[NSA Word of the Day]

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January 23rd, 2003: ABASIA

Definition: ABASIA*ABASIAS n a defect in muscular coordination in walking

Notes: ABASIA is one of 270 six-letter words with four vowels. The other ones which begin and end with an A are: ABELIA, ABULIA, ACACIA, ACEDIA, ALEXIA, ALODIA, AMOEBA, AMUSIA, ANEMIA, ANOPIA, ANOXIA, ANURIA, APNOEA, AREOLA, ATAXIA, AUCUBA, AURORA and AZALEA. acromia ACROMION is the "A" in "A-C (acromio-clavicular) separation", a common shoulder injury. alsike This word was randomly selected from a few hundred candidates to be our first WOTD. Alsike (Trifolium hybridum) is named for a town in Sweden. ALSIKE plays through the consonants in the ana-monic COWS BE IN IT. belie BELIE is one of eight words in the _E_IE pattern, the other seven being AERIE, DEXIE, EERIE, GENIE, NEWIE, RETIE and VEGIE, all of which take an -S except EERIE. It's also an example of the prefix BE- in its sense of "to cover with", also seen in BEBLOOD, BECURSE, BEGRIME, BEGROAN, BELIQUOR, BEMIRE, BESHAME, BESLIME, BESMOKE, BEVOMIT, BEWORM and many others. deific -IFIC words are a good way to get rid of extra Is: BEATIFIC, CALCIFIC, CALORIFIC, COLORIFIC, FEBRIFIC, FELICIFIC, HONORIFIC, HORRIFIC, MAGNIFIC, MELLIFIC, MORBIFIC, MOTIFIC, OMNIFIC, OSSIFIC, PACIFIC, PONTIFIC, PROLIFIC, SALVIFIC, SOPORIFIC, SPECIFIC, SUDORIFIC, TERRIFIC, UNIFIC and VIVIFIC; and the longer ones: FRIGORIFIC, (ANTI-, BIO-, COUNTER-, NON-, PRE-, PSEUDO-, -, UN-)SCIENTIFIC, (CON-, INFRA-, INTER-, INTRA-, MONO-, NEURO-, NON-, STEREO-, SUB-, UN-)SPECIFIC, SUPERTERRIFIC, TENEBRIFIC and TRANSPACIFIC. eddo The eddo is a small, purplish variety of Colocasia esculenta (a species which also includes the useful words COCOYAM, DASHEEN, MALANGA and TARO) native to tropical Asia and produced agriculturally for its corms and tubers around the world. The word is of Niger-Congo origin. folkmote A folkmote/folkmoot was a formal assembly of the people of a region in early English law. grat There are many unusual and rare verb forms in the dictionary. Other four-letter ones include: COFT, DIPT, DOST, DOTH, FIXT, GAEN, GANE, GAUN, GIEN, GRAT, HAEN, HAST, HATH, HEWN, HOLP, KENT, LEPT, MAWN, MIXT, STAW, TOST, VEXT, WAST, WERT, WIST, WIST, WOST. jiao A jiao is one tenth of a yuan in the Chinese renminbi currency system. JIAO is one of 61 four-letter words with only one consonant, and one of 13 words ending in -AO. The other -AO words are BACALAO, CACAO, CARABAO, CHAO, CHIAO, CIAO, CURACAO, GHERAO, HAO, PRAO, TAMARAO and TAO. CHIAO, CIAO, GHERAO, HAO and JIAO do not take a final -S, the others do. otitis -ITIS words are another great way to reduce pain and inflammation cause by too many Is: ADENITIS+, ARTERITIS, ARTHRITIS, BURSITIS+, CARDITIS+, COLITIS+, COLPITIS+, COXITIS, CYSTITIS, ENTERITIS+, GASTRITIS, GLOSSITIS+, HEPATITIS, ILEITIS, IRITIS+, KERATITIS, LAMINITIS+, MAMMITIS, MASTITIS, MEPHITIS+, METRITIS+, MITIS+, MYELITIS, MYOSITIS+, NEPHRITIS, NEURITIS+, ORCHITIS+, OSTEITIS, OUISTITIS, OVARITIS, PAROTITIS+, PHLEBITIS, PYELITIS+, RACHITIS, RETINITIS, RHINITIS, SINUSITIS+, SYNOVITIS, THELITIS+, TITIS, UVEITIS+, UVULITIS+, VAGINITIS+, VULVITIS+, WAPITIS and ZITIS. The ones marked with a + take an -ES. pedalo Five-letter words that take an -O: BRONC, CHARR, CHEAP, CHEER, CRYPT, DINER, HALLO, HOLLO, MEDIC, MORPH, NYMPH, PEDAL, PREST, PSEUD, PSYCH, QUART, RABAT, RANCH, RIGHT, ROMAN, SHACK, SMALT, SOLAN, SPEED, STERE, STING, STINK, TOLED, VOMIT, WEIRD, WHACK, putsch PUTSCH is one of only ten words which end in -SCH. The others are BORSCH, FLYSCH, HAMANTASCH, KIRSCH, KITSCH, (KAFFEE)KLATSCH, and (LUFT)MENSCH. The only back hooks possible with any of them are BORSCH-T and KITSCH-Y, since the plurals are mostly in -ES except for HAMANTASCHEN, LUFTMENSCHEN and MENSCHEN/MENSCHES. qats QAT is the most commonly played word, accounting for about 1% of all words played. qindarka This word is one of the 21 acceptable words that have a Q but no U. Note that while QINDAR(S) and QINTAR(S) both mean the same thing (1/100 of an Albanian lek), only QINDAR can be pluralized with -KA. sett SET is one of 85 three-letter words whose last letter can be doubled to make a four-letter word. The others are: BIB, COB, JIB, SIB, RED, AGE, ALE, AWE, THE, TYE, RIF, HOG, JAG, MIG, MUG, NOG, VUG, HAJ, BAL, BEL, CEL, DEL, DOL, FIL, GAL, GUL, MEL, MIL, MOL, NIL, PAL, POL, PUL, SAL, SEL, TEL, TIL, MUM, BUN, CON, JIN, LIN, SUN, WYN, BRO, REP, BRR, BUR, CAR, CUR, DOR, PAR, PUR, TOR, BAS, BOS, BUS, COS, DIS, DOS, HIS, KOS, LAS, MAS, MIS, MOS, MUS, PAS, PIS, PUS, TAS, WIS, BAT, BIT, BOT, BUT, MAT, MOT, MUT, NET, PUT, WAT, YET and FIZ. tahr The tahrs are wild goats which form the genus Hemitragus. The only other words which end in -HR are BUHR, LEHR and KIESELGUHR, all of which take an -S. tesla The tesla is the SI unit of magnetic flux density and is equal to 10,000 gauss or one weber per square meter. SI consists of base units (METER/METRE, KILOGRAM, SECOND, AMPERE, KELVIN, MOLE, CANDELA) and derived units (RADIAN, STERADIAN#, HERTZ, NEWTON, PASCAL, JOULE, WATT, COULOMB, VOLT, FARAD, OHM, SIEMENS, WEBER, TESLA, HENRY, LUMEN, LUX, BECQUEREL#, GRAY, SIEVERT#). All are acceptable except the ones marked with a #. All take an -S except HERTZ(ES), LUX(ES) and SIEMENS. Most are named after famous scientists, such as Nikola Tesla.

Anagrams: (none)

Hooks: abasiaS

Ana-hooks: Piasaba

'Typos': (none)

Blana-grams: abaCas abaKas abaTis abaYas aNabas aRabas aRabis baiZas baNias Casaba saHiba Wasabi

Extensions: (none)

Sub-anagrams: aa aas ab aba abas abs ai aia aias ais as ba baa baas bas bi bias bis is isba sab sai si sib


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