List Of Word P Flashcards
Painstaking ( PAYN stay King)
Adjective
Extremely careful; taking pains
The jeweler was painstaking in his effort not to ruin the $ 250 million diamond
Pacify ( PAS uh fye)
Verb
To calm someone down; to placate
A parent gives a baby a pacifier to pacify or her. A pacifist is someone who does not believe in war.
Palliate (PAL ee ayt)
Verb
To relieve or alleviate something without getting rid of the problem; to assuage; to mitigate
You take aspirin in the hope that it will palliate your head ache
Palpable ( PAL puh bul)
Adjective
Capable of being touched; obvious; tangible
The tumor was palpable; the doctor could feel it with his fingers.
The opposite of palpable is impalpable
Paltry ( PAWL tree)
Adjective
Insignificant; worthless
The lawyer’s efforts on our behalf were paltry; they didn’t add up to anything
Panacea ( pan uh SEE uh)
Noun
Something that cures everything
The administration seemed to believe that a tax cut would be a panacea for the country’s economic ills.
Paradigm ( PAR uh dime)
Noun A model or example Mr Hufstader is the best teacher in the whole world; his class room should be the paradigm for all classes
Paradox ( PAR uh dahks)
Noun
A true statement or phenomenon that nonetheless seems to contradict itself; an untrue statement or phenomenon that nonetheless seems logical
Mr Cooper is a political paradox; he’s a staunch Republican who votes only for Democrats
Parochial (puh ROH kee ul)
Adjective
Narrow or confined in point of view; provincial
The journalist’s parochial point of view prevented him from becoming a nationally known figure
Parody ( PAR uh dee)
Noun
A satirical imitation
At the talent show the girls sang a terrible parody of a Beatles song called’ I want to hold your foot’
Parsimonious ( parh suh MOH nee us)
Adjective
Stingy
We tried to be parsimonious, but without success.
To be parsimonious is to practice parsimony
Partisan (PAR tuh zun)
Noun
One who supports a particular person, cause, or idea
Henry’s plan to give himself the award had no partisan except himself
Nonpartisan means neutral
Bipartisan means supported by two parties
Patent (PAYT unt)
Adjective
Obvious
To say the earth is flat is a patent absurdity since the world is obviously spherical
Paternal (puh TUR nul)
Adjective
Fatherly; father like
Rich is paternal toward his niece
Pathology ( puh THAHL uh jee)
Noun
The science of diseases
Brad is an inveterate, incorrigible, pathological liar, we are saying that brad’s lying is a sickness
Patriarch (PAY tree ahrk)
Noun
The male head of a family or tribe
The adjective is patriarchal
Patrician ( puh TRISH un)
Noun
A person of noble birth; an aristocrat
Mr Perno was a patrician.
Patrician can also be an adjective. Polo is a patrician sport
Patronize (PAY truh nyze)
Verb
To treat as an inferior; to condescend to
We felt patronized by the waiter at the fancy restaurant; he ignored all our efforts to attract his attention and then pretended not to understand our accent
Paucity (PAW suh tee)
Noun
Scarcity
The plan was defeated by a paucity of support
Peccadillo (pek uh dil oh)
Noun
A minor offense
The smiling defendant acted as though first degree murder were a mere peccadillo rather than a hideous crime
Pedantic ( puh DAN tik)
Adjective
Boringly scholarly or academic
The professor’s interpretation of the poem was pedantic and empty of genuine feeling
Pedestrian ( puh DES tree un)
Adjective
Unimaginative; banal
The menu was pedestrian; I had encountered each of the dishes dozens of times before
Pejorative (Pi JOR uh tiv)
Adjective
Negative; disparaging
Abe’s description of the college as “a pretty good school” was unintentionally pejorative.
Penchant (PEN chunt)
Noun
A strong taste or liking for something; a predilection
Dogs have a penchant for chasing cats and mailmen
Penitent (PEN uh tunt)
Adjective
Sorry; repentant; contrite
Julie was penitent when Kanye explained how much pain she had caused him
Pensive ( PEN siv)
Adjective
Thoughtful and sad
Norton became suddenly pensive when Jack mentioned his dead father
Peremptory (puh REMP tuh ree)
Adjective
Final; categorical; dictatorial
Someone who is peremptory says or does something without giving anyone a chance to dispute it.
Perennial (Puh Ren ee ul)
Adjective
Continual; happening again and again or year after year
Mr Lorenzo is a perennial favorite of students at the high school because he always gives everyone an A.
Perfidy (PUR fuh dee)
Noun
Treachery
It was the criminal’s natural perfidy that finally did them in, as each one become an informant one the other.
Perfunctory (pur FUNGK tuh ree)
Adjective
Unenthusiastic; careless
Sandra’s lawn mowing was perfunctory at best: she skipped all the difficult parts and didn’t not rake up any of the clippings.
Peripatetic (per uh peh TET ik)
Adjective
Wandering; traveling continually ; itinerant
Groupies are a peripatetic bunch, traveling from concert to concert to follow their favorite rock stars
Periphery ( puh RIF uh ree)
Noun
The outside edge of something
Jose never got involved in any of our activities; he was always at the periphery.
Perjury ( PUR jur ee)
Noun
Lying under oath
The defendant was acquitted of bribery but convicted of perjury because he had lied on the witness stand during his trial.
Permeate ( PUR mee ayt)
Verb
To spread or sleep through; to penetrate
A horrible smell quickly permeated the room after Jock lit a cigarette
Pernicious (pur NISH us)
Adjective
Deadly; extremely evil
The drug dealer conducted their pernicious business on every street corner in the city
Perquisite (PUR kwuh zit)
Noun
A privilege that goes along with a job; a perk
Free access to a photocopier is a perquisite of most office jobs.
A perquisite should not be confused with a prerequisite which is a necessity.
Pertinent (PUR tuh nunt)
Adjective
Relevant; dealing with the matter at hand
Impertinent means disrespectful
Perturb ( pur TURB)
Verb
To disturb greatly
Ivan’s mother was perturbed by his aberrant behavior at the dinner table.
Peruse (puh ROOZ)
Verb
To read carefully
To lawyer perused the contract for many hours, looking for a loophole that would enable his client to back out of deal
Pervade ( pur VAYD)
Verb
To spread throughout
One of examination day, the classroom was pervaded by a sense of imminent doom.
Something that pervades is pervasive
Petulant ( PECH uh lunt)
Adjective
Rude ; cranky ; ill tempered
The petulant waiter slammed down our water glasses and spilled a tureen of soup onto Roger’s kilt.
Philanthropy (fi LAN thruh pee)
Noun
Love of mankind, especially by doing good deeds
Philistine (FIL i steen)
Noun
A smugly ignorant person with no appreciation of intellectual or artistic matters
Pious (PYE us)
Adjective
Reverent or devout; outwardly ( and sometimes falsely) reverent or devout; hypocritical
Pious in this sense means something like religiously dutiful
Pious can also be used to describe behavior or feeling that ain’t religious at all but are quite hypocritical
Pivotal ( PIV uh tull)
Adjective
Crucial
Sofia’s contribute was pivotal; without it, we would have failed.
Placate (PLAY kayt)
Verb
To pacify; to appease; to soothe
The tribe placated the angry volcano by tossing a few teenagers into the raging crater.
Plaintive (PLAYN tiv)
Adjective
Expressing sadness or sorrow
The lead singer’s plaintive love song expressed his sorrow at being abandoned by his girlfriend for the lead guitarist
Platitude (PLAT uh tood)
Noun
A dull or trite remark; a cliche
The principal thinks he is a great orator, but his loud, boring speech was full of platitudes
Plebeian ( pluh BEE un)
Adjective
Common; vulgar; low class
Sarah refused to eat frozen dinner, saying they were too plebeian for her discriminating palate.
Plethora ( PLETH ur uh)
Noun
An excess
Letting the Air Force use our backyard as a bombing range range created a plethora of problems.
Poignant (POYN yunt)
Adjective
Painfully emotional; extremely moving; sharp or astute
A poignant scene is one that is so emotional or moving that it is almost painful to watch
Polarize( POH luh ryze)
Verb
To break up into opposing factions or groupings
The increasingly acrimonious debate between the two candidates polarized the political party
Polemic ( puh LEM ik)
Noun
A powerful argument often made to attack or refute a controversial issue
The book was a convincing polemical that revealed the fraud at the heart of of the large corporation
Ponderous ( PAHN dur us)
Adjective
So large as to be clumsy ; massive ; dull
The wedding cake was a ponderous blob of icing and jelly beans
Portent ( POR tent)
Noun
An omen; a sign of something coming in the future
The distant rumbling we heard this morning was a portent of thunderstorm that hit our area this afternoon
Postulate ( PAHS chuh lut)
Noun
Something accepted as true without proof; an axiom
Sherlock Holmes rarely postulated things waiting for evidence before he made up his mind
Pragmatic ( prag MAT ik)
Adjective
Practical; down to earth ; based to experience rather than theory
A pragmatic person is one who deals with things as they are rather than as they might be or should be
Precedent ( PRES uh dunt)
Noun
An earlier example or model of something
Precedent is a noun form of verb of the verb to precede, or go before.to set a precedent is to do something that sets an example for what may follow
Precept ( PREE sept)
Noun
A rule to live by; a principle establishing a certain kind of action or behavior; a maxim
Precipitate ( pri SIP uh tayt)
Verb
To cause to happen abruptly
A panic among investors precipitated last Monday’s crisis is the stock market
Precipitous (pri SIP uh tus)
Adjective
Steep
A mountain can be precipitous meaning either that it is steep or that is comprises lots of steep cliffs.
Preclude (pri KLOOD)
Verb
To prevent something from ever happening
Ann feared that her abysmal academic career might preclude her becoming a brain surgeon
Precursor ( pri KUR sur)
Noun
Forerunner; something that goes before and anticipates or paves the way from whatever it is that follows
The arrival of a million dollar check in the mail might precursor of a brand new car
Predilection ( pred uh LEK shun)
Noun
A natural preference for something
The impatient judge had a predilection for well prepared lawyers who said what they meant and didn’t waste his time
Preeminent (pree EM uh nunt)
Adjective
Better than anyone else; outstanding; supreme
The Nobel Prize winning physicist was preeminent in his field but he was still a lousy teacher
Preempt (pree EMPT)
Verb
To seize something by prior right
Preemptive air strikes
Premise (PREM is)
Noun
An assumption; the basis for a conclusion
In deciding to eat all the ice cream in the freezer, my premise was that if I didn’t do it, you would.
Prepossess (pree puh ZES)
Verb
To preoccupy; to influence beforehand or prejudice; to make a good impression on beforehand
When a person is prepossessed by an idea, he or she cannot get it out of his or her mind
Unprepossessing means unimpressive
Prerogative (pri RAHG uh tiv)
Noun
A right or privilege connected exclusively with a position, a person, a class, a nation, or some other group or classification
Giving traffic tickets to people he didn’t like was one of the prerogative of Junior’s job as a policeman
Prevail (pri VAYL)
Verb
To triumph; to overcome rivals ; (with on, upon, or with) to persuade
When injustice prevails, it means that good defeats evil
Pristine ( PRIS teen)
Adjective
Original; unspoiled; pure
A pristine mountain stream is a stream that has not been polluted
Prodigal ( PRAHD uh gul)
Adjective
Wastefully extravagant
The prodigal gambler soon found that he could not afford even a two dollar bet
Prodigious (pruh DIJ us)
Adjective
Extraordinarily; enormous
The little boy caught a prodigious fish, it was ten times his size and might more easily have caught him had their situations been reversed
Prodigy ( PRAHD uh jee)
Noun
An extremely talented child; an extraordinarily accomplishment or occurrence
The three years old prodigy could play all the Beethoven and most of Brahms on his harmonica
Profane (Proh FAYN)
Adjective
Not having to do with religion; irrelevant ; blasphemous
You profaned the classroom by cursing it
Profess ( pruh FES)
Verb
To declare; to declare falsely or pretend
Jason professed to have taught himself caucus
Proficient
Adjective
Thoroughly competent; skillful ; good (at something)
Profligate ( PRAHF luh git)
Adjective
Extravagantly wasteful and, usually, wildly immoral
The young heir was profligate with his fortune, spending millions on champagne and racehorses
Profound
Adjective
Deep
Profound understanding is deep understanding
Profuse (pruh FYOOS)
Adjective
Flowing; extravagant
When we gave Marian our house, our car, and all our clothes her gratitude was profuse
Proletariat ( Proh luh TER ee ut)
Noun
The industrial working class
Laboring class
Blue collar workers
Proliferate
Verb
To spread or grow rapidly
Prolific ( Proh LIF ik)
Adjective
Abundantly productive ; fruitful or fertile
Prolific writer
Prolific actor
Promulgate
Verb
To proclaim; to publicly or formally declare something
Propensity ( pruh PEN suh tee)
Noun
A natural inclination or tendency ; a predilection
Jessie has a propensity for saying stupid things: every time she opens her mouth, something stupid comes out
Propitious ( pruh PISH us)
Adjective
Marked by favorable signs or conditions
Rush hour is not a propitious time to drive into the city
Proponent (pruh POH nunt)
Noun
An advocate; a supporter of a position
The proponents of a tax increase will probably not be re elected next fall.
Proprietary (pruh PRYE uh ter ee)
Adjective
Characteristic of an owner of property ; constituting property
George felt proprietary about the chocolate cookie recipe; he had invented it himself.
Propriety ( pruh PRYE uh tree)
Noun
Properness; good manner
Propriety prevented the young man from trashing the town in celebration of his unexpected acceptance by the college of his choice
Propriety derives from proper; not property and should not be confused with proprietary
Prosaic ( Proh ZAY ik)
Adjective
Dull; unimaginative; like prose ( as opposed to poetry)
The little boy’s ambitions were all prosaic: he said he wanted to be an accountant, an auditor, or a claim adjuster
Proscribe ( Proh SKRYBE)
Verb
To outlaw; to prohibit
The young doctor proscribed smoking in the waiting room of his office
Proselytize (PRAHS uh luh tyze)
Verb
To covert someone from one religion or doctrine to another; to recruit converts to a religion or doctrine
The former Methodist had been proselytized by a Lutheran deacon
Protagonist (proh TAG uh nist)
Noun
The leading character in a novel, play, or other work, a leader or champion
Martin Luther King Jr. Was a protagonist in the long and continuing struggle for racial equality
Protract ( Proh TRAKT)
Verb
To prolong
The trail was so protracted that one of the jurors died of old age and another gave birth
Provident ( PRAHV uh dunt)
Adjective
Preparing for the future; providing for the future; frugal
We were provident with our limited food supplies, knowing that the winter ahead would be long and cold
To be improvident is to fail to provide for the future
Provincial ( pruh VIN shul)
Adjective
Limited in outlook to one’s own small corner of the the world ; narrow
The farmer were provincial; they had no opinions about anything but the price of corn and no interest in anything except growing more of it.
Provisional ( pruh VIZH uh nul)
Adjective
Condition; temporary; tentative
Proximity (prok SIM uh tee)
Noun
Nearness
In a big city, one is almost always in the proximity of a restaurant
Prudent (PROOD unt)
Adjective
Careful; having foresight
Purported (pur PORT id)
Adjective
Rumored; claimed
To purport something is to claim or allege it
Putative ( PYOO tuh tiv)
Adjective
Commonly accepted; supposed; reputed
The putative reason for placing the monument downtown is that nobody had wanted it uptown
When you use the word putative you emphasize that the reason is only supposed, not proven.
