Triumphant indeed!

Indian cricket team achieved a remarkable victory over the

Kiwis at Kanpur and the newspaper headlines toasted this victory with some really smart headlines. The one that attracted our attention was: Ashwin star of India's triumphant march in Tests.  

Triumphant is our word of the week. It fits in our Double-play list of words. Not only does it mean victorious or successful or having achieved victory - triumphant also denotes rejoicing over success. 

Marquee players make a killing!

Transfer of players in soccer leagues are making front page news with Paul Pogba's transfer from Juventus to MU pegged at 89 million pounds. This is much ahead the much publicized transfer of Gareth Bale in 2013 as the marquee player for Real Madrid. Each sport club or franchise has a few marquee players on whom rests the popularity and fortunes of the club. Back home even Indian Soccer League allows import of a few marquee players for every franchise as it happens in cricket's IPL. 

Marquee is our word of the week. And it is our Double-Clue word as well for it has two distinct meanings. Marquee in the illustration here means a 'celebrated or pre-eminent' player. Marquee also means a large tent for entertainment or exhibition or even a large canopy at the entrance. 

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.