This Week in Words: April 14 - 20, 2018

No time to scour the headlines or watch the news? No problem! We’ve rounded up the top words heard, read, debated, and discussed this week.

This was a week of historic firsts. It was revealed that Mike Pompeo, the nominee to be the next Secretary of State, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The meeting has promising ramifications for the proposed historic summit between the United States and North Korea, which is expected to convene this summer. The virtuosos at M.I.T. have developed an adroit apparatus which correlates neuromuscular movement with sound. For the first time, human thoughts can be heard by others without actually being spoken aloud.

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. deterrent
    tending to prevent
    "Even if this is a chemical weapons deterrent, that leaves a whole arsenal of conventional means with which people can be killed in Syria with few real repercussions,” - The New York Times (Apr. 15, 2018)
    A coalition of American, British and French forces bombed chemical weapons production sites in Syria this week. This military action was in response to the dropping of chemical weapons on Syria's own people as part of the civil war which continues in that country. President Trump quickly declared "Mission Accomplished" after the bombing, but it remains to be seen if these actions will truly be a deterrent against more atrocities.
  2. contemporaneous
    occurring in the same period of time
    Mr. Comey has said he provided to reporters, through his lawyer, contemporaneous memos he wrote about his meetings with Mr. Trump, but they amounted to his personal recollections and didn’t contain classified information. - The Wall Street Journal (Apr. 13, 2018)
    Former F.B.I. director James Comey gave several interviews this week to promote his new book. President Trump, who fired Comey, labeled him "a slime ball" on Twitter, while Comey in his book compares Trump to "a mob boss." This war of words will likely continue because Mr. Comey has several more stops on his book tour, and the president has vowed to respond to every attack.
  3. epilogue
    a short section at the end of a literary work
    The pardon marks a stunning epilogue to a story of Bush administration intrigue, as Libby was a central figure in attempts to discredit reports that the government manipulated intelligence in order to justify the invasion of Iraq. - USA Today (Apr. 13, 2018)
    President Trump granted a presidential pardon to Scooter Libby this week. Libby was an aide to Vice President Cheney. He was serving a prison sentence after being convicted of lying to F.B.I. investigators about the identity of an undercover agent during the run-up to the Iraq War. Critics have noted that this pardon may be a signal to those in President Trump's current administration that he is willing to pardon those who lie for him during investigations into his Administration's conduct.
  4. storied
    having an illustrious past
    Desiree (Desi) Linden, a two-time Olympian, battled the rain and wind to win the 122nd running of the storied race. - CNN.com (Apr.16, 2018)
    Desiree Linden became the first American woman since 1985 to win the Boston Marathon. The men's division was won by Yuki Kawauchi, who is the first Japanese man to win the race since 1987. The windy and rainy conditions of the race knocked many of the usual competitors out of contention, leaving room for the two-time Olympian to make her move. Linden's previous best finish in the Boston Marathon was second place in 2011, and she placed fourth last year.
  5. virtuoso
    having or revealing supreme mastery or skill
    Whenever he darts off into a virtuoso verse, he isn’t trying to dizzy our ears as much as vocalize his own hyper-awareness to the state of the nation in real time. - The Washington Post (Apr. 16, 2018)
    Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his album DAMN this week. This is the first rap album to win a Pulitzer in this category. The award usually goes to modern jazz recordings or works by contemporary composers working in an instrumental, classical mode. Lamar's win is all the more surprising because although critically acclaimed, DAMN did not win Album of the Year at this year's Grammy awards.
  6. correlate
    bring into a mutual, complementary, or reciprocal relation
    The signals are fed to a machine-learning system that has been trained to correlate particular signals with particular words. - goodnewsnetwork.org ( Apr. 15, 2018)
    Researchers at M.I.T. have discovered a way for people to silently communicate their thoughts to one another. When humans "speak silently", neuromuscular signals are still triggered as if they were speaking out loud. The M.I.T. team has built a machine which reads those signals and translates them into computer-synthesized speech, which another person wearing a headset can hear. This technology has many applications for times when one must be silent or when it is too noisy in a room to "hear."
  7. indigent
    poor enough to need help from others
    To create these conditions, she spent time building partnerships between state and non-state actors to create rights awareness, and provide free legal services for indigent women. - goodnewsnetwork.org (Apr. 15, 2018)
    A human-rights lawyer from India is attacking gender violence at the source — targeting the attitudes which view such violence socially acceptable. Gulika Reddy is the founder of Schools of Equality, a non-profit organization which seeks to instill perspectives in people which will prevent future violence.
  8. adroit
    quick or skillful or adept in action or thought
    Abe’s reputation as an adroit manager of his personal relationship with Trump has been a political asset for him at home,” said Daniel R. Russel, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs. “But it’s been badly dented by this series of bombshells.” - The New York Times ( Apr. 13, 2018)
    President Trump will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Abe this week to discuss trade issues and North Korea. President Trump has gone back and forth on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) , campaigning against it, indicating that he was open to it last week, and this week saying that it was bad policy for the United States. Prime Minister Abe has also traditionally taken a hard line against North Korea, so Mr. Trump may have to convince him that Kim Jong-Un is serious about denuclearization.
  9. ramification
    a consequence, especially one that causes complications
    The deal has broad ramifications for the media and technology industries as well as for the government’s power to deter large-scale corporate consolidation. - The Wall Street Journal (Apr. 17, 2018)
    The proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner will make its way to a courtroom this week. Both CEOs are expected to testify about the purpose of the proposed $85 million dollar merger. Some experts worry that the merger would decrease competition to an unacceptable degree, while others point out that the two companies seeking to become one are not really rivals, with Time Warner making content (through its ownership of HBO) and AT&T distributing content (through cable and DirectTV).
  10. convene
    meet formally
    Mr. Trump said Tuesday he expects a summit to be convened “probably in early June” or before. He would become the first serving U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader. - The Wall Street Journal (Apr. 18, 2018)
    It was revealed this week that Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director who is President Trump's choice to become the next Secretary of State, met with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un over Easter weekend to begin to hammer out the details of a summit between the two nations. The meeting would involve talking about the denuclearization of North Korea and peace with South Korea.
Created on Mon Apr 16 10:53:22 EDT 2018 (updated Thu Apr 19 15:42:51 EDT 2018)

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