This section serves to expand your regular vocabulary. What separates the men from the boys (or the women from the girls, if you want to equalize things) is v o c a b u l a r y. We cannot stress this point enough. People who have a larger vocabulary have been shown to make more money and get promoted more often.

E

eviscerate

(pronounced ih-VIH-she-rayt)

This imposing word is a negative, often violent one. At its most gruesome, it means to disembowel or remove an internal organ from someone, but its more common usage is to take away another’s strength, power, force or energy.

Example: After the firm’s principal designer absolutely eviscerated all but two project team leaders in front of everyone during the weekly employee meeting, Janelle and her fellow employees sat in an awkward stunned silence.

exacerbate

(pronounced ihg-ZA-ser-bayt)

This very aggressive sounding transitive verb means to make something more severe, harsh or cruel. How appropriate.

Example: The recent bankruptcy filing of Jill’s primary client will not only exacerbate her firm’s current cash flow problems but also might result in the layoff of four employees.

excoriate

(pronounced ehk-SKOR-ee-ayt)

This word’s hard, harsh sound conjures up nails on a chalkboard, which is appropriate since it means either to wear the skin off of or to reprimand and criticize very disdainfully.

Example: Jackie came to dread her company’s weekly staff meetings because the firm’s partners – one an interior designer and the other an architect – had no qualms about endlessly excoriating each other in front of everyone.

expunge

(pronounced ihk-SPUNJ)

This strong, harsh word reminds us of both the words “sponge” and “plunger,” which, in a round about, rather disgusting way that we do not need to get into, helps us to remember that it means to get rid of, destroy, obliterate, or wipe from one’s mind.

Example: Due to all of the budget cuts, “value engineering” and firm turnover, the build-out of the client’s three floors was anything but successful, and Deborah wished there was a way in which she could expunge her name from all contract documents and construction administration records.