C2 · 100 entries · Five themes

Implication Inference and Unspoken Meaning

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Open a theme, then select a word or phrase for its meaning, example and pronunciation.

1. Implied claims (20 entries)
  1. implicature
  2. insinuation
  3. connote
  4. intimate
  5. tacit
  6. intimation
  7. unacknowledged
  8. professed
  9. overstate one's case
  10. imply more than one can prove
  11. eliminate a false implication
  12. that is a rather different proposition
  13. debunk
  14. pick someone up on a claim
  15. impugn
  16. authenticate
  17. it hardly follows that
  18. swear blind that
  19. truism
  20. bogus
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2. Presupposition (20 entries)
  1. predicate on
  2. entailment
  3. preconception
  4. existential presupposition
  5. preclude
  6. gainsay
  7. entail
  8. presupposition
  9. surmise
  10. obviate
  11. attest to
  12. theorise
  13. evince
  14. controvert
  15. exemplify
  16. necessitate
  17. validate
  18. bear witness to
  19. militate against
  20. presuppose
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3. Interpretive cues (20 entries)
  1. circumlocution
  2. co-text
  3. ellipsis
  4. let the implication linger
  5. have the last word
  6. take a remark out of context
  7. talk over someone's head
  8. go off at a tangent
  9. take a remark the wrong way
  10. get the wrong end of the stick
  11. cede the floor
  12. put a gloss on someone's words
  13. as much as to say
  14. put words into someone's mouth
  15. finish someone's thought for them
  16. leave a suggestion hanging
  17. lose the thread of one's argument
  18. hold the floor
  19. pick up a thread from earlier
  20. shrug
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4. Ambiguous intentions (20 entries)
  1. studied neutrality
  2. equivocation
  3. indirection
  4. plausible deniability
  5. obliqueness
  6. disingenuous question
  7. duplicity
  8. rumination
  9. beggar description
  10. warranted scepticism
  11. confirmation-seeking
  12. tautology
  13. undemonstrative
  14. a counterfactual conditional
  15. hazard a conjecture
  16. deferral
  17. hinder
  18. wayward
  19. interrogative
  20. ruminate
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5. Drawing fine distinctions (20 entries)
  1. disambiguate
  2. delineate
  3. elucidate
  4. demarcate
  5. explicate
  6. elaborate on
  7. expound
  8. discern
  9. typify
  10. reconceptualise
  11. construe
  12. tease apart
  13. instantiate
  14. parse
  15. misconstrue
  16. reinterpret
  17. decontextualise
  18. exclude by definition
  19. epitomise
  20. sift through
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