week 23

If you call someone neurotic, you are saying she is stressed out. Neurotic can be a psychological term or it can be used more loosely. You may have a neurotic tendency to bite your nails or to pull out your hair. Ouch.

Can't get your point across? Maybe you just need to speak more clearly or articulate your thoughts better — in short, enunciate.
Good enunciation is similar to pronunciation, but describes more specifically how clearly someone expresses themselves. The word enunciate is related to the Latin words for both "announce" and "messenger."

Some things should last forever and others should not be perpetuated at all. Things that should NOT be perpetuated? Ugly rumors, arms races, and your Aunt Martha's annual fruit cake.
Be careful not to confuse perpetuate with perpetrate. Although they differ in spelling by only one letter, they differ greatly in meaning. If you perpetuate something, you help it last. Perpetrate, on the other hand, means to commit a criminal act. Needless to say, you wouldn't want to perpetuate the acts of perpetr

Heterogeneous can be used to describe the diversity of nearly anything — populations, classrooms, collections. A heterogeneous array of immigrants passed through Ellis Island to help create the American "melting pot."
An easy way to remember the meaning of this word is that homo is the same and hetero is different. So, a homogeneous group of puppies might consist of apricot-colored poodles, while a heterogeneous group might consist of a hodgepodge of different pups ranging from dachshunds to dal

If you're irascible, you get angry easily — perhaps blowing up in rage when someone brushes into you.
Irascible comes from the Latin root ira, which means "anger" or "rage," the same root that gives us the word ire, "anger." The -sc in the middle of irascible, means "becoming," so irascible doesn't just mean you're angry — it's got action built into it. If you're looking for a fight most of the time, then you're irascible — ready for the spark that's going to set you on fire.

Something catastrophic is very harmful. When the stock market crashes it’s a catastrophic event for investors.
This is a strong word for terrible, harmful, devastating things. Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are catastrophic weather events. A depression is catastrophic for the economy. In sports, if the star player is injured, that's catastrophic for the team.

Perspicacious is an adjective that means "shrewd" and "wise." A perspicacious child can't be fooled when her parents try to keep a secret by talking in Pig Latin. This word is descended from the Latin word perspicere, which means "to look closely." In other words, if you look closely at something you are paying attention to it and know it well. A definition of perspicacious that is out of date but still relevant is "having keen eyesight" and people who can see clearly are also aware and attentiv

One of the most difficult things for a child is experiencing the death of a beloved pet; it's a hard lesson in mortality. Mortality is the quality of being mortal, or the reality of death.
It's not easy for most people to come to terms with their own mortality, or the fact that they really will die someday. Mortality can refer to an individual or to a larger group of people, particularly when you're talking about the total number of deaths within a population, using the phrase mortality rate. Th

Someone who is introspective spends considerable time examining his own thoughts and feelings. If you take to your diary after an unhappy break-up, you are being introspective.It's different from meditative and pensive in that they can refer to contemplating anything, whereas introspection involves specifically contemplating yourself.

When you neutralize something, you make it harmless or ineffective — usually by applying its opposite force, like pouring water on a fire.
The world neutral was first used it to describe a country that doesn’t take sides in a war, like Switzerland. There’s something kind of noble about a country that doesn’t participate in war by choice, but when we say something has been neutralized — that usually means that its power has been taken away from the outside.

Use the adjective analogous to describe something that is similar to something else and can be compared to another.
Analogous things can be compared to each other, so a near synonym is the adjective comparable. Analogous is a term used in biology to refer to body parts that have a similar function but differ in structure, such as the wings of a bird and the wings of an airplane.

If you are susceptible to something such as infections or earaches, it means you are likely to become sick with these things.
Have you ever received something you don't want? Well, with susceptible meaning "likely to be influenced or affected by" that is probably going to be the case. If you're susceptible to flattery, and someone wants something from you, all they have to do is give you a compliment or two and you'll do what they want. Material that's susceptible to cracking won't be in good co

Pedagogue is another name for "teacher," but one who is strict, stiff or old-fashioned, as in a pedagogue who stands in the front of the room and lectures for the entire class period, boring the students to tears.

A mandate is like an official command or a go-ahead. When a politician wins an election by a lot, that's a mandate for their ideas.
A mandate gives authority. If the government gives schools a mandate to test more, then the schools had better give more tests. People who work for the Peace Corps have a mandate to help various countries with things like getting clean drinking water. A politician who believe in higher taxes and then gets elected considers that a mandate to raise taxes. When you hav

A visit with a long-lost cousin might arouse emotions that run the gamut of joy, regret, sorrow, and excitement. A gamut is a full or complete range.The word is often associated with "run," as in "run the gamut from totally excited to so terrified you're quaking with fear." And if you've talked about every discussion point on your agenda, you've covered the gamut of issues that need discussing.

A phenomenon is an extraordinary occurrence or circumstance. In the 1950s, rock-n-roll was considered a new cultural phenomenon, while today we think of crop circles as a mysterious phenomenon. Phenomenon is an example of a word having a specific meaning for one group of people that gets changed when used by the general public.

Something that's excessive or that goes way beyond normal limits is inordinate — like an overly obsessive love for chocolate or a fantasy football junkie who spends an inordinate amount of time checking his team. It's often used to describe abnormal amounts of time spent doing something — playing video games at work or canoodling with your girlfriend at school, for example. But as Oscar Wilde once said, “An inordinate passion for pleasure is the secret of remaining young.”

Compensate is about correcting for an imbalance. If you step in an unmarked pothole, the city may compensate you by paying your doctor bills treating a broken ankle.
Compensate can also mean "to adjust for." So, if you did stumble into the pothole and injure your left leg, then you might compensate by leaning heavily on your right leg. Increasingly, compensate is used in place of pay. Day laborers are paid for their time, but executives are more likely to be compensated with a suite that include