Category: Word of the Day

Definition: (noun) A channel for an overflow of water, as from a reservoir.

Synonyms: wasteweir, spill.

Usage: The workers cleared the debris from the spillway so the excess water could flow through the channel.

Discuss

Definition: (noun) A state of extreme confusion and disorder.

Synonyms: bedlam, chaos, topsy-turvydom.

Usage: Instantly the avenue was a pandemonium of clashing blades, cursing warriors, and squealing throats.

Discuss

Definition: (noun) Urgent requirements; pressing needs. Often used in the plural.

Synonyms: need, demand, requirement, necessity, constraint, wont.

Usage: The reduction was caused by the exigencies of a wartime economy.

Discuss

Definition: (noun) A jointed puppet manipulated from above by strings or wires attached to its limbs.

Synonyms: puppet.

Usage: They appeared to me clear-cut and very small, with affected voices and stiff gestures, like a procession of rigid marionettes upon a toy stage.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Having no limbs, feet, or footlike appendages.

Synonyms: apodous.

Usage: Eels are apodal and well adapted for wriggling in the mud, through the crevices of reefs, and along rocky shores.

Discuss

Definition: (noun) A minor error, such as a slip of the tongue, thought to reveal a repressed motive.

Synonyms: slip-up, miscue, slip.

Usage: She thought her verbal blunder was just a silly mistake, but her friend, a Freud enthusiast, tried to convince her that the parapraxis actually had great significance.

Discuss

Definition: (noun) An overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seems to crush everything in its path.

Synonyms: steamroller.

Usage: It touched the ground just as it struck among them and mowed through them, a veritable juggernaut of destruction.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Capable of being seen or noticed.

Synonyms: evident, observable.

Usage: Monkeys scampered about the deserted ruins, and gaily plumaged birds flitted in and out among the columns and the galleries far above; but no sign of human presence was discernible.

Discuss

Definition: (noun) A small bunch of flowers.

Synonyms: bouquet, corsage, posy.

Usage: The wedding was informal and intimate, with the bride wearing a simple white dress and holding a nosegay of daisies.

Discuss

Definition: (noun) An intoxicant.

Synonyms: alcoholic beverage, intoxicant, alcohol.

Usage: He guzzled the inebriant like a thirsty man would water and promptly dropped to the floor with a thud.

Discuss