| tarmac | n. | Tarmacadam; asphalt; airport runway | ||
| tarn | n. | small mountain lake | ||
| tarpaulin | n. | sailor | ||
| tassel | v. | to bloom (said of corn or sugar cane) | ||
| tatterdemalion | n. | a person dressed in rags or tatters | ||
| tattersall | n. | squares formed by crossed color lines over another, usually light, solid color; fabric in this pattern | ||
| tatty | adj. | shabby, cheap | ||
| tauromachia | n. | a bullfight, bullfighting | ||
| taw | v. | to prepare raw material for use; to transform hides into leather without tannin, usu. by preparation of alum and salt | ||
| taximeter | n. | device for calculating cab fare by measuring distance traveled | ||
| TDA | n. | car theft, “Taking and Driving Away” | British | |
| teal | n. | small dabbling duck from which the mallard evolved | ||
| teasmade | n. | automatic tea maker, usually with clock so that tea is ready upon awakening, once common in the UK | ||
| technolatry | n. | worship of technology | ||
| ted | v. | to spread out or to strew for drying | ||
| teen | n. | grief, trouble | archaic | |
| teetotum | n. | small finger-spun top, such as a dreidel | ||
| tefillin | n. | phylacteries, small black leather boxes worn on the head and arm by Orthodox Jewish men during morning prayer | ||
| tegument | n. | covering; integument | ||
| teleology | n. | the study of ultimate ends or causes | ||
| telex | n. | teletypewriter service using public communication channels to deliver two-way text transmission between subscribers | ||
| Telfordize | v. | to pave a road using Telford principles | ||
| telluric | adj. | of or related to the earth; of or from the soil; of or containing tellurium | ||
| telomere | n. | protective sequences of nucleotides found at the end of chromosomes | ||
| telpherage | n. | automatic and usually electrically powered cable car system for moving minerals or other goods | ||
| telson | n. | terminal segment or appendage in abdomen of many arthropods and some embryonic insects | ||
| temerarious | adj. | reckless, rash, heedless | ||
| temerity | n. | overconfidence, recklessness | ||
| tempestivity | n. | timeliness, quality of occurring at the proper season or time | ||
| tenebrescence | n. | reversible change in color upon exposure to sunlight | ||
| tenebrosity | n. | darkness, gloominess, obscurity | ||
| tenon | n. | projecting part formed by cutting wood away | ||
| tent | n. | heed, attention; to attend, to take heed | ||
| tenter | n. | frame upon which cloth is stretched to dry evenly | ||
| tenuity | n. | thinness of size; thinness of texture or density; paucity, weakness | ||
| tepidarium | n. | warm room in ancient Roman baths | ||
| teratogenic | adj. | disrupting development of fetus or embryo, thus causing birth defects | ||
| teratological | adj. | monstrous, of or related to congenital malformations | ||
| tercel | n. | (also sp. tiercel) the male of a hawk, esp. of the goshawk, peregrine falcon, or gyrfalcon | ||
| terebinth | n. | tree of the Mediterranean region noted for its longevity and turpentine | ||
| teredo | n. | wood boring “shipworm” (actually a mollusk) | ||
| tergiversate | v. | to hem and haw, to equivocate; to change one’s mind, to be apostate | ||
| termagant | n. | violent ill-tempered woman, virago | ||
| termitary | n. | termite’s nest, often mound-shaped (var. of termitarium) | ||
| terpsichorean | adj. | of or related to dancing; of or related to Terpsichore | ||
| terraqueous | adj. | made up of land and water | ||
| terret | n. | ring on harness saddle through which the reins are passed | ||
| tertium non datur | n. | Law of the Excluded Middle, lit. “no third (option/choice) is given” | Latin | |
| tester | n. | bed canopy; canopy suspended above an important personage | ||
| tetany | n. | medical condition characterized by involuntary muscular spasms |
