Sunday, February 20, 2011

Word Wizard, Part 16 - THE FINAL INSTALLMENT WHOOOO!!

When I started this blog, I made a list of words that I wanted to include.  This postis the final ten words on that list.  Maybe there will be more words in the future, but for right now, this is the end.  Thank you all for letting me do this - I love words and I can't stand it when they are butchered by people who don't know what they mean.
~CatchingPieces

#. Word
a. Part of Speech
b. Definition 1
c. Definition 2 (if applicable)
The list is cumulative, so this post starts at 76.

76. Superfluous
a. adjective
b. being more than is sufficient or required; excessive

77. Supplant
a. verb
b. to take the place of (another), as through force, scheming, strategy, or the like

78. Surmount
a. verb
b. to prevail over

79. Tenuous
a. adjective
b. thin or slender in form, as a thread
c. lacking a sound basis, as reasoning; unsubstantiated; weak

80. Troglodyte
a. noun
b. a person living in seclusion

81. Vacillate
a. verb
b. to waver in mind or opinion; be indecisive or irresolute
c. to sway unsteadily; waver; totter; stagger
d. to oscillate or fluctuate

82. Vertigo
a. noun
b. a dizzying sensation of tilting within stable surroundings or of being in tilting or spinning surroundings

83. Verve
a. noun
b. enthusiasm or vigor, as in literary or artistic work; spirit; vivaciousness; liveliness; animation

84. Viscous
a. adjective
b. sticky; thick; adhesive

85. zenith
a. noun
b. a highest point or state; culmination

Monday, September 13, 2010

Word Wizard! Part 15

Hello my lovelies!!

Remember...
#. Word
a. Part of Speech
b. Definition 1
c. Definition 2 (if applicable)
The list is cumulative, so this post starts at 71.

71. Sommelier
a. noun
b. a waiter, as in a club or restaurant, who is in charge of wines

72. Sophistry
a. noun
b. a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning

73. Subjugation
a. verb
b. to make submissive or subservient; enslave

74. Subrogation
a. verb
b. to put into the place of another; substitute for another

75. Supercilious
a. adjective
b. haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression

Monday, September 6, 2010

Word Wizard! Part 14

Woohoo! For once I'm actually on time!

Remember...
#. Word
a. part of speech
b. Definition
c. Definition 2 (if applicable)
The list is cumulative, so in this post it starts at 66.

66. Repletion
a. noun
b. the condition of being abundantly supplied or filled; fullness

67. Schematics
a. noun
b. a diagram, plan, or drawing

68. Seer
a. noun
b. a person who prophesies future events; prophet

69. Skulduggery
a. noun
b. dishonorable proceedings; mean dishonesty or trickery

70. Soffit
a. noun
b. the underside of an architectural feature, as a beam, arch, ceiling, vault, or cornice

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Word Wizard! Parts 8 - 13

Somehow, once again, I have been absent for 6 whole weeks!  Maybe I should change my scedule to 6 week intervals... no, words are too important to wait.  Words are the essence of life!  We are our stories (as someone I cannot properly cite once said), and what would our stories (and ourselves) be without words!  So come with me - learn words, learn stories, learn yourself.

Remember...
#. Word
a. part of speech
b. Definition
c. Definition 2 (if applicable)

The list is cumulative, so in this post it starts at 37.

37. Insure
a. verb
b. to guarantee against loss or harm

38. Klaxon
a. noun
b. a loud electric horn, formerly used on automobiles, trucks, etc., and now often used as a warning signal

39. Labyrinth
a. noun
b. an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit

40. Labyrinthine
a. adjective
b. complicated; tortuous

41. Lampoon
a. noun
b. a sharp, often virulent satire directed against an individual or institution; a work of literature, art, or the like, ridiculing severely the character or behavior of a person, society, etc.

42. Lithe
a. adjective
b. bending readily; pliant; limber; supple; flexible

43. Modicum
a. noun
b. a moderate or small amount

44. Moxie
a. noun (slang)
b. vigor; verve; pep
c. courage and aggressiveness; nerve
d. skill; know-how

45. Nadir
a. noun
b. the lowest point; point of greatest adversity or despair

46. Obelisk
a. noun
b. a tapering, four-sided shaft of stone, usually monolithic and having a pyramidal apex

47. Oblong
a. adjective
b. elongated, usually from the square or circular form
c. in the form of a rectangle one of whose dimensions is greater than the other
d. noun
e. an oblong figure

48. Onus
a. noun
b. a difficult or disagreeable obligation, task, burden, etc.

49. Opus
a. noun
b. a musical composition

50. Ostensible
a. adjective
b. outwardly appearing as such; professed; pretended

51. Phalanx
a. noun
b. any body of troops in close array
c. a number of individuals, esp. persons united for a common purpose
d. a compact or closely massed body of persons, animals, or things

52. Phlebotomy
a. noun
b. the act or practice of opening a vein for letting blood as a therapeutic measure; venesection; bleeding

53. Pilfer
a. verb
b. to steal, esp. in small quantities

54. Plethora
a. noun
b. overabundance; excess

55. Polyglot
a. adjective
b. able to speak or write several languages; multilingual
c. containing, composed of, or written in several languages
d. noun
e. a mixture or confusion of languages
f. a person who speaks, writes, or reads a number of languages
g. a book, esp. a Bible, containing the same text in several languages

56. Popinjay
a. noun
b. a person given to vain, pretentious displays and empty chatter; coxcomb; fop

57. Preclude
a. verb
b. to prevent the presence, existence, or occurrence of; make impossible

58. Predilection
a. noun
b. a tendency to think favorably of something in particular; partiality; preference

59. Privy
a. adjective
b. participating in the knowledge of something private or secret
c. noun
d. outhouse

60. Prodigal
a. adjective
b. wastefully or recklessly extravagant
c. noun
d. a person who spends, or has spent, his or her money or substance with wasteful extravagance; spendthrift

61. Propensity
a. noun
b. a natural inclination or tendency

62. Proxy
a. noun
b. the agency, function, or power of a person authorized to act as the deputy or substitute for another

63. Raze
a. verb
b. to tear down; demolish; level to the ground

64. Relegate
a. verb
b. to send or consign to an inferior position, place, or condition

65. Relent
a. verb
b. to soften in feeling, temper, or determination; become more mild, compassionate, or forgiving
c. to become less severe; slacken

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Word Wizard! Parts 2 - 7

OK, so here's the big secret...I'm not good at being on time.  I'm so sorry that I have missed, let's see, SIX WEEKS of words!  What an endless tragedy!  I was out of town and all sorts of stuff, and I got distracted.

Well, never fear my gentle reader(s).  I am here to make it up to you with six weeks worth of words - that's right, 30 brand new words! 

The list starts at 6, not 1, because this is the 6th culumative word that I've blogged.

Hope you enjoy them....

#. Word
a. part of speech
b. definition
c. definition 2 if applicable


6. Anomaly

a. noun
b. a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form

7. Apportions
a. verb
b. to distribute or allocate proportionally; divide and assign according to some rule of proportional distribution

8. Astringent
a. adjective
b. harshly biting; caustic

9. Biometrics
a. noun
b. The statistical study of biological phenomena

10. Biplicity
a. noun
b. The state of being twice folded; reduplication

11. Bipod
a. noun
b. a two-legged support, as for an automatic rifle

12. Bolster
a. noun
b. a long, often cylindrical, cushion or pillow for a bed, sofa, etc

13. Cacophony
a. noun
b. harsh discordance of sound; dissonance

14. Capitulate
a. verb
b. to surrender

15. Caustic
a. adjective
b. capable of burning, corroding, or destroying living tissue
c. severely critical or sarcastic

16. Chiasmus
a. noun
b. a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases, as in “He went to the country, to the town went she.”

17. Coalesce
a. verb
b. to grow together or into one body

18. Cognizance
a. noun
b. awareness, realization, or knowledge; notice; perception

19. Cursory
a. adjective
b. going rapidly over something, without noticing details; hasty; superficial

20. Daedal
a. adjective
b. skillful; ingenious; cleverly intricate

21. Dither
a. noun
b. a trembling; vibration

22. Domicile
a. noun
b. a place of residence; abode; house or home

23. Double Entendre
a. noun
b. a double meaning that is sexual in nature

24. Dubious
a. adjective
b. doubtful; marked by or occasioning doubt

25. Ebb
a. noun
b. a flowing backward or away; decline or decay

26. Effervescent
a. adjective
b. bubbling; vivacious; gay; lively; sparkling

27. Ensure
a. verb
b. to secure or guarantee

28. Espial
a. noun
b. the act of spying or keeping watch; observation

29. Etymology
a. noun
b. the derivation of a word

30. Evanescent
a. adjective
b. vanishing; fading away; fleeting

31. Fiery
a. adjective
b. like or suggestive of fire

32. Flippant
a. adjective
b. frivolously disrespectful, shallow, or lacking in seriousness; characterized by levity

33. Fyke
a. noun
b. a bag-shaped fish trap

34. Incendiary
a. adjective
b. used or adapted for setting property on fire

35. Indemnity
a. noun
b. protection or security against damage or loss
c. compensation for damage or loss sustained

36. Infuse
a. verb
b. to introduce, as if by pouring; cause to penetrate; instill

Monday, June 14, 2010

Word Wizard!

#. Word
a. part of speech
b. definition

1. Aboriginal
a. adjective
b. of, pertaining to, or typical of aborigines

2. Acerbic
a. adjective
b. sour or astringent in taste

3. Alp
a. noun
b. a high mountain

4. Amalgam
a. noun
b. a mixture or combination

5. Ambivalent
a. noun
b. uncertainty or fluctuation, esp. when caused by inability to make a choice or by a simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things

The Way This is Gonna Work...

Word Wizard:
Every Monday at 6 o'clock PM I will post 5 vocabulary words.  I encourage any English teachers or any students soon to take the SAT to study these words.

Grammar InAction:
Every Saturday I will post a few examples of poor grammar.  I will then explain what's wrong with them.

Greater Grammar:
Every now and then I will post an in-depth analysis of a grammatical issue.

Pronounciation Provocation:
Every now and then I will post a few commonly mispronouced words and explain the correct pronounciation.