7th day, 2nd of December

Question 1

concord

Answer 1

(n.) harmonious agreement

A concord is an agreement. If you want to watch a romantic comedy and your date wants to watch a horror film, you might compromise and come to a concord by agreeing to watch an action comedy.
Concord can be used as a verb meaning “to arrange by agreement,” but this usage is rare. Much more common is concord used as a noun. The United Nations could work tirelessly to establish a concord between warring nations, or you might even work to establish a concord among the warring factions on your cheerleading team. A concord brings peace and harmony — just like a peace treaty.

Question 1

congruity

Answer 1

(n.) the quality of being in agreement

Congruity is a quality of agreement and appropriateness. When there’s congruity, things fit together in a way that makes sense. If a team has congruity, the players work together well, even if they don’t win.

The word congruity is from the Old French congruité for “relevance and appropriateness.” Students reading quietly in a library is an example of congruity. A clown juggling fire in a library would be an incongruity, which is when things don’t fit together. A well-decorated room, where the colors complement each other, has congruity. Wearing a tuxedo to a classical music concert shows congruity: wearing a tux to a heavy metal concert would not.

Question 1

conundrum

Answer 1

(n.) puzzle, problem

The tricky word conundrum is used to describe a riddle or puzzle, sometimes including a play on words or pun.

One of the most famous conundrums is the riddle of the Sphinx, famously in the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Oedipus encounters the Sphinx, a mythical beast, who asks him, “What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?” The answer is “A person”: crawling as a child, walking as an adult, and using a cane in old age. The scary thing is that if the Sphinx asked you the riddle and you didn’t know, she’d eat you!

Question 3

covert

Answer 3

(adj.) secretly engaged in

Think soldiers in masks secretly infiltrating an enemy stronghold, a covert operation is one that no one but the president and a few generals know is happening.

Covert is the opposite of overt, which means obvious, something in full view. “The teachers weren’t impressed by the students’ overt attempt to derail the discussion. ‘You aren’t even pretending to try to like Shakespeare,’ she complained.”

Question 3

curtail

Answer 3

(v.) to lessen, reduce

To curtail something is to slow it down, put restrictions on it, or stop it entirely. If I give up cake, I am curtailing my cake-eating.

Curtail is an official-sounding word for stopping or slowing things down. The police try to curtail crime — they want there to be less crime in the world. A company may want to curtail their employees’ computer time, so they spend more time working and less time goofing around. Teachers try to curtail whispering and note-passing in class. When something is curtailed, it’s either stopped entirely or stopped quite a bit — it’s cut short.

Question 4

credulity

Answer 4

(n.) readiness to believe

Did you know that if you say credulity ten times fast it starts to sound like orange? If you believe that, then you have a lot of credulity. Credulity means gullibility, or a willingness to believe anything.

Credulity is a tendency to believe in things too easily and without evidence. If a swindler is trying to sell you fake medicine, then he is “preying on your credulity.” This noun is associated with being naïve, gullible or innocent. It shouldn’t be confused with credibility, which means “believability,” although it is often misused in this way. You might hear someone say, “the farfetched plot of that movie strained credulity,” but what he or she really means is “believability,” or “credibility.”

Question 4

curt

Answer 4

(adj.) abruptly and rudely short

I’m sorry to be curt, but let’s get right to the point. You should use the adjective curt to describe a way of speaking that’s brief and blunt.

Curt often just means “terse.” In fact it comes from the Latin word curtus, which means “cut short, abridged.” But sometimes it has the added sense of being rudely short, like when you’re irritated that someone’s asking a stupid question so you give a brusk, curt response.

Question 5

confidant

Answer 5

(n.) a person entrusted with secrets

Question 5

contrite

Answer 5

(adj.) penitent, eager to be forgiven

We are sorry to inform you that the adjective contrite means to feel regret, remorse, or even guilt.
Someone who feels remorse or guilt is contrite and in addition to feeling sorry, part of the definition includes wanting to atone for a having done something wrong. The word comes from the Latin roots com- meaning “together” and terere which means “to rub.” It’s also related to the Latin word conterere and is defined as “to bruise.” In the field of theology being contrite is “being remorseful for past sin and resolved to avoid future sin.”

Question 6

contentious

Answer 6

(adj.) having a tendency to quarrel or dispute

A contentious issue is one that people are likely to argue about, and a contentious person is someone who likes to argue or fight.

Some issues — like abortion, the death penalty, and gun control — are very controversial. They’re also contentious, because people tend to argue about them, and the arguments will probably go on forever. Contentious issues get people angry and in a fighting mood. On the other hand, some people always seem to be in a fighting mood, no matter what the issue is. People like that are contentious too.

Question 6

cursory

Answer 6

(adj.) brief to the point of being superficial

No reason to get excited — cursory has nothing to do with bad language. Instead, it means not paying attention to details, like friends who are so busy studying for a test that they only give your new haircut a cursory glance.
Cursory dates to the early 17th century, from the French word cursoire meaning “rapid,” which comes from the Latin word “cursorius,” meaning “hasty, of a race or running.” Something that is cursory is done quickly, like a teacher who takes a cursory look at a pile of completed tests, not to grade them, but to see if anyone attempted the bonus questions.

Question 7

contusion

Answer 7

(n.) bruise, injury

Contusion is really just a fancy word for a bad bruise. Professional athletes are often benched suffering from contusions. After all, if they’re being paid millions, it sounds kinda wimpy to pull them because they’re suffering from a…bruise.

A contusion is any damage to the body that doesn’t break the skin but ruptures the blood capillaries beneath, resulting in a handsome-looking discoloration. For once, it’s a medical term not used widely to describe a broader emotional or psychological state. You could talk about an “emotional contusion,” but please, better not to. There are better terms around (see heartbroken, wounded, forlorn, etc.). Your audience will thank you.

Question 7

cosmopolitan

Answer 7

(adj.) sophisticated, worldly

Your Aunt Eleanor, who’s lived in six different countries and speaks four languages fluently, might be described as cosmopolitan, or comfortable and familiar with different cultures and people.
People who are cosmopolitan have an air of glamour surrounding them, a sense that they’ve seen a lot of the world and are sophisticated and at ease with all different kinds of people. Places can also be described as cosmopolitan, meaning “diverse,” or bustling with lots of people of varying nationalities. Any way you use it, cosmopolitan implies a sophistication, which might explain why both a well-known alcoholic cocktail and a famous women’s magazine are both named after the word cosmopolitan.

Question 8

crescendo

Answer 8

(n.) a steady increase in intensity or volume

In a crescendo, the music is getting louder. There’s often a crescendo in a large group of talking people, too.

This word comes from classical music, where it’s very important how loudly the instruments play. If a tuba is crescendoing at the wrong time, then a quiet piano part might not be heard at all. The crescendo is important in all kinds of music, because volume — how loud something is — is one of the main features of music. If you are whispering and gradually raise your voice and then end up shouting, that’s a crescendo as well.

Question 9

construe

Answer 9

(v.) to interpret

If you interpret something or make sense of it, you construe its meaning. If the new girl in your class asks to sit with you at lunch, you could construe that she wants to be friends. You can never have too many friends!

To make an assumption based on evidence is to construe. You could construe that eating an entire box of cookies might make you feel a bit sick. And you might not want to eat them again for a very long time. The opposite of construe is misconstrue, which means to falsely or wrongly interpret. If you get a poor grade on an essay, you shouldn’t construe that your teacher dislikes you. If you do, you misconstrue your work for his feelings.

Question 10

concoct

Answer 10

(v.) to fabricate, make up

When you concoct something, you mix up different ingredients. If you want to become a mad scientist or a wizard, you’ll have to learn how to concoct strange potions.

If the word concoction makes you think of steaming caldrons or liquids bubbling in test tubes, you’ll be amused to know that it comes from a Latin word for “digestion.” Yum! On summer days, children sometimes concoct imaginative stews from grass, leaves and dirt. They may also concoct lies to explain why they tried feeding such concoctions to their little sister.

Question 12

consumption

Answer 12

(n.) the act of consuming

Consumption means using, buying or eating something. If we don’t reduce our energy consumption, we will run out of fuel. Conspicuous consumption is buying something to show off.

Consumption is related to the verb consume, which means to eat, use, or buy. You will often read about consumption in terms of rate––how fast we are using up a particular resource. If you consume ten cookies in an hour, your rate of consumption is ten cookies an hour. Sustainable? Let’s hope not.

Question 13

condone

Answer 13

(v.) to pardon, deliberately overlook

If you condone something, you allow it, approve of it, or at least can live with it. Some teachers condone chewing gum, and some don’t.

Things that are condoned are allowed, even if everyone isn’t exactly thrilled about it. People often say, “I don’t condone what he did, but I understand it.” Condoning is like excusing something. People seem to talk more about things they don’t condone than things they do condone. Your mom might say, “I don’t condone you staying up till 10, but I know you need to read.” That’s a way of giving approval and not giving approval at the same time.

Question 13

congeal

Answer 13

(v.) to thicken into a solid

Congeal means to jell — to solidify or become gelatinous. Sounds gross? But wiggly Jell-O is actually congealed liquid, so it can’t be that bad, right?
This word comes to us from the Old French word congeler, which means “to freeze.” So when something congeals it goes from liquid to solid form, almost like freezing. No one usually likes congealed anything — whether it’s chunkified old soup in the fridge or dried blood on a wound. See? Pretty gross. Jell-O is about as good as congealed gets!

Question 14

debacle

Answer 14

(n.) a disastrous failure, disruption

Use debacle to refer to a violent disaster or a great failure. If the flower gardens come toppling down during prom, strangling some students and tripping others, you might call the evening a debacle.

Debacle is often used to describe a military defeat. If your army retreats, that’s one thing. If your army is outmaneuvered and ends up huddled in a valley, surrounded on all sides by the enemy, forced to sing 70s sitcom theme songs by their savage captors––that’s a debacle. Debacle comes from French débâcler “to clear,” from Middle French desbacler, from the prefix des- “completely, utterly” plus bacler “to block.”

Question 15

consummate

Answer 15

(v.) to complete a deal; to complete a marriage ceremony through sexual intercourse

If a restaurant is a consummate example of fine dining, you might say there’s nothing more to say about fine dining that what this restaurant represents. Consummate means complete or finished.

Consummate can be used to describe something good or bad: consummate joy, a consummate liar. To consummate means to bring something to completion, but it often refers specifically to making a marriage complete by having sexual relations. The adjective is pronounced KÄN-sə-mit, but the verb is pronounced KÄN-sə-māt.

Question 16

confound

Answer 16

(v.) to frustrate, confuse

If you have an identical twin, you’ve probably tried dressing alike so that people confound you with, or mistake you for, one another. You’ve also probably learned that, unfortunately, this trick doesn’t work on your mom.

The verb confound means both “to mistake” and “to confuse.” If you decide to treat yourself to a delicious dessert, you might find yourself confounded by the overwhelming number of choices. If you end up ordering the chocolate cake but the waiter brings you chocolate mousse, the waiter has somehow confounded those two options. Another meaning you may come across in literature is “to damn,” as in “Confound it! You are the most exasperating person on the planet.”

Question 17

consign

Answer 17

(v.) to give something over to another’s care

The verb consign means to transfer permanently to another. You can consign ownership of your old car to your son, an act that will probably make you the “best parent ever” in his eyes.

Consign means to commit or relegate. Those platform shoes you still have from high school in the 1970s? You should probably consign them to the trash — of course, they probably should have been consigned in the 1970s! Consign can also be used if you turn over an object for sale where the business making the sale gets a percentage of the profits and so do you. If you don’t like the art work you inherited, you might consign it with an auction house and use the profits to buy something you like better.

Question 18

confection

Answer 18

(n.) a sweet, fancy food

A confection is a food loaded with sugar. Chocolate layer cake, strawberry lollipops, and vanilla bonbons are all confections. Yum!

Do you have a sweet tooth? Then you love confections, which are sweet treats such as cakes and candies and all manner of food that’s full of sugary deliciousness. The candy aisle is loaded with confections. Bakeries sell confections too, like cupcakes. A confection is almost always a delicious dessert. Just make sure you eat your vegetables before you eat any confections!

Question 19

connive

Answer 19

(v.) to plot, scheme

To connive is to plan or plot to do something illegal or wrong. Conniving is considered dishonest and cowardly.
If someone accuses you of conniving, that’s definitely not a compliment. Conniving usually occurs in secret, and people who connive are up to no good. Criminals planning a bank robbery are conniving. Crooked politicians looking for a bribe are conniving. Villains connive, and conniving is associated with conspiracies and dishonesty. The opposite of conniving is being honest and straightforward.

Question 21

consecrate

Answer 21

(v.) to dedicate something to a holy purpose

Consecrate means to make holy or to dedicate to a higher purpose. You need to consecrate a building to turn it into a church, but you can also consecrate a week in New York City to the pursuit of the perfect bagel.

The secr part of consecrate comes from the Latin sacer “sacred.” Remember that something consecrated is dedicated to God and thus sacred. And then remember that the meanings of words tend to stretch; over time this one moved from “dedicated to God” to “dedicated to whatever”: jelly donuts, the perfect tan, finding a solution to Rubik’s Cube.

Question 23

copious

Answer 23

(adj.) profuse, abundant

If you have a copious amount of something, you have a lot of it. If you take copious notes, you’ll do well when it comes time for review sessions — unless you can’t read your own handwriting.

Copious comes from the Latin copia, meaning “abundance.” You can use copious for something quantitative, like your copious admirers, or for something qualitative, like the copious gratitude you feel for your admirers. You will often see the word amounts following copious since the adjective is often used to modify a measurement of something — like copious amounts of wine or copious amounts of hair gel.

Question 24

culmination

Answer 24

(n.) the climax toward which something progresses

The culmination is the end point or final stage of something you’ve been working toward or something that’s been building up. The culmination of your high school career, for example, should be graduation day — and probably not prom night.

A culmination isn’t just the conclusion. It’s the climax of the story, the final crowning achievement, the end result of years of research. “Life is a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter,” said Charles Lindbergh, the first solo pilot to fly nonstop across the Atlantic — a feat that was surely the culmination of his aviation career.

Question 25

daunting

Answer 25

(adj.) intimidating, causing one to lose courage

Something daunting can scare you off. If you have a lot of studying to do, it may seem like a daunting task. Good news is you can get through it by working hard. Or weasel out of it by playing sick.

Often used in the phrases “daunting prospect” and “daunting task,” daunting describes something that you are not looking forward to doing. Having to fill out complicated tax forms every year is a daunting task for many people. Once a daunting task is complete, you no longer describe it as daunting, but instead can call it a job well done, or at least another life experience survived.

Question 26

cunning

Answer 26

(adj.) sly, clever at being deceitful

In fairy tales, always watch out for the cunning fox or the cunning witch. Cunning means clever, in the sense of trickery. A cunning plan might involve setting traps for the innocent and pure at heart to fall into.

This adjective goes back to the 14th century English verb cunnen, which meant “to know,” and is actually related to our English verb know. In earlier times, the noun was used to mean a high level of skill in using the hands. You can be cunning, but you can also use your cunning to figure out a very clever and tricky plan.

Question 27

counteract

Answer 27

to neutralize, make ineffective

Question 28

conduit

Answer 28

(n.) a pipe or channel through which something passes

Instead of complaining about your chores, be grateful for the conduit, or pipe, that brings water to your home. Thanks to it, you don’t have to go fetch water from the well whenever your mom wants a cup of coffee.

The noun conduit comes from root words meaning “pipe,” and the word retains this definition. For example, a channel between a reservoir and a water treatment plant could be called a conduit. Conduit can also be used in a figurative sense to refer to someone or something that conveys goods, information, or ideas. For instance, a religious leader might be seen as a conduit who brings divine messages to the people.

Question 30

consensus

Answer 30

(n.) an agreement of opinion

When there’s a consensus, everyone agrees on something. If you’re going to a movie with friends, you need to reach a consensus about which movie everyone wants to see.

Ever notice how people disagree about just about everything, from who’s the best baseball player to how high taxes should be? Whenever there’s disagreement, there’s no consensus: consensus means everyone is on the same page. When you’re talking about all the people in the world, it’s hard to find a consensus on anything. There are just too many opinions. However, in a smaller group, reaching a consensus is possible.

Question 30

cordial

Answer 30

(adj.) warm, affectionate

If you like someone but you wouldn’t say they’re your friend, you might describe your relationship as cordial. Use cordial to describe a greeting or relationship that is friendly and sincere.

In Middle English, this adjective meant “of the heart,” borrowed from Medieval Latin cordiālis, from Latin cor “heart.” This core sense of “heart” can be seen in the synonyms heartfelt and hearty. The noun cordial originally referred to a medicine or drink that stimulates the heart, but its current sense is “a liqueur.”

Question 31

cupidity

Answer 31

(n.) greed, strong desire

Remember the saying “Greed is good”? It could just as easily be “Cupidity is good,” though admittedly it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite the same way. Cupidity means a burning desire to have more wealth than you need.

Though it sounds like it might have something to do with the little winged figure who shoots arrows and makes folks fall in love on Valentine’s Day, cupidity is all about the love of money. It comes to us from Latin cupidus, which means “desirous.” It’s not a word that crops up a lot in conversation, though you might run across it in newspapers and magazines, particularly those blaming Wall Street’s unbridled cupidity for America’s economic woes.

Question 32

convention

Answer 32

1. (n.) an assembly of people 2. (n.) a rule, custom

A convention is a meeting, usually of a particular group. Political parties, teachers, plumbers, gardeners, toymakers and computer designers all hold conventions.

In fact, lots of cities have built Convention Centers in hopes of attracting convention-goers. The best-known conventions happen every four years when the Democrats and Republicans meet to nominate presidential candidates. A convention can also be used to describe the normal or accepted way of doing things. It’s the convention, for example, for your employer to give you a three-day weekend around the Fourth of July, even if it falls on a weekend.

Question 33

confluence

Answer 33

(n.) a gathering together

Confluence means a flowing together. In a literal sense, it’s about rivers. But it’s more often used to talk about the coming together of factors or ideas, or of cultures in a diverse city.

Con- means “with,” and -fluence sounds like “flow.” When things come together like rivers do, flowing from entirely different places, you call that a confluence. If the senior class needs to raise money for a class trip, and the drama club is looking for someone to do concessions during intermission at the school play, that’s a confluence of factors.

Question 35

conformist

Answer 35

(n.) one who behaves the same as others

A conformist is a person who follows traditional standards of conduct. If you’re a conformist, it’s unlikely you’ll join a revolution to overthrow your government; instead you’ll argue that it’s best to keep things the way they are.

Conformist comes from the Old French word conformer, which means “to agree to, make or be similar, be agreeable.” People sometimes use the term conformist in a negative way, as an insult implying that someone doesn’t have the brains or the guts to question the status quo. Conformist can also be used as an adjective to describe something that follows convention and established customs. A conformist school board, for example, would follow the usual time-tested curriculum.

Question 36

corroborate

Answer 36

(v.) to support with evidence

To corroborate is to back someone else’s story. If you swear to your teacher that you didn’t throw the spitball, and your friends corroborate your story by promising that you were concentrating on math homework, she might actually believe you.

For example, a witness in court corroborates the testimony of others, and further experimentation can corroborate a scientific theory. Near synonyms are substantiate and confirm. Corroborate, originally meaning “to support or strengthen,” was borrowed from Latin corrōborāre, formed from the prefix cor- “completely” plus rōborāre “to strengthen” (from rōbur “strength”).

Question 38

consolation

Answer 38

(n.) an act of comforting

Consolation is something that makes someone feel better after they’re disappointed or sad.

This is a word for things that try to console someone. A consolation prize isn’t as good as first prize, but it’s better than nothing. A hug is little consolation when you’ve had your heart broken. You give someone consolation when try to cheer them up. Consolation can be the act of making someone feel better, like trying to make them laugh, but it can also be something that makes someone happy, like a plate of warm cookies.

Question 39

cultivate

Answer 39

(v.) to nurture, improve, refine

To cultivate is to nurture and help grow. Farmers cultivate crops, fundraising professionals cultivate donors, and celebrities cultivate their images.
When you cultivate something, you work to make it better. Originally, the word referred only to crops that required tilling, but the meaning has widened. No matter what is being cultivated, the word implies a level of care that is reminiscent of gardening. Sometime friendships come naturally and sometimes you have to cultivate them. To cultivate anything requires an attention to detail, an understanding of what is being cultivated, and a lot of patience.

Question 40

concise

Answer 40

(adj.) brief and direct in expression

If something is concise, it’s short and gets right to the point. A concise edition of your diary might be 50 pages of the most important entries.

Concise comes from the Latin word concidere, which means to cut down. When we use concise, we’re talking about words that have been cut down. There are no concise trees, but there are concise works of political philosophy. A concise Italian-English dictionary, is shorter than an unabridged one. If you’re good at quick explanations, you have a concise manner. A good synonym is succinct.

Question 42

contemporaneous

Answer 42

(adj.) existing during the same time

If you’re born on the same day as your friend, you’ve got a contemporaneous birthday, or one that happens in the same period of time.

Contemporaneous comes from the Latin prefix con- meaning “together with” and temporaneus, meaning “time.” Two contemporaneous events happen together in time. Richard Nixon’s presidency and the first man on the moon are contemporaneous — both happened at the same period of time in history.

Question 43

congenial

Answer 43

(adj.) pleasantly agreeable

A congenial person is easy to get along with. If you’re trying to decide which of your friends to take on a road trip, choose the most congenial one.
Congenial means sharing the same temperament, or agreeing with your temperament. You can talk about a congenial person, place, or environment. Maybe you enjoy the congenial atmosphere of the library. Or perhaps for you the disco is more congenial. As you might expect for such a vaguely approving word, there are many synonyms: agreeable, pleasant, delectable, delightful, enjoyable, and so on.

Question 44

culpable

Answer 44

(adj.) deserving blame

If a child tells his mother he was not to blame for the cookie jar being broken, she could still find him culpable if he was the only one home. Culpable means to be at fault.
Culpable is being deserving of blame. If you are culpable of a crime, you are the culprit, or the one who did it. Culpable can be used when looking for the root of the problem rather than a simple who done it. If a teacher leaves the room during a difficult test, and the students decide to cheat, parents might ask whether or not the teacher was also somewhat culpable for the outcome.

Question 46

convivial

Answer 46

(adj.) characterized by feasting, drinking, merriment

Use the adjective convivial to describe your friend who is “the life of the party.”

The Latin word convivium means “a feast,” and when convivial was first coined in the 1660s, its meaning related to the excess of food and drink during such celebrations. You can also see convivial in convivere, meaning “to carouse together.” Just when it seemed all convivial could ever do was describe people who overindulge, a new shade of meaning emerged: loving to be around people. After all, a big part of feasting is being with people you care about.

Question 47

condolence

Answer 47

(n.) an expression of sympathy in sorrow

A condolence is an expression of sympathy and sorrow to someone who has suffered a loss, like the letter of condolence you send to a faraway friend who has lost a loved one.

The noun condolence comes from the Late Latin word condole, meaning “to suffer together.” When you offer your condolences to someone who has suffered a loss, you are saying that you share their sadness, that you are there to support and help them. Don’t confuse condolence with consolation, which is an attempt to make the person feel better.

Question 48

coup

Answer 48

1. (n.) a brilliant, unexpected act 2. (n.) the overthrow of a government and assumption of authority

A coup is a pretty major achievement, whether it involves taking over a government by force, or landing a major business contract.

When the word coup is used on the nightly news, it’s usually describing a military government takeover. In the business section of the daily newspaper, coup might refer to a big corporation landing an important contract or deal. However you use the word coup, don’t say the “p” at the end. It’s not pronounced like chicken coop. It sounds more like a dove’s coo.

Question 49

criteria

Answer 49

(n.) standards by which something is judged

A criterion is a standard for judging something. If you are holding a cupcake competition, your number one criterion might be the smoothness of frosting.

A criterion is a category for judging, but can also be a prerequisite for an achievement. It might be an application requirement for a teaching job that you have taught already for two years. If you haven’t, then we say you haven’t “met the criterion” for job experience. Likewise, if you establish the model for something, say you deliver an exciting, profound graduation speech, we might say you “set the criterion” for future speakers.

Question 50

constrain

Answer 50

(v.)to forcibly restrict

To constrain is to hold back, restrain, or confine. If you’ve ever had to constrain a toddler in the middle of a temper tantrum, you know you have to watch out for flailing limbs.

The verb constrain comes from the Latin word constringere, which means to bind together or tie tightly. Constrain can imply both literal and figurative bindings. You can constrain someone by physically holding on to something like a person’s shirt. Or, you can figuratively constrain someone by putting up obstacles. Your teenagers, for example, may feel constrained by your rules and accuse you of sucking the fun out of their social lives.

Question 51

conflagration

Answer 51

(n.) great fire

A conflagration isn’t just a few flames; it’s an especially large and destructive fire that causes devastation.

That tiny campfire that somehow turned into a raging forest inferno? You could call that intense, uncontrolled blaze a conflagration. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knew a thing or two about conflagrations: It was that unknowing animal that kicked over a kerosene lamp in the night, setting the O’Leary’s barn on fire and sending four square miles of the Windy City into that blistering conflagration known as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Question 52

coronation

Answer 52

(n.) the act of crowning

A coronation is the ceremony when a new King (or Queen, let’s not be sexist) is officially installed. A coronation is usually quite glitzy and full of pomp.

A coronation is the public handing over of title and powers to a new monarch. Other almost identical terms are enthronement and investiture. The term coronation is also sometimes used in a light-hearted, though sometimes sarcastic way, to describe the ascension of famous non-royal people who have achieved a particular level of public status — such as pop stars, politicians or celebrities. Coronation is derived from the Latin word corona, meaning “crown.”

Question 53

corpulence

Answer 53

(adj.)extreme fatness

Corpulence is a word for excessive weight. The Latin word “corpus” means “body,” and corpulence is when someone has a lot of body, in other words, they’re fat.

The word corpulence is old-fashioned, but it refers to something all too modern — the quality of being very overweight. This is much more than being a little overweight. One of Santa Claus’ main features is his corpulence. Unfortunately, corpulence is a quality that many people have, and it poses many health risks.

Question 54

concomitant

Answer 54

(adj.) accompanying in a subordinate fashion

Concomitant means accompanying. If you run into someone that you have a crush on you might feel nervousness with a concomitant forgetfulness.

Concomitant is one of those Latin-based words you can break down into little pieces: con means with, and comit means companion. So something that is concomitant is like the companion of the main event. If you start training really hard at the gym, the main effect is that you become stronger, but there are concomitant effects, like better circulation, or a rosy glow, or getting happy from all those endorphins you’re releasing.

Question 55

dearth

Answer 55

(n.) a lack, scarcity

If there is a dearth of something, there is not enough of it. A dearth of affordable housing is bad, but a dearth of bed bugs is a blessing.

Dearth is an Old English noun formed from the adjective deore “precious, costly” and the noun-forming suffix -th. Though the relationship of dearth meaning “lack, insufficient amount” to the adjective dear is not so obvious, it is still easy to imagine that something precious is probably also in short supply. Dearth is used almost exclusively in the phrase “a dearth of.”

Question 56

contravene

Answer 56

(v.) to contradict, oppose, violate

To contravene means to go against or defy. You might contravene your parents’ ban on sweets when your friend offers to share her candy because chocolate tastes too good to resist!
If you contravene something in practice, you act in direct violation of a particular law or rule. Think about the times when someone has told you not to cross a line and you do anyway. You can also contravene in words though, which means you contradict or argue against a statement. Let’s say you’re debating gun control. If your opponent says that for the safety of all, it should be legal to carry a concealed weapon wherever you go, you might answer that the more concealed weapons there are, the more violence. You are contravening your opponent’s argument.

Question 57

convene

Answer 57

(v.) to call together

The verb convene is a somewhat formal way of saying “to bring together for the purpose of a meeting.”
Convene is one of those words that lend an air of formality to a situation. We use it in place of the words “call a meeting” for such situations as government assemblages, court hearings, and conferences. Its meaning can be easily seen in its history — it comes from the Latin con-, which means “together,” and the verb venīre, “to come.” Imagine, if the syllables had just fit the music, the John Lennon song “Come together,” might have been called Convene.

Question 58

consonant

Answer 58

(adj.) in harmony

A consonant is a speech sound that is not a vowel. It also refers to letters of the alphabet that represent those sounds: Z, B, T, G, and H are all consonants.

Consonants are all the non-vowel sounds, or their corresponding letters: A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y are not consonants. In hat, H and T are consonants. Consonant can also be an adjective that describes things that seem like they should go together, things that are “agreeable.” You could say a nation’s offer of aid is consonant with their treaties. When you hear consonant sounds in music, they are pleasing, the opposite of “dissonant” sounds which are harsh.

Question 59

covet

Answer 59

(v.) to desire enviously

If you covet something, you eagerly desire something that someone else has. If it’s 95 degrees out and humid, you may find yourself coveting your neighbor’s air conditioner.

If the word covet sounds familiar, you’re thinking of the Tenth Commandment: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.” Basically this means you should be happy with your electronic gadgets and not be jealous when a friend gets something better.

Question 60

cumulative

Answer 60

(adj.) increasing, building upon itself

Cumulative is the total amount of something when it’s all added together. Eating a single chocolate doughnut is fine, but the cumulative effect of eating them all day is that you’ll probably feel sick.

The origin of cumulative is helpful in remembering the meaning; it comes from the Latin cumulatus for “to heap.” If something is cumulative, it is heaped together so it can be counted up to get a total number. The cumulative snowfall for the whole winter isn’t just the amount of snow that fell in one month, but rather the number of inches that fell every month that winter to get the total, cumulative, amount.

Question 61

constituent

Answer 61

(n.) an essential part

Constituent means part of a whole, as in “we’ll break this down into its constituent parts.” The word comes up often in political contexts: constituents are the people politicians have been elected to represent.

To understand constituent, look at constitute, which means to make up. A politician’s electorate is constituted of individual constituent voters. Chex Party Mix is constituted of a delightful mix of constituent parts: Chex cereal, pretzels, cheese doodles and those little orange stick things no one has a name for.

Question 62

convoluted

Answer 62

(adj.) intricate, complicated

If something is convoluted, it’s intricate and hard to understand. You’ll need to read over your brother’s convoluted investment scheme a few times before deciding whether or not to go in on it.

Convoluted comes from the Latin convolutus for rolled up together. Its original meaning in English was exactly that, first for eaves coiled up on themselves, then for anything rolled or knotted together. Over time convoluted took on its metaphorical sense of complicated and intricate, which is how it’s generally used today. People complain about convoluted legal language and the convoluted tax code.

Question 63

corrosive

Answer 63

(adj.) having the tendency to erode or eat away

A corrosive substance, like hydrochloric acid, will eat away most things on which it is spilled. Watch out in Chemistry lab: you wouldn’t want to destroy your homework, desk, or worse, your own skin by spilling something corrosive on it.

The word corrosive comes from the Latin word, corrodere, meaning “to gnaw away.” Rodere (to gnaw) is the same root word for rodent, so you can remember the word corrosive because something that is corrosive gnaws through things like a rodent. The adjective corrosive is also used to describe something that is bitingly or spitefully sarcastic. If you’re known for your corrosive wit, you probably don’t win any popularity contests.

Question 64

congregation

Answer 64

(n.) a gathering of people, especially for religious services

Although the word is most usually assigned to the members of a church, any gathering might be called a congregation, including a gathering of animals. Come to think of it, a congregation of church members is often called a “flock.”

The Latin root of congregation, which is greg, meaning “flock,” easily becomes congregare, meaning “to gather together,” and finally congregationen, giving the current meaning of “a group.” The meaning took on a religious quality when 16th Century Protestants took it to refer to the church itself, then refining it to mean church members. If you’re not a churchgoer, you might still refer to your friends who show up to watch football as a congregation.