midterm exam Flashcards
fastidious
adj: very attentive to and concerned about accuracy and detail; concerned about matters of cleanliness
jerry was so fastidious about my appearance when i got ready for a fancy date night; i was never good enough for him to want to go out with, so i broke up with him
ennui
noun: feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction
ennui is something that many people in between jobs will succumb to if they have nothing to keep them busy for too long
exhort
verb: to incite by argument or advice; urge strongly
hope and motivation were so low in the city after the hurricane, but the mayor exhorted her citizens to march on and help clean it up
incongruous
adj: not in harmony or keeping with surroundings
wednesday addams is okay with being incongruous with the other teenagers at her school, but she does not care what others think of her or her likings
prognosticate
verb: foretell or prophesy (an event in the future
my teacher prognosticated that i would get a 5 on my AP exam and, to my shock, she was right!
nonchalant
adj: (of a person or manner) feeling or appearing casually calm and relaxed; not displaying anxiety, interest or enthusiasm
wednesday addams believes societal customs and likings to be below her, so she is very nonchalant when partaking in such things
mercurial
adj: subject to sudden or unpredictable changed of mood or mind
after rapunzel leaves her tower, she becomes very mercurial about her decision since she is getting to explore the world for the first time but doing so against her mother’s will
congenial
adj: (of a person) pleasant because of personality, qualities, or interests similar to one’s own
joe is the perfect host for holiday parties since everyone finds him so congenial; he makes everyone feel at home
loftier
adj: of imposing height, thick and resilient
the top of that loftier building would be the perfect place to put our poster, everyone would see it!
alliteration
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
consonance
the religion of consonant sounds, not vowels, in a chunk of text; can be anywhere in the word
assonance
the repetition of vowel sounds in a chunk of text; the sounds can be anywhere in the word
anaphora
religion of words at the beginning of a line
onomatopoeia
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what it is named
apostrophe
speech or address to a person who is not present or to a personified object
hyperbole
an overstatement or extravagant exaggeration, so far exaggerated that it cannot be taken seriously
synecdoche
refers to the whole of a thing by the name of any one of its part
metonymy
the word used to describe a thing that is closely linked to a particular thing, but not necessarily a part of it
understatement
says less than it means; it can sometimes coexist with verbal irony
enjambment
occurs when one line ends without a pause or any punctuation and continues onto the next
juxtaposition
the placement of two contrasting objects, images, or ideas together so that their differences are emphasized
imagery
visually descriptive or figurative language