Tuesday, May 29, 2007

100 words ~ keep writing sentences!

The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know. "The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language." The following is the entire list of 100 words:

abjure * used by Margreet
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum * used by Susan
auspicious * used by Susan
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome * used by Margreet
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous * used by Susan
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany * used by Susan
equinox
euro * used by Margreet
evanescent
expurgate * used by QueenV
facetious * used by Shelly
fatuous * used by Bonnie
feckless * used by QueenV
fiduciary
filibuster * used by Colleen
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony * used by Margreet
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris * used by QueenV
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune * used by Bonnie
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon * used by Margreet and Bonnie
loquacious * used by Bonnie
lugubrious
metamorphosis * used by Susan
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism * used by Sueblimely
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize * used by Colleen
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian * used by Bonnie
recapitulate * used by Bonnie
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine * used by Shelly
soliloquy * used by Susan
subjugate * used by QueenV
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian * used by QueenV
unctuous
usurp * used by Margreet
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat * used by QueenV

Okay, everybody, here's your chance to shine! Pick a word and write a sentence using it correctly. Choose a word which has not yet been used, and let's see if we can go through all 100 words.

10 comments:

Susan Tidwell said...

This is very interesting...

It looks like I have some studying to do!

OK, I will try it - but what if I use all the words I know:

After weeks of research, she had an epiphany about how to save the dilapidated antebellum mansion with its beautiful deciduous trees, and used the auspicious occasion of the town bicentennial to launch into a soliloquy, sharing her anticipation of the upcoming metamorphosis.

Margreet said...

here are mine:

it's about time we had a hegemony of all people with two X chromosomes!!!

Many European countries use the Euro currency since Jan.1 2002. they usurped their old coins, or abjured them..

And no, I didn't use my lexicon..:)

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Thank you, Susan and Margreet! Let me recapitulate: As you go about your quotidian duties, forego fatuous and jejune activities in order to participate in our attempt to master this 100-part lexicon.

David Edward said...

this looks hard, I will have to come back later when I can think, dinner awaits!

Anonymous said...

Hi! What a great list! I hope all these exclamation points give you the idea that I am somewhat sanguine! This is a wonderful list, and I'm not being facetious about that.
Michele sent me.

The Rock Chick said...

Hi!

I found your site through Shelly @ This Eclectic Life. This is some list. I have to say, I am familiar with and know the meanings of the majority on the words on that list, I just don't often find a reason to use them.

My writing and speaking style is normally very casual, but I think I may print it out and as a little creative writing exercise, try to work some of them into my posts!!!!

Jessica The Rock Chick

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the vocabulary of high school graduates would step away from the mud puddle of secondary education to claim a figurative ziggurat stature if the fundamental elements of language and style saw emphasis above the feckless parental hubris and totalitarian bloodlust conniving to expurgate literature as a means of creating subjugate toadies.

Sueblimely said...

I find nihilism a difficult concept to understand. By my understanding, if a person is indoctrinated by his parents to belief in nihilism then he has to reject nihilism in order to become a nihilist himself! But then he would have to reject it again and again and again .....

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Here's a confession ... I want to be loquacious, in the sense of being expressive, but not in its other sense: being garrulous. By the way, today's Word of the Day in the sidebar is GARRULOUS. Look it up.

Anonymous said...

I did this last week but I get it didn't take and now I can't remember what word I used. Here's a new one:

Wouldn't a blog filibuster be funny? We could blog all day without stopping, making sure not to plagiarize any other bloggers.

Ha Ha...I thought it was underlining the words from the word list, but it was because I had misspelled them!