I frequently come across words I don't know, which is good and bad. At any rate, if I think it's worth knowing, I add it to the ignorance list. Then I look it up as soon as possible and narrow my ignorance - or at least that's the idea.
Perhaps I should be embarrassed that some of these made the list, but I'm not. Why not help me reinforce what I've learned by jotting me a note with a few words sprinkled in from my newly expanded vocabulary?
| The Ten Most Recently Defined | ||
|---|---|---|
| Term | Definition | |
| 1 | temporize | 1 : to act to suit the time or occasion : yield to current or dominant opinion |
| 2 | bailiwick | 1 : the office or jurisdiction of a bailiff 2 : a special domain |
| 3 | supine | 1 a : lying on the back or with the face upward 2 : exhibiting indolent or apathetic inertia or passivity; especially : mentally or morally slack |
| 4 | extirpate | 1 a : to destroy completely : wipe out b : to pull up by the root |
| 5 | canard | 1 a : a false or unfounded report or story; especially : a fabricated report b : a groundless rumor or belief |
| 6 | academe | 2: ACADEMIC; esp.: PEDANT |
| 7 | pusillanimous | lacking courage and resolution : marked by contemptible timidity |
| 8 | irrefragable | Impossible to refute or controvert; indisputable. |
| 9 | exiguous | excessively scanty : inadequate |
| 10 | fen | low land that is covered wholly or partly with water unless artificially drained and that usually has peaty alkaline soil and characteristic flora (as of sedges and reeds) |
The full list can be viewed here.
Definitions appearing on this page are generally either verbatim or derived from Merriam-Webster's College Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1999 or its online counterpart.