1. Inclusive Monotheism vs Exclusive Monotheism
• Inclusive Monotheism means belief in one God that encompasses all gods.
• Exclusive Monotheism means belief in only one True God, while holding all others as false.
2. Xenophobic
• Having or showing a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.
Usage: Two months into the season, the “Hockey Night in Canada” broadcaster Don Cherry was fired over xenophobic comments, which attacked the patriotism of the country’s immigrants.
3. Epistemology
• Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief.
Usage: In the second half of the 19th century, however, epistemology was one of the sciences of the soul, and the soul was the most politicized object around.
4. Presupposes
• To presuppose is to take something as a given; presupposing is like assuming. Tacitly assume at the beginning of a line of argument or course of action that something is the case.
Usage: Their original prediction presupposed a universe only three billion years old.
5. Wade in
• To start to do or say something in a forceful way.
Usage: Even when he knows nothing about it, he wades in with his opinion.
6. Demarcate
• Separate or distinguish from. Set, mark, or draw the boundaries of something. A political demarcation line is a territorial delimitation, often agreed upon as part of an armistice or ceasefire.
Usage: The park itself, which slopes downward toward Harlem, is clearly demarcated by an imposing rocky wall.
7. Eat out of someone’s hand
• Be manipulated or dominated by another. Be submissive.
Usage: You’ll never get them to eat out of your hand with your lousy attitude!
8. Monolith
• A large single upright block of stone, especially one shaped into or serving as a pillar or monument. Usage: We passed Stonehenge, the strange stone monoliths silhouetted against the horizon.
• A large, impersonal political, corporate, or social structure regarded as indivisible and slow to change. Usage: Independent voices have been crowded out by the media monoliths.
9. Ecumenical
• Representing a number of different Christian Churches. Concerned with promoting unity among churches or religions.
Usage: He was devoted to the OSS and to the Dutch, British and American churchmen who were building the ecumenical World Council of Churches.
• Of worldwide scope or applicability.
Usage: The Auschwitz observances are inclusive and ecumenical, paying homage to all of the camp’s victims.
10. Samaritan
• A charitable or helpful person.
Usage: Suddenly, miraculously, a good Samaritan handed the cashier money on my behalf.
11. Oligarchy
• Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may be distinguished by nobility, wealth, education or corporate, religious, political, or military control.
• An oligarchy is a government run by a small ruling group.
• A plutocracy is an oligarchy in which that group are the wealthy.
• Aristocracy is a form of oligarchy where administration or power is in the hands of a special class of people.
Usage: In the 1770s, foreign-aligned oligarchs controlled what we now call America; believers in democracy fought a war to overthrow that British oligarchy.
