Intermediate+ Word of the Day

Intermediate+ Word of the Day: dub

When you dub someone, you give them a name or title. This comes from an older use of dub, meaning ‘to make someone a knight by lightly touching him on the shoulder with a sword.’ It also means…

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Intermediate+ Word of the Day: hoot

To hoot means ‘to cry or shout’, especially in a mocking way. When we are talking about owls, it means ‘to cry’ and it can also be used if anyone or anything makes a similar sound to an owl’s cry. In British English, it also means…

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Intermediate+ Word of the Day: mud

Mud is what results from mixing earth and water, like what we find on the ground after rain or along the bank of a river. Informally, mud is also scandalous or false and harmful claims or information about something or someone, most often in the expression…

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Intermediate+ Word of the Day: nut

A nut is a dry fruit consisting of an edible kernel, enclosed in a woody shell. The kernel itself is also called a nut. A nut is also a metal block with a threaded hole allowing it to be screwed down on a bolt to hold the objects the bolt passes through together. Colloquially,…

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Intermediate+ Word of the Day: tender

If something is tender, it means that it is soft or delicate in substance, gentle, or delicate or weak in constitution. Something or someone easily moved to compassion is called tender and so is someone sentimental or overly sentimental. Tender also refers to something…

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Intermediate+ Word of the Day: stray

To stray means ‘to wander,’ ‘to move away from the proper course,’ and also ‘to become distracted and digress.’ As a noun, a stray is a domestic animal, such as a dog or cat, found wandering and without an owner. Figuratively, a homeless or friendless person can also be called a stray…

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Intermediate+ Word of the Day: pan

A pan is a metal container, usually shallow, used for cooking things on the stove top or, in US English a shallow metal container for baking (in UK English, these are called “tins”). It is also a dish-shaped container, like you find on kitchen scales or the container in which gold is separated from gravel. As a verb, to pan means ‘to separate gold from gravel’ and informally, ‘to criticize harshly.’ In show business, to pan means ‘to move the camera…

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Intermediate+ Word of the Day: swell

To swell means ‘to enlarge in size or weight,’ ‘to increase in amount or degree,’ and also ‘to rise in volume.’ In medicine, when something swells it means that it increases abnormally in size. Relating to emotions, we use swell to mean…

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Intermediate+ Word of the Day: frame

A frame is a border used to enclose a picture or a photo or, in building, a structure used as support, or a structure used for enclosing something, such as a door or window. Frame also means physique, if we are talking about the human body. In cinema, a frame is…

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Intermediate+ Word of the Day: bud

A bud is the small part on the end of a plant from which leaves or flowers grow. In some organisms, a bud is a prominence that develops into a new individual, and in general, any round small rounded part on a body can be called a bud, especially the rounded protuberances from which horns sprout. Figuratively, an…

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