Building Vocabulary for college
The 12 most frequently used words in written English are: the, of, and, a, to in, is, you, that, it, he, for The English language dates back to the 400s, when Germanic tribes, including ■ Angles and Saxons, invaded the island that came to be known (because of the Angles) as England. The epic poem Beowulf was written down in about 1000 in the Anglo-Saxon language, known as Old English. Middle English developed following the 1066 invasion of the Normans, who came from France. Geof- frey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (completed in about 1400) is written in Middle English. Modern English originated in the 16th century. The works of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) are often cited as the beginning of Modern English. Figures regarding the average American’s total vocabulary vary greatly, from ■ fewer than 5,000 words to more than 20,000. One major reason for this is that re- searchers differ in the way in which they count the words. For example, if a per- son knows the meaning of jump, some researchers assume that the person also knows the meaning of its derivatives (jumps, jumped, jumping, jumper, jumpers, jumpy), so they give credit for all of those words. Other researchers exclude de- rivatives, so in the case of jump, they would give credit for only one word. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog ■ contains every letter in the Eng- lish alphabet. (This kind of sentence is called a pangram.) No words in the English language rhyme with ■ orange, month, purple, or silver. Set ■ is the English word that has the most de nitions (the Oxford English Dic- tionary lists 192). Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioisis ■ (a lung disease) is the lon- gest word in the English language that appears in a major dictionary. Screeched is the longest one-syllable English word. Rhythms is the longest English word that does not contain a, e, i, o, or u. Strength ■ is the only eight-letter English word that contains only one vowel. Indivisibility is the only English word in which one vowel occurs six times. Almost ■ is the shortest English word whose letters all appear in alphabetical order. Bookkeeper ■ is the only English word that contains three consecutive sets of double letters. Deeded is the only English word consisting of two letters used three times each. Dreamt ■ is the only English word that ends in -mt. Tremendous, horrendous, stu- pendous, and hazardous are the only English words that end in -dous. Vacuum, continuum, and residuum are the only English words that contain uu. Queue ■ is the only English word whose pronunciation does not change when its last four letters are removed. Did You Know? Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Building Vocabulary for College Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Part One • iii Copyright © by Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Building Vocabulary for College Eighth Edition R. Kent Smith Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions, some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. The publisher reserves the right to remove content from this title at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. For valuable information on pricing, previous editions, changes to current editions, and alternate formats, please visit www.cengage.com/highered to search by ISBN#, author, title, or keyword for materials in your areas of interest. © 2012 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Control Number: 2010935208 Student Edition: ISBN-10: 0-495-90636-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-495-90636-0 Wadsworth 20 Channel Center Street Boston, MA 02210 USA Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with offi ce locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Locate your local offi ce at: www.cengage.com/global Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. To learn more about Wadsworth, visit www.cengage.com/wadsworth Purchase any of our products at your local college store or at our preferred online store www.cengagebrain.com Building Vocabulary for College, Eighth Edition R. Kent Smith Publisher/Executive Editor: Lyn Uhl Development Editor: Melanie Opacki Media Editor: Amy Gibbons Assistant Editor: Janine Tangney Marketing Manager: Kirsten Stoller Marketing Communications Manager: Stacey Purviance Content Project Management: PreMediaGlobal Cengage Learning Art Director: Jill Ort Print Buyer: Susan Spencer Senior Image Rights Specialist: Jennifer Meyer Dare Cover Designer: Steven Schirra Cover Image: ©iStockphoto Compositor: PreMediaGlobal For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706 For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at cengage.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be emailed to permissionrequest@cengage.com Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 14 13 12 11 10 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. v Table of Contents To the Instructor ix To the Student xii Part One Word Parts and Challenging Words 1 Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1 7 Word Parts: ary, co, col, com, con, cor, il, im, in, ir, de, er, or, ist, pre, re, ex, ing, un 7 Challenging Words: quandary, consensus, incongruous, debilitate, hedonist, precocious, reconciliation, extricate, meandering, unethical 10 CHAPTER 2 17 Word Parts: sub, pro, fy, inter, mis, dis, ob, op, ten, tion, ed 17 Challenging Words: submissive, mollify, intervene, misnomer, dissipate, obstreperous, tentative, correlation, alleviated, proli c 19 CHAPTER 3 26 Word Parts: able, ible, a, an, super, trans, poly, ver, log, ism, chron, post 26 Challenging Words: inevitable, apathy, super uous, transition, polychromatic, veracity, epilogue, nepotism, chronic, posthumously 29 CHAPTER 4 37 Word Parts: para, tele, culp, eu, ante, rect, d, equ, pan, sym, syn 37 Challenging Words: paradigm, telepathy, culpable, euphemism, antediluvian, rectify, in delity, equivocal, panacea, syndrome 39 CHAPTER 5 47 Word Parts: phil, mal, spec, omni, hyper, anti, voc, vok, bi, path, ben 47 Challenging Words: philanthropy, malicious, specter, omnipotent, hypertension, antithesis, vociferous, bilingual, empathy, benign 50 R EVIEW T EST , C HAPTERS 1–5 57 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. vi Table of Contents CHAPTER 6 63 Word Parts: n, gni, gno, bell, clau, clu, ambi, amphi, less, pen, pun, intra, intro, man, luc, lum 63 Challenging Words: nale, cognizant, belligerent, recluse, ambivalence, dauntless, penance, elucidate, introspection, manhandle 65 CHAPTER 7 73 Word Parts: bon, boun, multi, vert, neo, ful, ous, non, aud, extra, ultra, temp, ward 73 Challenging Words: bounteous, multifaceted, vertigo, neophyte, acrimonious, nondescript, audible, extraneous, contemporary, wayward 75 CHAPTER 8 83 Word Parts: ann, enn, grad, gress, phon, mor, mort, pos, cap, dia, ness, hetero, homo 83 Challenging Words: annuity, gradient, cacophony, moribund, composure, capricious, diaphanous, blandness, heterogeneous, homogeneous 85 CHAPTER 9 93 Word Parts: contra, contro, counter, ac, claim, clam, dic, greg, terr, anthrop, fore, se, soph 93 Challenging Words: contraband, exacerbate, clamor, malediction, gregarious, terrain, misanthrope, foreboding, sedition, sophomoric 96 CHAPTER 10 103 Word Parts: spar, sper, peri, cred, em, en, tact, tang, macro, magn, the, pseudo, vid, vis, gen 103 Challenging Words: disparage, peripatetic, credence, embroil, tangible, magnanimous, monotheism, pseudonym, vis-à-vis, generic 105 R EVIEW T EST , C HAPTERS 6–10 110 CHAPTER 11 119 Word Parts: domin, dys, retro, medi, be, apt, prim, al, pot, ize 119 Challenging Words: domineering, dystrophy, retrograde, medieval, bereft, adaptation, primeval, colloquial, potable, ostracize 122 CHAPTER 12 130 Challenging Words: impeccable, ephemeral, garrulous, meticulous, nebulous, sagacious, specious, redundant, repudiate, viable 130 CHAPTER 13 137 Challenging Words: catharsis, dearth, guile, lethargy, af nity, af uence, dichotomy, enigma, banal, clandestine 137 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.