Weekly English Words with Alisha - Commonly Looked-up Words

Is it recording? Hi there! Welcome back to Weekly Words. My name is Alisha, and today

we’re going to talk about commonly looked-up words. These are words that are the most commonly

searched for on Merriam Webster Online, which is a popular English dictionary. So let’s

get started.

The first word is “pretentious.” “Pretentious” is a word that means you’re “trying to

impress other people,” or someone who tries to impress other people by making themselves

seem more exciting or more important or cooler than they really are. In a sentence, you might

say, “My co-worker is so pretentious. He’s always exaggerating stories to make himself

seem important.” Don’t be pretentious.

The next word is “ubiquitous.” “Ubiquitous” just means “something that you see everywhere.”

Smart-ferns… Smartphones… sorry, I’m still laughing at “smart-ferns.” It’s

a fern that’s really smart. You can tell when you need extra oxygen. In a sentence,

uh, you might say, “Smartphones are ubiquitous. Everybody has one now, and I have one too.”

“Albeit.” “Albeit” just means “although.” In a sentence, “She was making progress,

albeit rather slowly.”

Next word is “ambiguous.” “Ambiguous” just means something that’s, the meaning’s

not really very clear to you. Maybe, uh, if you’re reading the newspaper, for example,

a sentence is written kind of strangely. You might say, “Hm, the meaning of this is rather

ambiguous.”

Alright. “Love.” Really? Baby, don’t hurt me. “Love” is just that intense feeling

where you really, really like somebody else. Could be your family member, it could be a

partner, a romantic partner, whatever. It could be a food you really like as well. Just

anytime you have that really deep, strong emotion, you can use the word “love.”

For example, “I love pizza. It’s my favorite food.” K.

End! That’s the end of commonly searched-for words in the dictionary. I hope you learned

a few new things. Give them a try, and we will see you again next time for more Weekly Words. Bye!