Magoosh Adv - II Flashcards
mellifluous
adjective: smooth and sweet-sounding
Chelsea’s grandmother thought Franz Schubert’s music to be the most mellifluous ever written; Chelsea demurred, and to her grandmother’s chagrin, would blast Rihanna on the home stereo speakers.
execrate
verb: to have or show feelings of hate toward someone or something:
Though the new sitcom did decently in the ratings, the critic execrated the show, saying that it was nothing more than a terrible pastiche of tired clichés and canned laughter.
maudlin
adjective: overly emotional and sad, perhaps because of drinking alcohol.
Jimmy turned maudlin after three drinks.
expurgate
verb: to remove objectionable material
The censor expurgated every reference to sex and drugs, converting the rapper’s raunchy flow into a series of bleeps.
bilious
adjective: If someone is bilious, they are always in a bad mood:
example: a bilious old man
adjective: extremely unpleasant:
example: His shirt was a bilious shade of green.
curmudgeon
noun: an old person who is often in a bad mood
Since Uncle Mike was the family curmudgeon, each Thanksgiving he was plied with copious amounts of wine, in the hope that he would become less grouchy.
gerrymander
verb: to change the borders of an area in order to increase the number of people within that area who will vote for a particular party or person:
Years ago, savvy politicians had gerrymandered the city center to ensure their re-election.
fell
adjective: terribly evil
For fans of the Harry Potter series, the fell Lord Voldemort, who terrorized poor Harry for seven lengthy installments, has finally been vanquished by the forces of good—unless, that is, JK Rowling decides to come out of retirement.
This word has other definitions but this is the most important one to study
picayune
adjective: having little value or importance:
English teachers are notorious for being picayune; however, the English language is so nuanced and sophisticated that often such teachers are not being contrary but are only adhering to the rules.
mulct
verb: to defraud or swindle
The so-called magical diet cure simply ended up mulcting Maria out of hundreds of dollars, but did nothing for her weight.
mettlesome
adjective: filled with courage or valor
For its raid on the Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Seal Team Six has become, for many Americans, the embodiment of mettle.
sangfroid
noun: calmness or poise in difficult situations
He understood that he was unceremoniously dismissed, but he was not the kind of man to easily lose his sangfroid.
parvenu
noun: a person who has suddenly become wealthy, but not socially accepted as part of a higher class
The theater was full of parvenus who each thought that they were surrounded by true aristocrats.
sartorial
adjective: related to fashion or clothes
Monte was astute at navigating the world of finance; sartorially, however, he was found wanting—he typically would attempt to complement his beige tie with a gray suit and white pants.
malapropism
noun: the confusion of a word with another word that sounds similar
The politician’s speech was filled with malapropisms, making it difficult to understand his message.
cupidity
noun: greed for money
Some people believe that amassing as much wealth as possible is the meaning to life—yet they often realize that cupidity brings anything but happiness.
invective
noun: criticism that is very forceful, unkind, and often rude:
The Internet has unleashed the invectives in many of us; many people post stinging criticism on the comments section underneath newspaper articles or YouTube videos.
sententious
adjective: trying to appear wise, intelligent, and important, in a way that is annoying:
The document was sententious and pompous.
factitious
adjective: artificial; not natural
The defendant’s story was largely factitious and did not accord with eyewitness testimonies
excoriate
verb: to write or say that a play, book, political action, etc. is very bad:
His latest novel received excoriating reviews.
jejune
adjective: very simple or childish:
example: He made jejune generalizations about how all students were lazy and never did any work.
adjective: boring and not interesting :
example: a jejune lecture by one of our professors
jaundiced
adjective: If someone has a jaundiced view of something, they can see only the bad aspects of it.
Shelly was jaundiced towards Olivia; though the two had once been best friends, Olivia had become class president, prom queen, and, to make matters worse, the girlfriend of the one boy Shelly liked.
remonstrate
verb: to complain to someone or about something:
The mothers of the kidnapped victims remonstrated to the rogue government to release their children, claiming that the detention violated human rights.
tendentious
adjective: (of speech or writing) expressing or supporting a particular opinion that many other people disagree with
The politician’s speech was highly tendentious, filled with biased arguments and exaggerated claims.
juggernaut
noun: a force that cannot be stopped
Napoleon was considered a juggernaut until he decided to invade Russia in winter; after which, his once indomitable army was decimated by cold and famine.
hedge
verb: to limit something severely:
We have permission, but it’s hedged about with strict conditions.
verb: to try to avoid giving an answer or taking any action:
Stop hedging and tell me what you really think
sybarite
noun: a person who indulges in luxury
Despite the fact that he’d maxed out fifteen credit cards, Max was still a sybarite at heart: when the police found him, he was at a $1,000 an hour spa in Manhattan, getting a facial treatment.
vituperate
verb: to criticize harshly; to berate
Jason had dealt with disciplinarians before, but nothing prepared him for the first week of boot camp, as drill sergeants vituperated him for petty oversights such as forgetting to double knot the laces on his boots.
disabuse
verb: to cause someone no longer to have a wrong idea:
He thought that all women liked children, but she soon disabused him of that idea/notion.
propitiate
verb: to placate or appease
In those days people might sacrifice a goat or sheep to propitiate an angry god.
arch
adjective: If you say that someone is arch, you are criticizing them for talking or behaving as if they are better or more important than other people.
Their attempts to be casual have so far just looked arch or patronising.
peremptory
adjective: expecting to be obeyed immediately and without any questions:
My sister used to peremptorily tell me to do the dishes, a chore I would either do perfunctorily or avoid doing altogether.
impecunious
adjective: lacking money; poor
In extremely trying times, even the moderately wealthy, after a few turns of ill-fortune, can become impecunious.
Pollyannaish
adjective: extremely optimistic
Even in the midst of a lousy sales quarter, Debbie remained Pollyannaish, never losing her shrill voice and wide smile, even when prospective customers hung up on her.
arriviste
noun: a person who is trying to move into a higher class in society
The city center was aflutter with arrivistes who tried to outdo one another with their ostentatious sports cars and chic evening dress.
benighted
adjective: without knowledge or morals:
Some of the early explorers thought of the local people as benighted savages who could be exploited.
martinet
noun: a strict disciplinarian
The job seemed perfect to Rebecca, until she found out that her boss was a total martinet; after each project the boss would come by to scrutinize—and inevitably criticize—every little detail of the work Rebecca had done.
limpid
adjective: clear and transparent:
example: a limpid pool
adjective: clearly expressed and easily understood:
Her limpid prose made even the most recondite subjects accessible to all.
venial
adjective: easily excused or forgiven; pardonable
His traffic violations ran the gamut from the venial to the egregious—on one occasion he simply did not come to a complete stop; another time he tried to escape across state lines at speeds in excess of 140 mph.
apotheosis of someone
noun: the act of making someone into a god:
As difficult as it is to imagine, the apotheosis of Mark Zuckerberg’s career, many believe, is yet to come.
quisling
noun: a person who helps an enemy that has taken control of his or her country
History looks unfavorably upon quislings; indeed they are accorded about the same fondness as Nero—who watched his city burn down while playing the violin.
phantasmagorical
adjective: full of different images, like something in a confused dream:
The carnival was a phantasmagorical spectacle of lights, sounds, and dazzling illusions.
blinkered
adjective: to have a limited outlook or understanding
In gambling, the blinkered addict is easily influenced by past successes and/or past failures, forgetting that the outcome of any one game is independent of the games that preceded it.
palimpsest
noun: something that has been changed numerous times but on which traces of former iterations can still be seen
The downtown was a palimpsest of the city’s checkered past: a new Starbucks had opened up next to an abandoned, shuttered building, and a freshly asphalted road was inches away from a pothole large enough to swallow a small dog.
histrionic
adjective: to be overly theatrical
Though she received a B- on the test, she had such a histrionic outburst that one would have thought that she’d been handed a death sentence.
imbroglio
noun: an unwanted, difficult, and confusing situation, full of trouble and problems:
The Soviet Union became anxious to withdraw its soldiers from the Afghan imbroglio.
protean
adjective: readily taking on different roles; versatile
Peter Sellers was truly a protean actor—in Doctor Strangelove he played three very different roles: a jingoist general, a sedate President and a deranged scientist.
pyrrhic
adjective: relating to a victory that is not worth winning because the winner has lost so much in winning it :
George W. Bush’s win in the 2000 election was in many ways a pyrrhic victory: the circumstances of his win alienated half of the U.S. population.
schadenfreude
noun: joy from watching the suffering of others
From his warm apartment window, Stanley reveled in schadenfreude as he laughed at the figures below, huddled together in the arctic chill.
quixotic
adjective: wildly idealistic; impractical
For every thousand startups with quixotic plans to be the next big name in e-commerce, only a handful ever become profitable.
