Words in Use-10

Which words should I study?
Wordlists feature a number of words, which ones are in use?
What kind of words appear in usage?

Troubled with these questions? Do not know which words you should learn? Well, I simplify that problem for you: the words in use are featured on this page. These are words that are culled from daily newspapers columns, editorials, online magazines etc. Featuring about 50 words a week, this post gives you an in-depth look at the words floating around us. You would begin to see that in some time, words start making a repeat appearance.

How to use this list?
Well, the first step is going through this list and identifying the words you do know. For this culled list, explore exact dictionary definitions, word-roots and mnemonics. These tools would help you learn these words and make sure you use these words on a regular basis, else they would soon disappear from the shelves of your memory.

List for this week
[list style=”list5″ color=”black”]

Ambiguous: having several possible meanings or interpretations
Amenable: willing to answer or act
Amplification: to make larger, extend
Anomaly: a deviation from the common rule
Archive: documents or records of data
Attrition: a reduction or decrease in numbers
Beleaguered: to surround with military forces
Bout: period or session
Concomitant: accompanying
Conscientious: something that is done according to one’s inner sense of what is right
Corpus: a complete collection of writings
Crunches: to crush with the teeth
Defaced: disfigure
Dexterity: skill, agility
Dystopian: a society characterized by human misery
Efficacy: capacity of producing a desired result
Emulate: to try to equal or excel
Enamored: to be inflamed with love
Encryption: to encode
Exhorts: to give urgent advice
Hinted: an indirect but helpful suggestion
Hitchhiked: to travel by standing on the side of the road and soliciting rides from passing vehicles
Hubristic: having excessive pride or self-confidence
Humbled: not proud or arrogant
Indignant: expressing strong displeasure
Infuse: to introduce
Intervene: to come between disgusting people
Introvert: a shy person
Labyrinth: a combination of paths or passages
Malfeasance: performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified
Mandarins: a member of any of the nine ranks of public officials
Meanders: taking an indirect course
Muddle: to jumble up
Nettle: any of the allied or similar plants
Nuanced: a very slight difference or variation
Outlast: to last longer than
Pellets: a small rounded body
Persevered: to persist in anything undertaken
Precarious: uncertain
Pretension: the laying of claim to something
Punitive: inflicting punishment
Rampant: Violent in action
Ratify: to confirm by giving approval
Rebuffing: an abrupt rejection
Reneging: to go back on one’s word
Robust: strong and vigorous
Severance: the state of being severed
Shielding: a broad piece of armor
Solitude: the state of living alone
Spiel: a high-flown talk or speech
Sprawling: to be spread out in an ungraceful manner
Staggering: tending to overwhelm
Tandem: one following or behind the other