Recently Added Articles Page #124

paragon - vocabulary

nounA pattern or model of excellence. Based on the novel by Charles Baxter, the movie is ostensibly an exploration of love in its many forms, but mostly it sticks to the credulity-and-patience-straining kind. Morgan Freeman, cast again as a paragon o...

parlance - vocabulary

nounA manner or way of speaking, vernacular, idiom, as in legal parlance. Every president after Jefferson has professed agreement with Jefferson’s concept that the freedom of the American press to print its versions of the facts, background and lik...

parody - vocabulary

verbA satirical or humorous imitation, usually of a serious piece of literature; any humorous, burlesque, or satirical imitation of a person, event, etc. The parody is the last refuge of the frustrated writer. Parodies are what you write when you are...

parsimonious - vocabulary

adjectiveUnduly sparing in the use or expenditure of money; stingy; cheap. The noun form is parsimony. England, however, as it has never been blessed with a very parsimonious government, so parsimony has at no time been the characteristical virtue of...

patronize - vocabulary

verbTo give a store or business one’s regular patronage; to trade with; to behave in an offensively condescending way. “Of course,” his mother persevered, “some of the programs are not very good, but we ought to patronize them and make the be...

paucity - vocabulary

nounSmallness of quantity; scarcity. It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.—Samuel Johnson Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786)...

pecuniary - vocabulary

adjectiveOf or relating to money. No genuine equality, no real freedom, no true manhood or womanhood can exist on any foundation save that of pecuniary independence. As a right over a man’s subsistence is a power over his moral being, so a right ov...

pedagogy - vocabulary

nounThe science and art of teaching; the function or work of a teacher. The first thing to know about Lan Samantha Chang, who has been named the new director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, is that she has strong ideas about teaching.—Dinitia Smith ...

pedantic - vocabulary

adjectiveOstentatious in one’s learning; characterized by a detailed, often ostentatious, attention to formalisms, especially in teaching. Here, Nabokov's aristocratic dilettantism is perfect, because he uses it to flick off the Bolsheviks as if th...

pejorative - vocabulary

adjectiveCharacterized by a belittling, disparaging, or derogatory force or effect.nounThe statement itself. Never . . . use the word gossip in a pejorative sense. It’s the very stuff of biography and has to be woven in. To suggest that the perso...

penultimate - vocabulary

adjectiveNext to the last. When I was a school-boy, during the penultimate decade of the last century, the chief American grammar was “A Practical Grammar of the English Language,” by Thomas W. Harvey.  This formidable work was almost purely syn...

penurious - vocabulary

adjectiveExcessively sparing in the use of money; extremely stingy; extremely poor or destitute. These new "malefactors of great wealth" are not just distant figures hurrying toward their private jets bound for some purchased paradise; no, in many ca...

pernicious - vocabulary

adjectiveCausing serious ruin or harm; injurious; deadly. The machine has had a pernicious effect upon virtue, pity, and love, and young men used to machines which induce inertia, and fear, are near impotents.—Edward Dahlberg ”No Love and No Than...

perquisite - vocabulary

nounA payment, advantage, benefit, or privilege received beyond regular income or salary; something claimed as an exclusive right.Note: The expression “perk” comes from perquisite. Assassination is the perquisite of princes.—A nineteenth-centur...

perspicacious, perspicacity - vocabulary

adjectivePerspicacious: having a keen mental understanding or perception; shrewd; astute; discerning.nounPerspicacity: keen mental understanding or perception; shrewdness; astuteness.Note: Do not confuse perspicacious with perspicuous or perspicacity...

perusal, peruse - vocabulary

nounPerusal: the act of reading carefully or thoughtfully; scrutiny; survey.verbPeruse: to read thoroughly and carefully; to examine or survey in detail. Call it the Pulitzer Early Warning System. In perusing the list of well-achieved journalistic Pu...

petulant - vocabulary

adjectiveShowing sudden or impatient irritation, especially over something trifling; irritable, peevish, fretful, petty. The faces of most American women over thirty are relief maps of petulant and bewildered unhappiness.—F. Scott Fitzgerald Letter...

phlegmatic - vocabulary

adjectiveNot easily roused to feeling, emotion, or action; composed, calm, self-possessed; having a sluggish, unemotional temperament. Phlegmatic natures can be inspired to enthusiasm only by being made into fanatics.—Friedrich Nietzsche Sämtliche...

pique - vocabulary

verbTo excite a degree of anger and resentment, as in She was piqued by their refusal to attend the party; to excite interest or curiosity in; to arouse or provoke to action. "It naturally happens this time of year that people get interested in IRAs,...

plebeian - vocabulary

adjectiveCommonplace, vulgar or coarse in nature; of or associated with the great masses of people; relating to or belonging to the ancient Roman plebs.nounA member of the common people; also a member of the ancient Roman plebs. The modern picture of...

poignant - vocabulary

adjectiveProfoundly touching or moving; strong in mental appeal; affecting the emotions. There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no avail.—Logan Pearsall Smith “Life and Human Nature” Afterthoughts (1931)...

portend - vocabulary

verbTo indicate in advance, especially by previous signs; to presage, foreshadow; to signify, mean. “Rise in Cases of West Nile May Portend an Epidemic” —Denise Grady New York Times Headline, July 26, 2007...

portent - vocabulary

nounAnything that indicates what is about to happen; a significant threat; a marvel or prodigy, something amazing. Self-parody is the first portent of age.—Larry McMurtry Some Can Whistle (1989)...

precarious - vocabulary

adjectiveDependent on circumstances beyond one’s control; lacking in stability or security; subject to change; based on unproved premises; perilous. A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a prac...

precedence, precedent, precedential - vocabulary

nounPrecedence: the fact or act of preceding, as in The first patent application receives precedence in Europe; priority in place, time, or rank because of superiority, as in The company relied on its precedence as the leading producer of computer ch...