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20 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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derision |
If people are laughing at you, making fun of you, and acting as if you're worthless, they're treating you with derision. Derision is mean and attacking — it's a form of contempt. |
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fetid |
If you want to understand the true meaning of fetid, leave your sweaty gym clothes in your locker for a few days. Fetid is a fancy way of saying that something smells really bad |
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caveat |
A caveat is a warning. When someone adds a caveat to something they’re telling you to beware — maybe what they’re telling you comes with certain conditions or maybe there’s something dangerous lurking.When your new friend gives you directions to her house, and then says, “The caveat is that when it snows the driveway turns into an ice rink,” she's warning you that your travels could be dangerous. Caveatis also a legal term for when a lawyer asks for a break in proceedings. If a lawyer issues a caveat, she's filing a formal notice to suspend a trial until her client gets a hearing. |
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insipid |
Something insipid is lacking in flavor or interest. You'll probably find the generic poems inside of greeting cardsinsipid.Insipid comes from the Latin insipidus, the opposite of sapidus which means flavorful. Because spices and salts are left out, hospital food is usually considered insipid. The most common use of the word is in a metaphorical sense for dull or flat. You might think that your goody-two-shoes cousin is the most insipid girl you've ever met. |
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conjoined |
Anything conjoined consists of more than one entity. Conjoined twins are physically connected.About 200 years ago, two individuals known to the West as Chang and Eng were born in Siam (modern-day Thailand) conjoined (connected) at the sternum. Their fame gave rise to the now disused term Siamese twins, which has been replaced by conjoined twins. The somewhat infrequent verb conjoin — which provides the inspiration for the adjective conjoined — means to come together with a common purpose. You could say two people who share the same beliefs have conjoined minds. |
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augment |
Do you need to make something bigger, better, or stronger? Then you need to augment it. To augment is to increase the amount or strength of something.Maybe your bike isn't getting around very well on hills: the bike needs to be augmented with a better set of tires. People augment their computers and phones all the time, adding new gadgets and apps. They augment the storage space in their cars by buying roof racks. If the President decides to augment taxes, taxes are going up. When you see the word augment, think "More!" |
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artless |
Yes, artless could mean lacking in art, but more often it means lacking in superficiality or deceit. An artless person could never make a living as a con artist.Originally meaning "unskillful" or "uncultured," artless evolved into meaning not skilled or cultured in the art of deceit. If you are artless, you are natural and uncontrived. Young people, animals, the socially inept — these can all be artless in the way they express themselves. They seem to mean exactly what they say. |
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flotsam |
Flotsam is the floating wreckage of a ship. You'll often hear it used withjetsam which is floating objects that have been thrown from a ship, usually to lighten it before it sinks.You can keep flotsam and jetsam straight by remembering that flotsam looks like the word, float, and jetsam looks like jettison which means to cast off. Usually it doesn't matter though as flotsam and jetsam are used together as an expression, mostly figuratively to mean to mean things or people who are unwanted or discarded. What about the things that are cast from a ship but sink to the ocean floor instead of floating? That's called lagan. |
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jetsam |
Jetsam is wreckage from a ship floating in the water. If you see jetsam, there must've been an accident at sea.You often see this word in the phrase flotsam and jetsam, and both words mean the same thing: wreckage from a ship floating in the sea. If a ship crashes into an iceberg, there's going to be a lot of jetsam. In a naval battle, blown-up ships will produce jetsam. Any wreckage that sinks is not jetsam: jetsam is rubble that floats. One thing's for sure: no captain wants their boat to end up as jetsam. |
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paragon |
Paragon applies to someone who is a model of perfection in some quality or trait. We link paragon with other words that follow it, such as "paragon of virtue" or "paragon of patience. |
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paradigm |
A paradigm is a standard, perspective, or set of ideas. A paradigm is a way of looking at something.A paradigm is a new way of looking or thinking about something. This word comes up a lot in the academic, scientific, and business worlds. A new paradigm in business could mean a new way of reaching customers and making money. In education, relying on lectures is a paradigm: if you suddenly shifted to all group work, that would be a new paradigm. When you change paradigms, you're changing how you think about something |
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pedagogy |
Pedagogy is another word for education, the profession and science of teaching.Pedagogy and pedagogue come from the Greek paidos "boy, child" plus agogos "leader." Pedagogy refers to the teaching profession as well as the science of education, for example as a college subject. This might be one reason that the word, pedagogue, is often used for a teacher who is overly interested in rules and details, hence the science of teaching, rather than actually getting through to his or her students. |
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incur |
To incur is to get or receive — and usually it's something you brought upon yourself. If you don't pay your credit card bills on time, you'll likely incur lots of fees and some serious debt. |
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irrevocable |
If you're on a diet but eat one tiny piece of chocolate, it might start anirrevocable slide into bad eating. Describe something as irrevocable if it cannot be undone or taken back. |
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proselyte |
A proselyte is a new convert, especially someone who has recently switched from one religion to another. In some Christian churches, a proselyte must be baptized |
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eschew |
If you eschew something, you deliberately avoid it. If you live the bohemian life in the city, then most likely you eschew the suburbs. |
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escapade |
An escapade is an adventure, tinged with a hint of danger. A road trip could be an escapade, or a few weeks making a living as a professional gambler, or posing as your twin sister and taking a test for her in math. |
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capricious |
Capricious is an adjective to describe a person or thing that's impulsive and unpredictable, like a bride who suddenly leaves her groom standing at the wedding altar. |
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contiguity |
Use the noun contiguity when you're talking about the state of things being right up next to each other, like the contiguity of two countries that share a border. You're most likely to come across the word contiguity in a discussion of geography. For example, you could talk about the contiguity of the United States and its northern neighbor, Canada, or the contiguity of New Hampshire and Vermont. Contiguity shares a root with the more common contiguous, the Latin contingere, which means "to touch upon." |
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ethos |
Ethos, a noun, is the fundamental set of beliefs that you, or a society, or group live by. A free spirit might live by the ethos of "anything goes."The noun ethos refers to how you, or a group, or a society chooses to live and is the particular rules and characteristic values that organize people. This also means that a different group might have a different ethos. An example is that in some cultures the individual is highly valued while in others the group might be considered central. In literary studies ethos has a moral element attached to it but sociology describes ethos. |
