Obscure words
These are hard, random words pulled from the dictionary, meant for advanced spellers/vocabulary learners. For spellers, these words are meant for study for national levels.
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Explore the Words
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lack of strength or vigor (especially from illness)
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lack of moral standards in a society
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a drug or other agent that stimulates sexual desire
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a communist who was a member of the administrative system of a communist party
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(ancient Rome) a religious official who interpreted omens to guide public policy
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any of a series of travel guidebooks published by the German firm founded by Karl Baedeker
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a Japanese cheer of enthusiasm or triumph
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found along western Atlantic coast
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loving devotion to a deity leading to salvation and nirvana
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tall fast-moving dog breed
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a visitor of a city boulevard (especially in Paris)
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a long tunic of chain mail formerly worn as defensive armor
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West Indian tree having racemes of fragrant white flowers and yielding a durable timber and resinous juice
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pertaining to or having finely developed buttocks
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a lively ballroom dance that resembles the samba
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a cloth used as a head covering by Muslim and Hindu women
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East Indian tree with oily seeds yield chaulmoogra oil used to treat leprosy
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a person who is not very intelligent or interested in culture
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make a shrill creaking, squeaking, or noise, as of a door, mouse, or bird
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an official of the Communist Party who was assigned to teach party principles to a military unit
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an awkward clash
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an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
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a cavalryman equipped with a cuirass
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having a usually flat-topped flower cluster in which the main and branch stems each end in a flower that opens before those below it or to its side
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small carnivorous reptiles
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abnormally large fingers or toes
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relatively nontoxic South African herb smoked like tobacco
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melt or become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air
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abnormal position of a part or organ
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eellike fishes found in subarctic coastal waters
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generous in assistance to the poor
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from 58 million to 40 million years ago
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one of two branches of the Finno-Ugric languages
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drooping without elasticity
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area consisting of a small depression in the retina containing cones and where vision is most acute
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god of earth's fertility and peace and prosperity
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lasting a very short time
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a friction match with a large head that will stay alight in the wind
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the seed-producing cone of a cypress tree
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a coterie of undesirable people
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a horse-drawn carriage in India
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a gastrointestinal hormone produced by epithelial cells lining the fundus of the stomach; appears to be a stimulant for appetite and feeding, but is also a strong stimulant of growth hormone secretion from the anterior pituitary
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a Spanish male Gypsy
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an opaque watercolor prepared with gum
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any shrub or tree of the genus Grevillea
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a storyteller in West Africa
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antihypertensive drug (trade name Wytensin) that reduces blood pressure by its effect on the central nervous system
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of or relating to the sense of taste
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a seamount of volcanic origin
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shift from one side of the ship to the other
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a political system governed by a woman
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any of several crested Old World birds with a slender downward-curved bill
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the basic unit of money in Ukraine
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tropical American thorny shrub or small tree
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an enzyme (trade name Hyazyme) that splits hyaluronic acid and so lowers its viscosity and increases the permeability of connective tissue and the absorption of fluids
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a wet and dry bulb hygrometer
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sleep inducing
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the endeavor of a Moslem scholar to derive a rule of divine law from the Koran and Hadith without relying on the views of other scholars; by the end of the 10th century theologians decided that debate on such matters would be closed and Muslim theology and law were frozen
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produce a literary work
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a highly conspicuous bract or bract pair or ring of bracts at the base of an inflorescence
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a medicinal drug used to evoke vomiting
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a Basque or Spanish game played in a court with a ball and a wickerwork racket
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Cuban timber tree with hard wood very resistant to moisture
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a unit of electrical energy
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the craniometric point at the union of the frontal and temporal processes of the zygomatic bone
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valuable fiber plant of East Indies now widespread in cultivation
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antibiotic used to treat severe infections
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organic process consisting of the division of the nucleus of a cell during mitosis or meiosis
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a dish of rice and hard-boiled eggs and cooked flaked fish
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raised pinkish scar tissue at the site of an injury
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an oppressively hot southerly wind from the Sahara that blows across Egypt in the spring
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the leaves of the shrub Catha edulis which are chewed like tobacco or used to make tea; has the effect of a euphoric stimulant
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a genus of nonmotile rod-shaped Gram-negative enterobacteria
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an electron tube used to generate or amplify electromagnetic radiation in the microwave region by velocity modulation
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widely distributed low-growing Eurasian herb having narrow leaves and inconspicuous green flowers
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plant cultivated for its enlarged fleshy turnip-shaped edible stem
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long-established Hungarian breed of tall light-footed but sturdy white dog; used also as a hunting dog
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an abnormal backward curve to the vertebral column
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space sought for occupation by a nation
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an illusory feat
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the basic unit of money in Honduras; equal to 100 centavos
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an extensive grassy and nearly treeless plain
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a true bug: usually bright-colored
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a neurotropic non-arbovirus of the family Rhabdoviridae that causes rabies
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distilled from fermented juice of bitter wild marasca cherries
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a cell of the microglia that may become phagocytic and collect waste products of nerve tissue
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capable of movement
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casserole of eggplant and ground lamb with onion and tomatoes bound with white sauce and beaten eggs
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southern African weasel
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tough Asiatic grass whose culms are used for ropes and baskets
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feeding on ants
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a follower who carries out orders without question
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a member of any of various Indian peoples of central Mexico
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a nymph of lakes and springs and rivers and fountains
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state of disgrace resulting from public abuse
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South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers
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a molding that (in section) has the shape of an S with the convex part above and the concave part below
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a minor inadvertent mistake usually observed in speech or writing or in small accidents or memory lapses etc.
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an expert in parliamentary rules and procedures
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bivalve
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any plant of the genus Phacelia
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the human face
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martial music with variations; to be played by bagpipes
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a spiked helmet worn by German soldiers
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antihypertensive drug (trade name Minipress)
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synthetic antimalarial drug
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an extinct seed-producing fernlike plant of the order Cycadofilicales (or group Pteridospermae)
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displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity
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time period following childbirth when the mother's uterus shrinks and the other functional and anatomic changes of pregnancy are resolved
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powerful
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septicemia caused by pus-forming bacteria being released from an abscess
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a degenerative state of the cell nucleus
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crested grey-and-red bird of southwest United States and Mexico
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fruit of such plants as the plantain
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100 qepiq equal 1 manat in Azerbaijan
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the direction of the Kaaba toward which Muslims turn for their daily prayers
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the 19th letter of the Hebrew alphabet
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a group of four men
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mammal of South Africa that resembled a zebra
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any of several plants of the genus Camassia
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Australian tree with edible flesh and edible nutlike seed
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occurring every fourth day
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not sensible about practical matters
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an issue that is presented for formal disputation
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someone who lapses into undesirable patterns of behavior
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plastic surgery to remove wrinkles and other signs of aging from your face; an incision is made near the hair line and skin is pulled back and excess tissue is excised
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a chief of a North American tribe or confederation
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a metal urn with a spigot at the base
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a fine soft silk fabric often used for linings
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pot roast marinated several days in seasoned vinegar before cooking; usually served with potato dumplings
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a really little shtik
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a neutral middle vowel that occurs in unstressed syllables
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the underside of a part of a building, such as an arch
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undergo necrosis
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a fur or leather pouch worn at the front of the kilt as part of the traditional dress of Scottish Highlanders
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checking bleeding by contracting tissues or blood vessels
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being susceptible to persuasion
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yielding readily to or capable of
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a state exercising dominion over a dependent state
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a slender graceful young woman
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using part of something to refer to the whole thing
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measuring instrument for indicating speed of rotation
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a winged sandal (as worn by Hermes in Graeco-Roman art)
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(Yiddish) an attractive, unconventional woman
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sluggish hard-bodied black terrestrial weevil whose larvae feed on e.g. decaying plant material or grain
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inflammation of a tendon and its enveloping sheath
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the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one
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any of various edible North American web-footed turtles living in fresh or brackish water
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the middle of the chief navigable channel of a waterway that forms the boundary line between states
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a semiconductor device made of materials whose resistance varies as a function of temperature; can be used to compensate for temperature variation in other components of a circuit
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any of various small to minute sucking insects with narrow feathery wings if any; they feed on plant sap and many are destructive
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occlusion of a blood vessel by an embolus that has broken away from a thrombus
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phlebitis in conjunction with the formation of a blood clot
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a dense flower cluster (as of the lilac or horse chestnut) in which the main axis is racemose and the branches are cymose
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a fat-soluble vitamin that is essential for normal reproduction; an important antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals in the body
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a doughnut-shaped chamber used in fusion research
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a segment of DNA that can become integrated at many different sites along a chromosome (especially a segment of bacterial DNA that can be translocated as a whole)
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a large hemispherical brass or copper percussion instrument with a drumhead that can be tuned by adjusting the tension on it
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bloodsucking African fly; transmits sleeping sickness etc.
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a variety of dinocerate
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accumulation in the blood of nitrogenous waste products (urea) that are usually excreted in the urine
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large (20-ft) and swift carnivorous dinosaur having an upright slashing claw 15 inches long on each hind foot; early Cretaceous
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meat from a calf
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the 25th letter of the Roman alphabet
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abnormal dryness of the conjunctiva and cornea of the eyes
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abnormal dryness of the conjunctiva and cornea of the eyes
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the condition of not containing or being covered by a liquid
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water lily of eastern North America having pale yellow blossoms and edible globular nutlike seeds
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a long Turkish knife with a curved blade having a single edge
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a unit of information equal to 1000 zettabytes or 10^24 bytes
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slice of sweet raised bread baked again until it is brown and hard and crisp
Created on June 8, 2013
(updated April 30, 2014)
(updated April 30, 2014)