Words that rhyme with elenchus

n 1: a tablet placed horizontally on top of the capital of a column as an aid in supporting the architrave 2: a calculator that performs arithmetic functions by manually sliding counters on rods or in grooves

n 1: either of the two main branches of the trachea [syn: bronchus, bronchial tube]

n 1: the dead body of an animal especially one slaughtered and dressed for food [syn: carcase, carcass]

n 1: a closed political meeting v 1: meet to select a candidate or promote a policy

n 1: a travelling company of entertainers; including trained animals; "he ran away from home to join the circus" 2: a performance given by a traveling company of acrobats, clowns, and trained animals; "the children always love to go to the circus" 3: a frenetic disorganized (and often comic) disturbance suggestive of a large public entertainment; "it was so funny it was a circus"; "the whole occasion had a carnival atmosphere" [syn: circus, carnival] 4: (antiquity) an open-air stadium for chariot races and gladiatorial games 5: an arena consisting of an oval or circular area enclosed by tiers of seats and usually covered by a tent; "they used the elephants to help put up the circus" 6: a genus of haws comprising the harriers [syn: Circus, genus Circus]

n 1: any of numerous low-growing plants of the genus Crocus having slender grasslike leaves and white or yellow or purple flowers; native chiefly to the Mediterranean region but widely cultivated

n 1: a persistently annoying person [syn: pest, blighter, cuss, pesterer, gadfly] 2: a boy or man; "that chap is your host"; "there's a fellow at the door"; "he's a likable cuss"; "he's a good bloke" [syn: chap, fellow, feller, fella, lad, gent, blighter, cuss, bloke] 3: profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger; "expletives were deleted" [syn: curse, curse word, expletive, oath, swearing, swearword, cuss] v 1: utter obscenities or profanities; "The drunken men were cursing loudly in the street" [syn: curse, cuss, blaspheme, swear, imprecate]

n 1: an athletic competition in which a disk-shaped object is thrown as far as possible 2: a disk used in throwing competitions [syn: discus, saucer]

v 1: to consider or examine in speech or writing; "The author talks about the different aspects of this question"; "The class discussed Dante's `Inferno'" [syn: discourse, talk about, discuss] 2: speak with others about (something); talk (something) over in detail; have a discussion; "We discussed our household budget" [syn: hash out, discuss, talk over]

v 1: exhibit or undergo fluorescence

n 1: the concentration of attention or energy on something; "the focus of activity shifted to molecular biology"; "he had no direction in his life" [syn: focus, focusing, focussing, focal point, direction, centering] 2: maximum clarity or distinctness of an image rendered by an optical system; "in focus"; "out of focus" 3: maximum clarity or distinctness of an idea; "the controversy brought clearly into focus an important difference of opinion" 4: a central point or locus of an infection in an organism; "the focus of infection" [syn: focus, focal point, nidus] 5: special emphasis attached to something; "the stress was more on accuracy than on speed" [syn: stress, focus] 6: a point of convergence of light (or other radiation) or a point from which it diverges [syn: focus, focal point] 7: a fixed reference point on the concave side of a conic section v 1: direct one's attention on something; "Please focus on your studies and not on your hobbies" [syn: concentrate, focus, center, centre, pore, rivet] 2: cause to converge on or toward a central point; "Focus the light on this image" [ant: blur] 3: bring into focus or alignment; to converge or cause to converge; of ideas or emotions [syn: concenter, concentre, focalize, focalise, focus] 4: become focussed or come into focus; "The light focused" [syn: focus, focalize, focalise] [ant: blur, dim, slur] 5: put (an image) into focus; "Please focus the image; we cannot enjoy the movie" [syn: focus, focalize, focalise, sharpen] [ant: blear, blur]

adj 1: of something having a dusky brownish grey color [syn: fuscous, taupe]

n 1: the pus-producing bacterium that causes gonorrhea [syn: gonococcus, Neisseria gonorrhoeae]

n 1: a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence [syn: guess, conjecture, supposition, surmise, surmisal, speculation, hypothesis] 2: an estimate based on little or no information [syn: guess, guesswork, guessing, shot, dead reckoning] v 1: expect, believe, or suppose; "I imagine she earned a lot of money with her new novel"; "I thought to find her in a bad state"; "he didn't think to find her in the kitchen"; "I guess she is angry at me for standing her up" [syn: think, opine, suppose, imagine, reckon, guess] 2: put forward, of a guess, in spite of possible refutation; "I am guessing that the price of real estate will rise again"; "I cannot pretend to say that you are wrong" [syn: guess, venture, pretend, hazard] 3: judge tentatively or form an estimate of (quantities or time); "I estimate this chicken to weigh three pounds" [syn: estimate, gauge, approximate, guess, judge] 4: guess correctly; solve by guessing; "He guessed the right number of beans in the jar and won the prize" [syn: guess, infer]

n 1: any plant of the genus Hibiscus

n 1: an agency in the Department of Justice that enforces laws and regulations for the admission of foreign-born persons to the United States [syn: Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS]

n 1: a gift or money given (as for service or out of benevolence); usually given ostentatiously [syn: largess, largesse] 2: liberality in bestowing gifts; extremely liberal and generous of spirit [syn: munificence, largess, largesse, magnanimity, openhandedness]

adv 1: used to form the comparative of some adjectives and adverbs; "less interesting"; "less expensive"; "less quickly" [syn: less, to a lesser extent] [ant: more, to a greater extent] 2: comparative of little; "she walks less than she should"; "he works less these days" [ant: more] adj 1: (comparative of `little' usually used with mass nouns) a quantifier meaning not as great in amount or degree; "of less importance"; "less time to spend with the family"; "a shower uses less water"; "less than three years old" [ant: more than, more(a)] 2: (usually preceded by `no') lower in quality; "no less than perfect" 3: (nonstandard in some uses but often idiomatic with measure phrases) fewer; "less than three weeks"; "no less than 50 people attended"; "in 25 words or less"

n 1: the scene of any event or action (especially the place of a meeting) [syn: venue, locale, locus] 2: the specific site of a particular gene on its chromosome 3: the set of all points or lines that satisfy or are determined by specific conditions; "the locus of points equidistant from a given point is a circle"

n 1: (anatomy) a disk of cartilage that serves as a cushion between the ends of bones that meet at a joint [syn: meniscus, semilunar cartilage] 2: (optics) a lens that is concave on one side and convex on the other 3: (physics) the curved upper surface of a nonturbulent liquid in a vertical tube

n 1: a state of confusion and disorderliness; "the house was a mess"; "she smoothed the mussiness of the bed" [syn: mess, messiness, muss, mussiness] 2: informal terms for a difficult situation; "he got into a terrible fix"; "he made a muddle of his marriage" [syn: fix, hole, jam, mess, muddle, pickle, kettle of fish] 3: soft semiliquid food; "a mess of porridge" 4: a meal eaten in a mess hall by service personnel 5: a (large) military dining room where service personnel eat or relax [syn: mess, mess hall] 6: (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent; "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of money"; "he made a mint on the stock market"; "see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos"; "it must have cost plenty"; "a slew of journalists"; "a wad of money" [syn: batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad] v 1: eat in a mess hall 2: make a mess of or create disorder in; "He messed up his room" [syn: mess, mess up]

adj 1: of or secreting or covered with or resembling mucus; "mucous tissue"; "mucous glands of the intestine" [syn: mucous, mucose]

n 1: protective secretion of the mucus membranes; in the gut it lubricates the passage of food and protects the epithelial cells; in the nose and throat and lungs it can make it difficult for bacteria to penetrate the body through the epithelium [syn: mucus, mucous secretion]

adv 1: despite anything to the contrary (usually following a concession); "although I'm a little afraid, however I'd like to try it"; "while we disliked each other, nevertheless we agreed"; "he was a stern yet fair master"; "granted that it is dangerous, all the same I still want to go" [syn: however, nevertheless, withal, still, yet, all the same, even so, nonetheless, notwithstanding]

n 1: the state of being of noble birth [syn: nobility, noblesse] 2: members of the nobility (especially of the French nobility)

adv 1: despite anything to the contrary (usually following a concession); "although I'm a little afraid, however I'd like to try it"; "while we disliked each other, nevertheless we agreed"; "he was a stern yet fair master"; "granted that it is dangerous, all the same I still want to go" [syn: however, nevertheless, withal, still, yet, all the same, even so, nonetheless, notwithstanding]

v 1: haunt like a ghost; pursue; "Fear of illness haunts her" [syn: haunt, obsess, ghost] 2: be preoccupied with something; "She is obsessing over her weight"

v 1: come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority; "The government oppresses political activists" [syn: oppress, suppress, crush] 2: cause to suffer; "Jews were persecuted in the former Soviet Union" [syn: persecute, oppress]

adj 1: on the positive side or higher end of a scale; "a plus value"; "temperature of plus 5 degrees"; "a grade of C plus" [ant: minus] 2: involving advantage or good; "a plus (or positive) factor" [syn: plus, positive] n 1: a useful or valuable quality [syn: asset, plus] [ant: liability] 2: the arithmetic operation of summing; calculating the sum of two or more numbers; "the summation of four and three gives seven"; "four plus three equals seven" [syn: summation, addition, plus]

v 1: have as an attribute, knowledge, or skill; "he possesses great knowledge about the Middle East" 2: have ownership or possession of; "He owns three houses in Florida"; "How many cars does she have?" [syn: own, have, possess] 3: enter into and control, as of emotions or ideas; "What possessed you to buy this house?"; "A terrible rage possessed her"

n 1: the state of demanding notice or attention; "the insistence of their hunger"; "the press of business matters" [syn: imperativeness, insistence, insistency, press, pressure] 2: the print media responsible for gathering and publishing news in the form of newspapers or magazines [syn: press, public press] 3: a machine used for printing [syn: press, printing press] 4: a dense crowd of people [syn: crush, jam, press] 5: a tall piece of furniture that provides storage space for clothes; has a door and rails or hooks for hanging clothes [syn: wardrobe, closet, press] 6: clamp to prevent wooden rackets from warping when not in use 7: any machine that exerts pressure to form or shape or cut materials or extract liquids or compress solids [syn: press, mechanical press] 8: a weightlift in which the barbell is lifted to shoulder height and then smoothly lifted overhead [syn: press, military press] 9: the act of pressing; the exertion of pressure; "he gave the button a press"; "he used pressure to stop the bleeding"; "at the pressing of a button" [syn: press, pressure, pressing] v 1: exert pressure or force to or upon; "He pressed down on the boards"; "press your thumb on this spot" 2: force or impel in an indicated direction; "I urged him to finish his studies" [syn: urge, urge on, press, exhort] 3: to be oppressive or burdensome; "weigh heavily on the mind", "Something pressed on his mind" [syn: weigh, press] 4: place between two surfaces and apply weight or pressure; "pressed flowers" 5: squeeze or press together; "she compressed her lips"; "the spasm contracted the muscle" [syn: compress, constrict, squeeze, compact, contract, press] 6: crowd closely; "The crowds pressed along the street" 7: create by pressing; "Press little holes into the soft clay" 8: be urgent; "This is a pressing problem" 9: exert oneself continuously, vigorously, or obtrusively to gain an end or engage in a crusade for a certain cause or person; be an advocate for; "The liberal party pushed for reforms"; "She is crusading for women's rights"; "The Dean is pushing for his favorite candidate" [syn: crusade, fight, press, campaign, push, agitate] 10: press from a plastic; "press a record" [syn: press, press out] 11: make strenuous pushing movements during birth to expel the baby; "`Now push hard,' said the doctor to the woman" [syn: press, push] 12: press and smooth with a heated iron; "press your shirts"; "she stood there ironing" [syn: iron, iron out, press] 13: lift weights; "This guy can press 300 pounds" [syn: weight- lift, weightlift, press] 14: ask for or request earnestly; "The prophet bid all people to become good persons" [syn: bid, beseech, entreat, adjure, press, conjure]

v 1: practice as a profession, teach, or claim to be knowledgeable about; "She professes organic chemistry" 2: confess one's faith in, or allegiance to; "The terrorists professed allegiance to their country"; "he professes to be a Communist" 3: admit (to a wrongdoing); "She confessed that she had taken the money" [syn: concede, profess, confess] 4: state freely; "The teacher professed that he was not generous when it came to giving good grades" 5: receive into a religious order or congregation 6: take vows, as in religious order; "she professed herself as a nun" 7: state insincerely; "He professed innocence but later admitted his guilt"; "She pretended not to have known the suicide bomber"; "She pretends to be an expert on wine" [syn: profess, pretend]

n 1: gradual improvement or growth or development; "advancement of knowledge"; "great progress in the arts" [syn: advancement, progress] 2: the act of moving forward (as toward a goal) [syn: progress, progression, procession, advance, advancement, forward motion, onward motion] [ant: retreat] 3: a movement forward; "he listened for the progress of the troops" [syn: progress, progression, advance] v 1: develop in a positive way; "He progressed well in school"; "My plants are coming along"; "Plans are shaping up" [syn: progress, come on, come along, advance, get on, get along, shape up] [ant: regress, retrograde, retrogress] 2: move forward, also in the metaphorical sense; "Time marches on" [syn: advance, progress, pass on, move on, march on, go on] [ant: draw back, move back, pull away, pull back, recede, retire, retreat, withdraw] 3: form or accumulate steadily; "Resistance to the manager's plan built up quickly"; "Pressure is building up at the Indian-Pakistani border" [syn: build up, work up, build, progress]

adj 1: unpleasantly loud and harsh [syn: raucous, strident] 2: disturbing the public peace; loud and rough; "a raucous party"; "rowdy teenagers" [syn: raucous, rowdy]

v 1: revise or renew one's assessment [syn: reassess, reevaluate]

n 1: a state of abeyance or suspended business [syn: deferral, recess] 2: a small concavity [syn: recess, recession, niche, corner] 3: an arm off of a larger body of water (often between rocky headlands) [syn: inlet, recess] 4: an enclosure that is set back or indented [syn: recess, niche] 5: a pause from doing something (as work); "we took a 10-minute break"; "he took time out to recuperate" [syn: respite, recess, break, time out] v 1: put into a recess; "recess lights" 2: make a recess in; "recess the piece of wood" 3: close at the end of a session; "The court adjourned" [syn: adjourn, recess, break up]

v 1: focus once again; The physicist refocused the light beam" 2: focus anew; "The group needs to refocus its goals" 3: put again into focus or focus more sharply; "refocus the image until it is very sharp"

n 1: spherical Gram-positive parasitic bacteria that tend to form irregular colonies; some cause boils or septicemia or infections [syn: staphylococcus, staphylococci, staph]

n 1: spherical Gram-positive bacteria occurring in pairs or chains; cause e.g. scarlet fever and tonsillitis [syn: streptococcus, streptococci, strep]

n 1: (medicine) a bandage consisting of a pad and belt; worn to hold a hernia in place by pressure 2: a framework of beams (rafters, posts, struts) forming a rigid structure that supports a roof or bridge or other structure 3: (architecture) a triangular bracket of brick or stone (usually of slight extent) [syn: corbel, truss] v 1: tie the wings and legs of a bird before cooking it 2: secure with or as if with ropes; "tie down the prisoners"; "tie up the old newspapers and bring them to the recycling shed" [syn: tie down, tie up, bind, truss] 3: support structurally; "truss the roofs"; "trussed bridges"

n 1: a scar where the umbilical cord was attached; "you were not supposed to show your navel on television"; "they argued whether or not Adam had a navel"; "she had a tattoo just above her bellybutton" [syn: navel, umbilicus, bellybutton, belly button, omphalos, omphalus]

n 1: North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776 [syn: United States, United States of America, America, the States, US, U.S., USA, U.S.A.]

adj 1: abnormally swollen or knotty; "varicose veins"

adj 1: having a relatively high resistance to flow [syn: syrupy, viscous] 2: having the sticky properties of an adhesive [syn: gluey, glutinous, gummy, mucilaginous, pasty, sticky, viscid, viscous]

n 1: an affirmative; "I was hoping for a yes" [ant: no]

n 1: (anatomy) any of the narrow grooves in an organ or tissue especially those that mark the convolutions on the surface of the brain

n 1: a main organ that is situated inside the body [syn: internal organ, viscus]

n 1: (classical mythology) god of wine; equivalent of Dionysus

n 1: a radioactive transuranic element produced by bombarding plutonium with neutrons [syn: einsteinium, Es, E, atomic number 99]

n 1: English pianist (1890-1965) [syn: Hess, Dame Myra Hess] 2: Swiss physiologist noted for studies of the brain (1881-1973) [syn: Hess, Walter Hess, Walter Rudolf Hess] 3: Nazi leader who in 1941 flew a solo flight to Scotland in an apparent attempt to negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain but was imprisoned for life (1894-1987) [syn: Hess, Rudolf Hess, Walther Richard Rudolf Hess] 4: United States physicist (born in Austria) who was a discoverer of cosmic radiation (1883-1964) [syn: Hess, Victor Hess, Victor Franz Hess]

n 1: a strip of land projecting into a body of water [syn: cape, ness]

n 1: an association including most countries in the western hemisphere; created in 1948 to promote military and economic and social and cultural cooperation [syn: Organization of American States, OAS]

n 1: a tributary of the Rio Grande that flows southeastward from New Mexico through western Texas [syn: Pecos, Pecos River]

adj 1: having a frosted look from a powdery coating, as on plants; "glaucous stems"; "glaucous plums"; "glaucous grapes"

n 1: the capital and largest city of Venezuela [syn: Caracas, capital of Venezuela]

n 1: genus of Old World hominoids; Miocene and Pliocene [syn: Dryopithecus, genus Dryopithecus]

n 1: any spherical or nearly spherical bacteria [syn: coccus, cocci]

n 1: Gram-positive bacteria usually occurring in pairs

n 1: bacterium causing pneumonia in mice and humans [syn: pneumococcus, Diplococcus pneumoniae]

n 1: saclike structure in which ascospores are formed through sexual reproduction of ascomycetes

n 1: an ancient city (widely regarded as the world's oldest) and present capital and largest city of Syria; according to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul (then known as Saul) underwent a dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus [syn: Dimash, Damascus, capital of Syria]

n 1: god of the underworld; counterpart of Greek Pluto [syn: Dis, Orcus]

n 1: an optical device for focussing a camera or other instrument automatically

n 1: Polish astronomer who produced a workable model of the solar system with the sun in the center (1473-1543) [syn: Copernicus, Nicolaus Copernicus, Mikolaj Kopernik] 2: a conspicuous crater on the Moon

n 1: Greek astronomer and mathematician who discovered the precession of the equinoxes and made the first known star chart and is said to have invented trigonometry (second century BC)

n 1: an ancient Greek grammarian remembered for his commentary on the Iliad and Odyssey (circa 217-145 BC) 2: a bright crater on the Moon

n 1: any member of the genus Fucus

n 1: United States screenwriter and filmmaker (born in 1944) [syn: Lucas, George Lucas]

adj 1: shed at an early stage of development; "most amphibians have caducous gills"; "the caducous calyx of a poppy" [syn: caducous, shed] [ant: lasting, persistent]

n 1: a genus of Trochilidae [syn: Archilochus, genus Archilochus]

n 1: a huge quadrupedal herbivore with long neck and tail; of late Jurassic in western North America

n 1: the third book of the Old Testament; contains Levitical law and ritual precedents [syn: Leviticus, Book of Leviticus]