GRE Mega Test - VictorPrep Flashcards | Knowt (2024)

Euphemism

Pardon me, but when a polite term is substituted for a blunt, offensive one, you should call it a euphemism.

Euphemism is from Greek euphemismos, meaning "good speech," and it's a way that we paper over uncomfortable things with more pleasant-sounding words. These days we tend to use euphemisms when talking about anything having to do with elimination of bodily waste: toilet, bathroom, and water closet were all originally euphemisms. The military is also notorious for using euphemisms, like saying "neutralizing the target" instead of "killing someone."

noun
an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh

One day, irritated by the mockery, Fernanda wanted to know what Amaranta was saying, and she did not use euphemisms in answering her.
One Hundred Years of Solitude

Amaranta felt so uncomfortable with her defective diction and her habit of using euphemisms to designate everything that she would always speak gibberish in front of her.
One Hundred Years of Solitude

Even she, who knew nothing of military strategy or journalistic convention, understood a euphemism for retreat.
Atonement

The quickening, Madeline had called it, as she laid her hands on Mia's skin—such an old-fashioned euphemism, one that made her think of quicksilver, a lithe little fish whipping about within her.
Little Fires Everywhere

If you want to underscore just how commonly found and present something is within a particular place, try the word endemic. The saguaro cactus is endemic, or native, to the American southwest — so watch out for its sharp spines when you're hiking in Arizona!

Although endemic meaning "prevalent" often describes a plant or disease, it can also refer to something less tangible and more unwanted such as violence or poverty. Many complain of endemic corruption in the local government. Despite its -ic ending, endemic can also be used as a noun to signify a plant or animal that is prevalent in a certain region. If an endemic is brought to another area which it takes over, destroying the local population, it's classified as an invasive species.

adjective
native to or confined to a certain region

adjective
of or relating to a disease (or anything resembling a disease) constantly present to greater or lesser extent in a particular locality

Immediate reasons for Pizarro's success included military technology based on guns, steel weapons, and horses; infectious diseases endemic in Eurasia; European maritime technology; the centralized political organization of European states; and writing.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

There were two or three varieties, but each subtype was markedly distinct, and each was endemic to one particular island.
The Gene

There is also another kind of plague to worry about: the plague bacillus is endemic all over the Earth.
Cosmos

He plucked a beggar's lice—endemic in West Virginia—off his pants leg and inspected the tiny fuzzy seed that hitched rides on anything or anybody who walked through the woods.
October Sky

endemic / epidemic
Endemic and epidemic are both words that diseases love, but something endemic is found in a certain place and is ongoing, and epidemic describes a disease that's widespread.

بومی

The verb desiccate means to dry out, dry up and dehydrate. It's helpful to desiccate weeds but certainly not crops.

As anyone who's been stuck in the desert will tell you, being desiccated by the burning sun isn't much fun. Stemming from the Latin word desiccare, which means to "dry up," desiccate also means to preserve something by drying it out. Without desiccation, raisins or beef jerky would not be possible!

adjective
lacking vitality or spirit; lifeless
"a desiccate romance"

verb
lose water or moisture

verb
preserve by removing all water and liquids from

The country surrounding Davis Gulch is a desiccatedexpanse of bald rock and brick-red sand.
Into the Wild

Composed of heat-resistant plastic and chemically treated cork layers, and equipped with a desiccating unit to keep the air bone-dry, the insosuits could withstand the full glare of Mercury's sun for twenty minutes.
I, Robot

The Black newcomer had been recruited on the desiccated farm lands of Georgia and Mississippi by war-plant labor scouts.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The Vampires were terrible, desiccated women who entered the convent because they hated themselves and thought that by surrendering their lives to their redeemer, this self-hatred would turn to something good and palliative.
The Great Santini

خشك كردن

If a person has an idiosyncrasy, he or she has a little quirk, or a funny behavior, that makes him or her different. If you only say goodbye in French, never in English, that would be an idiosyncrasy.

Idio seems like it means stupid, but really it is Latin for "one's own," as an idiosyncrasy is one's own particular, usually odd, behavior. Putting salt in your hot chocolate or needing the light on to sleep or tapping your head while you think are all idiosyncrasies. A machine such as a DVD player has an idiosyncrasy if you have to do something weird to it to make it work like having to bang it on the back left-hand side to stop it from skipping.

noun
a behavioral attribute that is distinctive and peculiar to an individual

That was one of my father's idiosyncrasies, or superstitions.
I Am the Messenger

The results never completely caught on—but they endure as a historical curiosity of some idiosyncrasy.
Words Like Loaded Pistols

AJ is full of idiosyncrasies that probably don't seem all that idiosyncratic to him anymore.
Every Day

This is a very powerful conclusion and is in no way based on the idiosyncrasies of a particular civilization.
Cosmos

خصوصیات اخلاقی

Vim is energy and enthusiasm. If you've got vim, then you probably pack a little extra oomph in your life!

Vim is an odd-looking word, but it stands for a simple concept: being ready for activity, especially vigorous activity. Someone who is always playing sports or going on trips is full of vim. Someone who lies on the couch watching TV all day shows very little vim. This word often appears in the phrase "vim and vigor." If you have vim, you have energy and you're ready to put that energy into all sorts of activities; you're up for anything.

noun
a healthy capacity for vigorous activity

Milo nodded with spurious vim to indicate he still understood and then sat silent, ruminating gravely with troubled misgiving.
Catch-22

But the youth of today were a pasty lot, with none of the get-up-and-go, none of the vigor and vim that he remembered from the days when he was young....
Stardust

Ms. Levin's sentences are full of literary vim one minute and descend into bizarre incomprehensibility the next.
New York TimesApr 17, 2016
And the actor is vastly less convincing in a cameo as an FBI agent, sapping that scene of vim.
Washington PostAug 28, 2019

انرژی

When you start a fire burning, you can say you kindle the fire. Knowing how to kindle a campfire is an important survival skill. It can help keep you warm at night, and keep you from eating cold beans for dinner.

The verb kindle not only means to start a fire, but also to catch fire. Another meaning for kindle is to arouse interest or passion. A dynamic music teacher could kindle the students' interest in learning an instrument. Or, romance can also be kindled: "As they danced together, a spark of romance kindled between them."

verb
cause to start burning

verb
call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)

In the hearth we kindled a small fire against the chill.
Ophelia

Then the pyre was kindled and the ship pushed from the shore.
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

Flushed and kindled thus, he looked nearly as beautiful for a man as she for a woman.
Jane Eyre

Board, an arsonist had kindled a blaze that destroyed half of the all-black East End Elementary School.
The Best of Enemies

بر افروختن

When an animal molts, it loses its feathers, fur, skin or maybe even outer skeleton. People don't molt, but plenty of animals do as a normal part of their life cycle.

Despite the guarantees made by late night advertisem*nts, once a human is bald, he's bald forever. Not so for many animals who routinely lose and gain hair, skin or feathers. Think of shedding dogs and snakes crawling out of their old skins. This is the process known as molting. Insects that molt lose their shells or wings, often a sign that they're entering a different part of their life cycle.

verb
cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers

He was molting his flight feathers and chose to be alone.
Frightful's Mountain

She thought it was like the desert threave, a sand beast that could survive for years eating nothing but its own molted skin.
Strange the Dreamer

The molting pink feathers are tawdry as carnival dolls and some of the starry sequins have come off.
The Handmaid's Tale

Father cited scientific proof that birds often molt during hot weather.
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

پوست انداختن

An antipathy is a deep-seated dislike of something or someone. Usually it's a condition that is long-term, innate, and pretty unlikely to change — like your antipathy for the Red Sox.

If you look at the Greek roots of this word — anti-("against") and pathos ("feeling") — you can see that antipathy is a feeling against someone or something. In general, antipathies are feelings that are kept at least somewhat under wraps and are not out in the open.

noun
a feeling of intense dislike

At the outset, he shared the university scientist's traditional antipathy to the patent process, so redolent of commercialism and so distinctly unacademic.
Big Science

Board of Education ruling, Senator Harry Byrd's antipathy toward the law had swelled into a countering movement—Massive Resistance—and he marshaled every resource at his political organization's disposal to build a firebreak against integration.
Hidden Figures

I see something there I rarely see—frustration, antipathy.
The Help

Not death—not even tanning—could undo the antipathy between lamb and wolf.
The Invention of Science

انزجار

Ossify means to become bony. When a baby is born, some of their "bones" are actually soft cartilage, which allows for growth. As the child grows, these soft areas ossify into actual bone. The knee cap, for example, begins to ossify between ages 3 and 6.

From the literal "to become bony" meaning of ossify, we get the more figurative meaning: to become rigid or hardened. Although you and other young people may be willing to effect social changes, many older voters have ossified in their opinions. Convincing these rigid thinkers that these changes are good for the country will be quite the challenge. If your kids sneak food to their rooms, you may find ossified cheese under the beds. Even mice won't touch that!

verb
become bony

verb
make rigid and set into a conventional pattern

All past oligarchies have fallen from power either because they ossified or because they grew soft.
1984

Merely rational thought—forgive me for preaching, but I must, I must!—merely rational thought leaves the mind incurably crippled in a closed and ossified system, it can only extrapolate from the past.
Grendel

First surprise flitted over his features, then it ossified to hostility.
Americanah

What's more, unlike the paintings bequeathed to posterity by Constable or Rembrandt, his music has not ossified, frozen for ever in time.
The Story of Music

سخت شدن, استخوانی شدن

A potentate is a person so powerful that he or she doesn't have to follow the rules that govern everyone else. Potentate normally refers to a king or dictator, but you can call anyone with virtually unlimited power a potentate.

The king of a country, the conductor of an orchestra, the commander of a battleship—all of these are examples of a potentate. Take a look at potentate, and you'll see the word potent, which means "powerful," as in "that's one potent cup o' joe!" It's easy to see, then, how potent becomes potentate just by adding a few letters. A potentate is a powerful person. Anna Wintour is a potentate of the fashion world, and her decisions can make or break whole careers.

noun
a ruler who is unconstrained by law

First come merchants, potentates, and artisans of the City Erhenrang, rank after rank, magnificently clothed, advancing through the rain as comfortably as fish through the sea.
The Left Hand of Darkness

Whenever there was a major event in town —a presidential inauguration, a demonstration, the state visit of a foreign potentate, the citywide riots of 1968 — she would dispatch teams of us around town.
Washington PostNov 25, 2014

The potentate supports the mission with the full force of his harsh reign—he offers Percy a crew of enslaved indigenous people, as well as rafts and other supplies.
The New YorkerApr 13, 2017

Their journey to salute the new ruler, we are told, will be called the "Better Times Trip" - which in itself is a sort of a compliment to the impending reign of the incoming potentate.
The GuardianFeb 22, 2013

سلطان, قدرتمند

Ever snore at the opera? Burp at the dinner table? Forget your mom's birthday? Probably all three, right? Well, don't worry. Instead of just screwing up, what you did was commit a solecism. Sounds kinda neat that way, huh?

The origin of solecism comes from the ancient Greek word meaning "speaking incorrectly," and solecism does have another meaning that's more specifically verbal. If you say something incorrectly, or make a grammatical error in writing, that's also a solecism. It can be just as mortifying as burping at the dinner table. Well, almost.

noun
a socially awkward or tactless act

Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves

A man so conventional, so scrupulously correct as the Director—and to commit so gross a solecism!
Brave New World

I particularly liked the episode in which he took on a Navy Seal seal called Neil McBeal, challenging the solecism that members of the US military are by definition heroes.
The GuardianAug 29, 2014

Search online and you will not find an image of Prince Philip committing a style solecism.
New York TimesApr 9, 2021

غلط دستوری, بی ترتیبی

Attenuate is a verb that means to make or become weaker. The effects of aging may be attenuated by exercise — or by drinking from the fountain of youth.

The versatile word attenuate denotes a weakening in amount, intensity, or value. As a verb, attenuate is usually transitive, meaning it needs an object to be complete, such as in the sentence: "This tanning process tends to attenuate the deer hide, making it softer." The word can be intransitive in past tense, as in "The rain attenuated, ending the storm." And it can even be used as an adjective to describe something weakened: "Even an attenuated solution will remove the stain."

verb
become weaker, in strength, value, or magnitude

adjective
reduced in strength

This suggested that phosphorus would be a better carrier of therapeutic radiation than radio-sodium, since the latter distributes itself all through the body as salt, attenuating its effect.
Big Science

Their faces, bathed in the attenuated December light from the tall windows, appeared quiet and even faintly reverent.
Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel

Jacob strolled to a nearby driftwood tree that had its roots sticking out like the attenuated legs of a huge, pale spider.
Twilight

In Pascal's account of why the mercury does not descend in the Torricellian tube the formal and material causes are so attenuated as to be uninteresting, and the final cause has disappeared completely.
The Invention of Science

ضعیف شدن

To aggregate is to collect many units into one. If you're writing a novel, you might create a character who is an aggregate of five or six real people.

Aggregate comes from the Latin verb aggregare, which means to add to. As a verb it means to collect into a mass or whole. You can also use it as an adjective, as in your aggregate sales for February, March and April. It can also be a noun. The mountain of foam in bubble bath is an aggregate of small bubbles. If you plan to work in economics or business, expect to see the word aggregate quite a lot.

verb
gather in a mass, sum, or whole

The announcement meant that nine of the state's ten largest banking organizations now needed an aggregate sum of money from public and private sources well into the tens of billions to stay afloat.
Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream

For instance, California's native hunter-gatherers initially numbered about 200,000 in aggregate, but they were splintered among a hundred tribelets, none of which required a war to be defeated.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

This changed the volume ratio of solid to liquid dramatically, which in turn made the aggregate act as a liquid.
The Martian

Activity aggregated over many markets gets chunked into the economy.
The Sense of Style

جمع کردن, متراکم ساختن

Reserve abstemious for someone who exercises restraint, especially with regard to alcohol. A rock musician may sing about enjoying wine and women, but in his private life he may be abstemious.

You might get the idea that abstemious is a relative of abstain with a change of consonant, but in fact the two words only share the abs- prefix, meaning "away." The -temious bit in this adjective is from Latin temetum, "intoxicating drink," so it came to refer to someone who keeps alcohol (or other temptations) at arm's length. This word has the vowels a, e, i, o and u in alphabetical order; the adverb abstemiously adds the y!

adjective
sparing in consumption of especially food and drink

An ardent Methodist, he was an abstemious, plain-spoken man, tall and muscular, with a dry sense of humor.
The Best of Enemies

Martin told Cora later that this was Judge Tennyson, a respected figure in town when abstemious.
The Underground Railroad: A Novel

The advice to omit needless words should not be confused with the puritanical edict that all writers must pare every sentence down to the shortest, leanest, most abstemious version possible.
The Sense of Style

"I should have guessed. Too opulent for your abstemiousrevolutionary and yourself, I take it?"
Half of a Yellow Sun

پرهیزکار

If your coach yells at your team for sloppy play, her post-game speech might be called a castigation. A castigation is a harsh verbal reprimand.

No one likes to be on the receiving end of castigation. The word comes from the Latin castigus which means "to make pure." Try to remember during castigation that the castigator is, in their own misguided way, trying to make you a better person. But that may be hard to think of when someone is bawling you out.

noun
verbal punishment

noun
a severe scolding

At a moment when people invite castigation for being chummy with their charges, it's refreshing to consider a teacher who is faulted for respecting boundaries.
New York TimesApr 23, 2018

When this became apparent, the castigation—mostly from my daughter—was brutal.
The New YorkerOct 18, 2015

That's what everyone needs to understand, because the parents of the picky don't need the comments, the score-keeping and the castigation of their parenting skills.
New York Times Jul 9, 2012

It's an extremely delicate response: you would wait a long time for Jones to castigate Tambor, partly because castigation is simply not her thing.
The Guardian Apr 16, 2019

محکوم کردن

Here's a mind-bender: "This statement is false." If you think it's true, then it must be false, but if you think it's false, it must be true. Now that's a paradox!

A paradox is a logical puzzler that contradicts itself in a baffling way. "This statement is false" is a classic example, known to logicians as "the liar's paradox." Paradoxical statements may seem completely self-contradictory, but they can be used to reveal deeper truths. When Oscar Wilde said, "I can resist anything except temptation," he used a paradox to highlight how easily we give in to tempting things while imagining that we can hold firm and resist them.

noun
(logic) a statement that contradicts itself

Any thinking person is aware of this paradox; but in dealing with conventional people it is advantageous to treat them as though they were not hypocrites.
In Cold Blood

The other possible way to resolve the paradoxes of time travel might be called the alternative histories hypothesis.
A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays

The paradox of all this attention was that many of the turf writers who covered Seabiscuit knew next to nothing about horses and racing.
Seabiscuit: An American Legend

I have a small sign with my paradox on it.
Ask the Passengers

پارادوکس

Intrepid is just a fancy word for describing a person or action that is bold and brave. Super heroes are intrepid in their struggle for truth, justice and the American way.

Some synonyms are fearless, courageous, dauntless, or valiant, but the word intrepid suggests a lack of fear in dealing with something new or unknown. This adjective comes from Latin intrepidus, formed from the prefix in- "not" plus trepidus "alarmed."

adjective
invulnerable to fear or intimidation

Gravity gets weaker the farther you are from the star, so the gravitational force on our intrepid astronaut's feet would always be greater than the force on his head.
A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays

"No, I don't think you do. I was going to say very Jude Sweetwine. Remember that intrepid girl?"
I'll Give You the Sun

One might have expected such an intrepid child to be ecstatic, but the speed and altitude frightened him.
Unbroken

Francesca was also the owner of Lewis and Clark, my intrepid visitors.
Wishtree

بی باک

An implacable person just can't be appeased. If you really offended your best friend and tried every kind of apology but she refused to speak to you again, you could describe her as implacable.

Implacable is derived from the verb to placate, which means to soothe, or to appease. If you're babysitting and the kid starts screaming the moment that his parents leave the house, and nothing you give him, be it a toy or ice cream, can calm him down, he might seem implacable. But try the TV. It tends to turn screaming kids into silent, happy zombies.

adjective
incapable of being placated

But Svadilfari was sure-footed and implacable, even in the thickest, wettest mud, and he hauled the rocks to Asgard, although the stone-boat was so heavy it cut deep gashes into the sides of the hills.
Norse Mythology

He had been with Lord 'iywin when King's Landing fell, a new-made knight of seventeen years, even then distinguished by his size and his implacable ferocity.
A Game of Thrones

At least they kept her hands occupied and gave her an excuse for not meeting that implacable gaze.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond

They pursued their new prey the way they had once hunted seals and bears in the frozen north, and they hunted with an implacable appetite.
Ship Breaker

کینه توز

Something that's unable to move or moving without much energy can be described as inert. Wind up in a body cast and you'll find yourself not only itchy, but totally inert.

When motion is restricted or sluggish, or when something or someone appears lifeless, the adjective to use is inert. A dog who's playing dead is inert, as is a really boring movie. Or for those of you paying attention in chemistry class, you may have heard of inert gases — those elements that won't react with other elements or form chemical compounds.

adjective
unable to move or resist motion

adjective
having only a limited ability to react chemically; chemically inactive

He has laid himself transversely upon the deck where we sit, and stares inert.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves

When he had parked his truck on the roof of the Van Ness Pet Hospital, he quickly carried the plastic cage containing the inert false cat downstairs to Hannibal Sloat's office.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Sometimes the serpent would lie totally inert awaiting the unsuspecting paw that trod too close.
Redwall

His luster- less black hair looked particularly inert.
Middlesex: A Novel

ساکن, فاقد نیروی جنبش

To sully is to attack someone's good name and to try to ruin his reputation. If you spread false rumors that there's chicken stock in the vegetarian entree at Joe's Diner, you would sully Joe's good reputation.

Sully can also mean to tarnish or make spotty. It's easy to remember this meaning when you know that sully comes from the Middle French word souiller, meaning, "make dirty." For example, dripping chocolate sauce onto the table will sully your mother's new white tablecloth. Another meaning of sully is to corrupt or cast suspicion on. If an automaker recalls millions of vehicles due to safety problems, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence — in fact, it may sully their brand.

verb
make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically

verb
place under suspicion or cast doubt upon

He noticed it also and very carefully moved away so that my jacket would not sully his.
Long Walk to Freedom

I had a vision of anger spreading through me like a malignant tumor, sullying the best hours of my life and rendering me incapable of tenderness or mercy.
The House of the Spirits: A Novel

"Then they will tear me to pieces there! My honor sullied, I will be dismissed from court and packed off to a nunnery somewhere, never to marry!"
Ophelia

No cars had yet left their tracks to sully the road.
Breadcrumbs

لکه دار کردن

A mar is a flaw, mark, or blemish, like a deep scratch on a wooden table. As a verb, to mar is to make such an imperfection — like the pen mark that mars your crisp, white shirt.

We often think of things that mar as immediately noticeable, like scratches, scars, and blemishes, but sometimes mar describes other ways of ruining something. For example, an unexpected run-in with a difficult person can mar your relaxing day at the beach, just as an unpleasant memory can mar a peaceful state of mind. The thing to remember is, it only takes one scratch, one mean comment, or one negative experience to mar something that is otherwise fine.

verb
make imperfect

verb
destroy or injure severely

noun
a mark or flaw that spoils the appearance of something (especially on a person's body)

Not even a stationer's imprint marring the surface.
The Night Circus

While both my grandmothers led extraordinary lives marred by drama and tragedy, they were ultimately very different women.
Americanized

The Questing Beast brought up the mar, keeping a tight eye on Palomides, for fear of being let down once again.
The Once and Future King

"Perhaps it will, perhaps not. If I strike it sharply will it not mar the surface even more? See the hammer marks there already."
The Golden Goblet

اسیب رساندن, صدمه زدن

To flout is to scorn or show contempt for. "I flout the law and the concept of civilian safety by making a concerted effort to jaywalk every time I cross a street."

Oddly enough, when flout came into existence in the 1550s, it had a much different sense to it than it does now; it's believed that it evolved from the Middle English flowten, "to play the flute." These days, the verb flout means "to scorn," as in to scorn a law, person, or social norm by defying it. As a noun, it is a contemptuous remark or insult. Wrote William Shakespeare, "Flout 'em, and scout 'em; and scout 'em and flout 'em; Thought is free."

verb
treat with contemptuous disregard

"You have all of you flouted me. Always."
The Sound and the Fury

Because the Nazis were the ones who made us have rations to begin with, and if I flout their system, then I am also flouting them.
Girl in the Blue Coat

"He would have rid that horse, too," pa says, "if I hadn't a stopped him. A durn spotted critter wilder than a cattymount. A deliberate flouting of her and of me."
As I Lay Dying

His business foundered when the market collapsed. flout/flaunt.
Woe Is I

بی اعتنایی

A person or thing with many sides or different qualities is multifarious. The Internet has multifarious uses, museums are known for their multifarious art collections, and Hindu gods are associated with multifarious incarnations.

You can use the adjective multifarious to describe anything that has a lot of sides or aspects, and the 16th-century roots of the word come from multi-, or "many," parts or expressions. Comic actors who can morph their faces into a 1000 different looks are multifarious, and parents who can run businesses, coach soccer leagues, and tell good stories are pretty multifarious too.

adjective
having many aspects

And the Ministry had not only to supply the multifarious needs of the Party, but also to repeat the whole operation at a lower level for the benefit of the proletariat.
1984

Like the Sun Belt or the Bible Belt, there exists, on this multifarious earth of ours, a Hair Belt.
Middlesex: A Novel

A full- fledged agricultural revolution with a multifarioussuite of crops, the complex is an example of a major cultural innovation that has completely disappeared.
1491

My grandfather, accustomed to the multifarious conjugations of ancient Greek verbs, had found English, for all its incoherence, a relatively simple tongue to master.
Middlesex: A Novel

متنوع

Do you move clumsily, heavily and slowly, without a shred of grace? Then it sounds like you might lumber. Sorry to hear that.

Lots of other words and phrases are associated with our friend lumber. Particularly large or tall people are almost inevitably said to lumber, as the common phrase "lumbering giant," attests. You never hear of a tip-toeing giant, but some of them must. Lumberjack, meaning someone who cuts down trees, is another. Often lumber, in the sense of planks of wood, is interchangeable with the word timber.

verb
move heavily or clumsily

noun
the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material

I started off to get the lumber once meant for Dad's house, but Alice was not budging.
On the Far Side of the Mountain

It was the wagons that slowed them, lumbering along, axles creaking under the weight of their heavy loads.
A Clash of Kings

He watched Thiazi, in giant form, lumber out of his keep and walk across the shingle to a rowing boat bigger than the largest whale.
Norse Mythology

He lumbered to the edge of the porch with a slightly bowlegged limp.
The Season of Styx Malone

سلانه سلانه راه رفتن

If your mother asks you to clean your room and you refuse, you demur. And if your friend invites you to the Death Metal Forever concert but you hesitate, you demur. Whether you object, politely disagree, or hesitate, you demur.

If Aunt Tilly offers to knit you a sweater, you might politely demur, being reluctant to accept. When she describes the bunnies she plans for the sweater, you would want to strongly demur, explaining that you are moving to Texas next week and will no longer need sweaters. And if you find yourself the defendant in a civil suit, you might file a demurrer, objecting to the plaintiff's complaint. When you file that demurrer, you also demur.

verb
take exception to

noun
(law) a formal objection to an opponent's pleadings

verb
enter a demurrer

demur / demure
To demur is to show reluctance or to hesitate, like not quite getting in the car when someone opens the door, but demure is always an adjective describing a modest, reserved, or shy person, and sounds like the mew of a tiny kitten.

"Ail the same," demurred Fudge, "they are here to protect you all from something much worse.... We all know what Black's capable of...."
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

He demurs about the name, though: wouldn't Ma be happier if they named him after Pa?
Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

Each time she asks to accompany him, he demurs.
All the Light We Cannot See

Still, he demurs; what would her parents think?
The Namesake

استثنا قائل شدن, تردید رای, درنگ کردن

A debutante is usually a wealthy girl whose parents wish to introduce her to society in a BIG way — in "a debutante ball" that looks like something out of a scene from Gone with the Wind.

In the United States, debutante balls usually, but not always, take place in the South and are a way to introduce wealthy young women to especially eligible young bachelors. The word debutante is derived from the French word debut, meaning "a first performance or showing." The original French word debutante referred to a new actress making her first appearance on the stage. So, think of a debutante as a young woman making her debut in society.

noun
a young woman making her debut into society

I'll get to go to debutante balls and dinner parties, but the best part will be volunteering for local organizations that work with children.
Betty Before X

"It wasn't my idea to be a debutante escort three times. It was hers," he said, still referring to his mother.
It All Comes Down to This

This little collection of debutantes represents over four billion dollars of America's wealth and over fifty of America's leading families.
Native Son

But my expectations were dashed as soon as I arrived to spot a group of healthy hockey players and several pallid debutantes.
Double Helix

If you forgot flowers on your grandma's birthday, you can still propitiate her by sending a bouquet the next day. Propitiate means to appease someone or make them happy by doing a particular thing. Handy strategy for lovers, too.

One of the most common uses of propitiate historically was in the sense of appeasing the gods, often with a gift in the form of an animal or human sacrifice. Fortunately, for most people today flowers and candy will do the trick. But then again, some Moms can be tough to appease.

verb
make peace with

The gods had to be propitiated, and a vast industry of priests and oracles arose to make the gods less angry.
Cosmos

Especially I felt this when I made any attempt to propitiate him.
Jane Eyre

His dæmon growled softly; the golden monkey dropped his head low to propitiate her.
The Amber Spyglass

To propitiate the North, they fixed the pre-Independence elections in favor of the North and wrote a new constitution that gave the North control of the central government.
Half of a Yellow Sun

خشم را فرو نشاندن

You can call the kid who is always really nice to the teacher in hopes of getting a good grade a brown-noser or, if you want to sound clever, a toady.

The word toady has a gross, yet engaging history. Back when medicine was more trickery than science, traveling medicine men would come to a town. Their assistant would eat a toad (you read that right) that was assumed poisonous so that the medicine man could "heal" him. Who would want that job, right? So toad-eater, later shortened to toady, came to mean a person who would do anything to please his boss.

noun
a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage

verb
try to gain favor by cringing or flattering

All the bugs and toady- frogs shut right up, they quit chasing and biting each other 'cause this had to be the loudest whistle they'd ever heard too.
Bud, Not Buddy

Matthew Wood, after baiting John with fierce questions that threw the young student into confusion, had scornfully labeled him a "young toady with no mind of his own."
The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Mr. and Mrs. Pocket had a toady neighbour; a widow lady of that highly sympathetic nature that she agreed with everybody, blessed everybody, and shed smiles and tears on everybody, according to circ*mstances.
Great Expectations

As soon as I had the jacket over me the smell of the spice and soap and the sound of the crickets and toady- frogs outside made my eyes get real heavy.
Bud, Not Buddy

چاپلوس

To be bombastic is to be full of hot air — like a politician who makes grand promises and doesn't deliver.

What does cotton padding have to do with the word bombastic? Bombast was cotton padding or stuffing in the 1500s. Bombastic evolved as an adjective to describe something (or someone!) that is overly wordy, pompous, or pretentious, but the adjective is most often used to describe language (speech or writing). Still not seeing the connection to cotton padding? Think of writing or speech that is overly padded and you'll understand how the meaning came about.

adjective
ostentatiously lofty in style

"And there is a certain bombast in the way we speak that I had also forgotten. I started feeling truly at home again when I started being bombastic!"
Americanah

But Uncle Willie was suffering under our father's bombasticpressure, and in mother-bird fashion Momma was more concerned with her crippled offspring than the one who could fly away from the nest.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

"He's not bombastic like Brahms, or romantic like Chopin."
Confessions of a Murder Suspect

"New York State of Mind," in particular, is an exercise in bombastic excess that smothers the song.
New York TimesSep 15, 2014

کلمات غلنبه سلنبه

If you have a waterproof raincoat, you could say that your coat is impermeable to the rain. Something that is impermeable does not allow water or liquid to pass through it.

Made up of the prefix im-, meaning "not," and the adjective permeable, meaning "allowing to pass through," impermeableis used in much the same way as impervious or impenetrable. However, more so than these words, impermeable is especially associated with liquids and is often used in a scientific or technical context. Some gadgets, like waterproof watches and underwater cameras, are designed to be impermeable.

adjective
preventing especially liquids to pass or diffuse through

But it is illusion to think that there is anything fragile about the life of the earth; surely this is the toughest membrane imaginable in the universe, opaque to probability, impermeable to death.
The Lives of a Cell

Those that come close suddenly change direction before hitting her glove, bouncing off as though she is surrounded by something invisible and impermeable.
The Night Circus

They tie nkisis of leaves around their wrists and declare themselves impermeable to bullets, immune to death.
The Poisonwood Bible

Eyes closed, hands splayed by her side, in a crocheted black bikini, she seemed impermeable to stress.
New York TimesAug 17, 2013

نشت ناپذیر

Jargon usually means the specialized language used by people in the same work or profession. Internet advertising jargon includes the terms "click throughs" and "page views."

This noun can also refer to language that uses long sentences and hard words. If you say that someone's speech or writing is full of jargon, this means you don't approve of it and think it should be simplified. In Middle English, this word referred to chattering, so its origin is probably imitative: it echoes the sound of chatter or meaningless words.

noun
specialized technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject

The others all walked around Dragonwings while Father explained things between bites of meat dumpling, trying to convert the jargon of aeronauts into common speech.
Dragonwings

In the jargon of space exploration, the Mars 3 mission was preprogrammed, not adaptive.
Cosmos

A surprising amount of jargon can simply be banished and no one will be the worse for it.
The Sense of Style

Odd too is the effect produced when he uses academic jargon—bubbles at the tip of his tongue: 'Topos... negative capability... vegetation imagery in Shakespearean comedy.'
Hunger of Memory

اصطلاحات مخصوص یک صنف

If someone is being scornful and mocking in a humorous way, call her sardonic. If you want to write comic sketches for late-night talk shows, work on being sardonic.

Sardonic comes from the Greek adjective Sardonios, which actually describes a plant from a place called Sardinia that supposedly made your face contort into a horrible grin...right before you died from its poison. The Greeks used sardonic for laughter, but we only use it when someone's humor is also mocking or ironic.

adjective
disdainfully or ironically humorous; scornful and mocking

In the faint, faint light she made out the lean form and the sardonic smile of the Texan aeronaut, and her hand reached forward of its own accord, in vain.
The Amber Spyglass

There was the sardonic look on his face his family knew so well—the joke on himself that made him laugh inwardly.
East of Eden

Finally, with a wry, sardonic little shudder, Bernabe said, "Welcome, ball fans, to the World Series of Sex," and he pushed down a little, dropping his thick lips over one breast.
The Milagro Beanfield War

The distant gramophone stuck now, suddenly, on a grinding, wailing, sardonic trumpet-note; this blind, ugly crying swelled the moment and filled the room.
Go Tell It on the Mountain

وابسته به زهرخنده, طعنه امیز

Monastic means like in a monastery. So what is it like in a monastery? Well, it's solitary, somewhat isolated, plain, and disciplined. If you take monastic vows, you promise to live this way.

Being monastic might sound like a strange or a hard thing to be, but you can compare it to student life very well. Both monks and students spend a lot of time studying books. Monks like quiet, and students need quiet to get work done. Monks live in a community devoted to religion, and students study in a community devoted to learning. The stereotypical party lifestyle of a student isn't very monastic though.

adjective
of communal life sequestered from the world under religious vows

adjective
resembling life in a monastery, as by being austere or solitary

noun
a male religious living in a cloister and devoting himself to contemplation and prayer and work

After leaving the monastic order to marry Ma, Pa joined the police force.
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

It was then that he suggested visiting the hills at Udayagiri and Khandagiri, where a number of monastic dwellings were hewn out of the ground, facing one another across a defile.
Interpreter of Maladies

When he came into our home, he immediately fixated on the house as a monastery, the bathroom as the most sacred monastic cell, and my mom as the Abbess.
It's Kind of a Funny Story

As a prime example, consider the repeated appearance of childless elites, such as the Catholic priesthood, Buddhist monastic orders and Chinese eunuch bureaucracies.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankin

رهبانی

To pervade means to be present throughout, to exist in every part of. If you have too many cats, the horrible smell of cat pee will pervade your house.

You can use pervade both for external things like smells and sickness, and for more internal things like feelings. For instance, you can say that a feeling of doom pervaded the army as they caught sight of the opposition's superior forces. Despite efforts to prevent bullying, peer pressure and clique mentalities pervade the school environment.

verb
spread or diffuse through

And yet misery was the burden, the pervading, killing burden.
Black Like Me

There was no dust, much quiet, and a pervading fragrance of flowers and wealth.
The Golden Goblet

When, a week or so later, she woke up in pain, a sharp stinging on her side and a great, sickening nausea pervadingher body, she panicked.
Americanah

The anti-immigrant nativist sentiment that has pervaded the United States in recent years is reflected in statistics kept by organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.
1919 The Year That Changed America

پخش شدن, نفوذ کردن

Dyspeptic is an old-fashioned word not often used anymore. It describes someone who is irritable due to depression or indigestion.

Nowadays we separate people who are depressed from people who are cranky because of indigestion, but dyspeptic rolls both these conditions into one ball of fun. A common dyspeptic type would be an old man shouting "Get off my lawn!" to kids playing on the street.

adjective
irritable as if suffering from indigestion

noun
a person suffering from indigestion

I felt sleepy, ill, as if this were some lingering and dyspeptic dream.
The Secret History

All around me was the vomit of a dyspeptic ship.
Life of Pi

Even at the best of times, Tefu was a difficult fellow: dyspeptic, argumentative, overbearing.
Long Walk to Freedom

The news that an alien's dyspeptic pains were persisting did not, however, evoke any sympathetic words, and again I retreated into Trinity Street with a prescription for more white stuff.
Double Helix

سوء هاضمه, غمگین, بد خلق

If you assuage an unpleasant feeling, you make it go away. Assuaging your hunger by eating a bag of marshmallows may cause you other unpleasant feelings.

The most common things that we assuage are fears, concerns, guilt, grief, anxiety, and anger. That makes a lot of sense — these are all things we seek relief from. The word comes from Old French assouagier, from the Latin root suavis, "sweet" — think of adding a bit of honey to something unpleasant. A word with a similar meaning is mollify.

verb
provide physical relief, as from pain

verb
cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of

This was a tribulation; Isaac wanted sorely the camaraderie of his heretic congregation, their sweet witness; he missed the singing and tears, the prayers of love and fellow-feeling, the entreaties of sorrow assuaged.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves

The memories swirled, silver white and strange, and without hesitating, with a feeling of reckless abandonment, as though this would assuage his torturing grief, Harry dived.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Trueba proceeded to explain to him the various clauses of the marriage contract, which did a great deal to assuage the Frenchman's fears.
The House of the Spirits: A Novel

This is the kind of thing we do, to assuage pain.
Cat's Eye

آرام کردن

If you enjoy the vernal lushness of the landscape, that's a kind of fancy way to say you like the way nature looks in the springtime.

The word vernal entered English in the sixteenth century, tracing all the way back to the Latin word ver, meaning spring. Use the adjective vernal to describe something that occurs in springtime or is related to springtime. You might be familiar with the vernal equinox, which indicates the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The word vernal can also be used more broadly to describe something youthful or fresh — springlike.

adjective
suggestive of youth; vigorous and fresh

adjective
of or characteristic of or occurring in spring

I have been green, too, Miss Eyre,—ay, grass green: not a more vernal tint freshens you now than once freshened me.
Jane Eyre

Since all seemed to be well, he began nibbling at a patch of sweet vernal with the best air of indifference that he could manage.
Watership Down: A Novel

Granted, the holiday no longer corresponds to a particular astronomical event like the vernal equinox.
SalonJan 1, 2016

Beyond its vernal beauty, such a carpet is a product of decades of unmolested increase, aided by the insects that spread the seeds.
Washington Post Sep 3, 2019

ربیعی

It's rather difficult to penetrate the meaning of recondite. Fitting, because it's an adjective that basically means hard for the average mind to understand.

If it's really hard to comprehend, then it's safe to say it's recondite. In the same family as "abstruse," "esoteric" and "totally deep, man," recondite is a very serious word that you could use to describe obscure philosophy books, high level mathematical theory, and the series finale of The Sopranos — you know, things that make your brain hurt.

adjective
difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge

Instead, I spent some two hours a day in the translation of fragments from Greek and Latin; the texts being chosen for their convolution, recondite meaning, dryness, and insipidity.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party

By various recondite processes, he converted the urine first into a noxious paste and then into a translucent warty substance.
A Short History of Nearly Everything

A pair of actors trapped in a recondite play with no hint of plot or narrative.
The God of Small Things

This is far from Smith's strangest journey, or her most recondite quest.
The New Yorker Oct 6, 2015

پیچیده

The adjective quiescent means "being quiet and still," like the quiescent moments lying in a hammock on a beautiful summer Sunday.

To be quiescent, pronounced "qwhy-ESS-ent," is to be quiet, resting, which is exactly what its Latin origin quiescens means: In our busy world, it is hard to find a place to be quiescent. It has a second meaning: "causing no symptoms." For example, if a disease is quiescent, you probably won't know you have it. And finally, quiescent can mean "not activated," like quiescent cleaning products that don't get the stains out.

adjective
being quiet or still or inactive

adjective
marked by a state of tranquil repose

adjective
not active or activated

adjective
(pathology) causing no symptoms

By the late innings of the game the rest of the room—a few laggard coals glowed orange beneath the fireplace grate—lay sleeping in soft, quiescent shadows.
Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel

A heretofore quiescent problem was suddenly catapulted into the national consciousness.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

It was the only way to keep them quiescent.
A Clash of Kings

And up from the quiescent, waiting land a faint mist rose, silver as moonlight, and clung about the tree trunks.
The Good Earth

ساکن, خاموش

When liquid starts to thicken and become solid, it coagulates. When you get a cut, the blood flowing from the wound will coagulate: it will start to clot and form a solid scab so you will stop bleeding.

Many liquids have the potential to coagulate. If the cream you just poured into your coffee is spoiled, you'll see the cream coagulate as it curdles into little floating chunks. If someone has a heart condition that may result in a heart attack, he or she might take medication that keeps the blood in the arteries from coagulating, or dangerously thickening.

verb
change from a liquid to a thickened or solid state

verb
cause to change from a liquid to a solid or thickened state

adjective
transformed from a liquid into a soft semisolid or solid mass

Mack glanced at the burned curtains, at the floor glistening with whiskey and puppy dirt, at the bacon grease that was coagulating on the stove front.
Cannery Row

The next morning, there is coagulated blood under the skin on her breast.
Enrique's Journey

She waited for the blood to coagulate, and then she pressed the Band-Aid over the cut, drawing the sides of the cut together to seal the wound.
The Hot Zone

In the veins of turtles coursed a sweet lassi that had to be drunk as soon as it spurted from their necks, because it coagulated in less than a minute.
Life of Pi

لخته شدن, منعقد شدن

If you use the adjective archaic you are referring to something outmoded, belonging to an earlier period. Rotary phones and cassette players already seem so archaic!

The adjective archaic means something that belongs to an earlier or antiquated time. It can also mean something that is outdated but can still be found in the present and therefore could seem out of place. The word comes from archaic (i.e., ancient) Greek, archaikos, and literally means "from Classical Greek culture," though its meaning has broadened as it's been used in English.

adjective
so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period

adjective
little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type

Actually he asks if he can carry my shopping bags, which look heavy and are, and I let him, feeling silly and archaic and looking first to make sure no women I know are watching.
Cat's Eye

One day in the future, the meaning of irie will move on, and it will become just another word with a long list of archaic or obsolete definitions.
The Sun Is Also a Star

A third wall looked like a pharmacist's shelf, and the fourth wall held more archaic objects.
Scythe

This is the kind of touch they like: folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use.
The Handmaid's Tale

قدیمی، کهنه, غیر مصطلح

Something that's innocuous isn't harmful or likely to cause injury. Public figures like mayors and governors have to expect they'll get critical or even hurtful emails and phone calls, as well as more innocuous feedback.

The adjective innocuous is useful when you're talking about something that doesn't offend or injure anyone. Innocuous remarks or comments are meant kindly, and innocuous germs won't make you sick. An innocuous question is innocently curious, rather than aimed to hurt someone's feelings. The word comes from the Latin roots in-, "not," and nocere, "to injure or harm."

adjective
not injurious to physical or mental health

adjective
lacking intent or capacity to injure

adjective
not causing disapproval

With the dogs falling, Mercedes weeping and riding, Hal swearing innocuously, and Charles's eyes wistfully watering, they staggered into John Thornton's camp at the mouth of White River.
The Call of the Wild

By and large the Milagro lawyer's articles had been fairly innocuous—generalized summaries of welfare problems, advice on how to pay less income tax, on how to apply for and receive food stamps.
The Milagro Beanfield War

"Send in the most innocuous person from Twelve they can come up with. Find someone Peeta might share childhood memories with, but nothing too close to you. They're screening people now."
Mockingjay

How can something so small, so innocuous, be important?
Woe Is I

بی آسیب

A subpoena is a document that requires its recipient to appear in court as a witness. If you receive a subpoena, it doesn't mean you've done anything wrong; it just means you may have information that's needed by the court.

Subpoena can also be a verb: You can subpoena someone by giving them a subpoena. If you receive a subpoena but fail to carry out its instructions, you're in big trouble. This fact is suggested by the Latin roots of this word: the prefix sub-means "under" and poena means "penalty." One nice thing about a subpoena is that it's not a summons; if you get one of those, it means you're being sued.

noun
a writ issued by court authority to compel the attendance of a witness at a judicial proceeding; disobedience may be punishable as a contempt of court

verb
serve or summon with a subpoena

"Family and subpoenaed witnesses first. Step on back and let 'em get up here."
Mississippi Trial, 1955

You subpoenaed documents and took depositions and pored over court records until you had put together a detailed and precise accounting of each stage in the deadly quarrel.
Outliers

Fourteen Klansmen have been subpoenaed statewide, twelve of them from Orange County, nine of them from Opalakee.
Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands

That very day, Singleton wrote another subpoena, took it to Baird on Tuesday, May 8, and got it off to T-Mobile.
A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age

احضاریه

A quibble is a small argument or fight. As a verb, it means to pick a mini-fight over something that doesn't really matter. "Let's not quibble over price," people will say, usually when they plan to gouge you.

It's better to watch figure skating with the sound off, rather than listening to the announcers quibble over a not-fully-rotated knee or the slightly diminished altitude of a jump. Sometimes a quibble between neighbors over two feet of property can escalate into a major feud.

verb
evade the truth of a point or question by raising irrelevant objections

verb
argue over petty things

noun
an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections

The fact that the Japanese had attacked Hawaii rather than invaded the continental United States was a distinction that neither of us bothered to quibble over.
Jacob Have I Loved

A quibble arose concerning the phrase "break out."
The Call of the Wild

"I daresay Reynard feels much the same, George. But let's not quibble. Reynard went first last time. You may go first this time. Take your seat."
The Mysterious Benedict Society

For the first time, Lawrence heard a physicist with a solid grasp of subatomic behavior express support for his idea rather than smothering it in quibbles.
Big Science

A formal discussion between enemies or opponents is called a parley. A British drummer called for a parley between the British and American armies in 1781, and officers from both sides then discussed the terms of Britain's surrender.

Parley can also be used as a verb: to discuss or negotiate, such as between enemies or opponents. If your siblings are fighting, you may need to encourage them to parley in another room in order to discuss their differences and hopefully settle the problem once and for all.

noun
a negotiation between enemies

verb
discuss, as between enemies

"The parley room was a comfortable place with a big fire, sideboards laden with silver and porcelain, and a heavy table darkly polished by the years, at which twelve chairs were drawn up."
The Golden Compass

"This note simply to tell you quickly that I shall be along in a moment to accompany you to the parley with the Evil One."
The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge

"On this note they were quick to end their parley."
The Odyssey

"But her mind was on John Faa and the parley room, and before long she slipped away up the cobbles again to the Zaal."
The Golden Compass

مذاکره کردن

Proper and polite behavior.

This noun is from Latin decōrus "proper, becoming, handsome," from décor "beauty, grace," which is also the source of English décor. The corresponding adjective is decorous, meaning "well-behaved in a particular situation." Both decorum and decorous are often used to describe behavior in a classroom or courtroom.

noun
propriety in manners and conduct

noun
the fitness of a composition's style to its subject

Mozart's emotional subtext, on the other hand, is disguised beneath the sheen of decorum and poise required of an eighteenth-century artisan.
The Story of Music

"A man in distressed circ*mstances has not time for all those elegant decorums which other people may observe. If she does not object to it, why should we?"
Pride and Prejudice

The cake was the single obscenity in an atmosphere of rigorous decorum.
The Great Santini

In deciding which style to use in a given circ*mstance, it is decorum that shapes your choice.
Words Like Loaded Pistols

رفتاربجا

To gouge can mean to make a hole or dent in something, or to swindle or steal by overcharging. If your local gas station raises prices because a storm is coming, you may say that the station owner is gouging you — and that's illegal.

The verb gouge means to cut or carve. You can use special chisels to gouge linoleum for interesting design in printing. As a noun, a gouge is the tool you would use — instead of a flat-head chisel, a gouge has a trough — to make the gouge marks of the design. Another meaning of the verb gouge is an indentation in the surface of something. If you're not careful with the screwdriver, you'll accidentally gouge a hole in the wall.

noun
and edge tool with a blade like a trough for cutting channels or grooves

He went to the left, his paws gouging the wet sand, but changed his mind and spun around.
Life of Pi

At other times it took the form of a dark, fanged beast, and hovered constantly over my dizzy head, as if about to pounce on me and gouge my guts out with its monstrous talons.
Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography

I see my mother delivering her painful words, almost gouging my face with them, until slowly I walk away, nearly right into the camera.
I Am the Messenger

Wagons had gouged chasms across paths, roads, and would-be lawns.
The Devil in the White City

در اوردن, گول زدن

Something that's lucid is clear and understandable. Lucid writing is important in journalism, so that readers easily get the point of the article they're reading.

When what you write or say is lucid, it's straightforward and its meaning is crystal clear. You can also use the adjective lucid to describe your mind or thoughts when you're thinking in a rational, sensible way: "I was worried about my grandmother's confusion yesterday, but she seems really lucid today." Another meaning is "translucent," or "letting light shine through" — which makes sense since lucid comes from the Latin lucidus, "light or clear," with its root of lux, "light."

adjective
(of language) transparently clear; easily understandable

adjective
having a clear mind

adjective
capable of thinking and expressing yourself in a clear and consistent manner

adjective
transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity

My mind made a final attempt at being lucid.
Life of Pi

Ever since he had grown so queer, the other members did not wish him about, even in his lucid periods.
Johnny Tremain

Coherence connectives are the unsung heroes of lucid prose.
The Sense of Style

Emma rewrote awkward sentences, and if she didn't understand what he was trying to say, they talked it through so that he could write it in a more lucid fashion.
Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

شفاف

Alert: shifting parts of speech! As a noun, a derivative is kind of financial agreement or deal. As an adjective, though, derivative describes something that borrows heavily from something else that came before it.

The economic meltdown of the last decade is due largely to the mismanagement of derivatives, which are deals based on the outcome of other deals. A movie plot might be described as derivative if it steals from another film — say, if it lifts the tornado, the witch, and the dancing scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz.

noun
a compound obtained from, or regarded as derived from, another compound

The other reason is that other opportunities for the independent invention of writing were preempted by Sumerian or early Mesoamerican writing and their derivatives.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

This choice was anathema to Sullivan, who abhorred derivative architecture, but during the meeting he made no objection.
The Devil in the White City

Tom Buchanan could be a Duke lacrosse player, Gatsby a Wall Street derivatives dealer whose life story unravels at the same time his deals do.
Drama High

I plowed my way through a half hour of derivatives before the cheerleaders quieted and the coach addressed them.
Made You Up

برگرفته، مأخوذ، گرفته‌شده، (زبان‌شناسی، شیمی، ریاضی) مشتق، (کارهای ادبی) اقتباس‌شده، اقتباسی

When you hear the word solicitous, think of your mom — attentive, caring, and concerned. It's nice when your waiter gives you good service, but if he or she is solicitous, the hovering might annoy you.

Solicitous comes from the Latin roots sollus "entire" and citus "set in motion." If someone is solicitous, they are entirely set in motion caring for you. Your neighbors are solicitous if they try to help your family out all the time. Use this word too if you're eager to do something. A good student will be solicitous to appear interested in what the teacher says — even when it's not that interesting.

adjective
full of anxiety and concern

adjective
showing hovering attentiveness

The cheeks had fallen back to the ears and a solicitous mortician had put lipstick on the black mouth.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Bono hath been highly solicitous of my health, showing me all the kindnesses of which he is capable.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves

Jean was solicitous, but he was not pleading or insistent; if anything, he was fraternal and lighthearted.
The House of the Spirits: A Novel

In Seoul, even when he was surrounded by solicitous and well-informed friends, Shin found it all but impossible to ask for help.
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

مشتاق، آرزومند، مایل، نگران، دلواپس

A husband is a married man. Your grandfather might joke that he and your grandmother have been husband and wife for so long because she has the patience of a saint and he is deaf as a post.

The word husband comes from the Old Norse hūsbōndi, where hūs meant house and bōndi meant dweller. As a verb, husband means to conserve resources and use them frugally. Because of the flooding in the area, roads are cut off and everyone is being asked to husband their supplies. This conservation of resources sense of husband also occurs in the related noun husbandry.

verb
use cautiously and frugally
synonyms:conserve, economise, economize

The women carried leaf-wrapped packets of manioc and other things on their heads, food they were taking to their husbands in Bulungu, they said.
The Poisonwood Bible

That night the woman's husband, a farmer, loaded a wagon with produce.
Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad

The United States has now become the husband of Zaire's economy, and not a very nice one.
The Poisonwood Bible

Mott believed that "independence of the husband and wife is equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal."
Votes for Women!

Monotony is when you have too much of a boring thing: one tone of voice going on and on, one piece of flat music playing over and over, one infomercial droning on and on. There is no variety in monotony.

Monotony goes back to the Greek root monotonos, which comes from mono-, "single," and tonos, "tone." One tone only equals monotony. A day with a lot of repetition, or monotony, is humdrum. When you get too much of the same boring, one-note thing, you experience monotony. Monotony. Monotony.

noun
the quality of wearisome constancy, routine, and lack of variety

noun
constancy of tone or pitch or inflection

Was I just something to break up the monotony of every day?
The Red Umbrella

The real drag about being stuck on the water is the monotony.
Adrift

Merry days were these at Thornfield Hall; and busy days too: how different from the first three months of stillness, monotony, and solitude I had passed beneath its roof!
Jane Eyre

For most of those two years, Blake and a small group of prisoners languished in a makeshift North Korean prison camp, plagued with monotony and boredom.
Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia

بی‌تنوعی، یک‌آهنگی، بی‌زیر‌وبم، یکنواختی

If you placate someone, you stop them from being angry by giving them something or doing something that pleases them. If your dad is annoyed that you forgot to take out the trash, you might be able to placate him by doing the dishes.

If your little sister is mad that the dog ate her favorite teddy bear, you could placate her by buying her an ice cream cone. A near synonym for placate is appease. The origin of placateis Latin placare, "to calm or soothe." The related Latin verb placere is the source of English please.

verb
cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of

On the morning the Romans were scheduled to leave, Piper was sitting on the pier at the canoe lake, trying to placate the naiads.
Blood of Olympus

A second draft interim constitution in August gave greater powers to the regions, but this did not placate either Chief Buthelezi or the Conservative Party.
Long Walk to Freedom

This seems to placate her for the moment and I tell the same story to Elizabeth, with a few more details to Hilly, pinching my arm to bear her insipid smile.
The Help

This was in spite of the fact that Henry did not take nearly the pains to placate him that everyone else did.
The Secret History

آرام کردن، تسکین دادن، آشتی کردن

If you have an identical twin, you've probably tried dressing alike so that people confound you with, or mistake you for, one another. You've also probably learned that, unfortunately, this trick doesn't work on your mom.

The verb confound means both "to mistake" and "to confuse." If you decide to treat yourself to a delicious dessert, you might find yourself confounded by the overwhelming number of choices. If you end up ordering the chocolate cake but the waiter brings you chocolate mousse, the waiter has somehow confounded those two options. Another meaning you may come across in literature is "to damn," as in "Confound it! You are the most exasperating person on the planet."

verb
be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly

verb
mistake one thing for another

verb
overthrow by argument, evidence, or proof

The paradigm was simple enough to make their behavior confounding: Good/Bad.
Becoming

But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding.
The Great Gatsby

There are many confounding factors, however, and whether there's any causal relation between the two phenomena is unclear, as is its direction, if there is one.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences

By then she had performed unfalteringly under the twins' perspicacious scrutiny and had confounded all their expectations.
The God of Small Things

پریشان کردن، گیج کردن، عاجز کردن

If you're reading this on a treadmill or while taking a walk, you may know about the peripatetic, or walking, philosopher Aristotle, who taught while strolling with his students. Or, maybe you just like being a peripatetic, a walking wanderer.

Peri- is the Greek word for "around," and peripatetic is an adjective that describes someone who likes to walk or travel around. Peripatetic is also a noun for a person who travels from one place to another or moves around a lot. If you walk in a circle, you are peripatetic, or walking, but you aren't a peripatetic, or wanderer, unless you actually go somewhere.

adjective
traveling especially on foot

noun
a person who walks from place to place

From their habit of strolling around the campus of a great university or through the streets of the city while discussing such issues, the old school of 'scientific' philosophy was known as the peripatetic school.
The Scientists

It's the reason the first philosophers were peripatetic.
Middlesex: A Novel

Like Gilbert, Galileo practised what he preached, and it was the peripatetic approach that was blown apart by his work in Italy late in the sixteenth century and early in the seventeenth century.
The Scientists

The weights hit the ground at very nearly the same time but not exactly at the same moment, which the peripateticsseized on as evidence that Galileo was wrong.
The Scientists

راه‌رونده، گردش‌کننده، سالک، دوره‌گرد، پیاده‌رو

Turgid describes something that's swollen, typically by fluids, like a turgid water balloon that's way too big to resist dropping on your friend's head.

Turgid comes from the Latin word turgidus, meaning "swollen, inflated." Turgid can be used in a figurative sense to describe things that are overblown. That might remind you of some people's egos! If a famous singer wants to showcase his incredible vocal range and his love of yodeling in a single song, the result may well be turgid, something so swollen with notes and styles that it seems ready to burst.

adjective
ostentatiously lofty in style

adjective
abnormally distended especially by fluids or gas

The water itself was turgid, gray- green even on sunny days, oil slicked, and reeking of diesel fuel and seaweed.
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Rain showered down and made miniature puddles on the turgid river water.
Homecoming

He continued to study Rick intently, his face turgid; Rick could not fathom what Garland was thinking.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Was this the only true history of the times, a mood blared by trumpets, trombones, saxophones and drums, a song with turgid, inadequate words?
Invisible Man

بادکرده، آماس‌دار، متورم، متسع، پر‌طمطراق

When someone is beyond stubborn, use the word obstinate instead: "You obstinate old mule! Get out of my way!"

While stubborn may have positive or negative connotations, obstinate is most definitely negative, because it implies a kind of hard-headed determination not to change your mind even when it might be best to rethink your position. "The obstinate Man does not hold Opinions, but they hold him," wrote Samuel Butler way back in the seventeenth century. The word still does the trick if you want a put-down for someone you think is being a pig-headed fool or a stick in the mud.

djective
tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield

adjective
stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing

verb
persist stubbornly

It took another ten to click around and get the internet to work, because sometimes my computer was just, I don't know, obstinate.
A Very Large Expanse of Sea

Here and there, in Guillemot Street there would be an obstinate Kittiwake sitting on a projection and determined to have her rights.
The Once and Future King

Invariably, it took Ben and Mary Anne months before they could overcome their native diffidence, which actually was an obstinate refusal to make themselves vulnerable.
The Great Santini

"Why does that obstinate little voice in our heads torment us so?" he said, looking round the table.
The Secret History

کله‌شق، لجوج، سرسخت، خود‌رأی، خیره‌سر

If a dress is so see-through that light shines through it, it's diaphanous. You could also call it "sheer" or "transparent," but diaphanous sounds much fancier.

If you want a classic example of diaphanous clothing, check out all those nineteenth century Romantic paintings of goddesses clad in lightweight gowns flouncing around in the middle of forests at night. Those gowns are diaphanous, and so are the fluttery translucent muslin curtains in your kitchen window and the gauzy tutu your little sister loves to wear. The Greek root, diaphanes, "see-through," combines dia-, "through," and phainesthai, "to show."

adjective
so thin as to transmit light

Her palm was pale, almost diaphanous, and he could see the greenish criss-cross of her veins.
Americanah

They had pitched tents, some in motley, some in diaphanoussilks.
The Cruel Prince

I pulled back the thin diaphanous curtain that covered the windows and spotted my friend Ayana outside with her mother.
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

I forgot to add: The whole package is bow-tied in a billowy, diaphanous, organically grown hijab.
Saints and Misfits

روشن، شفاف

Some people like their movies to have sophisticated humor and others prefer the more puerile humor of pratfalls or jokes about smelly underwear, inappropriate belching, and passing gas.

Although the adjective, puerile can be used to describe anything related to childhood, more often than not, it is used in a derisive manner to comment on the immaturity, silliness, or juvenile nature of something or someone. So if you hear someone talk about puerile toys, they may merely be remarking on the toys of childhood, but it is more likely they are discussing whoopee cushions, fake dog poo, and the like.

adjective
displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity

adjective
of or characteristic of a child

"When I want mountains made out of molehills, when I want to legitimize their puerile actions by paying attention to them, I'll let you know."
The Milagro Beanfield War

They were reckless, puerile, congenial, naive, presumptuous, deferential and rambunctious.
Catch-22

No one tried harder than Satie to puncture the pretension of Bayreuth, even if his rejection of the Wagner legacy may have been at times rather puerile.
The Story of Music

He did not speak down to her or at her, nor content himself with puerile questions about her life or monologues of his own activities.
Sula

بچگانه، کودکانه، احمقانه

a summary or abstract of a text or speech.

make a precis of (a text or speech).

خلاصه رئوس مطالب، تلخیص، چکیده مطلب، خلاصه نوشتن

Something that's pathogenic makes you sick, like a virus you pick up after riding on a bus full of coughing people.

Pathogenic is a medical term that describes viruses, bacteria, and other types of germs that can cause some kind of disease. The flu, various parasites, and athlete's foot fungus are all considered to be pathogenic. This word has been used since the late 1800s to mean "producing disease," from the French pathogénique, which in turn came from the Greek word for "disease," pathos.

adjective
able to cause disease

This old pathogenic role, which has been taught to all the medical and veterinary generations of our time, is quite true.
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793

The causative relation between pathogenic organisms and many diseases had been established through the brilliant work of Pasteur and Koch.
Silent Spring

This pathogenic retinue likely extends beyond a few errant dollars that made their way to scientific labs.
SalonJan 4, 2017

The results might lend some support to an unorthodox theory, championed by Harvard neurologist Robert Moir, that amyloid is a defence against pathogenic microbes.
The GuardianMar 3, 2019

بیماری‌زا

To be venerable is to be admired and respected because of your status or age. You become venerable by achieving great things or just by living long enough.

The adjective venerable means "admired" and "respected" — it should describe how you feel about old folks and bosses, for example. It describes the wise old man at the top of the mountain who tells you the meaning of life. As a noun, the Venerable refers to someone high up in a religion, usually Christian. In fact, Saint Bede, who is sometimes called the Father of English History, is often referred to as Bede the Venerable.

adjective
profoundly honored

adjective
impressive by reason of age

Among zookeepers, Goliath's death is famous; he was a bull elephant seal, a great big venerable beast of two tons, star of his European zoo, loved by all visitors.
Life of Pi

They were not remotely ready to step into the delicate confines of a racing shell, so they waited turns to board the school's venerable training barge, Old New.
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

After a moment, a venerable salmon rippled up; Medwyn stroked the jaws of the huge fish.
The Book of Three

A venerable bank underwrote the construction of the new meeting hall.
The Best of Enemies

محترم، معزز، قابل احترام، ارجمند، مقدس

Something dilatory creates a delay. Remember when your math teacher asked you to work out a problem on the board and you tried to get her talking about her favorite theorems instead? That was a dilatory tactic.

The adjective dilatory comes from the Latin root word dilator, a noun that means "someone who puts off things" or "a procrastinator." If you are always late to appointments, people may accuse you of being dilatory, especially if they think you don't have a good excuse.

adjective
wasting time

King George was in a fury over the dilatory, cautious behavior of his general.
Johnny Tremain

The dilatory limousine came rolling up the drive.
The Great Gatsby

Thank you for sending us Two Figures by a Fountain, and please accept our apologies for this dilatory response.
Atonement

After a pause he added "sir" in a dilatory, grudging way.
The Great Gatsby

اتساعی، ورمی، تاخیری، کند، بطی

To admonish is to scold. If you want to show someone you're not happy with his behavior, admonish him.

Coming to English through Old French from the Latin admonere "to advise, remind," admonish is always used with an eye on improving someone's behavior. The exact meaning of this formal verb varies in intensity depending generally on who is being corrected. If a child or subordinate is being admonished, it means "scold" or "rebuke" whereas if someone admonishes a person with equal standing, warnor advise are closer synonyms.

verb
take to task

verb
admonish or counsel in terms of someone's behavior

verb
warn strongly; put on guard

"Don't talk about your father like that on Christmas Eve. Shame on you," Mrs. Meecham admonished.
The Great Santini

His admonishing eye held Ranofer's a moment, then he resumed his work.
The Golden Goblet

Congress admonished the brain busters not to waste taxpayer money on "science fiction" and dreams of manned spaceflight.
Hidden Figures

He took his dinner off the stove where she had carefully covered it and which she had admonished us not to bother.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

هشدار دادن، آگاه کردن، متنبه کردن, نصیحت کردن، پند دادن، وعظ کردن

A good place to see a display of lachrymose sorrow is at a funeral — people sobbing openly or sniffling quietly into their hankies. To be lachrymose, in other words, is to be tearful.

Lachrymose is not a word used much in everyday speech; you wouldn't say, for example, "I feel a bit lachrymose today." No, you'd probably say, "I feel a bit weepy today." Lachrymose is generally confined to use as a written critical term, often meaning much the same as sentimental. Books and plays and films can all be lachrymose, if their intent is to induce shameless sniveling.

adjective
showing sorrow

Doc Daneeka demanded, lifting his delicate immaculate dark head up from his chest to gaze at Yossarian irascibly for a moment with lachrymose eyes.
Catch-22

"What do all of these lachrymose cliches mean?"
A Confederacy of Dunces

It was a role that showed off Williams's talents - the zaniness, the dressing up, the bizarrely transparent absurdity, combined with his big-hearted, faintly lachrymosevulnerability and sentimental concern for children.
The GuardianAug 12, 2014

The lachrymose British drama "Lilting" pivots on the prickly relationship between two people who are mourning a third.
New York TimesSep 25, 2014

اشک‌زا، اشکبار، اشکی، غصه‌دار

Shakespeare's language is a good example of euphony: pleasant, musical sounds in harmony, as with "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day."

Use euphony to describe music or poetry. To understand it, break it down: eu- means good; phon- means sound or voice. Of course, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, euphony is in the ear of the listener — it's subjective. Kids and their parents rarely find euphony in the same song.

noun
any agreeable (pleasing and harmonious) sounds

Instead of a polite Cambridge-style euphony and mellifluousness, I was striving for vibrant colours, drama, vigour and passion: the elements I thought were the hallmarks of Monteverdi's musical style.
The GuardianSep 3, 2010

And when he played a zither, its euphony cascaded through the room.
Washington PostMar 16, 2015

Listen to how the music unfolds: passages that slyly verge on atonality are linked like gossamer chains to hinge moments of pure tonal euphony, each expressing a clear dramatic point.
The New YorkerFeb 28, 2019

Viols, cousins to the modern string family, produce dainty sounds that blend together with the utmost euphony when played well.
Washington PostOct 24, 2016

خوش‌آهنگی کلمات، سهولت ادا، عدم تنافر، صدای دلپذیر

To ingratiate is to make obvious efforts to gain someone's favor, in other words — to kiss up to someone.

Ingratiate has not strayed much from its Latin roots, in gratiam, (in plus gratia meaning "favor") which means "in favor" or "for the favor of." To ingratiate is to gain the favor of someone by doing lots of favors to the point of being a nudge. Like the teacher's pet who answers every question, stays after class to clean the chalkboard, and brings the teacher an apple every day. When you ingratiate yourself to people, you risk annoying them — like a little dog nipping at their heels.

verb
gain favor with somebody by deliberate efforts

For he knew that he had failed, from the very beginning, to ingratiate himself with Edmund.
I'm the King of the Castle

"John!" ventured a small ingratiating voice from the bathroom.
Brave New World

The Steward was the superior, but the Butler had more opportunities to ingratiate himself with the Scholars, and made full use of them.
The Golden Compass

The two operatives acting as cattlemen soon ingratiatedthemselves with William Hale, who considered them fellow Texas cowboys and who introduced them to many of the leading townsfolk.
Killers of the Flower Moon

خودشیرینی کردن، مورد لطف و عنایت قرار دادن، طرف توجه قرار دادن

Ni hao! Comment allez-vous? Estoy bien, gracias. Sayōnara! If you understood everything you just read, you're probably a polyglot — a person who understands multiple languages.

There are thousands of languages spoken in the world, but you don't need to know them all to be a polyglot. The -glot comes from the Greek word for "tongue," and the prefix poly- means "more than one," so if you speak two or more languages, you're technically a polyglot. Well done! Polyglot can also be used as an adjective, like describing "a polyglot neighborhood" full of people from many different cultures or the "polyglot crowd at the Olympic games."

noun
a person who speaks more than one language

adjective
having a command of or composed in many language

The captain swore polyglot—very polyglot—polyglot with bloom and blood; but he could do nothing.
Dracula

With his passing, he evaded the overwhelming consequence of his success: the challenge of consolidating a polyglot empire unprecedented in size and comprising peoples who, by and large, despised each other.
Circumference

The Americas had two empires, those of the Aztecs and Incas, which resembled their Eurasian counterparts in size, population, polyglot makeup, official religions, and origins in the conquest of smaller states.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

It is a strange new kind of army, a polyglot mass of vastly dissimilar men, fighting for union.
The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War

چند‌زبانی، متکلم به چند زبان

Obdurate is a formal word meaning stubborn. If you want to major in English, but your parents are obdurate that you should go premed, they might go so far as to threaten not to pay your tuition.

This adjective descends from Latin obdurare, "to harden." A near synonym is adamant, from Latin adamas, "hard metal, diamond." So both of these synonyms derive from the quality of hardness being associated with a stubborn personality.

adjective
stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing

adjective
showing unfeeling resistance to tender feelings

He sat writing up his records with the same obdurate patient thoroughness I had seen in a mad king up on a scaffolding mortaring a joint, and said, "When we reach Karhide...."
The Left Hand of Darkness

François was obdurate, but when he turned his back Buck again displaced Sol-leks, who was not at all unwilling to go.
The Call of the Wild

My reserve was greater and more obdurate than ever before.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party

Also, the numbers themselves seemed solid, obdurate, much less fun.
Typical American

سرسخت، لجوج، سنگدل

A formal, high-minded speech can be described with a formal, high-minded word — the word panegyric, which is a very elaborate tribute to someone. You could consider most eulogies as panegyrics.

It stands to reason that the original use of the word panegyris, from which panegyric derives, was to describe a public gathering in honor of a Greek god. The Latin, L. panegyricus, altered slightly to mean "public eulogy," which around the 16th Century shifted to the French panégyrique, which meant "laudation." In any case, the word today stands for high praise given in a speech or tribute as highfalutin as the word itself sounds.

adjective
formally expressing praise

noun
a formal expression of praise

After having made a few preparatory experiments, he concluded with a panegyric upon modern chemistry, the terms of which I shall never forget:
Frankenstein

Earlier this month, shortly before Donald Trump's Inauguration, a panegyric made the rounds on social media.
The New YorkerJan 30, 2017

Yet in your book you deplore the panegyric as much as the unillumined attack.
New York TimesOct 21, 2021

Reviews tell a similar story: the band will not be papering their studio walls with glowing panegyrics any time soon.
The GuardianJun 3, 2010

مدیحه، ستایش

Larceny is the legal term for stealing. Grand larceny is when you take something worth a lot of money, petty larceny when the stolen item is worth relatively little.

Larceny is used when talking about stealing someone's property in regards to the law. If you illegally download music or plagiarize a text, that may be theft, but it is not larceny because there was no physical property involved. If you take a friend's yoyo and don't give it back, it's stealing — unless your friend calls the police and has you arrested on charges of larceny.

noun
the act of taking something from someone unlawfully

As for Father Michael Antoniou, he was later convicted of attempted grand larceny and served two years in prison.
Middlesex: A Novel

The website said he wasn't a murderer at all, that he was doing twenty-four-to-life for two counts of burglary and a grand larceny.
Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

"And talkin' about this morning," the sheriff said, his face shading purple even in the darkness, "you stole my boat. That's what we call larceny, Mrs. Dowdel. You could go up for that."
A Long Way from Chicago

Though it's not my first bout of larceny.
I'll Give You the Sun

سرقت

Rococo describes a very ornate style originating in Europe. If you love tons of decoration and fancy details, then you'll love the rococo style of architecture and music.

Modern design is all simplicity: clean lines and no clutter. Rococo design — which came and went in Europe in the 1700s — is the opposite: it explodes with detail, ornament, patterns, and decoration. If something other than an actual work of design or music is described as rococo, it means wildly detailed, to the point of excess. They sat me next to Diana, who told me the whole rococo story of her divorce. Hours had passed before she even got to the part about the affair.

noun
fanciful but graceful asymmetric ornamentation in art and architecture that originated in France in the 18th century

Old buildings, whose gray rococo facades housed my memories of the Forty-Niners, and Diamond Lil, Robert Service, Sutter and Jack London, were then imposing structures viciously joined to keep me out.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Farther up on the green stood a tall brown Victorian house, quiet in the sunlight, all covered with scrolls and rococo, its windows made of blue and pink and yellow and green colored glass.
The Martian Chronicles

The front of the plant was a brick commercial building of the nineteenth century with a mansard roof that bulged out into several rococo dormer windows, the panes of which were mostly cracked.
A Confederacy of Dunces
Pairs were nesting in the rococo architecture of the churches and Victorian houses.
Frightful's Mountain

When you cheer up a friend who's feeling down, you bolster them. To bolster is to offer support or strengthen.

A bolster is also the name of a long pillow you might use to make your back feel better. And the two uses are not dissimilar. When you bolster your friends, you support them and prop them up, just like the pillow does for your back. When you're trying to bolster your credibility, you find people and/or documents that support you or your view. Bolster efforts to learn this word!

verb
support and strengthen

He had broken his back, someone said, but there was nothing anyone could do, and now men were stepping over him with their blankets and bolsters, and others were jostling to go up.
Atonement

I pulled her up and picked up the bolster from the floor and used it to support her back.
Kira-Kira

"Come on, Aileen," I said, bolstering her again with an arm around the waist.
Tradition

His other arm bolstered Nurse Duckett, who was trembling and sobbing against him, too, her long, angular face dead white.
Catch-22

حمایت کردن، تقویت کردن

Plastic is a synthetic material that can be molded when soft and formed into a solid shape. Many toys are made out of plastic, like Barbie dolls and Lego blocks.

Plastic appears in many different forms, from beach balls to lawn chairs, grocery bags and much more. Credit cards, which are made of plastic, are called plastic, meaning payment that's not cash. You can also use plastic as an adjective to describe things that can be molded, like clay that's plastic in your hands, or to describe something that's artificial. For example, if a person is called plastic, he or she is probably fake or insincere.

adjective
capable of being influenced or formed

A plastic card ejected from a slot in the side.
The Mark of Athena

If they doubted the existence of Special Circ*mstances, Tally showed them the plastic handcuff bracelets still encircling her wrists, and invited them to try to cut the cuffs off.
Uglies

All my cousins would gather in the courtyard between my house and Geoffrey's house to kick the soccer ball—made from plastic shopping bags we called jumbos, which we then bound in twine.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Beside him lay a water bottle, a green plastic thing, knocked over and spilled; beside that lay a jar of pills, large white ones, with the top off, also knocked over and partly spilled out.
Z for Zachariah

قالب‌پذیر، نرم، تغییر‌پذیر، قابل تحول و تغییر

Luminous means full of or giving off light. During the winter holidays, with all their emphasis on light, you can see luminous displays of candles everywhere.

This word has several figurative meanings that are related to the basic sense of something shining. For example, luminous prose is clear and easily understood. And a luminous career is bright and inspiring. The Middle English adjective is from Latin luminosus, from lumen "light."

adjective
softly bright or radiant

Against the wan walls and the luminous pavement of the road Frodo could see them, small black figures in rank upon rank, marching swiftly and silently, passing outwards in an endless stream.
The Two Towers

His watch was nearly over, when, far off where he guessed that the western archway stood, he fancied that he could see two pale points of light, almost like luminous eyes.
The Fellowship of the Ring

He felt spooky and luminous, felt as though he were wrapped in cool fur that was full of static electricity.
Slaughterhouse-Five

I look up at the olden face, luminous and holy.
Beast Rider

درخشان، فروزان

An apostate is someone who has deserted his cause.

The word apostate originally comes from a Greek word that meant "runaway slave." Now, apostate has a religious or political tone to it, so someone might call you "a political apostate" if you ran for office as a Republican during one election and then ran as a Democrat in the following election.

adjective
not faithful to religion or party or cause

noun
a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.

My father never went along, having become an apostate at the age of eight over the exorbitant price of votive candles.
Middlesex: A Novel

Milton, the child apostate, would have been confirmed in his skepticism, because his spirit never returned that day, trying to get past me.
Middlesex: A Novel

She digs honestly into her own psyche and into those of "people like me," and she reveals herself as believer and apostate, moth and flame.
New York TimesSep 30, 2014

Mostly it's a typical half-hour of animated lunacy and a reminder to apostates of why they loved the show in the first place.
New York TimesJan 8, 2010

از دین برگشته، مرتد

In common use, sublime is an adjective meaning "awe-inspiringly grand, excellent, or impressive," like the best chocolate fudge sundae you've ever had.

You might describe a spine-tingling piece of music as "a work of sublime beauty." With the, the word also functions as a noun meaning "something that strikes the mind with a sense of grandeur or power": "Never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery," wrote Washington Irving. The beauty of music or nature can be awe-inspiring, but sublime is also useful for describing everything from an impressive serve in tennis to a jaw-droppingly good taste sensation.

adjective
of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style

adjective
worthy of adoration or reverence

adjective
inspiring awe

verb
change or cause to change directly from a solid into a vapor without first melting

Fully understanding the racial implications of Parsifal's message and its pre-eminence in Nazi ideology, it is uncomfortable for us to hear Wagner's sublime music without wincing.
The Story of Music

He realized that it makes people feel good and powerful to feel a part of God, a part of the sublime.
Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

The dinner is sublime: We start with oyster bisque and follow with prime rib, boiled potatoes, and asparagus in cream.
Water for Elephants

This, you must understand, Octavian, is the true and sublimeend of discipline: that you may rise into a new and glorious buoyancy."
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party

برین، والا، رفیع، بلند پایه، عرشی

Symbiosis, a noun, tells about the relationship between living things that helps all of them stay alive, like the symbiosis between bees that eat nectar from flowers that get cross-pollinated when the bees move from one to the next.

To correctly pronounce symbiosis, accent the third syllable: "sim-be-OH-sis." The prefix syn comes from the Greek word "together" and bios means "life." So symbiosis means "a living together." Things that live in symbiosis depend on one another, like the clown fish and anemone that protect one another from ocean predators, or the symbiosis between a dairy farmer and one who grows hay, trading milk for hay bales that feed the cows.

noun
the relation between two different species of organisms that are interdependent; each gains benefits from the other

One way to put it is that the earth is a loosely formed, spherical organism, with all its working parts linked in symbiosis.
The Lives of a Cell

It is possible that the invention of antibodies evolved from the earlier sensing mechanisms needed for symbiosis, perhaps designed, in part, to keep the latter from getting out of hand.
The Lives of a Cell

This was the turning point, they say, where Sapiens cast off its intimate symbiosis with nature and sprinted towards greed and alienation.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

These, under high magnification, turn out to be bacteria, living in symbiosis with the spirochetes and the protozoan, probably contributing enzymes that break down the cellulose.
The Lives of a Cell

هم‌زیستی، زندگی تعاونی، هم‌زیستی و تجانس دو موجود مختلف یا دو گروه مختلف با هم

A pithy phrase or statement is brief but full of substance and meaning. Proverbs and sayings are pithy; newspaper columnists give pithy advice.

The root of this word is pith, which refers to the spongy tissue in plant stems, or the white part under the skin of citrus fruits. Pith is also used figuratively to refer to the essential part of something: They finally got to the pith of the discussion. Pith descends from Middle English, from Old English pitha "the pith of plants." In the adjective pithy, the suffix -y means "characterized by."

adjective
concise and full of meaning

He opened his mouth, waiting for his brain to supply the customary pithy comeback.
Artemis Fowl

Mine is at my typewriter writing pithy things I'll never have the guts to say out loud.
The Help

The consequence of all that ice was a wretched Thanksgiving of tiny tough birds, heavy pork cakes, and pithy sweet potatoes.
Sula

They could always talk; and their discourse, witty, pithy, original, had such charms for me, that I preferred listening to, and sharing in it, to doing anything else.
Jane Eyre

پرمغز، مختصر و مفید، مؤثر

Though dilettante might sound like a nice French word, don't use it on your friend who thinks he can play the guitar after several short lessons. A dilettante is an amateur, often one who pretends to be very knowledgeable.

The meaning of dilettante has changed since it was borrowed from the Italian in the mid 1700s. Originally, it meant "lover of the arts," but began to take on a negative slant as the idea of doing something as a professional took hold strongly during the 18th century. A dilettante was a mere lover of art as opposed to one who did it professionally. Today, the word implies you're pretending to be more of an artist than you're interested in or capable of being, so if you call your friend who likes to paint a dilettante, it's like you're calling him or her a poser.

noun
an amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge

adjective
showing frivolous or superficial interest; amateurish

Charles wasn't a dilettante; he was serious about the breeding and created his own new lines of pigeons.
Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

'There were no scientists in Stuart England,' we are told, 'and all the men we have grouped together under that heading were in their varying degrees dilettantes.'
The Invention of Science

Nevertheless, several accomplished alpinists not on her team regarded Pittman as a grandstanding dilettante.
Into Thin Air

Our work together flushing out the more dilettante students has made this school a safer, purer place — SCORPIUS: Has it?
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

ناشی، دوستدار تفننی صنایع زیبا، غیرحرفه

Abscond is to escape, often taking something along. As a kid, you may have absconded from your lemonade stand — with the coffee can of cash in hand, and your bewildered sister still filling cups for your customers.

Abscond is generally used to describe someone running from law or capture, and the word abscond has been in use since the early sixteenth century — running away and hiding being nothing new. Dogs who get off the leash and dart into the woods are not necessarily absconding; they are simply making a break for it. On the other hand, the Ponzi schemer who went to live in the South of France with his client's money? He absconded.

verb
run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along

It is with regret that I confirm the report that has come to your ears: The experimental subject has indeed abscondedfrom the property, and, at present, has not been located.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party

The nostalgia is the stronger and the more ambiguous because he is really 'in quest of his own absconded self yet scared to find it'.
Hunger of Memory

Sybil had absconded with Molly when her daughter was only two, toting her child all the way.
The Underground Railroad: A Novel

He absconded from the Florida cane fields and made it to Tennessee before a tinker caught him stealing food from his pantry.
The Underground Railroad: A Novel

گریختن، فرار کردن، رونشان ندادن، پنهان شدن

Though you pronounce it duh-LIN-ee-ate, there is a "line" in the middle of delineate. This might help you remember that to delineate is to outline and define something in detail or with an actual marking of lines and boundaries.

When you create an outline for a paper it usually summarizes what you will detail later. You delineate the sections, or mark the heading lines, and when you write the details, you delineate the subject of each heading. So, to delineate is both to mark lines and to fill in the lines. Using a fence to divide properties or a carpet to claim your side of the bedroom also is a way to delineate, or mark, physical boundaries.

adjective
represented accurately or precisely

verb
show the form or outline of

verb
describe in vivid detail

I want her madness clearly delineated so that I can trace its history and my own.
Everything, Everything

The definition neglects to mention the maps, the ones that delineate the return trip to normal or the site of the sunken treasure.
Burning Blue

"It's not so bad," Catherine said, making quick pencil strokes on the sketch pad in her hand to delineate Princesse's naked breasts.
Krik? Krak!

It wasn't visible to her, but the guards had delineated an area within which the prisoners' relatives were not allowed.
Zeitoun

مشخص کردن، ترسیم نمودن، معین کردن

Relegate means "to assign to a lower position." If the quarterback of the football team stops making decent throws, he might be relegated to the position of benchwarmer.

Relegate rhymes with delegate — both words derive from the Latin legare, "to send." Relegate means to send someone down in rank. Delegate means to send someone in your place to complete a task. In the workplace, managers who can't figure out how to delegate may get relegated to a lesser rank.

verb
assign to a lower position; reduce in rank

verb
assign to a class or kind

The idea was to preserve the status quo where three million whites owned 87 percent of the land, and relegate the eight million Africans to the remaining 13 percent.
Long Walk to Freedom

Or we could choose to be a nation that shames and blames its most vulnerable, affixes badges of dishonor upon them at young ages, and then relegates them to a permanent second-class status for life.
The New Jim Crow

I wasn't going to relegate our love to the creeping pace of the postal service.
Becoming

Paradigms flourish; some then die, and others get relegated to introductory textbooks.
The Invention of Science

محول کردن، واگذار کردن، منتسب کردن

Felicitous describes something that's pleasantly apt or fitting. Felicitous words you write on your friend's birthday card are the ones that perfectly suit the occasion and make her happy when she reads them.

Felicitous can mean "appropriate," but it also describes something that's lucky. When you plan a trip to the amusem*nt park and it turns out that the sun is shining, that's felicitous. If you need to mail a package by a certain date and you make it to the post office just in time, that's also felicitous. The Latin root of felicitous is felix, "happy or lucky."

adjective
exhibiting an agreeably appropriate manner or style

adjective
marked by good fortune

Though no such felicitous circ*mstance transpired, still I walked with light enough step.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves

She had even commissioned someone to write felicitous messages on red banners, as if my parents themselves had draped these decorations to congratulate me on my good luck.
The Joy Luck Club

Pope Julius II acted impetuously in all his affairs, and he found the times and circ*mstances so suitable to this method of procedure that he always achieved felicitous results.
The Prince

Thus I begin my record once more, in hopes of more felicitous issue.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves

به‌موقع، بجا، به‌هنگام، شایسته، مناسب

If you're livid, you're furious, in a black cloud of anger. The Latin root this word comes from means "bluish-gray" or "slate-colored," and you can also use livid to describe the color, such as a livid bruise or a livid sea.

Livid, even when it means "bluish-gray," has the sense of something not quite right. If the sky is livid, there's something ominous about it. Similarly, if your skin is livid, there's something wrong — you're either covered with bruises or you're at death's door, anemic and ashen. But livid is used most often to describe fury. What if you waited in line 15 hours and the person in front of you got the last seat for the hottest concert of the summer? You'd be livid!

adjective
furiously angry

I was furious, livid—more furious than I had been about anything in years.
A Walk in the Woods

In the mirror I could see Mr. Norton staring out vacantly upon the empty fields, his mouth stern, his white forehead livid where it had scraped the screen.
Invisible Man

Wilkins also got absolutely livid when something hadn't been done right, every now and then taking the little cards that had diagrams of plays on them and throwing them in the air in exasperation.
Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream

His face went from its livid red to an ashen white more quickly than I would have believed possible.
The Name of the Wind

کبود، کبود‌شده از شدت خشم

An axiom is a statement that everyone believes is true, such as "the only constant is change." Mathematicians use the word axiom to refer to an established proof.

The word axiom comes from a Greek word meaning "worthy." An axiom is a worthy, established fact. For philosophers, an axiom is a statement like "something can't be true and not be true at the same time." An example of a mathematical axiom is "a number is equal to itself." In everyday usage, an axiom is just a common saying, but it's one that pretty much everyone agrees on.

noun
(logic) a proposition that is not susceptible of proof or disproof; its truth is assumed to be self-evident

noun
a saying that is widely accepted on its own merits

Even the 2,500-year-old Greek idea of an axiomatic geometry—a few self-evident axioms being assumed, and from them the theorems being derived by logic alone—is not being effectively taught in secondary school.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences

You start with a set of axioms, and derive a series of conclusions by a watertight chain of deductions.
Words Like Loaded Pistols

The PAC echoed the axioms and slogans of that time: Africa for the Africans and a United States of Africa.
Long Walk to Freedom

From them, it should be possible to derive a complete system of knowledge embracing every aspect of the natural world, just as one can deduce the whole of Euclidean geometry from five axioms.
The Invention of Science

حقیقت آشکار، قضیه حقیقی، بدیهیات، اصل عمومی

Discerning people pick up on subtle traits and are good judges of quality — they're the ones who can tell if your cupcakes are homemade from the finest ingredients or totally from a box mix.

Discerning is an adjective that comes from the Old French discerner, meaning to "distinguish (between), separate (by sifting)" — which makes sense, because someone with discerning tastes or a discerning eye is good at distinguishing the good from the bad and sifting out the gems from the junk. If you're an ace at picking out fabulous fabrics, accessories, and shoes when you get dressed each morning, you probably have discerning fashion sense.

adjective
having or revealing keen insight and good judgment

adjective
able to make or detect effects of great subtlety

"Laura's talent is for discerning spirits, as opposed to your gift of prophecy. Which is the reason we're here, isn't it? You have a gift, Luke. A powerful spiritual gift."
Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet

"Indeed. It never does. And it will not ever again. I must have been deluded when she first came to us, wanting to enter our Order. I shall be more discerning next time."
The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Most of us have difficulty believing that a 275-pound football lineman could have a lively and discerning intellect.
Blink

Careful writers and discerning readers delight in the profusion of words in the English lexicon, no two of which are exact synonyms.
The Sense of Style

فهمیده، بینا

If a field is plowed into furrows, it's striated — or, technically, it's marked with striae, which are stripes or grooves.

When you see striate, think of stripes. When a child uses a fork to make a row of stripes in her play-dough, she's striating it. A striated rock surface might show evidence of the movement of glaciers thousands of years ago. Striated muscle has a striped appearance.

adjective
marked with stria or striations

verb
mark with striae or striations

After a hasty breakfast of mush, the Hunters were off, eager to take advantage of the halt in the rain and the appearance of sliced sunlight through the striated clouds.
The Marrow Thieves

When we finally convinced ourselves to move, to make the day real, the sky was a cerulean blue with a light gauze of striated clouds.
The Marrow Thieves

Her long, black-and-yellow striated body narrowed some toward the head and even more at the tail, which swished slowly back and forth in what seemed like murderous anticipation.
Dactyl Hill Squad

In murky images, his horse would spiral into the ground, carrying Tommy under him, and Helen would wake into a life striated with fear.
Seabiscuit: An American Legend

خط‌دار، شیار‌دار، مخطط کردن

Latent is an adjective that you use to describe something that is capable of becoming active or at hand, though it is not currently so.

The adjective latent is a tricky word to define because it refers to something there but not there. That is, latent means something that is capable of becoming active or at hand but has not yet achieved that state. The word arrived in Middle English from the Latin word latēre which means "to lie hidden." It can have somewhat negative connotations because it is often used in a medical context, as in a latent illness or infection, but it can also mean good things, such as someone discovering they have latent talents or capabilities.

adjective
potentially existing but not presently evident or realized

I had to fend off my share of goals, which I mostly did, through some combination of luck, coincidence, and latent memories of my pre-medication training.
Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Since he couldn't speak to me, he bounced me a lot and hummed to me, and touched his big, arching nose to my little, latent one.
Middlesex: A Novel

The long latent period of most cancers is the time required for the infinite number of cell divisions during which fermentation is gradually increasing after the initial damage to respiration.
Silent Spring

He had detected the latent sensuality, which unfolded under his delicate sense of her nature's requirements like a torpid, torrid, sensitive blossom.
The Awakening

پنهان، ناپیدا، پوشیده

To be listless is to be lethargic, low spirited, and limp. If a fever has made you feel listless, you might also feel like you are melting into the sofa.

If you went to the supermarket without your shopping list, that doesn't mean you're listless. The word originates from the Middle English word liste which meant desire (and is related to our word lust). Oddly enough, listen comes from the same origin. If you're too lethargic and out of it to listen, you're listless. It's not just laziness, it's not just fatigue; an utter indifference to whatever is going on around you makes you listless.

adjective
lacking zest or vivacity

adjective
marked by low spirits; showing no enthusiasm

She was watching them, growing listless from hunger, when a wheeling flock of sanderlings and whimbrels from the continent flew past.
Frightful's Mountain

He reached out to touch the keys—and heard Felicia's listless voice in the hallway.
The House of the Scorpion

Her face is swollen and her voice is listless, like a heavy sigh.
Allegiant

I felt confused and listless moving through the crowds that seemed to boil along in a kind of mist, as though the thin humid clouds had thickened and settled directly above our heads.
Invisible Man

بی‌میل، بی‌توجه

If you are circ*mspect, you think carefully before doing or saying anything. A good quality in someone entrusted with responsibility, though sometimes boring in a friend.

The word circ*mspect was borrowed from Latin circ*mspectus, from circ*mspicere, "to be cautious." The basic meaning of Latin circ*mspicere is "to look around." Near synonyms are prudent and cautious, though circ*mspect implies a careful consideration of all circ*mstances and a desire to avoid mistakes and bad consequences.

adjective
heedful of potential consequences

She was practically an adult now, it seemed—she certainly spoke like one, often more measured and circ*mspect than her parents.
Zeitoun

Shaan and Zahra's forces combined have managed to secure them a meeting with the queen at Buckingham Palace, but they've been told to take a winding, circ*mspect route to avoid the paparazzi.
Red, White & Royal Blue

These two are a peculiar pair—she circ*mspect and reserved, he bouncing on his toes, humming with energy.
Orphan Train

Always circ*mspect when addressing the white inhabitants of the house, he ceased to speak to them at all unless speech was demanded of him by his master.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party

بااحتیاط، ملاحظه‌کار

To inundate means to quickly fill up or overwhelm, just like a flood. Your bathroom could be inundated with water if the pipes burst, and hopefully your inbox is inundated with nice emails on your birthday.

Commonly used to refer to a deluge of water, inundate can also refer to an overflow of something less tangible, like information. Right before the holidays, toy stores are often inundated with eager parents scrambling to get the latest action figures and video games. Attempt to read the entire dictionary in one sitting and you'll inundate your mind with vocabulary. But you probably won't remember any of it tomorrow.

verb
fill or cover completely, usually with water

verb
fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid

Adding it to water and active bacteria would quickly get it inundated, replacing any population killed by the Toilet of Doom.
The Martian

A textbook example occurred after the eruption in 1980 of Mount St. Helens, in southern Washington State, which inundated more than two hundred square miles with magma, volcanic ash, and mud.
1491

Media depictions of Muslims as terrorists and foreigners had inundated our televisions and movie screens, and these harsh misrepresentations fueled anti-Muslim bigotry and policies in America.
Proud

Water surged across the once-dry floor of the sink, inundating farms and settlements, eventually drowning four hundred square miles of desert and giving birth to a landlocked ocean.
Into the Wild

اشباع کردن

Precipitate usually means "bringing something on" or "making it happen" — and not always in a good way. An unpopular verdict might "precipitate violence" or one false step at the Grand Canyon could precipitate you down into the gorge.

Precipitate, as a verb, can also mean specifically, "to fall from clouds," such as rain, snow, or other forms of precipitation. When used as an adjective, precipitate means "hasty" or "acting suddenly." If you decide to throw your class project in a trash masher just because someone in your class had a similar idea, then your actions might be described as precipitate. Or if you do that sort of thing regularly, you may be a precipitate person.

verb
bring about abruptly

His father tried, ineffectually, to intervene, but this time Moni was beaten up viciously, with a gashed lip and a wound in his forehead that precipitated a visit to the hospital.
The Gene

When turned toward himself his anger has precipitated ideas of suicide.
In Cold Blood

There they separated out 93 by repeating a tedious sequence of heating, evaporating, dissolving, precipitating, and centrifuging over three long days.
Big Science

Unable to glide smoothly through capillaries and veins, sickled red cells jammed into microscopic clots throughout the body, interrupting blood flow and precipitating the excruciating pain of a sickling crisis.
The Gene

به‌سرعت عمل کردن

An aerie is the nest of a large bird of prey somewhere high up, such as the branch of a tree or a clifftop.

Don't confuse aerie with airy, meaning spacious and well ventilated (though it's a safe bet that given their location most aeries are exactly that). The word also has the meaning of a human residence that's perched high up — particularly an artist's garret, for example, in the eaves of a building.

noun
the lofty nest of a bird of prey (such as a hawk or eagle)

noun
any habitation at a high altitude

She carried it back to her iron aerie and stood over it.
Frightful's Mountain

The men on the paint crew were swinging the work platforms under the fifth web, getting ready to paint the seemingly empty aerie.
Frightful's Mountain

From the aerie, Drum, duch*ess, and Lady watched everything that moved.
Frightful's Mountain

"The eyas is on the roof of the mill house. I put her out in the open where a peregrine's aerie should be."
Frightful's Mountain

آشیانه‌ی مرتفع، خانه‌ی مرتفع

If you can't decide how you feel about something, declare yourself ambivalent about it.

Ambivalent means "having mixed feelings about something." A Swiss psychologist named Eugen Bleuler coined the German word Ambivalenz in the early twentieth century, and it was soon imported into English. Bleuler combined the Latin prefix ambi-, meaning "both," with valentia, "strength." So etymologically speaking, if you're ambivalent you're being pulled by two equally strong things — but in practice, ambivalence often arises from caring very little either way. You might feel ambivalent about your lunch options if you have to choose between a murky stew and flavorless tofu.

adjective
uncertain or unable to decide about what course to follow

Her face reset to ambivalent frostiness, but Jessica had already noticed.
Here to Stay

She also may have felt ambivalent about the suffrage issue because she was a Quaker; many Quakers refused to vote because they did not want to participate in a government that waged war.
Votes for Women!

Thus, in the realm of morals the role of Christianity has been, at best, ambivalent.
The Fire Next Time

I sighed in relief again when Mr. Banner turned the lights on, finally glancing at Edward; he was looking at me, his eyes ambivalent.
Twilight

مردد، دارای دو احساس یا فکر متضاد

To gambol is to run around playing excitedly. Although the word sounds like "gamble," when you gambol you never lose — you just have a great time!

If you've ever sprinted around, jumping up and down, yelling "woo-hoo!," you already know how to gambol. Being really excited or even just slap-happy makes people gambol, and it's so energizing that animals do it too. Dogs gambol when they rise on two legs to greet each other, and squirrels gambol when they chase each other up and down trees. And when springtime comes after a long winter, it seems to make every living thing gambol with extra life.

noun
light-hearted recreational activity for diversion or amusem*nt

I leaned back in the embrasure in a more comfortable position, so that I could enjoy more fully the aërial gambolling.
Dracula

The walls bore the same ornamental plates, each featuring a highly colored, beribboned kitten, gamboling and frisking with sickening cuteness.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Co-ordinator's ruddy glass reflected, in miniature, the discreet gambolingof the flame, and, in even further miniature, it was reflected in each of his brooding pupils.
I, Robot

Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs? jimmy snyder.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

جست‌وخیز، ورجه‌وورجه در رقص

A knell is a ringing sound, particularly from a bell tolled to announce a death or the end of something. Which is kind of depressing.

From the Old English cnyll, meaning "sound made by a bell when struck or rung slowly," comes our modern day knell. It certainly describes the slow, ominous sound of funeral bells, but isn't always used so literally: We often say that a final blow or action that will bring an end to something sounds or signals the death knell. And if you hear a bell knell in your dreams, look out — superstition says that's not a good sign.

noun
the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death or a funeral or the end of something

They had rung the bells when King Robert died, she remembered, but this was different, no slow dolorous death knell but a joyful thunder.
A Clash of Kings

The Joseph Bell tolled its last, huge knell.
Redwall

Consequently, we do not have to wait until the publication of Geoffroy's table in 1718 to hear the death knell of alchemy.
The Invention of Science

The electric-chair knell of the doorbell sounded through the house again.
Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

ناقوس عزا را به‌صدا درآوردن، صدای ضربه ناقوس

Knowing that the adjective palatial is derived from the same Latin word as palace gives you a good sense of its meaning: magnificent, reminiscent of a home fit for a king.

The Palatine (Collis Palatium in Latin) is the center of Rome's famed Seven Hills. Tradition holds that it was the location on which Romulus founded the city, and it became a prestigious site for powerful Romans—including emperors—to build large, lavish homes. Palatium made its way into every Romance language and beyond: it became palazzo in Italian, palacio in Spanish, and palast in German. Palace entered English via the Old French palais. Power, affluence, extravagance: these are the qualities that should come to mind when you encounter the word palatial.

adjective
suitable for or like a palace

I entered the palatial building through the front door and walked confidently down the corridor decorated from wall to wall by trophies and plaques honoring winners of Wanderers tournaments since the club was founded.
Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography

When they arrived in the city's palatial old Lehrter Station, just north of the Tiergarten, that afternoon, they were stunned by the reception that greeted them.
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

You ride through one of the richest neighborhoods in Johannesburg, past palatial mansions and huge money.
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

By prison standards, this was palatial, but the rooms were damp and musty and received very little natural light.
Long Walk to Freedom

کاخی، مجلل

When you feel lethargic, you're sluggish or lacking energy. Being sleepy or hungry can make anyone lethargic.

Being lethargic makes it hard to get anything done: you feel weak and sleepy. Whatever the reason, a lethargic person needs to snap out of it and get some energy, maybe by eating something or by taking a nap. Being lethargic also goes well with watching TV, since that takes almost no energy at all. When you feel lethargic, you don't have any energy to spare.

adjective
deficient in alertness or activity

She had a book, but she wasn't reading; her legs were thrown over the arm of her chair, one bare heel kicking, with obstinate, lethargic rhythm, at the wicker side.
The Secret History

She continued either delirious or lethargic; and the doctor forbade everything which could painfully excite her.
Jane Eyre

Two days of confinement had made everyone lethargic.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

But it did have some connection to vitality, or "passion," as Master Hyrrokkin said, and those without it were emotionless, lethargic.
Strange the Dreamer

بی‌حال، سست

On a hot day, you'll be happy to have a fan that can oscillate, meaning it moves back and forth in a steady motion.

The verb oscillate can be traced back to the Latin word oscillum, meaning "swing," so it makes sense that oscillate is used to describe an object like a fan or a pendulum that swings from side to side. The word also can be used to describe a different kind of motion — the wavering of someone who is going back and forth between conflicting beliefs or actions. If you've ever had trouble making up your mind about something, you probably know what it feels like to oscillate — back and forth from one decision and to another and then back again. And again. And again.

verb
be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action

It would oscillate through the earth and back, until eventually it settled down at the center.
A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays

The oscillating fan on the wall made the papers on the employee bulletin board flutter.
Made You Up

His rebellious spirit made him violate all the taboos and consequently he always oscillated between moods of intense elation and depression.
Native Son

It was first thought to be hot intergalactic hydrogen, an immense amount of it never before seen, perhaps enough to close the Cosmos and to guarantee that we are trapped in an oscillating universe.
Cosmos

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