Recently Added Articles Page #120

estimable - vocabulary

adjectiveWorthy of respect, deserving esteem and admiration. But this is truly a wonderful occasion, the culmination of years of hard work and remarkable generosity, and all of which was due to the good grace of the estimable board of trustees of thi...

euphemism - vocabulary

nounA figure of speech by which a less offensive phrase is substituted to convey a harsh thought. For example, pass away is a euphemism for die. Euphemisms abound for prostitution, but spend a week combing through the phone records of the so-called "...

evince - vocabulary

verbTo make manifest or evident; to show clearly, to prove; to reveal the possession of a quality or trait. Presidents and prime ministers everywhere, I suspect, sometimes wonder how history will deal with them. Some even evince a touch of the insec...

evoke - vocabulary

verbTo call up or summon forth memories or feelings; to elicit, draw forth; to summon. Railroad iron is a magician’s rod, in its power to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water.—Ralph Waldo Emerson Speech, Boston, Massachusetts, February 7...

execrable - vocabulary

adjectiveAbominable, detestable, abhorrent; very bad. But is an enemy so execrable that though in captivity his wishes and comforts are to be disregarded and even crossed? I think not. It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war a...

expiate - vocabulary

verbTo atone for, to make amends for, as in to expiate his crimes. “Dolly!” he said, sobbing now; “for mercy's sake, think of the children; they are not to blame! I am to blame, and punish me, make me expiate my fault. Anything I can do, I am r...

explicate - vocabulary

verbTo make clear or plain; to explain, interpret; to develop a theory or principle. "This book is about life as it is interpreted by books," Edward Mendelson begins. He takes as his subjects Birth, Childhood, Growth, Marriage, Love, Parenthood and (...

extenuate - vocabulary

verbTo diminish the gravity or importance of an offense, fault, or crime; to underestimate, make light of, underrate.Note: The present participle extenuating appears as a verbal adjective to mean to partially excuse, as in extenuating circumstances. ...

extricate - vocabulary

verbTo release or free from entanglement, to disengage, usually from a situation. Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricat...

fatuous - vocabulary

adjectiveFoolish, inane, silly, especially in a self-satisfied way. I’m sick of the Powder Room. I’m sick of pretending that some fatuous male’s self-important pronouncements are the objects of my undivided attention, I’m sick of going to fil...

fervor, fervid - vocabulary

nounFervor: great warmth or earnestness of feeling; intense heat.adjectiveFervid: intense, heated, or vehement in enthusiasm; intensely hot, burning, glowing. Abortion rights groups are wasting no time in trying to rally support in the wake of last w...

foible - vocabulary

nounA minor failing or weakness of character; slight defect or flaw. It is the foible especially of American youth,—pretension. The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech, he takes a low business-tone, avoi...

forego, forgo - vocabulary

verbForego: to go before, precede. The past tense is forewent, the past participle foregone.Forgo: to refrain from, to do without; to give up, renounce. The past tense is forwent, the past participle forgone.Note: Consider the following discussion fr...

fungible - vocabulary

adjectiveUsually used to describe goods of a nature or kind that may be freely exchangeable or replaceable for others of like kind or nature. In finance, fungible assets refers to securities or commodities that are freely mixed and whose ownership is...

farther, further - vocabulary

adjective, adverbFarther: the comparative form of the adjective and adverb far; is often followed by than.Further: may be used in the adverbial sense of “moreover,” as in Further, you hurt my feelings; in the adjectival sense of “more extended,...

furtive - vocabulary

adjectiveDone or taken or used surreptitiously, on the sly; shifty. We are a sad lot, the cell biologists. Like the furtive collectors of stolen art, we are forced to be lonely admirers of spectacular architecture, exquisite symmetry, dramas of viole...

gamut - vocabulary

nounThe whole range, sequence, or scale, as in the gamut of emotion from joy to grief.Note: Way too often you will hear people say runs the gambit. Careful. It’s run the gamut. Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, th...

generic - vocabulary

adjectiveReferring to or applicable to all members of a group, kind, or class. In biology, of or referring to a genus. In law, a word not protected by trademark, as in The word “cola” is a generic term.nounA type of food, drug, or item marketed i...

germane - vocabulary

adjectiveSignificantly or closely related, relevant, pertinent. Quotes from Mao, Castro, and Che Guevara . . . are as germane to our highly technological, computerized society as a stagecoach on a jet runway at Kennedy airport.....Always remember ...

gregarious - vocabulary

adjectiveFond of the company of others, sociable; pertaining to animals, living in herds or flocks. New York is the greatest city in the world for lunch .... That’s the gregarious time. And when that first martini hits the liver like a silver bulle...

grizzly, grisly - vocabulary

adjectiveGrizzly: grayish; also, as a noun, a large bear.Grisly: causing a feeling of horror; gruesome; horrible, as in a grisly murder. I often look upon a face Most ugly, grisly, bare and thin; I often view the hollow place, Where eyes and nose had...

hackney - vocabulary

verbTo make stale or trite by frequent use or repetition.Note: As a noun, hackney means a carriage or coach for hire. As a proper noun, Hackney is an English breed of horses with high-stepping gaits. As a verbal adjective, hackneyed means banal or tr...

halcyon - vocabulary

adjectiveCalm, peaceful, as in halcyon weather; rich, wealthy, as in halcyon days of peace; happy, carefree, as in the halcyon days of our youth. It was a halcyon day, and as they neared the shore and the salt breezes scurried by, he began to picture...

harass - vocabulary

verbTo bother continually; to torment, usually with troubles or cares; to pester.Note: You may pronounce it either way, with the accent on the first syllable or the last. In American English, the better pronunciation accents the second syllable. Her...

harbinger - vocabulary

nounOne who or that which foreruns and announces the coming of any person or thing; anything that foreshadows a coming thing or event. Now the bright morning star, day’s harbinger, Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flow’ry May, ...