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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 "...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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 (...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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. ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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,...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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 ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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, ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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    Identify the sentence with correct use of the past perfect tense:
    A She had already finished her work before he arrived.
    B I had saw that movie last night.
    C They has left when we arrived.
    D We were going to the party after we had eaten.