"Pedant"

The pedant was always quick to correct minor errors in terminology, distinguishing between frogs and toads, motors and engines, and less and fewer.

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"Hidebound"

The former flower child never could understand the views of her hidebound son.

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"Declaim"

The candidates for student council president each declaimed against the problems with student government, and each vowed to better represent the students. Of course, the superintendent and principal ultimately made the decisions at the school, though.

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"Openhanded"

The child was delighted and overwhelmed by the openhanded family who adopted him. Fortunately, the child never took advantage of the family's kindness--he always accepted his gifts with humility and graciousness.

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"Peculate"

In The Bourne Identity, Treadstone thinks that Jason peculated the money from the Swiss bank, but in reality, he thought it was his own.

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"Beseech"

She beseeched him not to send her a singing telegram, but he did it anyway.

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"Nocuous"

The girls knew their nocuous friendship would have to end; they found themselves angry rather than happy in each others' presence.

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"Hermetic"

The homeschooled children had led a hermetic lifestyle until they went away to college; still, they adapted well to the world around them.

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"Ellipsis"

Though many people use it to indicate a long pause, the true use of the ellipsis is to indicate omissions. I still think we need a punctuation mark that adequately shows hesitation though...

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"Tautological"

Racquelle is a tautological genius; she loves to eat tuna fish on her sub sandwich with or without a Coke drink.

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"Consternation"

The graduate student was filled with consternation when the school newspaper printed a story about some irreplaceable artifacts missing from the library archives.

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"Burnish"

After what seemed like hours of burnishing the antique silver, the woman's granddaughter saw that it was beginning to shine.

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"Interminable"

The graduate student wished that the night were interminable; he didn't have much time to gather information for his big project.

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"Pinchbeck"

A piece of cubic zirconia set in pinchbeck wasn't Elle's idea of a romantic Valentine's gift.

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"Myopia"

I didn't realize I had myopia until I failed my vision test for my driver's license renewal. Fortunately, I don't need reading glasses.

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"Expurgate"

When the teenage girl's father decided to join a social networking system, the girl made a mad rush to expurgate her profile of all her bathing suit photos and other information that she wanted to hide from him.

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"Froward"

Our froward cat was insistent upon either getting into the basement or into my room. Fortunately, she didn't scratch me when I picked her up and carried her out of each room.

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"Tome"

The graduate student returned to the library and scanned the count's history in an old tome that the library would not circulate. Sure enough, the elder Lady Chadwick's name appeared in one small, obscure reference to the count. The student was still in disbelief that such scandal could follow the old-money Chadwicks. If only he had more information...

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"Osteopath"

The man went to a lower-rated osteopath to save money; he came back hunched over like a gorilla and in a terrific amount of pain.

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"Toady"

"Brody the Toady" liked to gossip about his boss behind his back; to his face, Brody was a yes-man, and constantly praised the employer's achievements. Of course, Brody got what he wanted--a promotion.

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"Highhanded"

The student read on. The mistress tired of the count's highhanded demeanor toward her after the affair ended. So that's why she wanted to destory his character even after six months...

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"Denigrate"

It seems the erstwhile mistress was trying to denigrate the count publicly. The graduate student continued reading. This was really juicy stuff...

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"Erstwhile"

The graduate student gingerly handled the scraps of paper that he now held sacred. It seems that the count's erstwhile mistress, scorned over his refusal to marry her, threatened to reveal the scandal to very prestigious members of the count's elite circle.

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"Unwitting"

Making an unwitting discovery about an affair between two prominent historical figures, the young graduate student made sure no security guards were around, then stole back to his apartment with the pilfered scraps of artifacts from the archives. He was going to write the paper that would make him famous.

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"Virtuoso"

My cousin is a piano virtuoso. He has a natural talent, and he has studied the instrument for many years now.

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"Defalcate"

While drunk at a party, the accountant confessed that he had been embezzling money from the company to fund elaborate vacations for himself. He further informed his employer that he would continue to defalcate company funds as long as he could cover his tracks. First thing Monday morning, the accountant was informed that his services were no longer needed at the company.

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"Chaff"

One annoyance about bird ownership is discarding the chaff that the birds spit back into their food trough; another is constantly sweeping up the chaff that they spit out on the floor.

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"Victuals"

Last night's victuals consisted of macaroni and cheese and a Kit Kat bar.

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