Bengal Word of the Week
Tautology (tȯ-ˈtä-lə-jē)
Plural: tautologies
Noun
1a.Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy. b. An instance of such repetition.
2. Logic An empty or vacuous statement composed of simpler statements in a fashion that makes it logically true whether the simpler statements are factually true or false; for example, Either it will rain tomorrow or it will not rain tomorrow.
Adjective—tautological
Adverb—tautologically
Narcissism (nahr-suh-siz-em)
Noun
Inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity: “In his narcissism, he just assumed that everyone else wanted to hear the tiny details of his day.”
Diffident (di-fə-dənt, -dent)
Adjective
Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence; shy and timid: “He was too diffident to do justice to himself; but when his natural shyness was overcome, his behavior gave every indication of an open affectionate heart” (Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility).
Adverb--diffidently
Laissez-faire (le-sā-ˈfer, lā-, -zā-)
Noun
1. An economic doctrine that opposes governmental regulation of or interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free-enterprise system to operate according to its own economic laws.
2. Noninterference in the affairs of others.
Wrough(ˈrȯt)
Verb
A past tense and past participle of work: “In full perfection all thy words are wrought/And thine the scepter o’er the realms of thought” (Phyllis Wheatley, “On Imagination”).
Adjective
1. Put together; created: The jewel thieves concocted a carefully wrought plan.
2. Shaped by hammering with tools. Used chiefly of metals or metalwork: The horseshoe was made of wrought iron.
Floccinaucinihilipilificate
Verb
To describe or regard something as worthless.
Noun-- floccinaucinihilipilification
Circumlocution(sər-kəm-lō-ˈkyü-shən)
Noun
1. The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.
2. Evasiveness in speech or writing.
3. A roundabout expression: “At such a time as” is a circumlocution for the word “when.”
Related Words
adjective—circumlocutory
Chicanery (shi-key-nuh-ree, chi-)
Noun
Deception by trickery or sophistry.
Yeoman(ˈyō-mən)
Noun
1a. An attendant, servant, or lesser official in a royal or noble household. b. A yeoman of the guard.
2. A petty officer performing chiefly clerical duties in the US Navy.
3. An assistant or other subordinate, as of a sheriff.
4. A diligent, dependable worker.
5. A farmer who cultivates his, her own land, especially a member of a former class of small freeholders in England.
Related Words
Noun—yeomanry
Hegemony (hi-ˈje-mə-nē, -ˈge-; ˈhe-jə-ˌmō-nē)
Noun
The predominant influence of a state, region, or group, over others: The hegemony of communism in Eastern Europe crumbled in the late 1980s.
Related Words
Adjective—hegemonic
Noun and adjective--hegemonist
Enamor (i-ˈna-mər)
Transitive verb
1. To inflame with love —usually used in the passive with of.
2. To cause to feel a strong or excessive interest or fascination —usually used in the passive with of or with. <baseball fans enamored of statistics>.
Kinetic (kə-ne-tik)
Adjective
1. Of, relating to, or produced by motion: Any object that is moving has kinetic energy.
2. Relating to or exhibiting kinesis (movement or activity of an organism in response to a stimulus such as light).
Adverb—kinetically
Subjugate (səb-ji-gāt)
Transitive verb
1. To bring under control; conquer.
2. To make subservient or submissive; subdue: The new owners subjugated the defiant workers by threatening layoffs.
Noun—subjugation
Noun—subjugator
Gerrymander (jer-ē-man-dər)
Transitive verb
To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.
Noun
1. The act, process, or an instance of gerrymandering.
2. A district or configuration of districts differing widely in size or population because of gerrymandering.
Past participle and past tense: gerrymandered
Present participle: gerrymandering
Third person singular present tense: gerrymanders
Oligarchy (ä-lə-gär-kē, ō-)
Noun
1. Government by the few.
2. A government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes; a group exercising such control.
3. An organization under oligarchic control.
Kowtow (kau̇-tau̇)
Intransitive verb
1. To kneel and touch the forehead to the ground in expression of deep respect, worship, submission.
2. To show servile deference: Because everyone on staff was afraid of being laid off, they all kowtowed to their strict boss.
Past participle and past tense—kowtowed
Present participle—kowtowing
Third person singular present tense—kowtows
Noun
1. The act of kneeling and touching the forehead to the ground.
2. An obsequious act.
Tempestuous (tem-pes-chə-wəs)
adjective
1. Of, relating to, or resembling a tempest: “The 31st of January was a wild, tempestuous day: there was a strong north wind, with a continual storm of snow drifting on the ground and whirling through the air” (Anne Bronte, Agnes Grey).
2. Characterized by violent emotions; tumultuous; stormy.
adverb—tempestuously
noun—tempestuousness
Curmudgeon (kuhr-MUJ-uhn)
Noun
An ill-tempered, stubborn person, usually an old man
Quasar (kwā-zär also -sär)
Noun
An extremely distant, and thus old, celestial object whose power output is several thousand times that of the entire Milky Way galaxy. Some quasars are more than ten billion light years away from earth.
Xenophobe(ze-nə-fōb, zē-)
Noun
A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.
Noun—xenophobia
Adjective—xenophobic
Pecuniary (pi-kyü-nē-er-ē)
Adjective
1. Of or relating to money.
2. Requiring payment of money: A speeding ticket is generally a pecuniary offense.
Adverb—pecuniarily
Lexicon (lek-sə-kän)
Noun
1. A dictionary.
2. A stock of terms used in a particular profession, subject, or style; a vocabulary: The lexicon of anatomy includes terms such as “aorta” and “duodenum.”
Adjective—lexical
Adverb—lexically
Incontrovertible(in-kän-trə-vər-tə-bəl)
AdjectiveImpossible to dispute; unquestionable: The lawyer presented incontrovertible proof of her client’s innocence.
Noun—incontrovertibility
Adverb—incontrovertibly
Belie (bi-lī, bē-)
Transitive Verb
1.To give a false representation to; misrepresent
2.To show to be false; contradict
Their laughter belied their outward anger.
Noun--belier
Suffragist (suhf-ruh-jist)
Noun
An advocate of the extension of political voting rights, especially to women.
Tireless suffragists worked to ensure the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
Noun--suffragism
Parabola(pə-ra-bə-lə)
Noun
The locus (set) of points in a plane equidistant from a fixed line and a fixed point not on a line.
Adjective--parabolic
Gauche(gōsh)
adjective
Lacking grace or social polish; awkward or tactless.
Example: Would it be gauche of me to ask her how old she is?
Delineate (di-li-nē-āt, dē-)
Verb
1. to indicate or represent by drawn or painted lines; to mark the outline of <lights delineating the narrow streets>
2. to describe, portray, or set forth with accuracy or in detail <delineate a character in the story> <delineate the steps to be taken by the government>
Examples:
The report clearly delineates the steps that must be taken.
The characters in the story were carefully delineated.
Noun - delineator
Vehement (vē-ə-mənt)
adjective
Forceful or intense in expression, emotion, or conviction; fervid: The senator issued a vehement denial regarding the report linking him to a scandal.
Noun—vehemence
Adverb—vehemently
Quotidian (kwō ˈti dē ən)
adjective
Commonplace or ordinary, as from everyday experience.
Metamorphosis (me-tə-mȯr-fə-səs)
Noun
1. A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function; a transformation.
2. Biology - Change in the form and often habits of an animal during normal development after the embryonic stage. Metamorphosis includes, in insects, the transformation of a maggot into an adult fly and a caterpillar into a butterfly, and, in amphibians, the changing of a tadpole into a frog.
Adjective—metamorphic
Verb—metamorphose
Adjective—metamorphous
