See Also: SPEAKING; WORDS, DEFINED; WORDS, EFFECT OF; WORDS OF PRAISE; WRITERS/WRITING
This simile was first used by Talmudic rabbis
The narrator of Munro’s story, Spelling, contemplates the meaning of words while visiting an old woman.
See Also: WHITE
See Also: TOUGHNESS
Imperative |
---|
word |
word |
Noun | 1. | word - a unit of language that native speakers can identify; "words are the blocks from which sentences are made"; "he hardly said ten words all morning" language unit, linguistic unit - one of the natural units into which linguistic messages can be analyzed anagram - a word or phrase spelled by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase anaphor - a word (such as a pronoun) used to avoid repetition; the referent of an anaphor is determined by its antecedent antonym, opposite, opposite word - a word that expresses a meaning opposed to the meaning of another word, in which case the two words are antonyms of each other; "to him the antonym of `gay' was `depressed'" back-formation - a word invented (usually unwittingly by subtracting an affix) on the assumption that a familiar word derives from it charade - a word acted out in an episode of the game of charades cognate word, cognate - a word is cognate with another if both derive from the same word in an ancestral language content word, open-class word - a word to which an independent meaning can be assigned contraction - a word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds; "`won't' is a contraction of `will not'"; "`o'clock' is a contraction of `of the clock'" deictic, deictic word - a word specifying identity or spatial or temporal location from the perspective of a speaker or hearer in the context in which the communication occurs; "words that introduce particulars of the speaker's and hearer's shared cognitive field into the message"- R.Rommetveit derivative - (linguistics) a word that is derived from another word; "`electricity' is a derivative of `electric'" diminutive - a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness dirty word - a word that is considered to be unmentionable; "`failure' is a dirty word to him" dissyllable, disyllable - a word having two syllables descriptor, form, signifier, word form - the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something; "the inflected forms of a word can be represented by a stem and a list of inflections to be attached" four-letter Anglo-Saxon word, four-letter word - any of several short English words (often having 4 letters) generally regarded as obscene or offensive closed-class word, function word - a word that is uninflected and serves a grammatical function but has little identifiable meaning guide word, guideword, catchword - a word printed at the top of the page of a dictionary or other reference book to indicate the first or last item on that page head word, head - (grammar) the word in a grammatical constituent that plays the same grammatical role as the whole constituent headword - a word placed at the beginning of a line or paragraph (as in a dictionary entry) heteronym - two words are heteronyms if they are spelled the same way but differ in pronunciation; "the word `bow' is an example of a heteronym" holonym, whole name - a word that names the whole of which a given word is a part; "`hat' is a holonym for `brim' and `crown'" homonym - two words are homonyms if they are pronounced or spelled the same way but have different meanings key word - a significant word used in indexing or cataloging hybrid, loanblend, loan-blend - a word that is composed of parts from different languages (e.g., `monolingual' has a Greek prefix and a Latin root) loanword, loan - a word borrowed from another language; e.g. `blitz' is a German word borrowed into modern English meronym, part name - a word that names a part of a larger whole; "`brim' and `crown' are meronyms of `hat'" metonym - a word that denotes one thing but refers to a related thing; "Washington is a metonym for the United States government"; "plastic is a metonym for credit card" monosyllabic word, monosyllable - a word or utterance of one syllable hapax legomenon, nonce word - a word with a special meaning used for a special occasion oxytone - word having stress or an acute accent on the last syllable palindrome - a word or phrase that reads the same backward as forward primitive - a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms; "`pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived" paroxytone - word having stress or acute accent on the next to last syllable partitive - word (such a `some' or `less') that is used to indicate a part as distinct from a whole |
2. | word - a brief statement; "he didn't say a word about it" statement - a message that is stated or declared; a communication (oral or written) setting forth particulars or facts etc; "according to his statement he was in London on that day" | |
3. | ![]() info, information - a message received and understood good word - good news latest - the most recent news or development; "have you heard the latest?" update - news that updates your information | |
4. | word - a verbal command for action; "when I give the word, charge!" order - (often plural) a command given by a superior (e.g., a military or law enforcement officer) that must be obeyed; "the British ships dropped anchor and waited for orders from London" | |
5. | word - an exchange of views on some topic; "we had a good discussion"; "we had a word or two about it" speech communication, spoken communication, spoken language, voice communication, oral communication, speech, language - (language) communication by word of mouth; "his speech was garbled"; "he uttered harsh language"; "he recorded the spoken language of the streets" argumentation, debate, argument - a discussion in which reasons are advanced for and against some proposition or proposal; "the argument over foreign aid goes on and on" deliberation - (usually plural) discussion of all sides of a question; "the deliberations of the jury" group discussion, conference - a discussion among participants who have an agreed (serious) topic panel discussion - discussion of a subject of public interest by a group of persons forming a panel usually before an audience postmortem, post-mortem - discussion of an event after it has occurred public discussion, ventilation - free and open discussion of (or debate on) some question of public interest; "such a proposal deserves thorough public discussion" negotiation, talks, dialogue - a discussion intended to produce an agreement; "the buyout negotiation lasted several days"; "they disagreed but kept an open dialogue"; "talks between Israelis and Palestinians" | |
6. | ![]() promise - a verbal commitment by one person to another agreeing to do (or not to do) something in the future | |
7. | word - a word is a string of bits stored in computer memory; "large computers use words up to 64 bits long" computer memory unit - a unit for measuring computer memory byte - a sequence of 8 bits (enough to represent one character of alphanumeric data) processed as a single unit of information | |
8. | Word - the divine word of God; the second person in the Trinity (incarnate in Jesus) | |
9. | ![]() positive identification - evidence proving that you are who you say you are; evidence establishing that you are among the group of people already known to the system; recognition by the system leads to acceptance; "a system for positive identification can prevent the use of a single identity by several people" | |
10. | ![]() religious text, religious writing, sacred text, sacred writing - writing that is venerated for the worship of a deity family Bible - a large Bible with pages to record marriages and births Old Testament - the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible Testament - either of the two main parts of the Christian Bible New Testament - the collection of books of the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline and other epistles, and Revelation; composed soon after Christ's death; the second half of the Christian Bible covenant - (Bible) an agreement between God and his people in which God makes certain promises and requires certain behavior from them in return eisegesis - personal interpretation of a text (especially of the Bible) using your own ideas exegesis - an explanation or critical interpretation (especially of the Bible) text - a passage from the Bible that is used as the subject of a sermon; "the preacher chose a text from Psalms to introduce his sermon" Gabriel - (Bible) the archangel who was the messenger of God Noachian deluge, Noah and the Flood, Noah's flood, the Flood - (Biblical) the great deluge that is said in the Book of Genesis to have occurred in the time of Noah; it was brought by God upon the earth because of the wickedness of human beings demythologise, demythologize - remove the mythical element from (writings); "the Bible should be demythologized and examined for its historical value" | |
Verb | 1. | ![]() ask - direct or put; seek an answer to; "ask a question" lexicalise, lexicalize - make or coin into a word or accept a new word into the lexicon of a language; "The concept expressed by German `Gemuetlichkeit' is not lexicalized in English" formularise, formularize - express as a formula |