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(Adjective)Pronunciation: ['gu-gêl] Definition: A number represented by a one followed by a hundred zeroes.[@more@]Usage: It is important when you are balancing your checkbook that you never confuse a googol with a googolplex, a number with a 1 followed by a googol of zeros. It is easy to do, given the similarity in pronunciation and spelling. Suggested Usage: So, if I'm not a mathematician without enough to occupy my mind, how can I use this word? Funny you should ask. The obvious place is on

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['kwiz-ling] Definition: A traitor who turns against his or her own country to serve an invader. [@more@]Usage: This is a relatively new word so far without lexical offspring. The adjective would be "quislingly" which sounds odd. Better use the compound "quisling-like." It sounds queer as a verb, too, though its meaning lends itself readily to verbalization in the sense of "betray to an invader." Suggested Usage: For those of us who remember Wor

Adjective)Pronunciation: [in-'du-bi-tê-bêl] Definition: Doubtless, without doubt, unquestioned; unquestionable.[@more@]Usage: Both "doubtless" and "indubitable" may be used as adverbs but you must add -ly to the latter: "Indubitably/Doubtless he left early." Both may be used in the predicate: "His wisdom is indubitable/doubtless" Only "indubitable" may be used attributively: "His indubitable wisdom failed him." "Doubtless"

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [sem-pi-'têr-nêl] Definition: An emphatic and more poetic word for "eternal," "timeless," "temporally infinite."[@more@]Usage: Use today's word when you wish to emphasize the long length of a period of time in a way that listeners won't forget. It is also an attractive adornment of any poetic setting. Simply add the traditional –ly to create an adverb. Suggested Usage: Given the fact that "forever" and "eternal" are l

(Adjective)Pronunciation: ['sey-pi-yênt]Definition: Possessed of notable wisdom; sagacious to the point of prescience. [@more@]Usage: The noun is "sapience" and the adverb, "sapiently." It is a somewhat more erudite term for "sagacious." Suggested Usage: Use this term when you wish to express knowledge beyond ordinary wisdom: "Churchill was a sapient and articulate leader of the English-speaking world" "No, I would not call your investment in the ele

(Noun)Pronunciation: [ta-'tah-lê-ji or taw-] Definition: Redundant word or phrase, a pleonasm; (in philosophy) a statement comprising two clauses that make the statement necessarily true whether either of the two statements is true or false, e.g. "Philosophy will either drive me crazy or it won't drive me crazy." [@more@]Usage: The classical tautology as "an unmarried bachelor." This phrase is tautological (the adjective) because "unmarried" is part of the meaning

Noun)Pronunciation: ['vah(r)-let] Definition: (1) An attendant or servant; a knight's page. (2) A rascal; a knave[@more@]Usage: While "varmint" skulks in the shady reputation of slang, today's is a word of sterling character and reputation that may be used in any situation where it is appropriate to speak of varletry. That's right, the behavior of varlets is "varletry." Suggested Usage: Perhaps you think the days of varlets, rascals, and knaves has passed but, if you look aro

(Verb)Pronunciation: ['ble-dhêr] Definition: To jabber blether (nonsense); to blabber nonsensically. [@more@]Usage: Seldom is the vowel so unimportant in a word as it is in today's. In the US today, a blithering idiot blathers. How come? Not everything melts in the melting pot. The original word is "blether," which offers us today the choice of [e], [a] or [i] as a root vowel from different dialects. Today, "blither" and "blather" are acceptable alternative spellin

(Noun)Pronunciation: [klah(r)t] Definition: (1) Lumps of mud on the shoes. (2) The mud itself from which the lumps are formed. [@more@]Usage: In the dialect known as Geordie, spoken in Northumberland around Newcastle-on-Tyne, you might be warned, "divvent waak in the clarts," meaning "do not walk in the mud." ("Geordie" is a Scottish affectionate form for "George.") If you do walk in the clarts, you will come home with clarty shoes or boots—or feet if you

(Noun)Pronunciation: [vê-'lee-ê-tee or -ti] Definition: The lowest degree of volition or desire. [@more@]Usage: This word allows your vocabulary a wider gradation of volition: velleity, volition, desire, passion (for). It is used far too little. Suggested Usage: Now you have a word to express the lower end of your desires: "I haven't the least velleity for trying chitterlings, knowing what they are." "I do have some velleity to continue this conversation elsewhere," lets th

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['thre-nê-di] Definition: An elegy, dirge, or threne; a song of lamentation, usually for the dead. [@more@]Usage: This is a regular noun with the same meaning as "threne" [threen] from the same Greek source. The adjective is either "threnodic" [thrê-'nah-dic] or "threnodial" [thrê-'no-di-yêl] and the agent noun is "threnodist" ['thre-nê-dist]. Suggested Usage: "Threnody" may be used to refer to any sort of lamentation, &

(Noun)Pronunciation: [ê-'bu-li-yê] Definition: A loss of volition or the ability to make decisions.[@more@]Usage: The adjective is "abulic," also used to refer to a person suffering from this dysfunction. Suggested Usage: Medically speaking, abulia usually results from damage to the right (occasionally the left) parietal lobe of the brain. However, some smokers seem abulic when it comes to kicking the habit. Chocolate triggers abulia in weaklings like me. In fact, many foods are susp

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [bee-ê-'tif-ik] Definition: Exhibiting ultimate serenity, imparting or experiencing a state of utmost bliss (beatitude), usually associated with a religious experience.[@more@]Usage: This word family is used almost exclusively in a religious sense. The Christian "beatific vision" is the bliss aroused by the direct contact with God enjoyed by angels and other souls in heaven. "Beatific smiles" reflect that serenity and contentedness. The noun, beatit

(Noun)Pronunciation: [kê-'kek-si] Definition: (1) Extremely bad state of health resulting from malnutrition, starvation; (2) sick or depraved way of thinking, mental malnourishment.[@more@]Usage: The adjective is "cachectic" which leaves the door open for an adverb, "cachectically," though it has never been recorded according to the Oxford English Dictionary (until now). The word is also sometimes spelled without the [h], as "cacexy." Suggested Usage: Should you ev

(Adjective)Pronunciation: ['de-zêl-to-ree] Definition: Moving disconnectedly without focus; lacking enthusiam, sluggish. [@more@]Usage: Today's word is an adjective that has moved out on its own and left its mother behind. It originally meant "like a desultor," a desultor being an equestrian performer in a circus who leaps back and forth between loping steeds. The adverb is the regular "desultorily" and the noun, "desultoriness." Suggested Usage: As I write this, I

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [ee-'den-teyt] Definition: Lacking teeth (the dental correlate of "bald"). The antonym of dentate "having or shaped like teeth." [@more@]Usage: The verb, also "edentate," means to extract or otherwise remove teeth. "Edentation" is the noun from the verb. "Edentulous" [ee-'den-tyu-lês] or [ee-'den-chê-lês] has the same meaning as "edentate," deriving from Latin "edentulus" with the same meaning. The

(Noun)Pronunciation: [fri-kê-'see or 'fri-kê-see] Definition: A dish made of poultry or meat, fresh or leftover, cut into small pieces, sauteed, then stewed in a gravy. [@more@]Usage: Remember that today's word is a rare one that contains two contiguous double letters, ss+ee. It is also commonly used as a verb, as Elmer Fudd's perennial attempts to fricassee the ever elusive Bugs Bunny. Suggested Usage: Today's word is used almost exclusively to refer to a cooking style: "Molly had to ren

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [jêr-'meyn] Definition: Closely related, relevant, pertinent, apposite. [@more@]Usage: Today's word is related to English german "having the same parents or grand-parents," as in "brother-german," "sister-german," "cousin-german." A sister-german is the contrary of a step-sister. The current meaning of the word with the final [e] is but a short hop from the meaning of "most closely related by kinship." Suggested Usage:

(noun)Pronunciation: ['fah(r)t-lek] Definition: An athletic training technique developed in Sweden in the 1930s by the Swedish national coach, Gosta Holmer, comprising alternating periods of intense exercise with periods of less strenuous effort or any workout based on this technique. [@more@]Usage: An good example of a fartlek is the saltin fartlek, which includes (1) a 10-minute warm-up jog, followed by (2) a 3 minute hard stride followed by a 1-minute jog repeated 6 times, and then finished w

(noun)Pronunciation: ['pæ-rhêk-si-zm]Definition: A spasm or convulsion; a sudden, convulsive outburst of emotion. [@more@]Usage: The adjective for today's word is "paroxysmal" and the adverb, the expected, "paroxysmally." Aside from medical paroxysms, probably the most common one is the paroxysm of laughter, in which the laugher literally loses control of himself for a moment, rearing his head back and slapping his knees while making loud noises. I'll bet there are oth