July / August Flashcards
- Inkling
- Innate
- Innocuous
- Innovation
- Instigate
- Intimidation
- iota
- Irascible
- Fastidious
- Felicitous
- Fervent
- Fidelity
- Flaccid
Inkling [N]
1. Hint. Inference. Clue.
“I didn’t have an inkling of your plans.”
Syn: Intimation, hunch, intuition, premonition, suspicion, clue.
Innate [Adj]
1. inborn: Natural. Gifted, Inherent.
“His innate talent made him a natural pitcher.”
Syn: Inherent, intrinsic, basic, elemental.
Innocuous [Adj] (in knock U es)
1. Harmless.
“Let him drink it, it’s innocuous.”
Syn: Harmless, benign, bland, inoffensive, mild, safe, innocent.
Innovation [N]
1. Change; Introduction of something new.
“He loves innovations.”
A whole new concept or idea.
“He acheives steady employment because of his gifted innovations for
the company.”
Syn: Create, author, compose, invent, coin, beget.
Instigate [V]
1. Start; provoke. Initiate.
“It will instigate a riot.”
“He is the main instigator around here, always causing trouble.”
Syn: Engender, stir-up, start-up.
Intimidation [N] (in TIM a dAy shun)
1. Fear. “The dictator ruled by intimidation.”
Being scared to to something. Frightened of something.
Usually used to show that you are fearful of some other
person, such as a boss, or a sports competitor.
“I hate playing tennis with him because his serve is so
intimidating!”
Syn: Coerce, bully, compel, oblige, make.
Iota [N] (I O ta)
1. Very small quantity. infintesimal
“He had an iota of wisdom.”
“Not one iota of supplies were wasted.”
Syn: Bit, drop, mite, jot.
Irascible [Adj] (i RaS a bull)
1. Irritable; easily angered. (short fuse )
irascible temper. Very hot tempered.
“Stay away from Frank, he is in an irascible mood today.”
“My wife becomes irascible during PMS.”
Fastidious [Adj] (fa sTID E as)
1. Difficult to please; squeamish.
“The waitress disliked serving him his dinner because of his
very fastidious taste.”
Very picky about things.
Syn: Precise, exact, punctilious, scrupulous.
Felicitous [Adj] (fa Lis a tas)
1. Suitably expressed; Well chosen.
“His felicitous remarks.”
“His ability to make felicitous statements at the precise moment,
pushes him to the top of the corporate ladder.”
Being able to say the right thing at the right time.
Syn: Suitable, congruous, correct, fitting, proper, suitable for.
Fervent [Adj] (FUR vant)
1. Ardent; Hot.
“She laughed at his fervent love letters.”
“His fervent love for her would not diminish no matter how much she
played him for a fool.”
Feelings so strong they become an obsession.
Fidelity [N] (fi DeL a tE)
1. Loyalty. Devotion. Faithfulness.
“A dog’s unending fidelity to his master.”
When a couple gets married, they pledge a promise of fidelity
to each other for all the days of their life.
“In the nineties, with all the downsizing, there is no
fidelity for the employees anymore, they are just numbers.”
Syn: Allegiance, dedication, loyalty, steadfastness.
Flaccid [Adj] (FLaC Sid)
1. Fat, Untoned. “Flabby flaccid muscles.”
“He started lifting weights because he was ashamed of his
flabby flaccid body.”
“I went back to school because I feared I was becoming
intellectually flaccid.”
- Irreparable
- Magnate
- Marauder
- Militate
- Misadventure
- Misapprehend
- Misgivings
- Mishap
- Mortify
Irreparable [Adj] (ir ReP er a bull)
1. Not able to be corrected or repaired.
“The car wreck did irreparable damage both to the driver and to
the automobile.”
“Your words did irreparable damage to our relationship.”
Syn: Irreversible, incorrigible, irrecoverable
Magnate [N] (MaG nAte)
1. A person of prominence or influence. One who owns
the bulk of an enterprise or business line.
“Aristotle Onasis was the Greek shipping magnate.”
Marauder [N]
1. Raider; intruder.
“The marauders looted the town and robbed it of it’s dignity.”
Syn: Ravage, raze, depredate, devour, pillage.
Militate [V] (miL a tAte)
1. To fight for a cause or principle.
“The facts militate against the opinion.”
“The Company decided to militate in favor of political independence.”
Misadventure [N]
1. Misfortune; mishap; a piece of bad luck.
“His martial misadventures.”
“I have had so many misadventures that if it were not for bad luck,
I wouldn’t be having any luck at all.”
Syn: Disaster, accident, adversity, calamity, catastrophe, crisis.
Misapprehend [V]
1. To understand incorrectly; Take the wrong
meaning of (Misconstrue)
“The issue continues to be misapprehended by everyone.”
Syn: Misunderstand, misconceive, misconstrue, misinterpret.
Misgivings [N]
1. Doubts; Suspicion of being wrong.
A lack of trust.
“I had strong misgivings about that salesman’s claims.”
Syn: Anxiety, angst, anxiousness, concern, unease.
Mishap [N]
1. Accident. A Boo-boo.
“I could have avoided this mishap if I just had more time.”
Syn: Breakdown, failure, outage, disorder.
Mortify [V]
1. Humiliate; punish the flesh; put to death. To
destroy the strength of.
“Staying in the spirit mortifies the flesh.”
Syn: Embarrass, abash, chagrin, confuse, disconcert.
- Etymology
- Buffoon
- Disambiguate
- Bugaboo
- Cantilever
- Chink
- Paramnesia
- Pedantic
- Pell-mell
- Gregarious
- Atrocious
- Endemic
- Degenerate
- Sordid
Etymology [N] (et a mollO G)
1. The origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by
determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes in
form and meaning, tracing its transmission from one language to another.
2. True sense of a word.
“Many translations of the Bible required studies of the original word’s
etymology before it was permitted to be in print.”
Buffoon [N] (Buf FooN)
1. A person given to clowning and joking.
2. A ludicrous or bumbling person; a fool.
“The Three stooges were perfect examples of buffons.”
Syn: Laughing stock, butt, joke, fool.
Disambiguate [V] (Dis am BIG U Ate)
1. To clear up all confusion. To make perfectly clear.
“The doctor had to disambiguate his medical terms so the
victim’s family could completely understand the illness.”
Syn: Explain, clarify, delineate, elucidate, illustrate, interpret.
Bugaboo [N]
1. An object of obsessive, usually exaggerated fear or anxiety.
2. A recurring or persistent problem.
“He has a bugaboo with germs, so he washes his hands every
10 minutes.”
Cantilever [N] (Can’t a Lee Ver)
1. A projecting structure, such as a beam, that is supported at only
one end.
2. A member, such as a beam, that projects beyond a fulcrum and is
supported by a balancing member or a downward force behind the
fulcrum.
“Kirk’s house had larger bedrooms because the contractor cantilevered
them past the foundation.”
Chink [N] (CEEINK)
1. A narrow opening, such as a crack or fissure.
2. A weakness, a vunerable place.
“They would always look for a chink in his armor.”
Syn: Crack, cleft, crevice, split, rupture.
Paramnesia [N] (PaR am nE zha)
1. De Ja Vu. The illusion of remembering scenes and
events experienced for the first time. 2. A condition in which
the proper meaning of words cannot be remembered.
“Senior citizens are normally the victims of paramnesia.”
Pedantic [Adj] (pa DaN tik)
1. Showing off learning bookish.
“His pedantic demeanor turned the girls off.”
“A pedantic writer.”
Syn: Academic, bookish, intellectual, scholastic.
Pell-mell [Adv]
1. In confusion; disorderly
“The people rushed pell-mell out of the burning building.”
“Piles of books were heaped pell-mell around him.”
“He hesitated to barge ahead pell-mell for he couldn’t see where
he was going.”
Syn: Hectic, bustling, feverish, frantic, frenetic, helter-skelter.
Gregarious [Adj] (gri GaR E es)
1. Highly sociable. Enjoys talking.
“Most women are naturally gregarious.”
Syn: Sociable, neighborly, friendly.
Atrocious [Adj] (a TrO shas)
1. Very wicked. In very poor taste.
“His table manners are atrocious.”
Syn: Horrible, appaling, deplorable, awful, grotesque.
Endemic [Adj] (en DeM ik)
1. Characteristic of a particular country or people.
“The drugs endemic to the sports scene.”
Degenerate [N]
1. To become worse or more debased.
“Sports fan behavior has become so degenerate that rules are ….”
Syn: Deteriorate, atrophy, decay, dwindle, go downhill.
Sordid [Adj] (SoR did)
1. Filthy dirty.
“He won’t associate with anyone this sordid.”
- Coagulate
- Compendium
- Audacity
- Forbearance
- Foreboding
- Fortitude
- Fractious
- Frenzied
- Froward
- Fulminate
- Fulsome
- Gainsay
Coagulate [V] (Coal ag U Late)
1. To be changed from a liquid into a thickened mass
2. To clot, solidify, to harden or solid.
Syn: To Jell, thicken, harden, stiffen.
Compendium [N] (Come pen D um)
1. A short, complete summary; an abstract.
2. A list or collection of various items.
Syn: Abstract, summarization, brief, encapsulation, summary, synopsis.
Audacity [N] (a daS i tE)
1. Boldness; daring; shamelessness.
“Yet you have the audacity to call me a thief!”
Syn: Daring, foolhardiness, recklessness.
Forbearance [N]
1. Patience.
“We must use forbearance in golf.”
Syn: Endurance, fortitude, patience, stoicism.
Foreboding [N]
1. Premonition of evil.
“Caesar ridiculed his wife’s foreboding about the ides of March.”
Syn: Anxiety, misgiving, uneasiness, worry, apprehension.
Fortitude [N]
1. Bravery; courage.
“He was honored for his fortitude in battle.”
“Intestinal fortitude”
Syn: Stamina, endurance, persistence, toughness.
Fractious [Adj]
1. Unruly.
“The fractious horse unseated it’s rider.”
Syn: Disputatious, argumentative, quarrelsome, combative.
Frenzied [Adj]
1. Madly excited.
“When they smelled smoke, the frenzied animals ran off.”
Syn: Amuck, berserk, crazed, frantic, uncontrolled.
Froward [Adj] (Fro ward)
1. Disobedient; perverse; stubborn.
“Her froward demeanor turns me off.”
Fulminate [V] (FuLL ma NAt)
1. Thunder; explode.
“The people against whom he fulminated were innocent of
any wrong doing.”
Syn: Shout, bark, holler, explode, lose your temper.
Fulsome [Adj]
1. Disgustingly excessive.
“His fulsome praise of the dictator annoyed his listeners.”
Syn: Excessive, extreme, overblown, overdone.
Gainsay [V] (gAN sA)
1. Deny.
“He could not gainsay the truth of the report.”
Syn: Deny, contradict, repudiate, refute.
- Genteel
- Glean
- Grandiloquent
- Grueling
- Gruesome
- Gruff
- Guile
- Guileless
- Perdition
- Perverse
- Perversion
Genteel [Adj] (Gen TEal)
1. Well bred; elegant. Posh and upper class.
“He maintains a genteel appearance.”
“She is holding out for a gentleman of higher genteel standards.”
Glean [V]
1. Gather what’s left. The left-overs.
“Glean the fields.”
Syn: Distill, cull, extract, garner.
Grandiloquent [Adj] (grand DiL a kwant)
1. Pompous, bombastic; Using high sounding
language.
“A grandiloquent speaker.”
Syn: Verbosity, bombast, hot air, windiness.
Grueling [Adj]
1. Exhausting. Making weary. Wearing oneself out.
“The marathon is a grueling race.”
“Raising a teenager nowadays is a grueling job.”
Gruesome [Adj]
1. Grisly.
“People screamed when they saw his gruesome appearance.”
Syn: Heinous, abhorrent, abominable, appalling, bloodcurdling.
Gruff [Adj]
1. Rough mannered. Overbearing and rude.
“Although he was gruff with people, he was gentle with children.”
Syn: Brusque, abrupt, rude, tactless.
Guile [Adj]
1. Deceit; duplicity.
“He achieved his high position by guile and treachery.
Syn: Deviousness, craftiness, sneakiness.
Guileless [Adj]
1. Without deceit. Completely honest.
“Simply and guileless.”
Syn: Candid, blunt, frank, ingenuous, undeceitful.
Perdition [N]
1. Complete ruin. 2. Hell.
“MTV is the perdition of precious hours.”
“The day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
Perverse [Adj]
1. Stubborn; opposing what is right, reasonable.
“Perverse attitude.”
“He will gain nothing by keeping it except the perverse
satisfaction in doing so.”
Syn: Corrupt, depraved, immoral, twisted, corrupted.
Perversion [N]
1. Corruption; turning from right to wrong.
“He was accused of sexual perversion.”
- Cite
- Debonair
- Despicable
- Disconsolate
- Disgruntle
- Dissipate
- Distraught
- Emblazon
- Exasperate
Cite [V]
1. Quote; commend
“He can cite any passage in the Bible from memory.”
“Cited for bravery.”
Syn: Quote, excerpt, itemize, catalogue, enumerate.
Debonair [Adj] (DeB a NAir)
1. Aiming to please; Courteous; gracious; charming.
“The debonair youth was very popular.”
Syn: Civilized, elegant, polished, refined, suave.
Despicable [Adj] (di SPiK a bal)
1. Contemptible; to look down upon; meriting hatred.
“His despicable management.”
Syn: Wicked, awful, demoniac, devilish, diabolic.
Disconsolate [Adj] (dis KoN sa lit)
1. Sad; Cheerless; dispirited.
“The death of his wife left him disconsolate.”
Disgruntle [V]
1. Make discontented; to put in bad humor;
dissatisfaction in; dismal.
“Passengers were disgruntled by the numerous delays.”
Syn: Offend, displease, anger, enrage, infuriate, irritate.
Dissipate [V]
1. Squander; scatter; disperse, dispel; dissolve.
“The bright light dissipated the darkness of the night.”
Syn: Disintegrate, vaporize, diffuse, dissolve, scatter, evaporate.
Distraught [Adj]
1. Upset; distracted by anxiety; mental conflict;
deeply troubled.
“Distraught Parents searched for their lost child.”
Syn: Despondent, dejected, downcast, depressed, desolate, forlorn.
Emblazon [V] (em BlAZE an)
1. To deck with bright colors; display sumptuously.
“Many banners were emblazoned with the emblem of CMA”
Exasperate [V] (ig ZaS pa RATE)
1. To excite the anger of; to cause irritation or annoyance.
“Johnny often exasperates his mother with his pranks.”
“She is a good child but her slowness often exasperates me.”
Syn: Harass, torment, pester, badger, bother, hound.
- Incense
- Extraneous
- Fatalism
- Grandiose
- Impassive
- Improvise
- Inane
- Incorrigible
- Infallible
- Infirmity
- Ingrate
- Insinuate
- Insipic
- Insolent
Incense [V]
1. Archaic. To cause to be extremely angry;
Arouse the wrath or indignation of.
“The careless waste incensed her.”
Syn: Fulminate, anger, burn up, enrage, infuriate.
Extraneous [Adj] (ik STRAY nE as)
1. Not essential; not pertinent;
“An extraneous digression.”
Syn: Dispensable, extrinsic, needless, unneeded.
Fatalism [N]
1. Belief that events are determined by forces beyond one’s control.
“Many hedonist are fatalist.”
“Whatever will be, will be.”
Grandiose [Adj] (GraN dE Os)
1. Imposing; impressive because of uncommon scope,
effect, or largeness.
“The grandiose general scheme.” “Grandiose manner.”
Syn: Magnificent, majestic, awesome, attractive.
Impassive [Adj] (em Pass iv)
1. Devoid of or not subject to emotion.
2. Revealing no emotion; expressionless.
3. Incapable of physical sensation.
4. Motionless; still.
“I knew that if I remained impassive, the guard dogs would not attack me.”
Syn: Apathetic, dispassionate, emotionless, passionless.
Improvise [V]
1. Compose on the spur of the moment, especially
playing on an instrument. 2. To fabricate out of what is
conveniently at hand.
“The cook Improvised a meal.”
Syn: Extemporize, make up, play by ear, wing it.
Inane [Adj]
1. Silly; senseless; lacking significance or meaning.
“An inane comment.”
Syn: Meaningless, empty, pointless, senseless.
Incorrigible [Adj]
1. Uncorrectable; bad beyond the possibility of
correction or rehabilitation.
2. Unmanageable, unruly; contumacious.
“An incorrigible criminal” “Incorrigible hair.”
Syn: unreformable, hardened, unrepentant, unalterable.
Infallible [Adj]
1. Unerring; incapable of error.
“Infallible remedy”
“Infallible scheme for making money.”
“Infallible memory.”
Syn: Fail-safe, foolproof, guaranteed, insured.
Infirmity [N]
1. Weakness; Frailty; debilitated state.
“Infirmity of mind”
“His greatest infirmity was lack of will power.”
Syn: Disease, affliction, ailment, condition, disorder.
Ingrate [Adj or N]
1. Ungrateful person; uncongenial; unpleasant.
“Ingrate person”
“He is an ingrate and I’ll do him no more favors.”
Insinuate [V]
1. Hint; imply (innuendo); Using indirect wording.
“What are you trying to insinuate by that remark.
Syn: Hint, imply, intimate, suggest, drop a hint.
Insipid [Adj]
1. Tasteless; dull; vapid; uninteresting; inane.
“Insipid sermon”
A lack of taste or savor to please.
Syn: Lackluster, bland, dull, flat, weak.
Insolent [Adj] (iN sa lant)
1. Brutal in behavior or language; overbearing;
presumptuously disrespectful or familiar toward equals or
superiors. Haughty.
“I won’t tolerate an insolent child.”
Syn: Impudent, audacious, disrespectful, rude, shameless.
- Intrepid
- Ostentatious
- Pernicious
- Retentive
- Robust
- Vicarious
Intrepid [Adj] (in TreP id)
1. Fearless; Brave.
“Intrepid conduct in battle.”
Syn: Courageous, bolPd, adventuresome, brave, gallant, heroic.
Ostentatious [Adj] (Os TEN TA shus)
1. Showy; Exaggerated; pretentious; overly
elaborate or ornate.
“The real hero is never ostentatious.”
“A very ostentatious method” “An ostentatious motorcycle”
Syn: Ornate, decorated, over-decorated, over-embellished.
Pernicious [Adj] (Purr NISH us)
1. Very destructive; highly injurious.
“Pernicious effect on young people”
Detrimental, noxious, deadly.
“Pernicious drugs.”
Syn: Deadly, devastating, fateful, killing, lethal, murderous, poisonous.
Retentive [Adj]
1. Holding; having a good memory. “A retentive mind.”
2. Tending to retain.
“Soils retentive of moisture.”
Robust [Adj]
1. Vigorous; strong. “A robust physique”
Having strength or vigorous health.
“Pee Wee is a robust biker at age 73.”
“Exceptionally sound.”
Syn: Able-bodied, brawny, hefty, muscled, rugged.
Vicarious [Adj]
1. Acting as a substitute; done by a deputy.
(watching the favorite devastate his opponent with great
relish.) You are having a vicarious experience.
“The movie Brainstorm was an example of a vicarious experience.”
