500 advanced Flashcards

Question

aspersions

Answer 1

Definition: Damaging remarks, defamation, slander Usage: He could no longer work with his duplicitous business partner, who acted friendly to his face but then spewed aspersions about him behind his back. / If you asperse me one more time, I will sue you for libel! Related Words: Slander, Traduce, and Defame all mean “to speak maliciously and falsely of” More Info: Aspersions is often used in the phrase “to cast aspersions,” which has the sense of throwing or tossing insults or malicious lies about someone. One additional (rare) meaning of aspersion is “to sprinkle, such as for baptism.” So, it’s not a long leap to imagine spattering or sprinkling someone with insults.

Answer 2

Definition: Attack violently, assault Usage: One strategy for winning in boxing is to simply assail your opponent with so many blows that he becomes disoriented. / The debate team assailed the opposition with more evidence than they could respond to. Related Words: Batter (beat persistently or hard) More Info: Assail simply means attack, so it can be used metaphorically the same way you would use attack, such as in “assailing one’s homework with great energy.”

Answer 3

Definition: In harmony; in sympathetic relationship Usage: Research shows that new mothers are keenly attuned to their babies’ cries; even those who were formerly heavy sleepers often find that they now wake up immediately when their babies need attention. / In the sixth week of Melanie’s foreign study program, she finally attuned herself to life on a French farm. More Info: Attuned is almost always followed by “to.”

Answer 4

Definition: Telling the future, such as through supernatural means Usage: Value investors such as Warren Buffet (who attempt to buy shares in undervalued companies by analyzing the businesses themselves) consider others’ attempts to “time the market” as mere augury, equivalent to trying to predict rain by reading tea leaves. Related Words: Prognosticate and Presage also mean to tell the future. More Info: An augur or auspex in ancient Rome interpreted omens (sometimes by reading bird entrails) to help guide the making of public decisions.

Answer 5

Definition: Venerable, majestic; inspiring admiration Usage: “I welcome you to this august institution, where Presidents and Nobel Prize winners have received the fruits of erudition,” said the university president (rather bombastically) to the new crop of first-year students. Related Words: Eminent (prominent, distinguished, of high rank), Venerable (worthy of deep respect, hallowed, dignified), Olympian (majestic, superior, lofty) More Info: Emperor Octavian, or Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (an heir to Julius Caesar) was given the name Caesar Augustus upon taking the throne in 27 B.C.

Answer 6

Definition: Insatiable greed; a miserly desire to hoard wealth Usage: It is hard to fathom the sheer avarice of a company that would fraudulently overcharge a struggling school system for new computers. Related Words: Cupidity (avarice or other excessive desire), Covetousness (greed), Rapacity or Rapaciousness (greedy or grasping; living on prey)

Answer 7

Definition: Self-evident truth requiring no proof; universally or generally accepted principle Usage: Given the last decade of research into the brain—as well as our own experience trying to function while deprived of sleep or food—we must take as axiomatic that the brain is influenced by the body. Related Words: Maxim (short statement of general truth, proverb), Postulate (self-evident proposition, such as in math) More Info: When we say something is axiomatic, we mean that it must be true, in the way that 2+2 must equal 4, or all squares must have four sides

Answer 8

Definition: Swell or puff out; increase rapidly Usage: During the dot-com bubble, the university’s investments ballooned to three times their former value. Related Words: Distend (swell, expand), Turgid or Tumid (swollen, inflated; or, metaphorically “inflated,” such as in overblown, pompous speech) More Info: In finance, a balloon payment is a single payment at the end of a loan or mortgage term that is much larger than the other payments.

Answer 9

Definition: Something that ruins or spoils Usage: Mosquitoes are the bane of my existence! They just love me, and by “love” I mean ruin my summer! / The closure of the hospital could not have been more baneful to the already strained community. Related Words: The opposite of bane is boon, a benefit or blessing. The words are often used together to ask a question, as in “The new regulations: bane or boon?” More Info: Bane can also mean poison, usually as part of more specific names, like wolfsbane or fleabane. Don’t confuse baneful (destructive, ruinous) with baleful, which means threatening

Answer 10

Definition: Howling in a deep way, like a dog or wolf Usage: The lonely dog bayed all night. / The mob bayed for the so-called traitors to be put to death. More Info: Bay comes from an Old French word meant to actually sound like the baying of an animal. In a related expression, when a person is “at bay” or “brought to bay,” that means that the person is in a captured position, powerless and unable to flee.

Answer 11

Definition: Attack, overwhelm, crowd in on or surround Usage: The regiment was besieged by attackers on all sides and finally surrendered. / I cannot go out this weekend—I am besieged by homework! Related Words: Harry (harass or annoy), Hound (harass or pursue relentlessly, as if with hunting dogs), Beleaguer (surround, as with difficulties or attackers) More Info: Besiege is equivalent to the expression “lay siege to” (although that expression is used more in the military sense and less in the metaphorical sense).

Answer 12

Definition: Group of birds or other animals that stay close together; any large group Usage: The bar owner cringed when a bevy of women in plastic tiaras came in—“Another drunken bachelorette party,” he sighed. Related Words: Covey (a group of birds, or any group), Brood (group of offspring born or hatched at the same time, esp. birds) More Info: Bevy is most commonly associated with birds, and often used to describe groups of people who stick together like a flock of birds—it usually implies a not-very-serious opinion about the group in question.

Answer 13

Definition: To fork into two branches or divide into two halves Usage: The medical student carefully bifurcated the cadaver brain, separating it precisely into right and left hemispheres. / The bifurcate tree stood tall, its two massive branches reaching for the sky. Related Words: Cleave (split or cut, as in a “meat cleaver”) More Info: In math, a midpoint bifurcates a line segment. Bifurcate comes from the Latin “furca,” which also gives us “fork.”

Answer 14

Definition: Cheat or defraud Usage: The con artist bilked many elderly people out of their savings, promising to cure illnesses from diabetes to cancer with only 36 monthly payments of $99.99—for which the victims received nothing but useless placebo pills. Related Words: Hoodwink, Swindle, Con, and Fleece are all verbs for cheating others. Fleece is perhaps more severe, having the connotation of taking everything from the victim, the way one sheers all of the fleece from a sheep. More Info: Bilk can also be a noun for the person who cheats others (“I hope that bilk goes to jail!”) More obscurely, bilk can mean to escape from, frustrate, or thwart. The word comes from the card game cribbage, where it means to play a card that keeps an opponent from scoring.

Answer 15

Definition: Disease that kills plants rapidly, or any cause of decay or destruction (noun); ruin or cause to wither (verb) Usage: Many potato farmers have fallen into poverty as a result of blight killing their crops. / Gang violence is a blight on our school system, causing innocent students to fear even attending classes. / Violence has blighted our town. Related Words: Scourge (punishment, disease, or disaster; a whip or lash), Bane (something that spoils or ruins, as in “Allergies are the bane of my life.”) More Info: Blight is often used to describe unidentified plant diseases that mysteriously cause all the plants to wither—as such, it makes a good metaphor, as in “urban blight,” when everything decays and goes wrong at once.

Answer 16

Definition: Joyous, merry; excessively carefree (so as to ignore more important concerns) Usage: Delighted about making the cheerleading team, she blithely skipped across the street without looking, and just narrowly avoided being hit by a bus. Related Words: Jovial (joyous, merry) More Info: Blithe can be positive or negative—it’s nice to be merry, but not so merry that we thoughtlessly trample over other people, disobey the rules, etc.

Answer 17

Definition: (Of speech or writing) far too showy or dramatic than is appropriate; pretentious Usage: Professor Knutsen’s friends joked that he became quite bombastic after a few drinks, once asking a woman in a bar, “Is your daddy an aesthete? Because you are the epitome of ineffable pulchritude.” She replied, “I’m not impressed by your bombast.” Related Words: Declamatory (pompous, merely oratorical), Magniloquent and Grandiloquent (speaking in a lofty, grandiose style) More Info: The origin of bombastic is related to the idea of being inflated, a metaphor that also comes into play with the related words turgid and tumid, synonyms that can mean literally inflated like a balloon, or using language much too fancy for the sentiment or occasion.

Answer 18

Definition: Friendliness, open and simple good heartedness Usage: By the end of the summer, the campers were overflowing with bonhomie, vowing to remain Facebook friends forever. Related Words: Amity (friendship, peaceful agreement) More Info: Bonhomie is from French—bon homme means “good man.” In English, bonhomie is pronounced “bon-uh-MEE” or “BON-uh-mee” (somewhat ironically, there is no “homey” in bonhomie).

Answer 19

Definition: Shake, wave, or flourish, as a weapon Usage: The Renaissance Fair ended badly, with one drunken fellow brandishing a sword and refusing to leave the ladies’ dressing tent. More Info: Brandish comes from the Germanic “brand,” or sword.

Answer 20

Definition: Suffer or tolerate Usage: “You will do your homework every night before you go anywhere, you will do your chores, and you will be home by 9 p.m. I will brook no disobeying of these rules, young man!” Related Words: Condone (overlook or tacitly approve), Countenance (as a noun: face or facial expression; as a verb: approve or tolerate) More Info: Of course, a brook is also a small, freshwater stream. The two “brooks” come from different origins entirely; brook as a verb comes from a Latin root meaning “enjoy.

Answer 21

Definition: Polish, make smooth and lustrous Usage: Mr. Hoffenstotter replaced all of the rustic wood doorknobs with newer models made of burnished steel. “So shiny,” said his delighted wife. Related Words: Gilded means covered with a thin layer of gold (and thus looking like solid gold, but actually only superficially so) and is used as a metaphor for things that look better than they really are. More Info: Burnish can also be used as a noun, meaning “luster or shine,” as in “the beautiful burnish of her hair” or “the burnish of an Ivy League university.”

Answer 22

Definition: Malicious lie intended to hurt someone’s reputation; the act of telling such lies Usage: I’ve had enough of your calumnious accusations! Admit that you made up all those wicked things about me, or I will see you in court when I sue you for slander! Related Words: Slander is a synonym. Libel is the written version of slander. Traduce, Vilify, and Defame are verbs meaning “to slander, to damage a person’s reputation with lies.”

Answer 23

Definition: Trickery, deception by knowingly false arguments Usage: The defense lawyer’s strategy for getting her client acquitted by knowingly misinterpreting words in an obscure precedent was nothing but chicanery. / Nice try, passing off last week’s homework as this week’s by changing the date at the top. I’ve had enough of your chicanery, young man! Related Words: Quibbling (the use of ambiguous, petty, or irrelevant arguments, especially to evade the real issue), Sophistry (deliberately tricky argumentation) More Info: Chicanery is from French, hence the pronunciation: shi-KAY-nuh-ry.

Answer 24

Definition: Strictly limit a role, range of activity, or area; in math, to be constructed around so as to touch as many points as possible Usage: Suki’s parents circumscribed her after-school activities; she was permitted only to study and to join organizations directly related to academic subjects. / A square circumscribed in a circle has all four of its vertices on the circle’s circumference. / Our land is circumscribed by hedges and fences. More Info: “Circum” is the Latin root for “around,” and “scribe” for “write.” The “scribe/script” root also occurs in proscribe (prohibit) and conscript (draft into military service).

Answer 25

Definition: Cautious, prudent; careful to consider the circumstances and consequences Usage: Luann immediately forked over an initiation fee to become a vitamin distributor, but her more circumspect brother had a list of at least twenty questions he wanted answered before he would consider joining. Related Words: Staid (restrained, prim, settled) More Info: The root “circum” means “around” and “spect” means “see”—thus, circumspect people “look around” before acting, much as in the idiom “look before you leap.”

Answer 26

Definition: Climb awkwardly or with difficulty, scramble Usage: The hiker had spent the last hour plodding lethargically up the side of the mountain, but when she caught sight of the summit, she excitedly began to clamber up even the steepest inclines. More Info: Clamber comes from the same root as climb. Don’t confuse it with clamor, which means “noisy shouting or protest.”

Answer 27

Definition: Disgustingly or distastefully sweet Usage: I do like visiting our grandmother, but I can’t stand those cloying movies she watches—last time it was some heart-tugging story where an orphan saves a suffering pony. / I do like cake, but I find that honey-covered angel food cake positively cloying. Related Words: Treacly and Saccharine are synonyms. Maudlin means “overly tearful and sentimental,” and might also possibly describe the orphan/pony movie described above.

Answer 28

Definition: Cause a liquid to become solid or semisolid Usage: Hemophilia is a medical condition in which the blood doesn’t coagulate, meaning that a hemophiliac can easily bleed to death from a small wound. / When making jam, use pectin to get the fruit to coagulate. Related Words: Curdle also means “go from liquid to solid” but tends to be used to describe milk spoiling, or metaphorically, as in “Her scream made my blood curdle.” Clot has the same definition as well, and often describes blood (a blood clot in an artery can cause a heart attack). Some desserts involve clotted cream.

Answer 29

Definition: Final part of a musical composition; an ending, esp. one that sums up what has come before Usage: “You play this middle section twice, then move to the coda,” the music teacher explained to the child. “The coda always comes last.” / Dropping my purse in a mud puddle right outside my own front door was a fine coda to a horrible evening. Related Words: Recapitulation (summary or the act of summing up), Précis (summary or abstract) More Info: Coda comes from the Latin “cauda,” meaning “tail.” (A caudate animal has a tail and an acaudate animal lacks one.)

Answer 30

Definition: Chest for storing valuables; financial resources, a treasury Usage: The dishonest employee called it “dipping into the company coffers,” but the arresting officer called it “embezzlement.” / Rather than rent a safety-deposit box, I keep my priceless antique coins in a coffer here at home. Related Words: A strongbox is also a chest for storing valuables. More Info: Coffer comes from the same root as “coffin,” another type of box. When used metaphorically, coffers is generally used in the plural.

Answer 31

Definition: Conspire; cooperate for illegal or fraudulent purposes Usage: After two competing software companies doubled their prices on the same day, leaving consumers no lower-priced alternative, the federal government investigated the companies for collusion. Related Words: Cabal (a conspiratorial group)

Answer 32

Definition: Concise but complete summary; a list or collection Usage: I could hardly bring my whole collection of poetry books on vacation, so instead, I brought a lightweight poetry compendium containing a few selections each from thirty or so poets thought to represent various styles and eras. / This movie review is unusually compendious—although a scant 500 words, it tells every single thing that happens in the entire film. Related Words: Digest (a periodical containing shortened versions of works published elsewhere), Recapitulation (summary or the act of summing up), Précis (summary or abstract)

Answer 33

Definition: Suggest or imply in addition to the precise, literal meaning Usage: The word “titanic” simply means large or majestic, but because of the word’s association with the sunken ship, “titanic” has a negative connotation to many people. Related Words: Evoke (call forth, esp. of feelings or imagination) More Info: A denotation is the literal meaning of a word; a connotation is the feeling that accompanies that word.

Answer 34

Definition: Remorseful; feeling sorry for one’s offenses or sins Usage: He would have punished his son more severely for breaking his car’s windshield in a “rock throwing contest,” but the boy seemed truly contrite. Related Words: Penitent is a synonym. Atone means “to make amends for.” More Info: Interestingly, contrite comes from a Latin root meaning “to grind.” Perhaps hating to admit we’re wrong is truly universal.

Answer 35

Definition: Rebellious; stubbornly disobedient Usage: The psychologist’s book “Dealing With Your Contumacious Teenager” would have sold many more copies to parents of rude and rebellious youth if only people knew what “contumacious” meant. Related Words: Obstreperous, Recalcitrant, and Refractory are synonyms More Info: Contumacious and contumely are not as closely related as they sound: contumely means “contemptuous treatment or a humiliating insult.”

Answer 36

Definition: Close or exclusive group, clique Usage: The pop star never traveled anywhere without a coterie of assistants and managers. Related Words: Cabal (conspiracy, group of people who plot), Entourage (group of attendants) More Info: In French, a coterie was a group of tenant farmers

Answer 37

Definition: Speak in an impassioned, pompous, or oratorical manner; give a formal speech Usage: After a drink or two, Gabe will declaim all night about campaign finance reform—you won’t be able get a word in edgewise in between all his grandstanding and “expertise.” Related Words: Grandstand (perform showily as if to impress an audience) More Info: Don’t confuse with disclaim, which simply means “deny, repudiate.”

Answer 38

Definition: Downward slope Usage: Not just any declivity can serve as a wheelchair ramp—I’m pretty sure this thing is too steep to pass regulations. Related Words: Declination (downward slope, deterioration, deviation from the norm, refusal) More Info: The opposite of declivity is acclivity, an upward slope.

Answer 39

Definition: Fix, mark, or define the boundaries of Usage: The role of an executive coach is delimited by our code of conduct—we may not counsel people for psychological conditions, for instance. Related Words: Demarcate (mark the boundaries of, separate) More Info: Delimit is one of those words where the “de” doesn’t seem to be doing much—the definition is pretty close to that of limit.

Answer 40

Definition: A leader who lies and gains power by arousing the passions and especially prejudices of the people Usage: Political demagogues lie and twist the facts, depending more on their natural charisma and ability to determine exactly what their audience wants to hear than any actual understanding or perspicacity. Related Words: A Propagandist or Provocateur influences the public in ways that are probably more emotional than logical. More Info: The Greek root “demos,” for “people,” also appears in democracy, demographics, and demotic (populist, pertaining to the people).

Answer 41

Definition: Lacking consistency or order, disconnected, sporadic; going off topic Usage: Lulu said she’d been studying for the GRE for a year, but she had been doing so in only the most desultory way—a few vocab words here and there, then nothing for a month, and practice tests whenever she felt like it, which was rarely. / Don’t mind my daughter—there’s no need to let a toddler’s desultory remarks pull an adult conversation off track. More Info: Desultory comes from the Latin “desultor,” a circus rider who jumps from one horse to another.

Answer 42

Definition: Very sheer, fine, translucent Usage: The wedding dress was a confection of diaphanous silk, made of at least ten layers of the thin fabric, each layer of which was so fine you could see through it. Related Words: Gossamer (a fine, filmy cobweb, or a fine, light fabric) More Info: Diaphanous generally describes fabric or the (beautiful, translucent) wings of certain insects.

Answer 43

Definition: Division into two parts or into two contradictory groups Usage: There is a dichotomy in the sciences between theoretical or “pure” sciences such as physics and chemistry, and the life sciences, which often deal more with classifying than with theorizing. Related Words: Binary (consisting of or involving two), Duality (a dual state, existence in two parts, as in “Descartes posited a duality between mind and body”) More Info: Dichotomy comes from the Greek “dicha” (apart) and “tomos” (cutting).

Answer 44

Definition: Formal or authoritative pronouncement; saying or proverb Usage: “A stitch in time saves nine” is an old dictum meaning that it’s easier to solve a problem before it gets too big. / The king’s dictum stated that each feudal lord must provide a certain number of soldiers within three weeks’ time. Related Words: Maxim, Apothegm, and Adage are all words for a proverb, saying, or truism More Info: The root “dict” comes from “dicere” (to say) and also appears in dictator, dictionary, indict (connect to a crime), malediction (curse), benediction (blessing), and many others.

Answer 45

Definition: To become wider or make wider, cause to expand; to speak or write at length, elaborate upon Usage: The doctor gave her eye drops to make her pupils dilate. / These dinners at Professor Hwang’s house usually run rather late—after the meal, he’ll typically dilate on his latest research for at least an hour. Related Words: Expatiate (to expand or elaborate on a topic, to explain in detail) More Info: Dilate is used frequently in medicine—being a certain number of centimeters dilated is an important part of childbirth.

Answer 46

Definition: Slow, late; procrastinating or stalling for time Usage: Jack was supposed to start his presentation ten minutes ago and he isn’t even here? I’m not surprised—he’s a dilatory fellow. Related Words: Tardy (late), Temporize (stall for time)

Answer 47

Definition: A funeral or mourning song or poem Usage: It was supposed to be a wedding march, but when the organist started playing, the reluctant bride thought the song sounded more like a dirge for her former, carefree life. Related Words: Lament (express sorrow, mourn), Requiem (musical service or hymn for the dead), Threnody (poem or song of mourning), Elegy (song or poem of sorrow, esp. for a deceased person) More Info: Dirge is simply a version of the first word (“Direct, O Lord, my God...”) from a Latin prayer cycle said in the Roman Catholic Church for a deceased person.

Answer 48

Definition: Belittle, put down; bring shame upon, discredit Usage: An Ad Hominem attack is a logical fallacy in which the arguer disparages his opponent rather than addressing the opponent’s ideas. / Your shoplifting arrest has disparaged this family! Related Words: Denigrate (belittle, attack the reputation of) More Info: The root “par” means “equal” and appears in peer and parity, meaning “equivalence or equality,” as well as disparate, meaning “distinct, different.”

Answer 49

Definition: Distinct, different Usage: He chose the college for two disparate reasons: the strength of the computer science program, and the excellence of the hip-hop dance squad. Related Words: Divergent (different, deviating), Incommensurable (not comparable, totally disproportionate) More Info: The root “par” means “equal” and appears in peer and parity, meaning “equivalence or equality,” as well as disparage, meaning “belittle.”

Answer 50

Definition: Female, esp. relating to the maternal side of the family; women or women’s work; a staff that holds wool or flax for spinning Usage: In completing your medical history, please try to remember which illnesses occurred on the distaff side of your family. / Medical studies using all male study groups may produce results that cannot be replicated in distaff subjects. More Info: If using a word related to spinning wool to mean “women” seems offensive, some would agree, although the word is generally not offensive when discussing science and medicine; the NY Times has recently referred to “distaff subjects” in a medical study.

Answer 51

Definition: Swell, expand, stretch, bloat Usage: The emergency room doctor constantly saw people who came in with distended bellies, sure that they had appendicitis; usually, it was just gas. Related Words: Balloon (swell or puff out), Turgid or Tumid (swollen, inflated; or, metaphorically “inflated,” such as in overblown, pompous speech)

Answer 52

Definition: Act indecisively (verb); a state of fear or trembling excitement Usage: “Stop dithering,” said the mother to her daughter. “Pick which sweater you want so I can pay for it and we can get out of here.” / The haunted house brought the children to a dither from which it was difficult for their parents to calm them down. Related Words: Vacillate and Equivocate also mean “act irresolutely,” or in common parlance, “flipflop” in making a decision. More Info: Dither may be related to dodder, meaning to shake or tremble, usually used in the sense of “a doddering old man.”

Answer 53

Definition: Occurring every day; happening in the daytime (rather than at night) Usage: While many Americans rarely have a sit-down family meal, in many other cultures, dining as a family is a diurnal affair. / Wall Street is a diurnal neighborhood—hectic in the day, but quiet once people pile on the rush hour trains to go home. Related Words: Quotidian (daily; everyday, ordinary)

Answer 54

Definition: Take off (such as clothes), put aside; remove one’s hat as a gesture Usage: Before the spring break revelers could consider doffing their clothes, they saw the sign: “No skinny dipping.” / In my grandfather’s day, it was considered polite to doff your hat when a lady entered the room; to us today, lifting your hat a few inches off your head and then putting it right back seems to some like a silly way to show respect. More Info: The opposite of doff is don, to put on. Interestingly, don came into being as a contraction of “do on.”

Answer 55

Definition: Funny in an odd way Usage: The play was a droll production—not laugh-out-loud hilarious, but funny especially because it was so strange. Who’s ever seen a fairy be mistaken for a block of cheese? Related Words: Waggish (merry, roguish), Risible (laughable, related to laughing), Jocular, Jocund, or Jocose (jesting, jolly) More Info: Droll comes from a Middle Dutch word for imp, a mischievous demon

Answer 56

Definition: Person who is easily fooled or used (noun); to fool or exploit (verb) Usage: The dashing rogue used flattery and lies to dupe several old ladies out of their money. “I feel like a total dupe,” said Hazel Rosenbaum, 87. “I thought he and I were going to get married, but he really just wanted my Social Security checks.” Related Words: Hoodwink, Bilk, Swindle, Con, and Fleece are all verbs for cheating others. Fleece is perhaps more severe, having the connotation of taking everything from the victim, the way one sheers all of the fleece from a sheep. More Info: Dupe comes from Old French duppe, a bird known for being very stupid. Dupe can also be a short version of “duplicate,” although this meaning is somewhat informal and less likely on the GRE.

Answer 57

Definition: Grumpy, pessimistic, irritable; suffering from dyspepsia (indigestion) Usage: The dyspeptic professor was so angered by a question from a student who hadn’t done the homework that he actually stomped out of class. Related Words: Curmudgeon (bad-tempered, difficult person), Crotchety (grouchy, picky, given to odd notions), Cantankerous (disagreeable, contentious), Crank (an unbalanced person who is fanatical about a private, generally petty cause) More Info: Dyspeptic describes a physical condition but is often used metaphorically; indigestion does tend to make a person feel irritable. Similarly, myopia describes the physical condition of nearsightedness, but is often used metaphorically to mean “given to unwisely short-term thinking

Answer 58

Definition: A level, rank or grade; the people at that level Usage: Obtaining a job on Wall Street doesn’t guarantee access to the upper echelon of executives, where multi-million dollar bonuses are the norm. / I’m not sure I’m cut out to analyze poetry; I find it hard to dig beyond the most accessible echelon of meaning. Related Words: Stratum (a layer, esp. one of a number of parallel layers, such as in sedimentary rock or the Earth’s atmosphere; plural is strata, as in “Of all the strata of society, the middle class is the stratum hit hardest by the recession.”) More Info: The original meaning of echelon is a formation of troops or war vehicles so as to resemble steps; similarly, birds flying in such a pattern are flying in echelon.

Answer 59

Definition: Uplift, enlighten, instruct or improve in a spiritual or moral way Usage: Look, Son, I’m glad that you’re reading, but I really wish you would read something more edifying than that magazine that gives tips for winning at violent video games. More Info: Edifying isn’t actually etymologically related to edible, but it’s a good memory trick to think of something edifying as “food for the soul.”

Answer 60

Definition: Representation or image of a person, esp. a crude facsimile used to mock a hated person Usage: The dictator was disturbed to look out the palace window and see himself being burned in effigy. “That paper mache dummy doesn’t even look like me!” he said. More Info: A scarecrow is a common type of effigy, intended to scare birds away and keep them from eating crops. Effigies are often large or life-sized. The expression “burned in effigy” is sometimes used as hyperbole, as in “After the university president announced a major tuition hike, I thought the students were going to burn him in effigy.”

Answer 61

Definition: An exit or the action of exiting Usage: It is against the fire code to put those boxes there—you can’t block a primary or secondary egress from the building. Related Words: Outlet can mean an exit or vent, or a means or expression or publication. “You can’t grill in the house—there’s no outlet for smoke! You obviously need an outlet for your frustrated desire to be a chef.” More Info: Egress shares a root with grade, meaning “move or step.” Just as you exit fifth grade to enter sixth grade, or as the land grades into the sea, egress involves a shift in position. The opposite of egress is ingress, meaning “entering.”

Answer 62

Definition: Song or poem of sorrow, esp. for a deceased person Usage: While composing an elegy is certainly old fashioned, the poet felt that it was a fitting way for her to honor her father at his funeral. Related Words: Dirge (a funeral or mourning song or poem), Lament (express sorrow, mourn), Requiem (musical service or hymn for the dead), Threnody (poem or song of mourning)

Answer 63

Definition: Warm, glowing praise, esp. a formal expression of praise Usage: Just after all the encomium at his retirement party, he received a gold watch. / The first draft of your dissertation is little but encomium of the works of Christopher Marlowe, whereas I’m afraid that doctoral-level work requires a more nuanced and critical view. Related Words: Laudation (praise, tribute), Eulogy (a speech of praise or written work of praise, esp. a speech given at a funeral), Panegyric (formal, lofty, or elaborate praise), Paean (song of praise, triumph, or thanks)

Answer 64

Definition: Person with cultivated, refined tastes, esp. in food and wine Usage: A true epicure, he served only the finest wines, and bragged about how the pancetta was imported from Italy and the Stilton cheese from the English countryside. Related Words: Connoisseur (expert, especially in the fine arts; person of educated, refined tastes), Discriminating (judicious, discerning, having good insight) More Info: The Epicureans were Greek philosophers who did indeed hold that human pleasure was the highest good, although they believed that a simple life was key to that pleasure. Don’t confuse modern epicures with hedonists, or those devoted to pleasure—one way to think of the difference is that, if your parents are epicures, you probably grew up eating very well, but if your parents are hedonists, you probably don’t want to know about it.

Answer 65

Definition: Composure, evenness of mind; mental or emotional stability, esp. under stress Usage: As she had worked for many years in mental hospitals, her equanimity was unparalleled— you could throw a chair or a bowl of spaghetti at her and she would just say, “Settle down, now.” Related Words: Sangfroid (calmness, self-possession, esp. under strain), Aplomb (self-possession, poise, total confidence even under stress), Imperturbable (not able to be upset or agitated, calm) More Info: Don’t confuse equitable and equity with equanimity and equanimous; the first set is about equality, the second set about being even-tempered.

Answer 66

Definition: Former, previous (adj); in the past, formerly (adv) Usage: A novelist and erstwhile insurance salesman, he told us his story of the long road to literary success, before he was able to quit his day job. Related Words: Bygone (past, former), Quondam (former, sometime) More Info: Erstwhile is related to the Old English ere, which means “before.”

Answer 67

Definition: The character, personality, or moral values specific to a person, group, time period, etc. Usage: At the prep school, the young man happily settled into an ethos of hard work and rigorous athletic competition. Related Words: Disposition (a person’s general or natural mood; tendency), Tenor (general drift, course, or purpose, as in “the rebellious tenor of the rally”), Penchant and Predilection (“tendency, preference,” as in a penchant for fast cars, a predilection to get angry easily) More Info: Ethos is a Greek word meaning “custom or character,” much as it does today.

Answer 68

Definition: Substitution of a mild, inoffensive, or indirect expression for one that is considered offensive or too direct Usage: Many euphemisms surround death and disease; rather than “Joe died of cancer,” many people feel better saying “Joe’s suffering is finally over.” / When potty training their children, some parents use hilarious euphemisms for body parts. More Info: The antonym of euphemism is dysphemism, an unnecessarily bad name for something. The internet division of the publishing company dysphemistically referred to the print magazine as the “dead tree edition.”

Answer 69

Definition: Requiring immediate attention, action, or aid; excessively demanding Usage: My boss said she would take me out to lunch and “mentor” me, but that idea always gets tossed aside in favor of more exigent matters. Related Words: Dire (causing suffering or fear; ominous; urgent or desperate, as in “a dire emergency requiring immediate response”) More Info: Don’t confuse exigent with expedient, which means either “suitable, proper” or “opportune; effective, often at the expense of ethics or other considerations,” as in “In the face of an exigent problem, the boss risked a serious lawsuit by doing what was expedient instead of what was right.”

Answer 70

Definition: Suitable, proper; effective, often at the expense of ethics or other considerations Usage: “I need this report by 2pm, and I don’t care what you have to do to make that happen,” said the boss. “I expect you to deal with it expediently.” / When invited to a wedding you cannot attend, it is expedient to send a gift. Related Words: Opportune (suitable, convenient, occurring at an appropriate time) More Info: Don’t confuse expedient with exigent, “requiring immediate attention, action, or aid.”

Answer 71

Definition: Done without preparation (esp. of a speech), or with some preparation but no notes; improvised, done on the spur of the moment Usage: The way the Public Affairs Forum works is that the moderator will announce a topic, and then anyone who wishes may speak extemporaneously on that topic for a few minutes—as you can imagine, our members are very well-read. / Lost in the jungle, the hikers fashioned an extemporaneous shelter from palm leaves. Related Words: Impromptu (done with no or little preparation, esp. of musical or other performance), Ad-lib (improvise; something improvised) More Info: Extempore is a variant with the same meaning. “Off-the-cuff” is an expression that means extemporaneous.

Answer 72

Definition: Group or clique within a larger organization; party strife and dissension Usage: The opposition movement was once large enough to have a chance at succeeding, but it has since broken into numerous, squabbling factions, each too small to have much impact. / The caucus began in a spirit of unity but now, sadly, is marked by faction and petty squabbles. Related Words: Partisan (partial to a particular party, group, etc., esp. in a biased, emotional way), Cabal (a conspiratorial group) More Info: Faction contains the root “fact,” meaning “make or do,” also appearing in factory and factitious (made up).

Answer 73

Definition: Left unplanted (of land); not in use Usage: Crop yields were increased substantially when the villagers discovered that leaving a portion of their fields lie fallow allowed that unused part of the land to become renewed with minerals. / It is terribly important that we make college affordable for underprivileged students, lest great minds lie fallow, and the world never benefit from their genius. Related Words: Another GRE word related to farming is arable, which means “able to be farmed, fertile,” as in “arable land.” More Info: Fallow can mean “light yellowish-brown.” Although this seems like a color that an untended field might turn, this meaning of the word comes from a different origin.

Answer 74

Definition: Foolish, silly, esp. in a smug or complacent manner Usage: Sadly, every philosophy class seems to have one person who responds to every discussion, from metaphysics to ethics, with the fatuous question, “But what if we don’t really exist?” Related Words: Inane (lacking sense, silly; empty), Waggish (merry, roguish), Risible (laughable, related to laughing), Jocular, Jocund, or Jocose (jesting, jolly), Droll (funny in an odd way) More Info: Don’t confuse fatuous with facetious, meaning “joking, humorous, esp. inappropriately.” Facetious people can be smartly sarcastic; fatuous people are dull and dim-witted. Fatuous comes from a word for gaping—as in, having one’s mouth hang open like a very stupid person.

Answer 75

Definition: Admirably appropriate, very well-suited for the occasion; pleasant, fortunate, marked by happiness Usage: “What a felicitous occasion!” said the new grandfather, arriving at the hospital with an “It’s a Girl!” balloon. The new father found the balloon remarkably felicitous, especially since the baby’s gender had been announced less than an hour ago. Related Words: Apt is a synonym in its meaning of “exactly appropriate” (Apt can also mean “inclined, having a natural tendency” or “quick to learn”). Fortuitous means “happening by chance, accidental” and usually also has the meaning of “lucky.” More Info: Felicity means happiness and can also be a woman’s name, as in the titular character of the televised drama Felicity (1998–2002).

Answer 76

Definition: Very hot; heated in passion or enthusiasm Usage: He is a fervid fan of Virginia Tech football, so much so that we’ve all gotten used to receiving “Go Hokies!” hats and shirts for every birthday. Related Words: Ardent (very passionate), Zealous (full of fervor or dedicated enthusiasm for a cause, person, etc.) More Info: Like fervid, Fervent and Perfervid also mean “passionate, fiery, deeply enthusiastic” and come from a common root relating to heat.

Answer 77

Definition: Stinking; having an offensive smell Usage: I hate doing your laundry—it’s always full of fetid gym socks. Related Words: Noisome (disgusting, foul), Noxious (harmful to health; corrupting) Memory Trick: Fetid looks a little like “feet”—smells like feet, too.

Answer 78

Definition: Reddish or rosy; flowery, showy, or excessively fancy Usage: His writing was so florid that it was hard for modern readers to understand, and unintentionally humorous when they did. He once called a woman in a hoop skirt a “confection of gossamer-clad ephemerality, the bounty of her raiment ringing in my turgid heart like the tintinnabulation of so many church bells.” Related Words: Ruddy (having reddish skin, in a manner indicating health), Bombastic (far too showy or dramatic than is appropriate; pretentious), Turgid and Tumid (inflated like a balloon, or using language much too fancy for the sentiment or occasion), Declamatory (pompous, merely oratorical), Magniloquent and Grandiloquent (speaking in a lofty, grandiose style), Rococo (ornate, florid) More Info: Florid, of course, shares a root with flower.

Answer 79

Definition: Treat with disdain, contempt, or scorn (usually of rules) Usage: He flouted the boarding school’s curfew so blatantly that, on his way back from a party that lasted past midnight, he actually stopped by the headmaster’s house to say hello to his daughter. More Info: Don’t confuse with flaunt, meaning “to show off or parade oneself in a conspicuous way.” Flout comes from Middle English “flouten,” meaning “to play the flute.” Apparently it was once possible to play the flute at someone in a jeering way

Answer 80

Definition: Stroke of luck, something accidentally successful Usage: It’s amazing that I won the prize during halftime, but I guarantee you, it was just a fluke that I made that basket—if I tried a thousand more times, I’m sure I couldn’t do it again. Related Words: Fortuitous (accidental, lucky), Windfall (unexpected, sudden gain or good fortune, as in “The prize winner’s windfall more than solved his mortgage problem.”) More Info: A fluke can also be a flatworm (a “liver fluke”), type of fish, anchor blade, barbed arrowhead, or even a lobe of a whale’s tail. What all of these objects have in common is being flat (the old Germanic root means flat). The origin of fluke as a “stroke of good luck” is unknown— having flukes parasitizing your liver, for instance, sounds incredibly un

Answer 81

Definition: Wander in search of; rummage, hunt, make a raid Usage: It’s important to seal your trash cans tightly in this neighborhood, or else you’ll get raccoons foraging for food in your backyard. Related Words: Plunder, pillage, ransack, depredate, and despoil are words that match the meaning of raiding or looting, although forage is more often used in the gentler sense of poking around the forest looking for edible plants.

Answer 82

Definition: Place where a river or similar body of water is shallow enough to walk or ride a vehicle across (noun); to cross at such a place (verb) Usage: The pioneers made camp near the riverbank, waiting for the rains to die down and the river to become fordable again. A week later, the waters were shallow enough to ford the river with their entire caravan—horses, wagons, and all. Related Words: Traverse (pass over, along, or through; g

Answer 83

Definition: Delay, hinder, prevent by taking action beforehand Usage: Our research has been forestalled by a lack of funding; we’re all just biding our time while we wait for the university to approve our grant proposal. Related Words: Waylay (attack after lying in wait, intercept unexpectedly), Obviate (prevent, make unnecessary), Preclude (prevent, make impossible, exclude), Stymie (hinder, thwart)

Answer 84

Definition: Happening by chance; lucky Usage: It was amazingly fortuitous that the exclusive beach resort had a cancellation for exactly the weekend she had wanted to get married, allowing her to have the perfect wedding after all. Related Words: Fluke (stroke of luck, something accidentally successful), Inadvertent (unintentional, characterized by a lack of attention) More Info: Fortuitous shares a root with fortune. It usually carries both the sense of “happening accidentally” and “fortunate,” but can also mean happening by chance in a negative or neutral way

Answer 85

Definition: Noisy disturbance or fight; brawl Usage: Rugby is one of the most aggressive of sports—when the players rush to pile on top of the person with the ball, bones can easily be broken in the fracas. Related Words: Fray (scuffle, brawl, heated dispute) More Info: In French, “fracasser” is to shatter; in Italian, “fracassare” is to make an uproar. Those, and fracas, come from Latin “frangere” (to break), also appearing in frangible, or breakable.

Answer 86

Definition: Wildly excited, frantic, distracted Usage: The advice in the expert’s time management book struck many as unrealistic, as not everyone can handle the frenetic lifestyle the author espouses: getting up before dawn to begin work before spending quality time with the kids over breakfast, taking conference calls from the treadmill, etc. Related Words: Frenzied (wildly excited; violently agitated)

Answer 87

Definition: Explode, detonate; attack verbally in a vehement, thunderous way Usage: Please don’t bring up anything related to gun control around my family, or my dad will fulminate for hours about the Second Amendment. Related Words: To rail against or rail at is to issue a bitter denunciation of.

Answer 88

Definition: Done secretly; stealthy, sly, shifty Usage: As a spokesperson for a popular diet plan, the actress had to be quite furtive about eating junk food, even hiding her M&Ms in a breath mint container lest the paparazzi snap photos of the inside of her car. Related Words: Clandestine, Covert, and Surreptitious all mean secret, undercover. Furtive contains the added sense of doing something wrong. For instance, the National Clandestine Service is part of the CIA, and military units regularly engage in covert operations. It is unlikely, though, that a government would ever use furtive in the name of its departments or operations, due to the word’s negative associations. Furtive, in fact, comes from a Latin word for “thief.”

Answer 89

Definition: Frolic; skip or leap playfully Usage: Watching the children gambol in the park like frisky little lambs, she wondered how they could have so much energy. Related Words: Caper (gambol; or, a prank, trick, or carefree activity), Cavort (prance, make merry), Lark (merry adventure) More Info: Gambol comes from the Latin “gamba,” a horse’s leg

Answer 90

Definition: Gather and store; amass, collect Usage: The publisher sent copies of the soon-to-be-published manuscript to reviewers, hoping to garner acclaim and publicity for the book. Related Words: Accrue (increase gradually), Augment (grow larger), Agglomerate (form into a mass or cluster, join together), Aggregate (gather together, amount to), Consolidate (unite, combine, firm up—you can consolidate loans or consolidate power)

Answer 91

Definition: Pregnancy; the period from conception until birth of an animal or (metaphorically) of an idea or plan Usage: The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months, more than twice as long as that of human

Answer 92

Definition: Pertaining to glaciers; cold, icy, slow, unsympathetic Usage: He had wanted to appear in the singing reality competition his whole young life, but he was not encouraged by the judges’ glacial response to his audition. The awkward silence was excruciating as he waited for the stony-faced panel to say anything at all. Related Words: Frigid (very cold, without human warmth or emotion), Gelid (icy)

Answer 93

Definition: Stare in an angry, sullen way Usage: He couldn’t figure out why his girlfriend was glowering at him throughout dinner. “Oh,” he finally realized, “Is it your birthday? Oh, and I forgot you hate seafood. Sorry about the fishsticks.” Related Words: Lower as a verb means “look angry, appear threatening.” A person can lower (as in the girlfriend above), or, often, the sky lowers before a storm

Answer 94

Definition: Scooping or digging tool, like a chisel, or a hole made with such a tool (noun); cut or scoop out; force out a person’s eye with one’s thumb; swindle, extort money from (verb) Usage: I was happy with this new video game console for a day or two, until I saw it advertised all over town for half the price and realized I’d been gouged. / He loves gory horror films, where people’s eyes are gouged out and gross stuff like that. Related Words: Rout (dig around, as with a snout; rummage; scoop out or gouge)

Answer 95

Definition: Insert part of a plant into another plant, where it continues to grow; join living tissue (such as skin) to part of the body where it will continue to live and grow; attach as if by grafting (verb); the part so grafted (as in a graft of skin); the act of acquiring money or other benefits through illegal means, esp. by abusing one’s power (noun)

Answer 96

Definition: Perform showily in an attempt to impress onlookers Usage: I was really passionate about the candidate when he spoke at our school, but now that I think about it, he was just grandstanding. I mean, who could disagree that young people are the future? And doing a cheer for the environment doesn’t actually signify a commitment to change any public policies about it. Related Words: Declaim (speak in an impassioned, pompous, or oratorical manner; give a formal speech)

Answer 97

Definition: Irritating; harsh or discordant (of a noise); scraping Usage: Folding jeans at the mall finally became unbearable when her kindly old supervisor was replaced with a young woman whose grating tone made commands like “Fold faster and then clean up this display!” sound like nails on a chalkboard. Related Words: Rasping is a synonym in all senses—irritating, relating to harsh noise, or scraping, as in “The bottom of the boat rasped the rocky ocean floor.” A person with a sore throat often has a raspy voice.

Answer 98

Definition: Causing grief or suffering; very serious, grave; flagrant, outrageous Usage: While people certainly do injure themselves on hot stoves, such burns rarely compare to the grievous injuries sustained by people who do not observe safety procedures with twelve-gallon deep fryers. Related Words: Dire (causing suffering or fear; ominous; urgent or desperate, as in “a dire emergency requiring immediate response”)

Answer 99

Definition: Complain or grumble (verb); a reason for complaint (noun)

Answer 100

Definition: Grasping, squeezing, etc. of the hands as an expression of nervousness, guilt, etc.; extend debate over what to do about an issue

Answer 101

Definition: Unlucky, unfortunate | Related Words: Bootless (useless), Woebegone (beset with woe—that is, grief or distress)

Answer 102

Definition: Farming tool that breaks up soil (noun); painfully disturb or distress (verb)

Answer 103

Definition: Airtight, sealed, isolated; reclusive; pertaining to alchemy, occult

Answer 104

Definition: Strike, chop, or hack (as with an axe, sword. etc.); make or shape something (such as a statue) with a cutting tool

Answer 105

Definition: In an intense, fiery, or heated way

Answer 106

Definition: Manage prudently, sparingly, or economically; conserve

Answer 107

Definition: Idol worship; excessive or unthinking devotion or adoration

Answer 108

Definition: Presenting a positive, peaceful view of rural life (as poetry or prose); pleasant in a natural, simple way

Answer 109

Definition: Permeate or saturate, as dye in a fabric; influence throughout

Answer 110

Definition: Position or road from which there is no escape; deadlock

Answer 111

Definition: Not having or not showing physical feeling or emotion

Answer 112

Definition: Commanding, domineering; acting like a high ranking person; urgent

Answer 113

Definition: Calm, not able to be upset or agitated

Answer 114

Definition: Impenetrable, not able to be harmed or emotionally disturbed

Answer 115

Definition: Not religious, lacking reverence, ungodly

Answer 116

Definition: Not able to be appeased, calmed, or satisfied

Answer 117

Definition: Curse; prayer for harm to come to someone

Answer 118

Definition: Attack the truth or integrity of

Answer 119

Definition: Credit, attribute; lay blame or responsibility for (sometimes falsely)

Answer 120

Definition: Blood red or flesh-colored

Answer 121

Definition: Fickleness, unreliability; the state of changing without good reason

Answer 122

Definition: Teach persistently, implant (an idea) in a person

Answer 123

Definition: Untiring, not able to become fatigued

Answer 124

Definition: Extreme poverty

Answer 125

Definition: Lazy, slothful

Answer 126

Definition: Inactive; having little or no power to move

Answer 127

Definition: Relentless, unyielding; not moved by pleading

Answer 128

Definition: Incapable of error; certain

Answer 129

Definition: Ungrateful person

Answer 130

Definition: Make an effort to gain favor with

Answer 131

Definition: Hostile, adverse, harmful

Answer 132

Definition: Injustice, wickedness, sin

Answer 133

Definition: Excessive, not within proper limits, unrestrained

Answer 134

Definition: Legal or judicial inquiry, especially before a jury and especially made by a coroner into the cause of someone’s death; the results of such an inquiry

Answer 135

Definition: Hint, suggest slyly; introduce (an idea) into someone’s mind in a subtle, artful way

Answer 136

Definition: Pertaining to an island; detached, standing alone; narrow-minded, provincial

Answer 137

Definition: Rebellion or revolt against a government or similarly established authority

Answer 138

Definition: Bury (a dead body) or place in a tomb

Answer 139

Definition: Interaction, reciprocal relationship or influence

Answer 140

Definition: A time in between two reigns or regimes during which there is no ruler; a period during which government does not function; any period of freedom from authority or break or interruption in a series

Answer 141

Definition: Refusing to compromise, inflexible, having extreme attitudes

Answer 142

Definition: Entice, lure; get something by flattery, cleverness, or offering incentives

Answer 143

Definition: Investing; formally giving someone a right or title

Answer 144

Definition: Hateful, offensive, injurious

Answer 145

Definition: Irritable, easily angered

Answer 146

Definition: Discard, cast off; throw items overboard in order to lighten a ship in an emergency

Answer 147

Definition: Ignite, cause to begin burning; incite, arouse, inflame

Answer 148

Definition: The sound made by a bell for a funeral, or any sad sound or signal of a failure, death, ending, etc. (noun); to make such a sound (verb)

Answer 149

Definition: Theft

Answer 150

Potential; existing but not visible or active

Answer 151

Not strict; careless, loose, slack

Answer 152

Slight-of-hand (magic as performed by a magician); trickery or deception

Answer 153

Sexually unrestrained; immoral; ignoring the rules

Answer 154

Clear, transparent; completely calm

Answer 155

Flexible, supple, agile

Answer 156

Spiritless, lacking interest or energy

Answer 157

Furiously angry, enraged

Answer 158

Walk in a heavy or clumsy way, sometimes due to being weighed down

Answer 159

Gruesome or excessively vivid; sensational, shocking, unrestrained

Answer 160

Violent whirlpool; any chaotic, turbulent situation

Answer 161

High-minded, noble, lofty; generous in forgiving others, free of resentment

Answer 162

Very important or influential person, esp. in business

Answer 163

Pretend to be sick, esp. to get out of work, duties, etc.

Answer 164

Obvious, apparent, perceptible to the eye (adj); to show, make clear, or prove (verb)

Answer 165

Having a particular manner, esp. an artificial one

Answer 166

Damage, spoil, ruin

Answer 167

Attractive in a vulgar or flashy way, tawdry; deceptive

Answer 168

Concerned with abstract thought, related to metaphysics (branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of being and of the world); very subtle or abstruse

Answer 169

Environment, atmosphere; the environmental setting in which something happens or develops

Answer 170

Have a great effect, weigh heavily (often as militate against)

Answer 171

Stuck, entangled (in something, like a swamp or muddy area), soiled

Answer 172

Jollity, merriment; amusement or laughter

Answer 173

Letter, written message

Answer 174

Stylish, contemporary

Answer 175

Shed or cast off, esp. to regularly shed skin, feathers, etc. (as a snake)

Answer 176

Relating to or resembling a monastery (where monks or nuns live), esp. by being quiet, secluded, contemplative, strict, and/or lacking luxuries

Answer 177

Diverse, having a lot of variety

Answer 178

Near-sighted; lacking long-term thinking, short-sighted

Answer 179

New word or phrase (or a new meaning applied to an existing word or phrase)

Answer 180

Beginner, novice; person newly converted to a religion

Answer 181

Implying or attempting to establish a norm; expressing value judgments or telling people what to do (rather than merely describing that which is happening)

Answer 182

Slanting or sloping; indirect, misleading, or evasive

Answer 183

Stop up, close, shut in or shut of

Answer 184

Express an opinion

Answer 185

Disgrace and disapproval that result from outrageously shameful actions

Answer 186

Full, rich, and clear (of the voice or speaking); pompous, bombastic

Answer 187

Professed, evident, or pretended; outwardly appearing in a certain way

Answer 188

Pretentious, boastful showiness

Answer 189

Overly nervous, agitated, or excited; too ornate, elaborate, or fussy; overdone

Answer 190

Suitable for or resembling a palace, magnificent

Answer 191

Make less serious or severe; relieve symptoms of an illness

Answer 192

Abnormally pale (as skin); lacking color or vitality

Answer 193

Flair, style, swagger; a flamboyant or grand way of acting

Answer 194

Formal or lofty expression of praise

Answer 195

Splendid, wide-ranging, impressive display or array

Answer 196

Peel or cut off the outer layer (such as peeling fruit with a knife), reduce or trim as if cutting off the outer parts

Answer 197

Discussion, negotiation, esp. between enemies (noun); to have such a discussion (verb)

Answer 198

Deflect or avoid (esp. a blow or attack); skillfully evade (a question)

Answer 199

Mix of incongruous parts; artistic work imitating the work of other artists, often satirically

Answer 200

Capable of producing disease

Answer 201

Person who pays excessive attention to book learning and rules, or who uses his or her learning to show of

Answer 202

Travel around while selling; sell illegally; give out or disseminate

Answer 203

Disparaging, derogatory, belittling (adj); a name or word that is disparaging (noun)

Answer 204

Regretful, feeling remorse for one’s sins or misdeeds (adj); a person who feels this way

Answer 205

Outer part of a shadow from an eclipse; any surrounding region, fringe, periphery; any area where something “sort of” exists

Answer 206

Extreme poverty or scarcity

Answer 207

Intrinsically; by itself; in itself

Answer 208

Travel from place to place, esp. on foot

Answer 209

Done superficially, without much care, or merely as routine

Answer 210

Very harmful or destructive, deadly

Answer 211

Having penetrating insight or good discernment

Answer 212

Formation of soldiers carrying shields close together for defense; any very close group of people

Answer 213

Person deficient in or hostile to culture

Answer 214

A shallow, overused statement; cliche

Answer 215

Of the common people

Answer 216

Excess; excessive amount

Answer 217

Rule by the wealthy

Answer 218

Controversial argument, esp. one attacking a specific idea

Answer 219

Shrewd, pragmatic; tactful or diplomatic

Answer 220

Speaking or composed of many languages (of a person, book, etc.); a person who knows several languages

Answer 221

Talk in an idle, simple-minded, meaningless, or foolish way; chatter, babble

Answer 222

Cause to happen suddenly or prematurely; fling, plunge, or hurl down

Answer 223

Concise summary, abstract

Answer 224

Supernatural, exceptional

Answer 225

Stray from the truth, mislead, lie

Answer 226

Reproduce, spread, increase

Answer 227

Relating to prophesy, predicting, ominous

Answer 228

Attempt to reconcile with, satisfy, or reduce the animosity of (a person who is angry, offended, etc.)

Answer 229

Lucky, fortunate, or relating to divine care (the idea that a deity has helped or cared for a person)

Answer 230

Agent, substitute, person authorized to act on behalf of another

Answer 231

boxing, fighting with the fists

Answer 232

Physical beauty

Answer 233

Having a sharp taste or smell; biting, stimulating, sharp

Answer 234

Cowardly, timid

Answer 235

Given to complaining, grumbling

Answer 236

Quiet, still

Answer 237

Something that reacts; a substance that undergoes a change in a chemical reaction

Answer 238

Not obedient, resisting authority, hard to manage

Answer 239

Withdraw, retract, or disavow something one has previously said, esp. formally

Answer 240

Not easily understood, hidden, dealing with an obscure topic

Answer 241

Revival, breaking out into renewed activity

Answer 242

To have a good or bad effect, esp. as a result of a person’s efforts or actions (usually used with to, on, or upon)

Answer 243

Stubbornly disobedient, hard to manage

Answer 244

Shining, radiant

Answer 245

Response or reply, esp. a witty comeback

Answer 246

Tear violently, esp. to tear one’s clothing or hair out of grief; pull apart, split, or tear away

Answer 247

A meal (noun); to eat or feast (verb)

Answer 248

Pertaining to a repertory or repertoire, a stock of available things or a number of theatrical performances presented regularly or in sequence

Answer 249

The act or state of resting; peacefulness, tranquility; lying dead in a grave

Answer 250

Disreputable, unprincipled, or damned person (noun); shameless, depraved (adj)

Answer 251

Having a revival, renewing, rising or surging again

Answer 252

Renovate, redo, revise (verb); a restructuring, upgrade, etc. (noun)

Answer 253

Using or relating to obscene or vulgar humor

Answer 254

Dominated or burdened by

Answer 255

A gap or fissure (such as in rock), a break in friendly relations

Answer 256

Very elaborate and ornate (in decorating or metaphorically, as in speech and writing)

Answer 257

Regret, remorse (noun); to feel regret or remorse (verb)

Answer 258

Turn over in the mind, reflect on; chew cud (as a cow)

Answer 259

Obvious, standing out; projecting, protruding, jutting out

Answer 260

Scornfully or ironically mocking, cynically derisive

Answer 261

Learned person, scholar, someone admitted to membership in a scholarly field; a person with amazing mental abilities despite having a cognitive difference or disability

Answer 262

A tiny bit or trace

Answer 263

Contemptible, mean

Answer 264

Produce and release a substance from a cell or gland of the body for a functional purpose

Answer 265

Inciting rebellion against a government, esp. speech or writing that does this

Answer 266

Relating to the different meanings of words or other symbols

Answer 267

Like an angel; serene, spiritually carried off or transported

Answer 268

Fragment of some brittle substance, esp. a sharp fragment of pottery, glass, etc.

Answer 269

Shy, fickle, uncertain, or prone to act suddenly due to nervousness; lively in a restless or excessive way

Answer 270

Satisfy (esp. thirst), cool, or refresh; make less active

Answer 271

A nickname

Answer 272

Nonstandard use of grammar or words; mistake, esp. in etiquette

Answer 273

Fellowship in interests, feelings, responsibilities, etc., such as among a group of people or among classes, nations, etc

Answer 274

Of the body

Answer 275

Disgusting, filthy, foul, extremely neglected

Answer 276

Equilibrium, a state of balance or inactivity, esp. caused by equal but opposing forces

Answer 277

Immersed (in), saturated (with)

Answer 278

Very loud and powerful (generally of a human voice)

Answer 279

Mark of disgrace, a figurative stain or mark on someone’s reputation

Answer 280

Period of time spent doing something, or a specific, limited amount of work (noun); to be frugal, to get by on little (verb)

Answer 281

Specify; make an open demand, esp. as a condition of agreement

Answer 282

Military maneuver to deceive or surprise; crafty scheme

Answer 283

One of many layers (such as in a rock formation or in the classes of a society)

Answer 284

A structural support or brace

Answer 285

Lofty or elevated, inspiring reverence or awe; excellent, majestic; complete, utter

Answer 286

A court order requiring a person to appear in court and give testimony

Answer 287

Make dirty, stain, tarnish, defile

Answer 288

Take the place of, displace, especially through sneaky tactics

Answer 289

Assumption, hypothesis, something that has been supposed

Answer 290

Substitute, person who acts for another (noun); acting as a replacement (adj)

Answer 291

Mutually dependent relationship between two organisms, people, groups, etc

Answer 292

Relating to a synopsis or summary; giving a general view

Answer 293

Marked by a strong point of view, biased

Answer 294

Concise, brief and to the point (sometimes to the point of rudeness)

Answer 295

Someone who flatters or acts in a servile manner for self-serving reasons

Answer 296

Large or scholarly book; one of the volumes in a set of several books

Answer 297

Violation of a law, moral rule, order, etc.; sin

Answer 298

Exaggerated, debased, or grotesque imitation

Answer 299

forceful or vigorous, effective, keen; caustic, sharp

Answer 300

Riotous, violently agitated, marked by disturbance or uproar; noisy, chaotic

Answer 301

Swollen, inflated; or, metaphorically “inflated,” such as in overblown, pompous speech

Answer 302

Depravity, baseness of character, corrupt or depraved acts

Answer 303

Not guided by conscience; morally wrong, unjust, unreasonable

Answer 304

Generous, lavish (as in not sparing any help or gifts to others); unmerciful, harsh (as in not sparing any criticism)

Answer 305

Charging interest on a loan, esp. charging illegally high or excessive interest

Answer 306

Leading units at the front of an army; leaders in a trend or movement, people on the “cutting edge;” the forefront of a trend or movement

Answer 307

Varied in color, having multicolored patches or spots; diverse

Answer 308

Green, such as with vegetation, plants, grass, etc.; young and inexperienced

Answer 309

Having the appearance of truth, probable

Answer 310

Relating to the spring; fresh, youthful

Answer 311

Trace or sign of something that once existed

Answer 312

Annoy or bother; puzzle or distress

Answer 313

Pep, enthusiasm, vitality, lively spirit

Answer 314

Extremely infectious, poisonous, etc.; hateful, bitterly hostile

Answer 315

Thick, adhesive, or covered in something sticky

Answer 316

Unnaturally pale, or showing some other indication of sickness, unhappiness, etc.; weak, lacking forcefulness

Answer 317

Confused mass or pile, jumble; confusion or turmoil (noun); roll around, wallow, toss about, writhe (verb)

Answer 318

Stimulate, make keen or eager (esp. of an appetite)

Answer 319

Sift, analyze critically, separate the useful part from the worthless part

Answer 320

Withered, shriveled

Answer 321

Fear or hatred of foreigners or that which is foreig