Words, Words, Words...Can't Get Enough of Them!

It’s quiz time again so sharpen your pencils and test your mettle.  I’ve separated the words into three categories:  You’ve Seen One, Keeping Them Straight, and Word Drop Your Way to a Corner Office.  Use your knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and Greek endings. 

You’ve Seen One

           1.       Funambulist; 2.  Menhir; 3.  Crash; 4.  Volute; 5.  Caryatid; 6.  Ziyada; 7.  Strigil; 8.  Tatterdemalion

[Choose one:  a – glutton; b – outer court of a mosque; c – tightrope walker; d – mottled markings; e – traveler; f – prehistoric monument consisting of a huge upright stone, a standing stone; g – carved female figure used as column supporting a structure; h – chemical compound used to dissolve alkaline stains; i – course open-weave cloth used in book binding as a lining for the spine; j – spiral scroll decoration used on an Ionic capital; k – person who wears raggedly clothes; l – astringent; m – curve bladed instrument used to scrape sweat and dirt from the body after exercise] Not all choices will be used.

Keeping Them Straight

1.       Exegete, exigent, exiguous

2.       Obviate, obsecrate, objurgate

3.       Apothegm, apothem, apotheosis

4.       Apotropaic, apodictic, apogee

5.       Obloquy, obliquity

6.       Ersatz, erstwhile

[All choices will have a match. a – to scold angrily; b – highest point of glory and power, elevation of human to status of a god; c – slander, defamatory statement; d – protective, warding off evil; e – former friend or supporter; f – urgent; g – make unnecessary; h – pity, terse remark; i – an imitation or inferior substitute; j – scanty, meager; k – departure from right or moral principles; l – a perpendicular from the center of a regular polygon to one of its sides; m – solemnly beseech; n – one who studies, speaks, or writes as a scriptural expert; o – certain, necessary truth; p – greatest point away from an object in orbit, farthest away]

Word Drop Your Way to a Corner Office

1.       Anosmia; 2.  Enervate; 3.  Sui generis; 4.  Naïf; 5.  Escheat; 6.  Hamartia; 7.  Obtund; 8.  Sinecure; 9.  Instantiate; 10.  Farouche; 11.  Telluric; 12.  Encomium; 13.  Apposite; 14.  Epigone; 15.  Onomastics   

[Choose one: a – position that requires little or no work but one that provides a secure salary; b – naïve person; c – reversion of property to the state after the death of  someone; d – inability to remember names; e – terrestrial, coming from the earth, soil or atmosphere; f – to invigorate; g – one of a kind, unique; h – orphaned child; i – splendid carriage used for royal parades; j – place in an adversarial position; k – inability to smell; l – to weaken or destroy physical, moral or mental vigor; m – high praise for a speech or writing; n – fatal or tragic flaw or error that brings an honorable person disproportionate harm; o – alchemist; p – pretended ignorance; q – study of meaning and origin of proper names; r – shy or awkward, unsociable; s – to blunt, deaden or dull; t – to explain using concrete example; u – relevant, well-suited; v – follower of an important artist or philosopher who is a mediocre imitator] Not all choices will be used.

And the answers are…

                You’ve Seen One:  1/c; 2/f; 3/i; 4/j; 5/g; 6/b; 7/m; 8/k

                Keeping Them Straight:   (Answers will be in the order listed) 1.  n, f, j;   2.  g, m, a;   3.  h, l, b;   4.  d, o, p;   5.  c, k;   6.  i, e.    

                Word Drop Your Way to a Corner Office:    1/k; 2/l; 3/g; 4/b; 5/c; 6/n, 7/s; 8/a; 9/t; 10/r; 11/e; 12/m; 13/u; 14/v; 15/q.

Congratulations.  Hope you enjoyed the mental calisthenics. Now go out there and amaze!

Vocabulary Quiz

It’s word quiz time again! I will make it easier by using the words in context. I have included some foreign phrases that might be useful to know. No Fair Looking Ahead to the Answers! It might also be a good time to review the words in past quizzes. Just click on the Vocabulary Quiz label to reacquaint yourself with words presented earlier. Good Luck!

1. To which of these men could the term glabrous be used in their description? a) Sen. Robert Byrd b) Harpo Marx c) Yul Brynner
2. The guest speaker’s tendency to divagate surprised the audience. Was the speaker a) sycophantic b) divisive or, c) wandering off the subject?
3. Would you seek out the company of someone described as jejune? Yes or No?
4. The ancient Grecian hetaera are most similar to a) sibyls b) geisha or, c) the queen’s ladies in waiting?
5. The American Idol fans were perfervid in their opinions of the female singer. Were the fans a) enthusiastically for her b) mildly impressed or, c) definitely against her?
6. Jane is au fait in interior design. Is she a) new to the field b) an expert or, c) totally clueless?
7. The woman told us that she had just seen a revenant. What did she see? a) type of rodent b) a ghost or, c) a member of the clergy
8. The Duchess brought the seisin of Bordeaux as part of her dowry. What did she bring? a) the right to the title of Duke b) valuable jewels or, c) lands of her Duchy
9. The quiddity of her perfume was its rose oil. Is this the correct usage of the term? Yes or No?
10. Over lunch Jonathan traduced the work of our newest employee. Was he a) critical b) appreciative or, c) surprised?
11. The gown glimmered with interwoven golden threads. It was made of what fabric? a) samite b) toile de Jouy or, c) gossamer?
12. In the equation, 15 – 7 = 8, what is the term used for the number 15?
a) augend b) subtrahend or, c) minuend
13. The young girl has a retroussé nose. Is it a) protrudent b) turned-up or, c) narial
14. The coroner declared the cause of death to be felo de se. Was it
a) death by person or persons unknown b) accidental death or, c) suicide?
15. The debate denigrated into a war over words. Which word best describes the situation?
a) syntactical b) logomachy or, c) apologue

Answers: 1 – c: glabrous (adj) meaning smooth and lacking hairs; 2 – c: divagate (v) means to wander off the subject; 3 – No: jejune (adj) refers to someone who is uninteresting or intellectually undemanding; 4 – b: hetaera (n) were one of a special class of women who, while prostitutes, were valued as highly cultured companions; 5 – a: perfervid (adj) describes an extremely passionate or enthusiastic response; 6 – b: au fait describes an expert; 7 – b: a revenant (n) is a dead person believed to return as a ghost; 8 – c: seisin (n) refers to land that is legally possessed; 9 – Yes: quiddity (adj) means that which makes a thing what it is, its essential nature; 10 – a: traduced (v) refers to saying very critical and disparaging things about someone; 11 – a: samite (n) is very heavy silk fabric interwoven with gold or silver threads; 12 – c: the minuend is the number from which another is subtracted; 13 – b: a retroussé nose is turned-up; 14 – c: a felo de se (n) is a suicide; 15 – b: logomachy (n) is a dispute over words.

How did you do?

Vocabulary Quiz 4

This is the last. It has been fun creating the quizzes; mostly because it enabled me to re-visit the words I’ve been collecting throughout the years. I hope you enjoyed them, and discovered a few useful words to add to your vocabulary. If you’re a real word fanatic, go back through the quizzes and identify the 5 answers in each quiz that did not match one of the words. Try to find the word that is defined by the unused answers. You’re on your own, however, because this is where I stop. As usual there are 20 words and 25 answers. Five of the definitions will not apply.

1) quiddity 2) recondite 3) revenant 4) sapid 5) serried 6) solecism
7) stochastic 8) sumptuary 9) telluric 10) tergiversator 11) termagant
12) thaumaturgy 13) threnody 14) traduce 15) trenchant 16) usufruct
17) velleity 18) withes 19) xoanon 20) zymotic


A) dirge; B) caused by fermentation; C) overabundance D) essential nature of something; inconsequential distinction; E) keen, cutting; F) last speaker in program; G) carved statue of a deity, usually made of wood; H) wish without action to achieve it; I) dealing with matters that require profound or specialized knowledge; J) artificial sweetener; K) involving random or probabilistic behavior; L) working of miracles; M) flagrant grammatical error; N) shrewish woman; O) make disparaging personal remarks; P) fertilized ovum; Q) ghost who appears many years after death; R) terrestrial, from the earth; S) stems or twigs used to bind materials together; T) very crowded; U) theory that only the self exists; V) flavorful, tasty; W) one who changes sides in a cause, or makes ambiguous statements; X) limiting budget; Y) legal use of another’s possessions or profit.


ANSWERS: 1-D; 2-I; 3-Q; 4-V; 5-T; 6-M; 7-K; 8-X; 9-R; 10-W; 11-N; 12-L; 13-A; 14-O; 15-E; 16-Y; 17-H; 18-S; 19-G; 20-B.

Vocabulary Quiz 3

You should find this quiz easier than the previous two, but nonetheless useful. The same format will be used with 20 words and 25 answers. Five of the answers will not apply.

1) maieutic 2) meretricious 3) minatory 4) moiety 5) mordant 6) nacre 7) nielloed 8) nugatory 9) obloquy 10) obsecration 11) obviate 12) optative 13) otiose 14) panegyric 15) parthenogenic 16) pasquinade 17) peroration 18) perspicacious 19) prolix 20) psephology


A) cannon volley; B) worthless; C) long and wordy; D) study of elections; E) fiery; F) Socratic method of inquiry intended to bring out latent ideas by asking questions; G) flashy, tawdry; H) formal praise; I) development of an egg without male fertilization; J) verb mood indicating the expression of a wish; K) slander, defamation; L) study of sub-atomic particles; M) biting sarcasm; N) indolent, without purpose; O) publicly posted, usually anonymous, lampoon; P) threatening; Q) act of beseeching; R) dental procedure; S) either of two parts, not necessarily equal; T) black ornamental work filling an incised design; U) separation of genetic material; V) discerning, penetrating understanding; W) mother of pearl; X) end of an oratory, summing up of points in a speech; Y) make unnecessary, get rid of

ANSWERS: 1-F; 2-G; 3-P; 4-S; 5-M; 6-W; 7-T; 8-B; 9-K; 10-Q; 11-Y; 12-J; 13-N; 14-H; 15-I; 16-O; 17-X; 18-V; 19-C; 20-D.

Vocabulary Quiz 2

I hope you enjoyed the first quiz and, maybe, learned a new word or two. It was good practice for me to consult my spiral notebook and review the words I’ve entered throughout the years. If you don’t use the words everyday, they you will need to review periodically. Again I have 20 words and 25 definitions. Not all of the definitions will be used.

1) coign 2) exegete 3) gambol 4) garrulity 5) gravid 6) hortatory 7) immure 8) imprecate 9) ineluctability 10) instantiate 11) inveigh 12) inveigle 13) jeremiad 14) koine 15) labile 16) lagniappe 17) lambent 18) lethe 19) litotes 20) lucubrations

A) Neapolitan secret society B) denounce, criticize C) frolic, skip playfully D) understatement for emphasis by substituting the affirmative with the negative E) glowing, softly radiant F) pertaining to clocks G) inescapable H) complimentary gift with purchase I) endow J) pregnant , burdened K) oblivion, dreamy state L) to represent by concrete example M) urging, exhorting N) fresco preparation O) lament P) unstable, likely to change Q) curse, invoke against R) drench S) entice, wheedle T) regional dialects and tongues that become standard language for larger populace U) literary effort resulting from prolonged research, like a dissertation V) unrestrained talkativeness W) one who discourses as an expert, especially in religion X) favorable observation post or vantage point Y) imprison, enclose

Answers: 1-X; 2-W; 3-C; 4-V; 5-J; 6-M; 7-Y; 8-Q; 9-G; 10-L; 11-B; 12-S; 13-O; 14-T; 15-P; 16-H; 17-E; 18-K; 19-D; 20-U.

Vocabulary Quiz 1

Years ago I worked as a psychometrist, writing tests for a governmental entity. Constructing a good test is both an art and a technical skill. The test writer must be sure that answer choices do not lead the subject to the answer (a 3-1 split), or provide more than one correct choice (2-2 dilemma). You might not believe it, but a well constructed true/false test is the most difficult test to take.

I’ve never lost my fascination for test construction. I’ve used tests, disguised as puzzles, to teach special education children in junior high and one to use as an ice breaker for an employee gathering. I often create some sort of bibliographic “quiz” or puzzle when doing book displays at the library. There has been a Sherlock Holmes Jumble, a crossword to celebrate the town’s 100th anniversary, a classic mystery writer/detective challenge, and several specialized crosswords, amongst others. This vocabulary quiz will hopefully satisfy my continuing need to create a challenging puzzle cum quiz and provide a venue for others to increase their word power.

Building a vocabulary that is precise, varied, and powerful can become an enjoyable exercise. How does one find words that mean exactly what you intend? A key method is to read good authors. Although many might not agree with what he writes, William F. Buckley, Jr. has provided me with a plethora of choice words. There are many other authors who do not lower their standards or “talk down” to their readers. When I read their books, I keep a blank bookmark as a place keeper and jot down a word I don’t understand along with the page it’s on for context. I usually look the words up when I’ve finished the book, but sometimes it is necessary to run to the unabridged dictionary before you can continue reading with comprehension. Such a practice is enjoyable and educational.

What follows is the first of a number of vocabulary quizzes. There are 20 words and 25 definitions--not all will be used. At the end of the piece I have the answers. Hope you find a few new ones to make your own! The best way to do that is to use each in a sentence you create. Send me a sample.

1) anagnorisis 2) apothegm 3) apotropaic 4) atavistic 5) boustrophedon
6) brumous 7) bowdlerize 8) caducity 9) captious 10) condign 11) corybantic 12) defalcation 13) delator 14) deracinated 15) eidolon 16) eristic 17) esurient 18) execrable 19) fatidic 20) febrile

a) fragility of old age and senility; b) controversial; c) expurgate as in censorship; d) critical moment of recognition; e) dull, impassive; f) feverish; g) misty or foggy, especially in winter; h) urgent; i) uprooted, extirpated; j) integrity, honesty; k) completely abhorrent; l) greedy, hungry; m) caused by fermentation; n) frenzied; o) protective for warding off evil; p) misappropriation of money held in trust, or by officials; q) reversion to primitive or more remote ancestor; r) prophetic; s) pithy, terse remark; t) phantom or apparition; u) medical process; v) writing that runs left to right and then right to left; w) excessive fault finding in order to confuse opponent in an argument; x) informer; y) deservedly severe punishment

Answers: 1-d; 2-s; 3-o; 4-q; 5-v; 6-g; 7-c; 8-a; 9-w; 10-y; 11-n; 12-p; 13-x; 14-i; 15-t; 16-b; 17-l; 18-k; 19-r; and 20-f.