Set 7 Flashcards
AMELIORATE (uh MEEL yuh rayt) v
to make better or more
tolerable
The mood of the prisoners was ameliorated when the warden
gave them extra free time outside.
AMENABLE (uh MEE nuh bul) adj
obedient; willing to give in to the
wishes of another; agreeable
I suggested that Brad pay for my lunch as well as for his own;
to my surprise, he was amenable.
AMENITY (uh MEN i tee) n
pleasantness; attractive or comfortable
feature
The amenities at the local club include a swimming pool, a golf
course, and a tennis court.
AMIABLE (AY mee uh bul) adj
friendly; agreeable
Our amiable guide made us feel right at home in what would
otherwise have been a cold and forbidding museum.
AMNESTY (AM nuh stee) n
an official pardon for a group of people
who have violated a law or policy
An amnesty is an ocial forgetting. When a state government
declares a tax amnesty, it is saying that if people pay the taxes they
owe, the government will ocially “forget” that they broke the law
by not paying them in the rst place.
AMORAL (ay MOR ul) adj
lacking a sense of right and wrong;
neither good nor bad, neither moral nor immoral; without moral
feelings
Very young children are amoral; when they cry, they aren’t
being bad or good—they’re merely doing what they have to do.
AMOROUS (AM ur us) adj
feeling loving, especially in a sexual
sense; in love; relating to love
The amorous couple made quite a scene at the movie. The movie they were watching, Love Story, was pretty amorous itself. It was about an amorous couple, one of whom died.
AMORPHOUS (uh MOR fus) adj
shapeless; without a regular or
stable shape; bloblike
Ed’s teacher said that his term paper was amorphous; it was as
shapeless and disorganized as a cloud.
ANACHRONISM (uh NAK ruh niz um) n
something out of place in
time or history; an incongruity
In this day of impersonal hospitals, a doctor who remembers
your name seems like an anachronism.
ANALOGY (uh NAL uh jee) n
a comparison of one thing to another;
similarity
To say having an allergy feels like being bitten by an alligator
would be to make or draw an analogy between an allergy and
an alligator bite.
