13 Words

A while back the kids and I played a game in which I would find a word in the dictionary and they would try to define it. Not only did they impress the whole family with their vocabulary, we all learned a few more words, and what they learned stuck.

1. Dirge (This one actually came up on a test over a year later, and was remembered from the game. It was an English class, rather than Music, though.)

2. magnetite (obviously the black iron ore, not the latest butt-enhancing exercise routine)

3. confute (I’d just use refute, but whatever.)

4. disco (You’d think this would be easy for the kids, but no. Just shows my age. Now it’s all dubstep)

5. florid (Easy for a Romance writer to remember even if it’s from anger rather than passion, but not so easy for a teenager to remember)

6. quittance (You’d think with my accounting background I’d know this one.)

7. rabbet (No, it’s not misspelled. It’s the carpentry term)

8. Suetonius (I’m not sure it’s fair to use a dictionary that includes historical figures. No way I’d have guessed the Roman historian Gaius Suetonius)

9. capo (a guitar playing thing.)

10. Acyclovir (What the heck is this doing in the dictionary? Not what I want to have to explain to my kids, though I suppose they ought to know. *groan*)

11. provide (Got to give them an easy one now and then)

12. Madeira (The Boy knew because it had already come up in a video game.)

13. fakir (great way to start a religious discussion.)