“Mellifluous” is an adjective that comes from the Latin words “mellitus” meaning “honey” and “fluus” meaning “flowing”. A mellifluous voice is one that is sweet, smooth, and flowing.

Example: “Every time my young children had a hard time falling asleep, I would play a recording of Cecila Bartolli singing Italian lullabies, and her mellifluous voice would lull them to sleep quickly.”

“Incongruous” means “not similar,” or not a match to what is around it or what is expected.

Example: “Even though it’s well-known that studying dance will improve your agility and coordination, the star player from the local football team was still an incongruous sight in the middle of the ballet class.”

If you promise to be somewhere and then fail to show up, people may think of you as unreliable, or get angry with you. If they get angry enough, they might ostracize you. To “ostracize” means to cast out of a group, or exclude from a community.

Example: “Feelings about the recent political elections were so strong that I was afraid my friends would ostracize me if they found out that I had voted for the other party.”

“Sporadic” means random, without a pattern, happening only occasionally.

Example: “Henry came to the scheduled meetings only on sporadic occasions, and eventually we stopped inviting him to participate.”

“Demographic” means “related to a group of people who share one or more characteristics.” In this case, the common bond is their profession, but other demographic markers might be race, income, or gender.

Example: “Television advertisements are well-researched to appeal to the particular demographic group that watches a specific program.”

“Terminology” means a set of specialized words specific to an area of study. These words are usually not commonly used outside of that area – for example, you probably wouldn’t use the word “igneous” unless you were talking about volcanic rocks or geology in general.

Example: “One of the reasons that legal systems can seem hard to understand is that not everyone knows the terminology used in law, and words like ‘obligor’ and ‘pendency’ are not in common use.”

To “admonish” means to warn someone that they have done or said something wrong, using serious but kind words. It’s not angry yelling, but instead a gentle but insistent identification of a perceived fault in their actions or attitudes.

Example: “The modern grammar school does not use corporal punishment to discipline their students, but instead will admonish them privately, pointing out the ways in which their behaviour affects all of the other children in the class.”

“Edify” is a verb that means to instruct or improve intellectually; you may be familiar with the result, which is “edification.” The word comes from the Latin word “edificare” meaning “to build” – think of the word “edifice”, or building.

Example: “The school bus was delayed for several hours in traffic in front of the Parliament building, and Jane decided to use the time to edify the students on the different branches of government and how they worked.”

A “monograph” is a long essay on a single topic, usually very cerebral in nature; that is, rather than being a casual discussion, it will be a well-documented, intellectual look at the topic.

Example: “She was interested in learning more about the history of the Middle East, so I recommended two monographs on the Persian Empire in the 6th century by Dandamayev and Babayan.”

“Cerebral” means intellectual, or focused on the activity of the brain.

Example: “Leah liked to play outside no matter how bad the weather was, but Morgan preferred the more cerebral exercise of solving puzzles and reading books and essays.”