Page 207 - WEBSTER Essential vocabulary

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Essential Vocabulary
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reconnoiter (REE kin OY tir) vt. 1. to make a reconnaisance, that is, to seek out
information about enemy installations or positions; 2. to make a preliminary survey
• Corporal Smith was sent ahead to reconnoiter the lay of the land and look
for enemy troops.
• The surveyor was sent to the prospective shopping center to reconnoiter the
property and the existing traffic patterns and to assess the practicality of
the project.
[-ed, -ing]
recrimination (ree KRIM in AY shin) n. the answering of an accusation by
accusing the accuser; countercharge
• When Sue threatened to take Jim to court over his dog’s digging up her
roses, he threatened recrimination over her cat’s destroying his vegetable
garden.
• Barbara threatened recrimination if Barry complained to the authorities
about her noisy party.
[(to) recriminate vi.]
rectify (REK ti FY) vt. 1. to set right; correct; 2. (electricity) to convert alternat-
ing current to direct current
• Roberta tried to rectify the error that she had made when she omitted Jack’s
name from the guest list.
• Mr. Jones rectified the boundary dispute with his neighbor by moving his
fence.
[rectified, -ing]
redoubtable (ree DOWT ib il) adj. 1. formidable; fearsome; 2. commanding
respect
• Atilla the Hun’s horsemen constituted a redoubtable force.
• Heavy machinery is redoubtable, and one working with it must exercise care
at all times.
reductive (ree DUHK tiv) adj. 1. of or characterized by making smaller or lower-
ing in price; 2. tending to making things less complex (usually a disparaging term)
• Certain stores price items so that they may advertise reductive pricing
schemes.
• Good science teachers take a reductive approach to the subject matter so
that they can feed the concepts to the students in bite-sized portions.
[-ly adv.]
redundancy* (ree DUHN din see) n. 1. the quality of being excessive; super-
fluity; 2. an overabundance; 3. something that says something already said or does
something already done; 4. the part of a redundant statement that is superfluous
• To say that the dirty laundry is not very clean is a redundancy.
• Due to a redundancy of grain produced most years by U.S. farmers, some of
them are paid by the government not to grow certain crops.
• Many commercial airliners have redundancies deliberately built into them
to back up the main systems.
• “Is not very clean” is the redundancy in the first sentence.
[redundancies pl., redundance n.]