Intermediate+ Word of the Day

Intermediate+ Word of the Day: flounder

To flounder means ‘to struggle to move or to gain balance,’ usually helplessly and quite clumsily. Related to this, it also means ‘to speak or act in a clumsy way or with hesitation’ and, more generally, ‘to struggle’ or ‘to be in great difficulty.’ You might have also heard that a flounder is a type of…

Continue Reading

Intermediate+ Word of the Day: egg

You probably know that an egg is the roundish reproductive body produced by female birds and most reptiles and, perhaps, that it is also the cell produced by female mammals that, when joined with a male cell, forms a baby. However, did you know that egg is used informally to refer to a person, normally with a descriptive adjective?

Continue Reading

Intermediate+ Word of the Day: hip

The hip is the part on each side of our bodies where the thigh bone meets the pelvis and also the joint of this area. Unrelatedly, the hip is the ripe fruit of a rose. As an adjective…

Continue Reading

Intermediate+ Word of the Day: clam

A clam is a soft-bodied edible shellfish with two connected shells. Informally, a very silent and secretive person can be called a clam. As a slang term in the US, a clam is a dollar, though this is now a bit dated. As a verb, mainly used in US English, to clam means ‘to dig for or gather…

Continue Reading

Intermediate+ Word of the Day: click

A click, you might know, is a sharp sound. The related verb means ‘to make such a sound’ and, informally and figuratively, ‘to become suddenly understood or clear.’ Figuratively if things click, it means that they go well together or if two people click, it means that they…

Continue Reading

Intermediate+ Word of the Day: toil

As an uncountable noun, toil is hard and exhausting work or, by extension, the result of such work. As a countable noun, it is a period of intensive work or a task requiring hard work. The verb to toil means ‘to engage in continuous hard work,’ but it can also mean…

Continue Reading