Category: Today’s Word

noun: Something that provides protection from the rain, especially an umbrella.

Definition: (verb) Reject outright and bluntly. Synonyms: snub, repel. Usage: When we left school he made advances to me; I did not rebuff them, for …

Definition: (adjective) <i>(Used of statements)</i> Harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign. Synonyms: defamatory, denigrating, libelous, slanderous. Usage: He concluded by calling for …

Definition: (noun) The art or process of learning while asleep by means of lessons recorded on disk or tapes. Synonyms: sleep-learning. Usage: Hypnopedia may not …

noun: An exceptional person, thing, or event.

Definition: (verb) Leave undone or leave out. Synonyms: neglect, omit, overleap, overlook, miss, drop. Usage: Tom overslept and would need to pretermit his usual morning …

noun: 1. Excessive or unnecessary ornamentation. 2. Fuss; commotion.

Definition: (verb) Call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses). Synonyms: arouse, elicit, evoke, provoke, fire, raise. Usage: Melissa's coy smile enkindled the hopes of the young …

Definition: (verb) To grow or develop rapidly. Synonyms: increase, flower, progress, mature, thrive, flourish, bloom, bud, blossom, prosper. Usage: Our meager food supply simply cannot …

noun: Something or someone remarkable in excellence, intensity, strength, etc.

Definition: (noun) Concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child. Synonyms: childbed, confinement, parturiency, travail, labor. Usage: After …

noun: Someone or something outstanding, remarkable, or unusual.

Definition: (verb) Challenge the accuracy, probity, or propriety of. Synonyms: question. Usage: Given your history of rumor-mongering, I am inclined to oppugn your claims in …

Definition: (verb) To obtain or achieve by indirect, usually deceitful methods. Synonyms: wangle, manage. Usage: Howard was able to finagle an extra ten dollars out …

Definition: (noun) Knowledge of an event before it occurs. Synonyms: foreknowledge. Usage: Many envied Maya's ability to know the future, but she considered her precognition …

noun: The fear of riding in a vehicle.

Definition: (adjective) Of, relating to, produced by, or characterized by internal dissension. Synonyms: divisive. Usage: Fouquet has raised against your majesty a troop of factious …

adjective: Divided in two; two-pronged.

Definition: (noun) An especially luminous meteor (sometimes exploding). Synonyms: fireball. Usage: Nancy stared in awe through her telescope as a bolide rocketed into her view, …

adjective: Playfully impudent or mischievous.

Definition: (adjective) Feeling or showing extreme anger. Synonyms: irate. Usage: The ireful, angry chief was not so easily mollified. Discuss

adjective: Rice-eating.

Definition: (noun) A worsening of business or economic activity. Synonyms: downturn. Usage: Panicked investors scrambled to secure their assets as the market took a severe …

noun: Boasting or boastfulness.

Definition: (noun) Seating at the rear of the main floor (beneath the balconies). Synonyms: parquet circle. Usage: They found the whole of the audience in …

Definition: (adjective) Relating to or associated with heat. Synonyms: caloric. Usage: The scientists had not anticipated such extreme thermal conditions and were forced to delay …

Definition: (verb) Find repugnant. Synonyms: abhor, abominate, loathe. Usage: I was raised to execrate all those whose skin color differs from mine, but I have …

noun: Liveliness and ease of conversation.

Definition: (noun) An object of dread or apprehension. Synonyms: hobgoblin. Usage: What have I done to be made a bugbear of, and to be shunned …

noun: Skill in using or coining words.

Definition: (verb) Emit long loud cries. Synonyms: howl, wail, yaup, yawl, roar. Usage: The mourners began to ululate loudly, shattering the meditative silence of the …

verb tr.: To enclose in complete armor.

Definition: (adjective) Characterized by directness in manner or speech; without subtlety or evasion. Synonyms: candid, forthright, frank, point-blank, straight-from-the-shoulder, outspoken, plainspoken, blunt. Usage: They appeared …

adjective: Having a row of oblique notches.

Definition: (noun) Payment of a debt or obligation. Synonyms: repayment. Usage: I should have flung at him a quittance for my foolish stepfather's debts, and …

noun: A lecture of a moralizing or admonishing nature, usually tedious and trite.

Definition: (noun) The skill, practice, and sport of fighting with the fists. Synonyms: boxing, fisticuffs. Usage: My mother thinks pugilism is barbaric, but I reserve …

Definition: (adjective) Of or relating to an organism that regulates its body temperature largely by exchanging heat with its surroundings; cold-blooded. Synonyms: heterothermic, poikilothermic. Usage: …

Definition: (noun) Extreme excess. Synonyms: overplus, plethora, embarrassment. Usage: He will look at the city which is within him, and take heed that no disorder …

noun: A giant; a person or organization of enormous size or power.