500 Essential Words Pt. 1

Question 1

abdicate

Answer 1

Formally give up the throne, power, or responsibility
“The king abdicated the throne to marry the divorcee”
“Parents can be charged with neglect for abdicating their responsibilities toward their children”

Question 2

abjure

Answer 2

give up, renounce, repudiate, recant, or shun (formally or under oath especially)
“To become a citizen of the US, you must abjure loyalty to the nation of your birth”
“she abjured sugar and fats after getting diagnosed with diabetes”

Question 3

acme

Answer 3

summit, peak, highest point, zenith

“the acme of my vacation was when I finally climbed to the acme of the mountain and enjoyed the view”

Question 4

affable

Answer 4

warm and friendly, pleasant, approachable
“the professional wrestler played at belligerence in the ring, but in real life, he was quite an affable fellow: social, easy-going, and always ready to lend a hand”

Question 5

affectation

Answer 5

fake behavior adopted to give a certain impression

“Americans move to Britain and start speaking with a affectation British accent in order to fit in”

Question 6

aggrandize

Answer 6

make greater, exaggerate

“I can’t stand it when our coworker aggrandizes her role in our group projects”

Question 7

aggregate

Answer 7

gather together, amount to, constituting a whole made up on constituent parts
“While some of the company’s divisions did better than others, in aggregate, we made a profit”
“Concrete is created when crushed rock or glass is aggregated with cement, in aggregate, concrete is stronger than cement alone”

Question 8

alacrity

Answer 8

cheerful or speedy willingness

“any boss wants an employee to respond with alacrity to her requests, handling them promptly and with enthusiasm”

Question 9

ambivalent

Answer 9

Uncertain, unable to decide or wanting to do two contradictory things at once
“I’ve been accepted into two graduate programs. I’m ambivalent”
“when asked if you thought we were going to get married someday, your ambivalence hurt my feelings”

Question 10

appreciable

Answer 10

enough to be perceived, considerable

“the diet had made no appreciable difference in her weight”

Question 11

artless

Answer 11

free of deceit or craftiness, natural, genuine, lacking skill or knowledge, crude, uncultured
“children can be so artless that, when you try to explain war to them, they say isn’t that mean?”
“his artless attempt to negotiate a raise began with I need more money and ended with sorry I asked”

Question 12

augment

Answer 12

make larger

“if you memorize the definitions of these flashcards, you will have augmented your vocabulary”

Question 13

austere

Answer 13

severe in manner or appearance; very self-disciplined, ascetic, without luxury or ease, sober, serious
“her design sense was so minimalist as to be austere”
“the graduation speaker delivered an austere message, the economy is bad and academics are not enough to succeed in the job market”

Question 14

base

Answer 14

morally low, mean, dishonorable, of little or no value, crude, unrefined, counterfeit
“he had base motives - he enjoyed the attention he got from donations and funneled in drug money”
“the gold bricks were really base metals that only looked like gold”

Question 15

boor

Answer 15

rude, ill-mannered, or insensitive person, a peasant or country bumpkin
“Milton was such a boor, that he made fun of everyone”

Question 16

buffer

Answer 16

something that shields, protects, absorbs shock, or cushions

“he used his wife as a buffer around his family”

Question 17

bygone

Answer 17

past, former, that which is in the past

“we spent the whole high school reunion talking about bygones”