Word of the Day Archives

• tangible (adj.) Listen

  capable of being touched

  He’s not interested in tangible rewards.

• gourmand (n.) Listen

  a person who is fond of good eating

  A true gourmand, he met with the chef before his meal.

• miasma (n.) Listen

  a dangerous or foreboding influence

  We need to cut through this miasma if we want to survive.

• defenestration (n.) Listen

  the act of throwing something or someone out of a window

  His body was discovered an hour after the defenestration.

• sardonic (adj.) Listen

  marked by scornful or bitter derision

  Sardonic humor is very self-revelatory.

• Neanderthal (n.) Listen

  an uncivilized, unintelligent or uncouth person, especially a man

  It’s counteractive to work with someone who has the mentality of a Neanderthal.

• teem (v.) Listen

  to abound or swarm

  That neighborhood teems with potential homes for small families.

• inevitable (adj.) Listen

  unable to be avoided; certain

  His resignation was inevitable.

• octogenarian (n.) Listen

  a person who is 80-89 years old

  Two octogenarians were found dead in a Texas home.

• glib (adj.) Listen

  readily fluent, often thoughtlessly

  She could have use a glib one-liner to deflect the anticipated questions.

• abomination (n.) Listen

  something that is intensely loathed

  Protestors called the new tax legislation “an abomination.”

• befuddle (v.) Listen

  make someone unable to think clearly

  The swirling colors on the screen befuddled her.

• autodidact (n.) Listen

  someone who is self-taught

  She was recognized as an autodidact, and a lot of what she knew came from observing others.

• autodidact (n.) Listen

  someone who is self-taught

  She was recognized as an autodidact, but a lot of what she knew came from observing others.

• insidious (adj.) Listen

  harmful but enticing

  The last challenge is to outsmart an insidious enemy.

• superfluous (adj.) Listen

  excessive; unnecessary

  Some of the movie’s 3D scenes seemed superfluous.

• sinew (n.) Listen

  strength; vigor

  Her sinew waned during the last moments of her life.

• empirical (adj.) Listen

  guided by or derived from experience

  Empirical evidence shows that some students learn better when they listen to music.

• spontaneity (n.) Listen

  acting on sudden impulse

  When shopping for a car, spontaneity is not always wise.

• 

  pagoda (n.) Listen

  a Hindu or Buddhist temple or sacred place, often a many-tiered tower

• plethora (n.) Listen

  excess

  She could choose from a plethora of outfits.

• foreboding (adj.) Listen

  ominous

  Her grimace was a foreboding indication of her mood.

• magnanimous (adj.) Listen

  noble

  He was one of few magnanimous rulers, in my opinion.

• machismo (n.) Listen

  exaggerated sense of masculine pride

  Football is a rough-and-tumble sport, steeped in machismo.

• nihilist (n.) Listen

  one who completely rejects established rules and institutions

  He's a nihilist, but he has a heart.

• amuse-bouche (n.) Listen

  a bite-sized appetizer

  We'll start our meal with an amuse-bouche.

• supercilious (adj.) Listen

  coolly haughty or disdainful

  In the drama series, he plays the part of a supercilious millionaire.

• fair-weather friend (n.) Listen

  a person who stops being a friend in times of difficulty

  He needed someone who was more than just a fair-weather friend.

• doppelganger (n.) Listen

  a ghostly double of a live person that haunts him through life and is usually visible only to himself

  Matthew couldn’t shake his obsessive visions of his doppelganger.

• snafu (n.) Listen

  a confused or chaotic state; literally means “situation normal all fucked up”

  In the most recent 911 snafu, a typo sent firefighters to the wrong address.

• trope (n.) Listen

  a cliché theme

  There's a classic Hollywood trope that says intimate family secrets must be unveiled within the last half-hour of the movie.

• 

  epaulet (n.) Listen

  an ornamental shoulder piece on an item of clothing, especially a jacket

• morose (adj.) Listen

  marked by gloom or sullenness

  She is a reserved, morose teenage girl.

• interlocutor (n.) Listen

  one who takes part in conversation

  Chiara Lubich was a key interlocutor for the discussion about world unity.

• morose (adj.) Listen

  marked by gloom or sullenness

  She is a reserved, morose teenager.

• fastidious (adj.) Listen

  difficult to please

  My fastidious professor wants me to rewrite my paper for the fifth time.

• comity (n.) Listen

  friendly civility

  Obama's beer summit was an attempt at achieving comity.

• 

  bandoleer (n.) Listen

  a shoulder belt with loops for ammunition cartridges

• woebegone (adj.) Listen

  sad or miserable in appearance

  The Packers cannot afford to take a bad opponent lightly, in this case the woebegone Browns.

• paroxysm (n.) Listen

  a sudden attack or spasm

  He broke down in a paroxysm of emotion.

• hagiography (n.) Listen

  a writing about a saint’s life; a biography that idealizes its subject

  The 42-page memoir of John F. Kennedy was basically a gushy hagiography.

• penury (n.) Listen

  extreme poverty

  The neighborhoods of rural India were a scene of penury.

• penury (n.) Listen

  extreme poverty

  The neighborhoods of rural India were a scene of penury.

• 

  bonobo (n.) Listen

  an anthropoid ape that inhabits a small geographical region in Africa, south of the Congo River

• flummox (v.) Listen

  perplex greatly

  Our questions seemed to flummox the mayor.

• appurtenance (n.) Listen

  an accessory

  Her closet was overflowing with luxurious appurtenances.

• saccharine (adj.) Listen

  overly or unpleasantly sweet

  He spent most of his summer writing a saccharine ballad for his girlfriend.

• arbiter (n.) Listen

  a person with power to decide a dispute

  The military acted as arbiter of conflicts between political groups.

• 

  raglan sleeves (n.) Listen

  a sleeve extending to the neckline and so having slanted seams from the underarm to the neck

• somnambulant (adj.) Listen

  walking while asleep

  The smell of fresh coffee drew her somnambulant roommate from bed.

• potable (n.) Listen

  a beverage

  Soda and other potables will be offered at the buffet.

• notorious (adj.) Listen

  widely and unfavorably known for something reprehensible or scandalous

  She was a notorious cheater.

• eventide (n.) Listen

  the evening

  The white, trumpet-like moon flower blossoms at eventide.

• 

  castanet (n.) Listen

  small concave pieces of wood, ivory or plastic, joined in pairs by cord and clicked together as a rhythmic accompaniment to Spanish music

• helter-skelter (n.) Listen

  a disorderly confusion

  This was one helter-skelter of a workday.

• steel (v.) Listen

  to fill with unyielding determination or stark unsensibility

  She steeled herself and opened a box of her mother’s old papers.

• ephemeral (adj.) Listen

  temporary

  Fashion trends are ephemeral.

• intrepid (adj.) Listen

  characterized by resolute fearlessness in meeting dangers or hardships and enduring them with fortitude

  Our intrepid leader took us on the adventure of our lives.

• 

  conifer (n.) Listen

  an order of mostly evergreen trees with cones and needle-shaped leaves

• halcyon (adj.) Listen

  pleasingly calm and peaceful

  Summers at the lake were halcyon.

• acquiescence (n.) Listen

  agreement or consent without objection

  They lost the land, in part, because of their acquiescence.

• inordinate (adj.) Listen

  immoderate or excessive

  The couple spent an inordinate amount of time together in the bathroom.

• communiqué (n.) Listen

  an official announcement

  Her short communiqués on Twitter seem to be directed at a handful of people.

• 

  alphorn (n.) Listen

  a straight, wooden horn 5 to 14 feet in length, used by Swiss herders

• saunter (v.) Listen

  to walk leisurely

  He sauntered into the office without a care.

• obstinate (adj.) Listen

  firmly adhering to one's opinion or purpose

  Obama has to deal with many obstinate countries' governments.

• tome (n.) Listen

  a large or scholarly book

  I lugged around that philosophy tome for an entire semester.

• onus (n.) Listen

  a difficult burden

  The onus is on us to prove that the money was ours.

• 

  fjord (n.) Listen

  a narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs or steep slopes

• inane (adj.) Listen

  lacking significance

  The new live teenage show is just a bunch of inane banter.

• cantankerous (adj.) Listen

  marked by ill humor, irritability and determination to disagree

  A cantankerous Korean War veteran befriends the man who tried to steal his car.

• lummox (n.) Listen

  a clumsy person

  Watch it, you lummox!

• acquiescence (n.) Listen

  agreement or consent without objection

  They lost the land, in part, because of their acquiescence.

• 

  metronome (n.) Listen

  an instrument that makes repeated clicking sounds at an adjustable pace to keep a rhythm for practicing music

• autonomously (adv.) Listen

  acting independently

  A helpless person may actually be a very powerful person who needs to be shown how to do things autonomously.

• myriad (adj.) Listen

  numerous, diverse

  Eddie Murphy’s strength is in creating myriad voices and personalities.

• palatial (adj.) Listen

  magnificent, luxurious

  Ross can fit six cars in his palatial garage.

• impresario (n.) Listen

  a person who organizes public entertainment; a director

  Lindsay was a true impresario who had a talent for giving people what they wanted.

• 

  puffin (n.) Listen

  a seabird with a short neck and a deep, grooved bill

• garrulous (adj.) Listen

  pointlessly and excessively rambling

  Polonius seems to be a foolish, garrulous old man.

• blow-hard (n.) Listen

  an especially boastful person

  That disc jockey is such a self-promoting blowhard.

• banal (adj.) Listen

  common, worn-out

  Britney Spears’ songs are banal and repetitive.

• 

  cupola (n.) Listen

  a rounded vault raised on a base and forming a roof or ceiling

• caterwaul (v.) Listen

  to complain or protest loudly

  Her cry became more of a caterwaul.

• placebo (n.) Listen

  a substance having no pharmacological effect but given for mental relief to a patient who supposes it to be medicine

  During the experiment, one half was injected with the medication, and the other half was injected with a placebo.

• affable (adj.) Listen

  characterized by ease and friendliness

  The affable police officer was nicknamed “Officer Friendly.”

• plume (n.) Listen

  an elongated and mobile column or band (as in gas exhaust, smoke or snow)

  The firecracker exploded, sending a plume of white smoke into the air.