Words October 2026 Week 2

An apparatus is a group of equipment, tools, or parts that work together to perform a specific job or function. (A gym has many apparatus for exercising. The plural of “apparatus” is both “apparatus” or “apparatuses.” Also, apparatus is both countable and uncountable. This is a confusing word.)

My husband and the pigeon were facing each other eye to eye. (The pigeon is thinking about making a nest on their shutter box.)

We had a panoramic view of the Grand Canyon. (They have a magnificent wide view of the canyon and surrounding areas.)

We stayed overnight at a casino, but we didn’t gamble. (The canyon was a five-hour bus ride from Las Vegas.)

The Petrified Forest in Arizona was made over 225 million years ago. (The trees were turned into stone over the millions of years.)

Washington State has over 3,000 glaciers and snow fields. (Mt. Rainier has about 28 named glaciers.)

Huis ten Bosch is “House in the Woods" in English and is a royal palace in the Netherlands. (North Holland and South Holland are two provinces in the Netherlands.)

These past two weeks passed in the wink of an eye. (Time flies!)

The word “cop” comes from the verb cop which means "to seize, capture or arrest". (It is also slang for stealing something.)

It does not stand for "Constable on Patrol". (This is a myth which I believed to be true, but now I know better.)

“Anxious” means to be worried or nervous; for example: She felt anxious before her job interview.

“Anxious” also means wanting very much for something to happen; for example: The children were anxious to go to the amusement park. (I prefer using the words “worried” or “excited” instead of anxious.)

It is legal to scatter cremated ashes in Japan, but there are rules you must follow. (You should check with your local government for details.)

Physician-assisted suicide is legal in the US, but the patient must self-administer it. (Euthanasia, when a doctor administers medicine to end a person’s life, is illegal in the US.)

He made a reservation at the hotel.

I booked a flight to Seattle via San Francisco. (The word “reserve” is more popular in the US and “to book” more popular in England, but both words are ok anywhere. For a hotel you would say, “I booked a room at the hotel.”)

I think that the hot spring hotel had false advertising. (In the advertisements, it looked gorgeous, but in reality, it was just ok.)

I can hear very well with my hearing aid. (For some types of hearing loss, hearing aids are good, but for other types, they don’t help.)

Pokemon has made about 205.8 billion (nioku gohyaku hachijuuman) dollars. (With today’s yen/dollar exchange rate, that is about 32,570,113,800,000 Japanese yen.)

Acupuncture comes from the Latin words “acus” meaning “needle” and “puncutra” meaning to make a small hole. (Oops! I was mistaken, I thought the “acu” in “acupuncture” came from the word “accurate.” Sorry for the misinformation.)

I have some numbness in my right arm. (I have a tingling feeling a.k.a. a “pins and needles” feeling.)

Okuizome is a traditional Japanese ritual held around 100 days after a baby's birth to wish that the child will never go hungry throughout their life. (In China and Korea, the 100-day ceremony marks a newborn safely surviving the most fragile early stage of life and wishing them a long, healthy future.)

The baby does not actually eat the solid food. (Instead, the most senior family member of the same sex (known as the yashinai-oya) pretends feeding the infant.)

I was relieved to hear the news. (She thought that the person’s illness was serious, but after she heard the news, she understood that it is not so bad.)

Some vegetables were grown in a greenhouse. (A “binīru hausu” is a plastic greenhouse. It is a hoop-style steel or wooden frame entirely covered in thick, weather-resistant plastic or vinyl sheeting.)