🔊 Play enormity [ ih-nawr-mi-tee ] What is the word of the day? The word of the day is ‘enormity’. What is this word’s grammar? The word is a noun, i.e., it is the main subject of a sentence. Does the word have a past tense? What is it? No, the word is a noun. […]
[responsivevoice]detonate[smoulder] [ det-n-eyt ] Quotation: For the life of me, I can’t understand why BP couldn’t go in at the ocean floor, maybe 10 feet lateral to the – around the periphery, drill a few holes, and put a little ammonium nitrate, some dynamite, in those holes and detonate that dynamite and seal that – […]
[responsivevoice]facetious[smoulder] [ smohl-der ] Quotation: It’s the little details I love. How to fletch your arrows with owl feathers, because owls fly silently, so maybe your arrows will, too. How to carry fire in a piece of smouldering fungus wrapped in birchbark. These are the things which help a world come alive. Michelle Paver Social […]
[responsivevoice]facetious[/responsivevoice] [ fuh-see-shuh s ] Quotation: The one I tell everyone, the one I’m very, very proud of is ‘Call Me Irresponsible.’ Simply because I want to say and it’s not as facetious as it sounds. It has five syllable words in it. Sammy Cahn Social Example: Did you miss out on reading this Word of […]
[responsivevoice]sardonic[/responsivevoice] [ sahr-don-ik ] Here is closeup image of a sardonic border collie Quotation: Most students of literature can pick apart a metaphor or spot an ethnic stereotype, but not many of them can say things like: ‘The poem’s sardonic tone is curiously at odds with its plodding syntax.’ Terry Eagleton Social Example: Did you […]
[responsivevoice]convulse[/responsivevoice] [ kuh n-vuhls ] Quotation: The Republican Party of Richard Nixon was called to power in 1968 to bring an honorable end to the war in Vietnam and restore law and order to campuses and cities convulsed by crime, riots and racial violence. Nixon appeared to have succeeded and was rewarded with a 49-state landslide. […]
[responsivevoice]gurgling[/responsivevoice] [ gur-guhl ] Quotation: The joy of being a consumer is that it doesn’t require thought, responsibility, self-awareness or shame: All you have to do is obey the first urge that gurgles up from your stomach. And then obey the next. And the next. And the next. Matt Taibbi Social Example: Did you miss […]
[responsivevoice]ruse[/responsivevoice] [ rooz ] Quotation: I was playing a role and acting. But it was different than Spike Lee’s movie. Spike can say ‘cut’ and move to the next scene. But I was pretending to be a white supremacist, one of them. I had to act like them to make the ruse a success. Ron […]
[responsivevoice]ominous[/responsivevoice] [ om-uh-nuh s ] Quotation: As a novelist, you have to pick your battles. You are tired. You have begun to experience the first ominous tinglings of carpal tunnel syndrome. You wake up in the middle of the night with both hands lying across your chest like a couple of plucked bird carcasses, dead of all […]
[responsivevoice]certitude[/responsivevoice] [ sur-ti-tood ] Quotation: It is difficult to predict technology more than 10 years out with any certitude, but what I observe is that change and innovation happens earlier and faster than we expect. We are constantly surprised at what technology can do. Jared Cohen Social Example: Did you miss out on reading this […]