An official representative, such as an ambassador.

*Legate* is a somewhat old-fashioned word, less used today than it was a century ago. More common is the synonym *envoy*. In the days before electronic communications, a legate often had particularly large responsibilities, since he couldn't check with his government to be sure he was doing the right thing. The Vatican still sends papal legates to represent the pope's point of view in negotiations.

(1) Something left to a person in a will. (2) Something handed down by an ancestor or predecessor or received from the past.

In its basic meaning, a legacy is a gift of money or other personal property that's granted by the terms of a will—often a substantial gift that needs to be properly managed. But the word is used much more broadly as well. So, for instance, much of Western civilization—law, philosophy, aesthetics— could be called the undying legacy of ancient Greece. And the rights and opportunities that women enjoy today are partly the legacy of the early suffragists and feminists.

A group of people chosen to represent the interests or opinions of others.

The task of a delegation—each member of which can be called a *delegate*—is to represent a larger group, often at a conference. Thus, a delegation of nondoctors to a medical convention may want to make sure the rights and needs of patients aren't ignored, just as a delegation of laypeople may attend a religious conference to express the concerns of other laypeople.

(1) To remove or assign to a less important place. (2) To refer or hand over for decision or for carrying out.

Originally *relegate* meant “to send into exile, banish.” So when you relegate an old sofa to the basement, you're sending it to home-decorating Siberia. When confronted with a matter that no one really wants to face, a chief executive may relegate it to a committee “for further study,” which may manage to ignore it for years. It may be annoying to read a newspaper article about a pet project and find that your own contributions have been relegated to a short sentence near the end.

A collection or sum of units or parts.

An aggregate is often an example of something being greater than the sum of its parts. For instance, even if no individual element in a person's background would assure a criminal career, the aggregate of factors could make a life of crime seem unavoidable. *Aggregate* is often used in the phrase “in the aggregate,” as in “Her achievements were, in the aggregate, impressive enough to earn her a scholarship.” *Aggregate* is also an adjective, meaning “total”; so, for instance, economists often discuss aggregate demand for goods and services in the country's economy, just as you yourself might speak about your father's aggregate income from his three jobs.

(1) A gathering of people, especially for worship or religious instruction. (2) The membership of a church or temple.

The verb *congregate* may be used for spontaneous gatherings. A crowd quickly congregates at the scene of an accident, for example, just as cows, sheep, or horses tend to congregate during a storm. And under military rule, citizens are often forbidden to congregate on street corners or anywhere else. But a congregation is generally a group that has gathered for a formal purpose, usually in church. The Congregational Church was originally the church of the Puritan settlers, in which each congregation governed its own church independent of any higher authority.

Standing out, especially in a bad way; flagrant.

Since *egregious* begins with a short version of *ex-*, meaning “out of,” the word should mean literally “out of the herd.” So something egregious possesses some quality that sets it apart from others. Originally, that distinguishing quality was something good, but by the 16th century the word's meaning had taken a U-turn and the word was being applied to things that were outrageously bad. This has remained the most common sense. Thus, an egregious fool is one who manages to outdo run-of-the-mill fools, and egregious rudeness sets a new standard for unpleasant salesclerks.

(1) To separate from others or from the general mass; isolate. (2) To separate along racial lines.

The prefix *se-* means “apart,” so when you segregate something you set it apart from the herd. The word typically means separating something undesirable from the healthy majority. During the apple harvest, damaged fruit is segregated from the main crop and used for cider. In prisons, hardened criminals are segregated from youthful offenders. Lepers used to be segregated from the general population because they were thought to be highly infectious. The opposite of *segregate* is often *integrate,* and the two words were in the news almost daily for decades as African-Americans struggled to be admitted into all-white schools and neighborhoods.