Recently Added Articles Page #120

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, ...

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, ...