Princeton Book Beyond the Key Terms Group 2

Question 1

abjure (verb)

Answer 1

to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid

Question 2

adumbrate (verb)

Answer 2

to foreshadow vaguely or intimate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow

Question 3

anathema (noun)

Answer 3

a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing

Question 4

anodyne (adj.)/(noun)

Answer 4

soothing; something that assuages or allays pain or comforts

Question 5

apogee (noun)

Answer 5

farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith

Question 6

apotheosis (noun)

Answer 6

deification; glorification to godliness; an exalted example; a model of excellence or perfection

Question 7

asperity (noun)

Answer 7

severity, rigor, toughness, harshness, acrimony, irritability

Question 8

asseverate (verb)

Answer 8

to avert, allege, or assert

Question 9

assiduous (adj.)

Answer 9

diligent, hard-working, sedulous

Question 10

augury (noun)

Answer 10

omen, potent

Question 11

bellicose (adj.)

Answer 11

belligerent, pugnacious, warlike

Question 12

calumniate (verb)

Answer 12

to slander, to make a false accusation; calumny means slander, asperison

Question 13

captious (adj.)

Answer 13

disposed to point our trivial faults; calculated to confuse or entrap in argument

Question 14

cavil (verb)

Answer 14

to find adult without good reason

Question 15

celerity (noun)

Answer 15

speed, alacrity; think accelerate

Question 16

chimera (noun)

Answer 16

an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster

Question 17

contumacious (adj.)

Answer 17

insubordinate, rebellious; contumely means insult; scorn, aspersion

Question 18

debacle (noun)

Answer 18

root, fiasco, complete failure

Question 19

denouement (noun)

Answer 19

an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot

Question 20

descry (verb)

Answer 20

to catch sight of

Question 21

desuetude (noun)

Answer 21

disuse

Question 22

desultory (adj.)

Answer 22

random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose

Question 23

diaphanous (adj.)

Answer 23

transparent, gauzy

Question 24

diffident (adj.)

Answer 24

reserved, shy, unassuming; lacking in self confidence

Question 25

dirge (noun)

Answer 25

a song of grief or lamentation

Question 26

encomium (noun)

Answer 26

glowing and enthusiastic; praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy

Question 27

eschew (verb)

Answer 27

to shun or avoid

Question 28

excoriate (verb)

Answer 28

to censure scathingly, to upbraid

Question 29

execrate (verb)

Answer 29

to denounce, to feel loathing or, to curse, to declare to be evil

Question 30

exegesis (noun)

Answer 30

critical examination, explication

Question 31

expiate (noun)

Answer 31

to atone or make amends for

Question 32

fatuous (adj.)

Answer 32

silly, inanely, foolish

Question 33

fractious (adj.)

Answer 33

quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable

Question 34

gainsay (verb)

Answer 34

to deny, to dispute, to contradict, to oppose

Question 35

heterodox (adj.)

Answer 35

unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic

Question 36

imbroglio (adj.)

Answer 36

difficult or embracing situation

Question 37

indefatigable (adj.)

Answer 37

not easily exhaustible; tireless, dogged

Question 38

ineluctable (adj.)

Answer 38

certain, inevitable

Question 39

inimitable (adj.)

Answer 39

one of a kind, peerless

Question 40

insouciant (adj.)

Answer 40

unconcerned, carefree, heedless

Question 41

inveterate (adj.)

Answer 41

deep rooted, ingrained, habitual

Question 42

jejune (adj.)

Answer 42

vapid, wanton, greasy, slippery

Question 43

mendicant (noun)

Answer 43

a beggar, sypplicant

Question 44

meretricious (adj.)

Answer 44

cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy; attracting by false show

Question 45

minatory (adj.)

Answer 45

menacing, threatening (reminds you of the Minotaur, a threatening creature indeed)

Question 46

nadir (noun)

Answer 46

low point, perigee

Question 47

nonplussed (adj.)

Answer 47

baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think

Question 48

obstreperous (adj.)

Answer 48

noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous

Question 49

ossified (adj.)

Answer 49

tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age; literally turned into bone

Question 50

palliate (verb)

Answer 50

to make something seem less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense

Question 51

panegyric (noun)

Answer 51

formal praise, eulogy, encomium; panegyrical means expressing elaborate praise

Question 52

parsimonious (adj.)

Answer 52

cheap, miserly

Question 53

peroration (noun)

Answer 53

the concluding part of a speech; flowery; rhetorical speech

Question 54

plangent 9adj.)

Answer 54

pounding, thundering, resounding

Question 55

prolix (adj.)

Answer 55

long-winded, verbose; prolixity means verbosity

Question 56

propitiate (verb)

Answer 56

to appease; to conciliate; propitious means auspicious, favorable

Question 57

puerile (adj.)

Answer 57

childish, immature, jejune, nugatory

Question 58

puissance (noun)

Answer 58

power, strength, puissant means powerful, strong

Question 59

remonstrate (noun)

Answer 59

to protest, to object

Question 60

sagacious (adj.)

Answer 60

having sound judgement; perceptive, wise; like a sage

Question 61

salacious (adj.)

Answer 61

lustful, lascivious, bawdy

Question 62

salutary (adj.)

Answer 62

remedial, wholesome, causing improvement

Question 63

sanguine (adj.)

Answer 63

cheerful, confident, optimistic

Question 64

saturnine (adj.)

Answer 64

gloomy, dark or sullen, morose

Question 65

sententious (adj.)

Answer 65

aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic; tending to moralize excessively

Question 66

stygian (adj.)

Answer 66

gloomy, dark

Question 67

sycophant (noun)

Answer 67

toady, servile, self-seeking, flatter; parasite

Question 68

tendentious (adj.)

Answer 68

biased showing marked tendencies

Question 69

timorous (adj.)

Answer 69

timid, fearful, diffident

Question 70

tyro (non)

Answer 70

novice, greenhorn, rank amateur

Question 71

vitiate (noun)

Answer 71

to corrupt, to debase, to spoil, to make ineffective

Question 72

voluble (adj.)

Answer 72

fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken langage