Something that's illustrious is well known or famous, leaving a trail of glory in its wake. An illustrious career, for example, is full of impressive achievements and celebrated contributions to society.
Coming from the Latin illustris, meaning “bright, distinguished, famous,” illustrious is a powerful adjective. It's similar to luster, which is a brilliant shine — so imagine that something illustrious is as wonderful as a sparkling diamond. Use this word to describe the career or reputation of someone really successful, like a bestselling author or business mogul.
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These two words have similar sounds. They also have similar definitions, encompassing an idea of forward movement. This leads to some confusion.
Bare means naked, but to bear is to carry something. A bear is also a brown furry animal, but most people keep that one straight.
Wordsmiths sometimes dislike numbers, or at least have a hard time grasping them. These words offer us an opportunity to better understand numbers and use their terms more precisely in writing and speaking.
Compose is to make up a whole, and comprise is to contain parts. Poodles compose the dog class because the class comprises poodles. The parts compose the whole, and the whole comprises the parts. Confused? Everybody else is!
Lose sounds like snooze. If you lose something, you don’t have it anymore. Add an “o” and loose rhymes with goose and describes something that’s not attached.
Don't let the rhyme fool you — to connote is to imply a meaning or condition, and to denote is to define exactly. Connote is like giving a hint, but to denote is to refer to something outright.
Our definitions were written by humans, for humans. Each word has a friendly explanation that makes it easy to remember.
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