Building a Better Vocabulary

z Elbridge Gerry was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, delegate to the Second Continental Congress, vice president o ...

/HFWXUH(SRQ\PVIURP/LWHUDWXUHDQG+LVWRU\ and occupy Norway. Quisling hoped to lead a new Norwegian government with German ...

that Quisling brought to mind other Q words with negative connotations, such as quavering, quivering, and querulous. z Although ...

/HFWXUH(SRQ\PVIURP/LWHUDWXUHDQG+LVWRU\ z The original Luddites were a group of English craftsmen who organized themsel ...

were not uncommon in English literature. The word became a true toponym in the late 18th century, when it began to be used as a ...

/HFWXUH(SRQ\PVIURP/LWHUDWXUHDQG+LVWRU\ The baseball player Yogi Berra is remembered for many humorous quotes, such as ...

Thinking, Teaching, and Learning Words Lecture 18 A ccording to the Greek historian Plutarch, “The mind is not a vessel WREH¿O ...

Lecture 18: Thinking, Teaching, and Learning Words z Notice that this argument moves from a general statement about KXPDQLW\ W ...

Perspicacious (adjective) Having or showing keen mental perception. z In the 1950s, the theory of behaviorism dominated the soc ...

Lecture 18: Thinking, Teaching, and Learning Words Didactic (adjective) Inclined to teach or moralize excessively. z Didactic c ...

ż The university students took this sermon and ran with it, using the German word for philistine, philister, to refer to those ...

Lecture 18: Thinking, Teaching, and Learning Words z Esoteric describes secret or specialized knowledge that might seem mysteri ...

The minister’s __ style of preaching carried over into his personal life, all but putting his guests to sleep at the dinner tab ...

/HFWXUH:RUGVIRUWKH'LOLJHQWDQGWKH/D]\ :RUGVIRUWKH'LOLJHQWDQGWKH/D]\ Lecture 19 W e’ve all heard the aphorism tha ...

ż Pertinacious shares the basic meaning of holding resolutely to a course of action, purpose, or opinion, but it carries a nega ...

/HFWXUH:RUGVIRUWKH'LOLJHQWDQGWKH/D]\ z Synonyms and related words for facile include VNLOOHG, adroit, adept, dextero ...

z Synonyms for indolent include sluggish, idle, ODFNDGDLVLFDO, languid, lethargic, listless, and slothful. Torpor (noun) Sluggi ...

/HFWXUH:RUGVIRUWKH'LOLJHQWDQGWKH/D]\ GHEULV IURP WKH ÀRRG PDGH LW QHDUO\ LPSRVVLEOH IRU WKH UHVFXH teams ...

Synonyms for this word include adept, skilled, and dexterous. These two words both refer to sluggishness. These two words might ...

Lecture 20: Words That Break and Words That Join Words That Break and Words That Join Lecture 20 Y ou’ve probably heard Neil Sed ...