Learn Over 100 English Words for Daily Conversation

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hi everybody welcome back to top words

my name is alicia and today we’re going

to talk about 10 different ways to

remember

words so these are actually some ways to

remember words that you

have sent in to us so i’m really excited

to see what your recommendations are i

study other languages so

let’s talk about it let’s see i

associate new words with words that

sound similar in my native language

if you’re studying english your native

language might share some words

so like i’m studying japanese and for

example the word chocolate

sounds very very similar in in japanese

in english the word is chocolate in

japanese the word is chocoreto

so it sounds similar so that’s an easy

word for me to remember

i learn about the roots of words and how

different words are related to each

other

many words in english have roots in

very very old languages like latin so a

word like

omniscient for example can be broken

down into maybe two

parts the omni omni meaning all or

everything and shint the sheen part

relates to

knowledge or knowing so together the

word means all

knowing omniscient maybe you can guess

the meaning even if it’s the first time

you’ve seen the word

okay i listen to songs and memorize the

lyrics

this is also a common way to to help

kids learn things too

through songs opposite of b plus or

minus the square root b

squared minus 4ac all over 2a it’s a

quadratic function equation

because it’s a song it’s still in my

head thank you mrs time

i often watch tv or youtube videos that

are designed for young children

that’s how children in the native

language learn so it’s a great tool for

you don’t be embarrassed to do that i do

that

in english we have dora the explorer we

have sesame street

i speak as often as possible with native

speakers a native speaker can go ah

that’s that’s a strange thing that

you’re saying so there are a lot of

small

factors that you can’t get unless you’re

speaking with a native speaker

so this is a really really great tip if

you’re interested in doing this with

us we have on englishclass101.com

a special subscription which is called

the elite level of subscription where

you get to actually study with one of

our teachers here

so if if you don’t have somebody that

you can study with now that might be a

way to do it

please check that out if you’re

interested i try to use the language

routinely in the context of daily life

when you’re alone uh just doing stuff at

home like making breakfast or cooking or

doing the laundry if you

use the language just to say like now

i’m going to

i don’t know cut vegetables or oh i need

to do laundry later today or

thinking about your appointment whatever

another good example is really i put my

phone into my target language

you’re telling little stories when

you’re having conversations with people

so get used to telling yourself the

story

i use repetition reading writing and

speaking words over and over again

keep repeating in your studies even if

it feels like

you know you’re not making any progress

you are just just the act of doing that

repetition can be helpful for you

if a football player never throws a

football he’s not going

to be able to throw it very well is he

you have to repeat repeat repeat and

then when you’re

faced with the actual situation where

you need to throw the football you need

to use that vocabulary word you’re ready

you already know how to say the word so

yes repeat it’s good

i try to think in english so it becomes

natural to my thought process

i do this i think about what i need to

do i think about what i have done

i think about what i’m going to do and

so in that way you can practice

past tense future tense and present

tense recently this has been happening

to me i’ve started dreaming in japanese

from time to time or i dream bilingually

it’s exciting i think

i try to use the word in a simple

sentence so i learn whole phrases

not just individual words yes this is a

huge

tip so vocabulary is important of course

if you don’t know a key

word you might miss the meaning of

something but

context is important too so there might

be two words which seem very similar

like big and large

for example but when should i use large

when should i use big like if you’re

close shopping and you say

do you have this in a big size it might

not be

the correct way to use the word instead

do you have this in a large size

is the correct phrase so learning how to

use the correct vocabulary word at the

correct

time is important and you can do that

through studying sentences and phrases

instead of just vocabulary

this is why reading is important i feel

reading as much as possible

especially the newspaper helps me to

remember words when i was a kid i just

read

everything i was i was so into reading i

loved it

and i think that it helped it actually

helped my language skills improve even

in my

native language again at first it’s

really hard to do and you might have to

use a dictionary a lot

but you’ll learn gradually more natural

speaking patterns more natural writing

patterns too which will help you to

sound more natural when you speak

and maybe it can help your listening

skills too when you can listen for those

patterns that you see in textbooks that

you see in newspapers in novels whatever

it’s a great tool reading and thank

goodness that’s the end so those are 10

tips that you can use to remember new

words and new phrases try them out i’m

going to be doing my best with my target

language i hope that you do too

thank you very much for watching please

please please subscribe to our channel

if you have not already

and we will see you again soon for more

exciting information bye

i have to go to the bathroom

[Music]

first word is esoteric when something is

esoteric

it’s all right so the word esoteric

refers to

something that requires specialized

knowledge so

in a conversation somebody might use

this word to say sorry to be esoteric

and then they’ll continue talking about

some subject or some concept that

requires a certain level of knowledge in

the given field

next word superfluous superfluous just

means extra

really can a person be superfluous so

superfluous yeah just just refers to

stuff that’s um maybe not necessary or

the x

the extra just stuff or extra extra

things

uh in a given context so maybe you know

like oh i have so much superfluous stuff

in my kitchen of course

using superfluous in such a casual way

like that is very unnatural but you

could do it

if you really wanted to sound smart

acquiesce

acquiesce means to um

like you might have oh like can i say a

line from pirates of the caribbean

something like

he will not acquiesce to your request or

she will not acquiesce to your request

it just means she won’t obey

or listen or do as told um

but that’s it’s the same exact meaning

to acquiesce to accept something

uh yeah to go along with angst angst

refers to just kind of this

like that that unhappy feeling this sort

of angry or maybe melancholy

or just feeling like you know you’re

misunderstood so a teenager

or i suppose a teenager themselves might

not use this word but the parents of the

teenager might say

oh my teenager is so filled with angst

kitsch kitsch kitsch refers to in my

mind anyway

just um junk honestly it’s the little

things that

you know might crowd your house like a

snow globe or special little ornaments

or just um you know decorative

knickknacks you might say oh my aunt’s

apartment is really kitschy

it means she has maybe like a lot of

knickknacks or the style is just kind of

thinking outside the box this is a

phrase that means just

thinking differently or you know outside

the norms of regular thinking which

would be inside the box

and then choosing to think about

something in a different way might be

considered

outside the box so it’s usually a

compliment like great job thinking

outside the box stevens

the next word is the bottom line the

bottom line

just refers to kind of the um the

end-all of the situation like

in a sentence the bottom line is we have

to make more sales next month

meaning this is the one thing that we

really need to focus on

the next word is hit the ground running

it just means to start well

if you think about a runner of course a

runner as soon as maybe they touch the

ground at a race they are running

and it’s sort of the same thing here

except in a business sense so as soon as

a project

starts they’re going they’re you know

pushing forward on the project

you might say um next week we’re going

to start the new project let’s hit the

ground running

we need to get a good start next word is

giving 110 percent

it just means giving your all or making

your best

effort to do something so of course 100

percent is the maximum in a given

situation

but giving 110 means um that you know

your boss

presumably wants you to give more than

your best so it just means work really

hard as in

um hey we have that meeting coming up

next month let’s give 110

to make sure all of the materials are

finished by then it is what it is it is

what it is

it’s just a phrase that often wraps up a

conversation sometimes it can be a

negative situation

like you hear oh sales are down this

month well it is what it is

meaning there’s nothing we can do or

that’s just the situation right now

um it’s just uh yeah

just a filler phrase really my stomach’s

making noise

curriculum vitae is that how you say

that curriculum vitae

vitae curriculum vitae

you might see this abbreviated as cv

when you’re looking for jobs most of the

people who are looking for

applicants will request your cv or your

curriculum vitae

which is really just a record of your

life your history often your work

history

you might see it written on a job form

something like all applicants must

submit their curriculum vitae

to be considered for the position but

most of the time i see it as

cv in american english though i should

point out that um

you might see resume instead which is

the same the same exact thing that’s

asking for your work history

next is ad homonym ad hominem

means to attack somebody like when

you’re arguing or having a discussion

but you’re not actually addressing what

the other person is saying you’re just

attacking that person

so you might say he was arguing ad

hominem

meaning in other words he was not

actually debating the issue

but he was just attacking the other

person in the argument deus ex machina

is the next word this is a fun word

especially

if you like watching movies deus ex

machina

literally means god from the machinery

so any time you’re watching a movie

and suddenly out of nowhere somebody

comes in to save the main character for

for example that’s an example of deus ex

machina

so if you’re writing for example if

you’re writing a story

it’s typically a good idea not to use

deus ex machina your teacher might say

don’t use deus ex machina in your

writing because it seems kind of cheap

right you know your main character gets

in a jam and then something amazing

happens and they’re saved

what’s the fun in that the next word

next phrase rather

is magnum opus magnum opus just refers

usually a masterpiece or someone’s

life’s work a huge work

so like uh maybe beethoven’s magnum opus

would have been his uh

fifth beethoven’s fifth what was that a

symphony

yeah uh beethoven’s fifth symphony was

hit and perhaps as magnum opus

um hey there’s a sample sentence right

there

so if you if you have a big project that

you’re working on maybe

maybe you’re an architect maybe you’re a

painter whatever it is whatever’s the

biggest thing in your project portfolio

maybe you could refer to as your magnum

opus

it’s your your great work whatever is

the biggest thing for you

the next word is alter ego alter ego is

kind of a fun word

it means your other self so

you might have seen characters in movies

that have an alter ego in one situation

they behave like one character but in

another situation they behave like

someone else their alter ego

maybe even some of you have an alter ego

and it bothers your friends

when you have you know when you behave a

certain way with one group of people in

a different way with another group of

people

um that’s your your alter ego coming out

it’s not always necessarily a negative

thing

like superheroes have alter egos so

clark kent for example clark kent’s

alter ego

is superman it’s his other self he’s

clark kent and he’s superman

but in different situations he’s one or

the other zany

z-a-n-y i don’t need to spell it they’re

going to see it on the screen zany just

means something that’s amusing or

different

or a little bit weird perhaps so you

might say my friend is so

zany she bought a new kids on the block

lunchbox last week

first thing came to mind the next word

is zillion zillion is just a word that

we use in place of a very large number

so you probably know million

billion trillion for example but when

you just want to emphasize that

something is a huge number

there’s a lot of something you can say a

zillion for example there were a zillion

ants in my backyard last week

the next word is zoom the word zoom

actually has two meanings

the first word is on a camera for

example you can zoom

in to get closer to the subject or you

can zoom out to get further away from

the subject

i think are you gonna zoom now zoom in

zoom out

okay uh zoom also is an onomatopoeia an

onomatopoeia means a word that sounds

something like what it’s supposed to be

representing

this onomatopoeia means to go very fast

so you might say

i’m looking forward to getting in this

new car i hear it zooms

the next word is zest zest means to do

something with great enthusiasm like you

might say i have a zest for

life meaning you’re really interested in

life and you have a lot of energy for it

zest also has a second meaning which is

used

in cooking a lot like you might take the

zest from a lemon meaning a little

little tiny particles of something and

put it

in your food so those there those are

some things the next word is zoology

zoology refers to the study of animals

you might have it

in your university if you’re a

university student there might be a

zoology department

um so you might run into somebody one

day who says oh yes my major is in

zoology what are you studying

lager lager is a word that i know very

well

a lager refers to a kind of beer um so

when you go to a beer festival like

oktoberfest for example you might say

this year i’m planning to drink a lot of

lager

or a lot of lager beer it’s a type of

beer the next word is wanderlust this is

a nice word

wanderlust just means that you have a

desire to travel somewhere you want to

go somewhere

you might say i’ve been seeing all the

photos that my friends have been posting

on the internet lately

it’s giving me wanderlust meaning i

really want to go travel i really want

to be out there doing

those things the next word is zeppelin

zeppelin this is um a big airship

oh there’s isn’t there like an indiana

jones thing where he tests

tosses a guy out of a zeppelin it’s just

it’s uh what do we call it now a blimp

right a blimp we say blimp a lot now but

zeppelin i think was the first word that

was used to describe these things

because i think they they were made out

of metal

so for example you might know the band

led zeppelin

that could be related to the first

zeppelin

i don’t actually know is it um so in a

sentence you might use this

m to say something like oh someday i’d

really like to take a ride on a zeppelin

that sounds like fun next word is

dachshund

dachshund you probably know what a

dachshund is we commonly call them

wiener dogs

in america because they’re long

sometimes they have long hair too but

they look like you know

a hot dog so dachshunds i think are

popular breeds all around the world

you might say my friend got a new

dachshund i can’t wait to play with it

yeah uh gezunteit is the next word

gazoontite is used

often when people sneeze so americans

like to say bless you after somebody

sneezes but you might also hear

gezunteit after someone sneezes um it’s

usually just used

as one word we don’t really say it in a

sentence very much but when your friend

sneezes or somebody you know sneezes you

can say

gesundheit bass as in a type of fish

or bass which refers to someone’s voice

it’s also a type of instrument it kind

of looks like a guitar there’s also a

string bass that’s usually a really tall

instrument that you play standing up so

in a sentence when you’re fishing you

might say

oh hey i hope i catch a bass today

if you’re a musically inclined person

you might say

my favorite instrument is the bass

great those are pretty good uh next is

wind as in the air

blowing blowing air and wind

as in like to wrap something around

something else

wind uh you might say the wind is really

strong today

uh i should have brought my kite to the

park okay

i don’t know every once in a while these

oddly specific sentences

uh wind like maybe you have a ball of

string at your house

and it’s gotten all tangled up it’s

really really messy

and you find it one day and you think to

yourself oh i really need to

wind this ball of string into a clean

like tidy ball

next a tear a rip in something

like you might tear a piece of paper in

half the same spelling

can also make uh the word tear

which is uh that drop of water that

comes out of a person’s

eye when they’re sad or sometimes when

they’re very happy use them both in one

sentence

whenever i tear a piece of paper a tear

comes from my eye because i feel bad for

ruining trees or

my my friend made me tear up

my favorite love letter and i

shed many tears as a result that one was

slightly better

all right next is dove dove can be a

bird it’s a white bird it often

represents peace

and it can also be pronounced dove which

is the past

tense of the verb to dive so you might

say

the dove dove into

what is a dove dive into the dove dove

into oncoming traffic

the dove dove into the pond to take a

bath

next is close meaning to be near

and the other pronunciation is close

meaning to shut or it can also mean to

end

so in a sentence let’s see if we can use

them both in the same sentence

um please close the door that is close

to you

um because the show is coming to a close

oh yeah hyperbole hyperbole

um it’s not hyperbole though it does

sound very funny to say that

hyperbole just means to exaggerate

something um

or to make to blow something up make it

really extreme

my friend uses a lot of hyperbole when

she talks about her life stories i

really don’t think some of those things

happen to her

hyperbole not hyperbole next

antarctic not ah

oh i see antarctic is the correct

pronunciation of this word

some people say and and tar antarctic

really oh i guess when you’re saying

this word quickly you might leave out

that

first c in the antarctic so don’t say

that don’t do that

say antarctic the the very very cold

region the arctic is the north cold

region on the planet earth the south is

the antarctic

there’s sort of like almost a hiccup in

the word they’re antarctic

oh uh in a sentence i’m thinking about

taking a cruise to the antarctic what do

you think i need

a penguin suit etc not

etc oh yeah okay i’ve heard i hear this

ek x thing a lot etc is just used at the

end of a list

to imply that you mean other things

so the list is not exclusive to the

things that you’ve listed other things

can also be included in it

so in a sample sentence um types of

fruits

are apples oranges peaches etc

there are others as well so don’t say

etc

that’s not correct etc it’s good

the next word is jewelry what

not my names the next word is

jewelry jewelry i think i’m probably

guilty of this mispronunciation

i can’t say that word mispronunciation

where the word kind of gets a little bit

smushed together

and we say jewelry instead we miss that

that

second e sound in there it should be jew

ellery

uh in a sample sentence maybe you would

say i’m shopping for some jewelry for my

mother for her birthday

jewelry we’re too lazy prescription

not prescription okay a prescription is

something that

a doctor gives you when you’re sick and

you require medicine the doctor will

write you a prescription

some people might say prescription

wow okay i didn’t even notice and i was

doing it while i was telling you guys

not to do it

that’s embarrassing prescription a

doctor writes you a prescription not a

prescription uh when you go to the

doctor’s office the doctor might say

here is your prescription

photosynthesis photosynthesis is an

eighth grade american science

school word is an eighth grade science

word this refers to the process

that plants use to convert sunlight to

oxygen

the process of photosynthesis is vitally

important to the survival of humans

right the next word is imperturbable

imperturbable uh means someone who

can’t really get uh upset or excited

like it’s hard to

um change the emotions of a person

so you might say i have a friend who is

imperturbable no matter what we do or

what we say he doesn’t get angry with us

onward the next is counterintuitive

counterintuitive is a good word which

means

it’s the opposite of common sense so we

talked about the word intuitive

in a previous episode of weekly words

where intuitive

means able to sense something or able to

do something correctly without

knowing having to know much about it

counter-intuitive however on the other

hand means

not intuitive or it seems like something

that just doesn’t make much sense it’s

not a common sense thing so maybe

let’s see something that um doesn’t seem

to make very much sense to you maybe

on your office building for example you

have to first

push the door and then pull it in order

to open it you might say uh

the way the doors work in this building

is very counter-intuitive it doesn’t

make much sense

the next word is presumptuously

presumptuously means

failing to observe the limits of what is

permitted

or appropriate oh this is a tough one to

use in a sentence

so anytime somebody does something

that’s just beyond the limits of what is

considered normal in your culture

you can say that they’re being

presumptuous or they’re acting

presumptuously

so if for example a salesman comes to

your door for some reason

but they enter the house and sit down on

your sofa you might say the salesman

presumptuously entered my house and sat

down on my sofa i couldn’t believe it

what this big manometer sphygmomanometer

an instrument for measuring blood

pressure this is a new one for me too

sphygmomanometer is this word

isn’t this called really long words that

are actually used

i have only been familiar with this word

in terms of the blood pressure cuff when

you go to the doctor and they need to

check your blood pressure they’ll put

this thing this figmenometer

on your arm usually and then they’ll

kind of pump it up and check your blood

pressure

so it’s a very technical word the doctor

might say to a nurse or to another

doctor

can you please get me this fig

mommanometer we need to check this

patient’s blood pressure

philtrum is the first word philtrum the

groove located just below the nose and

above the middle of the lips

that has a word philtrum

that’s this i guess in a sentence maybe

you would say

how can you use this in a sentence let’s

see i’m thinking of getting my philtrum

pierced what do you think

about that idea it’s gross

i hurt my philtrum in football practice

yesterday

who says philtrum next is larynx

the larynx is the the voice box where

your voice comes from

there’s quite a definition here the

hollow muscular organ forming an

air passage to the lungs and holding the

vocal cords

usually i think we just say the voice

box so

i think the larynx in particular is

really important for singers and people

who need to use their voice

a lot and i think that there are even

you know special techniques that some

people use to

protect their larynx as well in a

sentence maybe

i have to be careful not to damage my

larynx because i need to be performing

regularly

and my voice is very important to my job

for example

all right next is navel naval

is commonly referred to as your belly

button it’s that you know for some

people it’s

indented for some people it kind of

protrudes a little bit

but the navel is just your belly button

to use it in a sentence let’s see oh i’m

thinking

i’m piercing my navel oh oh i have an

example now

maybe if you’ve had to have surgery on

your on your stomach

that’s near your navel um your navel the

shape of it might be impacted i’ve

this happened to my mom i thought it was

when you meet with your doctor

the doctor might say during the surgery

some of the skin near your navel might

be affected by what we’re going to do

next is pinky your pinky is the smallest

finger

on either one of your hands you can use

a pinky finger alternatively

your pinky toe your small toe is also

referred to as your pinky

in a sentence you might say oh no i

broke my pinky finger

i have a piano recital in three days

that actually happened to me when i was

little

that’s not a lie that’s a real story i

broke my

this pinky finger that was good day

anyway

next scapula scapula is your shoulder

blade on

the back of your body your scapula yeah

what else can i say about that your

scapula

your shoulder blade you have two i think

yes

maybe if you’re a physical therapist or

if you’re someone who needs to train

athletes you might need to

stretch uh their scapula from time to

time

to make sure that it’s healthy or in

good shape

make sure to stretch your scapula before

and after every workout to make sure

that you don’t damage it

anarchism anarchism is a belief that

there should be no government the

society should just rule

itself so some groups of people might

say

let anarchism reign the next word is

altruism

altruism is the idea that everyone

should just be selfless we should always

just act on behalf of other people

right altruism is the key to world peace

feminism feminism is just advocating for

women’s rights supporting women’s rights

equal rights for women and really just

equal rights for people in general i

support feminism something like that

all right next is pacifism pacifism

is the belief that violence is never

justified we should never use violence

pacifism

is great pacifism

leads to peaceful cultures the next word

is sensationalism it’s all about making

a story a new story sensational so even

if the facts aren’t necessarily

true facts we don’t know all the

information the news media might kind of

make things up

uh sensationalism only hurts the

audience because they don’t know

what’s truly going on paint the town red

is kind of an old-fashioned phrase it

just means to go out and have a really

good time

you might have seen in an old movie that

says come on we’re going to go out and

paint the town red tonight

let’s go good to be in the red

you don’t want to be in the red to be in

the red means that you owe someone money

you have

debt our company is in the red for the

last quarter we really need to

improve our sales strategy yeah

i don’t know what this was we really

need to improve our sales strategy

this will help red idiom is a red flag

red flag is a great phrase to know i

think

a sign that something is wrong you might

say oh that person was acting really

really weird that was kind of a red flag

to me

mean if i say these things five red

flags for me and people

i’ll talk no action always bumming money

off their friends

no ambition no skills or no no desire to

develop skills

another one is ah don’t know

when it’s their turn to talk i don’t

like that watch english in three minutes

to learn more about developing these

skills these very important skills

onward the next is to catch someone

red-handed this is used when you catch

someone doing something bad

uh the teacher caught the student

red-handed

he was trying to steal

the hamster from the school’s petting

zoo

i don’t know the teacher caught the

student red-handed trying to steal the

class

pet caught him red-handed right in the

middle in the act of trying to do

something bad that’s the key there

the next one is red carpet treatment red

carpet treatment maybe you’ve seen this

at awards shows there’s always a red

carpet in front of where the famous

actors and actresses and producers and

film people

enter red carpet treatment means to be

treated very well to be treated like

royalty really

you might say oh we got the red carpet

treatment

at the event last week it was great to

be head over heels for someone to be

head over heels for somebody means that

you’re really interested in them maybe

you’ve just met them and you can’t stop

thinking about them

first love butterflies in your stomach

sort of thing

that’s kind of an idiom too i suppose he

was head over heels for the girl that he

met at the party the week before

we’re building a story here we’re

building a story here oh no

our story what’s going to happen next in

our story to be on the rocks

this phrase means to be having problems

in your relationship

it means that you’re struggling or

having trouble in a sentence

my friend told me about that girl that

he met at the party last weekend and he

said they went out for a few dates

wow this is all happening so fast they

went out for a few dates and now they’re

on the rocks

okay next is to be an item to be an item

just means to be in a relationship with

somebody you’re officially

uh in a relationship with someone and

your friends might say you’re an item

now to continue our little story

even though my friend said he was on the

rocks with that girl he met at the party

a few weeks ago it seems that they are

now an

item this is weird that’s really weird

the next one is to pop the question to

pop the question means to ask someone to

marry you

yeah remember that girl that my friend

met at the party like a couple years ago

yeah he finally popped the question to

his girlfriend

means he asked her to marry him the next

one is

to tie the knot to tie the knot means to

get married so two people come together

and tie a knot they won’t be separated

in other words

so maybe maybe this is the end of our

story i don’t know

so my friend ended up uh tying the knot

with the girl that he met at the party a

few years ago

acrophobia a fear of heights uh if you

don’t like going up into tall buildings

for example you can say i have

acrophobia i don’t like going into

skyscrapers you don’t like to see things

far below you ah yeah

the next word is arachnophobia means a

fear of spiders you might have seen a

movie called arachnophobia that had a

lot of spiders in it as you might be

able to guess

in a sentence you could say oh will you

please kill that spider for me i don’t

want to go near it i have arachnophobia

okay

next word is claustrophobia

claustrophobia is a fear of small spaces

if for whatever reason you find yourself

like on a crammed train for example

you feel really uncomfortable and you

want to get off the train that’s called

claustrophobia in a sentence you might

say oh i don’t want to take the rush

hour subway i have claustrophobia and

the commute makes me really really

nervous

next is agoraphobia agoraphobia means

a fear of going outside so someone who

prefers to stay inside to stay at home

more often than not might be

agoraphobic my cousin has agoraphobia

and he refuses to leave the house no

matter what we say or what we do

keep in mind that some of these words

are not commonly used in conversations

uh but rather what they represent is

fairly common like fear of heights and

so on

uh the fears might be very common but

the words themselves are not

oh my ophidiophobia okay ophidiophobia

is a fear of snakes i have a

phydiophobia

to an extent oh i did go hiking once i

was hiking and i was actually near a

buddhist temple at the time

it was in the middle of the forest they

were doing a ritual of some kind you

could hear like

like in the forest and then i was as i

was walking up the hill suddenly there’s

the snake

like i saw it at the same time that it

saw me and the snake was like oh my god

a human and i

i screamed an expletive i was like oh

a snake and like echoed through the

forest and i was like oh my god did the

buddhist monks just hear me

in a sentence uh i was on a hike and i

saw a snake and i screamed because i

have a fideophobia and they terrify me

pretentious pretentious is a word that

means you’re trying to impress

other people or someone who tries to

impress other people

by making themselves seem more exciting

or more important or cooler

than they really are in a sentence you

might say my co-worker is so pretentious

he’s always exaggerating his stories to

make himself

sound important don’t be pretentious the

next word is ubiquitous

ubiquitous just means something that you

see everywhere smartphones

smartphones smartphones

that’s ours i love you about smartphones

it’s a fern that’s really smart

you can tell when you need extra oxygen

in a sentence uh you might say

smartphones are ubiquitous everybody has

one now and i have one too

albeit albeit just means although

in a sentence she was making progress

albeit rather slowly

the next word is ambiguous ambiguous

just means something that’s

the meaning is not really very clear to

you maybe

uh if you’re reading the newspaper for

example and a sentence is written kind

of strangely you might say hmm the

meaning of this is rather ambiguous

all right love really

baby don’t hurt me love is just

that intense feeling where you really

really like somebody else

it could be your family member it could

be a partner a romantic partner whatever

it could be a food you really like as

well just anytime you have that really

deep strong emotion you can use the word

love

for example i love pizza it’s my

favorite food

jump the gun jump the gun means you do

something too quickly or you don’t think

enough about something before you do it

in a business sitting maybe a

subordinate makes a decision before the

boss has had a chance to decide on

something

you might say stevens you’ve jumped the

gun again we can’t forgive you for this

one you’re fired

okay the next one is drop the ball drop

the ball means

you don’t do something that you were

supposed to do somebody was supposed to

do something and they didn’t do it they

dropped the ball like in basketball

right if you have a ball you’re supposed

to pass the ball to your teammate if you

drop the ball you let everybody down

my co-worker really dropped the ball

when he forgot to send that email we

were all disappointed

stevens okay next slam dunk a slam dunk

is something that you are sure is going

to happen maybe you have a good

relationship with a client for example

you can say yeah the deal next week will

be a slam dunk

you know that something good is going to

happen next covering all bases this

phrase means that you

plan for as many things as you possibly

can you have some kind of plan in mind

for any number of things that could go

wrong

or any number of things that could

happen in a sentence

[Music]

a boss might say that they’re

subordinate so what’s your plan for

uh the event next week make sure you

have all bases covered i don’t want

anything to go wrong

next is playing hardball playing

hardball is used when you’re um you’re

just really really aggressively

competing with somebody

so in a sentence maybe after a business

meeting you might say oh

wow our competitors were really playing

hardball in there it was really tough

live tweet live tweet is uh for those of

you who have a twitter account when you

are watching something or listening to

something as it happens a popular tv

show or an awards show and you write

your comments on twitter as it happens

that’s called

live tweeting something in an example

sentence i live tweeted the grammy

awards this year it was a lot of fun

that’s a lie the next phrase is binge

watch binge means to do something to

access or to do something too much

so now that services like hulu or

netflix or other

tv or movie viewing services there might

be different ones in your country

are available people like to binge watch

their favorite tv shows meaning they can

sit and watch all of their favorite tv

show in maybe a weekend or a week or

something like that if they just sit for

hours and hours

i binge watched all of house of cards

this season i loved it

that’s a true story next next

the next word is neckbeard oh my god i

can’t believe we’re teaching them this

it’s not a very nice word it typically

i’m gonna get in trouble a neck beard is

rude word that’s used to refer to people

typically men

who do not have very good hygiene do not

have very good

personal care habits and as a result

their beard which

typically on men’s faces is maybe in the

chin

or the jawline goes onto their neck in a

sentence

there are a lot of neck beards on the

internet make sure you don’t

have a neckbeard

i don’t know next is fandom

fandom refers to a a group of fans of

can be a video game it could be an

athlete it could be a singer whatever

when you talk about

any group of fans you can refer to them

as the fandom

for example video game fandom on the

internet is

everywhere it’s so popular video games

are maybe your favorite tv show

change direction the story has suddenly

changed and everybody is really upset

about this change you might say

oh that recent change in the story has

the fandom upset

the next word is hyper connected hyper

connected refers to somebody who

just always has an interconnection

someone who always has an internet

connection whether it’s their smartphone

or their tablet or their

pc whatever it is they might use to

connect to the internet they are always

connected they are

hyper means super you might say i like

to stay hyper connected so i always have

all the news

doodle doodle is a funny word because of

the way it sounds it just sounds funny

when you say it

drawing something with no plan we call

that doodling so

in a sentence when i was a student i

loved doodling in my notebook

that is a funny word hodgepodge mixture

of a bunch of different stuff

you might say the dinner that i cooked

last week was a real hodgepodge of the

stuff that i had in my fridge

next is shenanigans shenanigans i like

this word i like this word a lot i

really like to do shenanigans

kind of small tricks that you might play

on your family or your friends that are

just a little bit mischievous

not necessarily evil but just kind of

tricky

or just to be a little bit funny to play

a joke on someone maybe your parents

will say

enough with your shenanigans go to your

room or something like that

the next word is skedaddle skedaddle is

a good word it means to to leave

quickly to go to go quickly you’ve been

uh maybe at a coffee shop for too long

and you have to do something else

so you say to your friend let’s

skedaddle we need to go to our next

appointment

okay the next word is persnickety

persnickety means that you’re

too focused on the details you really

like the the small the minutia of

whatever it is you’re doing

in a sentence you might say my aunt is a

persnickety person she always has to

have things a certain way

the lights are on but nobody’s home this

phrase means that somebody seems to look

aware of whatever is going on around

them

but in their head they don’t really

understand in a house

where you can see in the windows of the

house that the lights are on in the

house but there’s no one actually inside

it’s the same meaning inside someone’s

head it means that they’re not very

smart

in a sentence my co-worker isn’t very

smart well

he’s the kind of guy who makes you think

the lights are on but nobody’s home

next oh space cadet i love this phrase i

use this from time to time again doesn’t

seem to be

very um aware or very smart or very

conscious of what’s going on around them

their head has a lot of space in it

perhaps

so maybe this phrase comes from the

expression to space out

i’m a bit of a space cadet sometimes i

just stop

thinking about all the things that are

happening around me and go somewhere

else in my mind for a while

that’s true onward even a stopped clock

is right

twice a day so this phrase is used to

explain maybe someone or something who

is not traditionally good at something

or someone who is broken or does not do

things well

is capable of you know doing something

correctly sometimes

a clock that’s broken and doesn’t move

will at two points in the day

show the correct time on a traditional

clock so a person who

for example isn’t good at playing sports

maybe one day they have a really really

lucky day and they play

sports really really well you might say

even a stopped clock is right twice a

day he did a great job this afternoon

this is a fun one not the brightest bulb

in the box there are a lot of variations

on this phrase

not the sharpest tool in the shed we

changed this one up a little bit too

like not the longest fry in the happy

meal

basically it just means that the person

that you’re talking about is not the

smartest person that you know it’s used

to insult their intelligence primarily

if you think about this expression quite

literally to be the brightest

bulb in a box of light bulbs would mean

you know to shine brightly to be very

good at what you’re doing

but to not be the brightest bulb maybe

means you don’t do such a good job at

what you’re supposed to be doing

in a sentence let’s see one of my

friends she’s not the brightest bulb in

the box she makes some really strange

decisions sometimes

next a very similar phrase a few peas

short of a casserole this is very

similar i’ve never heard this one

actually

this phrase is again to insult someone’s

intelligence uh

if you are making food if you’re making

a casserole you need to use peas maybe

depending on your recipe and if there

aren’t enough peas the casserole will

not be very good maybe

so this means maybe somebody is missing

the things that they need

in their mind in order to do something

correctly my

friend my other friend stevens that guy

is a few piece short of a casserole he

should have done some things that he

didn’t do

vinyl as in the material or the record

before cds before tapes

there were vinyl vinyl records were uh

they’re about

this big or they were smaller sizes

maybe about this big people would use to

play music

and hipsters some hipsters prefer to use

vinyl or to listen to vinyl rather on a

record player

in a sentence i prefer vinyl because

vinyl sounds more authentic

skinny jeans i feel like these are

really more mainstream at this point but

skinny jeans just refer

to jeans which taper at the end so the

top is

bigger and then the bottom kind of it

goes like this

in a sentence i shrunk my skinny jeans

in the wash the other day oops my

circulation i can’t feel my feet

onward instagram instagram maybe you use

instagram this is a very popular

application

where people can post photos and they

can filter the photos to make them look

interesting or different

in a sentence follow me on instagram and

check out my picks

oh my cool pics next is thrift store a

thrift store is a

second-hand shop a kind of shop where

you can go to find things that other

people have used or have worn before

and you can usually get them for a cheap

price in a sentence i like to go to the

thrift store every weekend because there

are always interesting new things to

find

all right the next word is polaroid

polaroid refers to an old style

camera box shaped i think you can still

buy updated versions of these now

and you’d take a picture and the picture

would immediately spit out the front of

the camera in a little

square and you could kind of shake it a

little bit to make the i guess but

the picture would gradually kind of fade

in you would see the picture start to

appear

so polaroids i guess are popular among

hipsters maybe

i don’t know in a sentence i like

decorating my room with polaroid

pictures

i couldn’t care less people will often

say i could care less but that doesn’t

really mean

the same thing as i couldn’t care less

short for i could not care less it is

not possible

for me to care any less about this

situation so it’s just emphasizing that

whatever’s going on it doesn’t bother

you in a sentence

my coworker’s project wasn’t successful

and i couldn’t care less

oh jerk all right next is nip it in the

bud many people say nip it in the butt

it should be nip it in the bud

bud in this case might refer to a flower

before it blossoms that small shape

before the flower actually opens up we

call that a bud so to nip something

would mean to

to take something quickly like biting

taking motion

to nip something in the bud would mean

to stop something before it becomes

something else stopping something

negative from happening

knitting a sweater because i was

knitting a sweater earlier there’s a

section of the sweater where

the thread the yarn has started to

unravel and you think to yourself oh my

gosh i need to nip this in a bud

nip this in the bud so you decide to fix

it right away instead of letting the

sweater just slowly unravel as you work

on it

next is one and the same not one

in the same i’m probably guilty of this

one actually one and the same just

refers to

something that is maybe has two names

but both of those names refer to the

same thing or the same person

my teacher and my father are one and the

same person

maybe you know if your dad is your

teacher in school you could use this

expression

on tender hooks on tenterhooks is the

next expression

this isn’t a phrase that i’m familiar

with i don’t use this one but it seems

that some people use the phrase

on tender hooks i’m not really sure what

tender hooks are

this expression is used when people are

looking forward to

learning the outcome of something or

kind of maybe there’s anticipation

they’re anticipating something

maybe you would use this when you’re

watching a movie perhaps like i was on

tenterhooks

to learn about the end of the story

something like that

maybe next moot point not mute point but

moot point something that is irrelevant

something that there’s just no point in

talking about it it is mooch there’s no

meaning

a mood point a moo point that’s funny

i don’t know oh let’s ask the internets

hey siri oh no okay you’re looking for a

guy

to fill a position and you find a guy

and he’s a great programmer and he’s

fantastic but it’s a moot point because

he’s a convict

i’ll be back a lot of people like to try

and do an arnold schwarzenegger

impression this comes from the movie

terminator

where arnold schwarzenegger plays a

robot from the future and it’s really

awesome

you can use this with your friends you

can use this in in common

everyday situations where you have to

leave someplace but you want to tell

people in a kind of a funny way that you

plan on coming back

you can say albibak inconceivable say

this with a lisp

inconceivable if you have seen the movie

the princess bride

inconceivable so to conceive of

something something you can think about

putting that in uh at the beginning of

the word

means can’t con or not able to conceive

of something you can’t even think about

it you can’t believe it in other words

this is one word that means i can’t

believe it or

this is just ridiculous so you can use

this anytime you’re just shocked by

something you just can’t believe that

something is happening you can say

inconceivable this is a very good one a

recent one from the movie anchorman will

ferrell

says this uh he says i immediately

regret this decision

i immediately regret this decision it’s

a very long phrase

but it means you’ve just made a choice

and you

very quickly immediately realized this

was a bad decision

i should not have done this you can say

i immediately regret this decision

but with kind of like a flat tone to it

uh it’s a little bit funny

okay next is a very famous quote from

the movie forest gump tom hanks was in

this movie

his character famously says mama always

said life was like a box of chocolates

the next line is you never know what

you’re gonna get

so this refers to picking a piece of

chocolate out of a box of chocolates

maybe you’ve seen kind of the fancy ones

that have a number of different styles

of chocolate in them when you bite into

it oftentimes you don’t know what’s on

the inside

so the character is saying that life is

like that too you might try to do a few

different things

but you never know what’s going to

happen until you actually try to do it

so this is an interesting phrase to use

maybe if your friend is having trouble

in their life in some way

you can maybe try to console them or

cheer them up by saying mama always said

life was like a box of chocolates

the next quote comes from the movie

apollo 13 a very famous space movie

the quote is houston we have a problem

houston refers to the control center

nasa’s control center

and the astronaut is famously quoted as

saying we have a problem

anytime you run across a problem at work

or with your friends

with your family whatever you can say

houston we have a problem meaning you’re

just trying to

alert the other people around you that

something is wrong you need help with

something perhaps

new york style pizza wow in my image

anyway

um even after reading this is the new

york pizza is just really really big

they’re huge slices and people like to

fold them in new york

there’s lots of marinara sauce they’re

topped with a whole lot of cheese

and the crust is usually not super thick

so in a sentence

you might say to your friends let’s get

some new york style pizza for dinner

tonight

i’m already hungry california style

pizza i wasn’t aware there’s a

california-style pizza

thai inspired really california style

pizza this is new to me actually

apparently california-style pizza is any

pizza that doesn’t use

traditional pizza ingredients

traditional pizza ingredients would be

marinara sauce pepperoni cheese maybe

black olives

the stuff that you find in pizza shops

maybe all over the world i imagine

but california pizza maybe uses i don’t

know chicken

variety of different vegetables maybe

fruits different cuisines like thai

inspired pizzas

and so um have you checked out that new

california style pizza restaurant

it sounds good it does sound good the

next one i know chicago style deep dish

pizza deep dish as the name might

suggest the chicago-style pizza is much

thicker than regular pizza

it could be a lot of sauce it could be a

lot of cheese a lot of whatever

topping it is that you choose but it’s

just a really thick thick pizza

so in a sentence chicago style deep dish

pizza is excellent with beer

hawaiian pizza hawaiian pizza is this

just refers to the type of toppings

hawaiian pizza is canadian bacon or just

ham and pineapple this was my brother’s

favorite style pizza growing up

and i’ve always hated it so in a

sentence my brother’s favorite pizza was

hawaiian pizza

maybe it still is quad city style pizza

what is that

a thin crusted dough this oh that sounds

good quad city style pizza has

a thin crusty dough then in the sauce

there are red chili flakes and ground

cayenne so it’s probably a little

spicier than your average pizza

and then the pizza is cut into strips

not squares not triangles but long

strips

in a sentence i really want to try quad

city style pizza

beat the pants off someone to beat

someone severely or to win against

someone easily in a race

or a game if you do much better than

somebody else in some form of

competition you can use the phrase beat

the pants off in a sentence let’s see

my brother beat the pants off the

competition at the swimming meet last

weekend

my brother beat the pants off the

competition at the basketball game last

week

my brother is a really skilled sportsman

i seem

james what’s up next phrase is burst at

the seams to burst at the seams if you

imagine a shirt or just something when

there’s too much inside it the seams of

it kind of go

ah they’re expanding too much and when

there’s just way too much of something

inside a piece of cloth maybe the seam

rips

so this phrase means something that is

too full or too crowded in a sentence my

subway car

was bursting at the seams i could barely

breathe the next one is by the seat of

one’s pants i don’t understand the

history of this phrase but it means

you’re able to do something because

because you’re just really lucky

like for example i passed the test by

the seat of my pants

like just out of pure luck i was able to

do it next is to have something

up one sleeve imagine a magician or

something when they do tricks they

pull flowers out of their jacket pocket

or something like that or out of their

sleeve

it means you have some kind of plan

ready you’re prepared with something

that might be a little bit mischievous

so let’s see

in a sentence i knew my friend had

something up his sleeve

for my birthday because

he was being really mysterious okay

next wear more than one hat this is a

good phrase this phrase means you have

more than one

responsibility maybe you have more than

one job or you have a few different

roles in your life

the image is that you change hats for

each of your roles i wear more than one

hat

in my current position i’m in charge of

a few different departments at my

company

nasa nasa stands for the national

aeronautics and space

administration they are the organization

that’s in charge of all space

related research and space related

developments in the usa

in a sentence i wanted to work for nasa

when i was growing up

that’s a lie the next acronym is msrp

the manufacturers suggested retail price

you might see this on products at the

store the msrp

is the their important point is what the

maker of that product thinks

it’s worth so a store might have a sale

and they say

come to our sale everything is 20 off

the msrp

next is the aclu the american civil

liberties union you might be able to

guess what this is about

civil liberties civil rights uh they

work to ensure that

you know people have civil rights within

america in a sentence the aclu is doing

important work for people all around

the nation uh the next is the aarp the

american association of retired persons

um there’s sort of a joke i think that

goes around that once you reach a

certain age in america magically

aarp mail will start coming to your

mailbox as you can probably guess an

association for people who are of

retirement age

i myself am not of retirement age so i

don’t know exactly what they do and i

have never looked into it but

perhaps it’s relevant for some people it

seems that the aarp

is the most powerful group in terms of

its members in the united states

i’m guessing because they’re retired and

they have experience and money

i got my first piece of mail from the

aarp last week

that’s a lie okay the next one is nda

nda is a non-disclosure agreement i

don’t have a non-disclosure agreement

for anything

probably anyway an nda is a

non-disclosure agreement you might have

to sign a non-disclosure agreement if

you’re working on a project that

requires confidentiality

maybe it’s government related maybe it’s

a specific project a movie for example

that you can’t talk about

the employer might ask you to sign an

nda meaning you’re not going to talk

about anything

related to your project in a sentence i

was working on a project for a tv

station and i had to sign an

nda before i began back to back is the

first one back to back

means one right after another back to

back in a sentence

i have two meetings back to back today

i’m so busy the next idiom is

can’t stomach nice nice job stomach

can’t stomach means that you don’t like

something it used to refer to food or

just something that’s

gross something that’s really gross i

can’t stomach the thought

of eating that old

pie i can’t stomach the thought of

working with that guy another day

he’s terrible steven’s next phrase is

eyes are bigger than one stomach when

you’re

you know at the supermarket or when

you’re at a restaurant

and you see a picture of food or you see

you see a food item in front of you and

you think to yourself that looks really

good

i’m going to get that i’m going to buy

that and then it comes to you and you

realize you can’t eat it all

this is the phrase that we use my eyes

were bigger than my stomach i saw it and

it looked delicious but i can’t put all

of that food

in my stomach i ordered a bloom and

onion one time and i couldn’t eat it all

my eyes were bigger than my stomach next

is a pain in the neck pain in the neck

there are a few other variations on

other body parts that you might be able

to use with this a pain in the

something else pain in the neck just is

something that’s troublesome or

something that you don’t want to have to

worry about just something that just

bothers you it’s just

it’s trouble in a sentence let’s see i

have so many reports that i need to

catch up on this week it’s a real pain

in the neck

that’s a true story actually i have to

write a bunch of reports today to

pull one’s own weight is the next one to

pull your weight means to do the job

that you’re assigned to do

you have something that you’re you need

to be responsible for so you need to

make sure you do it in a sentence

stevens didn’t pull his weight at the

meeting last week

i’m afraid we’re gonna have to let him

go pull your weight stevens you’re

bringing us down

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