These two adjectives have different meanings. Turbid means unclear, foggy, cloudy, murky, or, in other words, like dirty water, or smoky air. Turgid means swollen, over-full, and metaphorically—pompous. Turbid can describe cloudy air or water or be used metaphorically: We couldn’t see any fish in the turbid lake. It was difficult to understand his turbid […]

The nouns, temerity and timidity, have opposite meanings, though both describe the behavior of people or animals: Temerity describes bold, daring, and especially presumptuous behavior. Timidity describes shy, fearful, or hesitant behavior: Caleb showed shocking temerity in asking his professor for a higher grade. Beth’s timidity was obvious; she seemed afraid to even look at people or introduce […]

Just about everyone knows about these confusing words—let’s review them so that you can easily remember the difference. They’re is the easiest to remember; it is a contraction of “they are”. In contractions, the apostrophe always stands for a missing letter. There means “that place (over there).” It is part of a family of words: here, […]

Vigorous, which means energetic, is a common word, while vigorish, a kind of financial charge, is rarely used. Vigorous means energetic—for living things. An explosion is not “vigorous.” Young people are usually vigorous, if healthy. Vigorous can describe activities that use a lot of energy, or people who have energy and health stored-up. We knew Bianca would […]