100 Words
Via kottke.org, this list of 100 Words That All High School Graduates — And Their Parents — Should Know, according to the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries
Here’s the list, with my comments as follows:
- words I know and use – 55%
- words I know and don’t use – 15%
- words that look familiar, but I don’t know exactly what they mean – 20%
- words that I don’t know – 10%
abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious
fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious
lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian
recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat
I can happily say that I had a good grasp (if not a publishable definition ) of most of them. For those that stumped me, I offer you a simple…..DUH.
Still and all I believe few persons with whom I associate could do as well. I do wonder how well those sages at the dictionary think-tank would do at street lingo. I suggest we all email them some scooter lexicon. That way they’ll be on top of it as times change (which they are).
I think you’ll find your vocabulary surpasses most Americans, including myself. Not bad for someone who’s native language is Portuguese.