Category: Word of the Day

Definition: (adjective) Repetition of the same sense in different words.
Synonyms: redundant, tautological.
Usage: "A true fact" and "a free gift" are pleonastic expressions.
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Source: The Free Dictionary

Definition: (adjective) Of such fine texture as to be transparent or translucent.
Synonyms: filmy, gauzy, sheer, vaporous.
Usage: She wore a hat with a diaphanous veil that did not obscure her features.
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Source: The Free Dictionary

Definition: (adjective) Highly influential in an original way; constituting or providing a basis for further development.
Synonyms: germinal, originative.
Usage: He prepared a speech describing his experiment, never realizing that his presentation would be the seminal event in the development of a new theory.
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Source: The Free Dictionary

Definition: (noun) A short heavy stick.
Synonyms: bastinado, club.
Usage: She woke up with her head hurting as though it had been hit with a cudgel.
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Source: The Free Dictionary

Definition: (adjective) Intended to attract notice and impress others.
Synonyms: pretentious, showy.
Usage: His ostentatious displays of wealth did nothing to impress his neighbors, who were proud of their middle-class status.
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Source: The Free Dictionary

Definition: (noun) Insincere or grossly sentimental pathos.
Synonyms: mawkishness.
Usage: The opera's conclusion was emotional to the point of bathos, with the soprano dying heroically to save her lover.
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Source: The Free Dictionary

Definition: (adjective) Characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions.
Synonyms: surrealistic.
Usage: The phantasmagoric imagery, with melting clocks and unreal landscapes, is what attracts many to Salvador Dali's work.
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Source: The Free Dictionary

Definition: (noun) A dabbler in an art or a field of knowledge.
Synonyms: sciolist.
Usage: He claimed to be serious about his paintings, but he was at heart a mere dilettante.
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Source: The Free Dictionary

Definition: (adjective) Of or associated with sacred persons or offices.
Synonyms: priestly, sacerdotal.
Usage: The laws did not apply to the heratic class, whose members were held as nearly gods.
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Source: The Free Dictionary

Definition: (noun) A figure or design carved into or beneath the surface of hard metal or stone.
Synonyms: diaglyph.
Usage: The intaglio was so incredibly detailed that it almost looked like a photograph.
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Source: The Free Dictionary