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Kaplan
GRE Words from Kaplan
Question | Answer |
---|---|
pedagogy | tthe art or profession of training, teaching, or instructing; the profession of teaching |
penury | poverty, destruction; a state of extreme poverty or destitution |
probity | adherence to the highest principles; uprightness; complete and confirmed |
perspicacious | acutely perceptive; having keen discernment; clear-sighted, sagacious, sapient |
mercurial | quick; fleeting; erratic; fickle; quicksilver |
esoteric | intended for or understood by a small group |
salubrious | promoting health or well being |
perfunctory | cursory; done without care or interest; hasty and without attention to detail not thorough |
vituperate | to use harsh, condemnatory language; curse; vilify; revile; rail |
incipient | beginning to come into being or to become apparent; only partly in existence; imperfectly formed; inchoate |
arduous | strenuous, taxing |
adulation | excessive praise; idolization; idolisation |
lissome | nimble; gracefully slender; moving and bending with ease; lithe; lithesome; slender; supple; svelte; sylplike |
gaffe | social blunder |
aberrant | deviating from normal |
abscond | to leave secretly and hide; often to avoid the law |
advocate | to speak,plead, or argue for a cause or in another's behalf |
obdurate | unyielding;hardhearted; intractable impossible to change; stubborn resistant to persuasion or softening ; influences; hardened and unrepentant; stubborn inflexible; stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing; cussed; obstinate; unrepentant; showing unfeeling r |
obfuscate | to deliberately obscure or unclear; to make obscure or unclear; to darken, make obscure, muddle; make obscure or unclear; to darken, make obscure, muddle |
obsequious | exhibiting a fawning attentiveness; characterized by or showing servile complaisance or deference; fawning; (to somebody) too willing to obey or serve; too respectful; attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery; fawning; sycophantic; toad |
ingenuous | unsophisticated; artless; straightforward; candid; lacking in sophistication or worldliness; innocent; characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not devious; artless |
ingenious | clever |
innocuous | harmless; having no adverse affect; not likely to provoke strong emotion; not causing disapproval; unobjectionable; not injurious to physical or mental health; unlikely to harm or disturb anyone |
obtuse | lacking sharpness of intellect; not clear or precise in thought or expression; slow to understand; stupid/blunt; purblind |
obviate | to anticipate and make unnecessary; remove (something); get rid of; to anticipate and prevent (as a situation) or make unnecessary (as an action); to make unnecessary; get rid of; prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening; ward off; debar; deflect |
ionoclast | one who attacks or undermines traditional conventions or institutions; a breaker or destroyer of images, esp. those set up for religious veneration; person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions etc, as being based on error or superstitio |
idolatrous | given to intense or excessive devotion to something; whorshiping idols |
imminent | about to happen; impending; about to happen; likely to happen very soon; ready to take place; especially; hanging threateningly over one's head; likely to come very soon |
immutable | not capable of change; that cannot be changed; that will never change; not capable of or susceptible to change; that cannot be changed |
impassive | revealing no emotion; showing no sign of feeling; unsusceptible to or destitute of emotionl unmoved; feeling no sign of passion |
impecunious | lacking funds; without money; having little or money; having very little or no money usually habitually; penniless |
imperturbable | marked by extreme calm; impassivity and steadiness; not eaisly troubled or worried calm; marked by extreme calm, impassivity and steadiness; serene; calm; not capable of being excitied |
impetuous | hastily or rashly energetic; impulsive and vehement; acting or done quickly and with little thought or care; rash or impuslive; marked by impulsive vehemence or passion; having sudden energy, impulsive, thrusting ahead, forceful |
implacable | not capable of being appeased or significnalty changed; not to be appeased, mollified, or pacified, inexorable, that cannot be changed or satisfied; not placable, not capable of being appeased, significantly changed or mitigated; incapable of being placac |
impunity | immunity from punishment or penalty; with impunity with freedom from punishment or injury |
inchoate | in an initial stage; not fully formed; just begun and therefore not fully formed or developed; being onlyu partly in existence or operation; especially imperfectly fromed or formulated; formless; not yet fully formed, rudimentary, elementary |
incipient | beginning to come into being or to become apparent; in its early stages; beginning to happen; beginning; only partly in existence; imperfectly formed; inchoate |
indifferent | having no interest or concern; showing no bias or prejudice; apathetic |
inert | unmoving; lethargic; sluggish; without power to move or act; deficient in active properties; especially; lacking a usual or anticipated chemical or biological action |
infelicitous | unfortunate; inappropriate; not approrpitae in application or expression |
ingenuous | artless; frank; candid; lacking in sophistication; not attempting to deceive or conceal; open; innocent; free from reserve, restraint, or dissimulation; candid; sincere; showing innocent or childlike simplicity and candidness; naive, young artless, frank, |
inimical | damaging; harmful; malevolent; unfriendly; hostile; having the disposition of an enemy; hostile; reflecting or indicating hostility; unfriendly |
innocuous | harmless; causing no damage; causing no harm; not likely to give offense or to arouse strong feelings or hostility; causing no harm |
insipid | without taste or flavor; lacking in spirit; bland; having almost no taste or flavor; lacking in qualities that interest, stimulate, or challenge; dull flat |
intractable | not easily managed or directed; stubborn; obstinate; not easily controlled or dealt with; hard to image; unruly, refractory, stubborn |
intransigent | refusing to compromise; refusing to compromise or to abandon an extreme position or attitude; uncompromising; uncompromising |
intrepid | steadfast and courageous; fearless; brave; characterized by resolute fearlessness; fortitude and endurance; fearless brave; undaunted |
inured | accustomed to accepting something undesirable; accustomed to; adapted; made tough by habitual exposure; hardened |
inveigle | to obtain by deception or flattery; persuade somebody to go somewhere or do something by using flattery and deception; to win over by wiles; entice |
irascible | easily angered; prone to temperamental outburst; (of a person) easily made anger; marked by hot temper and easily provoked anger |
laconic | using few words; terse; using or involving the use of a minimum of words; concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious; brief, to the point terse |
laud | to praise highly; praise somebody/something; glorify |
loquacious | extremely talkative; fond of talking; talkative; given to fluent or excessive talk; garrulous; talkative; garrulous |
lucid | clear; easily understood; clearly expressed; easy to understand; clear to the understanding; intelligible |
luminous | characterized by brightness and the emission of light; giving out light; bright |
magnanimity | the quality of being generously noble in mind and heart, especially in forgiving; being magnanimous |
imperious | commanding |
improvidence | an absence of foresight; a failure to provide for future needs or events |
incorrigble | not capable of being corrected |
indelible | permanent, un erasable, strong |
ineffable | indescribable, inexpressible in words, unspeakable |
insensible | numb, unconscious |
insular | of or pertaining ot an island, thus, excessively exclusive |
leviathan | giant whale, therefore, something very large |
malevolent | malicious, evil, having or sohwing ill will |
misogynist | one who hates women |
mitigate | to make less forceful; to become more moderate; to make less harsh or undesirable; to make or become less severe or intense; to moderate; make (something) less severe, violent or painful; moderate; to make less severe or painful; alleviate |
nefarious | wicked, evil |
noisome | harmful, offensive, destructive |
obdurate | hardened against influence or feeling |
obviate | to prevent by anticipatory measure; to make unnecessary |
occlude | to close or shut off; to obstruct |
opaque | not transparent or translucent; dense; diffiult to comprehend as inopaque reasoning |
ossified | turned to bone; hardened like bone; inflexible |
panegyric | a writing or speech in praise of a person or thing |
peccadillo | a small sin or fault |
pedantic | showing a narrow concern for rules or formal book learning; making an excessive display of one's own learning |
perfidious | deliberately treacherous, dishonest; tending to betray, |
phlegmatic | not easily excised; cool slugish |
philanthropy | tendency or action for the benefit of others as in donating money or property to a charitable orgaization |
placate | to calm or reduce anger by making concessions |
precipice | cliff with a vertical or nearly vertical face; a dangerous place from which one is likelty o fall; metaphorically, a very risky circumstance |
prevaricate | to stray from or evade the truth |
prodigal | rashly wasteful |
pulchritudinous | beautiufl |
pusillanimous | cowardly, timid, or irresolute, pretty |
quiescence | inactivity, stillness; dormancy |
cogent | having power to compel or constrain; appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing |
spurious | false; forged; bastard |
sagacious | skillful in statecraft and management; acutely insightful and wise; perspicacious; sapient |
sapient | acutely insightful and wise, perspicacious; sagacious |
quicksilver | liable to sudden unpredictable change; erratic; fickle; mercurial |
cursory | hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough; perfunctory; causal; passing |
pro forma | as a formality only; perfunctory |
supple | readily adaptable; gracefully slender; moving and bending with ease; capable of moving or bending freely; limber; lissom; lithe; lithesome; sleder; svelte; sylphlike |
malleable | capable of being shaped or formed; tractable; pilable; that can be beaten or pressed into different shapes easily; capable of being altered or controlled by outside forces; yielding; easily shaped; modlable; adapting |
martial | associated with war and the armed forces; of or associated with war; brave, of associated with war |
maverick | an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party; unbranded calf; unorthodox person; rebel nonconformits |
mercurial | characterized by rapid and unpredictable change in mood; quick; changeable in character, fleeting |
meticulous | characterized by extreme care and precision; attentive to detail; giving great attention to details |
misanthrope | one who hates all other humans; a person who hates or distrusts mankind; person who hates mankind |
capricious | changeable; determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason; changing quickly; mercurial; volatile |
compendium | a brief treatment or account of a subject esp. an extensive subject; concise treatment; abridge; terse; synopsis |
cursory | performed with haste and scant attention to detail; perfunctory |
mollify | to calm or soothe; to reduce in emotional intensity; lessen the anger of (somebody); make calmer; soothe; to soothe in temper or disposition; appease; make calmer or quieter |
mundane | of the world; typical or concerned with the ordinary; ordinary and typically unexciting; characterized by the practical transitory and ordinary; commonplace; banal; fatuous; hackneyed; insipid; mundane; pedestrian; platitude; prosaic; quotidian; trite |
nebulous | vague, cloudy; lacking clearly defined form; cloud like, hazy; indistinct, vague |
neologism | a new word, expression or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses; newly-invented word |
neophyte | a recent convert; a beginner; novice; person recently converted to some belief or religion; a new convert; proselyte; person who has been converted to a belief |
noxious | harmful; injurious, poisonous, physically harmful or destructive to living beings |
obdurate | unyielding; hardhearted; intractable; impossible to change; stubborn; resistant to persuasion or softening influences |
obstinate | stubborn, hardheaded; uncompromising; refusing to change one's opinion or chosen course of action; stubborn; perversely adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course in spite of reason, arguments or persuasion |
occlude | to obstruct or block; to close up or block off; obstruct |
odious | evoking intense aversion or dislike; deserving or causing hatred; hateful detestable highly offensive repugnant |
onerous | troubling, burdensome, needing effort, burdensome |
opprobrium | disgrace, contempt; scorn, public disgrace and shame |
ostentatious | characterized by pretentiousness; intended to attract notice |
paen | a song or hymn of praise and thanksgiving |
pedantic | the parading of learning; excessive attention to minutiae and formal rules; ostentatious in one's learning; overly concerned with minute details or formalisms esp. in teaching |
penurious | penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous; very poor; poor stingy |
perfunctory | cursory; done without care or interest; done as duty without care |
perspicacious | acutely perceptive; having keen discernment; having or showing great insight or judgment; discerning; of acute mental vision or |
peruse | to examine with great care; read something especially carefully or thoroughly; to examine or consider with attention and in detail; study |
phlegmatic | calm; sluggish; unemotional; calm and even-tempered; showing the quality of phlegm |
pious | extremely reverent or devout; showing strong religious devotion; having or showing a deep devotion to religion |
pith | the essential or central part; soft spongy substance that fills the stems of certain plants, essential part, force, soft liquid substance |
pithy | precise and brief; concise and full of meaning; terse; having substance and point; tersely cogent |
cogent | relevant; to drive together; |
placate | to appease; to calm by making concessions; make less angry; soothe or pacify; to sooth or mollify especially by concessions; soothe, pacify, calm |
platitude | a superficial remark, especially one offered as meaning; commonplace remark or statment, esp when it is sad new or interesting; a banal, trite, or stale remark, a trite or banal statement un-originality |
polemical | controversial; arguementative |
prattle | to babble meaninglessly; to talk in an empty and ideal |
precipiate | acting with excessive haste or impulse; to cause or to happen before anticipated or required; to bring about especially abruptly |
predilection | a disposition in favor of something; preference; special liking (For something); preference |
preen | to dress up/ to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care; clean or something (its feathers or itself) with its beak; show self-satisfaction; tidy |
prescience | foreknowledge of events; knowing of events prior to their occurring; foresight |
presumptuous | overstepping due bounds; too bold or self-confident |
prevaricate | to deliberately avoid the truth; to mislead; try to avoid telling the (whole) truth by speaking in an evasive or misleading way; equivocate; to speak falsely or misleadingly; deliberately misstate or create an incorrect impression; lie |
proclivity | a natural predisposition or inclination; natural inclination to do something; tendency |
prodigal | recklessly wasteful; extravagant; profuse; lavish; spending money or resources too freely; characterized by wasteful expenditure; lavish; wasteful, reckless with money |
prodigious | abundant in size, force or extent; extraordinary; enormous, wonderful |
profligate | excessively wasteful; recklessly extravagant; wildly extravagant; prodigal; licentious |
profuse | given or coming forth abundantly; extravagant; abundant; lvasih |
proliferate | to grow or increase swiftly and abundantly; produce new growth or offspring rapidly; multiply |
prolific | producing large volumes or amounts; productive; producing much fruit or many flowers or offspring |
propensity | a natural inclination or tendency; penchant |
prosaic | dull; unimaginative; uninspired; dull; everyday; ordinary; mundane; commonplace; trite; pedestrian |
pungent | characterized by a strong, sharp smell of taste; causing a sharp or irritating sensation; especially, acrid |
putrefy | to rot; to decay and give off a foul odor; become or make putrid |
quaff | to drink deeply; drink (something) by swallowing large amounts at a time |
qualm | misgiving; reservation; cause for hesitancy; a sudden feeling of sickness or nausea; feeling of doubt, temporary feeling of sickenss |
querulous | prone to complaining or grumbling; quarrelsome; complaining; irritable; fretful; whining |
query | question; inquiry; doubt in the mind; reservation; question |
quiescence | stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest; state of being passive/motionless |
quixotic | foolishly impractical; marked by lofty romantic ideals; noble, unselfish or gallant in an extravagant or impractical way; generous unselfish |
quotidian | occurring or recurring daily; commonplace; everyday; commonplace; banal everyday |
rancorous | characterized by bitter, long-lasting resentment; feeling bitterness; spitefulness |
rarefy | to make or become thin, less dense; to refine |
recalcitrant | obstinately defiant of authority; difficult to manage; resisting authority or discipline; disobedient |
recant | to retract especially a previously held belief; formally reject (a former opinion, belief etc,) as being wrong; to withdraw or repudiate formally and publicly renounce take back as being false; give up |
recondite | hidden; concealed; difficult to understand; obscure; little known; abstruse |
redoubtable | awe-inspiring; worthy of honor |
impugned | To attack as false or questionable; challenge in argument |
veracity | Adherence to the truth; truthfulness. |
hallmark | a distinctive characteristic or attribute; trademark |
scintilla | spark, trace; smidge |
controvert | to dispute or oppose by reasoning |
erudition | extensive knowledge acquired chiefly from books; profound, recondite, or bookish learning; scholarship |
bemused | To cause to be bewildered; confuse; daze |
boorishness | means lack of manners |
impress | force into surface; to affect strongly, often favorable |
pluck | which means courage or audacity; the trait of showing courage and determination in spite of possible loss or injury; pull off |
vim | vitality; vigor |
humility | humble; meek |
Gaucherie | social awkwardness |
brusque | blunt; curt |
apostate | someone who abandons a religious, political, or other belief; rebellious |
excoriate | express strong disapproval of |
donnybrook | is an obscure word for an uproar, a free for all, or a brawl |
timorous | timid |
brazen | insolently bold or forward |
pernicious | extremely harmful |
licentious | immoral |
sybarite | a person who is devoted to the enjoyment of worldly pleasures |
chauvinist | is someone who believes in the superior of his own kind |
incumbent | is the person currently holding a position |
ascetic | practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline |
incumbent | is the person currently holding a position |
megalomaniac | a person who has delusional fantasies about wealth or power |
abate | to lessen in intensity or degree; make or become less; to reduce in degree or intensity; to lessen, to subside |
accolade | an expression of praise; approval; any award, honor, or laudatory notice |
acumen | quick, keen, or accurate knowledge or insight; ability to understand and judge things quickly and clearly; shrewdness; mental keenness; sharpness of judgment; |
adulation | excessive praise; intense adoration; flattery; admiration that is more than is necessary |
aggrandize | to increase in intensity, power or prestige; to make appear great or greater; praise highly |
alacrity | eager and enthusiastic willingness; prompt and eager readiness, promptness in response; cheerful readiness |
amalgamamte | to combine several elements into a whole; to merge into a single body; mix, combine, unite societies |
ameliorate | to make better or more tolerable; improve, make better |
amenable | agreeable, responsive to suggestion, readily managed, willing to be led |
approbation | an expression of approval or praise; approval; consent; commendation; praise |
arduous | strenuous, taxing, requiring significant effort |
ascetic | one who practices rigid self-denial, especially as an act of religious devotion; not allowing oneself pleasures and comforts |
astringent | having a tightening effort on living tissue; harsh, severe; binding; causing contraction; substance that shrinks |
austere | without adornment; bare; severely simple; ascetic; markedly simple or unadorned; severely and strictly moral; having no pleasures or comfort |
avarice | greed, especially for wealth |
aver | to state as a fact; to confirm or support; to assert or affirm with confidence; declare in a positive manner |
axiom | a universally recognized principle; taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth |
bucolic | rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural area and their inhabitants; of country life or the countryside; rustic |
cacophony | harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonance; loud unpleasant mixture of discordant sounds |
acnon | as established set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature |
canonical | following or in agreement with orthodox requirements; appearing in a biblical canon of or relating to or required by canon law |
capricious | inclined to change one's mind impulsively; erratic; unpredictable; fickle; whimsical; given to change; unpredictable |
castigation | severe criticism or punishment |
censure | to criticize severely; to officially rebuke; to find fault with and criticize as blameworthy |
chary | wary; cautious; shy; timid; fastidious; choosy |
chicanery | trickery or subterfuge; use of clever but misleading talk in order to trick somebody especially in legal matters; dishonest practice |
cogent | appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing; convincing; strong |
complaisance | the willingness to comply with the wishes of others; disposition to please or comply; affability |
connoisseur | an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert; a discerning judge of the best in any field; a person who is especially competent to pass critical judgments in an art |
contentious | argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement; pugnacious; combative |
contrite | regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness; filled with or showing deep regret for having done wrong; repentant; grieving and penitent for sin or shortcoming |
convention | a generally agreed upon practice or attitude; conference of members of a profession, political party, usage or custom especially in social matters |
culpable | deserving blame; blameworthy |
cynicism | an attitude or quality or belief that all people are motivated by selfishness |
dearth | smallness of quantity or number; scarcity ; a lack; shortage; scarcity; an inadequate supply; lack |
decorum | polite or appropriate conduct or behavior; dignified and socially acceptable behavior; propriety and good taste in conduct or appeareance |
demur | to question or oppose; to make objection esp. on the grounds of scruples; take exception; to hesitate, raise objections |
derision | scorn, ridicule, contemptuous treatment, ridicule or mockery, deriding |
desiccate | to dry out or dehydrate; to make dry or dull; remove all the moisture from to preserve it |
diatribe | a harsh denunciation; lengthy and bitter attack in words; a bitter and abusive speech or writing; bitter and violent attack in words |
didactic | intended to teach or instruct; intended to teach; designed or intended to teach |
dilettante | one with an amateurish or superficial interest in the arts of a branch of knowledge |
disabuse | to undeceive; to set right; to free from error, fallacy, or misconception; to undeceive, correct a false impression |
discordant | conflicting; dissonant or harsh in sound; not in agreement; conflicting; inharmonious; conflicting |
discretion | cautious reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions; quality of being discreet; good judgment; |
disparage | to slight or belittle; suggest; especially un faily; that is of little value or importance; to depreciate by indirect means; speak slighlty about |
disparate | fundamentally distinct or dissimilar; essentially different; so different in kind or degree that they cannot be compared |
dissemble | to disguise or conceal; to mislead; hide or disguise (one's true thoughts and feelings); dissimulate; speak or behave so as to hide something (in mind) |
divulge | to disclose something secret; to make known (as confidence or secret) |
dogmatic | stubbornly opinionated; of or based on dogma; positive, certain, arbitrary, without room for discussion |
ebullience | the quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts and feelings; high spirits; exhilaration; exuberance |
eclectic | composed of elements drawn from various sources |
effrontery | extreme boldness; presumptuousness; boldness or rudeness without shame; impertience |
elegy | a mournful poem, especially one lamenting the dead |
eloquent | well spoken, expressive, articulate |
emollient | soothing, especially to the skin; making less harsh; mollifying |
empirical | based on observation or experiment; not on theory; relying on the experiment |
endemic | characteristic of or often found in a particular locality, region, or people |
enervate | to weaken; to reduce in vitality; cause to lose strength of energy; weaken, deprive of strength, attenuate |
enigmatic | mysterious, obscure, difficult to understand |
ennui | dissatisfaction and restlessness resulting from boredom or apathy; a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom |
ephemeral | brief; fleeting; living lasting etc for a very short time; short lived; fleeting |
equivocate | to use ambiguous language with a deceptive intent; speak in an ambiguous way to hide the truth or mislead people; try to deceive by equivocal language |
erudite | very learned; scholarly; having or showing great learning |
esoteric | intended for or understood by a small, specific group; abstruse |
eulogy | a speech honoring the dead |
evanescent | tending to disappear like vapor; vanishing; quickly fading; soon disappearing from memory; tending to vanish like vapor; fleeting |
exacerbate | to make worse or more severe; aggravate; to make more violet, bitter, or severe |
exculpate | exonerate; to clear of blame |
exigent | urgent; pressing; requiring immediate action or attention |
extemporaneous | improvised; done without preparation; spoken or done without preparation; extempore |
facetious | playful, humorous; intended to be amusing; often inappropriately; joking or jesting often inappropriately; waggish; jocular |
fallacy | an invalid or incorrect notion; a mistaken belief; a false or mistaken idea; erroneous character; false or mistaken belief |
fawn | to flatter or praise excessively |
fervent | greatly emotional or zealous; ardent, hot; showing warmth and sincerity of feeling; enthusiastic; passionate |
filibuster | intentional obstruction, especially using prolonged speech making to delay legislative action |
flout | to demonstrate contempt for; as in a rule or convention; to treat with disdain, scorn, or contempt; scoff at; mock |
fortuitous | happening by fortunate accident or chance; happening by chance or coincidence |
fulminate | to loudly attach or denounce; protest strongly and loudly; to send forth censures or invectives; berate; vituperate |
furtive | marked by stealth; covert; surreptitious; done secretly and quietly so as not to be noticed |
germane | relevant to the subject at hand; appropriate in subject matter |
glib | marked by ease or informality; nonchalant; lacking in depth; superficial |
grandiloquence | pompous speech or expression |
gregarious | sociable; outgoing; enjoying the company of other people; liking to be with other people; living in societies; liking the company |
hackneed | rendered trite or commonplace by frequent usage; used so often that it has become trite and dull; lacking in freshness or originality |
halcyon | calm; peaceful; happy |
harangue | to deliver a pompous speech or tirade; to address in a ranting way; long, loud, serious and use angry speech; a long passionate speech |
hedonism | devotion to pleasurable pursuits, especially to the pleasures of the senses |
hegemony | the consistent dominance of one state or ideology over others; leadership esp by one state in a group of states |
heretical | violating accepted dogma or convention |
hubris | arrogant presumption or pride; arrogant pride |
reflugent | radiant, shiny, brillant |
relegate | to forcibly assign, especially to a lower place or position; banish; consign to inferior position |
renege | to fail or honor a commitment; to go back on a promise |
repudiate | to refuse to have anything to do with; disown |
rescind | to invalidate; to repeal; to retract;cancel or repeal (a law, contract) annul |
refulgent | radiant, shiny, brilliant, gloriously bright; shining |
choleric | easily angered, short-tempered |
churlish | rude |
cistern | tank for rainwater |
coalesce | to grow together; cause to unit as one |
coffer | strongbox, large chest for money |
cognomen | family name; any name, especially a nickname |
comeliness | physical grace and beauty |
commodious | roomy, spacious |
compunctious | feeling guilty or having misgivings |
conciliatory | overcoming distrust or hostility |
conflagration | big, destructive fire |
congenial | similar in tastes and habits |
consanguineous | of the same origin; related by blood |
contentious | quarrelsome, disagreeable, belligerent |
contumacious | rebellious |
corpulence | obesity, fatness, bulkiness |
corrugate | to mold in shape with parallel grooves and ridges |
cosset | to pamper, treat with great care |
coterie | small group of persons with a similar purpose |
coven | group of witches |
curmudgeon | cranky person |
decliivty | downward slop |
deleterious | harmful, destructive, detrimental |
deluge | flood |
demagogue | leader or rabble rouser who usually appeal to emotion or prejudice |
denigrate | to lsur or blacken someone's reputation |
descry | to discover or reveal |
diaphanous | allowing light to show through; delicate |
dictum | authoritative statement; popular saying |
didactic | excessively instructive |
diluvial | relating to the flood |
diminutive | small |
discomfit | to cause perplexity and embarrassment |
distaff | the female branch of the family |
dither | to move or act confusedly or without clear purpose |
doctrinaire | rigidly devoted to theories |
dolor | sadness |
doughty | courageous |
droll | amusing in a wry, subtle way |
dyspeptic | suffering from indigestion; gloomy and irritable |
ebullient | exhilarated, full of enthusiasm and high spirits |
effluvia | outpouring of gases or vapors |
effulgent | brilliantly shining |
egregious | onspicuously bad |
emend | to correct a text |
emoillient | having soothing qualities, esp. for skin |
encomium | warm praise |
endemic | belonging to a particular area, inherent |
cajole | to flatter, coax, persuade |
calamitous | disastrous, catastrophic |
calumny | false and malicious accusation, misrepresentation, slander |
canard | lie |
carom | to strike and rebound |
cavalcade | a procession |
chagrin | shame, embarrassment, humiliation |
charlatan | quack, fake |
chattel | piece of personal property |
chimerical | fanciful, imaginary, visionary, impossible |
bacchanalian | drunkenly festive |
balk | to refuse, shirk; prevent |
beatific | saintly, angelic |
behemoth | huge creature |
belie | to misrepresent; expose as false |
benison | blessing |
bifurcate | divide into two parts |
bilious | easily irritated, relating to bile |
bonhomie | good-natured geniality; atmosphere of good cheer |
bulwark | defense wall; anything serving as defense |
cajole | to flatter, coax, persuade |
calamitous | disastrous, catastrophic |
calumny | false and malicious accusation, misrepresentation, slander |
canard | lie |
carom | to shake and rebound |
cavalcade | a processesion |
chagring | shame, embarrassment, humiliation |
charlatan | quack, fake |
chattel | piece of personal property |
chimerical | forceful, imaginary, visionary, impossible |
itinerant | wandering from place to place; unsettled |
invidious | likely to provoke ill will; offensive |
obfuscate | to confuse, to bewilder, to stupefy |
allay | to lessen or relieve, mitigate, to alleviate |
perquisite | a reward over and above one's salary |
quixotic | romantic, unrealistic, visionary, impractical |
whitewash | is to misrepresent a bad thing to make it look better |
apt | appropriate |
ineluctable | inescapable, doomed |
dissipated | dissolute, fast, gay, incontinent, licentious, profligate, rakish, unbridled, uncontrolled, uninhibited, wanton; indulging in or characterized by excessive devotion to pleasure; intemperate; dissolute |
levity | lightness of mind; silliness; frivolity; amusement; buoyancy; festivity; flippancy; absurdity; hilarity |
disseminate | to spread widely, circulate, diffuse, disperse, distribute, radiate, scatter, blaze, blazon, promulgate, broadcast |
syncopated | cut short; abbreviated; refers to a pattern or rhythm in which stress is shifted onto normally unaccented beats |
saturnine | sluggish in temperament; gloomy; taciturn |
belie | to show to be false; contradict; slander; to misrepresent |
culpable | deserving blame or censure; blameworthy; fault, guilt; onus |
anathematize | damn, curse |
contrition | compunction, remorse, repentance, rue, attrition, humiliation, penance, penitence, ruth, sorrow, sincere penitence or remorse |
pique | dudgeon, huff, miff, resentment, umbrage, offend, affront, egg on, foment, galvanize |
mawkish | maudlin, romantic, soft, mushy, nauseous |
temerity | recklessness, audacity, gall, effrontery, reckless boldness |
jejune | bland, innocuous, immature, childish (callow), dull, empty flat, |
vitiate | impair the quality of, blemish, distract, canker, impair, mar |