(n.) A mystical word or collocation of letters written as in the figure. Worn on an amulet it was supposed to ward off fever. At present the word is used chiefly in jest to denote something without meaning; jargon.
Example Sentences:
(1) He has seen couples with very low numbers of eggs "and, abracadabra, they conceive naturally."
(2) There was an abracadabra moment when he announced that net debt was starting to fall, sooner than expected, but surprise immediately soured when the Office for Budget Responsibility tweeted that £20bn in asset sales were flattering the relevant figures.
(3) The Press Trust of India criticised the film for its "exotic India package – snake charmers in red turbans, magicians who say abracadabra and slum dwellers who speak pukka English".
Jargon
Definition:
(n.) Confused, unintelligible language; gibberish; hence, an artificial idiom or dialect; cant language; slang.
(v. i.) To utter jargon; to emit confused or unintelligible sounds; to talk unintelligibly, or in a harsh and noisy manner.
(n.) A variety of zircon. See Zircon.
Example Sentences:
(1) Psychiatry is criticized for imprecise diagnosis, conceptual vagaries, jargon, therapeutic impotence and class bias.
(2) But an experienced senior officer said Hogan-Howe had impressed since becoming temporary commissioner, telling junior officers what he wanted in "jargon-free and clear language."
(3) Jargon incorporated familiar intonational contours and prosodic features to convey emotional states and communicative functions.
(4) Behind these numbers, behind this legal jargon are actual families who have not had justice for decades and decades … some of this can get glossed over when you’re just thinking about it in policy terms.
(5) Such attitudes toward illness were found in 19 of 20 jargon subjects, and seven of the comparison group.
(6) Carbon dioxide's production of greenhouse gas is not factored into its price – in the jargon, an unpriced externality, he says.
(7) According to the criteria of intelligibility, phonemic and semantic paraphasias in spontaneous speech, 4 forms of Wernicke's aphasia are differentiated: 1) with predominantly semantic paraphasias, 2) with semantic jargon, 3) with predominantly phonemic paraphasias and 4) with phonemic jargon.
(8) Some former communist countries, known in the jargon as "countries in transition", were allowed to chose a different date because after the collapse of communism many closed heavy industries.
(9) Lethal strikes by CIA drones – including two this week alone – have combined with the monitoring and disruption of electronic communications, suspicion and low morale to take their toll on al-Qaida's Pakistani "core", in the jargon of western intelligence agencies.
(10) Such jargon can be clarified by questions asked at the moment of discussion.
(11) Mobile X-ray generators vary widely in design, cost and radiographic performance and the new designs of recent years have led to the introduction of jargon.
(12) It is a pusillanimous, jargon-ridden, self-perpetuating proof of Parkinson's law .
(13) Disease-specific dementias, pseudodementia, and delirium are three clinical situations that may or may not be classified as "reversible dementias," depending on individual training, custom, and jargon.
(14) It sounds like Michael Gove's worst nightmare, a country where some combination of teachers' union leaders and trendy academics, "valuing Marxism, revering jargon and fighting excellence" (to use the education secretary's words), have taken over the asylum.
(15) You have to try and understand the jargon in a room full of white people – who say they know what is best for you.
(16) These strategies include employing attentive patient care, attending to the use of jargon, and using self-empowering language.
(17) As an academic, he was stern – particularly on bad writing and jargon, for which he had Orwellian distaste.
(18) In campaigning jargon, Rahman knows how to maximise his core.
(19) In Whitehall jargon, the deals are “bespoke” – in short, varying in significant details – with Greater Manchester getting responsibility for a £6bn budget to integrate health and social care .
(20) And, although services like BBC One are far more distinctive, to use the jargon, than they used to be – more origination, much less acquisition, more news, drama, documentary, less entertainment than in the past.