Xiphoid is an adjective that means sword-shaped.

Our word of the day comes almost directly from the Greek word for ‘sword.’ It was imported into English in the mid 18th century. Here’s an example of xiphoid in use:

The xiphoid guitar in the picture was my idea, not my wife’s. In fact, Marie threatened to leave me if I ever left the house with that thing.

Au fond is a an adverb that means in essence or at core.

Our word of the day comes directly from French and means ‘at bottom,’ or ‘at core.’ Here’s an example:

Au fond, Tommy is a good man. But he’s capable of behaving very badly. I don’t care how good a person he is, inside, I’m afraid, I can’t let his bad behavior go.

Causative is an adjective that means acting as a cause.

The Latin word cau SARE ay) cow SARE ay) means ‘to cause.’ This gave us the English word cause. Our word of the day adds the suffix A-T-I-V-E to indicate a characteristic of the word.

I didn’t feel the aspirin I took was causative of my stomach ache. My taking it and the stomach ache took place on the same day, but one did not cause the other.

Gravimetric is an adjective that means related to the measurement of weight.

Our word of the day comes from the Latin word gravis (GRAV is) which means ‘heavy.’ You could think of gravimetric as something related to the measurement of how heavy something is. Example:

When Andy didn’t like what had been announced as his weight, he complained about gravimetric means of finding this number. But the hard truth was it wasn’t the scale’s fault.

Perdurable is an adjective that means enduring continuously.

The Latin word perdurare (per door ARE ay) means ‘to endure.’ Our word of the day can be thought of as a more literary synonym of durable.

I’d always thought of my German Shepard Max as my perdurable love — until he gobbled up those fig newtons I was saving. I still love him, but I might love my goldfish a little more.

Hereditament is a noun that means an item of inheritance.

The Latin word hereditare (her red it ARE ay) means ‘inherit.’ It was later imported into English with the same meaning. For our word of the day, the suffix M-E-N-T was added to express the means or result of an action. Here’s an example of hereditament in use:

That picture hanging in the living room was a hereditament from my late grandfather. It was the only thing I received from my family and I cherish it a great deal.

Flexitarian is a noun that refers to a person who has a primarily vegetarian diet but occasionally eats meat or fish.

The word flexitarian combines two common English words ‘flexible’ and ‘vegetarian’ to refer to someone who is flexible in terms of how strictly they adhere to a vegetarian diet.

I’ve been a flexitarian for five years now. If I had to guess I’d say I’ve had three meals where I’ve adhered to my vegetarianism.

Fillip is a noun that refers to the act of flicking a finger against something.

Our word of the day has an etymology similar to the words ‘flick’ or ‘flip.’ They are all from Middle English. Fillip in particular, has retained the same of ‘making a flip with the fingers.’ The word can also be used as a verb that means ‘to flip something with a finger.’ Here’s an example of both:

I wanted to fillip my boss on the nose when he delivered the bad news. But I feared that a fillip wouldn’t have been a good idea at that time.

Valhalla is a noun that refers to a place of honor or glory.

Our word of the day comes from Old Norse. It is translated to ‘hall of the dead.’

I love reading about old Norse myths. In particular, I loved hearing about all their adventures they’d gotten into before reaching Valhalla.

Bruit is a verb that means to spread a rumor or report.

Our word of the day comes from Middle English, meaning ‘noise.’ More recently It has come to mean spreading information, be the information true or false. Here’s an example:

Around the office, people began to bruit reports of what happened at the new year’s eve party. But I can attest that the rumors were all false.