. / Our keyword, prognosticate, means to make a prognosis or prediction. / Prognosticate applies especially to the act of predicting from signs, symptoms, or present indications. Political pundits attempt to prognosticate the outcome of an election. Financial analysts prognosticate trends in the stock market. Your horoscope in the newspaper purports to prognosticate from the alignment of the planets what may lie in store for you that day. /

MALINGER

To pretend to be sick or incapacitated so as to avoid work or duty; to shirk or dodge responsibility by feigning illness or inability. / Don't be misled by the presence of the word linger in malinger. Despite what some people mistakenly believe, to malinger does not mean to linger, loiter, or hang around in a shiftless or threatening way. Although you might hear or read about "drug pushers malingering near schoolyards" or "homeless people malingering downtown," don't believe it. Those people may be loitering, but they are definitely not malingering, for malinger means to pretend to be sick or incapacitated so as to avoid work or duty. / The verb to malinger comes from a French word meaning sickly, ailing, infirm, and is apparently related to the word malady, which means an illness or affliction. The corresponding noun is malingerer, a person who malingers. / When malinger and malingerer entered English in the early 1800s, they were used of soldiers and sailors who shirked their duty by pretending to be sick. Of course, malingering is popular among the entire workforce, not just members of the military, so it wasn't long before malinger and malingerer came to be used of anyone who dodges work or responsibility by feigning illness or inability. /

PRECLUDE

To prevent, make impossible, exclude or shut off all possibility of something happening. / Synonyms of preclude include avert, obviate, and forestall. Antonyms include incite, instigate, and engender. / Preclude comes from the Latin prae‑, meaning "before," and claudere, to shut, close up. By derivation preclude means to take steps beforehand to shut off or close the door on something. / In modern usage, preclude suggests preventing something by excluding or shutting off all possibility of its happening: Immunization can preclude many fatal diseases. An alarm system may decrease the chance that your car will be stolen, but it will not preclude it. The framers of the U.S. / Constitution adopted the Bill of Rights as a means of precluding the passage of any law that would infringe upon or abrogate the basic rights of citizens in a democracy. /

OBVIATE

To prevent, make unnecessary, meet and dispose of, clear out of the way. / Obviate comes through the Latin verb obviare, to prevent, from the adjective obvius, in the way, the source also of the familiar English word obvious, which means literally "lying in the way." The verb to obviate suggests preventing a problem or difficulty from arising by anticipating it and taking effective measures to meet and dispose of it or clear it out of the way. You can obviate trivial objections by coming straight to the point. / You can obviate a trial by settling out of court. The necessity of attending a meeting can be obviated by a timely phone call. /

GOAD

To prod or urge to action, stimulate, arouse, stir up. / Synonyms of the verb to goad include to egg on, spur, incite, impel, and instigate. Antonyms of goad include soothe, pacify, appease, assuage, and mollify. / The noun a goad is a pointed stick used to prod animals and get them to move. From that sense goad also came to mean a stimulus, spur, incitement, anything that urges or drives something on. The verb to goad literally means to prick or drive with a goad; hence, to prod or urge to action. / Someone can goad you to work harder, goad you to admit a fault or mistake, or goad you to the point of irritation or anger. In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare writes, "Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on...." /

PROSCRIBE

To prohibit, forbid, outlaw: "The city council passed an ordinance proscribing the sale or possession of handguns"; "In certain societies, the practice of bigamy is not proscribed." / Synonyms of proscribe include ban, denounce, disallow, condemn, censure, ostracize, expatriate, and interdict. Antonyms include permit, tolerate, legalize, authorize, and sanction. / Proscribe comes from the Latin proscribere, to post or publish the name of an outlaw or a person to be banished or put to death. By derivation, that which is proscribed is outlawed, not permitted, denounced, or condemned. / Be careful to distinguish the verbs to proscribe and to prescribe, which are opposite in meaning. Proscribe begins with pro‑ and is pronounced proh‑SKRYB. Prescribe begins with pre‑ and is pronounced pri‑SKRYB. A doctor may prescribe a certain drug, advise you to take it, or proscribe saturated fats, advise you to eliminate them from your diet. A prescription is an order to do something. A proscription is an order not to do it, a prohibition. /

TRADUCE

To publicly disgrace or humiliate by making false and malicious statements; to make a mockery of; expose to public ridicule or contempt. / Synonyms of traduce include defame, slander, denigrate, malign, vituperate, calumniate, and vilify, word 32 of this level. / Antonyms of traduce include praise, compliment, laud, extol, and adulate. / Traduce comes from the Latin traducere, to lead across or lead in front of others; hence, to exhibit as a spectacle, expose to ridicule, disgrace or humiliate in public. In modern usage, traduce applies chiefly to making false, malicious, and humiliating statements about people, as to traduce someone's honor, or a scathing editorial that traduces the mayor. Those gossipy newspapers with the sensational, ridiculous headlines that you see in the supermarket checkout line specialize in scandalous stories that traduce well‑known people. / The noun traducement means the act of traducing, and a traducer is a person who traduces, who makes false, malicious, humiliating statements. /

EXTIRPATE

To pull or dig up by the roots, root out, exterminate, abolish or destroy completely. / Although extirpate means to root out, it has stayed close to its roots, for it comes from the Latin extirpare, to tear up by the roots, which comes in turn from ex‑, meaning "out," and stirps, which means the stem and roots of a plant. The word may be used literally, as to extirpate a tree, or figuratively, as to extirpate evil or a heterodox belief. / Extirpate has two close synonyms: eradicate and deracinate. Both these verbs come from the Latin radix, the root of a plant. By derivation and in modern usage, eradicate and deracinate also mean to pull up by the roots, uproot, and so to obliterate, annihilate, get rid of completely. / Deracinate suggests a violent uprooting or annihilation. You can deracinate your hair; a despotic government can deracinate dissent; and a war can deracinate a population. Eradicate suggests resistance from the thing being uprooted or destroyed. Campaigns to eradicate drug abuse and organized crime often fall short of expectations. / Extirpate suggests the intentional uprooting or extermination of something deeply entrenched. Self‑styled defenders of society, like the zealous antivice crusader Anthony Comstock, are always on the lookout for some pernicious influence to extirpate—obscenity, drugs, subversives, heretics, or heterodox beliefs. The corresponding noun is extirpation. /

CASTIGATE

To punish or criticize severely. / Synonyms of castigate include chasten, chastise, rebuke, reprimand, reprove, and censure. / Antonyms of castigate include approve, reward, praise, commend, laud, extol, and eulogize. / The verbs to chasten, to chastise, and to castigate all mean to punish in slightly different ways. / Chasten is related to the word chaste, pure, and by derivation to chasten means to punish in order to purify or make chaste. In modern usage chasten usually suggests purifying by subjecting to harsh discipline, inflicting pain or suffering to improve the character of someone or something. Military recruits are chastened during basic training; a preacher may chasten a congregation for its sinful ways; a mild heart attack may chasten the workaholic to slow down and take better care of himself. You may also chasten your mind or chasten your style, purify or subdue it by subjecting it to harsh discipline. / The verb to chastise was once used as a dignified word for inflicting corporal punishment—in other words, to punish by whipping or beating. In the nineteenth century, teachers were permitted—and often expected—to chastise students who misbehaved in class, and for much of the twentieth century, before the concept of the "time‑out" became popular, spanking was considered an acceptable way of disciplining a naughty or obstreperous child. / Today chastise may still be used to mean to inflict corporal punishment, but more often the word suggests administering a strong verbal rebuke. / When a teacher chastises a student today, it's with harsh words, not a hickory stick. The corresponding noun chastisement may be pronounced either CHAS‑tiz‑ment or chas‑TYZ‑ment. CHAS‑tiz‑ment is the traditional pronunciation; chas‑TYZ‑ment has been recognized by American dictionaries since the late 1940s. / Castigate comes from the Latin castigare, to punish with words or blows. / Like chastise, castigate was once used of corporal punishment, but today the word is nearly always used to mean to beat up verbally, criticize severely, especially to subject to harsh public criticism. Politicians often castigate their opponents during a campaign. Some reviewers may praise a book for its controversial ideas, while others may castigate it. If the boss reads you the riot act in front of the whole office, consider yourself castigated. The corresponding noun is castigation, as "a pugnacious radio talk show host with a vicious penchant for castigation." /

ALLUDE

To refer to something indirectly, make a casual reference. / Synonyms of allude include suggest, hint, insinuate, and intimate. Antonyms include indicate, specify, detail, and enumerate. / To allude and to refer are synonymous but differ markedly in usage. To refer is to mention something specifically, point it out distinctly: The Declaration of Independence refers to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as "unalienable rights." To allude is to refer to something indirectly or casually, without mentioning it. A political candidate might allude that an opponent has a skeleton in the closet. In a report or proposal you might allude to a study that supports your point without citing it directly. / Someone who is afraid of heights might allude to a disturbing childhood experience as the source of the phobia. / The corresponding noun is allusion. An allusion is an indirect, casual, or passing reference: "The novel contains many allusions to Shakespeare"; "Only by allusion did the article suggest that the company was in financial trouble." /

REBUFF

To refuse bluntly, reject sharply, turn down abruptly, snub, spurn. / In colloquial terms—that is, in informal, conversational language—rebuff means to give the cold shoulder to, slam the door on, nix. A rebuff is an abrupt refusal or rejection, especially of a request, an offer to help, or a person making advances. To rebuff means to refuse or reject bluntly. /

REPUDIATE

To reject, cast off, disown, renounce, refuse to accept as one's own; also, to reject as false, deny the authority of, refuse to accept as true. / Repudiate suggests a formal, often vehement rejection. You can repudiate a child, reject or disown the child; you can repudiate a belief, cast it off or renounce it; you can repudiate a claim, deny its authority; and you can repudiate a charge, reject it as untrue. /

ASSUAGE

To relieve, ease, allay, mitigate, make less severe or intense; also, to satisfy, appease, make content. / When you assuage someone's grief, assuage someone's anger, assuage someone's pain, or assuage someone's fears, you relieve those conditions, allay them, make them less severe or intense. When you assuage your hunger or thirst, you relieve it by providing food or drink. / When you assuage a need or desire, you satisfy it by procuring what is needed or desired. / Assuage is sometimes mispronounced uh‑SWAYZH or uh‑SWAHZH. / These recent variants have made their way into a few current dictionaries, but the traditional and proper pronunciation, countenanced by all dictionaries, is uh‑SWAYJ. /

WAIVE

To relinquish voluntarily, give up, forgo. / To relinquish implies giving up something one doesn't want to part with, either out of necessity or because one has been compelled or forced: to relinquish possession, to relinquish command. To waive implies a voluntary refusal to insist on one's right or claim to something: to waive one's right to a trial by jury; to waive one's claim on a title or property. / Waive may also mean to postpone, defer, or dispense with, as to waive discussion, or to waive formalities and get on with business. /

VENERATE

To respect deeply, revere, regard with awe and adoration. / In a strict sense, to venerate means to regard as holy or sacred; to revere means to regard with great respect and honor. We revere great leaders, thinkers, and artists; we venerate holy persons, sacred writings, and religious or moral principles. / The adjective venerable, worthy of veneration, of being venerated, is more loosely applied. It is often used of something or someone old or long‑established: a venerable tradition is an old and deeply respected tradition; a venerable cause is longstanding and worthy of profound respect. /

PARAPHRASE

To restate, put what someone else has expressed into different words. / The noun a paraphrase is a restatement of a text or passage to give the sense of the original in fuller terms. The verb to paraphrase means to restate something, giving the meaning in another form. / To quote and to paraphrase are sharply distinguished. To quote is to use or repeat the words of someone else, giving acknowledgment to the source. To paraphrase is to restate in different words what someone else has said or written. /

EFFACE

To rub out, wipe out, obliterate, erase, expunge: "Time gradually effaced the memory of the tragedy." / To efface may also mean to make oneself inconspicuous, keep oneself out of the limelight: "During the celebration, he effaced himself so his partner would get all the attention." The self‑effacing person stays in the background and behaves in a modest, retiring fashion. / Take care to distinguish the words deface and efface. To deface means to spoil the appearance of, ruin, disfigure, mar. To efface means to rub out, wipe out, erase, or to withdraw from notice, make oneself inconspicuous. /

MANUMIT

To set free, liberate, emancipate, deliver from slavery or bondage. / Synonyms of manumit include unshackle, unfetter, enfranchise, and disenthrall. / Antonyms include enslave, enthrall, subjugate, shackle, fetter, manacle, and trammel. / The verb to manumit comes through Middle English and Old French from the Latin manumittere, to free a slave, which comes in turn from manus, the hand, and mittere, to send, let go. / To manumit, to emancipate, and to enfranchise are close in meaning. / According to the Century Dictionary, to enfranchise "is to bring into freedom or into civil rights." In the twentieth century, American women gained the right to vote, gained economic and professional influence, and in many other ways became enfranchised. To emancipate "is to free from a literal or figurative slavery." You can emancipate someone from bondage or emancipate someone's mind with knowledge. Manumit has often been used interchangeably with emancipate, but it usually suggests a literal deliverance from bondage or slavery. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation manumitted American slaves. If you get fired from a crummy job, consider yourself manumitted. /

PONTIFICATE

To speak in a pompous and overbearing way, make pretentious or categorical statements, express one's opinion as though it were an official, authoritative decree. / The Roman Catholic pope is also known by two other names: the Bishop of Rome and the pontiff. Pontiff comes from the Latin Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Rome. As the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the pontiff is responsible for interpreting religious doctrine, or dogma, and issuing official decrees, called papal bulls. To these official decrees the pontiff affixes a seal called a bulla. / In its original sense, to pontificate means to be a pontiff, to fulfill the office of a pope and issue official decrees on church doctrine or dogma. / From this the word came to apply in a disparaging way to anyone who speaks as if he were the pope issuing an official decree. / Because only the pontiff has the absolute right to pontificate, pontificate now means to express opinions or make judgments in a categorical, dogmatic way. I'll save you the trouble of looking up dogmatic, which is pronounced dawg‑MAT‑ik. It means opinionated, dictatorial, expressing an opinion as if it were fact. / If your boss pontificates in a meeting, that means he or she is speaking dogmatically, in a pompous, pretentious, dictatorial manner. The person who pontificates expresses an opinion as though it were an official, authoritative decree: "Teenagers don't respond well when their parents or teachers pontificate." / The corresponding noun is pontification. /

EXPEDITE

To speed up, hasten, facilitate, accelerate the progress of, handle or perform quickly and efficiently: "The company decided to expand its workforce to expedite production of its new product." / Antonyms of expedite include delay, postpone, hinder, retard, slacken, and protract. / Expedite comes from the Latin verb expedire, to set free, disentangle, get ready for action. When you expedite something, you free it from all hindrances or obstructions; you disentangle it from whatever is delaying its progress so that action can proceed. In current usage, when you expedite a plan or a project it means you speed up its progress, hasten its completion. / And when the boss says to you, "Please expedite the matter," that means the boss wants you to take care of the matter as quickly and efficiently as possible. /

AVER

To state positively, declare with confidence. / Synonyms of the verb to aver include assert, affirm, avow, profess, contend, and asseverate. / To state means to express something in an explicit and usually formal manner. You state your answer or state your opinion. To declare means to state publicly or out loud, sometimes in the face of opposition. You declare your intentions, declare your position, or declare your independence. To assert means to declare forcefully or boldly, either with or without proof. / You assert a belief or assert your rights. To asseverate means to declare in a solemn, earnest manner. Lawyers asseverate their claims in court, professors asseverate their theories from a lectern, and preachers asseverate their spiritual advice from the pulpit. To affirm means to state with conviction, declare as a fact based on one's knowledge or experience. / You can affirm the truth, affirm your presence, or affirm the existence of something. Our keyword, to aver, means to state positively and decisively, with complete confidence that what one says is true. You can aver that you have never disobeyed the law; you can aver that you have always paid all your taxes on time; you can aver that you have never used alcohol or drugs; and you can aver that there is life on the planet Mars. Of course, if you aver all that, then other people probably will aver that you are either lying or off your nut, so it's always wise to watch what you aver, state positively, declare with confidence. /

PECULATE

To steal, embezzle; specifically, to steal or misuse money or property entrusted to one's care. / To peculate and to defalcate both mean to embezzle, to steal from or appropriate that which has been entrusted to one's care. / Defalcate by derivation means to cut off with a sickle; hence, to misappropriate funds by fraudulently deducting a portion of them for one's own use. / Although peculate comes from the Latin peculium, which means "private property," in current usage the word usually refers to the embezzlement of public or corporate funds, or property entrusted to one's care: "For twenty‑five years old Barney balanced the books for the city, and just when he was about to retire with a good pension they caught him peculating from the public trough." / The corresponding noun is peculation, the act of peculating. /

EXCORIATE

To strip, scrape, or tear off the skin; hence, to rebuke or denounce harshly and severely. / Synonyms of excoriate in the sense of "stripping off the skin" include abrade, chafe, scalp, gall, and flay. Synonyms of excoriate in the sense of "rebuking or denouncing harshly" include censure, castigate, and vituperate. / To excoriate, which comes from Latin, and to flay, which comes from Anglo‑Saxon, are close in meaning. Both mean by derivation to strip off the skin, and in modern usage both have also come to mean to rebuke or denounce harshly, to attack or criticize in a severe and scathing manner. / Flay also means to whip or lash the skin. If you flay an animal, you either strip off its skin or whip the hide off it. If you flay a person, you whip that person either literally, with a whip, or figuratively, with harsh and scathing words. If you excoriate an animal, you strip off its skin. If you excoriate your knee, you have skinned your knee; you have an abrasion. And if you excoriate a person, you figuratively strip that person's skin off by delivering a harsh or severe rebuke or denunciation. / The corresponding noun is excoriation. /

SURFEIT

To supply, fill, or feed to excess, especially to the point of discomfort, sickness, or disgust. / Synonyms of surfeit include sate and satiate, which may mean either to fill or supply to satisfaction or to fill or supply beyond what is necessary or desired. Additional synonyms include stuff, cram, glut, gorge, choke, inundate, and cloy. / The verb to surfeit is derived from Middle English and Old French words meaning to overdo, exceed, and in modern usage surfeit means to feed, fill, or stuff to the point of discomfort, sickness, or disgust. You can surfeit yourself on a Thanksgiving feast. You can surfeit yourself with booze. You can watch episodes of the "Three Stooges" until you are surfeited with slapstick humor. Or you can read Verbal Advantage until your brain is surfeited with words. / The corresponding noun surfeit, pronounced the same way, is most often used to mean an excess or oversupply, as a surfeit of praise or a surfeit of products on the market. /

ADVOCATE

To support, plead for, be in favor of, defend by argument; especially, to speak or write in favor or in defense of a person or cause. Synonyms include champion, endorse, and espouse. / Advocate comes from the Latin ad‑, to, and vocare, to call, summon. You can hear the Latin vocare in the English words vocation, a calling, profession; avocation, a hobby, sideline, subordinate occupation; and vocational, pertaining to an occupation or trade. / Combine the Latin vocare, to call, with the prefix con‑, together, and you get the more difficult English words convoke, which means to call together, and convocation, the act of calling together or a group that has been summoned. Combine the single‑letter prefix e‑, which is short for the Latin ex‑, out, with vocare, to call, and you get the English words evoke, to call out, call forth, summon, and evocative, calling forth a response, especially an emotional response. / Vocare also can be heard in the common word vocal, spoken, oral, inclined to speak out. / An advocate is a vocal supporter or defender of a cause, a champion: / "He is an outspoken advocate of handgun control." An advocate may also be a person who speaks for another, for example, a lawyer who pleads a case before a court. To advocate means to support, plead for, defend by argument: "Their organization advocates educational reform." /

COMMISERATE

To sympathize, feel or express sympathy, show sorrow or pity for. / A somewhat unusual synonym of commiserate is the verb to condole, which means to grieve in sympathy, express condolence. / To commiserate comes from a Latin verb meaning to pity, and by derivation commiserate means to share someone else's misery. / Commiserate is often followed by with: "When Sally lost her job, her coworkers commiserated with her." /

LACERATE

To tear, cut roughly, rend, mangle: "The sharp thorn lacerated his thumb." / Lacerate may also be used figuratively to mean to wound, afflict, cause pain: "Her husband's vicious retort lacerated her pride and made her burst into tears." /

DEFENESTRATE

To throw something or someone out of a window. / I include this humorous but useful word in the event that you may be experiencing a recrudescent urge to give up building your vocabulary and defenestrate Verbal Advantage from a swiftly moving vehicle. / The verb to defenestrate combines the prefix de‑, meaning "out," with the Latin fenestra, a window. The corresponding noun defenestration means the act of throwing something or someone out of a window. /

TRANSMUTE

To transform; specifically, to change from one nature, form, or substance into another, especially to a higher, better, or more refined one. / The verb transmute combines the prefix trans‑, meaning "across" or "beyond," with the Latin mutare, to change. Literally, transmute means "to change across the board" or "to change something beyond what it is." / Transmute was once used in the primitive science of alchemy, which preceded modern chemistry, to refer to the changing of base metals or common elements into a higher form, as to transmute iron into gold. Today the word is used generally to mean to completely change the nature or substance of something, especially to change it to a more refined or more desirable state: You can transmute an idea into a reality, transmute sorrow into joy, or make a modest investment that over thirty years transmutes into a substantial nest egg for retirement. /

LIONIZE

To treat a person as a celebrity or as an object of great interest or importance. / One meaning of the noun a lion is an important, famous, or especially interesting person. "He is a lion in his profession" does not mean he is ferocious but that he is of great interest or importance. A lion of industry is a prominent industrialist. A literary lion is an important, celebrated writer. / The verb to lionize means to treat a person either as a celebrity or as an object of great interest or importance: "If you want to be respected by millions, win a Nobel Prize. If you want to be lionized by millions, become a movie star." "Despite all their scandals and foibles, the members of England's royal family are lionized more often than they are vilified." /

IMPORTUNE

To trouble or annoy with requests or demands, make urgent or persistent entreaties or solicitations. / To remember the meaning of the verb importune, think of some annoying person who interrupts your life at an inappropriate moment and urgently asks you to do something you don't want to do. Salespeople importune you on the telephone when you're not interested and have better things to do. / Panhandlers importune you on the street to beg for a handout. Children are experts at importuning parents when they are preoccupied with work or some pressing domestic chore, like cooking or paying bills. / The corresponding adjective is importunate, troublesomely demanding, persistent in a vexatious way. /

RUMINATE

To turn over in the mind, think about again and again, consider carefully or at length. / Synonyms of ruminate include to ponder, contemplate, meditate, deliberate, muse, cogitate, and mull. / The etymology of the verb to ruminate may surprise you. It comes from the Latin ruminare, to chew the cud, and by derivation means to chew over and over again. In the science of zoology the word ruminant is used of animals that chew their cud, such as cows, oxen, sheep, goats, deer, giraffes, and camels. These ruminant creatures have multichambered stomachs, the first chamber of which is called the rumen. When a ruminant chews its cud, it is chewing food that has been swallowed, partially digested in the rumen, and then regurgitated into the mouth for thorough mastication. By a logical extension, the verb to ruminate has come to mean to chew the cud mentally, to regurgitate a thought and turn it over and over in the mind. / Just as we often say that we chew on something, we often say that we ruminate on something: "Aging athletes may ruminate on the triumphs of their youth"; "When John heard the rumor of impending layoffs, he went back to his office and ruminated on his future with the company." /

DIVAGATE

To wander, ramble, or drift about; hence, to digress. / The verb to divagate and the corresponding noun divagation come from the Latin divagari, to wander about, which comes in turn from dis‑, meaning "apart," and vagari, to wander, ramble, roam. In modern usage, divagate is a grandiloquent synonym for wander or digress, and divagation is a loftier word for a digression or the act of wandering or rambling. You may divagate literally, as to spend a summer divagating across the country. Or you may divagate figuratively: "Leroy dreaded his eighty‑year‑old mother's hebdomadal phone call, because she would jabber and scold and divagate for an hour." /

DIGRESS

To wander, stray from the point, ramble, deviate, go off in another direction. / Digress comes from the Latin digressus, which comes in turn from the prefix dis‑, apart, and gradi, to go, walk, step. Digress means literally to go apart, walk away. From the same Latin source come ingress, the place you walk in, the entrance; and egress, the place you walk out, the exit. / Digress once was used of a physical wandering or turning aside, but that sense is now archaic, which means old‑fashioned. Today we do not say, "She turned right and digressed down Main Street." Instead, digress is used of speaking or writing that departs from the main point or subject at hand and wanders off in another direction: "In a business report or an oral presentation, it's important to stick to the facts and not digress"; "If she hadn't digressed so much, her lecture would have been more interesting." The corresponding noun is digression: / "The old man's story was full of humorous digressions." /

ADMONISH

To warn or notify of a fault or error, especially in conduct or attitude; to criticize or reprove gently but earnestly. / Synonyms of admonish include advise, counsel, caution, apprise, exhort, and expostulate. The corresponding noun is admonishment, a gentle warning or mild criticism. / To admonish comes from the Latin verb admonere, to warn, remind; the word suggests putting someone in mind of something he has forgotten, done wrong, or disregarded by giving him a strong but gently expressed warning or reminder. You can admonish an employee for tardiness or for overlooking an error; you can admonish a small child to obey a rule; or you can admonish a friend who is working too hard to take it easy. /

VACILLATE

To waver, fluctuate, be indecisive, show uncertainty, hesitate in making up one's mind: The strong leader is decisive; the weak leader vacillates. / Vacillate comes from a Latin verb meaning to sway to and fro. When you vacillate you go back and forth mentally on an issue or question. The person or group that vacillates has difficulty coming to a conclusion or expressing a firm opinion. /

SCARIFY

To wound the feelings of; make cutting remarks about; distress by criticizing sharply. / Synonyms of scarify include lacerate, flay, castigate, vituperate, and excoriate. The corresponding noun is scarification. / The verbs to scarify and scare are similar in spelling and sound but they are entirely unrelated in derivation and meaning. / Scarify comes through Latin and Greek words meaning to scratch, ultimately from the Greek skariphos, a pencil or stylus. In modern usage, scarify has three senses, the first two literal and the third figurative. Scarify is used in medicine to mean to make a series of shallow cuts or punctures in the skin; certain vaccinations are administered by scarification. Scarify is also used in agriculture to mean to cut into the ground, loosen or break up the soil either to aerate it or in preparation for planting. Out of these literal senses, which suggest scratching and scraping, scarify came to be used figuratively to mean to scratch with words; hence, to wound the feelings of, make cutting remarks about, distress by criticizing sharply. /

CAPITULATE

To yield, surrender; specifically, to surrender on specified terms or conditions. / The verbs to capitulate and to decapitate both come ultimately from the Latin caput, capitis, which means "the head." Decapitate sticks literally to its root and means to cut off the head. Capitulate has sprouted from its root and means to list the terms of surrender under various headings in a document. / Although some current dictionaries define capitulate as "to surrender unconditionally or on stipulated terms," in precise usage capitulate means to yield or surrender only on stipulated terms, although the terms do not necessarily have to be drawn up in a document. / When armies or nations capitulate, they specify the conditions under which they will surrender. When people accused of a crime accept a plea bargain, they capitulate by stipulating the terms under which they will yield to the prosecution and accept a conviction. And when two parties come to terms in a dispute, you can be sure that one party is the victor and the other has capitulated. / The corresponding noun is capitulation, the act of surrendering or yielding on specified terms or conditions. /

INFINITESIMAL

Too small to be measured or calculated. / Synonyms of infinitesimal include tiny, minute, microscopic, and minuscule. And speaking of minuscule—and strictly speaking—this word is traditionally and properly pronounced with the stress on the second syllable: mi‑NUHS‑kyool. The pronunciation MIN‑uh‑SKYOOL, now common among educated speakers, probably came about as a result of the persistent misspelling of the word as miniscule, as though it began with the prefix mini‑. This misspelling is now so widespread that most current dictionaries list it as a variant without comment, and many also give priority to the pronunciation with first‑syllable stress. I would argue, however, that the alternative spelling and pronunciation not only are at variance with the word's history but are also, quite frankly, idiotic. / Minuscule comes from the Latin minusculus, somewhat small. Look in any dictionary and you will see that the noun minuscule refers to a small, cursive script used in medieval manuscripts. / From that sense it came to denote either a small or lowercase letter or something printed in lowercase letters. The adjective minuscule originally meant pertaining to that small medieval script or consisting of small letters; its antonym in this sense is majuscule, which means written in capital letters. By natural extension minuscule also came to mean tiny, very small. / Our misspellings often mimic our mispronunciations, and in this case the evidence suggests that minuscule—probably from association with the words minimum, minimal, and miniature—came to be mispronounced MIN‑uh‑ SKYOOL and then later misspelled with the prefix mini‑, which means small. / Today the variant MIN‑uh‑SKYOOL is so popular that I can't in good conscience tell you that it's wrong, but I can at least admonish and implore you to spell the word properly. There is no mini‑ in minuscule, and even if you choose to say MIN‑uh‑SKYOOL, for goodness' sake remember that when you write the word it should be spelled like minus plus ‑cule. / Well, now that we've straightened out that minuscule but not insignificant point of usage, I'm afraid that we've lost track of our keyword, infinitesimal. / Of course, that's not surprising because this rather large, thirteen‑letter word means infinitely small and applies to that which is smaller than you can imagine. Unlike the words tiny, minute, and minuscule, which simply mean very small, and unlike microscopic, which means too small to be seen without a microscrope, infinitesimal is smaller still, and means specifically too small to be measured or calculated. / Occasionally you will come across a writer or speaker who is unaware of the specific meaning of infinitesimal and who uses it loosely. For example, in your local newspaper you might see a sentence like this: "Scientists detected an infinitesimal amount of mercury and lead in the city's tap water." Because infinitesimal properly applies to that which is too small to be measured or even detected, that sentence should read like this: "In a test of the city's tap water, scientists determined that if mercury and lead were present, the amounts were infinitesimal." /

INIMITABLE

Unable to be imitated, copied, or reproduced; beyond compare. / Synonyms of inimitable include matchless, unrivaled, peerless, unparalleled, and surpassing. / The prefix in‑often means "in" or "into," as in the words inhale, to breathe in; ingrain, to rub in, fix in the mind; and ingress, the way in, the entrance. However, in‑ is just as often privative; that is, it deprives or takes away the meaning of the word to which it is affixed. Like the prefix un‑, the prefix in‑ often means "not," as in the words informal, not formal; inaudible, not audible, unable to be heard; and injustice, something that is not fair or just. Our keyword, inimitable, combines this privative prefix in‑ with the somewhat unusual word imitable, able to be imitated, to mean "not able to be imitated." / You may use inimitable to describe anything that is one‑of‑a‑kind, individual, unique. An inimitable style cannot be imitated or copied. An inimitable performance is unrivaled, incomparable. An inimitable achievement surpasses all other achievements; it is matchless, beyond compare. /

AMBIVALENT

Uncertain, indecisive, having conflicting feelings or desires, simultaneously drawn in opposite directions, attracted to and repulsed by something at the same time. / The corresponding noun is ambivalence, a state of uncertainty or indecisiveness. / One meaning of the combining form ambi‑ is "both," as in the words ambidextrous, skilled with both hands, and ambivert, a person who is both introverted, inner‑directed, and extroverted, outer‑directed. Ambivalent combines ambi‑, both, with the Latin valere, to be strong. When you are ambivalent on an issue, you have strong feelings both ways; you are simultaneously drawn in opposite directions. The ambivalent person has conflicting feelings or desires, and therefore is uncertain, indecisive. /

NEBULOUS

Unclear, vague, obscure, hazy, indefinite, indistinct. / In astronomy the word nebula refers to a cloudy mass of dust or gas visible between stars in space. The plural is nebulae. / The adjectives nebular and nebulous both come from a Latin word meaning cloudy, misty, foggy, like a nebula, and according to dictionaries both words may still be used in this sense. It is probably best, however, to let nebular take over the meaning cloudy, misty, vaporous, and to use nebulous in its more popular sense of vague, indefinite, hazy, unclear, as in nebulous writing, a nebulous idea, a nebulous purpose or goal. /

INTRANSIGENT

Uncompromising, refusing to come to an agreement, unwilling to modify one's position or give ground. / Synonyms of intransigent include irreconcilable, unyielding, diehard, hidebound, obstinate, resolute, tenacious, recalcitrant, intractable, refractory, and obdurate. / Antonyms include compromising, flexible, obliging, submissive, compliant, malleable, docile, tractable, deferential, acquiescent, and complaisant. / Intransigent combines the privative prefix in‑, meaning "not," with the Latin verb transigere, to come to a settlement, and means literally refusing to settle, unwilling to come to an agreement, uncompromising. / Resolute, tenacious, obstinate, intractable, refractory, obdurate, and intransigent suggest firmness or fixity in ascending intensity. The resolute person is firmly settled in opinion, resolved to pursue a course of action. / Tenacious, which comes from the Latin tenere, to hold, suggests holding firmly; the tenacious person adheres persistently and sometimes doggedly to a belief or course of action. Obstinate implies stubborn adherence to an opinion or purpose and strong resistance to contrary influence or persuasion. Intractable means hard to lead or manage; the intractable person stubbornly resists direction. Refractory means stubborn and disobedient; a refractory person actively resists authority or control. / Obdurate means stubbornly hardhearted; the obdurate person cannot be moved by appeals to the emotions. / Our keyword, intransigent, combines the firmness of resolute, the persistence of tenacious, the stubborn resistance of obstinate, intractable, and refractory, and the hardheartedness of obdurate. The intransigent person takes an extreme position and will not compromise or back down under any circumstances. /

UNPRECEDENTED

Unheard‑of, novel, new, having no precedent or parallel, having no prior example. / A precedent is an authoritative example, something done or said that may serve as a reason to justify a later act or statement. Precedent is often used specifically of a legal decision or case used as an example or as authorization in a subsequent decision or case. Unprecedented means without a precedent, without prior example or justification, and so unheard‑of, novel, new. /

NEGLIGIBLE

Unimportant, trifling, of little consequence. / That which is negligible can be neglected. A negligible concern can be disregarded; it is so trivial and insignificant that it warrants little or no attention. /

CATHOLIC

Universal, all‑inclusive, all‑embracing, comprehensive; specifically, broad‑minded, tolerant, or all‑embracing in one's sympathies, interests, or tastes. / Catholic, with a capital C, refers to the Roman Catholic Church, to the religion of Catholicism, or to a member of the Catholic Church. The word catholic, with a small or lowercase c, has nothing to do with religion. It comes directly from Latin and Greek words meaning universal, general, and suggests a broad‑minded, tolerant, all‑embracing outlook on life. / Synonyms of catholic include open‑minded, liberal, ecumenical, and latitudinarian. / Antonyms include narrow‑minded, bigoted, biased, intolerant, dogmatic, and parochial. / Ecumenical and catholic both mean universal, general, whole. / Ecumenical often refers specifically to religious universality, and especially to that which furthers or is intended to further the unity of Christian churches or unity among religions. Catholic is the general word for universal in one's personal outlook, broad‑minded in one's sympathies or tastes. The catholic person is "not narrow‑minded, partial, or bigoted," says the Century Dictionary, but possesses "a mind that appreciates all truth, or a spirit that appreciates all that is good." /

CAPRICIOUS

Unpredictable, tending to change abruptly for no apparent or logical reason. / Synonyms of capricious include flighty, changeable, impulsive, and fickle. More difficult synonyms include erratic, whimsical, volatile, and mercurial. / A caprice is a sudden change of mind or change in the emotions. A person or a thing that is capricious is subject to caprices—to abrupt, unpredictable changes: "He's so capricious, his mood changes with the wind"; "New England has a capricious climate"; "The stock market is notoriously capricious." / Did you notice that my recommended pronunciation for capricious is kuh‑PRISH‑us, the second syllable rhyming with wish? You will hear educated speakers say kuh‑PREE‑shus, a pronunciation based on the corresponding noun caprice. This variant has been recognized by American dictionaries since the 1960s. But authorities have preferred kuh‑PRISH‑us since the 18th century, when pronunciation was first recorded. Current American dictionaries list kuh‑PRISH‑us first, and it is the only pronunciation in the Oxford English Dictionary. Have you ever heard anyone put an E in the middle of suspicious, judicious, or avaricious? Rhyme capricious with delicious. /

ARBITRARY

Unreasoned, based on personal feelings or preferences rather than on reason, logic, or law: "An arbitrary price for a product is not necessarily a fair price"; "His arbitrary decisions have cost the company a lot of money." / Arbitrary comes from the same Latin source as the words arbiter and arbitrator. Arbiter and arbitrator both mean a judge or umpire who makes a final decision or resolves a dispute. / Arbitrary means making discretionary judgments or decisions that may or may not be fair or reasonable. / Arbitrary has two other useful meanings. It may mean determined or arrived at in a random or illogical manner. For example, the arrangement of furniture in a room may be arbitrary, without an evident theme or pattern; arbitrary decisions are arrived at in a hasty, haphazard way. Arbitrary may also mean exercising unrestrained or absolute power: an arbitrary government has no regard for individual liberty. /

TACIT

Unspoken, silent, implied or understood without words. / Tacit is most often used to mean done or made in silence, not expressed or declared openly. Tacit consent is approval given without words, perhaps with a look or a nod. A tacit agreement is an unspoken understanding, one arrived at in silence. Tacit comes from the Latin tacere, to be silent, hold one's tongue, the source also of the word taciturn, reserved, uncommunicative, inclined to hold one's tongue. /

UNSCRUPULOUS

Untrustworthy, dishonorable, deceitful, corrupt, lacking integrity or moral principles: "The commission issued a report on unscrupulous business practices in the industry." / A scruple is something that causes hesitation or doubt in determining what is appropriate and proper. Scrupulous means having scruples; hence, taking pains to do something exactly right. The scrupulous person is precise, careful, and honest. Unscrupulous means without scruples; hence, untrustworthy, unreliable, deceitful, and corrupt. Unscrupulous people will do almost anything, no matter how dishonorable, to get what they want. /

ADAMANT

Unyielding, immovable, inflexible, refusing to give in, unshakable, unrelenting, implacable. "She was adamant in her opposition to the plan." / The adjective adamant comes from the noun adamant, which refers to a hard substance or stone, such as a diamond, that in ancient times was believed to be unbreakable. There is an old word adamantine, still listed in current dictionaries but not often used; it means like adamant, very hard, unbreakable. The adjective adamant, which has replaced adamantine in current usage, means hard in the sense of inflexible, immovable, unyielding. /

HETEROGENEOUS

Varied, composed of parts of different kinds, made up of unrelated or diverse elements, mixed, dissimilar, miscellaneous. / The opposite of heterogeneous is homogeneous, of the same or similar nature or kind. / The prefix homo‑ means same, similar, like, as in homosexual, attracted to the same sex; homogenize, to blend, make similar or homogeneous; and homonym, a word that is pronounced the same as another word but that has a different origin and meaning, such as fair and fare. / The prefix hetero‑means other, different, unlike, as in heterosexual, attracted to the other sex; heterodox, having an opinion different from the accepted opinion, the opposite of orthodox; and heterogeneous, varied, dissimilar, diverse, consisting of different elements or kinds. /

INVECTIVE

Vehement or abusive language involving bitter, scathing accusations or denunciations. / Synonyms of invective include slander, defamation, aspersion, objurgation, billingsgate, vituperation, and obloquy. / Antonyms of invective include praise, commendation, adulation, eulogy, and encomium. /

ARDUOUS

Very difficult, hard to achieve or accomplish, requiring great effort. / "Compiling the annual report is an arduous task." "Raising children is an arduous responsibility." / Synonyms of arduous include strenuous, laborious, and toilsome. /

EMOLUMENT

Wages, salary, payment received for work. / Synonyms of emolument include compensation, recompense, and remuneration, word 30 of Level 6. / Emolument comes from the Latin emolumentum, the fee a miller received for grinding grain, which comes in turn from the verb emolere, to grind out. By derivation, emolument means "that which is ground out by one's exertion." In the daily grind of the modern world, emolument has come to mean wages, pay, compensation for one's labor. Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition, notes that emolument "applies to whatever profits arise from office or employment, as 'the emoluments of a profession.'" / Now that you know the meaning of emolument, and also the keywords perquisite from Level 3 and commensurate from Level 6, I presume that the next time you consider a new position you will make sure that the perquisites are attractive and that the emolument is commensurate with your experience and ability. /

PERIPATETIC

Walking about, going from place to place on foot. / Synonyms of peripatetic include ambulating and itinerant. / Peripatetic comes from Greek and means literally walking about. When spelled with a capital P, Peripatetic refers to the ancient Greek school of philosophy founded by Aristotle, who expounded his theories while strolling in the Lyceum in Athens. / When spelled with a small p, peripatetic means walking about, traveling on foot, as peripatetic exercise, a peripatetic police officer, or a grassroots political campaign that succeeded because of the peripatetic efforts of volunteers. / Peripatetic may also be used as a noun to mean a peripatetic person, a pedestrian or itinerant, someone who walks or moves about on foot. /

NOCTIVAGANT

Wandering at night. / Noctivagant comes from the Latin noctivagus, wandering by night, which comes in turn from nox, meaning "night," and vagari, to wander about. This Latin vagari is also the source of the English adjective vague, literally "wandering in thought," vagabond, a wanderer, and vagary. A vagary is an odd, whimsical idea or an unpredictable, capricious action or event, as the vagaries of the stock market. / Our keyword, the adjective noctivagant, means wandering in the night. / Burglars, streetwalkers, and barhoppers are all noctivagant, but I'm sure you can come up with more pertinent applications for this rare but useful word. / The corresponding noun is noctivagation, the act of wandering in the night. /

ITINERANT

Wandering, traveling about, moving from place to place, especially to perform work. / Synonyms of the adjective itinerant include migratory, wayfaring, vagrant, nomadic, ambulatory, and the interesting word peripatetic. I'll discuss peripatetic further in the tenth and final level of the program, so keep reading! / Itinerant is also a noun meaning an itinerant person, a wanderer, wayfarer, someone who travels from place to place. / The words itinerant and itinerary come from the Late Latin verb itinerari, to travel, go on a journey. An itinerary is a route, a course taken on a journey, especially a detailed plan or list of places to visit while traveling, as "The travel agent prepared an itinerary for their trip to Europe, noting their transportation schedule and the hotels where they planned to stay." / In current usage itinerary is sometimes used loosely as a synonym of agenda, but these words should be sharply distinguished. An agenda is a list of things to be done or dealt with, especially a list of items to be addressed in a meeting. An itinerary is a list of places to go, a detailed plan for a journey. / The words itinerant, nomadic, vagrant, and ambulatory all mean moving or traveling about. / Ambulatory, from the Latin ambulare, to walk, means walking, able to walk around: "When Kevin broke his leg the doctor said it would be at least three months before he'd be ambulatory again." / Vagrant comes ultimately from the Latin vagari, to wander, and means wandering about with no fixed purpose. Vagrant is usually applied to people, such as hobos and tramps, who have no home or job and who wander about in a shiftless way. / Nomadic applies not to individuals but to tribes or groups of people who lack a permanent home, and who wander together from place to place to sustain themselves: "The nomadic tribes of the desert must move from oasis to oasis to provide enough water for themselves and their livestock." / Itinerant applies to people who travel from place to place to work or seek work, and the word usually suggests traveling on a regular course or circuit. / An itinerant preacher goes from town to town, spreading the gospel. / Itinerant laborers must travel from place to place to do their work. In the past, the legal system had many itinerant judges who traveled on a regular circuit to adjudicate cases in various far‑flung districts. /

OFFAL

Waste, garbage, refuse, rubbish. / Offal comes from Middle English and is a combination of the words off and fall. Originally the word applied to anything that fell off or was thrown off in the process of doing something—for example, wood chips in lumbering or carpentry, or the dross or scum that forms on the surface of molten metal. Since the early 1400s, offal has also been used of the waste parts removed in the process of butchering an animal. From that unsavory sense, the meaning of offal broadened to denote waste or garbage in general, anything thrown away as worthless. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare writes, "What trash is Rome? What rubbish, and what offal?" / Dictionaries still define offal as the waste parts, and especially the entrails, of a butchered animal, and if you are fond of sausages, as I am, I hope it won't disturb you to know that many of them are made from offal. / However, the more general definition of the word—trash, refuse, rubbish— is now probably more common. Today we dispose of our offal in sewers and landfills, and the offal of society gets sent to jail. /

HEBDOMADAL

Weekly; pertaining to a week or seven‑day period. / The adjective hebdomadal, and the corresponding noun hebdomad come from the Latin and Greek words for the number seven. The noun hebdomad may mean a group of seven; for example, a seven‑member commission or board is a hebdomad. Hebdomad may also mean a seven‑day period, a week. The adjective hebdomadal means weekly: hebdomadal duties are weekly duties; a hebdomadal occasion is an occasion that occurs once a week. /

SPENDTHRIFT

Wasteful, spending extravagantly or foolishly, squandering one's resources: "His spendthrift habits will put the company out of business." / You may use spendthrift either as an adjective meaning wasteful, spending extravagantly, or as a noun to mean a wasteful person, someone who foolishly squanders money or resources: "There isn't a thrifty bone in his body. He's a gambler and a spendthrift to the core." / The words improvident, prodigal, profligate, and spendthrift all mean wasteful, spending thoughtlessly or squandering one's resources. / Improvident means literally not provident, not providing for the future; the improvident person does not save money for retirement or for a rainy day. / Prodigal is a close synonym of spendthrift and means spending money in a reckless or extravagant way, usually to support a lavish or luxurious lifestyle. In the Bible, the famous parable about the prodigal son tells of a young man who wasted his inheritance but was forgiven by his father. / Profligate means extremely prodigal or spendthrift; it refers specifically to a person who spends money with reckless abandon and lives a life shamelessly devoted to pleasure: a profligate Hollywood movie star who squandered his fortune in exclusive nightclubs and casinos. / Spendthrift means wasteful, spending extravagantly: "The taxpayers want a more efficient and less spendthrift government." /

LASSITUDE

Weariness, fatigue; a weak or exhausted state or feeling; a sluggish relaxation of body or mind. / Synonyms of lassitude include listlessness, lethargy, debility, indolence, inertia, enervation, torpor, and languor. / Would you like an ultragrandiloquent synonym for lassitude? How about oscitancy? Oscitancy comes through the Latin oscitare, to yawn, gape, open the mouth, from the Latin os, the mouth. Literally, oscitancy means the act of yawning or gaping; figuratively, it means sleepiness, drowsiness, or sluggishness. / The Latin os, meaning "the mouth," is the source of another delightful grandiloquent word that is entirely unrelated to this discussion—but you don't mind if I'm desultory, do you? At any rate, this Latin os, the mouth, is also the source of the unusual English word osculation. Osculation denotes a pleasant act, something we all enjoy. With that clue, and knowing that this act has something to do with the mouth, can you guess what osculation means? If you're thinking the act of kissing, then you are a sagacious word sleuth indeed. / Now let's get back to our keyword, lassitude, which comes from the Latin lassitudo, weariness, exhaustion. In modern usage, lassitude denotes a weak or exhausted state or feeling; a sluggish relaxation of body or mind. / Surfeiting yourself at the dinner table can cause lassitude, and on sultry summer days we often experience lassitude. / Fatigue, weariness, and lassitude are close in meaning. Fatigue usually is the result of physical or mental exertion; you feel fatigue after ten or twelve hours of assiduous labor. According to the Century Dictionary, weariness is "the result of less obvious causes, as long sitting or standing in one position, importunity from others, delays, and the like. / Fatigue and weariness are natural conditions," says the Century, "from which one easily recovers by rest." Lassitude is "the result of greater fatigue or weariness than one can well bear, and may be of the nature of ill health. The word may, however, be used in a lighter sense." To illustrate that lighter sense, the Century quotes these lines from the eighteenth‑century British poet, essayist, and physician John Armstrong: / "Happy he whose toil/Has o'er his languid, pow'rless limbs diffus'd/a pleasing lassitude." /

VOLITION

Will, choice, decision, determination. / In Latin, the verb velle means to will or wish, and the word volo means "I will." From these words comes the English noun volition, which may refer either to the power of using the will or the act of exercising it in making a conscious choice or decision. / "He seems to lack volition" implies that he is weak and unable to make a choice or determination. "She came of her own volition" implies that she exercised her will independently, decided on her own to come. /

JUDICIOUS

Wise and careful, having or showing sound judgment. / Synonyms of judicious include sensible, levelheaded, prudent, and discreet. Antonyms include thoughtless, foolhardy, impetuous, and temerarious. / Judicious comes through the Latin judicium, judgment, from judex, a judge. Judex and the Latin verb judicare, to judge, pass judgment, are also the source of the English words judge, judgment, judicial, pertaining to a judge or to a judgment, and judiciary, judges collectively or the judicial branch of government. / As long as we're passing judgment on all these words, here's a spelling tip: Everyone knows the word judge has an e at the end, but many Americans don't seem to realize that there is no e in the middle of the word judgment. The British prefer to retain this medial e and spell the word judgement. The preferred American spelling, however, is judgment. / Our keyword, judicious, means having or showing sound judgment. A judicious decision is a wise and careful decision. A judicious course of action is a sensible, levelheaded, prudent course of action. /

SAGACIOUS

Wise, shrewd, perceptive; showing sound judgment and keen insight, especially in practical matters. / Synonyms of sagacious include insightful, discerning, astute, judicious, percipient, sage, sapient, and perspicacious. / Antonyms of sagacious include undiscriminating, undiscerning, simpleminded, witless, inane, gullible, credulous, obtuse, and addlepated. / The corresponding noun is sagacity, wisdom, shrewdness, keen insight or discernment. / Sagacious comes from the Latin sagax, having keen senses, especially a keen sense of smell. In its early days in the language, sagacious was used of hunting dogs to mean quick in picking up a scent. That sense is long obsolete. By 1755, when Samuel Johnson published his famous dictionary, sagacious had come to mean, as Johnson puts it, "quick of thought; acute in making discoveries." To illustrate the expanded sense, Johnson quotes the philosopher John Locke: "Only sagacious heads light on these observations, and reduce them into general propositions." Over the years since then, sagacious continued to acquire dignity, perhaps by association with the adjective sage, which means having or showing great wisdom. Today, says the third edition of The American Heritage Dictionary, sagacious "connotes prudence, circumspection, discernment, and farsightedness." / That's a far cry from the hunting hounds of yore. Yet, as those words reveal, a faint odor of quick‑sniffing canine instinct still clings to the word. In current usage, the sagacious person is no brooding scholar or musing philosopher but a shrewd, sharp‑eyed, keen‑witted person who displays instinctive wisdom, swift insight, and sound judgment regarding mundane or practical matters. Thus we do not speak of a sagacious treatise on the meaning of life, but rather of a sagacious comment on human nature, a shrewd lawyer who asks sagacious questions, or a business executive known for making sagacious decisions—in other words, wise and keenly perceptive decisions. /

PROLIX

Wordy and tiresome, long‑winded and boring, verbose, using far too many and a great deal more words than are necessary and essential to get the point, such as the point may be, across, despite the fact that... All right, already! Now that was a prolix definition if you ever saw one—not to mention redundant. / Challenging synonyms of prolix include circumlocutory, tautological, and pleonastic. / Antonyms of prolix include concise, terse, pithy, succinct, and sententious. / Prolix comes from the Latin prolixus, widely extended. Prolix applies to longwinded speech or writing that is tediously discursive, desultory, or protracted. If someone in a meeting talks on and on in a monotonous, boring way, that person is being prolix. /

VERBOSE

Wordy, having too many words, long‑winded, full of verbiage. / More difficult synonyms of verbose include garrulous, loquacious, voluble, and prolix. / Verbose refers to speech or writing that uses more words than necessary to get the point across. The corresponding noun is verbosity, wordiness, long‑windedness, an overabundance of words. / Whenever you see verb‑ at the beginning of a word, you can safely assume that the meaning of the whole word has something to do with words. That's because most English words containing verb‑ come from the Latin verbum, word. From this verbum come the English words verbal, pertaining to or expressed in words; verbatim, expressed in precisely the same words; verbiage, an excess or overabundance of words; and verbose, wordy, long‑winded, using more words than necessary to get the point across. / Since I'm already waxing verbose about words from the Latin verbum, word, allow me to digress even further and proffer a few words of advice on the words verbal and verbiage. / But back to the word verbiage, which is often mispronounced VUR‑bij, as if it had only two syllables. Carriage and marriage have two syllables, but verbiage and foliage have three. Try not to say VUR‑bij and FOH‑lij, or even worse, FOY‑lij. You will hear many educated people mispronounce these words, but believe me when I say that careful speakers consider the two‑syllable variants beastly mispronunciations. Take care to pronounce these words in three syllables: / VUR‑bee‑ij and FOH‑lee‑ij. / Now for a word to the wise on the proper use of verbal. You will often hear or read such phrases as "a verbal agreement" or "a verbal understanding." Have you ever stopped to ask yourself exactly what they mean? If you're like most people, you probably figured that a verbal agreement or a verbal understanding meant one that was arrived at through conversation, one that was spoken but not written down—and therein lies the problem. / The word oral means spoken, not written, and the precise meaning of verbal is expressed in words, either orally or in writing. Too often verbal, expressed in words, is used to mean oral, spoken, and the message that results from that confusion is usually ambiguous. For example, listen to this sentence, which I found recently in the business section of my local newspaper: "Ensure all promises made verbally are included, in writing, in the contract." As written, the sentence means that we should make sure that all promises, both spoken and written, are included in the contract. The writer wants to say that we should put all spoken promises in writing, but to convey that meaning precisely the sentence should read like this: "Ensure all promises made orally are included in the contract." / In the future, whenever you refer to promises, agreements, or understandings, remember that if they are expressed in speech, they are oral, and if they are expressed in words, whether spoken or written, they are verbal. Of course, if they are expressed in too many words, like most long‑winded legal contracts, then they are verbose, full of verbiage. /

JADED

Worn out, tired, fatigued, weary, exhausted; specifically, worn out by overwork or overindulgence. / One meaning of the noun a jade is a worn‑out or broken‑down horse, a nag. The verb to jade means to be or become like a worn‑out or broken‑down horse. The adjective jaded means like that broken‑down horse; specifically, worn out from overwork or overindulgence. When you drive your mind too hard or abuse your body, you become jaded; but you can also become jaded from too much of a good thing, as "Their lovemaking left him jaded." / In current usage jaded often suggests weariness accompanied by an insensitivity or immunity to something unpleasant: children jaded by abuse; seeing the consequences of so much violent crime had left the detective jaded. /

HAGGARD

Worn out, tired, gaunt, drawn, emaciated. A person who is haggard has a wild‑eyed and wasted look, as from exhaustion, illness, or grief. / Haggard is another word whose meaning I remember through the power of association. When I read King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, I imagined the author as being as worn out and wild‑eyed as his characters were by the end of their harrowing adventure. But you don't need to go through a death‑defying experience to look or feel haggard. Long hours at work, lack of sleep, or inadequate nutrition can easily make you haggard, worn out, tired, wasted, gaunt. /

HELIOLATRY

Worship of the sun. / The combining form helio‑ comes from the Greek helios, the sun, and is used in English words to mean the sun. For example, heliotherapy is a form of medical treatment involving exposure to sunlight. In astronomy, heliocentric means regarding the sun as the center of our planetary system, as opposed to geocentric, which refers to the pre‑Copernican notion that the Sun revolves around the earth. / The fascinating word heliotropism is formed from helio‑, the sun, and the greek tropos, a turning. heliotropism refers to the tendency of plants to bend or move toward—or in some cases, away from —a source of light. / Our keyword, heliolatry, combines helio‑, the sun, with the Greek latreia, meaning "worship." the corresponding noun is heliolater, a sun worshiper, and the corresponding adjective is heliolatrous, sun‑worshiping. /

EXEMPLARY

Worthy of imitation, praiseworthy, commendable, serving as a model of excellence, appropriateness, or correctness. / Synonyms of exemplary include ideal, admirable, meritorious, estimable, and laudable. Antonyms include shameful, disreputable, contemptible, deplorable, ignominious, odious, and heinous. / By the way, heinous means reprehensible, wicked, evil, as a heinous crime, a heinous lie. I have heard scores of educated people mispronounce it as HEE‑nis, HEE‑nee‑us, and HAY‑nee‑us. The best I can say about these pronunciations is that they are creative but wrong. The only pronunciation recognized by dictionaries is HAY‑nis, and anything else is utterly heinous, evil, wicked, reprehensible. / Now back to our more pleasant keyword, exemplary, which comes from the same Latin source as the word example. By derivation, something exemplary sets an example, and is therefore worthy of imitation. Exemplary conduct is praiseworthy. An exemplary performance is commendable. / Verbal Advantage teaches you how to use words in an exemplary manner. /