Futile (few‘ta’il): Useless

Synonyms: Worthless, ineffective, unprofitable

Antonyms: Effective, fruitful, significant

Innocuous (in-nok’-you-us): Harmless, not intending to offend

Synonyms: Painless, inoffensive

Antonyms: Hurtful, damaging

— They passed their time at the airport exchanging innocuous gossip.

Melodramatic (melo’dramatik): Exaggerated, overly theatrical

Synonyms: Sensational, overwrought

Antonyms: Realistic, understated, low key

Broach (broch): Mention, bring up

Synonyms: Advance, suggest, introduce

Antonyms: Repress, conceal, quash, stifle, suppress

Awry (a’rai): Uneven, crooked, untidy

Synonyms: Twisted, oblique

Antonyms: Straight, even

Deleterious (del-e-tee-ri’us): Harmful

Synonyms: Ruinous, injurious

Antonyms: Healthy, beneficial

— Too much of alcohol can be deleterious to your health.

The word pigheaded means to be stubborn. Fill in the blanks with more synonyms of pigheaded.

1 M — L — SH

2 D O — — ED

3 W I — F — L

4 P E — V — — S E

5 UNY — — — D — — G

6 BU — — H — — D — —

7 O P — — — — N A T — D

8 I — F L — — — B — E

Halcyon days are calm and peaceful days or times. Halcyon is an ancient Greek name for kingfisher. The bird was reputed to build its nest upon the sea, lay and hatch its eggs during the 14 days when the sea was said to be calm (around December 21).

A fool in high station is like a man on the top of a high mountain — everything appears small to him and he appears small to everybody.

Score card

Mulish, dogged, wilful, perverse, unyielding, bullheaded opinionated, inflexible.

— Illa Vij