Eminent is an adjective that nearly always goes ahead of its noun – “an eminent statesman” is a prominent statesman. Eminent is nearly always used to convey something positive or valued.
If I had known that my science professor was an eminent biologist, soon to be nominated for a Nobel Prize, I would have asked for his autograph before the course ended.
“Her eminent good sense made her a godsend to our project.” (adapted from Wiktionary)
Imminent is an adjective used for describing a moment
when something is about to happen. (If you can use the word
'impending', then you already know how to use 'imminent'.)
The greedy heirs awaited the imminent death of their wealthy old uncle.
The imminent likelihood of a fire drill kept the teacher from giving a vocabulary quiz that day.
To assuage is to soothe, to comfort, to lessen the pain. Use ‘assuage’ in the emotional sense.
Kennedy felt that there was a diplomatic way to assuage Russia’s concerns.
Tom had been dumped by his girlfriend; it was impossible to assuage his feelings of grief and loss.
Apostrophe is a literary device that pertains to addressing someone or something that is absent.
“Judge, oh you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him” is a good example of apostrophe in Shakespeare’s plays. (Caesar addresses the gods.)
John Donne invokes death in the apostrophe “Oh, Death, be not proud,” almost as if Death were a character in a play. (Donne speaks to Death as though Death were a human listener.)
In the following apostrophe, Hamlet bitterly complains about the women in his life: “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (Hamlet addresses Frailty as if it were a person who could hear, speak, respond, etc.)
Allusion – an indirect reference to something that many readers or listeners are likely to know.
With his line about storming the beach-heads and pushing back the jungle, Kennedy alludes to Pacific-island warfare during World War II .
The girl's allusions to hip-hop lyrics went straight over the teacher’s head.
Credulity is a near-perfect synonym for ‘gullibility’. It refers to people’s tendency to believe.
Her credulity made her a good candidate for the man who claimed he could hypnotize people.
The credulous farmers bought the phony medicine from the traveling salesman.
The greedy real estate agent played on the credulity of prospective buyers, showing them pictures of a lavish mansion when all he really had to sell was a log cabin.
Invective is a formal reference to cursing or foul
language. In this sense, ‘invective’ is a collective adjective – it
doesn’t really have a plural form (i.e., don’t say ‘invectives’). Also,
in this sense, it is not used with an article (don’t use ‘the’ or ‘an’).
The coach’s foul invective along the sidelines got him kicked out of the game.
Danielle's cruel invective on the witness stand nearly got her removed from the courtroom.
Invective can also mean a rant. In this case, it’s OK to use ‘the’ or ‘an’.
A fine invective in Shakespeare occurs in King Lear,
when Kent calls Oswald “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a
base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy
worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson,
glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting
slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art
nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the
son and heir to a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous
whining if thou deni'st the least syllable of thy addition." (King Lear, Act II, sc. 2)
A cistern is a large barrel or metal tank of liquid – most often, water. The word is nearly always used in connection with water supply, irrigation, drainage, or the engineering of water.
“The city water line feeds into a rain-water cistern.” (rainwater.sustainablesources.com)
“Some people use rain-water collected in cisterns to water their gardens.” (earthsystemsnw.com)
nostalgia is a yearning for the past.
The Park H.S. coach expressed his nostalgia for the days when he had a winning team.
reverie is a good synonym for day-dreaming.
The teacher interrupted her reverie with a question about the algebra problem.
I sometimes get lost in reverie about my days as a wilderness canoe guide.
