100 words HS grads should know.

[Bobblehead]

The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know.

link

I consider myself pretty well read but there are a lot of these I couldn't use in a sentence.

Here is the A to C list:

• abjure
• abrogate
• abstemious
• acumen
• antebellum
• auspicious
• belie
• bellicose
• bowdlerize
• chicanery
• chromosome
• churlish
• circumlocution
• circumnavigate

[troutman]

Who talks like that?

This is what the young folks say:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/

scratcher

double true

BOBFOC

awkward turtle

eyetracks

newpeat

[Prototype]

Originally Posted by troutman

double true

True Dat... DOUBLE TRUE!!!

Thank the lord for Andy Sandberg. (see Lazy Sunday)

[Burninator]

I took a quick look at it and I think I have heard of 47 of those words. I don't know if I can define all of them, but at least I have heard of them. Still that was quite the list of words. I can't believe this is a list for High School students.

[Cliche]

Note that in their descriptive paragraph that knowledge and understanding of the 100 words to them indicates superior command of the language.

Some of the words you would only encounter when dealing with the law and contracts, although some of the words have fallen into disuse.

I think with the need for advertisers and advertisement carrying content producers need to reach the widest possible audience possible emphasizes the dumbing down of media so that word lists need to be made up. To show that "O RLY" isn't the apex of the English language.

Then again, using these high-falutin' word to most common folk in normal conversation, you might as well be a sheep standing on it's hind legs from the looks they give you.

[Bobblehead]

[Temporary_User]

Wait a company that sells dictionaries, has published a list of 100 somewhat hard words and explains that every H.S. student should know them.
What a way to make everyone feel inadequate and sell some dictionaries.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Originally Posted by Prottotype

True Dat... DOUBLE TRUE!!!

Thank the lord for Andy Sandberg. (see Lazy Sunday)

Natalie Portman hardcore rap FTW!

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

[arsenal]

Mh Hgh School Kds Dnt Knw Hw 2 Us Wrds. 50 Years Evrythng Wll Be Txt Speak Anywy..

[Juventus3]

I want someone to go to a highschool party and gerrymander. If you can successfully gerrymander a highschool party, you're in my good books.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Burninator

[NSFL]

Originally Posted by arsenal

Mh Hgh School Kds Dnt Knw Hw 2 Us Wrds. 50 Years Evrythng Wll Be Txt Speak Anywy..

That just broke my brain.

[STeeLy]

I've heard maybe a little less than half the words... and I don't read much... but honestly. if you've never heard of Thermodynamics and nanotechnology...not good

[evman150]

I've heard of probably 90+ of those words, although I could give a reasonable definition for only about 60 of them.

It's funny how a word like "evanescent" has entered the popular lexicon in a way, only because of the band of a similar name, but I would hazard a guess that only 2% of the population (maybe less) actually knows what evanescent means. I only know what it means because it's used in astronomy.

Actually a lot of these words are science or math related. Chromosome, equinox, evanescent, gamete, hemoglobin, homogeneous, hypotenuse, kinetic, metamorphosis, mitosis, nanotechnology, nomenclature, oxidize, parabola, parameter, photosynthesis, plasma, quasar, reciprocal, respiration, tectonic, thermodynamics, vortex.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

[Caged Great]

I know about 65 of those words, the rest I've never heard of before

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

[bigtmac19]

I counted 76 of the words I had heard before, could not use all 76 in a sentence, but had seen them all. The rest not at all.

[Top Shelf]

LMAO at the Owls, well done!