Make Your Point > Archived Issues > BELIE
Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.
pronounce
BELIE:
Say it "buh LIE."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Today's word belie has a prefix, be-, that I find a bit ridiculous because it has SO many meanings.
It can mean
about,
all about,
all around,
at,
away,
conspicuously,
filled with melty Swiss cheese,
from side to side,
furnished with,
in all ways,
in all directions,
near,
off,
over,
thoroughly,
throughout,
to affect,
to and fro,
to call,
to cause,
to cover,
to dub,
to excess,
to make,
to seem,
to surround, or
ridiculously.
Just kidding about the Swiss cheese. But for real, that prefix can also serve to intensify or contradict, or render something a verb, or render it figurative.
So it's no surprise that English ended up with a staggering amount of be-words, some of them deeply funny obsolete ones, like beclown, beduchess, bediaper, bethwack, and becobwebbed.
Perhaps more useful today are the be-words below:
1. Something bed_z_ned is decorated (or dressed up) in an over-the-top, flashy way. (Did you say bedazzled? So close.)
2. Something besp___ is custom-made: tailored specifically to the person who buys it.
3. To be__ile people can mean to trick them, but more often, it means to charm them or entertain them, in a way that seems tricky or magical. (Hint: pluck off the be-, and you have a one-syllable word rhyming with "smile" that means "trickery." Here's Poe: "Then this ebony bird be__iling my sad fancy into smiling.")
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
Our word "belie" comes from Old English.
In English, it first meant "to trick with lies," and then "to tell lies about someone or something." Its meaning has changed a lot over time.
Sometimes, today, we use it to mean "to prove or show that something is false," as in "Their belief in the drug's danger was belied by all the evidence of its safety."
Much more often today, "belie" means "to mislead about something, or to misrepresent something."
In other words, when one thing belies a second thing, the first thing shows a false or opposite quality of the second thing, as in "His calm voice belied his racing heartbeat."
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Verb, usually the transitive kind: "His polite conversation with the neighbor belied his seething hatred toward him;" "As Bobbi stretched out casually, propped up on one elbow, flipping through a magazine, chewing a strip of Bubble Tape, her relaxed appearance belied her frazzled nerves."
Other forms:
belied, belying
how to use it:
This word is pretty common. It's formal, with an academic or even old-fashioned tone.
Often we say that one thing belies another thing. Generally it's some obvious, easy-to-see thing that belies some hidden, way-down-deep thing.
The thing doing the belying could be a facial expression, a tone of voice, a physical movement, or any other easily observable thing.
And the thing getting belied could be a feeling, an intention, an attitude, an ability, a rarely-seen aspect of someone's personality, or any other easily concealable thing.
examples:
"His thin hands belied a firm grip, as if steel hid beneath the moisturized skin."
— Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 2003
"The horse's thundering hooves belied its grace, for it seemed to glide more than run."
— Grace Lin, When the Sea Turned to Silver, 2016
has this page helped you understand "belie"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "belie" without saying "successfully hide" or "fail to convey."
try it out:
Fill in the blanks: "(In a particular situation), (someone's observable behavior) belied (the emotion they were actually feeling)."
Example: "As she dissected the frog, following the teacher's instructions, her blank expression and steady hands belied the disgust she felt and the shameful sense that she was violating the creature's soul."
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game for April is "Netflix and Anagram."
Check out the anagrammed title of a series or movie you can watch on Netflix, along with a descriptive sentence or two about it from Google. See if you can come up with the real title. To see the answer, scroll all the way down.
Here's an example. IF CRUEL: "After abandoning his throne and retiring to Los Angeles, he indulges in his favorite things (women, wine and song) -- until a murder takes place outside of his upscale nightclub." The answer is LUCIFER.
Try this one today:
OVER LLAMA: "In a world where an app alerts people if someone in the vicinity likes them, Kim Jojo experiences young love while coping with personal adversities."
review this word:
1.
A near opposite of BELIE is
A. EMIT (squirt out).
B. EVINCE (reveal or demonstrate).
C. EXCULPATE (free from blame or guilt).
2.
The delicious aroma of coffee belies its _____ taste.
A. rich
B. smooth
C. bitter
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Say it "buh LIE."
Today's word belie has a prefix, be-, that I find a bit ridiculous because it has SO many meanings.
Our word "belie" comes from Old English.
Part of speech:
This word is pretty common. It's formal, with an academic or even old-fashioned tone.
"His thin hands belied a firm grip, as if steel hid beneath the moisturized skin."
Explain the meaning of "belie" without saying "successfully hide" or "fail to convey."
Fill in the blanks: "(In a particular situation), (someone's observable behavior) belied (the emotion they were actually feeling)."
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
1.
A near opposite of BELIE is
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
|