A personal lexicon of unusual, archaic, scientific, and otherwise interesting words encountered in reading. Browse other letters from the Dictionary catalog.
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| oaf | a person regarded as stupid or clumsy |
| obdurate | hardened in wrongdoing or wickedness; stubbornly impenitent; hardened against feeling; hardhearted. Not giving into persuasion; intractable |
| oblast | division within Soviet state. |
| oblate | flatness or depression at the poles. |
| obloquy | abusively detractive language or utterance; calumny. The condition of disgrace suffered as a result of abuse or vilification; ill repute |
| obscurantism | opposition to the spread of knowledge; deliberate vagueness or abstruseness. |
| obsequious | full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning |
| obstreperous | noisy, vociferous; turbulent, unruly, noisily resisting control |
| obverse | adj. facing or turned toward the observer; serving as the counterpart or complement; n. the side of a coin, medal or badge that bears the principal stamp or design; the more conspicuous of two possible alternatives, cases, or sides |
| occultation | (Astronomy) the passage of a celestial body across a line between an observer and another celestial object |
| oeuvre | a work of art; the sum of the lifework of an artist, a writer, or a composer |
| offal | waste parts; rubbish, refuse |
| ogle | tr.v. to stare at; to stare at impertinently, flirtatiously or amorously; intr.v., n. |
| ogre | a person who is felt to be particularly cruel, brutish, or hideous |
| oleaginous | of or relating to oil, falsely or smugly earnest |
| olivine (chrysolite) | a mineral silicate of iron and magnesium, principally (Mg, Fe)2SiO4, found in igneous and metamorphic rocks and used as a structural material in refractories and in cements. |
| onomastic | of, relating to, or explaining a name or names |
| ontogeny | the origin and development of an individual organism from embryo to adult. |
| ontology | branch of metaphysics that deals with nature of being. |
| opal | gem |
| ophidian | of, relating to, or resembling snakes |
| ophiologist | one who studies snakes |
| oracle | n. a person considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinions. An authoritative or wise statement or prediction |
| oracular | adj. Solemnly prophetic; enigmatic; obscure |
| oratorio | a composition for voices and orchestra telling a sacred story without costumes, scenery or dramatic action |
| oregano | herb of mint family, aromatic leaves. |
| organ point | |
| orgiastic | of, relating to, or characteristic of an orgy |
| orison | prayer. |
| ornery | mean-spirited, disagreeable, and contrary in disposition; cantankerous |
| orrery | a mechanical model of the solar system |
| otiose | lazy, indolent; good for nothing, ineffective, futile |
| outré | outside the bounds of what is usual or proper; eccentric or indecorous |
| overarching | extending over or throughout. |
| overweening | arrogant; immoderate. |
| oxlip | a primrose having yellow flowers clustered in a one-sided umbel. |
| oxymoron | a rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined. |
SurgicalInSite 