Category: Today’s Word

noun: Something, such as a food or drug, that increases sexual desire. adjective: Arousing sexual desire.

Definition: (verb) To give notice to; inform. Synonyms: notify, advise. Usage: During the drive home from the airport, they had time to apprise her of …

Definition: (adjective) Being at once opportune and to the point. Synonyms: relevant, timely. Usage: His book about safe investment, published right before the stock market …

Definition: (adjective) Causing harm, ruin, or death; harmful. Synonyms: pernicious, pestilent, deadly. Usage: He instructed him in the poisonous qualities of arsenic, and furnished him …

noun: 1. The act of guiding, leading, or introducing. 2. Something that guides, leads, or introduces.

Definition: (adjective) Marked by a disposition to find and point out trivial faults. Synonyms: faultfinding. Usage: She found the new professor to be captious, marking …

adjective: 1. Clumsy; awkward. 2. Left-handed.

Definition: (noun) A deliberately offensive act or something producing the effect of deliberate disrespect. Synonyms: insult. Usage: Your deliberate implication that I stole the money …

Definition: (noun) Foolhardy disregard of danger; recklessness. Synonyms: audaciousness, audacity. Usage: Everyone was shocked at her temerity in addressing the king in such a manner. …

adjective: 1. Tough; aggressive. 2. Energetic; enthusiastic. 3. Using both hands.

Definition: (noun) Anything that precedes something similar in time. Synonyms: forerunner. Usage: This era is one of heedless consumption, but perhaps you can blame that …

adjective: Shaped like a hand with the fingers spread.

Definition: (adjective) Unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered. Synonyms: peevish, testy, cranky, fractious. Usage: After their fight, her friend came to make amends, but she was feeling …

Definition: (noun) Flattery intended to persuade. Synonyms: cajolery, palaver. Usage: Not even his favorite daughter's blandishment could persuade him to submit to her whims. Discuss

Definition: (noun) A disposition to show mercy, especially toward an offender or enemy. Synonyms: mercy. Usage: He was willing to show clemency, promising not to …

noun: Knowledge, learning, and science or their systematic pursuit.

Definition: (adjective) Lacking energy or vitality; weak. Synonyms: lackadaisical, languorous. Usage: He gave a languid wave of the hand to signify his indifference. Discuss

noun: Taboo.

Definition: (noun) Someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind. Synonyms: dawdler, trailer, poke. Usage: He was such a laggard that his …

noun: The use of empathy in understanding human actions and behavior, especially in interpreting sociological or historical events.

Definition: (adjective) Effusively or tearfully sentimental. Synonyms: bathetic, mawkish, schmaltzy, mushy. Usage: When the farewells were in danger of becoming maudlin, he judged that it …

noun: A garland, typically made of flowers, or leaves, shells, nuts, feathers, etc.

Definition: (noun) Hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases. Synonyms: cure-all, panacea, catholicon. Usage: Stay healthy, for science is no closer to a nostrum than …

noun: Yearning or longing.

Definition: (adjective) Coming into existence; emerging. Synonyms: beginning. Usage: The nascent republic had to formulate its laws while continuing its war for independence. Discuss

Definition: (verb) To calm in temper or feeling; soothe. Synonyms: appease, assuage, conciliate, pacify, placate. Usage: She was so outraged that nothing her friends said …

Definition: (verb) Charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone. Synonyms: asperse, calumniate, defame, slander, denigrate, sully, smear. Usage: …

verb tr.: To paralyze, petrify, or hypnotize.

Definition: (noun) A controversial argument, especially one refuting or attacking a specific opinion or doctrine. Synonyms: tirade, diatribe. Usage: He launched into the polemic, not …

verb tr.: To harden or improve, for example, rubber by application of sulfur and heat. verb intr.: To become hardened.

Definition: (verb) To talk or chatter idly or meaninglessly. Synonyms: blabber, piffle, gabble, prate. Usage: The group of tourists on the plane wouldn't stop talking, …

adjective: Northern; relating to the north, north wind, northern regions, etc.

Definition: (noun) Deliberate breach of faith; calculated violation of trust. Synonyms: treachery, betrayal, treason. Usage: Discovering that he had sold her confidences to the tabloids, …

noun: A spirit of nonconformity, rebelliousness, or revolt, against authority, convention, etc.

Definition: (noun) Smallness of number; fewness. Synonyms: dearth. Usage: Despite the paucity of natural resources, the country was able to develop its industry. Discuss

noun: A beautiful woman.

Definition: (noun) Talk intended to charm or beguile. Synonyms: blandishment, cajolery. Usage: Then she would pounce upon me with a lot of that drivelling poodle …

Definition: (verb) To cause to become closed. Synonyms: obturate, impede, obstruct, jam, block. Usage: The excess inventory had occluded the exit, and was deemed a …

Definition: (verb) To take careful thought or think carefully about; ponder. Synonyms: cerebrate. Usage: You must earnestly cogitate before making this decision, and not simply …

noun: An obsessive inclination to write.