Page 339 - WEBSTER Essential vocabulary

34_571656 ch29.qxd 11/10/04 12:45 PM Page 330
S

salutary (SAL yoo TER ee) adj. 1. conducive to or promoting good health;
2. serving a good purpose in some way; beneficial
• Regular exercise has a salutary effect on one’s health.
• Over the years, the use of new materials in running shoes has had a
salutary effect on the speed of sprinters.
[salutarily adv.] [Syn. beneficial]
schematic (ski MAT ik) n. a drawing of an architect’s plan (blueprint) or a
drawing to show the layout of something, such as electrical wiring
• Schematic diagrams of a car’s wiring are in every automobile’s service manual.
• An architect’s version of a schematic is usually drawn in white on a blue
background and is known as a blueprint.
scrutiny (SKROO tin ee) n. 1. close examination; close inspection; 2. a long,
continuous watch; surveillance
• Legislative bodies should always be under the scrutiny of the electorate.
• After extensive scrutiny of the pros and cons, the New Jersey Nets’ new
owners decided to move the team to Brooklyn, New York.
• For decades, U.S. satellites and spy planes kept the Soviet Union under
scrutiny.
sedulous (SEJ oo lis) adj. 1. working steadily and hard; diligent; 2. persistent
• Mack was sedulous in his studies of Elizabethan poetry.
• Jeannie was sedulous in making sure that she got the best interest rate
available.
[-ly adv.] [Syn. busy]
sermon (SOER min) n. 1. a speech given as instruction on religious subject mat-
ter or morality by a clergyman during a religious service; 2. any speech on behav-
ior, especially a long-winded, boring one
• The subject of many a sermon has been that fools rush in where angels fear
to tread.
• It is not unusual for the giver of a sermon to be referred to as preachy.
sextant (SEKS tint) n. a navigational instrument used at sea to find the position
of a ship by sighting the horizon and a known star
• Navigators have used sextants to guide ships since the second half of the
eighteenth century.
• The sextant is named for its shape, which is a pie-shaped sixth of a circle.
shard (SHAHRD) n. 1. a broken fragment of pottery or glass; 2. (zoology) a hard
covering such as a shell, plate, or scale
• Shards of broken pottery can be packed into the bottom of a flowerpot to
provide drainage for plants.

330