Make Your Point > Archived Issues > INHERENT

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

connect today's word to others: Here's how Miley Cyrus presents herself as inherently wild:    I'm wired a different way.    I'm not a mistake.    I'm not a fake.    It's set in my DNA.    Don't change me...    I can't be tamed. I like her wording. Let's borrow some of it to define inherent: whatever runs deep in our nature, in our wiring, in our DNA, unchangeable, untameable, visible or invisible, making us who we are, is inherent. This word's Latin roots mean "sticking to" or "clinging to," which is why it looks like adhesive (which also literally means "sticking to") and coherent (literally "sticking together"). Inherent has a close synonym that we've checked out before; see if you can recall it: Something i__a_e__ is naturally and completely a part of something else. Need a hint? It literally means "dwelling within," so it looks a little bit like manor, mansion, and permanent. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "INHERENT" Here's a verb we don't see every day: "inhere." It means to belong to something, to be a natural part of something, to exist within something. So, something inherent is a basic, natural, permanent, characteristic part of something else. Pronunciation: in HAIR unt (or, if you prefer, "in HERE unt") 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 inherent quality." 2. After a linking verb, as in "It was inherent.") Other forms worth knowing: inherently; inherence/inherency How to use it: This word is very common and a bit formal. It can be positive, negative, or neutral; that is, we talk about inherent dangers and problems just as often as we talk about inherent joys and advantages. Other things to talk about include a person's inherent talents, a place's inherent beauty, an idea's inherent appeal, a publication's inherent bias, and so on. Often we talk about some aspect, quality, feature, or attitude inherent in a person, thing, field, issue, or period of time:    the love of beauty inherent in a poet,    the calm efficiency inherent in a waiter or waitress,    the economic risks inherent in enormous companies,    the tension and drama inherent in a stage play,    the problems of apathy and underfunding inherent in local government,    the emphasis on dismantling oppressive power structures inherent in feminism,    the rebelliousness inherent in adolescence. You can also say that things are inherent to people and things. But that phrase seems less common, especially here in the United States. examples: After he heard the bad news, hours elapsed in the same kind of blurry, unreal jumps inherent in dreams; one moment he was holding the phone, the next the sun was down and the room was dark, the next he realized he was in the shower, his socks still on. "Rugby, lacrosse, baseball: concussions are seemingly epidemic everywhere. The problem with having access to better information about the risks we all take is that most leisure pursuits start to seem inherently irresponsible."    — Ben McGrath, The New Yorker, 31 January 2011 study it now: Look away from the screen to define "inherent" without saying "innate" or "deep-seated." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "(Someone's) inherent (specific quality) led (him/her) to (do, create, or pursue something)." Example: "My inherent love of words (and obsession with organizing and cataloging) led me to create Make Your Point." 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. Our game this month is "A Doodad Named After a Thingamajig." If I give you two categories, X and Y, can you think of an X that was named after a Y? We'll start off easy--these first few questions will have lots of correct answers each that you might think up--and we'll work our way toward harder questions that, as far as I know, have only one correct answer each. From the previous issue: Can you think of a mathematical concept named after a place? Possible answers include Indian numerals, Irish logarithms, and Polish notation. Try this one today: Can you think of a scientific unit named after a person? review today's word: 1. One opposite of INHERENT is A. ADVENTITIOUS. B. EMBRYONIC. C. INDELIBLE. 2. The college insists that its ____ is not inherent and can be _____. A. culture of underage drinking ... rooted out B. admission policy .. proven fair with documentation C. foreign language requirement .. fulfilled in a single semester 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. A 2. A