4:1 - Inordinate

A friend of a friend, posing

 in Pisa

When & Where: I discovered this word on page 39 of Teaching Reading in the Content Areas (Urquhart & Frazee, 2012). In this part of the chapter, the authors were discussing positive mental dispositions, and claimed that students who believe intelligence to be fixed "place an inordinate value" on having the appearance of being smart.

Definition: Defined by dictionary.com, inordinate means, "unusually or disproportionately large; excessive."

Level of Familiarity: I am sure that I have heard the word used in conversation, but I have not actually read it anywhere before. This one was easy to guess from context clues because of the nature of the topic, as well as the sentence structure. I knew that it meant students who think that intelligence is predetermined place too much emphasis on trying to look intelligent by not taking risks. So because I understood it this way, I thought the word meant excessive, or too much.

Reflective Commentary: I constantly use the word "disproportionate" while engaged in arguments with others (constructive arguments, of course). I think this is actually my new favorite word so far, because I frequently use a word similar to it in meaning. I might actually try using this the next time, in place of 'disproportionate' or 'excessive.'