Used on it's own, this nouns is often linked to the judicial and administrative jargon (its meaning varying from 'ordinance', to 'provision', 'decree', 'order'...)
Used in day to day language, it is to be found in structures such as:
zur Verfügung stehen --- to be at disposal
"bezeichnen" has the verb "zeichnen", "to draw" in it. When you are describing something, or marking something, or labelling something, you are "drawing" it.
more often used in the sense of "to fall heavily from the sky":
Der Regen ging den ganzen Tag ins Tal nieder --- The rain fell heavily all day in the valley.
Seine Erklärung leuchtete mir ein. --- His explanations made things clearer for me
Me? No, Eszka lives there. ME-Eszka
Poor Tess, not only is she blind, but she's ALSO got a lisp, so she can't say her name properly, it sounds like Tesh
My friend Tzougan (he's Greek) always asks me whether I prefer to have my milk before or after in my tea. And I always answer: "Before,Tzougan"
Es wäre ideal, wenn du mir jetzt eine Massage geben würdest. --- It would ideal if you would now give me a massage. 
From o5com on Flickr
This may be written exactly the same, but as for pronunciation, it's a different matter. This might help. Your dear friend Al has just made mess and you say to him: "Eeeh, dear Al, that's not ideal!"
Imagine you're trying to say Gas with an L
Literally: countryside-economy
das Land (country/countryside) + die Wirtschaft (economy)
Compound nouns in German always take the gender of the last noun, so in this case:
die Landwirtschaft
Normally Dingo quite enjoyed the rain, but this time he found it pretty dismal
From StevenMDean on Flickr
My friend Jamal he's always dissing me, so this time I've found a nickname for him: Dissmal.
The men in Troy, or otherwise called the Troymen, must have been dreaming when they let the wooden horse in. No way where they going to win the war now: dream on, Troymen...
From tj scenes on Flickr
Spelling: it's spelled exactly like a boot
But to pronounce it, imagine a Scotsman saying the word boat, with a long o, o:
So imagine a Scotsman in a boat
By og2t // ou gee tew tee on Flickr
Der berühmte Künstler Hundertwasser hat den BAHNHOF in Uelzen entworfen. --- The famous artist Hundertwasser designed the RAILWAY STATION in Uelzen. 
By Coreforce on Flickr
"Ich vestehe nur Bahnhof!" --- (= I understand only railway station) is an idiom meaning: "It's all Greek to me!" 
Image from Kim Scarbourough on Flickr
Reclam ist ein sehr wichtiger Verlag in Deutschland. --- Reclam is a very important publishing house in Germany. 
By coccu on Flickr
In order to be fair to the exhausted writers, the publishing houses have to give them a time lag before they are expected to be creative again an write another book.
Publishing houses generally call this rule the fair-lag rule.
Wo hält dieser Zug an? --- Where does this train stop? 
From Train Chartering & Private Rail Cars on Flickr
I say, stop there, Anne! Anne, halt! you've forgotten to put your hat on!
Anne! halt! on!
It's exactly the same as in English:fremd = foreign and die Sprache = language
In German you can make compound words: fremd + die Sprache= die Fremdsprache
The gender of the created compound is always the gender of the last word.
Hansel and Gretel lived in a wood, whereas Insel and Gritel lived on an island. 
from Christina Spicuzza on Flickr
Reagan simply hated the rain.
"The fact that man-made airplanes actually fly, is a bit of a fluke", Zoik the alien thought to himself.
from LabyrinthX on Flickr
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