This is the list of all the words, along with their meanings, that I’ve posted in my Word Of The Week (WOW) posts (Please click on the word to read more about it.)
ambidextrous:
- Able to use the right and left hands equally well.
- (of an implement) designed to be used by left-handed and right-handed people with equal ease.
apathy:
- lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern.
- a lack of emotional interest
arachnida:
- a class of chelicerate arthropods that includes spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks. They have become adapted for a terrestrial life and possess both lungs and tracheae, and many have silk or poison glands.
banal:
- So lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring.
baleful:
- Threatening harm; menacing.
- Having a harmful or destructive effect.
blandish:
- to coax with flattery or cajole
- to act or speak in a flattering or coaxing manner
- coax with kind words or flattery
conjecture:
- an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information.
- form an opinion or supposition about (something) on the basis of incomplete information.
capricious:
- Given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behaviour.
- Changing according to no discernible rules; unpredictable.
decorum:
- Behaviour in keeping with good taste and propriety.
- Etiquette: he had no idea of funeral decorum.
- (decorums) archaic particular requirements of good taste and propriety.
- Archaic suitability to the requirements of a person, rank, or occasion.
dearth:
- A scarcity or lack of something.
- Scarcity and dearness of food; famine.
discordant:
- disagreeing or incongruous
- (of sounds) harsh and jarring because of a lack of harmony
- being at variance: Disagreeing
- characterized by conflict
evernate:
- Make (someone) feel drained of energy or vitality.
- Lacking in energy or vitality.
- Obsolete: to cut the nerves or tendons of
exalt:
- To raise (someone or something) to a higher level.
- To praise (someone or something) highly.
- To present (something) in a way that is very favourable or too favourable.
feckless:
- Lacking initiative or strength of character; irresponsible.
fractious:
- Causing trouble: hard to manage or control or tending to be troublesome: unruly.
- Full of anger and disagreement.
- Irritable and quarrelsome.
garrulous:
- Excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters.
gingerly:
- In a careful or cautious manner.
- Showing great care or caution.
harbinger:
- A person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another.
- A forerunner of something.
- Something that shows what is coming.
harrow:
- noun: an implement consisting of a heavy frame set with teeth or tines which are dragged over ploughed land to break up clods, remove weeds, and cover seed.
- verb [with adj.]: draw a harrow over (land); cause distress to.
idiosyncrasy:
- A mode of behaviour or way of thought peculiar to an individual.
- A distinctive or peculiar feature or characteristic of a place or thing.
- An abnormal physical reaction by an individual to a food or drug.
inchoate:
- being only partly in existence or operation
- imperfectly formed or formulated
- just begun and so not fully formed or developed
- confused or incoherent
intransigent:
- Unwilling or refusing to change one’s views or to agree about something.
jaded:
- Bored or lacking enthusiasm, typically after having had too much of something
- Informal: physically tired; exhausted
jargon:
- Special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand.
- (Archaic) A form of language regarded as barbarous, debased, or hybrid.
- A translucent, colourless, or smoky gem variety of zircon.
klutz:
- A clumsy, awkward, or foolish person.
knell:
- The sound of a bell, especially when rung solemnly for a death or funeral.
- Used in reference to an announcement, event, or sound that warns of the end of something.
lassitude:
- A state of physical or mental weariness
- Lack of energy
lathe:
- A machine for shaping wood, metal, or other material by means of a rotating drive which turns the piece being worked on against changeable cutting tools.
- Shape with a lathe.
metanoia:
- The journey of changing one’s mind, heart, self or way of life or Change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion.
misogyny:
- A hatred of women.
- Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.
nimble:
- Quick and light in movement or action; agile.
- Able to think and understand quickly.
numinous:
- Describing an experience that makes you fearful yet fascinated, awed yet, attracted- the powerful, personal feeling of being overwhelmed and inspired.
- Filled with or characterized by a sense of a supernatural presence or Appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic sense.
obscurantism:
- opposition to the spread of knowledge: a policy of withholding knowledge from the general public.
- a) a style (as in literature or art) characterized by deliberate vagueness or abstruseness. b) an act or instance of obscurantism.
orenda:
- A mystical force present in all people that empowers them to affect the world or to effect change in their own lives or Invisible magic power believed by the Iroquois to pervade all natural objects as a spiritual energy.
pentacle:
- a talisman or magical object, typically disc-shaped and inscribed with a pentagram, used as a symbol of the element of earth.
- a pentagram.
- (pentacles) one of the suits in some tarot packs, corresponding to coins in others.
precipice:
- A very steep rock face or cliff, especially a tall one.
- A point where danger, trouble, or difficulty begins.
quadruped:
- an animal which has four feet, especially an ungulate mammal (a hoofed mammal.)
quixotic:
- Extremely idealistic
- Unrealistic and impractical.
raconteur:
- a person who tells anecdotes in a skilful and amusing way.
remonstrate:
- Make a forcefully reproachful protest
- Argue in protest or opposition
schmooze:
- Talk intimately and cosily; gossip.
- Talk in a cosy and intimate manner to (someone), typically in order to manipulate them.
tyrannical:
- Exercising power in a cruel or arbitrary way.
umbrage:
- Offence or annoyance.
- A feeling of anger caused by being offended
- Archaic: Shade or shadow, especially as cast by trees.
vestigial:
- Forming a very small remnant of something that was once greater or more noticeable.
- Biology: (of an organ or part of the body) degenerate, rudimentary, or atrophied, having become functionless in the course of evolution.
waddle:
- Walk with short steps and a clumsy swaying motion.
- To walk with short steps swinging the forepart of the body from side to side.
- To move clumsily in a manner suggesting a waddle.
xanadu:
- An idyllic, exotic, or luxurious place.
yap:
- Give a sharp, shrill bark.
- Talk at length in an irritating manner.
- A sharp, shrill bark.
- A person’s mouth.
zamindar
- A landowner, especially one who leases his land to tenant farmers.
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