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Difficult Words :
Mendicant,Mentor, Mercenary, Mercurial, Microcosm & Metamorphosis
Mendicant (MEN duh kunt) n: a beggar
The presence of thousands of mendicants in every urban area is a sad commentary on our national priorities.
Mercenary (MUR suh NER ee) n: a hired soldier, someone who will do anything for money
If an army can't find enough volunteers or draftees, it will sometimes hire mercenaries.
The magazine Soldier of Fortune is aimed at mercenaries and would-be mercenaries. It even runs classified advertisements by soldiers looking for someone to fight.
You don't have to be a soldier to be a mercenary. Someone who does something strictly for the money is often called a mercenary.
Our business contains a few dedicated workers and many mercenaries who want to make a quick buck and then get out.
Mercenary can also be used as an adjective. Larry's motives in writing the screenplay for the trashy movie were strictly mercenary. He needed the money.
Mentor (MEN tur) n: a teacher, tutor, counselor, or coach; especially in business, an experienced person who shows an inexperienced person the ropes
Mentor is too big a word to apply to just an ordinary teacher. A student might have many teachers but only one mentor : the person who taught him what was really important.
Chris's mentor in the pole vault was a former track star who used to hang out by the gym and give the students pointers.
Young men and women in business often talk about the importance of having a mentor-usually an older person at the same company who takes an interest in them and helps them get ahead by showing them the ropes.
Mentor is often used as a verb, but you shouldn't do it.
Mercurial (mur KYOOR ee ul) adj: emotionally unpredictable, rapidly changing in mood
A person with a mercurial personality is one who changes rapidly and unpredictably between one mood and another.
Mercurial Helen was crying one minute, laughing the next.
Metamorphosis (MET uh MAWR fuh sis) n: a magical change in form, a striking or sudden change
When the magician passed his want over Eileen’s head, she underwent a bizarre metamorphosis. She turned into a hamster.
Domon's metamorphosis from college student to Hollywood superstar was so sudden that it seemed a bit unreal.
To undergo a metamorphosis is to metamorphose.
No matter how hard he tried, the accountant was unable to metamorphose the losses into gains.
Microcosm (MYE kruch KOZ un) n: the world in miniature
To cosmos is the heaven, cosmopolitan means worldly and a microcosm is a miniature version of the world. All three words are related.
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