#42 fabrication ~ fecund Flashcards
fabrication
/ˌfæbrɪˈkeɪʃən/
n. a lie; sth. made up
- My story about being the prince of Wales was a fabrication. I’m really the king of Denmark.
- The suspected murderer’s alibi turned out to be an elaborate fabrication; in other words, he was lying when he said that he hadn’t killed the victim.
To create a fabrication is to fabricate.
facetious
/fəˈsiʃəs/
adj. humorous; not serious; clumsily humorous
- David was sent to the principal’s office for making a facetious remark about the intelligence of the French teacher.
- Our proposal about shipping our town’s garbage to the moon was facetious, but the first selectman took it seriously.
facile
/ˈfæsɪl or, esp. British, -aɪl/
adj. fluent; skillful in a superficial way; easy
To say that a writer’s style is facile is to say both that it is skillful and that it would be better if the writer exerted himself or herself more.
The word facile almost always contains this sense of superficiality.
- Paolo’s poems were facile rather than truly accomplished; if you read them closely, you soon realized they were filled with clichés.
- The CEO of the company was a facile speaker. He could speak engagingly on almost any topic with very little preparation. He spoke with great facility.
faction
/ˈfækʃən/
n. a group, usually a small part of a larger group, united around some cause; disagreement within an organization.
- At the Republican national Convention, the candidate’s faction spent much of its time shouting at the other candidate’s faction.
- The faculty was relatively happy, but there was a faction that called for higher pay.
- When the controversial topic of the fund drive came up, the committee descended into bitterness and faction. It was a factious topic.
farcical
/ˈfɑrsɪkəl/
adj. absurd; ludicrous
- The serious play quickly turned farcical when the leading man’s belt broke and his pants fell to his ankles.
- The formerly secret documents detailed the CIA’s farcical attempt to discredit the dictator by sprinkling his shoes with a powder that was supposed to make his beard fall out.
farce
/fɑrs/
n. a mockery; a ridiculous satire
Farcical means like a farce
fastidious
/fæˈstɪdiəs, fə-/
adj. meticulous; demanding; finicky
- Mrs. O’Hara was a fastidious housekeeper; she cleaned up our crumbs almost before they hit the floor.
- Jeb was so fastidious in his work habits that he needed neither a wastebasket nor an eraser.
- The fastidious secretary was nearly driven mad by her boss, who used the floor as a file cabinet and his desk as a pantry.
fatalist
/ˈfeɪtlˌɪzəm/
n. someone who believes that future events are already determined and that humans are powerless to change them
- The old man was a fatalist about his illness, believing there was no sense in worrying about sth. he could not control.
- Carmine was such a fatalist that he never wore a seat belt; he said that if he were meant to die in a car accident, there was nothing he could do to prevent it.
Fatalist is closely related to the word fate. A fatalist is someone who believes that fate determines everything.
To be fatalist is to be fatalistic.
fatuous
/ˈfætʃuəs/
adj. foolish; silly; idiotic
- Pauline is so pretty that her suitors are often driven to a fatuous acts of devotion. They are infatuated with her.
fauna
/ˈfɔnə/
n. animals
- We saw little evidence of fauna on our walk through the woods. We did, however, see plenty of flora, or plants.
Arctic fauna are very different from tropical fauna.
flora
/ˈflɔrə, ˈfloʊrə/
n. plants
- In Jim’s yard, the flora consists mostly of weeds.
fecund
/ˈfikʌnd, -kənd, ˈfɛkʌnd, -ənd/
adj. fertile; productive
- The fecund mother rabbit gave birth to hundreds and hundreds of little rabbits.
- The child’s imagination was so fecund that dozens of stories hopped out of him like a bunch of baby rabbits.
The state of being fecund is fecundity.
