KWER-uh-luhs
(adjective) Complaining in a petulant or whining manner.
His querulous tone made it clear he wasn’t happy with the service.
Fun Fact
“Querulous” comes from the Latin queri, meaning “to complain.” It describes not just dissatisfaction, but persistent, nitpicky, or whiny complaining. It’s a favorite word in literature to portray cranky characters—from Dickensian debtors to sitcom neighbors.
prag-MAT-ik
(adjective) focused on practical results and real-world consequences rather than ideals, theories, or abstract principles.
Instead of arguing over perfect solutions, she took a pragmatic approach and fixed what could be done immediately.
Pragmatic traces back to the Greek word pragmatikos, meaning “relating to deeds or actions,” from pragma (“thing done” or “action”). It entered English in the late 16th century, originally referring to people skilled in managing practical affairs, before evolving into its modern meaning of valuing usefulness and outcomes over theory.
Fun Fact
In philosophy, pragmatism became a major movement in the late 1800s, arguing that ideas should be judged by how well they work in real life—not by whether they sound good in theory. That mindset still shapes modern problem-solving, from business decisions to software design, where a “good enough” solution that works today often beats a perfect one that never ships.
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