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Words illustrated with AI

This week’s words
speechify
agrostology
smilet
tergiversation
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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(tuhr-ji-vuhr-SAY-shuhn)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Misleading, evasive, or ambiguous speech or action.
2. Desertion of a party, position, cause, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin tergiversari (to turn one’s back, to evade), from tergum (back) + vertere (to turn). Earliest documented use: 1570.

USAGE:

“The tobacco industry is a master of tergiversation. On the one hand, it claims that plain-packaging legislation has boosted cigarette sales by leading to a price war, but at the same time it resorts to the law and lobbying to try and abolish it.”
James Moore; Letters; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jul 18, 2014.

See more usage examples of tergiversation in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: