goodwill (also good will) good-will / go͝od-wĭl   noun 1. a desire to help and do good to others Where people of goodwill get together and transcend their differences for the common good, peaceful and just solutions can be found even for those problems which seem most intractable. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013   2. cheerful agreement or acceptance Cheerfulness and goodwill make labour light. Danish Proverb  ... Read More

loveliness love-li-ness / lŭv-lē-nəs   noun 1.  the quality of being very attractive; beauty Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise. George Washington Carver, 1865 – 1943

fraught fraught / frôt   adjective      1. filled (with); accompanied I was always fraught with guilt, and it’s such a waste of an emotion. Kyra Sedgwick, 1965 –   2. uneasy; causing anxiety, tension or distress I’m attracted to how fraught the parent-child relationship is, swerving so easily between love and hostility, with almost no plausible way to end, unless someone dies. Ben Marcus, 1967 –  ... Read More

plat plat / plăt noun 1. (a variant spelling of plait) a braid We walked out on the roadside to wait for transportation, she with high top shoes and a plat of hair down each side of [her] cheeks, myself wearing heavy shoes and new overalls. Mack Holley, 1913 – ? 2. a piece of land Indeed, these lofty plats of table-land seem to form a peculiar feature... Read More

perish per-ish / pĕr-ĭsh   verb 1. to die or be destroyed, often in an untimely or violent way We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.  Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929 – 1968   2. to disappear gradually; to cease to exist Religion will perish because of excessive comforts. Sicilian Proverb   3. (primarily British) to spoil; to rot; to decay Fruit... Read More

buffoon buf-foon / bə-fo͞on   noun 1. one who entertains with jokes and tricks; a clown Laughter is a most healthful exercise; it is one of the greatest helps to digestion with which I am acquainted; and the custom prevalent among our forefathers, of exciting it at table by jesters and buffoons, was in accordance with true medical principles. Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, 1762 – 1836  ... Read More

caprice ca-price / kə-prēs   noun 1. a sudden, impulsive change in thought or action; a whim If you live according to nature, you never will be poor; if according to the world’s caprice, you will never be rich. Seneca the Younger, 4 B.C. – 65 A.D.   2. a tendency to change one’s mind impulsively, with no apparent reason Caprice in woman is the antidote to... Read More

belie be-lie / bĭ-lī   verb 1. to contradict; to show to be untrue Do not let your deeds belie your words, lest when you speak in church someone may say to himself, “Why do you not practice what you preach? St. Jerome, 347 – 420   2. to misrepresent; to give a false impression It is the fault of our rhetoric that we cannot strongly state... Read More

ton ton / tŭn   noun 1. a measurement of weight equal to 2,000 pounds (907.18 kilograms) in the US (short ton) and 2,240 pounds (1,016.05 kilograms) (long ton) in Britain Data isn’t information, any more than fifty tons of cement is a skyscraper. Clifford Stoll, 1950 –   2. a metric ton which is a measure of weight equal to 1,000 kilograms (2,205 pounds) In countries... Read More

epitome e-pit-o-me / ĭ-pĭt-ə-mē   noun 1. a person or thing that is a perfect example of a particular quality or type A man so various that he seem’d to be Not one, but all mankind’s epitome: Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong; Was everything by starts, and nothing long: But, in the course of one revolving moon, Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon. John Dryden... Read More