And their parents...and college/online school graduates....and drop outs....and military men....and...you get the idea. Here's what the editor's of American Heritage dictionaries came up with. If you ask me, I'm sure most of us are lacking in the area of many of these particular words. Yikes!
"The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language."
The following is the entire list of 100 words:
abjure
abrogate abstemious acumen antebellum auspicious belie bellicose bowdlerize chicanery chromosome churlish circumlocution circumnavigate deciduous deleterious diffident enervate enfranchise epiphany equinox euro evanescent expurgate facetious fatuous feckless fiduciary filibuster gamete gauche gerrymander hegemony hemoglobin homogeneous hubris hypotenuse impeach incognito incontrovertible inculcate infrastructure interpolate irony jejune kinetic kowtow laissez faire lexicon loquacious |
lugubrious
metamorphosis mitosis moiety nanotechnology nihilism nomenclature nonsectarian notarize obsequious oligarchy omnipotent orthography oxidize parabola paradigm parameter pecuniary photosynthesis plagiarize plasma polymer precipitous quasar quotidian recapitulate reciprocal reparation respiration sanguine soliloquy subjugate suffragist supercilious tautology taxonomy tectonic tempestuous thermodynamics totalitarian unctuous usurp vacuous vehement vortex winnow wrought xenophobe yeoman ziggurat |
These are not words one uses in conversation or even in writing. They are words which are familiar, but hard to easily define. I doubt if I would use many of them in my writing, but I could make sense of prose containing them in a sentence.
jsrson
A fascinating collection of words here! Do you know what they all mean?
Abjure has some association for me since I was Theseus in a high school play and I told Hermia she would have to 'abjure for ever the society of men'
Bowdlerize is named after Mr Bowdler
Where I come from, we spell hemoglobin as haemoglobin. Confusing, isn't it?
The only time I've ever seen jejune is in a book by James Joyce, Ulysses, I think?
I could go on for ever but this comment would be too BIG!
Do I have your permission to copy the list, I want to try to work some of these words into my blog?
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