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Zeitgeist - correct spelling

nounNote: The word is typically capitalized. It means the spirit of the times.Example: The Zeitgeist of England in the Victorian period focused on industrial progress. The Zeitgeist of the 2000s in the United States concerns the Internet....

added by edgood
7 years ago

abase - vocabulary

abase - verb To deprive of esteem, to diminish a person’s self-worth or effectiveness; to degrade or demean; to humble, humiliate, mortify; to bring low, take down a peg. When metastases appeared, men were castrated, since testosterone seemed to pr...

added by edgood
7 years ago

abject - vocabulary

abject - adjective Sunk to a low condition, miserable, degraded, without self-respect, of the lowest kind.Note: Often used in the cliché, abject poverty, where abject serves only as an intensifier. I do not think that an old fellow like me need have...

added by edgood
7 years ago

abjure - vocabulary

abjure - verb To recant; to repudiate under oath; to disavow a stance previously written or said; to renounce irrevocably. 2. Resolved, That we the citizens of Mecklenburg County, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

abeyance - vocabulary

abeyance - noun A state of suspension or temporary inaction; the condition of being temporarily set aside or held in suspension, as in They held the program in abeyance. In law, a condition of undetermined ownership as when a property right has yet t...

added by edgood
7 years ago

abominate - vocabulary

abominate - verb To dislike strongly; to regard with loathing; to execrate. Now is as good a time as ever to revisit the history of the Crusades, or the sorry history of partition in Kashmir, or the woes of the Chechens and Kosovars. But the bombers ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

abrogate - vocabulary

abrogate - verb To abolish by official means; to annul by an authoritative act; to repeal, as in to abrogate a law; to put an end to. The new crusade to render socialism irrevocable has raised the temperature further. Yet the balance of the past deca...

added by edgood
7 years ago

abstemious - vocabulary

abstemious - adjective A state of self-denial or abstinence, regarding the use (usually overuse) of food or drink. When [Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121–180)] was eleven years old, he assumed the dress of philosophers, something plain and coarse, ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

abstruse - vocabulary

abstruse - adjective Having to do with matters difficult to comprehend. My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can di...

added by edgood
7 years ago

acumen - vocabulary

acumen - noun Quickness of intellectual insight, or discernment; keenness of judgment, insight, discrimination.Note: The older pronunciation stresses the second syllable. The modern pronunciation stresses the first syllable. Eugene Meyer's enlightene...

added by edgood
7 years ago

adduce - vocabulary

adduce - verb To bring forward evidence in an argument; to cite as pertinent or even conclusive. As shown below, often used in legal proceedings: President Clinton, through undersigned counsel, hereby moves the Court pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil...

added by edgood
7 years ago

aggrandize - vocabulary

aggrandizement - noun Aggrandizement: the act of increasing the size or importance of something or somebody. aggrandize - verb Aggrandize: to widen or increase in size or intensity; to make great or greater in wealth, power, honor, or rank; to make s...

added by edgood
7 years ago

alacrity - vocabulary

alacrity - noun A state of cheerful willingness, readiness, or promptness; liveliness or briskness, as in He accepted the promotion with alacrity. I have not that alacrity of spirit Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have.—William Shakespeare Ric...

added by edgood
7 years ago

amenable - vocabulary

amenable - adjective Willing or ready to answer, serve, agree, yield, or act; agreeable, tractable; legally responsible or answerable, as in She was amenable for her husband’s debt. Despite the document's adoption, however, it was clear that the mo...

added by edgood
7 years ago

anachronism - vocabulary

anachronism - noun Anything or anyone not in the correct historical or chronological time; an error in the assignment of a date or time to a person, thing, or event, as in To describe Mozart in the 19th century is an anachronism. In a consultation ro...

added by edgood
7 years ago

anathema - vocabulary

anathema -noun A person or thing loathed, hated, or detested; a curse or execration, as in This topic is anathema to him.Note: The plural is anathemas. Give me your anathema. Speak new damnations on my head. The evening mist in the hills is soft. The...

added by edgood
7 years ago

anecdote, antidote - vocabulary

anecdote, antidote anecdote - noun A brief account of an interesting or even amusing event or incident. When the ladies removed after dinner Elizabeth ran up to her sister, and seeing her well guarded from cold, attended her into the drawing-room, wh...

added by edgood
7 years ago

antediluvian - vocabulary

antediluvian - adjective Of or pertaining to the times, things, events before the great flood in the days of Noah; something old-fashioned, antiquated, out-of-date. “And is it true the younger Vlassiev girl’s to marry Topov?”“Yes, they say it...

added by edgood
7 years ago

aphorism - vocabulary

aphorism - noun A terse saying that embodies a general truth, as in (with apologies to Lord Acton) Power corrupts and Power Point corrupts absolutely.Note: In The World in a Phrase, his 2005 history of the form, James Geary laid down his "Five Laws o...

added by edgood
7 years ago

apposite - vocabulary

apposite - adjective Appropriate, well-suited, apt, relevant, suitable. The opposite is inapposite, often used by lawyers to put down opponents’ arguments. Like most writers, [Millard] Kaufman is an avid reader; he calls F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

approbation - vocabulary

approbation - noun Approval, commendation, official sanction. Superstars strive for approbation; heroes walk alone. Superstars crave consensus; heroes define themselves by the judgment of a future they see it as their task to bring about. Superstars ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

apostasy, apostate - vocabulary

apostasy, apostate - noun Apostasy: a total departure from one’s religious, political, or personal beliefs and principles.Apostate: a person who forsakes his or her religious, political, or personal beliefs and principles.Note: Apostate can also be...

added by edgood
7 years ago

arrogate - vocabulary

arrogate - verb To take, demand, or claim, especially presumptuously or without reasons or grounds. This second source of men, while yet but few, . . . Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace, . . . Shall spend their days in joy unblamed, and dwel...

added by edgood
7 years ago

ascetic - vocabulary

ascetic - adjective Given to severe self-denial and practicing excessive abstinence and devotion. Hester sought not to acquire anything beyond a subsistence, of the plainest and most ascetic description, for herself, and a simple abundance for her ch...

added by edgood
7 years ago

askance - vocabulary

askance - adverb Usually describes the act of looking or glancing; with suspicion or mistrust, as in He looked askance at his boss, who seemed to bring bad tidings. “Do you suppose he can possibly recover?” said Levin, watching a slender tress at...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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    Quiz

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    Identify the sentence with correct use of the preposition 'with':
    A He walked with his friends in the park.
    B She painted a picture with watercolors.
    C They drove with care.
    D The cat is playing with a ball of yarn.