Magoosh Adv - II

Question 1

mellifluous

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

execrate

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

maudlin

Answer 3

adjective: overly emotional and sad, perhaps because of drinking alcohol.

Jimmy turned maudlin after three drinks.

Question 4

expurgate

Answer 4

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.

Question 4

bilious

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

curmudgeon

Answer 5

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.

Question 5

gerrymander

Answer 5

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.

Question 5

fell

Answer 5

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

Question 6

picayune

Answer 6

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.

Question 6

mulct

Answer 6

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.

Question 6

mettlesome

Answer 6

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.

Question 6

sangfroid

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

parvenu

Answer 7

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.

Question 7

sartorial

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

malapropism

Answer 8

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.

Question 8

cupidity

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

invective

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

sententious

Answer 10

adjective: trying to appear wise, intelligent, and important, in a way that is annoying:

The document was sententious and pompous.

Question 11

factitious

Answer 11

adjective: artificial; not natural

The defendant’s story was largely factitious and did not accord with eyewitness testimonies

Question 12

excoriate

Answer 12

verb: to write or say that a play, book, political action, etc. is very bad:

His latest novel received excoriating reviews.

Question 13

jejune

Answer 13

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

Question 14

jaundiced

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

remonstrate

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

tendentious

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

juggernaut

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

hedge

Answer 18

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

Question 19

sybarite

Answer 19

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.

Question 19

vituperate

Answer 19

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.

Question 19

disabuse

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

propitiate

Answer 20

verb: to placate or appease

In those days people might sacrifice a goat or sheep to propitiate an angry god.

Question 21

arch

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

peremptory

Answer 22

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.

Question 22

impecunious

Answer 22

adjective: lacking money; poor

In extremely trying times, even the moderately wealthy, after a few turns of ill-fortune, can become impecunious.

Question 23

Pollyannaish

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

arriviste

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

benighted

Answer 25

adjective: without knowledge or morals:

Some of the early explorers thought of the local people as benighted savages who could be exploited.

Question 26

martinet

Answer 26

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.

Question 26

limpid

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

venial

Answer 27

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.

Question 27

apotheosis of someone

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

quisling

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

phantasmagorical

Answer 29

adjective: full of different images, like something in a confused dream:

The carnival was a phantasmagorical spectacle of lights, sounds, and dazzling illusions.

Question 30

blinkered

Answer 30

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.

Question 30

palimpsest

Answer 30

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.

Question 30

histrionic

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

imbroglio

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

protean

Answer 32

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.

Question 32

pyrrhic

Answer 32

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.

Question 32

schadenfreude

Answer 32

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.

Question 33

quixotic

Answer 33

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.