Hi, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this advanced vocabulary lesson
on five adjectives to sound smart. So, in this lesson, I'm going to be looking at some
uncommon adjectives that you can use in your speech and the adjectives I have chosen are
understood by most native English speakers regardless, but they are a little bit more
advanced and a little bit more formal. So let's look at some sentences, some vocabulary,
and see if we can understand what these words mean.
The first one is: "maudlin". So, you can listen and repeat. One more time: "maudlin". All
right, so let's look at the sentence: "Looking at old photos makes me maudlin."
So, if you're looking at an old photo album of your childhood or your friends from elementary
school or high school, how do you generally feel? I guess it depends on what kind of experience
you had when you were a child, but in this context, I wanted it to mean like overly emotional
and sentimental. Okay? So the meaning of "maudlin" we're going to put: overly - and that is supposed
to be a "v" - overly emotional and - I'm going to put a plus for "and" - sentimental. Okay.
So you can say, for example: "Drinking makes me maudlin." So if you drink too much and
you start thinking about your past and your history, and you get very emotional, almost
like teary thinking about it - you feel very maudlin. Okay?
The next adjective is: "lackadaisical". It's a very fun word to say, so say it with me:
"lackadaisical". Okay, so sentence: "Her work has been very lackadaisical lately."
Even when you think about the word and the sound of it like: "lackadaisical", it kind
of sounds like lazy in a way and that actually is what it means. So lazy and careless. Lazy
and careless; without care. Okay? So if I ask you: "Hey, how was your weekend? Was it
productive?" And you can say: "No, I was really lackadaisical." Or: "I felt very lackadaisical."
A person's work can be lackadaisical meaning that, again, lazy, careless, not a lot of
All right, the next adjective is: "interminable". Okay? So say it with me: "interminable". Okay,
so: "His complaining is interminable!"
Now, when we look at this adjective, you might see in the middle: "terminable", "termina",
"termina", okay, what does this word sound like? It almost sounds like "terminate". Right?
Now, with the prefix: "in", this makes it negative, so not terminate, okay, not ending.
So, if something is interminable, it's almost like it's endless or at least it feels like
it's endless, like it's not going to end. So his complaining, the way he complains is
interminable; he always complains, it doesn't end. So, basically, never ending or it feels
like it's never ending. Now, at the time of this video, we are in the middle of winter
in Canada and it's still going on, it's March and, you know, some of us are starting to
feel that this winter is interminable; it's not going to end. This is 2014, by the way,
All right, finally... Not finally, fourth. "Egregious". So very, very useful adjective.
"Sorry, but your logic is egregious." So if someone gives you an explanation for
something and the explanation, the logic is: "That doesn't make sense", like if it doesn't
make any sense, it is egregious which means incredibly bad or terrible. Okay? So let's
say: "Very bad". Normally, we talk about logic being egregious or a statement, something
a person says as being egregious which just means it's just wrong. Okay? Now, we don't
really use it to talk about people, like you can't really say: "He is egregious. He is
really bad." Normally, it's things or actions that are egregious, things you say or your
And finally, we have the word: "visceral". So when we look at the sentence:
"Skydiving" - which means jumping from a plane - "is an incredibly visceral experience."
So imagine jumping out of a plane, how do you feel emotionally, physically? Well, you
probably do feel very emotional and your senses are, you know, engaged. So if something is
visceral, it's emotional and instinctual which means that your senses are very much engaged
during this activity, whatever it is. So you might often hear this in promotions or commercials
for movies, so you might hear an action movie being called: "A visceral experience", or:
"A visceral ride", which means it's a very like instinctual; it appeals to your instincts,
attracts your instincts and your emotions. Not logical, not reasonable, but it appeals
to your emotions and your senses more than anything.
Okay, guys, so one more time. "Maudlin" means sad, depressing, sentimental. Okay? "Lackadaisical",
lazy and careless. "Interminable", never ending. "Egregious", incredibly bad, a person's logic
or something they say. And: "visceral", emotional, instinctual, appeals to your senses.
So one more time guys, let's just do some pronunciation before I go. "Maudlin". "Lackadaisical".
"Interminable". "Egregious". "Visceral". Nice job.
So if you'd like to test your understanding of these five adjectives, as always, you can
check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.