a. capable of igniting and burning; easily aroused or excited
E.g. After the recent outbreak of fires in private homes, the fire commissioner ordered that all combustible materials be kept in safe containers.
n. act of burning something
E.g. The soup and fish were in the last stage of projection, and the cook hung over her crucibles in a frame of mind and body threatening spontaneous combustion.
n. an object that goes around the sun
E.g. The brightened comet in the constellation Virgo may even be visible to the naked eye, allowing members of the public around the world to join in this historic moment in astronomy.
a. arousing or provoking laughter
E.g. He presented a comical look of surprise.
n. chief; leader
E.g. The president referred to rumors, which he dismissed as false, that the former army commander, Lino Oviedo, had returned to Paraguay from his exile in Argentina.
n. written explanation or criticism or illustration that is added to a book or other textual material
E.g. There are no hard and fast rules about writing a commentary.
n. a writer who reports and analyzes events of the day
E.g. For seven years he was variously announcer, sports commentator, news editor and programming director at CFNS.
a. dedicated; devoted
E.g. Much of that money is already committed to the plan through the Global AIDS Fund, the World Bank and President Bush's AIDS initiative.
n. activity of communicating; activity of conveying information
E.g. They predict that the vast majority of internet connections will be by mobile communication devices closer to pocket computers than portable telephones.
a. closely and firmly united or packed together; briefly giving gist of something
E.g. His short, compact body was better suited to wrestling than to basketball.
n. an increase in the density of something
E.g. Soil compaction around trees is often caused by people, pets, bicycles and cars in parks and other recreation areas as well as in heavily used areas.
n. associate; partner
E.g. For a fortnight he and his companion Dimitri Kieffer pulled their equipment over the eighty kilometre stretch of frozen water with the sounds of ice breaking just a few miles behind them.
v. contest; fight
E.g. The largest portion would go into the players' pockets, but the package included payments into a players' pension account, better promotional activities, and a bonus for players who compete in all four Grand Slams and a donation to selected charities.
a. capable; adept
E.g. I do not speak to the feeble, or think of them: I address only such as are worthy of the work, and competent to accomplish it.
n. an aggressive willingness to compete
E.g. The second summit on India's manufacturing competitiveness will be held on August 2-4.
n. arrogance; satisfaction; feeling you have when you are satisfied with yourself
E.g. In the late nineties the government realized that its complacence and feeling that the states talent and infrastructure would automatically make it a preferred destination was actually resulting in a large loss for the city.
v. complete; consummate; make perfect
E.g. The waiter recommended a glass of port to complement the cheese.
a. complicated in structure; a whole structure, as a building, made up of interconnected or related structures
E.g. Prescott's speech comes as ministers from around the world struggle to overcome complex arguments about how the Kyoto agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions should work.
n. complication
E.g. Computational complexity and other fun stuff in math and computer science as viewed by Bill Gasarch.
a. difficult to analyze or understand
E.g. Legally this is a hugely complicated case and it will take months for the judge to reach the verdict.
n. complexity; intricacy; any disease or disorder that occurs during the course of another disease
E.g. What is the most common complication after laparoscopic surgery?
v. combine; mix; constitute; pay interest; increase
E.g. The makers compound the ingredients by design.
n. combination of two or more elements or parts
E.g. As the compound is already patented, her team will probably have to design something slightly different to be able to patent it as a new drug.
v. close; squeeze or press together; contract
E.g. She has to compress the package under her arm.
a. compact
E.g. Mobile and flexible, it was never intended to be compressed in the eternal silence of solitude: it is a mouth which should speak much and smile often, and have human affection for its interlocutor.
n. applying pressure; encoding information while reducing the bandwidth or bits required
E.g. This paper surveys a variety of data compression methods spanning almost forty years of research, from the work of Shannon.
v. adjust or settle by making mutual concessions; endanger the interests or reputation of
E.g. Sometimes the presence of a neutral third party can help adversaries compromise their differences.
n. calculation
E.g. Every time you revisit or reload one of these mathematics computation worksheets, it's all new!
v. admit; yield; give up physical control of another
E.g. Despite all the evidence Monica had assembled, Mark refused to concede that she was right.
v. form or develop in the mind; devise; become pregnant with; begin or originate in a specific way
E.g. I asked was it a mere nervous impression--a delusion? I could not conceive or believe: it was more like an inspiration.
n. beginning; forming of an idea; act of conceiving
E.g. At the first conception of the work, he was consulted.
a. being or characterized by concepts or their formation
E.g. What is contentious is the relationship between racialist and racist modes of thought, which might be called the conceptual politics of race.
n. composition for orchestra and a soloist
E.g. Sara Davis Buechner has one of the widest concerto repertoires of any major pianist appearing before the public today.
a. brief and compact; expressing much in few words
E.g. When you define a new word, be concise: the shorter the definition, the easier it is to remember.
n. brevity; terseness and economy in writing and speaking
E.g. The time to begin revising for conciseness is when you have an acceptable first draft in hand.
a. definitive; decisive; final
E.g. If conclusive proof exists, however, Bush hasn't revealed it.
v. blame; denounce; express strong disapproval of
E.g. They are more than twice as likely as other Americans to condemn gambling as 'always morally wrong.'
n. blame
E.g. These kinds of cases are formally called regulatory takings or inverse condemnation cases.
n. compression
E.g. A condensation reaction is responsible for building large molecules.
v. change from a gaseous to a liquid state and fall in drops; compress or concentrate
E.g. This showed that the more we condense air the fitter we make it for purposes of combustion.