New words with example sentences

Words

DAY 1
Here are 10 news words with example sentences.

afflict

to cause pain or suffering to : to distress so severely as to cause persistent suffering or anguish

In her first two months on the job, Smith has faced many of the same challenges that have afflicted Washington for the last couple of years: the smallest D.C. police force in decades, the highest pace of homicides in 26 years, and a growing number of children shooting and being shot. — Peter Hermann, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2023
The record-breaking mega-flood in August 2022 that impacted 33 million people in Pakistan brought home to the world the urgency and scale of the climate crisis afflicting developing countries. — Time, 15 Aug. 2023

ravage

ravage implies violent often cumulative depredation and destruction.

Early psychologists and psychiatrists such as Jacques-Joseph Moreau, Sigmund Freud and William James, as well as chemists like Humphry Davy, took inspiration from such writers and sought in drugs treatments for modernity’s spiritual ravages. — Federico Perelmuter, Washington Post, 10 Aug. 2023
On Wednesday, the GA heard from two women presidents leading two countries bordering Ukraine, Zuzana Čaputová of Slovakia and Maia Sandu of Moldova, with Russia’s war ravaging Ukraine a significant theme in their speeches. — Stephanie Fillion, CNN, 22 Sep. 2023

inertia

indisposition to motion, exertion, or change : inertness

The opposition accused Erodgan’s government of inertia and incompetence in response to earthquake rescue efforts. — Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News, 27 May 2023
Now, researchers have put a number on the high value of customer inertia. — Irina Ivanova, Fortune, 15 Aug. 2023

tumultuous

marked by tumult : loud, excited, and emotional

Even at its most introspective, introverted or solipsistic, this music has always been a response to the tumultuous everything-else that exists outside our heads. — Chris Richards, Washington Post, 21 Sep. 2023
The indictment of Hunter Biden on Thursday made one thing all but certain: President Joe Biden will embark on a 2024 reelection bid dogged once again by his son's tumultuous business and personal life. — Lucien Bruggeman, ABC News, 15 Sep. 2023

threshold

the point at which a physiological or psychological effect begins to be produced

The threshold for the second debate was higher than for the first. — Aaron Navarro, CBS News, 27 Sep. 2023
The final vote was 212-214, falling short of the majority threshold needed to advance the legislation. — Cami Mondeaux, Washington Examiner, 19 Sep. 2023

eclecticism

the theory or practice of an eclectic method

That harmony — and cultural eclecticism — is exhibited in its most memorable properties. — Brad Japhe, Travel + Leisure, 11 July 2023
The original design from Sanaa — which has a reputation for architecture that avoids intimidation, and includes the New Museum in Manhattan — has been altered to bend, literally in some cases, toward Sydney’s very particular surroundings and the Gallery’s eclecticism. — Damien Cave, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2023

ingenuity

skill or cleverness in devising or combining : inventiveness

The remarkable ingenuity Rutz observed changed his understanding of what birds can do. — Lois Parshley, Scientific American, 19 Sep. 2023
With optimistic urgency, the Earthshot vision believes that human ingenuity can make the planet a cleaner, safer place by 2030. — Stephanie Petit, Peoplemag, 19 Sep. 2023

inextricably

forming a maze or tangle from which it is impossible to get free

Many Native Hawaiian organizers on the ground have pointed to U.S. interference as inextricable from the tragedy itself. — Elizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 25 Aug. 2023
The documentary posits these facts as inextricable, pointing to the toilet paper problem as one with multifaceted, long-lasting effects. — Meredith Woerner, Variety, 31 Aug. 2023

mimicry

the action, practice, or art of mimicking

When discussing the scene, Atwell heaped praise on Kirby’s mimicry of her mannerisms and pointed to a small tell in her co-star’s performance that distinguished the transition from Alanna to Grace. — Angelique Jackson, Variety, 17 July 2023
Through mimicry, the readers started converging on a new set of values, new patterns of language, and a new way of viewing the world. — WIRED, 16 June 2023

stipend

a fixed sum of money paid periodically for services or to defray expenses

All told, each couple would receive some forty thousand dollars’ worth of medical services and stipends. — Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2023
The contract also provides a guideline for life and health insurance policies and housing stipends. — Emma Healy, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Sep. 2023

Words

DAY 2
Here are 10 news words with example sentences.

herein

in this

Prescription Medication: Medications discussed herein are prescription medications, and it should only be used under the guidance and supervision of a qualified healthcare professional. — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 25 Sep. 2023
The title, from Picard’s signature command, is a nod to the starship captain’s primacy in his life, and also perhaps a tease, a hint that herein lie the secrets to the creation of that galactic sense of empathy. — WIRED, 3 Oct. 2023

patriarchal

of, relating to, or being a patriarch or patriarchy

Struggling to see how deeply ingrained patriarchal thinking is in science? — Amy Brady, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2023
The Roman Empire was also an incredibly patriarchal society. — Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 16 Sep. 2023

repress

to check by or as if by pressure : curb;
to hold in by self-control

Western countries also began constraining the ability of African governments to repress their citizens. — Foreign Affairs, 20 Sep. 2023
Crimean Tatars are a Turkic Sunni Muslim minority, among the many minorities the Soviets repressed. — Serhiy Morgunov, Washington Post, 4 Sep. 2023

exacerbate

to make more violent, bitter, or severe

Experts say the trend could exacerbate the country’s growing economic headaches, as a falling birthrate and shrinking workforce spell trouble for future growth — and for generations of Chinese youth. — Berry Wang, CNN, 5 Oct. 2023
Advocates have long considered student loans a financial albatross weighing down the middle class, preventing upward mobility and exacerbating racial disparities, especially for Black borrowers. — Daniella Silva, NBC News, 1 Oct. 2023

propensity

an often intense natural inclination or preference
propensity implies a deeply ingrained and usually irresistible inclination.

Sixty-odd years ago, the pediatrician and psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott theorized that some parents unwittingly foster a propensity for deceit in their kids by overreacting to benign acts of theft. — Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2023
In the early era, men reported a greater propensity to negotiate than women. — Bysheryl Estrada, Fortune, 30 Aug. 2023

vagabondage

a person who wanders from place to place without a fixed home : one leading a vagabond life
especially : vagrant, tramp
moving from place to place without a fixed home : wandering

At the time, many were trying to put their lives back together after their experiences at Christians of Faith in 2018, an initial season in which several dozen teenage boys lived like football vagabonds. — Billy Witz, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2023
Providing different perspectives are a vagabonding Swedish artist and his British wife as well as an Aboriginal wrangler called Billy, whose skill as a cricket batsman has blighted his connection to his family traditions. — Alida Becker, New York Times, 5 May 2023

provisionally

serving for the time being : temporary

a postage stamp for use until a regular issue appears
But then this key insight about the network effects of harassment campaigns means that the solution, however partial or provisional, lies in finding other ways of disrupting the networks of extremist abusers. — WIRED, 22 Sep. 2023
Instead, the board of elections will determine which outstanding provisional and absentee ballots are valid at the Sept. 27 board meeting, Perlatti said. — cleveland, 13 Sep. 2021

animism

a doctrine that the vital principle of organic development is immaterial spirit

The author, 29 years old at the time, had been living with Indigenous Even people in a remote area of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and studying their belief system, including animism — that is, the belief that all things, living and non-living, have spirits and agency. — Nancy Lord, Anchorage Daily News, 6 Feb. 2022
Borck argues that neuroscience has something in common with animism, the religious belief that spirits inhabit various objects. — Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 16 June 2016

decimate

to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
to reduce drastically especially in number
The word comes from Latin decem, meaning "ten." Decimate strayed from its "tenth" meaning and nowadays refers to the act of destroying or hurting something in great numbers.

What’s more important: Tearing down dams that have decimated rivers and driven salmon and other fish toward extinction? — Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2023
The issue for us was the use of mini rooms and the insistence of some companies in certain instances to essentially decimate the writers room for writers who want to use writers. — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 27 Sep. 2023

aversion

a feeling of repugnance toward something with a desire to avoid or turn from it
an object of dislike or aversion

Musk’s willingness to invest his own personal fortune goes against loss aversion–the idea that humans overvalue potential losses. — Grace Lordan, Fortune, 13 Sep. 2023
Kelsey said the second pregnancy was more difficult, experiencing sciatica, Braxton-Hicks contractions and an aversion to chicken. — Kyle Melnick, Washington Post, 7 Sep. 2023

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