Word Of The Day
lament
DEFINITION: (noun) A song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person.
SYNONYMS: coronach, dirge, requiem, threnody.
USAGE: And when the Duke's wife died Chaucer wrote a lament which is called the Dethe of Blaunche the Duchess, or sometimes the Book of the Duchess.
Categories: Test 1
blamable
DEFINITION: (adjective) Deserving blame or censure as being wrong or evil or injurious.
SYNONYMS: blameworthy, censurable, culpable.
USAGE: You are aware that I am no way blamable in this matter.
Categories: Test 1
sacrilege
DEFINITION: (noun) Desecration, profanation, misuse, or theft of something sacred.
SYNONYMS: blasphemy, desecration, profanation.
USAGE: I entreat you, if you be a Christian gentleman, not to kill me, which will be committing grave sacrilege, for I am a licentiate and I hold first orders.
Categories: Test 1
hobgoblin
DEFINITION: (noun) An object or a source of fear, dread, or harassment.
SYNONYMS: bugbear.
USAGE: But this encompassment of her own characterization...was a sorry and mistaken creation of Tess's fancy--a cloud of moral hobgoblins by which she was terrified without reason.
Categories: Test 1
stammer
DEFINITION: (verb) To speak with involuntary pauses or repetitions.
SYNONYMS: bumble, falter, stutter.
USAGE: "You--you must think me crazy," stammered Anne, trying to recover her self-possession.
Categories: Test 1
cipher
DEFINITION: (noun) A person of no influence.
SYNONYMS: nobody, nonentity.
USAGE: He was a cipher in the estimation of the public, and nobody attached any importance to what he thought or did.
Categories: Test 1
nuzzle
DEFINITION: (verb) Move or arrange oneself in a comfortable and cozy position.
SYNONYMS: cuddle, draw close, nest, nestle, snuggle.
USAGE: We nuzzled against each other to keep warm and quickly fell asleep.
Categories: Test 1
sulfurous
DEFINITION: (adjective) Harsh or corrosive in tone.
SYNONYMS: acid, blistering, caustic, vitriolic, sulphurous, acrid, acerbic, bitter, virulent.
USAGE: Her sulfurous denunciation of the governor was aired on the news that evening.
Categories: Test 1
portentous
DEFINITION: (adjective) Marked by pompousness; pretentiously weighty.
SYNONYMS: overblown, pompous, grandiloquent, pontifical.
USAGE: His hands, large and coarse, were plentifully bedecked with rings; and he wore a heavy gold watch-chain, with a bundle of seals of portentous size, and a great variety of colors, attached to it.
Categories: Test 1
cockeyed
DEFINITION: (adjective) Turned or twisted toward one side.
SYNONYMS: askew, awry, lopsided, skew-whiff, wonky.
USAGE: He noticed that his tie was cockeyed and made sure to straighten it before meeting with the company executives.
Categories: Test 1
antsy
DEFINITION: (adjective) Nervous and unable to relax.
SYNONYMS: fidgety, fretful, itchy.
USAGE: The long wait made the children antsy.
Categories: Test 1
extempore
DEFINITION: (adjective) Spoken, carried out, or composed with little or no preparation or forethought.
SYNONYMS: ad-lib, extemporaneous, extemporary, impromptu, off-the-cuff, offhand, offhanded, unrehearsed.
USAGE: The class performed an extempore skit that condensed the complex plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet into a single, 15-minute act.
Categories: Test 1
remiss
DEFINITION: (adjective) Lax in attending to duty.
SYNONYMS: delinquent, derelict, neglectful.
USAGE: I had been remiss in the fulfillment of my obligations and failed to pay my bills on time, so my landlord evicted me.
Categories: Test 1
veer
DEFINITION: (verb) To turn aside from a course, direction, or purpose.
SYNONYMS: curve, cut, sheer, slew, slue, swerve, trend.
USAGE: The car veered sharply to the left at the intersection and narrowly missed hitting a pedestrian.
Categories: Test 1
inanimate
DEFINITION: (adjective) Not having the qualities associated with active, living organisms.
SYNONYMS: pulseless, breathless.
USAGE: I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.
Categories: Test 1
saltation
DEFINITION: (noun) A light, self-propelled movement upwards or forwards.
SYNONYMS: leaping, bounce, bound, spring.
USAGE: The kangaroo's effortless saltation was balletic and graceful.
Categories: Test 1
tangential
DEFINITION: (adjective) Only superficially relevant; divergent.
SYNONYMS: digressive.
USAGE: His tangential anecdotes added much-needed humor to the talk, though some found the digressions tiresome.
Categories: Test 1
monition
DEFINITION: (noun) A warning or an intimation of something imminent, especially of impending danger.
SYNONYMS: admonition, warning, word of advice.
USAGE: Verily, all too well do I understand the dream's portent and monition.
Categories: Test 1

