• hectic • Pronunciation: hek -tik • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Feverishly active and confused, as a hectic day. 2. Feverish, related to a persistent fever, especially recurrent fevers accompanying tuberculosis. Notes: Today's Good Word is, unfortunately, much too necessary thes...

• ventriloquy • Pronunciation: ven- tril -ê-kwi • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun, mass (No plural) Meaning: Speaking without moving the lips, the voice in sync with the mouth movements of a dummy, so as to leave the impression that the ventriloquist is throwing his or her voice. Notes: Today's Good ...

• dint • Pronunciation: dint • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: Means, stroke, strength Notes: Though today's Good Word was once a noun in good standing, today its use is limited to the idiomatic phrase by dint of, which means "by means of, by a stroke of, on the strength of". It is...

• denouement • Pronunciation: day-nu- meN • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. The clarification and unraveling of all mystery at the end of a drama or other narrative work of art, usually following the climax. 2. The resolution of a complex set of events that makes everything clear to every...

• animosity • Pronunciation: æn-ê- mah -sê-ti • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: Bitter hostility, deep-seated hatred toward someone or something. Notes: Today's Good Word is no longer semantically related to the adjective it was historically derived from, animous (see Word History). The resu...

• androgynous • Pronunciation: æn- drah -jê-nês • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Indistinguishable as to gender by looks, clothing, or behavior. 2. [Biology] Having the physical characteristics of both sexes (plants and animals). Notes: Back in the 60s and 70s when the struggle for ...

• stigma • Pronunciation: stig -mê • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. A mark of shame on the character of someone left by a disgraceful act. 2. A spot or birthmark on the body, especially one indicative of some illness. 3. The marks of the Crucifixion or marks on the human body correspondi...

• genobility • Pronunciation: jen-no- bil -ê-ti • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun, mass Meaning: A potential community of genetically engineered people whose genes would be manipulated before birth to make them "perfect", let's say, uniformly smart, strong, beautiful, compassionate, and cha...

• saturnine • Pronunciation: sæt -êr-nain • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Having the humor or personality of someone born under the influence of the planet Saturn: depressed, gloomy, pessimistic, and a bit grumpy. 2. Containing or otherwise related to lead (see Word History). Notes...

• comestible • Pronunciation: kê- mes -tê-bêl • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: (Literary) Edible, eatable, fit to be eaten. Notes: This word is rather superfluous, given the existence of edible and eatable, so it is more often than not used humorously. Although it is basically an adjec...

• Cockaigne • Pronunciation: kah- keyn • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun, proper Meaning: 1. Paradise, utopia, an imaginary land of luxury. 2 (Facetiously) The land of the Cockneys, which is to say, London. Notes: Today's Good Word has nothing to do with cocaine, despite the resemblance in spelling a...

• cozen • Pronunciation: kê- zên • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, transitive Meaning: To bamboozle, hoodwink, flimflam, con, dupe, deceive, or cheat anyone—whether the offspring of our aunts and uncles or not. Notes: As the Word History will show, the similarity in the pronunciation of today's word...

• opuscule • Pronunciation: ê- pês -kyul • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: A small creative work such as a short article, poem, or short piece of music. Notes: Opuscule is a diminutive of opus, as in magnum opus "major work". (A diminutive is a word meaning "a small X", a...

• segue • Pronunciation: seg -way • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive Meaning: To transition directly from one part or section to another without any intermediate steps. Notes: A decade or two ago this word was the rage in academic circles. One did not transition from one topic to another...

• wiseacre • Pronunciation: waiz -ay-kêr • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: (Slang) I am sure you have already guessed that today's word does not refer to a guru's homestead. It means a smart aleck who makes wisecracks, someone who is too big for his britches, an upstart who makes conceited, ...