Dictionary Words

Front 1

abominate \uh-BOM-uh-nayt\, transitive verb

Back 1

To hate in the highest degree; to detest intensely; to loathe;
to abhor.

I had no wish to study or learn anything, and as for Latin,
I abominated it.
--Charles Tyng, [1]Before the Wind

"Sir Laurence," he said, smiling wanly, "I detest
literature. I abominate the theatre. I have a horror of
culture. I am only interested in magic!"
--John Lahr (editor), [2]The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan
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Abominate comes from Latin abominari, "to deprecate as a bad
omen, to hate, to detest," from ab- + omen, "an omen."

Synonyms: abhor, detest, hate, loathe. [3]Find more at
Thesaurus.com.

Front 2

aborning \uh-BOR-ning\, adverb:

Back 2

adjective:
Being produced or born.

In universities at least as much as anywhere else, vast
floods of words pour forth to no useful end. Nothing would
be lost if they had died aborning.
--Loren Lomasky, "Talking the talk: Have universities lost
sight of why they exist?" [1]Reason, May 2001

In "Base-Ball: How to Become a Player" he expounds on the
importance of the sport's vital edges: pickoffs, relay
throws, brushback pitches, drawing the infield in or moving
it out, hit-and-run plays, signals -- all commonplace
today, but in 1888 only aborning.
--Bryan Di Salvatore, [2]A Clever Base-Ballist

Nine months later, ABC Washington bureau chief George
Watson left to join the aborning Cable News Network, taking
several staffers with him.
--Judy Flander, "Catching up with Katie Couric,"
[3]Saturday Evening Post, September 1, 1992
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Aborning is derived from a-, "in the act of" + English dialect
borning, "birth."

Front 3

acerbic \uh-SUR-bik\, adjective

Back 3

Sharp, biting, or acid in temper, expression, or tone.

But more than that, he is a social critic, and an efficient
one, acerbic and devastating.
--Benoit Aubin, "Quebec's King of Comedy," [1]Maclean's,
August 27, 2001

Since I started out as a writer many years ago, I have
built a reputation as an acerbic, mean-spirited observer of
the human condition.
--Joe Queenan, [2]My Goodness: A Cynic's Short-Lived Search
for Sainthood

Joey gained a reputation as a smart aleck adept at
delivering acerbic one-liners.
--"Joseph Heller, Author of 'Catch-22,' Dies at 76," [3]New
York Times, December 14, 1999
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Acerbic comes from Latin acerbus, "bitter, sour, severe,
harsh."

Front 4

agitprop \AJ-it-prop\, noun:

Back 4

Propaganda, especially pro-communist political propaganda
disseminated through literature, drama, music, or art.

Despite its explicit program, when the symphony was first
performed in 1957 a Russian audience always on the lookout
for subtexts quickly interpreted it as being about the
crushed Hungarian uprising of the previous year. This
officially sanctioned work of agitprop was read as an
encrypted denunciation of the Soviet regime.
--Justin Davidson, "Musical Explosions, Moving and
Martial," [1]Newsday, May 22, 1999

The essay was a farewell to the men of the left, a
brilliant, impassioned piece of agitprop that galvanized
women in communes, bookstores, hippie coffee houses and
underground newspaper offices all over the country.
--"Memoirs by women writers get personal with a host of
issues, from politics to pregnancy to parent care,"
[2]Washington Post, January 14, 2001

Neither writer offers a shred of evidence for her claims,
which makes these books second-rate agitprop rather than
"first-rate sociology."
--Kim Phillips-Fein, "Feminine Mystiquers," [3]The Nation,
March 19, 1999

. . . nationally televised agitprop designed to appear
nonpartisan while actually pushing the ideology of the
party in power.
--Peter Beinart, "The sleazification of an American
ritual," [4]The New Republic, February 3, 1997
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Agitprop comes from Russian, from agitatsiya, "agitation" +
propaganda.

Front 5

aliment \AL-uh-muhnt\, noun:

Back 5

1. Something that nourishes or feeds; nutriment.
2. Something that sustains a state of mind or body;
sustenance.

transitive verb:
To give nourishment to; to nourish or sustain.

Mental health depends upon gastric health. Every ailment
stems from improper aliment.
--Frederick Kaufman, "Love Yourself Thin," [1]Harper's
Magazine, January 2000

Is not truth the natural aliment of the mind, as plainly as
the wholesome grain is of the body?
--William Ellery Channing, "On the Elevation of the
Laboring Classes: Lecture II"

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment
without which it instantly expires.
--James Madison, [2]Federalist, Number 10
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Aliment is derived from Latin alimentum, from alere, "to
nourish." It is related to alimony.

Synonyms: food, nourishment, support, victuals. [3]Find more
at Thesaurus.com.

Front 6

apogee \AP-uh-jee\, noun:

Back 6

1. The point in the orbit of the moon or of an artificial
satellite that is at the greatest distance from the center of
the earth.
2. The farthest or highest point; culmination.

But in retrospect, this period would prove to be the apogee
of O'Sullivan's career, although he always felt bigger and
better things were on his way.
--Edward L. Widmer, [1]Young America

How can we suppose that science has reached its apogee in
the twentieth century?
--John Maddox, [2]What Remains To Be Discovered

Aurangzeb ended the family tradition of building
architectural masterpieces that had reached its apogee when
his father, Shah Jahan, built the world's most beautiful
tomb, the Taj Mahal.
--Anthony Read and David Fisher, [3]The Proudest Day
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Apogee is derived from Greek apogaion, from apogaios,
"situated (far) away from the earth," from apo-, "away from" +
gaia, "earth."

Front 7

ambuscade \AM-buh-skayd; am-buh-SKAYD\, noun:

Back 7

An ambush.

transitive verb:
To attack by surprise from a concealed place; to ambush.

But so great were his fears for the army, lest in those
wild woods it should fall into some Indian snare, that the
moment his fever left him, he got placed on his horse, and
pursued, and overtook them the very evening before they
fell into that ambuscade which he had all along dreaded.
--Mason Locke Weems, [1]The Life of Washington

The storm is distant, just the lights behind
The eyes are left of lightning's ambuscade.
--Peter Porter, "The Last Wave Before the Breakwater"

No more ambuscades, no more shooting from behind trees.
--William Murchison, "What the voters chose," Human Life
Review, January 1, 1995
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Ambuscade comes from Middle French embuscade, from Old Italian
imboscata, from past participle of imboscare, "to ambush,"
from in, (from Latin) + bosco, "forest," of Germanic origin.

Front 8

aliment \AL-uh-muhnt\, noun:

Back 8

1. Something that nourishes or feeds; nutriment.
2. Something that sustains a state of mind or body;
sustenance.

transitive verb:
To give nourishment to; to nourish or sustain.

Mental health depends upon gastric health. Every ailment
stems from improper aliment.
--Frederick Kaufman, "Love Yourself Thin," [1]Harper's
Magazine, January 2000

Is not truth the natural aliment of the mind, as plainly as
the wholesome grain is of the body?
--William Ellery Channing, "On the Elevation of the
Laboring Classes: Lecture II"

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment
without which it instantly expires.
--James Madison, [2]Federalist, Number 10
_________________________________________________________

Aliment is derived from Latin alimentum, from alere, "to
nourish." It is related to alimony.

Synonyms: food, nourishment, support, victuals. [3]Find more
at Thesaurus.com.

Front 9

apotheosis \uh-pah-thee-OH-sis; ap-uh-THEE-uh-sis\, noun
plural apotheoses \-seez\:

Back 9

1. Elevation to divine rank or stature; deification.
2. An exalted or glorified example; a model of excellence or
perfection of a kind.

Following martyrdom at the Alamo and apotheosis in song,
tall tale, and celluloid myth, this bumpkin from west
Tennessee [Davy Crockett] became better known and more
revered than all but a handful of American presidents.
--Mark Royden Winchell, [1]Cleanth Brooks and the Rise of
Modern Criticism

Plato's Athens, conventionally the apotheosis of civilized
Western urbanity, endured Diogenes the Cynic, who
(according to tradition) dwelt in contented filth under an
overturned bathtub outside the city gates, heaping ribald
scorn on philosophers and citizens alike.
--Mark Caldwell, [2]A Short History of Rudeness

Charles I's court represented the English apotheosis of
this Renaissance ideal of kingship.
--John Brewer, [3]The Pleasures of the Imagination
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Apotheosis comes from Greek, from apotheoun, "to deify," from
apo- + theos, "a god."

Front 10

appellation \ap-uh-LAY-shun\, noun

Back 10

1. The word by which a particular person or thing is called
and known; name; title; designation.
2. The act of naming.

For as long as Olympia can remember, her mother has been
referred to, within her hearing and without, as an invalid
-- an appellation that does not seem to distress her mother
and indeed appears to be one she herself cultivates.
--Anita Shreve, [1]Fortune's Rocks

A communist or a revolutionary, for example, would likely
readily accept and admit that he is in fact a communist or
a revolutionary. Indeed, many would doubtless take
particular pride in claiming either of those appellations
for themselves.
--Bruce Hoffman, [2]Inside Terrorism

I feel honored by yet undeserving of the appellation
"novelist." I am merely a craftsperson, a cabinetmaker of
texts and occasionally, I hope, a witness to our times.
--Francine Du Plessix Gray, "I Write for Revenge Against
Reality," [3]New York Times, September 12, 1982
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Appellation comes from Latin appellatio, from appellare, "to
name."