Exult!

PV Sindhu won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics and a nation of 1.3 billion exulted over her victory. 
That's our word of this week - exult. Pronounced as igg-zuhlt - exult means to show joy often a triumphant one. It is to rejoice and feel as well as demonstrate a feeling of elation or jubilation. Revel could another apt synonym. 

Maria bilked us all!

A sad day for sports and for sports lovers. Maria Sharapova's declaration of drug use has disappointed many. She has been a role-model and a charmer who reached great heights in women's tennis. She reached the top rank at the age of eighteen and went on to win five Grand Slam titles. 

She revealed yesterday at a press conference of having failed the drug test at 2016 Australian Open. Fans and fellow players have screamed 'fault'. Every tennis follower feels bilked. 
That's our word this week - Bilk. It means to cheat or swindle or defraud. 


#Maria #Tennis #Vocabulary #Bilk

Serena's penchant for winning

Vacations over - and we are back. No better way to begin than celebrating the victory of one of the greats in contemporary sports: Serena Williams.
So Serena Williams won her sixth title at Wimbledon yesterday and this win led her to her 21st Slam Title. The newspapers stories spoke of Serena's penchant for winning titles. That's our word for the week - Penchant. 
With roots in Latin - penchant means to have a strong liking for something or a strong taste, even a strong inclination.


#penchant #Serena #Wimbledon #victory #Sports

Our First Double Clue Word

In the early days of its launch - the Smart-Vocab Challenger gained popularity among students primarily on the back of the words that had two diverse meanings. And it would throw up these words with regularity. Double clues that were provided, and they were completely unrelated - led us to the same word. 
Beginning today, we will pick one such word for every second Saturday of the month (ideal time to be cheesy!). So here goes our first Double Clue word:

Clue#1: liable to happen or may be just not; uncertain; 
Clue#2: any one of the representative groups of a larger community or a congregation or a much larger group

The word is Contingent

The norm these days is that when a Head of State comes visiting there is a business contingent that comes along.

#contingent #vocabulary #uncertain #representative

Taking cognizance

A newspaper carries a story and a judge takes notice of the issue. This leads to the judge issuing instructions to the court's registrar to register a case basis the newspaper report. The expression generally used is that 'the court took cognizance'. 
And that's our word this week: Cognizance. It means a realization or knowledge, to notice, to take note of or to heed to a plea, to regard. With judicial activism gaining momentum one is bound to hear of such acts of cognizant. 

Antagonism among politicians

Political parties of all hues have legacies of internal feuds. However, when a relatively new entity on the Indian political landscape reported of antagonism within members of its ranks - it shook every political observer. The feud between the founder members spilled out in the open with the suspension of two such members from the highest forum within the party. 

Antagonism is our word this week. It means an active hostility among conflicting groups. It even reflects an opposing force or tendency.

#antagonism #AAP 

Some Dispensation...this!

Words in English language having multiple meanings are common. And these words add to the charm of the language. An interesting word that's been in news lately is: Dispensation. There were stories in the media of the dispensation within a political party. Here, in this form, dispensation means a method or plan of administering. While in popular usage dispensation means the act of distributing or dispensing.
Dispensation is our word of the week.


#dispensation