(1) The act of receiving. (2) A social gathering where guests are formally welcomed.

*Reception* is the noun form of *receive.* So at a formal reception, guests are received or welcomed or “taken in.” A bad TV reception means the signal isn't being received well. When a new novel receives good reviews, we say it has met with a good critical reception.

To stop, seize, or interrupt (something or someone) before arrival.

Since the prefix *inter* means “between”, it's not hard to see how *intercept* was created. Arms shipments coming to a country are sometimes intercepted, but such *interceptions* can sometimes be understood as acts of war. In football, soccer, and basketball, players try to intercept the ball as it's being passed by the other team.

Noticeable or able to be felt by the senses.

*Perceptible* includes the prefix *per-,* meaning “through,” so the word refers to whatever can be taken in through the senses. A *perceptive* person picks up minor changes, small clues, or hints and shades of meaning that others can't *perceive*, so one person's *perception*—a tiny sound, a slight change in the weather, a different tone of voice—often won't be perceptible to another.

(1) Open to some influence; responsive. (2) Able to be submitted to an action or process.

With its prefix *sus-,* “up,” *susceptible* refers to something or someone that “takes up” or absorbs like a sponge. A sickly child may be susceptible to colds, and an unlucky adult may be susceptible to back problems. A lonely elderly person may be susceptible to what a con man tells him or her on the phone.

(1) To keep (someone or something) within limits. (2) To hold (someone) in a location.

*Confine* means basically to keep someone or something within borders. Someone confined to a bedroom or a wheelchair is too ill or disabled to be anywhere else. A person under “house arrest” is confined to his or her house by the government.

(1) Authoritative and final. (2) Specifying perfectly or precisely.

Something definitive is complete and final. A definitive example is the perfect example. A definitive answer is usually a strong yes or no. A definitive biography contains everything we'll ever need to know about someone.

Having definite limits.

It has come as a shock to many of us to realize that resources such as oil— and the atmosphere's ability to absorb greenhouse gases—are finite rather than unlimited.

Extremely or immeasurably small.

Just as *infinite* describes something immeasurable (“without limit”), *infinitesimal* describes something endlessly small. When Antonie van Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope in the 17th century, he was able to see organisms that had been thought too *infinitesimally* small to exist.