Make Your Point > Archived Issues > EMBRACIVE

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explore the archives: Embracive people and things are broad in the sense that they include everything or accept everything. A related term for extremely broad things is p__o___ic, meaning "providing a very broad view of things, literally or figuratively." Could you recall it? make your point with... "EMBRACIVE" To embrace something is to hug it, to include it or encircle it, or to accept it as your own. So, something embracive includes everything or readily accepts everything. Today, the word has evolved to also mean "tolerant, welcoming, and broad-minded." Pronunciation: em BRAY siv Part of speech: Adjective. (Adjectives are describing words, like "large" or "late." They can be used in two ways: 1. Right before a noun, as in "an embracive thing" or "an embracive person." 2. After a linking verb, as in "It was embracive" or "He was embracive.") Other forms: embracively How to use it: Talk about embracive people with embracive minds: those that easily accept pretty much anything. Embracive things might include titles, labels, terms, catalogs, collections, institutions, policies, philosophies, etc.  To be more specific, someone or something can be embracive of some particular idea: "the company president is embracive of diversity." However, if your sentence allows it, why not just say "one thing embraces another"? Compare: "He's more embracive of the philosophy than he was before" vs. "He embraces the philosophy more than he did before." But, you know, do it however you want. :) Anyway, as the example above shows, it's useful to know this adjective form of "embrace" because it helps you qualify the idea of embracing something rather than just expressing it as something you either do or don't do. In other words, you can say that people or things are less embracive of something, more embracive of it, slightly embracive, fully embracive, privately embracive, openly embracive, and so on. examples: He's known for being tolerant of others' religious activities, if not embracive of them. On multiple-choice test questions that ask for a reading passage's main idea, there's always some wildly embracive option that steps beyond the actual content of the passage by about a mile. (Kids, don't pick that one no matter how good it sounds!) study it now: Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "embracive" means when you can explain it without saying "very accepting" or "including practically everything." try it out: Think of something that a friend or family member is really into that you're only kind of into, and fill in the blanks: "Compared to (someone else), I'm less embracive of _____." Example: "Compared to Chad, I'm less embracive of board games that have a learning curve...or lots and lots of pieces." before you review: Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. Well-Named Creatures: Some names for animals and other creatures define themselves instantly or after a brief moment’s thought: anteater, grasshopper, hummingbird, seahorse, octopus (eight-foot). But other names deserve some exploration; they hold hidden clues about what the animals look like or what they do. And sometimes the names reveal how baffled people were when they first caught a glimpse of the creatures and tried to name them. This month, I’ll give you the literal meaning of a creature's name, and you come up with what it is. Answers will appear in alphabetical order this month. (Oh, and the answers might be animals, birds, insects, or even extinct creatures.) Enjoy! From yesterday: A "nose-horned" creature is a r______. Answer: It's a rhinoceros, whose name comes from Greek. So this month's game has revealed something weird: that calling a rhinoceros a rhino is basically calling it a nose, and calling a hippopotamus a hippo is basically calling it a horse (since its name means "river horse"). Try this one today: A "legendary fiery beast" is a s______. review today's word: 1. The opposite of EMBRACIVE is A. COMPREHENSIVE B. PAROCHIAL C. REJECTED 2.  _____ has been celebrated as incredibly embracive. A. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights B. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address C. A new type of orthodontic treatment Answers are below. a final word: To be a sponsor and send your own message to readers of this list, please contact Liesl at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: Word meanings presented here are expressed in plain language and are limited to common, useful applications only. Readers interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words are encouraged to check a dictionary. Likewise, word meanings, usage, and pronunciations are limited to American English; these elements may vary across world Englishes. Answers to review questions: 1. B 2. A