Difficult Words :

Milieu,Minuscule,Misanthropic,Mitigate,
Mollify and Monolithic





Difficult Words : Milieu, Minuscule, Misanthropic, Mitigate, Mollify and Monolithic


Milieu (mil YOO) n: environment; surroundings

A caring and involved community is the proper milieu for raising a family.

The farmer on vacation in the big city felt out of his milieu.




Minuscule (MIN uh SKYOOL) adj: very tiny

Be careful with the spelling of this word. People tend to spell it miniscule. Think of minus.

Bob's minuscule brain was just enough to get him out of junior high school and into a job at the gas station.

Hank's salary was minuscule, but the benefits were pretty good. He got to sit next to the refrigerator and eat all day long.

Minute is a synonym for minuscule. The small details of something are the minutiae.




Misanthropic (MIS un THROP ik) adj: hating mankind

A misogynist hates women. A misanthropic person doesn't make distinctions. He or she hates everyone. The opposite of a misanthrope is a philanthropist.

Curiously, there is no word for someone who hates men only.




Mitigate (MIT uh GATE) v: to moderate the effect of something

The sense of imminent disaster was mitigated by the guide's calm behavior and easy smile.

The effects of the disease were mitigated by the experimental drug treatment.

Nothing John said could mitigate the enormity of what he had done.




Mollify (MOL uh FYE) u: to soften, to soothe, to pacify

Lucy mollified the angry police officer by kissing him on the tip of his nose.

My father was not mollified by my promise never to crash his car into a brick wall ever again.

The baby-sitter was unable to mollify the cranky child, so she put him in the clothes dryer and spun him around for a little while.




Monolithic (MON uh LITH ik) adj: massive, solid, uniform and un-yielding.

A monolith is a huge stone shaft or column. Many other things can be said to be monolithic.

A huge corporation is often said to be monolithic, especially if it is enormous and powerful and all its parts are dedicated to the same purpose.

If the opposition to a plan were said to be monolithic, it would probably consist of a very large group of people who all felt the same way.




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