#18 cacophony ~ catalyst Flashcards
cacophony
/kəˈkɒfəni/
n. harsh-sounding mixture of words, voices or sounds
- The parade’s two marching bands played simultaneously, the resulting cacophony drove many spectators to tears.
A cacophony isn’t just a lot of noise - it’s a lot of noise that doesn’t sound good together.
- A steam whistle blowing isn’t a cacophony.
- But a high school orchestra that had never rehearsed together might very well produce a cacophony.
- The roar of engines, horns and sirens arising from a busy city street would be a cacophony.
- A lot of people all shouting at once would produce a cacophony.
euphony
/ˈyufəni/
n. a pleasing sound
- Euphony is the opposite of cacophony.
cadence
/ˈkeɪdns/
n. rhythm; the rise and fall of sounds
- We wished the tone of Irwin’s words would have a more pleasing cadence, but he spoke in a dull monotone.
cajole
/kəˈdʒoʊl/
v. to persuade someone to do sth. he or she doesn’t want to do
- I didn’t want to give the speech, but Enrique cajoled me into doing it by telling me what a good speaker I am. As it turned out, he simply hadn’t been able to find anyone else.
callow
/ˈkæloʊ/
adj. immature
- The patient was alarmed by the callowness of the medical staff. The doctors looked too young to have graduated from high school, much less from medical school.
To be callow is to be youthfully naive, inexperienced and unsophisticated.
candor
/ˈkændər/
n. truthfulness; sincere honesty
- My best friend exhibited candor when he told me that for many years now he has believed me to be a jerk.
- Teddy appreciated Ross’s candor; Teddy was glad to know that Ross thought Teddy’s side burns looked stupid.
candid
/ˈkændɪd/
adj. frank
To show candor is to be candid.
- What is candid about candid photos? The photos are candid because they are truthful in showing what people do.
capitalism
/ˈkæpɪtlˌɪzəm/
n. an economic system in which business are owned by private citizens (not by government) and in which the resulting products and services are sold with relatively little government control
- The American economy is capitalist. If you wanted to start a company to sell signed photographs of yourself, you could. You, and not the government, would decide how much you would charge for the pictures. Your success or failure would depend on how many people decided to buy your pictures.
capitulate
/kəˈpɪtʃəˌleɪt/
v. to surrender; to give up or give in
- On the twentieth day of the strike, the workers capitulated and went back to work without a new contract.
recapitulate
/ˌrikəˈpɪtʃəˌleɪt/
v. to summarize
- So few students paid attention to Mr. Hernandez that he had to recapitulate his major points at the end of the class.
capricious
/kəˈprɪʃəs, -ˈpriʃəs/
adj. unpredictable; likely to change at any moment
- Arjun was capricious. One minute he said his favorite car was a Volkswagen; the next minute he said ti was a Toyota.
- The weather is often said to be capricious. One minute it’s snowing; the next minute it’s 120 degrees in the shade.
caprice
/kəˈpris/
n. a whim; a sudden unpredictable change
- Kendra attempted a quadruple somersault off the ten-meter diving board as a caprice. It was a painful caprice.
caricature
/ˈkærɪkətʃər, -ˌtʃʊər/
n. a portrait or description that is purposely distorted or exaggerated, often to prove some point about is subject
- Khoa sat for a caricature at the end of the marathon, but wasn’t pleased with the result: The portrait exaggerated his already dominant acne.
- Editorial cartoonists often draw caricatures. Big noses, enormous glasses, floppy ears and other distortions are comm0n in such drawings.
- A politician who has been convicted of bribery might be depicted in a prison uniform or with a ball and chain around his ankle. If the politician has big ears to begin with, the ears might be drawn vastly bigger.
A caricature uses exaggeration to bring out the hidden character of its subject.
The word can also be used as a verb. To caricature someone is to create such a distorted portrait.
castigate
/ˈkæstɪˌgeɪt/
v. to criticize severely; to chastise
- Jose’s mother-in-law castigated him for forgetting to pick her up at the airport.
catalyst
/ˈkætlɪst/
n. in chemistry, sth. that changes the rate of a chemical reaction without itself being changed; anyone or anything that makes sth. happen without being directly involved in it
- When the mad scientist dropped a few grains of the catalyst into his test tube, the bubbling liquid began to boil furiously.
This word is often used outside the laboratory as well. The launching of Sputnik by the Russians provided the catalyst for the creation of the modern American space program.
- The tragic hijacking provided the catalyst for Congress’s new anti-terrorist legislation.
