English Rules

Word of the Day

Definitions borrowed or adapted from the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Online. Words picked by whim.

fartlek
a system of training for distance runners in which the terrain and pace are continually varied to eliminate boredom and enhance psychological aspects of conditioning [inspiration]

More Words of the Day

anomie

06-28-09
alienation or social instability caused by erosion of social or ethical standards and values  [inspiration]

dyspeptic

01-15-09
of or having indigestion or consequent irritability or depression; displaying a morose disposition  [inspiration]

sesquipedalian

01-13-09
characterized by long words; long-winded  [inspiration]

imprecation

01-06-09
a spoken curse  [inspiration]

complement

12-15-08
[verb] add to (something) in a way that enhances or improves it; make perfect; add to or make complete  [inspiration]

fulgent

11-09-08
shining brightly  [inspiration]

scry

08-24-08
foretell the future using a crystal ball or other reflective object or surface  [inspiration]

bugbear

07-25-08
a cause of obsessive fear, irritation, or loathing  [inspiration]

Words Back in the Day

abecedarian, ablutions, abnegate, abrogate, abscond, abstemious, abstruse, accretion, accretion, acedia, acme, acolyte, adage, aerie, aggregate, agitprop, ague, alacrity, ameliorate, antediluvian, anti-foundationalist, antimacassar, antipathy, antipodes, aphasia, apogee, apostasy, apotheosis, approbation, appurtenance, arbalest, ardent, argot, arrogate, asperity, assiduous, atavism, augur, august, auspicious, austere, avuncular, bailiwick, banal, beachhead, bedraggled, behemoth, belay, benighted, bestiary, bier, bifurcate, bivouac, blatherskite, bloviate, bludgeon, bonhomie, boondoggle, bowdlerize, brazier, breviary, brio, brouhaha, bucolic, bugaboo, bumptious, cadge, caliph, calumny, canard, capitulate, capricious, carapace, castigate, casuistry, cavil, celerity, charette, charlatan, chilblain, clandestine, collusion, comely, comity, commodify, compendious, comport, concatenate, confabulate, conflate, contingency, conundrum, conurbation, copse, cornucopia, cosset, cozen, craven, crepuscular, crestfallen, crucible, cryptic, cryptomnesia, cudgel, cupidity, cyclothymia, dearth, decimate, declaim, decry, defenestration, deleterious, demagogue, demur, demure, depredation, derring-do, despoil, despot, desultory, detritus, diacritic, diaphanous, diaspora, dilatory, diphthong, dirigible, dissemble, divers, doff, donnybrook, doss, dotage, draconian, drey, dudgeon, dunderhead, duplicity, dystopia, ebullient, ectoplasm, ecumenical, effulgence, egregious, eidetic, eke, elide, encomium, enervate, ennui, enormity, epithalamion, eponym, equivocate, eschew, estimable, euphuism, eviscerate, exacerbate, excise, excoriate, excrescence, execrable, exigent, exorcise, expatiate, expiate, extirpate, exuberant, factitious, factoid, factotum, farrago, fatuous, febrile, feckless, fecund, festschrift, fete, fetid, fetish, fillip, flocculate, florid, flout, flummox, folderol, foment, foofaraw, fop, forgo, fractious, frenetic, frisson, fulminate, fulsome, fustian, gadfly, garrote, garrulous, gewgaw, gormless, gregarious, guttersnipe, hagiography, halcyon, hale, hapless, harbinger, harrier, hector, hegemony, hemidemisemiquaver, hermeneutics, hiatus, hirsute, hobgoblin, hogan, hookah, hubris, hurdy-gurdy, hypomania, iconoclast, idyll, ignominious, ilk, immolate, immure, imperious, impetuous, implacable, importunate, inchoate, incorrigible, ingenuous, insidious, insipid, insouciant, interstice, intransigent, inure, inveigh, inveigle, invidious, irenic, iridescent, jackanapes, jape, jocose, kairos, ken, kith, krewe, labile, laconic, lambent, languid, lassitude, legerdemain, leviathan, lief, ligature, limn, lissome, lothario, louche, ludic, lugubrious, luminous, lycanthropy, macabre, macerate, mackintosh, maelstrom, magnanimous, magpie, malaise, malinger, malthusian, manque, martinet, maudlin, megalith, megalomania, melisma, meme, mendacious, mendicant, mercurial, mete, mistral, moil, mollify, monomania, moor, mordant, moribund, mountebank, multifarious, myopia, nascent, nativity, nemesis, neophyte, noisome, nonplused, numinous, obdurate, obsolescent, obtuse, obviate, odious, office, opprobrium, orotund, orthography, otiose, paean, paladin, paladin, palimpsest, palliative, panegyric, panjandrum, panopticon, paragon, parapraxis, parsimonious, pastoral, patsy, paucity, pavane, peculate, penultimate, penurious, peregrinate, peremptory, perfervid, periphrasis, perorate, perspicacious, pertinacious, philander, philippic, philistine, phlegmatic, pilcrow, placate, plangent, plausible, plenary, pleonasm, plinth, pogrom, polemics, pore, portmanteau, postprandial, postulate, prate, presently, prestidigitation, profligate, prolix, promulgate, propinquity, propitiate, propitious, proscribe, proselytize, puerile, pusillanimous, pyrrhic victory, quay, querulous, quixotic, quorum, quotidian, raconteur, raillery, recalcitrant, redaction, redolent, redoubt, redound, redress, reify, remand, repast, reprove, respite, restive, reticent, retinue, revenant, risible, rive, rube, rubicon, rue, sacerdotal, salubrious, salvo, sanguine, sartorial, satrap, saturnine, sault, scabrous, scion, scrivener, scrum, scurrilous, sedulous, segue, semiology, sempiternal, sententious, sequacious, shibboleth, sibylline, simulacrum, sinecure, sinuous, sluice, solecism, solipsism, soporific, sough, spate, spate, squib, stalwart, stentorian, stevedore, stochastic, stolid, subaltern, superannuated, supercilious, supernal, suppurate, susurrus, sward, sybaritic, sylph, symbiosis, syzygy, taciturn, tarantism, tarry, tautology, temerity, tendentious, tergiversation, tertiary, thaumatrope, thaumaturgy, theodicy, throe, tomfoolery, tonsorial, torpor, traduce, trebuchet, tremulous, trenchant, triangulation, truckle, truculent, twee, ubiquitous, umbrage, ungainly, unguent, usurp, usury, uxorious, vainglorious, valorize, varlet, venal, vindicate, vitriol, vizier, wanderlust, winsome, wizened, zaftig, zeitgeist, ziggurat

All Words

Search

+ Advanced Search

Site Info

Elsewhere

My Bookshelf

Reading Now
  • Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy
  • Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting
Just Read
  • War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
  • Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World
  • JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
  • The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
On the Shelf
  • Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
  • Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
  • The Catcher in the Rye

© Karl Swedberg

widescreen bonus!

+ Blogroll

Noteworthy Articles

In defense of Twitter (Jason Kottke)

Of course you'd like to think that most of your daily conversation is weighty and witty but instead everyone chats about pedestrian nonsense with their pals. In fact, that ephemeral chit-chat is the stuff that holds human social groups together...

Liberty, Equality, Envy (New York Times)

Many French intellectuals hate Barack Obama because they feel that too many people adore him, and with too much ardor...

Op-Ed Columnist - The First Shrink - NYTimes.com

President Obama, by contrast, employed smart psychology in the global club, even on small things, like asking other leaders if they wanted to start talking first at news conferences...

Scratch Lowers Resistance to Programming (Wired.com)

It's designed to be as simple to use as possible, so kids as young as 8 can get started building their own animations with minimal preparation...

Miracles Take Time (NYTimes.com)

The renegade clowns who ruined this economy, the Republican right in alliance with big business and some feckless Democrats, have no basis for waging war against efforts to get us out of their mess...

Fears of a Clown (NY Times)

But Limbaugh has a fear of his own. If people see him purely as an "entertainer," as Steele suggested, he will be exposed for what he is: a clown with a very large audience...

Mr. Bush?s Gentlemanly Goodbye (New York Times)

Beginning well before the election, President Bush and his chief of staff, Josh Bolten, decided to make this transition different by removing many of the usual obstacles and fostering cooperation and harmony...

The Pre-Blame Game (NY Times)

For just a few more weeks, though, [Obama] deserves none of the pre-emptive blame his less reasonable critics are trying to assign to him...

TV has license to kill movies at iTunes, Netflix (CNET News)

Apple is an Internet retailer and Netflix is a Web video rental service, but Hollywood treats them as if they are potential competitors to TV broadcasters...

Roku New Netflix Player (Wired)

Then came Roku's Netflix Player, the $100 video box that could summon more than 15,000 titles at no charge for Netflix subscribers...

This Math Whiz Called It for Obama Months Ago (NY Times)

In an election season of unlikely outcomes, Mr. Silver, 30, is perhaps the most unlikely media star to emerge...

Op-Ed Columnist: The Obama Agenda

Right now many commentators are urging Barack Obama to think small. Let?s hope he has the good sense to ignore their advice...

Obama for president (Anchorage Daily News)

Palin's rise captivates us but nation needs a steady hand...

McCain's Non-Support for Troops and Veterans: The Master List

Senator John McCain has a very clear, long, and illustrious history of not supporting troops and veterans one bit...

Music & nightlife | A suburban mom's rock-star moment | Seattle Times Newspaper

Though Ketola has a reputation as a singer/songwriter in the Christian music community, she never expected that she'd leave her husband on their 17th anniversary, mind you, and take up with another man. On stage. In front of 20,000 people...