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Iolani12Vocab2012
12th grade vocab list 1 2012
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| abolish | vt. to put an end to; to eliminate. Slavery in America was officially abolished in 1863. |
| acrimonious | adj. bitter, resentful. The acrimonious controversy destroyed some friendships. |
| affront | vt. to offend. The guest’s jokes about the food affronted his hosts. n. an open insult or indignity. His jokes about the food were an affront to his hosts. |
| ameliorate | vt. to relieve, as from hardship. Reduced taxes ameliorated economic conditions. |
| apocryphal | (uh-POCK-ruh-phul) adj. of doubtful authenticity; fake. Biographers must distinguish true stories from apocryphal ones. |
| arsenal | n. collection, esp. of military arms. The US agreed to reduce its nuclear arsenal. |
| auspicious | adj. promising success. Fine weather in the spring is auspicious for farmers. |
| brevity | n. shortness, conciseness. A poem of such brevity is a bad choice for a speech contest. |
| burgeon | vi. to sprout, bloom, flourish. Wildflowers burgeoned as spring turned to summer. |
| catastrophic | adj. disastrous. Allowing Hitler to gain power was a catastrophic error. |
| circumlocution | n. wordy, roundabout language. The circumlocution in the report confused me. |
| cogent | (CO-jint) adj. convincing, logical. The attorney made a cogent case for her client. |
| conspirator | n. one who cooperates in an unlawful purpose. Conspirators plotted a revolution. |
| convoluted | adj. twisted or coiled. His confusing logic is as convoluted as a pretzel. |
| debunk | vt. to expose as false. Doctors debunked the claims of the company promoting a Spam diet. |
| denounce | vt. to criticize publicly. The angry player denounced the firing of his coach. |
| despondency | n. dejection, hopelessness. Disappointment in love caused his despondency. |
| din | n. continued noise, esp. of many sounds. Racing fans love the din of the drag strip. |
| distraught | adj. 1. deeply distressed. He tried to comfort the distraught widow. 2. insane. |
| drivel | n. nonsense. A book review called his poems childish drivel. vi. to talk nonsense. |
| egregious | (e-GREE-jus) adj. conspicuously bad. Amputating the wrong leg is an egregious error. |
| embezzle | vt. to take property in one’s care falsely for oneself. The treasurer embezzled company funds. |
| enigma | n. mystery; something hard to understand. The origin of language is an enigma. |
| espouse | vt. to support as a cause. The farmer espoused the cause of conservation. vt. to marry. |
| exculpate | vt. to free from guilt. He made excuses to exculpate himself for missing curfew. |
| exploit | (EX-ploit) n. famous or heroic deed. (ex-PLOIT) vt. 1. to use productively. Hawaii businesses exploit our favorable location. 2. to take unfair advantage of. Cheap magazines exploited the movie star’s image to sell copies. |
| fanatical | adj. blindly enthusiastic. The fanatical patriots think their country can do no wrong. |
| flout | vt. to treat with open disrespect (not to be confused with flaunt, to show off). Unafraid of his weak parents, he flouted their rules. |
| germane | adj. relevant. The Chaplain found a Biblical verse germane to his sermon’s theme. |
| heir | n. one who inherits. The son of the CEO is the heir to his fortune. |
| hyperbole | (hy-PER-bo-lee) n. intentional overstatement. “I’m starving” is a hyperbole. |
| imperious | adj. commanding, arrogant. The spoiled child was imperious toward playmates. |
| incarcerate | vt. to imprison. Police incarcerated the suspects. |
| incumbent | adj. lying in place, esp. holding an office. The incumbent mayor was reelected. n. one holding an office. Voters reelected the incumbent. |
| infringe | vi. to encroach or trespass upon. Computer hackers can infringe upon your privacy. vt. to encroach on. The court ruled that the company had infringed the inventor’s patent. |
| intercede | vi. to mediate between disagreeing parties. Counselors do not intercede in petty quarrels. |
| irrational | adj. not governed by or according to reason. Love makes wise people do irrational things. |
| laudable | adj. deserving praise. The Headmaster said our canned food drive was laudable. |
| malady | n. illness. Doctors could not diagnose the mysterious malady. |
| mentor | n. a wise teacher or guide. A veteran was the beginner’s mentor. vt. to teach or guide. |
| navigable | adj. deep and wide enough for passage. Dredging made the canal navigable. |
| opaque | adj. blocking light; hard to see through or understand. My shower door is opaque. |
| pariah | (pa-RYE-uh) n. an outcast. The snobs made people without BMWs feel like pariahs. |
| peccadillo | n. a minor offense. She notices her date’s peccadilloes, like ordering his meal first. |
| peruse | vt. to read or study. He spent hours perusing books in the aisles of Borders. |
| poacher | n. one who hunts or fishes illegally; trespasser. Poachers put traps in the duke’s wood. |
| premature | adj. occurring before something is ready. With no diagnosis, a prescription is premature. |
| prevarication | n. lying, falsehood. My prevarication did not fool my parents. |
| prostrate | adj. lying flat, as in adoration or submission. The prostrate captives begged for mercy. vt. to put (oneself) in a prostrate position. |
| raucous | adj. harshly loud and disorderly (not to be confused with ruckus, “commotion”). Hearing raucous shouts, the police raided the party. |
| recollect | (RECK-o-lect) vt. to remember. I cannot recollect what I ate for dinner on Tuesday. |
| relegate | vt. to banish or assign to an inferior position. The coach relegated a starter to the second string. |
| repast | n. meal. After a repast to restore their energy, they continued their journey. |
| rhetoric | n. 1. the art of speaking or writing persuasively. Voice, style and tone are concepts in rhetoric. 2. impressive but insincere language. The political speech was nothing but rhetoric. |
| salubrious | adj. promoting health. Daily swimming is a salubrious habit. |
| serrated | adj. notched or toothed like a saw. A serrated knife is good for cutting bread. |
| soporific | adj. (SOP-er or SOAP-er) 1. causing sleep. Gentle songs have a soporific effect on babies. 2. relating to sleep. n. a soporific agent. |
| sterile | adj. 1. unable to produce life. Radiation made the lab rats sterile. 2. not stimulating. Blank walls make a room seem sterile. 3. free from microorganisms. Nurses use sterile needles. |
| superficiality | n. shallowness; concern with surfaces. Having only skimmed the reading, I tried to dazzle my teacher with big words, but his questions exposed the superficiality of my understanding. |
| tawdry | adj. gaudy, cheap. The cheap hotel had tawdry furnishings. |
| tirade | n. long, angry, critical speech. When the phone bill arrived, my dad went into a tirade. |
| trite | adj. dull and unoriginal. The movie was full of trite jokes that made no one laugh. |
| unflappable | adj. calm, self-controlled. With unflappable poise, he delivered a flawless speech. |
| vacillation | n. wavering, hesitation. Tired of his vacillation, she married someone else. |
| wrest | vt. to pull or gain by force. I could not wrest the Frisbee from the dog’s jaws. |
| depravity | n. immoral or currupt behavior |
| dissemble | vt. to conceal the true nature of. vi. to pretend. No one could trust the earnest smile of one so well-versed in dissembling |
| incriminate | vt. fingerprints found on the refrigerator incriminated the suspect. |
| nihilism | n. the view that traditional beliefs are unfounded and existence is meaningless. Nineteenth-century political radicals regarded nihilism as justification for overthrowing society. |
| schism | n. 1. division between opinionated parties. A nationwide schism formed when politicians discussed the economy. 2. division of a church into two churches. In 1054 a schism split the Eastern Orthodox Church away from the Roman Catholic Church. |
| self-abnegation | n. the denial of one's own interests for the sake of another's. The self-abnegation of the hungry mother, who gave her child the last food, was a gesture of love. |
| sodom | n. a place notorious for vice or curruption. |
| umbrage | n. offense, annoyance. The teacher took umbrage at the insubordinate student. |
| bilious | adj. spiteful or bad-tempered. The bilious old man yelled at every child. |
| conujugal | adj. of or relating to marriage or the relationship between husband and wife. The inmate was allowed a conjugal visit with his wife. |
| icon | n. 1. a religious work of art, such as a painting. The church had large icons of biblical scenes hanging on the walls. 2.in modern usage, a person or thing that represents something. |
| lugubrious | adj.very sad, especially in an exaggerated and even ridiculous manner. The lugubrious actor gave an exaggerated sigh and cried loudly during the tragic play. |
| ineffable | adj. 1.unable to be expressed or described. Upon winning the lottery, he felt ineffable ecstasy. 2.too sacred to be spoken. He avoided profane terms that tarnished the ineffable name of their deity. |
| sallow | adj. sickly or yellowish. Because he had not slept, the boy's face appeared swallow and he was devoid of energy on the day of the test. |
| plaintive | adj. expressing sadness or melancholy. the actor's plaintive speech moved audiences to tears. |
| beguile | vt. 1. to lead by deception; hoodwink. 2. to charm or enchant, sometimes in a deceptive way. |
| brazen | adj. 1. insolent, shameless. The brazen Raskolnikov rudely insults Luzhin on their first meeting. 2. composed of brass. vt. to face and overcome boldly or shamelessly. |
| supplication | n. He fell to his knees in earnest supplication. |
| casuistry | n. the use of clever but unsound reasoning in moral dilemmas. The suspect's casuistry during questioning puzzled investigators. |
| foppish | adj. vain and overly concerned with appearance in a seemingly foolish way. the actor was taken aback by the elaborate costumes designed for his foppish and dapper character. |
| hauteur | n. arrogance; disdainful pride. The applicant had an impressive list of qualifications but was not given the position due to his overconfidence and lofty hauteur. |
| assuage | vt. to lessen the intensity or severity of. 2. to end or pacify by satisfying. To assuage the child's requests, the mother brought home a gallon of ice cream. |
| monomania | n. a mental disorder limiting in expression to one idea or thought. His monomania led him to spend ten years reading books about string theory. |
| salutary | adj. producing beneficial effect. The extra credit project provide a salutary boost in quarter grades. 2. promoting health |
| niggardly | adj. 1. stingy. The niggardly boy hoarded his money. 2. meanly or ungenerously small. Although she purchased an expensive lunch, she left a niggardly tip. |
| sangfroid | n. coolness of mind; calmness, composure. No matter hostile the questioning, President Obama never seems to lose his sangfroid. |
| ingenuous | adj. innocent and unsuspecting. The applicant's scheming deeds were rewarded over the more ingenuous actions of his counterpart. |
| supercilious | adj. haughtily disdainful or contemptuous. |
| parvenu | n. a person of obscure origin who has gained wealth, influence, or celebrity. To Daisy, Jay Gatsby is a typical parvenu flashing his recently acquired wealth. |
| sententious | adj. given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner. |
| turpitude | n. vile, shameful, or base character; depravity. |
| perfidy | n. faithlessness; treachery. Men guilty of perfidy against the king were promptly beheaded. |
| subterfuge | n. deception by a clever scheme in order to conceal, escape or evade. The boy did not want to take a test and used subterfuge, feigning an illness to avoid attending school. |
| plebeian | n. one of the common people. Raskolnikov seeks to be an extraordinary individual who shapes history rather than a plebeian, blending in with the rest of society. |
| fait accompli | n. an irreversible deed or fact. The college protesters were wasting their time, for the decision to fire the popular coach was already a fait accompli. |
| sundry | adj. various, miscellaneous. 'Iolani Fair shoppers find sundry items at the General Store. |
| multifarious | adj. many and of various types; having many different elements. The large amount of precipitation and sunlight allows multifarious plants to thrive. |
| crass | adj. insensitive, unconsiderate, unrefined. The crass speaker offended listeners. |
| tantamount | adj. equivalent in value or significance. Political dissent is not tantamount to treason. |
| penury | n. sever poverty. Children who reside in Indian slums face extreme penury. |
Created by:
minijoseph
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