This week’s theme
Misleading words

This week’s words
pronation
militate
instar
diaeresis
funambulism


This week’s comments
AWADmail 1106

Next week’s theme
Words related to time

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(fyoo-NAM-byuh-liz-uhm)

MEANING:

noun:
1. The act of walking on a rope between two points elevated from the ground.
2. The balancing act between contrasting situations, such as appeasing two groups with opposing views.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin funis (rope) + ambulare (to walk). Earliest documented use: 1801.

USAGE:

“There’s a fine line between those two ways of thinking, and DJs ... walk this tightrope skillfully. Call it musical funambulism.”
Jason Bracelin; Mix It Up; Las Vegas Review-Journal (Nevada); Aug 2, 2012.

“[The] US strategy has slid into total incoherence, drifting from a futile and deadly funambulism among the tribes of Afghanistan to propping up the Lebanese Army.”
George Gilder; The Economics of Settlement; The American Spectator (Alexandria, Virginia); Jun 2011.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: