connoisseur
ˌkä-nə-ˈsər
noun
an authority
French
Current Neiman Marcus CEO and President CEO Karen Katz issued a statement following Lawrence’s death to WWD and described him as ‘an idea man and a master of marketing...he was a connoisseur of luxury and elegance.’
Florian Bellanger is a cupcake connoisseur and a main judge on Cupcake Wars.
conspiracy
kən-ˈspir-ə-sē
noun
a plot
Middle English, Latin
During the half century since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, you may have heard about a few conspiracy theories.
John Wilkes Booth along with many others were all apart of the Lincoln assassination conspiracy.
contrite
ˈkän-ˌtrīt
adjective
sorry
Middle English, Latin
The President, the first to admit that he has a lot of work ahead of him to regain the confidence of the American people, was strikingly contrite.
Tiger Woods appears contrite when talking about his infidelities.
distraught
di-ˈstrȯt
adjective
anxious
Latin
The lady was absolutely distraught, and she later that day came to our house with a bouquet of flowers still in a state of distress.
Everyone in America was extremely distraught during the events of 9/11.
germane
jər-ˈmān
adjective
related
Middle English, Anglo-French
A yes vote was to block a direct vote on the Democratic motion on grounds it was not germane to the underlying bill.
Companies like ESPN and ABC are all germane because they are owned by the Walt Disney Company.
lucid
ˈlü-səd
adjective
easy to understand
Latin
"I'm clean, Dan," he told me Thursday, a declaration confirmed by a social worker familiar with Reed's situation and, most of all, by his demeanor: clear, lucid and alert.
The For Dummies books are supposed to make things more lucid.
plight
ˈplīt
noun
an unfortunate situation
Old English, German
But the chill didn’t seem to bother four homeless people with brown cardboard signs trying to bring attention to the plight of the homeless during a rally outside that attracted nine participants.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20131116/NEWS/311160021/Rally-aims-put-focus-plight-homeless
The Joplin, Missouri tornado was a plight for all the families living there.
superficially
ˌsü-pər-ˈfi-shəl
adverb
slightly
Middle English, Latin
Alpha House is a highly pedigreed series set in Washington, D.C., that superficially looks and feels like it could air on cable.
Each color is superficially different than the ones next to it.
symmetrical
sə-ˈme-tri-kəl
adjective
balanced
Greek
Kemp and Melroe had admired the neighboring house’s symmetrical facade and architectural formality whenever they walked by.
The Taj Mahal was built almost exactly symmetrical.
verbose
vər-ˈbōs
adjective
wordy
Latin
In his first project written directly for the big screen, he’s taken what is a straightforward story about choices, consequences, morality and regret, and transformed it into a verbose treatment on all those things that makes little sense on a scene-to-scene basis.
Presidential speeches tend to be verbose and excessively wordy.
