Make Your Point: STULTIFY

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > STULTIFY

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

pronounce STULTIFY:

STULL tuff eye

connect this word to others:

To stultify is to bore, to dull, to stifle, to smother, to deaden intellectually or morally, to heb__ate (make dull or stupid); to decer___ate (take away people's ability to think or reason).

Can you think of those last two synonyms? If so, I'm impressed. They're quite rare.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Stultify" traces back to the Latin stultus, meaning "stupid, foolish, uneducated."

We've used "stultify" in English since the 1700s, first as a legal term: to stultify yourself in court was to act insane so that you could dodge consequences.

Today, "stultify" can still mean "to make yourself look dumb or foolish."

But over the centuries, the meaning has weakened and morphed, and today it most often means "to make people become stupid or useless."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, usually the transitive kind: "The heat stultified us."

Sometimes the intransitive kind: "Surrealism... had stultified in metropolitan France" (New York Times).

Other forms:

The other verb forms are "stultified" and "stultifying."

"Stultifying" is also useful as an adjective; we'll explore that below.

The noun for the process is "stultification." And things and people who stultify others are "stultifiers."

Lastly, if you need an adverb, there's "stultifyingly," as in "Ugh, that book was stultifyingly tedious."

how to use it:

Pick the formal, serious, semi-common word "stultify" when you want to complain that something is so dull, boring, monotonous, or exhausting that it makes you feel weak, slow, and brainless.

Say that it stultifies you, or just describe it as stultifying. You might talk about stultifying food, activities, conversations, relationships, situations, jobs, or places.

examples:

"Here I remember the stultifying heat of the early-afternoon sun, which is bleaching the walls."
— Stephen Curry, The Guardian, 16 August 2015

"What are these? Visual aids for civics or some other equally stultifying high school subject?"
— John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, 1980

has this page helped you understand "stultify"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "stultify" without saying "bore" or "numb."

try it out:

In an article about clothing designers and runway shows, Cathy Horyn wrote:

"Corporate money has stultified fashion, pushing extravagance and disregarding ethics."

Could you explain what she means? What is it, exactly, that corporate money has done to the world of fashion?

And, could you make a similar complaint: is there some other sphere or subculture that's been stultified somehow? Possibly by corporate money, or by something else?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Name the Game!"

I'll share some tidbits about a particular board game with a one-word name, and you try to name it.

You can scroll all the way down to see the game's real name. Maybe you'll come up with the correct name, or one that’s just as apt!

Try this one today:

The game's name is 3 syllables.

It starts with S.

"Earn money… during Prohibition... [Place] your workers strategically to deliver illicit liquor."

review this word:

1. The opposite of STULTIFY could be

A. SHORTEN, FLATTEN, or TRUNCATE.
B. INSPIRE, EDUCATE, or CULTIVATE.
C. CONDENSE, COMPACT, or CONSOLIDATE.

2. When reporters were blocked from a Senate impeachment trial, Margaret Sullivan argued that the lawmakers were trying to "make the trial seem as _____ as possible... to _____ and stultify the American public."

A. boring and pallid .. weary
B. edgy and provocative .. titillate
C. mysterious and thrilling .. entertain

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > STULTIFY Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to "Make Your Point" for a daily vocabulary boost.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > STULTIFY

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.