week 40

A clique is an exclusive group of people or friends. Before Rudolph pulled Santa's sled through the fog, the clique of flying reindeer never let him play their reindeer games.
In high school, the exclusive nature of cliques causes a lot of hurt feelings. Clique carries this less than nice feeling with it wherever it goes, whether it be a set of elites who surround a government official, a group of popular kids who don't let others join their group or the closed circle of people at the office who

To vilify someone is to spread nasty stories about them, whether true or not.

The word proximity means "nearness," and it is often qualified by the word close. "It was hard not to see him cheating, when our desks are in such close proximity to one another."

Fatuous means lacking intelligence. When your mother outlaws calling your brother stupid, use fatuous instead.
Fatuous derives from the Latin fatuus meaning "foolish.

Rhetoric is speaking or writing that's intended to persuade. If your goal is to write editorial columns for "The New York Times," you should work on your rhetoric.. If someone gives a clever speech but doesn't really address the problem, you might say, "That's just a lot of rhetoric."

Cant is language repeated so often and so mechanically that it's essentially empty of meaning. Cant can also mean the specialized jargon of a particular group — like the "cant of piracy" (e.g., Ahoy! Lubber! Arrr!). As it evolved, cant became the whining of beggars and then the secret language of thieves, and the negative connotations persist in modern usage.

If you are feeling lassitude, you're weary and just can't be bothered. Coach potatoes make lassitude into an art form. Lassitude is the weariness you'd experience after attempting to run a marathon around the equator. Lassitude can also describe a lack of interest, like deciding you'd rather lie on your couch rather than run that marathon along the equator.

Repertoire refers to the full supply of what you can do. A singer's repertoire is all the songs they can sing. A chef's repertoire is what she knows how to cook.

DEFINITIONS OF:
facile
1
adj arrived at without due care or effort; lacking depth
“too facile a solution for so complex a problem”
Synonyms
superficial
concerned with or comprehending only what is apparent or obvious; not deep or penetrating emotionally or intellectually
adj performing adroitly and without effort
“a facile hand”
Synonyms
effortless
requiring or apparently requiring no effort
adj expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively
“able to dazzle with his facile tongue”
Synonyms:
e

A magnanimous person has a generous spirit. Letting your little sister have the last of the cookies, even though you hadn't eaten since breakfast, would be considered a magnanimous act.
Magnanimous comes from Latin magnus "great" and animus "soul," so it literally describes someone who is big-hearted. A person can show that over-sized spirit by being noble or brave, or by easily forgiving others and not showing resentment. It implies superiority, and is something you should say of others rather

Vapid means "dull" or "uninspiring": "We prefer not to consider the shockingly vapid and primitive comments uttered by athletes in postcontest interviews," David Foster Wallace wrote. The word was originally used in English in a much more literal sense, describing beverages that lacked flavor.

If it's imperceptible, it's impossible to perceive with any of the senses. The world might be spinning, but it's imperceptible from your couch.

If you have a crush on a guy who likes your best friend, it can be very depressing to listen to him extol your friend's virtues, while you just nod and smile. If you extol something, you praise it very highly.

When someone takes umbrage at something, they find it offensive, and it probably makes them angry. I take umbrage at the suggestion that I'm not a nice person: it's offensive and infuriating. After having devoted my life to helping animals, I might take umbrage at the notion that I've been doing it for publicity purposes: I resent the idea that it was for any other reason than my love of animals.

If you see an unwieldy person coming down the aisle of the bus with an unwieldy box, you may want to step aside because that's a double dose of clumsy. It's an awkward person carrying a box that is difficult to manage.
Something that is wieldy is easy to control or handle, so something unwieldy is not. However, the un- form of the word is much more common. The base word wieldy has its roots in Old English, meaning "to handle or control" — used usually in reference to a weapon. You would not want

To contort something is to bend or twist it out of its original shape. Faces are often said to contort with one particular emotion or another.
In general contort refers to something that is fairly adaptable and can return to its previous shape. A face, after it has contorted with rage, for example, will return to its normal expression (unless you've done something really bad.). If you bend or twist your sister's doll, you "break it" rather than "contort it."

A mentor is a person who trains and guides someone, like the second-grade English teacher who saw the spark of creativity in your writing and encouraged you to become a professional author.Today the word is used to describe any person who acts as an advisor or teacher. As a noun, mentor describes the coach who taught you to play baseball. As a verb, mentor is what the coach does to help you improve your swing.

If you elucidate something, you explain it very clearly. If you don't understand fractions, a visit to the pie shop may elucidate the subject for you.

As some sneaky five-year-olds know, crossing one’s fingers while making a promise is an effective way to vitiate, or destroy the validity of, an agreement.
Vitiate is often used when a legal agreement is made invalid, but it can also refer to the debasement or corruption of something or someone. If a malicious five-year-old on the playground teaches the other children to lie with their fingers crossed, she would be responsible for vitiating the playground community. The first syllable of this wo

Do you need to make something bigger, better, or stronger? Then you need to augment it. To augment is to increase the amount or strength of something.
Maybe your bike isn't getting around very well on hills: the bike needs to be augmented with a better set of tires. People augment their computers and phones all the time, adding new gadgets and apps. They augment the storage space in their cars by buying roof racks. If the President decides to augment taxes, taxes are going up. When you see the w