ROBUST WORDS (WORDS #9)

HULLO!

Lovely Pansy

Source: Pixabay, Public Domain

RAMSHACKLE 

Adjective.   - In bad condition and likely to fall down. Also used for badly organized entities

The living quarters were very ramshackle

That federation of states was rather ramshackle

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RAIMENT

Noun (uncountable) – Clothing

The model’s raiment was stunning!

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RECTIFY

Verb (transitive, formal) – To correct a problem or mistake, or to make a bad situation better

The engineer was anxious to rectify the situation

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ROSTER

Noun (countable) – A list of people’s names, especially members of a particular team

The roster showed that at least five members were missing

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MY COMMENTS ON THESE WORDS

Well, once again I have to say that I knew all these four words!

The only one I have never used either in speaking or in writing is “Raiment” the others can be very useful to express some ideas.

For instance, “Ramshackle” is such a satisfying word! It almost paints a picture in your mind of something very badly put together, or at least not very stable! A colorful word, that one!

“Rectify” is also useful, especially in accounting when you have to rectify some mistake.

And “Roster”, well we live our lives in a society that is constantly putting our names down on lists, and thus constructing innumerable rosters! And we try to keep track of them all, but it gets more and more difficult as your age advances, because the rosters that have your name increase by the minute, especially if you use the Internet a lot! 

 As for the passwords that give you access to all these lists and rosters, well that’s another problem. I have a special copybook where I try to write them all down, but there’s sure to be one I need urgently, and that’s the one I don’t have and I don’t remember! Does this sound familiar?

There’s good news for Spanish speakers here! The word rectificar is almost the same as rectify, and it has the same meaning.

So study up your words from the GRE list, this will help you achieve a higher score on any graduate entry test!

See you in the next post!

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© 2013  joanveronica  (Joan Robertson)

I will be very happy to receive your comments! Just click the word “comments” lower down.

NOMADIC WORDS (WORDS #8)

HULLO!

Hydrangeas from Pixabay

NOVICE

 

Noun (countable)  (1)  Someone who is just beginning to learn a skill or subject

                          (2) A member of a religious community who is not yet a full member

Climbing that mountain peak is not recommended for a novice

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 NETTLE

Noun (countable)  A plant with pointed leaves and small hairs that sting if you touch them

Be careful, this field is full of nettles. They can be painful if touched.

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NEFARIOUS

Adjective (formal)  Evil, or dishonest

The police worked hard to stop the murderer’s nefarious plans

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NIGGARDLY

Adjective (formal)  (1) Not generous, or not willing to spend money

                           (2)  Used to describe a small amount of money

The salaries he pays are very niggardly

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MY COMMENTS ON THESE WORDS

An amazing collection of words! They are taken from the list of words that are described as being so important for success on the graduate entry tests. I’m sure you will agree that at times this list is rather bizarre. 

There! Now I’m doing it! In case you didn’t know, the word “bizarre” means weird, strange. And (you’ve guessed it!) it’s also on this famous list of words.

I’m proud to say I was familiar with all four of them; I really must have done a LOT of reading during my long life! But once again I have to say that I would not use “nefarious” and “niggardly in every-day writing or speaking.

“Nettle” isn’t so bad; we’ve all probably seen nettles growing wild in the countryside. But there’s more to this particular word, it’s also a verb that means the same as “irritate”. 

A person can be irritated = A person can be nettled

The GRE test questions just love to introduce what they call the “secondary meaning” of certain words, just to confuse the test takers a bit more. This is especially true on the multiple choice questions, and most test takers fall into the trap, because they tend to discard a word because they have associated it to the better known meaning of that word without realizing that on the test it’s being used with its secondary meaning.

I think the easiest word here is “novice” and it’s good for Spanish speakers too. There’s a similar word in that language, it’s novicia.

So once again I will repeat that you really need to study up these words if you want to improve your score on the graduate English tests.

See you at my next post!

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© 2013  joanveronica  (Joan Robertson)

I will be very happy to receive your comments! Just click the word “comments” lower down.