d

Question 1

dearth

Answer 1

(n.) a lack, scarcity (An eager reader, she was dismayed by the dearth of classic books at the library.)

Question 2

debase

Answer 2

v.) (to lower the quality or esteem of something (The large raise that he gave
himself debased his motives for running the charity.)

Question 3

debauch

Answer 3

(v.) to corrupt by means of sensual pleasures (An endless amount of good wine
and cheese debauched the traveler.)

Question 4

decorous

Answer 4

(adj.) socially proper, appropriate (The appreciative guest displayed decorous
behavior toward his host.)

Question 5

decry

Answer 5

(v.) to criticize openly (The kind video rental clerk decried the policy of charging
customers late fees.)

Question 6

defamatory

Answer 6

(adj.) harmful toward another’s reputation (The defamatory gossip
spreading about the actor made the public less willing to see the actor’s new movie.)

Question 7

deferential

Answer 7

(adj.) showing respect for another’s authority (His deferential attitude
toward her made her more confident in her ability to run the company.)

Question 8

defile

Answer 8

(v.) to make unclean, impure (She defiled the calm of the religious building by
playing her banjo.)

Question 9

deft

Answer 9

(adj.) skillful, capable (Having worked in a bakery for many years, Marcus was a
deft bread maker.)

Question 10

defunct

Answer 10

(adj.) no longer used or existing (They planned to turn the defunct schoolhouse
into a community center.)

Question 11

deleterious

Answer 11

(adj.) harmful (She experienced the deleterious effects of running a marathon without stretching her muscles enough beforehand.)

Question 12

delineate

Answer 12

(v.) to describe, outline, shed light on (She neatly delineated her reasons for
canceling the project’s funding.)

Question 13

demagogue

Answer 13

(n.) a leader who appeals to a people’s prejudices (The demagogue strengthened his hold over his people by blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs.)

Question 14

demarcation

Answer 14

(n.) the marking of boundaries or categories (Different cultures have different demarcations of good and evil.)

Question 15

demure

Answer 15

(adj.) quiet, modest, reserved (Though everyone else at the party was dancing
and going crazy, she remained demure.)

Question 16

denigrate

Answer 16

(v.) to belittle, diminish the opinion of (The company decided that its advertisements would no longer denigrate the company’s competitors.)

Question 17

deplore

Answer 17

(v.) to feel or express sorrow, disapproval (We all deplored the miserable working conditions in the factory.)

Question 18

depravity

Answer 18

(n.) wickedness (Rumors of the ogre’s depravity made the children afraid to enter the forest.)

Question 19

deprecate

Answer 19

(v.) to belittle, depreciate (Always over-modest, he deprecated his contribution to the local charity.)

Question 20

derelict

Answer 20

(adj.) abandoned, run-down (Even though it was dangerous, the children
enjoyed going to the deserted lot and playing in the derelict house.)

Question 21

deride

Answer 21

(v.) to laugh at mockingly, scorn (The bullies derided the foreign student’s accent.)

Question 22

derivative

Answer 22

(adj.) taken directly from a source, unoriginal (She was bored by his music because she felt that it was derivative and that she had heard it before.)

Question 23

desecrate

Answer 23

(v.) to violate the sacredness of a thing or place (They feared that the construction of a golf course would desecrate the preserved wilderness.)

Question 24

desiccated

Answer 24

(adj.) dried up, dehydrated (The skin of the desiccated mummy looked like old paper.)

Question 25

despondent

Answer 25

(adj.) feeling depressed, discouraged, hopeless (Having failed the first math test, the despondent child saw no use in studying for the next and failed that one too.)

Question 26

despot

Answer 26

(n.) one who has total power and rules brutally (The despot issued a death
sentence for anyone who disobeyed his laws.)

Question 27

destitute

Answer 27

(adj.) impoverished, utterly lacking (The hurricane destroyed many homes
and left many families destitute.)

Question 28

diaphanous

Answer 28

(adj.) light, airy, transparent (Sunlight poured in through the diaphanous curtains, brightening the room.)

Question 29

didactic

Answer 29

1. (adj.) intended to instruct (She wrote up a didactic document showing new employees how to handle the company’s customers.) 2. (adj.) overly moralistic (His
   didactic style of teaching made it seem like he wanted to persuade his students not to understand history fully, but to understand it from only one point of view.)

Question 30

diffident

Answer 30

(adj.) shy, quiet, modest (While eating dinner with the adults, the diffident youth did not speak for fear of seeming presumptuous.)

Question 31

dilatory

Answer 31

(adj.) tending to delay, causing delay (The general’s dilatory strategy enabled the enemy to regroup.)

Question 32

diminutive

Answer 32

(adj.) small or miniature (The bullies, tall and strong, picked on the diminutive child.)

Question 33

dirge

Answer 33

(n.) a mournful song, especially for a funeral (The bagpipers played a dirge as the
casket was carried to the cemetery.)

Question 34

disavow

Answer 34

(v.) to deny knowledge of or responsibility for (Not wanting others to criticize her, she disavowed any involvement in the company’s hiring scandal.)

Question 35

discern

Answer 35

(v.) to perceive, detect (Though he hid his emotions, she discerned from his body language that he was angry.)

Question 36

discomfit

Answer 36

(v.) to thwart, baffle (The normally cheery and playful children’s sudden misery discomfited the teacher.)

Question 37

discordant

Answer 37

(adj.) not agreeing, not in harmony with (The girls’ sobs were a discordant sound amid the general laughter that filled the restaurant.)

Question 38

discursive

Answer 38

(adj.) rambling, lacking order (The professor’s discursive lectures seemed to be about every subject except the one initially described.)

Question 39

disdain

Answer 39

1. (v.) to scorn, hold in low esteem (Insecure about their jobs, the older employees disdained the recently hired ones, who were young and capable.) 2. (n.)
   scorn, low esteem (After learning of his immoral actions, Justine held Lawrence in disdain.)

Question 40

disheartened

Answer 40

(adj.) feeling a loss of spirit or morale (The team was disheartened after losing in the finals of the tournament.)

Question 41

disparage

Answer 41

(v.) to criticize or speak ill of (The saleswoman disparaged the competitor’s products to persuade her customers to buy what she was selling.)

Question 42

disparate

Answer 42

(adj.) sharply differing, containing sharply contrasting elements (Having widely varying interests, the students had disparate responses toward the novel.)

Question 43

dispel

Answer 43

(v.) to drive away, scatter (She entered the office as usual on Monday, dispelling the rumor that she had been fired.)

Question 44

disrepute

Answer 44

(n.) a state of being held in low regard (The officer fell into disrepute after it was learned that he had disobeyed the orders he had given to his own soldiers.)

Question 45

disseminate

Answer 45

(v.) to spread widely (The politician disseminated his ideas across the town before the election.)

Question 46

dissuade

Answer 46

(v.) to persuade someone not to do something (Worried that he would catch a cold, she tried to dissuade him from going out on winter nights.)

Question 47

distend

Answer 47

(v.) to swell out (Years of drinking beer caused his stomach to distend.)

Question 48

dither

Answer 48

(v.) to be indecisive (Not wanting to offend either friend, he dithered about which of the two birthday parties he should attend.)

Question 49

divisive

Answer 49

(adj.) causing dissent, discord (Her divisive tactics turned her two friends against each other.)

Question 50

divulge

Answer 50

(v.) to reveal something secret (Pressured by the press, the government finally divulged the previously unknown information.)

Question 51

docile

Answer 51

(adj.) easily taught or trained (She successfully taught the docile puppy several tricks.)

Question 52

dogmatic

Answer 52

(adj.) aggressively and arrogantly certain about unproved principles (His dogmatic claim that men were better than women at fixing appliances angered
everyone.)

Question 53

dour

Answer 53

(adj.) stern, joyless (The children feared their dour neighbor because the old man would take their toys if he believed they were being too loud.)

Question 54

dubious

Answer 54

(adj.) doubtful, of uncertain quality (Suspicious that he was only trying to get a
raise, she found his praise dubious.)

Question 55

duplicity

Answer 55

(n.) crafty dishonesty (His duplicity involved convincing his employees to let him lower their salaries and increase their stock options, and then to steal the money he saved and run the company into the ground.)

Question 56

duress

Answer 56

(n.) hardship, threat (It was only under intense duress that he, who was normally against killing, fired his gun.)