A hand-me-down is an article that is passed on from one person to another, something that is secondhand. A hand-me-down is a previously owned item that still has some use left in it. Hand-me-down may be used as a noun or as an adjective, it is always hyphenated. The plural …
Biweekly may mean occurring twice a week or occurring every two weeks. Biweekly may be used as an adjective or an adverb. In the United States biweekly may be used as a noun to describe periodicals, the plural noun form is biweeklies. Biweekly is derived from the prefix bi-, which …
Ameliorate means to improve a negative circumstance or situation, to make something substandard or unsatisfactory, better. Ameliorate describes a positive change in a circumstance or situation, it is often used to describe financial situations. Ameliorate comes from the French word, améliorer, meaning better. Related words are ameliorates, ameliorated, ameliorating, ameliorative, …
Twee means something cloyingly precious, dainty, sweet, quaint, tiny or pretty. It carries the connotation of something affected or self-consciously too precious. Twee is primarily a British English word, through it is gaining ground in North America. The word twee comes from a simple back-formation from the word tweet, an …
Variance means being different, the act or fact of diverging. Legally, variance signifies discrepancies between legal documents. In the United States, variance may describe a deviation granted from building standards or zoning. Variance is a noun, it is derived from the Latin word variare, which means to change. Variants is …
A dash is a dash is a dash unless it is a hyphen, correct? You aren’t alone if you are confused and use a dash and a hyphen interchangeably (or thought they were the same thing). Unfortunately, the en dash, em dash, and hyphen are often incorrectly used due to …
A dieresis is a punctuation mark that is placed over the second vowel of two adjacent vowels to indicate that they are not a sounded together, as in a dipthong. The two vowels are divided into two separate syllables. A dieresis consists of two dots. The word dieresis comes into …
Corroborate means to strengthen a theory, idea, finding or fact with supporting evidence. Corroborate may be used as an adjective or verb, related words are corroborates, corroborated, corroborating, corroboration, corroborative, corroboratory, corroboratively, corroborator. Corroborate comes into the English language in the 1530s, meaning to give legal confirmation, from the Latin …
Wrench is the North American term for a tool used to grip and adjust nuts and bolts. Wrench may also be used as a verb to mean to violently twist or pull, and as a noun to mean a violent twist or pull. Wrench comes from the Old English word …
Bisect means to divide into two parts equal parts, to cut in two. Bisect comes from the prefix bi- which means two, and the Latin word sect, derived from the word secare which means to cut. Related words are bisects, bisected, bisecting, bisection, bisector. Dissect means means to cut apart …