Deck of Words (incomplete)

Question 1

Eloquent
Resplendent
Opulent
Serendipity
Mellifluous
Effervescent
Sanguine
Evocative
Quixotic
Luminous
Sonorous
Ebullient
Pernicious
Enigmatic
Ostentatious
Dulcet
Ethereal
Grandiose
Magnanimous
Penultimate
Perspicacious
Ineffable
Serene
Supercilious
Verdant
Halcyon
Scintillating
Sophisticated
Resplendent
Exquisite

Question 2

Capricious

Answer 2

Given to sudden and unaccountable changes in mood or behavior.

adj., tempremental, fickle, impulsive.

n. capriciousness
adv. capriciously

• Lady Luck is a capricious mother who, as in a recurrent nightmare, always offers, never comes through, and never stops smiling.
  —Hugh Drummond, Boston Magazine, November 1989
• I don’t believe in random occurrences or blind chance, though I know the patterns of this world are capricious and terribly complex.
  —Leslie Marmon Silko, letter, 21 Aug. 1979

Question 3

Nebulous

Answer 3

Hazy, vague, or indistinct in nature.

adj., ill-defined, vague.

• … the nebulous region between mere suspicion and probable cause
  —W. R. LaFave & J. H. Israel
• People care about identity, and a museum must set about ossifying the nebulous concept of collective identity into something tangible, something with plaques, displays and exhibits.
  —J.p Brammer, Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug. 2023

Question 3

Paradigm

Answer 3

A typical example or model of something.

n., archetype

• Such problems drive home a critical flaw in the paradigm of energy independence—namely, that energy isn’t a zero-sum game anymore.
  —Paul Roberts, Mother Jones, May/June 2008
• That the biomedical paradigm of single cause and single disease was a chimera was well understood by even its most vigorous advocates.
  —Allan M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century, 2007

Question 4

Vicarious

Answer 4

Experienced or felt indirectly through imagined participation in someone else’s experiences.

adj. by proxy, empathetic

• Most people caged in the humdrum routines of modern life are eager for vicarious glimpses of pain, joy, and especially vitality.
  —Robert Jackall et al., Image Makers, 2000

Question 5

Evanescence

Answer 5

A fleeting or vanishing quality, i.e. a sunset.

n., impermanence, transience

adj. evanescent
- People strolled about, glancing up at the delicate ceiling above their heads and out to the far shore of the basin, where still more of the trees created a distant cloud of frail evanescence.
—Martin Weil, Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2023
- Share [Findings] Researchers proposed replacing the paradigm of extinction with that of evanescence.
—Justin E. H. Smith, Harper’s Magazine, 16 Aug. 2023

Question 6

Cacophony

Answer 6

A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.

Question 7

Ephemeral

Answer 7

Lasting a very short time

adj., short-lived, impermenant, temporary

• This accounts for the peculiar sense most observers have that the ephemeral, sensationalist, polymorphous, magpie popular culture of the United States is at bottom remarkably conservative …
  —Louis Menand, Harper’s, March 1993
• In another clause, Silvergate agreed to preserve all records and avoid any deletion or destruction of an exhaustive list of documents, including everything from voicemails and emails to texts and ephemeral messaging applications.
  —Byleo Schwartz, Fortune Crypto, 1 June 2023

Question 8

Soliloquy

Answer 8

An act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers.

n. monologue, address, speech

• A funny thing happened to Billy Joel on the way to the recording studio recently. “I was walking down the street,” he says, “and there was this big guy with long, stringy, greasy hair just talking to the air—screaming, actually. He was in the middle of this angry soliloquy when he looked at me, stopped and said in a regular voice, ‘Hey, Billy, how ya doin’?’ And then he went right back into his tirade.”
  —Elysa Gardner, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993

Question 9

Panacea - A solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases.
Perspicacious - Having a keen sense of understanding or insight.
Esoteric - Intended for or understood by only a select few with specialized knowledge.
Obfuscate - To deliberately make something unclear or difficult to understand.
Mellifluous - Flowing with a smooth, rich, and sweet sound.
Quixotic - Exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.
Incandescent - Emitting a bright light or giving off heat.
Ineffable - Too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words.
Languorous - Lacking energy or vitality; characterized by a dreamy, lazy mood.
Unabashed - Not embarrassed, disconcerted, or ashamed.

Question 10

Lavish

Question 11

Deuteragonist

Question 12

abstruse

Question 13

ameliorate

Question 14

assiduous

Question 15

amicable

Question 16

amicable

Question 17

aberration

Question 18

arboreal

Question 19

antediluvian

Question 20

adumbrate

Question 21

arbiter

Question 22

austere

Question 23

abnegation

Question 24

beguile

Question 25

bequeath

Question 26

bereft

Question 27

bourgeois