Vocabulary Flash Cards

[danc]

Two questions about pairs of words.

1) Abase and debase have very similar definitions and seem to mean the same thing. But neither word is included in the related words section of the other's card. Is there something I'm missing that makes the words significantly different or can I consider them similar and a possible pair of answers for an SE question?

2) The delineate card has adumbrate listed as a related word. However, delineate is usually used to mean a more detailed explanation than to simply "mark the outline of; sketch." The third definition on the card, "describe in detail," is more common and that is what makes the related word, adumbrate ("a rough outline"), seem inappropriate.

In fact, the first time I remember encountering the word delineate was in a preface of a political science book in which the author, after giving a rough outline of his ideas, wrote, "These ideas will be further delineated in the chapters that follow."

For SE questions, I have a hard time considering delineate and adumbrate as equivalent words. Do I have to consider them equivalent for the test?

[tommywallach]

Hey Dan,

To your second question, I wouldn't ever worry about "having" to consider a couple of words a pair. The odds that you will ever see any individual word that you've studied is basically slim to none. That said, I think those two could function as a pair, in spite of their difference in meaning.

However, "debase" and "abase" are slightly different. "Debase" is something that is generally done to something else. It also has a more physical meaning (you can debase something and it means to lower the ACTUAL value of it). Abase, on the other hand, is something you only do to yourself, and it primarily has to do with your diginity/psychological character, not actual value. Because of this, it would pretty hard to write a sentence that could use the two words interchangeable. It's probably not impossible though...

-t