Word: Persuade
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: To persuade is to get your way; twist somebody’s arm.
- With a carefully constructed argument and with the strength of your argument, you persuade with language.
- Example: You can’t persuade me to eat the desert!
Word: Analytical
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Evaluating Information gathered from Observation and experience; Critical Thinking;
- Example: If you are good at analysis, you take a problem or task and break it down into smaller elements to solve the problem or complete the task. It means you have an analytical mind.
Word: Sensationalized
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: To sensationalize is to exaggerate a story, event, or moment and make it more thrilling or alarming.
- Example: Media use this tactic constantly, sensationalizing a news story's details.
Word: Conscientious
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Being careful, thoughtful, and decent.
- Example: Conscientious people show care and put in a big effort.
Word: Reverent
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Feeling or showing profound respect; adoring, worshipful, veneration; reverence for God.
- Example: And that is what he did, always silent, reverent, and present.
Word: Cockiness
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: Offensive boldness and assertiveness.
- Example: My mother, meanwhile, knew plenty, too. All my life, she saw it as part of her mission to keep my cockiness in check (The Last Lecture).
Word: Precocious
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: They are precocious, meaning they are way beyond their years in skills and knowledge; describing young people who have some adult-like qualities about them; early development or maturity, especially in mental aptitude.
- Example: She describes me as “alert, but not terribly precocious” (The Last Lecture).
Word: Relish
- Parts of Speech: Noun/Verb
- Meaning: To enjoy something immensely; spicy or savory condiment.
- Example: After I got my PhD, my mother took great relish in introducing me by saying: “This is my son. He’s a doctor” (The Last Lecture).
Word: Underwrite
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Protect by Insurance; cover; insure; guarantee financial support.
- Example: Together, they underwrote a fifty-student dormitory in rural Thailand (The Last Lecture).
Word: Grandest
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Large and Impressive in physical size or extent; behavior that is impressive and ambitious in scale or scope; rich and superior in quality.
- Example: He was more focussed on the grandest ideals and saw inequality as the greatest of goals (The Last Lecture).
Word: Resorted
- Parts of Speech: Noun/Verb
- Meaning: Turning to someone or something for assistance; have recourse to.
- Example: In desperation, they resorted to tactics such as strapping small bombs to dogs’ backs and sending them to blow up German tanks.
Word: Causality
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: Connection between a cause and its result or consequence.
- Example: Sometimes it is difficult to figure out the Causality of the stomach ache, it could be due to stress or something you ate.
Word: Quantifiable
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Expressible as quantity; relating to or susceptible to measurement.
- Example: Rather than give him any quantifiable amount of time, I thought, why would I want to do that?
Word: Lessen
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: To lessen is to make smaller, reduce, or weaken; decrease in size.
- Example: The smoke had lessened, but it still wafted out the door, a dark, hazy cloud covering the entire area.
Word: astute
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Marked by practical, hardheaded intelligence; Someone who is astute, is clever and has good judgment.
- Example: An astute tenant always reads the small print in a lease.
Word: Articulate.
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: To articulate is to say something; express or state clearly; speak; pronounce or utter in a certain way.
- Example: Your primary purpose is to demonstrate your ability to articulate your knowledge and ability.
Word: Convoluted
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: Highly complex or intricate; tangled; tortuous.
- Example: If something is convoluted, it's complex and challenging to understand.
Word: Stilted
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: The adjective stilted describes something, usually a style of writing, that is unnaturally formal; lacking natural ease.
- Example: A stilted letter of acknowledgment.
Word: Jargon
- Parts of Speech: Noun.
- Meaning: Means specialized language used by people in the same work or profession; also includes click throughs and page views.
- Example:
- Medical jargon: A second language healthcare professionals use to shorten and ease communication.
- Corporate jargon: Terms, phrases, or acronyms used instead of clearly understood phrases.
- Speech therapy jargon: A string of sounds or babble that children use without meaning.
Word: Acquaints
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Make familiar or conversant, inform, Cause to come to know personally.
- Example: He acquainted the new employee with her duties
Word: Infectious
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: Likely to spread or affect others, such as disease or emotional state.
- Example: My dad had this infectious inquisitiveness about current events, history, and our lives (The Last Lecture).
Word: Inquisitiveness
- Parts of Speech: Noun.
- Meaning: A strong desire to learn or seek knowledge.
- Example: My dad had this infectious inquisitiveness about current events, history, and our lives (The Last Lecture).
Word: Slobs
- Parts of Speech: Noun.
- Meaning: Informal term for a lazy, untidy, or slovenly person.
- Example: The Instinct in our house was never to sit around like slobs and wonder (The Last Lecture).
Word: Anecdotes
- Parts of Speech: Noun.
- Meaning: Short, interesting, or amusing accounts of actual incidents or events.
- Example: He liked humorous anecdotes that turned into morality tales (The Last Lecture).
Word: Dispense
- Parts of Speech: Verb.
- Meaning: To distribute or administer something, such as medication or advice.
- Example: Part of that is because if you dispense your own wisdom, others often dismiss it (The Last Lecture).
Word: Dissonance.
- Parts of Speech: Noun.
- Meaning: Disagreeable sounds can be called dissonance, A conflict of people’s opinions, actions, or characters.
- Example: The greatest thing of cognitive dissonance you will ever see is that I’m in really good shape (The Last Lecture).
Word: Emboldened.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: Fearless and daring; made bold or courageous.
- Example: I wasn’t sure I’d have the strength to do what I was about to do, but now I felt emboldened and potent (The Last Lecture).
Word: Potent.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: Means really strong, but not like a bodybuilder; impactful, powerful; having or wielding force or authority.
- Example: I wasn’t sure I’d have the strength to do what I was about to do, but now I felt emboldened and potent (The Last Lecture).
Word: Frugal.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: A person who lives simply and economically; Avoiding waste.
- Example: They were frugal to a fault (The Last Lecture).
Word: Oppressive.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: Something that crushes your spirit;
- Example: It sounds oppressive by today’s standards, but it was actually a magical childhood.
- Something that crushes you with its tyranny, like the oppressive rule of a dictator.
Word: Swift.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective/Noun.
- Meaning: Moving very fast; Capable of acting quickly; Capable of moving quickly.
- Example: When my father was admitted to the hospital due to acute kidney failure, and his creatinine levels were alarmingly high, the doctor acted swiftly and decisively.
Word: Cocooned.
- Parts of Speech: Noun/Verb.
- Meaning: A form of self-protection; Wrapped in.
- Example: We had packed up our lives, throwing ourselves into a tornado of our own making, when we could have just cocooned in Pittsburgh (The Last Lecture).
- She loves to stay at home and cocoon in cozy, misty, cold, snowy winters.
Word: Debilitating.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: Exhausting, draining, weakening.
- Example: My body had started to recover from the debilitating chemotherapy (The last lecture).
- Something that's debilitating seriously affects someone or something's strength or ability to carry on with regular activities.
Word: Palliative.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective/Noun.
- Meaning: That which is palliative soothes but isn't expected to cure; Remedy that alleviates pain without curing.
- Example: I was now on the easier-to-endure palliative chemo (The last lecture).
- A heat pack is a commonly employed palliative to temporarily soothe strained muscles.
Word: Cognitive.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: If it's related to thinking, it's considered cognitive; to get to know;
- Example: The greatest thing of cognitive dissonance you will ever see is that I'm really in good shape (The last lecture).
- A child's cognitive development is the growth in his or her ability to think and solve problems.
Word: Tribute.
- Parts of Speech: Noun.
- Meaning: To honor someone with words or an award; Something given or done as an expression of esteem; payment by one nation for protection by another.
- Example: I was paying tribute to that life experience and Walt Disney, who famously said, "If you can dream it, you can do it."
Word: Linger.
- Parts of Speech: Verb.
- Meaning: Taking a long time to depart; linger can refer to feelings or sensations that slowly fade away.
- Example: I let the slide linger so the audience could follow the arrows.
- The smell of perfume that lingers in the elevator after the passengers have exited.
Word: Morose.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: Showing a brooding ill humor; This word is stronger than just Sad.
- Example: "If I don't feel as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you," I said, and after, people laughed.
- When someone is morose, they seem to have a cloud of sadness hanging over them.
Word: Decamped.
- Parts of Speech: Verb.
- Meaning: Decam can be used by people when they scram, meaning when they relocate a household or a business to a new location.
- Example: My Family - My kids and my wife - we just decamped.
Word: Uproot.
- Parts of Speech: Verb.
- Meaning: Move (people) forcibly from their homeland into a new and foreign environment or location.
- Example: My wife and I had decided to uproot our family, and I had asked her to leave a home she loved and friends who cared about her.
- When you uproot people, you move them from one place to a completely new one.
Word: Procrastinator.
- Parts of Speech: Noun.
- Meaning: Someone who frequently postpones work, especially work that makes them anxious or bored.
- Example: When you wait until the last minute and fail to engage in a good writing process, you are not doing your best, even if you did get all A's as a procrastinator.
Word: Tangible.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: Able to be seen or touched.
- Example: Writing is the tangible result of Thinking.
Word: disarray.
- Parts of Speech: Noun/verb.
- Meaning: State of confusion and lack of organization in a situation or a place.
- Example: Like any creative process, writing often starts in a jumble as you develop, sort, and sift through ideas. But it doesn't need to stay in disarray. Your writing will gain direction as you start examining those ideas.
Word: hone.
- Parts of Speech: Noun/Verb.
- Meaning: Make perfect or complete.
- Example: She has taken numerous workshops to hone her skills.
Word: Impose
- Parts of Speech: Verb.
- Meaning: Force; Something unwelcoming; unfamiliar.
- Example: To impose a tax on the people.
Word: Solemn.
- Parts of Speech: Adjective.
- Meaning: Dignified and Somber in Manner.
- Solemn can be used to describe anything that's really serious and dignified.
- Example: It was a solemn conversation, with Steve vowing to help look after Jai and the kids.
Word: Podium.
- Parts of Speech: Noun.
- Meaning: Raised platform like the kind Olympians stand to receive medals when they win, soapbox, stump.
- Example: An unexpected whole house of 400, and as I hopped on stage to check out the podium and get organized, she could see how nervous I was.
Word: Rustling.
- Parts of Speech: Noun/Adjective.
- Meaning: A gentle swishing sound.
- Example: There was a rustling in the audience as I got myself ready.
- Like the rustling of leaves in the trees on a breezy night.
Word: Puttering.
- Parts of Speech: Noun/Verb.
- Meaning: Do random; unplanned work or activities; spend time idly.
- Example: Even with the talk only minutes away, I continued puttering at the podium, deleting some old slides.
Word: Tweed.
- Parts of Speech: Noun.
- Meaning: Thick Woolen fabric used for clothing (Originated in Scotland).
- Example: I wasn't going to get up there in some professional tweed jacket with leather elbow patches.
- I put the tweed cap on and checked myself in the mirror one more time.
