prevaricate

prevaricate (vi)

1. To shift or turn from the direct course, or from truth; to evade the truth; to waffle or be (intentionally) ambiguous.

2. To speak with equivocation; to shuffle; to quibble.

3. To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.

mountebank

mountebank (n)

1. One who sells dubious medicines.

2. One who sells by deception; a con artist; a charlatan.

mountebank (vi)

1. To act as a mountebank.

pontificate

pontificate (n)

1. The state or term of office of a pontiff or pontifex.

pontificate (vi)

1. To preside as a bishop, especially at mass.

2. To act like a pontiff; to be pompous, or express one's position as if it is absolutely correct.

3. To speak in a patronizing, supercilious or pompous manner, especially at length.

verisimilitude

verisimilitude (n)

1. The property of seeming true, of resembling reality; resemblance to reality, realism.

2. A statement which merely appears to be true.

supinate

supinate (vt)

1. (anatomy): To twist the forearm so as to turn the palm of the hand towards the body or forwards, thereby contracting the biceps brachii.

2. (anatomy): To twist the foot so the weight is on the outer edge.

supinate (vi)

1. To become supinated.

tremulous

tremulous (adj)

1. Trembling, quivering or shaking.

2. Timid or unconfident.

noesis

noesis (n)

1. The consciousness side to duality of noesis and noema.

orthogonal

orthogonal (adj)

1. (geometry) Pertaining to right angles; perpendicular (to).

(mathematics)

2. Of two functions, linearly independent; having a zero inner product.

3. Of a square matrix that is the inverse of its transpose.

4. Of a linear transformation that preserves angles.

5. (statistics) Statistically independent, with reference to variates.

6. (software engineering) Able to be treated separately.

nefarious

nefarious (adj)

1. Infamous for being wicked.

ululate

to ululate (vi)

1. To howl loudly or prolongedly in lamentation or joy.

reconnoiter

reconnoiter (vt)

1. To survey something (generally an enemy's land and position).

omnific

omnific (adj)

1. Capable of making or doing anything; all-creating.

yonder

yonder (adj)

1. In an indicated place; over there.

zeitgeist

zeitgeist (n)

1. The spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period.

2. A phenomenon based on fate where something simultaneously happens everywhere at a certain time.

doctrinaire

doctrinaire (adj)

1. Stubbornly holding on to an idea without concern for practicalities or reality.

pedagogue

pedagogue (n)

1. A teacher or instructor of children; one whose occupation is to teach the young.

2. A pedant; one who by teaching has become formal or pedantic in his or her ways; one who has the manner of a teacher.

3. (archaic) A slave who led the master's children to school, and had the charge of them generally.

pedantic

pedantic (adj)

1. Like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning.

2. Being showy of one’s knowledge, often in a boring manner.

3. Often used to describe a person who emphasizes his/her knowledge through the use of vocabulary; ostentatious in one’s learning.

4. Being finicky or picky with language.

stochastic

stochastic (adj)

1. Random, randomly-determined.

vade mecum

vade mecum (n)

1. A referential book such as a handbook or manual.

2. A useful object, constantly carried on one's person.

uxoricide

uxoricide (n)

1. A man who kills his wife.

2. The killing of one's wife.

synchophant

sycophant (n)

1. One who uses compliments to gain self-serving favor or advantage from another.

2. One who seeks to gain through the powerful and influential.

trudge

trudge (vi)

1. To walk wearily with heavy, slow steps.

reticent

reticent (adj)

1. Keeping one's thoughts and opinions to oneself; reserved or restrained.

quaternary

quaternary (adj)

1. Of fourth rank or order.

2. Of a mathematical expression containing e.g. x^4.

synecdoche

synecdoche (n)

1. A metaphor by which an inclusive term stands for something included, or vice versa; A metaphor in which a part is spoken of as the whole (hand for laborer) or vice-versa (the court for the judge).

puissant

puissant (adj)

1. Powerful, mighty, having authority.

myrmecology

myrmecology (n)

1. (zoology): The study of ants.

nemorous

nemorous (adj)

1. (rare) Forested; full of trees, dark with shady groves.

mollify

mollify (vt)

1. To ease a burden; make less painful; to comfort.

2. To appease.

hyperbole

hyperbole (n)

1. Extreme exaggeration or overstatement; especially as a literary or rhetorical device.

2. Deliberate exaggeration.

3. An instance or example of this technique.

4. (obsolete) A hyperbola.

inchoate

inchoate (adj)

1. Recently started but not fully formed yet; just begun; only elementary or immature.

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limpid

limpid (adj)

1. Clear, particularly transparent or bright.

kabuki

kabuki (n) (often capitalized)

1. A form of Japanese theatre in which elaborately costumed male performers use stylized movements, dances, and songs in order to enact tragedies and comedies.

jingoism

jingoism (n)

1. Excessive patriotism or aggressive nationalism esp. as regards foreign policy.

eponym

eponym (n)

1. A person whose name has become identified with a particular object or activity.

2. A word formed from a person’s name, e.g. stentorian after the Greek herald Stentor.

3. The hero of a book, film etc. having the character’s name as its title, e.g. Robinson Crusoe.

4. (healthcare) A condition, disease or disorder named after a particular clinician or patient, e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, named after the neurologist Alois Alzheimer.

defatigable

defatigable (adj)

1. (obsolete) Easily tired or wearied; capable of being fatigued.

exiguous

exiguous (adj)

1. Extremely scanty; meager.

flocculent

flocculent (adj)

1. Flocculated, resembling bits of wool, woolly.

2. Covered in a woolly substance; downy.

3. Flaky.

masticate

masticate (vt)

1. To chew (food).

2. To grind or knead something into a pulp.

brobdingnagian

brobdingnagian (n)

1. A creature from Brobdingnag (a country in Jonathan Swift's novel entitled Gulliver's Travels).
2. (figuratively) A giant.

brobdingnagian (adj)

1. Of or pertaining to Brobdingnag.

2. Enormous, huge, far larger than is customary for such a thing.

hermeneutics

hermeneutics (n)

1. The study or theory of the methodical interpretation of text, especially holy texts.

Gordian knot

Gordian knot (n)

1. The legendary knot tied to a pole near the temple of Zeus in Gordium.

2. (by extension) Any intricate and complex problem.

avolition

avolition (n)

1. Lack of initiative or goals; one of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

kinesthesia

kinesthesia (n)

1. Sensation or perception of motion.

2. (physiology) The perception of the movement of one's own body, its limbs and muscles etc.

3. (performing arts) A spectator's perception of the motion of a performer, or, the effect of the motion of a scene on the spectator.

4. Proprioception or static position sense; the perception of the position and posture of the body; also, more broadly, including the motion of the body as well.

mellifluous

mellifluous (adj)

1. Flowing like honey.

2. Sweet and smooth; generally used of a person's voice, tone or writing style.

guffaw

guffaw (n)

1. A boisterous laugh.

guffaw (vi)

1. To laugh boisterously.

halcyon

halcyon (adj)

1. Pertaining to the halcyon or kingfisher.

2. Calm, undisturbed, peaceful, serene.

crapulous

crapulous (adj)

1. Surcharged with liquor; alcoholism; sick from excessive indulgence in drinking or eating; drunk; given to excesses.

2. Characterized by excessive eating or drinking; debauched; intemperate.

3. Having a stomach upset by too much drinking.

rodomontade

rodomontade (adj)

1. Pretentiously boastful.

rotomontade (n)

1. Vain boasting; a rant; pretentious behaviour.

rotomontade (vi)

1. To boast, brag or bluster pretentiously.


KidSpeak 6-in-1 Languages

winnow

winnow (vi)

1. To free or separate grain or the like from chaff or refuse matter, usually by means of wind.

2. To move about with a flapping motion, as of wings; to flutter.

3. To fan; set in motion by means of wind; specifically, to expose (grain) to a current of air in order to separate and drive off chaff, refuse particles, etc.

winnow (vt)

1. To blow upon; to toss about by blowing.

2. To separate, expel, or disperse by or as by fanning or blowing; to sift or weed out; to separate or distinguish, as one thing from another.

3. To set in motion or vibration; to beat as with a fan or wings.

4. To wave to and fro; to flutter; to flap.

5. To pursue or accomplish with a waving or flapping motion, as of wings.

6. Figuratively, to subject to a process analogous to the winnowing of grain; to separate into parts according to kind; to sift; to analyze or scrutinize carefully; to examine; to test.