• zymurgy • Pronunciation: zai -mêr-jee • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. That branch of applied chemistry that deals with fermentation, such as that involved in wine-making or brewing. 2. The practice or art of fermentation in brewing, distilling, wine-making, and so forth. Notes: This r...

In 'Res diversae' several of our participants are creating a Thanksgiving poem from Good Words. Participation is open to all.

A dictionary of all Good Words may be found at http://www.alphadictionary.com/goodword/dictionary/

• twain • Pronunciation: twayn • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: Two. Notes: Rudyard Kipling must have been the last English speaker to use today's word as anything other than a name. He did so in his poem, The Ballad of East and West, which begins: "Oh, East is East, and West is West, ...

• megachurch • Pronunciation: me -gê-chêrch • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: A church with attendance of 2,000 or more; some 1,200 currently exist in the United States. Notes: Mega- ( meg- before a vowel) is almost a word, for terms like megachurch, megabucks, megaton behave much more like ...

• daft • Pronunciation: dæft • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Stupid, foolish, crazy. 2. Giddy, exuberant, frolicsome. Notes: Today's Good Word is quite common in the UK but never used in the US. In the US we say "daffy", as in Daffy Duck. It is so common in the UK that it...

• carom • Pronunciation: kæ -rêm • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive Meaning: 1. Glance off, bounce off, rebound, ricochet. 2. In such games as billiards, pool, and snooker, to bounce the cue ball off one ball and hit another. Notes: English speakers have really had difficulty locating th...

• peculate • Pronunciation: pe -kyê-layt • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb Meaning: To embezzle, to steal money entrusted to you. Notes: Today's Good Word behaves pretty much like speculate : a peculator is someone who engages in peculation, a peculative activity. The spelling is straightforward: sin...

• adulterate • Pronunciation: ê- dêl -têr-rayt • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, transitive Meaning: To reduce strength or purity by adding inferior ingredients. Notes: No, this word doesn't mean "to make adult". If you adulterate writing, in fact, you make the reading of it less adult. To...

• amortize • Pronunciation: æ -mêr-taiz • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, transitive Meaning: 1. To pay down a debt in installments. 2. To deduct an expenditure from taxes in installments over a period of time. Notes : We may amortize a debt or a large expense on income taxes. The noun for this verb...

• sardonic • Pronunciation: sahr- dah -nik • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Disdainful or playfully derisive, especially in facial or verbal expression, skeptically expressed. Notes: Many people have asked the good doctor about the relationship between today's Good Word and sarcastic a...

• verse • Pronunciation: vêrs • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, transitive Meaning: 1. To versify, to cast into verses, to write in verses. 2. To instruct, to inculcate, to familiarize by experience or study. Notes : We know the verbal form of this word almost exclusively through the adjective well-...

We've done that one: whelm.

• disgruntle • Pronunciation: dis- grênt- êl • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, transitive Meaning: To cause someone to be grumpy, to sulk; to generally put someone in ill humor. Notes: Here is a sort of Orphan Negative . There is a verb to gruntle, but it has the same meaning as disgruntle, so it is...

• dogma • Pronunciation: dawg -mê • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. A firmly held doctrine, belief or a body of such doctrines established by an authoritative source, as the dogma of the Catholic Church. 2. An adamantly and unreasonably held belief whether right or wrong. Notes: Today's G...

• penultimate • Pronunciation: pên- êl -tê-mêt • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Before the ultimate or last, next to the last in a row or series. The one before the next to the last is the antepenultimate. Notes: The last in a series is the ultimate but the next to last is the penult o...