Category: Word of the Day

Definition: (noun) The quality of being incapable of mutation.

Synonyms: immutability.

Usage: Darwin challenged the fixity of species with his theory of evolution.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Uneducated in general; lacking knowledge or sophistication.

Synonyms: ignorant, nescient, unlearned.

Usage: On points where the learned have, in purity of heart, been compelled to differ, the unlettered will necessarily be at variance.

Discuss

Definition: (adverb) In a miserly manner.

Synonyms: humbly.

Usage: They lived meanly and without ostentation.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Short and thick; stocky.

Synonyms: low-set, squat, squatty, stumpy, dumpy.

Usage: But there was a trio involved in this remarkable friendship, and the third was short, and fat, and chunky, and lazy, and, loath to say, it was I.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation.

Synonyms: conversational.

Usage: She wrote her essays in a colloquial style that the teacher strongly criticized.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Not contrived for effect; natural.

Synonyms: uncontrived.

Usage: She walked with an unstudied grace that the other models envied and imitated.

Discuss

Definition: (noun) The boundary line of a figure, area, or object.

Synonyms: circuit.

Usage: He had walked the full circumference of his land, repairing his fence along the way.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Conveying an admonition or a warning.

Synonyms: admonitory, cautionary, exemplary, warning.

Usage: She shot him a monitory glance and he quickly changed the subject to one less controversial.

Discuss

Definition: (noun) A moment of intense excitement.

Synonyms: chill, quiver, shiver, shudder, thrill, tingle.

Usage: The story’s ending arouses a frisson of terror.

Discuss

Definition: (verb) To set loose (a mass of ice). Used of a glacier or iceberg.

Synonyms: break up.

Usage: From the deck of the ship, we saw the magnificent glacier calve, sending massive shards of glassy ice into the waters below.

Discuss