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Unit 13 Vocab
AP Lit 2024
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Abstruse | Extremely difficult to understand |
| Captious | excessively ready to find fault; given to petty criticism; intended to trap, confuse, or show up |
| Contrite | regretful for some misdeed or sin; plagued by a sense of guilt; thoroughly penitent |
| Decorous | well behaved, dignified, socially proper |
| Efficacy | the power to produce a desired result |
| Engender | to bring into existence, give rise to, produce; to come into existence, assume from |
| Facade | the front or face of a building; a surface appearance (as opposed to what may lie behind) |
| Ghoulish | revolting in an unnatural or morbid way; suggestive of someone who robs graves or otherwise preys on the dead |
| Mesmerize | to hypnotize, entrance; to fascinate, enthrall, bewitch |
| Opprobrium | disgrace arising from shameful conduct; contempt, reproach |
| Affront | an open or intentional insult; a slight; to insult to one's face; to face in defiance, confront |
| Canard | a false rumor, fabricated story |
| Cognizant | aware, knowledgeable, informed; having jurisdiction |
| Cynosure | the center of attraction, attention, or interest; something that serves to guide or direct |
| Deign | to think it appropriate or suitable to one's dignity to do something; to condescend |
| Desiccated | thoroughly dried out; divested of spirit or vitality; arid and uninteresting |
| Ethereal | light, airy, delicate; highly refined; suggesting what is heavenly (rather than earth bound) |
| Incongruous | not in keeping, unsuitable, incompatible |
| Machination | a crafty, scheming, or underhanded action designed to accomplish some (usually evil) end |
| Putative | generally regarded as such; reputed; hypothesized, inferred |