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Vocab 6 Flashcards

1
Q

Abjure

A

To renounce or reject solemnly, to recant, to avoid

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2
Q

Adumbrate

A

To foreshadow vaguely or intimate, to suggest or outline sketchily, to obscure or overshadow

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3
Q

Anathema

A

A solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse, accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing

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4
Q

Anodyne

A

Soothing, something that assuages or allays pain or comforts
“She had even refused anodynes”

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5
Q

Apogee

A

Farthest or highest point, culmination, zenith
“The White House is considered the apogee of American achievement”

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6
Q

Apostate

A

One who abandons long held religious or political convictions
“After 50 years as an apostate, he returned to the faith”

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7
Q

Apotheosis

A

Deification, glorification to godliness, an exalted example, a model of excellence or perfection

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8
Q

Asperity

A

Severity, rigor, roughness, harshness, acrimony, irritability

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9
Q

Asseverate

A

To aver, allege, or assert

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10
Q

Assiduous

A

Diligent, hard working, sedulous
“She was assiduous in pointing out every feature”

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11
Q

Augury

A

Omen, portent
“They heard the sound as an augury of death”

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12
Q

Bellicose

A

Belligerent, pugnacious, warlike

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13
Q

Calumniate

A

To slander, to make a false accusation
“Foes were calumniating him in the press”

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14
Q

Captious

A

Disposed to point out trivial faults, calculated to confuse or entrap in argument
“A captious teacher”

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15
Q

Cavil

A

To find fault without good reason
“They caviled at the cost”

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16
Q

Celerity

A

Speed, alacrity, think accelerate

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17
Q

Chimera

A

An illusion. Originally, an imaginary fire breathing monster

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18
Q

Contumacious

A

Insubordinate, rebellious
“His refusal to make child support payments was contumacious”

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19
Q

Debacle

A

Rout, fiasco, complete failure

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20
Q

Denouement

A

An outcome or solution, the unraveling of a plot
“The film’s denouement was unsatisfying and ambiguous”

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21
Q

Descry

A

To catch sight of

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22
Q

Desuetude

A

Disuse
“The docks fell into desuetude”

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23
Q

Desultory

A

Random, aimless, marked by a lack of plan or purpose

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24
Q

Diaphanous

A

Transparent, gauzy

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25
Diffident
Reserved, shy, unassuming, lacking in self confidence
26
Dirge
A song of grief or lamentation
27
Encomium
Glowing and enthusiastic praise, panegyric, tribute, eulogy
28
Eschew
To shun or avoid
29
Excoriate
To censure scathingly, to criticize severely "He was excoriated as a racist"
30
Execrate
To denounce, to feel loathing for, to curse, to declare to be evil "they were execrated as dangerous and corrupt"
31
Exegesis
Critical examination, explication "The task of biblical exegesis"
32
Expiate
To atone or make amends for
33
Extirpate
To destroy, to exterminate, to cut out, to exscind "The use of every legal measure to extirpate this horrible evil from the land"
34
Fatuous
Silly, inanely foolish "A fatuous comment"
35
Fractious
Quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable
36
Gainsay
To deny, to dispute, to contradict, to oppose "None could gainsay her"
37
Heterodox
Unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic
38
Imbroglio
Difficult or embarrassing situation "The Watergate imbroglio"
39
Indefatigable
Not easily exhaustible, tireless, dogged
40
Ineluctable
Certain, inevitable "The ineluctable facts of history"
41
Inimitable
One of a kind, peerless
42
Insouciant
Unconcerned, carefree, fearless "An insouciant shrug"
43
Inveterate
Deep rooted, ingrained, habitual "He was an inveterate gambler"
44
Jejune
Vapid, uninteresting, nugatory, childish, immature "Their entirely predictable and usually jejune opinions"
45
Lubricious
Lewd, greasy, slippery, offensively displaying sexual desire
46
Mendicant
A beggar, supplicant
47
Meretricious
Cheap, gaudy, flashy, attracting by false show
48
Minatory
Menacing, threatening (think of the minotaur)
49
Nadir
Low point
50
Nonplussed
Baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think
51
Obstreperous
Noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous
52
Ossified
Tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age. Literally, turned to bone
53
Palliate
To make something less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense
54
Panegyric
Formal praise, eulogy, encomium
55
Parsimonious
Cheap, miserly "Even the parsimonious joe paid for drinks all around"
56
Pellucid
Transparent, easy to understand, limpid "He writes, as always, in pellucid prose"
57
Peroration
The concluding part of a speech, flowery, rhetorical speech
58
Plangent
Pounding, thundering, resounding
59
Prolix
Long winded, verbose "He found the narrative too prolix"
60
Propitiate
To appease, to conciliate
61
Puerile
Childish, immature, jejune
62
Puissance
Power, strength "She saps my puissance"
63
Pusillanimous
Cowardly, craven "He's too pusillanimous to stand up to his opponents"
64
Remonstrate
To protest, to object
65
Sagacious
Having sound judgment, perceptive, wise, like a sage
66
Salacious
Lustful, lascivious, bawdy
67
Salutary
Remedial, wholesome, causing improvement "A salutary reminder of where we came from"
68
Sanguine
Cheerful, confident, optimistic
69
Saturnine
Gloomy, dark, sullen, morose "A saturnine temperament"
70
Sententious
Aphoristic or moralistic, epigrammatic, tending to moralize excessively, moralizing in a pompous manner "He tried to encourage his men with sententious rhetoric"
71
Stentorian
Extremely loud and powerful
72
Stygian
Gloomy, dark
73
Sycophant
Servile, self seeking flatterer, parasite, a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage "Because he is high ranking, he is surrounded by sycophants"
74
Tendentious
Biased, showing marked tendencies "A tendentious reading of history"
75
Timorous
Timid, fearful, diffident
76
Tyro
Novice, greenhorn, rank amateur
77
Vitiate
To corrupt, to debase, to spoil, to make ineffective
78
Voluble
Fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language

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