Word: vastly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Americans are more optimistic now than a year ago about their well-being (88% vs. 84%); health, finances, relationships and odds of finding love (70% vs. 61%). Don't trust soda-company polls? Consumer Reports confirms that we don't plan to spend much money this Christmas, but the vast majority of us - 87% - expect this holiday season will be as happy as or even happier than last year's. Meanwhile, the Secret Society of Happy People (which "encourages the expression of happiness and discourages parade-raining") reports traffic to its not-so-secret website has increased since the downturn...
...practiced by the vast majority of laundry shops around the country, dry cleaning can be anything but clean. Most of the 35,000 dry cleaners in the U.S. use a colorless liquid called perchloroethylene (perc) as a solvent in the laundering process. Perc is not pretty - it's a volatile organic compound that in small doses can cause dizziness, headaches and respiratory irritation. Prolonged perc exposure has been linked to liver and kidney damage, and the government has identified the chemical as a potential occupational carcinogen...
Only a few weeks ago, the passage of Maine’s Question 1 overturned recent state legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry. Prior to the repeal, Maine had been one of only five states to legally recognize marriage between same-sex couples. The vast majority of states have Defense of Marriage Acts—limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples—on the books. Given that the right to marry is still withheld from many individuals because of their sexual orientation, Phillips had good cause to question the existence of “liberty and justice...
...ceremony, a modest affair by Afghan standards, was a celebration of traditional headgear. Tribesmen from the east sported vast swaths of butter-yellow silk looped into view-blocking turbans, while their southern cousins opted for the more somber black and gray. Northerners were identified by their flat-topped woolen pakols; the urban élites by their peaked karakul caps. They were outdone only by the portraits of Afghanistan's former rulers that lined the walls of the reception hall - some of those wore helmets. The first few rows were occupied by suited foreign dignitaries, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary...
...vast hall emptied within moments of Karzai's last words. A few guests lingered outside in the crisp air but were eventually pushed aside by workmen rolling up the layers of red Afghan rugs that had been laid over the concrete walkways for the occasion. Ali Seraj, great-grandson of former King Abdul Rahman Khan, Afghanistan's first modern monarch, took a nostalgia-tinged stroll through the nearby rose garden. His great-grandfather had built the turn-of-the-century palace, and Seraj took particular pride in pointing out the beautiful buildings his ancestors had once inhabited. The inauguration hall...