Allay. Invective. Timorous. Most people would probably have to
wrack their brains to spout a definition for the above words. We
typically don't use them in ordinary speech. However, by placing
them in the sentences below, it's easy to understand the
meanings of the words. - The preschool teacher hugged the
children to try to allay their fears about the first day of
school. - My dad's crazy invective against the way I look only
made me decide to dye my hair magenta the next time around. -
When Liz walked on stage, she was as white as a ghost, trembling
and looked like she was about to be sick. We could only guess
that her timorous nature had finally gotten the best of her. In
these sentences, we understand that allay must mean something
like "calm" and invective must mean something like "lecture" and
timorous must mean something like "shy". How do we know? Context
clues. Context clues are our friends. They're like our little
buddies who have taken the exam before us and want to pass us
the answers. Or just imp