Word: Wail
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: A prolonged high-pitched cry of pain, anger, or grief
- Example: And then the baby, our first child, Dylan, let out a wail like you’ve never heard before.
Word: Preemie
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: A baby born prematurely
- Example: The preemies who come out limp often have the most trouble.
Word: Dissonant
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Lacking harmony
- Example: At Magee, they did a wonderful job of simultaneously communicating two dissonant things.
Word: Bassinet
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: A baby’s wicker-cradle usually with a hood
- Example: One day, we arrived at the hospital, and Dylan’s bassinett was gone.
Word: Gasp
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Inhale suddenly with the mouth open, out of pain, or astonishment.
- Example: I was gasping out fear in staccato.
Word: Shrug
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Raise one’s shoulder slightly and momentarily to express doubt, ignorance, or indifference.
- Example: I just shrugged, and I could see that for Jai, an entire day’s worth of anxiety was just melting away.
Word: Gash
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: A long deep slash, cut, or wound.
- Example: We would just live with dents and gashes.
Word: Placenta
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: A flattened circular organ in the uterus of pregnant eutherian mammals, nourishing and maintaing the fetus through the umblical chord.
- Example: With the Placenta in such distress, the life support for the fetus was giving out.
Word: Riff
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: A short repeated phrase in popular music and Jazz, typically used as an introduction, or refrain in a song.
- Example: I wondered how often she used her “hospital paperwork” riff to ease patients’ anxieties.
Phrase: Off the ledge
- Parts of Speech:
- Meaning: "Off the ledge" is a figurative phrase that means avoiding a risky or harmful situation. It can also mean taking a risk, making a big decision, or doing something unexpected.
- Example: Just keep her off the ledge when she gets scared.
Word: Devise
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Plan or Invent a complex procedure, system, or mechanism by careful thought.
- Example: Your principal duty is to devise, implement, and manage a backup and recovery strategy.
Word: Drape
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: The manner in which fabric hangs or falls; Place casually.
- Example: Within seconds, the deflating envelope draped onto the ground.
Word: Trotting
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: To trot is move faster than walking, but not quite a full-out run.
- Example: The ballooner came trotting over to us. “Wait wait!” he said. “You ordered the wedding package! It comes with a bottle of champagne!”.
Word: Obsess
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Be preoccupied with something; Haunt like a ghost; pursue.
- Example: Jai spent the entire day obsessing over how to explain everything to Ricky when he got home from Club Babalu.
Word: Root
- Parts of Speech: Noun / Verb
- Meaning: Come into existence, Originate; Become settled or establishedand stable in one’s residence or life style.
- Example: As she’d soon learn, my measured response was rooted in my upbringing.
Word: Bluntness
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: Without sharpness or clearness of edge or point.
- Example: Though Jai wasn’t thrilled with my bluntness and my know-it-all attitude, she said I was the most positive, upbeat person she’d ever met.
Word: Rattle
- Parts of Speech: Verb / Noun
- Meaning: Make a very rapid, short series of knocking or tapping sounds.
- Example: We did not leave the reception in a car with cans rattling from the rear bumper.
Word: Whisk
- Parts of Speech: Verb / Noun
- Meaning: Move quickly and nimbly.
- Example: Instead, we got into a huge, multicolored hot-air-balloon that whisked us off into the clouds.
Word: Beam
- Parts of Speech: Noun / Verb
- Meaning: Have a complexion with a strong bright color, such as red or pink.
- Shine, glow, radiate, Ray.
- Example: When we had stepped into the balloon, Jai was beaming.
Word: Disconcert
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Cause to lose one’s composure; Cause to feel embarrassment.
- Example: It didn’t sound like the destruction of the Hindenburg, but it was a little disconcerting.
Word: Intrigue
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: To arouse someone’s curiosity, desire, or interest.
- Example: She was intrigued enough to make a few phone calls to friends of hers in the community.
Word: Gun-shy
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Nervous and apprehensive (anxious or fearful that something bad or unpleasant will happen).
- Example: She was getting gun-shy about getting serious again.
Word: Impishness
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: Being playful and a little naughty.
- Example: She had this gorgeous long hair then, and this smile that said a lot about both her warmth and her impishness.
Word: Singling
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Choose someone or something from a group for special treatment.
- Example: I couldn’t tell if you did that with everyone, or if you were singling me out.
Word: Machiavellian
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics
- Example: I’m either an incurable romantic or a bit Machiavellian.
Word: Blissfully
- Parts of Speech: Adverb
- Meaning: In a manner characterized by extreme happiness or joy.
- Example: No woman, even the right kind, would expect to settle down blissfully into that.
Word: Offbeat
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Unconventional or Unusual.
- Example: She figured I’m obviously a pretty offbeat and exciting guy.
- She’s a little offbeat, but she’s a wonderful actress.
Word: Comparative
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Perceptable by comparison, relative.
- Example: A thirty-one-year-old grad student in comparative literature was working part-time in the UNC computer science department.
Word: Laureate
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: A person who is honored with an award for an outstanding creative or intellectual achievement.
- Example: Her job was to host visitors, whether Nobel laureates or Girl Scout troops
Word: Funky
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Frightened, panicky, cool, trendy, fashionable, having or using a strong dance rhythm.
- Example: And then found the links to my funkier personal information.
Word: Formidable
- Parts of Speech: Adjective / Noun
- Meaning: Inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable.
- Example: The most formidable brick wall I ever encountered in my life was just five feet, six inches tall, and absolutely beautiful.
Word: Adept
- Parts of Speech: Adjective / Noun
- Meaning: Very proficient or skilled at something.
- Example: I was always pretty adept at charging through the brick walls in my academic and professional life.
Word: Courtship
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: A period during which a couple develops a romantic relationship.
- Example: I didn’t tell the audience the story about my courtship with my wife.
Word: Compulsion
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: The action or state of forcing or being forced to do something.
- Example: I felt no compulsion to settle down.
Word: Tenured
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Having or denoting a permanent post, especially as a teacher or a professor.
- Example: Even as a tenured professor who could afford something better.
Word: Culminate
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Describes a high point or a Climactic stage in a process; end.
- Example: The goal of a Major League football team is to have their season culminate in a World Series victory.
Word: Conform
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Comply with rules, standards, or laws, to adapt to fit in with new conditions.
- Example: If you travel to a foreign country, you should conform to the local customs and adjust your usual wardrobe to a more modest one.
Word: Artisan
- Parts of Speech: Noun
- Meaning: An Artisan has both the creativity and the skill to make a product.
- Example: Next to the straw market is the woodcarvers’ lane, where local artisans demonstrate their crafts and sell them made of wood.
Word: Climactic
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Consisting of or causing a climax
- Example: Slowly and climactically, Powell and Donovan finished a graphic and resounding story (I, Robot).
Word: Grizzled
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Having dark heirs mixed with grey or white.
- Example: Your dad’s grizzled beard might need a trim by the end of your two-week camping trip.
Word: Auditory
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Process of hearing.
- Example: If someone says "Surrender Dorothy" and you hear "Where's the laundry," you have an auditory problem.
Word: Tactile
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Relating to the sense of touch.
- Example: I'll think I'm responding to the play, when it's only a tactile reaction to vibration (Fahrenheit 451).
Word: Kinesthetic
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: The sensory perception of the movement.
- Example: If you're interested in kinesthetic questions, you might consider going into physical therapy as a career.
Word: Autonomous
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Describes the things that function separately or independently.
- Example: The partitioning of India created several separate and autonomous jute economies.
Word: Aural
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Of or Pertaining to hearing.
- Example: If you have excellent aural abilities, it means that your ears work well. Aural means "pertaining to hearing."
Word: Straddle
- Parts of Speech: Verb/Noun
- Meaning: When you straddle something, you sit on it with one leg on each side, such as straddling a horse or fence.
- Example: Storage for a single object cannot straddle the two kinds of tablespaces.
Word: Queasy
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Queasy defines a feeling of nervousness, anxiety, or uneasiness.
- Example: The experience is not like that parasailing trip you took on a small boat where everyone was queasy by the end of the trip.
Word: Amenable
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Disposed or willing to comply, liable to answer to a higher authority.
- Example: But freshers don't always know how much thought goes into planning dining and how amenable the staff are to catering to special diets.
Word: Rambunctious
- Parts of Speech: Adjective
- Meaning: Noisy and out of control.
- Example: Kids can be rambunctious when they are with their friends.
Word: Disembarked
- Parts of Speech: Verb
- Meaning: Leave a ship or aircraft or other vehicle.
- Example: The passengers disembarked at Tampa Bay port.
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