Thursday, May 22, 2008

Deficient conscience

shoulderangelanddevilA recent discussion on another list was about the "i before e except after c" rule and the words that break it. There are a whole series of "cien" words that break that rule. The challenge today is to use as many as you can in a writing piece. Feel free to use other forms.
conscience
conscientious
ancient
deficient
(in)efficient
(in)sufficient
maleficient, maleficience -- doing evil, harm or mischief
prescient; prescience - foresight
proficient
omniscient, omniscience -- all knowing
pseudoscience
unscientific
and as an extra bonus:
tumefacient - producing a swelling, like a tumefacient insect bite.
(BTW, there are plenty more. If you go to OneLook dictionary which allows wildcard searches and type in *cien* you can see loads more.)

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