Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, so here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective histrionic. This is a solid modifier that is so commonly used in English that high school students probably ought to learn it.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, so I developed this context clues worksheet on the noun bromide just now. I won’t argue that this is a word high school students need to know; at the same time, given the debauched state of our political discourse, I think this is a word whose time is now.

That said, the current administration obviously prefers a thumb-in-the-eye style of communications. Given that this word means (outside of describing a binary chemical compound of bromine and something else) “a commonplace or tiresome person: BORE” and “a commonplace or hackneyed statement or notion,” a political leader who, after 130,000 deaths and rising in a pandemic says everything is just fine, isn’t just indulging in a weakness for the commonplace idiocies of bromides, he is showing delusion, mendacity, and cruelty.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

It’s Merriam-Webster’s word of the day today, so here is a context clues worksheet on the verb emulate. It’s only used transitively, so don’t forget your direct object: One must emulate something or someone.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.