Descriptionary

mediate vb. (MEE dee ayt) to act as an intermediate and help two parties come to an agreement or settle­ment. The children should not be employed to medi­ate between feuding husbands and wives.

melodramatic adj. (mel oh druh MAT ik) overly dramatic; theatrical. My teenager is often melodra­matic; last night she announced in horrified tones that she would die if she couldn't go to the concert.

menial adj. (MEE nee ul) servile; that of a servant. She held a menial position cleaning the houses of the wealthy.

mentor n. (MEN tor) a teacher, instructor, or guru. A personal mentor can help expedite your apprentice­ship as a writer considerably.

mercenary adj. (MERS uh nair ee) motivated purely by money, as a hired soldier. He didn't care who won or lost the war; his motivation as a sharpshooter was solely mercenary.

metamorphosis n. (met uh MORF uh sis) a dra­matic transformation. The caterpillar undergoes an incredible metamorphosis to become a butterfly.

metaphor n. (MET uh for) a figure of speech not to be taken literally, but to illustrate a point. "The star basketball player is on fire" is a metaphor for a bas­ketball player who is shooting extremely well.

metaphysical adj. (met uh FIZ ih kul) supernatural; not of the physical world. Astrologers take a meta­physical view of the universe, while astronomers take a physical one.

microcosm n. (MI kroh KOZ um) a miniature world or reality. The suburban sprawl in my neigh­borhood is just a microcosm of what is happening around the world.

milieu n. (mil YOO) setting; environment. The street corner was not the opera singer's normal per­formance milieu.

militant adj. (MIL uh tunt) aggressive and antago­nistic. The militant environmentalists were arrested for inciting a brawl with lumberjacks.

minutiae n. (mi NOO shee ee) trivial or insignif­icant detail. Biographies describe a celebrity's life, right down to the finest minutiae.

misanthrope n. (MIS un throhp) one who hates people. The misanthrope shuns community and pre­fers to live secluded from others.

mitigate vb. (MIT uh gayt) to lessen or soften the effect of something. We tried to mitigate flood dam­age by sandbagging the periphery of our property.

mollify vb. (MOLL uh fye) to soothe or appease. Giving raises will temporarily mollify complaining employees.

momentous adj. (moh MEN tus) important; con­sequential; pivotal. The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in World War II was momentous.