pertain pərˈteɪn verb
1. be relevant to
2. be a part or attribute of
The word pertain has appeared in 39 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 26 in “For Joan Didion, Mementos of Her Daughter’s Childhood Became Material,” by Lauren Christensen. The article tells about the pages of notes Ms. Didion took as part of her writing process in creating two memoirs, “Blue Nights” and “The Year of Magical Thinking”:
Around 20 pages in all, the pages are numbered, but some numbers repeat, suggesting she’d originally written them as separate documents, and perhaps later stashed them together. The notes within pertain not only to “Blue Nights,” but also to 2005’s “The Year of Magical Thinking,” her National Book Award-winning account of another death that overlapped in time with Quintana’s — her husband John’s.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word pertain in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
If you want a better idea of how pertain can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
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