pernicious [ per-NISH-uh’ s ]
[adjective]
MEANING:
1. injurious, harmful or destructive
2. (archaic) evil, malicious or wicked
3. deadly or fatal
USAGE EXAMPLE 1:
The pernicious Tuberculosis virus is making a comeback and precautions have to be taken by the people against contracting this deadly disease.
USAGE EXAMPLE 2:
Apparently, Frum is unaware that TR declared, “Thank God I am not a free trader. Pernicious indulgence in the doctrine of free trade seems inevitably to produce fatty degeneration of the moral fibre.”
aria [ Ahr-ee-uh’, Air-ee-uh’ ]
[noun]
MEANING:
1. a melody, air, tune, oratorio or a cantata
2. a striking melody that is sung solo with accompaniment
USAGE EXAMPLE 1:
He is an expert at singing arias often haunting in nature.
USAGE EXAMPLE 2:
A great, distant ship’s horn, like a one-note aria.
spruce [ sproos ]
[noun,adjective,transitive verb]
MEANING:
1. (n.) any evergreen, coniferous tree or the like or the wood of such a tree
2. (tr. v.) to make neat or smart in appearance
3. (adj.) neat and smart in appearance
USAGE EXAMPLE 1:
The teacher told the shabbily dressed child to spruce up a bit.
USAGE EXAMPLE 2:
All three suffered a period of decline in the 20th century, but have since gone to great lengths to spruce up their main streets, lined with 18th- and 19th-century buildings running perpendicular to the Hudson River.
madrigal [ MAD-ri-guh’l ]
[noun]
MEANING:
1. a secular part song for four to six voices and making abundant use of contrapuntal imitation usually without musical instruments
2. any part song
3. a short love poem that can be set to music
USAGE EXAMPLE 1:
A few choir boys got together and sang a madrigal for the pretty girls at the village school.
USAGE EXAMPLE 2:
The madrigals Monteverdi wrote in his early twenties show his style to be precociously accomplished, though less richly expressive than it later became.
leaven [ LEV-uhn ]
[noun,transitive verb]
MEANING:
1. (n.) substances like yeast or baking powder that causes fermentation and expansion of dough
2. (n.) any substance or agent that works subtly to lighten or modify a whole
3. (n.) fermented dough
4. (tr. v.) to add yeast to dough
5.(tr. v.) to permeate with an altering or transforming agent
USAGE EXAMPLE 1:
The baker added leaven to the dough and left it to ferment.
USAGE EXAMPLE 2:
The results were so capricious, the swings so random, that you knew early on that it was going to be a long night, leavened only by Lembit Öpik’s entry for the Michael Portillo Award for most humiliating exit.
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