Word - 10

TURPITUDE \TER-puh-tood\ noun

: inherent baseness : depravity; also : a base act

Example sentence:

The judge declared that the murders were the product of a gross moral turpitude.

Did you know?

"Turpitude" came to English from Latin by way of Middle French. The Latin word "turpitudo" comes from "turpis," which means "vile" or "base." The word is often heard in the phrase "moral turpitude," an expression used in law to designate an act or behavior that gravely violates the sentiment or accepted standard of the community. A criminal offense that involves "moral turpitude" is considered wrong or evil by moral standards, in addition to being the violation of a statute.

Word - 9

MACADAM \muh-KAD-um\ noun

: a roadway or pavement of small closely packed broken stone

Example sentence:
We left the old city with much regret, passing from its quaint cobblestones to lumpy macadam, leaving our vacation behind and returning reluctantly to the workaday world.

Did you know?

In 1783, inventor John Loudon McAdam returned to his native Scotland after amassing a fortune in New York City. He became the road trustee for his district and quickly set his inventiveness to remedying the terrible condition of local roads. After numerous experiments, he created a new road surfacing material made of bits of stone that became compressed into a solid mass as traffic passed over them. His invention revolutionized road construction and transportation, and engineers and the public alike honored him by using his name (respelled "macadam") as a generic term for the material or pavement made from it. He is further immortalized in the verb "macadamize," which names the process of installing macadam on a road.