English word of the day

Definition: (noun) A black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink. Synonyms: crock, smut, soot. Usage: Our pilgrims would have liked very well to get out their lampblack and stencil-plates and paint their names on that rock.

Definition: (adjective) Rigidly formal. Synonyms: buckram, stiff. Usage: Though I often poke fun at the butler's starchy manner, I secretly love the formality and sophistication he brings to my everyday life.

Definition: (noun) A pale light sometimes seen at night over marshy ground. Synonyms: friar's lantern, ignis fatuus, jack-o'-lantern. Usage: The white face of a dying man seemed suddenly to have floated up out of the darkness, to have come to him like a will-o'-the-wisp from the swamp.