Building a Better Vocabulary

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Inchoate (adjective)



  1. Not completely formed or developed; only partly in existence.

  2. Not organized; lacking order.


z Both nascent and inchoate refer to the beginning stages of
something, but inchoate, depending on how it’s used, sometimes
emphasizes what is not present in the beginning stages, focusing
on the more “lacking” aspects of a beginning. This is in contrast to
nascent, which could stress the more developing, growing, positive
aspects of the beginning stages.

z To see how inchoate might be used differently than nascent,
compare the earlier context sentence for nascent and an adaptation
that uses inchoate:
 “Her nascent idea for a new software application wasn’t
completely thought out yet, but it had such potential that
investors were already lining up.”

 “Her inchoate idea for a new software application wasn’t
completely thought out yet, which meant that she had a lot of
work to do before investors lined up.”

Callow (adjective)


Immature or inexperienced; lacking adult sophistication.

z Callow is used to describe people who don’t have much life
experience or don’t know how to behave like adults, as in the
phrase callow youth.

z Synonyms for callow include immature, untried, green, raw,
XQÀHGJHG, and unripened.

z Callow comes from the Old English word calu, meaning “bare,
bald,” which was sometimes applied to young birds with no
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