Editor's Corner

On the twelfth day of English

What a ruckus we all made

Finding 12 fantastic words

That rhyme with lemonade.

A number of words share the inflected ending -ade, which denotes an action or something that performs an action or function. The following comprehensive but not exhaustive list includes definitions of forty such words (and the meaning of each root word). [KC – For the full list of 40 words ending in -ade, check out
DailyWritingTips!]

1. ambuscade (“in forest”): an ambush

2. arcade (“arch”): an arched building, gallery, avenue, or passageway, or series of arches, or a business where coin-operated games are played

3. balustrade (“small pillar”): a row of vertical balusters, or railing supports, topped by a railing, or a low barrier

4. brocade (“little nail”): silk fabric with gold or silver weaved in (also a verb meaning “weave gold or silver with silk”)

5. cascade (“fall”): a waterfall, especially one in a series, or arrangement or occurrence of a succession of stages, or something falling or rushing (also a verb meaning “fall, pour, or rush in or as if in a cascade”)

6. cavalcade (“horse”): a parade of troops or other people mounted on horses, or simply a parade

7. chiffonade (“crumple”): finely cut or shredded herbs or vegetables

8. colonnade (“column”): a series of regularly spaced supporting columns

9. crusade (“cross”): a series of military expeditions to assert the influence of Christian nations in the Middle East (capitalized when referred to as “the Crusades”), or an enthusiastic effort to solve a problem (as a verb, meaning “engage in a crusade”)

10. escalade (“ladder”): an act of scaling fortification walls (also a verb meaning “scale fortification walls”)

11. fanfaronade (“braggart”): bluster

12. palisade (“stake”): a long, pointed stake, or a fence made of such stakes, or a line of cliffs resembling one

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services