#51 infer ~ insatiable Flashcards
infer
/ɪnˈfɜr/
v. to conclude; to deduce
- Raizel said she loved the brownies, but I inferred from the size of the piece left on her plate that she had actually despised them.
- She hadn’t heard the score, but the silence in the locker room led her to infer that we had lost.
An inference is a deduction or conclusion.
infinitesimal
/ˌɪnfɪnɪˈtɛsəməl/
adj. very, very, very small; infinitely small
- An infinitesimal bug of some kind crawled into Heather’s ear and bit her in a place she couldn’t scratch.
- Our chances of winning were infinitesimal, but we played our hearts out anyway.
ingenuous
/ɪnˈdʒɛnyuəs/
adj. frank; without deception; simple; artless; charmingly naive
- A young child is ingenuous. He doesn’t know much about the ways of the world, and certainly not enough to deceive anyone.
- An ingenue is a somewhat naive young woman, esp. a movie actress or character.
disingenuous
/ˌdɪsɪnˈdʒɛnyuəs/
adj. crafty; artful
- The movie producer was being disingenuous when he said, “I don’t care about making money on this movie. I just want every man, woman, and child in the country to see it.”
inherent
/ɪnˈhɪərənt, -ˈhɛr-/
adj. part of the essential nature of sth; intrinsic
Wetness is an inherent quality of water. (You could also say that wetness is inherent in water.)
- There is an inherent strength in steel that cardboard lacks.
- The man’s inherent fatness, jolliness, and beardedness made it easy for him to play the part of Santa Claus.
injunction
/ɪnˈdʒʌŋkʃən/
n. a commend or order, esp. a court order
- Wendy’s neighbors got a court injunction prohibiting her from playing her radio.
- Herbert, lighting up, disobeyed his doctor’s injunction to stop smoking.
innate
/ɪˈneɪt, ˈɪneɪt/
adj. existing since birth; inborn; inherent
- Joseph’s kindness was innate; it was part of his natural character.
- Bill has an apparently innate ability to throw a football. You just can’t teach someone to throw a ball as well as he can.
- There’s nothing innate about good manners; all children have to be taught to say “Please” and “Thank you.”
innocuous
/ɪˈnɒkyuəs/
adj. harmless; banal
Innocuous is closely related, in both origin and meaning, to innocent.
- The speaker’s voice was loud but his words were innocuous; there was nothing to get excited about.
- Meredith took offense at Bruce’s innocuous comment about the saltiness of her soup.
inordinate
/ɪnˈɔrdnɪt/
adj. excessive; unreasonable
- The math teacher paid an inordinate amount of attention to the grammar rather than algebra.
- The limousine was inordinately large, even for a limousine; there was room for more than a dozen passengers.
- Romeo’s love for Juliet was perhaps a bit inordinate, given the outcome of their relationship.
insatiable
/ɪnˈseɪʃəbəl, -ʃiə-/
adj. hard or impossible to satisfy; greedy; avaricious
- Peter had an insatiable appetite for chocolate macadamia ice cream; he could never get enough. Not even a gallon of chocolate macadamia was enough to sate or satiate his craving.
- Peter’s addiction never reached satiety.