Out of curiosity - do you know these words well?

About 70% or so. There is a contingent of (usually fantasy) writers who do this annoying thing where they basically consult a thesaurus on the regular as they write, then purposefully pick unusual words in an effort to world build literarily. Some may even do it as a flex, but that was a lot more of a flex 50+ years ago when dropping in synonyms was more difficult than a mouse click. I find it super tedious and almost always artificial and forced, honestly. It also makes such works less ideal for ESL, which is unfortunate, given English’s global spread. Very few writers can pull this off gracefully.

seriatim was new to me. i know the others but i would say they're mostly just used in rather high-level written english. the words i do expect to hear occasionally in ordinary speech are: germinate and throes traipse is dialect-y. moraine is a slightly specialized geology term

I had forgotten senescence and I’m not sure I’ve ever heard moraine. Weal is archaic. Prandial and bolus strike me as jargon. And most of these - apart from germinate, traipse, and throes, strike me as quite uncommon. Some only appear in limited idiomatic phrases - like the “throes of passion” or “traipsing around in the night” or “dulcet tones.” Edit: I guess “weal” is the same as “welt”. I was thinking of 17th or 18th century texts that would refer to the “common weal” or “common good” - related to the modern term “commonwealth.”

The ones I had to look up were: SERIATIM, MORAINE, PRANDIAL, and BOLUS. I find it annoying when writers use intentionally esoteric wording unnecessarily. I'd say germinate, dulcet, throes, desiccate, and traipse are less common, but still well known. The others are very uncommon.

I know germinate, dulcet, weal, moraine, masticating, throes, desiccate, traipse, and bolus. (I specifically remember learning the word bolus in school as a kid when I was studying the digestive system.) Don't know the rest. 

I know two of these words. lol

Without looking them up: Germinate - I know it has something to do with plants Dulcet - I'm mostly familiar with "dulcet tones" to describe music Masticating - fancy word for chewing Throes - mostly heard in "in the throes of passion" and similar phrases Desiccate - I've heard of desiccated coconut Traipse - refers to some type of movement The rest I have no idea about.

Don't know weal, seriatim or prandial (though it sounds familiar)

I know germinate, dulcet, throes, and traipse

Seriatim was new to me. I know all the others, and have used most of them (probably not moraine; it doesn't come up in conversation often).

Yes.

I know 9 of those words. Put them in a book and let me read them in context? I’d get them all. It’s easier when there is context. I don’t ever look up words. Masticate (chew) is a popular word for jokes because it sounds like masturbate.

i know germinate, senescence, dulcet, masticating, throes, dessicate, traipse and bolus pretty well, and I'm passingly familiar with prandial and weal. I don't know seriatim and moraine.

Germinate, Weal, Masticating, and Bolus, I know. The other words...no clue whatsoever. I only have heard or seen masticating once beyond this post, and that was when I learned the word. Germinate should be well known enough for anyone who has tried to grow plants or grass. Weals, I only know from all of my medical books. Bolus, seems more like a medical term. In my case, a bolus is like giving a set amount of IV fluids in a short amount of time.

Probably around half: a handful are fairly common; a few are less common, but are used occasionally; the rest I don't recognise, so perhaps are more obscure or antiquated (old-fashioned).

Germinate, senescence, dulcet, moraine, throes, masticate, desiccate, traipse, bolus, weal- yes. Prandial and seriatim - no. I just asked my 9 year old about “germinate” “traipse” and “masticate” (the ones I thought he’d be most likely to know) and he did.

i know definition of all those words, but i’m very well read. most people are not, so i say, no. most english speakers are not familiar with this list, nor do they encounter words like these in their worlds.

Off the top of my head, I only know germinate, masticating, throes, desiccate, and traipse. I may recognize some of the others if I heard them in context, but they don’t look familiar when just listed here.

I had to look up Moraine -- geology is not my thing -- but otherwise, yes, I know the rest of the words.

* GERMINATE - Yes * SENESCENCE - Yes, but only because I'm interested in specific science subjects * DULCET - Yes * WEAL - No * SERIATIM - No * MORAINE - No * MASTICATING - Yes * THROES - Yes * DESICCATE - Yes * PRANDIAL - No * TRAIPSE - Yes * BOLUS - No

I would group these into * somewhat common words you're likely to run into: germinate, dulcet (in the phrase "dulcet tones"), throes, masticating, desiccate * less common words that some speakers or writers might use: senescence, moraine, traipse * words you're unlikely to run into outside of specific contexts: weal (politics or medicine), seriatim (legal), prandial (health), bolus (medicine). But that's just in my experience.

> GERMINATE Fairly common, anyone who does a lot of gardening will know this one. > SENESCENCE Uncommon, I knew it but I wouldn't expect most people to. > DULCET I think if you say 'dulcet tones' referring to somebody's voice most people will recognise and understand, but outside of that stock phrase, very rare. > WEAL I think I recognise the word but don't remember the meaning. > SERIATIM Never heard of it. > MORAINE I feel like I have heard this once or twice, I think it's related to quagmire? Used like quandary? Unsure. >MASTICATING Pretty commonly understood. Masticating and masturbating sound similar enough that there's a middle school-level joke that exposes lots of people to the word. >THROES Yeah, as part of the stock phrases "death throes" or "throes of passion", with a fairly obvious meaning. > DESICCATE Yeah, because of dessicated coconut, although lots of people might think it means "chopped up into tiny bits" rather than "completely dried out". > PRANDIAL Never heard of it. > TRAIPSE Yeah, I think most people will know this one. > BOLUS Uncommon; I'm fairly sure a bolus is a lump of undigested stuff that gets coughed up or stuck inside you somewhere, but I'm not 100% and I feel like most people wouldn't recognise the word. Maybe more in medical/veterinary fields.

I know germinate, masticating, throes, desiccate, and traipse

Several are common in set expressions, but fairly rare otherwise. Those are: - dulcet ("dulcet tones" - a pleasant-sounding voice) - throes ("the throes of X" - 'passion' means sex, but can be anything negative otherwise) - desiccate ("desiccated X" - dehydrated; 'coconut' is common) - traipse ("traipsed into the room" - similar to 'waltzing' in: offensively carefree; can be more neutral) I would expect everyone to know what "germinate" and "masticate" mean. I would expect almost *no one* to know what "seriatim", "moraine", "prandial", or "bolus" mean. "Senescence" and "weal" are somewhere in the middle: rare, but probably understandable with context.

the only ones I don't know are seriatim and prandial.

Only 1 of them

I have never heard of Seriatim and know the rest but don’t use moraine or senescence often.

I know 9 out of the 12.

It is crazy to me that people in the comments can recognize all of these. To be clear, I wouldn’t classify any of these as common. Some of these are only used in very specific contexts, like germinate (I wouldn’t expect you to know it if you aren’t a gardener). However, I recognize: Germinate, masticate, throes, dessicate, traipse, and bolus.

These are not common words. Seriatim, moraine, prandial and bolus are the most obscure to me. I know the others.

I would not think twice about using germinate, throes, dulcet, masticate, dessicate, traipse, both in written and spoken English (Australia). I would be surprised to find people with a reasonable education who didn't find them familiar. Bolus can be used in a medical setting, but otherwise would be unexpected. The others, not so much.

Throes and traipse are the only two I have heard lol

7 out of 12.

The only time I've seen *prandial* used is in the phrase 'post prandial brandy.' Similarly, *weal* is wedded with *common* in the phrase 'the common weal' and *dulcet* is wedded with *tones* in the phrase 'dulcet tones.' If you are anywhere near agony, ecstasy, or despair you are often in the *throes* of it. *Seriatim* is new to me, but I have seen the rest occasionally. I would even go so far as to say that *germinate* is a common word that almost any native speaker would be familiar with.

I know germinate (i think), masticating i feel like ive heard before, throes i know, and bolus i know.

GERMINATE - I know well SENESCENCE - I know well DULCET - no idea WEAL - heard before but don't know its meaning SERIATIM - no idea MORAINE - know well MASTICATING - some vague idea? THROES - know well DESICCATE - know well PRANDIAL - no idea  TRAIPSE - no idea BOLUS - heard before, forgotten meaning

* GERMINATE-- Common term when you are talking about plants growing from seeds. I wouldn't expect my middle schooler students to know it, but I would expect an educated adult to know it. * SENESCENCE-- I know this most from biology and rarely use it. I would not use it in speech. * DULCET-- I know it, but rarely see it used and almost never hear it. * WEAL-- I know it, but I don't use it or know anyone who uses it. * SERIATIM-- I do not know this word. * MORAINE-- This is a specific type of land formation. Only people who talk about that type of landscape will know it. * MASTICATING-- I know this word, but it is such an odd choice for a fantasy series. Couldn't they just say 'chewing' like a normal person? * THROES- I know this, but it's older, and I only see it in "In the throes of passion" or "death throes" * DESICCATE- I know this, but unless you are running a science lab, I only see "desiccant" and "desiccated." As in "I found a desiccated rat in the basement." * PRANDIAL-I do know know this word. * TRAIPSE: I know this word, and it only gets used when describing a tiring walk. "When you suggested a walk, I didn't expect to spend 2 hours traipsing about if hay fields!" * BOLUS- This is a technical term. Are they injecting medication? What series is this, and does it take place in a modern setting? Many of these words are science jargon.

Born and raised in US; native English speaking family. Mother was college English literate teacher. I've crossed out the words I don't know (presumably have never heard - or certainly not heard enough to learn/use). * GERMINATE * ~~SENESCENCE~~ * DULCET * ~~WEAL~~ * ~~SERIATIM~~ * MORAINE * MASTICATING * THROES * DESICCATE * ~~PRANDIAL~~ * TRAIPSE * ~~BOLUS~~

As a native speaker l would say the average person understands the word germinate, dessicate, and traipse. The others are still widely known but not commonly used in daily speech. Like, nobody says masticating because chew is so much easier.

I would say that I’m familiar with all except “seriatim”, but I would guess that it means “serially” or “one-by-one in series”.

+GERMINATE +SENESCENCE +DULCET WEAL SERIATIM MORAINE +MASTICATING +THROES +DESICCATE PRANDIAL +TRAIPSE BOLUS I know the ones with the +. So 7/12. I'm a 39 year old native speaker from the US.

Germinate — this is a common word. For example, you germinate seeds.

I know them all but dont really use seriatim, moraine, prandial, or bolus. Germinate and traipse are the most used by themselves while duvet (tones) and (death) throes seem moreso parts of set phrases to me. SE USA

I'm dyslexic so simply written out like this, I recognize less than half. But I bet in context that number goes way up

Didn't know WEAL or SERIATIM. Never even heard of them. The rest vary from well-known to very obscure.

I'd say Germinate, Masticating, Throes, Desiccate, Traipse are reasonably common words though most are used in very specific contexts. Throes and Traipse probably the most broadly used.

I will have to look up seriatim (never saw that one before) and senescence (definitely familiar, not sure of its meaning) All the others are familiar and in use in my vocabulary.

I am, but only because of a medical background

Tagging onto the helpful answers you’ve already received: I enjoy the phrase “postprandial perambulation” to describe (in a needlessly fancy manner) taking a walk after dinner. I have not encountered “prandial” in its own, but now I want to 👀 It’s lovely that you’re collecting interesting words and checking them out. I just this morning opened the “Vocabulary Builder” on my Kindle, which collects all the individual words that I look up in the various ebooks I buy/borrow. I am a native speaker, and I still get great joy out of seeing these pages full of new words I can learn. Learning new English vocabulary can be a never-ending quest, and I hope you enjoy the adventure of it too!

All of them except seriatim, that one is new to me

Very familiar with all of them except seriatim and prandial. Those were new to me but it’s exciting to learn new words!

Germinate is sometimes used in biology or farming contexts and weal, throes, dulcet and traipse come up very infrequently in literature. I think there was a gun or car in a video game I played called a Masticator, but I’ve never seen any of the other words used.

I knew germinate and throes. I think I'd know some of the others in context though

Fairly widely known, *GERMINATE: mostly from gardening *DULCET: mostly as "in dulcet tones" *MASTICATING - chewing - chiefly because it sounds like masturbating, so it can be funny. *THROES - mostly "in the throes of passion" = sex *DESICCATE - known due to dessicated coconut, used on cakes *TRAIPSE - especially in certain regions, this is used in normal conversations Not widely known; rare outside of niche fields, *SENESCENCE *WEAL *SERIATIM *MORAINE *PRANDIAL *BOLUS

only a few words there are useful and somewhat regularly. germinate refers to when a seed enters its sprouting phase. Throes is just intense pain. And desiccating USUALLY refers to when somebodies discs in their spine aren't saturated in spinal fluid, but just means dry in general

I know germinate, dulcet, masticating, throes, desiccate, traipse, and bolus. Several of them though, I would only expect to hear in specific phrases. Specifically: “ in the throes of passion”, “dulcet tones”, and “traipsing through the garden”. It would be very unusual to hear those three used outside of those expressions. “Desiccate” is the one I would expect to hear the most and use in my personal vocabulary. Also, most of these are words I would associate with botany, science, or antiquated medicinal practices.

I could tell you what seven of them mean. I have no idea what _senescence, weal, seriatim, or moraine_ mean and I can't remember ever hearing them. I have heard _prandial_ only in the context of _post-prandial_ but I couldn't tell you what that means. The rest I know but I wouldn't say they're super common. Eg instead of _masticating_, 99% of the tone you'd say _chewing_. For _dessicate_, most of the time you'd say _dry out_ or _dry up_. Others are maybe mostly used in sort of stock poetic phrases, eg _dulcet tones_ or _throes of passion_. _Bolus_ I only know thanks to [Moira Rose](https://youtu.be/Wr_e1drf7jk?t=87), who is renowned for her rich vocabulary.

I only know what a bolus is because I ended up in the hospital.

Most of these words seem quite literary or academic to me, I don't think I've heard many of them in regular conversation... apart from 'throes' occasionally. In fact, a few of them (senescence, seriatim, moraine, prandial) I had never seen before in my life, even as someone who reads a lot.

I'm not a native speaker but I didn't know any of them

I did not know: Senescence Weal Seriatim Moraine I only knew prandial and bolus from my medical degree and wouldn't use them with people who didn't work on healthcare

I often come across dulcet in texts when they say “he had a dulcet tone”. Same with traipse - “they traipsed in”. throes, dessicate, masticate and germinate are rarer but I’ve seen them used - mostly in more academic text. The other words I’ve never heard before!

Yes, Mostly read them. Only some are used in 'conversation'.

Never seen them before

* GERMINATE--the only one I'd use regularly because I garden BOLUS--Encountered rarely in medical contexts DESICCATE--on packaging in the noun form desiccant DULCET, MASTICATING, THROES, , TRAIPSE--fairly commonly in fiction full of flowery language WEAL, PRANDIAL--occasionally in fiction with flowery language SENESCENCE--I've encountered this word before but have no idea what it means SERIATIM, MORAINE--I don't think I've ever seen these even on freerice.com

>* SENESCENCE >* SERIATIM >* MORAINE >* BOLUS I am completely unfamiliar with these 4 words.

Just glancing at them, I knew about half confidently and a couple more I was like, "I think I know that one." most of these aren't very common, especially outside of specific contexts, but germinate is a more common one and traipse, dessicate, throes, and dulcet aren't toooooooo unusual but are definitely less common. More likely to be found in places with flowery language.

Yes. I'm a biologist working in biopharma. The terms "bolus", "desiccate", "prandial", and "senescence" come up frequently. Everyone should know "germinate", at least anyone that planted beans in school as a child and watched them grow. People in the US will generally know but rarely use "traipse", same for "dulcet" and "throes" (except death throes in movies). I feel that "masticating" is one that many people would know, but mostly those with a reasonably good vocabulary or who made jokes about it as a child (it rhymes with popular hobby, after all). Anyone that took a geology or earth science class is apt to know what a "moraine" is. I know what "weal" and "seriatim" mean, but I've only read the words and never heard anyone use them nor seen them in recent writing - perhaps they are not popular?

Yup, know them all, though I would never use bolus.

Dulcet would be familiar to many as part of the set phrase "dulcet tone/s".

I was totally stunned when reading some of the replies, I do find it near impossible to see how some have no real idea of GERMINATE, DESICCATE, TRAIPSE for example. The word MORAINE should be familiar to anyone who did GCSE Geography. BOLUS is an everyday word for people with diabetes who use insulin for example. The word SERIATIM is a new one on me, I must admit. Nothing camp about any of them, unless that has radically changed meaning

Very well, active vocabulary : germinate, throes, dessicate, technically active, but would never use : dulcet, weal, masticate, traipse passive : senescence Don't obviously recognize : Prandial, Bolus, seriatim Moraine is one I think almost nobody will know, and the only reason I do is because its a major tourist geological formation in the area where I live : [Kettle Moraine - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettle_Moraine)

I am familiar with 3 of them

Seriatim was new to me, every other word was familiar.

I'm a dummy so I only knew Masticating, Seriatim, Germinate, Throes, Traipse and Dulcet. Kind of knew a couple others but wasn't sure.

Some of these words are actually quite common. Germinate, throes, and desiccate are very common. Bolus is a common term in the medical field. Avid readers will encounter many of the others, but even the average English native will know the ones I mentioned as common. Edit: anyone who doesn’t know desiccate at first glance might have noticed little packets in packaging labeled “desiccant, do not eat” — the product is a drying agent that reduce moisture in the package to prolong shelf life. To desiccate means to dry out.

Only 4 unknown

I didn’t know seriatim.

Let me take a stab at it: GERMINATE - when a seed grows or possibly when a plant is  pollinated or possibly when pollen is in the air,  definitely something about plants SENESCENCE - a fragrance from childhood you can't quite place  DULCET - sweet WEAL - the sound a pig makes SERIATIM - some distant relative of the seraphim MORAINE - it drives me insane MASTICATING - chewing THROES - in the middle of something that can't be interrupted DESICCATE - to destroy completely  PRANDIAL - pan handle  TRAIPSE - to skip merrily or possibly to walk angrily/depressedly (can't remember which) BOLUS - that thing food becomes after you swallow it but before it reaches the stomach  Note: some of these are blind guesses, but I did my best.

None of these words is common. I wouldn't expect someone learning English to know any of them unless they claimed to be fully fluent. I would expect a random native speaker to be able to *confidently and correctly* define only a few of these. But most of them should be well known to someone who's been actively reading for a few decades. * Germinate is one of the more common words here. Many people might not know it, but to any hobby gardener, for example, or someone who remembers their high school biology class, it's 100% familiar. * Senescence is also reasonably familiar to most people who read widely. Again most often encountered when talking about plants these days, even though it can be used for anything living. * Dulcet is a bit campy or corny these days but should be familiar. "Dulcet tones" is a cliché. * Weal as in "commonweal" is very old-timey; meaning a bruise-like mark, I would always use "welt" instead but I know "weal." * Seriatim is probably the least common of any here. * Moraine is obvious to anyone who's taken a geology course but not common otherwise. * Masticating mostly appears in jokes now because there's a much better, shorter word with the same meaning (chewing). * Throes is also a bit campy but not mysterious; "throes of passion" is a cliché. * Desiccate is one of the more common ones here, at least as "desiccant" or "desiccated." * Prandial is very rare now but used to be common-ish before about a century ago. You see "postprandial" more often. Like "seriatim" it's the kind of word that Victorians would use to signal that they had an expensive education that included learning Latin. * Traipse is also old-fashioned and you'd never expect to hear it used seriously. * Bolus is the kind of medical term that's also occasionally used outside medicine.

I know them all, and have used all of them at least once. Many of them I use routinely. Important to note: people find me insufferable.

Not weal, seriatim, or moraine. The rest, yes.

SENESCENCE (although I'm familiar with senile) SERIATIM MORAINE PRANDIAL Are the ones I don't know.

weal, seriatim, moraine, prandial are not words I know. I’m aware of bolus but forget what it means. The rest I know.