What a crazy girl she is! She doesn’t allow her boyfriend to talk to any girl.

The adjective ‘crazy’ denotes ‘mentally unstable’ but connotes clingy and possessive.

MS Dhoni is known as Captain Cool because of his calm behaviour.

Similarly, ‘cool’ denotes low temperature but when we describe a person as cool, what we mean is that the person is calm and unemotional, especially in a difficult situation.

A lot has been written praising her hotness.

Do you know what makes a girl really hot?.

‘Hot’ denotes high temperature but when we say a woman is hot, what we mean is that she is extremely attractive. Here are examples of denotative and connotative meanings of words hot, cold, crazy and pushy. It is important for learners to know both the denotative and connotative meanings of words in order to use them appropriately. Some words have a positive, negative or neutral connotation. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “the connotative meaning of a word includes the feelings and ideas that people may connect with the word”.ĭo words have an emotional side too? Yes, some words do. Words have actual meanings and other meanings that are attached to them. What is a connotation or the connotative meaning of a word? Some words have formal or explicit and implied or suggested meanings. This is a different take, to learn words to not use them.' We mostly learn words from crosswords that we can use in the future.

Convinced she wrote, 'That’s a great one. I explained to her stating that I wanted my FB friends to be familiar with the words and to be careful while using them. Reacting to it, Dr Sakeena Quraishi, a progressive thinker, commented that she liked solving the crossword but wondered why it was about women. I had mentioned that the answers to the puzzle are words which have a negative connotation when applied to women. It was quite a different one from the earlier puzzles that I had created and posted on FB. At least in the US, there is a significant portion of the population who see business as primarily exploitative, so someone who is very good at it must be morally questionable.A week ago, I created a crossword puzzle and asked my FB friends to solve it. I would also agree with FumbleFingers that the phrase 'shrewd businessman' might have a negative connotation for some, but that this has more to do with the 'businessman' aspect. Both are making money on human misery, but there is, for most people, a distinct moral difference. Whereas a shrewd businessman would be someone who bought stock in Zoom the minute they heard of the outbreak. For example, someone making $1 million selling vitamins that he implies helps with Covid 19 might be referred to as 'cunning'. If you were of the opposite political party, you might crinkle your nose in disgust at her shrewdness, but only because she's not on your side.Ĭunning is not a direct synonym, as cunning usually includes misrepresentation/lying, which shrewd usually does not include.

She is using her knowledge of parliamentary procedure in order to increase her chances of getting her agenda passed into law. For example, a shrewd legislator isn't blackmailing people. Shrewd does not imply underhanded or cheating. Per, its usage has been slightly declining over the past 40 years, but it is, in no way, archaic. Modi’s “suit-boot friends to convert their black money into white”.įirst, I disagree slightly with FumbleFingers. On Twitter, he said it was a “brutal conspiracy and a shrewd scheme” that allowed Mr.

The union was known for its shrewd negotiating tactics. An example for negative usage of shrewd could be this sentence For Instance - a shrewd policy or a shrewd decision. So I want to know how do native speakers use this word? Specially I am confused about its usage with activities. Now the word cunning has purely negative connotation. Second usage has confused me a bit as it is mentioned that shrewd activities are marked as artful and cunning practices. Well, I was looking for this particular usage on dictionary and found this. For instance,Īnother usage of shrewd is for decisions, policies, judgements etc. It can have negative as well as positive connotation.It depends on the context of the passage. I did a lot of research on internet regarding the connotation of word shrewd.

Negative connotation