BOSTON, MA — The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know.
“The words we suggest,” says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, “are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language.”
A few of the words are:
abjure
abstemious
feckless
hegemony
inculcate
lugubrious
moiety
quotidian
supercilious
xenophobe
| Cripes, I’m gonna have to look up a few words. |
| The rest are here. |
Hopper… You wouldn’t have to look up any of those words if you read more and watched YouTube less…
(you know I heckle with love, right?)
Hey, I graduated at the top of my high school class, and I don’t know the meanings of 10 to 20 percent of those words, and would never use at least a quarter of them in conversation. (Of course, unless you’re talking about the religion of ancient Sumer or Babylon, zigguratts don’t come up much)
OFTLO – Actually I don’t watch YouTube. I scour the net looking for interesting/funny videos. It just seems that most videos end up on YouTube.
(…and I feel the love.)
Lauren the Ghoti uses every one of these words in almost every message.
A couple of words/phrases that the future generations will just remember as something of the past:
* beacon of democracy
* fair use
* land of the free
* equal opportunity
* social security
I’m bilingual and know 90% of those words!
It is interesting that most of those words became from the Latin. My mother language is Spanish and I know 90% of the words.
Is it the Spanish the language of the future? 🙂
#4 – hhopper
“Actually Lauren the Ghoti uses every one of these words in almost every message.”
Hey! I resemble that remark!
Looks like John C never played Riven. (moiety)
This feckless attempt to inculcate the lugubrious moiety of bloggers may have deleterious consequences, circumlocution of facts of a most facetious and supercilious form with possible deleterious effects.
I was slapped in the inculcates once!
Summon more ziggurats
Just like Dvorak says, they make these lists with no rhyme or reason, they just want to sell print. Look at the front page of Digg. On any given day 10-20% of the top stories is another lame fan boy list. The rest is Apple and Transformers 😉
I, for one, would like to welcome our new antidisestablishmentarianist masters.
Wow. It’s amazing that this list would come from a dictionary compiler.
Loquacious, orthography, irony. Love it!
I’d settle for POTUS being able to pronounce ‘nuclear’ correctly.
Damn, I have been beaten to the punch by the Ghoti, but I think this is better:
“I, for one, welcome our new sesquipedalian overlords!”
I’m surprised that all of these words are cromulent.
I never tire of pointing out people who are completely lacking in feck.
#18, Cromulent? Well, that’s just fine by me.
Know 70%. Have never seen jejune. If you need a feck… look it up for real. it’s what it sounds like.
Learn these words and you too can enjoy an exciting career writing Mission Statements and Vision Statements.
K.I.S.S. applies to language as well as engineering, programming, etc.
BubbaRay:
“This feckless attempt to inculcate the lugubrious moiety of bloggers may have deleterious consequences, circumlocution of facts of a most facetious and supercilious form with possible deleterious effects.”
Mrs Hoar, sophomore English, would scathingly point out the second use of ‘deleterious’ is redundant. Perhaps “injurious” may be an acceptable substitute in the context.
13: LOL. So true.
YA ???
Well up your nose with a rubber hose !!!
This whole thread is a bunch of polysyllabic blatherskite.
Correct for what it states==”If you know these words, you are *probably* more fluent than those who dont.” But other than as a correlate, the list is meaningless.
But such a list immediately makes me think of what words represent certain “concepts” that all people SHOULD know? We could build such a list now, eg:
1. Representative Democracy (GOUSA is not a democracy per se)
2. Dialectic (contested ideas create better ideas)
3. Proportionate (as in punishment or response – keeping things in perspective)
4. Minority Rights (a protection against the tyranny of the majority)
and so forth.
Rereading the post, “you know” ANY list of 100 words would act as the same indicator?? So, I would like to know “why” the editors at American Heritage think “these” words are recommended. As many above have stated, some of these words really are outdated or not in actual usage.
Stupid list, stupid organization. These “editors” should be recognized for being lazy in a field they should be energizing. And so our culture goes.
But remember Bill Clinton was concerned about what the meaning of the word “is” is.
#23, BobH, you are correct, sir, but you must realize I’m from the Department of Redundancy Department.