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
Difficult SAT Words
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| arrogate | to take without justification (The king arrogated the right to order executions to himself exclusively.) |
| ascetic | practicing restraint as a means of self-discipline, usually religious (The priest lives an ascetic life devoid of television, savory foods, and other pleasures.) |
| aspersion | a curse, expression of ill-will (The rival politicians repeatedly cast aspersions on each others’ integrity.) |
| assiduous | hard-working, diligent (The construction workers erected the skyscraper during two years of assiduous labor.) |
| austere | very bare, bleak (The austere furniture inside the abandoned house made the place feel haunted.) |
| avarice | excessive greed (The banker’s avarice led him to amass a tremendous personal fortune.) |
| bequeath | to pass on, give (Jon’s father bequeathed his entire estate to his mother.) |
| bilk | cheat, defraud (The lawyer discovered that this firm had bilked several clients out of thousands of dollars.) |
| blandish | to coax by using flattery (Rachel’s assistant tried to blandish her into accepting the deal.) |
| boon | a gift or blessing (The good weather has been a boon for many businesses located near the beach.) |
| bourgeois | a middle-class person, capitalist (Many businessmen receive criticism for their bourgeois approach to life.) |
| buttress | to support, hold up (The column buttresses the roof above the statue.) 2. (n.) something that offers support (The buttress supports the roof above the statues.) |
| cajole | to urge, coax (Fred’s buddies cajoled him into attending the bachelor party.) |
| calumny | an attempt to spoil someone else’s reputation by spreading lies (The local official’s calumny ended up ruining his opponent’s prospect of winning the election.) |
| capitulate | to surrender (The army finally capitulated after fighting a long costly battle.) |
| capricious | subject to whim, fickle (The young girl’s capricious tendencies made it difficult for her to focus on achieving her goals.) |
| carouse | to party, celebrate (We caroused all night after getting married.) |
| circumspect | cautious (Though I promised Rachel’s father I would bring her home promptly by midnight, it would have been more circumspect not to have specified a time.) |
| clairvoyant | able to perceive things that normal people cannot (Zelda’s uncanny ability to detect my lies was nothing short of clairvoyant.) |
| clemency | mercy (After he forgot their anniversary, Martin could only beg Maria for clemency.) |
| cogent | intellectually convincing (Irene’s arguments in favor of abstinence were so cogent that I could not resist them.) |
| commendation | a notice of approval or recognition (Jared received a commendation from Linda, his supervisor, for his stellar performance.) |
| commensurate | corresponding in size or amount (Ahab selected a very long roll and proceeded to prepare a tuna salad sandwich commensurate with his enormous appetite.) |
| compunction | distress caused by feeling guilty (He felt compunction for the shabby way he’d treated her.) |
| conciliatory | friendly, agreeable (I took Amanda’s invitation to dinner as a very conciliatory gesture.) |
| concomitant | accompanying in a subordinate fashion (His dislike of hard work carried with it a concomitant lack of funds.) |
| conflagration | great fire (The conflagration consumed the entire building.) |
| confluence | a gathering together (A confluence of different factors made tonight the perfect night.) |
| congenial | pleasantly agreeable (His congenial manner made him popular wherever he went.) |
| congruity | the quality of being in agreement (Bill and Veronica achieved a perfect congruity of opinion.) |
| consecrate | to dedicate something to a holy purpose (Arvin consecrated his spare bedroom as a shrine to Christina.) |
| contravene | to contradict, oppose, violate (Edwidge contravened his landlady’s rule against overnight guests.) |
| contrite | penitent, eager to be forgiven (Blake’s contrite behavior made it impossible to stay angry at him.) |
| dearth | a lack, scarcity (An eager reader, she was dismayed by the dearth of classic books at the library.) |
| debauch | to corrupt by means of sensual pleasures (An endless amount of good wine and cheese debauched the traveler.) |
| decry | to criticize openly (The kind video rental clerk decried the policy of charging customers late fees.) |
| defunct | no longer used or existing (They planned to turn the defunct school house into a community center.) |
| demagogue | a leader who appeals to a people’s prejudices (The demagogue strengthened his hold over his people by blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs.) |
| depravity | wickedness (Rumors of the ogre’s depravity made the children afraid to enter the forest.) |
| derelict | abandoned, run-down (Even though it was dangerous, the children enjoyed going to the deserted lot and playing in the derelict house.) |
| deride | to laugh at mockingly, scorn (The bullies derided the foreign student’s accent.) |
| diffident | shy, quiet, modest (While eating dinner with the adults, the diffident youth did not speak for fear of seeming presumptuous.) |
| disaffected | rebellious, resentful of authority (Dismayed by Bobby’s poor behavior, the parents sent their disaffected son to a military academy to be disciplined.) |
| discomfit | to thwart, baffle (The normally cheery and playful children’s sudden misery discomfited the teacher.) |
| discursive | rambling, lacking order (The professor’s discursive lectures seemed to be about every subject except the one initially described.) |
| dither | to be indecisive (Not wanting to offend either friend, he dithered about which of the two birthday parties he should attend.) |
| eclectic | consisting of a diverse variety of elements (That bar attracts an eclectic crowd: lawyers, artists, circus clowns, and investment bankers.) |
| efface | to wipe out, obliterate, rub away (The husband was so angry at his wife for leaving him that he effaced all evidence of her presence; he threw out pictures of her and gave away all her belongings.) |
| efficacious | effective (My doctor promised me that the cold medicine was efficacious, but I’m still sniffling.) |
| effrontery | impudence, nerve, insolence (When I told my aunt that she was boring, my mother scolded me for my effrontery.) |
| effulgent | radiant, splendorous (The golden palace was effulgent.) |
| encumber | to weigh down, burden (At the airport, my friend was encumbered by her luggage, so I offered to carry two of her bags.) |
| enervate | to weaken, exhaust (Writing these sentences enervates me so much that I will have to take a nap after I finish.) |
| engender | to bring about, create, generate (During the Olympics, the victories of U.S. athletes engender a patriotic spirit among Americans.) |
| enigmatic | mystifying, cryptic (That man wearing the dark suit and dark glasses is so enigmatic that no one even knows his name.) |
| enmity | ill will, hatred, hostility (Mark and Andy have clearly not forgiven each other, because the enmity between them is obvious to anyone in their presence.) |
| eschew | to shun, avoid (George hates the color green so much that he eschews all green food.) |
| esoteric | understood by only a select few (Even the most advanced students cannot understand the physicist’s esoteric theories.) |
| espouse | to take up as a cause, support (I love animals so much that I espouse animal rights.) |
| evince | to show, reveal (Christopher’s hand-wringing and nail-biting evince how nervous he is about the upcoming English test.) |
| exculpate | to free from guilt or blame, exonerate (My discovery of the ring behind the dresser exculpated me from the charge of having stolen it.) |
| execrable | loathsome, detestable (Her pudding is so execrable that it makes me sick.) |
| exhort | to urge, prod, spur (Henry exhorted his colleagues to join him in protesting against the university’s hiring policies.) |
| exigent | urgent, critical (The patient has an exigent need for medication, or else he will lose his sight.) |
| expiate | to make amends for, atone (To expiate my selfishness, I gave all my profits to charity.) |
| expurgate | to remove offensive or incorrect parts, usually of a book (The history editors expurgated from the text all disparaging and inflammatory comments about the Republican Party.) |
| extant | existing, not destroyed or lost (My mother’s extant love letters to my father are in the attic trunk.) |
| extol | to praise, revere (Violet extolled the virtues of a vegetarian diet to her meat loving brother.) |
| fastidious | meticulous, demanding, having high and often unattainable standards(Mark is so fastidious that he is never able to finish a project because it always seems imperfect to him.) |
| fatuous | silly, foolish (He considers himself a serious poet, but in truth, he only writes fatuous limericks.) |
| fecund | fruitful, fertile (The fecund tree bore enough apples to last us through the entire season.) |
| felicitous | well suited, apt (While his comments were idiotic and rambling, mine were felicitous and helpful.) 2. (adj.) delightful, pleasing (I spent a felicitous afternoon visiting old friends.) |
| fetter | to chain, restrain (The dog was fettered to the parking meter.) |
| flagrant | offensive, egregious (The judge’s decision to set the man free simply because that man was his brother was a flagrant abuse of power.) |
| flout | to disregard or disobey openly (I flouted the school’s dress code by wearing a tie-dyed tank top and a pair of cut-off jeans.) |
| forbearance | patience, restraint, toleration (The doctor showed great forbearance in calming down the angry patient who shouted insults at him.) |
| fractious | troublesome or irritable (Although the child insisted he wasn’t tired, his fractious behavior—especially his decision to crush his cheese and crackers all over the floor—convinced everyone present that it was time to put him to bed.) |
| garrulous | talkative, wordy (Some talk show hosts are so garrulous that their guests can’t get a word in edgewise.) |
| gratuitous | uncalled for, unwarranted (Every morning the guy at the donut shop gives me a gratuitous helping of ketchup packets.) |
| gregarious | drawn to the company of others, sociable (Well, if you’re not gregarious, I don’t know why you would want to go to a singles party!) |
| guile | deceitful, cunning, sly behavior (Because of his great guile, the politician was able to survive scandal after scandal.) |
| hackneyed | unoriginal, trite (A girl can only hear “I love you” so many times before it begins to sound hackneyed and meaningless.) |
| hapless | unlucky (My poor, hapless family never seems to pick a sunny week to goon vacation.) |
| hegemony | domination over others (Britain’s hegemony over its colonies was threatened once nationalist sentiment began to spread around the world.) |
| ignominious | humiliating, disgracing (It was really ignominious to be kicked out of the dorm for having an illegal gas stove in my room.) |
| impetuous | rash; hastily done (Hilda’s hasty slaying of the king was an impetuous, thoughtless action.) |
| impute | to ascribe, blame (The CEO imputed the many typos in the letter to his lazy secretary.) |
| inane | silly and meaningless (Some films are so inane that the psychology of the characters makes absolutely no sense.) |
| inchoate | unformed or formless, in a beginning stage (The country’s government is still inchoate and, because it has no great tradition, quite unstable.) |
| incontrovertible | indisputable (Only stubborn Tina would attempt to disprove the incontrovertible laws of physics.) |
| incumbent | one who holds an office (The incumbent senator is already serving his fifth term.) 2. (adj.) obligatory (It is incumbent upon this organization to offer aid to all who seek it.) |
| indigent | very poor, impoverished (I would rather donate money to help the indigent population than to the park sculpture fund.) |
| indolent | lazy (Why should my indolent children, who can’t even pick themselves up off the couch to pour their own juice, be rewarded with a trip to the mall?) |
| inexorable | incapable of being persuaded or placated (Although I begged for hours, Mom was inexorable and refused to let me stay out all night after the prom.) |
| ingenuous | not devious; innocent and candid (He must have writers, but his speeches seem so ingenuous it’s hard to believe he’s not speaking from his own heart.) |
| inimical | hostile, enemy like (I don’t see how I could ever work for a company that was so cold and inimical to me during my interviews.) |
| iniquity | wickedness or sin (“Your iniquity,” said the priest to the practical jokester,“will be forgiven.”) |
| injunction | an order of official warning (After his house was toilet-papered for the fifth time, the mayor issued an injunction against anyone younger than 21 buying toilet paper.) |
| innocuous | harmless, inoffensive (In spite of their innocuous appearance, these mushrooms are actually quite poisonous.) |
| insidious | appealing but imperceptibly harmful, seductive (Lisa’s insidious chocolate cake tastes so good but makes you feel so sick later on!) |
| insipid | dull, boring (The play was so insipid, I fell asleep halfway through.) |
| intimation | an indirect suggestion (Mr. Brinford’s intimation that he would soon pass away occurred when he began to discuss how to distribute his belongings among his children.) |
| intractable | difficult to manipulate, unmanageable (There was no end in sight tot he intractable conflict between the warring countries.) |
| intrepid | brave in the face of danger (After scaling a live volcano prior to its eruption, the explorer was praised for his intrepid attitude.) |
| inure | to cause someone or something to become accustomed to a situation (Twenty years in the salt mines inured the man to the discomforts of dirt and grime.) |
| invective | an angry verbal attack (My mother’s irrational invective against the way I dress only made me decide to dye my hair green.) |
| inveterate | stubbornly established by habit (I’m the first to admit that I’m an inveterate coffee drinker—I drink four cups a day.) |
| inviolable | secure from assault (Nobody was ever able to break into Batman’s inviolable Batcave.) |
| laconic | terse in speech or writing (The author’s laconic style has won him many followers who dislike wordiness.) |
| larceny | obtaining another’s property by theft or trickery (When my car was not where I had left it, I realized that I was a victim of larceny.) |
| largess | the generous giving of lavish gifts (My boss demonstrated great largess by giving me a new car.) |
| laudatory | expressing admiration or praise (Such laudatory comments are unusual from someone who is usually so reserved in his opinions.) |
| legerdemain | deception, slight-of-hand (Smuggling the French plants through customs by claiming that they were fake was a remarkable bit of legerdemain.) |
| licentious | displaying a lack of moral or legal restraints (Marilee has always been fascinated by the licentious private lives of politicians.) |
| limpid | clear, transparent (Mr. Johnson’s limpid writing style greatly pleased readers who disliked complicated novels.) |
| lurid | ghastly, sensational (Gideon’s story, in which he described a character torturing his sister’s dolls, was judged too lurid to be printed in the school’s literary magazine.) |
| manifold | diverse, varied (The popularity of Dante’s Inferno is partly due to the fact that the work allows for manifold interpretations.) |
| maudlin | weakly sentimental (Although many people enjoy romantic comedies, I usually find them maudlin and shallow.) |
| mawkish | characterized by sick sentimentality (Although some nineteenth century critics viewed Dickens’s writing as mawkish, contemporary readers have found great emotional depth in his works.) |
| mercurial | characterized by rapid change or temperamentality (Though he was widely respected for his mathematical proofs, the mercurial genius was impossible to live with.) |
| morass | a wet swampy bog; figuratively, something that traps and confuses (WhenTheresa lost her job, she could not get out of her financial morass.) |
| multifarious | having great diversity or variety (This Swiss Army knife has multifarious functions and capabilities. Among other things, it can act as a knife, a saw, a toothpick, and a slingshot.) |
| mutable | generosity in giving (The royal family’s munificence made everyone else in their country rich.) |
| nadir | the lowest point of something (My day was boring, but the nadir came whenI accidentally spilled a bowl of spaghetti on my head.) |
| nascent | in the process of being born or coming into existence (Unfortunately, my brilliant paper was only in its nascent form on the morning that it was due.) |
| neophyte | someone who is young or inexperienced (As a neophyte in the literary world, Malik had trouble finding a publisher for his first novel.) |
| obdurate | unyielding to persuasion or moral influences (The obdurate old man refused to take pity on the kittens.) |
| obsequious | excessively compliant or submissive (Mark acted like Janet’s servant, obeying her every request in an obsequious manner.) |
| obstreperous | noisy, unruly (Billy’s obstreperous behavior prompted the librarian to ask him to leave the reading room.) |
| officious | offering one’s services when they are neither wanted nor needed (Brenda resented Allan’s officious behavior when he selected colors that might best improve her artwork.) |
| panacea | a remedy for all ills or difficulties (Doctors wish there was a single panacea for every disease, but sadly there is not.) |
| parsimony | frugality, stinginess (Many relatives believed that my aunt’s wealth resulted from her parsimony.) |
| patent | readily seen or understood, clear (The reason for Jim’s abdominal pain was made patent after the doctor performed a sonogram.) |
| pathology | a deviation from the normal (Dr. Hastings had difficulty identifying the precise nature of Brian’s pathology.) |
| paucity | small in quantity (Gilbert lamented the paucity of twentieth century literature courses available at the college.) |
| pejorative | derogatory, uncomplimentary (The evening’s headline news covered an international scandal caused by a pejorative statement the famous senator had made in reference to a foreign leader.) |
| penchant | a tendency, partiality, preference (Jill’s dinner parties quickly became monotonous on account of her penchant for Mexican dishes.) |
| penurious | miserly, stingy (Stella complained that her husband’s penurious ways made it impossible to live the lifestyle she felt she deserved.) |
| perfidious | disloyal, unfaithful (After the official was caught selling government secrets to enemy agents, he was executed for his perfidious ways.) |
| perfunctory | showing little interest or enthusiasm (The radio broadcaster announced the news of the massacre in a surprisingly perfunctory manner.) |
| pernicious | extremely destructive or harmful (The new government feared that the Communist sympathizers would have a pernicious influence on the nation’s stability.) |
| perspicacity | shrewdness, perceptiveness (The detective was too humble to acknowledge that his perspicacity was the reason for his professional success.) |
| pert | flippant, bold (My parents forgave Sandra’s pert humor at the dinner table because it had been so long since they had last seen her.) |
| pertinacious | stubbornly persistent (Harry’s parents were frustrated with his pertinacious insistence that a monster lived in his closet. Then they opened the closet door and were eaten.) |
| petulance | rudeness, irritability (The Nanny resigned after she could no longer tolerate the child’s petulance.) |
| phlegmatic | uninterested, unresponsive (Monique feared her dog was ill after the animal’s phlegmatic response to his favorite chew toy.) |
| pithy | concisely meaningful (My father’s long-winded explanation was a stark contrast to his usually pithy statements.) |
| plaudits | enthusiastic approval, applause (The controversial new film received plaudits from even the harshest critics.) |
| polemic | an aggressive argument against a specific opinion (My brother launched into a polemic against my arguments that capitalism was an unjust economic system.) |
| portent | an omen (When a black cat crossed my sister’s path while she was walking to school, she took it as a portent that she would do badly on her spelling test.) |
| potentate | one who has great power, a ruler (All the villagers stood along the town’s main road to observe as the potentate’s procession headed towards the capital.) |
| preclude | to prevent (My grandfather’s large and vicious guard dog precluded anyone from entering the yard.) |
| precocious | advanced, developing ahead of time (Derek was so academically precocious that by the time he was 10 years old, he was already in the ninth grade.) |
| predilection | a preference or inclination for something (Francois has a predilection for eating scrambled eggs with ketchup, though I prefer to eat eggs without any condiments.) |
| preponderance | superiority in importance or quantity (Britain’s preponderance of naval might secured the nation’s role as a military power.) |
| presage | an omen (When my uncle’s old war injury ached, he interpreted it as a presage of bad weather approaching.) |
| prescient | to have foreknowledge of events (Questioning the fortune cookie’s prediction, Ray went in search of the old hermit who was rumored to be prescient.) |
| privation | lacking basic necessities (After decades of rule by an oppressive government that saw nothing wrong with stealing from its citizens, the recent drought only increased the people’s privation.) |
| probity | virtue, integrity (Because he was never viewed as a man of great probity, no one was surprised by Mr. Samson’s immoral behavior.) |
| proclivity | a strong inclination toward something (In a sick twist of fate, Harold’s childhood proclivity for torturing small animals grew into a desire to become a surgeon.) |
| profligate | dissolute, extravagant (The profligate gambler loved to drink, spend money, steal, cheat, and hang out with prostitutes.) |
| promulgate | to proclaim, make known (The film professor promulgated that both in terms of sex appeal and political intrigue, Sean Connery’s James Bond was superior to Roger Moore’s.) |
| propensity | an inclination, preference (Dermit has a propensity for dangerous activities such as bungee jumping.) |
| propitious | favorable (The dark storm clouds visible on the horizon suggested that the weather would not be propitious for sailing.) |
| prosaic | plain, lacking liveliness (Heather’s prosaic recital of the poem bored the audience.) |
| protean | able to change shape; displaying great variety (Among Nigel’s protean talents was his ability to touch the tip of his nose with his tongue.) |
| prudence | cautious, circumspect (After losing a fortune in a stock market crash, my father vowed to practice greater prudence in future investments.) |
| prurient | eliciting or possessing an extraordinary interest in sex (David’s mother was shocked by the discovery of prurient reading material hidden beneath her son’s mattress.) |
| puerile | juvenile, immature (The judge demanded order after the lawyer’s puerile attempt to object by stomping his feet on the courtroom floor.) |
| pulchritude | physical beauty (especially of a woman) types: curvaceousness, shapeliness, voluptuousness. the quality of having a well-rounded body. |
| punctilious | eager to follow rules or conventions (Punctilious Bobby, hall monitor extraordinaire, insisted that his peers follow the rules.) |
| quandary | a perplexed, unresolvable state (Carlos found himself in a quandary:should he choose mint chocolate chip or cookie dough?) |
| querulous | whiny, complaining (If deprived of his pacifier, young Brendan becomes querulous.) |
| quixotic | idealistic, impractical (Edward entertained a quixotic desire to fall in love at first sight in a laundromat.) |
| rail | to scold, protest (The professor railed against the injustice of the college’s tenure policy.) |
| rancor | deep, bitter resentment (When Eileen challenged me to a fight, I could seethe rancor in her eyes.) |
| rapport | mutual understanding and harmony (When Margaret met her paramour, they felt an instant rapport.) |
| recalcitrant | defiant, unapologetic (Even when scolded, the recalcitrant young girl simply stomped her foot and refused to finish her lima beans.) |
| redoubtable | formidable (The fortress looked redoubtable set against a stormy sky.) 2. (adj.) commanding respect (The audience greeted the redoubtable speaker with a standing ovation.) |
| replete | full, abundant (The unedited version was replete with naughty words.) |
| repose | to rest, lie down (The cat, after eating an entire can of tuna fish, reposed in the sun and took a long nap.) |
| reprehensible | deserving rebuke (Jean’s cruel and reprehensible attempt to dump her boyfriend on his birthday led to tears and recriminations.) |
| reprobate | evil, unprincipled (The reprobate criminal sat sneering in the cell.) |
| reprove | to scold, rebuke (Lara reproved her son for sticking each and every one of his fingers into the strawberry pie.) |
| repudiate | to reject, refuse to accept (Kwame made a strong case for an extension of his curfew, but his mother repudiated it with a few biting words.) |
| restive | resistant, stubborn, impatient (The restive audience pelted the band with mud and yelled nasty comments.) |
| rhapsodize | to engage in excessive enthusiasm (The critic rhapsodized about the movie, calling it an instant classic.) |
| ribald | coarsely, crudely humorous (While some giggled at the ribald joke involving a parson’s daughter, most sighed and rolled their eyes.) |
| rife | abundant (Surprisingly, the famous novelist’s writing was rife with spelling errors.) |
| sagacity | shrewdness, soundness of perspective (With remarkable sagacity, the wise old man predicted and thwarted his children’s plan to ship him off to a nursing home.) |
| salient | significant, conspicuous (One of the salient differences between Alison and Nancy is that Alison is a foot taller.) |
| sanctimonious | giving a hypocritical appearance of piety (The sanctimoniousBertrand delivered stern lectures on the Ten Commandments to anyone who would listen, but thought nothing of stealing cars to make some cash on the side.) |
| sanguine | optimistic, cheery (Polly reacted to any bad news with a sanguine smile and the chirpy cry, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!”) |
| scurrilous | vulgar, coarse (When Bruno heard the scurrilous accusation being made about him, he could not believe it because he always tried to be nice to everyone.) |
| semaphore | a visual signal (Anne and Diana communicated with a semaphore involving candles and window shades.) |
| seminal | original, important, creating a field (Stephen Greenblatt’s essays onShakespeare proved to be seminal, because they initiated the critical school of NewHistoricism.) |
| solicitous | concerned, attentive (Jim, laid up in bed with a nasty virus, enjoyed the solicitous attentions of his mother, who brought him soup and extra blankets.) |
| somnolent | sleepy, drowsy (The somnolent student kept falling asleep and waking up with a jerk.) |
| spurious | false but designed to seem plausible (Using a spurious argument, John convinced the others that he had won the board game on a technicality.) |
| surfeit | an overabundant supply or indulgence (After partaking of the surfeit of tacos and tamales at the All-You-Can-Eat Taco Tamale Lunch Special, Beth felt rather sick.) |
| swarthy | of dark color or complexion (When he got drunk, Robinson’s white skin became rather swarthy.) |
| sycophant | one who flatters for self-gain (Some see the people in the cabinet as the president’s closest advisors, but others see them as sycophants.) |
| tacit | expressed without words (I interpreted my parents’ refusal to talk as a tacit acceptance of my request.) |
| taciturn | not inclined to talk (Though Jane never seems to stop talking, her brother is quite taciturn.) |
| tantamount | equivalent in value or significance (When it comes to sports, fearing your opponent is tantamount to losing.) |
| temerity | audacity, recklessness (Tom and Huck entered the scary cave armed with nothing but their own temerity.) |
| tenable | able to be defended or maintained (The department heads tore down the arguments in other people’s theses, but Johari’s work proved to be quite tenable.) |
| tenuous | having little substance or strength (Your argument is very tenuous, since it relies so much on speculation and hearsay.) |
| timorous | timid, fearful (When dealing with the unknown, timorous Tallulahal most always broke into tears.) |
| toady | one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors (The other kids referred to the teacher’s pet as the Tenth Grade Toady.) |
| torpid | lethargic, dormant, lacking motion (The torpid whale floated, wallowing in the water for hours.) |
| tortuous | winding (The scary thing about driving in mountains are the narrow, tortuous roads.) |
| tractable | easily controlled (The horse was so tractable, Myra didn’t even need a bridle.) |
| trenchant | effective, articulate, clear-cut (The directions that accompanied my new cell phone were trenchant and easy to follow.) |
| trite | not original, overused (Keith thought of himself as being very learned, but everyone else thought he was trite because his observations about the world were always the same as David Letterman’s.) |
| truculent | ready to fight, cruel (This club doesn’t really attract the dangerous types, so why was that bouncer being so truculent?) |
| truncate | to shorten by cutting off (After winning the derby, the jockey truncated the long speech he had planned and thanked only his mom and his horse.) |
| turgid | swollen, excessively embellished in style or language (The haughty writer did not realize how we all really felt about his turgid prose.) |
| turpitude | depravity, moral corruption (Sir Marcus’s chivalry often contrasted with the turpitude he exhibited with the ladies at the tavern.) |
| ubiquitous | existing everywhere, widespread (It seems that everyone in the United States has a television. The technology is ubiquitous here.) |
| umbrage | resentment, offense (He called me a lily-livered coward, and I took umbrage at the insult.) |
| unctuous | smooth or greasy in texture, appearance, manner (The unctuous receptionist seemed untrustworthy, as if she was only being helpful because she thought we might give her a big tip.) |
| upbraid | to criticize or scold severely (The last thing Lindsay wanted was for Lisa to upbraid her again about missing the rent payment.) |
| vapid | lacking liveliness, dull (The professor’s comments about the poem were surprisingly vapid and dull.) |
| venerable | deserving of respect because of age or achievement (The venerable Supreme Court justice had made several key rulings in landmark cases throughout the years.) |
| venerate | to regard with respect or to honor (The tribute to John Lennon sought to venerate his music, his words, and his legend.) |
| verbose | wordy, impaired by wordiness (It took the verbose teacher two hours to explain the topic, while it should have taken only fifteen minutes.) |
| vestige | a mark or trace of something lost or vanished (Do you know if the Mexican tortilla is a vestige of some form of Aztec corn-based flat bread?) |
| vicissitude | event that occurs by chance (The vicissitudes of daily life prevent me from predicting what might happen from one day to the next.) |
| viscous | not free flowing, syrupy (The viscous syrup took three minutes to pour out of the bottle.) |
| vitriolic | having a caustic quality (When angry, the woman would spew vitriolic insults.) |
| vociferous | loud, boisterous (I’m tired of his vociferous whining so I’m breaking up with him.) |
| wanton | undisciplined, lewd, lustful (Vicky’s wanton demeanor often made the frat guys next door very excited.) |
| winsome | charming, pleasing (After such a long, frustrating day, I was grateful forChris’s winsome attitude and childish naivete.) |
| wizened | dry, shrunken, wrinkled (Agatha’s grandmother, Stephanie, had the most wizened countenance, full of leathery wrinkles.) |
| zealous | fervent, filled with eagerness in pursuit of something (If he were anymore zealous about getting his promotion, he’d practically live at the office.) |
| zenith | the highest point, culminating point (I was too nice to tell Nelly that she had reached the absolute zenith of her career with that one hit of hers.) |
Created by:
ca900073748