AP English vocab list 8

Question 1

sycophant

Answer 1

n. one who sucks up to others; a flatterer

Question 2

protract

Answer 2

v. to prolong

Question 3

extricate

Answer 3

v. to free from difficulty

Question 4

staunch

Answer 4

adj. firmly committed

Question 5

nebulous

Answer 5

adj. vague; hazy; indistinct

Question 6

castigate

Answer 6

v. to criticize severely; to chastise

Question 7

grandiloquent

Answer 7

adj. pompous; using an abundance of fancy words to sound impressive

Question 8

gratuitous

Answer 8

adj. given freely; unjustified; unprovoked

Question 9

mercurial

Answer 9

adj. emotionally unpredictable; rapidly changing in mood

Question 10

pedantic

Answer 10

adj. placing unnecessary stress on minor or trivial points of learning, displaying a scholarship lacking in judgment or sense or proportion

Question 11

preclude

Answer 11

v. to prevent something from ever happening

Question 12

stymie

Answer 12

v. to thwart; to get in the way of

Question 13

tantamount

Answer 13

adj. equivalent to

Question 14

prosaic

Answer 14

adj. dull; unimaginable

Question 15

stratum

Answer 15

n. a layer or a level

Question 16

oblique

Answer 16

adj. indirect; at an angle

Question 17

incipient

Answer 17

adj. beginning; developing; growing; emerging

Question 18

philistine

Answer 18

n. a smugly ignorant person with no appreciation of intellectual matters

Question 19

ruminate

Answer 19

v. to contemplate; to ponder

Question 20

hackneyed

Answer 20

adj. trite; overused

Question 21

fatuous

Answer 21

adj. silly and pointless; unreal and illusory

Question 22

glut

Answer 22

n. an overabundance; a surplus

Question 23

meticulous

Answer 23

adj. very careful; precise

Question 24

astute

Answer 24

adj. shrewd; keep to judgment

Question 25

incandescent

Answer 25

adj. brilliant; giving off heat or light