week 18

If a characteristic or ability is already present in a person or animal when they are born, it is innate. People have the innate ability to speak whereas animals do not.
Innate can also be used figuratively for something that comes from the mind rather than from external sources. Do you know someone with an innate sense of style? Some kids seem to have an innate sense of fairness where others seem to be natural bullies. In some contexts, innate means inherent.

To crave something is to have a great desire for it, as one might crave love, fame, or French fries.
Crave is typically used in the context of emotional or physical desires rather than practical needs. For example, most people crave a hug or a cup of hot cocoa every now and then, but it’s unusual to crave a new filing cabinet or tie rack — although if that’s how you feel, don’t let us interfere.

To deem is a verb that means to view as or judge. Your parents or boss may deem something necessary that you don't, like coming home by midnight or working late.
Deem comes from the Old English word, deman — meaning "act as a judge." If you deem something, you essentially become the judge of whether it has a characteristic. For example, if you deem your little sister's jokes to be too ridiculous to listen to, you will probably just walk away.

Tortuous means twisting or complicated. "James Bond drove his custom BMW 120 mph on the road that was tortuous in its twists and turns. He had to stop the evil madman's plan for world domination that was so tortuous even 007 could not understand it."It is important not to confuse it with torturous, which means characterized by great pain. "The contemporary string quartet was tortuous in its tonal shifts, but only torturous at the point where the violinist ran her nails up and down a chalkboard."

Did you ever start something and not finish it? If so, that was an abortive project. Abortive things don't get finished.
Abortive is a variation of abort, which means to end something, so something abortive never reaches its end point. If you tried like crazy to run a marathon but couldn't finish, your efforts were abortive. If someone tripped you during the marathon, their efforts were abortive too. Abortive things always lead to the words "The end." Abortive can also be a way of avoiding the w

If you've got myriad problems it doesn't mean you should call a myriad exterminator, it means you've got countless problems; loads of them; too many to count. Welcome to the club.
Myriad is one of those words rarely used in speech but only in written form. You would usually use a phrase like "lots of" or "loads of" instead. I mean, you could say "I've got myriad problems," but everyone would probably just laugh at you, and rightly so.

The adjective conjugal describes all husband-and-wife matters, so if someone who is married says, "Single people don't understand how I feel," you can be sure it's a conjugal situation.
The word conjugal comes from the Latin word, conjux, meaning "husband, wife." You’ve no doubt heard of the term “conjugal visits,” to describe private visits between a prisoner and a spouse. But it can describe anything that happens between married people, such as conjugal obligations, which are the things you do

If you went backpacking through Europe last summer, you could call your travels a peregrination. A peregrination is a long journey or period of wandering. This word typically applies to traveling for an extended period of time or over a great distance. So, you wouldn’t call a trip to the grocery store a peregrination. However, if you traveled the globe looking for the world’s best grocery store, you could call that a peregrination.

Something spontaneous happens when you're least expecting it. Spontaneous things are natural or instinctive, and they happen without warning.

Urbane people are sophisticated, polished, cultured, refined. Spend enough time in an urban setting–-going to concerts, museums, spending time in crowds––and you'll be urbane too.urbane assumes that everyone sees the city from the roof deck of their penthouse apartment, drinking champagne and exchanging bon mots with friends.

Latent is an adjective that you use to describe something that is capable of becoming active or at hand, though it is not currently so.
The adjective latent is a tricky word to define because it refers to something there but not there. That is, latent means something that is capable of becoming active or at hand but has not yet achieved that state.

An itinerant is a person who moves from place to place, typically for work, like the itinerant preacher who moves to a new community every few years.
Itinerant is pronounced "eye-TIN-er-ant." It might remind you of itinerary, the traveler's schedule that lists flights, hotel check-in times, and other plans. It's no surprise that both words come from the Latin word itinerare, meaning "to travel."

If you accommodate, you are making an adjustment to suit a particular purpose. If you accommodate your brother's demand for the attic room, then you give in and let him take over that space.

You know how some furniture looks like solid oak or maple until it gets chipped and reveals itself to be nothing more than some cheap particle-board covered with a thin layer of fancy wood? That thin layer is called a veneer.
A veneer can be anything that makes something look more elegant or attractive than it is. Originally it was a furniture word, but over time its meaning expanded. If someone smiles at you while making some passive-aggressive remark, like, "Gee, you actually look really nice

Use the adjective inherent for qualities that are considered permanent or cannot be separated from an essential character.
We use the adjective inherent to describe attributes that are part of the essential nature of something. It's different from you being tall, rather than being a description, it has to be a quality and this quality is unchangeable. So, for example, if you have never been able to eat spinach, you have an inherent dislike of it.