acquihire
noun: The purchase of a company for its talent rather than its products or services. verb tr.: To buy a company in this manner.
Category: Today’s Word
Today’s Word
phalanx
Definition: (noun) A compact or close-knit body of people. Synonyms: crowd, unit. Usage: The party members disagreed on many topics, but when it came to …
listicle
noun: An article or other piece of writing structured in the form of a list.
parochial
Definition: (adjective) Narrowly restricted in scope or outlook. Synonyms: insular. Usage: After moving to a big city, she had little patience for what she considered …
omnishambles
noun: A situation that is a complete mess, especially when resulting from mismanagement.
vertiginous
Definition: (adjective) Having or causing a whirling sensation. Synonyms: whirling, dizzy. Usage: At the end of the trail, they still faced a vertiginous climb up …
pendent
Definition: (adjective) Hanging down; projecting. Synonyms: dangling, overhanging, suspended. Usage: An examination of the cave revealed nothing but hundreds of sleeping bats pendent from the …
clickbait
noun: A sensationalized, often misleading, headline that is designed to entice users to click on a hyperlink.
inspissate
Definition: (verb) To undergo thickening or cause to thicken, as by boiling or evaporation. Synonyms: condense, thicken. Usage: The recipe then instructed the cook to …
pleonastic
Definition: (adjective) Characterized by the repetition of the same sense in different words. Synonyms: redundant, tautological. Usage: "A true fact" and "a free gift" are …
diaphanous
Definition: (adjective) Of such fine texture as to be transparent or translucent. Synonyms: filmy, gauzy, sheer, vaporous. Usage: She wore a hat with a diaphanous …
aggiornamento
noun: A process of modernization or bringing up to date.
seminal
Definition: (adjective) Highly influential in an original way; constituting or providing a basis for further development. Synonyms: germinal, originative. Usage: He prepared a speech describing …
marcescence
noun: The retention of dead leaves, etc., as opposed to shedding.
cudgel
Definition: (noun) A short heavy stick. Synonyms: bastinado, club. Usage: She woke up with her head hurting as though it had been hit with a …
yestereve
noun: Yesterday evening. adverb: During yesterday evening.
ostentatious
Definition: (adjective) Intended to attract notice and impress others. Synonyms: pretentious, showy. Usage: His ostentatious displays of wealth did nothing to impress his neighbors, who …
epistemology
noun: The study of knowledge, especially its nature, origin, limits, validity, etc.
bathos
Definition: (noun) Insincere or grossly sentimental pathos. Synonyms: mawkishness. Usage: The opera's conclusion was emotional to the point of bathos, with the soprano dying heroically …
typomania
noun: 1. An obsession with typography. 2. An obsession with typology or symbolism. 3. An obsession with getting published.
dilettante
Definition: (noun) A dabbler in an art or a field of knowledge. Synonyms: sciolist. Usage: He claimed to be serious about his paintings, but he …
manuscribe
verb tr.: 1. To write by hand. 2. To autograph.
hieratic
Definition: (adjective) Of or associated with sacred persons or offices. Synonyms: priestly, sacerdotal. Usage: The laws did not apply to the hieratic class, whose members …
betrump
verb tr.: 1. To deceive or cheat. 2. To elude.
intaglio
Definition: (noun) A figure or design carved into or beneath the surface of hard metal or stone. Synonyms: diaglyph. Usage: The intaglio was so incredibly …
immiserate
verb tr.: To impoverish or to make miserable.
cantabile
Definition: (adjective) In a smooth, lyrical, flowing style. Synonyms: singing. Usage: The last part of the movement, a sweet, cantabile passage, resonated with the young …
anathematize
verb tr.: To denounce, condemn, or curse.
confabulate
Definition: (verb) To talk casually. Synonyms: chat, natter. Usage: Three old friends met in a café to confabulate together. Discuss
travest
verb tr.: To mock or to parody.
dichotomy
Definition: (noun) Division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions. Synonyms: duality. Usage: One of the novel's themes is the dichotomy of Eastern and Western …
quandary
Definition: (noun) A state of uncertainty or perplexity. Synonyms: dilemma. Usage: The situation was awkward, but nothing like the quandary they had found themselves in …
parlance
Definition: (noun) A particular manner of speaking. Synonyms: idiom. Usage: In vulgar parlance the condiments of a repast are called by the American "a relish," …
Hercules
noun: A man of extraordinary strength or size.
quotidian
Definition: (adjective) Everyday; commonplace. Synonyms: mundane, routine, workaday. Usage: There's nothing quite like a real train conductor to add color to a quotidian commute. Discuss
roorback
noun: A false story or slander, especially one spread for political purposes.
ether
Definition: (noun) The element believed in ancient and medieval civilizations to fill all space above the sphere of the moon and to compose the stars …
Rothschild
noun: A very rich person.
carcass
Definition: (noun) Remains from which the substance or character is gone. Synonyms: remains, remnants. Usage: At one end of the camp lies the carcass of …
morphetic
adjective: Relating to sleep or dreams.