Vocabulary Made Easy series: Work on your skills to ace challenging exams | Competitive Exams

Here’s a way to improve your vocabulary and communication skills. Check out the words for the day and a small quiz to push yourself to improve your word power and language skills.

Usury (Noun)

Meaning: the action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest

Example: As Mongolian incomes tended to be seasonal there was ample opportunity for usury

Verisimilitude (Noun)

Meaning: The appearance of being true or real

Example: Graphics are to games what verisimilitude is to a novel

Wily (Adjective)

Meaning: skilled at gaining an advantage, especially deceitfully

Example: He seems less the wily fighting fox and more the cornered stag

Also Read: Vocabulary Made Easy series: Work on your language skills to succeed in exams

Whet (Verb)

Meaning: sharpen the blade of (a tool or weapon)

Example: She took out her dagger and began to whet its blade in even, rhythmic strokes

Wan (Adjective)

Meaning: (of a person’s complexion or appearance) pale and giving the impression of illness or exhaustion

Example: I was shocked at how pale and wan my friend looked

Voluble (Adjective)

Meaning: (of a person) talking fluently, readily, or incessantly

Example: I think I upheld the honour of Scotland by making a voluble speech of thanks

Xenophobia (Noun)

Meaning: dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries

Example: The horror film is generally about xenophobia, the fear of the unknown

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Viscid (Adjective)

Meaning: having a glutinous or sticky consistency

Example: Phlegm is motionless, viscid, sticky, heavy, inert, cold, soft, and white

Welter (Verb)

Meaning: move in a turbulent fashion

Example: The streams foam and welter

Tractable (Adjective)

Meaning: (of a person) easy to control or influence

Example: The pair had to adjust their probabilistic model to make the calculations more tractable

Put your thinking cap on and try to answer the following questions to understand how much you have grasped.

1. People are inclined to take advantage of your sympathetic, ________________ nature. Which of the following words fits best in the sentence? (Tractable, Welter)
2. The _______________ mucus lining of the intestine. Which of the following words fits best in the sentence? (Viscid, Xenophobia)
3. Can you think of some antonyms for the word Voluble?
4. Can you think of some synonyms for the word Wan?

Also Read: Vocabulary Made Easy series: Improve your language skills without much hassle

Watch out for this space for your weekly update on improving word power.

(Definitions and examples are from Oxford Languages)