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Oct 31, 2023
This week’s theme
Is it a noun, adjective, or verb?

This week’s words
primary
rollercoaster
wimple
sojourn
high-grade

rollercoaster
Illustration: Anu Garg + AI

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rollercoaster

PRONUNCIATION:
(ROH-luhr-koh-stuhr)

MEANING:
noun: Something marked by sudden and sharp shifts in circumstances.
adjective: Marked by sudden, extreme changes.
verb intr.: To go through extreme and abrupt changes.

ETYMOLOGY:
After rollercoaster, a thrill ride that typically travels at a high speed along a path marked by sharp curves and steep inclines. Earliest documented use: 1883, for verb: 1931.

USAGE:
“[Akihiko Shiota] trademark to date is an unsentimental but deep sympathy with the rollercoastering emotions of teenagers and children.”
Amy Taubin; Man of the Moment: Actor Koji Yakusho; Film Comment (New York); Jan/Feb 2002.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Fatalism is the lazy man's way of accepting the inevitable. -Natalie Clifford Barney, poet, playwright, and novelist (31 Oct 1876-1972)

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