Lil Red Posted June 12, 2007 Posted June 12, 2007 (edited) [url="http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/100words/"]100 Words[/url] How many of these words do you know the meaning of? How many do you have to look up? Be Honest!! 100 Words That All High School Graduates — And Their Parents — Should Know BOSTON, MA — The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know. "The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language." The following is the entire list of 100 words: [center][list]abjure abrogate abstemious acumen antebellum auspicious belie bellicose bowdlerize chicanery chromosome churlish circumlocution circumnavigate deciduous deleterious diffident enervate enfranchise epiphany equinox euro evanescent expurgate facetious fatuous feckless fiduciary filibuster gamete gauche gerrymander hegemony hemoglobin homogeneous hubris hypotenuse impeach incognito incontrovertible inculcate infrastructure interpolate irony jejune kinetic kowtow laissez faire lexicon loquacious lugubrious metamorphosis mitosis moiety nanotechnology nihilism nomenclature nonsectarian notarize obsequious oligarchy omnipotent orthography oxidize parabola paradigm parameter pecuniary photosynthesis plagiarize plasma polymer precipitous quasar quotidian recapitulate reciprocal reparation respiration sanguine soliloquy subjugate suffragist supercilious tautology taxonomy tectonic tempestuous thermodynamics totalitarian unctuous usurp vacuous vehement vortex winnow wrought xenophobe yeoman ziggurat [/list][/center] Edited June 12, 2007 by Lil Red
zwergel88 Posted June 12, 2007 Posted June 12, 2007 The ones I know the meaning of are: chicanery chromosome churlish circumlocution circumnavigate deciduous diffident enfranchise epiphany equinox euro evanescent expurgate facetious feckless filibuster gamete gauche gerrymander hemoglobin homogeneous hubris hypotenuse impeach incognito incontrovertible infrastructure interpolate irony kinetic kowtow laissez faire lexicon metamorphosis mitosis nanotechnology nomenclature nonsectarian notarize oligarchy omnipotent orthography oxidize parabola paradigm parameter photosynthesis plagiarize plasma polymer precipitous quasar recapitulate reciprocal reparation respiration sanguine soliloquy suffragist taxonomy tectonic tempestuous thermodynamics totalitarian usurp vehement vortex winnow wrought xenophobe ziggurat
Dreamweaver Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 64. More than a handful are dumb words that no one except for pretentious English majors use. Someone should make a list of historical events that every H.S. graduate should know. A friend of mine knows two HS seniors that had NO clue about the Hindenburg zeppelin incident. Another had no idea how to write a 5 paragraph essay. I remember writing a 10 page report of sorts as my senior paper, and I didn't graduate all that long ago!
Groo the Wanderer Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 How about these words? I love Jesus thank you please sir ma'am you're welcome let me help you no thanks - I want to earn it our father hail mary amen
jeffpugh Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 Good ones, Groo: those are fundamental. I'll go through the other list later...
MissyP89 Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 I got around 60, and I'm an English geek. My dictionary is still my friend!
homeschoolmom Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 [quote name='Dreamweaver' post='1293973' date='Jun 12 2007, 08:26 PM']64. More than a handful are dumb words that no one except for pretentious English majors use. Someone should make a list of historical events that every H.S. graduate should know. A friend of mine knows two HS seniors that had NO clue about the Hindenburg zeppelin incident. Another had no idea how to write a 5 paragraph essay. I remember writing a 10 page report of sorts as my senior paper, and I didn't graduate all that long ago![/quote] I wrote a paper on the Hindenburg accident in eight grade social studies. I really liked that class, come to think of it. And I remember a lot from it. I also had to write a paper on Switzerland... we did mock trials, wrote mock laws, and we had weekly tests to make sure we all could identify all fifty states on a map of the US (which was easy for me... but you'd be surprised....). Mr. Negri was the only teacher I ever remember wearing ashes on Ash Wendesday, too. I'm not sure why I remember that....
Archaeology cat Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 (edited) [quote name='Dreamweaver' post='1293973' date='Jun 13 2007, 01:26 AM']64. More than a handful are dumb words that no one except for pretentious English majors use. Someone should make a list of historical events that every H.S. graduate should know. A friend of mine knows two HS seniors that had NO clue about the Hindenburg zeppelin incident. Another had no idea how to write a 5 paragraph essay. I remember writing a 10 page report of sorts as my senior paper, and I didn't graduate all that long ago![/quote] Yeah, I'm always surprised by those things. For example, my brother is now a freshman in college (just finishing his freshman year w/ some summer courses), and he keeps emailing me for help in his history class. Now, a lot of these are things I think he should know already (such as basic knowledge of ancient civilizations, nothing in depth). Not to mention the number of people who can't read and understand poetry (he's having a bit of trouble with that, too). I realize I'm a geek (I mean, I was on the academic team for language arts), but I do think HS graduates should know a bit of this. Oh, and I did know all but a handful of those words. Edited June 13, 2007 by Archaeology cat
Tony Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 EPIPHANY-commemorates the manifestation of the glory of Christ to the Gentiles in the person of the Magi, as well as His Baptism and first miracle at Cana. wait.. that's not the definition they were looking for?
Era Might Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 [quote name='Dreamweaver' post='1293973' date='Jun 12 2007, 08:26 PM']More than a handful are dumb words that no one except for pretentious English majors use.[/quote] I'm an English major and even I couldn't use a lot of them in a sentence, at least not without checking a dictionary first to make sure I'm using them correctly. But, I don't think they're pretentious. I was thinking the same thing, but when I went through them, most are on the border just below pretentious, but would work well without sounding silly. Except for jejune. I have no idea what it means, and cannot imagine any possible situation where I would use it in a sentence. As a general rule, words that look or sound French are faux pas.
farglefeezlebut Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 89. Groo - I don't think the problem is that people know those words. They just can't be bothered to use them. (With exception of Our Father and Hail Mary, which not enough people know.)
MissScripture Posted June 13, 2007 Posted June 13, 2007 85...but that does not mean I'd be able to give you a definition of them. I would understand them, however, if they were used in a sentence. I actually have a much larger vocabulary than I regularly use. I reserve most of my vocabulary for writing papers.
homeschoolmom Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 [quote name='Tony' post='1294566' date='Jun 13 2007, 03:18 PM']EPIPHANY-commemorates the manifestation of the glory of Christ to the Gentiles in the person of the Magi, as well as His Baptism and first miracle at Cana. wait.. that's not the definition they were looking for?[/quote] Hehe... Tony had an epiphany!
scardella Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 (edited) I knew 94 out of 100. Note that the words were carefully picked so that they didn't overwhelmingly favor an English major. Many of the words are more likely to show up in a math or science textbook than in English classes. There were a handful that would more likely show up in a history book as well. Edited June 11, 2008 by scardella
Archaeology cat Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 (edited) [quote name='scardella' post='1567969' date='Jun 11 2008, 02:16 PM']Note that the words were carefully picked so that they didn't overwhelmingly favor an English major. Many of the words are more likely to show up in a math or science textbook than in English classes. There were a handful that would more likely show up in a history book as well.[/quote] I noticed that, as I saw a few biology terms, for example. ETA: And, yeah, some would be in social studies books (gerrymander, for example) Edited June 11, 2008 by Archaeology cat
Thy Geekdom Come Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 [b]I know the meaning of:[/b] abrogate acumen antebellum auspicious bellicose chromosome circumlocution circumnavigate deleterious diffident enfranchise epiphany equinox euro evanescent expurgate facetious fatuous feckless fiduciary filibuster gamete hemoglobin homogeneous hubris hypotenuse impeach incognito incontrovertible inculcate infrastructure irony kinetic laissez faire lexicon loquacious metamorphosis mitosis nanotechnology nihilism nomenclature nonsectarian notarize oligarchy omnipotent orthography oxidize parabola paradigm parameter pecuniary photosynthesis plagiarize plasma polymer precipitous quasar quotidian recapitulate reciprocal reparation respiration sanguine soliloquy subjugate suffragist supercilious taxonomy tectonic tempestuous thermodynamics totalitarian unctuous usurp vacuous vehement vortex winnow wrought xenophobe ziggurat [b]I've heard but don't know the meaning of (which is embarassing, because I can recognize a lot of the Latin and Greek roots, but don't know the English meaning):[/b] abjure abstemious belie deciduous enervate enfranchise hegemony interpolate jejune obsequious tautology yeoman [b]I've never heard:[/b] bowdlerize chicanery churlish gauche gerrymander kowtow lugubrious moiety
the_rev Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Raphael, Gerrymander is a politica maneuver of realligning districts according to political affiliation. Every ten years districts are redistrcted based on population and depending who is in control of the state legistlature that does the redistricting they will try to get all the districts to reflect their party and arrange it that way so their in the majoring--gerrymandering. I was a political science major for one semester.
Farsight one Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Other than a few of the A's, I'm pretty sure I know them all (at least vaguely). Extra amusing is that I learned the meaning of most of them from video games.
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