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wanderlust • / WAHN-der-lust / • noun

Wanderlust refers to a strong desire to travel.

• During their final semester at college, the two friends were both filled with an insatiable wanderlust and began planning a journey to Patagonia together.

opine • / oh-PYNE / • verb

To opine is to express an opinion about something.

• Many people opine that social media platforms should be better regulated.

gourmand • / GOOR-mahnd / • noun

A gourmand is a person who loves and appreciates good food and drink. Gourmand can also refer to someone who enjoys eating and drinking to excess.

• He was a gourmand who retired to New Orleans to live close to the cuisine he loved best.

inimitable • / in-IM-it-uh-bul / • adjective

Inimitable describes someone or something that is impossible to copy or imitate.

• Courtnay delivered the speech in her own inimitable style.

virtuoso • / ver-choo-OH-soh / • noun

Virtuoso is used broadly to refer to a person who does something very skillfully, and is often used specifically to refer to a very skillful musician.

• He’s a real virtuoso in the kitchen, whipping up gourmet dishes for his family not just on holidays but on regular weeknights.
• Although the violin was her first instrument, she eventually proved to be a virtuoso on the harp.

minuscule • / MIN-uh-skyool / • adjective

Something described as minuscule is very small. Minuscule can also mean "written in, or in the size or style of, lowercase letters," in which case it can be contrasted with majuscular.

• The number of bugs in the latest version of the video game is minuscule compared to the number that surfaced in the beta version.
• The ancient manuscripts on display are all in minuscule script.

apprehension • / ap-rih-HEN-shun / • noun

Apprehension most often refers to the fear that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen; it’s a feeling of being worried about the future. The word can also refer to seizure by legal process.

• There is growing apprehension that next quarter’s profits will be lower than expected.

parlay • / PAHR-lay / • verb

To parlay something is to use or develop it in order to get something else of greater value. Parlay is often used with the word into.

• He hoped to parlay his basketball skills into a college scholarship.
• She parlayed $5,000 and years of hard work into a multimillion-dollar company.

hackneyed • / HAK-need / • adjective

Something is considered hackneyed when it is not interesting, funny, etc., because of being used too often; in other words, it's neither fresh nor original.

• The new crime drama's characters are shallow stereotypes who engage one another in hackneyed dialogue.

deus ex machina • / DAY-us-eks-MAH-kih-nuh / • noun

A deus ex machina is a character or thing that suddenly enters the story in a novel, play, movie, etc., and solves a problem that had previously seemed impossible to solve.

• The introduction of a new love interest in the final act was the perfect deus ex machina for the main character's happy ending.