List Of Word D Flashcards

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0
Q

Dearth (durth)

A

Noun
Lack ; scarcity
There is not dearth of comedy at a convention of clowns.

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1
Q

Daunt (dawnt)

A

V
To make fearful ; to intimidate
The steepness of the mountain daunted the team of amateur climbers, who hadn’t realized what they were in for.

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2
Q

Debacle ( di BAHK Ul)

A

Noun
Violent breakdown; sudden overthrow; overwhelming defeat
A political debate would become a debacle of the candidates began screaming and throwing dinner rolls at each other.

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3
Q

Debauchery ( di BAW chuh ree)

A

Noun
Wild living ; excessive intemperance
Debauchery can be expensive ; fortunately for Jeff, his wallet matched his appetite for extravagant pleasures. He died a poor, albeit happy, man.

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4
Q

Debilitate ( di BIL uh tayt)

A

V
To weaken ; to cripple
The football player’s career was ended by a debilitating injury to his knee.

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5
Q

Decadent ( DEK uh dunt)

A

Adjective
Decaying or decayed, especially in terms of morals
A person who engages in decadent behavior is a person whose morals have decayed or fallen into ruin.

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6
Q

Decimate ( DES uh mayt)

A

V
To kill or destroy a large part of
To decimate an army is to come close to wiping it out.

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7
Q

Decorous ( DEK ur us)

A

Adjective
Proper ; in good taste ; orderly
Decorous behavior is good, polite, orderly behavior.
To be decorous is to be sober and tasteful.

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8
Q

Deduce (di DOOS)

A

V
To conclude from the evidence ; to infer
To deduce something is to conclude it without being told it directly!

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9
Q

Defame ( di FAYM)

A

V
To libel or slander; to ruin the good name of
The local businessman accused the newspaper of defaming him by publishing an article that said his company was poorly!

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10
Q

Deference ( DEF ur nus)

A

Noun
Submission to another’s will ; country ; respect
To show deference to someone is to place someone’s will ahead of your will.

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11
Q

Definitive ( di FUN uh tiv)

A

Adjective
Conclusive; providing the last word
Walter complied the conclusive biography of Keats; nothing could have been added by any other author.

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12
Q

Degenerate (di JEN uh rayt)

A

V
To break down; to deteriorate
The discussion quickly degenerated into an argument.

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13
Q

Deleterious (del uh TIR ee us)

A

Adjective
Harmful
Smoking cigarettes is deleterious to your health.

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14
Q

Delineate (di LIN ee ayt)

A

V
To describe accurately; to draw in outline
The portrait artist delineated Sarah’s features then filled in the shading.

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15
Q

Delude (dye LOOD)

A

V
To mislead the mind or judgement of
The deluded mental patient believed that he was a chicken sandwich.

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16
Q

Deluge (DEL yooj)

A

Noun
A flood; an inundation
A deluge is a flood, but the word is often used figuratively.

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17
Q

Demagogue (DEM uh gawg)

A

Noun
A leader of the people, but more a rabble rouser
A demagogue is a leader, but not in a good sense of the word. He manipulates the public to support his aims, but he is little different from a dictator. A demagogue is often a despot.

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18
Q

Denizen ( DEN i zun)

A

Noun
Inhabitant
To be denizen of a country is to live there. A citizen of a country is usually also a denizen.

19
Q

Depravity (di PRAV uh tee)

A

Noun
Extreme wickedness or corruption
To exhibit depravity is to be depraved (di PRAYVD)

20
Q

Deprecate (DEP ruh kayt)

A

Verb
To express disapproval of
To deprecate a colleague’s work is to risk making yourself unwelcome in your colleague’s office.
Depreciate ( dih PREE shee ayt)
To depreciate a colleague’s work would be to represent it a being of little value.

21
Q

Deride (di RYDE)

A

V
To ridicule; to laugh at contemptuously
The boss derided his secretary mercilessly, so she quit her job. She was someone who could not accept derision (di RIZH un)

22
Q

Derogatory (dih RAHG uh tor ee)

A

Adjective
Disapproving; degrading
Stephen could never seem to think of anything nice to say about anyone; virtually all of his comments were derogatory.

23
Q

Desiccate (DES uh kayt)

A

V
To dry out
After a week without water, the desiccated plant fell over and died.

24
Q

Despondent ( dih SPAHN dunt)

A

Adjective
Extremely depressed; full of despair
After the death of his wife, the man was despondent for many months.

25
Q

Despot ( DES puht)

A

Noun
An absolute ruler; an autocrat
Stephen was a despot; workers who disagreed with him were fired.

26
Q

Destitute (DES tuh toot)

A

Adjective
Extremely poor; utterly lacking
Destitute people are people without money or possessions, or with very little money and very few possessions.

27
Q

Desultory (DES ul tor ee)

A

Adjective
Without a plan or purpose; discontented; random
In his desultory address, Rizal skipped from one topic to another and never came to the point.

28
Q

Dexterous (DEX trus)

A

Adjective
Skillful ; adroit
Ilya was determined not to sell the restaurant on eBay ; even the most dexterous negotiator could not sway him.

29
Q

Dialectical (dye uh LEK ti kul)

A

Adjective
Relating to discussions ; relating to the rules and methods of reasoning; approaching truth in the middle of opposing extremes

30
Q

Dictum (DIK tum)

A

Noun
An authoritative saying; an adage ; a maxim ; a proverb
“ No pain, no gain” is a hackneyed dictum of sadistic coaches everywhere.

31
Q

Didactic (dye DAK tik)

A

Adjective
Intended to teach; morally instructive; pedantic
The new novel is painfully didactic ; the author’s aim is always to instruct and never to entertain.

32
Q

Diffident ( DIF i dunt)

A

Adjective
Timid ; lacking in self confidence
Diffident and confident are opposites.
The diffident student never made a single comment in class.

33
Q

Digress (dye GRES)

A

V
To stray from the main subject
When a speaker digresses, he departs from the main topic and tells a story only distantly related to it.

34
Q

Dilettante ( DIL uh tahnt)

A

Noun
Someone with superficial knowledge of the arts ; an amateur ; a dabbler
To be a dilettante is to dabble in something rather than doing it in a serious way.

35
Q

Discern (dih SURN)

A

V
To have insight; to see things clearly ; to discriminate; to differentiate
The ill mannered people at Tisha’s party proved that she had little discernment when it came to choosing friends.

36
Q

Discreet (dih SKREET)

A

Adjective
Prudent ; judiciously reserved
To make discreet inquiries is to ask around without letting the whole world know you are doing it.

37
Q

Discrete (dih SKREET)

A

Adjective
Unconnected ; separate ; distinct
The twins were identical but their personalities were discrete.

38
Q

Discriminate ( dih SKRIM uh nayt)

A

V
Tu notice or point out the difference between two or more things; to discern ; to differentiate
A person with a refined aesthetic sense is able to discriminate subtle differences where a less observant person would see nothing.

39
Q

Disdain ( dis DAYN)

A

Noun
Arrogant scorn ; contempt
The millionaire looked upon the poor workers with evident disdain.

40
Q

Disinterested (dis IN truh stid)

A

Adjective
Not taking sides; unbiased
Disinterested should not be used to mean uninterested. If you don’t care about knowing something, you are uninterested, not disinterested.

41
Q

Disparage (dih SPAR ij)

A

V
To belittle ; to say uncomplimentary things about, usually un a somewhat indirect way
My guidance counselor disparaged my high school record by telling me that not everybody belongs in college.

42
Q

Disparate ( DIS pur it)

A

Adjective
Different ; incompatible ; unequal
Our interests were disparate: Cathy liked to play with dolls and I liked to throw her dolls out the window.
The novel was difficult to read because the plot consisted of dozens of disparate threads that never came together.

43
Q

Disseminate (dih SEN uh nayt)

A

V
To spread the seeds of something ; to scatter ; to make widely known
News is disseminated through many media : radio , television , newspapers ana magazines.

44
Q

Dissipate ( DIS uh payt)

A

V
To thin out, drift away, or dissolve ; to cause to thin out ; to waste or to squander
The smoke dissipated as soon as we opened the windows.