• continual • Pronunciation: kên- tin -yu-êl • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Repeated over a long period of time, continuing at intervals. Notes: Continual is often confused with continuous . However, the meanings of these two words differ significantly and they cannot be used correct...

• bathos • Pronunciation: bay -thos • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun, mass Meaning: The major dictionaries fail to agree on the meanings of today's word, but they seem to hover about these: 1. Lowest depth, bottom. 2. A dramatic or ludicrous fall from the exalted to the ordinary. 3. Banality, triten...

• flourish • Pronunciation: flê -rish • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, noun Meaning: 1. To grow luxuriantly, thrive. 2. To prosper, blossom, succeed excessively, to fare extremely well. 3. To make bold, sweeping movement, brandish, wave boldly. 4. (Noun) A decorative frill, ostentatiously ornamenta...

• ad-lib • Pronunciation: æd-lib • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective, adverb, verb, noun Meaning: 1. (Adjective, adverb) Impromptu, spontaneous, as one pleases without preparation. 2. (Verb) To speak or otherwise present spontaneously, without preparation. 3. (Noun) Anything spoken or played spont...

• president • Pronunciation: pre -zê-dênt • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. A person elected or appointed to preside over an organization, the highest ranking member of a management team, as 'the president of the New York Stock Exchange'. 2. The chief officer of the executive branch of a ...

• abrogate • Pronunciation: æb -rê-gayt • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, transitive Meaning: 1. To repeal, annul, cancel, or abolish something, such as a law. 2. To obviate, do away with, put an end to. Notes: This word has a large and happy family. The person who abrogates is an abrogator who carr...

• vulgar • Pronunciation: vêl -gêr • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Of the unwashed masses, plebian, related to common people, the riff-raff, the hoi-polloi. 2. Common, base, ordinary. 3. Bawdy, foul, immodest, immoral, impure, indecent, indelicate, lascivious, lecherous, lewd, lice...

• rivalrous • Pronunciation: rai -vêl-rês • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: Related to rivalry, competitive, adversariality. Notes: Today's is a word whose infrequent usage belies its beauty. It is the adjective of rivalry, which reflects the attitudes of rivals. Rival may be used as a verb,...

• dust-up • Pronunciation: dê -stêp • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: A quarrel, a fight, a fracas. Notes: Today's Good Word is a derived noun consisting of dust and up. Usually, such nouns from verbs with prepositions come from verbs with the same prepositions, e.g. sit-in comes from the ve...

• amorous • Pronunciation: æm -ê-rês • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Filled with love, in love, expressing love—anything having to do with romantic love. Notes: Yes, tomorrow is the day of love, St. Valentine's Day. We cannot let the occasion pass without acknowledgement. Amorous is t...

• pretentious • Pronunciation: pri- ten -shês • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Attempting to impress with affected, exaggerated claims of importance or merit, as 'a pretentious old lady'. 2. Expressing an attitude of superiority, as 'pretentious claims about her social stature'. Not...

• saltate • Pronunciation: sæl -tayt • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive Meaning: 1. To leap, to spurt out. 2. To dance or dance about. (This word is not used in reference to people but to animals and inanimate objects.) Notes: No, it doesn't mean "to add salt" but it has a rath...

• ratatouille • Pronunciation: rah-tê- twee , rah-tê- tu -ee • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural) Meaning: A vegetable stew, originating in Nice, consisting of eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and onions, prepared in or with olive oil. Recipe here. Notes: French borrowings that h...

• mastodon • Pronunciation: mæs -tê-dahn • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: A large, extinct, hairless elephant-like mammal of the family Mammutidae whose molars have nipple-like protrusions. Notes: Mastodons are often confused with the hairy mammoths. The two are not only distinguished by th...

• palliative • Pronunciation: pæ -li-yê-tiv • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective, Noun Meaning: 1. (Adjective) Reducing pain or suffering, ameliorating, improving. 2. (Noun) Anything that reduces pain or suffering or improves a situation without offering a permanent cure or solution. Notes: Today's...