Word of the Day

: October 10, 2009

vitiate

verb VISH-ee-ayt

What It Means

1 : to make faulty or defective : impair

2 : to debase in moral or aesthetic status

3 : to make ineffective

vitiate in Context

Some feared that the superintendent’s decision to reinstate the students would vitiate the authority of the principal who suspended them in the first place.

Did You Know?

Here's one for word puzzle lovers -- and anyone else allured by alliteration. The sentence "Vivian vituperated the vicious villain for valuing vice over virtue" contains three words that derive from the same Latin source as "vitiate." Can you identify all three? If you picked "vituperate" (a verb meaning "to scold"), "vicious," and "vice," your puzzle prowess is beyond reproach. Like "vitiate," all three descend from the Latin noun "vitium," meaning "fault" or "vice."