Word Use: Ab-use Abstr-use Am-use Bem-use Circumf-use Conf-use Def-use Diff-use Disab-use Exc-use Inf-use Obt-use Prof-use Re-use Ref-use Transf-use Unconf-use Incl-use-ive Excl-use-ive Obf-use-cate
Words: How Do you Use Them?
Category: Word Play
Merriam Webster Quiz Words You Should Know Vol 1
This quiz seemed reasonable to me.
Homographs
You’ve heard of Homonyms (each of two or more words having the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins), homophones (each of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling, for example new and knew. But have you ever heard of homographs?
homographs: each of two or more words spelled the same but not necessarily pronounced the same and having different meanings and origins.
Thanks to JeanMarie of Words from JeanMarie, I learned about this 3rd homo-word. She also shared a link to an article that lays it out easier than I thought possible.
Have you ever had to make bail after you bailed out a boat that you should not have been in? Especially after you used a bale of hay to be able to crawl into the boat.
Do you remember when you were on the right scent when you were sent to the store with one cent to buy penny candy?
Does Chili come from Chile? Do you like to eat it when the weather is chilly?
Can you cite the right directions when you’re standing on site in sight of where you want to be?
In southern California you can desert the mountains, to head for the desert, and still get to Mexico in time to have dessert after dinner.
10 Common Words with Military Origins
Thanks to JeanMarie of Words from JeanMarie, for this URL
Is something so huge it’s ginormous? Did you have to cannibalize something else to create it or did you simply clobber it?
Click the URL above to read the origin of 10 Common Words with Military Origins.
June is Busting out All Over–A Parody
June is bustin' out all over All over the bodice of her dress Old ladies stand around and gasp While the guys would like to grasp Her display of amplitude with a caress June is busting out all over Feelings are getting quite intense The town is equally divided No one is undecided But gentlemen keep climbing on her fence Because of June!
Out of Sorts
Alphabetical or numerical Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress No matter how I sort it Today I'm out of sorts
Heteronyms
Heteronyms– each of two or more words that are spelled identically but have different sounds and meanings, such as tear meaning “rip” and tear meaning “liquid from the eye.”.
Did you tear up (cry) this morning or tear up (run amok) this morning?
Was traffic bad enough so that you made minute progress or good enough to make minute by minute progress?
Were you able to progress on the progress you had been making on your project?
Was a fresh dressing wound around your wound today?
For a really good article on heteronyms, click here.
Merriam Webster Nabokov Word Quiz
This is not a quiz for those with a mediocre vocabulary. I knew a few of the words, and guessed a couple of more correctly. I’ve never read Nabokov.
Vladimir Nabokov is renowned as one of the most masterful prose stylists of the twentieth century. He is also known for being quite fond of using exceedingly obscure words. The second edition of Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1934), which contains many such words, is reported to have been his favorite lexicographic work. All of the words in the quiz below may be found in the most recent version of Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary.
Path(etic) Choices
He was a pathological liar, a possible sociopath, with no empathy, a path forward to many people. Which path would you chose?
Merriam Webster Star Wars Quiz
In a belated tribute to May the 4th Be With You ( aka Star Wars Day), take this fun–and not too difficult–Star Wars Quiz.
Merriam Webster Early Spring Word Quiz
This easy quiz does not seem to have anything to do with Spring, but it’s a fun one to try.
Reblog of Let’s End in a Bang by Words by JeanMarie
Jean Marie has finished off National Poetry Month by re-writing poems from two poets (and my poems are one of the two re-written poems that she created.)
Remotional–Poem 16
Remotional, the feeling you get when distance and technology Combine to leave you isolated, resentful frozen and alone.
Rivulets of My Mind–Poem 10
Thoughts-- drips becoming rivulets merging with creeks flowing into rivers creating puddles and pools backing up stagnating dry washes until new thoughts replace them in drips drops and drabs. It all flows downhill renewed re-energized unstoppable cataracts rapids hopping skipping, tumbling over rocks and occasionally themselves.
Inverse Murphy’s Laws
From an email.
Inverse Murphy’s Law(s)
1. Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don’t have film.
2. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
3. A day without sunshine is like, night.
4. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
5. Back up my hard drive? How do I put it in reverse?
6. I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.
7. When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.
8. Seen it all, done it all. Can’t remember most of it.
9. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don’t.
10. I feel like I’m diagonally parked in a parallel universe.
11. He’s not dead. He’s electroencephalographically challenged.
12. She’s always late. In fact, her ancestors arrived on the “June Flower.”
13. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted and used against you.
14. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges.
15. Honk if you love peace and quiet.
16. Keep honking, I’m reloading.
17. Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how it remains so popular?
18. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
19. It is hard to understand how a cemetery can raise its burial Costs and blame it on the higher cost of living.
20. Just remember …….. if the world didn’t suck, we’d all fall off.
21. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.
22. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try and pass them.
23. You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?
24. Latest survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world population.
25. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.
26. The things that come to those that wait may be the things left by those who got there first
27. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer
28. Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.
29. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture.
30. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
31. It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.
32. Everybody lies, but it doesn’t matter since nobody listens.
33. I wished the buck stopped here, as I could use a few.
34. I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.
35. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of 12 people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.
36. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
Merriam Webster Quiz: Up in a Sky Wod
Are you a sky-pilot? Do yo know what you are seeing when you look up into the sky? If so, this quiz may be for you. I thought the quiz had a mixture of easy and difficult questions.
Merriam Webster Who Knew Word Quiz
This quiz is a bit more difficult than I expected.
Once again the results showed that all answers were correct until you checked the actual results in the bottom.
Merriam-Webster’s Winter Word Quiz
After almost a week of snow, sleet, frozen rain, and extreme chill, this felt like the perfect time to take this quiz. I found it easy with a few tricky questions. My number score is incorrect. The words below it reflect my real score.
Musings
On the many days that my husband willfully does not listen to me, I can relate to Susan Sontag’s quote. “I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them.”
I look forward to people asking Joe Biden difficult questions because that means that we are communicating rather than theorizing, creating conspiracies, or tweeting.
Do the people who are so certain that Antifa caused all of the riots, including the attack on the Capitol, realize that Anitfa means Anti-fascists, which implies that they are Fascists?
We fought fascism and Nazism during WWII, so how can today’s Fascists and neo-Nazis still consider themselves patriots?:
If you live in an apartment or townhouse complex where are you supposed to plug in your electric car, assuming the predictions are even half true?
Is the bully pulpit of the President , the same as the bully’s pulpit of the President?
Merriam-Webster Words of Snow and Ice Quiz
I don’t snow much. Only got four right. See how you do with this quiz.
