Words about words

You use the word any when you are talking about one or more things from a group, but it doesn't matter which ones you are talking about. For example, "just pick any of those sheep, they all look the same".

Something is aqua if it is a bright blue-green. It might also be called cyan.

A place is arid if very little rain falls there and it is very dry. Deserts are just very arid regions. Most arid areas still support a lot of life, with many creatures and plants that have adapted to not having a lot of water available.

Artificial is another word for fake. Something that is artificial is usually a copy of something natural like food or flowers. The flowers in the picture are artificial.

An asterisk is a symbol a little like a star that is used to mark a footnote, draw attention to something, or mark when something might be ambiguous.

If you are athletic, you are physically fit due to playing sports or exercising.

Australian means a person from Australia or anything relating to Australia.

Awoke is the past tense of waking up, or another way of saying you are waking up.

You might say "I awoke at dawn". The word is also used in books and stories to show a person noticing an idea or truth, like "she awoke to the problem."

You are bald if you have little or no hair on your head. Some men go bald as they get older, but other people shave off their hair to become bald.
The man in the picture is bald, but his dog certainly is not!

Banal means boring or unoriginal.