28 Flashcards
Colloquy
noun: A conversation or discourse, especially a formal one; formal inquiry; a conference; written dialogue.
Darwinian
adjective: Of or relating to Charles Darwin, his theories especially those of evolution.
Denizen
noun: An inhabitant or citizen; a resident. (constituent).
Diaspora
noun: A dispersion or exodus of a people from their original homeland.
Dilettante
adjective: Showing frivolous or superficial interest.
Exponent
noun: A person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea; an advocate.
Extricate
verb: To release from an entanglement or difficulty; to liberate or disengage.
Faustian
adjective: Characterized by a clandestine arrangement in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power and success.
Glacial
adjective: Bitterly cold; icy; happening or moving at an exceptionally slow pace. (insensate; callous).
Grovel
verb: To behave in a servile, obsequious, or self-deprecating manner.
Imperative
adjective: Having the power or authority to command or control.
Implausible
adjective: Having a quality that provokes disbelief; highly imaginative but unlikely. (dubious).
Infrastructure
noun: An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system.
Innuendo
noun: An indirect or subtle, usually derogatory or malicious, implication in expression.
Inscrutable
adjective: Incapable of being investigated, analyzed, or scrutinized; impenetrable; enigmatic.
Interminable
adjective: Being or seeming to be without an end; endless.
Interpolate
verb: To insert or introduce between other elements or parts.
Intrinsic
adjective: Belonging to a thing by its very nature; inherent; innate.
Introspective
adjective: Examining one’s own sensory and perceptual experiences.
Inure
verb: To become accustom to hardship, difficulty, pain; to toughen or harden.
Invective
noun: Abusive or vitriolic language used to express blame or censure; vituperation (castigation, harangue, condemnation, diatribe).
Legion
adjective: Amounting to a significant indefinite number; a most impressive quantity or amount.
Malediction
noun: An act of calling down a curse that invokes evil (and usually serves as an insult); slander; imprecation.
Masochist
noun: Someone who obtains pleasure from receiving punishment.
Microcosm
noun: A miniature model or representation of something larger.
Orwellian
adjective: After George Orwell. Characterized by any totalitarian system of government in which a government has abrogated absolute control over its citizens and assures and sustains its authority by means of surveillance, duplicity, propaganda, manipulation, coercion, and Draconian and Machiavellian measures of control over its citizens.
Paradigm
noun: Something that serves as a pattern or model; a representation; the generally accepted perspective of a particular discipline at a given time.
Peregrinate
verb: To journey or travel from place to place, especially on foot; to traverse.
Philanderer
noun: To engage in many sexual affairs, especially with a frivolous or casual attitude, and with no intention of marrying; a libertine; a rake.
Philology
noun: The humanistic study of language and literature; literary study or scholarship.
Plucky
adjective: Having or showing courage, bravery, and spirit in trying circumstances. (tenacious, undaunted).
Pluralistic
adjective: Having multiple and often complex aspects or parts; manifold; heterogeneous.
Poignant
adjective: Profoundly moving; touching; sentimental; agreeably intense or stimulating; producing an arousing effect (pathos).
Pontificate
verb: To express opinions, advice, or judgments in a dogmatic, arrogant, or pompous manner.
Watershed
noun: A critical point that marks a division or a change of course; an event marking a unique or important historical change of course in history, or one on which important developments depend; an epoch.
