Word Nerd Review

n. - extreme poverty; destitution

adj. - fruitful in offspring or vegetation; intellectually productive or inventive to a marked degree

n. - the process of decay or rotting in a body or other organic matter caused by bacterial or fungal action

n. - the quality of being brief and terse; concise or exact words in writing or words

v. - to run away secretly and hurriedly, often taking something or somebody along

v. to deprive of self-esteem, confidence; to behave in a way as to belittle or degrade someone

v. - to deny or reject a doctrine or belief; to renounce

adj. - repeated to often; overfamiliar through overuse; lacking originality, freshness, or novelty

n. - appeal to one's sense of reason or logic

n. two opposite ideas are put together in as sentence to achieve a contrasting effect

v. - to clear from guilt or blame

n. - a sudden forceful flow in a river, especially caused by heavy rains

a special form of parallelism that flips the original form around. It's stylistically more ornate than a parallelism.

v. - to lessen the seriousness or extent of; to make a disease or its symptoms less severe or unpleasant

A term form the Greek meaning "changed label' or "substitute name"; a figure of speech

adj. - without clearly defined shape or form; vague, ill-organized; lacking a clear structure or focus

v. - to create or make something up; to lie; to put together out of artificial or natural components or parts

adj. - (of language) transparently clear, easily understandable

v. - to divide into opposites; to cause something to acquire polarity; to restrict vibrations of a transverse wave

v. - to take possession of (typically without the owner's permission); to devote funds to a special purpose

v. - to voluntarily cease to keep or claim; to give up

adj. - being uncertain or stuck between two or more options

n. - a variation in circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant

adj. - characterized by undue haste and lack of thought

v. to clear someone of blame or suspicion; to show to be right by providing justification or proof

v. - to edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate

n./v. - to imitate techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing

v. - to examine or inspect closely and thoroughly

n. - to present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to surroundings

adj. - exceedingly harmful especially in a dradual, subtle way

adj. - extremely bad; appalling

v. - to bring about or initiate an action or event; to provoke or stir up

adj. - tending to vanish like vapor; soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence

n. - a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot; an awkward, complex, hazardous situation

n. - a distinctive or peculiar feature or characteristic of a place or thing; behavior peculiar to an individual

v. - to confuse or bewilder; to render unclear or unintelligible

adj. - relating to open seas rather than waters adjacent to land; living or growing at or near the surface of the ocean

v. - to describe roughly or give the main points of; to give to understand

v. - to pretend to be affected by; make believe with the intent to deceive; dissemble

adj. - boldly forward in speech or behavior; being trim and chic; showing a lack of seriousness in an amusing way

n. - appeal to one's feelings; creating an emotional response

n. - liveliness and eagerness

n. - the quality of being honest and straightforward

n. - a direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known

a device in which unexpected items in a sentence are linked together by a shared word (usually a verb)

A writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, and effectiveness

v. - to give a lot of public attention and approval to (someone); to treat as a celebrity

n. a large scholarly book

v. - to regret deeply or strongly; to express strong disapproval of

the use of angry or insulting language in satirical writing

n. - a group of advisers, assistants, or others accompanying an important person

v. to display or show by one's acts or appearance; to demonstrate; to make record of

v. - to expose as false; to reduce the inflated reputation of someone, especially by riducule

n. - appeal to one's sense of right and wrong; a means of convincing through credibility

From the Greek...literally means "teaching"

a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or personified abstraction

adj. - secretive; marked by hidden aims or methods

adj. - light, delicate, and translucent; so thin as to transmit light (especially of fabric)

v. - to make less severe, serious, or painful; to make smaller

a rhetorical term that consists of three parallel clauses, phrases, or words

v. - to accustom to hardship or difficulty

v. - to warn or reprimand someone firmly

adj. - incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge

adj. - being in the earliest stages of development; fundamental

regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses

n. - a word, phrase, or statement which contains more than one meaning

the way sentences are grammatically constructed

adj. - lacking flavor; lacking vigor, significance, or impact

adj. - confidently optimistic and cheerful; optimistic or positive, especially in a bad situation

Deliberately leaving conjunctions out entirely to provide a sense of casual familiarity or to make less monotonous.

n. - a loud, confused noise, especially one caused by a large mass of people; confusion or disorder

n. - discussion between enemies, often to prepare terms of surrender

adj. - related to a relationship that is beneficial for all involved

n. - a sign of something about to happen

v. - to indicate in advance; to be a sign or warning that something is likely to happen

adj. - passionate, intense, zealous; characterized by intense emotion

adj. - very sentimental; insincerely emotional

adj. - deserving censure or condemnation

n. - unpleasant, discordant sounds; a loud harsh or strident noise

v. - to support or hold up

v. - to soften in feeling or temper; assuage

v. - to feel or express sorrow or grief; to mourn

v. - to make easier to endure; lessen

v. - to belittle, or bring reproach or discredit upon; to regard as being of little worth

adj. - (of a person) reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little

adj. - precise, paying attention to trivialities of etiquette; marked by precise accordance with details

v. - to form judgments by a process of logic; to reason

n. - a false accusation of an offense; the making of false and defamatory statements in order to damage reputation

A device that is similar to an understatement, emphasizes its point by using the word opposite to the condition

n. - a shackle for the ankles or feet; v. - to restrain with manacles particularly around the ankles

adj. - attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery; obedient or attentive to an excessive degree

v. - to criticize or berate severely; to denounce

v. - to give up resistance; to surrender under agreed conditions

n. - a servile, self-seeking flatterer; a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important

n. a person or animal that is markedly unusual or deformed; a building or structure that is very large and unsightly

adj. - expressing contempt or disapproval

n. - a minute life form; a microorganism, especially a bacterium causing disease or fermentation

v. - to reject as false; deny

v. - to accept something reluctantly but without protest

adj. - rude in a mean-spirited way; lacking charm and good taste; having an irritable disposition