#65 polarize ~ precipitous Flashcards
polarize
/ˈpoʊləˌraɪz/
v. to break up into opposing faction of groupings
- The issue of what kind of sand to put in the sandbox polarized the nursery school class; some students would accept nothing but wet, while others wanted only dry.
- The increasingly acrimoniously debate between the two candidates polarized the political party.
polemic
/pəˈlɛmɪk, poʊ-/
n. a powerful argument often made to attack or refute a controversial issue
- The book was a convincing polemic that revealed the fraud at the heart of the large corporation.
- Instead of the traditional Groundhog Day address, the state senator delivered a polemic against the sales tax.
A polemic is polemical.
ponderous
/ˈpɒndərəs/
adj. so large as to be clumsy; massive; dull
- The wedding cake was a ponderous blob of icing and jelly beans.
- The chairman, as usual, gave a ponderous speech that left half his listeners snoring in their plates.
portent
/ˈpɔrtɛnt, ˈpoʊr-/
n. an omen; a sign of sth. coming in the future
- The distant rumbling we heard this morning was a portent of the thunderstorm that hit our area this afternoon.
- Stock market investors looked for portents in their complicated charts and graphs; they hoped that the market’s past behavior would give them clues as to what would happen in the future.
portentous
/pɔrˈtɛntəs, poʊr-/
adj. ominous; filled with portent;
pompous; self-consciously serious or ominous sounding;
amazing or prodigious
- A portentous speech is not one that you would enjoy listening to.
- A portentous announcement might be one that tried to create an inappropriate sense of alarm in those listening to it.
- A portentous sunset might be a remarkable glorious one rather than an ominous or menacing one.
postulate
/v. ˈpɒstʃəˌleɪt; n. ˈpɒstʃəlɪt, -ˌleɪt/
n. sth. accepted as true without proof; an axiom
A postulate is taken to be true because it is convenient to do so.
- We might be able to prove a postulate if we had the time, but not now. A theorem is sth. that is proven using postulates.
Postulate can be used as a verb, too.
- Sherlock Holmes rarely postulated things, waiting for evidence before he made up his mind.
pragmatic
/prægˈmætɪk/
adj. practical; down-to-earth; based on experience rather than theory
A pragmatic person is one who deals with things as they are rather than as they might be or should be.
- Erecting a gigantic dome of gold over our house would have been the ideal solution to fix the leak in our roof, but the small size of our bank account forced us to be pragmatic; we patched the hole with a dab of tar instead.
pragmatism
/ˈprægməˌtɪzəm/
n. the belief or philosophy that the value or truth of sth. can be measured by its practical consequences
precedent
/ˈprɛsɪdənt/
n. an earlier example or model of sth.
Precedent is a noun form of the verb to precede, or go before. To set a precedent is to sth. that sets an example for what may follow.
- Last year’s million-dollar prom set a precedent that the current student council hopes will not be followed in the future. That is, the student council hopes that future proms won’t cost a million dollars.
unprecedented
/ʌnˈprɛsɪˌdɛntɪd/
adj. to have no precedent; to be sth. entirely new
- Urvashi’s consumption of 500 hot dogs was unprecedented; no one had ever eaten so many hot dogs before.
precept
/ˈprisɛpt/
n. a rule to live by; a principle establishing a certain kind of action or behavior; a maxim
- “Love thy neighbor” is a precept we have sometimes found difficult to follow; our neighbor is a noisy oaf who painted his house electric blue and who throws his empty beer cans into our yard.
precipitate (v.)
/prɪˈsɪpɪˌteɪt/
v. to cause to happen abruptly
- A panic among investors precipitated last Monday’s crisis in the stock market.
- The police were afraid that arresting the angry protestors might precipitate a riot.
precipitate (adj.)
/prɪˈsɪpɪtɪt, -ˌteɪt/
adj. unwisely hasty or rash
- A precipitate decision is one made without enough though beforehand.
- The guidance counselor, we thought, was precipitate when he had the tenth grader committed to a mental hospital for saying that homework was boring.
precipitous
/prɪˈsɪpɪtəs/
adj. steep
Precipitous means like a precipice, or cliff. It and precipitate are closely related, as you probably guseed. But they don’t mean the same thing, even though precipitous is often used loosely to mean the same thing as precipitate.
A mountain can be precipitous, meaning either that it is steep or that it comprises lots of steep cliffs.
Precipitous can also be used to signify things that are only figuratively steep. For example, you could say that someone had stumbled down a precipitous slope into a drug addiction.
