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Schmuck is a name for someone who is mean, foolish, or inept. Synonyms include jerk and idiot. There is a pejorative connotation to the term. The plural is schmucks. Putz is even less formal than schmuck. Putz can be either a noun or a verb. As a noun it describes a person as foolish or …
To have a variety of something, one has lots of unique kinds of that item or group. One can have a variety of wines or books or even choices. The plural is varieties. Varietal is an adjective. In one sense it can simply be the adjective form of variety, describing something or someone has having to do …
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Collocate is a verb that is defined as words or items being set side by side. This word has been around since the early 1500s. Colocate is a verb that means to place two or more items closely together, sometimes in order to use a shared resource. An alternative spelling includes a …
A pooh-bah is a person who has a lot of power in government, usually by holding several positions or offices at the same time. Sometimes the pooh-bah knows that he or she has this power and is pompous or overemphasizes his or her worth. The plural is pooh-bahs. The term is sometimes capitalized because it started …
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Esoteric describes something or someone has being difficult to comprehend, that the number of people who actually understand the concept is limited to a special few. The adverb form is esoterically. Archaic is a term for things or people that are ancient, and sometimes ancient and not of pertinence anymore. Some synonyms include …
Pithy is an adjective to describe something or someone as being particularly good with words in a way uses few words and is clever. There is sometimes an associated level of enthusiasm about the words or the person declaring them. Something can be pithier and the pithiest. The adverb form is pithily and the noun form is pithiness. …
Voluptuous, besides being commonly misspelled and mispronounced, is an adjective that describes something or someone as appealing to the senses (e.g., sight, touch, taste). Most commonly it is used to describe a woman’s physique as visually appealing. The adverb and noun forms are voluptuously and voluptousness, respectively. Voluminous is an adjective that describes something or …
What is an alma mater? It’s a strange term, isn’t it? It simply means the institution where you studied post-secondary education, like college or university. It’s no surprise universities often use Greek wording for things. But where did the term come from, and how do you use it properly? I’ll …
Alliteration is a noun used for the concept of words starting with the same phonetic sound and these words placed in a row or close together. Alliterate is the verb form of alliteration. To alliterate is to create alliteration either with spoken language or written words. The adjective form is alliterative, and the adverb is alliteratively. Assonance is the noun used …
An anachronism is something or someone that is out of place with history, either something that was misplaced in a timeline, or a person that does not fit well with his or her time period. This is often used to describe items or events in movies and books, where perhaps the author …