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list 5
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| abject | Of low condition; wretched or miserable in kind |
| absolution | The formal remission of a sin by a priest |
| abut | To touch at one end or side; to border upon |
| abysmal | Relating to an abyss; limitless; profound |
| acerbic | Bitter or sharp |
| acolyte | A devoted follower |
| agog | Full of excitement; eager |
| alcove | A recess or partially enclosed portion of a room |
| ameliorate | To make better |
| antecedent | Going before; a preceding occurrence or event |
| antithetical | Diametrically opposed |
| apprise | To give notice to; to inform |
| ascribe | To attribute to a specific reason; to assign as a quality |
| aspersion | A damaging remark; slander |
| asunder | Into separate parts |
| augury | Omen; the art of divination |
| avow | To acknowledge openly |
| baneful | Causing death or ruin; harmful |
| bombast | Pompous speech or writing |
| broach | To bring up for discussion or debate |
| brogue | A strong dialectal accent |
| brook | To put up with or tolerate |
| burgeon | To grow and flourish |
| burnish | To make smooth or glossy; to polish |
| cajole | To urge with flattery or repeated appeals; to wheedle |
| chicanery | Deception by trickery; a trick |
| collate | To compare carefully to find points of disagreement; to arrange or assemble in careful order |
| contiguous | Touching or joining at the edge or boundary |
| contrite | Penitent or remorseful |
| convivial | Fond of feasting, drinking and good company; sociable |
| convoke | To call together or assemble; to convene |
| cordon | A lined barrier (oft. of cord or ribbon) |
| countervail | To act against with equal force; to counteract |
| crass | So crude and unrefined as to be lacking in manners and sensibility |
| cupidity | A keen sense of desire; avarice or greed |
| cursory | Performed with haste and scant attention to detail |
| dalliance | A frivolous spending of time; playful flirtation |
| dandy | A man who effects extreme elegance in clothes and manners; a fop |
| dawdle | To waste time by idling |
| debauch | To corrupt morally |
| demagogue | A leader who obtains power through impassioned appeals to emotions and prejudice |
| denizen | Inhabitant |
| dereliction | Deserted by an owner; run-down or dilapidated |
| dervish | One possessed of abundant and often frenzied energy |
| diffuse | To pour out and cause to spread freely; to soften; widely spread out |
| droll | Amusingly odd |
| eccentric | Departing from a recognized, conventional or established norm; off-center or odd |
| edify | To instruct; to help improve intellectually, spiritually or morally |
| egregious | Conspicuously bad or offensive |
| emblazon | To adorn richly with prominent markings; to make illustrious |
| enmity | Deep-seated, often mutual hatred |
| ensign | A standard or banner (oft. of a military unit); a sign or token |
| equivocal | Open to two or more interpretations and often intended to mislead; ambiguous |
| erudite | Widely learned |
| eschew | To avoid or shun |
| espouse | To marry or give/take in marriage; to give one’s loyalty to (esp. a cause or principle) |
| eulogy | A speech or piece of writing for someone who has died; high praise or condemnation |
| euthanasia | The act of ending the life of an individual in great pain or doomed to great suffering |
| exemplar | One worthy of imitation; an archetype or example |
| exorbitant | Exceeding all bounds of custom or fairness |
| extrapolate | To infer or estimate by extending or projecting known information |
| extemporaneous | Done with little or no preparation |
| fastidious | Possessing or displaying meticulous attention to detail |
| fawn | A young deer; to seek favor or attention by flattery |
| flak | Anti-aircraft artillery; excessive or abusive criticism |
| flippant | Marked by disrespectful levity or casualness |
| fluke | A stroke of good luck; an accident |
| grievous | Causing grief, pain or anguish |
| hackneyed | Overly familiar though overuse; commonplace |
| harbinger | One that indicates or foreshadows what will come |
| harrow | To inflict great distress and torment on |
| headlong | Head first; rashly |
| hieroglyph W | ritten in a script in which pictorial symbols represent meanings and sounds; difficult to decipher |
| highfalutin | Pompous or pretentious |
| homeostasis | Internal equilibrium |
| idiosyncrasy | A quality or habit peculiar to an individual or a specific group |
| immutable | Unchangeable |
| impromptu | Prompted by the occasion rather than being planned in advance |
| imprudent | Unwise |
| impudent | Marked by offensive boldness; insolent |
| incursion | A raid or invasion into a foreign territory the act of entering into |
| indelible | Incapable of being blotted out, effaced, destroyed, or removed |
| indict | To accuse of or charge with wrongdoing |
| inflammable | Very flammable |
| insinuate | To introduce a thought gradually and insidiously |
| interpolate | To insert or introduce between other elements or parts |
| irony | The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their meaning |
| itinerate | To travel from one place to another |
| jilt | To deceive or drop (a lover) suddenly or callously |
| jocular | Marked by joking |
| juxtapose | To place side-by-side |
| languid | Lacking energy, force or vitality |
| lascivious | Given to or expressing lust; salacious or lecherous |
| laud | To praise |
| lechery | Excess indulgence in sexual activity; lewdness |
| libel | A false publication in writing that damages another’s reputation |
| liberality | The quality or state of being generous |
| lionize | To look on or treat (a person) as a celebrity |
| lithe | Supple; marked by effortless grace |
| lollygag | To waste time by puttering aimlessly; to dawdle |
| lope | To run or ride with a steady, easy gait; a steady, easy gait |
| loquacious | Talkative |
| lumber | Something useless or cumbersome; timber sawed into boards; to walk or move with a heavy clumsiness |
| macabre | Suggesting the horror of death or decay; gruesome |
| maladroit | Marked by a lack of adroitness; inept |
| malaise | A vague feeling of uneasiness or ill-being |
| maverick | An unbranded animal; a dissenter |
| megalomania | Delusion about one’s own wealth, power or greatness |
| mellifluous | Flowing with sweetness or honey; smooth and sweet |
| mercurial | Quick and changeable in temperament; volatile |
| mettle | Courage; inherent quality of character and temperament |
| molt | To shed periodically all or part of a covering (esp. skin or feathers) |
| multifarious | Having great diversity or variety |
| nebulous | Cloudy, misty or hazy; vague |
| nefarious | Infamous by way of being extremely wicked |
| neophyte | A beginner or novice |
| occlude | To obstruct or prevent the passage of |
| odium | Strong dislike, contempt or aversion |
| onus | A burden or responsibility |
| ostensible | Represented or appearing as such; professed |
| pallor | Extreme or unnatural paleness |
| palpable | Capable of being touched or felt; perceivable |
| peccadillo | A small sin or fault |
| peruse | To read or examine (esp. with care) |
| petulant | Peevish or ill-behaved; bratty |
| pithy | Forceful and brief; precisely meaningful |
| plaintive | Expressing sorrow; melancholy or mournful |
| pluck | Resourceful courage in the face of danger; spirit |
| plumb | To determine the depth of something; a weight on the end of a line used to determine water depth |
| pomp | Magnificent display (oft. ostentatious) |
| preclude | To make impossible; to prevent |
| precocious | Manifesting unusually early development or maturity (esp. in mental aptitude) |
| predilection | A disposition in favor of something; a preference |
| preen | To smooth or clean feathers with the beak; to primp; to exult |
| profuse | Plentiful or copious; extravagant |
| proliferate | To increase or spread rapidly; to cause to increase or grow rapidly |
| propagation | To cause to multiply, spread or breed |
| prostrate | To bow down in humility or adoration; lying face down in submission |
| pucker | To gather or become gathered into small folds or wrinkles (esp. used in regard to the lips) |
| pugilist | Someone who fights with the fists; a boxer |
| pugnacious | Prone to quarrel or fight; belligerent |
| pulchritude | Great physical beauty |
| pundit | A (supposedly) learned critic or expert |
| qualm | A fit of nausea, sickness of faintness |
| quandary | A puzzling predicament |
| quibble | To evade the truth with trivial objections; a petty objection |
| quiescent | Being quiet or still; inactive |
| raze | To level to the ground; to demolish |
| requite | To make repayment; to return |
| resonant | Strong and deep in tone; having a prolong, subtle or stimulating effect beyond the |
| initial | impact |
| respite | A short interval of rest or relief |
| retinue | A train of people accompanying an important person |
| ruffian | A thug |
| ruminate | To chew food previously swallowed and regurgitated; to turn a matter over in the mind repeatedly |
| rumple | To wrinkle or fold into creases; to become wrinkled |
| sanctimony | Feigned piety; hypocritical devoutness |
| satyr | A debauched goat-man creature in Greek mythology; a very lascivious man |
| savant | A learned person or scholar; an idiot savant |
| seminal | Of or relating to semen or seed; creative; highly influential in an original way |
| seminary | A school for theological training |
| sentient | Having sense perception; conscious |
| sere | Withered or dry |
| serrated | Saw-toothed |
| shiv | A razor, knife or any other sharp instrument used as a weapon |
| sluggard | A person habitually lazy or idle |
| sodden | Thoroughly soaked; saturated |
| soporific | Causing sleep; something that causes sleep |
| spurn | To reject disdainfully |
| staid | Sedately dignified; sober |
| staunch | Firm and steadfast |
| stoic | Unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure or pain; one so |
| sublimate | To modify of subdue the natural expression of (usu. an impulse) |
| subterfuge | A deceptive stratagem or device |
| succor | Assistance in time of want or difficulty; to give aid to |
| sumptuous | Of a size or splendor suggesting great expense; lavish |
| supersede | To take the place of or replace; to cause to be set aside |
| supine | Lying on the back |
| suppliant | Asking humbly and earnestly; a supplicant |
| sycophant | A servile flatterer, especially of those in authority or influence |
| synopsis | A brief outline or overview; a summary |
| synergy | Cooperative interaction for a combined effect |
| taciturn | Habitually disinclined to speak |
| tangential | Merely touching or slightly connected; superficially relevant |
| tantalize | To taunt by offering something desirable while keeping it just out of reach |
| taut | Stretched tight |
| tawdry | Gaudy and cheap in nature or appearance |
| torque | A turning or twisting force |
| travail | Hard or agonizing labor; toil or tribulation; to work hard or toil |
| trepidation | A state of alarm or dread; apprehension |
| trifling | Of slight worth or importance; frivolous or idle |
| truant | Absent without permission (esp. from school); lazy or neglectful; one who is absent without permission |
| twit | A foolishly annoying person; to taunt or tease; a taunt or tease |
| undulate | To move or cause to move in smooth, wave-like motion |
| unkempt | Not combed; disorderly or rude |
| vapid | Lacking liveliness or interest; dull or flat |
| variegated | Having marks, patches or streaks of different colors; varied |
| veer | To turn aside or steer off course |
| vehement | Strong, forceful or intense in expression; fervid |
| veneer | A thin, outside layer; a deceptive or superficial facade |
| venerate | To regard with respect or reverence |
| verbiage | An excess of words; wordiness |
| visage | The face, countenance, or look of a person |
| visceral | Affecting the intestines; profound or instinctive |
| viscous | Having a relatively high resistance to flow; thick and sludgy |
| wean | To transfer (the young) from dependence on mother's milk to another form of nourishment |
| wrest | To obtain or take by pulling with a violent, twisting motion |
| writ | A written order issued by a court; writings |
| wry | Dryly humorous (oft. with a touch of irony); twisted or bent to one side (e.g. a ‘wry smile’) |
Created by:
msbabione
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