Vocabulary Flashcards
Assuage
To make something pleasant less severe
He used beer to assuage his sense of despair.
Anomaly
Deviation from what is normal
Enigma
A puzzle; a mystery
Equivocal
Undecided; trying to deceive
The question was a rather equivocal no.
Equivocate
To use expressions of double meaning in order to mislead
A girl equivocated her parents by telling them she was staying at her friends house when yet she stayed with her boyfriend.
Erudite
Learned, scholarly, bookish
The annual meeting of philosophy professors was a gathering of the most erudite individuals in the field.
Fervid
Intensely emotional; feverish
The fans of the band were particularly fervid, doing anything to catch a glimpse of them.
Lucid
Clear and easily understood
The paper was written in a simple and lucid manner.
Opaque
Impossible to see through
Placate
To soothe or pacify
The mom tried to placate the baby by talking to it.
Precipitate
To throw violently or bring about abruptly; lacking deliberation
Upon learning that the couple married after knowing each other only two months, friends and family members expected such a precipitate marriage to end in divorce.
Prodigal
Lavish; wasteful
The prodigal son quickly wasted all of his inheritance on a lavish lifestyle devoted to pleasure.
Zeal
Passion, excitement
Abstain
To choose not to do something
Adulterate
To make impure
Apathy
Lack of interest or emotion
The apathy of voters is so great that less than half the people who are eligible to vote actually bother to do so.
Audacious
Fearless and daring
Capricious
Changing ones mind quickly and often.
The queen was quite capricious, her maids could never be sure which of their number would catch her fancy.
Corroborate
To provide supporting evidence
Desiccate
To dry thoroughly.
After hours outside, the carcass was desiccated.
Engender
To produce, cause, or bring about.
His fear of clowns was engendered when he witnessed the death of his father at the hands of a clown.
Ephemeral
Lasting a short time
The lives of mayflies seem ephemeral to us, since the flies’ average life span is a matter of hours.
Homogenous
Of a similar kind
The class was fairly homogenous since almost all of the students were senior journalism majors.
Laconic
Using few worlds
She was a laconic poet who built her reputation on using words as sparingly as possible.
Laudable
Worthy of praise.
His efforts were laudable.
Loquacious
Talkative
she was naturally loquacious
Mitigate
To soften; to lessen
A judge may mitigate a sentence if she decides that a person committed a crime out of need.
Pendant
Someone who shows off learning.
The graduate students tedious and excessive commentary on the subject soon gained her a reputation as a pendant.
Pragmatic
Practical as opposed to idealistic
Wile daydreaming gamblers think they can get rich by frequenting casinos, pragmatic gamblers realize that the odds are heavily stacked against them.
