| Question |
Answer |
| Aggrandize |
To increase in power, influence, and reputation |
| Ameliorate |
To make better; to improve |
| Antipathy |
Extreme dislike |
| Ardor |
Intense and passionate feeling |
| Assuage |
To make something unpleasant, less severe |
| Attenuate |
To reduce in force or degree; to weaken |
| Audacious |
Fearless and daring |
| Austere |
severe or stern in appearance; undecorated |
| Banal |
Predictable, cliched, boring |
| Bombastic |
Pompous in speech and manner |
| Candid |
Impartial and honest in speech |
| Capricious |
Changing one's mind quickly and often |
| Castigate |
To punish or criticize harshly |
| Caustic |
Biting in wit; sarcastic |
| Chicanery |
Deception by means of craft or guile |
| Cogent |
Convincing and well reasoned |
| Condone |
To overlook, pardon or disregard |
| Deference |
Respect, courtesy |
| Deride |
To speak of or treat with contempt; to mock |
| Desiccate |
To dry out thoroughly |
| Desultory |
Jumping from one thing to another; disconnected |
| Diffident |
Lacking self-confidence |
| Dilatory |
Intended to delay |
| Dilettante |
Someone with an amateurish and superficial interest in a topic |
| Disabuse |
To set right; to free from error |
| Dissemble |
To present a false appearance; to disguise one's real intentions or character |
| Dissonance |
A harsh and disagreeable combination, often of sounds |
| Enervate |
To reduce in strength, weaken |
| Engender |
To produce, cause, or bring about |
| Ephemeral |
Lasting a short time |
| Equivocate |
To use expressions of double meaning in order to mislead |
| Erudite |
Learned, scholarly, bookish |
| Esoteric |
Known or understood by only a few |
| Estimable |
Admirable; able to be esteemed |
| Euphemism |
Use of an inoffensive word or phrase in place of a more distasteful one |
| Exculpate |
To clear from blame; prove innocent |
| Exigent |
Urgent, requiring immediate action |
| Fawn |
To grovel |
| Fervid |
Intensely emotional; feverish |
| Foment |
To arouse or incite |
| Garrulous |
Tending to talk a lot; loquacious |
| Gregarious |
Outgoing, sociable |
| Guile |
Deceit or trickery |
| Iconoclast |
One who opposes established beliefs, customs, and institutions |
| Impetuous |
Quick to act without thinking; impulsive |
| Implacable |
unable to be calmed down or made peaceful |
| Inchoate |
Not fully formed, disorganized |
| Ingenuous |
Showing innocence or childlike simplicity |
| Inimical |
Hostile, unfriendly |
| Insipid |
Lacking interest or flavor |
| Intransigent |
Uncompromising; refusing to be reconciled |
| Irascible |
Easily made angry; |
| Laconic |
Using few words |
| Loquacious |
Talkative |
| Misanthrope |
A person who dislikes others |
| Mitigate |
To soften, lessen |
| Obdurate |
Hardened in feeling; resistant to persuasion |
| Obsequious |
Overly submissive and eager to please |
| Obstinate |
Stubborn, unyielding |
| Obviate |
To prevent; to make unnecessary |
| Onerous |
Troublesome and oppressive; burdensom |
| Opprobrium |
Public disgrace |
| Ostentation |
Excessive showiness |
| Paragon |
Model of excellence or perfection |
| Pedant |
Someone who shows off learning |
| Perfidious |
Willing to betray one's trust |
| Perfunctory |
Done in a routine way; indifferent |
| Plethora |
Excess |
| Pragmatic |
Practical as opposed to idealistic |
| Precipitate |
To throw violently or bring about abruptly; lacking deliberation |
| Prevaricate |
To talk in a way that is not truthful but avoids being honest |
| Propitiate |
To conciliate; to appease |
| Quiescent |
Motionless |
| Rarefy |
To make thinner or sparser |
| Repudiate |
To reject the validity of |
| Reticent |
Reserved, silent |
| Soporific |
Causing sleep or lethargy |
| Specious |
Deceptively attractive; seemingly plausible but fallacious |
| Stolid |
Unemotional; lacking sensitivity |
| Sublime |
Lofty or grand |
| Tacit |
Done without using words |
| Taciturn |
Silent, not talkative |
| Torpor |
Extreme mental and physical sluggishness |
| Venerate |
To respect deeply |
| Veracity |
Filled with truth and accuracy |
| Veracious |
Honest, truthful |
| Zeal |
Passion, excitement |