Category Wonder Kids

Meaning: The word dangle refers to hanging or swinging loosely. It is also used to indicate offering an enticing incentive to someone.

Origin: The word has been around since the 1590s. It is probably of Scandinavian origin and can be compared to Danish dangle, Swedish dangla, Norwegian dangla. The sense of "carry suspended so as to swing or sway" is from the 1610s.

After nearly 200 years in which the word was in average use, it has enjoyed more popularity in the 21st Century, leading to greater usage of the word.

Usage: The teacher dangled some offers and got the students to work harder on her subject.

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Meaning: This transitive verb refers to decorating something or beautifying an object with interesting additions.

Origin: Both embellish and the French word 'bel’(meaning beautiful) originate from the same Latin root bellus. The first known use of this word can be traced back to the 14th Century.

Usage: Grandma likes to embellish her knitting by hiding secret messages in the pattern.

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Meaning: An adjective, ersatz means an artificial and inferior substitute or imitation.

Origin: The word has its roots in the German word ersatz meaning a substitute or replacement. Its first known use was in 1871.

Usage: No one, not even the queen could tell the difference between the priceless stones and the ersatz jewels affixed on the crown.

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Meaning: A noun, ambit means scope, extent, bounds or limits of something.

Origin: The term ambit was borrowed from Latin noun ambitus meaning "circuit, circumference", from past participle ambire meaning "to go round”, a combination of amb "around" and -ire meaning "go". Ambitus is a noun associated with circular motion. Ambit has been in use in English since the latter part of the 15th Century.

Usage: The police said that his case doesn't fall within the ambit of their jurisdiction.

A complete discussion on Chola history was outside the ambit of one class period. So the teacher said she would try to cover it in a week's time.

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Meaning: This noun refers to the waste material or rubbish, especially left after a particular event.

Origin: Now obsolete, geologically, the word referred to "process of erosion”, originating from the Latin word detritus, meaning "a wearing away" from de (“away”) + terere ("to rub, wear"). The use of the word in a figurative or transferred sense of “waste material, debris” is by 1834.

Usage: The stadium was littered with the detritus of yesterday's rock concert.

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Meaning: In general contexts, hiatus usually refers to a period of time when something, such as an activity or program, is suspended.

Origin: While the word now most often refers to a temporary pause, hiatus originally referred to a physical opening in something such as the mouth of a cave. This word comes from the verb hiare which is Latin for to open wide.

Usage: The band has been on hiatus for three years.

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