Random words I've run across in my reading that I've stopped to look
up
-
- ad
hominem
- adumbrate
- To foreshadow vaguely
- a) to give a sketchy representation or outline of
b) to suggest or disclose partially
- overshadow, obscure
- adipose
- aetiology -- variation of etiology
- cause, origin, specifically: all of the causes of a
disease or abnormal condition
- a branch of knowledge concerned with causes; specifically:
a branch of medical science concerned with the causes and origins of diseases
- ait
- aleatoric
- anacreontic
- a poem in the manner of Anacreon; especially : a drinking song or
light lyric
- anlage
- the foundation of a subsequent development; especially :
primordium
- antimacassar
- a cover to protect the back or arms of furniture
- antistrophe
- appurtenance
- an incidental right (as a right-of-way) attached to a
principal property right and passing in possession with it
- a subordinate part or adjunct <the appurtenance of welcome is
fashion and ceremony -- Shakespeare>
- plural : accessory objects : apparatus
- athenaeum
- a building or room in which books, periodicals, and
newspapers are kept for use
- a literary or scientific association
-
- babka
- badinage
- playful repartee: banter
- bagatelle
- baize
- a coarse woolen or cotton fabric napped to imitate felt
- bedizened
- bellerist
- A writer of belles lettres
- benday
- bibelot
- bilharzia
- boustrophedonic
- brassica
- bravura
- a musical passage requiring exceptional agility and
technical skill in execution
- a florid brilliant style
- a show of daring or brilliance
- busby
-
- caduceus
- cantharides
- a preparation of dried beetles (as Spanish flies) used in medicine
as a counterirritant
and formerly as an aphrodisiac
- Caparisoned
- capybara
- cavil
- to raise trivial and frivolous objection
- cheroot
- chiliastic
- clepsydra
- clerestory
- coloratura
- coruscating
- couloir
- coypu
- cracknel
- a hard brittle biscuit
- crackling -- usually used in plural
- cuirass
- cumber
- archaic: trouble, harass
- a) to hinder or encumber by being in the way
b) to clutter up
- cunctation
- delay
-
- damson
- dithyrambic
- djellaba
- duff
-
- eirenic -- British variant of irenic
- favoring, conducive to, or operating toward peace, moderation, or
conciliation
- eldritch
- encomium
- enervate
- épater (épater le bougreois)
- to shock the middle class
- escutcheon
- eudaemonism
- theory that the highest ethical goal is happiness and personal
well-being
- excelsior
- expatiate
- exiguous
- extirpate
-
- febrifuge
- ferrule
- fritillary
-
- gamelan
- gammon
- gelid
- glabrous
- smooth; especially : having a surface without hairs or projections
- goliardic
- a wandering student of the 12th or 13th century given to the
writing of satiric Latin verse and to convivial living and minstrelsy
- golliwog
- a grotesque black doll
- a person resembling a golliwog
- grimoire
-
- Hagiographic
- hermeneutics
- the study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as
of the Bible)
- hidalgo
- a member of the lower nobility of Spain
- hieratic
- homburg
- howdah
- hypallage
- an interchange of two elements in a phrase or sentence from a more
logical to a less logical relationship (as in "a mind is a terrible
thing to waste" for "to waste a mind is a terrible thing")
-
- in
high dudgeon
- inanition
- inchoate
- intaglio
- inveigle
- to win over by wiles: entice
- to acquire by ingenuity or flattery
- invidious
- irredentist
-
- jeremiad
-
- kapok
- karstic
- an irregular limestone region with sinks, underground streams, and
caverns
- knout
- a whip used for flogging
-
- lacuna
- a blank space or a missing part: gapp
- a small cavity, pit, or dicontinuity in an anatomical
structure
- lambent
- leveret
- a hare in its first year
-
- maharanee
- the wife of a maharaja
- a Hindu princess ranking above a rani
- malacca
- mbira
- Melisma
- meretricious
- metonymy
- micturate
- urinate
- muezzin
-
- nacre
- neurasthenic
- noumenal
-
- obdurate
- obstreperous
- oleaginous
- ollas
- oneiric
- ormolu
- ovine
-
- paean
- a joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or
triumph; broadly: encomium, tribute
- palfrey
- a saddle horse other than a warhouse;especially: a lady's
light easy-gaited horse
- palimpsest
- palooka
- panetella
- panegyric
- a eulogistic oration or writing
- paspalum
- pelf
- Peripatetic
- persiflage
- phaeton
- plosive
- poove
- privet
- probity
- proscenium
- punnet
- purl
- pyx
- a container for the reserved host;especially: a
small round metal receptacle used to carry the Eucharist to the sick
- a box used in a mint for deposit of sample coins reserved for
testing weight and fineness
-
- quisling
- traitor, collaborator
- quop
-
- raceme
- reifying
- rennet
- a) the contents of the stomach of an unweaned animal and
especially a calf
b) the linig membrane of a stomach or one of its compartments (as the
fourth of a ruminant) used for curdling milk;also: a preparation of the
stomach of animals used for this purpose
- rennin
- rennin
- an enzyme that coagulates milk and is used in making cheese and
junkets;especially: one from the mucous membrane of the stomach of a
calf
- revenant
- riparian
- roentgen
- rotogravure
- photogravure
- a section of a newspaper devoted to rotogravure pictures
-
- saprophytic
- sartorial
- satrap
- the governor of a province in ancient Persia
- a) ruler
b) a subordinate official
- selachian
- sfumato
- the definition of form in painting without abrupt outline by the
blending of one tone into another
- shakos
- shambolic
- snibbed
- spavin
- swelling;especially: a bony enlargement of the hock of a
horse associated with strain
- Stakhanovite
- stentorian
- strabismus
-
tallis
- terpsichorean
- of or relating to dancing
- terrapin
- threnody
- a song of lamentation for the dead
- tipple
- titivate
- The make smart or spruce
- transhumance
- trenchant
- toque
- a woman's small hat without a brim made in any of
various soft close-fitting shapes
- tuque
- a tall brimless hat worn by a chef -- called also toque blanche
- transmogrifying
- tuque
- a warm knitted usually pointed stocking cap
-
- ubiety
- ulster
-
- veldt
- vitiate
- votary
- archaic: a sworn adherent
- a) enthusiast, devotee
b) a devoted admirer
- a) a dvout or zealous worshiper
b) a staunch believer or advocate
-
- welkin
- whelk
- wonky
-
-
- yeshiva
-
Other word pages:
[kristin buxton] [email]