Definitions of Words in the "Dictionary" Quiz

Answer: pointing out something clearly

The word indicatory can be formed from all the letters in the word dictionary. The word is rooted in the Late Latin word "indicator", the noun form of the verb "indicare", meaning to point out or show. The definition of indicatory is pointing out something clearly; that is, revealing something about someone or something, indicating something.

A person's sudden sweating and stammering when answering questions in a polygraph for instance, might be indicatory of their deception.

Answer: spoilage of food due to fats and oils exposed to various factors

Rancidity, from the Latin "rancidus", comes from the Latin verb form "rancēre" meaning to stink. It is the unpleasant odor and taste resulting from unsaturated fats in food oxidizing in the air. Those unsaturated fats break down various components such as alcohols and hydrocarbons and other chemicals.

The fat molecules break down in reaction with oxygen. Exposure to light can also trigger rancidity.

Answer: an antibiotic

The word tyrocidin comes from combining "tyro-thricin" and "grami-cidin", another antibiotic. "Tyro" is derived from the Greek "turos", meaning cheese. "Cidin" is derived from "-cide", which is from the Latin "caedere", and indicates that something kills. Tyrocidin is an antibiotic drug that is derived from soil bacteria called Bacillus brevis.

The first known use of the word tyrocidin was in 1940. It is the primary ingredient in tyrothricin, which is used to topically treat infections.

Answer: having a sharp, sour smell or taste

Acridity, from the Latin "ācris", meaning sharp, is a sense of a pungently biting taste or smell, like opening that carton of milk you're suspicious of and getting that awful smell of soured milk. Or the smell of the smoke coming off of certain materials burning, like rubber. Aside from that physical sense it can also refer to a person's sharp stinging caustic personality.

Answer: carotin

Carotin is interchangeable with carotene, from the Latin for carrot. It is processed by the human liver to form vitamin A. The rumor that eating too many carrots or that eating too much beta-carotene, from other foods as well as carrots, turns one's skin yellowish orange is actually true - not an urban legend at all. The skin discoloration is called Carotenemia.

Answer: dryness

Aridity is from the Latin "āriditās", meaning dryness, or a lack of moisture. Its derivation from he Middle French "aridité" in the 1590s was preceded by the Latin "ariditatem". The Atacama Desert in Chile, nicknamed "the driest place on Earth", is known for it aridity. It holds the meteorological record of going 173 months, that's MONTHS not days, without a single rainfall.

Answer: meteorology

The words tornadic and tornado have roots going back to the Latin "tonō", meaning to thunder. Tornadic refers to the winds that make a tornado storm; winds over 100 mph constitute tornadic force. Some tornado storms don't actually produce any lightning at all, contrary to what we think of storms.

Answer: Indictor

In- is from the Latin "in", meaning toward, and "-dict" is from the Latin "dicere", meaning proclaim. In law, an indictor is one who indicts, that is, brings a formal legal accusation which, unless it is settled out of court, will result in a case being brought to trial. Grand juries indict someone for a crime if after listening to the evidence presented by prosecutors, they believe that there is enough of that evidence to bring a case to trial.

Answer: one of a group of elements

"Acti-" is from the Old French "actif", which is from the Latin "activus", meaning do or act. "Oid" is from the Greek "oeides", meaning like something. The actinoids are a group of 15 consecutive radioactive elements listed in the periodic table, from 89 through to 103, whose properties resemble those of actinium.

They are also called the actinides, and they are actinium, thorium, protactinium, uranium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, and lawrencium. With the exception of actinium, thorium, and uranium, these elements are man-made.

Answer: music

It is a world used in music theory. A diatonic (from the Greek "diatonikos", meaning "occurring at intervals of a tone") scale is a mixture of whole and half steps, but a chromatic scale is made up of only half-steps. Along with chromatic, the two words describe types of musical scales.

There are other scales, though, such as pentatonic, heptatonic, etc. and a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that has five whole tones and two half steps within one octave (A, B, C, D, E, F, G).