Make Your Point > Archived Issues > INDURATE

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connect today's word to others: When you've endured a lot, when you've been under duress, when your heart has become tough or, say, durable all during the duration of your troubles--now you're indurate. All those "dur"-words come from the Latin durus, meaning "hard." Let's recall some synonyms of indurate: 1. There's ad___nt, which describes people who are firm and inflexible, like rocks. 2. There's cal____ed, which describes things that have hardened into rigidity, as if from a liquid state to a solid state. 3. And there's h__d-b_tt__, which describes tough, persistent people who remind you of dogs biting down hard on something. 4. Finally, indurate's closest synonym--because it also comes from the Latin durus--is __durate, meaning "stubborn and unchangeable." (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "INDURATE" Someone or something indurate is hard and tough (in a physical or emotional way). Pronunciation: IN duh rut Part of speech: Adjective. (Adjectives are describing words, like "large" or "late." They can be used in two ways: 1. Right before a noun, as in "an indurate thing" or "an indurate person." 2. After a linking verb, as in "It was indurate" or "He was indurate.") Other forms: "Indurate" is also a verb: pronounce it "IN duh rate." Its other forms are "indurated," "indurating," and "induration." How to use it: This is a rare, formal, serous, somewhat literary word, because when people use it, they're sometimes alluding to this phrase from a Latin version of the Bible: induratum est cor Pharaonis, meaning "Pharaoh's heart was hardened." But we can still use "indurate" in everyday writing and conversations.  A quick note before we look at how to do that. Just like you can call something either "hard" or "hardened," you can call something either "indurate" (IN duh rut) or "indurated" (IN duh ray did). It just depends on whether you want to emphasize something's current state (with "indurate") or emphasize a process, a progression, or a result (with "indurated"). Talk about indurate (or indurated) objects, sometimes in a literal way: indurated soil or clay, indurated rocks or lava, indurated glands or tissues, someone's indurate hands, the indurated pads on a dog's feet. And we can be figurative and talk about indurate habits, indurate cynicism, an indurated heart, an indurated conscience, an indurated person. Even a color, like this: "an indurated, fish-belly grey" (A. J. Dawson). You can say that person (or a person's body or body parts) is indurated to or against something: an employee indurated to tedium, feet indurated to constant jogging, a heart indurated against ridicule. Finally, you can talk about indurating things, meaning things that harden us. Here's an example: "the indurating business of daily chores" (William McFee). Or talk about indurating agents, or the indurating effects of something. examples: Having dealt with their son's disability all his life, they had long since grown indurate to rude stares and nosy questions. Thanks to her years in the indurating business of tech support, Anita developed endless patience and the ability to take nothing personally. study it now: Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "indurate" means when you can explain it without saying "tough" or "callous." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "It's (easy or hard) to explain (someone's) induration to (fear, cold, pain, stress, loneliness, other people's suffering, etc.)." Example: "It's hard to explain her induration to her grown daughter's distress." before you review: Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. Subject Line Redux! You know how I fill the subject line of each Make Your Point email with a little comment about the word? Let's revisit some of those subject lines; they make a good study tool. That is, you'll improve your chances of recalling our words when you need them later if you do this now: look at the little comment from the subject line and use that to recall the word, its meaning, and how it connects to the little comment. (For more on active recall and how you can employ it to strengthen your vocabulary, please go here.) In each issue this month, I'll share a puzzle or other activity that prompts you to recall 5 previous words based on their subject lines. (To make your own activities like these, check out the fun and useful Vocabulary Worksheet Factory.) And I'll share the answers in the following issue. From our previous issue:  Answers: Try this today: review today's word: 1. The opposite of INDURATED is A. SHORTENED. B. SWEETENED. C. SOFTENED. 2. Even her close friends call her an indurated _____. A. goof B. stoic C. pushover Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's 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. Answers to review questions: 1. C 2. B