C (I) Flashcards
cabal (n.)
small group of persons secretly united to promote their own interests
The cabal was defeated when their scheme was discovered.
cache (n.)
hiding place
The detectives followed the suspect until he led them to the cache where he had stored his loot.
He had cached the cash in a bag for trash: it was a hefty sum.
cacophonous (adj.)
discordant; inharmonious
Do the students in the orchestra enjoy the cacophonous sounds they make when they’re tuning up?
I don’t know how they can stand the racket.
cadaver (n.)
corpse
In some states, it is illegal to dissect cadavers.
cadence (n.)
rhythmic rise and fall (of words or sound); beat
Marching down the road, the troops sang out, following the cadence set by the sergeant.
cajole (v.)
to coax; to wheedle
Diane tried to cajole her father into letting her drive the family car.
calamity (n.)
disaster; misery
As news of the calamity spread, offers of relief poured in to the stricken community.
calculated (adj.)
deliberately planned; likely
Lexy’s choice of clothes to wear to the debate tournament was carefully calculated. Her conventional suit was one calculated to appeal to the conservative judges.
caldron (n.)
large kettle
“Why, Mr. Crusoe,” said the savage heating the giant caldron, “we’d love to have you for dinner!”
caliber (n.)
ability; quality
The scholarship committee searched for students of high caliber, ones with the intelligence and ability to be a credit to the school.
calligraphy (n.)
beautiful writing; excellent penmanship
As we examine ancient manuscripts, we become impressed with the calligraphy of the scribes.
callous (adj.)
hardened; unfeeling
He had worked in the hospital for so many years that he was callous to the suffering in the wards.
callow (adj.)
youthful; immature; inexperienced
As a freshman, Jack was sure he was a man of the world; as a sophomore, he made fun of freshmen as callow youths. In both cases, his judgment showed just how callow he was.
calorific (adj.)
heat-producing
Coal is much more calorific than green wood.
calumny (n.)
malicious misrepresentation; slander
He could endure his financial failure, but he could not bear the calumny that his foes heaped upon him.
camaraderie (n.)
good-fellowship
What he loved best about his job was the sense of camaraderie he and his coworkers shared.
cameo (n.)
shell or jewel carved in relief; star’s special appearance in a minor role in a film
Don’t buy cameos from the street peddlers in Rome: the workmanship is wretched.
Did you catch Bill Murray’s cameo in Little Shop of Horrors? He was on-screen so briefly that if you blinked you missed him.
camouflage (v.)
to disguise; to conceal
In order to rescue Han Solo, Princess Leia camouflaged herself in the helmet and cloak of a space bandit.
candor (n.)
frankness; open honesty
Jack can carry candor too far: when he told Jill his honest opinion of her, she nearly slapped his face.
canine (adj.)
related to dogs; dog-like
Some days the canine population of Berkeley seems almost to outnumber the human population.
canny (adj.)
shrewd; thrifty
The canny Scotsman was more than a match for the swindlers.
cant (n.)
insincere expressions of piety; jargon or thieves
Shocked by news of the minister’s extramarital love affairs, the worshippers dismissed his talk about the sacredness of marriage as mere cant.
Cant is a form of hypocrisy: those who can pray; those who cant, pretend.
cantankerous (adj.)
ill-humored; irritable
Constantly complaining about his treatment and refusing to cooperate with the hospital staff, he was a cantankerous patient.
canter (n.)
slow gallop
Because the racehorse had outdistanced its competition so easily, the reporter wrote that the race was won in a canter.
canto (n.)
division of a long poem
Dante’s poetic masterpiece The Divine Comedy is divided into cantos.
canvass (v.)
to determine votes, etc.
After canvassing the sentiments of is constituents, the congressman was confident that he represented the majority opinion of his district.
capacious (adj.)
spacious
In the capacious rotunda of the railroad terminal, thousands of travelers lingered while waiting for their train.
capacity (n.)
mental or physical ability; role; ability to accommodate
Mike had the capacity to handle several jobs at once. In his capacity as president of SelecTronics he marketed an electronic dictionary with a capacity of 200,000 words.
capitulate (v.)
to surrender
The enemy was warned to capitulate or face annihilation.
capricious (adj.)
unpredictable; fickle; fanciful
The storm was capricious: it changed course constantly.
Jill was capricious: she changed boyfriends almost as often as she changed clothes.
caption (n.)
title; chapter heading; text under illustration
The captions that accompany The Far Side cartoons are almost as funny as the pictures.
captivate (v.)
to charm or enthrall
Bart and Lisa were captivated by their new nanny’s winning manner.
cardinal (adj.)
chief
If you want to increase your word power, the cardinal rule of vocabulary-building is to read.
careen (v.)
to lurch; to sway from side to side
The taxicab careened wildly as it rounded the corner.
caricature (n.)
exaggerated picture or description; distortion
The cartoonist’s caricature of President Bush grossly exaggerated the size of the president’s ears.
carnage (n.)
destruction of life
The film The Killing Fields vividly depicts the carnage wreaked by Pol Pot’s followers in Cambodia.
carnal (adj.)
fleshly
Is the public more interested in carnal pleasures than in spiritual matters?
carnivorous (adj.)
meat-eating
The lion’s a carnivorous beast.
carping (adj.)
finding fault or complaining querulously
A carping critic is a nit-picker: he loves to point out flaws. I you don’t like this definition, feel free to carp.
castigate (v.)
to criticize severely; to punish
When the teacher threatened that she would castigate the mischievous boys if they didn’t behave, they shaped up in a hurry.
casualty (n.)
serious or fatal accident
The number of automotive casualties on this holiday weekend was high.
cataclysm (n.)
violent upheaval; deluge
The Russian Revolution was a political and social cataclysm that overturned czarist society.
catalyst (n.)
agent which brings about a chemical change while it remains unaffected and unchanged
Many chemical reactions cannot take place without the presence of a catalyst.
catapult (n.)
slingshot; a hurling machine
Airplanes are sometimes launched from battleships by catapults.
cataract (n.)
great waterfall; eye abnormality
She gazed with awe at the mighty cataract known as Niagara Falls.
catastrophe (n.)
calamity; disaster
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a catastrophe that destroyed most of the city.
A similar earthquake striking today could have even more catastrophic results.
catechism (n.)
book for religious instruction; instruction by question and answer
He taught by engaging his pupils in a catechism until they gave him the correct answer.
categorical (adj.)
without exceptions; unqualified; absolute
Though the captain claimed he was never, never sick at sea, he finally had to qualify his categorical denial: he was “hardly ever” sick at sea.
cater to (v.)
to supply something desired (whether good or bad)
The chef was happy to cater to the tastes of his highly sophisticated clientele.
Critics condemned the movie industry for catering to the public’s ever-increasing appetite for violence.
catharsis (n.)
purging or cleansing of any passage of the body
Aristotle maintained that tragedy created a catharsis by purging the soul of base concepts.
catholic (adj.)
broadly sympathetic; liberal
He was extremely catholic in his taste and read everything he could find in the library.
caucus (n.)
private meeting of members of a party to select officers or determine policy
At the opening of Congress, the members of the Democratic Party held a caucus to elect the Majority Leader of the House and the Party Whip.
caulk (v.)
to make watertight by filling in cracks
Jack had to caulk the tiles in the shower stall to stop the leak into the basement below.
casual (adj.)
implying a cause-and-effect relationship
The psychologist maintained there was a casual relationship between the nature of one’s early childhood experiences and one’s adult personality.
caustic (adj.)
burning; sarcastically biting
The critic’s caustic comments angered the actors, who resented his cutting remarks.
cavalcade (n.)
procession; parade
As described by Chaucer, the cavalcade of Canterbury pilgrims was a motley group.
cavalier (adj.)
offhand or casual; haughty
The disguised prince resented the cavalier way in which the palace guards treated him.
How dared they handle a member of the royal family so unceremoniously!
cavil (v.)
to make frivolous objections
It’s fine when you make sensible criticisms, but it really bugs me when you cavil about unimportant details.
cede (v.)
to yield (title, territory) to; to surrender formally
Eventually the descendants of England’s Henry II were forced to cede their French territories to the King of France.
celebrated (adj.)
famous; well-known
Thanks to their race to break Roger Maris’s home-run record, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire are two of America’s most celebrated baseball players.
