Word | Definition | Sentence |
abate | (v) to reduce, lessen | The rain poured down for a while, then abated. |
abdicate | (v) to give up a position, usually one of leadership | When he realized that the revolutionaries would surely win, the king abdicated his throne. |
abduct | (v) to kidnap, take by force | The evildoers abducted the fairy princess from her happy home. |
aberration | (n) something that differs from the norm | |
abet | (v) to aid, help, encourage | The spy succeeded only because he had a friend on the inside to abet him. |
abhor | (v) to hate, detest | Because he always wound up kicking himself in the head when he tried to play soccer, Oswald began to abhor the sport. |
abide | (v) to put up with;
(v) to remain | Though he did not agree with the decision, chuck decided to abide by it. Despite the beating they've taken from the weather throughout the millennia, the mountains ABIDE. |
abject | (adj) wretched, pitiful | After losing her money, falling into a puddle, and breaking her ankle, Eloise was abject. |
abjure | (v) to reject, renounce | To prove his honesty, the President abjured the evil policies of his wicked predecessor. |
abnegation | (n) denial of comfort to oneself | The holy man slept on the floor, took only cold showers, and generally followed other practices of abnegation. |
abort | (v) to give up on a half-finished project or effort | After they ran out of food, the men attempting to jump rope around the world had to abort and go home. |
abridge | (v) to cut down, shorten | The publisher thought the dictionary was too long and abridged it. |
abridged | (adj) shortened | Moby Dick is such a long book that even the abridged version is longer than most normal books. |
abrogate | (v) to abolish, usually by authority | The Bill of Rights assures that the government cannot abrogate our right to a free press. |
abscond | (v) to sneak away and hide | In the confusion, the super spy absconded into the night with the secret plans. |
absolution | (n) release or forgiveness from blame, guilt, sin | Once all the facts were known, the jury gave Angela absolution by giving a verdict of not guilty. |
abstain | (v) to freely choose not to commit an action | Everyone demanded that Angus put on the kilt, but he did not want to do it and abstained. |
abstruse | (adj) hard to comprehend | Everyone else in the class understood geometry easily, but John found the subject abstruse. |
accede | (v) to agree, sometimes reluctantly | When the class asked the teacher whether they could play baseball instead of learn grammar they expected him to refuse, but instead he acceded to their request. |
accentuate | (v) to stress, highlight | Psychologists agree that those people who are happiest accentuate the positive in life. |
accessible | (adj) obtainable, reachable | After studying and getting a great score on the SAT, Marlena happily realized that her goal of getting into an Ivy League college was accessible. |
acclaim | (n) high praise | Greg's excellent poem on the acclaim of his friends. |
accolade | (n) high praise, special distinction | Everyone offered accolades to Sam after he won the Nobel Prize. |
accommodating | (adj) helpful, obliging, polite (usually by making adjustments or adapting) | Although the apartment was not big enough for three people, Ann, Sue and Beth were all friends and were accommodating to each other. |
accord | (n) an agreement | After much negotiating, England and Iceland finally came to a mutually-beneficial accord about fishing rights off the coast of Greenland. |
abase | (v) to humiliate, degrade | After being overthrown and abased, the deposed leader offered to bow down to his conqueror. |