Words Flashcards
aberrant
deviating from normal or correct
abscond
to leave secretly and hide, often to avoid the law
aggrandize
tomake greater, to increase, to exaggerate
amalgamate
to unite or mix (n. amalgamation)
ambrosial
extremely pleasing to the senses, divine (as related to the gods) or delicious (n. ambrosia)
anachronism
a person or artifact appearing after its own time or out of chronological order (adj. anachronistic)
anomalous
peculiar, unique, contrary to the norma (n. anomaly)
antediluvian
ancient, outmoded, (literally before the flood)
antipathy
hostility toward, objection, or aversion to
arbitrate
to settle a dispute (n. arbitration)
assuage
to make less severe, to appease or satisfy
ex. the letter assuaged their fears
(ex. studying assuaged her desire for vocab words)
audacious
extremely bold, fearless (n. audacity)
aver
to declare
banal
commonplace or trite, lacking originality (n. banality)
ex. songs with banal lyrics
barefaced
unconcealed, shameless, or brazen
ex. you didn’t need to see look very hard to know the truth – it was a barefaced lie
blandishment
speech or action intended to coax someone into doing something (ex: the son’s speech was full of blandishments as he tried to coax her into letting him go to the party)
bombast
pompous speech, high sounding language with little meaning (adj. bombastic)
burgeon
to grow or flourish, a bud of new growth (adj. burgeoning)
buttress
to support, a support
cadge
to get something by taking advantage of someone (especially one’s friendships), to beg
(ex. she cadged money from her sister)
caprice
impulse, sudden change in mood (adj. capricious)
castigate
reprimand, chastise severely
caustic
capable of dissolving by chemical action, highly critical
chicanery
deception by trickery
conflageration
a great fire
corporeal
of or having to do with material, as opposed to spiritual, tangible
corporal
of the body (corporal punishment), a commissioned officer
corroborate
to strengthen or support (ex: the witness corroborated his story) (n. corroboration)
craven
cowardly, a coward
culpable
deserving of blame (n. culpability)
dearth
lack, scarcity
deference
submission or courteous yielding (ex. he held his tongue in deference to his father)
deprecation
belittlement (v. deprecate)
depredation
act of preying upon or plundering
descry
to make clear, to say
desiccate
to dry out thoroughly (adj. desiccated)
diatribe
forceful and bitter abusive denunciation
diffident
lacking self-confidence, modest
disabuse
to free a person from falsehood or error (ex: we had to disabuse her of the notion that she was invited)
disparaging
belittling (v. disparage, n. disparagement)
dispassionate
calm, unbiased, objective
dissemble
to conceal one’s real motive, to feign
dogged
stubborn or determined
efficacy
effectiveness, capability to produce a desired effect
effluent
quality of flowing out, something that flows out (n. effluence) (ex. the stream is an effluence from the river)
emollient
softening, something that softens (ex. the cream is full of emollients)
encomium
a formal eulogy or speech of praise
enervate
to weaken or destroy the strength of (ex. the heat enervated everyone)
engender
to give rise to, to propagate (ex. his slip engendered much laughter)
enigma
puzzle, mystery
ephemeral
lasting only a brief time, fleeting
equivocal
ambiguous, unclear, open to more than one interpretation
erudite
scholarly, displaying deep intensive learning