malaise: (noun) dissatisfaction; melancholy; depression.
Just reading the morning paper is enough malaise for the day.
malarkey: (noun) hogwash; balderdash; nonsense; drivel. Why,
sir! Your proffered solution is nothing but malarkey!
malediction: (noun) curse; imprecation; a magical word or phrase that brings about evil. The
unpopular president’s support of any candidate was seen as more of a malediction than anything else.
malefic: (adj.)
(pronounced: mah-lef-fic) able to, or actually causing harm, especially by supernatural means; baneful.
I told you that cat was malefic. Now that she's killed the neighbors, there's going to be hell to pay.
malfeasance: (noun) misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by
a public official. The governor’s malfeasance became apparent when all of his wives dropped by unexpectedly at
the same time.
malingerer: (noun) one who malingers; one who shirks; one who
skives. Yeah, I hated being a malingerer for the city. Every time I wanted to skive, I had to hold a shovel, and
every once in a while, they even expected me to use it.
malodorous: (adj.) fragrant; aromatic; scented; stinking.
The malodorous candle made the entire house smell like the ape house at the zoo.
Malthusian: (adj.) of or relating to the theories of English cleric
and scholar Robert Malthus (1766-1834) who believed that population increases at a geometrical rate, while the means necessary
to support that population, such as crops, only increase at an arithmetical rate, ultimately resulting in famine unless checked
by such things as disease and war. I don't care what your Malthusian theory says. Just because you lost your job
doesn't mean we're going to sell the children.
mangle: (noun) a machine consisting of gears and rollers used
for pressing the water out of laundry. I'm sorry, mum, but the mangle mangled the clothing.
manifest: (adj.) obvious; apparent; evident. Neither Sitting
Bull nor Crazy Horse thought Manifest Destiny was all that manifest.
manifold: (adj.) many and various. Listen buddy. You
can't just come in here and ask for a manifold for your car. There are lots of manifolds to choose from. We got
manifold manifolds.
manitou: (noun) the spiritual and fundamental lifeforce among
Algonquian Indians. The problem is obvious. The Feng shui in your wigwam is all off, and that, of course, affects
your manitou.
man
jack: (noun) a single individual; a human being. ("Jack"
quite possibly derived from the name "John" sometime in the 12th century, "Jack" being another
form of that name, such as President John Kennedy going by the nickname Jack. As such a common name, it became synonymous
for "everyman," though it has mostly fallen out of use, but that doesn't mean you still can't use it.) Every
man jack should see how important it is to vote. After all, unless you vote, how can you complain about the results?
manumit: (verb) to release from slavery; to set free. We
catch the fish, and then we manumit them.
marabou: (noun) a large African stork; feathers from that stork
used for trim on clothing. It's amazing how marabous use marabou as trim.
marge: (noun) border; edge; margin; verge; (British) abbreviation for margarine; (proper noun)
the shortened form of the feminine name "Margaret." Marge traveled to the marge of the world to find marge.
marm: (noun) a variant spelling of "ma'am," now
considered archaic, but what do they know? I'm Miss Davenport, like the sofa. I'm the new school marm. I'll
be your teacher for as long as you're in school.
marmom: (noun) a female marmot, especially one with pups.
Listen, Clorissa, I don't care if you're a marmom. That doesn't mean I gotta be called a mardad.
marshal: (verb) to assemble; to line up; to shepherd. The
lawyer marshaled the facts before the jury, proving that the marshal was innocent.
mattock: (noun) that garden tool that is a combination of a pick
axe and hoe (more precisely, an adze and a chisel head). If we're going to get this grave dug before daybreak, we'd
best use the mattock.
maunder: (verb) to talk in a rambling manner; to move about dreamily.
Ever since Marvin met Melissa, they've both been maundering about.
maven: (noun) expert; aficionado; connoisseur; enthusiast. I am, indeed, a specialist
in the corvus species of birds, but I prefer to call myself a raven maven.
mawkish: (adj.) maudlin; sappy; mushy. Darling, please don't
think me mawkish, but I was hoping our relationship meant just a little bit more than using a quality bullet when you shot
me.
mélange: (noun) a mixture; a melody. Her wardrobe definitely qualified as a mélange,
but there was nothing melodious about it.
mellifluous: (adj.) smooth; honeyed; slick. Why you mellifluous talker,
you.
meme: (noun) culture information, such as ideas or practices,
that is supposedly passed from one mind to another much the same way that genes pass on other traits (first coined by the
British biologist and evangelical atheist Richard Dawkins in 1976). The belief in god is seen by many as just another
meme.
memento
mori: (noun) literally: you must die; figuratively:
a reminder of death, in particular, a skull (or death's-head), which in the past was often put on tombstones to remind the
living that they need to follow the straight and narrow because they, too, will someday face eternal judgment. I like
it that my mother always puts a nice note in the lunches she makes me, but I wish she'd leave off the memento mori.
memetic:
(adj.) of or relating to memes, which is pertaining to the replication of ideas. Social media has become so memtic,
it is not necessary for any meme to actually be true for it to be accepted as Gospel.
mendacious: (adj.) untruthful;
dishonest; unreliable; lying. When a politician can best be described with the adjective "mendacious," it's
probably not fake news that we need to worry about.
mendacity: (noun) untruthfulness; lies; the condition of being mendacious. His mendacity rose to new levels when he refused to admit to having an affair while still in bed with
another woman.
mendicant: (noun) one who is given to begging; a beggar; a panhandler.
The mendicant was selling karma: One dollar each, or five for three.
mercurial: (adj.) a person who is subject to sudden or unpredictable
changes of mood or mind. His mercurial nature greatly reduced his social engagements.
meretricious: (adj.) (pronounced: mare-ah-trich-us) appearing to be attractive, but having
no value; flashy; pretentious; gaudy. The president's offer to help the downtrodden was meretricious, at best.
meshuggah: (noun) (Yiddish – pronounced: mess-shu-gah)
a crazy fool. The president, once again proving his critics wrong, showed that you can be a meshuggah even
if you aren't Jewish.
metempsychosis: (noun) the supposed transmigration of the soul
of a human or an animal into a new body of the same or different species. It's real! The cat, through metempsychosis,
is now in the body of a hamster. And before that, it was in the body of a dog. And before that, they were all
in me.
methought: (verb) it seems to me. Methought the beadle would've
put an end to your twaddle by now.
métier: (noun) (pronounced: may-tee-ay) vocation;
occupation; calling. Correcting people's grammar isn't really my métier; I'd call it more of a hobby.
metonymy: (noun) a figure of speech in which a thing or a concept
is referred to by the name of something closely related with that thing or concept. I'm afraid you don't understand,
deer. When I said I wanted to meet you at the altar, I was being metonymic. I didn't mean that I just wanted to
meet you here. I meant I wanted to marry you. Now what are we going to do with the cake and all these
flowers?
miasma: (noun) mist; fog; haze. Through the miasma of my
mind, the world is often a more tolerable place to be.
midden: (noun) a dunghill or refuse heap; also kitchen midden,
a prehistoric refuse pile. In the middle of the midden Marley made out with the maiden.
mien: (noun) (pronounced: mean) one's look or manner,
especially a look or manner that indicates one's mood or character. Lester sure has a mean mien.
militate: (verb) to resist; to hinder; to oppose. The president knew he was in trouble when
even his own party members began to militate against him.
millenarian: (noun) pertaining to the religious doctrine of a thousand
year period of peace and tranquility. It's not that I'm denouncing my belief in millenarianism; it's just that, at this
point in my life, a thousand years of anything seems a bit much. Heck, I'd settle for a peaceful weekend around the
house.
milquetoast: (noun) a feeble or timid person (adj.) feeble; insipid; bland (from the comic strip
"Casper Milquetoast," created by H.T. Webster, who described his main character as a person who "speaks softly
and gets hit with a big stick"). Don't be such a milquetoast and stand up for yourself, darn it already!
mimical: (adj.) that which mimics. The mime was mimical,
and probably quite good, but... I mean... he was a mime, and nobody cares.
minimus: (noun; plural: minimi) a creature or beast that is the smallest or least significant.
As far as all the guys that Mary Ann would ever go out with, your the minimus. But, hey! At least you're on the
list!
minutiae: (noun) the small, precise, or trivial details of something.
The minion is in the minutiae.
mirus: (adj.) wonderful; strange; remarkable; amazing;
extraordinary. That is so mirus! Now I have another word to use instead of "amazing"!
misandrist: (noun) (pronounced: miss-ann-dirst) somebody who
hates men. You don't have to be a woman to be a misandrist, but it certainly makes it easier.
misanthrope: (noun) (pronounced: miss-ann-throp) a person
who hates or mistrusts humankind. You see, Dr. Johnson, had we known you were a misanthrope before we hired you to be
a pediatrician... well... we never would've hired you. But now that we do know, we have no choice but to promote you.
miscegenation: (noun) (pronounced: mis-sedg-gin-a-shun) the inter-breeding of different
races, particularly mixing that is perceived to negatively impact the purity of a race, which is hard to say and still keep
a straight face. Miscegenation! That's what it is. If nobody cares who they have sex with, why, the next
thing you know, everybody will look alike, and then we won't know who to hate. And what are we going to do then?
miscellany: (noun) assortment; grouping; medley. The grimalkin
had a miscellany of cats.
misericord: (noun) (pronounced: miz-zair-ah-cord) an
apartment in a monastery which gives some relaxation to the otherwise strict rules. Yes, Brother Maynard, I know you're
in the misericord, but even so, having strippers is a bit much, don't you think?
mishigas: (noun) (Yiddish – pronounced: miss-hig-ahs)
tomfoolery; silliness; nonsense; craziness. Oh, never mind him. That's just more of Larry's mishigas.
misnomer: (noun) (pronounced: miss-no-mer) a wrong
or inaccurate use of a term. Calling the president intelligent is probably a misnomer.
misogynist: (noun) somebody who hates women. Her misogynistic views were really odd, considering
that she was a woman.
misology: (noun)
the hatred of argument, reasoning, or enlightenment. Oh, but you don't understand, Brother Calvin. Misology is
a requirement for becoming a member of the clergy.
misoneism: (noun) (pronounced: miss-oh-nee-ism) the
hatred, fear, or intolerance of innovation or change. Oh, no, Mr. Winstead. It's not that you were dishonest when
we hired you for the position of School Superintendent. It's just that when you said you were a misoneist, well... we
thought it was something religious.
misprision: (noun) (pronounced: miss-priz-shun) the deliberate
concealment of one's knowledge of a treasonable act or other serious crime. In a strange political twist, the
entire Senate and House of Representatives was found guilty of misprision.
mithridate: (noun) an antidote against poison; a concoction thought
to be effective against poison in general. Don thought his intelligence was enough to act as a mithridate against any
poison. Apparently, Don wasn't quite intelligent enough.
mitigate: (verb)
to alleviate; to diminish; to tone down. Because of the mitigating circumstances, they decided to simply beat the living
hell out of the stranger instead of taking him out back and having him shot.
modicum: (adj.) small amount; degree; scrap. If you
show a modicum of concern for your patients, you will be a more efficacious physician.
moiety: (noun) share. See. We lose the cops. Then we lay
low until things cool down. See? Then we'll meet back here, and everybody will get their moiety. See?
moil: (verb) to work hard. I've been moiling on the railroad...
no. It just doesn't sound right.
mollify: (noun) placate; appease; soothe. They tried to
mollify Mollie when a male mole mauled her molecular model.
mollycoddle: (verb) to treat somebody in an over-indulgent sort of way; to spoil; to pamper.
Molly mollycoddled her collie.
monger: (noun) usually combined with other words, denoting one
who sells whatever. I don' know, Carl. "Drugmonger" don't sound no better than "drug dealer,"
but you're the boss.
monomania: (noun) exaggerated preoccupation with one thing.
No, Carl. I'd say your monomania with yourself goes well beyond being egocentric. You're what we would call a
sociopath.
monstration: (noun) (Russian, primarily, as if Russians had any sense of humour to begin with)
a public performance intended to be a parody of a serious demonstration. Even though Bob, the assistant manager at Pizza
Paradise, intended for the marquee sign to be a monstration, nobody at all found any humour in "Black Olives Matter."
Montgolfier: (noun) (pronounced: mon-gall-fee-ay) (from the Montgolfier
brothers, Joseph Michel and Jacques Étienne, 18th Century French balloonists who built and ascended in the
first practical hot air balloon, which was originally called a "fire balloon"): a hot air balloon. Trust
me. Nobody's going to pay to ride in a fire balloon. We'll call it a Montgolfier until we can come up with something
better. Never mind that nobody can pronounce it.
mooch: (verb) to ask for stuff from others without paying for
it; to hang about bored. Bad news, dear. My brother lost his job, so we'll have to stop mooching off of him.
mopery: (noun) the action of committing a minor or petty offense,
such as jaywalking or loitering, or both at the same time. I'm in for mopery, but I'm tellin' you right now, I'm innocent.
morass: (noun) chaos; quagmire; a mess; Afghanistan.
Because he was always chasing after more ass, he got caught in the morass of divorce.
morbus: (noun) a disease. Well, Mrs. Undertow, the tests
do show you have a morbus, but I'll be darned if I know what kind of morbus you have.
mordant:
(adj.) caustic; scathing; acerbic; sarcastic. We didn’t realize that the instructor was being mordant when she
praised our ability to deduce sarcasm from seriousness.
moribund: (adj.) something at the point of death. With their relationship
becoming undeniably moribund, Carl finally took Clara's advice and moved on.
morion: (noun) a type of helmet worn without a beaver or a visor
in the 16th and 17th centuries. Dear, get your morion. We're leaving!
mosey: (verb) saunter; stroll; dawdle. Let’s all
mosey down to the saloon and see Miss Lilly.
mote: (noun) a tiny piece of substance; something that is itsy
bitsy. If I could remove the mote from my eye I'd feel a whole lot better.
motile: (adj.) capable of motion – usually used with things like
cells. All the girls at the dance were quite motile, which they proved beyond a doubt when they left.
motley: (adj.) variegated in colour; composed of diverse and
often incongruous elements. The crew is rather motley today. Maybe if they would all dress the same they'd be
a successful band.
moue: (noun) a pouting expression used to show annoyance or
distaste. By her moue he knew that in a few they would be through. But what could he do?
mountebank: (noun) one who sells quack medicine; a fake; a charlatan.
The mountebank tried to pass off a pastiche as an original.
mousey: (adj.) when speaking about hair, it's a dull light brown colour; when speaking of people
it's being timid, meek, nervous, shy, lacking in presence or charisma. If Cheryl hadn't been so mousey, then she would've
coloured her hair, so it wouldn't be mousey, either.
mucid: (adj.) moldy; musty. When he opened the vault,
we were greeted with a mucid smell.
mulct: (verb) (pronounced: mulkt) to get money from somebody, often by fine or
taxation; to defraud; to swindle. Well, it's April 15th again, and once more, we're all mulcted.
mulish: (adj.) (pronounced: mule-ish) being stubborn
like a mule. Even with undeniable proof that they had been lied to, the group mulishly refused to change their stance.
mullion: (noun) a vertical bar between panes of glass in a window.
Well, that's the last of them, a million mullions. Now let's see anybody get in this house... or out, for that matter.
multifarious: (adj.) many and various. With his three PhDs, Egbert
truly had multifarious talents; unfortunately, none of which was of any practical value whatsoever.
multitudinous: (adj.) countless; without number. The
multitudinous stars shone down upon a world bereft of human life.
mumblecore: (noun) a style of low-budget film that typically uses
non-professional actors and naturistic or improvised performances. I'm glad you liked it, but it wasn't meant to be
mumblecore. It was just the videos of our family vacation.
mummer: (noun) actors
in tradition masked mime, often performing ridiculous ceremonies of a religious nature; a derogatory term for any actor.
When the mummers finish their mummery, then get the to a nunnery.
mundivagant: (adj.) (pronounced: mon-div-va-gant) wandering all
over the world. Well, the mundivagant dog is back. I suppose he'll want to be fed.
munificent: (adj.) generous; bountiful; magnanimous.
The king munificently spared the prisoner his life, instead sentencing him to be tortured daily for the rest of his life.
murine: (adj.) of, relating to, or affecting mice or other rodents.
My cat has murine interests.
murmuration: the act of murmuring, which is that cool thing birds (especially
starlings) do when hundreds, if not thousands, of them all fly together in swooping, intricately coordinated patterns as a
way to confuse predators, which they can do quite simply by only paying attention to the seven closest birds around them.
Dear, the starlings are murmuring in the bathroom again. I do wish you'd do something about that.
mynheer: (noun) a Dutch title of address, similar to "mister"
(when before a name) or "sir" when by itself (from "my lord"). Mynheer is in here.
myomorph: (noun)
mouse-like rodents. Dude! How many times do I have to tell you. I'm not a rat. I'm a myomorph.
There is a difference, you know.
myriad:
(noun) countless; innumerable. Because of the myriad of choices, we were unable to choose anything while at the
mall.
myrmecologist: (noun) (meer-me-call-oh-gist) one who studies ants.
Myrmecologists must go on a lot of picnics.
myxomatosis: (noun) (pronounced: mix-ah-mah-toe-sis) a
highly infectious and usually fatal disease of rabbits; the winning word in any Scrabble game. I'm sorry, dear, but
Hoppy has gone to Bunny Heaven. He had myxomatosis. I'm sure you understand.
