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Oct 8, 2014
This week's theme
Words to describe people

This week's words
lubricious
diffident
virulent
convivial
orgulous

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

virulent

PRONUNCIATION:
(VIR-yuh-luhnt, -uh-)

MEANING:
adjective
1. Bitterly hostile.
2. Highly infective.
3. Extremely dangerous.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin virus (poison). Earliest documented use: 1400.

USAGE:
"In those later years, Fred Koch also became a major benefactor and board member of the John Birch Society, the rabidly anti-communist organization founded in 1958 by candy magnate and virulent racist Robert Welch."
Tim Dickinson; Inside the Koch Brothers' Toxic Empire; Rolling Stone (New York); Sep 24, 2014. (Permalink)

See more usage examples of virulent in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can't eat money. -Alanis Obomsawin, filmmaker (b. 1932)

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