Tag: spelling tutor

Do you feel tranquil today?  How about boisterous, sluggish, blatant, or fractious?  Let someone know!

 

Sluggish; adj. Displaying little growth or movement; not making progress; seeming to be bottle necked or clogged to prevent advancement.

The traffic was so sluggish because of the accident that I was late for work.
Tranquility; n. Harmony; silence; quiet serenity; Undisturbed and peaceful.

I find such tranquility at the lake that I go there all the time.
Blatant; adj. Unpleasantly loud; irritatingly showy or obvious.

I blatantly disobeyed my mother and yelled at the mean man.
Boisterous; adj. Rowdy, rambunctious, and possibly out of control.

After having so much cake, the toddlers were boisterous.
Brattle; n. A rattling and crashing sound.

The brattle of metal clashing with metal is all I heard during the fight.
Brawl; v, n.

Verb: To have a loud and boisterous disagreement, possibly even a fight, but more likely just upsetting the calm and quiet.

I was suspended after I brawled on the playground when I was a child.

Noun: A loud, boisterous disagreement.

A brawl erupted at the bar, people fighting over a girl.

Adjective: brawling or brawly

The brawling crowd disturbed everyone trying to attend the ball.
Din; n. Disorder and noise; tumult and confusion.

The din at the even was so loud I couldn’t hear my friends talk.
Discordant; adj. Clashing in ideas or sound or philosophies; harsh with conflict.

The beautiful sound coming from the piano made the man scream in agony.
Fractious; adj. Unruly and noisy.

The fractious toddlers needed someone to guide them to be quiet.

Cranky or peevish.

I turn fractious if I don’t get a good nights sleep.
Hubbub; n. An upset or vehement protest or discontent; sometimes a loud, sustained noise.

The soccer victory created such a hubbub that the police were called.
Obstreperous; adj. Noisy and boisterous; sometimes even aggressive of defiant.

Her behavior became obstreperous when her boyfriend disappointed her.
Ostentatious; adj. Showy; characterized by a need to be noticed, not always favorably.

I admit I am ostentatious sometimes, wanting the press to notice me at the red carpets I am invited to.
Strident; adj. Loud and harsh; often grating and discordant; hard on the ears.

The strident hurricane alarm alerted everyone of impending danger.
Truculent; adj. Tending to argue and disagree, often vehemently and with great noise and commotion.

I become truculent when it comes to selling my stuffed animals at a good price.
Turbulent; adj. Violently upset or disturbed.

After the tornado the creek was turbulent and swept tree limbs away.

Having a restless or even revolutionary character.

The government climate was turbulent and so people were often afraid to leave the city.
Vociferous; adj. Offensively loud and often given to demonstration of agitated emotions or agitated outcry.

The lawyer vociferously spoke for the accused and everyone was nervous.

 

Budding; adj. Having to do with new or developing circumstances or abilities.

I am a budding trapeze artist and I am excited for my first circus performance.
Burgeoning; adj. Growing or developing; blossoming or flourishing.

My burgeoning clothing business is very special to me.
Embryonic; adj. Of or belonging to an embryo; early beginning; not yet formed or matured; rudimentary.

The bird died in its embryonic stage while still in the egg.
Fledgling; adj. New or immature; not yet out of the nest; not experienced; rudimentary.

The fledging baby bird longed to fly away.
Incipient; adj. Beginning to exist or appear; early in developmental stage.

My building plans are still in their incipient stage.
Initiate; n, v. Noun: One who is being or has been initiated; one who has been introduced to or has attained knowledge in a particular field.

Verb: To begin or start a process; to get things going.

The initiate met the visitors at the door, ready to initiate them into the world of art.
Innovation; n. The act of introducing something or someone; something newly introduced.

My innovation is so creative I cannot wait to show my team at work.
Nascent; adj. Coming into existence, emerging.

I have several nascent ideas that might work in the future of my business.

Have you ever read a book in which the vocabulary was so elevated you could barely understand what was going on?  I have and I wanted to quit on the second page.  Learn these words and that is less likely to happen.

• Dearth; n. A scarcity or lack of supply.
• During the war, there was a dearth of food storage.

 

• Diminutive; adj. Very small; tiny. (Diminutive is occasionally used as a noun. It refers to anything that is small or the name given to suffixes on words that indicate smallness. For example, the suffix let is a diminutive. When it is added to a noun, it indicates a smaller version of that noun, such as a booklet or starlet.)
• She is a diminutive baby, weighing only 4 pounds.

 

• Infinitesimal; adj. Immeasurably or incalculably small.
• I never thought we’d be able to study the infinitesimal nucleus of an atom, but with new technology, we can.

 

• Insignificant; adj. Of little importance or power.
• My problems seem insignificant when compared to others.

• Small and not important.
• The scratch on the paint was insignificant and the owner of the house didn’t make us repaint it.

 

• Lilliputian; n, adj. Noun: A very tiny person or thing.
• Compared to the tall basketball player, the children were Lilliputians.

• Adjective: Small or trivial in size.
• The Lilliputian house was perfect for the small family.

• Not important; petty.
• The discussion was Lilliputian in the midst of the emergency.

 

• Meager; adj. Scarce in quantity or extent; in short supply.
• After camping for two weeks, we had a meager supply of food.

• Deficient in richness or fertility.
• The soil was meager and so the crops barely grew.

 

• Minuscule; adj, n. Adjective: Extremely tiny; very small.
• She used a minuscule amount of frosting on the cake so as to not overpower the people who ate it.

• Noun: Small, ancient, cursive script.
• The minuscule writing was hard for me to read.

• Lowercase letters.
• A term for lowercase letters is minuscule.

 

• Minute; adj. Exceptionally small or insignificant.
• The way he looked at me seemed minute but my friends told me it was significant.

• Characterized by precise and close scrutiny.
• I did a minute inspection to make sure they had cleaned properly.

 

• Mite; n. A very small sum of money.
• To a widow, a mite may seem like unto a large sum of money to others who have more.

• A very small creature or object.
• The small child was a mite compared to the big football players.

 

• Negligible; adj. Not considered important enough to be worth bothering about; insignificant.
• The problem was negligible to me, but to the woman next to me it seemed to be important enough for her to cry about.

 

• Scintilla; n. A minute amount; barely a suggestion; just an inkling or a spark.
• For a moment I had a scintilla of hope that he loved me, but then I came back to reality.

 

• Trifling; adj. Of trivial or nonsensical importance; not important and easily dismissed.
• His trifling plan was impossible to make a reality.

 

• Trivial; adj. Of little significance or importance; concerned with trivia or inconsequential information; commonplace.
• I know many trivial facts but I blank on the important ones.

 

• Ample; adj. Of a large or great size; fully significant, even more than enough.
• There is an ample amount of love for you here.

 

• Behemoth; n. Something that is enormous in size and/or power.
• The giant was a behemoth that terrorized all the towns nearby.

 

• Colossal; adj. So enormous or gigantic that it seems to defy belief.
• The colossal monument blew me away.

 

• Copious; adj. Containing or yielding plenty; bountiful in amount or manner.
• I have a copious amount of corn from the harvest.

 

• Gargantuan; adj. Of enormous size, quantity, or volume or capacity.
• I thought I’d never climb the gargantuan cliff leading to the path.

 

• Humongous; adj. Gigantic or extremely oversized.
• I was so hungry I ate the humongous pizza.

 

• Immeasurable; adj. So vast or limitless in size that measurement is not possible.
• My love for him is immeasurable.

 

• Incalculable; adj. Impossible or too great to be calculated or resolved.
• Incalculable damage came after the hurricane.

 

• Infinite; adj. immeasurably great or large; having no limits or boundaries.
• The teacher displayed infinite patience even though the students were rude and restless.