1. Absurd
   Feeble
2. Seldom
   Stone

When did you learn the meaning of the word absurd? Even if you're confident about its meaning now, remember there was a time in your life when this word was unfamiliar to you.

1. Kin
   Monarch
2. Foe
   Friend

Your brother, uncle, and sister are all your kin. How often do you use this word in your day to day life? Usually it's used in a formal situation like on official legal documents. You'll probably see it when your are filling out customs forms when you cross the border.

1. Myth
   Accurate
2. Normal
   Correct

A myth also refers to a traditional story that's been passed through generations of people. Myths don't have to be thousands of years old and from Greece or Rome. Even the stories people told in your high school about a kid whose pants fell down in class is a type of urban myth.

1. Curb
   Curve
2. Carve
   Crave

It's thought that a lot of cravings are based on nutrients that the human body needs. For example, craving candy can be a sign that your body wants quick energy and knows that candy is a high-caloric food.

1. Agitate
   Illuminate
2. Ignite
   Distinguish

When you flick on a light, you illuminate the room. The word illuminate comes from the Latin word luminare, which means to light up. You can also use the word illuminate metaphorically as in "You illuminated the room with your great idea"

1. Muddy
   Dark
2. Cloudy
   Vivid

You probably come across the word vivid quite often in your daily life. The word vivid means very strong/bright, or it can also refer to something that seems lifelike. Synonyms include clear, fresh, and vibrant.

1. Scared
   Apprehensive
2. Confident
   Timid

Confidence is a trait that many of us desire. Often, confidence is shown through body language in ways that we don't realize we're doing. For example, avoiding eye contact and looking down are signs of low confidence.

1. Parliament
   President
2. Prime Minister
   Monarch

The word monarch refers to a person who controls a kingdom. Queen Elizabeth is an example of a monarch. These days, many countries have done away with monarchic systems.

1. Dinner
   Oasis
2. Dune
   Wasteland

If you're lost in the desert, your life can depend on finding an oasis. Don't confuse the word desert with another similar word, dessert. Remember that dessert has two helpings of the letter S.

1. Compassion
   Anger
2. Irritability
   Jealousy

Compassion for other people, or empathy, is something that we teach children from a young age. If we didn't feel compassionate toward other people, we would all be sociopaths acting in our best interest with nobody else's feeling considered.

1. Perish
   Eat
2. Survive
   Live

To perish is another way to say to die. It can also be used with food when it's reached its expiration date. You better eat the tomatoes in your fridge before they perish. The dog perished because it didn't get enough food.

1. Agnostic
   Antagonist
2. Protagonist
   Antithesis

The protagonist is another word that means the main character in a story. The protagonist of "The Lord of The Rings" is Frodo. The protagonist of "The Wizard of Oz" is Dorothy. The protagonist of "Forrest Gump" is, well, Forrest Gump!

1. Petrify
   Emulsify
2. Stricken
   Startle

If you're a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, you may be familiar with the spell Petrificus Totalus. The spell does exactly what you would expect. It petrifies that victim totally.

1. Disgusting
   Indigestible
2. Inedible
   Edible

The word edible is often used in reference to mushrooms to differentiate them from inedible or poisonous mushrooms. You definitely don't want to mix up the word edible and inedible if it means eating something potentially poisonous.

1. Promote
   Develop
2. Skyrocket
   Exacerbate

If things are already going badly and they get worse, the situation is exacerbated. For example, buying a dog when you're having trouble paying off your credit card debt would exacerbate your financial problems.

1. Affix
   Prefix
2. Suffix
   Onomatopoeia

A prefix is syllable that comes at the beginning of a word that changes the meaning. In the word prefix, the prefix 'pre' changes the meaning of fix. A suffix is a syllable that comes at the end of a word.

1. Escalate
   Diminish
2. Sink
   Carry

You've probably ridden an escalator a few times in your life. It should be no surprise that the word escalate looks similar. When you escalate a situation, the situation rises in intensity. When you ride an escalator, you rise in space.

1. Immense
   Miniscule
2. Micro
   Nano

Minuscule, micro and nano all refer to things that are tiny. When talking about units of measurement, do you know which one is smaller between micro and nano? The word nanometer refers to a unit of measurement a thousand times smaller than one meter.

1. Sharp
   Illegible
2. Ineligible
   Intangible

The two words ineligible and illegible look similar at a glance. However, if you break them down and say them syllable by syllable, the difference becomes clearer. Illegible means messy while ineligible means you're not eligible for something.

1. Immigrate
   Emigrant
2. Nomad
   Hermit

Don't get the two words immigrate and emigrate mixed up. To immigrate is to enter a new country while emigrant has the opposite meaning. So if you're a Canadian who moved to the USA, you emigrated from Canada to immigrate into America.

1. Blissful
   Frantic
2. Euphoric
   Nonchalant

If you have a natural cool and calm demeanour, you'll appear nonchalant to anybody watching. Interestingly, nonchalant is not the opposite of chalant. By itself, chalant isn't an English word.

1. Harsh
   Frosty
2. Crisp
   Reflecting

The word harsh has several different meanings. Similar words include severe, rough or jarring. If you've ever stood under the sun at midday in the middle of the Nevada desert, you'll understand the meaning of harsh sunlight.

1. Rebel
   Comply
2. DIsturb
   Ascent

To comply means to do what is asked of you without putting up a fight. The opposite of a compliant person is a stubborn person. Being compliant may be a positive or negative trait depending on who is doing the ordering.

1. Fight
   Comply
2. Revolt
   Agree

The word revolt and revolution come from the same root. Both words conjure the image of toppling walls and statues. History is filled with revolutionists who fought again tyrannies and in the sake of freedom.

1. disintegrate
   Revert
2. Conjecture
   Emit

You may have to revert the settings on your phone or TV if they get changed. The prefix 'Re' means to do again. Vert by itself doesn't have any meaning in English, although it's the French word for green.

1. Diagonal
   Vertical
2. Horizontal
   Curved

The two words vertical and horizontal can be confusing if English isn't your first language. Even if English is your first language, you may have to pause before saying one of them, in the same way counter-clockwise and clockwise can be confusing.

1. Rush
   Saunter
2. Galivant
   Skedaddle

If you're in a rush, you're jogging, gallivanting, skedaddling or trucking along. However, if you're walking at your leisure, you're sauntering. You may have been sauntering already today without knowing the word.

1. Heroic
   Scared
2. Threatened
   Busy

Being heroic is synonymous with being brave in the face of danger. You may immediately think of a super hero, but there's plenty of real world examples of heroes in the news every day.

1. Escalate
   Excavate
2. Elevate
   Elate

Don't get the word escalate mixed up with the word excavate. Escalate means to get higher while excavate means to dig through the ground. A vehicle built for digging is called an excavator.

1. Bountiful
   Plentiful
2. Common
   Scarce

If you're walking through the desert by yourself, you better save your water because it's scarce. In economics, when things are scarce, they're usually in high demand. Would you pay more for a pair of jeans that are unique or that you could get in any city in the country?

1. Courtesy
   Hygiene
2. Taste
   Senses

Proper courtesy varies between countries. In Japan, bowing is a common sign of respect. However, in North America a handshake usually has a similar meaning. If you bowed to your boss in an office in Calgary, he might give you a strange look.

1. Minority
   Gist
2. Basics
   Groundwork

How often do you use the word gist in day-to-day speech? It has a fairly informal connotation. You likely say it more often than write it out. It's not the kind of word that has the formality to fit an essay.

1. Influenced
   Controlled
2. Imagined
   Created

To influence somebody is to change their behaviour. Throughout our lives, we have people who influence us both positively and negatively. Who has been the biggest influence on your life?

1. Satisfy
   Abide
2. Tolerate
   Dignify

Tolerate can have several different definitions. It can mean to be able to endure something without negative effects. It can also mean to accept something even though you don't like it. What's something in your life that you tolerate?

1. Modern
   Futuristic
2. Obsolete
   New Age

Obsolete is a word that's used often in the technology industry. It seems like every year or two years a new type of phone or tablet is created, which replaces the older models. It won't be long before we're talking about the iPhone 20.