| Word |
Sentence |
Definition |
| Abnegation | His giving up of the throne was an act of ABNEGATION. | renouncing, giving up his rights |
| Abstruse | Modern physics is too ABSTRUSE for untrained people to understand. | difficult, deep, recondite |
| Acrid | We were all afraid of his ACRID wit. | biting, sharp, caustic |
| Affront | He deliberately AFFRONTED his opponent. | insulted, offended, was offensive when face to face with |
| Anachronism | There may be a few piston-driven planes in use twenty years from now, but they will be ANACHRONISMS in the jet age. | an outmoded thing, an anomaly |
| August | The king's AUGUST presence repressed all levity. | impressive, awe inspiring, dignified |
| Cacophony | Modern jazz to him sounded like mere CACOPHONY. | noise, discord, disharmony |
| Chagrin | When I dropped the tea cup, I blushed with CHAGRIN. | embarrassment, mortification, discomfiture |
| Clandestine | The conspirators held a CLANDESTINE meeting. | secret, furtive, surreptitious |
| Contumely | Instead of listening to my explanation, he brushed me aside with CONTUMELY. | scorn, contempt, insolence |
| Deprecate | I approve of John's actions, even though you DEPRECATE them. | oppose, plead earnestly against, disapprobate |
| Desultory | It will take more than DESULTORY efforts to reach our goal. | occasional, random, haphazard |
| Eclectic | His ideas are ECLECTIC but unified. | gathered from many sources |
| Egregious | He made EGREGIOUS errors in his work, so they fired him. | bad, obvious, flagrant |
| Enamored | John was deeply ENAMORED of his new bride, infatuated with her shallow prettiness. | fond, loving |
| Eschew | If you want to get ahead, stick to your work and ESCHEW late hours and parties. | stay away from, shun, abstain from |
| Facile | John's mind is so FACILE he always agrees with the most recent speaker. | easily influenced, complaisant |
| Fickle | Four broken engagements in three years showed her to be as FICKLE as she was attractive. | changing, unstable, inconstant |
| Generic | Keen eyesight in the cat family is not unusual; in fact it seems to be GENERIC. | common, widespread, general |
| Harbinger | The first robin is the HARBINGER of spring. | sign, foreteller |
| Hypochondriac | My uncle is such a HYPOCHONDRIAC that he buys a new medicine every week. | worried about his health, taken with imaginary illness |
| Impute | Why does she IMPUTE such thoughts to me? They aren't my ideas. | charge, attribute, ascribe |
| Ineptitude | Because of his INEPTITUDE he was taken off the job. | clumsiness, unfitness, inefficiency |
| Intrepid | The sailors wanted to turn back, but the INTREPID captain ordered them to sail on. | brave, fearless, dauntless |
| Juxtapose | If the paintings are JUXTAPOSED, their similarity becomes obvious. | set together, put in proximity |
| Labyrinth | To discourage through traffic, the streets were laid out in a LABYRINTH of curves and dead ends. | confusing pattern, entanglement, maze |
| Maciavellian | These MACHIAVELLIAN policies kept the old man in power but made him feared and mistrusted. | sly, wily, astute. |
| Mellifluous | From somewhere nearby came the MELLIFLUOUS tones of a fine violin. | sweetly flowing, smooth, honied |
| Nomad | John is a regular NOMAD; he hates to settle down and just likes to roam. | wanderer, gypsy, itinerant |
| Ostentatious | John does not write Ph. D. after his name because he thinks that would be OSTENTATIOUS. | showing off, pretentious |
| Paradox | He is so wise in some ways and so foolish in others that he is a living PARADOX. | inconsistency, apparent contradiction |
| Pathos | The PATHOS of the child's death on Christmas Eve filled us all with sadness. | pitifulness, sympathy-evoking nature |
| Pensive | John sat there so PENSIVE, so lost in his own thoughts, that he did not hear us call. | meditative, absorbed |
| Philistine | Some people are such PHILISTINES that they see modern art merely as an excuse for jokes. | so uncultured, unrefined, ignorant |
| Poignant | At my daughter's graduation, I suddenly had a POIGNANT realization that my child had grown up. | sharp, painful, keen |
| Prate | We let the little girl PRATE on without listening to her. | chatter, babble |
| Propinquity | The only trouble with this apartment is its PROPINQUITY to a lower class tavern. | nearness, closeness, proximity |
| Redress | For years he has tried to get REDRESS for the damage done to his property. | repayment, remedy, reparation |
| Reticent | Don't be so RETICENT; tell us what happened. | reluctant to speak, reversed |
| Satiated | He played so many records that we became SATIATED with music. | fed up, wearied, surfeited |
