Page 345 - WEBSTER Essential vocabulary

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T – U

tacit (TA sit) adj. 1. implied; unspoken; 2. not expressed openly, but understood
• Tacit reasons are not tangible reasons, and vice versa.
• A second baseman and a shortstop have a tacit understanding of who is to
cover second base in case of a ground ball.
• It is illegal for a politician to accept money in exchange for a political
favor, but it’s hard to prove guilt when the agreement is tacit.
[-ly adv.] [Syn. implied]
tangible (TAN ji buhl) adj. 1. that can be touched; 2. real and able to be valued;
perceptible; 3. capable of being understood
• Anything that one can touch is tangible.
• One’s tangible assets are those whose value can be stated.
• If someone is talking but not really saying anything, there is no tangible
reason to listen.
[tangibly adv.] [Syn. perceptible]
tarnish (TAHR nish) vt. 1. to dull the lustre of a metal surface; 2. to besmirch
someone’s character —n. 1. the dullness or oxidation of metal; discoloration; 2. a
blemish; a stain
• Silver tarnishes in air and always looks dull if left unpolished.
• Tarnishing someone’s character without valid reason constitutes the crime
of libel.
• Polishing metal removes tarnish from it.
[-ed, -ing]
taxonomy (tak SAH nuh mee) n. the science of classifying plants and animals
by their likenesses to one another, beginning with the most general relationships
and getting more and more specific (The classifications, in order, are kingdom,
phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.)
• Taxonomy was first developed by Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist of
the eighteenth century.
• Linnaeus’s taxonomy shows humans as genus Homo, and species, sapiens;
hence, all humans are Homo sapiens.
[taxonomic adj., taxonomically adv.]
thesis (THEE sis) n. 1. a proposition to be argued or defended; 2. a formal and
lengthy research paper, usually for a graduate degree; 3. an unproven premise
assumed to be true
• The thesis of Wilma’s argument was that brontosaurus burgers were health-
ier than tyrannosaurus burgers.
• Bart selected as the topic for his thesis the proposition that babies drink
more milk than grownups because they don’t know any better.
• It is an underlying thesis of geometry that a line is infinite in length.
[theses pl.]

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