Word of the Day Archive
April 2009
- jape: a trick or practical joke.
- gambol: to dance and skip about in play.
- longueur: a tedious passage in a work of literature or performance art.
- flummox: to confuse; to perplex.
- grandiloquent: expressed in a lofty style; pompous; bombastic.
- aegis: a shield; protection.
- nescience: lack of knowledge or awareness.
- chimerical: merely imaginary; fanciful.
- impugn: to call in question; to make insinuations against.
- frisson: a brief moment of intense excitement.
- portend: to foreshadow; to bode.
- pulchritude: beauty.
- susurrus: a whispering or rustling sound.
- labile: open to change; apt or likely to change.
- outré: unconventional; eccentric; bizarre.
- etiolate: to blanch or bleach; to make sickly.
- ephemeral: lasting a very short time.
- quiddity: the essence or nature of a thing.
- crepuscular: pertaining to twilight.
- stormy petrel: a type of seabird; also, one fond of bringing strife.
- peccadillo: a slight offense; a petty fault.
- invidious: tending to provoke envy or ill will.
- paladin: a champion of a cause.
- gainsay: to contradict; to deny.
- imbroglio: a complicated and embarrassing state of things.
- somnolent: drowsy; also, tending to cause sleepiness.
- ken: perception, view; especially, reach of sight or knowledge.
- eleemosynary: relating to charity; charitable.
- bumptious: crudely, presumptuously, or noisily self-assertive.
- mellifluous: flowing sweetly or smoothly.
