Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Composition 11 WotD
A comprehensive list of the WotD words.
| Words | Definition | Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| brouhaha (n) | a noisy commotion; a big controversy over a ridiculous cause | The town cat being kicked out of the library brewed up a large brouhaha in the town square. |
| wanderlust (n) | the desire to wander and explore | The vast mountain landscape filled her with wanderlust. |
| dilemma (n) | a difficult decision between two and undesirable choices | "The people often face the dilemma of feeding themselves or their cattle." |
| compassion (n) | being filled with sympathy and sorrow for another and wanting to help | She was filled with compassion when she saw the injured puppy on the side of the road. |
| nonchalant (adj) | to be unusually casual and indifferent in a serious situation | The student acted nonchalant to his sinking G.P.A. |
| defenestrate (v) | to throw someone or something out of a window | The tennis ball was defenestrated after a poor throw. |
| ingenious (adj) | clever; original; inventive | "Another ingenious invention was a system to prevent early starts in the foot races." |
| baffled (adj) | confused; bewildered | "Her reaction really baffled me." |
| dawdle (v) | to waste time | I dawdled around, despite the looming deadline. |
| sesquipedalia (n) | a long word | His knowledge of sesquipedalias, such as pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, did not impress his second-grade classmates. |
| façade (n) | an outward appearance or act that hides an unpleasant truth | I could sense the hostility lurking behind her polite facade. |
| insight (n) | a deep understanding of a person or thing | "The research will give valuable insight into the workings of the brain." |
| prevail (v) | to succeed, triumph | The heroes prevailed over the villain. |
| supercilious (adj) | being arrogant; acting superior to others | She gained a large amount of negative attention after the supercilious comments she made on the Jimmy Kimmel Tonight Show. |
| gregarious (adj) | sociable, outgoing | His gregarious personality made him a lot of friends. |
| pretentious (adj) | attempting to impress others by exaggerating one's knowledge and importance | She pretentiously name-dropped at the party in order to let everyone know she was the coolest person in the room. |
| disparage (v) | to dismiss something or condemn it without good reason | She disparaged her friend's hard-won mark on the Physics test by making fun of her. |
| harangue (v) | to lecture and nag someone excessively | She skipped class just once and her mother harangued her about it for weeks. |
| tweak (v) | make minor adjustments to refine something | She tweaked her writing until it said exactly what she wanted it to say. |
| hinder (v) | blocking someone; creating difficulties for someone | Her nerves were hindering her breathing when she went to sing. |
| meddle (v) | to interfere unnecessarily in other's affairs | He meddles with his friends' situations and only made things worse. |
| chagrin (n) | embarrassment and shame | He was filled with chagrin after his sharp words hurt her feelings. |
| rescind (v) | to reverse/retract an order/decision | The company immediately rescinded their statement after being hit with a huge amount of backlash. |
| nepotism (n) | the practice of favouring relatives | "The president was accused of nepotism." |
| yokel (n) | a country bumpkin; a rustic person | "At school, his classmates regarded him as a yokel and laughed at his rustic mannerisms." |
| petulant (adj) | someone who shows great annoyance or irritation to minor problems | The petulant child screamed after not getting the toy he wanted. |
| curative (adj) | providing a remedy; ability to cure | The curative effects of medicinal herbs are well documented. |
| affable (adj) | friendly; easygoing | Her affable friend was always cheerful and well-meaning. |
| monomania (n) | an obsession for one thing | Her monomania for collectible 80's toys caused her to fly to Idaho to procure a classic Ghostbusters action figure of Peter Venkman. |
| accost (v) | to approach someone boldly and aggressively | She was accosted by the ambitious salesman and couldn't leave without buying a Volvo. |
| charisma (n) | charm | The politicians charisma gained him a large following. |
| sully (n) | to dirty someone's reputation | During the campaign, the candidates tried their best to sully one another's reputations. |
| cantankerous (adj) | bad tempered and always ready to fight | The cantankerous old man hated the young cats. |
| opine (v) | to express an opinion | "I love pizza, but I hate cheese," she opined. |
| plethora (n) | a huge amount | The store had a plethora of antique items. |
| mountebank (n) | charlatan; con artist | The mountebank swindled thousands of unsuspecting people. |
| multifarious (adj) | composed of many components | The machine's multifarious design was confusing to the common person |
| meretricious (adj) | attracting attention through vulgar, flashy behaviour | Her meretricious antics were designed to attract attention. |
| macabre (adj) | scary/haunted housie | The macabre story scared him. |
| duress (n) | stress | In the second half of the play most of the characters are under duress. |
| maelstrom (n) | a storm | The politician was caught in a maelstrom of controversy. |
| humuhumunukunakuapua'a (n) | State fish of Hawaii | I can't pronounce humuhumunukunakuapua'a. |
| curio (n) | a novelty; an item that is a curiosity | She had a curio box at home. |
| cull (v) | to assemble; to gather and collect together | She culled together some interesting ideas for her next written assignment. |
| quahog (n) | an edible clam found off the coast of North America | "Pass the quahogs, I'm starving!" |
| zest (n) | gusto; spice; vigour; enjoyment | She looked for ways to add telling details and zest to her writing. |
| levity (n) | lightness and fun | Looking to add levity to the occasion, he peppered his speech with ironic jokes. |
| esquivalience (n) | the shirking (avoidance) of one's official duties | He was fired due to esquivaliance. |
| slake (v) | to chug, to guzzle | He slaked a two-liter Gatorade in a matter of seconds. |
| fabricate (n) | to make up for the purpose of deception | The fabricated evidence was presented to the courtroom. |
| intriguing (adj) | arousing one's curiosity or interest; fascinating | "The story raises all kinds of intriguing questions." |
| speculate (v) | form a theory or conjecture about a subject without firm evidence | The people speculated that there would be flying cars in 2030 |
| "The cat's paw" (p) | a person used by another to do dangerous, distasteful, or unlawful work | "You always try to make a cat's paw of me, but I refuse to do any more of your work." |
| kakorrhaphiophobia (n) | an abnormal, persistent, irrational fear of failure | My kakorrhaphiophobia stopped me from working on the project. |
| tizzy (n) | a state of nervous excitement or agitation | "She got herself in a real tizzy because she couldn't find her car keys." |
| acquisitive (adj) | excessively interested in acquiring money or material things | "There are still quite a number of rather wicked, acquisitive people in the world." |
| bough (n) | a main branch of a tree | "I rested my fishing rod against a pine bough." |
| brook (v) | to tolerate | She would brook no discussion on skipping the trip to Disneyland. |
| brunt (n) | the impact; an attack | She bore the brunt of her brother's anger when he lost his cell phone. |
| craven/pusillanimous (adj) | cowardly/really cowardly | The craven dog backed down from the smaller dog. |
| foolhardy (adj) | foolish | Taking his skateboard down the hill was foolhardy and he was lucky he wasn't hurt. |
| folly (n) | mistake | The villain learned the folly of his ways |
| circumspect (adj) | to take into account all the factors before acting | He was circumspect about his decisions |
| swashbuckler (n) | a daring hero of adventure literature or movies | "The cover had the classic image of a swashbuckler" |
| scenario (n) | a hypothetical situation | "His best-case scenario would be a fine rather than imprisonment" |
| mayhem (n) | chaos; disorder | "The result of the vote caused mayhem on the streets of the capital" |
| daunting (adj) | scary; intimidating | "It was a daunting task, but she threw herself into it with enthusiasm" |
| undaunted (adj) | brave; unafraid | "Even though the road ahead promises to be difficult, he remains undaunted" |
| machinations (n) | evil plans | "He exposed the machinations of big business" |
| candid (adj) | open and honest | She was candid about why she quit the swimming team. |
| connoisseur (n) | an expert | She was a connoisseur of fine paintings. |
| quarry (n) | something hunted or pursued | "The cat stalked its quarry" |
| qualm (n) | twinge of conscience | He had no qualms about stealing the last doughnut from his friend. |
| pretext (n) | a questionable excuse | She skipped the rugby practice under the pretext that she had a major project to finish. |
| passe (adj) | old fashioned; out of style | "The fashions may seem passé and the faces a little square." |
| hullabaloo (n) | a total commotion | Don't cause a hullabaloo. Don't do it. |
| adamant (adj) | absolutely definite | He was adamant that he had seen a flying cat. |
| huckster (n) | a shifty salesman who sells suspicious products | The huckster sold deeds to the Brooklyn Bridge all over town. |
| foment (v) | to instigate or stir up trouble | He tried to foment unrest between his querulous friends. |
| nuance (n) | subtle difference in shade, meaning of expression, or sound | She discerned subtle nuances between the original painting and the forgery. |
| marooned (adj) | to be stranded or abandoned on a desert island (or anywhere undesirable) | The student was marooned on The Island of Lost Poems. |
| correlation (n) | a mutual connection or relationship between two things | There is a correlation between smacking up the family car and getting grounded. |
| vital (adj) | absolutely essential and necessary | "She played a vital role in the negotiations." |
| zephyr (n) | a soft gentle breeze | A zephyr blew across the tropical beach. |
| akin (adj) | -like something | This new movie is akin to another I saw last week. |
| charlatan (n) | a faker, phoney, or con-man | The charlatan fooled the world into thinking that... |
| nadir | a low point (lowest) | He hit a nadir when... |
| inconspicuous (adj) | unnoticeable and not easily seen | He tried to make himself as inconspicuous as possible as he... |
| intuition (n) | the quality of having good perception and understanding of something | His intuition told him that... |
| trilemma (n) | a difficult choice between three undesirable things | The controversy brought a difficult trilemma for the president. |
| Idyllic (adj) | happy; peaceful; ideal | For many people, a tropical beach is an idyllic setting. |
| ambivalent (adj) | indecisive, unsure | She was ambivalent about the trip. She wasn't sure if she would go. |
| regale (v) | to entertain; to enthrall | She regaled her friends with stories of nightmares. |
| rue (adj) | to regret; to wish something didn't happen | She rued the day she didn't bother to put gas in her car, and got stranded on the side of the highway. |
| skeptical (adj) | unsure; doubtful & cynical | He was skeptical on the reason why his friends didn't show up to the movie. |
| yen (n) | craving for something | He had a yen for Doritos, so he went to the gas station to buy some. |
| circuitous (adj) | roundabout; like a circuit | The circuitous conversation went nowhere. |
| tenacious (adj) | tending to cling to an idea/belief | He clung tenaciously to his convictions no matter what anyone said. |
| sublime (adj) | inspire great admiration or awe | The music he heard was so sublime, he decided to become a composer. |
| vainglorious (adj) | excessively proud or vain about your accomplishments. | "The vainglorious are the ones who often fall down the farthest." |
| astute (adj) | having the ability to accurately assess | On her first day of the job, she proved to be an astute problem solver. |
| foible/peccadillo (n) | a minor character flaw | "They have to tolerate each other's little foibles." |
| argosy (n) | a large merchant ship | "The argosy scrolled through the river" |
| vigilant (adj) | watchful | "She was vigilant in staying on top of her schoolwork." |
| eerie (adj) | strange; unsettling | "The mist instilled an eerie feeling as they walked through the forest." |
| fathom (v) | to fully understand | He was unable to fathom what her friend was talking about. |
| falter (v) | to hesitate | "He faltered under the threat of death" |
| flabbergasted (adj) | shocked; astounded | "The town was flabbergasted by the policies invoked by the mayor." |
| fiddle sticks (n) | nonsense | The student exclaimed "Fiddlesticks!", when he dropped all his textbooks. |
| indomitable (adj) | unstoppable in the face of fear | The mountain climber's indomitable attitude helped her climb Mt. Celeste. |
| cursory (adj) | to do something quickly, especially looking or reading | He gave a cursory glance at his phone, before putting it back in his pocket. |
| faze (adj) | rattled; bothered; upset | Nothing fazed or rattled him, he was always calm |
| frazzled (adj) | worn out; stressed | After a long day of school, all the students were frazzled |
| nonplussed (adj) | slightly confused | He was nonplussed by the words on the fancy restauraunt. |
| comeuppance (n) | when a villain gets his just desserts, what he rightly deserves for his actions | The villain got his comeuppance at the end of the play. |
| poetic justice (n) | when a character's comeuppance fits their behaviour--often ironic | It was poetic justice when... |
| pragmatic (adj) | practical and logical | She was very pragmatic and was only interested in what would work practically in her life. |
| sagacious (adj) | wise | Her grandmother was a wise and sagacious person. |
| nemesis (n) | your opponent, rival, or enemy; | Batman's nemesis, the Joker, contrasts Batman's order. |
| erroneous (adj) | incorrect | He was given an erroneous answer to his query. |
| tintinnabulation (n) | the ringing of bells | The tintinnabulations rang our across the fields. |
| defer (v) | to put off until a later time; postpone | She had to defer her plans for travel when she lost her savings. |
| bosky (adj) | thick with underbrush; wooded | He climbed through the bosky woods, searching for a way out. |
| relish (v) | to enjoy heartily | She relished each bite of the sour cherry scone. |
| fantasia (n) | a mixture of different forms or styles, done in a weird, wonderful and fantastical way | The piece of music was a free-form, colourful and fantastical fantasia. |
| yob (n) | a hooligan (a (young) person who disrupts society with bad behaviour) or ruffian | Some yob dropped a stapler in the class fish tank. |
| aesthetic (n) | concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty | Most people expect imagery to be aesthetically pleasing. |
| enmesh (v) | involve, entangle | He didn't want to become enmeshedin his friend's dispute. |
| boondoggle (n) | useless activity designed to make one look busy | The project is a complete boondoggle |
| mawkish (adj) | overly sentimental | He wanted to write something in the card that was heartfelt but not mawkish. |
| polyglot (n) | a person who speaks many languages | Someone called him a polyglot. But then he realized it was a compliment. |
| polymath (n) | someone who is learned in many different areas | Then, they called him a polymath, and heq was insulted again. |
| nefarious; iniquitous (n) | evil; extremely wicked | Macbeth is proving to be quite the nefarious and inquitous villain. |
| faux pas (n) | a slight social mistake | I made a faux pas when... |
| abscond (b) | to secretly flee away | Malcolm and Donalbain absconds to England and Ireland after hearing of the King's death. |
| bewail (v) | to weep and wail in sorrow | The class bewailed the test. |
| paltry (adj) | a small amount (usually money) | She offered me a paltry one hundered dollars for the priceless hockey card. |
| ineluctable | not to be avoided, changed, or resisted | "He radiates an ineluctable lightness of being." |
| scamper (v) | to run playfully | She headed to the seafront with a carer and watched squirrels scamper in a churchyard. |
| mendacious (adj) | given to telling lies | Macbeth is one mendacious guy! |
| superlative (adj) | excellent; of the highest quality | The winning cheese at the competition was deemed to be the superlative cheese. |
| querulous (adj) | complaining; always arguing | The querulous man was asked to leave the meeting. |
| ersatz (adj) | artificial; a cheap imitation | The criminal tried to sell the ersatz ring. |
| sardonic | ||
| amalgamate | ||
| flak | ||
| trepidation | ||
| unbeknownst | ||
| slather |
Created by:
cattwith2ts
Popular English Vocabulary sets