A personal lexicon of unusual, archaic, scientific, and otherwise interesting words encountered in reading. Browse other letters from the Dictionary catalog.
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| G clef | |
| gadfly | a usually intentionally annoying and persistently critical person. |
| gaekwar | |
| gaffe | a clumsy social error; a faux pas; a blatant mistake or misjudgment |
| gaggle | a flock of geese; a cluster or group |
| gainsay | to declare false; deny |
| galley | low ship propelled by oars. |
| galumph | intr.v. to move or run clumsily or heavily |
| gamo- | united, joined; sexual |
| gamopetalous | (botany) having or characterizing a corolla with partially or wholly fused petals. |
| gander | look, glance. |
| gangly | (of person) loosely built, lanky |
| gannet | sea-bird; greedy person. |
| garret | attic. |
| gauche (gosh) | adj. lacking social polish; tactless |
| gaucherie | n. an awkward or tactless act, manner or expression; a lack of tact; awkwardness. |
| gaudy | adj. showy in a tasteless or vulgar way |
| gavel | n. a small mallet; tr.v. |
| gawk | n. an awkward, loutish person; an oaf; intr.v. to stare or gape stupidly |
| gawky | awkward; ungainly |
| geld | tr.v. to castrate (a horse, e.g.); to deprive of strength or vigor; weaken |
| genteel | refined in manner; well-bred and polite. Free from vulgarity or rudeness. Elegantly stylish. Striving to convey a manner or an appearance of refinement and respectability. Marked by affected and somewhat prudish refinement |
| genus | a class, group or kind with common attributes |
| Gershwin, George | 1898-1937. American composer who brought jazz idiom to classical music forms in his orchestral works and composed the scores of many musical comedies. |
| gestalt | a physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts. |
| getmütlich | |
| gewgaw | a decorative trinket; a bauble |
| geyser | a spring that intermittently shoots up hot water and steam. |
| ghoulish | n. one who delights in the revolting, morbid, or loathsome; a grave robber |
| gigue | any of various lively dances in triple time; the music for such a dance. |
| gingham | a yarn-dyed cotton fabric woven in stripes, checks, plaids or solid colors |
| ginkgo | tree with fan-shaped leaves and flashy yellowish seeds with a disagreeable odor. |
| glissando | n. a rapid slide through a series of consecutive tones in a scalelike passage |
| gluons | chromoelectric field holding quarks together |
| goad | n. spiked stick used for urging cattle; thing that torments, incites, or stimulates. v.t. urge with goad; irritate |
| gob | mass or lump; large quantity |
| golly | used to express mild surprise or wonder |
| gorget | an ornamental collar |
| gormandize | v. intr. to eat gluttonously; gorge. tr.v. to devour (food) gluttonously. |
| gorse | spiny shrub with fragrant yellow flowers and black pods |
| Gosling | a young goose; a naïve or inexperienced young person. |
| gossamer | n. a soft, sheer, gauzy fabric; something delicate, light or flimsy; a fine film of cobwebs; adj. sheer, light, delicate or tenuous |
| gothic | adj. of or relating to art forms prevalent in northern Europe from the 12th through the 15th century; of or relating to a style of fiction that emphasizes the grotesque, mysterious, and desolate; barbarous, crude; n. |
| goulash | a stew of beef or veal and vegetables seasoned mainly with paprika |
| gourd | fruit with hard rind and of irregular and unusual shape. |
| Grandiloquence | pompous or bombastic speech or expression |
| graphology | the study of handwriting, esp. when employed as a means of analyzing character |
| gratuitous | given or granted without return or recompense; unearned; given or received without cost or obligation; free; unnecessary or unwarranted; unjustified |
| graven | past participle of grave. |
| grist | grain or a quantity of grain for grinding; ground grain |
| gristle | cartilage |
| grouch | a fit of bad temper; an habitually irritable or complaining person. |
| grouse | chickenlike bird having mottled brown or grayish plumage. |
| grumpy | surly and peevish; cranky |
| guano | a substance composed chiefly of the dung of sea birds or bats and used as fertilizer; any similar substance. |
| gudgeon | small Eurasian fish; person easily fooled |
| guffaw | n. a hearty, boisterous burst of laughter; intr.v. |
| guile | treacherous cunning, skillful deceit |
| gumption | boldness of enterprise; initiative or aggressiveness; guts, spunk; common sense |
| guoin | a corner stone. |
| gyroscope | a device consisting of a spinning mass mounted on a base so that its axis can turn freely in one or more directions and thereby maintain its orientation regardless of any movement of the base |
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