ACT - SAT Vocab Words - M, N, R Flashcards
maelstrom
(n.) a destructive whirlpool which rapidly sucks in objects (Little did the explorers know that as they turned the next bend of the calm river a vicious maelstromwould catch their boat.)
magnanimous
(adj.) noble, generous (Although I had already broken most of her dishes, Jacqueline was magnanimousenough to continue letting me use them.)
malediction
(n.) a curse (When I was arrested for speeding, I screamed maledictions against the policeman and the entire police department.)
malevolent
(adj.) wanting harm to befall others (The malevolentold man sat in the park all day, tripping unsuspecting passersby with his cane.)
malleable
(adj.) capable of being shaped or transformed (Maximillian’s political opinions were so malleablethat anyone he talked to was able to change his mind instantly.)
mandate
(n.) an authoritative command (In the Old Testament, God mandatesthat no one should steal.)
manifest
(adj.) easily understandable, obvious (When I wrote the wrong sum on the chalkboard, my mistake was so manifestthat the entire class burst into laughter.) 2. (v.) to show plainly (His illness first manifesteditself with particularly violent hiccups.)
manifold
(adj.) diverse, varied (The popularity of Dante’s Inferno is partly due to the fact that the work allows for manifoldinterpretations.)
maudlin
(adj.) weakly sentimental (Although many people enjoy romantic comedies, I usually find them maudlinand shallow.)
maverick
(n.) an independent, nonconformist person (Andreas is a real maverickand always does things his own way.)
mawkish
(adj.) characterized by sick sentimentality (Although some nineteenth- century critics viewed Dickens’s writing as mawkish, contemporary readers have found great emotional depth in his works.)
maxim
(n.) a common saying expressing a principle of conduct (Miss Manners’s etiquette maximsare both entertaining and instructional.)
meager
(adj.) deficient in size or quality (My meagerportion of food did nothing to satisfy my appetite.)
medley
(n.) a mixture of differing things (Susannah’s wardrobe contained an astonishing medleyof colors, from olive green to fluorescent pink.)
mendacious
(adj.) having a lying, false character (The mendaciouscontent of the tabloid magazines is at least entertaining.)
mercurial
(adj.) characterized by rapid change or temperamentality (Though he was widely respected for his mathematical proofs, the mercurialgenius was impossible to live with.)
meritorious
(adj.) worthy of esteem or reward (Manfred was given the congressional medal of honor for his meritoriousactions.)
metamorphosis
(n.) the change of form, shape, substance (Winnifred went to the gym every day for a year and underwent a metamorphosisfrom a waiflike girl to an athletic woman.)
meticulous
(adj.) extremely careful with details (The ornate needlework in the bride’s gown was a product of meticuloushandiwork.)
mitigate
(v.) to make less violent, alleviate (When I had an awful sore throat, only warm tea would mitigatethe pain.)
moderate
(adj.) not extreme (Luckily, the restaurant we chose had moderateprices; none of us have any money.) 2.
modicum
(n.) a small amount of something (Refusing to display even a modicumof sensitivity, Henrietta announced her boss’s affair in front of the entire office.)
modulate
(v.) to pass from one state to another, especially in music (The composer wrote a piece that modulatedbetween minor and major keys.)
mollify
(v.) to soften in temper (The police officer mollifiedthe angry woman by giving her a warning instead of a ticket.)
morass
(n.) a wet swampy bog; figuratively, something that traps and confuses (When Theresa lost her job, she could not get out of her financial morass.)
mores
(n.) the moral attitudes and fixed customs of a group of people. (Mores change over time; many things that were tolerated in 1975 are no longer seen as being socially acceptable.)
morose
(adj.) gloomy or sullen (Jason’s morosenature made him very unpleasant to talk to.)
multifarious
(adj.) having great diversity or variety (This Swiss Army knife has multifariousfunctions and capabilities. Among other things, it can act as a knife, a saw, a toothpick, and a slingshot.)
mundane
(adj.) concerned with the world rather than with heaven, commonplace (He is more concerned with the mundaneissues of day-to-day life than with spiritual topics.)
munificence
(n.) generosity in giving (The royal family’s munificencemade everyone else in their country rich.)
mutable
(adj.) able to change (Because fashion is so mutable, what is trendy today will look outdated in five years.)
myriad
(adj.) consisting of a very great number (It was difficult to decide what to do Friday night because the city presented us with myriadpossibilities for fun.)
nadir
(n.) the lowest point of something (My day was boring, but the nadircame when I accidentally spilled a bowl of spaghetti on my head.)
nascent
(adj.) in the process of being born or coming into existence (Unfortunately, my brilliant paper was only in its nascentform on the morning that it was due.)
nebulous
(adj.) vaguely defined, cloudy (The transition between governments meant that who was actually in charge was a nebulousmatter.)
nefarious
(adj.) heinously villainous (Although Dr. Meanman’s nefariousplot to melt the polar icecaps was terrifying, it was so impractical that nobody really worried about it.)
negligent
(adj.) habitually careless, neglectful (Jessie’s grandfather called me a negligentfool after I left the door to his apartment unlocked even though there had been a recent string of robberies.)
neophyte
(n.) someone who is young or inexperienced (As a neophytein the literary world, Malik had trouble finding a publisher for his first novel.)
nocturnal
(adj.) relating to or occurring during the night (Jackie was a nocturnal person; she would study until dawn and sleep until the evening.)
noisome
(adj.) unpleasant, offensive, especially to the sense of smell (Nobody would enter the stalls until the horse’s noisomeleavings were taken away.)
nomadic
(adj.) wandering from place to place (In the first six months after college, Jose led a nomadiclife, living in New York, California, and Idaho.)
nominal
(adj.) trifling, insignificant (Because he was moving the following week and needed to get rid of his furniture more than he needed money, Jordan sold everything for a nominalfee.)