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

The Last Word

maladroit
ineffective or bungling; clumsy [inspiration]

More Words of the Day

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
07-01-09 [inspiration]
anomie
alienation or social instability caused by erosion of social or ethical standards and values
06-28-09 [inspiration]
dyspeptic
of or having indigestion or consequent irritability or depression; displaying a morose disposition
01-15-09 [inspiration]
sesquipedalian
characterized by long words; long-winded
01-13-09 [inspiration]
imprecation
a spoken curse
01-06-09 [inspiration]
complement
[verb] add to (something) in a way that enhances or improves it; make perfect; add to or make complete
12-15-08 [inspiration]
fulgent
shining brightly
11-09-08 [inspiration]
scry
foretell the future using a crystal ball or other reflective object or surface
08-24-08 [inspiration]
bugbear
a cause of obsessive fear, irritation, or loathing
07-25-08 [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