oh-TUR
(noun) Arrogant pride or disdainful superiority.
She answered with the hauteur of someone used to always being right.
Fun Fact
Borrowed from French, hauteur literally means “height,” and it still carries a high-and-mighty vibe. Think of characters in period dramas with tilted chins and cutting remarks. It’s a word often used in fashion and film reviews to describe people who seem polished—but too aware of it.
DOHL-ful
(adjective) Expressing sorrow or sadness; mournful.
The dog gave her a doleful look when she left for work without him.
Middle English: from “dole” meaning “grief or sorrow” (from Old French “doel,” from Latin “dolere” meaning “to grieve”) + “-ful.”
Fun Fact
Doleful perfectly captures that particular expression dogs make when they want something—those sad, pleading eyes that suggest profound suffering despite being perfectly fine. The word connects to “condolences” through shared Latin roots in grief and sorrow. Medieval writers loved doleful to describe tragic heroes, mournful songs, and sorrowful landscapes. While sadness has countless synonyms, doleful carries a theatrical quality that makes sorrow almost performative—it’s grief you can see and hear, whether in a hound’s whimper or a poet’s lament.
Today's Word Multitudinous mul-tih-TOO-dih-nus Definition (adjective) Very numerous; existing in...
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