Vocabulary Mnemonics

Nov. 1, 2025

Matt’s words

Stentorian (adj):a voice that’s loud and powerful

The professor’s stentorian voice echoed through the lecture hall.

Broder was famous for always choosing his words carefully and for a stentorian delivery that commanded attention. —Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 24 Sep. 2025

Mnemonic: Stentor is in the Iliad as a man who can speak as loud as 50.

Stentorian valedictorian: Up there speaking with a loud voice.

Jeremiad (n):a prolonged lamentation or complaint

Grandpa was known for his Jeremiads about the rising generation.

Their jeremiadshave scared so many people out of some amazing gains. —Julie Coleman, CNBC, 8 Oct. 2024

Mnemonic: Jeremiah was a Jewish prophet who lived from about 650 to 570 B.C. He spent his days lambasting the Hebrews for their false worship and social injustice and denouncing the king for his selfishness, materialism, and inequities. When not calling on his people to quit their wicked ways, he was lamenting his own lot; a portion of the biblical Book of Jeremiah is devoted to his “confessions,” a series of lamentations on the hardships endured by a prophet with an unpopular message. Nowadays, English speakers use Jeremiah for a pessimistic person and jeremiad for the way these Jeremiahs carry on. The word jeremiad was borrowed from the French, who coined it as jérémiade.

Semiquincentennial (n):Centennial: 100 years. Quincentennial: 500 years. Semiquincentennial? What’s that? You have under two years to find out.

A group is planning a celebration to mark July 4, 2026. The occasion, for short, is known as Semiquin. —James Baron, The New York Times, July 10, 2024

While you were watching fireworks last week, Christopher O’Brien was practicing saying “semiquincentennial.”

Other terms: Quartermillenial, bisesquicentennial: Bi means two and sesqui means one and a half.

Mnemonic: Centennial = 100. Quin = 5 (quintuplets). Semi = half.

Schwa (n): the upside-down ə symbol; a vowel that is not stressed and is the usual sound of the first and last vowels of the English word America. Pronounced like “uh.”

Can be any vowel or y. Grammar Monster examples:

A: Salad. E: Elephant. I: Animal. O: Lemon. U: Rhombus. Y: Syringe.

Mnemonic: Shhh because it’s silent. Then “wa” because it sound like “uh.”

Befoul (v): make dirty; pollute; sully (as a reputation)

Capitalism is degrading us, killing us, and befouling our world. – Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 8 June 2023

Mnemonic: Foul is right there. Don’t “be foul.”

Dr. Mom’s words

Fallalery (n): tawdry finery; a showy ornament or article of dress; baubles, fripperies

Costume jewelry, also called fashion jewelry, trinkets, fake jewelry, and fallalery, is a jewelry made of (cheaper) materials as compared with valuable decorative items.

Stop the fallalery and let’s get back to work. AI

Mnemonic: Enhance the word with an extra syllable: Fa-“la-dee-dah”-lery. Someone shows up at the party with gaudy baubles on their clothes, and you think, “La-dee-dah, look at the fallaleries!”

Intaglio (n): an engraving or incised figure in hard material depressed below the surface so than an impression from the design yields an image in relief; antonym to cameo, which is raised above the surface

In the background are wooden cabinets in which Townley presumably housed smaller treasures, including countless cameos and intaglios. —Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 6 May 2024

Mnemonic: “Taglio” in Italian means to cut. It also sounds like “tally,” so imagine cutting tallies “in,” (the prefix).

Bantam (n): a chicken of a small breed, the male of which is noted for its aggression; also, a person of diminutive stature and often combative disposition

Inside the big canvas structure, visitors find giant hares — that’s a rabbit — lizards, bantamchickens, chinchillas and hedgehogs, many of which are being seen for the first time by curious children. —J.m. Banks, Kansas City Star, 30 May 2025

Mnemonic: Imagine a chicken (or small person) named “Tiny Tam.” He’s so aggressive you decide to “ban (Tiny) Tam.”

Specter (n): a visible disembodied spirit; ghost; also, something that haunts or perturbs the mind

Mary Warren…is “attacked” by the specters of…her employers…her senses are taken away from her. –Killing the Witches, by Bill O’Reilly, pg. 61

…the specter of a market crash just after one’s retirement…

Mnemonic: “Spect” means “to look” or “to see” (think inspect, suspect, spectator, retrospect, respect). A specter is a visible spirit you can see. You suspect something evil is afoot when you see a specter.

Mendacity (n): the quality or state of being mendacious, which means given to or characterized by deception or falsehood; untruthful; lying

Politicians often claim they will be transparent and blow the whistle on mendacity and hypocrisy.

That tabloid routinely publishes the most moronically mendacious stories about celebrities. Merriam-Webster

Mnemonic: The word looks like “mend a city.” You might need to mend a city that has faults running through it, or “falseness” running through it.   

COLOSSAL COMPILATION:

The bantam-sized specter’s stentorian, schwa-filled jeremiad seemed to last a semi quincentennial and was befouled with fallalery and mendacity about the value of the people’s cherished intaglios.