Words 3600 - 3800 Flashcards
prepossession
noun
A preconceived liking.
prerogative
adjective
Having superior rank or precedence.
presage
verb
To foretell.
prescience
noun
Knowledge of events before they take place.
prescient
adjective
Foreknowing.
prescript
adjective
Prescribed as a rule or model.
prescriptible
adjective
Derived from authoritative direction.
presentient
adjective
Perceiving or feeling beforehand.
presentiment
noun
Foreboding.
presentment
noun
Semblance.
presumptuous
adjective
Assuming too much.
pretension
noun
A bold or presumptuous assertion.
preternatural
adjective
Extraordinary.
pretext
noun
A fictitious reason or motive.
prevaricate
verb
To use ambiguous or evasive language for the purpose of deceiving or diverting attention.
prickle
verb
To puncture slightly with fine, sharp points.
priggish
adjective
Conceited.
prim
adjective
Stiffly proper.
prima
adjective
First.
primer
noun
An elementary reading-book for children.
primeval
adjective
Belonging to the first ages.
principality
noun
The territory of a reigning prince.
priory
noun
A monastic house.
pristine
adjective
Primitive
privateer
noun
A vessel owned and officered by private persons, but carrying on maritime war.
privity
noun
Knowledge shared with another or others regarding a private matter.
probate
adjective
Relating to making proof, as of a will.
probity
noun
Virtue or integrity tested and confirmed.
proctor
noun
An agent acting for another.
prodigal
noun
One wasteful or extravagant, especially in the use of money or property
prodigious
adjective
Immense.
proffer
verb
To offer to another for acceptance.
profiteer
noun
One who profits.
profligacy
noun
Shameless viciousness.
profligate
adjective
Abandoned to vice.
progression
noun
A moving forward or proceeding in course.
prohibition
noun
A decree or an order forbidding something.
prohibitionist
noun
One who favours the prohibition by law of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.
proletarian
noun
A person of the lowest or poorest class.
prolix
adjective
Verbose.
prologue
noun
A prefatory statement or explanation to a poem, discourse or performance.
promenade
verb
To walk for amusement or exercise.
prominence
noun
The quality of being noticeable or distinguished.
promiscuous
adjective
Brought together without order, distinction or design (for sex).
promissory
adjective
Expressing an engagement to pay
promontory
noun
A high point of land extending outward from the coastline into the sea.
promulgate
verb
To proclaim.
propaganda
noun
Any institution or systematic scheme for propagating a doctrine or system.
propitious
adjective
Kindly disposed.
propriety
noun
Accordance with recognized usage, custom and principles.
prosaic
adjective
Unimaginative.
proscenium
noun
That part of the stage between the curtain and the orchestra.
proscribe
verb
To reject, as a teaching or a practice, with condemnation or denunciation
proscription
noun
Any act of condemnation and rejection from favor and privilege.
proselyte
noun
One who has been won over from one religious belief to another.
prosody
noun
The science of poetical forms.
prospector
noun
One who makes exploration, search, or examination, especially for minerals.
protege
noun
One specially cared for and favored by another usually older person.
Protestant
noun
A Christian who denies the authority of the Pope and holds the right of special judgment.
protomartyr
noun
The earliest victim in any cause.
protocol
noun
A declaration or memorandum of agreement less solemn and formal than a treaty.
protuberate
verb
To swell or bulge beyond the surrounding surface.
provident
adjective
Anticipating and making ready for future wants or emergencies.
providential
adjective
Effected by divine guidance.
provincial
adjective
Uncultured in thought and manner.
proviso
noun
A clause in a contract, will, etc., by which its operation is rendered conditional.
proximately
adverb
Immediately.
prudential
adjective
Proceeding or marked by caution.
prudery
noun
An undue display of modesty or delicacy.
prurient
adjective
Inclined to lascivious thoughts and desires
lascivious
feeling or revealing an overt sexual interest or desire.
pudgy
adjective
small and fat.
puerile
adjective
Childish.
pugnacious
adjective
Quarrelsome.
puissant
adjective
Possessing strength.
punctilious
adjective
Strictly observant of the rules or forms prescribed by law or custom.
pupilage
noun
The state or period of being a student.
purgatory
noun
An intermediate state where souls are made fit for paradise or heaven by expiatory suffering.
purl
verb
To cause to whirl, as in an eddy.
purloin
verb
To steal.
purport
noun
Intent.
purveyor
noun
One who supplies.
pusillanimous
adjective
Without spirit or bravery.
putrescent
adjective
Undergoing decomposition of animal or vegetable matter accompanied by fetid odors.
pyre
noun
A heap of combustibles arranged for burning a dead body.
pyromania
noun
An insane propensity to set things on fire.
pyrotechnic
adjective
Pertaining to fireworks or their manufacture.
quadrate
verb
To divide into quarters.
qualm
noun
A fit of nausea.
quandary
noun
A puzzling predicament
quartet
noun
A composition for four voices or four instruments.
quarto
noun
An eight page newspaper of any size.
quay
noun
A wharf or artificial landing-place on the shore of a harbour or projecting into it.
querulous
adjective
Habitually complaining.
quiescent
adjective
Being in a state of repose or inaction.
quietus
noun
A silencing, suppressing or ending.
quintessence
noun
The most essential part of anything.
quintet
noun
Musical composition arranged for five voices or instruments.
Quixotic
adjective
Chivalrous or romantic to a ridiculous or extravagant degree.
rabid
adjective
Affected with rabies or hydrophobia.
racy
adjective
Exciting or exhilarating to the mind.
radix
noun
That from or on which something is developed.
raillery
noun
Good-humoured satire.
ramify
verb
To divide or subdivide into branches or subdivisions.
ramose
adjective
Branch-like.
rancor
noun
Malice.
