Recently Added Articles Page #120

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, ...

heinous - vocabulary

adjectiveOdious, hateful, totally reprehensible. If you commit a big crime then you are crazy, and the more heinous the crime the crazier you must be. Therefore you are not responsible, and nothing is your fault.—Peggy Noonan What I Saw at the Revo...

homogeneous - vocabulary

adjectiveComposed of elements or parts of the same kind; essentially alike. Israel's new deputy prime minister on Sunday called for a near-total separation between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land, sparking a wave of condemnation less than a week afte...

hoodwink - vocabulary

verbTo deceive, trick, cheat, swindle. British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.—Tim Shipman, Phil...

icon, iconoclast - vocabulary

nounIcon: An image, picture, likeness, or representation; an enduring symbol; a person who is the object of devotion or attention. In the computer world, a graphical image or symbol on a screen that represents an underlying file or program. “Grille...

idiosyncrasy - vocabulary

nounA characteristic, mental quality, or habit peculiar to an individual or group. “What’s to be done? Here’s the cottage, taking one time with another, will produce, say seventy pounds a year. I think we may safely put it down at that. Well!�...

imbroglio - vocabulary

nounA misunderstanding or disagreement attended by ill feeling, perplexity, or strife. In 1807, the US government implemented the Embargo Act. This decree, which closed American ports to foreign trade and prevented US ships from leaving those ports, ...

immutable - vocabulary

adjectiveUnchangeable; not subject or susceptible to change. Despite the promised "new direction for America," getting the money out of politics and all of that, some facts of Washington life appear immutable and eternal."One hundred hours to make th...

impalpable - vocabulary

adjectiveIncapable of being perceived by the sense of touch; intangible; difficult for the mind to grasp easily or readily, as in impalpable distinctions. This name [Virginia Woolf] springs to one's mind because Miss [Nadine] Gordimer is a writer who...

impecunious - vocabulary

adjectiveHaving little or no money; penniless; poor. He was an eccentric, disheveled, toothless and impecunious lifelong bachelor, an amateur poet and musician and an autodidact able to converse knowledgeably with experts in many different fields. An...

impervious - vocabulary

adjectiveImpenetrable, as in impervious to rain; incapable of being injured or impaired, as in impervious to wear and tear; incapable of being persuaded, influenced, or affected, as in impervious to another person’s suffering. Over the past several...

implicate, implicit - vocabulary

verbImplicate: to show to be also involved, usually in an incriminating manner, as in He was implicated in the crime; to imply as a necessary circumstance, or as something to be inferred or understood; to connect or relate to intimately; affect as a ...

importune - vocabulary

verbTo beset with solicitations, to demand with urgency; to beg for something urgently. When Benedict comes to the United States, he is likely to be importuned by conservative Catholics to side with the hard-liners. He would be wiser to listen to oth...

improvident - vocabulary

adjectiveLacking foresight; incautious; neglecting to provide for future needs. In the House of Representatives late this afternoon a sensational appeal was made by Representative John J. Fitzgerald of New York to vote against improvident and imprope...

impugn - vocabulary

verbTo challenge as false, cast doubt upon. “This was a great N.Y.P.D. officer who dedicated himself—put his life in harm’s way hundreds of times during his career—and you can use your own definition,” Mr. [Michael R.] Bloomberg said at a n...

impute - vocabulary

verbTo ascribe or attribute, as in She imputed special powers to the new software program. Kings are much to be pitied, who, misled by weak ministers, and deceived by wicked favourites, run into political errors, which involve their families in ruin:...