Publish or perish in the ivory tower of learning outcomes.
Three or more notes played simultaneously to create harmony—the sonic foundation of most music that doesn't sound like a cat walking across a keyboard. In architecture, it's the straight line connecting two points on a curve (far less poetic).
The beefy defensive walls that made castles actually useful for something other than impressing tourists. These earthen or stone barriers were designed to make invading armies very, very unhappy.
A small single-occupancy room in a monastery or convent where monks contemplated existence (and probably regretted their roommate choices).
The practice of tailoring instruction to different learners' needs, because apparently one-size-fits-all is not actually one-size-fits-all.
The sweet spot between what you can do alone and what you can't do even with help—Vygotsky's fancy way of saying 'the learning zone.'
A sentence claiming what your entire essay will argue, making it both the most important and most-written sentence in academic writing.
An ingressive clicking sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure—the noise that dolphins use to communicate and that linguists use to confuse everyone else. It's a sound, but make it linguistic.
Thinking about thinking, or as teenagers would call it, 'overthinking everything'—actually useful in learning.
Reviewing material at increasing intervals to move it to long-term memory—the opposite of cramming and actually backed by neuroscience.
A ballet term for a single step or movement, from French for 'step'—which somehow makes tripping over your own feet while turning out your leg sound elegant. It's the basic unit of dance vocabulary, and it looks way easier when professionals do it than when you attempt it in actual class.
The scholarly study of music that transforms a beloved hobby into an academic discipline complete with dissertation requirements. Musicologists analyze what makes great music great, then write about it in language that makes music seem terrible.
A research accomplice or paid actor embedded in a psychological study who pretends to be a regular participant while actually manipulating the experiment. Basically, a professional liar with scientific credentials.
Expressing opinions or desires loudly, vehemently, or insistently; characterized by loud and forceful speech or outcry. Describes people or their voices that demand attention through volume and intensity.
In music, the symbol (♯) that raises a note a semitone higher—the accidental that makes your sheet music look more complicated than it actually is.
The theory and practice of teaching, or as some might say, the art of explaining things you understand to people who don't.
The branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge itself—basically 'how do we know what we know?' asked obsessively.
A word puzzle where "godisnowhere" changes meaning depending on where you place the spaces: either "god is nowhere" or "god is now here." Armchair psychologists claim your interpretation reveals your subconscious beliefs about divinity through punctuation alone. It's the spiritual Rorschach test of the internet.
The eldest statesman or undisputed leader of a field—the person who's been doing something so long they basically invented it. Respect is automatic; credentials are implied.
To narrate or describe events in exhausting detail, usually when someone asks "what happened?" and you oblige with an unnecessarily elaborate blow-by-blow account. In election contexts, it's the recount of votes—democracy's second opinion.
A DNA sequence that basically tells RNA polymerase to shut up and go home—the molecular equivalent of a bouncer. When this bad boy shows up, transcription stops cold and your mRNA transcript gets the axe.
A person who rejects heliocentrism (the scientific model that Earth orbits the sun); broader than 'flat-earther' since it encompasses anyone denying solar-system consensus without necessarily endorsing any specific alternative model.
Attempting to memorize an entire semester of material the night before an exam, a strategy with approximately 0% success rate but 100% prevalence.
A curved line or trajectory; in storytelling, a narrative arc is the overall shape and progression of a plot. More generally, any curved path or the span of time over which something develops.
A person, place, or utterance believed to provide wise counsel or prophetic predictions, historically a priest or priestess through whom gods were thought to speak; in modern usage, any authoritative or trusted source of information or wisdom.