Acidulent tripped me up on FreeRice.com tonight and prevented me from donating 450 grains straight without missing a term. If you've never tried FreeRice, give it a whirl. It's a vocabulary building quiz AND hunger-assuaging program all in one site. The site donates 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program for every vocabulary word you get right on its quiz.
FreeRice is based on the principle of synonyms. Space on the site is limited as is people's time. Who wants to read long, detailed dictionary definitions while playing a quick game between attempts to finish the document you need to turn in already, because, after all, it's good to stimulate your brain's thinking capacity and get the juices flowing when writer's block has derailed your ability to finish that draft you're already past deadline turning in, right? On FreeRice, you select from four possible synonyms (or an occasional phrase like "strip blubber from") for the word you're given.
Synonyms are useful, but sometimes seem lacking. For example, I recognized that the correct choice for capricious out of the four options given was whimsical. But I think of capricious as meaning "fickle" or "volatile" more so than "whimsical." Still, someone will get some rice for that right answer on the quiz.
But acidulent got me. My choices were "inharmonious," "frisky," "sour" and "temporary." "Sour," I should've concluded, made the most sense given that citric acid is a puckering substance. But I second-guessed myself and bet my grains on "frisky." Doh! Darn my capricious gut instinct! Instead of free rice for a hungry person, I got sour grapes for my wrong answer. Oh well, the next word pops up straightaway, so you can make up for your mistakes and fill that rice bowl.
Dictionary Definition
Pronounced: [uh-sij-uh-luhnt]
Also, acidulous
Root: Latin acidus meaning "sour"
1. slightly sour
2. sharp; caustic: the movie critic's acidulent tone
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