9f. Vocabulary - Beyond Key Terms 2 Flashcards by Mel Baga

abjure (verb)

to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid

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adumbrate (verb)

to foreshadow vaguely or intimate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow

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anathema (noun)

a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing

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anodyne (adj.)/(noun)

soothing; something that assuages or allays pain or comforts

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apogee (noun)

farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith

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apostate (noun)

one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions

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apotheosis (noun)

deification; glorification to godliness; an exalted example; a model of excellence or perfection

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asperity (noun)

severity, rigor; roughness, harshness; acrimony, irritability

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asseverate (verb)

to aver, allege, or assert

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assiduous (adj.)

diligent, hard-working, sedulous

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augury (noun)

omen, portent

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bellicose (adj.)

belligerent, pugnacious, warlike

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calumniate (verb)

to slander, to make a false accusation; calumny means slander, aspersion

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captious (adj.)

disposed to point out trivial faults; calculated to confuse or entrap in argument

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cavil (verb) \ ˈkavəl \

to find fault without good reason

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celerity (noun)

speed, alacrity; think accelerate

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chimera (noun)

an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster

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contumacious (adj.)

insubordinate, rebellious; contumely means insult, scorn, aspersion

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debacle (noun)

rout, fiasco, complete failure

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denouement (noun)

an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot

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descry (verb)

to catch sight of

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desuetude (noun)

disuse

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desultory (adj.)

random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose

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diaphanous (adj.)

transparent, gauzy

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diffident (adj.)

reserved, shy, unassuming; lacking in self-confidence

dirge (noun)

a song of grief or lamentation

encomium (noun)

glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy

eschew (verb)

to shun or avoid

excoriate (verb)

to censure scathingly, to upbraid

execrate (verb)

to denounce, to feel loathing for, to curse, to declare to be evil

exegesis (noun)

critical examination, explication

expiate (verb)

to atone or make amends for

extirpate (verb)

to destroy, to exterminate, to cut out, to exscind

fatuous (adj.)

silly, inanely foolish

fractious (adj.)

quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable

gainsay (verb)

to deny, to dispute, to contradict, to oppose

heterodox (adj.)

unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic

imbroglio (noun)

difficult or embarrassing situation

indefatigable (adj.) \ ˌindəˈfadəɡəb(ə)l \

not easily exhaustible; tireless, dogged

ineluctable (adj.) \ ˌinəˈləktəb(ə)l \

certain, inevitable

inimitable (adj.)

one of a kind, peerless

insouciant (adj.)

unconcerned, carefree, heedless

inveterate (adj.)

deep rooted, ingrained, habitual

jejune (adj.) \ jəˈjo͞on \

vapid, uninteresting, nugatory; childish, immature, puerile

lubricious (adj.)

lewd, wanton, greasy, slippery

mendicant (noun)

a beggar, supplicant

meretricious (adj.)

cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy; attracting by false show

minatory (adj.)

menacing, threatening (reminds you of the Minotaur, a threatening creature indeed)

nadir (noun)

low point, perigee

nonplussed (adj.)

baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think

obstreperous (adj.)

noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous

ossified (adj.)

tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age; literally, turned into bone

palliate (verb)

to make something seem less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense

panegyric (noun)

formal praise, eulogy, encomium; panegyrical

parsimonious (adj.)

cheap, miserly

pellucid (adj.)

transparent, easy to understand, limpid

peroration (noun)

the concluding part of a speech; flowery, rhetorical speech

plangent (adj.)

pounding, thundering, resounding

prolix (adj.)

long-winded, verbose; prolixity means verbosity

propitiate (verb)

to appease; to conciliate; propitious means auspicious, favorable

puerile (adj.)

childish, immature, jejune, nugatory

puissance (noun) \ ˈpwisəns \

power, strength; puissant means powerful, strong

pusillanimous (adj.)

cowardly, craven

remonstrate (verb)

to protest, to object

sagacious (adj.)

having sound judgment; perceptive, wise; like a sage

salacious (adj.)

lustful, lascivious, bawdy

salutary (adj.)

remedial, wholesome, causing improvement

sanguine (adj.)

cheerful, confident, optimistic

saturnine (adj.) \ ˈsadərˌnīn \

gloomy, dark, sullen, morose

sententious (adj.)

aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic; tending to moralize excessively

stentorian (adj.)

extremely loud and powerful

stygian (adj.)

gloomy, dark

sycophant (noun)

toady; servile, self-seeking flatterer; parasite

obsequious (adj.)

obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree: toady

tendentious (adj.)

biased; showing marked tendencies

timorous (adj.)

timid, fearful, diffident

tyro (noun)

novice, greenhorn, rank amateur

vitiate (verb)

to corrupt, to debase, to spoil, to make ineffective