104
You can use "Earworm" which means:
a song or melody that keeps repeating in one's mind
72
The verb itself is almost never used in every day English, but there are two adjectives formed from it which are common:
"scathing" means extremely harsh, biting, critical; e.g. "he launched into a scathing attack on his opponent's policies"; "the review was scathing in its criticism"
"unscathed" means "unharmed&...
52
Concur and agree are synonyms, but "I couldn't agree more" is a set phrase. While they technically mean the same thing, replacing agree with concur in that phrase sounds a little peculiar.
Concur is highly formal, commonly found in legislative or judicial settings. Agree is a more frequent and common word. "I couldn't agree more" is somewhat colloquial, so ...
50
You could say the song is "stuck in your head". I haven't found a dictionary listing the phrase, but here's a Time article on the subject, with the title "Why Do Songs Get Stuck In Your Head?"
For example usage, to express "after listening to a popular song you can't stop repeating it in your head" I would say:
I heard [popular song] on the radio, and ...
36
Agree and concur are synonyms, but the English usage of them corresponds to their etymology.
"Concur" derives from Latin concurrere, which literally means "to run (currere) together with (con) something or someone", and was also used for people gathering together in a crowd.
"Agree" derives from Latin "ad gratus" meaning "to be pleasing to (someone)".
"...
35
A photo, short for photograph, is always taken with a camera.
A picture is the most general term for any representation of a person, an object or a landscape. It can be a painting or a pencil drawing, etc.
The delimitation of image and picture has its difficulties. "image" has an overlapping area with "picture" and it has uses of its own where "image" is ...
35
What about good old "so"?
German-made parts are way too expensive, so we ordered Chinese ones.
This is by far the most natural way of saying this.
31
Make no mistake about it, by far the most idiomatic way to say that is with the word rusty:
(of knowledge or a skill) impaired by lack of recent practice
Something that's rusty has been affected by rust. This is just like a piece of metal that has been lying around your backyard unused for a long time. And what happens to metal when it's under constant ...
29
In many cases they are synonyms, however a present is usually something that the giver has deliberately selected for the recipient. You can also call this a gift, but the word gift can be used for less selective things as well.
If I buy a box of chocolates and give it to my mother on her birthday, then that could equally well be called a present or a gift....
27
Personally, I wouldn't do either; I light a candle.
Kindle is a slow process, like when you're starting a fire in a fireplace. Kindling is little bits of wood or other material that you feed to the fire to get it going. Personally, it sounds weird to me if you're not talking about something like a wood fire.
Ignite is quick. If lightning hits something ...
24
Direct answer: no, "spell" never means "pronounce". Spell only refers to the letters used to form the written word.
The quote you cite would do better to use the word "transliterated" instead of "spelled". OED:
transliterate: To replace (letters or characters of one language) by those of another used to represent the same sounds; to write (a word, etc.)...
24
I agree with the teacher. "Obey" is stronger, and may imply legal sanctions backing up the requirement. "Observe" is less official.
So, while "obey" means "observe", they aren't exact synonyms, and the latter is more likely to be used in the context you are discussing.
20
You are looking for a job.
I don't think you would be satisfied with just a "job opportunity". If you were offered a "job opportunity", you would want to follow through until you either got the job, or did not get the job.
Similarly, a child who wants to pet a cat does not want a "Schrödinger's cat", because Shrödinger's cat has a 50% chance of being dead ...
19
I guess you want to use a subordinate conjunction (or a phrase with similar functionality) which simply means "because". In this context, I can mention several ones as below:
Thus
Therefore
Hence
consequently
In this regard
With this regard
Under this consideration
...
However, I think you can reword that sentence to a more concise sentence:
Since German-...
18
They are separate words.
Something reoccurs if it happens more than once.
Something recurs if it happens more than once and at a regular interval. A good example would be your electricity bill – most people pay monthly or every quarter, and so they have a monthly-recurring or quarterly-recurring bill.
Compare these dictionary definitions (from ...
18
"Obey" is not only stronger, it carries a greater connotation of being subordinate. If there is a rule that was agreed upon by a group of equals, it would be more natural to talk about observing the rule. If a king has issued a decree, then you would obey it. Note that this distinction is not hard and fast; neither word would be wrong in either ...
17
In the past when there were no computers, in office or in any secured place, people sign in by signing their signature and time in while entering into the place. When they leave, they sign out by putting the time out and sign. Website followed these words (sign-in and sign-out) in the similar way when computers came.
The notebook that people sign in and ...
17
Perhaps, the word "relieve" meaning 'to take the place of someone and continue doing their job or duties' would suit better:
I'm on duty until 2 p.m. and then Peter is coming to relieve me.
A part-time bookkeeper will relieve you of the burden of chasing
unpaid invoices and paying bills. (=A part-time bookkeeper will take this unpleasant task from ...
16
Consider excellent
very good of its kind, eminently good
or outstanding.
extremely good or excellent
note that these words start with vowels, so the 'a' turns into 'an'
16
The phrase lighten one's load is not uncommon.
The Synonym Finder lists Lighten one's load, lighten the load, or ease the load as synonyms for disburden, unload, assist, aid, unburden, and help.
14
Note that, very strictly speaking, a program doesn't have an implementation. A program is an implementation: the implementation of a design, which follows from a specification.
"To realize" is similar to "to implement", but is a little bit broader. To realize means to achieve a plan, whereas to implement is to put into effect a very specific plan.
So for ...
14
There is quite a difference, both in the denotation and the connotation, at least in US usage. (Being an American speaker, I can't say for certain what differences might exist overseas.)
"Wage" refers to payment in exchange for work for a particular period of time. In most American work arrangements, a person who's paid a wage is going to be paid hourly. ...
14
The legal term here is...
testator - a person who dies leaving a will or testament in force
...but you'd rarely hear that in normal conversational contexts. Ordinary people don't have a word for "person who died leaving a will" - presumably because there's little need for it outside of legal contexts.
BUT - if we move slightly away from the ...
13
I agree with you: that usage looks questionable to me. I think that a more precise wording would be … transliterated as "Vikipedia". Then it becomes clear that you are spelling it in an alphabet not ordinarily used for Farsi.
Alternatively, just say pronounced as. The focus would be slightly different: on the sound rather than the textual representation of ...
13
Hrm, just a few observations on some of the answers here, from an American English speaker:
Many English versions of the word you're looking for were historically used to refer to things that are large in size, and can sometimes cause confusion on whether it's exceptionally good, or exceptionally large. In context the difference is often clear, but when ...
13
You want to look into subjunctive mood.
The verb "desire" falls into the subjunctive category, so the following verb takes the subjunctive form:
I desire that he visit me more often.
Notice the additional "that", which is required.
"Hope" does not fall into the subjunctive category, so it does not need the subjunctive mood:
I hope he visits ...
12
And for the rest of the answer, a photograph is specifically an image or picture formed by the capture of the light from the subject on a light-sensitive medium, originally glass plates, then film, now usually an electronic sensor. A picture can include drawings, paintings, or computer-generated images.
answered Sep 27 '13 at 16:24
chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-
3,5001 gold badge14 silver badges25 bronze badges
12
This is a comment about attitudes at the end of the 19th Century. Various versions were documented in the 1880's, but the general form is:
Animals sweat, gentlemen perspire and ladies just glow.
Did ladies sweat? Of course they did, but it would have been very impolite to draw attention to this.
Did men sweat? Of course they did, and it was OK to talk ...
12
The etymology of "gift" relates to something given to another person. This would be something freely given, regardless of the relationship between the two people, and not necessarily for any reason. Indeed, there may be no other specific person involved ("she has a gift to play the piano," "it was a gift from the company," etc.) In most cases of modern ...
12
The German Wikipedia on "Ohrwurm" lists earworm as a loanword from German. To be more precise, it is a calque (thanks @PLL), a word for word translation of the two parts Ohr and Wurm (ear and worm).
It also has other suggestions: sticky music, head music and the English Wikipedia on loanwords calls it catchy tune.
Based on the comments by two native ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
