 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
DATE |
WORD |
PRONUNCIATION |
PART OF SPEECH |
DEFINITION |
SYNONYM |
SENTENCE |
| 5/1/08 | Pragmatic | prag MAT ik | Adjective | Practical; Realistic; Eager to get things done in an effective way | Sensible No-nonsense |
A pragmatic person is guided by facts and known realities. Your pragmatic goal in taking either the ACT or the SAT is to obtain the score that you will need to get into your top choice college. |
| 5/2/08 | Doleful | DOWL ful | Adjective | Sad | Unhappy Miserable Dejected |
The family expected the widower to be doleful following his wife's death but never expected his sadness to led to depression. |
| 5/5/08 | Reminisce | REM ih niss | Verb | To talk or write about events remembered from the past | Recall Evoke Recollect |
High school reunions allow past graduates a chance to reminisce about their days in high school together. |
| 5/6/08 | Futile | FYOOT ul | Adjective | Doomed to failure and therefore pointless | Useless Pointless Fruitless |
If you ever watched Star Trek you probably remember that Borg always announced "resistance to futile" before conquering a new plant. |
| 5/7/08 | Refute | ri FYOOT | Verb | To prove something wrong | Disprove Contest Rebut |
I refuted Billy's mathematical proof by showing him that it depended on two and two adding up to five. |
| 5/9/08 | Indigenous | in DIJ uh nus | Adjective | Native to an area; Natural | Native Original Aboriginal Home- Grown Local |
Cardinals are indigenous to the East Coast and the buffalo is indigenous to the Great Plains. The dandelion is from Europe and is therefore not indigenous to the U. S. |
| 5/12/08 | Empathy | EM puh thee | Noun | The ability to identify with and understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties | Understanding Sympathy Compassion |
The guidance counselor was able to feel great empathy for the student whose father recently died. |
| 5/13/08 | Nebulous | NEB yuh kus | Adjective | Vague; Cloudy; Lacking form | Oscar's views are so nebulous that no one can figure out what he thinks about anything. Molly's expensive new hairdo was a sort of nebulous mass of wisps, waves and hair spray. | |
| 5/14/08 | Flotsam | FLOT sum | Noun | Floating wreckage; Debris; Castoffs | Refuse Driftwood Jetsam Wreckage |
Nativists supported immigration quotas because they viewed the new immigrants as little better that human flotsam who would bring the decline of the Anglo-Saxon civilization. |
| 5/15/08 | Stringent | STRIN junt | Adjective | Strict; Rigorous | Severe Stern Harsh |
After reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, President Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. It decreed that the preparation of meat shipped over state lines would be subject to stringent federal inspections. |
| 5/16/08 | Epigram | ep ih GRAM | Noun | A concise, witty, and often paradoxical remark or saying | Witticism Saying Axiom |
Occasionally the late night comedians will have epigrammatic remarks about the current political situations. |
| 5/19/08 | Succinct | suk SINGKT | Adjective | Very brief; Concise; To the point; Not verbose or wordy | Brief Pithy Laconic |
When the bus driver demanded that Rosa Parks give up her seat, she firmly and succinctly said "no". Ms. Parks succinct answer helped launch the modern Civil Rights Movement. |
| 5/20/08 | Tenable | TEN uh bul | Adjective | Capable of being held, defended or maintained | Reasonable Acceptable Defensible Justifiable |
The so-called White Man's Burden was used to justify both European and American imperialism. This belief is no longer tenable and has been exposed as a self-serving misconception. |
| 5/21/08 | Indomitable | in DAHM mit uh bul | Adjective | Brave; impossible to defeat; determined | Strong Unconquerable Resolute |
The soldiers in Iraq are indomitable in the face of overwhelming danger and difficulty. |
| 5/22/08 | Vacillate | VAS uh layt | Verb | To waiver,to swing back and forth like a pendulum often between two views or feelings | Oscillate Waiver Hesitate |
We invited James to spend Thanksgiving with us, but he vacillated for so long about whether he would be able to come that we finally became annoyed and uninvited him. |
| 5/23/08 | Egregious | Ih GREE jus | Adjective | Flagrant | Notorious Outrageous |
The situation at ENRON is one of the most egregious examples of corporate greed. |
| 5/27/08 | Indefatigable | in dih FAT tih gah bul | Adjective | Incapable of being fatigued; having great stamina | Unflagging Untiring Unrelenting Unfaltering Inexorable |
You must be indefatigable and unflagging as you prepare for the upcoming ACT or SAT. |
| 5/28/08 | Opaque | oh PAYK | Adjective | Not transparent or translucent; Not shiny; Hard to understand | Solid Dense Thick |
The fabric over the windows was so opaque that there was almost no light able to enter the room. |
| 5/29/08 | Ubiquitous | you BICKwuh tus | Adjective | Being everywhere at the same time; Found everywhere | Omnipresent Ever-present Everywhere |
Personal computers, once a rarity, have become ubiquitous. |
| 5/30/08 | Hypocrite | HIP oh krit | Noun | A person who says one thing and does another; a person who puts on a false appearance | Deceiver Charlatan Fraud |
The students admired their teacher because he was honest and straightforward, not a hypocrite. |
| 6/2/08 | Bucolic | byoo KAHL ik | Noun | Rural; Pastoral | Rustic Country |
The Hudson River School refers to a group of 19th Century artists who idealized the bucolic beauty of the American landscape. |
| 6/4/08 | Incoherent | in coe HEAR ent | Adjective | Lacking clarity or organization; Unable to express things clearly' | Disjointed Confused Jumbled Rambling |
The baby babbled and made incoherent sounds which the new parents could not understand. |
| 6/5/08 | Interloper | in ter LOPE er | Noun | An intruder into a place, gathering or situation | Intruder Imposter Trespasser |
The schoolissued only 10 graduation tickets to each member of the senior class, hoping to control the number of interlopers. |
| 6/6/08 | Evocation | ee vo KAY shun | Noun | Suggestions Remembrance | Aura Hint |
What do the novel Gone With The Wind and the TV program "Happy Days" have in common? Both are evocations that summon memories of a lost era. Gone With the Wind evoked the antebellum South and "Happy Days" evoked the mid-1950's when we loved Lucy, liked Ike and wanted to look like James Dean. |