Word List 34

Question 1

sophistry

Answer 1

subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation

Question 2

soporific

Answer 2

causing or tending to cause sleep
tending to dull awareness or alertness

e.g. the soporific heat of summer

Question 3

sopping

Answer 3

wet through; soaking

Question 4

sordid

Answer 4

marked by baseness or grossness; vile
dirty, filthy
meanly avaricious; covetous

e.g. sordid details of his past

Question 5

sow

Answer 5

an adult female swine
to plant seed for growth especially by scattering
to set something in motion; begin an enterprise

e.g. sow corn
The new policy has sown confusion and doubt.
We walked through a valley sown with boulders.

Question 6

spackle

Answer 6

to apply crack-filling paste to

Question 7

spar

Answer 7

box

skirmish, wrangle

Question 8

sparse

Answer 8

of few and scattered elements; especially, not thickly grown or settled

Question 9

spartan

Answer 9

a person of great courage and self-discipline
marked by strict self-discipline or self-denial
marked by simplicity, frugality, or avoidance of luxury and comfort
laconic
undaunted by pain or danger

e.g. a spartan athlete/room

Question 10

spat

Answer 10

a brief petty quarrel or angry outburst
to quarrel pettily or briefly

e.g. lovers’ spat
spat over money more than anything else

Question 11

spate

Answer 11

freshet, flood
a large number or amount
a sudden or strong outburst; rush

e.g. a spate of books on gardening
a spate of anger

Question 12

spawn

Answer 12

to produce or deposit
bring forth, generate

e.g. The health-food craze spawned a multimillion-dollar industry.

Question 13

specious

Answer 13

having deceptive attraction or allure
having a false look of truth or genuineness; sophistic

e.g. a specious argument that really does not stand up under close examination

Question 14

specter

Answer 14

a visible disembodied spirit; ghost
something that haunts or perturbs the mind; phantasm

e.g. feeling so terrified that every shadow became a specter
the specter of hunger

Question 15

spell

Answer 15

an indeterminate period of time

e.g. wait a spell before continuing

Question 16

spendthrift

Answer 16

a person who spends improvidently or wastefully

also

Question 17

spindly

Answer 17

of a disproportionately tall or long and thin appearance that often suggests physical weakness
frail or flimsy in appearance or structure

e.g. spindly, underfed dogs roamed the poverty-stricken village

Question 18

spite

Answer 18

petty ill will or hatred with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart

e.g. spread cruel lies out of pure spite

Question 19

spleen

Answer 19

feelings of anger or ill will often suppressed

e.g. The bill’s failure to pass in the legislature was due to nothing more than partisan spleen.

Question 20

splice

Answer 20

to unite, link, or insert as if by splicing

e.g. splice a human gene for insulin into a bacterium

Question 21

splurge

Answer 21

an ostentatious effort, display, or expenditure
to indulge oneself extravagantly (oft. used with on)

e.g. the annual pre-Christmas splurge
I’d splurged about $2,500 on clothes.

Question 22

spoke

Answer 22

one of the bars that connect the center of a wheel to the rim

Question 23

spoof

Answer 23

deceive, hoax
to make good-natured fun of
hoax, deception
a light humorous parody

e.g. They proceeded to spoof Western intelligence with false information.
It is a movie that spoofs other movies.

Question 24

sporadic

Answer 24

occurring occasionally, singly, or in irregular or random instances

Question 25

sport

Answer 25

to amuse oneself; frolic
to mock or ridicule something
to display or wear usually ostentatiously; boast

e.g. sporting expensive new shoes

Question 26

sprawling

Answer 26

spreading or developing irregularly or without restraint

e.g. bushes sprawling along the road
a sprawling narrative

Question 27

sprig

Answer 27

a small shoot; twig
heir; youth

e.g. a sprig of the French nobility

Question 28

sprightly

Answer 28

marked by a gay lightness and vivacity; spirited
having a distinctively piquant taste; zesty

e.g. a sprightly musical/salsa

Question 29

spruce

Answer 29

to make spruce
neat or smart in appearance; trim

e.g. a slim, spruce man in a tailor-made business suit
spruce himself up a bit

Question 30

spurious

Answer 30

outwardly similar or corresponding to something without having its genuine qualities; false
of a deceitful nature or quality

e.g. the spurious eminence of the pop celebrity
spurious excuses

Question 31

squalid

Answer 31

marked by filthiness and degradation from neglect or poverty

sordid

Question 32

squall

Answer 32

to cry out raucously; scream
to utter in a strident voice
a sudden violent wind often with rain or snow
a short-lived commotion

Question 33

squalor

Answer 33

• squalid

e. g. shocked by the squalor of their surroundings

Question 34

squander

Answer 34

to spend extravagantly or foolishly; dissipate, waste
to cause to disperse; scatter

e.g. squander this opportunity / squander money

Question 35

square

Answer 35

to regulate or adjust by or to some standards or principle
balance, settle
to set right; bring into agreement

e.g. square our actions by the opinions of others
square an account
square their goals with their beliefs

Question 36

squash

Answer 36

to press or beat into a pulp or a flat mass; crush
put down, suppress

e.g. squash a revolt

Question 37

squelch

Answer 37

to completely suppress; quell
silence

e.g. squelch resistance / protesters

Question 38

staid

Answer 38

marked by settled sedateness and often prim self-restraint; sober, grave

e.g. a staid and solemn businessman

Question 39

stalemate

Answer 39

a drawn contest; deadlock; also, the state of being stalemated

Question 40

stalwart

Answer 40

marked by outstanding strength and vigor of body, mind, or spirit

e.g. stalwart soldiers
stalwart common sense

Question 41

stanch

Answer 41

to check or stop the flowing of

e.g. stancher her tears
stanch the crime wave

Question 42

staple

Answer 42

a place of supply; source
a chief commodity or production of a place
used, needed, or enjoyed constantly usually by many individuals
produced regularly or in large quantities
principal, chief

e.g. a staple plot in mystery

Question 43

stark

Answer 43

rigid in or as if in death; rigidly conforming
utter, sheer
barren, desolate; bare
harsh, blunt

e.g. stark discipline
stark simplicity / a stark white room
the start realities of death

Question 44

statuary

Answer 44

sculptor
the art of making statues
a collection of statues

e.g. a fine example of late Renaissance statuary

Question 45

statute

Answer 45

a law enacted by the legislative branch of a government

a permanent rule

Question 46

statutory

Answer 46

• statute

e. g. a statutory age limit

Question 47

steadfast

Answer 47

firmly fixed in place; immovable
not subject to change
firm in belief, determination, or adherence; loyal

e.g. steadfast in his support for the policies

Question 48

stem

Answer 48

to check or go counter to (something adverse)

Question 49

stench

Answer 49

stink

a characteristic repugnant quality

Question 50

stencil

Answer 50

a piece of paper, metal, etc., that has a design, letter, etc., cut out of it
something that is produced by means of a stencil

e.g. The walls of the living room had a delicate vine stencil drawn on them.

Question 51

stentorian

Answer 51

extremely loud

Question 52

stickler

Answer 52

one who insists on exactness or completeness in the observance of something
something that baffles or puzzles; poser, sticker

e.g. a stickler for rules

Question 53

stifle

Answer 53

suffocate
smother, muffle
to withhold from circulation or expression
deter, discourage

e.g. stifle a cry / stifle anger

Question 54

stilted

Answer 54

pompous, lofty
formal, stiff

e.g. The conversation was somewhat stilted as we didn’t seem to share any interests.
a stilted letter of apology that was written and accepted with equal measures of insincerity

Question 55

stint

Answer 55

to be sparing or frugal
to restrict with respect to a share or allowance

e.g. not stinting with their praise
stint herself of luxuries

Question 56

stipple

Answer 56

to engrave by means of dots and flicks 
to apply (as paint) by repeated small touches 
speckle, fleck

Question 57

stipulate

Answer 57

to specify as a condition or requirement

e.g. The cease-fire was stipulated by the treaty.

Question 58

stock

Answer 58

commonly used or brought forward; standard

e.g. the stock answer

Question 59

stockade

Answer 59

a line of stout posts set firmly to form a defense
an enclosure

e.g. prisoners of war confined in a stockade

Question 60

stocky

Answer 60

compact, sturdy, and relatively thick in build

Question 61

stodgy

Answer 61

boring, dull
extremely old-fashioned; hidebound

e.g. The sitcom was offbeat and interesting in its first season, but has since become predictable and stodgy.
received a pompously Victorian letter from his stodgy father

Question 62

stonewall

Answer 62

to be uncooperative, obstructive, or evasive

e.g. stonewall for time
stonewall the media

Question 63

stout

Answer 63

strong of character
physically or materially strong
forceful; also, violent

e.g. a stout heart
a stout defense

Question 64

stowaway

Answer 64

someone who hides on a ship, airplane, etc., in order to travel without paying or being seen

Question 65

strand

Answer 65

to leave in a strange or an unfavorable place especially without funds or means to depart

Question 66

stratum

Answer 66

one of usually many layers of a substance (such as a rock)
a level of society made up of people of the same rank or position

e.g. deep stratum of skin
The lower strata of society have been hit especially hard by this economic downturn.
The level of writing in that pop novel is several strata beneath that of serious fiction.

Question 67

strew

Answer 67

to spread by scattering
disseminate

e.g. strewing the highways with litter

Question 68

strident

Answer 68

characterized by harsh, insistent, and discordant sound
commanding attention by a loud or obtrusive quality

e.g. a strident voice / strident slogans

Question 69

strife

Answer 69

bitter sometimes violent conflict or dissension
exertion or contention for superiority

e.g. In order to avoid family strife
bitter strife between the two political factions