Category: Word of the Day

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

Definition: (adjective) Transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity.

Synonyms: limpid, lucid, pellucid, transparent.

Usage: This water is of such crystalline purity that the body of the bather appears of an alabaster whiteness.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Deserving reward or praise.

Synonyms: meritable.

Usage: He carried himself with pride, as though, forsooth, he had achieved a deed praiseworthy and meritorious.

Discuss

Definition: (verb) To release from something that holds fast, connects, or entangles.

Synonyms: withdraw.

Usage: Fiercely he strove to disengage his weapon, but Hordle John bent his arm slowly back until, with a sharp crack, like a breaking stave, it turned limp in his grasp.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Having a set of mutually perpendicular axes; meeting at right angles.

Synonyms: rectangular.

Usage: Wind and sea may displace the ship’s center of gravity along three orthogonal axes.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Not having the feathers necessary to fly. Used of a young bird.

Synonyms: immature.

Usage: A small, unfledged sparrow sat on the window sill, where it hungrily waited for its mother and breakfast.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Difficult or impossible to pronounce correctly.

Synonyms: unutterable.

Usage: The foreign dignitary had an unpronounceable last name.

Discuss

Definition: (adjective) Of or relating to the great depths of the oceans.

Synonyms: abysmal, unfathomable.

Usage: The crew was put on full alert as the submarine reached the abyssal depths of the ocean.

Discuss