a. relating to basic facts or principles; being in the earliest stages of development; incipient
E.g. One teacher is assigned for four years to the homeroom class, which combines lessons in rudimentary social skills with those in computer and civics.
v. make into a ruff; wrinkle; disturb surface of; make uneven by agitation or commotion; throw into disorder or confusion
E.g. The flags ruffle in the breeze; you can recognize them although not very easily.
n. disturbance; noise and confusion; a quarrel
E.g. I really wish they'd have cleared a rumpus room for him for a couple of hours.
n. carnivorous animal of the Weasel family native of the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America; mourning garment; funeral robe; dark; black
E.g. There's another sable, which is furry and related to martens, but I suppose fur trappers would be more interested in that.
a. acting or speaking very disrespectfully toward what is held to be sacred; violating sacred things; profane
E.g. His stealing of the altar cloth was a very sacrilegious act.
n. one who, or that which, defends or protects; defense; protection
E.g. We make copies of our computer disks as a safeguard against accidents.
a. prominent or protruding; projecting outwardly; moving by leaps or springs
E.g. One of the salient features of that newspaper is its excellent editorial page.
v. give authorization or approval to something; penalize a state, especially for violating international law
E.g. Nothing will convince me to sanction the engagement of my daughter to such a worthless young man.
a. profoundly cruel or evil; fiendish; extremely malicious or wicked; infernal
E.g. It is now the worst possible military dictatorship imaginable because it also uses God for its own satanic purposes.
n. form of literature in which irony and ridicule are used to attack human vice and folly
E.g. Gulliver's Travels, which is regarded by many as a tale for children, is actually a bitter satire attacking man's folly.
v. burn with hot liquid or steam; pain or injure by contact with, or immersion in, any hot fluid; expose to a boiling or violent heat
E.g. The hot water might scald her when the boiler exploded.
a. scarcely sufficient; less than is wanted for the purpose; not enough
E.g. The movers gave me a scant hour's notice of their arrival.
n. animal that eats other decaying organic matter; someone who collects things that have been discarded by others
E.g. Scavenger plays an important role in the ecosystem by contributing to the decomposition of dead animal remains.
n. originally, a small vessel with two masts; ship; large goblet or drinking glass
E.g. He drank a schooner of beer and became drunk.
v. mock; ridicule; show or express scorn; eat quickly and greedily
E.g. He used to scoff at dentists after he had his first toothache.
v. burn superficially; parch, or shrivel, the surface of, by heat; affect painfully with heat; burn
E.g. The meat will scorch if you don't lower the gas.
v. write or draw carelessly and in a hurry; doodle; meaningless marks and lines
E.g. Her letter of the 16th arrived this morning and I must scribble a word of reply.
n. sacred writing or book; authoritative statement; document; inscription
E.g. If scripture is our guide, then we are called to seek peace and to turn our swords into plowshares.
v. crush or crunch; crumple or squeeze; hunch
E.g. No, no don't scrunch your noses and grimace at me.
v. shuffle; fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters; wrestle in a rough fashion
E.g. He tried to scuffle his funds among different accounts in various countries so as to avoid the IRS.
v. create by shaping stone or wood or any other hard material
E.g. She planned to sculpt a swan out of a block of ice.
a. fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; worthless; mean; shabby
E.g. Peter Pan sneered at Captain Hook and his scurvy crew.
n. line of junction formed by sewing together two pieces; line across a surface, as a crack; scar
E.g. Place the roll in the prepared loaf pan, making sure the seam is on the bottom.
n. woman whose occupation is sewing; needlewoman
E.g. Take it to your drycleaner or seamstress; have a removable shoulder strap added, to free up your hands.
v. make very hot and dry; become superficially burned
E.g. Accidentally brushing against the hot grill, I sear my hand badly.
n. flavoring; spice; act of adding a seasoning to food
E.g. In addition to the choice of herbs and seasoning, the timing of when flavors are added will affect the food that is being cooked.
n. isolation; solitude; secluded place; shutting out or keeping apart
E.g. Robinson is in seclusion, recovering from major surgery and suffering greatly from the loss of her only son.
a. worldly rather than spiritual; not specifically relating to religion; lasting from century to century
E.g. The church leaders decided not to interfere in secular matters.
n. deposit; matter deposited by some natural process
E.g. Its effects are made worse as the ground is made up of sediment rather than hard rock and can in effect swallow buildings much like quicksand.
n. resistance to authority; insubordination or rebellion
E.g. His words, though not treasonous in themselves, were calculated to arouse thoughts of sedition.
v. pass gradually or leak through, as if through small openings
E.g. During the rainstorm, water would seep through the crack in the basement wall and damage the floor boards.
a. caused by earthquake or earth vibration; earthshaking
E.g. The Richter scale is a measurement of seismic disturbances.
a. seeming; outward or token appearance; show; figure; form
E.g. Foolish men mistake transitory semblance for eternal fact.
a. influential in original way; providing basis for further development; creative
E.g. The scientist's discovery proved to be seminal in the area of quantum physics.
n. school, especially a theological school for training of priests, ministers, or rabbis; school of higher education, especially for girls
E.g. Sure of his priestly vocation, Terrence planned to pursue his theological training at the local Roman Catholic seminary.
n. soldier placed on guard; guard
E.g. The sentry challenged the stranger at the gates.
n. music sung or performed in the open air at nights; complimentary performance given to honor or express love for someone
E.g. When your heart is full of longing, you desire a moonlight serenade for connection with the beloved.
n. gift for finding valuable or desirable things by accident; accidental good fortune or luck
E.g. Many scientific discoveries are a matter of serendipity.
a. saw-like; having a row of sharp or tooth-like projections
E.g. The beech tree is one of many plants that have serrated leaves.
v. chain; fetter; restraint that confines or restricts freedom
E.g. Police had to shackle the criminal's ankles to prevent his escape.