Vocabulary is an important part of English that helps you deal with all kinds of questions in objective as well as descriptive papers of various exams. You can learn new words daily from our Daily Word List. Learn the words and make your own sentences on the basis of the given word list. Here are a few lines from The Hindu.
1. Sesquicentennial [ses-kwi-sen-ten-ee-uh l]
Adjective: pertaining to or marking the completion of a period of 150 years.
Noun: a 150th anniversary or its celebration.
Example: Starting with the installation of a bust of James Taylor, the man reputed to have launched commercial cultivation of tea in 1867, the island nation has lined up many programmes throughout the year to commemorate the occasion.
2. Bust [buhst]
Noun: a sculptured, painted, drawn, or engraved representation of the upper part of the human figure, especially a portrait sculpture showing only the head and shoulders of the subject.
Synonyms: chest, front.
Antonyms: back, exoneration.
3. Commemorate [kuh-mem-uh-reyt]
Verb: to serve as a memorial or reminder of; to honor the memory of by some observance; to make honorable mention of.
Synonyms: celebrate, memorialize, observe, remember, salute, admire, immortalize, keep, monumentalize, perpetuate, solemnize.
Antonyms: disregard, forget, ignore, overlook, dishonor, neglect.
Example: The industry employs over one million people directly and also provides housing facilities to their families, yet it is plagued by the issue of absenteeism as well as worker migration.
4. Plague [pleyg]
Noun: an epidemic disease that causes high mortality; pestilence; any cause of trouble, annoyance, or vexation.
Verb: to trouble, annoy, or torment in any manner; to annoy, bother, or pester; to smite with a plague, pestilence, death, etc.; scourge.
Synonyms: afflict, bedevil, beleaguer, bother, haunt, hound, infest, torment, trouble, worry, badger, chafe, fret.
Antonyms: aid, help, make happy, please, assist, cheer, comfort.
Example: The industry’s cup of woes has now brimmed over with the Darjeeling imbroglio, where a political shutdown has dealt a body blow to a tottering industry.
5. Woe [woh]
Noun: grievous distress, affliction, or trouble; an affliction.
Interjection: an exclamation of grief, distress, or lamentation.
Synonyms: adversity, anguish, burden, calamity, catastrophe, disaster, gloom, hardship, headache, misery, misfortune, pain, tragedy, trouble.
Antonyms: advantage, aid, assistance, benefit, blessing, boon, cheer, comfort, contentment, encouragement, favor, fortune, good, fortune.
6. Brim [brim]
Noun: the upper edge of anything hollow; rim; brink; a projecting edge; margin.
Verb: to be full to the brim.
Synonyms: border, brink, circumference, fringe, hem, lip, margin, perimeter, periphery, rim.
Antonyms: center, inside, interior, middle.
7. Imbroglio [im-brohl-yoh]
Noun: a misunderstanding, disagreement, etc., of a complicated or bitter nature, as between persons or nations; an intricate and perplexing state of affairs; a complicated or difficult situation; a confused heap.
Synonyms: brouhaha, entanglement, quandary, spat, squabble, altercation, argument, bickering, brawl, broil, complexity, complication, dispute, embarrassment.
Antonyms: agreement, ease, harmony, peace, simplicity, peace, making.
8. Tottering [tot-er-ing]
Adjective: walking unsteadily or shakily; lacking security or stability; threatening to collapse; precarious.
Synonyms: dizzy, fluctuating, moving, suspect, teetering, unsettled, vacillating, wavering, weaving, ambiguous, borderline, capricious, changeable.
Example: The Sri Lankan tea industry is beset with similar problems of high cost, effect of climate change and fluctuating exports.
9. Beset [bih-set]
Verb: to attack on all sides; assail; harass; beset by difficulties; to surround; hem in; to set or place upon; bestud.
Synonyms: bedevil, beleaguer, besiege, embarrass, invade, overrun, perplex, surround, aggress, assail, attack, badger, bug, circle, compass, dog, encircle, enclose, encompass.
Antonyms: clarify, clear up, explain, leave alone, please, surrender, aid, assist.
Example: Sri Lanka also surmounts odds to hold on to its export markets in strife-torn countries like Syria where India is absent now.
10. Surmount [ser-mount]
Verb: to mount upon; get on the top of; mount upon and cross over: to get over or across (barriers, obstacles, etc.); to prevail over; to be on top of or above; to furnish with something placed on top or above.
Synonyms: conquer, kbest, better, cap, clear, crest, crown, defeat, down, exceed, hurdle, leap, lic.
Antonyms: fail, fall behind, give up, help, lose, receive, surrender.
