perspicuous

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2017 is: perspicuous \per-SPIK-yuh-wus\ adjective : plain to the understanding especially because of clarity and precision of presentation Examples: The author's perspicuous prose helps even the simple layman to follow his explanations of this complicated topic. "The whole is less than the sum of its parts and does not add up to either a perspicuous account or a judicious analysis." — Steven Marcus, The New York Times Book Review, 31 Mar. 1996 Did you know? Perspicuous is based on Latin perspicere, meaning "to see through," so that which is perspicuous is clear and understandable. Perspicuous has a close cousin, perspicacious, which is used of a person with astute insight. Both words come directly from Latin adjectives that mean the same thing they do: perspicuous from perspicuus, and perspicacious from perspicax. Needless to say, it's possible to confuse the two. One easy way to keep out of trouble is to think of perspicUous as the "U" word, and remember that it means "Understandable"—in contrast to the "A" word, perspicAcious, which means "Astute." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.