V Words Flashcards
vacillate (v)
hesitate in making a choice
Uncertain which suitor she ought to accept, the princess vacillated, first favoring one, then the other.
variegated (adj)
marked with different colors; varied (in appearance or color)
Without her glasses, Gretchen saw the fields of tulips as a variegated blur.
venerate (v)
regard with esteem
In Tibet today, the common people still venerate their traditional spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
veracious (adj)
habitually honest; accurate in content
Freely admitting that he has chopped down the cherry tree, young George Washington shows himself to be exceptionally veracious: “Father, I cannot tell a lie!”
verbose (adj)
using or containing more words than needed
Someone mute cannot talk; someone verbose can hardly stop talking.
verisimilitude (n)
appearance of being true to life
In an attempt to create verisimilitude, the playwright has incorporated current street slang into his dialogue, including all too many of the usual vulgarities.
vestigial (adj)
relating to visible traces left by something that no longer exists
The ostrich has vestigial wings, appendix-like, the silly things. Why wings? you ask, and so do I. Wings or not, this bird can’t fly.
viable (adj)
capable of success; capable of maintaining life; capable of growth and expansion
That idea won’t work. Let me see whether I can come up with a viable alternative.
virtuosity (n)
extreme ability in an artistic form; masterly skill or technique
Even if I studied the cello for forty years, I could not hope to approach the virtuosity of internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
virulent (adj)
extremely severe; highly noxious; spitefully hostile
Laid up with a virulent case of measles, Vera blamed her doctors because he recover took so long.
viscous (adj)
thick and gummy
Anyone who has ever stepped in hot tar on a summer day knows that melted tar is a highly viscous substance.
vituperative (adj)
consisting of verbal abuse
The quarrelsome fishmongers of London’s Billingsgate Market were so notorious for their coarse, vituperative speech that such speech eventually became referred to as “billingsgate.”
volatile (adj)
evaporating rapidly; tending to explode into violence or to change unexpectedly
Acetone is an extremely volatile liquid; it evaporates instantly.
voluble (adj)
tending to talk easily or rapidly
Excessively voluble speakers suffer from logorrhea: they run off at the mouth a lot!
voracious (adj)
extremely eager; having an enormous appetite
Morgan was an extremely athletic, physically active child; no one could have predicted that he would turn into a voracious reader, happy to bury himself in a book for hours on end.
