I could tell by the subtle nuance in her voice that my new aunt thought I was
being a nuisance.
A Villain’s Death
The nefarious villain had reached the nadir of his notorious career. He had run
into his nemesis, Nice Ned, the sheriff, after stealing some counterfeit cash (he
often didn’t notice the nuances of forged bills). Now he lay dying in the desert
from two fatal earlobe wounds.
Looking back, he recalled his nascent life as an outlaw. He had started as a
naive novice in New York, but when the city fumes got to him, he headed west,
where a novel future awaited him. In later years, no longer a neophyte, his
nonchalant attitude had left him nonplussed. Now nearly dead, he wanted to
establish a nexus with his lost youth, but it was too late.
O
obdurate
stubbornly resistant to changing one’s mind
I can’t endure it when I try to reason with you because you’re obdurate.
obsolete
out of style; outdated
In the age of iPhones and streaming, the compact disc is becoming obsolete.
obtuse
You may remember that in math an angle is called obtuse if it is greater than 90
degrees. However, the meaning that would be on the SAT Reading Test is
stupid, thick-headed (think: an obtuse angle is “thick” and so is an obtuse
person).
Note: An acute angle is less than 90 degrees and an acute person is sharp-minded
—the opposite of obtuse.
The obtuse man could not draw an obtuse angle.
odious