Go Short: Essential Three-Letter Words: Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 1

Is your vocabulary feeling lax, with too many words beyond your ken? Dip into this vat of verbal gems of every hue and turn your woe into awe! These four lists are arranged from easiest to most challenging. Try and learn them all!

Here are links to our lists in the collection: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
18 words 8066 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bid
    propose a payment
    Council narrowly agreed in July 2019 to suspend competitive bidding and allow the Greek company Intralot to oversee the city’s monopoly on mobile and online wagers. Washington Post (Sep 15, 2020)
  2. tie
    fasten or secure with a rope, string, or cord
    So instead of following Georgie, I sat in the sunshine and braided my hair into a long single plait, as thick and heavy as rope, and tied it with string. The Old Willis Place
    The Old English téah came from the Old Norse taug, meaning "rope."
  3. err
    make a mistake
    Those leagues — unlike the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 Conference and Southeastern Conference — chose to err on the side of caution and avoid years in court fighting liability lawsuits. Los Angeles Times (Sep 11, 2020)
    If err looks like the beginning of error, that's not a coincidence.
  4. wit
    mental ability
    “I suddenly was learning about her writing style, her sense of poetics, her wit, her humor,” she said. New York Times (Sep 16, 2020)
  5. apt
    being of striking appropriateness and relevance
    Dad’s message is apt today: While sharing may seem limitless, it ends where privacy begins. Saints and Misfits
  6. woe
    misery resulting from affliction
    My parents expressed no sympathy for my woes and none for Robbie’s, either. Becoming
  7. awe
    an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration
    She gazed at Mrs. Coulter with awe, and listened rapt and silent to her tales of igloo building, of seal hunting, of negotiating with the Lapland witches. The Golden Compass
    Awe is Scandinavian and originally meant "fear or dread" while also carrying a sense of "respect" based on those feelings. It has a more positive connotation in English — think awesome and awestruck.
  8. vex
    disturb, especially by minor irritations
    All they did was pester and vex and annoy. The Princess Bride
    Vexare means "to damage or agitate" in Latin. A vexing problem is a persistent annoyance.
  9. mob
    a disorderly crowd of people
    I became very afraid these people would collect a mob and tear down my windmill, or worse. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
  10. den
    the habitation of wild animals
    The bears would be hidden away in their dens where they slept soundly all winter long. Little House in the Big Woods
  11. rue
    feel sorry for; be contrite about
    As he lay dying he rued the many projects that he was going to leave uncompleted. Economist (Apr 23, 2015)
    A Germanic word, rue is a synonym for "regret."
  12. jar
    affect in a disagreeable way
    But now he was here in their flat, and the scene jarred her, the landlord shouting at their door, and her father turning a steely, silent face to him. Americanah
    Jar has a couple of meanings: a glass container, or a disturbing jostle — either physical or emotional.
  13. wax
    increase in phase
    The moon is waxing and on Friday, it will be full. New York Times (Apr 18, 2016)
    The moon waxes when it moves toward fullness, and wanes afterward. If someone waxes eloquent about a subject, they're talking a lot.
  14. kin
    a person related to another or others
    Sam’s most famous kin was nephew Jesse Carlyle Snead, who showed promise playing baseball for the Washington Senators farm system before turning to professional golf in 1968. Golf Digest (May 11, 2020)
  15. hue
    the quality of a color determined by its dominant wavelength
    “Here we are on the way to agreeing more about colors,” Vincent says, and asks Theo to think more deeply about questions of pigment, shades, hues. Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers
    Hue is a synonym for "color" but has a particular meaning in the context of color theory or photo editing software, where it's used in conjunction with saturation and value to describe the exact characteristics of a particular color.
  16. dew
    water that has condensed on a cool surface overnight
    Outside, it was cool and still, the sky that hazy shade of white peculiar to autumn mornings, and the wicker chairs were drenched with dew. The Secret History
    Dew is Old English, but can be traced to Old Germanic and Aryan with a related root in Sanskrit meaning "to flow or run."
  17. ken
    range of what one can know or understand
    It’s so big, so weird, so unknowable and unaccountable, that it’s “beyond our ken,” and also, possibly, beyond his. The New Yorker (Jan 14, 2015)
    Ken is most often used in the phrase beyond the ken, as in "unknowable."
  18. ore
    a mineral that contains metal valuable enough to be mined
    The company continues to apply for permits to tunnel underground and eventually mine and process copper-rich ore. Washington Times (Sep 14, 2020)
Created on Tue Sep 22 16:15:27 EDT 2020 (updated Thu Apr 21 09:05:42 EDT 2022)

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