Key terms & definitions

An organisation structured and uniformed like a military force but separate from the regular armed forces.

An armed organisation outside the regular armed forces, organised along military lines.

An armed organisation operating outside the regular state armed forces.

An armed organisation operating outside the regular state armed forces.

A fully developed virtue or ‘perfection’ cultivated on the Buddhist path to enlightenment.

Intense suspicion and fear that others threaten or intend to harm someone.

Claims about events beyond ordinary scientific explanation, such as encounters with ghosts or communication with spirits.

An experience claimed to involve forces or events beyond ordinary scientific explanation, such as apparent contact with someone who has died.

An accurate restatement of a text’s meaning in your own words, without presenting those words as a direct quotation.

An accurate restatement of information in your own words.

Restating an idea in your own words while keeping its original meaning.

A rhyme in which the consonant sounds correspond but the vowel sounds differ, as in “wire” and “war”. It can create an unsettled, incomplete effect.

An organism that lives in or on an organism of another species and gains resources from it, harming that organism.

An organism that lives in or on a host and obtains resources from it, harming the host.

An interaction between two different species in which one organism benefits and the other is harmed.

A relationship between species in which a parasite benefits by obtaining resources from a host, which is harmed.

A largely one-sided sense of personal connection that an audience member develops with a media figure who does not know them personally.

The division of the autonomic nervous system that supports rest, digestion and recovery, conserving energy.

Communal saving schemes in which members contributed money to a shared fund, giving them access to sums they could not easily obtain individually. Caribbean migrants used them to help afford housing.

Royal forgiveness of an offence, which could release an offender from its legal consequences.

The power parents exercise to guide their children’s behaviour and decisions, often accompanied by an expectation of obedience.

Parents’ ability to express a preference for which school their child attends, subject to available places and admission arrangements.

Settings that allow adults to manage children’s access to features such as communication and spending.

A Roman festival honouring deceased family members and ancestors, held from 13 to 21 February; its name means ‘Ancestral Days’.

An interruption within a sentence, often marked by brackets or dashes, which adds an aside or qualification.

Additional information inserted into a sentence and separated from its main structure, often by commas, dashes or brackets.

The original metal parts being joined, rather than any added filler metal.

The original unstable nucleus in a nuclear change.

The nucleus that undergoes radioactive decay.

Food containing neither meat nor dairy, which may be eaten with either when it otherwise meets kosher requirements.