If You Know These 20 Words, Your English is TOP 1% Worldwide!
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- Опубликовано: 17 янв 2025
- Is your English vocabulary better than 99% of speakers worldwide? If you answer all 20 of these questions correctly, the answer is YES.
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I watched the video twice and I’m now in the top 1%.
LOL ;)
😂😂
Dentists hate this one simple trick
Kudos. 😂
9:00 I have never heard Chimera used that way. Every time I've heard it It's always been used to describe something with a combination of multiple attributes.
I was going to say this. Just so. 🙂
Same, but it was the only one that fit the sentence in context.
@@suzannadannaTARDIS Well it could've hypothetically been "dimissed her vision as a tautology", as the critics might be saying that the plan falls victim to circular reasoning. But that was a stretch and I suspected it was gonna be wrong. Never thought it'd be "chimera" though, as like you guys, I only knew the word to mean "combination of parts from different (and possibly incompatible) sources".
the only chimera I know is the mythical creature 💀
Same here. It threw me off. I should have gone with it through process of elimination but I've never heard that particular meaning for the word.
I guessed most of them correctly, but not necessarily because I knew them but because I knew all the other words and could exclude them through context.
The power of deduction is a great power in multiple choice
honeslty makes the video uninteresting
@@plaintext7288 the last 2 words are not normally used in actual human conversation only print
That’s 90% of language skill.
Fr LOL
shoutout to my boy lemony snicket for teaching me most of these words in elementary school, you a real one ☝
Same here!
I first heard coalesce from a voice line in yugioh, lmao
Austere Academy and Ersatz Elevator prepared me for this!
I was thinking the exact same thing 😂 the ersatz elevator is the first think that popped in my mind. Also shoutout to being bilingual and knowing words that sound the same and guessing the meaning.
i'm 48. i learned ersatz from snicket last year
1 out of 20. The lacuna in my exiguous vocabulary has been ignominiously revealed.
Obloquy was my downfall
great statement
@@plausible_dinosaurI’d be surprised that 1% know obloquy. I lucked out with lacuna from having watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
No worries! Or as I like to say - "Lacuna Matatata"!
1 wrong or 1 right?
19/20 - retired sixth grade teacher here. Never heard the word "obloquy" in my entire long life. THX
No obloquy in my vocab.
Me too! On both counts.
Same on both counts!
I think I actually HAVE heard it before, but I still missed it in this quiz .
19/20 - and I knew “lacuna” only because I’d done some reading on the Dead Sea Scrolls in years past.
@@darrellbrindley6029 I only knew lacuna through it's use to describe some mushroom features.
Came into this hoping to be in the 1%, left with the realization that If you use the 1% vocabulary, 99% of people can't understand you!
Please don’t ❤oo
My husband has accused me of speaking in 1% for decades. I was grounded horribly as a teenager, with literally nothing to do but read either a dictionary, encyclopedia or Reader's Digest. I had a $#!+ social life but a great vocabulary, for what that's worth.
Oh, and I wasn't a bad kid, my Mom was just horribly overprotective, especially with me being the baby of her 3 kids. I can laugh about it now but it sure did suck growing up.
None of these words are all that difficult, I know this video is obviously bait but it's kinda sad that these are seen as particularly impressive words.
Good. Plebs
More important than KNOWING the actual meaning of The correct word is the ability to rapidly eliminate those erronius choices with confidence. I missed 2 in the final group only
I like to use big words because it makes me look more photosynthesis.
That’s definitely the power house of the cell mitochondria approach I use too
This video becomes a lot more engaging if you try to guess what the words are before you get your multiple choice answers
I actually did that and got a few of them, I'm not going to brag out my gre scores, but I will say I went to private schools that taught us how to take exams, its a skill that comes in handy.
I'm very proud of myself as a non native speaker because I guessed many of them... and got 19/20. But my English is most definitely not among the top 1%. Any native speaker would beat me a million times. 😊
@@mayhu3282 if you have a good grounding in latin it helps a lot. I think as a native speaker it might be worse, especially native English speakers will only put in the minimum effort because that is all they need.
i had that happen once or twice
I'd have done a lot worse. Lol. 😂
20 correct but have to admit that I guessed on #19. I am 76. I was really poor growing up and one day my elementary school was getting rid of books in bad condition. I asked if I could have one and my teacher said yes. I picked a dictionary. My teacher threw in a thesaurus. Hungry for words, pronunciations, and meanings as an ESLminority kid, I read that dictionary from cover to cover. It was a life changer for me. Thank you Mrs. Feldman. ❤
What a lovely story! I work with kids with reading disability and it makes me sad when they hate reading....they miss out on the beauty of the English language.
That is incredible! I don't think I know anyone who has read a dictionary from cover to cover.
this is so wonderful!! good teachers and eager-to-learn kids are the best combo :)
I missed the last 4.
That's so good! I got 18. Never heard the word demurred before
Love learning new words though.
Let's be honest, if any of us heard someone use the last 3 words in a real conversation we'd roll our eyes so hard it'd throw us off balance.
To be fair, it's far more likely to be used in writing rather than speech. In any case, I despise the assumption that people with a broad vocabulary are being necessarily pretentious; it's another form of anti-intellectualism or at least, inverted snobbery. In this age of narrowing vocabularies, managerial buzzwords, grammatical mistakes and the normalised malapropism, I'm happy to hear a rarely-used word. If I'm bold enough to look or sound puzzled, the person speaking usually clarifies without being a prat.
i had a roommate that would use words like that. I needed a distionary to talk to him sometimes.
😆😂Bazinga! I've got to remember that!
@@deborahcurtis1385 but it is an example of lacking the social skills to know your audience.
@@basedstreamingatcozy-dot-t7126
I'm speaking meaningfully I hope, about anti intellectualism and frankly laziness. A sign of intelligence is curiosity. Celebrating being sneery instead is not something to be encouraged, even if it is socially popular.
In fact, quite the opposite. Quite happy if you want to misconstrue that as being a snob, prat or elitist. It's your failure to want to spread curiosity and rather lame to call it 'failure to read the room' and cause eyerolls. I think the subject has been fully wrung out here in this limited medium, with all the implications about personal failure called from both sides. If you imagine that narrowed vocabulary doesn't affect concepts then read John Ralston Saul's 'Voltaire's Bastards'. It's an excellent book. I sent it to my father and he said it was the best book he'd ever read.
I'm from Italy and I got 19/20 correct, although many by exclusions. As someone pointed out, familiarity with latin is very helpful in deciphering some of those obscure words, especially in the second half
right! my mother tongue is Spanish, and it def helped in some questions like u say lol
I got 19 out of 20 as well.
this is cringe man. thanks for giving us pasta and Roman Empire and boylove
Latin roots are a big help! English teacher here. Know all your roots. England is an island and invaded many times, Angles/Saxons/ Romans etc.
@@maxs1259how was that at all cringe
Before clicking the video I was expecting to get all of them easily. I got 15 out of 20. Humbled.
Same
Same
Same 😂
If you expected to get all of them, the humbling moment was well deserved.
@ yup. I am fully humbled and crying in a corner. Happy?
European immigrant here
Self taught English..
Scored 16/20.
Yay !!!
I suppose a lick of Latin from high school was helping .
English is an interesting language - a mishmash of Latin, Germanic, and Romance languages. As a native speaker, I’ve often wondered how others perceive it since it is so common and yet so eclectic.
I am english, and I got 17, correct! Well done.
While I am of Indian origin, English is not my native language but rather my third language. However, I managed to achieve a score of 13 out of 20 points in The following pretigious test that was given to the respective viewers in the video.
French woman here. Got 19/20 as I stumbled on obloquy". Totally agree with DDAllan82 that English is a mixture of mostly German (saxon), Latin (Roman Empire ) with a double French "serving" (Guillaume le Conquérant + Henri II Plantagenet and his wife Aliénor d'Aquitaine and their children : Richard Coeur de Lion was not even fluent in English nor was Jean Sans Terre. Wondering where native Celtic vocabulary went into this mishmash ? Same in French : only traces left of Celtic (gaulois) language.
Born native English speaker.
Convicted felon.
Well known simpleton.
High school dropout.
Scored 16 out of 20
I leave this information for you to do with what you will good, sir 😢😂😅🎉🤷🏻♂️
I'm German, not an English genius. I got 19 out of 20 correct. Knowing Latin prefixes and suffixes is a great help.
Good job!
Spanish speaker here (17/20), knowing a roman languaje helped a lot
What was the one? Was it obloquy? That one seems to have gotten most people.
When I was in high school, rather than have weekly vocabulary lists, my English teacher taught us Latin/Greek roots. I think it's the most important thing I learned in 12 years of English instruction. I almost wish I had had the opportunity to study Latin.
@@bemusedbandersnatch2069 I almost think that one is so completely obscure that it was unfair.
At first I thought this video was just trying to make you feel good about yourself but the last worlds were more difficult than expected! I’m impressed 👏 👏 👏
20 correct. Am 79, studied French, German and Latin for 7 years and it's the Latin that kept me on track.
@@rogernichols1124 Studying Latin will help in many ways. I’m about halfway through my study and, as you stated, it keeps you on track. Knowing Latin also helps in understanding the meaning of words that you may not have come across before but also their etymology.
Oh.
That is the point: those words are similar in many languages. This test is not to be considered about English language but about cultural level. Not being aware of this shows self-referetiality and poor knowledge of other languages.
Latin education on the west coast of the US, was sorely missing from the curriculum. I think I filled in the gap by studying science and Spanish, but I know it would have helped.
@@XX-fn6ky Excellent point. It also helps that I am able to read and speak French tolerably.
Questions 1-15: 😄
Questions 16-20: 😨
For the record, I managed 17/20. But I am proud to say I guessed seven of the words before the options were even shown 😎
Yeah I was coasting the first 15 and feeling rather smug. Got 18/20. Humbling.
The last 5 are truly insane. Even though I finished with a 19/20 (I botched up Chimera), I knew like two words out of 4 for Q16-20.
Likewise. From 16-20, i ended up getting 3 wrong, or rather, I didn’t know the answer to 3 of them. Guessed 1 correct. Knew all the answers from 1-15. Wow! Love those last 4 words though!
Same. I knew all the words except obloquy, but chimera had me thinking about that Fullmetal alchemist scene.. "daddy.." 😢
@@neodonkey Native Swedish speaker here. Managed 18 out of 20 as well. Thought it was going to be a walk in the park. Indeed, feeling humbled is the word.
9:28 the correct answer to 19 is E. Boeing. It’s become a proprietary eponym
MY WIFE SAID THIS DURING THAT QUESTION HAHAHAHAHHA
That is brilliant.
That's what I said.
HA HA HA!!!! 😂😂
Correct!
As my good friend Timon always said, lacuna matata!
19/20. Obloquy got me. I have spent a lifetime looking up the meanings of words. I am particularly fascinated with etymology, the origin of words and word roots. For example, 'obloquy' comes from the Latin 'ob-' against and 'loqui' to speak. Therefore, 'obloquy' has the original meaning of 'to speak out against' something.
I won't take anything much beyond Latin but sometimes to ancient Greek Don't wanna think that hard although sometimes it gets to the "Anima Mundi" 8.5 billion minds, we all have to be on the same page more often than not But ersatz? the Germans couldn't get coffe in WWII and resorted to toasted grain (taste only) I think that "Postum" is still being made. I'll take the real thing, with caffeine thank you very much
Awesome ❤❤
My result also, which surprised me as I expected to get them all. About two thirds of them I correctly predicted before the choices were shown. Probably good for me to be humbled every now and then.
The word sanguine is related to blood. Is it not?
@@Jack_Callcott_AU The sense of sanguine as cheerful came originally from the thought that if your face was flushed (bloody) you were cheerful and optomistic
Getting 13 of 20, the last 7 were killers for me. Glad I took the test, it was fun. Thanks !
Yep, also 13 for me! Looks like I need to do a little bit of vocab learning still!
I crapped out at 14! This was a humbling experience 😂
yep, 12 or 13 for me too
16/20. I hope my English teacher mother isn’t disappointed.
Same here 13 out of 20
Chimera was a trick question no one has ever heard that word’s second definition.
I got 17/20 and learned the pronunciation of some words I’ve only ever read before. Great video!
Yep I failed at 18 onwards
Oh I also got number 2 wrong, not because I didn't know what candor meant, but because I couldn't fathom it in a sentence being used positively about a politician 🤣
Same here. Going to have to show this to my 94 year old librarian grandmother next time I’m home to see if she is happy or disappointed with me.
@@meateawThe hint is that it supposedly impresses both his supporters and critics, but… nah would never happen in real life.
I got held up on coalesce because I was like “this is the only one that makes grammatical sense but using coalesce here would just be very weird word choice.” So I was right but I was like “this is a dumb sentence”.
Yep, chimera is something completely different in my vocabulary. I read a story about a mother who had different DNA in her organs and in her blood, and was accused of not being the mother of her own children. The mother was once two embryos melting together into one fetus or something like that. She was in a way apparently half her own sibling. That's the only connection where I've ever heard that word, so I failed that one. And one more.
@ Chimeras made of two or more animals are also common beasts in lots of fantasy and sci fi settings, so I think the word is quite common in that space. That being said I’ve never heard it used to describe a utopia or anything. I even googled the definition.
18/20. My mother tongue is as far away from English as can be, but you don't need to be a native speaker to score at this level. You just need to read a lot of literature, but you'll almost never use the last few words in conversation.
As a native English speaker, my joy from this video mostly comes from guessing what word it could be and getting it right.
i'm a nonnative but did the same and was pretty successful lol
TBF, most of these words are used as fluff. There was no reason to add them.
Same.
17/20 58 years old, and a lifetime reader. One of the best things about reading ebooks is that when I encounter an unfamiliar word, I can look it up immediately.
Me too! Although I’m still a paper girl, for me I find better focus, but everyone’s different. I love the way a new word can roll around in your mind.
Fellow reader here. 16 out of 20, and it should have been 17. Three of the words I'd never read or heard of. The remaining words in the list were of no help. Shrug.
Exactly this! I have neither the space nor money for all of the books my husband and I read. There’s also the issue with my physical problems that make reading a paper book genuinely unpleasant
@@canadiangirl1179 Canadian girl putting her body to good use yet?
@@Preedism Same. I consider myself reasonably well read but have never came across 3 of them
English is my 192nd language and I got 21/20. It helps to be clever.
That's nothing. I have 3 degrees in Martian literature, and have studied Venusian for 20 years. I EASILY got lim x→∞ x/20.
@@PersonThatExi That’s cute. I’ve been studying the ancient plutonian hieroglyphs for 26 years, ever since I became fluent in Neptunian AND Uranian.
192rd*
That's So Impressive!
@@tjudawous I believe 192 ends with an “nd”
20 out 20 correct and I would never use such words. The art of a language is not in "$20 words" as my uncle would call them, but in conveying a message effectively.
frenchman here, a lot of these are related to or the same in french, it helps :)
I totally agree... yet there are false friends too. I missed the special meaning of "sanguine", which is quite different from the same French adjective.
There was a couple German curve balls in there too lol
Latin origins FTW!
@@goncalovazpinto6261I took 4 years in high school, but missed one!
of course they the frogs were part of Britain for 400 yrs !
I got 16/20. As a fifteen year old, this definitely uplifted my self-esteem.
I also got 16/20
Hell yeah reading books is epic, keep it up
good job 17 at the moment and got to number 15 before losing so hell yeah
Well done!
Alright young people...ace those SATs. Stay in school.
I scrolled through most of the comments and what stands out is how well written everyone's posts are. I wish all of YT was like this!
@@dhalikias That’s a great observation.
What it is mayng? Gnomesayin'? 😎
Hardly surprising really. Only those of us with an encyclopedic vocabulary are likely to click on a video with that title. Nobody wants to feel inadequate or stupid.
Me not tock gud?
Me got 19, guessed 10 exact word thingies before options be written.
18/20
38 year old Swede here. Lived a couple of years in the US when I studied, but have learned most of my English through reading, music, movies and RUclips. I was surprised how well it went!
love your saunas
Got 14 correct, the last couple of words I never heard of. they are in fact so rare that I'll probably just forget them again the moment I click off this video.
I got the same, and was able to anticipate a few of the words that were used before posted. That said the last 5 or so were most
Y words I’d never he@rd of or didn’t know what they meant. It was actually surprising so I need to start reading my encyclopedia again. 😂
14 as well...
18 of 20, learned two words I never heard before, learn something new every day, thanks. 77yrs.
Sharp Sherry is LSNED pilled. Keep learning Gram Gram
Same score here. The last two were new to me. 48 years old. Mom was a teacher. My dad never had trouble with vocabulary either… he was strongly self-educated. Thanks Mom and Dad.
Not knowing extremely rarely used words is meaningless. Same goes for industry-specific jargon. No one other than people in those circles needs to know those words.
I’m same age with the same score. The last two were new to me.🇨🇦
19/20 - public school and crappy state university.
15/20. This was humbling.
Same. I can say I had three of the ones I missed down to a 50/50.
Haha same
Same
Ditto
I managed 17, the last three were a little out there for me…(and I think I got 17 through process of elimination)
20/20, but I’m a Latin teacher who read Lemony Snicket as as child, so I was really set up for success here. 😉
The last two were very much words that one would rarely see used in a lifetime. The others were pretty straightforward.
I didn't feel the last two embodied a jump in difficulty, B. There was nothing here that I'd be surprised to encounter in a long discursive article in a first-rate US or UK newspaper, The Economist, The New Yorker, The Atlantic...etc.
That's just me, though. All best.
I think I came across "lacuna" in a wiki article about some ancient greek text. Is it a term of art in palaeography?
I didn't have any trouble with the 20 words, but I did have to look up "cathexis." I agree with Peter Gay (see cathexis in Wikipedia) that it's "unnecessarily esoteric." I also learned some pronunciations. Did you know the earliest pronunciation of "banal," as preserved in old dictionaries, rhymed with "flannel?"
@@BarerMender UK here - yep, it's French. Over here, saying 'baynal' would mark the sayer down as trying to use a word that they hadn't got a full grasp of. And I suspect it'd be the same in (say) the offices of the New Yorker or the NYT, or in the best departments of the best US universities.
All best!
Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Lacuna is a good read.
20/20: Sixtyfive year old black American man. I've always had a good vocabulary as our parents insisted that we read as much as possible and participated in spelling bees and science fairs, etc. I raised my children the same way. Reading truly is fundamental! ❤😊
Why do black people always feel the need to tell everyone what their race is? Is it just an inferiority complex, or is there more to it? Nobody cares what your skin color is, and it did not add one ounce of credibility to your comment. The only thing I can glean from this is that you believe having a good vocabulary is rare for a black person, so you felt the need to point that out to separate yourself from the majority of your demographic. You said it; not me.
Moral of the story: Stop telling everyone you're black. Nobody cares. Innate characteristics are not an accomplishment.
20/20 70 year old white man. Doesn’t make either one of us special. Obviously, we both have a continued history in reading good books.
@ajb7615 - 65 year old white/latin, 20/20 (sadly not my vision😉). I was taught by my gran & mom to read, read, read. My mom taught me how to research & I find things laws, statues, etc… that lawyers can’t find, clinical trials & more doctors can’t😂! Reading truly is the key to knowledge. 😊
65 year old Canadian woman wondering why old white men are such sensitive little babyballs.
@@doughartley3513 I beg to differ. An educational tradition of this caliber makes your entire family special on a global scale.
20/20! I'm an 81-year-old retired medical librarian. I tried to anticipate what the word would be and got many of them correct. For the tricky obloquy, I guessed "opprobrium" which is equally obscure.
I guessed disapprobation!
I got flout right before seeing the choices. Good job, Kathy.
I chose opprobrium as well. Glad to know I wasn’t alone.
The only one I didn't get was obloquy - the only word in the whole test I'd never come across
That's a really excellent list of words.
When should note however that the quiz statement in number 11 is itself incorrect.
Disinterest means lack of bias. The question should have used the word uninterest.
Well, done. A lot of tests on the Internet are just meant to prop up people’s egos. This is a real test and you chose great words.
I score 99th percentile for reading, writing and verbal comprehension on SAT/ACT/GRE with a 96th percentile IQ (held back by 30th percentile processing speed cause I’m autistic)-and STILL missed the last four. WAY less than 1% of native English speakers know all of these.
Chocolate rain. Some stay dry and others feel the pain. Chocolate rain
How do you spell humble?
@@jenniferb5739 pie ;)
It is startling how much your video preferences match up with mine. I feel like I see you in a wide range of communities.
dc
20/20 here, although those last two were tough. Minimal Latin skills and a scattered curiousity for language learning and trivia came in clutch for them
Based on your pfp I bet you got 3 right.
Agreed!
@@K4inanpeople can have various different interests, it’s wild I know
I highly doubt that you got them all correct unless you paused the video to get the definitions.
@@ThePackfan69 I got all 20 as well. I used to be an English teacher. Just because you didn't get them all doesn't mean that someone else is incapable
I got 10, which honestly was better than I expected! That second half was no joke though!!
Aye. Caught me on a few as well.
Same here
Sanguine gets me EVERY TIME 😂
I don't know why I can't commit that specific word to memory...
18/20 though, the only other one I hadn't heard was lacuna!
15/20, avid reader and learned many languages in life, but like others noted my vocabulary already confuses most people, I suspect if you know more than 10 of these words you are frequently misunderstood
I got all 20, and I’m not frequently misunderstood, because I wouldn’t use most of these words in conversation.
I once confused every person save one in a room of 20 plus people by using the word "circuitous" 😂
@@lizajane2971ack, maybe you need some more friends of your caliber. 😅
Yep, I apparently have developed an unconscious habit of translating myself, probably from a lifetime of getting blank looks.
@@lizajane2971 Everybody on this comment section should form a social network. Might then have a slight chance of being understood!
I am 10 months old and got 1 out of 20. The only reason I said "lacuna" on the last question is that my attention was wandering and I was asking my dear mother to find my favorite stuffed animal, and my speech skills are not deft enough to properly identify the animal as a "vicuña". Still this result was enough to put me in the top 1% of my toilet training cohort.
Aaaaawwwww, I think you’re too modest, baby; give yourself some credit. Maybe you confused “vicuña” with “lacuna” because you had just woken up in “la cuna” where you’re put to nap every afternoon, bless your soul.
I got "lacuna" because it's an element of bone structure (background story there) and to my thinking it sounds similar to "lagoon", a gap in land filled with water.
For Scrabble players, geology is a great resource for obscure and peculiar words.
@@bunnyThor Ah what a magic reply, thank you for this 🤣🤣🤣
Who is he talking to..
10 months?
20/20,not bad for a 73 retired grandpa. I was raised in rural Oklahoma but had outstanding teachers and a Canadian grandfather who prized the English language. His idea of a great present was a book.
Sounds like he gifted you his love for language.
@invincibel4007 greatest gift I've ever gotten except for my babies and I have my wife to thank for that.
I managed 20/20 - at 83.
I highly recommend everyone to look up anomie and the text it originated from as its a great read! Especially if you like sociology.
Its honestly great for talking about society at large and is easy to explain in a tldr but hard to master the full complexity.
got 16/20 but honestly was surprised to recognize some words even at the end.
I'm an English professor at Oxford and managed to get 1/20, pretty proud of myself.
I was a receptionist and I got 18 of 20.
I'm Noah Webster but I got 0/20 because I'm dead.
You’re joking, right…?
Agreed! Sometimes oversimplification genders incomprehensibility.
@@JMA864no, I think he's dead serious 😂
I got 17/20, with most of the missed words at the end, unsurprisingly.
A couple things:
1. While English does possess many loan-words ("ersatz", "gestalt", etc.), it often possesses intrinsically English words that act as synonyms or near-synonyms ("ersatz" = "artificial"/"imitation"). I don't personally believe knowing/not knowing those particular loan-words actually counts directly towards one's English vocabulary skills, but speaks more to one's greater comprehension of the language, as in its adoption of foreign words into itself. When a sufficient English word can be used in place of its foreign equivalent, it should be, as it is intrinsically English. Loan words which refer to concepts _not_ native to the English language are okay though, as there isn't an appropriate English substitute. "Gestalt" (a German word) for example would roughly mean, "something that is greater than the sum of its constituent parts, such that it cannot be reduced or its components extricated from the greater concept"; something that is intrinsically and fundamentally irreducible. Using "gestalt" to refer to such a concept is much more efficient and accurate than trying to describe what "gestalt" actually means.
2. Tangentially carrying on from point 1: English is a language full of redundancy and unnecessary verbosity, even within itself. Using oblique, obscure or unwieldy words not often used in most situations, especially when a sufficient synonym already exists within the language that is both more efficient and more well-known, without sacrificing accuracy ("lacuna" = "gap") should be avoided without exception. Brevity is to wit what precision is to comprehension. Just because you _can_ use such awkward terms correctly doesn't mean you _should_ - and, in fact, you _shouldn't._ They are unnecessary and often require structuring your dialogue awkwardly to shoehorn them into your speech. Knowing how to trim down one's vocabulary to discard obsolete/archaic terms in place of their identical, more elegant synonyms - and applying them appropriately - is just as important as expanding one's vocabulary to include new words to define ideas one otherwise has trouble articulating.
True mastery of a language is not about imbibing a dictionary and then regurgitating its contents to "sound smart"; it's about knowing how to wield it, like a tool to be used for its specific purpose. A hammer can pound many things, but its _intended_ use is to pound nails; you shouldn't be using a screwdriver for nails, nor a hammer for screws - and you shouldn't be looking for a torque wrench in either case! Knowing when and where to use your linguistic tools is among the most advanced aspects of mastering a language. Grab a hammer for the nails and a screwdriver for the screws, but leave the torque wrench at home; you don't need it.
Is English your second language? Because if so these paragraphs here are incredibly impressive. I hope I can one day be as expressive in the languages that I'm learning.
Wow, terrific insights and thank you for your take on this!
@@gappleofdiscord9752 I'm a native English-speaker. I should have broken up my points a bit more, I know. I was typing quickly though and just wanted to get the points down while keeping them constrained to the numbered headings.
I suppose I undercut myself with the atrocious formatting.
@@Armameteus I was complimenting your comment, I thought you expressed yourself really clearly. Regardless of first language that comment is an example of how you properly articulate what you're trying to say.
@@gappleofdiscord9752 Ah. Sorry, I guess I'm used to comments online that only compliment sarcastically. Like, I presumed you were making a joke out of my paragraph structure as a way to ridicule my perspective on English comprehension.
Perhaps I'm spending too much time on the internet. It's making me jaded and misanthropic. 😵
I got 18/20 easily. The last two were new words to me. Lifelong bookworm with a degree in English.
Same!!
same, 18/20, did English at uni but rarely read books these days, lacuna was vaguely familiar. I'm just glad I wasn't the kid on the stage trying to spell 'obloquy' lol
Got 19 correct. Was confident in every one of them. Just missed the word Obloquy.
How many did you guess though?
Same here
19/20--This is mostly because one of my favorite authors is Henry James: The author with the greatest vocabulary in the English language (his later novels will simply hurt your head if you're not a veteran reader who actually loves literature). And who actually used his vocabulary for the sake of richness and specificity. Unlike so many others who use the language to prop up their bloated egos with false art.
We love your nature that makes you a teacher, a comedian, and an actor. You are truly talented, Brian, and you excel in all roles. You truly deserve appreciation. My best wishes, ESRAA
Thank you so much, Esraa!
learn gematria
@@BrianWilesQuizzeslearn gematria
15 out of 20, not a native speaker but a proficiency test student, the last words were HARD AF
Same here, hard test for non- native speaker, but a solid grammar school education with latin, english, french and greek did help a lot. Thanks for your attention.
"Hard AF" ... very eloquent. LMAO!🤣🤣🤣🤣
Same here... but simply because I guessed many correctly, often by eliminating the other choices, sometimes by pure luck.
It helps that some of the answers are also French words. 😅
You did better than me and I am a native speaker.
No word is hard, it may just be unfamiliar.
In my zealous pursuit of English, I find myself flummoxed and utterly nonplussed. This verbiage labyrinth bewilders my cerebrations! Of twenty attempted words, I contrived a paltry two correct-an outcome most ignominious, and yet, I persist in my lexical odyssey.
Did AI write that for you?
OK Shakespeare
Nonplussed? Definitely AI
for me ur English was extraordinary!
Got me 20 init
Finally, all those years of playing the Free Rice vocabulary game paid off
16/20, being not a native speaker who doesn’t live in a foreign country or work with the language. I’m happy with my result
As you should be! That's very impressive!
Maybe so, yet your sentence is somewhat shady!
Well done!!
@@ragnarkisten grammar isn't the same thing as vocabulary. like many others pointed out, a lot of these words are directly borrowed from latin. maybe OP speaks a romance language as a mother tongue.
I guessed most of them the same way I passed neuropsychology's multiple choice questions: I didn't actually know which one was the correct answer, but I did know for sure which ones weren't, by logic. I told my neuropsychology teacher that, and he answered that that speaks very well of my executive cognitive functions, but very bad of my neuropsychology knowledge. I passed my English tests at the high school level with the best grades the same way. I'm not really sure to what extent multiple choice exams can actually tell how much you really know, or how much you can make logical inferences.
Still smart, dude. I got 19 out of 20 and lost the last because I didn't give myself time to use logic as I kept skipping forward cuz it was too easy. 😂
Same here
Same. Tested out of college language requirement this way!
Look at it this way: if you don't know the right word but you know which 3 words are wrong, you know a lot of words.
That's why there is truly an art to writing multiple choice tests. Poorly written questions/answers can be answered correctly by most anyone even if they have zero knowledge about the topic at hand. For example:
I went to a Hefgavorteze restaurant. What did I likely eat?
a) a pencil
b) yesaga
c) shopping
d) happy
The other options are so obviously not the answer that it becomes super easy to answer even if no one (not even me because I made it up) knows anything about the topic. It has to be written in such a way that process of elimination can only take you so far and you must know the fundamental difference between multiple similar or often confused concepts.
20/20 Being Spanish and having studied Latin, French and German helped a lot. IMHO this is also a bit of a test of general knowledge, not just knowledge of English vocabulary. Banal, coalesce, ob loquii, hiatus, Mr Luigi Galvani of the electric pile, Ersatz, chimera, lacuna etc. Difficult words for English native speakers tend to stem from foreign languages, chiefly Latin, French, Spanish, German, even Yiddish so they are easy for those who know such languages. Conversely, "pure" (if such a thing exists at all :) English words are hard for us non-English speakers. I remember being throughly baffled by "newt" when I started learning English. Thanks and keep up the good work!
This is a very well thought out response, thank you for sharing your thoughts. English (like many languages) borrows a variety of words from others, and that can make it trickier, especially when the words are so obscure. Lacuna, for example, seems to stem from a Latin word literally meaning "Lake" - Sanguine, also Latin, means "blood". Having some casual Latin experience, I recognized some of those with their original meanings, but I'd never heard the... *erudite* way that they've been used in English. I got 16/20 correct I think. Some of the words I had just straight up never even heard of (and I fancy myself a vocab nerd). Language experience: Native English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and recently Japanese. One thing that struck me about the way some of these words are used (like lacuna) is in a less-than-literal way, instead borrowing the concept or essence of the word's original meaning to create a new meaning. Japanese Kanji shares a bit of a similarity - sort of, go with me on this - the radicals represent concepts, but when combined they form new concepts or words, even if those separate radicals wouldn't *literally* mean that new thing together. It's part of what makes translating Japanese into English particularly challenging, and also very exciting, and it's why you can end up with some varied translations of the same thing, which I love, because they all serve to give broader context for whatever is being translated.
Thank you so much for your excellent comment! I completely agree with you, especially regarding the fascinating evolution of a word’s meaning after being adopted by different languages. I remember being very intrigued to learn that 'bizarre' likely originates from the Basque word for 'beard,' was adapted in Spanish to mean 'bold' or 'daring,' and then found its way into English with the meaning we know today-'eccentric.' (Why? I have no idea! 😊)
Your observations on kanji are also spot-on. My wife is Japanese, so I have some firsthand experience with the language. Your insights into the parallel between non-literal uses of borrowed words in Western languages and the Japanese onyomi/kunyomi readings are particularly original and thought-provoking. Thank you for sharing, and congratulations on such an insightful perspective!
By the way, this thread seems to be evolving beyond a typical RUclips comments section. 😄
I learned the word ersatz from reading Leon Uris, "Mila 18."
When the man is right... La sagesse vient avec l'expérience/le temps.
I agree. I speak 5 languages and found the test easy.
I'm almost 84. 19/20. I've always appreciated fat, juicy or foreign words for salting up a conversation (or sometimes just for fun or showing off) .
I used the word “soupçon” yesterday and my GF was like “what?”
@@rhythmdroid Formidable!
I spent most of class reading the dictionary to find insults my bullies wouldn't understand.
Like calling one corpulent and rotund.
Then when I got to highschool I realized I was trying too hard as there were still kids that were struggling to read at all.
That made me sad, and still does.
17/20! The last 3 I’ve genuinely didn’t know…I think of myself as well read of many classic books which is why I knew most of these words…that said, this was awesome and humbling !
Same score missing the last three as well. I think I've picked up most of them from popular culture to be honest because I only started reading real classical a few years ago.
Same.
HS dropout, GED & community college for a couple years later. Happy with myself, only missed 16 &19. Having a little grasp on Latin helps a lot and I love reading.
Very fun! I knew I wouldn't get the very top ones, but I really love learning. I looked up the definition for every word I didn't know! Thank you!! It strikes me as interesting how many of these words are either Latin or very close to the original Latin. I suppose it goes to show that English is a compound of other languages, AND it shows that a language will only come up with its own term for something if it needs to. I really appreciate the high specificity of some of these words, and look forward to using them in the future. Especially pernicious! What a great term!!!
Dear Mr. Wiles,
I took this test yesterday. I scored 18 out of 20. I missed “zenith” and “obloquy.” But one very important bonus I took away from your quiz is the correct pronunciation of “chimera.” I knew the meaning of this word, but have always pronounced it like incorrectly. Thank you for providing this correction for me.
I just want to thank you and congratulate you on your very clear pronunciation and superb expression. They are a delight to the ear.
Sincerely,
Larry Clarence Lewis
London, Ontario, Canada.
chimera has un uncertain pronunciation : it can be a long i as in time or a short one as in him.
You got every other weird word nobody ever speaks but NOT zenith? Hmmm
Yes, I guess that just exposes me and how weird I am. I just can’t help it. It’s the way I am, probably getting more weird all the time. Hmmm.
"Chimera," is pronounced different ways in different cultures. I've heard it pronounced 'KY-MAIR-ah' by Americans, as in the video, and 'SHIM-er-ah' in other English-speaking cultures. It's a creature from Greek mythology, and the Greek pronunciation is apparently 'KY-MEER-ah', closer to the American version, but I'm going with the Greek, since it's their word.
Ditto.
Always LOVED to do the Readers Digest Word Power Vocabulary quizzes! They gave context in a sentence and I always learned something new 😊
I always did word power. I was so good ! Then after 50 I noticed I wasn't good at all! 😢😢😢
My Grandmother always had me study the word power lists when I stayed with her!
LMAO
"The shocking news was enough to EUTHANIZE the public into demanding immediate action"
At the risk of sounding boastful,jactant,arrogant,haughty, snobbish,conceited etc,I have to admit that I am honestly among the top 1% despite , not being a native speaker. Score 20/20 Yay!🙈😎🥳🥳🥳🥳
Your quizzes are an absolute delight-mixing lacuna and penumbra with iconoclastic questions, all while encouraging us to turn stolid confusion into diaphanous understanding; this channel deserves an encomium for turning obloquy into intellectual cathexis!
You looked at the autism spectrum and said "yes".
yeah umm.... what that guy said!
I balk at your slanderous use of "diaphanous"! You must promptly recant!
I am 120 and got 47 correct.
😂😊
Are you a psychologist and astronaut too?
You did well, young padowon!
You must be Donald Trump.
Well, your language skill might be top notch, but it seems like you need to go back to math class. 😂
So glad I found your channel. I only got 12 correct. Fabulous to refresh and improve my English. Awesome.
Thanks so much, Lisa- and welcome!
I applaud you for being willing to say that in a comments section where everyone is bragging about how they got 20/20 and 19/20, etc.
@@jakes3799 Probably one of the only ones actually being truthful tbh lmao. I got 15, maybe should have gotten a few more but some of those words I have never even seen before. I would have gotten 1-2 more probably if I had longer than a few seconds to think about them.
@@jakes3799 Applaud? She said 12, not four.
@@CodPatrol When you're in an environment where everyone is bragging about how high their score is, it is intimidating. It's hard to say that you got something that is a little more average. You don't have to totally bomb to be intimidated.
Didn't do as well as I had hoped, I wasn't sure about number 17 or 20. Most of these were pretty common words in my vernacular to the point that I was finishing the sentence before you gave the options, so I was shocked when you stumped me. Nicely done.
I got 15 out of 20, and I'm an English teacher! This goes to show just how difficult English can be.
Thanks for making me feel better, I got 5 wrong also:(((
quit.
@@j.g.c.2494 That's not a wise thing to say. Nor kind.
@@j.g.c.2494 Good start! Next try learning a 5-letter word.
@@franceslarsen4037 No problem! Most people would struggle with this test, but I think this audience is skewed towards people who have studied this stuff a lot. In reality you probably will only ever need at most 5 of these anyway. 15 is a great score.
7:31 when you only knew one definition of sanguine and thought no chance it was that
I thought sanguine was a color bruh, like crimson and blood red
I did the same thing lol
Nailed it. "Obloquy," however, I got only because the others didn't fit.
In thanks, I hereby pass on to you an exercise passed on to me by the late poet & professor John Morris, my own professor when I first started teaching writing. After being asked to read Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" for homework, students come to class next day and are given copies of the first paragraph but with several words replaced by blanks, and asked to supply words words that make sense. Students who read the essay can do this. The fun begins when they've finished, compare their choices to Orwell's, and discuss the differences.
20/20. Many of these words are very easy for me. Avid reader and student of Latin. And also read the dictionary often when young as we couldn’t afford books. The last two words were the most difficult.
Also “accommodate” ( as one of the word options) has two “m”s.
18 out of 20. Never heard Chimera used that way, and never heard the word lacuna...but I still feel pretty good about my vocabulary! That was fun, I have always loved words and language but I don't read as much as I used to so It was nice to hear someone speak intelligently.
Same score. I thought lacuna was that hair on babies when they’re born 😁 Obloquy is totally new to me at 64 years old. I’m grateful to learn something new every day.
Exact same. That alternative chimera usage was a complete curve ball. I had to rewind to make sure I heard it again.
Chimera or chimaera is pretty much never used this way… a philosophy being reduced to a simple tautology would make sense as something to belittle…
A lacuna is a hole generally, like a little lake…
Heard it from HxH (Hunter hunter)...
I figured that it is an impossible combination of things....like a square circle or a bird that is also a mammal....
@@kineahora8736
In law, lacuna is basically a section of the law that is ambiguous...and not clear
20/20. I'm 82 and English is my fourth language, but all the words with a Latin origin (i.e. lacuna) were easy for me, which usually is not the case for English native speakers.
@@caeruleusvm7621
I agree with that. Also, the words that are 'difficult' for many English-speaking people tend to be trivial for Italian, French and Spanish speakers. I wish I had learned Greek also, but life is short ...
A lot came directly from the french, the one I missed "sanguine" it's because its meaning is very different in french, obloquy and other anglosaxon word I succeed by elimination of the french or latin options
@@neznamho Too bad learning Greek doesn’t grow legs and help you get out of that hospital bed 😭 He’s a swift swimmer!
The last few showing the range of source languages for English - chimera (Greek), lacuna (Latin for hole or gap), ersatz (German for replacement), sanguine (Old French, based on Latin, meaning blood red) and obloquy (derived from Latin). But not too many Anglo-Saxon words are in the super-difficult category.
'blatant' (one of the words used here) may not strictly speaking be Anglo-Saxon, but it is English. It was popularized (and may have been invented by) Edmund Spenser for his Dungeons and Dragons poem The Faerie Queene.
easy for me because I could eliminate the french origin words which I knew the meaning so I got obloquy and I would forget it immediatly
easy quizz for a french people
17/20. Demurred, obloquy, and lacuna got me. Nice to learn some new words I'll likely never use.
1:45 my first thought was procrastinate and then I saw dawdle and got a lil disappointed 😂
Same 😅
Same here.
My first thought was “I’m feeling called out because I’m watching this video when exams are tomorrow. 😬” I went straight back to work.
Same
@@Altered999 butnot beforebieng sure to check the comments section ofc :')
That definition of chimera is such a massive stretch that it can't be found on page one of my browser search results.
It’s the primary definition, unless you’re in the context of Greek mythology.
@@turunturun although I got that question correct, my primary association with that word other than mythological creature is biology, where a chimera is a mosaic of genetically different cells, such as when twins fuse very early in the womb and the surviving singleton individual is actually a mosaic of cells with his sibling's DNA, together with his own cells with his own DNA, functioning as just a single individual. So to me a chimera mostly means an integral fusion of two different creatures/individuals as one, and doesn't have to imply "impossible." But, that use is really more recent than the literary use with the meaning used in the question.
@@turunturunIt is most commonly used in said Greek context and is the primary definition in Oxford's.
@@ElizabethDMadisonThe biological terminology is borrowed from the Greek :)
I prefer the TVR Chimera myself. This video taught me that it's not just a made-up car name.
Managed to get 19. The question with chimera as the answer threw me. I'm a retired health care professional, so all I could think was a chimera is a person whose body is composed of cells that are genetically distinct as though they are from two different individuals. Tunnel vision, anyone?
That is why I missed that one also.
me too
Got 18 but that one also had me stumble. Personally I thought of the mythical beast created by a mix of many different body parts of various animals. I can somehow see how that particular definition could have come into being but it still threw me for a loop and I'm reasonably convinced that most people who read that word don't actually think of that particuar definition.
This one got me as well for the same reason. But also sanguine - had never heard that word used outside the context of blood
Yeah I knew the first (and primary) definition of chimera, which is just a creature made of a mish-mash of other creatures. Had no idea about the more obscure second meaning. Because I thought I knew that word, I discarded it as a candidate option for that question... nasty, nasty.
English is my 2nd. Delving through "word power" in readers digest helped me a lot.
Good quiz. But on #17, there was an error. Just before the blank was the word "a." However, the correct answer began with a vowel sound, which means that the "a" should have been an "an." Then I noticed when you filled the blank in with the correct answer, the "a" suddenly became an "an." That was a tricky move, but technically misleading. Sorry for noticing that. But the quiz was interesting nevertheless.
I agree, but I have noticed that many newsreaders now say 'a' in front of a vowel, which sounds somewhat babyish. I pointed this out to my daughter, who said she had never been taught that 'an' precedes a vowel, although I am sure I corrected her many times as a child.
I would quibble with 'zee nith'. I have only heard it pronounced 'zen ith'.
@@willowtree9291 Only in the idiocracy called America.
In the US, ZEE-nith is the standard pronunciation. We had a brand of electronics by that name, and like many Americanisms, we sometimes read words without standard British pronunciations. But I’ve heard zen-ith in many commonwealth countries. I agree it’s misleading to change a spelling before a word.
good spotting on your part!
If you know the meaning of the words, the preceding "a" vs "an" shouldn't throw you off, especially when it's multiple choice.
I got 16. Non-native speaker here, but my latin-based language helped in a few of the last ones. Thank you for teaching me a couple of new ones!
Idem, french here, the more difficult it was the easiest for me 19/20, sanguine has different meaning in french
17 correct. Am 70 years old, started reading Reader's Digest Pays to Improve Your Word power in 1973. Good test.
So Readers Digest got us through 17. That’s pretty good. I also practiced typing while reading. Came in handy when seeking jobs. 😀
I got 16, 18, and 20 wrong. With 16, I always confuse demurred with demure. 18 had other meanings that I am more familiar with, and 20 was a genuine new one for me. Thank you. As someone who has read both the Oxford dictionary and several phonebooks just because I felt like it, and enjoyed it, I really enjoy stuff like this.
It always helps to speak French with tests about rare English words as many are directly derived from it.
I feel like knowing all of these confidently would put you in the top 0.01%, not 1%
Most of these weren't difficult at all. I studied Maths and knew almost all of them. Fun video though.
@@byronwilliams7977 I left school at 16 and knew all of them, I studied Latin, perhaps that helped!
@@byronwilliams7977 *Weren't difficult for you, but are most likely very difficult for almost all of the general population
Don't be silly. 19 was very difficult. 0.1% at best know all these words. I only guessed 20 because lacuna is similar to laguna and thought it might suggest a space.
@@Patrick-oj8rm I knew lacuna as a medical term for a gap and that was my saving grace for the question
9:01 Interesting. I've never heard chimera used that way. I've only ever heard it used to mean a monstrous amalgamation of things thrown together like the Greek monstrosity of the same name.
Sounds classier than ' pie in the sky' utopia, though 😂
I'm convinced this one was thrown in for the try-hards...any of these answers could work depending how you view society
@@kellycoalson4837 Well, I don't think paradigm (A) can work as there's nothing inherently wrong with something being a paradigm. B and D are very questionable as B is usually for logical deductions while D has a similar issue as A. C pretty much is just a textbook definition.
Thank you for the pronunciations lessons!
I got a good score but i don't know if i deserve it. Most of my answers were because i eliminated the other options, not because I specifically know the correct word.
If you’re able to eliminate words, that’s also an indication of a strong English vocabulary (since many of the incorrect answers are also high-level words).
@@BrianWilesQuizzes Note my comment that I would have used 'anathemic' (which is the word I anticipated), given the sentence structure. (Got 20/20, btw, was a bored kid who read a lot.)
There were several correct words possible to use in several of the sentences.
Process of elimination saved me a couple times for sure
True.That's the general fault of multiple-choice questions which, given any subject, can be scored pretty high by monkeys well-versed in test tactics. A theoretical monkey that only knows how to circle a random answer will, in the long run, score 1/n (n being the number of choices) and given enough attempts, will eventually pass the strictest tests.
I got 15/20!!! It was difficult, no doubt!!🙏🌹
20/20. My parents never answered my questions. I had to think out the answers and then look them up. It taught me to want to know everything. And as a result I’m a double PhD psychologist and research methodologist. I’m 75 and still asking questions every day.
@evanshaw17 🫛
21/20. I didn't have parents. I emerged from a cave about 45,000 years ago and had to fashion my own clothes. After my 12th PhD, I got tired of asking questions. Now I just peruse the world wide web to display my plethoric acumen and perspicacity.
@evanshaw17 It's amazing what you've accomplished! I believe that, no matter how studious a person is, there is always something new to learn. I don't consider myself a very well learned individual but I've widened my mind when I travel and meet people from different regions, countries, walks of life, fields of study, ethnicities and social statuses. I feel like I know very little in comparison to others but I'm always curious and willing to learn more.
I got 20 out of 20 and slept through High School. But sure, I’ld rank passing a Parochial School level vocabulary test on the same level as two Humanities PHDs.
@@Pfromm007 Wow, that's really impressive, you're definitely naturally smart and overall superior. Living that long takes discipline, I bet you eat your veggies, tons of fish and wild game regularly, plus you probably exercise and meditate a lot. And overall your life choices were much more advanced and sophisticated, you probably never got married, stayed debt free, learned the specific skills to ensure a superior financial stability, outstanding fitness level and an incredible social and psychological IQ. Wise man! If I could be like that...
As someone with English as their second language, I am actually proud of myself for even getting half of them right.
I love learning vocabulary, but if you told me half of these were old Latin words or just random strings of letters, I wouldn't be surprised!
6:25 - metastasize _would_ be an interesting way to describe an artist's vision
agreed
Hahahahahhaha “congeal” was the first alternate that came to mind while chuckling to myself just before realizing it would be “coalesce”.
Could happen! 😋
😂
20/20 with minor trepidation on “obloquy”, yet retracted the orthography and etymological base to “Ob”, root meaning “against” and synthesized the remaining grammatical and linguistic clues to procure the answer.
I have sempiternally lauded the axiomatic, grandiose resplendence of retaining superlative vocabulary irrespective of society’s persistent declination to linguistic erosion-not because I strive for vainglorious acclamation, due to ostensible altiloquence, but simply because America used to wax poetic in common parlance, and I ardently wish to see it restored.
I am not a savant, a genius, an English teacher, or work in any field requiring outrageous qualifications in advanced diction.
I love words and am a linguaphile. Period. Grammar fragment aside, my favorite word currently is adscititious.
You get the prize for sheer entertainment!😂👍🏻
Now, let me go look up adscititious.
This comment was so good it earned a subscribe to your channel!
You must be Mr WordSmith I was hoping to meet all my life 😊
Is English your first language?
@@burningdog2 Why thank you. I do not create any content, but am riant with your acclaim.
Retired Physics teacher here. I got 19/20 but guessed the last two. The last two were totally new to me, and I am 70! Thanks for the fun.
Lacuna is a twin to lagoon, it means a gap. Obloquy carries the suggestion of unfair criticism.
@@malvoliosf No I think "lagoon" comes from the Italian/Venetian meaning "big lake." "Lago" is "lake" in Italian and laguna is augmentative form of "lago" meaning "big lake." We talk about the Venetian lagoon. "Obloquy" is to do with forgetting - in a French castle an oubliette was a dungeon where you were doomed to be imprisoned for a life time and forgotten.
@@kaloarepo288 Wiktionary says that lagoon comes from lacuna and obloquy from obloquor, to speak against.
@@malvoliosf But "lacus" for lake -"lago" in Italian came first and the lacuna thing is a secondary meaning. The venetian lagoon - means big lake -same way that pontoon means a big bridge - in Italian the 'one" at end of words is an augmentative meaning "big" Lots of other examples borrowed into English but then spelled oon.
20/20. Lacuna is more of a literary word, which as a professional writer I was already familiar with. The 19th question was purely a guess, because the other three options just didn't seem right.
17 of 20. Demurred, obloquy, and lacuna got me.
I'd like to argue that for #6 - flippant still arguably makes logical sense.
Yes. In fact I got that wrong 😂(and n 16)
To describe someone as 'flippant' is to criticize them for not taking something seriously. To describe someone as 'fickle 'is to say they are likely to change their opinion about something suddenly. If you love jazz one week and hate it next, you are being 'fickle'. If you take jazz lessons and are not making progress, it may be because of your 'flippant' attitude. Subtle difference between the two.
@krisrap3828 has it right, flippant means to not take seriously. The context here is clearly about change not about how earnestly they care about music.
Van someone explain why #16 "abrogated" can not be another correct option please??
@AntonAdelson I had to check the meaning and usage of abrogate. 😅
1. Repeal / do away with.
2. Evade (a responsibility or duty)
The solicitor is still negotiating the agreement. It would need to be in force to be repealed, or evaded. You would also not say "abrogated TO the agreement".
I was looking for a synonym for "objected (to)". Which is why it's demurred (to).
Frankly, I've never heard "demur" used with "to" either. I've only seen it used outside of legal language before and generally as "she listened to his criticism without demur." She didn't object to his criticisms (potentially she agreed with them).