Vocabulary for Achievement, fourth course, Lesson 1 & 2

A word formed from the first letter of each word in a series.

"PAC is an _____ for political action committee."

• acronym

• affix

• coinage

• diminutive

A prefix or suffix

"The word reappearance has two _____, re- and -ance."

• oxymorons

• affixes

• palindromes

• colloquialisms

An invented word or phrase.

"Another recent _____ is the verb to google."

• portmanteau word

• spoonerism

• coinage

• metonymy

Typical of informal language usage; conventional.

" 'Hi' and 'what's up' are _____ expressions for 'hello' and 'how are you?' "

• oxymoronic

• acronymic

• metonymic

• colloquial

Extremely small; tiny

"The _____ dollhouse furniture enchanted the youngsters."

• diminutive

• oxymoronic

• metonymic

• colloquial

A figure of speech that substitutes a word with a different but closely associated word.

"When a guy refers to his car as his ride, he is using a _____."

• palindrome

• metonymy

• spoonerism

• affix

An expression that contains contradictory terms.

"A common _____ is jumbo shrimp."

• portmanteau word

• oxymoron

• palindrome

• spoonerism

A word or expression that is spelled the same backward and frontward.

"The words rotor and civic are _____."

• acronyms

• coinages

• palindromes

• diminutives

A word formed by combining the sounds and meanings of two different words.

"Chunnel is a _____ formed from channel and tunnel."

• spoonerism

• diminutive

• colloquialism

• portmanteau word

An often comical switching of the first sounds of two or more words.

" 'Lack of pies' is a _____ for 'pack of lies' "

• acronym

• spoonerism

• affix

• coinage