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Stack #62643
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| adamant | (adj) stubborn, unyielding; completely inflexible |
| idyllic | (adj) charming in a rustic way; naturally peaceful |
| luminous | (adj) giving off light; glowing; bright |
| pivotal | (adj) crucial |
| reprisal | (n) a military action undertaken in revenge for another; an act of payback or revenge |
| cadence | (n) rhythm; the rise and fall of sounds |
| guile | (n) cunning; duplicity; artfulness |
| judicious | (adj) exercising sound judgment |
| tangential | (adj) only superficially related to the matter at hand; not especially relevant; peripheral |
| vehement | (adj) intense; forceful; violent |
| aptitude | (n) capacity for learning; natural ability |
| beset | (v) to harass; to surround |
| espouse | (v) to support; to advocate |
| malfeasance | (n) an illegal act, especially by a public official |
| reprehensible | (adj) worthy of blame or censure |
| bane | (n) poison; torment; cause of harm |
| coalesce | (v) to come together as one; to fuse; to unite |
| deter | (v) to prevent; to stop; to keep from doing something |
| impugn | (v) to attack, especially to attack the truth or integrity of something |
| perquisite | (n) a privilege that goes along with a job; a "perk" |
| feasible | (adj) able to be done |
| itinerant | (adj) moving from place to place |
| patrician | (n) a person of noble birth; an aristocrat |
| servile | (adj) submissive and subservient; like a servant |
| unabashed | (adj) unapologetic |
| aesthetic | (adj) having to do with artistic beauty; artistic |
| congenial | (adj) agreeably suitable; pleasant |
| discreet | (adj) prudent; judiciously reserved |
| fetter | (v) to restrain; to hamper; (n) a chain used to restrain someone |
| unconscionable | (adj) not controlled by conscience; unscrupulous |
| bucolic | (adj) charmingly rural; rustic; country like |
| deference | (n) submission to another’s will; respect; courtesy |
| indigent | (adj) poor |
| pensive | (adj) thoughtful and sad |
| repress | (v) to hold down |
| credulous | (adj) eager to believe; gullible |
| empirical | (adj) relying on experience or observation; not merely theoretical |
| prodigy | (n) an extremely talented child; or extraordinary accomplishment or occurrence |
| synthesis | (n) the combining of parts to form a whole |
| wanton | (adj) malicious; unjustifiable; unprovoked |
| artful | (adj) crafty; wily; sly |
| desecrate | (v) to profane a holy place |
| impromptu | (adj) without preparation; on the spur of the moment |
| monolithic | (adj) massive, solid, uniform, and unyielding |
| ramification | (n) a consequence; a branching out |
| ameliorate | (v) to make better or more tolerable |
| clique | (n) an exclusive group bound together by some shared quality of interest |
| glut | (n) surplus; an overabundance |
| labyrinth | (n) a maze; something like a maze |
| scintillate | (v) to sparkle, either literally or figuratively |
| abysmal | (adj) extremely hopeless or wretched; bottomless |
| disinterested | (adj) not taking sides; unbiased |
| mercurial | (adj) emotionally unpredictable; rapidly changing in mood |
| robust | (adj) strong and healthy; vigorous |
| utopia | (n) an ideal society |
| awry | (adj) off course; twisted to one side |
| collusion | (n) conspiracy; secret cooperation |
| felicity | (n) happiness; skillfulness, especially at expressing things; adeptness |
| incessant | (adj) unceasing |
| proximity | (n) nearness |
| ambience | (n) atmosphere; mood; feeling |
| culpable | (adj) deserving blame; guilty |
| lampoon | (v) to satirize; to mock; parody |
| martial | (adj) war like; having to do with combat |
| profuse | (adj) flowing; extravagant |
| assiduous | (adj) hardworking; busy; quite diligent |
| languish | (v) to become weak, listless, or depressed |
| perennial | (adj) continual; happening again and again or year after year |
| sporadic | (adj) stopping and starting; scattered; occurring in bursts every once in a while |
| stymie | (v) to thwart; to get in the way of; to hinder |
| auspicious | (adj) favorable; promising; pointing to a good result |
| desiccate | (v) to dry out |
| fervor | (n) great warmth or earnestness; ardor; zeal |
| incense | (v) to make very angry |
| paltry | (adj) insignificant; worthless |
| accolade | (n) an award; an honor |
| coup | (n) a brilliant victory or accomplishment; a violent overthrow of a government by a small internal group |
| nebulous | (adj) vague; hazy; indistinct |
| rancor | (n) bitter, long-lasting ill will or resentment |
| sentient | (adj) able to perceive by the senses; conscious |
| attrition | (n) gradual wearing away, weakening, or loss; a natural or expected decrease in numbers or size |
| bastion | (n) a stronghold; fortress; fortified place |
| extrapolate | (v) to project or deduce from something know; to infer |
| stricture | (n) a restriction; a limitation; a negative criticism |
| tout | (v) to praise highly; to brag publicly about |
| altruism | (n) selflessness; generosity; devotion to the interests of others |
| discrete | (adj) unconnected; separate; distinct |
| esoteric | (adj) hard to understand; understood by only a select few; peculiar |
| loquacious | (adj) talking a lot or too much |
| opulent | (adj) luxurious |
| burgeon | (v) to expand; to flourish |
| catholic | (adj) universal; embracing everything |
| forsake | (v) to abandon; to renounce; to relinquish |
| genteel | (adj) refined; polite; aristocratic; affecting refinement |
| instigate | (v) to provoke; to stir up |
| appease | (v) to sooth; to pacify by giving into |
| discourse | (n) to converse; to formally discuss a subject |
| myopia | (n) nearsightedness; lack of foresight |
| philanthropy | (n) a love of humankind, shown especially by doing good deeds |
| qualitative | (adj) having to do with the quality or qualities of something as opposed to the quantity |
| affectation | (n) unnatural or artificial behavior, usually intended to impress |
| lax | (adj) careless; not diligent; relaxed |
| meander | (v) to wander slowly, like a winding river |
| polemic | (adj) a powerful argument often made to attack or refute a controversial issue |
| sardonic | (adj) mocking; scornful |
| cursory | (adj) hasty, superficial |
| exorbitant | (adj) extremely large |
| goad | (v) to urge forcefully, to taunt someone into doing something |
| narcissism | (n) an excessive love of one’s body or oneself |
| ossify | (v) to convert into bone, to become rigid |
| putative | (adj) commonly accepted; supposed; reputed |
| renounce | (v) to give up formally or resign; to disown; to have nothing to do with anymore |
| surrogate | (adj) substitute |
| usurp | (v) to seize wrongfully |
| virtuoso | (n) a masterful musician; a masterful practitio |
| allocate | (v) to distribute; to assign; to allot |
| fauna | (n) animals |
| perturb | (v) to disturb greatly |
| pristine | (adj) original; unspoiled; pure |
| stipulate | (v) to require something as part of an agreement |
| bemused | (adj) confused; bewildered |
| dictum | (n) an authoritative saying; an adage; a maxim; a proverb |
| implement | (v) to carry out; (n) a tool used to carry out a plan or project |
| innovate | (v) to be creative; to introduce something new |
| proscribe | (v) to outlaw; to prohibit |
| assuage | (v) to soothe; to pacify; to ease the pain of; to |
| drone | (v) to talk on and on in a dull way; (n) one that lives on the labors of others; a parasite |
| impeccable | (adj) flawless; entirely without sin |
| laudable | (adj) worthy of praise |
| superficial | (adj) on the surface only; shallow; not thorough |
| brevity | (n) briefness |
| polarize | (v) to break up into opposing factions or groupings |
| rescind | (v) to repeal; to take back formally |
| succumb | (v) to yield or submit; to die |
| tenacious | (adj) persistent; stubborn; not letting go |
| irrevocable | (adj) irreversible |
| jeopardy | (n) danger |
| kinetic | (adj) having to do with motion; lively; active |
| opaque | (adj) impossible to see through; impossible to understand |
| volition | (n) will; conscious choice |
| cynic | (n) one who deeply distrusts human nature; one who believes humans are motivated only by selflessness |
| husbandry | (n) thrifty management of resources; livestock farming |
| levity | (n) lightness; frivolity; lack of seriousness |
| novel | (adj) new; original |
| rampart | (n) a fortification; a bulwark or defense |
| deride | (v) to ridicule; to laugh at contemptuously |
| extol | (v) to praise highly; to laud |
| forego | (v) to do without |
| milieu | (v) environment; surroundings |
| propriety | (v) properness; good manners |
| acute | (adj) sharp; shrewd |
| belabor | (v) to go over repeatedly or to an absurd extent |
| disparate | (adj) different; incompatible; unequal |
| insular | (adj) like an island; isolated |
| proliferate | (v) to spread or grow rapidly |
| alleviate | (v) to relieve, usually temporarily or incompletely; to make bearable; to lessen |
| candor | (n) truthfulness; sincere honesty |
| engender | (v) to bring into existence; to create; to cause |
| largess | (n) generous giving of gifts (or the gifts themselves); generosity; philanthropy |
| reclusive | (adj) hermitlike; withdrawn from society |
| antipathy | (n) a firm dislike |
| contrite | (adj) admitting guilt; especially feeling remorseful |
| expedient | (adj) providing an immediate advantage; serving one’s immediate self-interest; practical |
| noxious | (adj) harmful; offensive |
| sage | (adj) wise; possessing wisdom derived from experience or learning |
| austere | (adj) unadorned; stern; forbidding; without excess |
| circumspect | (adj) cautious |
| flag | flag (v) to weaken; to slow down |
| misanthropic | (adj) hating humankind |
| tirade | (n) a prolonged, bitter speech |
| apocryphal | (adj) of dubious authenticity; fictitious |
| depravity | (n) extreme wickedness or corruption |
| iconoclast | (n) one who attacks popular beliefs or institutions |
| ostensible | (adj) apparent (but misleading) professed |
| vestige | (n) a remaining bit of something; a last trace |
| abate | (v) to subside; to reduce |
| inordinate | (adj) excessive; unreasonable |
| mitigate | (v) to moderate the effect of something |
| pejorative | (adj) negative; disparaging |
| remonstrate | (v) to argue against; to protest; to raise objections |
| acerbic | (adj) bitter, sour, severe |
| finesse | (n) skillful maneuvering; subtlety; craftiness |
| obtuse | (adj) insensitive; blockheaded |
| surfeit | (n) excess; an excessive amount; excess or overindulgence in eating or drinking |
| tenet | (n) a shared belief or principle |
| amass | (v) to accumulate |
| didactic | (adj) intended to teach; morally instructive; pedantic |
| enigma | (n) a mystery |
| malinger | (v) to pretend to be sick to avoid doing work |
| scanty | (adj) inadequate; minimal |
| apathy | (n) lack ofinterest; lack of feeling |
| bourgeois | (n) a middle class, usually in a pejorative sense; boringly conventional |
| cerebral | (adj) brainy; intellectually refined |
| daunt | (v) to make fearful; to intimidate |
| stringent | (adj) strict; restrictive |
| arcane | (adj) mysterious; known to only a select few |
| hypothetical | (adj) uncertain; unproven |
| inert | (adj) inactive; sluggish; not reacting chemically |
| myriad | (n) a huge number |
| protract | (v) to prolong |
| agrarian | (adj) relating to land; relating to the management of farming of land |
| infinitesimal | (adj) very, very, very, small; infinitely small |
| redolent | (adj) fragrant |
| scrutinize | (v) to examine carefully |
| viable | (adj) capable of living; workable |
| belittle | (v) to make seem little; to put someone down |
| endemic | (adj) native; restricted to a particular region or era; indigenous |
| laud | (v) to praise; to applaud; to extol; to celebrate |
| negligence | (n) carelessness |
| philistine | (n) smugly ignorant person with no appreciation of intellectual or artistic matters |
| chronicle | (n) a record of events in order of time; a history |
| dialectical | (adj) relating to discussions; realting to the rules and methods of reasoning; approaching truth in the middle of opposing extremes |
| flagrant | (adj) glaringly bad; notorious; scandalous |
| matriculate | (v) to enroll, especially at a college |
| touchstone | (n) a standard; a test of authenticity or quality |
| adulation | (n) wild or excessive admiration; flattery |
| circumvent | (v) to frustrate as though by surrounding |
| facile | (adj) fluent; skillfull in a superficial way; easy |
| refute | (v) to prove to be false; to disprove |
| sloth | (n) laziness or sluggishness |
| benign | (adj) gentle; not harmful; kind; mild |
| debacle | (n) a violent breakdown; sudden overthrow; overwhelming defeat |
| indolent | (adj) lazy |
| mortify | (v) to humiliate |
| periphery | (n) the outside edge of something |
| acclaim | (n) praise; applause; admiration |
| castigate | (v) to criticize severely; to chastise |
| fatalist | (n) someone who believes that future events are already determined and that humans are powerless to change them |
| nihilism | (n) the belief that there are no values or morals in the universe |
| repudiate | (v) to reject; to renounce; to disown; to have nothing to do with |
| amorphous | (adj) shapeless; without a regular or stable shape; bloblike |
| compendium | (n) a summary; an abridgement |
| illicit | (adj) illegal; not permitted |
| nuance | (n) a subtle difference or distinction |
| sanctimonious | (adj) pretending to be devout; affecting religious feeling |
| archaic | (adj) extremely old; ancient; outdated |
| debauchery | (n) wild living; excessive in temperance |
| inundate | (v) to flood; to cover completely with water; to overwhelm |
| palliate | (v) to relieve or alleviate something without getting rid of the problem; to assuage; to mitigate |
| sequester | (v) to set or keep apart |
| blight | (n) a disease in plants; anything that injures or destroys |
| docile | (adj) easily taught; obedient; easy to handle |
| malaise | (n) a feeling of depression, uneasiness, or queasiness |
| prodigal | (adj) wastefully extravagant |
| stoic | (adj) indifferent to pleasure or pain, to joy or grief, to fortune or misfortune |
| callow | (adj) immature |
| exasperate | (v) to annoy thoroughly; to make very angry; to try the patience of |
| mandate | (v) to command or authorize to do something; the will of voters as expressed by the results of an election |
| rebut | (v) to contradict; to argue in opposition to; to prove to be false |
| unwitting | (adj) unintentional; ignorant; not aware |
| abortive | (adj) unsuccessful |
| broach | (v) to open up a subject for discussion, often a delicate subject |
| expedite | (v) to speed up or ease the progress of |
| parsimonious | (adj) stingy |
| relegate | (v) to banish; to send away |
| aggregate | (n) a sum total; a collection of separate things mixed together |
| dubious | (adj) full of doubt; uncertain |
| latent | (adj) present but not visible or apparent; potential |
| plebeian | (adj) common; vulgar; low class; bourgeois |
| solvent | (adj) not broke or bankrupt; able to pay one's bills |
| apocalypse | (n) a prophetic revelation, especially one concering the end of the world |
| debilitate | (v) to weaken, to cripple |
| magnate | (n) a rich, powerful, or very successful business person |
| oblique | (adj) indirect; at an angle |
| recant | (v) to publicly take back and deny; to confess error |
| condone | (v) to overlook; to permit to happen |
| grandiose | (adj) absurdly exaggerated |
| ingenuous | (adj) frank; without deception; simple; artless; charmingly naive |
| objective | (adj) without bias |
| stagnation | (n) motionless; inactivity |
| categorical | (adj) unconditional; absolute |
| forbear | (v) to refrain from; to abstain |
| provincial | (adj) limited in outlook to one's own small corner of the world; narrow |
| secular | (adj) having nothing to do with religion or spiritual concerns |
| succinct | (adj) brief and to the point; concise |
| acquiesce | (v) to comply passively; to accept; to assent; to agree |
| capitulate | (v) to surrender; to give up or give in |
| defame | (v) to libel or slander; to ruin the good name of |
| incipient | (adj) beginning; emerging |
| proprietary | (adj) characteristic of an owner of property; constituting property |
| anecdote | (n) a short account of a humorous or revealing incident |
| condescend | (v) to stoop to someone else's level, usually in an offensive way; to patronize |
| delineate | (v) to describe accurately; to draw in outline |
| manifesto | (n) a public declaration of beliefs or principles, usually political ones |
| reproach | (v) to scold; usually in disappointment; to blame; to disgrace |
| ascetic | (adj) hermitlike; practicing self-denial |
| cognitive | (adj) dealing with how we know the world around us through our senses; mental activity |
| compliant | (adj) yielding; submissive |
| delude | (v) to deceive |
| staunch | (adj) firmly committed; firmly in favor of |
| avow | (v) to claim; to declare boldly; to admit |
| contingtent | (adj) dependent; possible |
| dormant | (adj) inactive; as though asleep; asleep |
| egocentric | (adj) selfish; believing that one is the center of everything |
| increment | (n) an increase; one in a series of increases |
| ardent | (adj) passionatel; enthusiastic |
| consecrate | (v) to make or declare sacred |
| corollary | (n) something that follows; a natural consequence |
| insurgent | (n) a rebel; someone who revolts against a government |
| pacify | (v) to calm someone down; to placate |
| adulterate | (v) to contaminate; to make impure |
| complacent | (adj) self-satisfied; overly pleased with oneself; contented to a fault |
| farcical | (adj) absurd; ludicrous |
| paradigm | (n) a model or example |
| rustic | (adj) lacking urban comforts or sophistication; primitive |
| anachronism | (n) something out of place in time or history; an incongruity |
| conducive | (adj) promoting |
| marred | (adj) damaged; bruised |
| pious | (adj) reverent or devout; outwardly reverent or devout; hypocritical |
| spawn | (v) to bring forth; to produce a large number |
| arbiter | (n) one who decides; a judge |
| discernment | (n) keen insight or observation |
| reiterate | (v) to say again; to repeat |
| substantive | (adj) having substance; real; essential; solid; substantial |
| uninterested | (adj) not interested; not engaged |
| convivial | (adj) fond of partying; festive |
| incursion | (n) a hostile invasion |
| orthodox | (adj) conventional; adhering to established principles or doctrines, especially in religion; by the book |
| prerogative | (n) a right or privilege connected exclusively with a position, a person, a class, a nation, or some other group or classification |
| strife | (n) bitter conflict; discord; a struggle or clash |
| correlate | (v) to find or show the relationship of two things |
| doggerel | (n) comic, loose verse; (adj) marked by triviality and inferiority |
| exacting | (adj) extremely demanding; difficult; requiring great skill or care |
| injunction | (n) a command or order, especially a court order |
| patently | obviously; evidently |
| abstinent | (adj) abstaining; voluntarily not doing something, especially something pleasent that is bad for you or has a bad reputation |
| confluence | (n) a flowing together, especially of rivers; the place where they begin to flow together |
| hapless | (adj) unlucky |
| spendthrift | (n) extravagant or wasteful, especially with money |
| subtle | (adj) not obvious; able to make fine distinctions; ingenious; crafty |
| conciliatory | (adj) making peave; attempting to resolve a dispute through good will |
| culinary | (adj) relating to cooking or the kitchen |
| exhort | (v) to urge strongly; to give serious warning to |
| gravity | (n) seriousness |
| purported | (adj) rumored; claimed |
| cosmopolitan | (adj) at home in many places or situations; internationally sophisticated |
| deluge | (n) a flood; an inundation |
| invective | (n) insulting or abusive speech |
| partisan | (n) one who supports a particular person, cause, or idea |
| transgress | (v) to violate (a law); to sin |
| blasphemy | (n) irreverence; an insult to something held sacred; profanity |
| complicity | (n) participation in wrong doing; the act of being an accomplice |
| denounce | (v) to speak out against; to condemn |
| maverick | (n) a nonconformist; a rebel |
| pedestrian | (adj) unimaginative |
| axiom | (n) a self-evident rule or truth; a widely accepted saying |
| maxim | (n) a fundamental principle, an old saying |
| precept | (n) a rule to live by; a principle establishing a certain kind of action or behavior |
| reparation | (n) paying back; making amends; compensation |
| singular | (adj) unique; superior; exceptional; strange |
Created by:
floppyears980
Popular English Vocabulary sets