The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know.
"The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language."
Here are just a few that I’ve never heard of:
- abjure
- abstemious
- churlish
- enervate
- gamete
- moiety (I’ve heard of hoity toitty though)
- oligarchy
- pecuniary
- quotidian (Someone who collects quotres, perhaps?)
- winnow
- ziggurat
I must be dumb.
Update: OK, I don’t feel quite so dumb. When I went to post this my spell-checker didn’t know half of them either. 
2 comments:
I've come across all of them. I even know a blogger named Quotidian. But I still don't know what they mean!
Ziggurat- You know, the restaurant guide.
Post a Comment