Week 4 Flashcards
attuned
(adj)
uh-TOON’d
Definition: In harmony; in sympathetic relationship
Usage: Research shows that new mothers are keenly attuned to their babies’ cries;
even those who were formerly heavy sleepers often find that they now wake up
immediately when their babies need attention. / In the sixth week of Melanie’s
foreign study program, she finally attuned herself to life on a French farm.
More Info: Attuned is almost always followed by “to.”
augury
(noun)
AWG-yer-ee
Also augur (noun)
Definition: Telling the future, such as through supernatural means
Usage: Value investors such as Warren Buffet (who attempt to buy shares in
undervalued companies by analyzing the businesses themselves) consider others’
attempts to “time the market” as mere augury, equivalent to trying to predict rain
by reading tea leaves.
Related Words: Prognosticate and Presage also mean to tell the future.
More Info: An augur or auspex in ancient Rome interpreted omens (sometimes by
reading bird entrails) to help guide the making of public decisions.
august
(adj)
AW-gust
Definition: Venerable, majestic; inspiring admiration
Usage: “I welcome you to this august institution, where Presidents and Nobel Prize
winners have received the fruits of erudition,” said the university president (rather
bombastically) to the new crop of first-year students.
Related Words: Eminent (prominent, distinguished, of high rank), Venerable
(worthy of deep respect, hallowed, dignified), Olympian (majestic, superior, lofty)
More Info: Emperor Octavian, or Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (an heir to Julius
Caesar) was given the name Caesar Augustus upon taking the throne in 27 B.C.
avarice
(noun)
AV-er-iss
Definition: Insatiable greed; a miserly desire to hoard wealth
Usage: It is hard to fathom the sheer avarice of a company that would fraudulently
overcharge a struggling school system for new computers.
Related Words: Cupidity (avarice or other excessive desire), Covetousness (greed),
Rapacity or Rapaciousness (greedy or grasping; living on prey)
axiom
(noun)
ACK-see-um
Also axiomatic (adj)
Definition: Self-evident truth requiring no proof; universally or generally accepted
principle
Usage: Given the last decade of research into the brain—as well as our own
experience trying to function while deprived of sleep or food—we must take as
axiomatic that the brain is influenced by the body.
Related Words: Maxim (short statement of general truth, proverb), Postulate (self-
evident proposition, such as in math)
More Info: When we say something is axiomatic, we mean that it must be true, in
the way that 2+2 must equal 4, or all squares must have four sides.
balloon
(verb)
buh-LOON
Definition: Swell or puff out; increase rapidly
Usage: During the dot-com bubble, the university’s investments ballooned to three
times their former value.
Related Words: Distend (swell, expand), Turgid or Tumid (swollen, inflated; or,
metaphorically “inflated,” such as in overblown, pompous speech)
More Info: In finance, a balloon payment is a single payment at the end of a loan or
mortgage term that is much larger than the other payments.
banal
(adj)
buh-NAL
Definition: Lacking freshness and originality; cliché
Usage: The drama professor despaired at reading another banal play from his
uninspired students. “Oh look,” he said sarcastically, “yet another young person has
decided to write a play about a young person breaking free of society’s constraints.
Can you see me yawning?”
Related Words: Hackneyed, Inane, Insipid and Trite all mean “lacking freshness
and originality, shallow”
More Info: Banal comes from the Old French “ban,” a word for compulsory feudal
service—that is, something common to everyone. It’s not hard to see how the
meaning of “common” could change to “old, stale, and boring” over time.
bane
(noun)
BAYN
Also baneful (adj)
Definition: Something that ruins or spoils
Usage: Mosquitoes are the bane of my existence! They just love me, and by “love”
I mean ruin my summer! / The closure of the hospital could not have been more
baneful to the already strained community.
Related Words: The opposite of bane is boon, a benefit or blessing. The words are
often used together to ask a question, as in “The new regulations: bane or boon?”
More Info: Bane can also mean poison, usually as part of more specific names, like
wolfsbane or fleabane. Don’t confuse baneful (destructive, ruinous) with baleful,
which means threatening.
baying
(adj)
BAY-ing
Also bay (verb)
Definition: Howling in a deep way, like a dog or wolf
Usage: The lonely dog bayed all night. / The mob bayed for the so-called traitors to
be put to death.
More Info: Bay comes from an Old French word meant to actually sound like the
baying of an animal. In a related expression, when a person is “at bay” or “brought
to bay,” that means that the person is in a captured position, powerless and unable
to flee.
beneficent
(adj)
ben-EFF-iss-ent
Definition: Doing good
Usage: The billionaire had been a mean and stingy fellow, but after his death, his
beneficent widow gave all his money to charity, even accompanying the donations
with handwritten notes thanking the charities for all the good work they did.
Related Words: Benevolent (expressing goodwill, helping others or charity),
Eleemosynary (charitable)
More Info: The Latin root “bene” means “good,” and “fic” means “making or
producing.” The antonym of beneficent is maleficent (“mal” means “bad”).
artless
(adj)
ART-less
Definition: Free of deceit or craftiness, natural, genuine; lacking skill or knowledge, crude, uncultured
Usage: Children can be so artless that, when you try to explain war to them, they say things like, “But
isn’t that mean?”/ His artless attempt at negotiating a raise began with “I need more money, please” and
ended with “Okay, sorry I asked.”
Related Words: Guileless, Ingenuous (synonyms)
More Info: Don’t think of artless as a lack of art—think of it as a lack of artifice, or artificiality. Artless
can be either positive (free of deceit) or negative (lacking skill).
ascertain
(verb)
ass-er-TAYN
Definition: Find out with certainty
Usage: Hopefully, the investigation will allow us to ascertain who is at fault here.
Related Words: Discern (perceive or recognize; tell two or more things apart), Descry (discover, see by
looking carefully)
More Info: Ascertain is easy to remember—it means “make certain” and has the word “certain”
contained inside it.
ascetic
(adj, noun)
uh-SET-ick
Also asceticism (noun)
Definition: abstinent or austere in lifestyle (adj); a person who leads an austere and simple life without
material pleasures, esp. someone who does this for religious reasons
Usage: Ascetics such as monks actually take vows of poverty. / The graduate student lived an ascetic
existence, her apartment containing only a futon couch and a single bowl and set of chopsticks, which she
used to eat ramen noodles every night.
Related Words: Hermit or Anchorite (person who lives away from society, esp. for religious reasons),
Recluse (person who lives in solitude)
More Info: Don’t confuse ascetic with aesthetic, which means “pertaining to beauty or good taste.”
assuage
(verb)
uh-SWAY-zh
Definition: Make milder, relieve; soothe, pacify, or calm
Usage: After losing a million-dollar account, he tried to assuage his furious boss by pointing out that he
was close to winning a new account worth at least as much.
Related Words: Placate, Mollify, and Appease are near-synonyms
More Info: Assuage shares a Latin root (meaning “sweet”) with suave, which today means smoothly
agreeable or polite.
audacious
(adj)
aw-DAY-shuss
Definition: Very bold or brave, often in a rude or reckless way; extremely original
Usage: He audaciously asked for a raise after working at the company for less than two months!
Related Words: Insolent (bold in a rude way), Brazen (shameless, contemptuously bold)
More Info: Barack Obama wrote a book called The Audacity of Hope. The title suggests that Americans
should be bold enough to have hope even in bad circumstances. Audacious can be good (audacious
explorers) or bad, as in the employee in the sentence above.
augment
(verb)
awg-MENT
Definition: Make larger
Usage: If you memorize the definitions on all of these flashcards, you will have notably augmented your
vocabulary!
Related Words: Aggrandize (make greater; exaggerate)
More Info: Augment shares a root (“augere,” to increase) with august, meaning “majestic, inspiring
reverence.”
austere
(adj)
aw-STEER
Also austerity (noun)
Definition: Severe in manner or appearance; very self-disciplined, ascetic; without luxury or ease; sober
or serious
Usage: Her design sense was so minimalist as to be austere; all-white walls, hard, wooden furniture, not
a single picture, throw pillow, or cozy comfort anywhere. / The graduation speaker delivered an austere
message: the economy is bad, and academic success alone isn’t enough to succeed in the job market.
Related Words: Ascetic (pertaining to a simple, austere life with no luxuries, such as that of a monk; a
person who leads such a life)
autonomous
(adj)
aw-TAH-nuh-muss
Also autonomy (noun)
Definition: Self-governing, independent
Usage: As leader of an autonomous region, the newly-elected president was received as a peer by some
world leaders, although he was not entitled to send a representative to the United Nations. / It is normal
for young people to desire greater autonomy as they grow up.
Related Words: Fiat (dictate or authoritative order, as in “The king rules by fiat.”), Hegemony (domination,
authority; influence by one country over others socially, culturally, economically, etc.)
More Info: An autonomous region, such as Iraqi Kurdistan, is independent, but not considered its own
country.
aver
(verb)
uh-VER
Definition: Declare or affirm with confidence
Usage: “Despite your insistence that ethics are completely situational,” said the philosophy professor, “I
aver that the existence of natural rights inevitably leads to certain immutable ethical boundaries.”
More Info: Aver contains the root “ver” (truth), which also appears in verify, veracious, and verisimilitude.
avid
(adj)
AV-id
Also avidity (noun)
Definition: Enthusiastic, dedicated, passionate; excessively desirous
Usage: An avid cyclist, she was on her bike every weekend, and even bought the same bike that Lance
Armstrong last used in the Tour de France. / Avid of power, the young Senator compromised every
principle to gain the support—and money—of large corporations.
Related Words: Ardent (very passionate), Zealous (full of fervor or dedicated enthusiasm for a cause,
person, etc.)
