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list 7
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| abjure | To renounce or repudiate under oath |
| abrogate | To abolish or repeal through authority |
| aesthete | A deep admirer of beauty or aesthetics (often excessively so) |
| aggress | To initiate an attack, fight or war |
| amortize | To liquidate a debt by installment payments into a sinking fund |
| animadversion | The utterance of criticism or censure |
| apogee | The farthest or highest point; the apex |
| apostate | One who has abandoned his beliefs |
| apse | A domed projection of a building |
| atavistic | Suggesting the characteristics of an ancestor or a primitive type |
| bailiwick | A person’s specific area of skill, interest or authority |
| beatify | To make blessedly happy; to mark someone as blessed and worthy of veneration in a particular region |
| bedaub | To smear or soil; To ornament in a vulgar fashion |
| bequest | The act of giving or passing on something to another (usu. by will) |
| besotted | Stupefied (usu. from liquor); inebriated |
| bilge | To lowest part of a ship’s hull; the bulging portion of a barrel |
| bilious | Of or relating to bile; sickly; having a peevish disposition |
| bowdlerize | To modify content by shortening, simplifying or skewing; to expurgate prudishly (usu. a book) |
| bumptious | Crudely or loudly assertive; pushy |
| cabal | A conspiratorial group of people; a secret scheme |
| cadge | To beg or get by begging |
| canard | A false and deliberately misleading story |
| cant | Insincere speech full of platitudes or pious expressions; singsong speech |
| cavil | To raise trivial objections or find fault unnecessarily |
| churl | A rude, boorish person |
| cipher | Some or something having no value; a nonentity |
| comestible | Edible; something edible |
| comport | To conduct oneself in a particular manner; to agree or correspond |
| conflagration | A large, destructive fire |
| craven | Cowardly |
| defenestration | The act of throwing someone out a window |
| descry | To catch sight of; to detect through careful observation |
| diaphanous | Transparent |
| diffidence | Self-distrust |
| dilatory | Tending to cause delay |
| dilettante | One who dabbles in an art or field of knowledge; amateurish |
| dint | Force or effort; power |
| discomfit | To make uneasy or confused; to disconcert or frustrate |
| dissemble | To disguise or hide behind a false appearance; to feign |
| docent | A teacher or lecturer |
| ecumenical | Of worldwide scope; universal |
| educe | To draw out; to deduce |
| effete | Depleted of energy or effectiveness; marked by decadence; effeminate |
| egress | An exit; the act of exiting |
| emolument | Payment for an office or employment; compensation |
| epicure | A person with refined tastes or devoted to please |
| eponym | A person whose name is or is thought to be the source of the name of something, such as a people or a location (e.g. Romulus = the eponymous founder of Rome) |
| equable | Unvarying; steady |
| equanimity | The quality of being even-tempered and calm; composure |
| evince | To show or clearly demonstrate |
| excoriate | To tear the skin off of; to criticize severely |
| exigency | A state or quality of requiring much effort or action; a need |
| expatiate | To wander freely; to speak or write at length |
| expostulate | To reason earnestly with someone in order to persuade or correct |
| factious | Given to or promoting internal dissension |
| fallow | Plowed but left unseeded; characterized by inactivity |
| fascicle | A small bundle; one section of a book published in many parts |
| fatuous | Foolish |
| feckless | Feeble or ineffective |
| fecund | Productive of offspring or vegetation; fruitful |
| fetid | Having an offensive odor |
| fop | A man preoccupied with his clothes and manners; a dandy |
| forbearance | Patient endurance or toleration of offenses |
| ford | A shallow place in a body of water where one can cross |
| forestall | To delay or hinder by taking precautionary measures; to anticipate |
| forswear | To renounce or disavow under oath |
| frieze | A decorative horizontal band |
| gamut | The whole range or sequence |
| gerontic | Of or relating to old age |
| gewgaw | A decorative trinket; a bauble |
| gourmand | A lover of fine food and drink; a gluttonous eater |
| grandiloquence | Pompous or bombastic speech or expression |
| immolate | To kill as a sacrifice |
| impassive | Devoid of or not subject to emotion |
| importunate | Urgent in character |
| importune | To harass with persistent demands or entreaties |
| impute | To attribute or credit; to charge with fault or responsibility for |
| inculcate | To teach by frequent repetition; to indoctrinate |
| ineluctable | Impossible to avoid; inevitable |
| inexorable | Incapable of being persuaded by treaty; Unrelenting |
| interdict | An authoritative act of prohibition; to prohibit authoritatively |
| intransigent | Refusing to moderate a position; uncompromising |
| inveigh | To give vent to angry disapproval; to protest vehemently |
| invidious | Tending to rouse ill will, animosity or resentment |
| jocose | Given to joking; merry |
| juggernaut | Something that elicits blind devotion; a terrible, destructive force |
| junket | To hold a party or banquet; a party, banquet or tour |
| junta | A group of military officers ruling a country after seizing power |
| kowtow | To show servile deference; the act of doing so |
| lachrymose | Given to weeping; tearful |
| leviathan | Something unusually large of its kind (esp. a ship); a large animal (usu. a whale or sea monster) |
| lien | A legal claim or hold on a property used as security for a debt |
| ligature | Something used for tying or binding; an alphabetic character combining two or more letters |
| livery | A uniform or distinctive manner of dress |
| lodestone | One that attracts strongly |
| malapropism | Ludicrous misuse of a word |
| mendacious | Lying; false or untrue |
| mendicant | A beggar |
| missive | A written message; a letter |
| munificent | Extremely generous |
| nexus | A link or tie |
| nice | Pleasing or agreeable in nature; overly delicate or fastidious |
| obsequious | Exhibiting servile behavior; fawning |
| obtest | To supplicate or entreat |
| obtrude | To impose on others without invitation or with undue insistence |
| obdurate | To close or obstruct |
| obverse | Facing or turned towards the observer; serving as a counterpart |
| obvert | To turn so as to present another side to; to alter the appearance of |
| overweening | Presumptuously arrogant; excessive or immoderate |
| paladin | A paragon of chivalry or heroic champion; a strong supporter of defender a cause |
| palliate | To make an offense or crime appear less serious; to mitigate |
| palpate | To examine or explore by touching (usu. an organ) |
| panacea | A remedy for all diseases, evils or difficulties; a cure-all |
| panegyric | A formal public eulogy; elaborate praise |
| pedant | One who exhibits learning or scholarship in an ostentatious manner |
| pellucid | Translucent |
| penultimate | Next to last |
| peregrinate | To travel through, over or from place to place (esp. on foot) |
| perfidy | Treachery |
| perfunctory | Done routinely and with little interest or care |
| peripatetic | Walking about from place to place; traveling on foot |
| perseveration | The act or tendency to repeat something continuously despite the cessation of the original stimulus |
| persnickety | Overly particular about details; snobbish or pretentious |
| perspicacity | Acuteness of discernment or understanding |
| petrous | Stony |
| plenary | Complete in all respects; fully attended by all qualified members |
| polyglot | A person who speaks two or more languages |
| precatory | Relating to or expressing entreaty or supplication |
| precept | A rule or principle prescribing a particular course of conduct |
| prolix | Excessively wordy |
| promulgate | To make known by public declaration; to announce officially |
| propinquity | Nearness |
| propitiate | To conciliate or appease |
| protuberant | Bulging |
| provenance | Place of origin; proof of authenticity or past ownership |
| provident | Providing for the future; frugal |
| prurient | Inordinately interested in sex; lascivious |
| putrefaction | Decomposition of organic material into foul-smelling matter |
| purvey | To supply or furnish; to advertise or circulate |
| raffish | Cheaply vulgar in appearance or nature; unconventional in a carefree manner |
| rapacious | Greedy |
| recidivism | A tendency to lapse into a previous pattern of behavior |
| remonstrate | To say or plead in protest; to present an objection |
| remunerate | To pay a suitable equivalent for goods or services already provided |
| repast | A meal; figuratively, any refreshment |
| restive | Resisting control |
| ribald | Characterized or indulging in vulgar, lewd humor |
| risible | Eliciting laughter; ludicrous |
| sanguine | Ruddy; passionate; cheerfully confident |
| scurvy | A disease caused by vitamin C deficiency; mean or contemptible |
| sententious | Pithy; abounding in or given to pompous moralizing |
| septic | Causing, affected by or relating to sepsis (poisoning by microscopic organisms); infected or putrefying |
| simian | Resembling a monkey or an ape; a monkey or ape |
| sinuous | Characterized by curves or turns |
| slake | To satisfy a craving (usu. thirst); to quench |
| somatic | Of, relating to or affecting the body |
| stint | To be sparing with; a fixed amount of work allotted |
| suborn | To induce to commit an unlawful act |
| subreption | A calculated misrepresentation through concealment of the facts |
| subrogate | To substitute (one person) for another |
| supernumerary | Exceeding a fixed or standard number; extra or superfluous |
| suss | To discover or figure out |
| syllogism | Deductive reasoning (e.g. All men are mortal, I am human, therefore I am mortal); a subtle or specious piece of reasoning |
| sylvan | Relating to or characteristic of the forest |
| syncopate | To shorten by removing something from the middle |
| tamp | To pack down by a succession of blows or taps |
| tautology | Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy |
| toothsome | Delicious or luscious; pleasant or attractive |
| trenchant | Cutting deeply and quickly; incisive, distinct |
| turbid | Muddy or muddled; in a state of turmoil |
| tyro | A beginner in learning anything; a novice |
| umbrage | A sense of offense or resentment; shade |
| uncouth | Crude or unrefined; ungraceful or clumsy |
| unctuous | Oily; characterized by exaggerated or insincere earnestness |
| vagary | An extravagant or erratic notion of action |
| vainglory | Excessive, pretentious, and demonstrative vanity |
| venal | Mercenary or corrupt; open to bribery |
| venial | Easily excused or forgiven; pardonable |
| venous | Of, relating to or contained in the veins |
| vernal | Of or relating to springtime |
| verisimilitude | The quality of appearing to be true or real |
| vetted | Thoroughly examined or evaluated |
| vicissitude | A change of condition, circumstance or fortune (oft. unexpected) |
| viscid | Thick and adhesive (used of a fluid) |
| vitriol | Bitterly abusive feeling or expression |
| vitiate | To reduce the value, validity or purity of; to debase |
| vituperate | To criticize harshly or abusively |
| voluble | Fluent |
| wag | A humorous or droll person |
| welter | To move or sit as if in or on water; a confused mass or jumble |
| wend | To go on or proceed |
| yon | Yonder; something at a distance |
| zeitgeist | The spirit of the time; the tastes and outlook of a generation |
| zephyr | A gentle breeze; something that is soft and airy |
Created by:
msbabione
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