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Difficult Words : Culinary, Cryptic, Culminate, Culpable, Cursory and Curtail
Difficult Words: Culinary, Cryptic, Culminate, Culpable, Cursory and Curtail
Cryptic (KRIP tik) adj: mysterious; mystifying
Elaine's remarks were cryptic. Everyone was baffled by what she said.
A cryptic statement is one in which something important remains hidden. The ghost made cryptic comments about the crypt from which he had just emerged. That is, no one could figure out what the ghost meant.
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Culinary (KYOO luh NER ee) adj: relating to cooking or the kitchen
A cooking school is sometimes called a culinary institute. Stan pursued his culinary interests by attending the culinary institute. His first meal, which was burned beyond recognition, was a culinary disaster.
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Culminate (KUL muh NATE) v: to climax; to reach full effect
Susan's years of practice culminated in a great victory at the international snow ball championship.
The masked ball was the culmination of our fund-raising efforts.
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Culpable (KUL puh bul) adj: deserving blame; guilty
A person who is culpable (a culprit) is one who can be blamed for doing something.
The accountant’s failure to sport the errors made him culpable in the tax-fraud case.
We all felt culpable when the homeless old man died in the doorway of our apartment building.
To decide that a person is not culpable after all is to exculpate that person.
Lou's confession didn't exculpate Bob, because one of the things that Lou confessed was that Bob had helped him do it.
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Cursory (KUR suh ree) adj: hasty; superficial
To give a book a cursory reading is to skim it quickly without comprehending much.
To make a cursory attempt at learning French is to memorize a couple of easy words and then say the heck with it.
The cursor on Dave's computer made a cursory sweep across the date as he scrolled down the page.
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Curtail (kur TALE) v: to shorten; to cut short
The Student curtailed his effort to cut the cat's tail with the lawn mower.
That is, he stopped trying.
To curtail a tale is to cut it short.
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