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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Abbreviation: A shortened form of a word or phrase.
Abstract noun: A noun denoting an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object.
Accent: A distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area, or social class.
Active voice: A sentence structure where the subject performs the action stated by the verb.
Adaptation: A change or the process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment.
Additive: A word or phrase that adds grammatical structure to a sentence.
Adjective: A word naming an attribute of a noun.
Adverb: A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb.
Affix: A prefix or suffix added to the root of a word to change its meaning.
Agreement: A grammatical connection between words in terms of gender, number, or person.
Alliteration: The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Allophone: Any of the various acoustic realizations of a phoneme in a particular language.
Alphabet: A standard set of letters that is used to write one or more languages.
Ambiguity: The quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.
Analogy: A comparison between two things for the purpose of explanation or clarification.
Analysis: Detailed examination of the elements or structure of something.
Anaphora: The use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition.
Anglicism: A word or construction peculiar to English.
Animate: Having life or vigor or spirit.
Annotation: A note of explanation or comment added to a text or diagram.
Antecedent: A thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another.
Antithesis: A person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.
Antonym: A word opposite in meaning to another.
Apocope: The loss of sounds from the end of a word, as in Spanish when hablado becomes hablao.
Apostrophe: A punctuation mark used to indicate either possession or the omission of letters or numbers.
Appositive: A noun or noun phrase that renames another noun right beside it.
Apprehension: Understanding or grasp of a language.
Approximant: A speech sound that involves the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow.
Arbitrariness: The lack of necessary connection between words and their meanings.
Archetype: A very typical example of a certain person or thing in language studies.
Argumentative: Given to expressing divergent or opposite views.
Article: A word used to modify a noun, which is grammatically necessary to identify the noun's definiteness.
Articulation: The formation of clear and distinct sounds in speech.
Aspect: A feature of a verb, denoting the flow of time in action.
Aspectual: Of or relating to aspect in grammar.
Assessment: The evaluation or estimation of the nature, quality, or ability of someone or something.
Assonance: The repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in non-rhyming stressed syllables.
Audio lingual method: A style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages.
Auxiliary verb: A verb used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs.
Awareness: Knowledge or perception of a situation or fact.

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B

Babbling: The stage in child language development at which the infant spontaneously utters nonsense sounds.
Back-formation: The creation of a new word by removing a real or supposed affix from an existing word.
Backchannel: Listener responses that do not control the conversation but express attentiveness or agreement.
Backshift: The change of tense in indirect speech that is further back in time than the direct speech.
Balanced sentence: A sentence consisting of two or more clauses that are parallel in structure.
Bar Chart: A diagram in which different amounts are represented by thin horizontal or vertical bars.
Bare infinitive: The basic form of a verb without "to."
Barrier game: A language learning game where communication is obstructed to encourage explicit speaking and listening.
Base adjective: The simplest form of an adjective, without any comparative or superlative endings.
Base form: The simplest form of a verb, not marked by tense, person, or number.
Behaviorist theory: A theory in language learning which posits that language is learned through imitation, repetition, and reinforcement.
Bilabial: A sound produced by using both lips.
Bilingual: Able to speak two languages fluently.
Binary opposition: A pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.
Binding: The linking of pronouns with the nouns to which they refer.
Bioprogram: A hypothetical neurological framework that humans are born with to facilitate the learning of language.
Blended learning: An education program that combines online digital media with traditional classroom methods.
Blending: Combining the sounds and meanings of two words to create a new one.
Blocking: The inability to retrieve a word from memory, combined with partial recall.
Body language: The process of communicating nonverbally through conscious or unconscious gestures and movements.
Borrowing: The adoption of a word from one language into another without translation.
Bottom-up processing: A type of information processing based on the data itself, from the smallest to the largest units.
Bound base: The part of a word that gives the basic meaning but cannot stand alone as a word.
Bound morpheme: A morpheme that must be attached to another element and cannot stand alone.
Bracketing paradox: The occurrence of an element being both inside and outside a particular set of brackets in different interpretations.
Brackets: A pair of marks used to enclose words or figures so as to separate them from the context.
Brainstorming: Producing an idea or way of solving a problem by holding a spontaneous group discussion.
Breathy voice: A type of phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate loosely, creating a breathy sound.
Briefing: A meeting for giving information or instructions.
Briticism: A word, phrase, or pronunciation that is distinctly British.
Broad focus: The application of attention broadly and equally to all aspects of a linguistic structure.
Broadcast English: A style of English used specifically in the broadcasting industry.
Broadening: The process by which a word's meaning becomes less specific over time.
Broader term: A term that covers a wider range of concepts than a more specific term.
Broca's area: The brain region associated with speech production.
Browsing: Reading or surveying material in an informal or casual manner.
Buffer word: A word used to fill pauses or to give the speaker time to think.
Buffering: The temporary storage of data while other data are being received or are needed at a later time.
Business English: The type of English specifically related to international commerce.
By-phrase: A phrase typically following a passive verb to indicate the agent.

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C

Clause: A group of words containing a subject and predicate and functioning as part of a complex or compound sentence.
Cognate: A word that has a similar form in another language from a common origin.
Coherence: The quality of being logical, consistent, and forming a unified whole.
Cohesion: The action or fact of forming a united whole, especially in written or spoken English.
Collocation: A sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance.
Colloquial: Used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literary.
Comma splice: The use of a comma to join two independent clauses.
Comma: A punctuation mark indicating a pause between parts of a sentence or separating items in a list.
Communicative competence: The ability to use a language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals.
Complement: A word or phrase that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression.
Compound: A word that is composed of two or more separate words that are combined to create a new meaning.
Comprehension: The ability to understand something.
Concord: Agreement between words in gender, number, case, person, or any other grammatical category which affects the forms of the words.
Conditional: A sentence or clause expressing an hypothesis or condition, real or imagined.
Conjunction: A word used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause.
Connotation: An idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
Consonant cluster: A group of consonants which have no intervening vowel.
Consonant shift: A historical change of consonants in a language.
Consonant: A basic speech sound in which the breath is at least partly obstructed.
Content word: A noun, verb, adjective, or adverb that conveys significant information in a text or speech.
Context: The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood.
Contraction: A shortened form of a word or group of words, with the omitted letters often replaced in written English by an apostrophe.
Contrastive analysis: A method of linguistic educational research that predicts and explains learner difficulties based on the comparison of language systems.
Controlled practice: Language exercises that focus on accuracy and form to help learners use new language correctly.
Conversational: Appropriate to informal or familiar conversation.
Conversion: The process of changing the form of a word, especially from a noun to a verb, to fulfill a different grammatical role.
Coordination: The grammatical connection of two or more ideas of equal importance within a sentence.
Copy-editing: The process of reviewing and correcting written material to improve accuracy, readability, and fitness for its purpose, as well as ensuring that it is free of error, omission, inconsistency, and repetition.
Core curriculum: The central elements of educational content intended to be taught in school.
Corpus: A collection of written texts, especially the entire works of a particular author or a body of writing on a particular subject.
Correlative: Mutually related; corresponding.
Creole: A stable natural language that has developed from a mixture of different languages.
Critical period hypothesis: The theory proposing that there is a period during which human beings can acquire a language, after which language acquisition is much more difficult and ultimately less successful.
Critique: A detailed analysis and assessment of something, especially a literary, philosophical, or political theory.
Cross-linguistic influence: The effect of one language on the learning of another, particularly regarding the learner's native language influencing the target language.
Cue: A signal for action or a prompt used in language learning to elicit a response.
Cultural literacy: The ability to understand and participate fluently in a given culture.
Curriculum: The subjects comprising a course of study in a school or college.
Cut-off score: The minimum mark required to pass a test or assessment.
Cyclic learning: An approach to learning that involves revisiting content periodically over time to reinforce concepts.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

D

Declarative sentence: A sentence that makes a statement or declaration.
Definite article: The word "the" used in English to specify a particular noun as known to the readers or listeners.
Deictic: Words or expressions that require contextual information to be understood, such as "here," "there," "this," "that."
Demonstrative: A word (such as "this," "that," "these," "those") that points out specific things or people.
Denotation: The literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.
Dependency grammar: A type of grammar that builds on the relation between the words in a sentence, focusing on the dependency of the linguistic units.
Derivation: The formation of a word from another word or base (as by the addition of a usually noninflectional affix).
Derivational morphology: The process of creating new words by adding prefixes and suffixes.
Descriptive grammar: A set of rules about language based on how it is actually used, not how it should be used.
Determiner: A modifying word that determines the kind of reference a noun or noun group has, such as a, the, every.
Dialect: A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group.
Dialectic method: A discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject, who wish to establish the truth through reasoned argumentation.
Dialectology: The scientific study of dialects.
Dialogue: A conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie.
Dictation: The activity of dictating words for someone else to write down.
Dictionary: A reference book or electronic resource that lists the words of a language (typically in alphabetical order) and gives their meaning, or gives the equivalent words in a different language.
Didactic: Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive.
Differentiation: A process by which a teacher adjusts their style of teaching to meet the varied learning needs, abilities, and interests of the students.
Diglossia: A situation in which two dialects or languages are used by a single language community.
Diminutive: A word or suffix that indicates small size, youth, familiarity, affection, or contempt.
Diphthong: A sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another.
Direct method: A way of teaching language which focuses on immediate verbal communication instead of the analysis of grammar rules or translation.
Direct object: The noun or noun phrase that receives the action of a verb in a sentence.
Discipline: A branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education.
Discourse: Written or spoken communication or debate.
Discursive: Moving from topic to topic without order; rambling.
Disfluency: Any of various breaks, irregularities, or non-lexical vocables that occur within the flow of otherwise fluent speech.
Disjunct: A sentence adverb that expresses the speaker’s attitude towards or evaluation of the content of a sentence, such as "frankly," "clearly," or "hopefully."
Divergent thinking: A thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.
Dogme ELT: A communicative approach to language teaching that encourages teaching without published textbooks and focuses instead on conversational communication among learners and teacher.
Double negative: A grammatical construction occurring when two forms of negation are used in the same sentence.
Drafting: Preparing a preliminary version of a piece of writing.
Drama: The art of composing, writing, acting, or producing plays; a play itself.
Drilling: A technique in language teaching focused on repetitive oral practice.
Dual language: A form of education in which students are taught literacy and content in two languages.
Dynamic assessment: An interactive approach to conducting assessments within the context of an active learning process.
Dyslexia: A general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

E

Elicitation: The technique of getting learners to produce language by asking questions or setting up situations.
Ellipsis: The omission of one or more words that are obviously understood but that must be supplied to make a construction grammatically complete.
Embedded question: A question that is included within a larger sentence.
Embodied cognition: The theory that many aspects of cognition are shaped by aspects of the entire body of the organism.
Empathetic listening: Listening to understand, sympathize, and relate to the speaker's emotions and ideas.
Emphasis: Special importance, value, or prominence given to something in speech or writing.
Endocentric compound: A compound word in which one element is the head and determines the grammatical category of the entire compound.
Enjambment: The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza in poetry.
Enumerative: Pertaining to or using enumeration; listing items sequentially.
Enunciation: The act of pronouncing words clearly and distinctly.
Epenthesis: The addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word.
Epistemic: Relating to knowledge or to the degree of its validation.
Epistrophe: The repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences.
Epizeuxis: The repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, for vehemence or emphasis.
Eponym: A person after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc., is named or thought to be named.
Equative sentence: A sentence asserting the equality of two expressions, typically connected by "is" or "are".
Equivocation: The use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself.
Ergative verb: A verb that can be both transitive and intransitive, with a syntactic shift.
Ergativity: The grammatical pattern in which the subject of an intransitive verb is treated like the object of a transitive verb.
Esperanto: An artificial international language, devised in 1887, and promoted as a secondary universal language for international communication.
Essay: A short piece of writing on a particular subject.
Essential question: A question that stimulates thought, provokes inquiry, and transforms instructional inquiry as a whole.
Ethnolinguistics: The study of the relationship between language and culture and how they mutually influence and determine each other.
Etymological fallacy: The mistaken belief that the original or historical meaning of a word or phrase is necessarily similar to its actual present-day meaning.
Etymology: The study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.
Euphemism: A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
Euphony: The quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words.
Evaluative feedback: Feedback given to learners indicating the quality of their performance and suggesting steps for improvement.
Evaluative: Expressing or involving an assessment of the merits of something.
Evocative: Bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind.
Exclamation: A sudden cry or remark, especially expressing surprise, anger, or pain.
Exhaustive listing: Listing all possible options or variations in a given situation.
Expletive: An interjection to lend emphasis; sometimes, a profanity.
Exposition: A comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory.
Expository writing: Writing intended to explain or describe something.
Expressive language: The use of words, sentences, gestures, and writing to convey meaning and messages to others.
Extension: An activity that broadens or prolongs a lesson and reinforces the skills or concepts taught.
Extralinguistic: Not involving or beyond the bounds of language.
Extrinsic motivation: Motivation driven by external rewards such as grades, praise, or compliance.
Eye contact: A direct visual connection with the eyes of another person, often used to communicate confidence and engage an audience.

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F

Fable: A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.
Fallacy: A mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument.
False cognate: Words that look and perhaps sound similar in two languages but differ significantly in meaning.
Feedback loop: A system where the output of a process is used as input for the next process, often seen in learning cycles.
Feedback: Information given to a learner about their performance of a task, which is used as a basis for improvement.
Field dependence: The tendency to rely on external frames of reference.
Field trip: A journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment for educational purposes.
Figurative language: Language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation.
Figurative: Departing from a literal use of words; metaphorical.
Filler: A sound or word that is spoken in conversation by one participant to signal to others that they are paused but not finished speaking.
Finite verb: A verb form that shows tense, person, and number.
Fixed expression: A standard and accepted way of saying something that cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words.
Flap: A type of consonantal sound that is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.
Flashcard: A card bearing information on both sides, used for revisions in tests or as a learning aid.
Flexibility in language use: The ability to adjust language according to the context or social situation.
Fluency: The ability to speak or write a language easily and accurately.
FluentU: An educational platform that uses real-world videos to teach languages in a contextually rich, immersive learning environment.
Focus on form: Instruction that draws students' attention to linguistic elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication.
Folk etymology: The process by which a word is incorrectly derived from another word because of a resemblance in sound.
Folklore: The traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth.
Foregrounding: The practice of making something stand out from the surrounding words or images.
Formal language: Language that is lofty, dignified, or impersonal, typically used in more serious contexts or texts.
Formative assessment: A range of formal and informal assessment procedures conducted by teachers during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment.
Formulaic language: Sequences of words or phrases that appear together more frequently than would be expected by chance and are perceived as a single unit.
Forvo: An online pronunciation dictionary that lets users hear how words are pronounced by native speakers in different languages.
Fossilization: The process through which a mistake in second language acquisition becomes a permanent feature of a person's language use.
Fragment: An incomplete sentence that is missing a subject, predicate, or both.
Frame: A basic structure that underlies or supports a system, concept, or text.
Free morpheme: A morpheme that can stand alone as a word without another morpheme.
Free relative clause: A relative clause that is not introduced by a specific relative word which has a grammatical function in the clause.
Free writing: A prewriting technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic.
Fricative: A consonant characterized by the friction of air passing through a narrow or constricted passage in the vocal tract.
Fronting: A syntactic construction in which a constituent, normally occurring after the verb, is placed at the beginning of the sentence.
Function word: A word such as a preposition, pronoun, or auxiliary verb that expresses grammatical or structural relationships within sentences.
Functional approach: Teaching language by focusing on the communicative purpose of speech.
Functionalism: A theory that emphasizes the ways that language is tied to the functions it performs in social contexts.
Fundamentals of English: Basic principles and elements that underlie the English language, including grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.
Future continuous: A tense used to describe actions that will be in progress at a specific future time.
Future perfect: A tense used to describe an action that will have been completed before some point in the future.
Futurism: A movement in literature and the arts that emphasized the dynamism, speed, energy, and power of the machine and the vitality, change, and restlessness of modern life.

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G

Gazetteer: A geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names.
Gender: A grammatical category in many languages that affects the form of a noun, pronoun, adjective, and verb agreement.
Generative grammar: A theory of grammar that asserts that a set of rules can generate exactly those combinations of words that form grammatically correct sentences in a language.
Genre analysis: The study of how different genres use language in particular ways to achieve intended meanings and effects.
Genre: A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.
Gerund: A form that is derived from a verb but that functions as a noun, ending in -ing, e.g., "Asking is easier than guessing."
Gerundive: A form of a verb in some languages, used to express necessity or desirability of the action.
Gesticulate: To make gestures, especially when speaking, as a way of aiding what is being said or to emphasize a point.
Gibberish: Unintelligible or nonsensical talk or writing.
Glide: A transitional sound that eases the passage from one vowel or consonant to another.
Gliding vowel: A vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another.
Globish: A simplified version of English used as a global lingua franca.
Gloss: A brief explanation, note, or translation of a difficult or complex expression or word.
Glossary: A list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with definitions for those terms.
Glottal stop: A type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
Glottis: The part of the larynx consisting of the vocal cords and the slit-like opening between them.
Grammar checker: A software feature that checks written text for grammatical correctness.
Grammar school: Originally a school teaching Latin grammar to young learners, but now more broadly used to denote some schools in countries like the UK.
Grammar translation method: A technique of foreign language teaching which uses translation of a first language to a target language, and vice versa, as a main part of learning.
Grammar: The set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language.
Grammatical case: A category of inflectional forms of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, participles, and numerals that indicates the syntactical relation to other words in the sentence.
Grammatical mood: A grammatical feature of verbs, used for signaling modality.
Grammatical number: A grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two", or "three or more").
Grammatology: The study of writing systems and their relationship to the structures of language.
Grapheme: The smallest unit of a writing system of any given language.
Graphology: The study of physical aspects of writing and its significance and implications in the interpretation of text (not handwriting analysis).
Gregarious: (Of a person) fond of company; sociable. Often relevant in discussions about learning and using language socially.
Grice's maxims: Four conversational rules that Paul Grice proposed to help achieve effective communication: quantity, quality, relation, and manner.
Grimace: A facial expression, often ugly or contorted, that indicates disapproval, pain, etc.
Grotesque: Odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre.
Grounding: The aspect of language that involves relating words or sentences to a non-linguistic context.
Group dynamics: The processes involved when people in a group interact with each other.
Guessing game: A game in which the aim is to guess correctly some information, which can be used in language learning to encourage inference of meaning.
Guided composition: A learning activity where students are given a structure or outline to help them write texts.
Guided discovery: A teaching method that involves giving learners clues to help them discover knowledge for themselves.
Guided practice: Instructional activities designed to reinforce and apply learning, often under direct teacher guidance.
Guided reading: An instructional approach where the teacher guides small groups in reading through texts at their instructional level.
Guile: Sly or cunning intelligence often used to achieve something.
Gustatory imagery: Descriptive language that evokes a sense of taste.
Guttural: A sound produced in the throat; harsh-sounding.

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H

Haiku: A Japanese form of poetry, typically characterized by three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, often reflecting on nature or the seasons.
Hapax legomenon: A word that appears only once within a context, either in the written record of an entire language or in the works of an author.
Haptic: Relating to the sense of touch, particularly in relation to connections between touch and language.
Headline: A heading at the top of an article or page in a newspaper or magazine.
Headword: The word under which a set of related dictionary or encyclopedia entries appears.
Hearsay: Information received from other people that cannot be adequately substantiated; rumor.
Hedging: Using non-committal or ambiguous language to make statements less assertive or conclusive.
Heptameter: A line of verse consisting of seven metrical feet.
Heteroglossia: The presence of two or more expressed viewpoints in a single text or similar context.
Heteronym: Words that are spelled identically but have different meanings and pronunciation, such as "invalid" (not valid) and "invalid" (a person who is sickly).
Heuristic: A technique designed for problem solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal but sufficient for reaching an immediate goal.
Hexameter: A metrical line of verses consisting of six feet.
Hierarchy: A system in which members of an organization or society are ranked according to relative status or authority.
Highlighter: A fluorescent pen used to mark sections of text for reference.
Historical linguistics: The study of how languages change over time.
Holonym: A word that denotes a whole whose parts are denoted by another word, for example, "tree" is a holonym of "bark."
Holophrasis: The expression of a complex of ideas by a single word, as in the use of a verb alone to express a command.
Homeric simile: An extended simile often running to several lines, used typically in epic poetry to intensify the heroic stature of the subject and to serve as decoration.
Homiletics: The art of preaching or writing sermons.
Homograph: Words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and sometimes different pronunciations, such as "lead" (to guide) and "lead" (a metal).
Homonym: A word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, regardless of whether it is spelled the same way or not.
Homophone: A word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same way or not, e.g., "new" and "knew."
Homophonic translation: A form of translation where the sounds of the original words are approximated in the translating language by words with similar sounds.
Homophonic: Referring to words that sound the same as others but differ in meaning and/or spelling.
Hortatory: Encouraging; exhortatory.
Hubris: Excessive pride or self-confidence.
Humor: The quality of being amusing or comic, especially as expressed in literature or speech.
Hybrid language: A language that arises from the mixing of two parent languages.
Hyperbaton: An arrangement of words in a sentence in an unexpected order.
Hyperbole: Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
Hypercorrection: The act of making an incorrect alteration to a word or phrase based on an incorrect understanding of grammar rules.
Hypernym: A word with a broad meaning that more specific words fall under; a superordinate. For example, "flower" is a hypernym of "daisy."
Hypertext: Text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access.
Hyphen: A punctuation mark used to join words or parts of words.
Hyphenation: The breaking of a word at the end of a line with a hyphen.
Hyponym: A word of more specific meaning than a general or superordinate term applicable to it. For example, "daisy" is a hyponym of "flower."
Hypotaxis: The grammatical arrangement of "dependent" or "subordinate" constructions, such as dependent clauses or phrases, typically using conjunctions.
Hypothesis testing: The process of using statistical methods to determine if there is enough evidence to reject a basic assumption or hypothesis about a data set.
Hypothesis: A supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

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I

Idiolect: The speech habits peculiar to a particular person.
Idiom: A phrase or a fixed expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning.
Illative: Indicating movement into or toward something.
Illiteracy: The inability to read or write.
Imagery: Visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.
Immersive learning: A learning technique that simulates a real-world environment that is interactive, allowing learners to become fully 'immersed' in the learning process.
Imperative: A grammatical mood that forms commands or requests, including both positive and negative commands.
Imperfect tense: A tense used to describe actions that were ongoing or incomplete in the past.
Impersonal verb: A verb that does not appear with a specific subject. In English, for example, it rains or it seems.
Implication: A conclusion that can be drawn from something, although it is not explicitly stated.
Implicit learning: Learning complex information in an incidental manner, without awareness of what has been learned.
Importance of pronunciation: The value placed on correct formation and understanding of the sounds of a language in communication.
Improvisation: The act of creating something spontaneously or without preparation.
Inchoative verb: A verb that indicates the beginning of an action or a state (e.g., to begin, to start).
Incidental learning: Learning that occurs without the intention to learn, often as a byproduct of another activity.
Indefinite pronoun: A pronoun that does not refer to any person, amount, or thing in particular, e.g., anything, something, anyone, everyone.
Independent clause: A clause that can stand alone as a sentence, having a subject and a predicate.
Indexicality: The feature of language that links it to contexts and speakers, pointing to particular times, places, or persons.
Indicative mood: The mood used to make factual statements or pose questions.
Indirect object: The recipient of the direct object, or the entity that is indirectly affected by the action of the verb.
Indirect speech: A means of expressing the content of statements, questions, or other utterances, without quoting them explicitly as is done in direct speech.
Inference: A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning.
Infinitive: The basic form of a verb, without inflection binding it to a particular subject or tense.
Infix: An affix inserted inside a word stem (rare in English).
Inflection: The modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, and case.
Innovative language: Language forms or structures that are novel or atypical, often seen in creative or evolving uses of a language.
Interdental: Sounds produced with the tongue between the teeth, such as the English th sounds.
Interjection: A word or phrase that expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction and functions independently of a sentence.
Interlanguage: The type of language or linguistic system used by speakers who are in the process of learning a language.
Interlocutor: A person who takes part in a conversation or dialogue.
Interpretation: The action of explaining the meaning of something, often seen in the translation of spoken or signed languages.
Intertextuality: The relationship between texts, especially literary ones.
Intonation: The rise and fall of the voice in speaking, particularly important in conveying meaning in spoken language.
Intransitive verb: A verb that does not require a direct object to complete its meaning.
Inversion: A grammatical structure in which the predicate comes before the subject (e.g., In the woods lurks a wolf).
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet): An alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet, designed to represent the sounds of all spoken languages.
Irony: The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
Isogloss: A geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature.
Isolating language: A type of language with a very low ratio of morphemes per word and no inflectional morphology at all.
Iterative: Relating to or involving repetition of a process or utterance.

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J

Jack-of-all-trades: A person who can do many different types of work but who is not necessarily very competent at any of them.
Jamboree: A large celebration or party, typically a boisterous one.
Jargon term: A word or phrase that is used exclusively in a particular profession or by a particular group of people.
Jargon: Special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand.
Jargonize: To use specialized or technical terms.
Jeer: To make rude and mocking remarks, typically in a loud voice.
Jeopardize: To put (someone or something) into a situation in which there is a danger of loss, harm, or failure.
Jeopardy: Danger of loss, harm, or failure.
Jest: A thing said or done for amusement; a joke.
Jestful: Full of jest; playful.
Jibe with: To be in agreement with; to conform to.
Jibe: To be in accord; agree.
Jingle composer: Someone who specializes in creating catchy musical pieces for advertisements.
Jingle writing: The craft of writing short, catchy tunes for commercials.
Jingle: A short, catchy piece of music or rhyme, typically used in advertising.
Jinx: A person or thing that brings bad luck.
Jitter: To act nervously or anxiously.
Jocular: Fond of or characterized by joking; humorous or playful.
Jocund: Cheerful and lighthearted.
Jointly: Together with one or more other parties.
Jot: To write something quickly.
Journal: A daily record of news and events of a personal nature; a diary.
Journalistic: Relating to journalists or journalism.
Journey: An act of traveling from one place to another.
Journeyman: A worker or sports player who is reliable but not outstanding.
Jovial: Cheerful and friendly.
Judgment: The ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions.
Judicious: Having, showing, or done with good judgment or sense.
Jumpstart: To start (an engine or vehicle) by temporary connection to an external power source.
Juncture: A particular point in events or time.
Jurisdiction: The official power to make legal decisions and judgments.
Jurisprudence: The theory or philosophy of law.
Justification: The action of showing something to be right or reasonable.
Justify: To show or prove to be right or reasonable.
Jut: To extend out, over, or beyond the main body or line of something.
Juvenile: Relating to young people.
Juxtapose: To place or deal with close together for contrasting effect.
Juxtaposition: The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
Juxtapositional: Relating to, involving, or resulting from juxtaposition.
Juxtapositioning: The act of placing things side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.

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K

Kaleidoscope: A constantly changing pattern or sequence of elements or events.
Kernel sentence: A simple, active, affirmative sentence from which more complex sentences can be generated.
Keynote: The main underlying theme of a larger idea, usually presented at the beginning of a content section.
Keystone: Something on which other things depend for support; typically used metaphorically to describe central concepts in a theory or narrative.
Keyword: A word or concept of great significance.
Kiln: An oven or furnace for hardening, burning, or drying substances such as grain, hops, or pottery.
Kinematics: The branch of mechanics concerned with the motion of objects without reference to the forces which cause the motion.
Kinesiology: The study of human or non-human body movement.
Kinesthetic: Relating to the perception of body position and movement and muscular tensions.
Kinetoscope: An early motion picture exhibition device.
Kinship: Blood relationship or an affinity or similarity between persons or things.
Kiosk-based learning: Educational activities facilitated through interactive kiosks, often found in public places.
Kiosk: A small structure in a public area used for providing information or displaying advertisements, often including interactive technology.
Kismet: Destiny; fate.
Kitsch: Art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way.
Klaxon: A loud electric horn, formerly used as a warning signal but now used for other signaling purposes or in music.
Kleptocracy: A government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; rule by a thief or thieves.
Knack: A skill or an ability to do something easily and well.
Knave: A dishonest or unscrupulous man; often used in literary contexts.
Knavery: Unprincipled, untrustworthy, or dishonest dealing; trickery.
Knead: To work and press into a mass, usually with the hands (especially used in the metaphorical sense in writing or speaking).
Kneel: Go down on one's knees; often used metaphorically to signify submission or supplication.
Knell: The sound of a bell, especially when rung solemnly for a death or funeral.
Knight: In historical contexts, a man awarded a non-hereditary title by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity.
Knit: To join closely together, integrate tightly.
Knoll: A small hill or mound.
Knot: A fastening made by looping a piece of string, rope, or something similar on itself and tightening or the interlacement of these elements in narrative or argument.
Know-how: Practical knowledge or skill; expertise.
Knuckle: A part of a finger at a joint where the bone is near the surface, especially where the finger joins the hand.
Koine: A common dialect which was the lingua franca of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East during the Hellenistic and Roman periods; often used metaphorically to refer to any common language derived from different dialects.
Kowtow: Act in an excessively subservient manner; historically, a form of bowing involving kneeling and touching the ground with the forehead as a gesture of deep respect.
Kraal: A traditional African village of huts, typically enclosed by a fence.
Kraken: A fabulous Scandinavian sea monster perhaps imagined on the basis of chance sightings of giant squids.
Kremlin: A citadel within a Russian town, especially the one in Moscow that includes the Russian government's senior administration buildings.
Kryptonite: Something that can seriously weaken or harm a particular person or thing; taken from the fictional substance that weakens Superman, used metaphorically.
Kudos: Praise and honor received for an achievement.
Kudos: The prestige or acclaim that results from some noteworthy achievement or position; often used in academic and cultural contexts where recognition is given.
Kumquat: A small, orange fruit resembling a smaller, oval orange; metaphorically used to refer to small things packed with flavor or interest.
Kurtosis: The degree of peakedness of a distribution in statistics, sometimes used metaphorically to describe variations in patterns or trends.
Kyphosis: Excessive outward curvature of the spine, causing hunching of the back.

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L

Labial: Relating to the lips.
Laconic: (of a person, speech, or style of writing) using very few words.
Lambaste: Criticize (someone or something) harshly.
Lampoon: Publicly criticize (someone or something) by using ridicule, irony, or sarcasm.
Language acquisition: The process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce, and use words to understand and communicate.
Language attrition: The process of losing a native, or first, language. This process is generally caused by both isolation from speakers of the first language and the acquisition and use of a second language, which interferes with the correct production and comprehension of the first.
Languish: Lose or lack vitality; grow weak.
Larynx: The hollow muscular organ forming an air passage to the lungs and holding the vocal cords; the voice box.
Latent: (of a quality or state) existing but not yet developed or manifest; hidden or concealed.
Laudable: (of an action, idea, or goal) deserving praise and commendation.
Leitmotif: A recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation.
Lemma: A headword under which a set of related dictionary or encyclopedia entries appears.
Letter
Levity: Humor or frivolity, especially the treatment of a serious matter with humor or in a manner lacking due respect.
Lexeme: A basic lexical unit of a language consisting of one word or several words, considered as an abstract unit, and defined by semantic content.
Lexical ambiguity: The presence of two or more possible meanings within a single word.
Lexical: Relating to the words or vocabulary of a language.
Lexicography: The activity or occupation of compiling dictionaries.
Lexicon: The vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.
Linguist: A person skilled in foreign languages or a person who studies linguistics.
Linguistic anthropology: The study of how language influences social life.
Linguistic relativity: The hypothesis that the structure of a language affects its speakers' world view or cognition.
Linguistic turn: A major development in Western philosophy during the 20th century, the most important characteristic of which is the focus on language in philosophical inquiry.
Linguistics: The scientific study of language and its structure, including the study of morphology, syntax, phonetics, and semantics.
Linking verb: A verb that connects the subject of a sentence to a complement.
Lipogram: A kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is avoided—usually a common vowel.
Lisp: A speech defect in which s is pronounced like th in thick and z is pronounced like th in this.
Listeme: Any element of a list, such as a linguistic form, that functions as a unit within a larger structure.
Literal: Taking words in their usual or most basic sense without metaphor or allegory.
Literalism: Adherence to the explicit substance of an idea or expression.
Literary criticism: The art or practice of judging and commenting on the qualities and character of literary works.
Litote: A figure of speech that employs an understatement by using double negatives or, in other words, a positive statement expressed by negating its opposite expressions.
Locution: A word or phrase, especially with regard to style or idiom.
Logogram: A sign or character representing a word or phrase, such as those used in shorthand and some writing systems.
Logophilia: The love of words.
Logorrhea: A tendency to extreme loquacity.
Longitudinal study: An observational research method in which data is gathered for the same subjects repeatedly over a period of time.
Loose sentence: A type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases.
Loquacious: Tending to talk a great deal; talkative.
Lyrical: (of literature, art, or music) expressing the writer's emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way.
Lyricism: An artist's expression of emotion in an imaginative and beautiful way; the quality of being lyrical.

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M

Malaprop: A character from Richard Sheridan's 1775 play, "The Rivals," famous for misusing words.
Malapropism: The mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect.
Markup language: A system for annotating a document in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from the text.
Maxim: A short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct.
Medial: Situated in the middle; in the middle of a word.
Meiosis: A rhetorical term for understatement, especially when the expression makes something seem less significant than it really is.
Meme: An element of a culture or system of behavior passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means.
Metacognition: Awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.
Metadiscourse: The aspect of discourse that structures a text according to its purpose and intended audience, including ways a writer or speaker refers to themselves, their arguments, and their overall message.
Metalinguistics: Awareness of how language is structured and used.
Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
Metapragmatics: The study of the factors that govern the choice of language variants in social interaction.
Metonymy: A figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Metrical foot: A group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm.
Metrical: Pertaining to meter or rhythm in poetry.
Microcosm: A community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger.
Middle voice: A voice that denotes the subject of the verb is performing an action upon itself or is interested in the action.
Mimicry: The action or art of imitating someone or something, typically in order to entertain or ridicule.
Minimal pair: A pair of words that differ only by a single sound in the same position and which have different meanings.
Misnomer: A wrong or inaccurate name or designation.
Mnemonic: A device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that assists in remembering something.
Modal verb: A type of verb that is used to indicate modality – that is, likelihood, ability, permission, and obligation.
Modality: The method or device used to deliver information, including spoken, written, and non-verbal communication.
Modifier: A word, especially an adjective or noun that is used attributively, that restricts or adds to the sense of a head noun.
Monolingual: Speaking or writing only one language.
Monologue: A long speech by one actor in a play or movie, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast program.
Monophthong: A simple vowel sound.
Monosemic: Having only one meaning; unambiguous.
Mood: A temporary state of mind or feeling.
Morpheme: The smallest grammatical unit in a language.
Morphology: The study of the forms of words, in particular inflected forms.
Morphophonemics: The branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and phonemic structures.
Morphosyntax: The branch of linguistics that covers the grammatical structures combining morphological and syntactic aspects.
Motif: A distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition.
Motivation: The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.
Multilingual: Able to speak several languages.
Mutual intelligibility: A relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort.
Myth: A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.
Mythos: A pattern of beliefs expressing often symbolically the characteristics of a culture or ideology.

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N

Narrative mode: The set of methods the author of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical story uses to convey the plot to the audience.
Narrative therapy: A form of psychotherapy that seeks to help patients identify their values and the skills associated with them.
Narrative: A spoken or written account of connected events; a story.
Narratology: The study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect our perception.
Nasal: A sound produced with the airflow passing through the nose, typically n, m, ng sounds in English.
Nasality: The quality or characteristic of sound being nasal.
Nativism: The theory that concepts, mental capacities, and mental structures are innate rather than acquired by learning.
Nativization: The process by which a language is adapted over time to become the native language of a population.
Naturalism: In philosophy, the idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world.
Nebulous: In the form of a cloud or haze; hazy.
Negation: The contradiction or denial of something.
Negotiation of meaning: The process by which speakers of different languages try to understand each other and make themselves understood.
Neologism: A newly coined word or expression.
Network theory: A theory focusing on the connections and interactions between entities rather than individual characteristics.
Neural linguistics: The study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language.
Neutrality principle: In linguistics, the idea that languages tend to avoid using the same phonological processes to signal different grammatical or semantic contrasts.
Neutrality: The absence of decided views, expression, or strong feeling.
Neutralization: The process by which differences between phonemes are eliminated in certain contexts.
New Criticism: A movement in literary theory that emphasizes the importance of reading a text as an independent and complete work of art.
Niche: A comfortable or suitable position in life or employment.
Node: A point in a network or diagram at which lines or pathways intersect or branch.
Nomad: A member of a people having no permanent abode, and who travel from place to place to find fresh pasture for their livestock.
Nomenclature: The devising or choosing of names for things, especially in a science or other discipline.
Nominal: Relating to, consisting of, or producing nouns.
Nominalization: The creation of a noun from a verb or adjective.
Nomothetic: Relating to the study or discovery of general scientific laws.
Non sequitur: A conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement.
Non-finite verb: Verbs that do not show tense, person, or number (e.g., infinitives, participles).
Nonce word: A word created for one single occasion to solve an immediate problem of communication.
Nonrestrictive clause: A clause, typically introduced by a relative pronoun, that adds extra information about a noun mentioned in the sentence but does not limit or define it.
Norm: A standard or pattern, especially of social behavior, that is typical or expected.
Normalization: The process of making something normal or acceptable.
Normative: Establishing, relating to, or deriving from a standard or norm, especially of behavior.
Nostalgia: A sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.
Notation: A series of written symbols used to represent numbers, amounts, or elements in a system.
Noun clause: A dependent clause that acts as a noun.
Noun phrase: A phrase that acts as a noun.
Noun: A word used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things, or to name a particular one of these.
Nuance: A subtle difference in or shade of meaning, expression, or sound.
Nuanced: Characterized by subtle shades of meaning or expression.

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O

Obfuscate: Render obscure, unclear, or unintelligible.
Object pronoun: A pronoun that is typically used as a grammatical object: either as the direct or indirect object of a verb, or as the object of a preposition.
Objective case: The case of nouns and pronouns used as the object of a verb or preposition.
Obligation: An act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound; a duty or commitment.
Oblique case: Any case in grammar, other than the nominative, used for the objects of verbs or prepositions.
Oblique: Not explicit or done in a direct way; slanting.
Ode: A lyric poem, typically one in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner.
Oligarchy: A small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.
Omission: The action of excluding or leaving out someone or something.
Omniscient: Knowing everything.
Onomatopoeia: The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle).
Ontogeny: The development of an individual organism or anatomical or behavioral feature from the earliest stage to maturity.
Opaque context: A context in which substitution of co-referential terms does not preserve truth values (e.g., in belief contexts: knowing that Clark Kent is Superman does not mean one believes Lois Lane loves Superman when she loves Clark Kent).
Open class: A category of words in a language, such as nouns or verbs, that readily accepts new members.
Operative: Functioning effectively; having effect.
Optative: A grammatical mood that expresses wishes or hopes.
Oral literature: Literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, often characteristic of cultures without a written language.
Orator: A public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled.
Ordinal number: A number defining a thing's position in a series, such as "first," "second," or "third."
Organic: Developing in a manner analogous to the natural growth and evolution characteristic of living organisms; simple and healthful and close to nature.
Orthoepy: The correct or accepted pronunciation of words.
Orthographic projection: A method of projection in which an object is depicted using parallel lines to project its outline onto a plane.
Orthography: The conventional spelling system of a language.
Oscillate: Move or swing back and forth in a regular rhythm.
Ostensive definition: A method of defining by direct demonstration, e.g., pointing to a piece of chalk and saying "this is chalk."
Ostracize: Exclude from a society or group.
Outlier: A person or thing differing from all other members of a particular group or set.
Output hypothesis: The theory that language acquisition occurs when learners test their hypotheses about the target language by speaking and then receive feedback from native speakers.
Overextension: The use of a given word in a broader context than is appropriate, which is common in language development in children.
Overgeneralization: The extension of a rule to items that are excluded from it in the language norm.
Overlap: A shared area or period of time in which two things occur simultaneously or sequentially.
Overlapping dialogue: Dialogue in which two or more characters speak simultaneously.
Overtone: A subtle or subsidiary quality, implication, or connotation.
Ownership: The state or fact of owning something, often used metaphorically in discussions of language and culture (e.g., ownership of one's learning process).
Oxidize: Combine or become combined chemically with oxygen.
Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., deafening silence).
Oxymoronic: Containing a contradiction.

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P

Palindrome: A word, phrase, number, or other sequence of characters which reads the same backward as forward, such as madam or racecar.
Palindrome: A word, phrase, number, or other sequence of characters which reads the same backward or forward.
Paradox: A statement or proposition that, despite sound reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.
Paralinguistics: The aspect of communication that involves nonverbal cues such as tone of voice, loudness, inflection, and pitch.
Paraphrase: A rewording of something written or spoken by someone else.
Parenthetical: Relating to or inserted as a parenthesis.
Parse: Analyze (a sentence) into its parts and describe their syntactic roles.
Participle: A word formed from a verb and used as an adjective or a noun. In English, participles are also used to make compound verb forms (e.g., is going, has been).
Passive voice: The voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is the recipient of the action denoted by the verb.
Pastiche: An artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.
Pedagogy: The method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.
Periphrasis: The use of indirect and circumlocutory speech or writing.
Philology: The study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary criticism, history, and linguistics.
Phoneme: Any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another.
Phonetics: The study and classification of speech sounds.
Phonology: The branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages.
Phrasal verb: A verb that is made up of a main verb together with an adverb or a preposition, or both, typically with a meaning different from the original verb (e.g., give up, look after).
Plagiarism: The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
Pleonasm: The use of more words than are necessary to convey meaning (e.g., see with one's eyes), either as a fault of style or for emphasis.
Plosive: A type of consonant sound that is made by stopping airflow using the lips, teeth, or palate, followed by a sudden release of air.
Plural: The form of a word that typically denotes more than one person, thing, or instance.
Polyglot: Knowing or using several languages.
Polyphony: The style of simultaneously combining a number of parts, each forming an individual melody and harmonizing with each other.
Polysemy: The coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase.
Portmanteau: A word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for example, brunch (from breakfast and lunch) or motel (from motor and hotel).
Postulate: Suggest or assume the existence, fact, or truth of (something) as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or belief.
Pragmatics: The branch of linguistics dealing with language in use and the contexts in which it is used, including such matters as dealing with its users and its uses in speech acts, conversational implicature, talk in interaction, and other non-structural forms of language.
Predicate: The part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating something about the subject (e.g., went home in John went home).
Preposition: A word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause.
Prescriptivism: The attitude or belief that one variety of a language is superior to others and should be promoted as such.
Pronoun: A word that can function by itself as a noun phrase and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g., I, you) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g., she, it, this).
Pronunciation: The way in which a word is pronounced.
Proposition: A statement or assertion that expresses a judgment or opinion.
Prosody: The patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry.
Proverb: A short, well-known pithy saying, stating a general truth or piece of advice.
Proxemics: The branch of knowledge that deals with the amount of space that people feel it necessary to set between themselves and others.
Pun: A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.
Punctuation: The marks, such as period, comma, and parentheses, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning.

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Q

Quadrant: Each of four quarters of a circle.
Quadrilateral: A four-sided figure.
Quadruple: To create four times as much or as many of something.
Quagmire: A soft boggy area of land that gives way underfoot or a complex or hazardous situation.
Qualify: Be entitled to a particular benefit or privilege by fulfilling a necessary condition.
Qualitative: Relating to, measuring, or measured by the quality of something rather than its quantity.
Quandary: A difficult situation; a practical dilemma.
Quandary: A state of perplexity or uncertainty over what to do in a difficult situation.
Quantifier: A word or phrase which is used before a noun to indicate the amount or quantity, such as "all," "some," "no."
Quantitative: Relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something rather than its quality.
Quantum: A discrete quantity of energy proportional in magnitude to the frequency of the radiation it represents.
Quarantine: A state, period, or place of isolation in which people or animals that have been exposed to infectious or contagious disease are placed.
Quarrel: An angry argument or disagreement.
Quarry: A place, typically a large, deep pit, from which stone or other materials are or have been extracted.
Quartet: A group of four people playing music or singing together.
Quasi: Seemingly; apparently but not really.
Quell: Put an end to (a rebellion or other disorder), typically by the use of force.
Query letter: A letter sent to inquire about possibilities for publishing a work or proposing a project.
Query: A question, especially one addressed to an official or organization.
Question: A sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information.
Quibble: A slight objection or criticism.
Quibble: Argue or raise objections about a trivial matter.
Quiescent: In a state or period of inactivity or dormancy.
Quill: A pen made from a flight feather of a large bird, historically used for writing or drawing.
Quinoa: A grain crop grown primarily for its edible seeds.
Quintessence: The most perfect or typical example of a quality or class.
Quintessential: Representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class.
Quintuplet: One of five children born to the same mother at one birth.
Quip: A witty remark.
Quipu: An ancient Inca device for recording information, consisting of variously colored threads knotted in different ways.
Quirk: A peculiar behavioral habit.
Quiver: Tremble or shake with a slight rapid motion.
Quixotic: Exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical, often marked by rash lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action.
Quixotic: Extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.
Quorate: Having the minimum number of members present to conduct business officially.
Quotation: A group of words taken from a text or speech and repeated by someone other than the original author or speaker.
Quotidian: Of or occurring every day; daily.
Quotient: A result obtained by dividing one quantity by another.

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R

Raconteur: A person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way.
Realism: The attitude or practice of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it accordingly.
Rebus: A puzzle in which words are represented by combinations of pictures and individual letters; for instance, apex might be represented by a picture of an ape followed by a letter X.
Reciprocal: Given, felt, or done in return.
Red herring: Something, especially a clue, that is or is intended to be misleading or distracting.
Redundancy: The inclusion of extra components which are not strictly necessary to functioning, in case of failure in other components.
Reduplication: The repetition of a part of a word (as in goody-goody) to express intensity, plurality, or other meanings.
Refrain: A repeated part of a poem, particularly when it comes at the end of a stanza or between sections of a song.
Register: The level of formality or style of expression in language.
Reification: The act of treating something abstract as a material or concrete thing.
Renaissance: The period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by a revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome.
Repartee: Conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies.
Repetition: The action of repeating something that has already been said or written.
Resilience
Resilience: The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Resolution: The action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter.
Resonance: The quality in a sound of being deep, full, and reverberating.
Retroflex: A sound articulated with the tip of the tongue curled upwards and backwards against the palate.
Retrograde: Directed or moving backward.
Revise: To reconsider and alter (something) in the light of further evidence.
Rhapsodize: To speak or write about someone or something with great enthusiasm and delight.
Rhapsody: An effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic expression of feeling.
Rhetoric: The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.
Rhetorical analysis: The process of examining the interactions between a text, an author, and an audience.
Rhetorical devices: Techniques that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective.
Rhetorical question: A question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer.
Rhetorical strategy: A method used in writing or speaking where rhetorical devices are used to convey to the reader or listener a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a different perspective.
Rhetorician: An expert in the art of rhetoric.
Rhizome: A continuously growing horizontal underground stem which puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.
Rhyme scheme: The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.
Rhyme: Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry.
Rhythm: A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.
Rhythmic: Having or relating to rhythm, marked by a regular sequence of sounds or movements.
Ribald: Referring to sexual matters in an amusingly coarse or irreverent way.
Ricochet: Rebound one or more times off a surface.
Riddle: A question or statement intentionally phrased so as to require ingenuity in ascertaining its answer or meaning.
Rigorous: Extremely thorough, exhaustive, or accurate.
Riposte: A quick clever reply to an insult or criticism.
Risqué: Slightly indecent and liable to shock, especially by being sexually suggestive.
Ritualistic: Pertaining to or characteristic of rituals followed as part of a ceremony or rite.
Robust: Strong and healthy; vigorous.
Rogue: A dishonest or unprincipled man.
Romanization: Conversion of a text from another writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so.
Root: The basic cause, source, or origin of something.
Rosetta Stone: A stone slab, found in 1799, that was instrumental in deciphering the hieroglyphics used in ancient Egypt.
Rote learning: Memorization technique based on repetition.
Rotund: (of speech or literary style) Indulging in grandiloquent expression.
Rotunda: A large and high circular hall or room in a building, especially one surmounted by a dome.
Round character: A complex literary character with fully developed and dynamic traits.
Routinize: Make routine or habitual.
Rowdy: Noisy and disorderly.
Royalty: People of royal blood or status.
Rubato: Flexible tempo used at a performer's discretion.
Rubric: A guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests.
Rubric: A statement of purpose or function.
Rudiment: The first principles of a subject.
Rudimentary: Involving or limited to basic principles.
Ruffian: A violent person, especially one involved in crime.
Rule of thumb: A broadly accurate guide or principle, based on experience or practice rather than theory.
Ruminate: Think deeply about something.
Ruminative: Given to or marked by long periods of introspection or meditation.
Run-on sentence: A grammatically faulty sentence in which two or more main or independent clauses are joined without a word to connect them or a punctuation mark to separate them.
Run-through: A rehearsal of a performance or procedure before the final one.
Runic: Relating to or consisting of runes.
Runic: Relating to or written in the characters of an alphabet used by ancient Germanic peoples from the 3rd to the 13th century.
Rupture: Break or burst suddenly.
Rural: In, relating to, or characteristic of the countryside rather than the town.
Ruse: An action intended to deceive someone; a trick.
Rustic: Having a simplicity and charm that is considered typical of the countryside.
Rustic: Relating to the countryside; rural.
Rusticate: Go to, live in, or spend time in the country.
Ruthless: Having or showing no pity or compassion for others.

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R

Resilience: The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Resolution: The action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter.
Rhetorical analysis: The process of examining the interactions between a text, an author, and an audience.
Rhythmic: Having or relating to rhythm, marked by a regular sequence of sounds or movements.
Ritualistic: Pertaining to or characteristic of rituals followed as part of a ceremony or rite.
Rubric: A guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests.
Rudimentary: Involving or limited to basic principles.
Ruminate: Think deeply about something.
Run-on sentence: A grammatically faulty sentence in which two or more main or independent clauses are joined without a word to connect them or a punctuation mark to separate them.
Rural: In, relating to, or characteristic of the countryside rather than the town.
Ruse: An action intended to deceive someone; a trick.
Rustic: Having a simplicity and charm that is considered typical of the countryside.
Rhetorician: An expert in the art of rhetoric.
Rhapsodize: To speak or write about someone or something with great enthusiasm and delight.
Rhizome: A continuously growing horizontal underground stem which puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.
Ribald: Referring to sexual matters in an amusingly coarse or irreverent way.
Ricochet: Rebound one or more times off a surface.
Rigorous: Extremely thorough, exhaustive, or accurate.
Riposte: A quick clever reply to an insult or criticism.
Risqué: Slightly indecent and liable to shock, especially by being sexually suggestive.
Robust: Strong and healthy; vigorous.
Rote learning: Memorization technique based on repetition.
Rotunda: A large and high circular hall or room in a building, especially one surmounted by a dome.
Routinize: Make routine or habitual.
Rowdy: Noisy and disorderly.
Royalty: People of royal blood or status.
Rubato: Flexible tempo used at a performer's discretion.
Rudiment: The first principles of a subject.
Ruffian: A violent person, especially one involved in crime.
Ruminative: Given to or marked by long periods of introspection or meditation.
Run-through: A rehearsal of a performance or procedure before the final one.
Runic: Relating to or consisting of runes.
Rupture: Break or burst suddenly.
Rusticate: Go to, live in, or spend time in the country.
Ruthless: Having or showing no pity or compassion for others.

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S

Sagacity: The quality of being sagacious; wisdom.
Sarcasm: The use of irony to mock or convey contempt.
Satire: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Scansion: The action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm.
Schwa: The unstressed central vowel (as in a moment ago), the most common vowel sound in English.
Semantic field: A set of words grouped by meaning referring to a specific subject.
Semantics: The branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning.
Sesquipedalian: (Of a word) polysyllabic; long.
Sibilance: A hissing sound.
Sibilant: Making or characterized by a hissing sound.
Simile: A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion).
Slang: A type of language consisting of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people.
Solecism: A grammatical mistake in speech or writing.
Soliloquy: An act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play.
Sonnet: A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, typically having ten syllables per line.
Spoonerism: A verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect, such as saying "The Lord is a shoving leopard" instead of "The Lord is a loving shepherd."
Sprachgefühl: A feeling for language; an intuitive sense of what is linguistically appropriate.
Stanza: A group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.
Stereotype: A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
Stratum: A level or class to which people are assigned according to their social status, education, or income.
Stylistics: The study and interpretation of texts in regard to their linguistic and tonal style.
Subjective: Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
Subjunctive: A grammatical mood used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred.
Subordinate clause: A clause, typically introduced by a conjunction, that forms part of and is dependent on a main clause (e.g., "when it rang" in "she answered the phone when it rang").
Subtext: An underlying and often distinct theme in a piece of writing or conversation.
Suffix: A morpheme added at the end of a word to form a derivative (e.g., -ation, -fy, -ing, -itis).
Superlative: Of the highest quality or degree.
Suprasegmental: A phonetic term for acoustic signals that accompany speech sounds, such as stress, tone, and intonation.
Surrealism: A 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.
Syllabary: A set of written symbols representing syllables and constituting a system for writing languages.
Syllable: A unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or a part of a word.
Syllepsis: A figure of speech in which a word is applied to two others in different senses (e.g., caught the train and a cold).
Syllogism: A form of logical reasoning that joins two or more premises to arrive at a conclusion.
Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”).
Synonym: A word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language.
Syntax: The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

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T

Taboo: Prohibited or restricted by social custom.
Tactile: Of or connected with the sense of touch.
Tangential: Diverging from a previous course or line; erratic.
Tautological: Using different words to repeat the same idea unnecessarily.
Tautology: The saying of the same thing twice in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style (e.g., they arrived one after the other in succession).
Taxonomy: The branch of science concerned with classification, especially of organisms; systematics.
Telemetry: The process of recording and transmitting the readings of an instrument.
Tense: A grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.
Terminology: The body of terms used with a particular technical application in a subject of study, profession, etc.
Tertiary: Third in order or level.
Textual criticism: The technique or process of editing texts based on a critical analysis of their variant versions.
Thematic analysis: A method for identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns (themes) within data.
Thematic: Relating to or based on subjects or a theme.
Theoretical: Concerned with or involving the theory of a subject or area of study rather than its practical application.
Thesaurus: A book that lists words in groups of synonyms and related concepts.
Thesis statement: A short statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc., and is developed, supported, and explained in the text by means of examples and evidence.
Thesis: A statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.
Thorough: Complete with regard to every detail; not superficial or partial.
Tone of voice: The way words are spoken to convey emotion, mood, or attitude.
Tone: The general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc.
Toponym: A place name, especially one derived from a topographical feature.
Transcript: A written or printed version of material originally presented in another medium.
Transcription: A written or printed representation of something.
Transience: The state or fact of lasting only for a short time; transitory nature.
Transitive verb: A verb that requires one or more objects.
Transliteration: The process of transferring a word from the alphabet of one language to another.
Transposition: The action of transferring something to a different place, region, or situation.
Trepidation: A feeling of fear or agitation about something that may happen.
Tribute: An act, statement, or gift that is intended to show gratitude, respect, or admiration.
Tricolon: A rhetorical term for a series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses.
Trope: A figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression.
Troposphere: The lowest region of the atmosphere, extending from the earth's surface to a height of about 6-10 km (about 4-6 miles), which is the region of most weather phenomena.
Truism: A statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting.
Truncate: To shorten (something) by cutting off the top or the end.
Turn-taking: A type of organization in conversation and discourse where participants speak one at a time in alternating turns.
Typographic: Relating to the style, arrangement, or appearance of printed letters on a page.
Typology: The study or systematic classification of types that have characteristics or traits in common.

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U

Ubiquitin: A small regulatory protein that has been found in almost all tissues of eukaryotic organisms.
Ubiquitous computing: A model of computing in which all devices are connected, making them available throughout the physical environment but making them effectively invisible to the user.
Ubiquitous: Present, appearing, or found everywhere.
Ubiquity: The fact of appearing everywhere or of being very common.
Ulterior: Existing beyond what is obvious or admitted; intentionally hidden.
Ululate: Howl or wail as an expression of strong emotion, typically grief.
Umbilical: Relating to or affecting the navel or umbilical cord.
Umbilicus: The navel.
Umbra: The fully shaded inner region of a shadow cast by an opaque object, especially the area on the earth or moon experiencing the total phase of an eclipse.
Umbrage: Offense or annoyance.
Umbrella: A device used for protection against rain or sunlight.
Unabated: Without any reduction in intensity or strength.
Unabridged: Not cut or shortened; complete.
Unambiguous: Not open to more than one interpretation.
Unctuous: (of a person) excessively or ingratiatingly flattering; oily.
Underpin: Support, justify, or form the basis for.
Underscore: Underline (something) or emphasize.
Understatement: The presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is.
Underwrite: Agree to finance or guarantee (a project) thereby undertaking the risk of it.
Undulate: Move with a smooth wavelike motion.
Unfetter: Release from restraint or inhibition.
Ungulate: Any member of a diverse group of primarily large mammals that includes odd-toed ungulates such as horses and rhinoceroses, and even-toed ungulates like deer and giraffes.
Unilateral: Performed by or affecting only one person, group, or country involved in a particular situation, without the agreement of others.
Unilateralism: The process of acting or proceeding independently with only one side, party, or interest involved.
Unilateralist: Advocating or supporting the policy of acting independently.
Unison: Simultaneous performance of action or utterance of speech.
Unprecedented: Never done or known before.
Unravel: Undo (twisted, knitted, or woven threads).
Unscrupulous: Having or showing no moral principles; not honest or fair.
Upbraid: Find fault with (someone); scold.
Uplift: Lift (something) up; elevate or stimulate (someone) morally or spiritually.
Upshot: The final or eventual outcome or conclusion of a discussion, action, or series of events.
Usurp: Take (a position of power or importance) illegally or by force.
Utilitarian: Designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive.
Utilitarianism: The doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority.
Utopia: An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.
Utterance: A spoken word, statement, or vocal sound.
Uxorial: Relating to a wife or wives.

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V

Vacillate: Alternate or waver between different opinions or actions; be indecisive.
Valediction: The action of saying farewell.
Valorize: Give or ascribe value or validity to (something).
Venerate: Regard with great respect; revere.
Verb (E): A word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen.
Verbatim: In exactly the same words as were used originally.
Verbose: Using or expressed in more words than are needed.
Vernacular: The language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.
Verse: Writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme.
Verve: Vigor and spirit or enthusiasm.
Vestige: A trace of something that is disappearing or no longer exists.
Vex: Make (someone) feel annoyed, frustrated, or worried, especially with trivial matters.
Viable: Capable of working successfully; feasible.
Vicarious: Experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person.
Vicissitude: A change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.
Vignette: A brief evocative description, account, or episode.
Vignette: A short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, idea, setting, or object.
Vilify: Speak or write about in an abusively disparaging manner.
Vindicate: Clear (someone) of blame or suspicion.
Vindictive: Having or showing a strong or unreasoning desire for revenge.
Virtuoso: A person highly skilled in music or another artistic pursuit.
Visceral: Relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect.
Vitriolic: Filled with bitter criticism or malice.
Vocabulary: The body of words used in a particular language.
Vocative: Relating to or denoting a case of nouns and pronouns used for a noun that identifies a person being addressed, such as Tom in "What do you think, Tom?"
Vogue: The prevailing fashion or style at a particular time.
Voice: The form or a set of forms of a verb, showing the relation of the subject to the action.
Volatile: (of a substance) easily evaporated at normal temperatures; or (of a situation) liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.
Volition: The faculty or power of using one's will.
Voluble: Speaking or spoken incessantly and fluently.
Voracious: Wanting or devouring great quantities of food; having a very eager approach to an activity.
Vouchsafe: Give or grant (something) to (someone) in a gracious or condescending manner.
Vowel: A speech sound which is produced by comparatively open configuration of the vocal tract, with vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction.
Voyeur: A person who gains sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity.
Vulnerable: Susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm.

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W

Waive: Refrain from insisting on or using (a right or claim).
Wan: (of a person's complexion or appearance) pale and giving the impression of illness or exhaustion.
Wanderlust: A strong desire to travel.
Wane: (of the moon) have a progressively smaller part of its visible surface illuminated, so that it appears to decrease in size.
Warrant: Justify or necessitate (a certain course of action).
Wary: Feeling or showing caution about possible dangers or problems.
Wayfarer: A person who travels on foot.
Weary: Feeling or showing tiredness, especially as a result of excessive exertion or lack of sleep.
Whet: Sharpen the blade of (a tool or weapon).
Whetstone: A fine-grained stone used for sharpening cutting tools.
Whimsical: Playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing and amusing way.
Widget: A small gadget or mechanical device, especially one whose name is unknown or unspecified.
Wield: Hold and use (a weapon or tool).
Wieldy: Easy to handle or use (especially in the context of something large or potentially unwieldy).
Willowy: (of a person) tall, thin, and graceful.
Wily: Skilled at gaining an advantage, especially deceitfully.
Wince: Give a slight involuntary grimace or shrinking movement of the body out of or in anticipation of pain or distress.
Winsome: Attractive or appealing in appearance or character.
Wisdom: The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.
Wisecrack: A clever or sarcastic remark.
Wistful: Having or showing a feeling of vague or regretful longing.
Witticism: A witty remark.
Wizened: Shriveled or wrinkled with age.
Word: A single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed.
Workshop: A meeting at which a group of people engage in intensive discussion and activity on a particular subject or project.
Worldview: A particular philosophy of life or conception of the world.
Wrath: Extreme anger (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical effect).
Wreak: Cause (a large amount of damage or harm).
Wreath: An arrangement of flowers, leaves, or stems fastened in a ring and used for decoration or for laying on a grave.
Writ: A form of written command in the name of a court or other legal authority to act, or abstain from acting, in some way.
Writhe: Make continual twisting, squirming movements or contortions of the body.
Wrought: (archaic past and past participle of work) shaped; made.
Wrought: (of metals) beaten out or shaped by hammering.
Wry: Using or expressing dry, especially mocking, humor.
Wunderkind: A person who achieves great success when relatively young.

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X

X-axis: The horizontal axis in a coordinate plane, often representing the independent variable in mathematical functions and data analyses.
Xanthic: Relating to or denoting a yellowish color; yellow.
Xanthophyll: A yellow or brown carotenoid plant pigment which causes the autumn colors of leaves.
Xenial: (especially of a relationship between people) characterized by hospitality and warmth to strangers or guests.
Xenobiology: A form of biology that studies the hypothetical biological processes and beings that might occur in environments not found on Earth.
Xenocentrism: A preference for the products, styles, or ideas of someone else's culture rather than of one's own.
Xenocracy: Government by a body of foreigners or outsiders.
Xenodiagnosis: A method of diagnosing infection by exposing a suspected vector to the patient's blood and later examining the vector for the presence of the infective microorganism.
Xenogenesis: The supposed generation of offspring completely and permanently different from the parent.
Xenograft: A transplant of tissue or an organ between members of different species.
Xenolith: A piece of rock within an igneous mass which is not derived from the original magma but has been introduced from elsewhere.
Xenon: A chemical element with symbol Xe and atomic number 54, a colorless, dense, odorless noble gas found in the Earth's atmosphere, used chiefly in fluorescent lamps and as a general anesthetic.
Xenophile: An individual who is attracted to foreign peoples, cultures, or customs.
Xenophobia: Intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.
Xenotransplantation: The transplantation of living cells, tissues, or organs from one species to another.
Xeric: Characterized by, requiring, or adapted to a dry environment.
Xeriscape: A landscape design that requires little or no irrigation or other maintenance, used in arid regions.
Xeroderma: A mild form of ichthyosis characterized by abnormal dryness and roughness of the skin.
Xerography: A dry copying process in which black or colored powder adheres to parts of a specially treated paper where the light strikes.
Xerophilous: (of a plant or animal) able to withstand dry conditions; drought-resistant.
Xerosis: Abnormal dryness of the skin or mucous membranes.
Xerostomia: Dry mouth resulting from reduced or absent saliva flow.
Xiphoid: Relating to the xiphoid process, which is the cartilaginous section at the lower end of the sternum.
Xiphos: An ancient Greek short sword used for stabbing, typically with a leaf-shaped blade.
Xylography: The art of engraving on wood, or of printing from such engravings.
Xylology: The study of wood.
Xylophagous: Feeding on wood, as certain insects or fungi.
Xylophone: A musical instrument played by striking a row of wooden bars of graduated length with one or more small wooden or plastic beaters.
Xylotomy: The preparation of small sections of wood for microscopic examination.
Xystus: A long portico, originally one used in ancient Greece for exercises, now generally a garden walk planted with trees.

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Y

Y-axis: The vertical axis in a two-dimensional plot, typically representing dependent variables.
Yacht: A medium-sized sailboat equipped for cruising or racing.
Yammer: Loud and sustained or repetitive noise.
Yap: To give a sharp, shrill bark.
Yarn-bombing: The action of covering objects or structures in public places with decorative knitted or crocheted material as a form of street art.
Yarn: A long or rambling story, especially one that is implausible.
Yaw: (Of a moving ship or aircraft) twist or oscillate about a vertical axis.
Yclept: Named; called (used especially in the context of quaint or archaic humor).
Yearn: Have an intense feeling of longing for something, typically something that one has lost or been separated from.
Yeast: A microscopic fungus consisting of single oval cells that reproduce by budding, and capable of converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Yen: A longing or yearning.
Yeoman: A servant in a royal or noble household, ranking between a sergeant and a groom or a squire and a page.
Yield: Give way to arguments, demands, or pressure.
Yield: Produce or provide (a natural, agricultural, or industrial product).
Yip: A short, sharp cry, especially of excitement or pain.
Yippee: Used to express joy or elation.
Yob: A rude, noisy, and aggressive young person.
Yoga: A Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.
Yogurt: A semi-solid sourish food prepared from milk fermented by added bacteria, often sweetened and flavored.
Yoke: A device for joining together a pair of draft animals, especially oxen, usually consisting of a crosspiece with two bow-shaped pieces, each enclosing the head of an animal. Metaphorically, it can refer to something that is regarded as oppressive or burdensome.
Yoke: To harness (an animal) using a yoke.
Yokel: An uneducated and unsophisticated person from the countryside.
Yonder: At some distance in the direction indicated; over there.
Yonic: Relating to or denoting female genitalia.
Yore: Of long ago or former times (used in nostalgic or mock-nostalgic recollection).
Yowl: A loud wailing cry, especially one of pain or distress.
Ytterbium: A soft, malleable, and ductile chemical element that is one of the rare earth elements, used especially in certain alloys and in lasers.
Yttrium: A silvery-metallic element, found in small amounts in certain rare minerals. Often used in alloys and electronics.
Yucca: A plant with hard, sword-shaped leaves and spikes of white flowers, native to the hot, dry parts of the Americas and the Caribbean.
Yule: The Christmas season.
Yurt: A circular tent of felt or skins on a collapsible framework, used by nomads in Mongolia, Siberia, and Turkey.

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Z

Zaffer: A blue pigment obtained by roasting cobalt ore, used in ceramic glazes and as a dye.
Zany: Amusingly unconventional and idiosyncratic.
Zarzuela: A Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance.
Zeal: Great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.
Zealous: Having or showing zeal.
Zebu: A humped domestic cattle originating in South Asia, often used for milk, meat, and draft.
Zeitgeist: The defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.
Zen: A Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition.
Zenith: The time at which something is most powerful or successful.
Zephyr: A soft gentle breeze.
Zero: The figure 0; in the Arabic numeral system, denoting an absence of quantity or a base value.
Zest: Great enthusiasm and energy.
Zigzag: A line or course having abrupt alternate right and left turns.
Zilch: Nothing; zero.
Zinc: A bluish-white, lustrous metallic element that is brittle at room temperature but becomes malleable when heated. It is used to form a wide variety of alloys including brass, and as a protective coating for iron and steel.
Zipline: A cable suspended above an incline to which a pulley and harness are attached for a rider.
Zipper: A fastener consisting of two strips of fabric tape, each with a continuous series of interlocking pieces, and a slider that pulls them into or separates them out of interlocking position.
Zirconium: A lustrous, grey-white, strong transition metal that resembles titanium. Zirconium is used as a refractory and in nuclear reactions.
Zither: A musical instrument consisting of a flat wooden sound box with numerous strings stretched across it, played by plucking or strumming.
Zodiac: A circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude that are centered upon the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year.
Zoetrope: A pre-film animation device that produces the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion.
Zombie: A fictional undead being created through the reanimation of a human corpse.
Zone: An area or stretch of land having a particular characteristic, purpose, or use, or subject to particular restrictions.
Zoology: The scientific study of the behavior, structure, physiology, classification, and distribution of animals.
Zoomorphic: Having or representing animal forms or gods of animal form.
Zoonosis: Any disease or infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans.
Zounds: An expression of surprise or indignation, originally as a contraction of "God's wounds".
Zucchetto: A small, round skullcap worn by Roman Catholic clergy.
Zucchini: A variety of courgette, a vegetable.
Zygote: A diploid cell resulting from the fusion of two haploid gametes; a fertilized ovum.
Zymurgy: The study or practice of fermentation in brewing, winemaking, or distilling.

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@@ Zeile 561: / Zeile 561: @@
 {{o}} [[Leitmotif]]: A recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation.
 {{o}} [[Lemma]]: A headword under which a set of related dictionary or encyclopedia entries appears.
+{{o}} [[Letter]]
 {{o}} [[Levity]]: Humor or frivolity, especially the treatment of a serious matter with humor or in a manner lacking due respect.
 {{o}} [[Lexeme]]: A basic lexical unit of a language consisting of one word or several words, considered as an abstract unit, and defined by semantic content.
@@ Zeile 1.108: / Zeile 1.109: @@
 {{o}} [[Valorize]]: Give or ascribe value or validity to (something).
 {{o}} [[Venerate]]: Regard with great respect; revere.
-{{o}} [[Verb]]: A word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen.
+{{o}} [[Verb (E)]]: A word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen.
 {{o}} [[Verbatim]]: In exactly the same words as were used originally.
 {{o}} [[Verbose]]: Using or expressed in more words than are needed.

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