Word of the Day
: September 24, 2016reconcile
playWhat It Means
1 a : to restore to friendship or harmony
b : to settle or resolve (differences)
2 : to make consistent or congruous
3 : to cause to submit to or accept something unpleasant
4 : to check (a financial account) against another for accuracy
reconcile in Context
"The trailer shows his earliest struggles to reconcile his religious convictions with his duty to his country, as he gently explains to his Army higher-ups that he can't, and won't, touch a gun." — RollingStone.com, 28 July 2016
"The Korean War veteran—who once made a trip to Pyongyang, North Korea, with a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea to reconcile with his old adversaries—is now penning fundraising emails for Democrats trying to win the U.S. Senate." — Javier Panzar, The Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2016
Did You Know?
Adapt, adjust, accommodate, conform, and reconcile all mean to bring one thing into agreement with another. Adapt implies a modification according to changing circumstances ("they adapted to the warmer climate"). Adjust suggests bringing something into a close and exact correspondence or harmony ("we adjusted the budget to allow for inflation"). Accommodate may suggest yielding or compromising to form an agreement ("he accommodated his political beliefs in order to win"). Conform suggests coming into accordance with a pattern, example, or principle ("she refused to conform to society's values"). Reconcile implies the demonstration of the underlying compatibility of things that seem to be incompatible ("I tried to reconcile what he said with what I knew").
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Test Your Memory
Fill in the blank in this sentence from our August 29th Word of the Day: "Cartography is one of those ________ fields at which only a select few can actually earn a living."
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tendentious
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burgeon
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Apr 22
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Apr 20
gingerly
