photoelectric
/ˌfoʊtoʊɪˈɫɛktɹɪk/
adjectiveof or pertaining to photoelectricity
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Examples
1. The photoelectric effect describes what happens when you shine a beam of light on a metal plate.
2. Einstein realized this could explain the photoelectric effect .
3. The photoelectric effect was first observed in 1839 and the first patent was awarded to William Coblentz in 1913.
4. Albert Einstein won for discovering the law of the photoelectric effect.
5. The widespread use of smoke detectors in households wasn’t feasible until a year later when Duane Pearsall and Stanley Peterson created a single station photoelectric detector that was powered by a battery.
photometer
/fəˈtɑmɪtɝ/
nounphotographic equipment that measures the intensity of light
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Examples
1. Kepler pointed a highly sensitive light sensor, called a photometer, at a single patch of sky, and it checked for changes in the stars’ brightness.
2. The Kepler space telescope has an instrument called a photometer.
3. The Kepler photometer detects that dip in brightness and it records it.
4. and I do the actual reconstruction of the scene with photometers, with various measures of illumination and various other measures of color perception, along with special cameras and high-speed film, right?
photometry
/foʊtˈɑːmətɹi/
nounmeasurement of the properties of light (especially luminous intensity)
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Examples
1. The plan was to do this by performing an astrometry and photometry survey.
2. The team found the planets using a common method called transit photometry.
3. You can see even looking for small planets involves extremely precise photometry, precise measurements of brightness of the star.
4. Usually, we do aperture photometry.
phosphorescence
/ˌfɑsfɝˈɛsəns/
nouna fluorescence that persists after the bombarding radiation has ceased
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Examples
1. But if you ever had glow-in-the-dark stars on your ceiling at night, you’ve seen phosphorescence at work.
2. Unlike fluorescence and phosphorescence, triboluminescence tends to be a brief flash of light.
3. Now, phosphorescence is something that you all know very well.
4. And phosphorescence has a really neat property.
5. And that is the phosphorescence that your eyes see.
to subordinate
/səˈbɔɹdəˌneɪt/, /səˈbɔɹdənət/
verbmake subordinate, dependent, or subservient
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Examples
1. You have to subordinate your will to communal rituals and life.
2. You have to subordinate your will to the abbot.
3. Southern whites had the system of Jim Crow to subordinate blacks.
4. Subordinates and lower-level officers fought the battle for him on a tactical level.
5. Meanwhile, he sent subordinates to Sicily, Sardinia and North Africa, the three key grain suppliers of Rome.
subsequent
/ˈsəbsəkwənt/
adjectivecoming or existing after something else; following
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Examples
1. Their subsequent conversation became another founding Koan of Zen.
2. In subsequent years, the rise of easy overclocking fueled even more demand for efficient CPU cooling.
3. All subsequent inequalities stem from this basic difference.
4. Subsequent recessions were not like that.
5. Her subsequent films included Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
subservience
/səbˈsɝviəns/
nounabject or cringing submissiveness
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Examples
1. Critic Paul Murray, from Oxford University, sees the plot of Dracula as an allegory of male insecurity and the dangers of subservience to another person.
2. In a sense, puppet states are completely independent states that essentially act in subservience to another government.
3. Food was scarce or was possibly withheld by Jones to encourage subservience.
4. Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
5. Because touch is instantly correlated with subservience and with slavery.
subservient
/səbˈsɝviənt/
adjectivecompliant and obedient to authority
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Examples
1. And so everything else, Brown Girls, poetry, all of that kind, that's kind of like subservient to the idea of that community piece that's really, really important to me.
2. Black people are subservient.
3. And other Indians will be subservient to you.
4. They are bound by, they're subservient to, this metadivine realm.
5. And you cannot be subservient to yourself.
acute
/əkˈjut/
adjectivesevere in degree; very serious
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Examples
1. The acute medical therapy is indicated in the exposure.
2. How can you cut the blob entirely into acute triangles and stop it from destroying the planet?
3. The delusional impact is acute.
4. Hepatitis A virus --or HAV, for short-- is almost always acute.
5. Risk of injury for big animals is acute.
acumen
/əkˈjumən/
nounshrewdness shown by keen insight
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Examples
1. (APPLAUSE) you see, CAITLIN, when you were a MAN, we could TALK about your athleticism, your business ACUMEN, but now you're a woman and your looks are REALLY
2. I have his temper, but I don't have his Acumen.
3. Neither known for their LEGAL acumen.
4. The massive grassroots LOBBY effort brought those with ACUMEN and EXPERTISE into the post office.
5. Lifespring Hospital is a joint venture between Acumen and the government of India to bring quality, affordable maternal health care to low-income women, and it's been so successful that it's currently building a new hospital every 35 days.
bicameral
/baɪkˈæmɹəl/
adjectivecomposed of two legislative bodies
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Examples
1. The legislature is bicameral, having an upper house of 24 senators elected by national party percentage of the vote to six-year terms, and a lower house of 304 representatives elected to three-year terms that represent individual districts across the country.
2. He really preferred a bicameral legislature, both houses of which would elect a governor.
3. So take for example a bicameral legislature, obviously resembling Parliament's House of Commons and House of Lords.
4. They had a bicameral legislature.
5. Bicameral scripts don’t have a monopoly on different forms for a single letter.
biennial
/baɪˈɛniəɫ/
adjectivehaving a life cycle lasting two seasons
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Examples
1. Amid the protests, part of the Whitney's biennial exhibit was a project called Triplechaser, which is named after a tear gas canister that breaks into three parts.
2. People talk about biennial budgeting.
3. This is the art biennial?
4. - They're stepping on my biennial hollyhocks.
5. Garlics and allium, usually those are biennial crops.
to bifurcate
/ˈbaɪfɝˌkeɪt/, /ˈbɪfɝˌkeɪt/
verbdivide into two branches
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Examples
1. - Have you bifurcated your streams?
2. The president's day is bifurcated into official duties and private time.
3. Everything's not bifurcated.
4. A lot of companies, they have bifurcated business and legal affairs.
5. [slick drum music] - This white onyx fireplace bifurcates the formal living room to the formal dining.
bigamy
/bˈɪɡæmi/
nounthe state of having two spouses at the same time
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Examples
1. This was bigamy, of course, but it was not illegal in the United States at that time.
2. In 2003, after her fourth marriage, Emily was jailed for bigamy.
3. She was convicted a bigamy and served a six month jail sentence but that didn't quash her enthusiasm for matrimony.
4. Perhaps the biggest repercussion of the family's show was that the Browns subsequently fell under investigation in Utah for bigamy, according ABC News.
5. And by 2020, according to CNN, Utah had passed a law that decriminalized bigamy.
bilateral
/baɪˈɫætɝəɫ/
adjectivehaving two sides or parts
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Examples
1. Bilateral control does the kind of illogical thing of saying.
2. The SOPA legislation was headed for bilateral passage.
3. They have bilateral symmetry and a notochord during development and a skeleton as an adult, among other characteristics of this group of animals.
4. It negotiated bilateral deals directly with pharmaceutical firms.
5. But seven years on and bilateral relations have plummeted.
bilingual
/baɪˈɫɪŋɡwəɫ/
adjectivedescribing the ability to speak, understand, or use two languages fluently
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Examples
1. My channel is turning bilingual.
2. My husband is bilingual.
3. I am bilingual.
4. Some people were bilingual.
5. And this spider spins a bilingual alphabet.
foursome
/ˈfɔɹsəm/
nounfour people considered as a unit
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Examples
1. The foursome took off from Oakland on May 31, 1928.
2. The happy foursome would be short-lived, however.
3. That foursome could frankly use a little time on the street.
4. -That was our foursome.
5. That was our foursome.
fourth
/ˈfɔɹθ/
determinercoming or happening just after the third person or thing
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Examples
1. "Fourths," answered the next student.
2. The illegal immigration issue was fourth.
3. Fourth, always ask questions.
4. Fourth, use callback humor.
5. Fourth, use caffeine sparingly.
legion
/ˈɫidʒən/
nounarchaic terms for army
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Examples
1. Unlike the other Celtic tribes, Roman legions have no regard for the druids’ sacred role as peacemakers.
2. The first crisis is "Legions of Death."
3. The legions fell upon their camp.
4. The legions fell upon their camp.
5. And the number is legion.
legionary
/lˈiːdʒənˌɛɹi/
nouna soldier who is a member of a legion (especially the French Foreign Legion)
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Examples
1. Anyway, Glaber’s army consisted of approximately 3,000 militia, not proper Roman legionaries.
2. The legionaries were stunned.
3. Legionaries flooded through it into the eerily silent Second City.
4. Deserter legionaries also formed a substantial part of Maxentius’ forces.
5. That strengthened the morale of the legionaries.
