Category: Today’s Word

Definition: (adjective) Of questionable taste or morality. Synonyms: shady. Usage: It did not surprise me that the owner of that louche nightclub downtown was arrested …

noun: Addiction to bloodshed.

Definition: (noun) The quality of happening with headlong haste or without warning. Synonyms: suddenness, abruptness. Usage: "I hope there will be no women besides our …

noun: A diminished sense of taste.

Definition: (adjective) Inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life. Synonyms: ruddy, sanguine, florid. Usage: "Please your honor," answered the drum-major, whose …

noun: Self-propelled or self-directed motion or energy.

Definition: (verb) Give extra weight to (a communication). Synonyms: emphasize. Usage: When I gave my son permission to attend the party, I made sure to …

Definition: (verb) Be lively or brilliant or exhibit virtuosity. Synonyms: sparkle, scintillate. Usage: The flutist's music coruscated throughout the concert hall. Discuss

Definition: (noun) An often persistent bodily disorder or disease; a cause for complaining. Synonyms: complaint, ill. Usage: She pretended that she was always well now, …

noun: Something very large. adjective: Huge.

Definition: (adjective) Having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily aroused or excited. Synonyms: impassive. Usage: Her face showed nothing but stolid indifference. Discuss

noun: A person who is boorish, loud, disruptive, etc. interjection: Expressing excitement, delight, or triumph.

Definition: (adjective) Weak or lacking in courage; cowardly. Synonyms: chickenhearted, yellow-bellied. Usage: I have never seen such a lily-livered bunch of wimps in my life! …

noun: Very old and decrepit.

Definition: (noun) A medicinal liquid that is rubbed into the skin to relieve muscular stiffness and pain. Synonyms: embrocation. Usage: The veterinarian instructed me to …

adjective: Absurdly fanciful or impractical.

Definition: (noun) An open statement of affirmation; frank acknowledgment or admission. Synonyms: avouchment. Usage: He had no right to extort a confession of attachment from …

adjective: Tiny. noun: Someone or something very small.

Definition: (adjective) Having a place or location. Synonyms: located, placed, set. Usage: This vast region is situated between the fifteenth and tenth degrees of north …

Definition: (adjective) Capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out. Synonyms: tractile, ductile, pliant, tensile. Usage: I am not very handy with a chisel, …

Definition: (verb) To move from one place to another. Synonyms: go, travel. Usage: Unlike most other fish, seahorses maintain an upright position when they locomote. …

noun: A very short notice or no notice.

noun: Something precise or exact.

Definition: (adjective) Stubbornly conservative and narrow-minded. Synonyms: traditionalist. Usage: It is no use trying to reason with your grandfather, he is a hidebound old man …

noun: The policy of giving generous compensation, benefits, unemployment relief, etc.

Definition: (noun) Something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings. Synonyms: extrusion, gibbosity, hump, jut, bulge, protrusion, protuberance, swelling, bump, prominence. …

noun: A reformatory for young offenders.

Definition: (adjective) Feeling or manifesting veneration. Synonyms: venerating, respectful. Usage: A pilgrimage is a reverential act, performed by reverent people. Discuss

noun: A position involving pomp and show, but no real power or authority.

Definition: (adjective) Suggesting the operation of supernatural influences. Synonyms: uncanny, weird, unearthly. Usage: An eldritch screech from someone—or something—in the distance sent chills down my …

Definition: (adjective) Small and remote and insignificant. Synonyms: jerkwater. Usage: I am leaving this one-horse town and heading into the big city to seek my …

Definition: (noun) The property of being extremely abundant. Synonyms: profuseness, richness. Usage: The cornucopia of job opportunities overwhelmed the immigrants, who had come from a …

noun: A severe setback or disappointment.

Definition: (verb) Provide housing for (military personnel). Synonyms: canton, quarter. Usage: The citizens who were forced to billet soldiers in their own private homes were …

verb tr.: To handle roughly, but in a playful manner; verb intr. To engage in boisterous play; noun: Boisterous play.

Definition: (noun) The act of involving or complicating or the state of being involved or complicated. Synonyms: intricacy, elaboration. Usage: The tale itself is a …

noun: One who forms a romantic relationship with a rich person for money.

Definition: (verb) Perform an act, usually with a negative connotation. Synonyms: commit, pull. Usage: Only a sadistic, depraved person could perpetrate a crime like this. …

noun: A worker, athlete, performer, etc. who is competent and reliable, but undistinguished.

Definition: (adjective) Producing no result or effect. Synonyms: futile, ineffectual, otiose. Usage: Immediately conscious how unavailing any struggle against such an overwhelming force must prove, …