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Someone who has an abrasive manner is unkind and rude, wearing away at you in an irritating fashion.
Accretion is the slow, gradual process by which new things are added and something gets bigger.
An addendum is an additional section added to the end of a book, document, or speech that gives more information.
An adherent is a supporter or follower of a leader or a cause.
An adjunct is something that is added to or joined to something else that is larger or more important.
To agglomerate a group of things is to gather them together without any noticeable order.
An aggregate is the final or sum total after many different amounts or scores have been added together.
When two or more things, such as organizations, amalgamate, they combine to become one large thing.
Attrition is the process of gradually decreasing the strength of something—such as an army or workforce—by continually weakening it or decreasing it in size.
To augment something is to increase its value or effectiveness by adding something to it.
If liquid coagulates, it becomes thick and solid.
If two or more things coalesce, they come together to form a single larger unit.
When a liquid congeals, it becomes very thick and sticky, almost like a solid.
If you cull items or information, you gather them from a number of different places in a selective manner.
Dissolution is the breaking up or official end of a group, such as a couple or institution; it can also be the act of separating something into smaller components.
To efface something is to erase or remove it completely from recognition or memory.
When something erodes, it slowly wears away or is gradually destroyed.
When you excise something, you remove it by cutting it out.
To expurgate part of a book, play, or other text is to remove parts of it before publishing because they are considered objectionable, harmful, or offensive.
If you extirpate something, you completely destroy it because it is unpleasant or unwanted.
When you extricate yourself from a difficult or unpleasant situation, you manage to escape it.
To pare something down is to reduce or lessen it.
When something is severed, it is cut off, split, or separated from a whole.
Shards are sharp pieces of broken glass, pottery, metal, or other hard substances.
If you truncate something, you make it shorter or quicker by removing or cutting off part of it.
Noun
ablation
a-BLAY-shuhn
Context
My surgeon told me that I would need to undergo an ablation to remove a tumor which he had found on my lung. I could opt for a non-invasive ablation, which would eliminate the tumor without having to cut into my body. I could also choose the surgical cutting out or physical ablation, in which the surgeon would open my chest cavity to have the tumor extracted.
Quiz:Try again!
When might a person require an ablation?
When they have stomach pains and need a test to determine what’s causing them.
When they have a broken tooth that needs to be repaired through surgery.
When they have tissue that is diseased and needs to be removed from their body.
Put ABladeOn It When you have a tumor the doctor needs to perform an ablation by putting abladeon it.
Examples
Dr. Oleynikov has already used his robots to carry out a number of operations on pigs, including gall-bladder removals, liver biopsies, and the ablation of tumors.
—
The Economist
The technology’s advocates say that unlike drugs, which at best help patients manage the symptoms of atrial fibrillation and reduce the risks, ablation saves money in the long run by curing the condition.
—
The New York Times
A typical laser ablation tool is very similar to a conventional optical lithography projection tool; the primary difference is the wavelength and the intensity of the light used in the ablation process.
—
IBM Journal of Research and Development
Ablation, in the case of surgery, is the “act or state” of something being “carried away” or “borne from” a patient’s body.
Word Theater
Glacier in Crisis This glacier is undergoing ablation faster than scientists had realized.
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!