1. curiosity
2. friendship
3. low status
4. scorn

This word also has a legal meaning. "Contempt of court" is a charge that means a person is not cooperating as required with a court proceeding, and can result in jail time.

1. credulous
2. eager to fight
3. mountainous
4. resembling a dog

This word comes to us from the Latin "pugnare," or "to fight." It's related to the word "pugilist," a fancy term for "fighter."

1. the last in a set of numbers
2. a commonly-repeated proverb
3. an organism that is half-developed
4. something that seems like it can't be true, but is

A well-known one is the French paradox. The traditional French diet includes a lot of fat (oh, those cheeses!), but they have a low rate of heart disease. It's thought to have to do with their consumption of olive oil and red wine, smaller portions, and active lifestyles.

1. advanced beyond one's years
2. lively
3. low-priced
4. high-priced

It's usually children or teenagers who are thought of as precocious. They could be clever, emotionally mature or unusually talented.

1. dark-complexioned
2. athletic
3. humorous
4. thoughtful

If you got this one right off, you might have been helped by the "Harry Potter" books. Remember the "pensieve" in Dumbledore's study? It was where he held his memories for later review.

1. a bike with one gear
2. a single-railed train track
3. an eyeglass for just one eye
4. a piece of land under sole ownership

When monocles went out of fashion, filmgoers were deprived of a great sight gag: the toff who is drinking at his club when a shocking sight makes his eyes widen and his monocle fall into his martini.

1. train of thought, mental chatter
2. specific location
3. unknown cause
4. a way of speaking specific to a group or culture

What separates "idiom" from "dialect"? The second one is often geographical; "idiom" is for speakers united by something else. Gen-Zers might have a certain idiom; so would wine aficionados, and so on.

1. dark in color
2. fake
3. humorous
4. youthful

This word comes to us from German, and gained popularity in the World Wars, where shortages required a number of "ersatz" products, like coffee and flour. (Thanks to Merriam-Webster's site for this bit of etymological trivia).

1. frightening
2. like or of a forest
3. rotund
4. unlikely to be true

The romantic poems of yesteryear are full of "bosky glades." It is etymologically related to "bush."

1. between transparent and opaque
2. growing quickly
3. dimly lit
4. well-known

This word uses the prefix "trans-" and the Latin word "lux" to mean a substance that lets light through, but is not transparent. You can only see through a translucent substance in a cloudy, obscure way.

1. to compensate
2. to lift overhead
3. to understand completely
4. to touch or feel in an exploratory way

You most often find this used in a medical setting, like a doctor palpating for a tumor. However, it makes us wonder about the name of "Emperor Palpatine" in the Star Wars movies. Maybe he was a serial groper?

1. active in the daytime
2. happening once a week
3. frequent
4. vessel

"Diurnal" is the less-used companion to "nocturnal." Actually, it's used as frequently in animal biology and related fields, but it just hasn't made its way into everyday language the way "nocturnal" has, perhaps because of our fascination with night and its phenomena.

1. completely resistant
2. short-lived
3. seen from a distance
4. tone-deaf

You might hear about a person being "impervious to criticism." It's also used in relation to water; for example, in water-repelling fabrics.

1. funny
2. fat
3. short
4. sexual in theme and tone

Entertainments are usually described as "bawdy." Often, there's a comic sense to the word, but not necessarily. A dance revue where you'll see a lot of skin can be described as "bawdy" even if it's not funny.

1. expensive
2. attractive
3. pre-sorted
4. shared by a group

"Collective" is often used in the meaning of "workers' collective," in which a group shares both tasks and earnings. Or in "collective memory," an idea from psychology in which a group with a shared history has shared memories.

1. a glow or shine
2. a long trip
3. to prop up
4. to fail to understand

This sounds like it could be a verb, but it's a noun. It's often used as the phrase, "lose its luster," meaning that the shine has gone off something once desirable.

1. division of cells
2. farsightedness
3. marriage to two people at once
4. talent for music

You might be more familiar with the term "polygamy," which means, "married to several people at once." That word comes up in the news whenever the government cracks down on a separatist religious group that practices it.

1. to cause to not happen
2. to make a path smooth
3. to serve as as a prologue (in a movie or play)
4. to make space for something

You might be most familiar with this phrase as "pre-emptive strike." That term originated in military language, and means to attack an opponent before they attack you.

1. related to autumn
2. related to spring
3. related to summer
4. related to winter

This one is easy to remember because of the vernal equinox. That's the day in springtime when night and day are of equal length.

1. to devise or create, usually with difficulty
2. to be dishonest
3. to survive
4. to think hard about (something)

If somebody "contrived" to get a job, you know it wasn't just a matter of filling out an application. This word can have a negative meaning: In a review, a movie's "contrived plot" is not a good thing.

1. having to do with cartoons
2. having to do with laws
3. having to do with maps
4. having to do with zoos

A cartographer makes maps. The word comes from the French "carte," for "card," and is related to the name "Magna Carta."

1. related to vehicles
2. happening without conscious effort
3. happening regularly
4. the science of consciousness

When a bodily function is "autonomic," it happens without conscious control. Fun fact: Most people would say that the balancing of one's head on one's neck is autonomic, but it's not. What happens when you start to fall asleep in church or during a lecture? Your head tips over!

1. fearful
2. in like-new condition
3. parabolic in shape
4. see-through

You'll often hear this word in the sense of "pristine beach" or "pristine forest." Some word lovers object to this because these parts of nature, no matter how clean, are millions of years old, and therefore not in "like-new" condition.

1. to encircle
2. to pass up (an opportunity or similar)
3. to precede
4. to prevent

"Forego" and "forgo" are often mixed up. The second term means "to pass up or give up" something. It's really unfair how alike these two words are.

1. to define narrowly or quibble over a definition
2. to be vigiliant
3. to feed generously
4. to trim back

"Parse" had a heyday during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Talking heads on cable news were always referring to "parsing" President Clinton's statements, especially, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."

1. to discount
2. to seek promotion or advancement
3. to promote or spread
4. irresponsible with money

This word gained unexpected prominence in mid-2018 when President Trump used it in a tweet. He used it in relations to "Fake News," which should surprise no one following the president's Twitter feed.

1. informal language
2. related to nearsightedness
3. related to farsightedness
4. perfectly round

Surprise! This is not an adjective, despite the -r ending. Vernacular is everyday or nonstandard language, but not quite slang. For example, "parameter" is a specific word from computer science, but in everyday speech, it just means a defining boundary.

1. to consume alcohol only lightly
2. to make an absurd suggestion
3. to make out or cuddle
4. to splash around in a bath or pond

This old-fashioned and whimsical word doesn't get a lot of use today. It still comes into play as a euphemism, when the speaker can't bring himself or herself to say anything more explicit.

1. ocean blue
2. easily broken
3. old-fashioned
4. sincere

"Cerulean" often comes into play describing the ocean or a sea. But you'll also find it in romantic novels, usually describing a heroine's eye color.

1. coming third in order
2. related to soil
3. high-risk
4. low-risk

We're used to hearing "primary" and "secondary," especially in medical settings. However, if you hear someone refer to a "tertiary effect," it's one that comes third in severity, or perhaps third in time of onset.

1. beautiful
2. extraordinary
3. ordinary
4. shaped like a star

Don't confuse this with "stellar." That more broadly used term means "like or of a star" and can also mean "outstanding." But "stellate" is specifically for star-shaped things. Exit wounds from gunshots, for example, can be stellate.

1. quick to laugh
2. given to anger
3. thin
4. round

"Choler" was one of the four bodily "humours" that supposedly gave people their dispositions -- at least, according to early European thought. Choler was a fluid which, if it was dominant in one's body, made a person quick to get angry.

1. to repel an attacker
2. to unclog, as in a sink
3. to unwrap, as in a gift
4. to throw from a window

This comes to us from the Latin 'finistra,' meaning window. In early modern Europe, unpopular political leaders were sometimes killed by defenestration; it was like an early-retirement plan without the golden parachute.

1. a cooking method involving steaming
2. a glade of trees and bushes
3. a person who enjoys watching sports
4. a person who is new to having money or position

The French call this either "arriviste" or "noveau riche." It's the sort of person who can afford the sailboat, but doesn't fit in at the Marina Club.

1. bristly
2. half-asleep
3. in love
4. traveling widely

Aristotle and his disciples were known as the peripatetic philosophers, not because they traveled widely, but because they walked back and forth as they debated. To this day, "peripatetic" the common adjective is as likely to mean "walking a lot" as it is "globetrotting."