Essential Words XV Flashcards
Savor
A characteristic taste of flavor (usually pleasant); appreciate fully, taste or smell with pleasure
Scant
Not enough or barely enough
Scathing
Severe, injurious; bitterly harsh or critical
Secular
Not religious or holy; pertaining to worldly things
Sedulous
Persevering, persistent, diligent in one’s efforts
Sentient
Conscious; experiencing sensation or perceiving with the senses
Simultaneous
At the same time
Skeptic
Person inclined to doubting or questioning generally accepted beliefs
Skirt
Border, lie along the edge of, go around; evade
Slack
Loose, negligent, lazy, weak; neglect to do one’s duties; loosen up, relax; period of little
Slew
A large number or quantity
Slight
Small not very important, slender or delicate; treat as though not very important; snub, ignore; an act of treating in this way, a discourtesy
Solicitous
Concerned or anxious (about another person), expressing care; eager or desirous; very careful
Soporific
Causing sleep; sleepy, drowsy; something that causes sleep
Sound
Measure the depth of (usually of water) as with a sounding line; penetrate and discover the meaning of, understand (usually as sound the depths)
Spartan
Very disciplined and stern; frugal, living simply, austere; suggestive of the ancient Spartans
Spate
Sudden outpouring or rush; flood
Spearhead
Be the leader of
Specious
Seemingly true but actually false; deceptively attractive
Spectrum
A broad range of nevertheless related quality or ideas, esp. those that overlap to create a continuous series (as in a color spectrum, where each color blends into the next in a continuous way)
Speculate
Contemplate; make a guess or educated guess about; engage in a risky business transaction, gamble
Sporadic
Occasional, happening irregularly or in scattered locations
Sportive
Playful, merry, joking around, done “in sport” (rather than intended seriously)
Standing
Status, rank, reputation; existing indefinitely, not movable
