Word of the Day Archive
May 1999*
- emolument: the wages or perquisites arising from office, employment, or labor.
- palindrome: a word, verse, phrase, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward.
- deprecate: to disapprove of; also, to belittle.
- bivouac: a usually temporary encampment; also, to encamp.
- umbrage: offense; resentment.
- incipient: beginning to exist or appear.
- dapple: a small contrasting blotch; also, to mark with spots.
- pugnacious: combative; quarrelsome.
- capitulate: to surrender under agreed conditions.
- susurrus: a whispering or rustling sound.
- thaumaturgy: the performing of miracles or magic.
- capacious: able to contain much.
- glower: to stare angrily or with a scowl.
- canorous: melodious; musical.
- repast: a meal.
- spoonerism: the transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of words.
- tenebrous: dark; gloomy.
- nescience: lack of knowledge or awareness.
- gewgaw: a trinket; a bauble.
- effulgence: the state of being bright and radiant.
- assuage: to soften; to ease, or lessen.
- exiguity: smallness; thinness; the quality of being meager.
- seriatim: in a series; one after another.
- tmesis: in grammar and rhetoric, the separation of the parts of a compound word.
- chthonic: dwelling in or under the earth; also, pertaining to the underworld.
- objurgate: to scold or rebuke sharply.
- plethora: excess.
- lissom: supple; nimble.
- badinage: light, playful talk.
* The first Word of the Day was on May 3, 1999.
