#2 comparison - 1. The act of comparing; an examination of two or more objects with the view of discovering the resemblances or differences; relative estimate. As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear comparison with them. --Macaulay. The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison. --Trench. 2. The state of being compared; a relative estimate; also, a state, quality, or relation, admitting of being compared; as, to bring a thing into comparison with another; there is no comparison between them. 3. That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude. Whereto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? --Mark iv. 30.
#3 hyperbole - (Rhet.) A figure of speech in which the expression is an evident exaggeration of the meaning intended to be conveyed, or by which things are represented as much greater or less, better or worse, than they really are; a statement exaggerated fancifully, through excitement, or for effect. Our common forms of compliment are almost all of them extravagant hyperboles. --Blair. Somebody has said of the boldest figure in rhetoric, the hyperbole, that it lies without deceiving. --Macaulay.
#4 provincial - 1. Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect. 2. Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province; not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal. ``Provincial airs and graces.'' --Macaulay. 3. Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as, a provincial synod. --Ayliffe.
#5 acronym - 1. n : a word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name 2. An identifier formed from some of the letters (often the initials) of a phrase and used as an abbreviation. This dictionary contains a great many acronyms; see the contents page for a list.
#6 concrete - 1. United in growth; hence, formed by coalition of separate particles into one mass; united in a solid form. The first concrete state, or consistent surface, of the chaos must be of the same figure as the last liquid state. --Bp. Burnet. 2. (Logic) (a) Standing for an object as it exists in nature, invested with all its qualities, as distinguished from standing for an attribute of an object; -- opposed to abstract. Hence: (b) Applied to a specific object; special; particular; -- opposed to general. See Abstract, 3. Concrete is opposed to abstract. The names of individuals are concrete, those of classes abstract. --J. S. Mill. Concrete terms, while they express the quality, do also express, or imply, or refer to, some subject to which it belongs. --I. Watts.
#7 idiom - 1. The syntactical or structural form peculiar to any language; the genius or cast of a language. Idiom may be employed loosely and figuratively as a synonym of language or dialect, but in its proper sense it signifies the totality of the general rules of construction which characterize the syntax of a particular language and distinguish it from other tongues. --G. P. Marsh. By idiom is meant the use of words which is peculiar to a particular language. --J. H. Newman. He followed their language [the Latin], but did not comply with the idiom of ours. --Dryden. 2. An expression conforming or appropriate to the peculiar structural form of a language; in extend use, an expression sanctioned by usage, having a sense peculiar to itself and not agreeing with the logical sense of its structural form; also, the phrase forms peculiar to a particular author. Some that with care true eloquence shall teach, And to just idioms fix our doubtful speech. --Prior. Sometimes we identify the words with the object -- though be courtesy of idiom rather than in strict propriety of language. --Coleridge. Every good writer has much idiom. --Landor. It is not by means of rules that such idioms as the following are made current: ``I can make nothing of it.'' ``He treats his subject home.'' Dryden. ``It is that within us that makes for righteousness.'' M.Arnold. --Gostwick (Eng. Gram. ) 3. Dialect; a variant form of a language.
#8 pun - To pound. [Obs.] He would pun thee into shivers with his fist. --Shak. 2. \Pun\, n. [Cf. Pun to pound, Pound to beat.] A play on words which have the same sound but different meanings; an expression in which two different applications of a word present an odd or ludicrous idea; a kind of quibble or equivocation. --Addison. A better put on this word was made on the Beggar's Opera, which, it was said, made Gay rich, and rich gay. --Walpole. 3. \Pun\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Punned; p. pr. & vb. n. Punning.] To make puns, or a pun; to use a word in a double sense, especially when the contrast of ideas is ludicrous; to play upon words; to quibble. --Dryden.
#9 adverse - 1. Acting against, or in a contrary direction; opposed; contrary; opposite; conflicting; as, adverse winds; an adverse party; a spirit adverse to distinctions of caste. 2. Opposite. ``Calpe's adverse height.'' --Byron. 3. In hostile opposition to; unfavorable; unpropitious; contrary to one's wishes; unfortunate; calamitous; afflictive; hurtful; as, adverse fates, adverse circumstances, things adverse. Happy were it for us all if we bore prosperity as well and wisely as we endure an adverse fortune. --Southey.
#10 connotation - The act of connoting; a making known or designating something additional; implication of something more than is asserted. 2. n 1: what you must know in order to determine the reference of an expression [syn: sense, intension] 2: an idea that is implied or suggested
#11 illustration - 1. The act of illustrating; the act of making clear and distinct; education; also, the state of being illustrated, or of being made clear and distinct. 2. That which illustrates; a comparison or example intended to make clear or apprehensible, or to remove obscurity. 3. A picture designed to decorate a volume or elucidate a literary work.
#12 prose - 1. The ordinary language of men in speaking or writing; language not cast in poetical measure or rhythm; -- contradistinguished from verse, or metrical composition. I speak in prose, and let him rymes make. --Chaucer. Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. --Milton. I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry, that is; prose -- words in their best order; poetry -- the best order. --Coleridge. 2. Hence, language which evinces little imagination or animation; dull and commonplace discourse. 3. (R. C. Ch.) A hymn with no regular meter, sometimes introduced into the Mass. See Sequence.
#13 advocate - 1. One who pleads the cause of another. Specifically: One who pleads the cause of another before a tribunal or judicial court; a counselor. Note: In the English and American Law, advocate is the same as ``counsel,'' ``counselor,'' or ``barrister.'' In the civil and ecclesiastical courts, the term signifies the same as ``counsel'' at the common law. 2. One who defends, vindicates, or espouses any cause by argument; a pleader; as, an advocate of free trade, an advocate of truth. 3. Christ, considered as an intercessor.
#14 contextual - adj : relating to or determined by or in context; "contextual information
#15 imply - 1. To infold or involve; to wrap up. [Obs.] ``His head in curls implied.'' --Chapman. 2. To involve in substance or essence, or by fair inference, or by construction of law, when not include virtually; as, war implies fighting. Where a mulicious act is proved, a mulicious intention is implied. --Bp. Sherlock. When a man employs a laborer to work for him, . . . the act of hiring implies an obligation and a promise that he shall pay him a reasonable reward for his services. --Blackstone. 3. To refer, ascribe, or attribute. [Obs.]
#16 qualification - 1. The act of qualifying, or the condition of being qualified. 2. That which qualifies; any natural endowment, or any acquirement, which fits a person for a place, office, or employment, or which enables him to sustian any character with success; an enabling quality or circumstance; requisite capacity or possession. There is no qualification for government but virtue and wisdom, actual or presumptive. --Burke. 3. The act of limiting, or the state of being limited; that which qualifies by limiting; modification; restriction; hence, abatement; diminution; as, to use words without any qualification.
#17 allusion - 1. A figurative or symbolical reference. [Obs.] 2. A reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned; a covert indication; indirect reference; a hint. 3. n : passing reference or indirect mention
#18 contradiction - 1. An assertion of the contrary to what has been said or affirmed; denial of the truth of a statement or assertion; contrary declaration; gainsaying. His fair demands Shall be accomplished without contradiction. --Shak. 2. Direct opposition or repugnancy; inconsistency; incongruity or contrariety; one who, or that which, is inconsistent. 3. opposition between two conflicting forces or ideas
#19 inductive - 1. Leading or drawing; persuasive; tempting; -- usually followed by to. A brutish vice, Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve. --Milton. 2. Tending to induce or cause. [R.] They may be . . . inductive of credibility. --Sir M. Hale. 3. Leading to inferences; proceeding by, derived from, or using, induction; as, inductive reasoning.
#20 quip - A smart, sarcastic turn or jest; a taunt; a severe retort; a gibe. 2. To taunt; to treat with quips. 3. a witty saying
#21 ambiguity - 1.The quality or state of being ambiguous; doubtfulness or uncertainty, particularly as to the signification of language, arising from its admitting of more than one meaning; an equivocal word or expression. 2. an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context 2: unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning
#22. contrivance - 1. The act or faculty of contriving, inventing, devising, or planning. The machine which we are inspecting demonstrates, by its construction, contrivance and design. Contrivance must have had a contriver. --Paley. 2. The thing contrived, invented, or planned; disposition of parts or causes by design; a scheme; plan; atrifice; arrangement. Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. --Burke.
#23. infer - 1. To bring on; to induce; to occasion. [Obs.] --Harvey. 2. To offer, as violence. [Obs.] --Spenser. 3. To bring forward, or employ as an argument; to adduce; to allege; to offer. [Obs.] Full well hath Clifford played the orator, Inferring arguments of mighty force. --Shak
#24. rebuttal - 1. The giving of evidence on the part of a plaintiff to destroy the effect of evidence introduced by the defendant in the same suit. 2. the act of refuting by offering a contrary contention or argument 2: a pleading by the defendant in reply to a plaintiff's surrejoinder
#25. ambivalence - mixed feelings or emotions.
#26. convention - The act of coming together; the state of being together; union; coalition. The conventions or associations of several particles of matter into bodies of any certain denomination. --Boyle. 2. General agreement or concurrence; arbitrary custom; usage; conventionality. There are thousands now Such women, but convention beats them down. --Tennyson. 3. A meeting or an assembly of persons, esp. of delegates or representatives, to accomplish some specific object, -- civil, social, political, or ecclesiastical.
#27. informal - 1. Not in the regular, usual, or established form; not according to official, conventional, prescribed, or customary forms or rules; irregular; hence, without ceremony; as, an informal writting, proceeding, or visit. 2. Deranged in mind; out of one's senses. [Obs.] These poor informal women. --Shak. 3. not formal; "conservative people unaccustomed to informal dress"; "an informal free-and-easy manner"; "an informal gathering of friends"
#28. redundant - 1. Exceeding what is natural or necessary; superabundant; exuberant; as, a redundant quantity of bile or food. Notwithstanding the redundant oil in fishes, they do not increase fat so much as flesh. --Arbuthnot. 2. Using more worrds or images than are necessary or useful; pleonastic. Where an suthor is redundant, mark those paragraphs to be retrenched. --I. Watts.
#29. analogy - 1. A resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some circumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different. Thus, learning enlightens the mind, because it is to the mind what light is to the eye, enabling it to discover things before hidden. 2. (Biol.) A relation or correspondence in function, between organs or parts which are decidedly different. 3. (Geom.) Proportion; equality of ratios.
#30. covert - 1. A place that covers and protects; a shelter; a defense. A tabernacle . . . for a covert from storm. --Is. iv. 6. The highwayman has darted from his covered by the wayside. --Prescott. 2. [Cf. F. couverte.] (Zo["o]l.) One of the special feathers covering the bases of the quills of the wings and tail of a bird. See Illust. of Bird. 3. Covered over; private; hid; secret; disguised
#31. innuendo - 1. An indirect or subtle, usually derogatory implication in expression; an insinuation. 2. Law. A plaintiff's interpretation in a libel suit of allegedly libelous or slanderous material. A parenthetic explanation of a word or charge in a legal document. 3. An oblique hint; a remote allusion or reference, usually derogatory to a person or thing not named; an insinuation. Mercury . . . owns it a marriage by an innuendo. --Dryden.
#32. refutation - 1. The act of refuting. 2. Something, such as an argument, that refutes someone or something. 3. The act or process of refuting or disproving, or the state of being refuted; proof of falsehood or error; the overthrowing of an argument, opinion, testimony, doctrine, or theory, by argument or countervailing proof.
#33. analysis - 1. The separation of an intellectual or substantial whole into its constituent parts for individual study. 2. Chemistry. The separation of a substance into its constituent elements to determine either their nature (qualitative analysis) or their proportions (quantitative analysis). The stated findings of such a separation or determination. 3. Mathematics. A branch of mathematics principally involving differential and integral calculus, sequences, and series and concerned with limits and convergence. The method of proof in which a known truth is sought as a consequence of a series of deductions from that which is the thing to be proved.
#34. criticism - 1. The act of criticizing, especially adversely. A critical comment or judgment. 2. The art, skill, or profession of making discriminating judgments and evaluations, especially of literary or other artistic works. 3. A review or article expressing such judgment and evaluation.
#35. insinuation - The act, process, or practice of insinuating. 2. Something insinuated, especially an artfully indirect, often derogatory suggestion. 3. The act or process of insinuating; a creeping, winding, or flowing in.
#36. rhetoric - 1. The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively. 2. A treatise or book discussing this art. Skill in using language effectively and persuasively. 3. A style of speaking or writing, especially the language of a particular subject: fiery political rhetoric. Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous: His offers of compromise were mere rhetoric.
#37. anathema - 1. A formal ecclesiastical ban, curse, or excommunication. 2. A vehement denunciation; a curse: the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue (Nathaniel Hawthorne). 3. One that is cursed or damned.
#38. cynicism - 1. A scornful, bitterly mocking attitude or quality: the public cynicism aroused by governmental scandals. 2. A scornful, bitterly mocking comment or act. 3. Cynicism. The beliefs of the ancient Cynics.
#39. irony - 1. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. 2. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning. 3. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect. 4. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated (Richard Kain).
#40. rhetorical - 1. Of or relating to rhetoric. 2. Characterized by overelaborate or bombastic rhetoric. 3. Used for persuasive effect: a speech punctuated by rhetorical pauses.
#41. anecdote - 1. A short account of an interesting or humorous incident. 2. Secret or hitherto undivulged particulars of history or biography.
#42. deductive - 1. Of or based on deduction. 2. Involving or using deduction in reasoning.
#43. jargon - 1. Nonsensical, incoherent, or meaningless talk. 2. A hybrid language or dialect; a pidgin. 3. The specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group.
#44. semantics - 1. Linguistics. The study or science of meaning in language forms. 2. Logic. The study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent. In this sense, also called semasiology.
#45. antagonist - 1. One who opposes and contends against another; an adversary. 2. The principal character in opposition to the protagonist or hero of a narrative or drama. 3. Physiology. A muscle that counteracts the action of another muscle, the agonist.
#46. definition - 1. A statement conveying fundamental character. 2. A statement of the meaning of a word, phrase, or term, as in a dictionary entry. The act or process of stating a precise meaning or significance; formulation of a meaning. 3. The act of making clear and distinct: a definition of one's intentions. The state of being closely outlined or determined: With the drizzle, the trees in the little clearing had lost definition (Anthony Hyde). A determination of outline, extent, or limits: the definition of a President's authority.
#47. lampoon - 1. A broad satirical piece that uses ridicule to attack a person, a group, or an institution. 2. A light, good-humored satire.
#48. sentence - 1. A grammatical unit that is syntactically independent and has a subject that is expressed or, as in imperative sentences, understood and a predicate that contains at least one finite verb. 2. Law. A court judgment, especially a judicial decision of the punishment to be inflicted on one adjudged guilty. The penalty meted out. 3. Archaic. A maxim.