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For the second portion of the list, see List of words having different meanings in American and British English: M–Z. Asterisked (*) meanings, though found chiefly in the specified region, also have some currency in the other region; other definitions may be recognised by the other as Briticisms or Americanisms respectively. Additional usage ...
a person from anywhere in Asia, other than Western Asia or Russia. Considered pejorative when used to describe persons. Polite US speakers use Asian instead, even for people from China and Korea. ouster: a person who ousts [41] (legal) dispossession, ejection or eviction, particularly when wrongful [13] [41] [42]
A aggravate – Some have argued that this word should not be used in the sense of "to annoy" or "to oppress", but only to mean "to make worse". According to AHDI, the use of "aggravate" as "annoy" occurs in English as far back as the 17th century. In Latin, from which the word was borrowed, both meanings were used. Sixty-eight percent of AHD4's usage panel approves of its use in "It's the ...
Standard but awkward: "Allows to" can be used in this way, by moving the referent to the end: "The screen does not allow to pass any insects larger than gnats" and "A tenant who causes or allows to transpire damage to the property is liable ...". Such phraseology is awkward and should usually be rewritten, but not always. [22] allusion and ...
A thesaurus (pl.: thesauri or thesauruses), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar meanings to other words), [1] [2] sometimes as a hierarchy of broader and narrower terms, sometimes simply as lists of synonyms and antonyms.
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
a person pretending to a member of the general public to lend credibility or excitement to a confidence scheme; e.g., a person who claims to have received benefit from snake oil. Recently popularized in the UK by eBay ("shill bidding" or bidding to drum up excitement with no intention of buying). The UK equivalent to a shill would be a "plant ...
Conceiving that such a compilation might help to supply my own deficiencies, I had, in the year 1805, completed a classed catalogue of words on a small scale, but on the same principle, and nearly in the same form, as the Thesaurus now published. [4] Roget's Thesaurus is composed of six primary classes. [5]