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bouteillebleu100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
Of the whole list, I think I can define about 70 or 80, and demonstrate the most common context you would use the remaining 20 or 30 in while not being entirely sure of their exact meaning.
I'm not quite sure what the point of the list is, though. There are two I can think of, one charitable and the other uncharitable:
* Charitable: Finding out what these words mean makes you find out about the contexts where they're used, which means you'll learn a lot about language, literature, science, logic, mathematics, politics and economics; they're indicators of a good all-round education.
* Uncharitable: Knowing these words means you can sound like you've had a good all-round education when you've not looked further than the pages of this book.
Anyway, here are some further thoughts about sections of the word list.
Words that are really quite simple in context, but that context means you're learning a lot about science:
chromosome
deciduous
gamete
hemoglobin
hypotenuse
interpolate
kinetic
mitosis
nanotechnology
oxidize
parabola
photosynthesis
plasma
polymer
quasar
reciprocal
respiration
taxonomy
tectonic
thermodynamics
Words that make me snicker because learning about these means slowly destroying people's faith in the essential goodness of human nature:
bowdlerize
filibuster
gerrymander
impeach
plagiarize
usurp
Words whose meaning I didn't know until I looked them up:
jejune ("weak", apparently)
moiety ("a half")
Words that I'm surprised are uncommon enough to have to be on this list in the first place:
auspicious
incognito
parameter
vehement
And finally, words that let me make fun of the American Heritage Dictionary for them being on this list at all:
euro
irony
Of the whole list, I think I can define about 70 or 80, and demonstrate the most common context you would use the remaining 20 or 30 in while not being entirely sure of their exact meaning.
I'm not quite sure what the point of the list is, though. There are two I can think of, one charitable and the other uncharitable:
* Charitable: Finding out what these words mean makes you find out about the contexts where they're used, which means you'll learn a lot about language, literature, science, logic, mathematics, politics and economics; they're indicators of a good all-round education.
* Uncharitable: Knowing these words means you can sound like you've had a good all-round education when you've not looked further than the pages of this book.
Anyway, here are some further thoughts about sections of the word list.
Words that are really quite simple in context, but that context means you're learning a lot about science:
chromosome
deciduous
gamete
hemoglobin
hypotenuse
interpolate
kinetic
mitosis
nanotechnology
oxidize
parabola
photosynthesis
plasma
polymer
quasar
reciprocal
respiration
taxonomy
tectonic
thermodynamics
Words that make me snicker because learning about these means slowly destroying people's faith in the essential goodness of human nature:
bowdlerize
filibuster
gerrymander
impeach
plagiarize
usurp
Words whose meaning I didn't know until I looked them up:
jejune ("weak", apparently)
moiety ("a half")
Words that I'm surprised are uncommon enough to have to be on this list in the first place:
auspicious
incognito
parameter
vehement
And finally, words that let me make fun of the American Heritage Dictionary for them being on this list at all:
euro
irony
