Word of the Day

[Scheherazade]

Dear All,

While posting new words in this thread, please clearly state the date you are posting and don't forget that the definition should come from a legitimate online dictionary with the link cited at the end of the post.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/featur...onaryhome.aspx

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

http://dictionary.reference.com/

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://www.webster.com/

[Scheherazade]

Match the words and definitions! (All the words are posted in this thread.)


1. soporific .............................. a. seeming to be in all places

2. entitlement........................... b. To accept or agree to something, often unwillingly

3. jingoist ............................... c. Many and varied

4. defenestrate ........................ d. People who are clever at planning things to get what they want, especially by tricking other people

5. ubiquitous ............................ e. The lucky tendency to find interesting or valuable things just by chance

6. hylozoism ............................. f. Someone who is given to the use of long (often ridiculous) words

7. motile .................................. g. A business agent.

8. cunning ................................ h. Someone who believes that their own country is always best

9. catch-22 .............................. i. Able to move by itself

10. abbys .................................. j. A state of not happening

11. bathysiderodromophobia .......... k. Giving birth to young that have already developed inside the mother's body

12. manifold ............................... l. One who blindly or excessively admires another

13. syndic ................................. m. Throw through or out of the window

14. acquiesce ............................ n. Belief that all matter has life

15. idolator ............................... o. A very deep hole which seems to have no bottom

16. viviparous ............................ p. A contradictory or self-defeating course of action

17. equanimity ........................... q. Causing sleep or making a person want to sleep

18. serendipity ........................... r. Calmness and self-control in a difficult situation

19. abeyance ............................ s. Fear of subways, undergrounds, or metros

20. sesquipedalian ...................... t. Something that you have right to do or have




How did you do?

[kilted exile]

Ok I got 18 (mixed up vivaparous & sesquipadalian)

*finally taking latin at school came in useful for something - defenestrate*

[Jay]

LOL!!!

[Jay]

getting friendly with onelook.com

comeuppance
deserved fate: something unpleasant, regarded as a just punishment for somebody (informal)
He got his comeuppance in the end.

[Mid-19th century. Formed from come up, probably in the sense “to be tried before a court.”]

come-uppance - noun, informal, humorous
a person's bad luck that is considered to be a fair and deserved punishment for something bad that they have done
She'll get her come-uppance, don't worry.

[Scheherazade]

ostensible adj FORMAL

appearing or claiming to be one thing when it is really something else:

Their ostensible goal was to clean up government corruption, but their real aim was to unseat the government.


ostensibly adv FORMAL

He has spent the past three months in Florida, ostensibly for medical treatment, but in actual fact to avoid prosecution for a series of notorious armed robberies.


Source

[Jay]

blame ihrocks for calling me names ... especially ones I don't know

an enfant terrible
a famous or successful person who likes to shock people by behaving badly
Jean Paul Gaultier, the enfant terrible of French fashion, arrived at the show wearing a mini kilt.

enfant terrible
noun, plural enfants terribles, formal
a famous or successful person who likes to shock people
In the seventies he was the enfant terrible of the theatre.

wonder why they have two versions of the definition

[Scheherazade]

pedant noun [C] DISAPPROVING
a person who is too interested in formal rules and small unimportant details


pedantic adjective DISAPPROVING
They were being unnecessarily pedantic (=giving too much attention to formal rules or small details) by insisting that Berry himself, and not his wife, should have made the announcement.


pedantically adverb


pedantry noun [U]
There was a hint of pedantry in his elegant style of speaking.


http://dictionary.cambridge.org/defi...key=pedant*1+0

[kilted exile]

I attempted to use the word soporific in conversation today, drew blank looks from my roommates.

[Scheherazade]

Maybe your conversation had already taken a soporific effect on them?

[Jay]

Maybe they thought you were calling them nasty names and didn't want to show you they didn't know how bad it was

[kilted exile]

Maybe your conversation had already taken a soporific effect on them?

This is indeed a distinct possibility.

[Scheherazade]

polyglot adj FORMAL

1. speaking or using several different languages:

She was reading a polyglot bible, with the text in English, Latin and Greek.

2. containing people from many different and distant places:

New York is an exciting polyglot city.

polyglot noun [C] FORMAL

My tutor's something of a polyglot - she speaks seven languages.


source

[Scheherazade]

heresy noun

1. [C or U] (the act of having) an opinion or belief that is the opposite of or against what is the official or popular opinion, or an action which shows that you have no respect for the official opinion:

Radical remarks like this amount to heresy for most members of the Republican party.

She committed the heresy of playing a Madonna song on a classical music station.


2. [U] a belief which is against the principles of a particular religion:

He was burned at the stake in the fifteenth century for heresy.


heretic noun [C]

a person who is guilty of heresy


heretical adjective

Her belief that a split would be good for the party was regarded as heretical.


source

[Scheherazade]

enunciate verb [I or T]

to pronounce words or parts of words clearly:

He doesn't enunciate (his words) very clearly.

enunciation noun [C or U]



enunciate verb [T]

to state and explain a plan or principle clearly or formally:

In the speech, the leader enunciated his party's proposals for tax reform.

source