Challenging Vocabulary List

Question 1

brabble

Answer 1

long, accusing speech/a person who is quarrelsome

verb to squabble

Question 2

bombilate/bombinate

Answer 2

to hum, buzz, drone

Question 3

bete noire

Answer 3

a pet aversion, something that makes your flesh crawl

Question 4

androgynous

Answer 4

something that applies to both sexes

Question 5

choler

Answer 5

anger, hot-headedness, irritability

Question 6

genontology

Answer 6

the study of old people

Question 7

fugacious

Answer 7

short-lived, over soon, gone forever

Question 8

divagate

Answer 8

to stray, wander, ramble

Question 9

herculean

Answer 9

qualities like Hercules who had enormous economic strength and could accomplish impossible tasks

Question 10

rhetorical/rhetorical question

Answer 10

no answer to the question. (either too obvious or an unknown answer)

Question 11

Demise

Answer 11

downfall or death

Question 12

akimbo

Answer 12

a stance: hands. on hips; elbows extended

Question 13

edacious

Answer 13

voracious, devouring, gluttonous, greedy

Question 14

imbrue

Answer 14

to soak, stain, or drench something, usually in blood

Question 15

jettison

Answer 15

the act of abandonment, discarding, casting out, or to drop from a plane or boat

Question 16

matutinal

Answer 16

occurring in the morning or early day

Question 17

odyssey

Answer 17

a long, adventurous journey filled with many hardships

Question 18

albeit

Answer 18

means “although it be that” or can replace “however”

Question 19

benighted

Answer 19

unenlightened, morally ignorant

Question 20

diglot

Answer 20

a person who is bilingual or a bilingual book or edition

Question 21

humanist

Answer 21

a person who has deep concern for the entire race or mankind

Question 22

minacious/minatory

Answer 22

threatening

Question 23

nimiety

Answer 23

too much of something, an overabundance

Question 24

paucity

Answer 24

not enough of something, scarce

Question 25

oniomania

Answer 25

a craze for buying items

Question 26

agon

Answer 26

a literary term for the major conflict between the antagonist and the protagonist

Question 27

mote

Answer 27

a tiny speck or particle

Question 28

pandemic

Answer 28

universal dread like H1N1 flu, small pox, bird flu, or the newly created man-made one!

Question 29

passel

Answer 29

a large group or swarm

Question 30

sect

Answer 30

a smaller group within a larger group, usually a religious sect or a political sect

Question 31

redundant

Answer 31

repetitive, verbose, superfluous

Question 32

skeptical

Answer 32

doubtful, unsure, questioning

Question 33

abjure

Answer 33

renounce, retract, or forswear something

Question 34

mussitation

Answer 34

the act of muttering to oneself, whispering to yourself in a soft voice

Question 35

pluvious

Answer 35

rainy weather conditions or climate

Question 36

clodpoll/clodpol/clodplate

Answer 36

someone who is clueless, a clodhopper, a blockhead like Charlie Brown, an oaf

Question 37

ramifications

Answer 37

consequences

Question 38

polymath

Answer 38

a person of great and varied learning, a genius in many fields of study

Question 39

prodrome

Answer 39

a warning signal, a forewarning symptom of a disease

Question 40

agnomen

Answer 40

a honorable nickname or title

Question 41

rebarbative

Answer 41

distasteful, repellant, repulsive

Question 42

rubric

Answer 42

the original meaning (not today’s use in schools) is a heading of a book, chapter, or title

Question 43

susurration

Answer 43

a noise: a whisper murmuring, or rustling

Question 44

enormity

Answer 44

an atrocity, a monstrous or wicked act

Question 45

tenebrous

Answer 45

dark, gloomy, scary

Question 46

traduce

Answer 46

to slander, malign, defame; to speak falsely and with malice

Question 47

verbose

Answer 47

lacks clarity or precision; too wordy, or excess of what is needed

Question 48

adulate

Answer 48

to exhibit excessive devotion

Question 49

crescive

Answer 49

increasing in size

Question 50

rapscallion

Answer 50

a rascal, rogue, scamp, scoundrel