Or alternatively, for a woman who holds someone else's fate in their hands?

I'm not really looking for "amazon", as that implies physical prowess, athleticism, and warrior skill. I'm looking more for someone with rulership and authority of some sort, as perceived by someone who hopes to stay on her good side.

The specific use case is in this sentence, from the POV of a character who's trying to become an artist. She had a meeting with the curator of a local gallery, and the curator is very no-nonsense, but said the viewpoint character should bring some samples. Now the viewpoint is trying to decide which of her paintings to use, and I wrote this, with the absolute wrong word capitalized:

Which pieces to show to the ice-eyed ODALISQUE who held Jessie’s artistic fate in her pale hands?

At the time, I thought an odalisque was similar to a caryatid, maybe somewhat statuesque even. Then I looked it up and discovered this word is 100% wrong for this situation!

I don't mean a termagant, or a harridan, or a harpy. She's not mean or nasty, just... in charge.

What's the opposite of an odalisque? (The "dissimilar words" section of a thesaurus lookup on "odalisque" had absolutely nothing useful.)

Edit: I'm sorry, I should have made clear, I'm looking for a noun, not an adjective.

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The example in my case is that I work for a group home. There's a weekly rec night for the residents with activities.

Residents can say no if they don't want to go and that's fine, however we're required to take all non-verbal residents to rec night every week, because as management says, "they can't say no".

This is because having more residents attending recreational activities hits metrics mandated by the government. We need to provide a certain amount of recreation for residents, and it only counts if they attend, not just if it's offered, so the people who can't say no are forced to attend.

Don't get me wrong, recreation is of course valuable to people's wellbeing and there's a lot of positive from this.

However if staff fail to take the "mandatory attendees" to rec night, there's penalties, and circumstances aren't taken into account. The biggest example being that some of these people have health issues that flare up from time to time and make them extremely ill. It's obvious that they need to stay home and rest and won't enjoy being out at rec night, but management doesn't care, they have to go anyway and if we don't take rhem we're written up or given unpaid suspensions for as they put it, neglecting the needs of residents.

I mean obviously they're just pretending to help these people just to meet metrics and sometimes doing them harm in the process. Is there a word or phrase to describe this kind of thing?

Malicious compliance seems close, but it isn't quite right.

A word or short phrase to drop in almost anywhere, if you can't be bothered to think of the actual word. I have a feeling that there are hundreds of these in every language if we really put some thought into it.

English by way of British Polari: Zhuzh (up)

English: Thing - "I got the thing."

Hawai'i Creole English / "Pidgin": Da Kine - "Kimo and I went da kine at da kine yestaday. Was choice!"

French: je ne sais quoi (I don't speak French; this might have a more concrete meaning than other items on this list)

Ok, your turn!

Omniscient isn’t it because that’s knowing everything, including the future. I need a word specifically for knowing everything from the past and present, but not the future.

The Germans probably have one. It's work related but a mouthful to say.

Simply put there's a policy that ends a day before a specific birthday but idk how to put that professionally

Hoping for something like "the policy will run [skadookey] your 65th birthday". I don't have the power to make Skadookey happen

This has been killing me all day.

It's a word that's most often used in academic/ philosophical contexts I think.

Similar to effective or practical.

If you want to achieve a certain goal you would say that you should take a BLANK approach, that it would be an issue of BLANKness or BLANKity

Also has an element of adeptness and competence; it means the most best set of actions you would take to achieve that goal

The specific context im thinking of is in ethics. If someone has some kind of moral anti-realist stance, they might say that actions are not a question of MORALITY (i.e. whether they are bad or good) but a question of BLANKity (i.e. whether or not they are the correct actions to take to achieve your intended goal

I hope these bad clues are enough for someone to go off

It might be a phrase and not a single word.

I’m trying to describe these types of people I have encountered:

My neighbor (not a legal professional in any way) who keeps giving me unsolicited and incorrect legal advice, despite knowing that I’m an attorney. He doubles down if I correct him.

Someone I know who confidently tells me my home country does not have running water or electricity, even though they know it’s my home country so I have lived there with running water and electricity. They themselves have never been.

It’s similar to the people who confidently say “that never happened” to you just because a specific experience did not happen to them.

My coworker spelled my name with a “y” and I politely corrected him and responded with the correct spelling, an “i”. I told him it’s a preference and he said it wasn’t. Maybe preference wasn’t the right word to use?

Scent and Taste Synesthesia?

Lofthouse Sugar cookies taste the way a can of Play Doh smells.

What’s the formal term for violence in a family?

I have found various phrases and such to describe this psychological phenomenon, but I can't help but wonder if there is a more accurate word for what I mean.

Specifically, I am referring to the tendency in some part of humanity to respond to any group or individual they see as "other" or "unknown" with hostility, aggression, and potentially even violence. I feel that willful ignorance is part of it, but I'm hoping for a word or phrase that is more succinct.

This topic is also the kind of thing that surely must have been brooched at some point in human literature, especially in psychology and philosophy.

Any sources that go into this topic at length would also be welcome, even if unnecessary!

Stuff like credit cards, IDs, debit cards, hotel room keys, gift cards, licenses ect. Basically everything that goes in a wallet outside of money.

I’ve been using this too much in my writing; but I never seem to find a synonym or close synonym to describe something the way I would with “couldn’t help but”.
Are there any words you know of?

I appreciate the help ♡

If a detective finds a smoking gun and then on the next chapter The smoking gun turns out to be the murder weapon that's chekhov's gun, but for example on chapter 5 the detective can't find much evidence so they don't find The smoking gun and now fans of that series are speculating how the murderer killed the victim and someone brings up using a gun, now sure the murderer could have used the gun but you think if the murderer used the gun there would be information that would hint to the murderer using a gun, the writer wouldn't just leave you to speculate at least not like that, for example fans arguing about something and then they're bringing up situations and how something could have happened for example how a character has an extra set of legs for example and then bringing up rare genetic disorders or other operations, if it was truly the case that the character had a surgery or some sort of operation you would think that you know the story would hit to that or tell you that in some way they wouldn't just not include it and expect you to know

Oblivious is a good example for someone who isn’t self aware but is there a term to specifically describe a person’s lack of physical awareness?

recently I’ve been realizing my “crushes” might just be that I love the idea of being in love/having a romantic relationship, rather than actually liking the person, and I don’t know what word describes that

(EDIT - thanks for all the suggestions!! I think cupioromantic really describes me but I think its mixed with limerence and romanticizing love like another commenter said. its been on my mind a lot so thank you all so much!)

I mean as opposite to higher, more abstract concepts. Example: "A program is ________ a single executeable file."

I saw a comment where someone was describing a scenario in which they were a member of a group of people pretending to be one way, when they themselves are not that way (the group "jokingly" likes a movie, the commenter genuinely enjoys the movie). Is there a word of phrase for a member of a group individually believing they're the only one who is doing something different from the group secretly, when in fact thats the case for everyone in the group?

Like if you walk around Disneyland for hours enjoying yourself and you always simultaneously are getting a bunch of exercise, I feel like the word 'exercise' or joyful exercising etc isn't the right word. A happier version of the word exercise?

So they basically make sure the team only works if they are in charge or at least to be credited, or, at the very least, nothing goes through without their blessing.

Basically would actively sabotage a team or have a dead man's switch if the group or team progresses without them.

Basically, they would prefer the team lose rather than the team win without them

So I'm looking for a phrase used to discount something (I think?) Like
"I can't do X, (phrase) doing Y"
or
"How long had it been since I'd been complimented at all, (phrase) on my looks?"

It feels like "much less" but I don't think it's "much less." I feel like there's an 'N' in there? Sorry for the vagueness, it's 4:30 A.M. and I have one brain cell.

I'm looking for a specific term, trope name, or phrase to describe this exact relationship dynamic:

Character A completely defeats Character B is in a major fight but spares their life. After that, they are no longer actively fighting, but they are definitely not friends. They just happen to cross paths or coexist in the same space.

Occasionally, Character A will gloat, mock, or casually remind Character B that they beat them. Character B just clenches their teeth and takes the humiliation without fighting back, purely out of self-preservation, because they know Character A would absolutely destroy them if they tried to retaliate.

Is there a defined term for this status? Similar to how we use "rivals," "frenemies," or "enemies to lovers," what do you call this specific asymmetrical, forced-truce dynamic?

I need an adjective for someone who only gives praise or commendation when it’s actually earned. Not necessarily a negative or mean thing, just a person who is firm about it.

An example would be a teacher who doesn’t award a student until they do something correctly or show genuine effort.

I mean when you have no negative feelings toward someone, but you don't make an effort to interact with them either. You're simply not in the same circles, and there's no particular desire to change that. It's not avoidance or dislike, just that you would never really cross paths.

This is the sentence:

I found how much I cared about the people I once ____

What is an appropriately revolting word for a person who is not merely dirty, but filth is his natural state. He enjoys it, seeks it out and actively thrives in it. If you put that person in a clean environment, the person will strive hard to fill it with filth.

I know English language has no words like that. But maybe some other language does? It will be great if the word also forms a superlative, eg, you are the filthiest person I've seen in life.

Any Spanish speakers here. What does Gochu mean?