| Word |
Definition |
| acerbic | having a sour or bitter taste or character |
| amalgamate | to combine several elements into a whole |
| amenable | agreeable; responsive to suggestion |
| intrepid | steadfast and courageous |
| laconic | using few words; terse |
| malleable | capable of being shaped or formed; tractable; pliable |
| bolster | to provide support or reinforcement |
| bombast | self-important or pompous in writing or speech |
| maverick | an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party |
| mendacity | the condition of being untruthful; dishonesty |
| inimitable | one of a kind; peerless |
| iniquity | gross injustice; wickedness |
| innervate | to supply with nerves; to embolden; to energize |
| enervate | to weaken; to reduce in vitality |
| inscrutable | incapable of being discovered or understood |
| insensible | unconscious; unresponsive; unaffected; numb |
| insouciant | unconcerned; carefree; heedless |
| insular | parochial; narrow-minded |
| bombastic | pompous; grandiloquent |
| credulous | tending to believe too readily; gullible |
| diatribe | a harsh denunciation |
| fawn | to flatter or praise excessively |
| fervent | greatly emotional or zealous |
| flout | to demonstrate contempt for, as in a rule or convention |
| fortuitous | happening by fortunate accident or chance |
| garrulous | pointlessly talkative; talking too much |
| interdict | to prohibit; to forbid; to ban; to halt |
| inveigh | to attack verbally; to denounce; to deprecate |
| inveterate | deep-rooted; ingrained; habitual |
| involute | intricate; complex; convoluted |
| mercurial | characterized by rapid and unpredictable change in mood |
| meticulous | characterized by extreme care and precision; attentive to detail |
| mollify | to calm or soothe; to reduce in emotional intensity |
| germane | relevant to the subject at hand; appropriate in subject matter |
| glib | marked by ease or informality; nonchalant; lacking in depth; superficial |
| halcyon | calm and peaceful |
| hubris | arrogant presumption or pride |
| itinerate | to travel from place to place; to peregrinate |
| jejune | vapid; uninteresting; immature; puerile |
| jibe | to agree; to be in accord |
| rhetoric | the art or study of effective use of language for communication |
| indifferent | having no interest or concern; showing no bias or prejudice |
| rancorous | characterized by bitter, long-lasting resentment |
| implacable | not capable of being appeased or significantly changed |
| pragmatic | practical rather than idealistic |
| impetuous | hastily or rashly energetic; impulsive and vehement |
| polemical | controversial; argumentative |
| imperturbable | marked by extreme calm, impassivity and steadiness |
| plethora | an overabundance; a surplus |
| imminent | about to happen; impending |
| peccadillo | a slight offense; literally, a minor sin |
| paucity | scarcity; a lacking of |
| partisan | committed to a party; biased or prejudiced |
| officious | meddlesome; pushy in one's services |
| obstreperous | noisy; loud |
| obloquy | abusively detractive language; sharp criticism; vituperation; calumny |
| nugatory | trifling; inconsequential |
| nostrum | panacea; cure-all; placebo; questionable remedy; palliative |
| pirate | to illegally use or reproduce |
| phlegmatic | calm; sluggish; unemotional |
| idolatrous | given to intense or excessive devotion to something |
| pervasive | having the tendency to permeate or spread throughout |
| macerate | to waste away; to soften or wear away by excessive fasting or by excessive steeping (soaking in liquid) |
| luculent | easily understood; lucid; clear |
| lubricious | lewd; wanton; greasy; slippery |
| jocose | humorous; gay; blithe |
| obdurate | unyielding; hardhearted; intractable |
| obfuscate | to deliberately obscure; to make confusing |
| obsequious | exhibiting a fawning attentiveness |
| obstinate | stubborn; hardheaded; uncompromising |
| jocular | humorous; gay; blithe |
| labile | readily open to change; unstable |
| limpid | transparent; serene; clear; untroubled; pellucid |
| parsimonious | cheap; miserly |
| ossified | tending to become more rigid; conventional; sterile and reactionary with age; literally, turned into bone |
| parry | to block; to evade or ward off, as a blow |
| ostensible | seeming; appearing as such; professed |
| pariah | an outcast; a rejected and despised person |
| overweening | presumptuously arrogant; supercilious; overbearing |
| paradigm | a model, example, or pattern; exemplar |
| panegyric | formal praise; eulogy; encomium |
| nonplused | baffled; in a quandary; at a loss for what to say or do. (also spelled with double consonant) |
| palliate | to make something appear less serious; to gloss over |
| noisome | offensive, especially to one's sense of smell; fetid |
| nexus | a connection, tie, or link |
| maculate | marked by spots or blotches; besmirched; impure |
| nadir | low point; perigee |
| opprobrium | disgrace; contempt; scorn |
| pervade | to permeate throughout |
| ostentatious | characterized by or given to pretentiousness |
| lachrymose | causing tears; tearful |
| pedantic | the parading of learning; excessive attention to minutiae and formal rules |
| limn | to draw; to outline in detail; to delineate; to describe |
| salubrious | promoting health or well-being |
| malinger | to feign illness so as to avoid work; to avoid work |
| lambaste | to censure; to excoriate; to berate |
| maunder | to digress; to meander; to stray from the topic or path |
| lassitude | listlessness; languor; weariness |
| sedulous | diligent; persistent; hard-working |
| libertine | someone unrestrained by morality or convention |
| mettlesome | courageous; high-spirited |
| solvent | able to meet financial obligations; able to dissolve another substance |
| multifarious | varied; motley; greatly diversified |
| mendicant | beggar; supplicant |
| misogynist | one who hates women/females |
| soporific | causing drowsiness; tending to induce sleep |
| minatory | menacing; threatening |
| meretricious | cheap; gaudy; tawdry; flashy; showy |
| militate | to have weight; to bear on; to argue (against) |
| metamorphose | to transform; to change utterly |
| mellifluous | sweetly flowing, usually used to describe use of words |
| mettle | strength of spirit; high-spirited |
