Week 1

Question 0

Inference, guesswork.

Answer 0

Conjecture (At this point, Kimaya’s hypothesis about single-cell biorhythms is still conjecture: She doesn’t have conclusive evidence.)

Question 1

Completely honest, straightforward.

Answer 1

Candid (Candace’s candidness overwhelmed her business colleagues, who were not used to such honesty.)

Question 2

Instructive

Answer 2

Didactic (The tapes were entertaining and didactic; they both amused and instructed children.)

Question 3

Showing excessive emotion; overflowing.

Answer 3

Effusive (Accepting his Oscar for Best Supporting Sound Editor, Ben delivered the most effusive speech in Academy Awards history: he cried, he hugged people, he blew kisses to the audiences, and then he cried some more.

Question 4

A mild, indirect, or vague term substituting for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term.

Answer 4

Euphemism (“To pass away” is a common euphemism for dying.)

Question 5

To infer or estimate by extending or or projecting known information.

Answer 5

Extrapolate (Seeing the wrecked bike and his daughter’s skinned knees, Heath extrapolated that she had had a biking accident.

Question 6

Lacking cohesion or connection.

Answer 6

Incoherent (Maury’s sentences were so incoherent that nobody understood a word.)

Question 7

To introduce or communicate stealthily.

Answer 7

Insinuate (Sean insinuated that Grace stole the arsenic, but he never came out and said it.)

Question 8

Very talkative.

Answer 8

Loquacious (I’m not eloquent, so I’ll just come out and say it: Bobby is loquacious and will talk, and talk, and talk.)

Question 9

Easily understood, clear.

Answer 9

Our teacher provides lucid explanations of even the most difficult concepts so that we can all understand them.)

Question 10

The art of using language effectively and persuasively.

Answer 10

Rhetoric (Since they are expected to make speeches, most politicians and lawyers are well-versed in that art of rhetoric.)

Question 11

Quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgement or insight.

Answer 11

Acumen (Judge Ackerman’s legal acumen was so well regarded that he was nicknamed the “Solomon of the South.”)

Question 12

Dexterous; deft.

Answer 12

Adroit (An android balloon–animal artist, Adriana became popular at children’s parties.)

Question 13

To find out, as through investigation or experimentation.

Answer 13

Ascertain (the private investigator had long suspected my dog; before long, he ascertained that Toto was indeed the murder.)

Question 14

Shrewd; clever.

Answer 14

Astute (Stewart is financially astute; he invests wisely and never falls for scams.)

Question 15

Careful; prudent; discreet.

Answer 15

Circumspect (Ned’s circumspect manner makes him a wise appointment to the diplomatic corps.)

Question 16

To scatter widely, as in sowing seed.

Answer 16

Disseminate (the news about Dave’s embarrassing moment at the party disseminated quickly through the school; by the end of the day, everyone knew what had happened.)

Question 17

Deep, extensive learning.

Answer 17

Erudition (Prof. Rudy’s erudition was such that she could answer any question her students put to her.)

Question 18

Excessively concerned with book learning and formal rules.

Answer 18

Pedantic (Pedro’s pedantic tendencies prompted him to remind us constantly of all the grammatical rules we were breaking.)

Question 19

Shrewd; clear-sighted,

Answer 19

Perspicacious (Persephone’s perspicacious mom had solved so many cases but the popular private investigator was able to retire.).

Question 20

Practical.

Answer 20

Pragmatic (never one for wild and unrealistic schemes, Matt told a pragmatic approach to research.)

Question 21

Exhibiting unusually early intellectual aptitude or maturity.

Answer 21

precocious (Bobby Fisher’s precocious intellect made him one of the world best the chess players before he could even drive.)

Question 22

Very productive; producing great quantities.

Answer 22

Prolific (Charles Harold St. John Hamilton was the world’s most prolific author; it is estimated he wrote the equivalent of 1000 novels.)

Question 23

Formal proposal.

Answer 23

Prospectus (before writing my thesis, I had to submit a detailed prospectus to the department for approval.)

Question 24

Basic; elementary; in the earliest stages of development.

Answer 24

Rudimentary (Josh’s rudimentary golf skills were easily overpowered by Tiger Woods’ amazing performance on the green.)

Question 25

Difficult to understand.

Answer 25

Abstruse (Abby found her professor’s lecture on non-Euclidean geometry abstruse; she doubted anyone else in class understood it either.)

Question 26

Emotionally hardened; unfeeling.

Answer 26

Callous (Cally’s callous remark about her friends cluttered room really hurt his feelings.)

Question 27

Intricate; complex.

Answer 27

Convoluted (the directions were so convoluted that we became hopelessly lost.)

Question 28

Having lost faith or loyalty; discontent.

Answer 28

Disaffected (the disaffected cat trainer finally quit his job when he realized you just can’t train cats, no matter how much you yell at them.)

Question 29

A puzzle, mystery, or riddle.

Answer 29

Enigma (the emu was an enigma; you could never tell what it was thinking.)

Question 30

Difficult to fathom or understand, impenetrable.

Answer 30

Inscrutable (the ancient poet’s handwriting was so in inscrutable that even the most prominent Latin scholars could not read the manuscript.)

Question 31

Inclined to keep silent; reserved.

Answer 31

Reticent (Roseanna’s reticent behavior caused the interviewer to think her incapable of conversing with other students.)

Question 32

Unemotional; serious.

Answer 32

Staid (Mr. Estado was well known for his staid demeanor; he stayed calm even when everyone else celebrated the team’s amazing victory.)

Question 33

Known or understood by only a few.

Answer 33

Arcane (the dusty archive includes an arcane treasure trove of nautical charts from the age of discovery.)

Question 34

To absorb or become absorbed; to make or become similar.

Answer 34

Assimilate (Keisha assimilated so quickly to a new school that she was named head of the social committee a month after enrolling.)

Question 35

Independence; self-determination.

Answer 35

Autonomy (Candace gained autonomy upon moving out of her parents house and into her own apartment.)

Question 36

Worldly; widely sophisticated.

Answer 36

Cosmopolitan (Ingo was surprisingly cosmopolitan considering that she had never left her tiny hometown in Norway.)

Question 37

Something that comes from another source.

Answer 37

Derivatives (noun) (Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent are derivatives of the original Law and Order drama series.)

Question 38

Intended for or understood by only a small group.

Answer 38

Esoteric (Esme’s play is extremely esoteric; someone not raised in Estonia would find it difficult to follow.)

Question 39

A clumsy social error; a faux pas.

Answer 39

Gaffe (Jeff committed the gaffe of telling his date that he had gone out with her sister the night before.)

Question 40

Characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.

Answer 40

Idiosyncrasy (she had so many idiosyncrasies, one of which was washing her socks in the dishwasher.)

Question 41

Isolated; narrow or provincial.

Answer 41

Insular (the family was so insular that no one else could get near them.)

Question 42

Adhering to the traditional and established, especially in religion.

Answer 42

Orthodox (my father held an orthodox view of baseball; he believed that the field should be outside and made of real grass.)

Question 43

One who has the power and position to rule over others; Monarch.

Answer 43

Potentate (an omnipotent potentate is a person to be reckoned with; great power in the hands of a great leader is a powerful combination.)

Question 44

To scold, rebuke, or harshly criticize.

Answer 44

Castigate (Mr. Castile preferred not to castigate student misbehavior publicly; instead, he would quietly send the troublemaker to the principals office.)

Question 45

To issue official blame.

Answer 45

Censure (in recent years the FCC has censured networks for the provocative antics of Super Bowl halftime acts; what goes on during the game, however, usually escapes the organization’s notice.)

Question 46

To condemn openly.

Answer 46

Denounce (in many powerful speeches throughout his lifetime, Martin Luther King Jr. denounced racism as immoral.)

Question 47

Seeking or preferring seclusion or isolation.

Answer 47

Reclusive (our neighbors were quite reclusive, hardly ever emerging from behind the closed doors of their home.)

Question 48

To retire from; give up or abandon.

Answer 48

Relinquish (Ricky relinquished his career in order to search for the source of the world’s best relish.)

Question 49

To give up (a title, for example), especially by formal announcement.

Answer 49

Renounced (Nancy renounced her given name and began selling records under the moniker “Boedicia.”)

Question 50

Marked by harshly abusive condemnation.

Answer 50

Vituperative (the vituperative speech was so cruel that the members left feeling completely abused.)

Question 51

To draw a circle around; to restrict.

Answer 51

Circumscribe (the archaeologist circumscribed the excavation area on the map.)

Question 52

Sharing an edge or boundary; touching.

Answer 52

Contiguous (the continental United States consists of 48 contiguous states.)