plic-, pli- plect-, plec-, plici-, -plex, -plexity, -plexus,
-ple, -pli, -plic, -plicat, -plicit, -plicate, -plication, -ply

A tool for bending, for cutting wire, or for getting a grip on small objects: "Bruce used a pair of pliers to fix the bent metal of the metal box and to fix a small dent in the shower head."

1. A situation that is usually bad or very difficult to endure: The plight of the homeless or unemployed workers makes it financially hard for such people to exist.

The plight of the people in the drought-stricken area has not improved their situation.
2. Etymology: from Latin plicitumpast participle of plicare, "to fold."

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1. To reproduce something four times or to multiply it by four: Alice used her photocopier so she could quadruplicate her job applications and have enough copies to present for her job interviews that were to take place the next day.
2. To multiply by four: Ted's supervisor told the committee that they must quadruplicate their efforts in order to complete the assignment on time.

1. To repeat or to double something again: There are some words that reduplicate vowels, syllables, or words in order to create new words or linguistic elements; for example, the following words have parts that are reduplicated: "wishy-washy" and "goody-goody".

The phrase in a music composition is repeated or reduplicated quite often and the listener can usually recognize it each time.

2. To reproduce an element of a word precisely or with a small change: Monika reduplicated some linguistic elements of words to make her short story more interesting and expressive; for example, teeny-weeny, see-saw, and chitchat.
3. To make identical copies of the same thing that has been done previously: The writer of the short autobiography had the printer reduplicate his composition because more people wanted copies than he had anticipated.

1. An accurate reproduction or copy of an object; such as, a statue, a machine, or a weapon: Mark and Jane bought an exact replica of an ancient Roman urn during their trip to Italy.
2. A very close copy of a work of art; especially, one that is made, authorized, or supervised by the original artist: When a fire destroyed part of the local art museum, Jerome was asked to make replicas of his paintings to replace those that burned up. © ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
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To repeat, to reproduce, or to recopy something exactly as it is or was: David, the chemist, was sure he had compiled a very important medicine and he was able to replicate it so it could be produced by a pharmaceutical company at a reasonable cost for drugstores to sell to customers.