Barrons Essential words Flashcards
invective (n)
verbal abuse
The debate judge cautioned participants not to engage in invective, but rather in reasoned and decorous discourse.
insularity (n)
narrow-mindedness; isolation
The insularity of many tribes in New Guinea allows anthropologists to study cultures that have been relatively uninfluenced by the modern world.
perennial
adjective
present throughout the years; persistent
Perennial warfare has left most of the people of the country in poverty.
subpoena (n)
notice ordering someone to appear in court
The judge issued a subpoena for the man but the prosecutor had little hope that he would appear because he was living abroad.
alacrity
noun
cheerful willingness; eagerness; speed
The football coach was pleased to see the team get to work on the task of improving its tackling skills with alacrity.
insipid
adjective
lacking in flavor; dull
Ironically, the book about how to write lively, engaging prose is an insipid piece of writing.
negate
verb
to cancel out; nullify
The soldiers’ poor treatment of the prisoners negated the goodwill they had built up among the population.
penchant
noun
inclination
Sue has a penchant for science, while her brother is more interested in the arts.
compendium (n)
brief, comprehensive summary
The Mozart Compendium: A Guide to Mozart’s Life and Music by H. C. Robbins Landon is a convenient reference for finding information about the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
probity
noun
honesty; high-mindedness
No one questioned the probity of the judge being considered for elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court; what was at issue was his controversial views on several important issues.
incursion (n)
sudden invasion
Example, At first, the Native Americans were not too concerned about the incursions of European settlers, but their anxiety grew with the relentless flow of people, until, finally, calamitous wars were fought between the two sides.
castigation
noun
punishment; chastisement; criticism
Many British writers recall with loathing the castigation they received at school.
abeyance
N
temporary suppression or suspension
A good judge must hold his or her judgment in abeyance until all the facts in a case have been presented.
abscond
V
To depart secretly
A warrant is out for the arrest of a person believed to have absconded with three million dollars.
perfunctory
adjective
superficial; not thorough; performed really as a duty
The perfunctory inspection of the airplane failed to reveal
structural faults in the wing.
admonish
v
to caution or reprimand
The judge admonished the jury to discount testimony that had been ruled inadmissible.
warranted
adjective
Verb
justified
The book argues that a new investigation into Marilyn Monroe’s death is warranted by new evidence released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act.
Warrant is a verb meaning to attest to the accuracy or quality; justify; grant authorization
Throughout most of America, procedures in criminal law cases are essentially the same: The government, through a prosecutor, presents its case against a suspect to a grand jury, which decides if there is sufficient evidence to warrant a full trial.
gregarious
adjective
sociable
A recent anthropological theory is that human beings are gregarious creatures that are comfortable living in groups of around 150 individuals.
diffuse
v: to spread out
Adj: wordy; rambling; spread out.
The idea of equality and liberty diffused through society after the French Revolution.
This essay is so diffuse it is difficult to follow its central argument.
conundrum
noun
riddle; puzzle with no solution
The paradoxical statement “This statement is false” presents us with a conundrum.
distill
verb
extract the essential elements
In his book Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, Bryan Magee manages to distill the essence of leading thinkers such as W. V. Quine, John Searle, Iris Murdoch, and Noam Chomsky.
iconoclastic
adjective
attacking cherished traditions
The linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky has been described as gleefully iconoclastic because of the zeal with which he attacks many of the central beliefs of American society.
An icon is an image or representation.
The internal combustion engine is a ubiquitous feature of modern industrial society, helping the automobile to become an icon of the twentieth century, loved by many people but loathed by environmentalists.
abstemious
adj
Moderate in appetite
Some research suggests that people with an abstemious lifestyle tend to live longer than people who indulge their appetites.
obviate
verb
to make unnecessary; to anticipate and prevent
An experienced physician can often discern if a patient’s symptoms are psychosomatic, thus obviating the need for expensive medical tests.
euphemism
N
use of agreeable or inoffensive language in place of unpleasant or offensive language
An illustration of the tendency toward euphemism is the change (reflecting the political concerns of the day) in the accepted appellation of poor countries from the unambiguous poor, to undeveloped, to underdeveloped, to less developed, to developing.
decorum
noun
proper behavior
When addressing the nation, the president generally has an air of decorum.
The adjective is decorous.
qualified
adjective
N
In Indian philosophy a position between monism at one extreme and dualism at the other is qualified non-dualism, a philosophy in which reality is considered to have attributes of both dualism and monism.
Qualification is a noun meaning limitation or restriction.
So many qualifications had been added to the agreement that Sue was now reluctant to sign it.
The verb qualify means to modify or limit.
connoisseur
noun
a person possessing expert knowledge or training; a person of informed and discriminating taste
The art connoisseur selected works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Picasso for the exhibition.
hyperbole.
n
purposeful exaggeration for effect
The American tradition of the tall tale uses hyperbole to depict a world in which the inhabitants and their deeds are larger than life, as befitting a people inhabiting a vast landscape.
fledgling
noun
beginner; novice
The coach said that some of the team’s fledglings would play in
Saturday’s game.
The adjective fledgling means immature or inexperienced.
pragmatic
adjective
practical
The cult of romantic love was a major factor in making a marriage for love, rather than for more pragmatic reasons, a ubiquitous phenomenon in the West by the nineteenth century.
Pragmatism means a practical way of approaching situations or solving problems.
Pragmatism is similar to Positivism in rejecting lofty metaphysical conceptions and in asserting that the main role of philosophy is to help clarify phenomena experienced.
A pragmatist is someone who approaches situations in a practical way.
The word “pragmatist” is often used to refer to someone who is willing to sacrifice his principles to expediency.
harangue
n
long, pompous speech; tirade
The football team sat silently listening to their coach’s half-time harangue about poor tackling, dropped passes, and lost opportunities to score.
embellish
V
to adorn; decorate; enhance; make more attractive by adding details
The story he had been told was so powerful that the writer felt no need to embellish it.
opprobrium
noun
disgrace; contempt
It is difficult to imagine the opprobrium heaped on a person who is a traitor to his or her group.
levee
noun
an embankment that prevents a river from overflowing
An extensive system of levees is the only way to prevent the river from flooding the area during periods of heavy rain.
solicitous
adjective
concerned; attentive; eager
The nurse is extremely solicitous of the health of every patient in the ward.
stipulate
verb
N
to specify as an essential condition.
The president’s lawyer stipulated that he would appear before the investigative committee, but would answer only questions directly relevant to the issue at hand.
The noun is stipulation.
Stipulations in a contract should be clear in order to obviate the need for parties to resort to litigation.
fallacious
adjective
based on a false idea or fact; misleading
The belief of the Nazis that they could create a “master race” was based on the fallacious premise that some races are inherently superior to others.
The noun fallacy means an incorrect idea.
Critics of the “strong” anthropic principle argue that its proponents are guilty of a logical fallacy: on the basis of one known case of intelligent life, they extrapolate the existence of a multitude of such cases.
pungent
adjective
strong or sharp in smell or taste; penetrating; caustic; to the point
Slang frequently expresses an idea succinctly and pungently.
levity
noun
light manner or attitude
The comedian has a gift for finding an element of levity in the most serious of subjects.
incongruity
noun
state of not fitting
There is an incongruity between the poem’s solemn tone and its light-hearted theme.
The adjective is incongruous.
The assumptions underlying Jonathan Swift’s definition of literary style–“The proper words in the proper order”–recognize that there are many effective styles, but that the effectiveness of each is dependent on the context within which it is found: for example, the rambling, exuberant style of Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” would be incongruous in Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, with its dependence on sustained wit and irony.
substantiate
verb
to support with proof or evidence
The validity of fossil identification is substantiated by data from geology and carbon-14 dating.
causal
adjective
involving a cause
The philosopher Plato believed there is a causal relationship between income inequality, on the one hand, and political discontent and crime, on the other hand: in his Laws he quantified his argument, contending that the income of the rich should be no more than five times that of the poor, and he proposed policies to limit extremes of wealth and poverty.
