Word - 62

NOMENCLATURE \NOH-mun-klay-cher\ noun

1 : name, designation

2 : the act or process or an instance of naming

3 *a : a system or set of terms or symbols especially in a particular science, discipline, or art
b : an international system of standardized New Latin names used in biology for kinds and groups of kinds of animals and plants

Example sentence:
Karin was introduced to a whole range of unfamiliar terms when she started her new job as a laboratory assistant, but she soon became familiar with the nomenclature.

Did you know?

In his 1926 Dictionary of Modern English Usage, grammarian H. W. Fowler asserted that it was wrong to use "nomenclature" as a synonym for "name"; he declared that "nomenclature" could only mean "a system of naming or of names." It is true that "nomenclature" comes from the Latin "nomenclatura," meaning "the assigning of names," but the "name" sense was one of the first to appear in English (it is documented as long ago as 1610), and it has been considered perfectly standard for centuries.

Word - 61

NADIR \NAY-deer\ noun

1 : the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the zenith and vertically downward from the observer
*2 : the lowest point

Example sentence:
Ironically, the high point of the novel occurs when the protagonist reaches her nadir, for only then does she arouse our empathy and emotional involvement.

Did you know?

"Nadir" is part of the galaxy of scientific words that have come to us from Arabic, a language that has made important contributions in the vocabulary of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and chemistry. "Nadir" derives from an Arabic word meaning "opposite" -- the opposite, that is, of the "zenith," which names the highest point of the celestial sphere, the one vertically above the observer. (The word "zenith" itself is a modification of another Arabic word that means "the way over one's head.") The English poet John Donne is first on record as having used "nadir" in the figurative sense of "lowest point" in a sermon he wrote in 1627.