Vocabulary Mnemonics

Happy 100th episode! At ten words per episode, Matt and Mom have now broken down 1,000 words. Thanks to you and all your fellow listeners for coming along for the ride. Today, we have a special theme -- see if you can guess it. And stick around to the end for a big announcement. Enjoy!

Welcome to another "best of the best" episode. We've gone back through our recent episodes and pulled out our 10 favorite words and mnemonics. Looking to add a little zhuzh to your vocabulary? Looking for the correct way to talk about America's 250th birthday? You'll find the answers to these questions, and much more, in today's episode. Enjoy!

We hope everyone had a beatific Christmas... because beatific happens to be today's first word. In this episode, and every episode, Matt and Mom break down 10 unique vocabulary words and give you a clever mnemonic to help you remember each one. Words propounded include propound, avocation, prolix, revery, and more. Enjoy!

We're going back in time to some of our best words from episodes 51-75. If you're a long-time listener, it will be a fun review. If you're new to the show, they'll all be new to you. Win-win! What's a better way to say that you're feeling grumpy? What's likely to break out at NASA when they land a rover on Saturn? What's a more fun way to describe your morning coffee? Matt and Mom will answer all these burning questions, and more. Enjoy!

What do you call the covering the waiter removes to unveil a fine platter at a fancy restaurant? If you said "lid," then you need to listen to today's episode. As you'll discover, this episode is no mere epigone. Each word is the kind you can degust one by one by one. Matt and Mom cover froideur, titrate, the close-fitting hats women wore in the 1920s, and more. Enjoy!

Rather than work from a tabula rasa today, Matt and Mom are bringing back their favorite words from episodes 26-50. A fancy way to say "buyer beware"... The conclusion of a movie... What to call an ugly sweater at a Christmas party... You'll find the answers to all questions and more in today's episode. Enjoy!

We hope you're enjoying Thanksgiving weekend -- free of cheespairing and caviling relatives... And most importantly, free of embarrassing meldrops. In this episode Matt and Mom aim to cover all the words in your vocabulary desiderata. Enjoy!

We're feeling ebullient today... and we're changing things up a little. Rather than give new words, we're choosing some of our favorites from episodes 1-25, including surreptitious (which has mom's favorite mnemonic of all-time), alacrity, desiccate, and more. Enjoy!

Here at Vocabulary Mnemonics, we're always reaching for the apotheosis of the podcast world... Hence one of today's words is apotheosis. Matt and Mom also break down arcadian, apothecary, absquatulate, and some non-A words like expatriate, jargonaut, and even sus. Enjoy!

It's time to play an 80s review game! Not the 1980s -- episodes 82-90. Matt and Mom read descriptions of past words and see if they can remember them. For example, Matt starts one description with: "If you ever hear someone yell this from above, run the other way. Especially if you're in Edinburgh." Feel free to play along at home!

Matt and Mom are coming to you today with their most stentorian voices. Words featured include specter, intaglio, mendacity, Jeremiad, and more. Plus, they crack the code on what to call America's 250 birthday and reveal what the upside down "e" in phonetic spelling is called. Programming note: next week will be a review game of the past 10 episodes (episodes 81-90), with Matt and Mom try to stump each other. Be ready to play along -- you can review the words beforehand or come in cold. Get excited!

Today's episode has a portentous feel to it... because today's first word is portentous. Matt and Mom break down ten lesser-known vocabulary words including acquisitive, pallid, esprit de corps, shoal, kwashiorkor, and more, and give you a clever mnemonic to help you remember the meaning of each one. Watch out for Willy Wonka getting blown over by a big gust of wind. Enjoy!

Ready to get your adrenals pumping? You've come to the right place. In today's non-atavistic, fast-paced episode, Matt and Mom cover 10 interesting vocabulary words and answer life's big, burning questions, including: What do the FBI and SCUBA diving have do with each other? The answer has nothing to do with underwater espionage. Does the word "redoubt" involve doubting something twice? If you think the English language is missing a word, are you allowed to make one up? Get the answers and more... Enjoy!

We hope you're full of brio this week and ready to sally forth into the exciting world of vocab. In today's episode Matt and Mom break down the difference between running errands and errantry, why it's critical to know if your doctor is prescribing or proscribing medicine, why you should run as fast as you can if you ever hear someone yell "gardyloo," and more... Enjoy!

If your podcasts are starting to sound like a monolith, you've come to the right place. This has to be the only podcast episode in the world with full breakdowns of gems like fartlek, turpitude, solipsism, pons asinorum, and more... All without interstitial ads. Enjoy!

We hope this episode finds you in fine fettle! In today's potboiler of an episode, Matt and Mom delve into ten words, including maw, marginalia, obelus, salacious, triptych, and more. Let's hope things don't go pear-shaped. Enjoy!

When you come to a furcula in life, what do you do? What do you call something that gets more expensive as the price goes up? And most importantly, what do you call one of those heaps of stones used as landmark? Matt and Mom answer all these questions and more in today's episode. Plus, they give mnemonics for raconteur, comeuppance, peremptory, and more. Enjoy!

Is today's episode filled with moments of divine afflatus? You'll have to be the judge. Matt and Mom break down ten words including expostulate, mirth, dogma, vermilion, and more, and give you mnemonics to help you remember each one. Stick around for a colossal compilation that proves brevity isn't always the soul of wit. Enjoy!

If you're looking to zhuzh up your vocabulary, you've come to the right place. In today's episode Matt and Mom delve into the inner workings of hydroponics, show their prescience, do a little prognosticating, and more... All with a little onomatopoeia. Enjoy!

It's game week at Vocabulary Mnemonics. Matt and Mom take five words each from episodes 70-79 and quiz each other. Matt quizzes Mom on her words, and vice versa. Play along at home and see if you can guess the words before they do. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Vocabulary Mnemonics podcast. In today's episode, Matt and Mom discover a way to take the podcast to the next level: lagniappe. They go on to break down solarium, aqueous, rubric, inimical, and more. Entre nous, while the dialogue may feel a bit unctuous at times, it's all genuine. Enjoy!

For those days when it feels like everything's coming at you Holus Bolus, there's the Vocabulary Mnemonics podcast. Today Matt and Mom break down excursive, soothfast, scrimshank, and more and give you helpful mnemonics to remember each one. Plus, they explain how proprioception could save humanity from a robotic takeover. Enjoy!

Have you ever been searching for the mos juste... only to have it pop into your head too late? If so, then hie yourself to today's episode. Matt and Mom break down ten fun vocabulary words and give you a clever mnemonic to help you remember each one. Words featured include purloin, ambigram, demotic, and more. Enjoy!

Today Matt and Mom are coming at you like a Quaker Gun. This episode features kompromat, deign, the Dilbert Principle, and more... All with witty badinage, and without a miasma of failure. We can't promise you'll become a salutatorian after listening, but you will be able to spot merisms. Enjoy!

In today's episode, Matt and Mom hope to rise to the level of their own incompetence. Which, as you'll discover, isn't such a bad thing. Get ready for a full breakdown of neophyte, asperity, lee, garrulous, and more. Who knows? If you start using these words effectively, you may just earn sublebrity status. Enjoy!

Feeling addlepated in your quest to put together your first billet doux? Then today's divers words are for you! Matt and Mom discuss gelid, heuristic, folly, feral, and more. Enjoy!

Welcome to today's epithet-free episode. Matt and Mom wend their way through the fields of vexillology, discuss gustatory pleasures, and break down Hanlon's Razor and more, all while trying to not sound hoary. Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July weekend! We didn't exactly elucubrate to bring you today's episode, but we didn't resort to silly tropes either. Words discussed today include fratricide, ormolu, Burke's Law, and more. It's possible you'll experience eclaircissement multiple times. Enjoy!

Has someone ever called you up and asked how your day's going, but really they just wanted to talk about what a crazy day they're having? There's a word for that! In today's euphonious episode, Matt and Mom cover this slangy term along with elegiac, thermotropism, Occam's Razor, and more. Enjoy!

Welcome to today's episode, where, anon, we try to equiponderate the boring side of life. In this savory episode, we discuss fungible, the Pareto Principle, rapprochement, one of the few non-vowel words in the dictionary, and more. Enjoy!

It's summertime here in America. That's means it's time to get out the brazier, ditch your recalcitrant attitude, and sit back and indulge your (perhaps nascent) love of words. In today's episode, Matt and Mom cover risible notions, puerile remarks, the world of numismatics and philately, and more! At the end of the episode Mom manages to put them all together in an impressive Colossal Compilation. Enjoy!

Welcome to today's episode -- hopefully you won't find it abstruse. Per usual, Matt and Mom skip the histrionics and cover a range of fun adjectives like bumptious, cheeky, and ornery as well as some lesser-known nouns like griffonage and hagiography. Whether you're genteel or uncouth, we think you'll find it worth your while. Enjoy!

Welcome to another non-lackadaislical episode with Matt and Mom. This week Matt covers some biggies like extraterritoriality and indemnification, while mom nails some shorties -- like musit and rictus -- that you'll want to add to your vocabulary quiver immediately. Those who can overcome life's natural indolence will experience all sorts of neuroplasticity. Enjoy!

Welcome to today's razzmatazz-filled episode! Even if you're not a wunderkind, today you'll disentangle the meanings of cedillas, tildas, and umlauts. (Why stay in the umbra of confusion?) Instead, your learning will be redolent of your best day in middle school.

Matt and Mom are back with another episode, and we hope it hits you like a haboob. Don't be abstemious. Have a seat, grab a zarf, and indulge. We think you'll find the mnemonics perfectly cromulent. Enjoy!

Welcome to today's episode -- hopefully it will help galvanize your week! This episode was actually recorded years ago by Matt and Mom but will be new to you. Same basic format, but see if you notice any differences in style. And see if you can figure out which word is a repeat. Enjoy!

We're trying something different! In today's episode we play a guessing game. Matt quizzes mom and five of her past words, and she does the same back. How do we do? Listen to find out. Whether you've listened to past episodes or not we think you'll have fun playing along. Enjoy!

On this week's episode Matt and Mom take you on the virtual high seas. Matt's words all have to do with the nautical world -- alee, starboard, port, etc. Meanwhile, Mom goes meta. If you have some flotsam and jetsam to take care of, this episode will make great company. Enjoy!

Matt and Mom are back to impart a modicum of their largesse in another exciting episode complete with mnemonics, gumshoe-level analysis, and more -- all free of insipid cliches and tired shibboleths. If you're a food lover, early riser, or one who sees objects in clouds, we have some words especially for you. Enjoy!

More big news from Vocabulary Mnemonics. Last week Mom solved one of life's great mysteries by revealing what the grooved spot above your lip is called. This week Matt does the same thing with the smooth spot between your eyebrows. Yes, it has a name and you'll get it, and a clever way to remember it, in today's episode. Plus, they break down torpor, de rigueur, trenchant, precocious, and more. Enjoy!

Big news! Mom figured out what the curve above your lip is called! And she came up with a great mnemonic to boot. She breaks it down in today's episode. Plus, Matt and Mom dissect nine more words including potpourri, tautology, enjoin (which turns out to be another contranym, a la peruse), panoply, and more. Enjoy!

Matt and Mom practiced extra mentation to prepare for this week's episode. How do you describe a long, desultory text? When does being kempt cross over and become ostentatious? Do you ever yen? And what in the world is an acumenate building? You'll get the answers to all these questions, and more, in today's episode. Enjoy!

Welcome to another circumspect episode of the Vocabulary Mnemonics podcast. Matt and Mom link up to discuss diction, polemic, diurnal, and several more goodies. You know the feeling of sunlight on a winter day? There's a word for that. Have you ever read a poem that doesn't quite rhyme but is still pleasing to the ear? There's a word for that too. Prepare to be ensorcelled!

If you're feeling dyspeptic about your lack of intellectual stimuli, perhaps the best way to ameliorate the situation is with some vocabulary. After all, nothing boosts a fecund mind like creative mnemonics! On today's episode, Matt and Mom link up to discuss effete, noir, celerity, and more. Enjoy!

Matt and Mom are back with another podcast episode nonpareil. They discuss sartorial, interpolate, jentacular, and more. One of mom's words, friable, has nothing to do with frying. It's what they call a "false cognate." Same with another of her words, drupe, which doesn't mean "to droop." Will this be confusing? Will you ever be able to remember the true definition? Tune in to find out... Enjoy!

As year two of Vocabulary Mnemonics gets underway, Matt and Mom, your inveterate hosts, hope to make an eclat over the next 12 month. They break down ten words, including monomania, excogitate, saccharine, comestible, and more. If you're normally taciturn, be ready to be deputed to use your favorite word this week. Enjoy!

It's pure saturnalia here at Vocabulary Mnemonics. We just completed one year of podcasting, so we're celebrating the only way we know how... more vocab! Each word is concatenated in one way or another and will have you performing echolalia. It's been a fun year -- thanks for listening. Here's to many more!

Per usual, Matt and Mom sync up to delve into ten words and give non-somnolent mnemonics for each one. They try to avoid sesquipedalian definitions, execrable content, and performing their duties in a perfunctory way. Stay tuned for a particularly clever penultimate word. Enjoy!

If, like Matt, you've always wondered what the little plastic thing wrapped around the end of your shoelace is called... Or if you've ever said something like "I might just fade into Bolivian" (instead of "oblivion"), today's episode is for you. Matt and Mom sync up to discuss these words as well as ratiocination, insolent, extant, accismus, and several more. Enjoy!

This week Matt and Mom sync up and give mnemonics for picayune, dolorous, conch, and several more winners. Our hope is that you won't experience any ennui while listening, and that it won't be a dolorous experience. Is this nothing but a chimera? Listen to find out!