The Right Word

Front 1

The line that divides boldness from foolishness or stupidity is often a fine one.

rashness, audacity, foolhardiness, impetuosity, gall, effrontery

Back 1

Someone who rushes hastily into a situation without thinking about the consequences might be accused of rashness, while temerity implies exposing oneself needlessly to danger while failing to estimate one's chances of success (: she had the temerity to criticize her teacher in front of the class).
Audacity describes a different kind of boldness, one that disregards moral standards or social conventions (: he had the audacity to ask her if she would mind paying for the trip).
Someone who behaves with foolhardiness is reckless or downright foolish (: climbing the mountain after dark was foolhardiness and everyone knew it), while impetuosity describes an eager impulsiveness or behavior that is sudden, rash, and sometimes violent (: his impetuosity had landed him in trouble before).
Gall and effrontery are always derogatory terms. Effrontery is a more formal word for the flagrant disregard of the rules of propriety and courtesy (: she had the effrontery to call the president by his first name), while gall is more colloquial and suggests outright insolence (: he was the only one with enough gall to tell the boss off).

Front 2

Looking for just the right word to express your dislike, distaste, disgust, or aversion to something?

offensive, detestable, odious, repugnant, abhorrent, abominable

Back 2

Offensive is a relatively mild adjective, used to describe anyone or anything that is unpleasant or disagreeable (: she found his remarks offensive; the offensive sight of garbage piled in the alley).
If you want to express strong dislike for someone or something that deserves to be disliked, use detestable (: a detestable man who never had a kind word for anyone).
If something is so offensive that it provokes a physical as well as a moral or intellectual response, use odious (: the odious treatment of women during the war in Bosnia), and if you instinctively draw back from it, use repugnant (: the very thought of piercing one's nose was repugnant to her).
If your repugnance is extreme, go one step further and use abhorrent (: an abhorrent act that could not go unpunished).
Persons and things that are truly loathsome or terrifying can be called abominable (: an abominable act of desecration; the abominable snowman), although this word is often used as an overstatement to mean "awful" (: abominable taste in clothes).

Front 3

Not all parents approach discipline in the same way.

lenient, forbearing, indulgent, merciful, permissive

Back 3

Someone who is lenient is willing to lower his or her standards of strictness when it comes to imposing discipline (: the principal was lenient with the students who had been caught playing hooky).
A parent who is forbearing struggles against giving in to negative feelings and is therefore able to abstain from hasty or ill-tempered actions, no matter what the provocation (: her father's forbearing attitude meant that she escaped with only a lecture).
Indulgent goes beyond forbearing and suggests catering to someone's whims (: an indulgent parent who seldom denied her child anything).
Lax is a negative kind of leniency involving laziness or indifference (: a lax mother who never imposed a curfew), while merciful suggests a relaxing of standards on the basis of compassion (: a merciful mother who understood her daughter's anger).
To be permissive is also to be extremely lenient—an approach that connotes tolerance to the point of passivity (: the children's utter disregard for the rules was the result of their permissive upbringing).

Front 4

alleviate, assuage, allay, relieve, abate, temper

Back 4

To alleviate is to make something easier to endure (: alleviate the pain following surgery); allay is often used interchangeably, but it also means to put to rest, to quiet or calm (: to allay their suspicions).
Assuage and allay both suggest the calming or satisfying of a desire or appetite, but assuage implies a more complete or permanent satisfaction (: we allay our hunger by nibbling hors d'oeuvres, but a huge dinner assuages our appetite).
To relieve implies reducing the misery or discomfort to the point where something is bearable (: relieve the monotony of the cross-country bus trip), and mitigate, which comes from a Latin word meaning to soften, usually means to lessen in force or intensity (: mitigate the storm's impact).
Abate suggests a progressive lessening in degree or intensity (: her fever was abating).
To temper is to soften or moderate (: to temper justice with mercy), but it can also mean the exact opposite: to harden or toughen something (: tempering steel; a body tempered by lifting weights).

Front 5

These verbs refer to the various ways in which we can outwit or overcome opposing forces.

thwart, balk, baffle, foil, frustrate, inhibit

Back 5

Thwart suggests using cleverness rather than force to bring about the defeat of an enemy or to block progress toward an objective (: thwart a rebellion; have one's goals thwarted by lack of education).
Balk also emphasizes setting up barriers (: a sudden reversal that balked their hopes for a speedy resolution), but it is used more often as an intransitive verb meaning to stop at an obstacle and refuse to proceed (: he balked at appearing in front of the angry crowd).
To baffle is to cause defeat by bewildering or confusing (: the police were baffled by the lack of evidence), while foil means to throw off course so as to discourage further effort (: her plan to arrive early was foiled by heavy traffic).
Frustrate implies rendering all attempts or efforts useless (: frustrated by the increasingly bad weather, they decided to work indoors), while inhibit suggests forcing something into inaction (: to inhibit wage increases by raising corporate taxes).
Both frustrate and inhibit are used in a psychological context to suggest barriers that impede normal development or prevent the realization of natural desires (: he was both frustrated by her refusal to acknowledge his presence and inhibited by his own shyness).

Front 6

All happy people are alike, to paraphrase Tolstoy, but each unhappy person is unhappy in his or her own way.

sullen, glum, melancholy, dour, lugubrious

Back 6

A sullen person is gloomy, untalkative, and ill-humored by nature, but a glum person is usually silent because of low spirits or depressing circumstances (: to be glum in the face of a plummeting stock market).
Melancholy suggests a more or less chronic sadness (: her melancholy was the result of an unhappy childhood), while a person who is saturnine has a forbiddingly gloomy and taciturn nature (: his request was met with a saturnine and scornful silence).
Dour refers to a grim and bitter outlook or disposition (: a dour old woman who never smiled), and doleful implies a mournful sadness (: the child's doleful expression as his parents left).
Someone or something described as lugubrious is mournful or gloomy in an affected or exaggerated way (: lugubrious songs about lost love).