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nebulous
neb y@ l@s
adjective
hazy, confused, or indistinct.
You won’t convince anyone of your point using such nebulous reasoning.
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defective
dih fek tihv
adjective
1. having a flaw, error, or other imperfection.
The company was forced to recall the cars because of defective engines.
2. lacking an essential element or part.
The plan was defective because it lacked safety provisions.
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Building chunks of language with Word Combinations 1
Wordsmyth’s Word Combinations, technically known as “collocations,” provide what is almost like a thesaurus in another dimension. You will find them in most entries in the Advanced Dictionary. Instead of listing synonyms, that is, words you might use instead of the word you are using, Word Combinations provide words to use with the word you are using. In other words, they help you start building a bigger chunk of a sentence.
cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, howl, snicker, snigger, tee-hee, titter…
…with the Word Combination adverbs for the verb “laugh”:
The similar words allow you to choose from among words for more specific kinds of laugh: from a quiet titter to a hearty guffaw. The Word Combinations allow you to choose from among adverbs that writers frequently use to modify the verb “laugh.” “Ashley laughed uneasily at the cruel joke,” you might write. Or, “Ashley laughed good-naturedly when her error was pointed out.” (Ashley’s a likable person, evidently.)
Word Combinations are the most frequent companions of the headword in published writing and broadcast speech. Thus, they represent the many ways in which the headword-concept is typically talked about and the words typically used to talk about them.
In the entries, word combinations are organized by part of speech combination. Take, for example, the word “election.” The word combinations for the noun “election” fall into four kinds:
adjective + (n.) election
verb + (n.) election
(n.) election + verb
noun + (n.) election
These formulas show you the kind of word (part of speech) and the position (before or after “election”) in which it appears in the corpus of texts. Notice that “election” has some verbs that appear before it and some that appear after it. Here are the full word combinations entries, with some comments in red:
adjective + (n.)election coming, competitive, congressional, contested, democratic, direct, disputed, fair, federal, forthcoming, fraudulent, free, general, gubernatorial, judicial, legislative, local, mayoral, mid-term, multi-party, multiracial, municipal, nationwide, nonpartisan, off-year, parliamentary, periodic, presidential, primary, provincial, scheduled, statewide, transitional, upcoming
verb + (n.)election boycott, cancel, certify, contest, delay, disrupt, influence, hold, monitor, oversee, overturn, postpone, precede, rig, schedule, steal, supervise (These verbs that frequently have the word “election” as their object will give you a glimpse at all the things we can do to an election. )
(n.)election + verb loom, near
(Which of these two verbs would you choose to talk about a coming election? It really depends how you feel about it.)
noun + (n.)election ballot, boycott, candidate, eve, fall, financing, landslide, legitimacy, midterm, month, outcome, poll, primary, recall, registration, round, run-up, runoff, turnout, vote, voting
If you have read through these words, you may have noticed that some make sense when placed immediately before or after the headword “election”: “a fair election,” “postponed the election,” and “a fall [i.e., autumn] election.” True, you have to insert an article, “the” between “postpone” and “election,” but generally these are recognizable phrases that make sense.
Others, especially in the noun+noun category, don’t seem like a chunk of a sentence: “legitimacy election” and “voting election,” for example. Often a preposition will need to be inserted between the words: “the legitimacy of the election,” “voting in this election” are some possible ways the word combinations will work in these cases.
If you don’t know how to fit the two words together, a Google search on the two words will often return a number of similar examples of how they do.
You can try this little exercise to get a feel for how to fill out a word combination:
Complete these common noun + noun word combinations with the correct prepositions and articles.
1. the eve ____ ____ election
2. the outcome ____ ____ election
3. the turnout ____ ____ election
Word Combinations is a subscription feature, but you can try it by signing up for a 15-day free Trial Subscription, no strings attached. (There is a Trial Subscription button on most pages of the Wordsmyth website.) We also include Word Combinations with many Academic Vocabulary of the Day posts.
Read more about collocations here.
About Wordsmyth Word Combinations
The Word Combinations feature displays words that are frequently used in combination with the word you looked up. For some of the combinations to make sense, however, you may need to supply additional words such as “and,” “of,” “in,” “with,” or “from.” Supplying a plural marker or possessive marker (‘s) may make some things clearer as well.
The sets of words that you see here can help you find a word that is correct or appropriate to complete a particular meaning that you intend. In addition, the words can help you refine your understanding of the word you looked up by showing you the pattern of use of this word. The word combinations can also give you a sense of how this word may be differentiated from words with similar meanings.
Combinations of words such as you see here are referred to by linguists as “collocations.” We have grouped the collocations according to the part of speech of the headword (the word you looked up) and also according to the part of speech of the combining words (the “collocates”).
For certain words and certain parts of speech combinations, there can be a very large number of frequent collocations. In the initial display, we show the twenty most common collocates according to our data. Clicking “See all” will bring up additional words in excess of the twenty.
The Word Combinations feature shows you the most frequently-occurring combinations of words as they appear in a very large body of written text. Some combinations that occur in ordinary conversation that include very high frequency words such as “do,” “have,” or “make” may be omitted as a result. These types of combinations are handled in example sentences paired with a particular headword definition.
The term “collocation” actually refers to various types of word combinations ranging from fixed phrases and idioms, in which the words always go together in a certain way and cannot be interchanged with other words, to word combinations that occur frequently but are made up of words that can be easily interchanged with other words. The collocations that we display in the Word Combinations feature tend to be closer to the latter type. Most of them are “medium strength” collocations, such as “cool breeze,” “refreshing breeze,” “soft breeze,” and “gentle breeze.” Some of the collocations that we show, however, are “strong collocations” made up of words that seem to cling to each other, such as “commit (a) crime” and “tell (the) truth.” Some of the items that the data-gathering tool brings up in addition, such as “social + security” and “right + angle,” are actually part of multi-word units that have a unique meaning in themselves and really should be considered single words rather than collocations.
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- Unlimited saving of quizzes and glossaries, with the ability to enter up to 50 words in an activity.
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- Word Combinations (also known as “collocations”) for writing support using the word you’ve looked up. Construct idiomatic, error-free, and powerful sentences.
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Wordsmyth’s new Word Parts database
The importance of learning Word Parts
Studying word parts (roots and affixes) equips us to do the following:
- Identify the meaningful elements that make up words.
- Learn the characteristics of roots and of affixes: origin, meaning, grammatical function.
- Guess (or recall) the meaning of unfamiliar words from the clues given by word parts.
- Recognize the relationship among words that share a common root or affix.
- Recognize and use patterns of word change (e.g., cept, -ceive).
- Improve spelling by gaining awareness of the internal logic of words.
- Increase vocabulary, cultivate morphological awareness–and enjoy the English language.
- Fulfill Common Core (CCSS) ELA Literacy standards.
Three views of the Word Parts data
1) Dictionary entries:
More than 8000 Wordsmyth dictionary entries now display information about the word parts that make up the headword. In the new Word Parts section of the entry, the headword is broken down into its roots and affixes.
 Each significant word part is identified and its origin, type, and meaning provided. The user can also here view a list of other example words containing the word part, and jump to those words’ dictionary entries to explore further. “More about this word part” notes explain in more detail how particular affixes combine with bases to form words.
2) A-Z Word Parts Page:
In addition to the dictionary entry Word Parts feature, where the composition of a word can be studied in the context of looking up a word, the user can search, sort, and browse more than 600 roots and affixes at the A-Z Word Parts page (under Search Tools menu).
3) Search Filters:
Finally, for a view of all the words that have word parts information, the Search Filter page (under the Search Tools menu) will display them in an alphabetical browsable format. Simply select “word parts information.”
Word Parts Data in Word Explorer Children’s Dictionary
Word Explorer Children’s Dictionary users have these same three modes of access to roots and affixes information, but with the example words limited to the headwords in the Children’s Dictionary. To maximize flexibility, there are links to the complete Word Parts Database from any point in the Children’s Word Parts data. In the case of roots and affixes that have no example words in the Children’s Dictionary, the word part and information about it can still be found in the Children’s Dictionary A-Z Word Parts look up.
For a general introduction to the terms and concepts used in our Word Parts database, see this downloadable pdf http://dev.wordsmyth.net/testdir/web_site/help/WordPartsGuide.pdf.
- flaet fU tihd
- adjective
- 1. pertaining to or having flat feet.
A lady should never waltz if she feels dizzy. It is a sign of disease of the heart, and has brought on death. Neither should she step flat-footed, and make her partner carry her round; but must do her part of the work, and dance lightly and well, or not at all. (Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood , Manners and Social Usages)
- 2. off one’s guard; unprepared.
Mining companies were caught flat-footed by cyber attacks.
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