#67 prodigious ~ prolific

Question 1

prodigious

/prəˈdɪdʒəs/

Answer 1

adj. extraordinary; enormous
- To fill the Grand Canyon with Ping-Pong balls would be a prodigious undertaking; it would be both extraordinary and enormous.
- The little boy caught a prodigious fish - it was ten times his size and might more easily have caught him had their situations been reversed.

Question 2

prodigy

/ˈprɒdɪdʒi/

Answer 2

n. an extremely talented child; an extraordinary accomplishment or occurrence
- The three-year-old prodigy could play all of Beethoven and most of Brahms on his harmonica.
- Barry was a mathematical prodigy; he had calculated pi to 100 decimal places almost before he could walk.
- Josephine’s tower of dominoes and Popsicle sticks was a prodigy of engineering.

Question 3

profane

/prəˈfeɪn, proʊ-/

Answer 3

adj. not having to do with religion; irreverent; blasphemous
Profane is the opposite of sacred. Worshiping the almighty dollar is profane. Profane can also mean disrespectful of religion. Cursing in class would be profane.
Sticking out your tongue in church would be a profane gesture.
Profane can also be a verb.
- You profaned the classroom by cursing in it.
- Nick profaned his priceless Egyptian statue by using it as a doorstop.
The noun form of profane is profanity (/prəˈfænɪti, proʊ-/).
Spray painting the hallways at school would be an act of profanity.

Question 4

profess

/prəˈfɛs/

Answer 4

v. to declare; to declare falsely or pretend
- Jason professed to have taught himself calculus.
- No one in our town was fooled by the candidate’s professed love for llama farmers; everyone knew he was just trying to win votes from the pro-llama faction.

Question 5

proficient

/prəˈfɪʃənt/

Answer 5

adj. thoroughly competent; skillful; good (at sth.)
- Lilian was a proficient cabinetmaker. She could make a cabinet that would make you sit back and say, “Now, there’s a cabinet.”
- I fiddled around at the piano for many years but never became proficient at playing.
- Lucy was merely competent, but Molly was proficient at plucking canaries.
Proficiency is the state of being proficient.

Question 6

profligate

/ˈprɒflɪgɪt, -ˌgeɪt/

Answer 6

adj. extravagantly wasteful and, usually, wildly immoral
- The fraternity members were a profligate bunch; they held all-night parties on weeknights and nearly burned down their fraternity house with their shenanigans every weekend.
- The young heir was profligate with his fortune, spending millions on champagne and racehorses.

Question 7

profound

/prəˈfaʊnd/

Answer 7

adj. deep (in several senses)
Profound understanding is deep understanding.
To say sth. profound is to say sth. deeply intelligent or discerning.
Profound respect is deep respect. Profound horror is deep horror.
The noun form of profound is profundity (/prəˈfʌndɪti/).

Question 8

profuse

/prəˈfyus/

Answer 8

adj. flowing; extravagant

- When we gave Marian our house, our car, and all our clothes, her gratitude was profuse.

Question 9

proletariat

/ˌproʊlɪˈtɛəriət/

Answer 9

n. the industrial working class
The proletariat is the laboring class - blue-collar workers or people who roll up their shirtsleeves to do an honest day's work.

Question 10

proliferate

/prəˈlɪfəˌreɪt/

Answer 10

v. to spread or grow rapidly
- Honey bees proliferated when we filled our yard with flowering plants.
- Coughs and colds proliferate when groups of children are cooped up together during the winter.
- The police didn’t know what to make of the proliferation of counterfeit money in the north end of the town.

Question 11

prolific

/prəˈlɪfɪk/

Answer 11

adj. abundantly productive; fruitful or fertile
A prolific writer is a writer who writes a lot of books. A prolific artist is an artist who paints a lot of pictures.
- The old man had been extraordinarily prolific; he had thirty children and more than one hundred grandchildren.