No. 4 Flashcards
discrete
adj. constituting a separate thing; distinct. separate; distinct; individual; detached.
discretion
n. quality of showing self restraint in speech or actions; freedom to act on one’s own. circumspection.
disingenuous
adj. not candid or sincere; crafty. dishonest.
when a person starts a sentence, i dont mean to appear disingenuous, one might be tempted to suspect that the person is being just that.
disinterested
adj. objective; unprejudiced; unbiased.
the newspaper reporter looked for disinterested witnesses to the events so that she could get an objective account for what had happened.
disjointed
adj. lacking order or coherence; dislocated.
dismiss
v. put away from consideration; reject.
disparage
v. to belittle.
disparate
adj. dissimilar.
disparity is a noun meaning the condition of being unequal or unlike.
dissemble
v. to pretend; disguise one’s motives.
i believe you are dissembling. i want you to tell me the whole truth about what happened that night.
disseminate
v. to spread; scatter; disperse.
dissident
n. person who disagrees about beliefs, etc.
some of the most notorious concentration camps in history were the gulag camps used by the soviet union to control dissidents.
dissolution
n. disintegration; debauchery.
some philosophers maintain that the dissolution of the body does not mean the destruction of the mind.
dissonance
n. discord; lack of harmony.
in psychology, the term cognitive dissonance refers to a conflict resulting from inconsistency between one’s beliefs and ones actions. e.g. a soldier who believes that all killing is immoral but is forced to kill by his superiors might experience cognitive dissonance.
distend
v. to expand; swell out.
people in an advanced stage of starvation often have distended bellies.
distill
v. extract the essential elements. take out; express; squeeze out.
distrait
adj. distracted; preoccupied; inattentive.
the chairperson became distrait because his secretary was not sitting in her usual position on his right.
diverge
v. to vary; go in different directions from the same point.
divest
v. trick or cheat out of; rid; to strip; deprive.
divulge
v. to make known something that is secret.
under the geneva conventions, prisoners of war cannot be tortured and forced to divulge information.
doctrinaire
adj. relating to a person who cannot compromise about points of a theory or doctrine; dogmatic; unyielding.
document
v. to provide with written evidence to support.
doggerel
n. poor verse. verse or words that are badly written or expressed.
dogmatic
adj. stating opinions without proof. assertive. imperative. adamant.
dormant
adj. inactive. sleeping; resting.
dross
n. waste; worthless matter; trivial matter.
dupe
v. to deceive; trick.
in friendship, as well as in love, the mind is often duped by the heart.
ebullient
adj. exhilarated; enthusiastic. exuberant; joyful; cheerful.
eclectic
adj. selecting from various sources.
they played an eclectic mix of party music.
effervescence
n. state of high spirits or liveliness; the process of bubbling as gas escapes.
effete
depleted of vitality; overrefined; decadent.
