List Of Word D Flashcards
Dearth (durth)
Noun
Lack ; scarcity
There is not dearth of comedy at a convention of clowns.
Daunt (dawnt)
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.
Debacle ( di BAHK Ul)
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.
Debauchery ( di BAW chuh ree)
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.
Debilitate ( di BIL uh tayt)
V
To weaken ; to cripple
The football player’s career was ended by a debilitating injury to his knee.
Decadent ( DEK uh dunt)
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.
Decimate ( DES uh mayt)
V
To kill or destroy a large part of
To decimate an army is to come close to wiping it out.
Decorous ( DEK ur us)
Adjective
Proper ; in good taste ; orderly
Decorous behavior is good, polite, orderly behavior.
To be decorous is to be sober and tasteful.
Deduce (di DOOS)
V
To conclude from the evidence ; to infer
To deduce something is to conclude it without being told it directly!
Defame ( di FAYM)
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!
Deference ( DEF ur nus)
Noun
Submission to another’s will ; country ; respect
To show deference to someone is to place someone’s will ahead of your will.
Definitive ( di FUN uh tiv)
Adjective
Conclusive; providing the last word
Walter complied the conclusive biography of Keats; nothing could have been added by any other author.
Degenerate (di JEN uh rayt)
V
To break down; to deteriorate
The discussion quickly degenerated into an argument.
Deleterious (del uh TIR ee us)
Adjective
Harmful
Smoking cigarettes is deleterious to your health.
Delineate (di LIN ee ayt)
V
To describe accurately; to draw in outline
The portrait artist delineated Sarah’s features then filled in the shading.
Delude (dye LOOD)
V
To mislead the mind or judgement of
The deluded mental patient believed that he was a chicken sandwich.
Deluge (DEL yooj)
Noun
A flood; an inundation
A deluge is a flood, but the word is often used figuratively.
Demagogue (DEM uh gawg)
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.
Denizen ( DEN i zun)
Noun
Inhabitant
To be denizen of a country is to live there. A citizen of a country is usually also a denizen.
Depravity (di PRAV uh tee)
Noun
Extreme wickedness or corruption
To exhibit depravity is to be depraved (di PRAYVD)
Deprecate (DEP ruh kayt)
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.
Deride (di RYDE)
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)
Derogatory (dih RAHG uh tor ee)
Adjective
Disapproving; degrading
Stephen could never seem to think of anything nice to say about anyone; virtually all of his comments were derogatory.
Desiccate (DES uh kayt)
V
To dry out
After a week without water, the desiccated plant fell over and died.
Despondent ( dih SPAHN dunt)
Adjective
Extremely depressed; full of despair
After the death of his wife, the man was despondent for many months.
Despot ( DES puht)
Noun
An absolute ruler; an autocrat
Stephen was a despot; workers who disagreed with him were fired.
Destitute (DES tuh toot)
Adjective
Extremely poor; utterly lacking
Destitute people are people without money or possessions, or with very little money and very few possessions.
Desultory (DES ul tor ee)
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.
Dexterous (DEX trus)
Adjective
Skillful ; adroit
Ilya was determined not to sell the restaurant on eBay ; even the most dexterous negotiator could not sway him.
Dialectical (dye uh LEK ti kul)
Adjective
Relating to discussions ; relating to the rules and methods of reasoning; approaching truth in the middle of opposing extremes
Dictum (DIK tum)
Noun
An authoritative saying; an adage ; a maxim ; a proverb
“ No pain, no gain” is a hackneyed dictum of sadistic coaches everywhere.
Didactic (dye DAK tik)
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.
Diffident ( DIF i dunt)
Adjective
Timid ; lacking in self confidence
Diffident and confident are opposites.
The diffident student never made a single comment in class.
Digress (dye GRES)
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.
Dilettante ( DIL uh tahnt)
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.
Discern (dih SURN)
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.
Discreet (dih SKREET)
Adjective
Prudent ; judiciously reserved
To make discreet inquiries is to ask around without letting the whole world know you are doing it.
Discrete (dih SKREET)
Adjective
Unconnected ; separate ; distinct
The twins were identical but their personalities were discrete.
Discriminate ( dih SKRIM uh nayt)
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.
Disdain ( dis DAYN)
Noun
Arrogant scorn ; contempt
The millionaire looked upon the poor workers with evident disdain.
Disinterested (dis IN truh stid)
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.
Disparage (dih SPAR ij)
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.
Disparate ( DIS pur it)
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.
Disseminate (dih SEN uh nayt)
V
To spread the seeds of something ; to scatter ; to make widely known
News is disseminated through many media : radio , television , newspapers ana magazines.
Dissipate ( DIS uh payt)
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.
