Word List Of S Flashcards
Sacrilege (SAK ruh lij)
Noun
A violation of something sacred; blasphemy
The members of the fundamentalist believed that dancing and going to the movies were sacrileges
Saccharine (SAK uh rin)
Adjective
Sweet; excessively or disgustingly sweet
The love story was so saccharine that I vowed never to see another sappy, predictable movie again
Sacrosanct ( SAK roh sangkt)
Adjective
Sacred; held to be inviolable
A church or a temple is sacrosanct
Sagacious (suh GAY shus)
Adjective
Discerning; shrewd; keen in judgement
Sagacious, sagacity and sage
Salient (SAYL yunt)
Adjective
Sticking out; conspicuous; leaping
A salient characteristic is one that leaps right out at you
Salutary (SAL yuh ter ee)
Adjective
Healthy; remedial; curative
Lowered blood pressure is among the salutary effects of exercise
Sanctimonious (sang tuh MOH née us)
Adjective
Pretending to be devout; affecting religious feeling
Simon is an egoist who speaks about almost nothing but caring for one’s fellow man. His altruism is sanctimonious
Sanguine (SANG gwin)
Adjective
Cheerful; optimistic; hopeful
Don’t confuse sanguine ( a nice word) with sanguinary (not a nice word). Sanguinary means bloodthirsty
Sardonic (sahr DAHN ik)
Adjective
Mocking; scornful
Isabella’s weak attempts at humor were met by nothing but a few scattered pockets of sardonic laughter
Scintillate (SIN tuh layt)
Verb
To sparkle, either literally or figuratively
Stars and diamonds scintillate
Scrupulous ( SKROO pyuh lus)
Adjective
Strict; careful; hesitant for ethical reasons
Leela was scrupulous in keeping her accounts; she know where every penny came from and where every penny went
Scrutinize ( SKROOT uh nyze)
Verb
To examine very carefully
Antonym
Inscrutable
Secular ( SEK yuh lur)
Adjective
Having nothing to do with religion or spiritual concerns
Sedition (si DISH un)
Noun
Treason ; the incitement of public disorder or rebellion
Segregate ( SEG ruh gayt)
Verb
To separate
Rico kept his prize winning poodle, Fluffy, segregated from males until her 13th birthday
Sensory (SEN suh ree)
Adjective
Having to do with the senses or sensation
Babies enjoy bright colors, moving objects, pleasant sounds, and other forms of sensory stimulation
Sentient (SEN shunt)
Adjective
Able to perceive by the senses; conscious Human beings are sentient. Rocks are not
Sequester ( si KWES tur)
Verb
To set or keep apart
The struggling writer sequestered himself in his study for several months, trying to produce the great American novel
Serendipity ( ser un DIP uh tee)
Noun
Accidental good fortune; discovering good things without looking for them
Servile
Adjective
Submissive and subservient; like a servant
Singular (SING gyuh lur)
Adjective
Unique; superior; exceptional; strange
Sinister ( SIN ih stur)
Adjective
Evil, wicked, foreshadowing evil, trouble or wickedness
Slander
Verb
To speak badly about someone publicly; to defame ; to spread malicious rumor
Sloth ( slawth)
Noun
Laziness; sluggishness
Sobriety ( suh BRYE uh tee)
Noun
The state of being sober; seriousness
Solicitous ( suh LIS uh tus)
Adjective
Eager and attentive, often to the point of hovering; anxiously caring or attentive
Noun is solicitude
Solvent ( SAHL vunt)
Adjective
Not broke or bankrupt; able to pay one’s bills
I don’t want to be a millionaire all I want to be a solvent
Soporific ( saph uh RIF ik)
Adjective
Sleep inducing; boring; sleepy
The doctor calmed his hysterical patient by injecting him with some sort of soporific medication.
Sordid ( SOR did)
Adjective
Vile; filthy; squalid
The college roommates led a sordid existence, surrounded by dirty laundry, rotting garbage, and body odor
Spawn ( spawn)
Verb
To bring forth; to produce a large number
A best selling book or blockbuster movie will spawn dozens of imitators.
Specious ( SPEE shus)
Adjective
Deceptively plausible or attractive
The river’s beauty turned to be specious; what had looked like churning rapids from a distance was, on closer inspection, some sort of foamy industrial waste
Sporadic (spuh RAD ik)
Adjective
Stopping and starting, scattered, occurring in busts every once in a while
Sporadic warfare between India and Pakistan
Spurious ( SPYOOR ee us)
Adjective
False; fake
An apocryphal story is one who truth is uncertain, and spurious story is false out and out.
Squalor ( SKWAHL ur)
Noun
Filth; wretched, degraded, or repulsive living conditions
If people live in squalor for too long, the ruling elite can count on an insurgency
Squander
Verb
To waste
Squandered money in useless stuff
Stagnation
Noun
Motionless; inactivity
Static
Adjective
Stationary; not changing or moving
Sales of the new book soared for a few weeks then became static
Staunch
Adjective
Firmly committed; firmly in favor; steadfast
Steadfast
Adjective
Loyal; faithful
Stigmatize
Verb
To brand with disgrace; to set a mark of disgrace upon
Stipulate ( STIP yuh layt)
Verb
To require something as part of an agreement
You are well advised to stipulate certain conditions that must be met if guarantee is to be valid
Stoic (STOH ik)
Adjective
Indifferent ( at least outwardly) to pleasure or pain to joy or grief, to fortune or misfortune
Stratum ( STRAT um)
Noun
A layer; a level
The middle class is one stratum of society
Stricture (STRIK chur)
Noun
A restriction; a limitation; a negative criticism
The unfavorable lease placed many strictures on how the building could be used
Strife
Noun
Bitter conflict; discord; a struggle or clash
Stringent ( STRIN junt)
Adjective
Strict; restrictive
Stringent dress code of official dinner
Stymie ( STYE mee)
Verb
To thwart; to get in the way of; to hinder
Boss stymied Ali’s efforts to make his name
Subjugate
Verb
To subdue and dominate; to enslave
The tyrant subjugated all the peasants living in the kingdom; once free, they were now forced to do his bidding
Sublime
Adjective
Awesome; extremely exalted; majestic
Don’t confuse sublime with subliminal which means subconscious, or sublimate, which means to suppress one’s subconscious mind
Subordinate ( suh BOR duh nit)
Adjective
Lower in importance
Substantive ( SUB Stan stiv)
Adjective
Having substance; real; essential; solid; substantial
Subtle ( SUT ul)
Adjective
Not obvious; able to make distinctions; ingenious; crafty
Jim’s subtle mind enables him to see past problems that confuses the rest of us
Subversive (sub VUR siv)
Adjective
Corrupting; overthrowing; undermining; insurgent
Madeline’s efforts to teach her first grade students to read were thwarted by that most subversive of inventions, the television set
Succinct ( suk SINGKT)
Adjective
Brief and to the point; concise
We were given so little room in which to write on the examination that we had no choice but to keep our essays succinct
Succumb ( suh KUM)
Verb
To yield or submit; to die
The Martians in The War of the Worlds survived every military weapon known to man but succumbed to the common cold
Supercilious ( soo pur SIL ee us)
Adjective
Haughty; patronizing
The supercilious Rolls Royce salesman treated us like peasants until we opened our suitcase full of one hundred dollars bills
Superficial ( soo Pur FISH ul)
Adjective
One the surface only; shallow; not thorough
Tom had indeed been shot, but the wound was superficial ; the bullet had merely creased the tip of his nose
Superfluous ( soo PUR floo us)
Adjective
Extra; unnecessary; redundant
Roughly 999 of the 1000 page book’s pages were superfluous.
Surfeit ( SUR fit)
Noun
Excess; an excessive amount; excess or overindulgence in eating or drinking
Thanksgiving meals are usually a surfeit for everyone involved
Surreptitious (sur up TISH us)
Adjective
Sneaky; secret
The dinner guest surreptitiously slipped a few silver spoons into his jacket as he was leaving the dinning room
Surrogate ( SUR uh git)
Adjective
Substitute
A kind parent offered to go to prison as a surrogate for his son who had been convicted of extortion
Sycophant ( SIK uh funt)
Noun
One who sucks up to others
The French class seemed to be full of sycophants; the students were always bringing apples to the teacher telling her how nice she looked
Synthesis
Noun
The combining of parts to form a whole
