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English Word set 1
Argument and Language
Term | Definition | Example Sentence |
---|---|---|
Apt (adj.) | appropriate, inclined | Following his father's footsteps, the architect was apt to take over the family business. |
Cajole (verb) | coax | Using dry tuna, I was able to cajole the kitten out of the corner. |
Compendious (adj.) | succinct | The small book included a short and compendious overview of the history of Feudal Japan. |
Concur (verb) | agree | In less than an hour, the judge announced the jury had been able to concur on the defendant's guilt. |
Delineate (verb.) | clearly describe of portray | Jamie asked her teacher to delineate the project description once more. |
Digress (verb) Digression (noun) | stray from the subject at hand | The teacher cautioned her students to stay on topic and avoid digressions in their essays. |
Elucidate (verb) | clarify | To make life easy for my math students, I go out of my way to elucidate the complex problems before each test. |
Embroil(ed) (verb) | involve in an argument of conflict | I avoided mt two best friends because i did not want to get embroiled in their dispute. |
Empirical (adj.) | based on observation and experiment (not theory) | Because there was no empirical link between the suspect and the victim, the prosecutor found it hard to make a provable case. |
Enumerate (verb) | list | The hundreds of people that contributed to my book ate too many to enumerate, so I will thank them collectively . |
Epitome (noun) Epitomize (verb) | perfect example of a quality or type | Even under great pressure, the emergency room doctor was the epitome of professionalism. |
Equivocal (adj.) | ambiguous | the teacher's equivocal answer did not provide me with a clear response to my question. |
Exemplar (noun) | representative example | The teacher shared my paper with the class after describing it was an exemplar of a well-written essay. |
Exhort (adj.) | encourage | A good leader will exhort people to achieve their own forms of greatness rather than try to force them on a certain path. |
Expedient (adj.) | convenient and practical | While I could have taken the train to New York City, I found it more expedient to fly there. |
Fathom (verb) | understand | Since I have always done my work, I cannot fathom why my boss just fired me. |
Flagrant (adj. ) | obvious | The driver's flagrant disregard for the speeding laws did not escape the police officer's notice. |
Florid (adj. ) | flushed, flowery | His literary style was too florid and ornate for my simple tastes. |
Incongruity (noun) incongruous (adj. ) | inappropriateness, discrepancy | These two pieces of the puzzle possess incongruity and are clearly not designed to fit with each other. |
Ineffable (adj. ) | impossible to express in words | The movie's shocking ending left us all in an ineffable daze. |
Innuendo (noun) | implicit suggestion | Although the dialogue in the book is not directly explicit.the writer makes great use of innuendo to convey his message. |
Laconic (adj. ) | concise | To save valuable time, give me a laconic explanation of what happened. |
Lucid (adj. ) | clear, easily understood | Since the patient endured severe brain trauma, it will be a while before he becomes lucid. |
Nebulous (adj. ) | vague | While the driving instructor thought his instructions were clear. the students found them to be nebulous. |
Nuance (noun) | subtle difference | To perfect his game, the rookie golfer watched every nuance of his mentor's swing |
Paradigm (noun) | clear example | The devout nun is considering the paradigm of virtue by everyone in the church. |
Prattle (noun/verb) | babble | My talkative mother can prattle in any subject for hours. |
Pronouncement (noun) | formal declaration | The employees were devastated when the store owner made the pronouncement that they were going out of business. |
Proponent | supporter | Because April loves animals, she is a fierce proponent of the animal rights movement. |
Prosaic (adj. ) | lacking imagination, dull | As a whole, prosaic writers tend to write very dull stories which most people never remember. |
Rebuttal (noun) | defense, counter argument | Since the defense attorney did not have a rebuttal to the prosecutor's statement, he was unable to make the jury believe his client's alibi. |
Recant (verb) | retract | The brutal dictator will behead any rebels who refuse to recant their criticisms of his rule. |
Repudiate (verb) | reject | The candidate was told by his advisers to repudiate a previously made statement. |
Rescind (verb) | annul, retract | When the college became aware Henry had been using steroids, they chose to rescind his football scholarship. |
Rhetoric (noun) Rhetorical (adj. ) Rhetorician (noun) | (related to) elegant speech/writing, elegant speaker/writer | The protesters' rhetoric is filled with anger towards the government. |
Scrutinize (verb) Scrutiny (noun) | examine carefully | I will not purchase the used vehicle until my mechanic has had time to scrutinize it for defects. |
Simile (noun) | comparison | In romantic poetry, a simile was most often used to compare a woman's beauty to one of the wonders of nature. |
Tangential (adj. ) | digressive, irrelevant | Our team lost the debate because our responses were tangential and did not respond to our opponent's position on the subject. |
Treatise (noun) | extensive written argument about some topic | She wrote furious treatise against all the corruption in government. |
Verbose (adj. ) | wordy, long-winded | The verbose man took thirty minutes to give me a simple answer. |
Abstruse (adj.) | difficult to understand | While I could understand small portions of the contract, the majority of the legal text was abstruse to me. |