this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
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Word of the Day

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This is a place to post words you read and had to look up or simply enjoyed the rare word drop in something you read.

Post only the word(s) in the title bar, and the definition(s) in the post body along with the title/author of what you were reading when you encountered it. Posts are not intended as book reviews, but the comments section is free game.

The intention here is to expand vocabulary, motivate more active reading, and to see what others are reading. Please do not comment critically about the reading or vocabulary of others here. This is a place for English words from anyone of any age, background, or native language.

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  • adventitious - accidental; appearing casually
  • antipathy - a feeling of intense dislike
  • apoplectic - of or related to a sudden loss of consciousness such as a rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel leads to oxygen lack in the brain
  • a posteriori - derived from observed facts
  • a priori - derived by logic without observed facts
  • bathyscaphe - navigable deep diving vessel for underwater exploration
  • betoken - indicate
  • bowdlerize - to remove parts of an account or text that are deemed offensive
  • brusquely - in a blunt direct manner
  • capricious - determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason; impulsive; whimsical
  • chary - characterized by great caution and wariness
  • cliquiness - the state, quality or condition of being cliquey - an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
  • cloy - To cause distaste or disgust by supplying with too much of something originally pleasant, especially something rich or sweet; surfeit
  • colloquy - a formal conversation
  • conforaneous - of the marketplace or court
  • crèche - day nursery; a foundling (abandoned infant child 'found') hospital where infants are taken in and cared for
  • decaplet - alt - decuplet; coordinate term for a group of ten, or one of ten (babies born at the same time)
  • dectuple - tenfold; group of ten
  • denary - containing ten or ten parts
  • diminuendo - a gradual decrease in loudness
  • ebullience - overflowing with eager enjoyment or enthusiasm
  • empiricism - the philosophical doctrine that knowledge derives from experience
  • engaged theory - which moves across different levels of interpretation, linking different empirical questions to ontological understandings
  • ennead - any grouping or system containing nine objects
  • epistemology - the ontological philosophical theory of knowledge
  • extemporaneous - ad-lib; with little or no preparation or forethought
  • faculae - bright spot on a planet such as Mercury
  • filch - make off with the belongings of others
  • florid - elaborately or excessively ornamented
  • frenetically - in a very agitated manner; as if possessed by a mythological evil spirit
  • friable - easily broken into small fragments or reduced to powder
  • gangplank - temporary bridge for getting on and off a vessel at dockside
  • gerontocracy - a political system governed by old men
  • gradus - a handbook used as an aid in a difficult art or practice
  • grandiloquent - given to using language in a showy way by using an excessive number of difficult words to impress others
  • Grounded theory - which seeks to derive theories from facts;
  • hagiography - a biography that idolizes or idealizes the person (especially a person called a “saint”)
  • hew - to shape with an ax
  • indissoluble - incapable of being dissolved (in a solution)
  • ineffable - defying expression or description
  • inexpert - lack of professional skill or expertise
  • insuperable - impossible to surmount; insurmountable
  • intransigence - the trait of being intransigent; stubbornly refusing to compromise
  • involute - rolled; having margins rolled inward; especially of pedals or leaves in bud; closely coiled (shell) so the axis is obscured
  • junketing - taking an excursion for pleasure
  • lexicomane - a lover of words
  • malevolent - having or exerting a malignant influence
  • metaphysics - the philosophical study of being and knowing
  • mottle - colored with streaks or blotches of different shades
  • munificent - very generous
  • nettle - any of a number of plants with stinging hairs that cause skin irritation
  • nonuplet - coordinate term for a group of nine
  • nostrum - hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases; once sought by alchemists
  • onerous - not easily borne; wearing (burdensome, taxing)
  • ontology - the metaphysical study of the nature of being and existence
  • pall - a sudden numbing dread
  • parsimonious - excessively unwilling to spend
  • positivism - (ontological theory) which focuses on the observations themselves, attending more to claims about facts than to facts themselves
  • postmodernism - which regards facts as fluid and elusive, and recommends focusing only on observational claims in ontological theory
  • prodigal - rashly or wastefully extravagant
  • quixotic - not sensible about practical matters; idealistic and unrealistic
  • rationalism - the philosophical doctrine that knowledge is acquired by reason without resorting to experience
  • realism - the idea that facts are "out there" just waiting to be discovered;
  • redound - return or recoil
  • relativism - the philosophical doctrine that all criteria of judgment are relative to the individuals and situations involved
  • ribald - off-color; humorously vulgar
  • rueful - feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for offenses
  • sanguine - a blood red color
  • sardonically - in a sarcastic manner
  • sessile - permanently attached to a substrate; not free to move about
  • simulacrum - (plural simulacra) an insubstantial or vague semblance; a representation of a person such as a statue
  • skein - coils of worsted yarn (tightly twisted woolen yarn from long-staple wool)
  • sophistry - a deliberate invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hopes of deceivingly someone
  • sphericity - the roundness of a three dimensional object
  • spome - is any hypothetical system closed with respect to matter and open with respect to energy capable of sustaining human life indefinitely
  • stauling-ken - a house that will receive stollen goods
  • stolid - impassive; having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily aroused or excited
  • stultify - deprive of strength or efficiency; make useless or worthless
  • surfeit - To feed or supply to excess, satiety, or disgust; overindulge
  • susurration - the indistinct sound of people whispering
  • torpid - slow and apathetic
  • turgid - abnormally distended especially by fluids or gas
  • voluble - marked by a ready flow of speech
  • winnowing - the act of separating the grain from the chaff; select the desirable parts of a group or list; to cull
  • witticism - a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to invoke laughter
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