912-notes/words.md

Some Words

Words List

• euclidean

(adj)relating to geometry as developed by Euclid

- euclidean distance
- euclidean geometry

• zip through

(v)to go somewhere or do something very quickly

- If you zip through a page in less than an hour, you are probably going too fast.
- A lot of questions zip through his mind.

• internalize

(v)if you internalize a particular belief, attitude, behaviour etc, it becomes part of your character

- Over time, she internalized her parents' attitudes.
- You should ponder and internalize each definition.

• beige

(adj)a pale brown colour

- The walls are beige.
- Definitions are in beige boxes and theorems are in blue boxes.

• bestow

(v)to give someone something of great value or importance

- honours bestowed on him by the Queen
- Bestowing proper credit on all the contributors would be a difficult task that I have not undertaken.

• in lieu of

(adv)in place of

- extra time off in lieu of payment

• preliminary

(adj)happening before something that is more important, often in order to prepare for it
(n)something that is said or done first, to introduce or prepare for something else
(n)one of the games in the first part of the competition, when it is decided who will go to the main competition

- a preliminary draft
- After the usual preliminaries, the chairman made his announcement.
- Four teams will be eliminated in the preliminaries.

• arithmetic

(n)the science of numbers involving adding, multipying, etc.

- teaching the usual rules of reading, writing and arithmetic.

• derive

(v)to get something, especially an advantage or a pleasant feeling, from something
(v)to develop from something else
(v)to get a chemical substance from another substance

- Many students derived enormous satisfaction from the course.
- patterns of behaviour that derive from basic beliefs
- The enzyme is derived from human blood.

• enzyme

(n)a chemical substance that is produced in a plant or animal, and helps chemical changes to take place in the plant or animal.

• commutativity

(n)In mathematics, a binary operation is commutative if changing the order of the operands does not change the result.

• cumbersome

(adj)A cumbersome system or process is very complicated and inefficient.
(adj)large and heavy and therefore difficult to carry, wear, or handle

- Although the machine looks cumbersome, it is actually easy to use.
- and old and cumbersome computer system

• analogue

(n)something having the property of being analogous to something else.

• pentagon

(n) a flat shape with five sides and five angles

• hexagon

(n) a shape with six sides

• equilateral

(adj)A shape or a figure that is equilateral has sides that are all the same length.(equi + lateral)

- an equilateral triangle

• lateral

(adj)relating to the sides of something, or movement to the side

- He estimated that the lateral movement of the bridge to be between four and six inches.

• temperate

(adj)Temperate is used to describe a climate or a place which is never extremely hot or extremely cold.

- The Nile Valley keeps a temperate climate throughout the year.

• in rude health

(adv)to be extremely healthy

- To that extent at least, American democracy remains in rude health.

• desolate

(adj)A desolate place is empty of people and lacking comfort.
(adj)A desolate person feels sad, lonely and without hope.

- a desolate landscape of flat green fields
- He was desolate without her.

• whence

from where

- No one ordered him back whence he came.

• asylum

(n)protection given to someone by a government because they escaped from fighting or political trouble in their own country
(n)a mental hospital

- He has been granted (political) asylum in France.
- He applied for asylum in 1987 after fleeing the police back home.

• lunatic

(n) someone who behaves in a crazy or very stupid way -- often used humorously
(n) a very offensive word for someone who is mentally ill
(adj)insane and believed to be affected by the phases of moon

- The hotel is run by a lunatic!
- a dangerous lunatic
- lunatic behaviour; lunatic asylum = asylum

• legislature

(n)an institution that has the power to make or pass laws

- The proposals before the legislature include the creation of two special courts to deal exclusively with violent crimes.

• truce

(n)an agreement between enemies to stop fighting or arguing for a short time, or the period for which this is arranged, ceasefire.

- They agreed to call a truce.
- There was an uneasy truce between Alex and Dave over dinner.

• animate

(adj)living
(v)to give life or energy to something

- Natural philosophy involved the study of all aspects of the material world, animate and inanimate.
- Laughter animated his face for a moment.

• wretched

(adj)someone who is wretched is very unhappy or ill, and you feel sorry for them
(adj)Someone who feels wretched feels very unhappy
(adj)You use wretched to describe someone or something that you dislike or feel angry with
(adj)extremly bad or unpleasant; miseralbe

- the poor, wretched girl
- I feel really wretched and confused.
- Wretched woman, he thought, why the hell cannot she wait?
- I was shocked to see their wretched living conditions.

• formidable

(adj)very powerful or impressive, and often frightening

- The new range of computers have formidable processing power.
- The building is grey, formidalbe, not at all picturesque.

• picturesque

(adj)a picturesque place is pretty and interesting in an old-fashioned way.
(adj)picturesque languages uses unusual, interesting, or sometimes rude words to describe something
(n)picturesque things

- a quiet fishing village with a picturesque harbour
- a picturesque account of his trip to New York
- lovers of the picturesque

• thence

(adj)from there or following that

- We went to Trieste, and thence by train to Prague.
- the conversion of sunlight into heat and thence into electricity

• posterity

(n)all the people in the future who will be alive

- a priceless work of art that must be kept for posterity

• diligent

(adj)someone who is diligent works hard and is careful and thorough

- a diligent student

• skilful

(adj) = skillful(American)

• offspring

(n)a person's children or an animal's young

- Eleanor was now less anxious about her offspring than she had once been.
- a young mother trying to control her offspring

• approximate

(adj)close but not exact
(v)to be close to a particular number
(v)to be similar to but not exactly the same as something

- This figure approximates to a quarter of the UK's annual consumption.
- Your story only approximates to the real facts.

• antecedent

(n)An antecedent of something happened or existed before it and was similar to it in some ways.

- We shall first look briefly at the historical antecedents of this theory.

• frugal

(adj)careful to buy only what is necessary; (oppo)extravagant
frugality(n)

- He led a remarkably frugal existence.

• henceforth

(adv)from this time on

- never to permit the child henceforth to enter his former home

• sanitary

(adj)relating to the ways that dirt, infection, and waste are removed, so that places are clean and healthy for people to live in
(adj)clean and not causing any danger to people's health

- Diseases were spread through poor sanitary conditions.
- Often, the camps were not very sanitary.

• hereditary

(adj)A hereditary characteristic or illness is passed on to a child from its parents before it is born
(adj)A title or position in society that is hereditary is one that is passed on as a right from parent to child

- a hereditary disease
- The position of the head of the state is hereditary.

• serf

(n)In former times, serfs were a class of people who had to work on a particular person's land and could not leave without that person's permission

• squalor

(n)the condition of being dirty and unpleasant because of a lack of care or money

- He was out of work and living in squalor.

• aristocracy

(n)a class of people in some countries who have a high social rank and special titles.

- a member of the aristocracy 

• rabble

(n)a noisy crowd of people who seem likely to cause trouble

- a rabble of angry youths

• destitute

(adj)having no money, no food, no home, etc
be destitute of sth: to be completely without something

- The floods left many people destitute.
- a man who is destitute of mercy

• sedition

(n)speech, writing, or actions intended to encourage people to disobey a government

- Government officials charged him with sedition.

• ordinance

(n)a law, usually of a city or town, that forbids or restricts an activity

- a city ordinance that says park must be closed at 11 p.m.
- a wise ordinance of Nature

• wax

(v)to become larger, more powerful, etc

- The moon is waxing.

• wane

(v)If something wanes, it becomes gradually weaker or less, often so that it eventually disappears.

- My enthusiasm for the project was waning.
- Interest in the show has waxed and waned.

• perish

(v)to die, especially in a terrible or sudden way.

- Hundreds perished when the ship went down.
- Most of the butterflies perish in the first frosts of autumn.

• annals

(n, pl)in the annals of sth, means in the whole history of sth

- one of the most unusual cases in the annals of crime
- He has become a legend in the annals of military history.

• mentor

(n)an experienced person who advises and helps a less experienced person
(v)to give someone help and advice over a period of time, especially help and advice related to their job

- Leon Sullivan was my mentor and my friend.
- He had mentored scores of younger doctors.

8th, Sep

• genome

(n)all the genes in one type of living thing

- the human genome

• kin

(n)your relatives

• kinship

(n)a family relationship
(n)a strong connection between people

- The ties of kinship may have helped the young man find his way in life.
- She evidently felt a sense of kinship with the woman.

• befriend

(v)to behave in a friendly way towards someone, especially someone who is younger or needs help

- They befriended me when I first arrived in London as a student.
- The film's about an elderly woman and a young nurse who befriends her.

• ancestry

(n)the members of your family who lived a long time ago

- Her mother is of German ancestry.
- Helen's family can trace their ancestry back to the 1700s.

• ethnic

(adj)relating to a particular race, nation, or tribe and their customs and traditions.
(adj)cooking, fashion etc from countries that are far away, which seems very different and unusual.

- The school teaches pupils from different ethnic groups.
- ethnic music, a magnificent range of ethnic fabrics

• see

(v)make sure that something is done

- See that you take care of her.

• disrupt

(v)to prevent something from continuing in its usual way by causing problems

- Climate change could disrupt the agricultural economy.
- Anti-war protestors disrupted the debate.

• disruptive

(adj)causing problems and preventing something from continuing in its usual way.

- way to handle disruptive pupils
- Alcohol can produce violence, disruptive behaviour.

• pick pace

(v)pick up speed

- Pick up the pace, guys - we are late.

9th, Sep

• abdicate

(v)to give up the position of begin king or queen
(v)to refuse to be responsible for something, when you should be or were before

- The king was forced to abdicate the throne.
- The government has largely abdicated its responsibility in dealing with housing needs.

• the writing is on the wall

mean that there are clear signs that something will fail or no longer exist

- The writing is on the wall for the local football club: bankruptcy seems certain.

• monarch

(n)a king or queen

- He was an absolute monarch.(arbitrary king)

• monarchy

(n)a system in which a country is ruled by a king or queen.
(n)a country that has a monarch

- a serious debate about the future of the monarchy
- Britain is a constitutional monarchy

• polarize

(v)to divide into clear separate groups with opposite beliefs, ideas, or opinions, or to make people do this

- The issue has polarized the country.
- As the car rental industry polarizes, business will go to the bigger companies.

• transcendence

(n)the quality of being able to go beyond normal limits or boundaries

- The Arab-American Society promotes the transcendence of racial and religious differences.

• infest

(v)if insects, rats etc infest a place, there are a lot of them and they usually cause damage
(v)if things or people you do not want infest a place, there are too many of them

- The prison is infested with rats.
- Crime and drugs are infesting the inner cities.
- an area infested with holiday homes

• downside

(n)The downside of a situation is the aspect of it which is less positive, pleasant, or useful than its other aspects.

- The downside of this approach is a lack of clear leadership.

10th, Sep

• symbolic

(adj)Something that is symbolic of a person or thing is regarded or used as a symbol of them.

- Yellow clothes are worn as symbolic of spring.
- Today's fighting is symbolic of the chaos which the country is facing.

• embody

(v)to be a very good example of an idea or quality, represent.

- She embodies everything I admire in a teacher.

• strive

(v)to make a great effort to achieve something

- We must continue to strive for greater efficiency.
- He strives hard to keep himself very fit.

• intrusive

(adj)affecting someone's private life or interrupting them in an unwanted and annoying way.

- They found the television cameras too intrusive.

• embodiment

(n)someone or sth that represents or is very typical of an idea of quality.

- He is the embodiment of evil.
- A baby is the embodiment of vulnerability.

• sweeping

(adj)affecting many things, or making an important difference to something.
(adj)sweeping statement: a statement etc that is too general and that does not consider all the facts.

- They want to make sweeping changes to education policies.
- sweeping generalizations about women drivers.

• reckless

(adj)not caring or worrying about the possible bad or dangerous results of your action.

- He was accused of causing death by reckless driving.
- a reckless disregard for safety
- He ran into the burning house with reckless abandon(= without caring about the danger).

• discern

(v)to notice or understand something by thinking about it carefully
(v)to be able to see something, but not clearly

- Officials are keen to discern how much public support there was.
- We could just discern a town in the distance.

• lame

(adj)unable to walk properly because your leg or foot is injured or weak.
(n)people who are lame
(adj)a lame excuse or explanation is weak and difficult to believe.

- She gave some lame excuse about missing the bus.
- "Lovely house!"I said lamely.

• scrutiny

(n)careful and thorough examination of someone or something.

- His private life came under media scrutiny.
- Careful scrutiny of the company's accounts revealed a whole series of errors.

• dearth

(n)a situation in which there are very few of something that people want or need.

- a dearth of job opportunties.
- Construction had slowed because of a dearth of labourers.

• collective

(adj)shared or made by every member of a group or society.
(n)A collective is a business or farm which is run, and often owned, by a group of people.

- a collective decision made by all board members.
- our collective responsiblity for the environment

• morale

(n)the level of confidence and positive feelings that people have, especially people who work together, who belong to the same team etc.

- The media feels pressure to keep the morale of the country up in war time.
- low staff morale
- A win is always good for morale.

• moral

(n)principles and beliefs concerning right and wrong behaviour.
(adj)relating to beliefs about what is right or wrong.

- If we accept that certain babies should be allowed to die, we place doctors in a moral dilemma.
- the corruption of public morals

• ethical

(adj)relating to principles of what is right and wrong, moral.
(adj)morally good or correct

- The use of animals in scientific tests raised difficult ethical questions.
- I don't think it's echical for you to accept a job you know you can't do.

• doctrine

(n)a set of beliefs that form an important part of a religion or system of ideas.
(n)a formal statement by a government about its future plans

- traditional doctrine of divine power
- the Marxist doctrine about perpetual revolution
- the announcement of the Truman Doctrine

11th, Sep

• cockroach

(n)(also roach)a large black or brown insect that lives in dirty houses, especially if they are warm and there is food to eat.

• idiom

(n)a group of words that has a special meaning that is different from the ordinary meaning of each separate words. For example, 'under the weather' is an idiom meaning 'ill'.

- familiar idioms and metaphors, such as 'turning over a new leaf'

• ethnicity

(n)the state or fact of belonging to a particular ethnic group.

- He said his ethnicity had not been important to him.

• discourse

(n)a serious speech or piece of writing on a particular subject
(n)serious conversation or discussion between people

- a discourse on art
- Candidates should engage in serious political discourse.
- "I do not know."And thus ended their discourse.

• assimilation

(n)the process of understanding and using new ideas.
(n)the process of becoming an accepted part of a country or group.

- The assimilation of ethnic Germans in the US was accelerated by the two world wars.
- Poor assimilation of vitamins and nutrients can cause health problems.

• mouthpiece

(n)the part of a musical instrument, telephone etc that you put in your mouth or next to your mouth.
(n)a person, newspaper etc that expresses the opinions of a government or a political organization.

- He shouted into the mouthpiece.
- This newspaper is just a Republican mouthpiece.

• literacy

(n)the state of being able to read and write

- a new adult literacy campaign
- Many adults have problems with literacy and numeracy.

• ascribe

(v)to claim that something is caused by a particular person, situation etc.
(v)to claim that something has been written, said, made etc by a particular person

- The report ascribes the rise in childhood asthma to the increase in pollution.
- a quotation that's often been ascribed to Marilyn Monroe

13th, Sep

• upfront

(adj)behaving or talking in an honest way so that people know what you really think, honest.
(adj)paid before any work has been done or before goods are supplied.
(adv)in the beginning

- Mo's very upfront with him about their relationship.
- an upfront fee of 500 dollars
- Every consumer should know upfront what it is going to cost them.

• eligible

(adj)some who is eligible for sth is able or allowed to do it, for example, because they are the right age.
(adj)an eligible man or woman is not yet married and is thought by many people to be a suitable partner.

- Almost half the population are eligible to vote in today's election.
- Students on a part-time course are not eligible for a loan.
- Stephen was regarded as an eligible bachelor.

• treasury

(n)a government department that controls the money that the country collects and spends.
(n)a place in a castle, church, palace etc where money or valuable objects are kept.

- a senior official at the Treasury

• exchequer

(n)the British government department that is responsible for collecting taxes and paying out public money, the Treasury.

- The industry claims it contributes to the Irish exchequer because it generates employment and wealth.

• chancellor

(n)a person in a position of the highest or high rank, especially in a government or university

- A former politician has been appointed Chancellor of the university.
- Helmut Kohl, the former German Chancellor 

14th, Sep

• roundabout

(n)a raised circular area where three or more roads join together and which cars must drive around.
(adj)a roundabout way of getting somewhere is longer and more complicated than necessary.
(adj)a roundabout way of saying something is not clear, direct or simple.

- Turn left at the first roundabout.
- It was a roundabout way of telling us to leave.
- The bus took a very long and roundabout route.

• workout

(n)a period of physical exercise, especially as training for a sport.

- a daily workout in the gym
- Give your upper body a workout by using handweights.

• genre

(n)a particular type of art, writing, music etc, which has certain features that all examples of this type share

- a new genre of film-making
- his love of films and novels in the horror genre

• fluctuate

(v)if a price or amount fluctuates, it keeps changing and becoming higher and lower.

- Insect populations fluctuate wildly from year to year.
- Prices were volatile, fluctuating between 20 and 40.

• bar

(n)all lawyers considered as a group, or the profession of law.

- sit for the bar: take part in the bar examination
- she was admitted to the bar in her early thirties.
- Less than a quarter of graduates from the law school pass the bar exam on the first try.

• guild

(n)an organization of people who do the same job or have the same interests.

- the Women's Guild
- the Writers' Guild of America

• hindrance

(n)something or someone that makes it difficult for you to do something.
(n)the act of making it difficult for someone to do something

- The higher rates have been a hindrance to economic recovery.
- The floods have been a major hindrance to relief efforts.
- Visitors are allowed to wander without hindrance.

• lucrative

(adj)a job or activity that is lucrative lets you earn a lot of money, profitable.

- He inherited a lucrative business from his father.
- Thousands of ex-army officers have found lucrative jobs in private security firms.

• upstart

(n)someone who behaves as it they were more important than they really are and who shows a lack of respect towards people who are more experienced and or older.

- Many prefer a familiar authority figure to a yound upstart.

• status quo

(n)the present situation

- Certain people always want to maintain the status quo.

• lone

(adj)used to talk about the only person or thing in a place, or the only person or thing that does something.

- the lone survivor of the shipwreck
- A lone figure was standing at the bus stop.

• outgrow

(v)to grow too big for something
(v)to no longer do or enjoy something that you used to, because you have grown older and changed

- They outgrew their clothes so quickly.
- Most children eventually outgrow a tendency towards travel sickness.

• liberal

(adj)willing to understand and respect other people's ideas, opinions, and feelings.
(adj)allowing people or organizations a lot of political or economic freedom
(adj)giving, using, or taking a lot of something, or existing in large quantities

- I had quite liberal parents.
- a liberal democracy with a multiparty political system
- As always he is liberal with jokes.
- Chemical products were used liberally over agricultural land.

• critical

(adj)if you are critical, you criticize someone or something.

- Many economists are highly critical of the government's economic policies.
- Many parents are strongly critical of the school.

• contemptuous

(adj)showing that you think someone or something deserves no respect.

- a contemptuous glance
- He's openly contemptuous of all the major political parties.

• set back

(v)if something sets you back or sets back a project or plan, it causes a delay.

- It has set us back in so many aspects that I'm not sure how long it will take for us to catch up.

• citizenry

(n)all the citizens in a particular town, country, or state.

- The country's citizenry is(are) more politically aware than in the past.

• propaganda

(n)information which is false or which emphasizes just one part of a situation, used by a government or political group to make people agree with them.

- the government propaganda machine
- the spreading of political propaganda

18th, Sep

• sift

(v)to put flour, sugar etc through a sieve or similar container in order to remove large pieces.
(v)to examine information, documents etc carefully in order to find something out or decide what is important and what is not.

- Sift the flour and baking powder into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Police are sifting through the evidence.
- It' hard to sift out the truth from the lies in this case.

• ornate

(adj)covered with a lot of decoration

- an ornate gold mirror
- an ornate iron staircase

• tentative

(adj)not definite or certain, and may be changed later.
(adj)done without confidence, hesitant

- I passed on my tentative conclusions to the police.
- The government is taking tentative steps towards tackling the country's economic problems.
- Albi knocked tentatively and entered.

• semaphore

(n)a system of sending messages using two flags, which you hold in different positions to represent letters and numbers

19th, Sep

• glitch

(n)a small fault in a machine or piece of equipment, that stops it working

- a software glitch
- Manufacturing glitches have limited the factory's output.

23rd, Sep

• akin

(adj)very similar to something

- Something akin to panic overwhelmed him.
- Listening to his life story is akin to reading a good adventure novel.

• hijack

(v)to use violence or threats to take control of a plane, vehicle, or ship.
(v)to take control of something and use it for your own purposes

- The airliner was hijacked by a group of terrorists.
- Some people think the party has been hijacked by right-wing extremists.

• satire

(n) a way of criticizing something such as a group of people or a system, in which you deliberately make them seem funny so that people will see their faults
(n)a piece of writing, film, play etc that uses this type of criticism.

- the characteristic use of satire in Jonson's work
- a satire on the American political process

• get cracking

(v)to start doing something quickly

- I'd better get cracking on the food for tonight.

• utopia

(n)an imaginary perfect world where everyone is happy

- When plans to rebuild the neighborhood were first announced, I’d been hoping for a utopia.

• asteroid

(n)one of the many planets that move around the Sun, especially between Mars and Jupiter

• envisage

(v)to think that something is likely to happen in the future

- The scheme cost a lot more than we had originally envisaged.
- It's hard to envisage how it might happen.

• fad

(n)something that people like to do for a short time, or that is fashionable for a short time.

- He doesn't believe environmental concern is a passing fad.

• rosy

(adj)seeming to offer hope of success or hapiness
(adj)pink

- The job prospects for those graduating in engineering are far less rosy now than they used to be.
- Letters to relatives in Europe painted a rosy picture of life in the United States.
- the kid's rosy cheeks

• enforce

(v)the make people obey a rule or law
(v)to make something happen or force someone to do something

- Parking restrictions will be strictly enforced.
- Governments make laws and the police enforce them.
- It is unlikely that a record company would enforce its views on an established artists.

• statute

(n)a law passed by a council, parliament etc and formally written down
(n)a formal rule of an institution or organization

- Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.
- College statutes forbid drinking on campus.

• check

(v)to stop something bad from getting worse or continuing to happen

- The police are failing to take adequate measures to check the growth in crime.

• to the letter

(adv)if you obey instructions or rules to the letter, you do exactly what you have been told to do, giving great attention to every detail.

- I followed the instructions to the letter and it still went wrong.

• envision

(v)to imagine something that you think might happen in the future, especially something that you think will be good, envisage.

- I envisioned a future of educational excellence.
- The company envisions adding at least five stores next year.

• fashion

(v)to make or shape something, using your hands or only a few tools

- He fashioned a box from a few old pieces of wood.

• flourish

(v)to develop well and be successful
(v)to grow well and be very healthy

- The economy is booming and small businesses are flourishing.
- Most plants will flourish in the rich deep soils here.

• eradicate

(v)to completely get rid of something such as a disease or a social problem.

- an attempt to eradicate inflation
- a significant contribution towards the eradication of corruption

• radical

(adj)a radical change or difference is very big and important
(adj)believing or expressing the belief that there should be great or extreme social or political change.

- He was known as a radical reformer.
- They are proposing radical changes to the way the company is run.
- There are radical differences between the two organizations.

• paraphrase

(v)to express in a shorted, clearer, or different way what someone has said or written.

- To paraphrase President Bush, we must restore confidence in our economic sector.

• enact

(v)to put something into action, especially to make something law
(v)to perform a story or play by acting

- The authorities have failed so far to enact a law allowing unrestricted emigration.
- a project that is to be enacted next year
- She often enacted the stories told to her by her father.

24th, Sep

• demographics

(n)the number and characteristics of people who live in a particular area or form a particular group, especially in relation to their age, how much money they have and what they spend it on

- The demographics of the country have changed dramatically in recent years.
- demographic change

• stem

(v)to stop something from happening, spreading, or developing.
(V)to stop the flow of liquid

- The measures are meant to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
- an attempt to stem the decline in profits
- A tight bandage should stem the bleeding.

• up in arms

angry or upset

- The union is up in arms over the reduction in health benefits.