6. Elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression
Your answer: grace
grace means "a short prayer of thanks before a meal"

The correct answer was gentility

BUT:
grace
Noun: Simple elegance or refinement of movement

gentility
Noun: Genteel manners, behavior, or appearances.

When one of the definitions of the 'wrong' answer is closer than the supposed 'right' answer...You pick 'em.

I came across this word in a subtitle of Brigitte Bardot's "Plucking the Daisy" and thought this might be an a propos venue to share it with those who already knew it or with those, like me, who were unaware of its notion before.

From Wiktionary:
Noun
pettifogger (plural pettifoggers)

1.Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections.  [quotations ▼]
1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, ch. 39: Hence the cunning measure of appointing as ambassador some political pettifogger skilled in delays, sophisms, and misapprehensions, and dexterous in the art of baffling argument.

That should settle the issue in a graceful, genteel manner!

I believe both definitions are correct.



"No" should be "not".

This typo regarding the definition of immovability has popped up several times before.

Wow! It's pretty hard getting up in the monthly winners if you have a job!

Don't you lot work

I know what you mean. I'm lucky if I can get three letters a day.

Hello, I just played starting with a rating of 1877.58. I came in # 7 on the leaderboard, and my rating went DOWN to 1877.46. Why would that happen? I am totally confused, and probably don't know something important.
Thanks!
tat

This makes NO sense:

7 the semantic relation of being a manner of does something
hod carrier
rote learning
primus
cozey
curve
troponymy


I've posted oddities before and received no response. Is anyone listening?

And this:

"what a communication that is about something is about"

Getting tired of obscure definitions and unintelligible wordings.... :0(

I made note of that one 4 months ago, and have seen it at least a couple of times since. That and the 'palyful' hoax.

I think the phone has gone dead.

We are noting inconsistencies here for future reference, in case this database can ever be edited. I know JMelston has expressed a desire to do so, but for now, since the dictionary that pulls the words and definitions is not produced by FT, we are simply documenting the inconsistencies we find and maybe someday the will be fixed. I don't think the phone has gone dead at all, it's just that FT doesn't own the material and cannot edit it.

Any Who am I? issues are dealt with immediately, since that is a question-answer set that was prepared in-house and is edited by JMelston.

What about Mind Melt? And thanks for the info :0)

I think that Terry has something that he can do to ensure that certain offensive items don't show up in mind melt, and he can tweak when entries appear together or not, at least that is my understanding. I could be wrong though. The actual entries themselves do come from a different external source.

Anyone who knows more, please feel free to chime in!

Another head-scratcher:

2 banch

effort expended in rubbing one object against another
an easy victory
a community of people smaller than a town
a viral disease (usually fatal) of rabbits
tightly woven fabric with raised cords
(law) the seat for judges in a courtroom


I'm guessing 'bench' was meant here, as in answer #6. Can't find 'banch' in dictionary.

It's a matter of finding the right dictionary. (Some of the entries are downright wrong, but that is the fault of the dictionary used, which is not here on site.) That definition for banch can be seen at this link.

http://lookwayup.com/lwu.exe/lwu/d?s=f&w=banch

We seem to have a surfeit of 'L's.

Skyscraper -

"a very tall building with many stories"

While skyscrapers may have many stories to tell, I believe that the correct word here should be "storeys".

Highfells,

I remember this one coming up before, and was told that 'story' is an acceptable alternative spelling for 'storey' in American. (I know, it looks strange to me, too. )

I'm American, and I always use "storey" for this meaning.

Sue, it sounds like you may be an exception.

From Wiki-


A slight digression just to confuse people even more- A multi-storey building in Australia will start at the Ground floor, whereas an American building will have street level at the First floor.

Thanks for clearing that up - yet another example of two nations divided by the same language!

The Erase Extraneous Es Society Extraodinair (EEESE-easy) is doing what it can to exfoliate the vowels left over from the language's teething stage.

Another duplicitous question:

5 surety
decorate the surface of by inserting wood, stone, and metal
one who provides a warrant or guarantee to another
a senior clergyman and dignitary
large and often sumptuous tent
a speaker with an unusually laoud voice
a written promise to repay a debt

Correct answer was 'one who provides a warrant or guarantee to another'

I answered 'a written promise to repay a debt'

According to freedictionary.com,

surety [ˈʃʊətɪ ˈʃʊərɪtɪ]
n pl -ties
1. (Law) a person who assumes legal responsibility for the fulfillment of another's debt or obligation and himself becomes liable if the other defaults.'

I actually think that 'banch' was a misspelling on that website, as I could not find any other source to back it up.