tone vocab Flashcards
benevolent
characterized by or expressing goodwill or kindly feelings:
a benevolent attitude; her benevolent smile.
desiring to help others; charitable:
gifts from several benevolent alumni.
intended for benefits rather than profit:
a benevolent institution.
conciliatory
intended to gain goodwill or favor or to reduce hostility
ebullient
overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement; high-spirited:
The award winner was in an ebullient mood at the dinner in her honor.
bubbling up like a boiling liquid:
ebullient lava streaming down the mountainside.
elegiac
used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.
expressing sorrow or lamentation:
euphoric
feeling or generating intense happiness, confidence, and a sense of well-being:
I’ve experienced both crushing defeat and euphoric victory.
She was euphoric when she received the Oscar.
Psychiatry. relating to or experiencing a pathologically exaggerated feeling of happiness, confidence, or energy:
exuberant
effusively and almost uninhibitedly enthusiastic; lavishly abundant:
an exuberant welcome for the hero.
abounding in vitality; extremely joyful and vigorous.
extremely good; overflowing; plentiful:
exuberant health.
profuse in growth or production; luxuriant; superabundant:
exuberant vegetation.
jocund
cheerful; merry; blithe; glad:
a witty and jocund group.
ominous
portending evil or harm; foreboding; threatening; inauspicious:
an ominous bank of dark clouds.
indicating the nature of a future event, for good or evil; having the significance of an omen; being a portent:
Some of these events were immediately ominous, while others only later revealed themselves as such.
pensive
dreamily or wistfully thoughtful:
a pensive mood.
expressing or revealing thoughtfulness, usually marked by some sadness:
a pensive adagio.
sanguine
cheerfully optimistic, sometimes to the point of seeming complacent, oblivious, or naive:
a sanguine disposition;
sanguine expectations.
reddish; ruddy:
a sanguine complexion.
whimsical
given to whimsy or fanciful notions; capricious:
a pixyish, whimsical fellow.
of the nature of or proceeding from whimsy, as thoughts or actions:
Her writing showed whimsical notions of human behavior.
erratic; unpredictable:
He was too whimsical with regard to his work.
wistful
characterized by melancholy or longing.
pensive, especially in a melancholy way.
wry
bitterly or disdainfully ironic or amusing:
a wry remark.
produced by a distortion or lopsidedness of the facial features:
a wry grin.
didactic
intended for instruction; instructive:
didactic poetry.
inclined to teach or lecture others too much:
a boring, didactic speaker.
teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.
lyrical
expressing the writer’s emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way.
pithy
(of language or style) concise and forcefully expressive.
brief, forceful, and meaningful in expression; full of vigor, substance, or meaning; terse; forcible:
a pithy observation.
reminiscent
awakening memories of something similar; suggestive (usually followed by of):
His style of writing is reminiscent of Melville’s.
admonitory
giving or conveying a warning or reprimand.
“the sergeant lifted an admonitory finger”
burlesque
an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something, especially in a literary or dramatic work; a parody.
“the funniest burlesque of opera”
a variety show, typically including striptease.
“burlesque clubs”
colloquial
(of language) used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literary.
“colloquial and everyday language”
involving or using conversation.
diffident
lacking confidence in one’s own ability, worth, or fitness; timid; shy.
restrained or reserved in manner, conduct, etc.
effusive
expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner.
“an effusive welcome”
fervent
having or displaying a passionate intensity.
“a fervent disciple of tax reform”
mock-heroic
adjective
(of a literary work or its style) imitating the style of heroic literature in order to satirize an unheroic subject.
noun
a burlesque imitation of the heroic character or literary style.
mock-serious
pretending to be serious as a joke, etc
he added with a mock serious expression
nostalgic
experiencing or exhibiting nostalgia, a sentimental or wistful yearning for the happiness felt in a former place, time, or situation.
reticent
disposed to be silent or not to speak freely; reserved.
reluctant or restrained.
stoic
should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity.
zealous
great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.
“his zeal for privatization”
audacious
.
showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks.
“a series of audacious takeovers”
.
showing an impudent lack of respect.
“an audacious remark”
brusque
abrupt or offhand in speech or manner.
“she could be brusque and impatient”
choleric
extremely irritable or easily angered; irascible:
a choleric disposition.
contentious
tending to argument or strife; quarrelsome:
a contentious crew.
causing, involving, or characterized by argument or controversy:
contentious issues.
derisive
ridicule; mockery:
The inept performance elicited derision from the audience.
an object of ridicule.
facetious
not meant to be taken seriously or literally:
a facetious remark.
amusing; humorous.
lacking serious intent; concerned with something nonessential, amusing, or frivolous:
a facetious person.
flippant
frivolously disrespectful, shallow, or lacking in seriousness; characterized by levity:
The audience was shocked by his flippant remarks about patriotism.
haughty
disdainfully proud; scornfully arrogant; snobbish; supercilious:
haughty aristocrats;
a haughty salesclerk.
insipid
without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; vapid:
an insipid personality.
without sufficient taste to be pleasing, as food or drink; bland:
a rather insipid soup.
insolent
boldly rude or disrespectful; contemptuously impertinent; insulting:
an insolent reply.
noun
an insolent person.
lugubrious
mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner:
lugubrious songs of lost love.
pretentious
characterized by assumption of dignity or importance, especially when exaggerated or undeserved:
a pretentious, self-important waiter.
making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious.
sardonic
characterized by bitter or scornful derision; mocking; sneering; cynical;
a sardonic grin.
simpering
affectedly coy or ingratiating.
“she is clearly not a simpering female who can be pushed around”
trying to be friendly and pleasant in a way that appears silly and not sincere.
staid
serious, dull, and rather old-fashioned.
timorous
a specific kind of fearfulness — the kind that strikes people before giving a speech, or walking into a crowded place where people are socializing.
vitriolic
Mean, nasty, and caustic as the worst acid, vitriolic words can hurt feelings, break hearts, and even lead to violence.
