General Vocabulary 14 Flashcards
Teleological (adj)
Relating to the doctrine of design and purpose in the material world.
A teleological view of nature.
Revisionism (n)
The theory or practice of revising one’s attitude to a previously accepted situation or point of view.
Reconsideration of such figures is not just an attempt at revisionism.
Aliteration (n)
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
The alliteration of ‘sweet birds sang’.
Chintz (n)
Printed multicolored cotton fabric with a glazed finish, used for curtains and upholstery.
Floral chintz curtains.
Metropole (n)
The parent state of a colony.
It was to be the function of the colonies to cater to the needs of the metropole.
Screed (n)
A long speech or piece of writing, typically one regarded as tedious.
Her criticism appeared in the form of screeds in a local film magazine.
Autarky (n)
Economic independence or self-sufficiency.
Rural community autarchy is a Utopian dream.
Mongrelization (n)
To mix the kinds, classes, types, characters, or sources of origin of (people, animals, or things) to make debased or impure.
Meretricious (adj)
Apparently attractive but having no real value.
Meretricious souvenirs for the tourist trade.
Apotheosis (n)
The elevation of someone to divine status.
Death spared Pompey the task of having to account for the apotheosis of Caesar.
Imperium (n)
Absolute power.
An outpost of their economic imperium.
Upstarts (n)
A person who has risen suddenly in rank or importance, especially one who behaves arrogantly.
The upstarts who dare to challenge the legitimacy of his rule.
Qoud erat Demonstrandum
Thus it has been demonstrated.
The abbreviation is placed at the end of a mathematical proof or philosophical argument to indicate that the proof or argument is complete.
Totem (n)
A scared object or symbol of a tribe or race of people.
Countenance (n)
Approval or moral sanction.
Her countenance of their unsafe amusements perplexed many.
Ipso facto(adv)
it is reasonable to state or believe something based on facts that are already known.
We now know that the shot killed the victim so you are, ipso facto, responsible for his death.
Albatross (n)
A large sea bird.
Strafe (v)
Attack repeatedly with bombs from low flying aircraft.
Military aircraft strafed the village.
Credo (n)
A statement of the beliefs or aims which guide someone’s actions.
He announced his credo in his first editorial.
Quadriplegic (n)
One affected by partial or complete paralysis of arms and legs
Mephistophelian (adj)
Cruel or wicked from German folklore.
Nihilism (n)
The rejection of all moral and religious principles with a view that life is meaningless.
An embittered, nihilistic teenager.
Etiological (adj)
Causing or contributing to the development of a disease or condition.
An antibody response to these bacteria could play an etiological role in ulcerative colitis
Neurosis (n)
A relative mild mental illness related to stress.
Precept (n)
A general rule intended to regulate behavior.
Children learn more by example than by precept.
Caisson (n)
A large watertight chamber, open at the bottom, from which the water is kept out by air pressure and in which construction work may be carried out under water.
Billet (n)
A civilian house where soldiers are kept temporarily.
The troops were billeted in the town with local families.
Roused (v)
Prevent sleep. To wake up somebody.
She was roused from deep sleep.
Chilblain (n)
A painful itch or swelling on the limbs by exposure to cold.
Flay (v)
Whip or beat (someone) so harshly as to remove their skin.
He flayed them viciously with a branch.
Collops (n)
A slice of meat.
Three collops of bacon.
Libel (n)
A published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation.
He was found guilty of a libel on a Liverpool inspector of taxes.
Cleft (adj)
Split, divided, or partially divided into two.
A cleft chin.
Leviathan (n)
A thing that is very large or powerful, especially an organization or vehicle.
It’s a challenge to navigate a wheeled leviathan in rush-hour traffic.
Fitful (adj)
Active or occurring spasmodically or intermittently; not regular or steady.
A few hours’ fitful sleep.
Imprudent (adj)
Not showing care for the consequences of an action; rash.
It would be imprudent to leave her winter coat behind.
Bargee (n)
A person in charge of or working on a barge.
Knucklehead (n)
A stupid person.
Brigandage (n)
Brigandage is the life and practice of highway robbery and plunder.
It is practiced by a brigand, a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.
Kindred (adj)
Similar in kind; related.
Books on kindred subjects.
Rustler (n)
A person who rounds up and steals cattle, horses, or sheep.
The cattle rustlers stole over 700 cattle.
Brigand (n)
A person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.
Casus Belli
An act or situation that provokes or justifies a war.
Caboose (n)
A railway wagon with accommodation for the train crew, typically attached to the end of the train
Cohorts (n)
A group of people with a shared characteristic.
A cohort of civil servants patiently drafting legislation.
Continence (n)
Self-restraint, especially with regard to sex.
Complete sexual continence is considered an essential feature of the monastic life.
Malodorous (adj)
Smelling very unpleasant.
Leaking taps and malodorous drains.
Buffeted (v)
Strike repeatedly(especially of wind or waves) and violently.
Rough seas buffeted the coast.
Trawl (v)
Fish with a trawl net or seine.
The boats trawled for flounder.
Corporal (adj)
Relating to the human body.
Ornery (adj)
Bad-tempered or difficult to deal with.
An ornery old military man.
Matzo (n)
A crisp biscuit of unleavened bread, traditionally eaten by Jews during Passover.
A box of matzos.
Warlock (n)
A man who practices witchcraft; a sorcerer.
Dawdling (v)
Waste time; be slow.
She mustn’t dawdle - she had to make the call now.
Flay (v)
Strip the skin off (a corpse or carcass).
The captured general was flayed alive.
Barnacles (n)
A marine crustacean with an external shell, which attaches itself permanently to a surface and feeds by filtering particles from the water using its modified feathery legs.
Rasp (n)(v)
A harsh, grating noise.
The rasp of the engine.
Faggot (n)
A male homosexual.
Gibbets (n)
Execution by hanging or gallows.
The four ringleaders were sentenced to the gibbet.
Leavening (n)(v)
A substance used in dough to make it rise, such as yeast or baking powder.
During the 18th century yeast was abandoned as a leavening for fruit cakes.
Cauterize (v)
Burn the skin or flesh of (a wound) with a heated instrument or caustic substance in order to stop bleeding or to prevent infection.
I’ll freeze the hand and cauterize the wound.
Manumitted (v)
Release from slavery; set free.
Old Angus had never manumitted a single slave.
Serfdom (n)
The state of being a serf or feudal laborer.
The liberation of the peasants from serfdom.
Antebellum
Occurring or existing before a particular war, especially the US Civil War.
The conventions of the antebellum South.
Pharaonic (adj)
Relating to or characteristic of a pharaoh or the time of the pharaohs.
Luxor’s pharaonic temples.
Regicide (n)
A person who kills or takes part in killing a king.
plural noun.
Plowshares (n)
The main cutting blade of a plough,
Leveret (n)
A young hare in its first year.
Fawn (n)
A young deer in its first year.
A six-month-old roe fawn.
Satires (n)
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices,
Epistolary (adj)
In the form of letters(of a literary work).
An epistolary novel.
Purveyor (n)
A person who sells or deals in particular goods.
A purveyor of large luxury vehicles.
Wellspring (n)
An abundant source of something.
A wellspring of ideas.
Phatasmagoria (n)
A sequence of real or imaginary images like that seen in a dream.
What happened next was a phantasmagoria of horror and mystery.
Chattel (n)
An item of property other than freehold land, including tangible goods ( chattels personal ) and leasehold interests.
Recrudescence (n)
The recurrence of an undesirable condition.
Recrudescence of the disease is a real possibility.
Gerrymandered (v)
Manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.
Achieve (a result) by gerrymandering.
Almanac (n)
An annual calendar containing important dates and statistical information such as astronomical data and tide tables.
Dialectics (n)
The art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions.
Maw (n)
The jaws or throat of a voracious animal.
A gigantic wolfhound with a fearful, gaping maw.
Glower (v)
Have an angry or sullen look on one’s face; scowl.
She glowered at him suspiciously.
Caromed (v)
Make a carom; strike and rebound.
Hemoclysms (n)
A violent and bloody conflict, a bloodbath.
Prequel (n)
A story or film containing events which precede those of an existing work.
The film is a prequel to the cult TV series.
Kinship (n)
A sharing of characteristics or origins.
They felt a kinship with architects.
Altricial (adj)
Hatched or born in an undeveloped state and requiring care and feeding by the parents.
Dimorphic (adj)
Occurring in or representing two distinct forms.
In this sexually dimorphic species only the males have wings.
Polygynous (adj)
The state or practice of having more than one wife.
Multiparous (adj)
Having borne more than one child (of a woman).
Eschatological (adj)
Relating to death, judgement, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.
Unorthodox religionists concerned with eschatological questions.
Procrustean (adj)
Enforcing uniformity or conformity without regard to natural variation or individuality (especially of a framework or system).
A fixed Procrustean rule.
Entwined (v)
Wind or twist together; interweave.
They lay entwined in each other’s arms.
Inexorable (adj)
Impossible to stop or prevent.
The seemingly inexorable march of new technology.
Synecdoche (n)
[See neck taki]
A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in England lost by six wickets (meaning ‘ the English cricket team’).
Fractal (n)
A geometrical figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole. Useful in modelling structures (such as snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales.
Petrifcation (n)
A state of such extreme fear that one is unable to move.
His heavy footfalls served to spur Paul out of his petrification.
Hardihood (n)
Boldness or daring; courage.
Audacity or impudence.
Faddists (n)
A person following a fad or given to fads.
Polyandry (n)
Polygamy in which a woman has more than one husband.
Putsch (n)
A violent attempt to overthrow a government.
Far from staging a squalid putsch, they were engaged in redemption.
