GRE vocab

1000) Deposition

a formal, usually written, statement to be used as evidence Ex) Mr Trump has sat for depositions before and shown discipline when under oath.

1340) Equable

1) even-tempered, calm, composed, collected, self-possessed 2) stable, constant, uniform, unvarying, consistent Ex1) Alkhanshali is equable in the face of every challenge — he passes his Q test — and his dream is about to become reality. Ex2) When a candidate is equable and experienced it is not a sign of cynicism and not evidence that he is "establishment."

218) Arraign

1) indict for, prosecute for 2) accuse, censure Ex) He was held without bond after his arraignment Monday, according to a spokeswoman for Loudoun County prosecutors. Ex2) Foster was supposed to appear at an arraignment in Hillsborough County court Thursday, but the hearing was canceled after the state attorney's office said it is not pursuing the charges.

872) Crown jewel

particularly valuable or prized possessions or asset Ex) The deal strengthened Mr. Lee's grip on Samsung Electronics, the famous maker of smartphones and televisions and the conglomerate's crown jewel.

1349) Equivocate

prevaricate, be evasive, be noncommittal, be vague Ex1) Once in office, he suffered few defections even as he equivocated over white nationalists in Charlottesville and made disparaging remarks about undocumented immigrants and just-as-disparaging remarks about some of their home nations. Ex2) After equivocating Friday about which of the two Republican immigration measures he would support — and shaking up GOP members seeking signs from the White House — Trump later said he would back either one.

1223) Echo

reverberate, resonate, resound Ex) Over a diner lunch, where her Mercedes stuck out in the parking lot, she said a victory over Mr. Lipinski this month would echo across the world.

1652) Funnel

channel, feed, direct, pump Ex) Some manufacturers are enforcing minimum advertised prices to make it harder for online sellers to undercut local merchants, while others give local stores first dibs on new products or funnel customers from their own websites to local outlets.

1390) Exacting

demanding, hard, taxing, difficult, tough, painstaking Ex1) Though simple in concept, the process is difficult in practice due to the magnets' minute size and the exacting placement required. Ex2) When Mr. Van Zweden, an exacting Dutch conductor, was named the next music director of the Philharmonic, some critics questioned whether he would be as committed to new music as his predecessor, Alan Gilbert.

1143) Divest

deprive of, strip of, dispossess of Ex) A day after Benchmark Capital filed a lawsuit to try to force former Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick off the board, another group of Uber shareholders is pushing back with a letter calling for Benchmark to relinquish its board seat and divest its shares in the ride-hailing giant. Ex2) First, he intends to divest the city's $189 billion pension fund of an estimated $5 billion invested in fossil fuel companies.

378) Bereft of

deprived of, robbed of, stripped of Ex) The sport's four divisional playoff games this past weekend were relatively short on drama and bereft of upsets, as the top two seeds in each conference won at home after first-round byes. Ex2) In keeping with the traditions of speeches delivered by senior Chinese officials, Mr. Xi's address was long on platitudes, tortured metaphors and literary references, while nearly bereft of policy pronouncements.

1963) Impasse

deadlock, dead end, stalemate Ex) Pentagon officials have told Mr. Trump Islamic State has lost control of all but about 5% of the Syrian territory it once held, but fighting for that final swath has reached an impasse.

1625) Fraudulent

deceitful, fraud Ex) Their filing Thursday challenges those deals, and a series of financing transactions between Sears and ESL, as fraudulent transfers that left the retailer insolvent. Ex2) So-called fraudulent conveyance lawsuits, such as the one Sears's creditors said they will bring, don't typically involve intentional fraud.

85) Affirm

declare, assert, proclaim, pronounce, attest Ex) It's just this affirmation of hope, doing a Bollywood dance in the middle of a parking lot where a building used to be. Ex2) The folks at Tri-City Hockey in Laurel, Md., are planning an educational series and a written affirmation of the league's zero-tolerance policy.

291) Backdoor

devious, underhanded Ex) But according to an Indiana Unviersity study, these backdoor limits on charitable deductions could reduce giving by $13 billion or 4.6% annually.

1857) Heretic

dissenter, nonconformist, apostate, one who dissents from an accepted belief or doctrine; nonconformist Ex) The Islamic State, a radical Sunni group, regards Shiites as heretics. Ex2) That we are hypocritical, heretics, with pitch forks and ropes to lynch anyone opposed to our beliefs.

1131) Dissident

dissenter, objector, protestor Ex1) Which Soviet dissident didn't hope to be shouldered by the American government, the guarantor of human rights, dignity and freedom of conscience? Ex2) Erdogan consolidated power after the coup attempt and launched a crackdown on political dissidents, free expression and press freedom, linking opposition to the government to the Gulenist movement.

1128) Dissemble

dissimulate, pretend, feign, act, masquerade, conceal one's true motives, feelings or beliefs Ex1) Edward Sirait, Lion Air Group's president director, denied that the company cut corners or dissembled in logbooks. Ex2) We do ask that after each use you dissemble and clean it, making sure the grill box is free of food debris and the burner tubes are not clogged.

539) Canard

false rumor, fabrication Ex) On CNN, the former senator Rick Santorum disputed the findings with a canard: "A lot of these scientists are driven by the money that they receive," he said. Ex2) Here's another flaw in that "Those who can't do, teach" canard: Teachers often turn into great doers.

1363) Espionage

infiltration using spies Ex) Inevitably, Moscow ordered out diplomates unconnected to espionage.

468) Brief

inform, tell, update, notify Ex) It was not clear whether Mr Trump's advisers had briefed him on the new timetable until Thursday.

989) Denizen

inhabitant, resident, townsman, townswoman Ex) But despite these similarities, denizens of the two preppy enclaves are fiercely loyal to their chosen island.

594) Cessation

end, stop, termination Ex) But the cessation of hostilities, which followed a weekend of heavy combat in the city, is fragile. Ex2) They include a permanent cessation of Iranian support for revolutionary groups abroad, as well as a permanent halt to Iran's nuclear program.

1547) Flamboyant

exuberant, lively, animated, vibrant Ex) The house I rented was next to a scraggy, flamboyant tree that was used as a tethering post by my neighbors across the yard. Ex2) The flamboyant trees are spectacular, their fiery blooms lining the road to Scarborough, the island's capital.

1500) Feign

fake, sham Ex) The lawsuit alleges none of Nestle's eight purported natural springs, all located in Maine, contains a genuine spring under FDA rules and accuses the company of building man-made springs on seven of its sites to feign compliance with FDA regulations.

1945) Illuminate

light up, lighten, brighten 2) illumine, illume, enlighten, elucidate Ex) Multicolored lights flashed in a space as dimly illuminated as a parking garage. Ex2) That long immersion in James's canon offered a study of psychological acuity that now illuminates Hadley's work.

1194) Drop on your foot

physical things Ex) That is something to bear in mind when thinking about the much-hyped effects of AI and automation, especially as AI moves out of the abstract world of data and information and into the real world of things you can drop on your foot.

667) Coerce

pressure, force Ex1) He insisted that the president would be guilty of obstruction if he coerced someone to change testimony, suborned perjury or tampered with evidence. Ex2) Last year, Mr. Engler accused Ms. Denhollander in an email obtained by The Chronicle of Higher Education of being paid by her lawyer, John Manly, to coerce women into making abuse claims against Dr. Nassar.

978) Demarcate

separate, divide, delimit Ex) For Israel, the protests touched a nerve: The border was demarcated by a fence, not a wall — a relatively flimsy contraption designed to detect intrusion, not prevent it. Ex2) Either way, with so many tools at play, perhaps there will eventually be no need to demarcate the difference between films that rely on CGI-painted performance and animated films that employ photorealistic effects.

1513) Fetter

shackle, manacle, handcuff, put in chains Ex1) The clarity and lack of fetter is characteristic of Ullmann's way of seeing the world in prose and, in this case, of seeing the self as a third person. Ex2) He noted that soon there will be astronauts employed by commercial companies like SpaceX and Boeing who will not be fettered by the traditional restrictions that apply to federal employees.

309) Balm

1) ointment, salve 2) comfort, support, relief Ex1) There are the herbal remedies: mostly teas, with such ingredients as lemon balm, lavender, camomile, rooibos, St. John's wort and ashwagandha, an herb used in ayurvedic medicine. Ex2) It is a theme that Mukasonga perpetually revisits, often discovering the balm for traditional stigmas within tradition itself.

431) Boisterous

rowdy, unruly, wild Ex) But Wall Street's top stock pickers are still expecting gains this year, even if they're not quite as boisterous in their predictions as they once were. Ex2) That is not a small number, especially because those believers tend to be politically boisterous.

461) Brazenness

rudely bold Ex) The brazenness of the attack and the complicity of active officers raise questions about the military's willingness and the ability to defend an increasingly unpopular government of President Nicolas Maduro.

1744) Grimace

scowl, frown, glower 2) an ugly, twisted expression on a person's face, typically expressing disgust, pain, or wry amusement 3) to make a sharp contortion of the face Ex) But they repeat the same tropes: Latino gang members grimacing as they mad-dog confused white people; a secret meeting on a Mexican hacienda, with tequila served and Latinas in bikinis as poolside eye candy. Ex2) My father grimaced and said that my friend's company will soon be sold.

843) Covert

secret, furtive, clandestine Ex1) The warehouse contains the arsenal of a covert militia; the members assemble there after learning of a shooting spree. Ex2) Researchers at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, which reviewed Facebook's data, described the campaign as a "systematic, covert attempt" to improve the reach of Russian state-owned media "across more than a dozen countries."

942) Decry

publicly denounce Ex1) Women decried the shift in aesthetics as symptomatic of an industry with few female creative directors at the most prestigious brands. Ex2) China's Foreign Ministry defended Chinese policies in Xinjiang as necessary for fighting terrorism and extremism, while decrying foreign criticism as biased and ill-meaning.

873) Crude

vulgar, unpolished in manner, boorish, cheap Ex) Understandable because Mr Trump's behavior in office- impulsive, erratic, dishonest, childish, crude- is so alarming, and so far from what Americans expect in their chief executive, that it cries out for a deeper explanation.

495) Bulwark

wall, rampart Ex) Hamas's support of Islamic State infuriated Egyptian President Al Sisi who came to power promising to serve as a regional bulwark against terror but has been unable to dislodge the flourishing Islamic State insurgency in his country's north.

1962) Impassable

unpassable, unnavigable, untraversable, impenetrable Ex) The president has recently begun to temper his own statements about the wall, telling a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the White House last week that a 2,000-mile structure would not be needed because parts of the border would be impassable.

452) Brackish

unpleasant, disagreeable, undesirable Ex) The brackish liquid is more like an ominous, insurmountable wall, one with enough force to lift 3,000-pound cars, flatten neighborhoods and leave a landscape of devastation in its wake. Ex2) Even the rain turned brackish, sending panicked farmers scrambling to rescue crops.

1942) Illegible

unreadable, indecipherable, unintelligible, not legible, indecipherable Ex) One of two copies owned by the British Library in London is illegible because of both types of damage, Professor Carpenter said. Ex2) Ms. Gross's white pad of notes, visible in photographs from the summit meeting, are probably useless, experienced government interpreters said, dictated in her personal shorthand that would be illegible to anyone else.

100) Agonize

worry, fret, stress Ex) Mr Clinton was known to agonize over the details in his speeches until the last minute.

561) Cast a cold eye

cold in manner or appearance Ex) But people cast a cold eye on Lee Jae-yong because he has little to show for his attempt to inherit Samsung except that he shares a Lee bloodline.

926) Debilitate

weaken, enfeeble, enervate, devitalize Ex1) Her skin is acutely sensitive to even mild irritations, which aggravate her persistent, debilitating pain. Ex2) Attempts at pain management "did not address the debilitating pain issues," the statement said.

822) Corny

banal, trite, hackneyed Ex) I thought the line was corny when I'd overhear a professor say it over and over again at Ohio State University, but it's so true.

917) Dazzling

bright, blinding, glaring Ex) The family's costliest and most ambitious real estate project - a $7.5 billion plan to raze their 41-story Fifth Avenue office tower and replace it with a new architecturally dazzling one, twice as high- was an early casualty of the family's White House connection.

662) Coax

cajole, sweet-talk, wheedle Ex1) On Thursday, as the most recent shutdown approached the 21-day mark, Mr. Trump was grudgingly coaxed from the White House. Ex2) All the while, Lomax coaxes her charges in a soothing, hypnotic voice.

1804) Hard

earned- having taken a great of effort Ex) But none have Alan's hard-earned view, his heart, his organic and sometimes abrasive indignation that was part of who he was, not a response to a particular moment or crisis or president.

1519) Fidget

make small movements, especially of the hands and feet, wriggle, squirm, twitch Ex) What if your supervisor could identify every time you paused to scratch or fidget, and for how long you took a bathroom break?

633) Circumscribe

restrict, limit, confine, restrain Ex) In the modern explanation, particles of light, known as photons, follow circumscribed laws. Ex2) If we push too hard to circumscribe classical music's power, we may put it to sleep forever.

1505) Ferocity

savagery, brutality, barbarity, fierceness, violence Ex1) Despite the ferocity of the fighting and the high death toll, the battle lines are not shifting significantly, he said. Ex2) In the end, even the ferocity of her avenging angel — as tarnished as she is righteous — can't save "Destroyer" from its own sour excesses.

1185) Drawl

say slowly, speak slowly Ex1) The influence of Frizzell's stoic drawl, liquefied syllables and tightly controlled ornaments is so pervasive that it's often equated with classic country style. Ex2) Soon, he said, he encountered co-workers mocking his Southern drawl.

737) Confidential

secret, classified, restricted, unofficial, unrevealed Ex1)As Mr. Barr noted, the rules anticipate that Mr. Mueller's summary report will be treated as confidential and that the attorney general will prepare materials for release to Congress and the public. Ex2) At the same time, he intends to maintain a close and confidential relationship with Trump, whom he talks to often.

1769) Gulag

a system of labor camps Ex) He is believed to have ordered dozens of executions, including the killing of his own uncle, and North Korea still runs a network of prison gulags.

489) Bugaboo

a fearful or alarming object Ex) The courts are an especial bugaboo for Mr. Kaczynski.

591) Centrist

a person with moderate political view Ex) Representative Kurt Schrader of Oregon, who leads the political arm of the centrist Blue Dog caucus, has complained to the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about the intervention of Ms. Schakowsky and said he would seek a rule change so that members like her who have formal positions on the committee cannot oppose incumbents.

1860) Heroic

brave, courageous, valiant, valorous, intrepid, bold, having the characteristics of a hero or heroine; very brave Ex) This is heroic music that builds pathos and excitement from the contrast of solo cello and large orchestra playing, yes, fortissimo. Ex2) It focuses not just on the heroic nude in Italy, the idealized body inspired by the rediscovery of ancient art, but also on the nude throughout Europe.

954) Deferrable

capable of being postponed Ex) Apparel is a deferrable expenditure, and people felt squeezed and worried about downsizing. Ex2) The trusts would sell preferred securities to the public and then use the proceeds to purchase junior subordinated deferrable interest debentures from Bank of New York.

343) Bedizen

caparison, decorate, preen, bedeck, deck, adorn, embellish Ex) Within a week the bedizened emblems of kitsch became vehicles for Pollock-esque, purposeful art as protesters hurled balloons filled with paint on government buildings, the Equestrian Warrior, the Triumphal Arch Ex2) But the sound that emerged from the facade was intriguingly at odds with the bedizened persona.

313) Banter

chitchat, small talk, small talk Ex) Amid the banter, the two mentioned talking with each other during late-night phone calls and discussed how Mr. Trump's enemies would be gunning for him after he took the Oval Office. Ex2) "It's banter, but it's not frivolous," Mr. Dickerson said, affably, in an interview.

558) Carping

complaining, caviling, grumbling, captious Ex) Ms. Hester seemingly anticipated my carping when she wrote: "I wanted the conversation about early retirement to be about life, not just about money." Ex2) But still we get to hear the sophomoric carping about "New Blood".

1037) Diametrically

completely, directly Ex) Partly because we toss around the term "icon" too easily, but mainly because royals and fashion are diametrically opposed—or should be, if both are doing their jobs correctly. Ex2) And when Judge Kavanaugh furiously, tearfully denied Dr. Blasey's accusation, the women fell silent again, trying to sort through which diametrically different version of reality persuaded them.

1957) Immure

confine, incarcerate, to enclose or confine against their will Ex) I mean, all you need to acknowledge in order to embrace this epiphany is how solidly immured in the wilderness Democrats are at all levels of our governance from president down to local dog-catcher. Ex2) Winnie, the central character — really the only one — is immured in earth up to her waist.

1206) Duplicity

deceitfulness, deceit, deception Ex1) They don't deserve access to the media in order to promote their duplicity. Ex2) For international viewers living under unfriendly regimes, this well-produced caricature of Washington proffers an unspoken truth about the duplicity of American power.

981) Demolish

destroy, ruin, wreck Ex1) A big chunk of an old New York bridge went down in history Tuesday as explosives demolished the eastern part of the Tappan Zee Bridge. Ex2) After demolishing the Los Angeles Chargers, 41-28, the Patriots quarterback, who is about to appear in his eighth consecutive A.F.C. championship game, told reporters that no one believes in his team.

86) Afflict

distress, harass, torment, pester, plague Ex) But its easy-to-digest ratings — "good,'' "fair,'' "poor" — are great for committed surfers with the unfortunate affliction of a day job. Ex2) This so-called affliction is actually a critically important economic insight that explains why the cost of services, like haircuts and college educations, rises faster than the cost of goods, like T-shirts.

836) Counterpart

equivalent, opposite number, peer, equal Ex1) New home buyers younger than 45 are more likely than their older counterparts to start the loan process online. Ex2) Room 11's mulled wine is a traditional Scandinavian-style glogg — drier and less sweet than its German counterpart, with seasonal spices.

127) Ambiguous

equivocal, obscure, unclear, uncertain, vague, open to various interpretations Ex) But Mr. Althoff's best efforts reveal larger, more ambiguous and dangerous worlds, full of life's inescapable tensions, if not its sorrows. Ex2) Below, Seitz, the television critic for New York magazine, and Sepinwall, the chief television critic for Rolling Stone, talk about the show's ambiguous finale, the nature of Chase's recollections and more.

1758) Grueling

exhausting, tiring, fatiguing, wearying, taxing, extremely tiring and demanding Ex) Neither tester lost inches, but their legs were sore from the routine, which was grueling by any standards. Ex2) But a grueling recession dried up police budgets and left areas that were once heavily policed to the mercy of warring gangs.

1286) Encyclopedic

exhaustive, comprehensive, thorough Ex1) His deceptions and his encyclopedic immorality brought him success but now will likely bring him epic disgrace. Ex2) Before reaching it, visitors pass through the encyclopedic collection of decorative pieces from Art Nouveau tapestries to postmodern sofas that crowd the walls and floors, salon-style.

1427) Explicate

explain, make explicit, clarify, make plain, make clear Ex1) Politics often infused his literary efforts, and he sometimes used literature to explicate politics. Ex2) Novels that simultaneously attempt to explicate political history and plumb the human condition are liable to succeed at neither, but Stephen Markley's exuberant embrace of such risk is laudable in itself.

180) Apocryphal

fake, false, make-up, unverified, unauthorized, unsubstantiated, bogus Ex) Although occasionally apocryphal, "The Post" captures Ms. Graham's transformation to towering from timid through her decision to publish the classified documents. Ex) The potential fragility of much of Europe recalls that apocryphal weather report from the 1930s: "Fog in channel, Continent cut off."

1295) Enfranchise

give the vote to, give suffrage to 2) emancipate, liberate, free Ex1) Florida voters chose to enfranchise more than 1 million former felons in the state, a breathtaking extension of voting rights that required the support of both Democratic and Republican voters to pass. Ex2) What would that say about the capital of the "free world"? Making the District our 51st state would fully enfranchise citizens who live in the District.

1712) Glum

gloomy, downcast, downhearted Ex) Mr Meadows, sounding glum, expressed frustration that Congress was looking to pass its fourth stopgap spending measure for the 2018 fiscal year.

1658) Futile

having no useful result, trifling, frivolous, fruitless, vain, pointless, impractical Ex) He says that climate change renders the old dichotomy of the global versus the local completely futile. Ex2) Those very gestures of presidential normalcy revealed how futile it was for anyone to wish that Trump would start talking like that all the time.

1806) Hard

hitting- honest and direct 2) aggressive and physical Ex) Amazon already has a reputation for a workplace culture that thrives on a hard-hitting management style, and has experimented with how far it can push white-collar workers in order to reach its delivery targets.

1829) Hazing

humiliating and sometimes dangerous initiation rituals, especially as imposed on college students seeking membership to a fraternity or sorority. Ex) One hazing video emerged online.

1467) Faddish

in style, fashionable Ex) Again, a cynic might suggest that this is faddish fearmongering: statistics show that teenagers are far more likely to die in a car accident than in school shooting.

444) Bootless

ineffectual, useless, futile, ineffective Ex) In fact, another of that band's hits seemed more appropriate to these bootless proceedings: the one called "Why?" Ex2) The best plan, the only plan, to redeem the past and enjoy blessings in the future, is to cease this bootless warfare and be the first to recognize our independence.

1289) Endogenous

internal cause or origin Ex) For decades, researchers have debated the various types of depression, from mild to severe to "endogenous," a rare, near-paralyzing despair.

719) Concerted

joint, united, collaborative, collective Ex1) Mueller's filings also show how, while lobbying for Ukraine, Manafort made a concerted effort to argue that sanctions for human rights abuses would backfire. Ex2) In the motion, the board cited "claims of numerous irregularities and concerted fraudulent activities related to absentee mail ballots."

1676) Gauche

lacking social polish, tactless, lacking ease or grace, awkward, gawky, inelegant Ex) You want to see the struggle, the gauche experiments, the lurching missteps. Ex2) It was a little gauche to revel in it.

338) Bearmarket

market in which prices are falling, encouraging selling Ex) Thus, as the bearmarket leads to bigger and bigger losses, and a bottom nears, erstwhile believers in buying and holding start genuflecting at the later of market timing.

1707) Glitziest

ostentatiously attractive Ex) Our current president is the conspicuous consumer in chief, the epitome of the rich person who displays his wealth in the glitziest way possible.

53) Acrobatic

performing, adept at gymnastic feats Ex) He is now an imposing athlete, one whose acrobatic defense and ability to generate power in extension look very familiar.

1265) Embody

personify, realize, manifest, symbolize 2) incorporate, include, contain, encompass Ex1) Mark Cannon, who spent years commuting for an hour to his job as an attorney in Manhattan, embodied those conflicted sentiments. Ex2) In the work, three performers embody one woman at different stages of her life.

1203) Duly

properly, correctly, appropriately Ex1) Why should opinion writers be allowed to gratuitously insult duly elected officials? Ex2) FINA merely stated that results achieved in competitions for which approval and sanction were not duly sought and obtained would not be recognized.

1171) Double

quick- very quick or quickly Ex) The authorities, tired of recurring bailouts, are forcing them to recognize which loans are unlikely to be repaid, and to initiate insolvency proceedings in double-quick time.

391) Bifurcate

separate, split, bisect Ex) Imagine trying to heal Thomas Jefferson's bifurcated personality: half slavekeeper, half apostle of freedom. Ex2) Tolerance is traditionally a core American value, but there is an emerging, bifurcated moral intolerance that treats people with different views as enemies.

678) Collegiality

shared responsibility, cooperation Ex) The section mainly at issue was that on collegiality. Ex2) The pace of work was intense, and collegiality and inter-level contact had often degenerated.

1680) Gender dysphoria

the condition of feeling one's emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to one's biological sex. Ex) Not all of them seek treatment for gender dysphoria, the study said.

1922) Hush hush

(especially of an official plan or project) highly secret or confidential. Ex) "Upon reaching the location," Mr. Koh is quoted as saying, "the passenger alighted.

307) Ballistic missile

a missile that follows a ballistic trajectory with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target Ex) Washington is seeking to build support in its campaign to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear program after the country launched ballistic missiles last month capable of reaching the US. Ex2) It also calls for the development of a low-yield warhead for ballistic missiles fired from submarines.

976) Demagogue

a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument. rabble-rouser, agitator Trump Ex) But a demagogue can use these tools, too.

426) Bode

be an omen for a particular outcome, augur, portend, herald Ex) For our reviewers, the notion of ignoring Mr. Obama's fame did not bode well for the departing president's prospects in academic law.

916) Dazzle

blind temporarily, deprive of sight Ex1) "He was overwhelmed by their wealth. He was razzled, dazzled by the millions they were talking about and spending." Ex2)"When there is a big moon or a lot of stars it's just dazzling," he says.

1207) Duress

coercion, compulsion, force, pressure, intimidation, constraint Ex) I like to say that once the hall has been hired, the invitations go out, and the contract's been signed for the band, it's too late to have a prenuptial free of duress.

1913) Hue

color, shade, tone, Ex) The hue of his plumage transitions seamlessly from molten red to sunshine yellow. Ex2) Jaffe's work is often rendered with simple outlines, yet also resists flatness: Her brightly hued pictures are mounted away from the wall, and her profiles of faces in steel are free-standing.

752) Congruous

compatible, concordant, congruent, consistent Ex) One would expect Apple to be congruous with the enterprise, but it's actually the enterprise that is congruous around them. Ex2) The environment we've created is uncongested by advertising noise, and the opportunity to promote via giveaways and special offers is wide open, but the message and products must be congruous with our audience's interest.

1996) Impound

confiscate, take possession of, seize, commandeer Ex) It is possible we could have the boat impounded.

377) Bereave

deprive, divest, strip Ex) Like the Trojans who imprisoned the prophet Cassandra, the elders quarantine and ignore the bereaved women, with catastrophic results. Ex2) Yet as the article noted, demagogues manipulate bereaved families of victims slain by undocumented immigrants, using anecdotal evidence that belies the macro-level reality.

1173) Douse

drench, soak, saturate, wet, splash, slosh 2) extinguish, put out, quench Ex) Video posted online showed firefighters dousing flames from a gray van as injured people lay on the sidewalk.

186) Apparition

ghost, phantom, specter, spirit Ex) The deceased parents in Ted Kooser's poem are nothing like the cantankerous apparition of folklore, nor is their son "spooked" by their lingering presence. Ex2) Lee beamed like a king, waved to his adoring throngs and then disappeared around a corner like a comic-book apparition.

449) Bowel

intestine, entrails, innards Ex) They typically move their bowels once a week, climbing slowly down the tree to do so, and can lose up to a third of their body weight when it happens.

1856) Heresy

nonconformity, heterodoxy, unorthodoxy, belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious Ex) She is accused of heresy, put on trial, and thwarted by the clerical bureaucracy. Ex2) Even Kansas got 40, widely considered football heresy.

1469) Fairness

objectivity, impartiality, absence, lack of bias, absence, lack of prejudice Ex) This is true no matter how high-minded they are about opportunity and fairness. Ex2) "We do this because we believe in fairness," he said.

1854) Hemmed in

surrounded, restricted Ex) Lt Gen Gadi Eisenkot, the Israel army chief of staff, warned on Wednesday that he had placed more than 100 snipers along the border with Gaza and would authorize them to use live fire if protesters appeared to breaching the fence around the hemmed in strip.

226) Ascertain

1) find out, discover, 2) fathom, learn, discern, understand, comprehend, establish, verify, confirm Ex) Delaney said Harvey's report is meant to ascertain the flag's origin and connection to local soldiers. Ex2) How many low-wage workers face this predicament is difficult to ascertain, though perhaps fewer than in some past shutdowns, which affected more agencies.

878) Cryptocurrency

a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank Ex) Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and peert-topeer lenders are obviously more risky than the money alternatives of 2007.

670) Cognac

a high quality brandy, properly that distilled in Cognac in western France Ex) Visitors can wash it down with a $16 Manhattan Tea Party cocktail or - if the waiter is successful with his upcharge pitch- a $150 glass of Louis XIII cognac.

1279) Enchant

captivate, charm, delight, enrapture Ex1) Like Darwin, Prum is so enchanted by the outcomes of aesthetic preferences that he mostly ignores their origins. Ex2) But when an enchanted manuscript materializes for her eyes only at the Bodleian Library, she becomes the target of the creatures who hunger for its long-forgotten knowledge.

417) Blithely

casually, cheerfully Ex) Instead, the president presented himself on Tuesday as a deal maker eager to find common ground and unconcerned with- if not blithely unaware—the political perils of immigration debates.

1436) Expurgate

censor, bowdlerize, cut, edit Ex1) If ever there were a diva unsuited to the expurgated, down-talking children's book treatment, it's Donna Summer. Ex2) Meanwhile most of the public places that used to offer unfiltered internet—such as hotels with many foreign guests—now provide the expurgated kind.

890) Curdle

clot, coagulate, congeal, solidify Ex) Since Mr Trump's announcement, however, relations between the United States and the Palestinians have curdled.

1320) Entrammel

confine, limit, throttle restrain Ex1) She had entrammeled herself in terrible evil bonds' Ex2) The eternal melancholy of the entrammeled Irish soul

860) Cripple

devastate, ruin, destroy, wipe out Ex) Still other former intelligence officers have also argued that the spy network might have been crippled by a combination of both, as well as sloppy tradecraft by agency officers in China.

1069) Disarray

disorder, confusion, chaos, untidiness, disorganization, dishevelment 2) confuse, mix up, jumble up, disarrange, disorganize Ex) Remember that the Caps were in disarray, dripping with self-doubt. Ex2) When the meeting was over, talks to reopen the government appeared to be in disarray

1258) Emancipate

enfranchise, liberate, loose, release, unbind, unchain Ex1) Union Hill was settled after the Civil War by freedmen and emancipated slaves. Ex2) It's a powerful inducement in a place with a difficult history, a remote area settled by free blacks and emancipated slaves after the Civil War.

877) Cryptic

enigmatic, mysterious, confusing Ex1) He emptied the bag of salvaged miscellany he'd brought to shoot, jotted a few cryptic words on bits of paper, and then pinned them together with old photos and other ephemera onto timeworn corkboards. Ex2) That's one of the cryptic poems Aliza Tucker whittled into existence by carving away the other words in a found document.

514) Buzzword

fashionable word or phrase at a particular time or context Ex) Journalists hate buzzwords, and branding is certainly a buzzword.

238) Assertive

forceful, confident, aggressive, belligerent, bellicose Ex) A newly assertive Parliament demanded that May present her "Plan B" on Monday and tell the members how she will extricate Britain from Europe. Ex2) Ms. Tsai's more assertive tone is likely to be noticed in Washington.

49) Acquisitive

greedy, covetous, avaricious, possessive Ex) Questions about the ownership and corporate structure of the HNA Group, one of China's biggest- and most acquisitive- companies, are mounting, prompting scrutiny regulators in the United States and Europe and leading at least one Wall Street bank to step away from it.

335) Bawdy

sexually offensive, crude, filthy Ex) Even though Cardi's set was boisterous, bawdy and brutally effective, cramming in bits of more than 10 songs, she is not quite a performer yet. Ex2) This strange new Sarah, unlike the familiar Sarah of other translations, is not joining in the laughter nor is she offering a bawdy aside.

199) Apt

suitable, fitting, appropriate, relevant Ex) It's an apt question.

1147) Divvy

to divide and share Ex) Additional slots would be divvied up on a first come first served basis.

1722) Gouge

to overcharge, to swindle, defraud, beguile 2) scoop out, burrow out, hollow out Ex) They gouged holes in the brick walls of the apartment buildings on Loring Place North, in the University Heights neighborhood. Ex2) Our charts of Apple's rising prices are like a Rorschach test: Some see a tech giant gouging us more for ho-hum upgrades.

1642) Frozen

to prevent assets from being used for a period of time Ex) As the unrest unfolded, President Trump blamed the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under President Obama because it required the United States to put millions of dollars back into the hands of a repressive government- money that belonged to Iran but was frozen after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and returned when Iran curbed its nuclear programs.

1659) Gadget

a small mechanical or electrical device or tool, appliance, apparatus, instrument Ex) The company also began focusing on slick, astutely marketed consumer products just as public enthusiasm for gadgets started ramping up in the 2000s.

606) Charade

act, pretense, parody Ex) Alas, it was all a charade.

1763) Guardrail

a strong fence at the side of a road or in the middle of an expressway Ex) And they have provided guardrails where few existed.

15) Abominate

abhor, detest, loathe, despise, execrete Ex) I abominate masonry as an enemy of the Church and as a society condemned by the Church. Ex2) Oh, how I hate, abominate, detest, and abhor, these perpetual talkers, disputants, controverters, and duellers of the tongue!

467) Bridle

bristle, take offense Ex) He bridled this past week at the suggestion that the president was not prepared.

1036) Dexterous

deft, adept, adroit, agile Ex1) Here, juggling becomes flights of inspired poetry, musical choreography with strong dance elements, crazy-comedy surrealism, breathtakingly dexterous virtuosity, darkly absurdist drama. Ex2) The clips, shot by users, range from a dexterous noodle-maker in Chongqing to a shimmying peacock in a bamboo grove, all set to music.

1878) Hinge

depend entirely on Ex) Samsung Heir's Fate Hinges on the Question

65) Adherent

follower, supporter, advocate, disciple, votary, devotee, partisan, friend Ex) It aims to win over clergy and adherents of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Ex2) An estimated 30,000 Islamic State adherents are believed scattered in the country.

1737) Gregarious

fond of company, sociable, convivial, companionable Ex) Wiry and still youthful at 61, Mr. Moss is less of a household name than gregarious counterparts like Graydon Carter, formerly of Vanity Fair, and Anna Wintour of Vogue. Ex2) The president who appeared on Tuesday night was a far cry from his most famous prime-time incarnation, the gregarious host of "The Apprentice."

474) Brittle

fragile, breakable, fragile Ex) As the afflicted enact their suppressed fears and fantasies, the ensuing horror blasts through the cardboard rhetoric of the Chinese Dream and the brittle artifice of Chinese society. Ex2) Mehdi's staff measured his height and the circumference of his brittle limbs.

1630) Frenzied

frantic, wild, frenetic, hectic, fraught Ex) On any given day, the Trump White House is a frenzied machine that jolts to life after President Trump's first tweet. Ex2) North Korea said in the statement adding that the US was getting more frenzied and desperate instead of learning to coexist with the country.

1682) Generic

general, all-encompassing, blanket, collective, characteristic of a whole group or class; not specific Ex) "These are not generics. They are a different product. They are never identical.' Ex2) And their white wines largely discard the generic bottles of the past in trade for distinctive wines from specific villages and vineyards.

970) Deleterious

harmful, damaging, detrimental, injurious Ex) Countless authors and academics and politicians warn about the deleterious effects of screens and social media. Ex2) The problem is unfettered data exploitation and its potential deleterious consequences — among them, unequal consumer treatment, financial fraud, identity theft, manipulative marketing and discrimination.

1560) Flippancy

lack of respect or seriousness, frivolity, levity, facetiousness, disrespect, irreverence Ex) Mr. Kaluza sent emails that prosecutors said showed flippancy in discussing the disaster. Ex2) It is all rather amusing in a desultory way, but to little effect beyond a casual mix of flippancy and good humor.

1262) Embezzle

pilfer, purloin, defraud Ex1) Even after she was convicted of embezzling $5,300 from her bank, he kept her on. Ex2) American officials imposed sanctions this year on Diosdado Cabello, one of Venezuela's most powerful politicians, accusing him of drug trafficking, extortion and embezzling government money.

990) Denomination

religious group, sect, cult, movement, body, branch Ex) Denominations are pulling back their financial support, while the cost of educating students is rising.

642) Clamp down

suppress, prevent, stop Ex) The White House has been eager to clamp down on Chinese imports and has several trade measures underway.

1743) Grim

unrelenting, rigid, ghastly, sinister, inexorable Ex) Despite its grim opening, this is a novel about the persistence of life, the agonizing but clarifying effect of great loss. Ex2) Head south like the father and son in Cormac McCarthy's unbearably grim apocalypse tale "The Road."

846) Cower

cringe, shrink, crouch, recoil Ex1) Others cowered when Israeli soldiers fired at them. Ex2) The only one who should cower before the Make America Great Again legions is Trump himself.

1693) Gibe

an insulting or mocking remark, a taunt, to make insulting or mocking remarks; jeer, mock, sneer Ex) The gibes did little to move Democrats, whom Mr. Trump needs to advance any funding bill through the Senate. Ex2) Her ancestry test followed his incessant mocking of her as "Pocahontas," a schoolyard gibe from a puerile mind.

189) Appraise

assess, evaluate, judge, rate Ex) Or, he may think Trump is "presidential," as he said recently in appraising President Trump's speech from the Oval Office on border security. Ex2) So the best way to appraise their property, they contend in their tax appeals, is to look at the sale prices on the open market of vacant or formerly vacant shells in other places.

1113) Disparity

discrepancy, inconsistency, imbalance Ex) Opponents say the separations can resegregate schools and exacerbate income disparities by breaking off wealthier, whiter areas.

1947) Imbalance

disparity, variance, variation Ex) China's critics point to the imbalance in trade in goods as a sign the country isn't playing fair.

1887) Hitched

fasten, connect, attach Ex) Marriage rates are falling partly because people are postponing getting hitched.

1477) Far

fetched- improbable, unlikely, implausible, unconvincing Ex1) People of similar appearance thinking they are better then other people who lack said appearance doesn't seem that farfetched at all. Ex2) Increasingly it appears that the most nefarious, seemingly farfetched parts of the Steele Dossier are true.

490) Bull run

fierce battle, pitched battle Ex) US stocks had the worst week in more than two years as uncertainty about the economic expansion and political turmoil in the White House threatened the bull run that began nearly a decade ago.

810) Convivial

friendly, genial, affable, amiable Ex1) "The reason why people still dance like that is because it's sociable, it's very convivial, the music is a reference back to tradition." Ex2) It doesn't hurt that he often answers questions with the convivialuse of the word "man," as after the Stanford game of Oct.

1208) Dustbin

garbage can Ex) Russia is not the old Soviet Union, which makes it all the more imperative for the West to send a clear message that the old wiles and subterfuges also belong in the dustbin of history.

89) Afoot

going on, about to happen Ex) Consolidation has been afoot more broadly in media.

1382) Even

headed- fair, just, equitable, impartial, unbiased Ex1) Ex2)

1551) Flatter

praise somewhat dishonestly, adulate, blandish, bootlick, brownnose Ex) A sampling of reactions, from a day at the office and an after-work art opening: "It changes your look radically"; "Just...no"; "Not flattering"; "You don't look healthy"; and, most worryingly, "Are you OK?" Ex2) "The notion of relatability," Mead wrote, "implies that the work in question serves like a selfie: a flattering confirmation of an individual's solipsism."

888) Curate

select, organize, and look after the items in a collection or exhibition Ex) His dinner guest list at the White House is often curated by his chief of staff.

711) Composure

self-control, self-possession, calmness Ex1) Conversely, I sought jobs for Trump that place a low priority on "maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger and avoiding aggressive behavior." Ex2) In defeat, Brennan saw his Eagles compensate for an elite player's off night but lose their composure down the stretch.

585) Cement

settle or establish firmly Ex) The words just cement his sentiment that the people in those countries are less worthy, and he would like people from different countries.

576) Cavalier

indifferent, dismissive, unconcerned Ex) 'People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran.' Ex2) The cavalier expansively offers his hand in a descending arc through the air.

1288) Endemic

indigenous, native, original, aboriginal Ex1) Targeting the last few cases of polio is complicated because the disease is only still endemic in some of the most difficult-to-reach places on Earth, like remote corners of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ex2) Buchanan demonstrated why perverse incentives are endemic to government programs and that constitutional constraints, not good intentions, are the best hope for eliminating them.

1993) Impose

inflict, levy, charge, Ex) Some who were importuned or pawed, like Angelina Jolie, stalked away and told studio executives that she would never work with the pestilent mogul. Ex2) To insure they don't, the rules impose a price for transferring.

403) Bland

insipid, vapid, lackluster, uninspiring Ex) Most actual Hallmark productions, bland as they may be, are more agreeable. Ex2) "It's not a bad idea," he said, "but the writing tends toward the bland and sentimental."

261) Audit

inspect, examine, survey, go through Ex) The state comptroller, Thomas DiNapolli, audits the MTA and other state agencies.

1690) Germ

line- a series of germ cells from ancestors Ex) But the technology has also raised important ethical questions, especially when gene editing makes changes to the human germ-line, the sense of sperm, eggs, or embryos.

1940) Ignominy

shame, humiliation, embarrassment, public shame or disgrace Ex) "The Man in the Glass House," to be published on Tuesday, renders Johnson, who died in 2005 at 98 years old, in all his glory and ignominy. Ex2) It was, in part, their wry essay imagining the ignominies of being Courteney Cox's assistant, which include making an appointment to bleach a certain area of the actor's anatomy, that kick-started Mx.

738) Configuration

shape, form, appearance, formation, arrangement, layout, design Ex1) Six women — one a loosely defined protagonist, the others her echoes and tormentors — chant and babble in shifting configurations, sometimes glassy and sometimes full-cry. Ex2) Cars are lining up to enter and then parking in crazy configurations.

252) Atop

on top of Ex) The review process has advanced despite a vacant seat atop the department's antitrust division.

654) Clobbered

treat or deal harshly Ex) On any given day, a particular sector might be clobbered.

655) Cloud service

variety of resources provided over the internet Ex) Amazon's new 214,000 square foot location is expected to house its cloud-services unit, Amazon web services and other teams when it opens in the fall.

541) Candid

truth and straightforward, honest, frank Ex) "It's important to protect the principle of allowing the president to receive candid, full, frank advice from his top advisers without fear that those deliberations and communications will become public." Ex2) His mother, candid as always, summed things up this way: "But then, Ted always did puzzle me."

1834) Head

turner- someone or something that catches the eye Ex) But even for him, the nighttime tweet on Tuesday was a head-turner.

363) Belly

up- bankrupt Ex) His first high-profile venture was eSamsung, a start-up incubator that went belly-up during the dot-com collapse of the early 2000s.

1107) Dismantle

take apart, pull apart, pull to pieces Ex) Sepaartely, a bipartisan group of state senators calling off a special session to temporarily block the utilities from raising rates and lapsing on the costs of dismantling the reactors to customers.

1228) Edgy

tense, nervous, anxious, apprehensive Ex) If we go several days without news of replacement, investors could get edgy.

20) Abrogate

to abolish, annul, cancel, revoke, nullify, undo 2) evade Ex) She often used harsh words like "crook" to describe the politicians who she felt abrogated their duties. Ex2) "I think in no way do we want to be seen supportive of anything untoward," he said, adding that it would be a "real perilous situation" if the election were abrogated.

1865) Hew to

to conform or adhere to

48) Acquiesce

accept, consent to, agree to, concede, assent to, concur with, comply with, submit Ex) But Wednesday, with anxiety building on Capitol Hill, he suggested that he planned to acquiesce. Ex2) Wynn Resorts acquiesced to bondholder demands on Thursday, raising an offer to pay investors holding one of its notes due in 2023.

36) Acclimate

acclimatize, acculturate, accustom, conform, habituate Ex) But after so many years at one place, allow yourself enough time to acclimate to this one. Ex2) When people join this company, how do you get them acclimated to this?

1664) Gallant

brave, heroic 2) giving special attention and respect to women; chivalrous, brave, courageous, valiant Ex) My home team, England, made it further than expected, before a gallant and tearful exit at the semifinal stage on Wednesday. Ex2) The irony of a gallant Congress behaving cavalierly in several senses was surely lost on ERA supporters.

477) Bromide

platitude, cliché, banality Ex) An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to potassium bromide as an additive to flour. Ex2) The oldest sports bromide: When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

242) Assorted

various, miscellaneous, mixed, varied, heterogenous, diverse, eclectic Ex) She alluded to financial incentives and coaching help for principals, stocking her two-page response with assorted sweet nothings. Ex2) It's worth noting that diners will not find wine on the drinks menu; just a pared down list of sake, assorted liquor and light beer.

480) Brownstone

a reddish-brown building Ex) In 2012 alone, he wired enough money from the hidden accounts to purchase a loft in SoHo a brownstone in Brooklyn and a residence in Arlington, Va., they said.

993) Denture

a removable plate or frame for holding teeth Ex) He said Mr Trump does not wear dentures of any kind, a popular theory on Twitter for the slurred words.

664) Cock

tilt, tip, angle Ex) The way he cocked his gun, I thought he was going to shoot me if I did any wrong move.

8) Abet

assist, aid, help, lend a hand to, support, back, encourage Ex) Conventional wisdom holds that Americans are polarized, divided, tribalized — choose your word — over significant policy issues and that our two political parties abet and fuel this schism

465) Brevity

conciseness, concision, succinctness, pithiness Ex) The brevity of social media pushes most people toward a short and sweet statement. Ex2) "The brevity of his presidency I think exploded into tangents that still resonate today," he said.

881) Culminate

1) peak, climax Ex1) Talks accelerated this week, culminating with a pact that is likely to become official in a few days. Ex2) On Tuesday night, the lawmakers' rebellion culminated with Mrs. May's outsized and far-reaching defeat.

409) Bleak

1) unpromising, unfavorable, unpropitious 2) bare, exposed, desolate 3) cold, keen, raw, harsh Ex1) But for contractors working with the dozens of other agencies affected by the shutdown, the prospect of a continued funding impasse is bleak. Ex2) "Until that happens, the situation looks bleak," he said.

349) Begrudge

1) envy 2) resent, grudge, feel aggrieved about, feel bitter about Ex1) Yet, he doesn't begrudge his son for making the best of the situation. Ex2) Powell didn't begrudge the time he spent writing criticism.

1907) Hortative

hortatory, encouraging Ex) The Parson, under high excitement, rained his hortative oratory upon me.

922) Dearth

lack, scarcity, shortage, shortfall Ex1) The dearth of layoffs suggests the expansion is still on solid ground. Ex2) Perhaps it was simply a dearth of imagination.

207) Archaic

obsolete, out-of-date, old-fashioned, outmoded, anachronistic, antiquated Ex) "I started to question all the archaic ideas of what a bloke is supposed to be." Ex2) "It's an archaic system anyway and the rebuild with a different design is watertight so far!"

148) Anathema

outrage, abhorrence, disgrace Ex) Sadly, this kind of reform still seems to be an anathema to Mr Modi.

930) Deceleration

reduction in speed or rate Ex) The deceleration was the sharpest since November 2008.

1666) Gambit

risk, a scheme entailing risk that gains profit, stratagem, scheme, plan Ex) But the gambit appears to have failed, and the chances of a shutdown are rising- a shutdown that would hit a year to the day after Mr Trump took office. Ex2) The most concrete achievement of his North Korea gambit, in short, is to have avoided his own threat of war.

855) Cremation

dispose of (a dead person's body) by burning it to ashes, typically after a funeral ceremony Ex) Oxen were sacrificed frequently at cremations- the medical license after the false billing.

1966) Impassive

apathetic, callous, collected, cold, unmoved Ex) When, just as boys begin to pull away from their families, they are hit with immense social pressure to be strong and impassive — to fit the masculine mold of toughness. Ex2) On loan to the show from the Louvre is an ancient Etruscan sculpture of a youth who, with an impassive stare, lifts his robe to reveal his exposed innards.

661) Coarse

1) rough, scratchy 2) rude, crude, vulgar Ex1) The gardener is ambivalent about mahonias — they are prickly and coarse to a point where drama touches ugliness — and they get leggy and open. Ex2) The spinoff, like its lead character, was still finding its own voice, a coarser one than its parent program thanks to being on cable and about college students.

286) Awkward

1) unwieldy, cumbersome, clumsy, onerous 2) gauche, ungainly, clumsy Ex) Many women don't look forward to their yearly exam, and language barriers made an awkward situation all the more unnerving for Ms. Méndez. Ex2) The dynamic was — to say the least — a little awkward

29) Abysmal

1) very deep 2) atrocious, extremely bad, awful, dreadful, appalling Ex) According to a report from Reveal News, the numbers are abysmal. Ex2) Who cares about the abysmal stock market and growing fears that we are sliding into a recession?

1449) Extravagant

1) wasteful, prodigal, lavish 2) pricey, exorbitant, extortionate Ex1) He accommodated everything he saw, with incredible facility, to the extravagant ravings of his disordered judgment. Ex2) Year after year, the white-tie gala continues to hold a unique place in Washington's social calendar, offering a theatrical evening of vodka, Rachmaninoff and extravagant ballroom dancing.

1066) Disaffected

dissatisfied, disgruntled, discontented, malcontent Ex1) It began when a small group of artists, disaffected by mainstream culture, began sharing images online. Ex2) Still, there is a weird vibe around town, and so the disaffected now confront a series of unwieldy questions.

891) Curmudgeon

a bad tempered or surly person Ex) If you aren't using social media, your brand is as a curmudgeon, a dinosaur or both.

1695) Gigs

a job, especially temporary or uncertain future Ex) An international development worker in Washington is scrounging for babysitting gigs.

745) Congeal

coagulate, clot, thicken Ex1) These claims lack any rigorous evidence, and they rarely congeal into any kind of testable premise. Ex2) The few multicellular organisms grazed slowly on the congealed mats or sat atop them, using different body shapes to pluck nutrients from the currents.

933) Decipher

decode, decrypt, break Ex) And we are functioning like an abacus seeking to decipher string theory. Ex2) He mentions missing Francis Crick, his collaborator in the race to decipher the structure of DNA.

264) Augur

foreshadow, herald, indicate, bode, portend Ex) But it is also an augury of the future of the internet, mobile and media. Ex2) Allen is worse than an augury of those trolls of tomorrow; he is a model for them, a validation.

1535) Fish

fry-Friday- Ex) Yet there are still elements of the fish-fry-Friday voters, the Catholic demographic that political veterans here still call "white ethnics."

1810) Hardy

hale, robust, healthy, fit, strong, capable of enduring difficult conditions Ex) A small patch of the hardy cyclamen looked very special at Green Spring and reminded me of its liberal use in Irish gardens. Ex2) Even the hardiest of immigration hard-liners might reconsider their position if the alternative were working to age 90.

767) Conspire

plot, scheme, plan Ex1) Manafort was convicted last year in connection with the fraud after a trial in Virginia, and he pleaded guilty in Washington to conspiring to defraud the United States and witness tampering. Ex2) Kilimnik, who is believed to be in Moscow, was charged in June with conspiring with his former boss to obstruct Mueller's investigation.

960) Defuse

ease, calm, smooth over, deactivate Ex) In July, President Trump and the EU's chief executive, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, struck a limited agreement to discuss trade issues and defuse tensions. Ex2) The steps for defusing disagreements involving alcohol on planes are identical to those for defusing any conflict.

1636) Friable

easily crumbled, crumbly Ex) "The Feral Detective" enters that darker realm as soon as Phoebe and Heist venture into the friable wilderness far outside L.A. Ex2) It's a joy to see them at work in moist, friable soil once the tarp is removed.

1230) Edify

educate, instruct, teach, enlighten Ex1) Readers hungry for an engaging, well-researched primer on space military policy and its history will be edified. Ex2) I was inspired and edified, and I'm grateful that The Post put this article front and center on the Sunday edition for maximum accessibility.

1237) Efficacious

effective, effectual, successful, productive Ex1) That may be a less than scientific form of cognitive manipulation, but it is more efficacious than a dozen well-argued treatises. Ex2) Then during the upcoming feasts, maintain or reduce that number, with a reduction of 20 percent seeming the most efficacious for weight loss, Dr. West said.

1377) Euphoria

elation, happiness, joy, delight, glee Ex1) The serial toppling of seemingly invincible men from every industry produced euphoria and not a little schadenfreude. Ex2) "Heavy" is a "gorgeous, gutting book that's fueled by candor yet freighted with ambivalence. It's full of devotion and betrayal, euphoria and anguish, tender embraces and rough abuse," our critic Jennifer Szalai writes.

12) Abject

1) excessively servile, obsequious, groveling, fawning, toadyish, cringing 2) wretched, hopeless, contemptible, bad to maximum Ex1) China's achievements in sustaining economic growth, alleviating abject poverty and providing developmental assistance to other countries need to be celebrated. Ex2) David Hume's famous argument against miracles is today recognized, in the words of philosopher of science John Earman, as "an abject failure." Ex3) Each is placed in a list, or a gathering of information, until the poems break from the abject.

807) Convict

1) find guilty, sentence 2) prisoner, inmate Ex1) The bill assumed that such a conviction would mean a parent was negligent in the care of their children, the organization said. Ex2) Under New Hampshire law, the accomplice conviction meant she would spend the rest of her life in prison.

815) Convulsion

1) fit, seizure, paroxysm, spasm 2) upheaval, eruption, cataclysm, turmoil Ex1) It corroded veins, triggered convulsions and killed 5 percent of the patients who got it. Ex2) What set off the convulsions of the last 30 years?

1726) Grandiose

1) magnificent, impressive, grand, imposing, awe-inspiring 2) grandiloquent, pompous, bombastic Ex) After two years of President Trump's grandiose bluster, bluffing and buffoonery, Americans elected candidates who ran as optimistic, progressive problem-solvers focused on results central to families: health care, work, education and taxes. Ex2) The group's 2015 release, "Time River," was both grandiose and immediately rewarding, guided by melody.

1896) Ho

hum- banal, bland, dumb, hackneyed Ex) The media largely has ignored the affair, the ho-hum coverage summed up by a New York Times.

1819) Hasten

hurry, rush, dash, race, fly, to be quick to do something Ex) Pollution and noisy boat traffic also appear to be hastening the group's decline. Ex2) Tuesday's approvals followed a 2017 commitment by China to hasten reviews for U.S. biotech crops.

645) Clarion

loud and clear Ex) One of her lawyers, J. Houston Gordon, said the case should be seen as a "clarion call" against what he described as draconian laws that put children in prison. Ex2) Even so, the Democrats' House takeover represented a clarion call that a majority of the country wants to see a check on Mr. Trump for the next two years of his term.

177) Apex

peak, summit, pinnacle, climax, culmination, zenith, acme, apogee Ex) The occasion cemented Mr Xi's unrivalled position at China's apex. Ex2) For them to reach their apex and decline so quickly, I think there's something really interesting to learn in that.

1331) Ephemeral

transitory, transient, fleeting, passing, short-lived Ex1) Advertiser boycotts such as the one this week against Carlson tend to be like snowstorms: initially disruptive and attention-getting but usually ephemeral. Ex2) Ocasio-Cortez's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on her use of social media or whether they were archiving the ephemeral stories in any way.

615) Cherish

treasure, prize, value highly Ex) Why anyone should assume that Trump and those who cherish or loathe him in the news business will easily surrender such a hugely symbiotic relationship is hard to understand. Ex2) The CuddleCot provides parents with an extended opportunity to cherish the time and bond with the baby they lost, she said.

617) Chicanery

trickery, deception, duplicity Ex) Congo's people need a chance to defy the chicanery and repression of a regime determined to avoid a true competitive election. Ex2) He did not become wealthy, as today's businessperson-turned-president did, through a father's largesse supplemented by tax chicanery.

439) Boomerang

Ex) Australians took Chanel to task for its sale of a luxury boomerang.

250) Atomized

reduce (something) to atoms or other small distinct units. Ex) Society becomes atomized.

10) Abhorrent

repugnant, inspire disgust and loathing Ex) Threats of violence in response to controversial art are abhorrent.

582) Cede

yield, surrender, relinquish Ex) So, if she is being kind, thoughtful and hospitable — and you cede the legitimacy of her point — then why is this debatable? Ex2) Gambia's tourism industry was hit especially hard in 2017, when its longtime authoritarian ruler Yahya Jammeh refused to cede leadership after a shocking election loss, forcing a political standoff that brought foreign troops in.

932) Decimate

kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of Ex) His family founded American Can but saw their fortune decimated by the market crash that year. Ex2) The country sank into its worst-ever recession, a corruption investigation decimated its political class and a crime wave led to record homicides.

388) Bewilder

perplex, puzzle, bemuse, Ex) And in a shocking moment when Yuko kisses Koji in front of her bewildered husband, there is the unveiling of a profound cruelty. Ex2) Shawn Townsend asked as bewildered customers looked up from their drinks.

1910) House hunter

person who try to find a house to live in, especially the one you want to buy Ex) But their challenge will be to pace rent increases so as to not turn their tenants into house hunters who would compete with them for properties.

1897) Hoist

raise, raise up, lift, haul up Ex) The turnabout — in which he is hoisted by his own petard — is squirmy but not as resonant as it would like to be. Ex2) Decades after she hoisted her umbrella and ascended into the clouds, a certain magical nanny is gliding onto the big screen again.

968) Delegate

representatives, envoy, emissary 2) assign, entrust, pass on, hand on Ex) The legal argument is that Mr. Trump would act according to powers Congress previously delegated to the president.

1641) Froward

stubbornly contrary and disobedient; obstinate, difficult to deal with Ex) List not, when the froward chide, Sons of pedantry and pride; Snarlers, to whose feeble sense April sun-shine is offence; Age and envy will advise, Ev'n against the joys they prize. Ex2) I remembered that Goethe once spoke to me of the 'Sentimental Journey,' and said that it was impossible for anyone better to paint what a froward and perverse thing is the human heart.

1226) Economy

thrift, thriftiness, providence, prudence Ex1) This year began with repeated public assurances from Fed officials that they were sensitive to concerns about the economy and would be patient and flexible as they decided whether to raise interest rates. Ex2) Zuboff's analysis would benefit from more emphasis on the role of deregulation, the declining power of organized labor and the gradual financialization of the economy.

1287) Endeavor

1) attempt, effort, try, endeavor 2) attempt, try, bid, effort, venture Ex1) Building a tunnel under five miles of waterway in a crowded city is an arduous and costly endeavor, but it would offer immense relief. Ex2) As Nurse coached in the BBL during the 1990s, the NBA was endeavoring, and eventually succeeding, in building its brand internationally.

973) Delineate

1) describe, present, outline, sketch Ex) Last week, as the new Congress was sworn in, Mr. King sat on his side of a chamber sharply delineated by demographics. Ex2) A lot of people will stop there and are satisfied to place delineated photos in a clean, labeled box, and put them in a basement closet.

722) Conciliate

1) appease, placate, pacify, mollify 2) mediate, reconcile, arbitrate Ex1) The purpose of politics — or, at any rate, one purpose — is to conciliate and to cooperate. Ex2)There are no complexities, no ambiguities, no conflicting views to consider or conciliate.

1871) High jinks

boisterous fun Ex) But if Donald Trump grabs a white woman by the crotch in a nightclub, it's locker-room high jinks.

864) Cronies

close friends, companion, bosom friend, intimate Ex) Cronies inside Samsung will start taking sides, and this is a risky situation you can't control from a jail cell.

638) Clad

clothed Ex) She took the rare step of reading part of her dissent aloud from the bench, clad in the special collar she reserves for such occasions.

1150) Doctrine

creed, credo dogma, belief, teaching Ex1) We spend a lot of time scratching below the surface of doctrines, professional norms, and we spend time in a more personal place. Ex2) The kingdom's rulers soon further embraced Wahhabism, an ultraconservative Islamic doctrine.

341) Bedeck

decorate, embellish, adorn Ex) The magnate hated it, and in 1904, he sold it to Charles Lang Freer, who reassembled it in the States, bedecking it with ceramics from Iran, Japan, China, Syria and Korea. Ex2) Miners are celebrated on a special holiday, when they dress in uniforms bedecked with medals and plumes, and feast on pig's knuckles and beer.

1130) Dissent

differ, disagree, demur Ex1) White House officials were working to quell dissent on another front, urging Republican senators to hold off on signing a bipartisan letter that would call for an end to the government shutdown. Ex2) Despite Mystery Brewing's earning national acclaim for brewing a fund-raising "protest beer" in dissent of North Carolina's contentious "bathroom bill," it closed in October, citing undercapitalization and bad luck.

1417) Exorcise

drive out, cast out, expel Ex1) In retreating to a world of his imagination as a way to exorcise the demons that tormented him, he ended up creating real art. Ex2)After studying the emotional responses of people using punching bags to exorcise their rage, he concluded that "doing nothing at all was more effective."

963) Dehydrate

dry out, lose water Ex) The fizzing spiced-apple soda, prepared with a dash of vanilla bitters and fresh lemon juice and topped with a cinnamon-sprinkled dehydrated slice of fruit, tastes as good as it looks. Ex2) Out on my balcony, taking deep breaths of fresh autumn air, I realized I was dying of thirst, completely dehydrated from all the sobbing.

1079) Discomfit

embarrass, abash, disconcert, discompose Ex1) Ms. Wolf was not the first comic to cause a ruckus; Stephen Colbert's 2006 appearance so discomfited the tuxedoed audience that Rich Little, an inoffensive impressionist, was invited the following year. Ex2) Continuing a personal tradition, he devotes this track to the names of black people killed by law enforcement officers, whispering the roll call over lively strings and discomfited, irregular drumming.

1554) Fledgling

embryonic, infant, nascent 2) developing, in the making, budding Ex) These fledgling attorneys — some of the best in the country — are looking beyond the familiar hotshot attorney posts with the federal government, Tierney said. Ex2) Galled by Glass's implication, Mead took the fledgling concept to task and lamented its growing use in the critical lexicon.

312) Banish

exile, expel, deport, eject Ex) Some Maryland lawmakers had tried over the years to banish the statue, dissatisfied with a 1990s compromise that added a statue of Thurgood Marshall, a Baltimore native who was the first African American appointed to the US supreme court. Ex2) "I am the product of the masses of my country and the product of my enemy" - references to South Africa's white rulers under apartheid and to her burning hatred of them, rooted in her own years of mistreatment, incarceraton, and banishment.

1008) Deregulatory

free from regulation Ex) The Republican tax-reform program combines the 1971 tax cuts and the 1986 tax reform with a deregulatory effort through legislation, agency rule-making ad executive action constituting the most dramatic deregulatory effort since the Carter-Reagan reforms.

1702) Glee

great delight Ex) Her glee signaled a noteworthy and sobering shift. Ex2) He wrapped an arm around Siegenthaler and, in his glee, Ovechkin remembered there was one more thing he needed to do.

1924) Hybrid

heterogeneous, mixed, blended 2) amalgam, combination, compound Ex) Another hybrid between the Japanese and Chinese witch hazels, Harry is known for its prolific and showy blossoms. Ex2) The company, for example, plans to introduce more hybrid and electric models.

9) Abeyance

inactivity, dormancy, quiescence, suspension Ex) Even if the two sides manage to put punitive tariffs in abeyance, harder to resolve will be many of the Chinese trade practices the U.S. says are unfair, including the coercive transfer of technology.

796) Contrived

forced, strained, studied, artificial Ex) This is a contrived emergency.

109) Alight

get off, step off, disembark from Ex) "Upon reaching the location," Mr. Koh is quoted as saying, "the passenger alighted."

528) Calculus

a particular method or system of calculation or reasoning Ex) But that political calculus may not hold for Mr. Jones, who won a special election to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he was appointed attorney general.

1299) Engross

absorb, enthrall, fascinate, grip, immerse Ex1) The resulting narrative is rich and absorbing — as evocative and engrossing as a novel. Ex2) These are subtle exchanges, but engrossing nonetheless — a brilliant, succinct depiction of everyday code switching, and it works mainly because Jordan carries it off so well.

493) Bullishness

1) rising stock market prices 2) optimistic or confident Ex) The continued bullishness shows that, even as investors question the durability of the tech sector's market leadership, many analysts remain reluctant to call it quits on companies that have delivered remarkable growth throughout the past year.

1660) Gaffe

a clumsy social error a faux pas; a blatant mistake Ex) With potential room for agreement, Cagaptay said a key factor will be avoiding diplomatic gaffes. Ex2) Because it's football in 2019, Alabama got moving again, but this time Tagovailoa, by then a sparkling 13 for 15, contributed a second rare gaffe.

216) Arms race

a competition between nation over accumulation of weapon Ex) Mr. Chung cited Kim Jong Il, the father of the current leader, who said that the U.S. military could balance the arms race in Northeast Asia and serve as a stabilizing force.

1184) Drawdown

a reduction in the size or presence of a military force. 2) a decline in an investment or fund. Ex) A day later, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned in protest. Before he left the Pentagon, however, Mr. Mattis signed the formal order to begin the military drawdown.

1485) Fatwa

a ruling on a point of Islamic law by a recognized authority Ex) President Barack Obama, for example, helped sell his nuclear agreement with Iran by claiming that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.

1631) Frenzy

a state or period of uncontrolled excitement or wild behavior hysteria, madness Ex) Smart made a compelling central figure when her trial launched in 1991, tailor-made for a media frenzy. Ex2) My tween and his friends were all aboard the Egg frenzy.

1681) Generality

a statement or principle having general rather than specific validity or force, generalization, general statement, general principle Ex) The formal principles concern the generality, clarity, publicity, stability, and prospectivity of the norms that govern a society.

720) Concession

a thing that is granted, compromise, allowance, exception 2) admission, acknowledgement, acceptance, recognition 3) reduction, cut, discount, deduction 4) right, privilege Ex) The unsticking of the framework after years of obstruction is widely seen as a concession by China, which has opposed any legally binding code on maritime engagement, stepped up naval patrols and built artificial islands to enforce its claims, and equipping them with military weapons. Ex2) Testifying under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, effectively confirmed that Mr Graham had confronted Mr Trump, a remarkable concession from one of the president's own appointees.

949) Defendant

accused, prisoner at the bar Ex) The Sentencing Commission, which sets penalty guidelines for federal crimes, was created in 1984 to address complaints that judges were imposing widely disparate sentences on defendants guilty of the same offenses.

1438) Extemporaneous

ad hoc, ad-lib, extemporary, extempore Ex1) The next part of the sevusevu is supposed to be extemporaneous, some thought to offer the chief as a visitor from abroad. Ex2) As the extemporaneous song grows, others join in with musings of their own, call-and-response style.

1439) Extemporize

ad-lib, do offhand, improvise Ex1) The ministers not only engaged with him, but invited him to extemporize on Bible verses to the congregation. Ex2) The greatest of these improvised-and-then-impaled-on-a-card stories is, of course, "Alice in Wonderland," extemporized on a golden afternoon and recalled at leisure later.

28) Abuts

adjoin, be adjacent to, butt against Ex) In Brickell, a Miami neighborhood that abuts both the Atlantic and the Miami River, Lucas Mattout, 22, was dashing around Public supermarket looking for water.

1144) Dividend

bonus, share Ex) The Israeli drugmaker posted disappointing second-quarter results, cut its full-year outlook and slashed its dividend, blaming the rapid deterioration of its al-important US generic drug business. Ex2) For Apple, repatriating the cash creates opportunities that could include acquisitions and higher dividends for shareholders

1280) Enclave

a portion of territory within or surrounded by a larger territory whose inhabitants are culturally or ethnically distinct, small territory Ex) But despite these similarities, denizens of the two preppy enclaves are fiercely loyal to their chosen island.

1108) Dismay

appall, horrify, shock Ex1) Even a columnist for The Economist, an organ of the British elite, now professes dismay over "Oxford chums" who coast through life on "bluff rather than expertise." Ex2) The new legal opinion was greeted with dismay by many in the gambling industry, who fear that the interpretation will limit the growth of the online betting industry across states.

1323) Entreat

appeal, implore, importune, petition, plead Ex1) Friends, clients and journalists entreated him for invitations to his grand parlor-floor apartment in the East 80s in Manhattan, but it was strictly off-limits. Ex2) "In Darkness" moves along so smartly that near the end, when the filmmakers entreat you to follow them just a bit more, you'll likely oblige.

1614) Foul

abhorrent, abominable, base, contaminated, despicable Ex) Tennessee was 35 of 39 and Arkansas went 13 of 22 from the foul line. Ex2) Cowan led the Terps with 21 points, going 11 for 13 from the foul line including seven made free throws in the final seven minutes.

529) Caliber

ability, capability, competence Ex) "Should he leave," he wrote in March, "it will be difficult to find a replacement of his caliber." Ex2) "It's awesome that the city understands its artist community," he said, noting the high caliber of recent productions, including "A Long Day's Journey Into Night," and Joe Morton's one-man stunner "Turn Me Loose."

1211) Dysregulated

abnormally or imperfectly regulated Ex) First, college life is a highly dysregulated environment with inconsistent sleep patterns and diets, little structure, and an abundance of binge-drinking, pot-smoking, and abuse of stimulants like Adderall.

1760) Gruff

abrupt and taciturn, blunt, brusque, grouchy Ex) Sitting in his Upper East Side apartment a few feet from his writing desk, Chase was terse but thoughtful and accommodating as he looked back on "The Sopranos," his gruff demeanor spiked with dry wit. Ex2) It was the antithesis of gruff, white-haired men in dark suits.

1372) Ethnonationalism

absolute nationalism that is marked by the desire of an ethnic community to have absolute authority over its own political, economic, and social affairs Ex) But she does perceive that "a kind of 'ethnonationalism lite' is widespread among white Americans today.

744) Confound

amaze, astonish, stagger, surprise Ex1) Friday's verdict confounded Mongols members and their lawyers. Ex2) Beauty, therefore, would not confound natural selection — it would be very much a part of it.

1270) Emend

ameliorate, improve, meliorate, amend, better Ex1) It's rife with typos and misspellings and sprinkled with attempts at emending them. Ex2) When the author undertakes to emend the text for himself, or offers an original interpretation, his work is not always trustworthy.

1648) Fulmination

an expression of vehement protest, tirade, diatribe, harangue, invective Ex) Was this genius of orderly politics equipped for the daily earthquakes brought on by Trump's fulminations? Ex2) The main regret over his comments is that he undermines their diplomatic impact with his many other, less helpful, fulminations on European affairs.

1952) Immemorial

ancient, reaching beyond the limits of memory, tradition, or recorded history, old, age, Ex) It was a sobering moment, and I did try to be less of a brat, though it was not an immediate transformation. Ex2) As he breaks down the concept and chapters, his excitement builds, his syllables accelerate; you catch that alchemical symphony that buoyed those immemorial songs.

1492) Fearmongering

arousing public fear Ex) Again, a cynic might suggest that this is faddish fearmongering: statistics show that teenagers are far more likely to die in a car accident than in school shooting.

1766) Guild

association, society, union, league, alliance Ex) Over the last year, she has traveled to brewers' guilds and industry conferences, and developed guidelines and resources to help brewers make their workplaces, customers and brands more inclusive.

235) Assailant

attacker, mugger, assaulter Ex) However, the Las Ramblas promenade- where at least 13 people were killed and many more injured in the attack claimed by Islamic State- didn't have concrete barriers to block the assailant, despite attacks around Europe in the past year involving vehicles driving into crowds.

456) Brash

cocky, self-confident, arrogant Ex) The story of these instruments is the story of America in the postwar era: loud, cocky, brash, aggressively new. Ex2) "In the hands of a younger, brasher novelist, we might expect high drama, but here, instead, is a nuanced, quietly devastating family soap opera," our reviewer, Melanie Finn, writes.

1335) Epistemically

cognitive Ex) First, law should be epistemically accessible: it should be a body of norms promulgated as public knowledge so that people can study it, internalize it, figure out what it requires of them, and use it as a framework for their plans and expectations and for settling their disputes with others.

522) Caesarean

connected with Julius Caesar Ex) Dr Riley delivered the baby girl in an emergency caesarean section, and Ms Brown was taken to intensive care.

190) Appreciable

considerable, substantial, significant, sizable, noticeable, marked Ex) There was an appreciable increase in the number of fines for female players since coaching became legal on the WTA Tour. Ex2) I tried it both ways to see if there was an appreciable difference in texture or flavor.

698) Compatible

consistent, congruous, congruent, harmonious Ex1) A de facto dome, the building was originally designed to demonstrate an ecological system to support and maintain human life in outer space, quite compatible to sustaining the Raiders' front office. Ex2) "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute" is not entirely compatible with the Roman trait of "menefreghismo," the attitude of not caring less.

756) Connive

conspire, collude, collaborate Ex1) "No one will accuse them of being partisan or conniving with one tribe against the other," said Yakubu Dati, a spokesman for the state government. Ex2) Here, period authenticity clashes happily with occasional creative anachronisms to present audiences with a portrait of power as sobering as it is scabrously conniving.

1992) Importune

beg, beseech, entreat, implore Ex) "For those sweating, leaking, reeking, dreaming travelers in the hyper-arid Middle East, the desert promised asylum — both from garden England and from their own body and its cursed fecundity and importuning, its uncleanness." Ex2) Some who were importuned or pawed, like Angelina Jolie, stalked away and told studio executives that she would never work with the pestilent mogul.

1041) Dichotomy

contrast, difference, polarity Ex1) Most of the scientists I spoke with said that the old dichotomy between adaptive adornment and arbitrary beauty, between "good genes" and Fisherian selection, is being replaced with a modern conceptual synthesis that emphasizes multiplicity. Ex2) He says that climate change renders the old dichotomy of the global versus the local completely futile.

1931) Iconoclast

critic, skpetic, heretic, unbeliever Ex) From the start, he was an iconoclast, committed to using everyday materials and found artifacts, blurring the lines between sculpture and painting, between reproduction and individual creation, between objects and artworks. Ex2) "I would describe him as an iconoclast," Dr. Fan said, laughing.

588) Censure

criticize, rebuke, admonish Ex) Inside the Democratic caucus, some members on Tuesday expressed wariness about moving too rashly to censure King, while others said they saw censure as an absolute minimum response. Ex2) Representative Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat, wanted to formally censure Mr. King and drafted a measure to do just that.

1029) Detract

belittle, diminish, reduce, lessen, minimize 2) divert or distract away Ex1) It detracts from any message that the company affirmatively encourages employees to raise questions and concerns. Ex2) It wouldn't detract from the merits of Pollard's case to entertain the possibility that she was motivated by something more complicated and personal than abstract justice.

359) Bellicose

belligerent, aggressive, hostile Ex) President Trump's bellicose trade actions were a concern, but hiring was strong and corporate earnings were surging. Ex2) Was he a militant prophet who imposed his new religion by the sword, leaving a bellicose legacy that still drives today's Muslim terrorists?

360) Bellicose

belligerent, aggressive, hostile, warlike Ex) North Korea pulled back its threat to attack a US territory, after days of trading increasingly bellicose rhetoric with US President Donald Trump, and hours after China took its toughest steps against Pyongyang to support UN sanctions.

453) Braggadocio

boastful or arrogant behavior. Ex) Mr. Fret used the braggadocio and performativity of the genre to make the case for inclusivity, Mr. Livares argued.

188) Apposite

germane, relevant, suitable Ex) This sentiment seems apposite, perhaps especially in San Francisco. Ex2) I doubt whether this diversity of cultural reference is strictly apposite to Mr. Koubi's Algerian quest.

716) Comradeship

brotherhood, camaraderie, companionship, fellowship Ex1) Marx "lived honestly and simply, and valued affection and comradeship," Mr. Xi said Friday in a speech at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Ex2) The comradeship of men at arms becomes a refuge from the incomprehension of family.

1298) Engineer

arrange, organize, maneuver Ex) Mr Moon said there also had been no secret meetings between Seoul and Pyongyang to engineer the inter-Korean summit, and Mr Chung added that the South hadn't promised any compensation to North Korea.

1793) Hamper

hinder, impede the movement or progress, obstruct, inhibit, retard, balk Ex) Those uncertainties hamper today's scientists as they stitch together 20th-century temperature data into a global historical record. Ex2) They also said that the government shutdown was hampering their ability to properly review the decision.

943) Deduce

conclude, reason, infer Ex) I soon deduced that they'd met online and were getting together in person for the first time. Ex2) He occasionally gets pushback from friends who deduce from his Instagram account that he's in town and, presumably, ready to rosé.

131) Ameliorate

improve, make better, better, enhance Ex) By preventing or seeking to ameliorate the natural ebb of the economic cycle, the Fed also discourages the beneficial effect of recessions, namely to restrain the issuance of credit from time to time. Ex2) The $500 million project is expected to ameliorate flooding in numerous communities but would not eliminate it in the Meyerland area, according to a Rice University analysis published last year.

1355) Erroneous

incorrect, wrong, mistaken, false, flawed Ex1) To the chagrin of many in Washington, Risch refuses to criticize or often even react to Trump's erratic or erroneous statements on foreign policy. Ex2) A million erroneous citations notwithstanding, Albert Einstein never said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

1800) Harangue

1) a long pompous speech; a tirade 2) to deliver a harangue to; address forcefully Ex) Yes, there is always one fool haranguing some poor sales clerk at Macy's over an expired coupon. Ex2) Or do what I do and aggressively harangue people about remembering you in their will.

502) Bureaucrat

official, officeholder, administrator Ex) And the supreme scandal was the IRS's assault on tea-party groups- a campaign inspired by congressional Democrats, perpetrated by partisan bureaucrats like Lois Lerner and covered up by Mr. Obama's political appointees.

912) Dated

old-fashioned Ex1) The National Security Division will continue investigations and prosecutions as part of its broad range of duties encompassing terrorism and espionage issues, the Justice Department said in a plan dated Jan. 10. Ex2) The report, dated Feb. 13, 2018, was obtained in response to a request under the state's Freedom of Information Law

1073) Discerning

discriminating, judicious, shrewd Ex1) Although this will no doubt set off alarms for discerning readers, Jessica seems oblivious to the unlikelihood of such a setup. Ex2) She also defended her politics, and instead of apologizing for her fashion pursuits, she declared a discerning eye for style, an admirable and valuable skill.

1864) Hew

chop, hack, cut, lop Ex) Beijing said it would ban imports of North Korean coal, iron and seafood, starting Tuesday, measures that hew to sanctions passed by the UN.

849) Craven

cowardly, lacking courage Ex1) In the show, politicians are craven, corrupt and incompetent. Ex2) But at least their craven emptiness will produce a positive result in this case: no wall.

1149) Doctrinaire

dogmatic, rigid, inflexible Ex1) Even at its dullest and most doctrinaire, "Deviation" is kept afloat by D'Eramo's archaeological ardor, and by the surreal twists and turns of her narrative. Ex2) But in private, even Benedict's most adamant supporters express frustration with him for quitting and allowing the election of Francis, a more pastoral, less doctrinaire pontiff who they think is ruining the church.

733) Conducive

favorable, beneficial, advantageous Ex1) When a child doesn't process his big feelings, his emotions either stay stagnant or explode in anger, options that are not conducive to the best emotional health. Ex2) Most skaters use Nordic skates with long blades conducive to gliding.

1647) Full

fledged- completely developed or established; of full status; full-blown Ex) As Wilkerson notes, these black men and women and children are also full-fledged members of the middle class, though often forgotten and invisible in today's political discourse about the middle class. Ex2) Steven H. Pollard was supposed to receive the official order confirming his promotion to a full-fledged New York City firefighter this week.

1801) Harbinger

forerunner, precursor, messenger 2) herald, sign, indication, a forerunner of something Ex) Or is it the harbinger of a sharp economic slowdown or crash? Ex2) The opening is unfortunately a harbinger of what ails the rest of this novel.

853) Credulous

gullible, naïve, too trusting, stupid Ex1) They should be less credulous and less distractible — and not be absorbed by Trump's every outrageous tweet, offended by his every disparagement or willing to repeat, verbatim, his every misstatement. Ex2) If you're right, this abuser is wrongly gaining the support of your credulous-workers.

117) Allude

hint, imply, intimate, suggest, insinuate, adumbrate Ex) Such concerns were obliquely alluded to in a scathing resignation letter sent in August by the agency's student loan ombudsman, Seth Frotman. Ex2) "In 2016, we were not prepared for the coordinated information operations we now regularly face," he wrote, alluding to Russian interference in the American presidential election.

1736) Green

inexperienced, unversed, callow, immature, unseasoned 2) lush, verdant Ex) Historically, about 70 percent of all recruits with green cards are processed quickly, defense officials said in the memo. Ex2) All along the route, the green onion domes of the Frauenkirche watch over Bavaria World like twin guardian angels who've never heard of Disney .

1312) Entail

infer, imply, mean 2) involve, bring about, cause, require Ex1) Sometimes people are skeptical at first, especially about yoga's ability to offer the intensity that military workouts entail. Ex2) The White House and Democrats are in agreement on the need for border security generally and even on some specifics of what that would entail — just not on the wall.

773) Construe

interpret, understand, read, see Ex1) James reportedly ruffled the feathers of league executives earlier this week with comments about Pelicans star Anthony Davis that were construed as courting the New Orleans center. Ex2) Farmers Insurance said that its advertising decisions "should not be construed to be an endorsement of any kind as to a show's content or the individuals appearing on the show."

1313) Entangle

intertwine, tangle, ravel, snarl, snare Ex1) The messages also showed how deeply Mr. Guzmán's romantic partners were entangled in his work life. Ex2) Missouri's health care situation is even more politically fraught, entangled with entrenched partisanship and bullheaded ideology.

1446) Extrajudicial

not legally authorized Ex) An independent press is essential to explain why mass extrajudicial killings cannot be the right answer and to prepare the way for the restoration of the rule of law.

1684) Genteel

polite, refined, or respectable, often in an affected or ostentatious way Ex) At first, she was sent to live in genteel poverty with relatives and family friends, listening to radio soap operas as a way to learn English. Ex2) For a musical about a war — or more precisely, a caesura between hostilities — "All Is Calm" is a staunchly apolitical and warily genteel work.

939) Decorum

propriety, decency, correctness, etiquette, Ex) It's such a break with the tradition that you unify the country against opposition abroad, and you act with a certain decorum in dealing with opponents at home.

1832) Head

spinning- confused Ex) The president's comments were the latest head-spinning twist in a diplomatic dance that has played out unlike any in recent years. Ex2) President Trump announced Friday that the summit meeting he had canceled with North Korea's leader would be held this month after all, the latest head-spinning twist in a nuclear-edged diplomatic drama that has captivated and confused much of the world.

78) Advocate

support, back, favor, espouse, endorse, uphold, subscribe to, champion, campaign Ex) "As an advocate, she is kind of sharp-edged. But that doesn't prevent her being a constructive legislator. She is able to do both." Ex2) Mr. Lee remained an avuncular and beloved advocate of comic books and his own business ventures well into his 90s, attending fan conventions until recently even as his health appeared to decline.

749) Conglomerate

a large corporation formed by merging of different firms, corporation, company, business Ex) This is included support for a merger between two Samsung affiliates that increased his personal stake in Samsung Electronics the world's largest smartphone maker and the crown jewel of South Korea's largest conglomerate. Ex2) His father - Lee Kun-hee, the son of Samsung's founder and the conglomerate's chairman - was twice conceited of bribery and other corruption charges but never spent a day in jail.

57) Adage

a short, pithy statement, aphorism, apothegm, axiom, byword, dictum, maxim, precept, saw Ex) "INNOCENT if rich, guilty if poor" is a well-known adage in South Korea. Ex2) It is that they distract from the otherwise interesting stories, which often are not the most compelling demonstrations of the adages in question.

764) Consonance

agreement, accord, harmony, unison Ex1) Maybe we were captivated by their consonance of color, form and aroma. Ex2) Toward the end, the music pools into consonance in a way that viscerally evokes a clearing of the air.

977) Demanding

arduous, formidable, challenging, onerous, grueling Ex) Martin Fayulu, the runner-up, was contesting the results and demanding a manual recount. Ex2) Without demanding to see them, however, she complied with the cop's request that she wait at a police station a few blocks away.

1441) Extirpate

to destroy completely Ex1) It's essentially a novelization of the War of Canudos conflict in 19th century Brazil, where the government of Brazil engaged in a prolonged effort to extirpate a communitarian religious community in the wilds of Bahia. Ex2) As in much of Europe, hunting for pelts, meat and castoreum—a secretion used in perfumes—extirpated them centuries ago.

227) Ascetic

austere, self-denying, abstinent, abstemious, self-disciplined, celibate Ex) An ascetic diet of rice and beans is killing me. Ex) In an interview for "Medicine Man," a forthcoming documentary, former RAM executive director Karen Wilson said Mr. Brock's ascetic lifestyle was driven entirely by his work for the organization. Ex2) Rather than visiting other major houses of worship there, I zoomed in on the sadhus, ascetics who renounce the world to embark on religious quests.

909) Dash hope

to ruin someones hope Ex) Movie theater executives had hoped that attendance this summer would be as buoyant as in recent years but their hopes were dashed.

892) Curry favor

to try to make someone like you or support you by doing or saying things to please them Ex) In the first tumultuous summer of the Trump administration, the hotel has cemented its status as a gathering spot for prominent conservatives and a place for the president's supporters to see, be seen and curry favor with people in power, one $24 chocolate cigar at a time.

1220) Eccentric

unconventional, uncommon, abnormal, irregular Ex1) An eccentric hero for a drama, then, who as "Leave" campaign director would scrawl possible slogans directly onto walls and use a storage closet as a "thinking space." Ex2) It was ostentatious and indulgent; it was a smorgasbord of eccentric delights.

568) Catch

up- catching someone in an activity Ex) As in any sport, regulators must play catch-up with crooked chemists; and in some places, they are accused of weak enforcement.

525) Cajole

wheedle, coax Ex) The horse-trading and cajoling to land a committee assignment starts right after the election, aides said. Ex2) Hoyer, 79, will remain her deputy as House majority leader, cajoling and advising Democrats from across the political spectrum as he begins his 20th congressional term.

298) Backwater

backcountry, backland Ex) As recently as the 1990s, the city was portrayed as a backwater on the variety show "Hee Haw." Ex2) Immunology became a vaguely disreputable backwater in cancer research.

622) Choleric

bad-tempered, irascible, irritable Ex) If this all sounds like a choleric doctoral dissertation, that's because it is, sort of. Ex2) The Elizabethans boiled it down to four types: You were choleric or sanguine or melancholy or aggressive.

1627) Fray

battle, fight, engagement Ex) The measures taken by HUD this week could draw the Trump administration into the fray as well. Ex2) Even committees that are not usually in the investigation business are jumping into the fray.

498) Bumpy

bouncy, rough, uncomfortable Ex) The relationship remains bumpy.

348) Beget

bring about, cause, create, engender, produce Ex) Charles Darwin followed that up in 1871 with "ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." Ex2) He said the quakes were likely to continue for at least a decade "because earthquakes beget earthquakes."

389) Bewitch

captivate, enchant, entrance, Ex) But Couch Slouch is still bedazzled, bewitched, beguiled, bewildered and beflummoxed* by the groundbreaking road to glory last season of the Vegas Golden Knights, which took the first-year expansion team to the Stanley Cup finals. Ex2) After walking the grounds, it was onto one of the true natural wonders of Ireland: The possibly bewitched Cliffs of Moher.

1296) Engaging

charming, appealing, attractive 2) intriguing, interesting, engrossing Ex1) For a recent book that avoids antiregulatory diatribes but explains who such public servants are and how they decide, see Michael Lewis's engaging "The Fifth Risk." Ex2) Coyote's bold, engaging voice pops off the page and propels this road-trip novel through a series of charming, if unlikely, adventures.

741) Conflate

combine into one, mix, consolidate, blend, fuse, unite, integrate Ex) The current turmoil over immigration conflates several separate issues.

123) Amalgamate

combine, merge, unite, fuse, blend, meld Ex) She, too, uses Cunningham's vocabulary — but she amalgamates it with movements from sport and pedestrian movement. Ex2) The goal is not a smooth pureé, but, rather, an amalgamated whole that retains a bit of bite.

187) Appease

conciliate, placate, pacify, mollify, propitiate, reconcile 2) satisfy, fulfill, gratify, indulge Ex) Democrats need to avoid the trap Republicans fell into when they controlled the House, appeasing their base with repeated votes to repeal Obamacare. Ex2) The measure was one of a handful that appeared designed to appease the core groups that propelled the unlikely rise of Mr. Bolsonaro, a far-right lawmaker and former Army captain, to the presidency.

284) Awash

containing a large amount of something, flooded, Ex) Panama City was then awash with international investors and a booming economy, earning it the nickname, "Dubai of Latin America."

1575) Flux

continuous change, changeability, variability Ex) With a White House decision in flux, Congress made no progress toward a deal. Ex2) Because, after all, what use is a busted flux capacitor?

614) Check

control, hold in, contain Ex) Once you and your partner discuss the tech, the most useful and easiest way to check in with your children about tech use is a family meeting. Ex2) Beyond that is a kind of mirrored vanity area for freshening up after a treatment, with organic face wipes and a jade roller and lockers to ensure you're not tempted to check your phone.

1344) Equipoise

counterpoise, equilibration, equilibrium, poise Ex1) These little affectations only add to the overall equipoise, in the same way that a completely bare waiting room is eerie but a waiting room with a ficus evokes no feelings at all. Ex2) The sport of the long season requires emotional equipoise, a continuous combination of concentration and relaxation.

887) Cunning

crafty, wily, artful Ex1) Its state media habitually portrays American soldiers as "cunning wolves," decries the "atrocities" it says they committed during the Korean War and demands that the invaders withdraw. Ex2) Even as they are poked and prodded and perhaps disproved, they live and die not on their cunning but on their flat persistence.

70) Adrift

1) drifting, unanchored, unmoored 2) unsettled, purposeless, aimless Ex) Her character on the show is recognizably millennial: adrift in her romantic and professional life, awkward, self-conscious and, well, insecure. Ex2) For its first six months, "The Late Show," which debuted in September 2015, was adrift.

38) Accord

1) grant, give, impart, confer, bestow, afford 2) correspond to, agree with, concur with, be consistent with Ex) Finally, the Russian businessman will donate about 3 percent of his En+ shares to a Russian charity he founded, Volnoe Delo, according to people familiar with the plan.

906) Dampen

1) moisten, damp, wet, dew 2) lessen, decrease, diminish, reduce Ex1) But after becoming president, Mr. Mbeki moved to dampen the power of white businesses. Ex2) In each case, the effects in dampening consumption were swift and dramatic, as documented by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a study sponsored by the Abell Foundation.

224) Artless

1) natural, ingenuous, naïve, simple, 2) innocent, childlike, guileless, unaffected Ex) A material becomes a lens on the evolution of art — from the functional and artless, to the artful pretending toward authenticity, to the decadently useless. Ex2) Painted with tempera, a quick-drying medium, the pictures were planned altogether and executed simultaneously in an artless, direct style.

1522) Fielded

deal with, handle, cope with, answer, deal with a difficult question, telephone call Ex) Mr. Trump made the remarks as he fielded questions from reporters at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, expanding on the grievances that have filled his Twitter feed over the past few days.

808) Conviction

declaration of guilt, sentence, judgment 2) belief, opinion, view, thought Ex1) Under New Hampshire law, the accomplice conviction meant she would spend the rest of her life in prison. Ex2) The bill assumed that such a conviction would mean a parent was negligent in the care of their children, the organization said.

1098) Disillusion

disabuse, enlighten, to realize that a belief is false Ex1) If Midge Maisel is breaking free to experience a new sort of city life, the backdrop for this liberation is the world that John Cheever describes so well, one of stultifying conformity and constant disillusion. Ex2) He soon grew disillusioned by a growing liberalism in society and the Episcopal Church and lost his priestly privileges after joining a breakaway conservative group.

757) Connoisseur

expert, specialist, pundit, savant Ex1) Mr. Puddick's tale is one of many origin stories whetting the appetite of the new generation of gin connoisseurs. Ex2) It not only reflects Mr. Prince's talents for drawing and painting, but also other activities that feed his consummately American art as editor, writer, connoisseur of postwar music and literature and collector of '60s ephemera.

1843) Heckle

jeer, taunt, jibe at, shout down, boo, hiss, to harass and try to disconcert or interrupt with questions, challenges or gibes; badger Ex) Senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist who is eyeing 2020, inveighed against "the billionaire class" last week, and left-wing activists heckled Mr. Bloomberg over his wealth when he visited Iowa last month. Ex2) "The fans are never a factor to me. That's their part to heckle people and say certain things. I just laugh at it."

777) Consumerism

the protection or promotion of the interests of consumers Ex) Russians travel widely and have nearly unlimited access to information and technology, and the Soviet command economy has given ways to far greater consumerism.

81) Affect

to have an effect on, influence on, act on, work on, impact 2) assume, feign, pretend Ex1) Financial institutions are treating the partial government shutdown like a natural disaster, providing affected customers with everything from no-interest loans to fee waivers. Ex2) But a bankruptcy process would complicate attempts to recover wildfire damages and likely affect the state's plans to reduce carbon emissions, according to lawyers, legislators and energy and bankruptcy experts.

1385) Evidence

show, prove, reveal, display, indicate Ex1) Unlike the Christian God, whose absolution serves as evidence of his faultlessness, Obatala does not grant us charity because we are imperfect. Ex2) When confronted with the evidence of his illusions, he simply dismisses the reality as enchantments.

105) Akin

similar, related, close, near Ex) Mr. Mulvaney emerged as the president's choice for a position that, in other administrations, has been akin to the chief operating officer of the country, after high-profile announcements from others that they were not interested in the job to replace John F. Kelly.

1976) Imperative

vital, crucial, critical, having the power or authority to command or control Ex) "In order to truly address these issues, it's imperative that all vehicles, including personal and commercial, are included in this effort," said Campbell Matthews, a spokeswoman for Lyft. Ex2) That would seem an even greater imperative for Mr. Trump, who knew there were questions about his relationship with Mr. Putin given that American intelligence agencies concluded that Moscow tried to help elect him.

771) Constituent

voting member of a community or organization and having the power to appoint or elect Ex) The revelations from Smartmatic, which provides voting software to governments worldwide, cast further doubt over the legitimacy of Sunday's election of a powerful constituent assembly staffed with loyalists to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

1828) Hawkish

warlike or aggressive especially in foreign affairs Ex) President Trump named John R. Bolton, a hard-line former American ambassador to the United Nations, as his third national security adviser on Thursday, continuing a shake-up that creates one of the most hawkish national security teams of any White House in recent history. Ex2) While Mr. Tillerson is on the way out, his designated successor, Mike Pompeo, and the incoming national security adviser, John R. Bolton, are both considered even more hawkish on Russia. Ex3) Mr. Trump's hawkish national security adviser, John R. Bolton, nearly derailed the summit meeting last month when he declared that Libya, whose leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, voluntarily turned over his entire nuclear infrastructure in 2003 and 2004, ought to be the template for the disarmament of North Korea. Ex4) On Friday, hours before the shutdown deadline, Mr Trump reportedly reached an agreement with the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, which would have protected Dreamers and increased border security, but he then reversed course at the urging of the anti-immigrant hawks who circle the Oval Office - mainly his chief of staff, John Kelly, and senior adviser, Stephen Miller. Ex5) The notion that Saudi Arabia could do the heavy lifting for America in a confrontation with Iran, as Republican hawks inside and outside the administration maintain, looked wishful even before Prince Muhammad showed his stripes.

609) Chary

wary, cautious, careful Ex) Of course, some European banks and companies will be chary of potential U.S. sanctions, with a chilling effect on their willingness to invest in Iran. Ex2) And even those working with impartial advisers who recommend policies are often chary of the insurance, mostly because it costs more if you wait to buy or if you are in poor health.

1633) Fret

worry, be anxious, feel uneasy Ex) For those over 60, though, there was no need to fret. Ex2) Instead of sitting and fretting, just pick up the phone and dial as soon as you have your questions ready.

964) Deify

worship, revere, venerate, reverence Ex) In the last century, totalitarian ideologies of left and right built regimes whose claims to legitimacy rested on the complete sublimation of individual worth to the deified class or race collective. Ex2) North Korea is essentially a prison colony led by a deified psychopath.

1795) Hand

wringing- excessive showing of distress or concern Ex) The Russian muscle-flexing and the American hand-wringing captured a strategic vacuum that now envelops Washington as Mr. Putin pursues what he views as a complementary arsenal of new-generation nuclear and cyberweapons.

1715) Gnarly

difficult, dangerous, or challenging Ex) And the College Board will tell you to just do that - check out that gnarly formula.

212) Arduous

difficult, tiring, taxing, hard, heavy Ex) More broadly troubling is that Mr. Dourson, if approved, will set back an arduous, yearslong effort to improve the regulation of chemicals.

128) Ambivalence

doubt, hesitancy, indecision Ex) Nonetheless, their ambivalence about recognizing privilege suggests a deep tension at the heart of the idea of American dream.

1075) Disciplinary

concerned with discipline Ex1) Those officials who volunteered to install this 'show' are being dismissed and subjected to the most stringent disciplinary procedures. Ex2) "There was never really a legitimate threat to either our internal or external people," Brady said of why the firefighters were allowed to return to duty pending administrative disciplinary review.

791) Contravene

conflict with, be in conflict with, be at odds with 2) break, breach, violate Ex1) What distinguishes the Trump shutdown is that it contravenes the president's own long-standing insistence on a more rational and efficient immigration system, as he himself defines it. Ex2) Indeed, we didn't see any violent protesting in that area in the minutes before the fatal gunshot, suggesting that the shot contravened the Israeli military's own rules about targeting protesters.

1017) Despicable

contemptible, loathsome, hateful Ex1) The most despicable twist is served up to people like the eyeliner reviewer, whose work at State is deemed so essential to the nation's security that she was ordered back to work this week. Ex2) Officials at American called the incident racist, and its president at the time decried it as a "cowardly, despicable act."

714) Comptroller

controller Ex) The state comptroller, Thomas DiNapolli, audits the MTA and other state agencies.

748) Congestion

crowding, overcrowding Ex) I have no interest whatsoever in dealing with the city, the congestion.

1767) Guile

cunning, craftiness, craft, sly or cunning intelligence; trick Ex) A counterpuncher who wears down opponents through his elite physicality and guile, Murray earned a reputation as one of the hardest-working players of his generation. Ex2) The Army cadets showed themselves lacking in the guile needed to be excellent military leaders, and to be devoted more to hooliganism than to tradition.

80) Affable

friendly, amicable, amiable, genial, congenial, cordial Ex) Mr. Schnatter became popular as the brand's affable face, and his many appearances at sporting events made him a celebrity. Ex2) Mr. Wolfe relished the clandestine nature of his work — using "jimwolfe007" as his personal email address — and he projected an affable charm.

277) Avarice

greed, acquisitiveness, cupidity Ex) Even though the public considered him to be honest, his inability to rein in his government's avarice was sharply criticized. Ex2) Personally I've been more scared of what trouble the GOP's pent up spite and avarice would get them into.

524) Cahoot

in an alliance or partnership Ex) Third, most tycoons have lost influence in Delhi, as politicians from Mr Modi down realize the toxicity of being seen to be in cahoots with "bollygarches".

1807) Hard

line- uncompromising, strict Ex) Mr Sessions and Mr Miller share a hard-line view on curtailing immigration levels, and Mr Arpaio had become a national avatar for Mr Trump who had a good relationship with the sheriff during 2016 presidential campaign. Ex2) Not only were Democrats opposed but many members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of hard-line conservatives, expressed misgivings. Ex3) President Trump named John R. Bolton, a hard-line former American ambassador to the United Nations, as his third national security adviser on Thursday, continuing a shake-up that creates one of the most hawkish national security teams of any White House in recent history. Ex4) The Indian historian whose book is available in India only in bootleg form due to opposition from Hindu hardliners- writes that animal sacrifice remained a feature of the life of the Indo-Europeans after their migration into India for several centuries.

116) Alloy

mix, amalgam, fusion, meld, blend, compound Ex) "There is a shortage of the common alloy being produced in the United States," said Rick Mandel, the chairman and chief executive officer. Ex2) Silvery-white and durable, the metal is used in surgical instruments, dental alloys and in cellphones and other electronics.

951) Deference

respect, dutifulness Ex) In deference to State Department traditions for female Foreign Service officers, Jane Abell Coon retired after 17 years in the government when she married Mr. Coon, a widowed father of six, in 1968. Ex2) Mr. Barr's expansive view of presidential deference is concerning, but in his testimony he limited the extent of that deference.

297) Backtrack

reverse one's previous action or opinion, backpedal, change one's mind, back down Ex) Confronted with the enlistment deadline, Mr. Trump agreed over the summer with conservative lawmakers who wanted to backtrack on the policy.

643) Clandestine

secret, covert, furtive Ex) Now, prosecutors in Manhattan say she collaborated clandestinely with that office to write an official letter that benefited Prevezon. Ex2) This was a story about espionage — a secret plot — and the clandestine investigation to stop it.

1213) Earmark

set aside, reserve, allocate, allot Ex1) Even if it's legal, this diversion uses money earmarked for long-term maintenance projects to ease the short-term political fallout from the shutdown. Ex2) Our grand total this year was boosted by the contributions of many Post employees who earmarked a portion of their paychecks to Helping Hand.

869) Cross

shareholding- a company holding of another company's stock Ex) Like other rich South Korean families, the Lees maintain control over the Samsung empire through a complex web of cross-shareholdings between their companies rather than through controlling stakes.

866) Croon

sing softly, hum, warble, trill Ex) But, at least while crooning and dancing to hymns, pop songs and spirituals including "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," "Boys to Men" and "Love Ballad," so is everyone. Ex2) In the album's title song, Blake sings about choosing to become embodied: "I'll leave the ether/I will assume form," he croons.

1278) Encapsulate

summarize, sum up, give the gist of, put in a nutshell Ex1) This language seems to encapsulate better the alleged harm in this case, which is arbitrary discrimination against individual business owners, not obstruction of commerce. Ex2) Taken together, Watts shows, these two speeches encapsulate the foundations of Rome's remarkable success.

1426) Expletive

swear word, obscenity, profanity Ex) The 18th-century pub, close to London's Oxford Street, recently banned the use of expletives, and the two former military men were voicing objections. Ex2) The unexpurgated expletive appeared, in capital letters, on the graphics known as chyrons that dominate the lower portion of the screen on CNN and MSNBC.

381) Besmirch

tarnish, taint, smear Ex) "There is no evidence to suggest that the press will cease its constant articles besmirching my reputation and businesses," Isabella continued. Ex2) Also reveling in the besmirching of Prince Mohammed's name are Iran and its allies across the Arab world who see the kingdom as an essential partner in American designs on the region, which they oppose.

1317) Entice

tempt, lure, allure, attract, seduce Ex1) Yet Democratic leaders expressed confidence that their members would not break from their leaders' strategy, notwithstanding Mr. Trump's attempts to entice them. Ex2) The Alabama-Clemson rematch is even less enticing for casual fans, those not connected to either team.

980) Demography

the composition of a particular human population Ex) There was also a marked decline in optimism about the next generation's financial well-being compared with 2015, said Mark Hugo Lopez, director of global migration and demography research at Pew. Ex2) Wang Feng, a sociologist who studies Chinese demography at the University of California at Irvine, said there is incredible social pressure for families to help arrange perceived "good marriages" for their sons.

1923) Husky

throaty, gruff, gravelly, hoarse, strongly built Ex) There are also images that help to identify him: his Siberian husky; mangos and avocados, which grew on Captiva Island; birds; cars; and references to astronomy. Ex2) If you're on the older or huskier side, consider compression socks.

1558) Fling

throw, toss, sling, hurl, cast Ex) On a wooded path, we encountered a lively bird flinging leaf litter into the air. Ex2) Law flung her plane into loops over the White House and the State, War, and Navy building, now called the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, just to its west.

858) Crimp

to have limiting or adverse effect Ex) If that happens, it will crimp economic growth, undermining the stimulative effects of Mr. Trump's deregulation push and his signature $1.5 trillion tax cuts.

175) Apathetic

uninterested, indifferent, unconcerned, unmoved, emotionless, dispassionate, lukewarm Ex) Many farmers remain outright opposed to using G.M.O. seeds, or just apathetic. Ex2) Younger Chinese are often described as apathetic, selfish and obsessed with money.

1354) Erratic

unpredictable, inconsistent, changeable, variable Ex1) To the chagrin of many in Washington, Risch refuses to criticize or often even react to Trump's erratic or erroneous statements on foreign policy. Ex2) He said people who saw or encountered the woman described her behavior as erratic and said "she potentially was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs."

1775) Habeas corpus

written statement requiring arrested to be summoned to the judge Ex) Last Thursday, 11 of these forever prisoners filed a habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court in Washington, DC.

1473) Falter

drag one's feet, stall 2) hesitate, waver, vacillate 3) stammer, stutter Ex1) In the day's most emotional testimony, Tiffany Van Dyke's eyes welled up and her voice faltered as she described her biggest fear: That someone would kill her husband of nearly 17 years. Ex2) The results will also indicate how well U.S. companies are holding up as economies across emerging markets and the eurozone show signs of faltering.

1015) Desiccate

dried, dry, dehydrate Ex1) The shimmering wheat fields are desiccated, the once proud threshing machines abandoned. Ex2) Black lizards covered with white speckles, known as lagartijas Magallanicas, skittered across the ground, and the desiccated corpse of a guanaco, a wild grazer related to the llama, baked beneath the sun.

1080) Discompose

disturb or agitate Ex1) He was much discomposed, yet he made an attempt to assume an air of severity which did not sit well upon him at the moment. Ex2) The dining-room was disheveled, discomposed; chairs piled on tables and brooms all about.

1141) Divergent

different, dissimilar, unalike Ex1) The moves highlight the divergent ways nations are reacting to temporary exemptions from U.S. sanctions on Iran. Ex2) While they arrived at their stinginess in divergent ways, the Ravens and Bears — both of whom open the playoffs at home Sunday — proved defense still matters in an NFL chock-full of pyrotechnic offense.

913) Daunt

discourage, deter, demoralize Ex1) "It's a daunting task, but I think my approach is not to tackle the mountain by starting at the top," Harrison said. Ex2) The sheer size of the potential field is daunting, with upward of two dozen names being mentioned.

385) Betray

1) be disloyal to, be unfaithful to, double-cross 2) bespeak, reveal, disclose, Ex1) He said that he shared this information with me privately and that I betrayed him. Ex2) Although President Trump operates in a different political environment, his behavior, particularly since the November midterm elections, betrays similar autocratic instincts. Ex3) "Poland, sometimes betrayed and too often ignored by the West, was," he insisted, "woven into the tapestry of Europe."

797) Controvert

1) deny the truth 2) argue about Ex1) Except when encountering those who controvert climate change. Ex2) Indeed, replications that confirm previous results typically get less attention than those that controvert them.

255) Attentive

1) perceptive, observant, alert 2) considerate, thoughtful, kind Ex) From the start, Moss presents Silvie as attentive to the natural world. Ex2) Embracing the participatory aspects of the piece, the audience members leaned forward to whisper and speak words to the attentive performers as they walked past.

702) Compensate

1) recompense, repay, reimburse 2) counterbalance, balance, adjust, counteract Ex1) Court of Federal Claims ruling ordered the government to compensate him and about 25,000 other federal workers for the delay in their paychecks, including overtime pay. Ex2) Perhaps the musical interludes, which total about an hour of the show's bloated running time, were meant to compensate.

999) Depoliticization

To remove the political aspect from; remove from political influence or control Ex) The result is not overpoliticization but a perverse depoliticization of life.

1164) Dossier

a collection of documents about XYZ, file, report, case history Ex) By relying on a dossier prepared by a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele, but hiding from the court that Mr Steele's work was being funded by Democrats, including Hillary Clinton's campaign, and thus was hopelessly biased.

1217) Ebb

abate, subside, relent, diminish Ex1) There is an ebb and flow to business, based on shifting technologies, consumer tastes and competition. Ex2) But after Democrats took control of the House in the midterm elections, the president's leverage ebbed.

1400) Exculpate

absolve, acquit, clear, exonerate, vindicate Ex1) In an interview, Alexis Botto said she did not intend her words to exculpate Sorensen or be used in his defense. Ex2) Misremembering a bad thing as less bad might liberate a survivor, but it also might exculpate a perpetrator.

1612) Forward

ahead, forth, in advance 2) bold, brazen, barefaced Ex) Because of the response, Smith says, he'll keep nonalcoholic drinks on the menu going forward. Ex2) "The lack of funding is impacting agents' ability to travel to forward their cases," said Thomas O'Connor, president of the FBI Agents Association.

233) Aspiration

aim, ambition, craving, desire, dream, eagerness, endeavor, hankering Ex) One meeting, on July 12, was ostensibly supposed to be about Ukraine and Georgia — two non-NATO members with aspirations to join the alliance. Ex2) Or sometimes the avatar embodies our aspirations in romance itself.

1418) Expanse

area, stretch, sweep, tract, swathe Ex) The excavators rumbling across an expanse of red soil send a message, US military officials say: Europe is a vital ally, even in the age of America First.

1646) Full throttle

at full speed Ex) None of this will bother the attorney general, a lifelong antidrug crusader who runs the Justice Department like it's 1988, when the war on drugs was at full throttle and the kneejerk political response was to be as punitive as possible.

1783) Half

baked- foolish, stupid, silly Ex) Samsung paired this lovely hardware with half-baked, frustrating software. Ex2) President Trump's pledge during the presidential campaign to help manufacturing workers by reducing imports from China and other countries sound half-baked.

459) Brawny

burly, bulky, hardy Ex) AT&T was one of Johnson's decorated sheds, its brawny granite skin wrapped around a basically conventional steel frame. Ex2) Forty brawny football players stretched across six wide tables in the Long Reach High cafeteria on a mid-October Saturday morning, devouring mountains of chocolate chip pancakes doused in maple syrup.

1020) Desultory

casual, cursory, superficial, token, perfunctory Ex1) Trump's attempt at using his bully pulpit — last week's Oval Office address — was desultory and ineffective. Ex2) It was short and goofy and most of all it looked like fun, in contrast to the largely joyless and desultory intros that preceded it.

1895) Hodgepodge

collection, combination, jumble, medley, mélange, a mixture of dissimilar ingredients, a jumble Ex) An increasing number of regional flights bring in a hodgepodge of sunseekers—weekenders from the capital Phnom Penh, European tourists on package holidays and backpackers looking to disconnect on the beach. Ex2) The data, posted online in spreadsheets for thousands of procedures, is incomprehensible and unusable by patients — a hodgepodge of numbers and technical medical terms, displayed in formats that vary from hospital to hospital.

743) Conform

comply, abide, obey Ex1) Some Southwest hires quit when they discovered they couldn't conform to the jolly culture—or that it was hard work, not just a party. Ex2) Those buildings, at three and five stories, conform to city codes, which limit timber buildings to seven stories.

1341) Equanimity

composure, calm, level-headedness, self-possession Ex1) Mark Turner is one of them, a saxophonist of sublime clarity who explains Shorter's influence in terms of altruism and equanimity. Ex2) Thus, you're left spiraling between fantasies of revenge and doomed stabs at equanimity.

1740) Grifter

con artist Ex) They show up for every presidential campaign: wannabes like George Papadopoulos, self-promoters like Carter Page, and worse, grifters like Paul Manafort and straphangers like Michael Cohen.

1619) Fragmentary

consisting of small, disconnected parts, incomplete, fragmented Ex) My New Year's Eve memories from the decade that followed are fragmentary and faintly rotten, like milk just starting to sour. Ex2) There is some of that here, but only in fragmentary form.

1001) Depravity

corruption, vice, perversion Ex1) He justifies deception or faithlessness only as a defense against the depravity of men, who shift alliances like the winds. Ex2) From Hieronymus Bosch and his followers, he inherited a relish for cataloguing terror, evil and human depravity.

839) Countervail

counterbalance, compensate, offset the effect of something by countering it with something of equal force Ex) The history of the United States is the story of a struggle between the desire to establish certain universal rights and the countervailing desire to preserve a particular social order.

151) Animadversion

criticism, censure Ex) And curious it is to note that the foibles which he selects for animadversion are precisely those which form the staple of satire against women at the present time. Ex2) Grave as are the accusations which may be brought forward against a number of British officials, it must be admitted that their conduct fully justified the most severe animadversions.

1787) Hallucination

delusion, illusion, apparition, perception of visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory experience without an external stimulus and with a compelling sense of their reality Ex) As a result, Rezaian experienced hallucinations that the walls were moving and talking to him, the suit alleges. Ex2) When De Quincey published his "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" 17 years later, his poetic depictions of the wild hallucinations that punctuated his years with the drug transfixed his contemporaries.

154) Annihilate

destroy, wipe out, obliterate, eliminate Ex) "Can you imagine that? All these people showing up that way, and we got annihilated. I said to my coaches afterward: 'Good thing we aren't just getting started here. Ex2) "What Riley taught his players was to compete with an intent to dominate and annihilate your competition, mentally and physically," Alonzo Mourning said.

1568) Flourishing

developing rapidly and successfully; thriving Ex) Hamas's support of Islamic State infuriated Egyptian President Al Sisi who came to power promising to serve as a regional bulwark against terror but has been unable to dislodge the flourishing Islamic State insurgency in his country's north.

1094) Disenchanted

disillusioned, disappointed in something Ex) When Donald Trump set his sights on the presidency in the 2000 election, he pursued the nomination of the Reform Party, a home for disenchanted independents.

780) Contempt

disrespect, disregard, slighting Ex1) The Santos case is a textbook example of a local law enforcement agency's contempt for civil rights and a federal law enforcement agency's misuse of resources. Ex2) The latter word especially irritates a lot of bartenders: "Mock" designates something as fake; the verb refers to the expression of contempt.

1379) Evade

elude, avoid, dodge, escape Ex1) And it is especially an argument that Fox News should be highlighting, since Fox is frequently responsible for stoking populism but keeping it vacuous or racialized, evading the debates the right really needs. Ex2) With its lawsuit, city officials say they are fighting to stop illegal rentals, even as hosts find new ways to evade detection.

1267) Embrace

encompass, comprehend, cover 2) espouse, adopt Ex1) A society that embraces a legal concept of fetal personhood would necessarily compromise existing ideals of individual freedom. Ex2) In the 1990s and 2000s, teenagers who rejected the country's politics of restraint in dress, physical appearance and behavior embraced American punk and metal imports.

1432) Expository

explanatory, descriptive, describing Ex1) Consistent with that interpretation, researchers find that people's listening and reading abilities are more similar for simple narratives than for expository prose. Ex2) And Hoult and Spacey do their best to rise above Strong's expository dialogue and ham-handed melodrama.

1451) Extricate

extract, free, release, disentangle, get out, remove Ex1) That's only one symptom of the instability brought on by Britain's floundering attempts to extricate itself from the European Union. Ex2) The woman, who was thought to be in her 90s, died after being extricated from a rowhouse in the 1800 block of North Capitol Street NW, according to the fire department.

1588) Footprint

footmark, footstep, mark, impression Ex) The president has been increasingly frustrated with Washington's footprint in Syria and has said he would like to see regional allies like Saudi Arabia shoulder more of the burden.

1571) Flummery

empty words, idle words Ex) His career in flummery and flimflam was launched when he left reform school at age 14 to work as a Coney Island pitchman, then joined Dr. W.H. Ex2) Bostridge even refers to the piano part in one Schubert song as "insincere Romantic flummery."

1321) Entrance

enchant, bewitch, beguile, captivate Ex1) He sometimes dated his covert operations experience to an incident in which he posed as a girl to gain entrance to a couples-only school dance. Ex2) Near the mouth of the complex, the women beelined for an entrance for V.I.P.s, seeing that the main door was too clogged with people.

1307) Enrich

enhance, improve, better, add to Ex) Make sure you enrich your personal site or blog with an original new content periodically.

1440) Extenuate

excuse, mitigate, palliate, make allowances for, defend Ex1) This command is going to refrain from publishing this type of information unless absolutely necessary to provide context in extenuating circumstances. Ex2) It matters most that the school does what's right, what's truly right, regardless of public and media reaction, regardless of extenuating factors such as the possible short-term decimation of the program.

1946) Illustrate

explain, explicate, elucidate, clarify Ex) It's a parody of the book that Karen Pence illustrated, written by her daughter, Charlotte Pence, titled "Marlon Bundo's Day in the Life of the Vice President," whose plot is far less politically pointed. Ex2) Nevertheless, two Democratic freshmen senators, both possible presidential candidates, did an effective job illustrating that what Barr knows about the criminal-justice system is wrong and out-of-date in serious respects.

1253) Elucidate

explain, make clear, illuminate Ex1) It was a poignant reminder of art's ability to elucidate and console, a bittersweet way to measure a year. Ex2) To some, this kind of shift of perspective represents a distraction; the director's job, they say, is to elucidate the composer's meaning.

1381) Even

handed- fair, just, equitable, impartial, unbiased Ex) Mr. Obama was known as a deft teacher: sharp, charismatic, and even-handed.

1434) Express

explicit, clear, direct, plain Ex1) One woman claimed that Mr. Moix was entitled to express his views, however odious, while others insisted that he should just shut up. Ex2) In November, Marc Lamont Hill was fired from CNN for giving a speech in support of Palestinian rights that was grossly misinterpreted as expressing support for violence.

929) Debunk

explode, deflate, quash, discredit, disprove Ex) Robertson from the California Institute of Technology, the C.I.A. issued a secret report recommending a broad educational program for all intelligence agencies, with the aim of "training and debunking." Ex2) Last year, when the CBO debunked claims that the GOP tax plan would create jobs, Republicans savaged the agency instead of improving the law.

1459) Fabricate

falsify, fake, manipulate 2) make, create, manufacture Ex1) Fleets of forklifts carry newly fabricated sets from the in-house woodworking mill. Ex2) The next major step will be the arrival in 2019 of the first of the project's huge magnets, now being fabricated in Japan.

200) Arable

farmable, cultivable, fertile, productive, fecund Ex) But even allowing for that, the rich world seemed blind to the price signals of 2008 and 2011, presumably because of the credit crunch and a lack of unused arable land. Ex2) In 1790, just two percent of Cuba's arable land was under cultivation.

616) Chic

fashionable, modish, trendy Ex) Decorated with pops of greenery and hanging dried herbs, this chic restaurant serves tasty seafood and traditional dishes. Ex2) The dazzling talents of Bogotanos, from culinary flourishes to chic shoemaking to visual art innovation, is on display like never before.

1219) Ebullient

exuberant, buoyant, cheerful, joyful Ex1) There was plenty of sparkling passagework in his playing of Beethoven's ebullient Second Concerto. Ex2) Now 78, he retains an ebullient stage presence and a broad, enchanting tenor saxophone sound.

1629) Frenetic

frantic, wild, frenzied, hectic, fast and energetic Ex) At once dazzling and disorienting, this frenetic montage prompts us to pay more attention to the deluge of objects we've ushered into our lives. Ex2) Writing about Brexit, for a journalist, is simultaneously frenetic, heady and dull.

1824) Haunted

frequent, patronize 2) torment, disturb, trouble, worry Ex) "Political Tribes," the newest book from this unconventional writer, is haunted by the events of 2016. Ex2) Mr. Obama went on a bit of a spree in the final weeks, publishing articles in Science, The New England of Medicine, and his old grad-school haunt, the Harvard Law Review.

138) Amity

friendship, friendliness, harmony, accord, cooperation, companionship Ex) The film's final scene, a lyrical sunset that ends with a nearly four-minute unbroken shot in which the father and son converse with amity and resolution, is a fine testimony to the director's powers. Ex2) Asean also pushed back on U.S. concerns about Iran, signing a treaty of amity and cooperation with Tehran.

1640) Frothy

full of or covered with a mass of small bubbles, foaming, foamy, bubbling 2) lightweight, light, superficial Ex) She writes frothy romps with vast rosters of mainly comically exaggerated characters. Ex2) Is this a frothy romantic comedy or a dark commentary on how capitalism absorbs its critiques?

1532) Finicky

fussy, fastidious, punctilious, over-particular Ex1) Beekeepers themselves, Solomon confided, are funny creatures: solitary in the field, trying to anticipate the needs of a finicky insect and, unlike that insect, social only once in a while. Ex2) Tesla's push to automate every finicky detail led to major delays — "Humans are underrated," Musk later admitted — and workers are now stationed on nearly every part of the production line.

974) Delirious

happy, ecstatic, euphoric, elated, thrilled Ex) This makes the budget director, Mick Mulvaney, delirious with joy.

104) Ailing

ill, sick, unwell Ex) Asked how he and his ailing hip were feeling, he answered, "Yeah, not, not great." Ex2) The unsecured creditors, and many landlords, don't want Mr. Lampert to keep the ailing chain alive.

876) Crux

nub, heart, essence, central point Ex1) And although wealthy people often turn to advisers to help their money grow, spending is at the crux of what all good advisers do for their clients. Ex2) The crux of the regulatory overhaul centers on another path to debt forgiveness known as a borrower defense to repayment.

329) Bastion

stronghold, bulwark, defender 2) rampart, bulwark, parapet, fortification Ex) As globalization has shuttered the factories and decimated entire industries, federal employment has been a bastion of stability.

1893) Hobble

limp, walk with difficulty, walk lamely Ex) The old man hobbled across the road. Ex) The department is one of nine Cabinet-level departments hobbled by the partial government shutdown amid a standoff between congressional Democrats and Trump over border wall funding. Ex2) When he regained consciousness, he hobbled back to his room thinking that he would die in his sleep, the complaint alleges.

1266) Embolden

make brave, encourage, hearten, strengthen Ex1) On an issue like this, when M.P.s are really feeling emboldened to vote their conscience, the party system really isn't working. Ex2) The maneuvering by a key Trump ally highlights the difficult balancing act Senate Republicans will probably face over the next two years, trapped between a mercurial GOP president and an emboldened new House Democratic majority.

192) Apprehend

make out, grasp, understand, comprehend 2) to arrest Ex) The number of people apprehended at the border remains near a 45-year low. Ex2) The Post's Fact Checker examined the Trump administration's claims about terrorists being apprehended at the southern border:

826) Correlate

match, parallel, agree with Ex1) We were able to compare his findings to ours, and we were surprised to see that his results correlated with our own. Ex2) And a lot of their philosophies correlated with some of the things that I was exploring.

573) Caucus

meeting, assembly, gathering, congress, conference Ex) Representative Kurt Schrader of Oregon, who leads the political arm of the centrist Blue Dog caucus, has complained to the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about the intervention of Ms. Schakowsky and said he would seek a rule change so that members like her who have formal positions on the committee cannot oppose incumbents.

1525) Figurative

metaphorical, nonliteral, symbolic Ex1) With 66 exhibitors from seven countries, it's an expansive display of mostly smallish, textured, densely detailed things — modest-size figurative paintings and drawings dominate — but with a good share of stop-and-stare surprises. Ex2) Through use of the ballot, fortified by exceptional feats of organization and mobilization, voters changed the face of government in our country — in both a literal and figurative sense.

1057) Diminutive

minuscule, tiny, small Ex) Vox is just one relatively diminutive stream of a swelling tide of nationalism in Europe, from Sweden, France and Hungary to Austria and Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany party entered Parliament in 2017. Ex2) Rayburn also built up one of his successors, the diminutive Carl Albert from Oklahoma, who, after gaining the speakership, twice found himself first in the line of succession to the presidency during the Watergate scandals.

1216) Eavesdrop

monitor, tap, wiretap Ex1) According to intelligence reports, spies are eavesdropping on President Trump's cellphone conversations and using fake cellular towers in Washington to intercept phone calls. Ex2) One way that Cuarón avoids solipsism is to keep his own most consequential experiences to the story's margins — his parents' split is portrayed obliquely, through allusive moments and eavesdropped conversations.

383) Bestow

accord, donate, give away Ex) White House allies, however, said they expect Trump to ultimately be vindicated, arguing the Constitution bestows on the executive branch significant unilateral authority on immigration. Ex2) No Jewish organization or leader should bestow any honor on Kahane, who was convicted of domestic terrorism in the United States 47 years ago.

1748) Gritty

courageous, brave, plucky, mettlesome, containing covered with or resembling grit Ex) "Bosses aren't born, they're 'Made in Staten Island,'" MTV said in promotional materials for the show, "Made in Staten Island," which the network described as "grittier and edgier" than its other reality shows. Ex2) The bill's gritty foil to these three performers is the experimental banjo player Gouox.

1696) Gin up

create, generate artificially or dubiously Ex) Mr. Trump's reluctance is also frustrating allies ginning him up to take action.

1192) Droll

funny, humorous, amusing, comic, hilarious Ex1) Of course, kitsch depends on the perspective: An English garden gnome taken seriously is depressing; viewed with irony, it's droll. Ex2) The mood is affably garrulous, the narration deadpan and droll.

364) Bemoan

grieve, mourn Ex) That means standing with Trump on his demands for a wall, while bemoaning the shutdown. Ex2) Americans who bemoan a broken Congress rightly focus on ethical questions and electoral partisanship.

1678) Gaunt

lean and haggard, especially because of suffering, hunger, or age, bony, cadaverous, emaciated Ex) Her ribs pressed against her skin, her face gaunt, her arms and legs a jumble of bones. Ex2) Hillbilly Heroin, prescription drug monitoring programs and gaunt teenagers moving from Percocet to the needle.

510) Button

lipped- to be quiet Ex) Many friends of the couple were button-lipped yesterday, but some other acquaintances weren't.

1812) Hark

listen Ex) Washington's response - at least in the nuclear realm - also harks back to the Cold War era: a cycle of move and countermove.

1661) Gainsay

naysay, deny, disavow, dispute, disagree with, argue with, to deny or contradict, speak against, oppose Ex) Will Republican elected officials gainsay Mr. Trump or opt for studious inaction as the nation potentially lurches toward constitutional crisis and banana-republic governance? Ex2) It's the one skill he brought to office that can't be gainsaid.

1465) Factious

prejudiced, biased, partial, sectarian Ex1) It was a microcosm of the community that sports fandom offers, perhaps the last remaining vestige of across-the-board connection in our factious society. Ex2) Given the factious legacy of the 2016 race, this path forward is more urgently needed than ever before.

1752) Groundwork

preliminary work, preliminaries, preparations Ex) The American Civil Liberties Union later won $95,000 from Lehigh County for isolating Mr. Galarza's constitutional rights, laying the groundwork for today's high-profile battle between President Trump and what are often called "sanctuary cities."

1866) Heyday

prime, peak, height, pinnacle, summit, apex, the period of a person's or thing's greatest success, popularity, or vigor Ex) There, the art form enjoyed a renewed heyday. Ex2) In their heyday, these publications also offered a pipeline for the nation's best female journalists.

1876) High

profile- attracting much attention or publicity, prominent, well-known, famous Ex) Peter Navarro, another adviser who helped craft the president's protectionist stance in the campaign, prevailed in a high-profile fight over new tariffs on aluminum and steel imports. Ex2) Friday's match at the Australian Open - Chung's first against Roger Federer - will certainly be a high-profile one, but through Chung's lenses, the stakes were much higher in September 2014 when he was competing in men's doubles at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, in his home country.

1689) Germane

relevant to a subject under consideration, relevant, pertinent, applicable Ex) What she knows, and her opinions based on what she knows, are germane to her job performance. Ex2) A nonpartisan entity, perhaps the National Archives, should be asked to sort through the files and turn over to the Senate those germane to his nomination, unless it is withdrawn.

778) Consummate

complete, conclude, finish, accomplish Ex1)Tribune would face challenges of its own in trying to consummate a deal with Gannett, and cost cuts would likely be on the table there, too. Ex2) "The Birth of Loud" traces the dual arc of the men's rise with consummate skill and authority.

1872) High variance

conflicting, the state or fact of disagreeing or quarreling Ex) "Because some of my colleagues think that public intellectuals are 'high variance,'" he said, "I would also expect arguments that someone awarded both a Grammy and a Nobel Peace Prize might be too externally focused."

39) Accost

confront, approach and address someone boldly or aggressively Ex) Mr. Espalliat was referring to two widely circulated videos of Mr. Schlossberg's public outbursts, one at a conservative rally, another when he accosted a man on Fifth Avenue for being a foreigner.

320) Baroque

decorated, embellished, adorned Ex) The Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy, is calling on the German government to step into a dispute over a baroque painting that German soldiers took 75 years ago. Ex2) While earning a degree in mathematics at Harvard he also studied music, and as an accomplished pianist, he would later delight in sitting down at one and improvising complex baroque fugues. Ex3) Other anecdotes are more baroque: conspiracy theories about CIA drug smuggling, reconstructions of private conversations between Ross Perot and George H.W. Bush, a tale about Joe Biden rying to cut to the front of the dinner line at a casino in Delaware.

865) Cronyism

nepotism (family) - the appointment of friends to jobs without qualification Ex) But cronyism, not competition, has been the surest route to riches, even after the partial dismantling of the "license raj" nearly three decades ago. Ex2) In addition, we are looking exclusively at merit, not cronyism - so "knowing the right person" is considered invalid.

1956) Immune

clear, exempt, free, Ex) "There are bruising financial and demographic realities in play, and we're not immune to them," Nelson said. Ex2) As Wozniacki explained it, her immune system attacks healthy tissue in and around the joints of her hands, knees and feet, causing rashes, inflammation and fatigue.

1579) Foil

thwart, frustrate, counter, balk, prevent Ex) The earthy flavor of the beans is the perfect foil to the brighter flavors imparted by the vinegar and oregano. Ex2) Place on a sheet of foil and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

482) Brush aside

to treat as not important, to ignore or dismiss Ex) Brushing aside Chinese suggestions of last-minute talks with him may be a form of increasing pressure on China for concessions.

1980) Impermeable

watertight, waterproof, damp-proof Ex) Beauty is synonymous with a highly precarious yet glossy and impermeable outer shell. Ex2) Replacing an impermeable parking lot with a LEED-certified building also would help the environment, supporters say.

1326) Entrepreneurial

ambitious, enterprising, entrepreneurial, pioneering Ex1) The ascendancy of neoliberalism in the 1970s, she says, laid the groundwork for Silicon Valley to promote an extreme form of entrepreneurial capitalism, unencumbered by any substantive responsibility to the communities it purports to serve. Ex2) McCloskey harnessed that entrepreneurial spirit to persuade people, mostly men, to become Catholics.

1541) Flabbergasted

astonished, shocked, astounded Ex1) I was flabbergasted when years later I saw him ascend to the Governorship. Ex2) One may easily imagine the officers were annoyed, fed up, flabbergasted or angry.

885) Culvert

channel, conduit, watercourse under a road or railroad Ex) This investigation has not conclusively determined how Mr Martinez and his partner ended up at the bottom of the culvert and no suspects have been linked to this incident.

669) Cogent

convincing, compelling, strong Ex1) It's easy to imagine a more cogent film that weighted either philosophy or reportage more heavily. Ex2) He then offered a cogent explanation why he believes we face what he called "a humanitarian crisis — a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul" along our southern border.

5) Abbreviate

to shorten, abridge, curtail, truncate Ex) What does one abbreviated or missed survey matter in such a long-term effort? Ex2) Although they are technically abbreviations, sometimes they hardly even hint at the word they are abbreviating.

801) Conventional

orthodox, traditional, established, accepted Ex1) From then on, the proponents of the off-planet hypothesis lost ground, with Vandenberg and others insisting that conventional explanations be found. Ex2) That means a more advanced and more expensive septic system is required in places where conventional septic systems are deemed by the county to be inadequate or don't provide sufficient public health protections.

171) Antiquated

outdated, out-of-date, old-fashioned, anachronistic, quaint Ex) The projectionist was losing a bout with the two antiquated projectors used to show the film's 10 full reels. Ex2) It struck him as symbolic of antiquated views about gender and identity within the Latino community.

1507) Ferry

transport, convey, carry, ship Ex) Saudi Arabia's king has ordered private plans to ferry in Qatari pilgrims for the hajj to Mecca this month, as Riyadh tries to contain the diplomatic fallout in the Muslim world form its decisions to cut ties with Doha.

441) Boondoggle

pointless work that appears to have value Ex) Democrats balked at those demands, given that Republicans did not bother to offset the loss of revenue from their boondoggle tax cuts.

713) Compromise

undermine, weaken, damage Ex1) But the vast majority of Serbs, some 70 percent according to recent polls, reject any compromise over Kosovo. Ex2) Now, even that is at risk, as Mrs. May tries to cobble together a new compromise Brexit deal after surviving a no-confidence vote on Wednesday.

1482) Fathom

understand, comprehend, grasp, interpret Ex1) In conference rooms in Riyadh and Washington, officials simply don't fathom the human toll of their policies. Ex2) My daughters couldn't really fathom that a person would hate anybody, let alone want to hurt people simply for being Jewish, as we ourselves are.

1273) Empathy

understanding, feeling, appreciation, compassion Ex1) But if our patients receive a cancer diagnosis, we need to care for them with a spirit of unconditional empathy and advocacy. Ex2) Wouldn't it be nice if the president of the United States showed some empathy for the agents whose job it is to protect him?

288) Axiomatic

understood, accepted, self-evident Ex) "It's becoming axiomatic and clear that we need cultural transformation on climate in order to move forward," she said. Ex2) The Declaration of Independence holds its truths to be "self-evident" — axiomatic, irreducible, not needing justification because they justify themselves.

715) Compunction

uneasiness, reluctance, doubts Ex1) I wondered if her compunction to test limits by doing everything herself was the legacy of her competitive sports training. Ex2) Now Republicans will seize their solid fifth vote on the court without pause or compunction.

986) Demure

reserved, modest, shy, unassuming, mild Ex1) Desserts were more demure: A coconut sorbet, served in a half-coconut shell, offered a cool rejoinder to the earlier carnage. Ex2) Howell was well-read and demure, still bearing the traces of her middle-class upbringing in northwest Baltimore.

1365) Esteem

respect, admiration, acclaim, Ex1) It is assumed of esteemed white male actors that they will age gracefully into such roles, roaring and speechifying and showing their gravity. Ex2) It's more than a mere gift to his colleague; the painting is an ennoblement of another, less esteemed kind of artistic labor.

626) Churlish

rude, ill-mannered, discourteous, impolite Ex) With Netflix's resounding success in forging — and, so far, dominating — the global market for streaming video, it may seem churlish to harbor any misgivings. Ex2) There are those who circled wagons around Serena Williams after her churlish reaction, again, to overly officious umpiring at the U.S.

412) Blight

ruin, wreck, spoil Ex) The blight is spreading, but its effects are localized because the spores are sticky and are not airborne as with those of other fungi. Ex2) Minneapolis began to spruce up its river shorelines and adjacent neighborhoods earlier than other cities, drawing residents and development to a part of town once blighted by industry and railroad tracks, parking lots and pollution.

375) Berate

scold, rebuke, reprimand Ex) "For hours each day, the prosecutors interrogate him, browbeat him, lecture him, and berate him, outside the presence of his attorney, in an effort to extract a confession," Mrs. Ghosn writes. Ex2) Guardiola — just moments removed from berating Martin Atkinson, the fourth official, for some perceived error by Taylor — embraced his coaching staff, and hugged his players.

612) Chastise

scold, reprimand, admonish Ex) But Trump reversed course after criticism from influential conservatives in Congress and talk show hosts who chastised him for backing away from his long-standing threats to close the government over the wall funding. Ex2) His rivals within the company found him blunt to a fault, willing to chastise or demean in public and private.

618) Chide

scold, reprimand, admonish, censure Ex) Democratic leaders chided him for "throwing another temper tantrum." Ex2) There she was on "Meet the Press," serenely chiding an exasperated Chuck Todd for being "overly dramatic" as he repeatedly tried to get her to concede that lying to the American public was bad.

1092) Disdain

scorn, deride Ex1) You're far less likely than you were even 15 or 20 years ago to be embarrassed by the company — to face what opera fanatics call, with fascinated disdain, filth. Ex2) Trump, by contrast, doesn't read and disdains in-depth briefings in favor of making decisions based on his "gut" — and his viewing of Fox News.

1087) Discrete

separate, distinct, individual, detached Ex1) Looking at a painting and looking at a digital image are hardly two discrete experiences anymore, especially for younger audiences. Ex2) But is it possible that a great array of discrete commercial products, designed in isolation, will act collectively to bring about a better society?

1733) Grave

serious, important, weighty, profound, significant, gravity Ex) Now it's time to start cooking up the still-fragrant but perhaps too-abundant spices that made the cut, before they too lose their vibrancy and join your lemon rinds and eggshells in the compost grave. Ex2) The nun was probably 45 to 60 years old when she died, and was buried in an unmarked grave near a women's monastery in Dalheim, Germany.

71) Adroit

skillful or dexterous Ex) "The French were very adroit in putting forward a bid that that was really an industry play, as well as a technical proposal," said Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Ex2) As a matter of fact, Pfizer's adroit tax accounting is featured in a textbook — "Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods and Uses," now in its 14th edition.

1573) Flurry

spate, wave, flood, deluge Ex) The U.S. decided to defer launching a major new sanctions push against North Korea, part of a flurry of weekend moves by both sides aimed at reviving a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un. Ex2) A senior Chinese official, speaking anonymously before Mr. Kim's diplomatic flurry, said that Beijing wanted to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table.

464) Breathtaking

spectacular, magnificent, wonderful, awe-inspiring Ex) For Mr. Trump, a meeting with Mr. Kim, a leader he has threatened with "fire and fury" and derided as "Little Rocket Man," is a breathtaking gamble.

584) Celerity

speed, rapidity, swiftness Ex) The celerity businessman-turned-politician held meetings Wednesday with generals, military procurers and two of the largest defense contractors in an effort to control costs in the massive Pentagon budget, Trump said Wednesday. Ex2) At some length, I responded, "If you are asked, you may relate that most of our numbers shall swear fealty to whoever offers emancipation with the greatest celerity."

1423) Expeditionary

speedy or being prompt especially in military expedition Ex) Mr. Mattis led an expeditionary brigade there and alter oversaw all American forces in the Middle East.

1424) Expeditious

speedy, swift, quick, rapid Ex1) Business groups and some Republicans praised the agreement and called for expeditious endorsement by lawmakers. Ex2) The recognition of Jerusalem and expeditious move of our embassy is a case in point — a physical demonstration of the U.S. commitment to Israel, which is in fact a commitment to our national security interests.

863) Criterion

standard, specification, measure Ex1) The rules vary by state, and some exclude or restrict certain criteria. Ex2) Boards need to be "flexible in their criteria," Ms. Lieblein said in an interview with the study's authors.

1526) Figurines

statuette (a small statue smaller than life size), a human form Ex) Under the fixed gaze of one of those lucky cat figurines perched on a table, its paw raised in a wish of good fortune, she begins to pace.

1099) Disinfect

sterilize, sanitize, clean, cleanse Ex1) This means that you should not be relying on those handy bleach-imbued wipes to clean and disinfect; clean first, then disinfect. Ex2) Asked about disinfecting the patient's skin before the insulin injection, Mr. Murrant-Johnson stumbled.

627) Churn

stir, agitate, beat, whip Ex) That suggests less churn in the labor market, meaning a lack of economic dynamism.

1169) Double down

strengthen one's stance Ex) But a failure by Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim to make headway could lead each side to double down on their demands and perhaps heighten the possibility of conflict.

432) Bolster

strengthen, reinforce, boost, fortify Ex) In a Jan. 3 note to investors, he estimated that the accounting change bolstered Apple's first quarter services net sales by $700 million. Ex2) "We recognize that we must continuously use the resources available to us efficiently and effectively bolster our cybersecurity defenses."

511) Buttress

strengthen, reinforce, fortify, support Ex) A factual description of these far-reaching consequences hardly buttressed Mr. Boot's argument that Mr. Sanders "wants to scale back foreign interventions." Ex2) Pyongyang is relying on coal gasification to buttress its economy against United Nations curbs on its petroleum imports, according to foreign officials and experts.

1414) Exigent

emergent, imperative, pressing, urgent Ex1) History and a plain reading of the law suggest that such an arrangement is permissible only in exigent circumstances and for very limited periods of time. Ex2) "The Mars Room" is a major novel, a sustained performance, one that broods on several exigent ideas.

1468) Faddish

stylish, trendy, voguish Ex1) "School reform" usually been faddish nonsense or, at best, inept implementation of worthwhile and even evidence-based ideas. Ex2) It is often compared to companies from Silicon Valley: the "Uber of education" is one faddish analogy.

856) Crest

summit, peak, top, tip Ex1) He keeps a list of astronauts and said if Virgin Galactic's pilots crest 50 miles, they'd earn the honor of astronaut. Ex2) Bundy, one of the figureheads of the anti-government sentiment that crested with the rise of President Trump, made waves last week when he criticized the president for demonizing the migrant caravan at the southern border.

800) Convene

summon, call, call together Ex1) The measure also calls on the mayor to convene a task force and develop a plan to triple the number of dual-language immersion seats by 2025. Ex2) As lawmakers convened on Tuesday, Mr. Maduro appeared on state television clad in a military uniform to address the armed forces.

324) Barring

except for, apart from, aside from, excluding Ex1) Big questions remain about how to keep American political campaigns from descending into disinformation, barring still-elusive legal or technical remedies, as Ms. Jamieson told me in an interview. Ex2) After defendants in Japan are charged, they must be held for two months, barring any release on bail.

1117) Dispensable

superfluous, expendable, disposable, replaceable, able to be replaced or done without Ex1) Human beings are wired to favor their ingroup and to view people in outgroups as interchangeable and dispensable. Ex2) "Not I" epitomizes Beckett's preference for paring away theater's dispensable aspects.

1950) Immeasurable

unfathomable, incalculable, inestimable, innumerable Ex) But it's the "Elaine Nichols" that captures the heart of Jones's inspiration: the humanity of the individual juxtaposed with the sweep of history, the beauty of hope emerging from immeasurable pain. Ex2) Charles H. Rivkin, the Motion Picture Association's chairman and chief executive, called her an "institution" whose contributions to film ratings are "immeasurable."

1692) Gibberish

unintelligible or nonsensical talk or writing, babble, chatter, drivel Ex) But when she spoke, the result was gibberish. Ex2) "Now five, seventy-five, seven and a half, eighty-five, ninety," Long said in a relentless stream of auctioneer — gibberish overriding gibberish.

1977) Imperceptible

unnoticeable, inappreciable, impalpable, unobtrusive Ex) However, the classic characteristics of a Wizards loss were evident: a poor start leading to a double-digit hole in the first quarter, poor rebounding, sour attitudes and imperceptible traces of consistent defense. Ex2) His innovations were often hidden within the dress, in sly cut and imperceptible, airtight construction.

1283) Encompass

surround, enclose, encircle 2) cover, embrace, include, incorporate Ex1) The summit will be another face-to-face opportunity for the two leaders to resolve nearly 70 years of hostilities that date to the start of the Korean War and encompass North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. Ex2) The National Security Division will continue investigations and prosecutions as part of its broad range of duties encompassing terrorism and espionage issues, the Justice Department said in a plan dated Jan. 10.

1626) Fraught

teeming, rife with 2) distressed, anxious, worried, stressed Ex) Epps was running Pasadena Playhouse in California at the time, and he wanted to fill an open slot with a play that somehow reflected America's latest chapter of fraught race relations. Ex2) Revisiting fraught memories onstage takes enormous daring, too — for those women, and for the "Minefield" men.

1383) Even

tempered- calm, steady, peaceful, composed, cool Ex1) After the game, John Wall seemed to be even-tempered but flashed some emotion when asked how it felt watching the bench guys play so hard. Ex2) An even-tempered former Eagle Scout and a Methodist, Mr. Sessions is unlikely to ever publicly attack the president in return.

1595) Foreknowledge

the knowledge before it actually happens Ex) Some of these lies were told with malice and foreknowledge; some were the product of ignorance. Ex2) In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he wanted to believe Prince Mohammed's denial of any foreknowledge of Mr. Khashoggi's death.

1329) Envision

visualize, imagine, envisage, picture Ex1) Mr. Musk said Friday that Tesla must begin to deliver its midrange Model 3 in all markets by around May while making progress toward producing the $35,000 version he envisions. Ex2) In a class assignment, she envisioned a new version of her school that included an orchard, a glass-walled classroom and a "slime room" for stress relief.

650) Clerk

work as a clerk Ex) Judge Kethledge also clerked for Justice Kennedy, and has the support of some conservative activists.

1720) Gossamer

used to refer to something light, thin and insubstantial or delicate, airy, cobweb, delicate, diaphanous, fine, flimsy Ex) She will remake the whole Earth as a gossamer thing susceptible to the lightest currents of air, and the smallest rubble of the Earth, stones from a riverbed, as microcosms of the entire universe. Ex2) She transformed two gossamer 1960s pop tunes, "Our Day Will Come" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," into soulful barnburners.

445) Border on

verge on, approach, approximate to Ex) But they did address the thorny issue of the "Irish backstop," a guarantee that seeks to ensure that there is no hard border on the island of Ireland. Ex2) In Beaumont, Tex., a moderate city in a red district near Houston, the Beaumont Enterprise editorial board welcomed Mr. Trump's visit to the border on Thursday but urged both sides to compromise.

137) Amiss

wrong, awry, faulty Ex) When companies and law enforcement discover something amiss, they often wind up chasing ghosts.

1623) Fraternal

relating to brothers Ex) "My fraternal embrace and endearing solidarity with the relatives of the victims of the fatal fire in Guayaquil," President Lenín Moreno posted on Twitter on Friday. Ex2) But this comic-melancholy hangout is most worth watching for its generous portraits of the strivers and losers at and around a fraternal lodge in down-and-out Southern California.

1797) Hankering

longing, yearning, craving. Ex) The success of the German manufacturers is based on sales of vehicles with combustion engines at a time when customers are hankering for newer electric cars with sophisticated software-based infotainment systems. Ex2) If you get a sudden hankering for a bunch of drummers drumming, ask them if they've ever seen a climbing wall on a yacht.

157) Anodyne

1) not likely to provoke, inoffensive 2) analgesic Ex) Not for Blanchot the anodyne distractions of sleep hygiene, which conspire to evade night's presence Ex2) Videos of his sermons, even anodyne history lectures or self-help coaching, were always popular, thanks to his pleasant voice and serious demeanor.

1148) Doctor

falsify, manipulate, massage, rig, alter Ex) Michael D. Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for President Trump, acknowledged on Thursday that he had paid the owner of a technology services company to help doctor results of an online poll to help Mr. Trump as he considered a run for president.

1025) Deter

1) discourage, dissuade, put off, scare off 2) prevent, stop, avert Ex1) Also, most brands are opting to keep their show locations confidential until the last possible moment to deter any interruptions from protesters. Ex2) To deter such a full-scale attack, Washington relies on the promise of mutually assured destruction guaranteed by its nuclear arsenal, not on missile defenses.

454) Braggart

braggar, braggadocio, boaster, swaggerer Ex) He's a great Falstaffian incarnation of the braggart soldier type that dates back to Plautus. Ex2) The world leaders chuckled at the braggart before them.

414) Blinker

cause someone to have a narrow or limited outlook on a situation Ex) Democratic and Republican leaders declared that the president's statement was dishonest, morally blinkered and strategically obtuse.

289) Backbiter

criticizer Ex) Look here," he exclaimed, "you will never be anything better than a backbiter and selfish. Ex2) He was no backbiter; he refrained, even with me, from hostile criticism of other actors.

1827) Havoc

devastation, destruction, widespread destruction, confusion or disorder Ex) The company sanctions initially caused havoc with global aluminum prices, prompting European allies to complain. Ex2) Its protagonist was a young girl living in a future dystopia triggered by the slowing of Earth's rotation, which wreaked havoc on the planet in unforeseen ways.

1960) Impanel

enlist or enroll into jury Ex) Mr. Mueller requested in recent weeks that for the District of Columbia impanel a grand jury for his use.

696) Communique

press release, bulletin, message Ex) After calling Friday for Moscow's readmission to the Group of Eight leading nations, Mr. Trump stunned allies by refusing to sign a communique at the end of a Group of Seven summit Saturday in Canada, castigating the summit host, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for criticizing U.S. trade policy.

542) Canister

round or cylindrical container made of metal, container, box, tin, can Ex) A smoking driver ignited a fire inside a van carrying fuel canisters, causing him to lose control and slam into pedestrians on a sidewalk outside a Starbucks in Shanghai on Friday, the police said.

1259) Embattle

arm, prepare for battle, array, equip Ex) Brazilian President Michael Temer fended off corruption charges against him in a landmark congressional vote Wednesday, allowing the country's embattled political establishment to preserve its tenuous hold on power.

1803) Hard

boiled- callous, firm, hard-nosed, headstrong Ex) Another shows a photo of two hard-boiled eggs in a plastic cup with a $1.99 price tag. Ex2) Willeford is best known, when known at all, as a hard-boiled cult writer.

263) Augment

increase, add to, enlarge Ex) These augmented dreams are the result of a sleeping epidemic that starts in the fictional college town of Santa Lora, in California, then quickly spreads. Ex2) While working on "An Orchestra of Minorities," I read a few books on Igbo cosmology simply to augment my knowledge of the cosmology and better recreate it in my fiction.

515) By no means

less than, far from, not at all, anything but Ex) Thus, Rousseau is by no means a thinker upon whom President Trump and his acolytes would pattern themselves. Ex2) Domestically, World War I represented a prolonged test of what constituted American citizenship and patriotic loyalty, and the country's entry on the side of the Allies was by no means certain.

992) Dent

diminish, reduce, lessen Ex) "What China is helping us with, Russia is denting," he said.

544) Canny

astute, sharp-witted, sharp Ex) McKay offers a fairly coherent answer, one grounded in Bale's canny and sensitive performance. Ex2) The guy who ran it was very flamboyant but a very canny businessman, Ted Hook.

228) Ascribe

attribute to a cause, assign to, credit to Ex) In his initial remarks two days earlier, Mr. Trump ascribed blame to actors on many sides.

425) Bode

augur, portend, promise, foreshadow Ex) President Trump on Monday said that China is feeling the pain from U.S. tariffs, boding well for a trade deal, but talks so far between the two nations haven't yielded concrete results. Ex2) "On the contrary," Mr. Hagerty said, "it bodes well for the collector hobby." Ex3) The aging population bodes ill for long-term growth in Europe, too, Mr. Yardeni said, something that also applies in China.

125) Ambassador

diplomat Ex) Speaking to the Security Council in an emergency session on Monday, Nikkie R. Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un is "begging for war."

1119) Dispirit

discouraged, demoralized, downcast, disheartened Ex1) But your little quirk might not seem so charming when you see it manifested in Dan, the dispirited journalist in Helen Schulman's new novel, "Come With Me." Ex2) Lula now leads a disorganized and dispirited opposition from jail, where he is serving 12 years for corruption.

1109) Dismiss

send away, let go Ex1) When confronted with the evidence of his illusions, he simply dismisses the reality as enchantments. Ex2) Virginia many years ago dismissed pay-as-you-go as the primary means of addressing the capital needs of a modern state government.

1) Abandon

1) freedom, impulse, recklessness 2) to desert, to forsake, to leave behind Ex1) Trump on Monday rebuffed that proposal from Graham, but the senator indicated Tuesday he was not prepared to abandon the idea yet. Ex2) Yet they never abandoned their sense of style, using feathers as a medium for peerless pageantry.

1515) Feudalize

serfdom, servitude, captivity Ex) Lawgivers began to discourage beef-eating around the middle of the first millennium when society began to be gradually feudalized, leading to major socio-cultural transformation.

1042) Diciest

risky, uncertain, unpredictable Ex) The president's remarks on Tuesday were diciest for the news organizations that he identified by name.

1249) Elicit

evoke, call forth, bring forth, induce Ex1) Though it did elicit a comment from Maneesh, a stranger with whom I struck up a conversation at our communal table. Ex2) The words "lung cancer" — followed by "nonsmoker" — often elicited murmurs of sympathy.

1183) Dramatize

exaggerate, overdo, overstate Ex1) Other mistakes of Dery's are less factual and more the result of misunderstandings and a hyperbolic and dramatizing vision of cultural life. Ex2) But, I asked Alter, doesn't "soul" help dramatize the scene's intense emotion?

1926) Hyperbole

exaggeration, overstatement, magnification, embroidery Ex) Borden, the trustees chair, called that characterization "hyperbole, to say the least." Ex2) Day after day, Sherman bore the brunt of Southern hyperbole.

1927) Hypercommercialize

excessive use of mercantilism in media to obtain success and profit Ex) BS is hypercommercialized college athletics and administrations sucking the teats of big money, often in the process exploiting and discarding rather than educating student athletes, and recurrently corrupting recruitment programs, tutoring services, and grading systems.

194) Apprise

inform, tell, notify, advise Ex) At this point, Lia takes over the narrative through journal entries in which she apprises her dead father of all that transpires. Ex2) The suit charges prominent venture capitalists John Doerr and Ram Shriram, who led the board's leadership development and compensation committee, with approving the payment while being fully apprised of the allegations.

1557) Flimsy

insubstantial, fragile, breakable, frail 2) unconvincing, implausible, unsatisfactory Ex) "Wow." is boastful but not melancholy — "I got a lot of toys/720S bumpin' Fall Out Boy" — and he's largely rapping, with only a flimsy skin of melody. Ex2) For Israel, the protests touched a nerve: The border was demarcated by a fence, not a wall — a relatively flimsy contraption designed to detect intrusion, not prevent it.

896) Custodian

keeper, guardian, steward, protector Ex) The warning alarms burst into "WAH-OH, WAH-OH" - and Chua greets the custodians with a mild, "Oh sorry, was that a taboo?"

657) Clubhouse

locker room of sports team Ex) But the battle to define the party is playing out most vividly in overwhelmingly safe House districts around cities like Boston, Chicago, and New York, where younger liberals, often women, people of color or both, are confronting men who are products of a clubhouse politics where fealty to the organization was paramount.

625) Chronic

long-lasting, constant, ceaseless, unabating Ex) Administration officials blame chronic global overcapacity in both steel and aluminum manufacturing on China's many state-owned enterprise in steel and aluminum, as well as the many direct and indirect government subsidies those enterprises receive.

112) Allegiance

loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity Ex) It states that lawmakers must not owe allegiance to a foreign power.

251) Atone

make amends for, make up for, compensate for, recompense for Ex) Some historians dispute the idea that the aid represented a form of atonement. Ex2) They point to its embrace of nationalist and populist positions and a push by several prominent members to abandon Germany's culture of remembrance and atonement for its Nazi past.

802) Convergence

meet, intersect, cross, connect Ex1) And at a certain point in this 100-minute production, the plot that brings its two characters into convergence takes over with increasing, strong-armed clumsiness. Ex2) Preservationists say removing the buildings would fundamentally change the historic nature of Ellicott City, which sits below steep hills at the convergence of four creeks that flow into the Patapsco River.

649) Clemency

mercy, leniency, indulgence Ex) The board voted unanimously for clemency, and the descendants of the Groveland Four embraced. Ex2) In exchange, seven Iranians charged or imprisoned on sanctions violations won U.S. grants of clemency.

118) Allusive

metaphorical, connotative, figurative, allegorical, symbolic Ex) Jonathan Miller's production of Debussy's seductive, allusive opera returns, but unfortunately for only five shows. Ex2) Again hewing to the darker side, the Dutch animator Jorn Leeuwerink's deceptively childlike "Flower Found!" creates an allusive pastel nightmare of mistaken identity and mob injustice.

1687) Genuine

not spurious or counterfeit; authentic 2) being of pure or original stock Ex) "This new market form declares that serving the genuine needs of people is less lucrative, and therefore less important, than selling predictions of their behavior," Zuboff writes. Ex2) This sort of genuine cultural exchange, said Dr. Quintero, "is putting their money where their mouth is."

1618) Fragile

not strong or study 2) delicate and vulnerable Ex) Yet, she intriguingly tapped into this fragile young woman's willfulness. Ex2) When Chiqui is imprisoned for financial fraud — the result of an unpaid debt to a predatory bank — Chela falls back on her own fragile resources.

1875) High

octane- powerful, dynamic Ex) It also has a reputation for being more ethically and racially diverse, relaxed and artsy, whereas Natucket is seen as more buttoned-up with a high-octane social scene that lures jet-setting CEO types.

494) Bully

persecute, oppress, tyranize Ex) It is worth remembering that Trump skated through no fewer than a half-dozen corporate bankruptcies, bullying his creditors into restructuring his debt and covering over his mistakes. Ex2) "I will not be bullied into doing anything I think is wrong — by anybody, whether it be editorial boards or Congress or the president," Mr. Barr said.

723) Conciliatory

placatory, appeasing, pacifying Ex) Mr. Trump's threats have drowned out the more conciliatory rhetoric of Mr. Tillerson, who has said Washington doesn't seek to regime change and wants to pressure North Korea into disarmament talk. Ex2) Mr. Trump indicated that he was pleased with a conciliatory statement released by North Korea after his decision on Thursday to scrap the summit meeting, and he brushed off concerns raised privately by his staff and publicly by his allies and adversaries alike that Mr. Kim was playing him.

402) Blackout

power failure, power outage Ex) No one is above the law, he said, "and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold.

63) Adept

proficient, competent, gifted, accomplished, dexterous, adroit, skillful, skilled Ex) Officials jockey for his ear, and the president is adept at playing them off one another. Ex2) For adepts of slow rail travel, the new cars preserve the romance of overnight trains, in contemporary comfort, with a choice of hotel-style suites, classic bunk beds or seats.

487) Budding

promising, up-and-coming Ex) For the White House, however, the budding détente scrambles its strategy of pressuring the North, with sanctions and threats of military actions, to give up its nuclear arsenal.

937) Decorous

proper, seemly, decent, becoming Ex) When one referred to the "gentleman in the White House," the otherwise decorous group hooted.

1821) Haughty

proud, arrogant, vain, conceited, arrogantly superior and disdainful Ex) This sublime section is written in the third person, from Vidal's vantage point — an act of near-ventriloquism that captures the writer's astringent humor and haughty graciousness. Ex2) His partner, Viktoria Tereshkina, was lovely, correct and coy in a slightly haughty Russian manner, but I couldn't help but miss the exciting sense of risk that City Ballet dancers bring to this piece.

640) Clairvoyant

psychic, telepathic, visionary Ex) Four New York siblings ask a clairvoyant to tell them when they will die, and the answers change how they choose to live. Ex2) She was struck by a clairvoyant vision — a voice, really, that warned her of a fight that was about to occur over the price of the bananas.

331) Batter

pummel, pound, buffet, thrash Ex) Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms ever recorded, battered the islands of the northeast Caribbean early Wednesday, leaving severe damage in its wake as it barreled toward the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

1137) Distill

purify, refine, filter Ex1) A key issue in the Carlson contretemps is distilled in this line from David French of National Review, one of the monologue's critics: "There are wounds that public policy can't heal." Ex2) Equal amounts of distilled vinegar and dry sherry will work, too.

1152) Dog

pursue, follow, track, trail 2) plague, beset, bedevil Ex) These findings showed that the servicers were aggravating the student debt crisis, unfairly driving up debts that could dog student borrowers into their retirement years, when they are least able to make good on their debts. Ex2) Lawyers are alleging that General Motors is on the hook for an additional $1 billion to address claims stemming from faulty ignition switches, the latest legal wrangling over a safety defect that continues to dog the Detroit auto maker years after a recall that triggered widespread investigations and settlements.

607) Charlatan

quack, sham, fraud Ex) Other charlatans will learn from the one now in office and finish dragging a once-proud brand into darkness. Ex2) Certain types — charlatans, wastrels and freeloaders, many of them Indian — accumulate troublingly, as does the kind of servant who pines for the good old days when they wore white gloves to serve dinner.

897) Cut deal

reach agreement Ex) While some conservatives complained about the apostasy of cutting deals with Senator Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, others applauded his assault on establishment Republican leaders like Speaker Ryan of Wisconsin and Senator McConnell of Kentucky.

1478) Far

reaching- extensive, wide-ranging, comprehensive Ex1) Ex2)

1613) Foster

rear, raise, care for, take care of 2) encourage, promote, further, stimulate Ex) Infants and toddlers were among the children who were put into foster homes or migrant children shelters, often hundreds or thousands of miles away from where their parents were detained. Ex2) That fosters paranoia — and extra work — for some teams.

683) Command

receive, get, gain, secure Ex) Ms. Madikizela-Mandela commanded a natural constituency of her own among South Africa's poor and dispossessed, and the post-apartheid leaders who followed Mr. Mandela could never ignore her appeal to a broad segment of society. Ex2) Never invited when he was merely a businessman, Mr Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world's last superpower, commanding attention if not admiration.

931) Decennial

recurring every ten years. Ex) These fights are also about who wields power in the coming battles over congressional redistricting, the decennial drawing of district lines that happens next after the 2020 census.

1764) Gubernatorial

relating to a state governor or the office of state governor. Ex) Democrats have an edge in both of this year's gubernatorial races.

271) Authoritative

reliable, dependable, trustworthy, authentic, valid, attested, verifiable 2) assured, confident, assertive Ex) The victory was also a subtle but authoritative accomplishment by the veteran Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, who was appearing in his 10th postseason game. Ex2) Forty-two people were sentenced to death, up only slightly from 2017's 39, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that releases an authoritative annual report.

169) Antidote

remedy, cure, antitoxin Ex) Another question ahead of 2020 is which candidate will be able to portray himself or herself most effectively as the antidote to Trump and Trumpism. Ex2) Bowser and police officials are opposed to such a policy, citing the cost and training requirements and arguing that it is unnecessary because fire and emergency medical services officials already carry the antidote.

1433) Expostulate

remonstrate with, disagree with, argue with, take issue with Ex1) All of this is conveyed in phantasmagoric, low-tech compositions and long following shots of people expostulating on matters that are not always clear, even to them. Ex2) This week's drinking game: A chug of Newcastle Brown Ale for every time Lord G expostulates.

14) Abnegate

renounce, reject, abstain Ex) Yet for true global ruination, many other nations would need to abnegate their moral obligation to protect the planet. Ex2) Ms. Pollara said, "The Port Authority abnegated its responsibility to care for this treasure thereby forcing the developer to build a larger hotel to finance the remainder of the renovation."

215) Armoury

resources Ex) So has their scientific armoury.

952) Deferential

respectful, humble, obsequious Ex) Instead of being deferential to a singular preferred candidate, many listed a top tier, considering they felt fondly about several members of the presumed field. Ex2) Dr. Forni's subject struck a chord with people who sensed that Americans needed guidance on fundamental etiquette and deferential behavior — in the workplace, on the road, in public places and at home.

889) Curb

restrain, hold back, repress Ex1) Some lawmakers, pushed by lobbyists for the broadcast and sugar industries, would only green light more money if the agency's rulemaking and investigative powers were drastically curbed. Ex2) This time, however, Mr. Mulvaney is doing nothing to curb his influence.

587) Censorship

restriction, suppression Ex) The site was hosted outside China and blocked inside the country, but many were able to read the posts by using software to bypass censorship. Ex2) And however much the company's reputation may suffer now from keeping Kelly on its roster, RCA's executives may be weighing the risks of being accused of censorship, or of jettisoning its contractual obligations.

663) Cobble

roughly assemble or put together something from available parts or elements Ex) Aboard Air Force One on a flight home from Europe last July, President Trump and his advisers raced to cobble together a news release about a mysterious meeting at Trump Tower the previous summer between Russians and top Trump campaign officials.

1938) Idyllic

rural, rustic, bucolic, pastoral, charming in a rustic way, naturally peaceful Ex) The idyllic festival in the Berkshires, whose lineup was announced on Wednesday, will run from June 19 through Aug. 25, with five world premieres and return engagements from several Jacob's Pillow fixtures. Ex2) Tucked inside a neighborhood in a small town just north of New York City, Hawthorne Cedar Knolls was on idyllic, green grounds.

486) Bucolic

rural, rustic, pastoral, idyllic Ex) Farmers and herders once lived harmoniously on Nigeria's bucolic central plateau, but when Amos Lenji, a farmer, caught a young herdsman grazing cattle in his cornfields this October, he feared for his life. Ex2) In TV ads, Mr. Barrow leans on a fence in front of a bucolic Georgia landscape and declares, "Yeah, I'm a Democrat, but I won't bite you."

322) Barrel

rush Ex) Starting in 2010, Mr. Dedman would buy barrels of whiskey, then bring samples to Mr. Rutledge's home for him to assess. Ex2) The American benchmark for oil prices climbed above $48 a barrel.

508) Bustle

rush, dash, hurry, scurry Ex) Richie Carlsen, a lobsterman who runs a gym and coaches the high school soccer team, said Salt was unusually bustling and refined. Ex2) The center moved to its current K Street NW location, just two blocks from the White House, and became a bustling gathering place for conservative academics, politicians, journalists and young professionals.

1654) Furtive

secretive, secret, surreptitious, clandestine, attempting to avoid notice or attention Ex) We went back for seconds, plus little furtive bites and crumbs. Ex2) Wakanda is a fictional African nation free from the blight of colonialism, a furtive technological powerhouse fueled by a precious metal called vibranium.

497) Bumptious

self-important, conceited, arrogant Ex) I used to hope someone else might trumpet my foreign sales for me, thinking only men got to be bumptious and beloved. Ex2) Happily, that is not the case with "Ferdinand," an animated film inspired by Munro Leaf's 1936 children's classic that brims with bumptious fun, droll characters and poignant emotions.

1981) Imperturbable

self-possessed, composed, unshakably calm and collected Ex) When Perl calls it "fundamentally imperturbable," he may be saying most of what there is to say. Ex2) Ms. Smith, sporting her signature page-boy haircut, brought an imperturbably blithe spirit to the festivities, hewing to the melody despite Prima's efforts to throw her off.

1802) Harbor

shelter, conceal, hide, shield, to give shelter or refuge to Ex) That night, as the sun set over the harbor, Mr. Feingold and Mr. Carlsen, the lobsterman, headed to the Sand Bar, where wood-paneled walls are covered in dartboards and beer signs. Ex2) And its genome harbors a mysterious survival strategy: an extremely low mutation rate.

831) Cot

shelter, hut, cottage Ex) What he did- on a half-dozen occasions, by his count- was to let homeless people sleep on cots in his basement when the windchill factor dipped below 15 degrees.

178) Aphorism

short saying, maxim, axiom, adage, epigram, dictum Ex) Late in life, he joined the Quakers and wrote almost exclusively for their publications, once self-publishing a list of odd aphorisms. Ex2) Mattis remains popular within the military and with veterans who cheered his tough but pithy aphorisms.

1906) Hooted

shout, yell, cry, howl, shriek Ex) When one referred to the "gentleman in the White House," the otherwise decorous group hooted.

247) Astute

shred, sharp, acute Ex) News junkies, journalists and particularly astute citizens undoubtedly realize that much of what Trump said is exaggerated or simply false. Ex2) A decade later, 2015's brilliant "The Big Short" permanently altered his trajectory from go-to comedy guru into one of Hollywood's most astute chroniclers of political and economic corruption.

327) Bashful

shy, reserved, diffident Ex) Leaven the boasting with some self-deprecation, but don't be bashful about telling your story.

903) Daft

silly, foolish Ex1) Equally daft is Trump's claim that his steel tariffs, imposed earlier in the year, were already a raging success. Ex2) If you look at all this and see an obsessive ideologue working tirelessly for Randian ends, I think you're being daft.

1484) Fatuous

silly, foolish, stupid, inane Ex1) She is dismayed to find herself enduring inane baby singalongs, irritated by fatuous chitchat with other mothers and anguished when the exterminator interrupts her writing time. Ex2) In the era of President Trump, politics is reduced to a fatuous, debilitating spectacle.

1615) Founder

sink, go to the bottom, go down 2) fail, collapse, backfire, come to naught Ex) Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard and inventor of the index fund, died at 89. Ex2) TrueCar was created with the consumer in mind, said Scott Painter, its founder.

1527) Filibuster

stonewalling, delaying tactics, procrastination Ex1) In a briefing for reporters after Trump's remarks, the aides acknowledged that the bill faces a difficult path in the Senate, where it would require 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. Ex2) Senate Republicans then used the same move to end filibusters of Supreme Court nominees.

1811) Harebrained

stupid, unthinking, absurd, rash, giddy, frivolous Ex) I am appalled at the tariffs — I see prices at the grocery store rising because of his harebrained policy. Ex2) Sad to say, in his later years Campbell fell for various harebrained schemes to transform mankind and even foolishly changed the name of his magazine to "Analog: Science Fact and Fiction."

397) Bipartisan

supported or consisted of two political parties Ex) Separately, a bipartisan group of state senators calling off a special session to temporarily block the utilities from raising rates and lapsing on the costs of dismantling the reactors to customers.

1202) Dulcet

sweet, soothing, mellow, honeyed Ex1) They are about as old as this decade — unless you hark back to the dulcet tones of Bob Ross and "The Joy of Painting," which some older "tingleheads" do. Ex2) Schubert's "Adagio e Rondo Concertante" provided a strong opening, marked by a dulcet softness from the three string players.

731) Condole

sympathize, commiserate, console, pity, soothe Ex) "CM condoled over the demise of Lini, the nurse who died of infection while taking care of Nipah virus affected patients," the tweet read. Ex2) He was assured of success, warned of ignominious failure, congratulated on his luck and condoled with for the burden laid upon him.

1429) Exploit

take advantage of, impose on, abuse, treat unfairly 2) utilize, harness, use, make use of Ex1) It wasn't until the mid-1990s when Civiletti's legal opinion truly started being exploited, according to Ackerman, who posted an article on its impact earlier this month on his law firm's website. Ex2) The challenges in agriculture and our broken immigration system should not be solved by granting farmers the right to exploit foreign citizens under an abusive guest worker program.

1040) Dib

taste, try Ex) Some manufacturers are enforcing minimum advertised prices to make it harder for online sellers to undercut local merchants, while others give local stores first dibs on new products or funnel customers from their own websites to local outlets.

701) Compendious

terse, brief, condensed, epitomized Ex1) His office produced a compendious report in June called, "How China's Economic Aggression Threatens the Technologies and Intellectual Property of the United States and the World." Ex2) His frantic energy persists, but it is turned to the single-minded pursuit of new, ever weirder sounds to use in his music, sampled from his compendious collection of records.

894) Curt

terse, brusque, abrupt, clipped Ex1) Hegerberg replied with a curt "no" and turned away — a gesture many perceived as one of barely concealed disgust. Ex2) His curt response to my wondering why the guest minister was treated differently caught me off guard.

333) Battle

tested- Ex) Mr. Bolton will replace Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the battle-tested Army officer who was tapped last year to stabilize a turbulent foreign policy operation but who never developed a comfortable relationship with the president.

1932) Ideation

the formation of ideas or concepts Ex) Through private tutoring sessions, I was able to build lasting rapport with said students and informally counsel them as they fought against suicidal ideation, feelings of worthlessness, and various depressive symptoms.

26) Abstract

theoretical, intellectual, subtle, profound, philosophical 2) abbreviate, abridge, condense, digest, outline 3) summary Ex1) It is to say that, for many ambitious artists today, abstract painting springs from the ubiquity of digital imagery as well as from the history of art. Ex2) But, he said, prosecutors also rarely find a dealer tied to multiple deaths: "Even if it doesn't roil the market, this individual is unusually infectious in some abstract sense," he said. Ex3) There are abstract paintings on the walls, but no one to view them.

647) Clearheaded

thinking logically and coherently Ex) As the American side has gradually closed in on China, it has aroused the ire of Chinese society, and made Chinese people more clearheaded, more united.

1246) Elated

thrilled, delighted, overjoyed, ecstatic Ex1) This rang true even for young local voters, who in the week leading up to the inauguration described feeling elated. Ex2) Asked why he wasn't more elated, Bush told reporters: "I'm just not an emotional kind of guy."

1039) Diatribe

tirade, harangue, onslaught, attack Ex1) Is now really the best time for another jeremiad against "regulation"? After years of Reagan rhetoric and Trump diatribes, Howard, a lawyer, obviously believes so. Ex2) At one such meeting with Pelosi and Schumer in the White House Situation Room earlier this month, the president went on a long diatribe about unrelated topics.

1778) Hail

to acclaim, praise, applaud, rave aloud Ex) He hailed the judge's ruling in a statement. Ex2) Many South Koreans hailed the lower-court ruling, which sentenced the younger Mr Lee to five years in prison on corruption charges, as an important milestone in their country's long-running campaign toward greater transparency and accountability. Ex3) Mr. Fintiklis hailed the hotel as "an iconic property" and said he looked forward to working with the Trumps.

1792) Hammer out

to arrive at agreement, cut deal Ex) While Mr. Lee guides strategy and hammers out global alliances, he has little involvement in day-to-day operations, according to Samsung.

1673) Garner

to gather or collect something, especially information or approval, gather, collect, accumulate, amass, assemble Ex) It is the coin of the digital-media realm, a mealy concept that delights advertisers and publishers alike because it all but guarantees to garner a reader's attention. Ex2) Mahomes began his professional career by backing up Smith, who led the Chiefs to a 5-0 start and garnered brief MVP consideration leading Reid's modernized offense.

1604) Fork over

to give money to someone Ex) Second, of potentially more consequence, he announced that the city was suing five big oil companies- ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Conoco Phillips- to hold them accountable for emissions that have helped drive up global temperatures and to force the companies to fork over billions of dollars in damages to help cope with the effects of climate change, steps like fortifying coastal protections against flooding and upgrading sewer systems. Ex2) Most of the journalists who write about tech for a living (including me) are early adopters - power users who like having the latest gadgets, and who are willing to fork over money for a slightly better experience.

1256) Emaciated

to grow abnormally thin and weak Ex1) She says the poisoned eagle was found severely emaciated in Sussex County and was likely poisoned by eating a carcass tainted by lead ammunition or fragments. Ex2) When he reached Abdo's compound, he was shocked by the boy's emaciated state.

1948) Imbue

to inspire or permeate with a feeling or quality Ex) Playing Dolly Gallagher Levi, a life-embracing widow determined to remarry into money, she imbued the show with a depth of warmth and personality. Ex2) Rather, it's to imbue dejected Americans with greater feelings of self-worth through an honest paycheck.

1498) Feet to the fire

to maintain personal, social, political, legal pressure to make someone comply Ex) Rather than warning that he would keep the younger Mr. Kim's feet to the fire with sanctions until he complies, Mr. Trump said after meeting in the Oval Office with North Korea's spy chief that he no longer wanted to use the term "maximum pressure," a phrase drilled into the vocabulary of his aides for the past year.

1817) Hash

to make # Ex) Salting makes identical passwords look different once they are hashed, so that deciphering one common password doesn't give hackers access to all the duplicates.

1704) Glide

to move in a smooth, effortless manner, slide, slip, sail Ex) And now elephants, tigers and rhinos rumble, glide and canter through his novel "A Circle of Elephants." Ex2) Defense officials say that two areas where China may be pulling ahead of the United States are hypersonic glide vehicles and intermediate- and long-range missiles.

1442) Extol

to praise highly; exalt Ex1) The nearby statue of Byrd — state senator, governor and U.S. senator for more than three decades — extols Byrd's penny-pinching fiscal philosophy. Ex2) The website features footage of Kahane's speeches, along with a tribute video extolling his righteousness and declaring that "never will there be a better man."

44) Acknowledge

1) admit, accept, grant, allow, concede, accede to, own, recognize Ex) He acknowledged some clouds on the economic horizon. Ex2) So long as they're well designed, public health policy and programs that work passively seem more likely to improve our lives by acknowledging and respecting just how busy and distracted we are.

1667) Gambol

to run or jump about playfully, frolic, frisk, cavort, skip, dance Ex) On Sunday, I was struck by a single gamboling jump taken by Ernesto Breton, throwing one forearm in the air, then the other, while skipping from foot to foot. Ex2) As the astronauts finished their scientific work — and their gambols — they planted an American flag on the moon.

1954) Immolate

to sacrifice Ex) Told this was not an acceptable reason, Mr. Awan went to look online for an acceptable corpse being covered with bovine fat to aid immolation- and as offerings for honored guests.

1853) Hem in

to surround and restrict the space Ex) Some of these people said Mr. Cohn's departure hinted at the limits of trying to hem in Mr. Trump's desire to make more dramatic actions on trade.

183) Apostate

traitor, defector, deserter, turncoat Ex) By the 1970s, displays were pushing limits as well as products: While Moore designed miniature dioramas that mixed the exquisite and the everyday for Tiffany's, a younger generation of apostates was on the rise. Ex2) "After all," Ms. Povich writes, "she was responsible for my entree to Newsweek, and now I was the apostate suing her magazine."

788) Contort

twist, bend out of shape, distort, misshape Ex1) It is there, too, in Manchester, though its form contorted and its message altered, where Pep Guardiola is supposed to be the savior. Ex2) A small fraction of Gmail's more than 1.4 billion worldwide users took to the Internet with questions: Had some setting changed or some shadowy algorithm contorted to alter what was important and what was not?

1635) Freudian

unconscious desires Ex) Slips don't come much more Freudian than that.

1986) Implausible

unlikely, improbable, questionable, doubtful, not seeming reasonable or probable Ex) As the smartphone market matures, startups are racing to predict what's next, and venture-capital firms are spraying money into fields like virtual reality, smart watches and even implants in the brain. Ex2) Klein's tale finds a detective investigating a series of simultaneous thefts in London and New York, an implausible sequence of events that is profoundly puzzling on its own terms.

97) Agitate

upset, perturb, ruffle, disconcert, unnerve, disquiet, disturb, distress 2) foment, incite, provoke, stir up Ex) LeeBrian is a nimble, flexible vocalist — sometimes agitated, sometimes preternaturally relaxed, and often toggling between both, like on the whimsical "Goku Sin El Ki." Ex2) Portrayed with relentless, nerve-shredding shrillness by Mo Fry Pasic, she wouldn't appear to possess a shred of self-awareness as she careers through agitated phone calls with her mother and her bestie.

565) Casualty

victim, fatality, loss Ex) Speaking at the State Department several hours after initial casualty reports appeared, Vice President Pence did not mention the incident but hailed Trump's leadership in combating the militants in Syria. Ex2) The Kenyan authorities said did not provide a casualty figure.

570) Cater to

1) indulge, spoil, pamper 2) provide for, supply

540) Canary in a coal mine

advanced warning to a danger Ex) The amount was small, but to Cisco it was a canary in the coal mine.

835) Counterintuitive

contrary to intuition or to common sense Ex) "It's a little counterintuitive, but that's how it is," he said.

455) Brandish

wave, shake, wield Ex) The emblem at issue is a black-and-white rendering of the word "MONGOLS" over a drawing of a cartoonish Genghis Khan-like figure sporting a queue and brandishing a sword while riding a chopper motorcycle. Ex2) Standing in the vicinity of such forensic evidence causes your avatar to brandish a pocket watch.

1622) Frantic

wild or distraught with fear, anxiety, or other emotion Ex) The political standoff is leading to turmoil throughout the federal government, in thousands of households and in pockets of the economy, prompting frantic calls from families and business groups looking for short-term assistance. Ex2) On Friday, the police released a frantic 911 call from the Hacienda nursing center when the woman went into labor on Dec. 29.

1504) Feral

wild, untamed, untrained Ex1) The paintings are fantastic and feral, both in execution and in suggested narrative; attenuated, often adolescent, sometimes gnomelike creatures populate them. Ex2) A president who always turns, by feral instinct, to an organizing message of bigotry and exclusion.

1351) Eradicate

wipe out, eliminate, remove, abolish Ex1) They are the propagators, curators and defenders of a culture that the regime of Xi Jinping appears determined to eradicate. Ex2) Trump kicked off weeks of confusion with his declaration last month, bucking the advice of top advisers who urged patience as U.S. and allied troops sought to eradicate remaining militants.

1809) Hard

wired- permanently connected circuits Ex) Its divisions are hard-wired into the human brain.

1840) Heart

wrenching- extremely sad or distressing Ex) The book, which will be published on Fe. 20, is heart-wrenching.

1348) Equivocal

ambiguous, indefinite, noncommittal, vague Ex1) Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and other Republicans were less equivocal on Sunday. Ex2) Christopher M. Curran, a lawyer for Sudan, was more equivocal but said his client was aware of the suit before the default judgment was entered.

1356) Ersatz

artificial, substitute, imitation, synthetic, fake, false, faux, mock Ex1) Mussolini's ersatz populism and propagandistic imagery set the stage for the decades after the war, when the romanticization of everyday Italians who were striving to build up their lives and nation became increasingly expansive. Ex2) Faux crawfish, ersatz shrimp: They're less a matter of alchemy and transfiguration than sleight of hand in a circle of sawdust.

1163) Dormant

asleep Ex1) Amid the beauty shots and creeping camera moves, he rents rooms in her villa, brings its dormant garden back to bloom and fills its sepulchral rooms with luxurious bouquets. Ex2) The law lay dormant for a decade until "activated" by President Theodore Roosevelt against J.P.

283) Avow

assert, declare, state Ex) Yet during their career, Public Enemy publicly supported, cited and endorsed the message of Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader and an avowed anti-Semite. Ex2) Both avow a commitment to combat hate speech, extremism and misinformation.

621) Chivalrous

gallant, considerate, courteous, polite Ex) Mr. Will's defense of Kirkpatrick is chivalrous, perhaps, but utterly unpersuasive. Ex2) Old-school tradition dictated that the guy paid as part of a chivalrous romantic courtship.

518) Cabal

gang, mob Ex) Users who clicked on one of the QAnon-related conspiracies about Ginsburg were presented other videos claiming existence of a "deep state" that's infested with demons and others saying a secretive Jewish cabal controls the world. Ex2) After The Daily Caller first reported the raid on Mr. Cain, conservative websites piled on, arguing that it showed a deep-state cabal in control of the F.B.I.

680) Color

influence, affect, taint Ex1) The bank also reported that, among its U.S. employees, people of color earn 7 percent less than their white colleagues. Ex2) She is bringing together a group of about 100 Jewish women of color from across the country to march in Saturday's D.C. event.

656) Clout

influence, power, sway Ex1) The selection is shaping up as a test of the Trump administration's international clout. Ex2) Virginia appropriators from the more recent past used their clout to arrange funding for Metro, bridge and highway improvements, defense projects, anti-gang initiatives, and even the Iraq Study Group.

374) Bequeath

leave to, pass on to Ex) Mr. Lipinski was bequeathed his heavily Polish and Irish district in Chicago around Midway Airport and the South Side by his father, William Lipinski, a former ward boss and representative.

1214) Earthly

terrestrial, Wordly, temporal, material Ex1) The space amounted to an earthly purgatory: Secure the money, and you were saved. Ex2) Friday's vote cements the values of the Planck and Avogadro constants, and releases the kilogram from its earthly form.

1198) Dubious

doubtful, suspicious, suspect, untrustworthy Ex1) But food was scarce, daily crossings were strictly limited, and she ended up No. 1,520 on a dubious waiting list kept in a tattered notebook. Ex2) Undoubtedly, Tennessee's is a dubious law, but the problem for its opponents is precisely that the 21st Amendment returned liquor-control power to the states.

1749) Gross

earn, make, bring in Ex) Legend of Sword which has a production budget of nearly $175 million, grossed $39 million.

372) Bent

1) inclination, disposition, proclivity 2) talent, gift, aptitude Ex) While his political bent was distinctly right-wing, he resisted the era's virulent anti-Semitism and never joined the Nazi Party. Ex2) Was the cautious Mr. Sartori referring to the political situation in an Italy under the control of right-wing isolationists bent on closing its borders or to a corporate hunger for a piece of emerging markets?

355) Beleaguer

1) surround, beset, besiege 2) persecute, torment, bother Ex1) No one expects the beleaguered Brexit plan to pass, just as it didn't back in December, and Prime Minister Theresa May is scrambling to pull together a backup strategy. Ex2) He'd met in October with Baltimore officials as they searched for a new leader for their city's beleaguered department, but ultimately rebuffed their request that he apply.

292) Backdrop

background of a setting, event, or situation Ex) Against that darkening backdrop, House leaders pressed forward with a planned vote on the temporary spending bill, which would extend government funding through Feb. 16.

442) Boorish

coarse, uncouth, uncivilized, unrefined Ex) Both were initially regarded by political analysts as too inexperienced and boorish to pull ahead. Ex2) It also marked a cultural turning point for many women, a confirmation that Mr. Weinstein's harassment of women went beyond boorish behavior: Prosecutors said he broke the law.

630) Cipher

code, secret writing Ex) In his book "Moonwalking With Einstein," the author Joshua Foer described this system as a simple cipher that transforms numbers to letters or phonetic sounds. Ex2) It's generally a matter of giving us too much or too little: drowning us in detail or withholding it; presenting a narrator who is a cipher or one who can't stop clowning.

1489) Faze

disconcert, embarrass, confuse Ex1) Lawrence was the leading receiver on North Point's state semifinal squad last season, so he isn't fazed by the playoffs. Ex2) The fact that graffiti is illegal in Washington apparently didn't faze him.

1136) Dissuade

discourage from, deter from, prevent from Ex) Wichita, known as the aircapital of the world, is working with the industry to train thousands of new workers while sprucing up downtown in an attempt to make it a place where people want to stay- and to dissuade companies from shipping the jobs overseas. Ex2) Professors, in seeking to protect themselves from liability, they said, might go overboard in monitoring students, which could drive students underground and dissuade them from talking to anyone about their problems.

776) Consultation

discussion, dialogue, discourse 2) meeting, talk, discussion Ex) Both sides should use dialogue and consultation to resolve their mutual concerns.

898) Cut

price- cheap, marked down, reduced Ex) It charged into the semiconductor business, for instance, when the company was still known as an assembler of cut-price TVs.

532) Call the shots

to decide on the course of action; to be in charge Ex) Mr. Lee rarely visited factories and did not call the shots day-to-day, according to one former top Samsung official who declined to be named out of concern that he might damage his career by speaking about Mr. Lee.

1599) Forestall

to delay, hinder, or prevent by taking precautionary measures beforehand Ex) Russia and Turkey reached a deal in September to create a demilitarized buffer zone in northwest Idlib province to forestall a Syrian government offensive against rebel groups, many of whom are backed by Ankara. Ex2) Others called Epiphanius a compromise choice likely to forestall bickering among the church elders.

1592) Forebear

an ancestor Ex) And yet, like its agricultural forebear, it is laborious and repetitive and annoying and demanding. Ex2) We who speak contemporary English are so reliant on word order that we are no longer as able as our forebears to create lyrical, associative, figurative meaning in poetry.

577) Cave

capitulate or submit under pressure; cave in Ex) He has two options: caving right now or caving later

861) Crisis

catastrophe, calamity, cataclysm 2) critical point, turning point, crossroads Ex) "We've got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis," Mr. Obama said at the time.

817) Cop

catch, arrest 2) strike an attitude or pose Ex) They rarely, if ever, cop to the offense.

1697) Gingerly

cautiously, carefully, warily Ex) He is slightly stooped and walks gingerly - hip trouble, he said.

583) Celebrity

fame, prominence, renown, eminence Ex) Increasingly, though, Ms. Madikizela-Mandela resented the notion that her anti-apartheid credentials had been eclipsed by her husband's global stature and celebrity, and she struggled in vain in later years to be regarded again as the "mother of the nation," a sobriquet acquired during the long years of Mr. Mandela's imprisonment.

803) Conversant

familiar with, acquainted with Ex1) They're conversant with digital imagery, but they insist on the value of the handmade. Ex2) But none were more conversant with the structure and details of the kingpin's business than Mr. Zambada.

315) Barbed

hurtful, wounding, cutting Ex) Dr. Blasey became a household name and a new symbol of the #MeToo movement. Judge Kavanaugh's high school and college past, including a history of heavy drinking, was exposed and his raw, emotional testimony - including barbed comments to his Democratic questioners - raised questions about his honesty and his temperament.

804) Conversely

introducing a statement that contradicts the one right before Ex1) There were restrooms for "white ladies" and often, conversely, restrooms for "colored women." Ex2) These are innovative entities that allow doctors and hospitals to share savings if they drive down costs; conversely, doctors and hospitals owe refunds when costs are excessive.

393) Bilateral

involving two parties or countries Ex) Mr. Trump and Robert Lighthizer, his United States trade representative, have also focused on shrinking the bilateral trade deficit.

862) Crisscross

move or travel around a place by going back and forth repeatedly, go back and forth Ex) Mr. Gayle and Mr. Kaine crisscrossed Virginia for the senator's 2012 campaign, bonding over a shared interest in sports, particularly college football.

1291) Endow

provide, supply, furnish, equip 2) finance, fund, provide for, subsidize Ex1) The main requirement is to endow misfortune with narrative and moral significance, if not always with a corresponding sense of justice or proportion. Ex2) Bale, thickening and graying before our eyes, burrows into the personality of a shrewd operator endowed with whatever the opposite of charisma might be.

1371) Ethnocultural

relating to or denoting a particular ethnic group Ex) Chua's message: Ethnocultural rivalry powerfully shapes both international relations and domestic policy.

1757) Grudgingly

reluctant or resentful Ex) President Trump insisted he will never again sigh a huge catchall spending measure of the sort he just grudgingly approved to fund the government.

1852) Helter

skelter- carelessly, haphazard, hastily, headlong, in disorderly haste or confusedly hurried, marked by a lack of order or plan, haphazard Ex) His insider-outsider books at once affirmed and debunked the myths, skewering movie-industry hypocrisy, venality and pretension even as they celebrated the hard work, scrappy creativity and helter-skelter deal making that allowed the movies to flourish. Ex2) In September he premiered his latest film, "At Eternity's Gate," — about the final, helter-skelter months of van Gogh's life — at the Venice Film Festival.

519) Cache

storage, space, hoard Zuboff describes how Google, in its early days, happened to keep a cache of data byproducts — spelling, click patterns, location — that were produced with each search. Ex) Among the targets were command and control nodes, explosive facilities, weapons caches and one "unarmed aircraft system," the U.S. military said in a statement.

399) Bizarre

strange, peculiar, odd Ex) Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" represents Toscanini's infatuation with New York, even if it is performed here in a bizarre arrangement for trumpet and piano. Ex2) Even more bizarrely, the cells may be selective about which copies of DNA they send on to the next generation.

336) Beachhead

strategy focusing on one area Ex) Singapore in 2013 was Uber's first Asian city, a beachchead for expansion.

438) Bookkeeping

the activity or occupation of keeping records of the financial affairs of a business. Ex) Unlike their fathers and grandfathers, this latest set of business leaders stand accused of inheriting management control and wealth through opaque bookkeeping and questionable trading among subsidiaries.

1730) Gratify

to give someone pleasure or satisfaction, please, sate, satiate Ex) In his response to the report, Jack St. John, the General Services Administration's general counsel, said he was "gratified" that the inquiry found no evidence of political interference in the agency's decision-making. Ex2) The pause also is likely to gratify the Trump administration, which campaigned insistently and publicly for the Fed to stop raising interest rates.

1705) Glimmer

to shine faintly with a wavering light, shine Ex) Its poles glimmer with auroras powered by its tremendous magnetic field, and its clouds swirl like celestial latte art. Ex2) And the administration's recent shift in focus from a concrete wall to a fence-like barrier made of steel slats offered a slight glimmer of hope for room to compromise.

446) Bore the brunt

to suffer the worst part of an unpleasant or problematic situation Ex) Technology stocks bore the brunt of the slump, as a recent spate of bad news about tech companies like Facebook, Tesla, and Amazon spooked investors.

1038) Diaphanous

sheer, fine, delicate, light, thin Ex1) The red blotches depict protein in a piece that layers two compositions on diaphanous fabric atop another on paper. Ex2) Throughout this long work, Mr. Nézet-Séguin conveyed the subliminal intensity that courses through even the most seemingly languid and diaphanous passages.

1700) Glaring

shining intensely and blindingly; tastelessly showy or bright, garish, dazzling, flashy, blazing 2) conspicuous, obvious, flagrant, blatant Ex) But there are five more people in line, glaring at the offending customer. Ex2) A reconstruction of the hack reveals a glaring vulnerability at the heart of the country's electric system.

1686) Genuflect

show deference or servility Ex) Thus, as the bearmarket leads to bigger and bigger losses, and a bottom nears, erstwhile believers in buying and holding start genuflecting at the later of market timing.

611) Chasten

subdue, deflate, abase Ex) "This is a chastening lesson about the price of loyalty." Ex2) Zinke was cleared in several of those investigations, and he attacked his critics rather than adopt a more chastened tone.

1420) Expediency

suitability, benefit, fitness, utility, effectiveness Ex1) Politeness and other forms of social expediency prevent us from telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth every day. Ex2) "China increasing imports will not be a choice of political expediency but a future-oriented step taken to embrace the world."

301) Badinage

teasing remarks, playful repartee Ex) You'll find beatings, shootouts, car crashes, awkward analogies and a measure of buddy badinage in "Bright," but true enchantment is in short supply. Ex2) By now, the beeping computer screens, cavernous spaceship architecture and offhand badinage that characterize "Covenant's" scene-setting first section are old hat to any aficionado of the genre.

623) Chops

Ex) Stephen R. McAllister, a professor and former dean at the University of Kansas School of Law, said Mr. Obama's almost-nonexistent record of legal writing would raise concerns about his academic chops.

814) Convulse....wave

throw a country into violent social or political upheaval Ex) The city seemed to convulse in terrifying waves, making street lamps and the Angel of Independence monument, the capital's signature landmark, sway like a metronome's pendulum.

241) Assimilate

absorb, take in, acquire, comprehend, understand, learn, master Ex) A commuter as an immigrant — a stranger trying to assimilate in a strange land of mergers and acquisitions. Ex2) Or should it be reserved for the few who might more quickly assimilate into the American majority?

1403) Execrate

abhor, abominate, loathe 2) anathematize, censure, damn, decry, denounce Ex1) Though the Democrats' advantage over the GOP in voter identification is not particularly large — eight points, according to Gallup — 24 percent of Americans now accept the no-longer execrated label "liberal," up seven points since 1992. Ex2) Americans execrate "outsourcing," which supposedly involves sending "American jobs" overseas.

997) Deplore

abhor, find unacceptable, frown on Ex1) The toxic culture, including white supremacy, he deplored speaks to enough of the GOP to dominate the party. Ex2) A 2017 school board candidate's website deplored the statistic that just 8.2 percent of the city's eighth graders were proficient in reading and math.

158) Anomalous

abnormal, atypical, irregular, aberrant Ex) In 1995, the Sentencing Commission, responsible for developing guidelines for judges to use when determining punishments, said it created "anomalous results" and recommended its elimination. Ex2) "Since when are sticky floors in a movie theater an anomalous thing that's worth getting upset over?" he said.

1435) Expunge

abolish, blot out, cancel, efface Ex1) Fingerprints and charges are not expunged from the database even if charges are dropped. Ex2) Criminal records for marijuana-related offenses should be expunged for drug crimes that would no longer be illegal, a recommendation, like others in the report, that would require a change in state law.

1362) Esoteric

abstruse, obscure, arcane, recondite Ex1) He remained a lifelong student of the highest caliber: co-teaching with philosophers, metabolizing esoteric doctrines, even directing the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Ex2) His esoteric topic at times clashes with the clunky colloquialisms Skaife deploys when talking about himself.

1475) Farce

absurd event, mockery, travesty Ex) BS is the farce of what are actually fragmentversities claiming to be universities, of hyper specialization and academic disciplines unable to talk with each other about obvious shared concerns.

1534) Fiscal year

a year used for taxing or accounting Ex) For a comparison, Apple spent $14.9 billion in capital expenditures in the last fiscal year, though it did not specify how much it spends in the United States alone.

1555) Flee

abscond, avoid, depart, elude, evade Ex) I'm appalled at the way President Trump treats immigrants and people fleeing their homes for fear for their lives. Ex2) Republicans lost 40 seats last year, their worst showing in the House since 1974, and McCarthy's own California delegation was roughly halved by Democratic gains as suburban voters fled from the party.

317) Bare

basic and simple, plain Ex) The verdict laid bare seemingly gaping divides in the national reckoning around sexual consent and assault.

27) Abstruse

inscrutable, impenetrable, unfathomable, enigmatic, recondite, arcane, esoteric, mysterious, hard to understand, complicated Ex) That finding might seem abstruse but is important for discussions of banning the shoe, Dr. Kram says. Ex2) He tends to pepper his remarks with financially abstruse phrases like "fiscal impact analysis" and "tax-credit review panel." Ex3) A diverse sampler of the popular and the abstruse, the festival may be middle-aged, but it remains surprising, if at times reliably exasperating.

1100) Disingenuous

insincere, dishonest, untruthful Ex1) The president told reporters on Thursday that he's not worried about what Cohen might say, but that probably was a disingenuous comment. Ex2) But always saying wall or no wall is being very disingenuous and turning a complete blind eye to what is a crisis at the border.

1062) Directive

instruction, direction, command, order, charge Ex) President Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive.

910) Dashboard

instrument panel, control panel, instrument board Ex) Flames burst from the dashbord, melting the interior and cracking a football-sized hole in his windshield.

1639) Frivolous

no value, flippant, glib, facetious, not having any serious purpose or value 2) carefree and not serious, skittish, flighty, giddy, silly, foolish, superficial Ex) To suffer that little death teaches you that there's no point in battling something as inexorable as time, no point in mourning something as frivolous as a hairdo. Ex2) But this would defeat the very purpose of building a wall in the first place: the frivolous novelty of using a fifth-century solution to a 21st-century problem.

1677) Gaudy

showy in a tasteless or vulgar way, garish, lurid, loud, overbright Ex) Those gaudy, vulgar trainers with gold and jewels and things. Ex2) Time magazine summed up her performance: "Perhaps once in a decade a nova explodes above the Great White Way with enough brilliance to reillumine the whole gaudy legend of show business."

1621) Framework

structure, shape, fabric, order Ex) The unsticking of the framework after years of obstruction is widely seen as a concession by China, which has opposed any legally binding code on maritime engagement, stepped up naval patrols and built artificial islands to enforce its claims, and equipping them with military weapons. Ex2) In these sessions, I also pushed to educate my students about power structures, racial microaggressions, and privilege, and was encouraged when I saw restored hopes and new frameworks for their futures, growth in their critical thinking, and willingness to advocate for other marginalized populations.

564) Casual

1) superficial, cursory 2) fortuitous, incidental, unintentional, unplanned, Ex) She delivered lines of homely inspiration, sometimes in a casual repartee, elsewhere in a wail. Ex2) It's supposed to be the hotel's casual Italian restaurant, and it would be if you didn't sometimes catch the food trying to relax.

1691) Ghostwrite

a person whose job it is to write material for someone else who is the named author. Ex) And if you could ghostwrite someone else's

332) Battery

array, series, set, bank, sequence Ex) Overall, Dr Jackson said, Mr Trump's health was "excellent," with mostly normal results on a battery of tests and examinations.

1911) Hub

center, core, heart, middle Ex) Instead, he said, the deal should be viewed as a way to make Wisconsin a hub for technology jobs and venture capital investment

880) Culinary

cooking Ex) "I'm rather limited in my culinary enjoyment nowadays," he responded.

520) Cacophony

discord, harshness, dissonance Ex) Townsend asked, his voice rising to a near-shout over the cacophony of customers. Ex2) Elegant to tacky, bold to subdued, all arrayed in a row of storefronts that stretch for blocks, and intemingled in a cacophony that screams "hey, I'm over here!!!"

1935) Idiosyncratic

distinctive, individual, individualistic, characteristic, Ex) I love her idiosyncratic way of looking at things.

1584) Foot

dragging- reluctance or deliberate delay concerning a decision or action, failing to act Ex) After years of foot-dragging, the government is listening. Ex2) He accused the company of 'shameful foot-dragging'.

636) Circumvention

evasion, deception Ex) As such, it was an unlawful circumvention of Congress, and was susceptible to the same legal challenges that effectively ended DACA.

1118) Dispensation

exemption, immunity, exception Ex) Those who have worked with Mr. Lee describe a man well-mannered and relatively soft-spoken. He is an avid golfer despite receiving dispensation from military service for back problems related to an equestrian accident.

161) Antagonistic

hostile to, against, set against, opposed to Ex) I've had these cases where drafting the prenup makes the parties divorce before they get married. It becomes to antagonistic.

1965) Impassionate

impassioned, passionate, enthusiastic

448) Boulder

rock, stone Ex) Her boyfriend, Borgatello, was swept away and pinned by a boulder against a fence.

535) Calumny

slander, defamation, libel Ex) Rio's mayor at the time, Eduardo Paes, wrote a letter complaining of my calumnies and took offense at talk of corruption. Ex2) Opinion journalism is not a license for calumny.

928) Debundle

to fragment into smaller parts Ex) We've debundled the fare so passengers are able to choose if they want to have the luggage, assigned seats, et cetera.

1941) Ilk

type, sort, class, category, set, group Ex) Bulger had amassed enemy after enemy over a lifetime of murder, extortion, double-crossing and - in a breach of the cardinal rule of his ilk - snitching on rival mobsters.

668) Coffer

<fund, reserve, resources, money> for a group or institution Ex) But a $270 million consolation prize would only add to Berkshire's swollen cash coffers, which are approaching $100 billion.

902) Dabbler

Ex) Because this type of duck is a "dabbler", which means it often feeds by moving its bill across the water to find insects and vegetation, it could last in Central Park for a while, he said.

691) Commode

Ex) I never dreamed someone could flush a commode in New York, and it would run out in my backyard.

1782) Half in shadow

Ex) The music, stealthy, half in shadow, incarnated the horror described in the lyric.

597) Chaebols

South Korea a large business conglomerate, typically a family-owned one Ex) But the current president, Moon Jae-in, and his political party have pledged to crack down on shady practices at South Korea's family-run business empires, which are known as chaebols.

1870) Hieroglyph

a picture or symbol used in hieroglyphic writing Ex) The walls are decorated with colorful hieroglyphs and statues of pharaohs, while sculptures of the buried priest and his family were placed in the tomb. Ex2) Each delivers the messy riot you'd hope for, busy with crunchy hieroglyphs of fried noodles and splattered with yogurt and tamarind sauce.

590) Centrism

a political outlook of moderate Ex) The centrism that marked her tenure, however, frustrated many conservatives who sought to outmaneuver the court's liberal wing rather than find common ground with it.

290) Backchannel

a secret way, a secondary or covert route for the passage of information Ex) His comments marked the first sign that the Trump administration has been trying its own version of what the Obama administration did with Iran: using a series of backchannel, largely secret communications that, after years of negotiation, resulted in a nuclear accord.

1205) Duopoly

a situation in which two suppliers dominate the market for a commodity or service Ex) Even formidable figures like Theodore Roosevelt failed to break up the duopoly.

91) Aftershock

a smaller earthquake following the main shock of a large earthquake Ex) Aftershocks continued through the day Friday, unnerving the city's residents, many of whom spent much of the day out in the street rather than return to their homes, said Juan Antonio Garcia, the director of the Juchitan news website Cortamortaja.

1165) Dotard

an old person Ex) Responding directly for the first time to President Trump's threat at the United Nations to destroy nuclear-armed North Korea, it's leader called Mr. Trump a "mentally deranged US dotard" on Friday and vowed the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history."

413) Blimp

an small nonrigid airship Ex) A tactical surveillance blimp will hover above.

1511) Fetching

attractive, appealing, good-looking Ex1) Fine art might be fetching record prices, but impressively scaled photos, prints and original pieces are more attainable than ever. Ex2) Penguin Classics recently published a fetching new annotated edition, with a foreword by the singer/writer Patti Smith, one of the book's vast army of admirers.

735) Confer

bestow, present, grant, award, endow Ex1) Unlike Mr. Bezos, who owns Amazon shares with ordinary voting rights, these tech entrepreneurs wield control of their companies by holding special classes of shares that confer extra power to their owners. Ex2) We confer on lighting, dishware, utensils, cookware, linens and even crumb placement.

1779) Hairbreadth

bit, hair, fraction, a very small amount or margin Ex) As he spoke I became aware of a thin thread of almost intolerable light, let down from heaven at an immense distance--one vertical hairsbreadth of frozen lightning. Ex2) This mildest and meekest of girls and wives was not to be moved a hairsbreadth by all argument or entreaty, or insistence on a husband's rights.

434) Bombshell

calamity, casualty, blow, disappointment Ex) Every day we hear reports on another bombshell allegation about the Trump administration.

919) Dead on arrival

declared ineffective without ever having been put into effect. Ex) But the proposal, which Mr. Trump unveiled in a 13-minute address from the White House, appeared dead on arrival in the Capitol.

69) Adorn

decorate, embellish, ornament, deck, bedeck Ex) The executive chef, Nicolas Ferreira, cooks all the food with precision, over fire in an open kitchen adorned with flowers and plants. Ex2) The Sacklers, whose name adorns museums and medical schools around the world, are one of the richest families in the United States, with much of their wealth derived from sales of OxyContin.

1578) Foible

defect, failing, fault, idiosyncrasy Ex) It's also about passion, self-interest and the foibles of would-be political leaders. Ex2) "He was someone who completely accepted me for who I am, with all my quirks and foibles."

1245) Elate

delight, overjoyed Ex) During Mr. Trump's trip to Asia last year, he was elated by the welcome Mr. Xi prepared.

1617) Fractious

easily irritated, bad-tempered 2) unruly, not controlled Ex) Consistency and mutual understanding seem particularly elusive at this fractious stage of the game. Ex2) In other words, it was nothing like the media-driven, fractious and ideologically polarized body over which Pelosi will preside if she returns to the speaker's chair.

1548) Flank

edge, bound, line, border, be on each or on one side of Ex) And when he entered and exited the courtroom, he clasped his hands behind his back, flanked by sheriff's deputies. Ex) Members of the Mount Athos monastic community in the north of the country addressed the crowd, flanked by Greeks in traditional clothing, declaring that the deal "distorts history."

1789) Ham

fisted- lacking dexterity or grace Ex) The president's involvement with Congress has been superficial at best up to this point, with occasional policy-free photo-ops and ham-fisted attempts to influence votes.

1703) Glib

fluent and voluble but insincere and shallow, artful, articulate, eloquent Ex) A little later, the movie offers a glib, thoughtless caricature of a working-class single mother of six. Ex2) Strip away the gimmicks, and what may seem exhilaratingly brash begins to look glib, opportunistic and relatively tame.

1058) Dingy

gloomy, dark, dull Ex1) Before the hearing started inside the dingy sixth floor courtroom, Mr. Mugrabi crossed his arms and glared at his wife. Ex2) "I'm broken," he said, leaning on a cane as he sat in the kitchen of a dingy apartment he shares with a roommate.

1750) Grouch

grumbler, complainer, moaner 2) cavil, quibble, grumble Ex) "As grouchy as he is, he would always let a hungry kid eat before he did," Spinney wrote. Ex2) And yet, suddenly on Wednesday night, Mr. Giuliani seemed reduced to America's grouchy dinner guest.

1765) Guffaw

howl, shout, a hearty, boisterous burst of laughter Ex) Friends guffawed: "The odds are good; the goods are odd." Ex2) Mr. Molinaro is quick to laugh — a big, sometimes nearly nervous guffaw — when describing his life.

1983) Impetuous

impulsive, rash, hasty, reckless Ex) But Ms. Devieilhe's impetuous and sparkling rendition of that showpiece was only the encore — an afterthought, really — for an evening of delicate, nuanced French art songs. Ex2) Donald J. Trump's highly personal management style as a businessman — impetuous, impolitic, sometimes immature — worked.

1285) Encumber

inconvenience, disadvantage 2) hamper, hinder, obstruct Ex1) The meandering plot is encumbered by details that offer little payoff and a few characters who are clichéd and flat, even when we do dive into their back stories. Ex2) ESL is also proposing that Sears sell a big chunk of encumbered real estate over a 12-month period and use the proceeds to pay lenders.

384) Betoken

indicate, be a sign of, be evidence of, evidence, manifest, mean, signify Ex) The circular patterning also betokens a geometry repeated around official Washington: the Oval Office, the Rotunda, the dome of the Jefferson Memorial. Ex2) Banks employ armies of people in back offices, looking for discrepancies that may betoken fraud or honest error.

1949) Immaterial

irrelevant, unimportant, inconsequential, insignificant Ex) That statistical experts disagreed with Mr. Ross was "immaterial to this case," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate told the court. Ex2) Nothing is too small, or too immaterial, to elude Joseph Keiffer's eye.

1257) Emanate

issue, spread, radiate, be sent forth Ex1) The National Counterintelligence and Security Center wants U.S. businesses to better protect themselves from foreign threats emanating from nation-state actors. Ex2) But other messages emanating from the president himself were unmistakably political.

543) Canned

lacking freshness and spontaneity Ex) Even a valid argument is weakened if it sounds canned.

1359) Erudite

learned, scholarly, educated, knowledgeable Ex1) "The Favourite," with a profane, erudite script by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, is a farce with teeth, a costume drama with sharp political instincts and an aggressive sense of the absurd. Ex2) It's been 15 years since Roberts — an erudite pianist with variegated harmonic texture — last played the Vanguard.

373) Bequeath

leave to, leave in one's will to, hand on/down to Ex) That's why fish and chips emerged here — or at least the fish part, which was bequeathed to Britain by Jewish immigrants. Ex2) Traditionally, landowners bequeathed property only to their first-born sons to prevent estates from being divided.

1564) Floppy

limp, flaccid, slack Ex) What's more, these amiable foxes sported new physical characteristics, including curly tails, mottled fur — and yes, floppy ears. Ex2) The circular forms of case-less floppy disks are mounted in orderly rows.

915) Dawdle

linger, dally, idle Ex1) He dawdled paying the bill as we waited in the car. Ex2) Here, the visitors dawdle a little over their stretches, passing exercises and sprinting drills.

1353) Err

make a mistake, be wrong, be in error Ex1) The order Friday said the lower-court erred by not giving sufficient weight to the administration's effort to revise its policy in response to the initial court ruling. Ex2) Americans erred in laying ourselves open to Trump, and I'm not talking about conservative versus liberal policies, about tax cuts, about regulations — though all of those matter.

1997) Impoverish

make poor, make penniless, reduce to penury Ex) This process called bracket creep drove up taxes almost 50% faster than inflation, enriching the government while impoverishing workers.

344) Bedlam

mayhem, confusion, uproar Ex) The shutdown created bedlam at the south terminal of Gatwick, which is about 25 miles south of central London and is regularly rated Europe's worst airport and one of the worst in the world. Ex2) For every leader there are at least 10 followers ready to trade the burden and bedlam of independent thought for a playbook that tells them exactly what to do.

325) Base

mean, immoral, improper, Ex) The estimate is based on a guess of four feet of molding for one hole and two feet for the other; it also includes crating the pieces for shipping. Ex2) Ultimately, Pelosi's power rests on the unity of her members and the Democratic base — and the president's dwindling power and popularity.

1392) Exactitude

meticulousness, accuracy, correctness, precision Ex1) An offshoot of City Ballet, the Miami company understands what Balanchine discovered and taught: how exactitude needn't sacrifice warmth; how even in Romanticism, rhythmic accuracy allows momentum to build. Ex2) The members enjoy the engineering know-how and alchemy experimentation involved in a hobby that requires millimeter exactitude, tireless patience, and constant trial and error.

1914) Humble

modest, lowly, mean; not large, plain, simple, unostentatious Ex) "The scores and all that are a little overrated," Virginia Coach Tony Bennett said in his typically humble fashion. Ex2) Smart was the daughter of a Delta Air Lines pilot, who'd risen from humble origins to build a comfortable life.

1444) Extortionate

much too high, exorbitant Ex1) Mr. Campbell said he then reported the woman to the FBI based on the emails, claiming she was "advancing extortionate demands upon Mr. Wynn through Mr. Slotnick," according to the filing. Ex2) As populations grow, making land scarce, landlords jack up rents and lend at extortionate rates.

1808) Hard

nosed- tough-minded, unsentimental, down-to-earth, no-nonsense, hardheaded Ex) It also employs a number of hard-nosed policies aimed at compelling people to plead guilty. Ex2) Ms. Clark, for her part, said that hard-nosed economics was reason enough to stay home.

1649) Fulsome

offensively flattering or insincere, excessive, extravagant, overdone Ex) There's never been a stand-alone statement, fulsome and complete, like the statements that effortlessly are made by Pence, especially in foreign settings. Ex2) Lewis would call it — that is fulsome but interwoven so as to be representative of the way that many people of faith actually live.

694) Commonplace

ordinary, unexceptional, mediocre 2) platitude, cliché, hackneyed phrase, trite phrase Ex1) "I'm paranoid now," said Daniels, who lives and works in an area where packs of e-scooter riders are commonplace. Ex2) Their reasons for resisting the commonplace instinct to bundle up run deeper.

816) Co

ordinate- Ex) What really fueled the market return in 2018 was the idea of co-ordinated global growth.

223) Artillery

ordnance, big guns, cannons Ex) Shelling it with the artillery that Pyongyang has amassed near the border would suffice.

789) Contour

outline, shape, form Ex) "We know where the contours are. But we're not starting with any template."

586) Censorious

overcritical, disapproving, condemnatory Ex) He asks if there are people with a similar background in the audience, and proceeds with anecdotes — about schoolteacher nuns and priests, both censorious and inspirational — he presumes will be familiar to them. Ex2) In our censorious times, that battle and the extremes through which it is depicted are enough to keep the pages turning.

1848) Heed

pay attention to, take notice of, take note of, pay heed to Ex) Still, they tend to heed her when she urges them to be as bold. Ex2) Recent wins over Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Milwaukee should tell you that the Wiz are not heeding some fans' calls to tank.

671) Cognitive

perceptive, discerning, apprehensive, learning, understanding Ex) President Trump's White House physician said Tuesday that the president received a perfect score on a cognitive test designed to screen for neurological impairment, which the military doctor said was evidence that Mr Trump does not suffer from mental issues that prevent him from functioning in office.

1979) Imperious

peremptory, high-handed, commanding, imperial Ex) Little wonder, then, that Yeoh's portrayal of the imperious mother, Eleanor Young, in the summer smash "Crazy Rich Asians" was so ferocious. Ex2) But he was arrogant, imperious and politically inept.

1605) Forlorn

pitifully sad and abandoned or lonely; hopeless Ex) The subway rumbles overhead, and warehouses sit abandoned on forlorn streets. Ex2) Irons's narration for this collection of poems, beginning with "The Waste Land," is forlorn, desperate, crabby and weary — mirroring Eliot's understanding of a desiccated, exhausted culture bereft of meaning.

637) Civil

polite, courteous, considerate Ex) It was taken on May 28, 1963, and it captures the nonviolent tactic that civil rights activists employed at that time to fight for equal access to space for all people: a sit-in. Ex2) The criminal inquiry is looking at some of the same issues as the civil case, according to one of the people with knowledge of the investigation.

842) Courteous

polite, well-mannered, civil Ex1) Hogan would bark into the microphone, regardless of the question, as Mr. Okerlund remained courteous. Ex2) Officials were respectful and courteous even when I was painfully frank.

451) Brace

prepare, get ready Ex) Facing what could be the most powerful storm to slam into the United States in more than a decade, President Trump and the team he has put in place at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were bracing on Friday for one of the most important tests of his presidency.

1309) Enshrine

preserve, entrench, embody, incorporate Ex) In Spain, the government and the courts responded, the 1978 Constitution, for which the Catalans overwhelmingly voted, enshrined the "indissoluble unity of the Spanish nations." Ex2) We can now we say with 100 percent confidence that the president is a racist who does not share the value enshrined in our Constitution or Declaration of Independence.

799) Conundrum

problem, difficulty, dilemma, difficult problem or question Ex1) For the authorities, children like him present a conundrum: what to do with them when they finish their sentences, which often range from two to 10 years. Ex2) Krauthammer writes admiringly, in particular, of the clarity with which Jefferson dealt with the Native American "conundrum."

1885) Hitch

problem, difficulty, snage Ex) At the same time, it encountered a new hitch- a drop in sales of its two established products, the Model S sedan and Model X sport-utility vehicle. Ex2) But there is a hitch: Saudi Arabia insists on producing its own nuclear fuel, even though it could buy it more cheaply abroad, according to American and Saudi officials familiar with the negotiations.

641) Clamor

protest, demand 2) yell, scream, roar Ex) The clamor of GOP voices denouncing King's latest racist eruption is more amusing than inspiring. Ex2) The contraption added very little to game broadcasts, according to critics, and a clamor grew for McFarland to bolster the booth, where Witten was struggling to find his footing.

995) Denunciate

publicly condemn Ex1) Despite these denunciations and the humanitarian crisis Venezuela is facing, Mr. Maduro is embarking on a term that extends until 2025. Ex) And the president even began rebranding "the wall," parrying Democratic denunciations of a concrete monolith at the U.S.-Mexico border by announcing that his administration would build "artistically designed steel slats."

96) Agile

quick, nimble, lithe, supple 2) sharp, acute, shrewd, astute, nimble Ex) Kellogg also said Monday that it will reorganize its North American unit to be more agile and better allocate resources. Ex2) "The companies were on similar growth trajectories and this combination accelerates the journey to becoming a more agile, integrated and innovative non-traditional 6th Prime focused on investing in important, next-generation technologies."

895) Curtail

reduce, cut, cut down Ex1) Of course, one person's "streamlining" is another person's "curtailing." Ex2) The statement said the company was working to curtail the use and misuse of prescription painkillers.

1071) Discard

reject, repudiate Ex) Sounding much like today's furloughed government workers, lower-level employees said they felt discarded and meaningless. Ex2) And even the acts of keeping and discarding are infused with sensitivity.

1010) Deride

ridicule, mock, scoff at Ex1) President Trump on Saturday offered Democrats three years of deportation protections for some immigrants in exchange for $5.7 billion in border wall funding, a proposal immediately rejected by Democrats and derided by conservatives as amnesty. Ex2) He turned up, uninvited, at red carpet events — film premieres, the Met's Costume Institute gala — to dazzle and deride the guests.

1476) Farcical

ridiculous, preposterous, Ex1) Doing their gentle dance routines or farcical double-door bits, they are perfect together. Ex2) The two were victims last December of a farcical set-up by the police, who handed them supposedly secret documents and arrested them.

1083) Discourteous

rude, impolite, ill-mannered, disrespectful Ex1) City lawmakers and officials who manage BIDs defend the arrangements, arguing the ordinances target discourteous or even dangerous conduct that prevents everyone from enjoying shared space. Ex2) It was the accumulation of these discourteous strikes that resulted in this series' turning moment: the NBA suspending Green for Game 5.

1269) Embryonic

rudimentary, undeveloped, incomplete, incipient Ex1) But his struggles hardly mattered: For one night, on the grandest stage of his embryonic career, in one of the most glamorous cities in the world, he was the biggest star of all. Ex2) Put another way, reliable and viable options for disposing of embryonic and fetal tissue remains in compliance with the challenged laws do not exist.

1596) Forensic

scientific methods and techniques related to crime Ex) A spokesman for the group, Bill Schade said the commission jettisoned by Mr Sessions did good work, but he added that it was the new administration's prerogative to take a different approach to forensic science standards.

1076) Disciplined

showing behavior or way of working Ex1) The Virgin Galactic-style seats, for instance; or the serene, disciplined cabin décor, executed in a choice of cool upholstery and trim. Ex2) China is best placed to win a space race, given its well-coordinated, disciplined, technocratic system, able to set and maintain long-term goals, with a vast population and talent base.

847) Coy

shy, modesty Ex1) At first, the film plays coy with the events that made her a pariah. Ex2) He hadn't been coy about his proclivities; he'd been screaming them.

1881) Hispanohablantes

spanish-speaker Ex) Drawing on a critical mass of native speakers, the US now has by some counts more than 50 million hispanohablantes, a greater number of Spanish speakers than Spain.

1161) Doper

steroid-user Ex) THE best-known doper of this century rode on two wheels.

1930) Hypothetical

supposed, assumed, theoretical, speculative, conjectured Ex) The challenges for the current government are far from hypothetical. Ex2) "The N.R.C.C. does not get involved in primaries and isn't going to comment on a hypothetical general election two years away," said Chris Pack, a spokesman for the House campaign arm.

1397) Excise

take out, extract, remove Ex1) In New York City and state, excise taxes on cigarettes are paid through stamps affixed to every pack of cigarettes sold. Ex2) She said the names of undocumented workers were then excised from a list turned over to the Secret Service.

729) Condensed

terse, brief, compendious Ex1) Roasted cherry tomatoes, condensed and honeyed, are served alongside. Ex2) Pair it with a pour-over Vietnamese coffee — which is dripped through a sieve and mixed with condensed milk — or a Doi Nut, a crème brûlée pastry filled with Vietnamese iced coffee cream.

182) Apostasy

the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief Ex) While some conservatives complained about the apostasy of cutting deals with Senator Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, others applauded his assault on establishment Republican leaders like Speaker Ryan of Wisconsin and Senator McConnell of Kentucky.

1847) Hedonism

the pursuit of pleasure, sensual self-indulgence, pleasure-seeking Ex) "Usually people just eat when they're hungry. But when you watch these shows, it triggers a kind of hedonism." Ex2) "Usually people just eat when they're hungry. But when you watch these shows, it triggers a kind of hedonism."

1453) Exuberance

the quality of being full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness; ebullience. Ex) We're at one of these moments where there is this emotional, if not irrational, exuberance at the prospect of North Korean athletes coming south.

1200) Due process

the treatment of normal judicial system Ex) The new legal challenge represents the sharpest test yet of America's commitment to its most important founding principles- the guarantee of due process and the right to habeas corpus- at the Guantanamo prison.

273) Automation

the use of largely automatic equipment in a system of manufacturing or other production process Ex) Mr Robbins said Cisco is now repostioning itself to build products with more automation and security.

972) Deliberation

thought, consideration, reflection Ex) However, the legal review of the trade measure was not yet complete and, as of Thursday morning, White House advisers were still discussing various scenarios for tariff levels and which countries could be included, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

401) Blackmail

threaten, force Ex) "The U.S. strategic interest is to settle a dispute that Russia uses to blackmail Serbia into submission and keep the Balkans perpetually destabilized," Vajdich said. Ex2) "The tariffs are just blackmail, no less than the blackmail he's doing now, refusing to open the government unless he gets his way."

1786) Hallow

to honor as holy, consecrate, sanctify, revere, venerate 3) a saint or holy person Ex) "Of all the places where the Rule of Law needs to be enforced, it should be in the hallowed halls of Congress," Gosar wrote. Ex2) Few novelists would tread on such hallowed ground, and the challenges of writing historical fiction about Teddy are particularly formidable.

345) Beef up

to increase something, often in strength Ex) Certainly the physical safety of staff members and visitors is as important as any work of art, but then why didn't the museum ask the city for an increased police presence, or beef up its own security measures?

1710) Gloss

to provide an expression with a gloss (smooth and shiny), annotate, construe, elucidate 2) to give a false interpretation to, counterfeit, deceive, hide, masquerade Ex) The White House put a more conciliatory gloss on that issue, saying, "the two leaders agreed to pursue a negotiated solution for northeast Syria that achieves our respective security concerns." Ex2) "By attempting to portray Molly as any kind of female victim — and by glossing over her culpability — Mr. Sorkin only ends up denying this character her agency," Dargis wrote.

478) Brook

tolerate, allow, bear, endure Ex) They were cut from locally grown beech or brook ash — no one is really sure — and measured 220 centimeters long. Ex2) In Shenandoah, scientists are worried about the fate of native brook trout on the eastern side of the mountains.

334) Bauble

trinket, ornament Ex) The mathematical answer is that it's probably not possible to dissipate a fortune like that by overspending on baubles in a generation or even two. Ex2) They also tend to eschew the hefty baubles their parents preferred for a much more spare style.

1401) Excursion

trip, outing, jaunt, expedition Ex) Why would Nancy Pelosi leave the Country with other Democrats on a seven day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid?

692) Commodified

turn into or treat as a commodity or valuable Ex) In any refugee camp, tragedy is commodified.

1065) Disabuse

undeceive, set straight on, open someone's eye on, correct on Ex1) The day after disabusing little Collman of her trust in Christmas magic, Trump made a most unusual holiday address. Ex2) The first task of the incoming class of Democratic House members is to disabuse the leaders of their cloakroom fantasy.

32) Accentuate

underline, underscore, accent, highlight Ex) Swearing is the language that accentuate stories.

572) Catholic

universal, wide, broad Ex) My family were not evangelical, but devout catholic. Ex2) I struggle to answer this because I think you're shaped by literally everything you read when you're young, and as my mother filled the house with books, my taste was catholic to say the least.

1550) Flare

up- a sudden outburst of something, violent or medical situation Ex) Mr Dozier said he and the current Chief Illiniwek were in a bathroom last week at the State Farm Center, the basketball arena on the Champaign campus, during the most recent and most peculiar flare-up in the long-running debate.

1570) Fluctuate

vary, change, differ, shift Ex) The track fluctuates gorgeously, juxtaposing loops of piano that are soothing and vaguely ominous, and only settling into a beat about halfway through, like a ghost gradually solidifying. Ex2) The exact number of furloughed and essential employees fluctuates based on agency needs.

1514) Feud

vendetta, conflict, rivalry, hostility, enmity Ex1) One major obstacle to Mr. Pompeo's goal of rolling back Iranian influence in the Middle East is the feud that pits Saudi Arabia and its allies in the region against Qatar. Ex2) As the sides feuded, 800,000 federal workers were going without pay, and government agencies continued to reduce services, part of the cascading effect of a partial shutdown now possibly headed for a fourth week. Ex3) A legal feud between Uber Technologies cofounder and one of its biggest investors spiraled on Friday into a broader battle among shareholders that threatens to throw the world's most highly valued startup into further turmoil.

1899) Holistic

whole Ex) Homeland Security officials have long and frequently described border security as a holistic system, made up not just of walls and fencing but also patrol routes, lighting, cameras, sensors, and personnel.

1318) Entirety

whole, total, aggregate Ex) The documents, which The Times reviewed in their entirety, were created with Mr. Kushner's cooperation as part of a review of his fnances by an institution that was considering lending him money.

675) Coincide

1) occur/exist at the same time, occur simultaneously, happen together 2) correspond, tally, agree, accord Ex1) The overall sense is of the war as a mass of coincidence rather than one with clear causations. Ex2) Stein appeared to be yet another doomed patient, but his doctors noted an interesting coincidence: Each time he developed a high fever, his tumors began to shrink.

1336) Epitome

1) personification, embodiment, incarnation, paragon 2) synopsis, precis, resume, abstract Ex1) The Syria decision, he believed — along with Trump's order to prepare for troop withdrawals from Afghanistan — was the epitome of the president's careless way of operating. Ex2) Since the acidic portrait of Guéret in novels by a famous native son, the anti-Semitic 20th-century writer Marcel Jouhandeau, the town is used to being mocked as the epitome of provincial backwardness.

557) Carnal

1) physical, bodily, corporeal, fleshly 2) earthly, worldly, secular, temporal Ex) To celebrate romantic and carnal bliss along with career success while trying not to sound too smug, Ariana Grande enlisted pop-factory experts — Pharrell Williams, Max Martin — to clear ample space around her voice. Ex2) It's a delicate balancing act, framing carnal desire in the language of Christian devotion, and Wise knows it.

280) Avert

1) prevent, avoid, ward off 2) turn aside, turn away Ex) McConnell spearheaded a vote that passed unanimously in December to pass a stopgap bill to avert a shutdown, only to get burned as Trump abruptly declared that he would not support it. Ex2) A powerful extremist group seized control of most of Syria's last opposition stronghold on Thursday, threatening a fragile cease fire intended to avert a Syrian military offensive and likely humanitarian catastrophe.

690) Commitment

1) responsibility, obligation, duty 2) dedication, devotion, allegiance, loyalty Ex1) Throughout her career, Miss Channing was known for her grit and commitment to her craft. Ex2) But the EPA leader who made that commitment is no longer in charge.

901) Dabble

1) splash, dip, paddle 2) toy with, dip into, tinker with, play with Ex1) After dabbling in everything from professional baseball to cereal wholesaling, Mr. Peterman stumbled into fashion at age 46. Ex2) So he dabbled in a little bit of everything.

904) Dally

1) dawdle, delay, loiter 2) trifle, toy, flirt Ex1) He floated between cults and ideologies, dallying with occultism, Scientology and Jungian psychology. Ex2) United's hierarchy dallied, last year, over extending his contract.

874) Crumble

1) disintegrate, fall apart, fall to pieces Ex1) Here, green blocks of foam crumble as the work progresses, illustrating Rosenblit's theme of the insubstantial self. Ex2) "This pyramid of crime that exists, we are hitting its base so those at the top crumble with it," General Roshandil said.

470) Brink

threshold, point Ex) The peacemaking comments stand in stark contrast to previous remarks and actions by Mr. Kim, who drove the Peninsula close to the brink of war last year by undertaking a series of missiles and nuclear tests.

108) Alienate

1) estrange, distance, isolate 2) yield, surrender, relinquish, transfer, concede, cede, abandon Ex) "When we say: 'You can't because of who you are,' we are sending a very alienating message. Ex2) "We've managed to alienate so many of our traditional trading partners."

1199) Ductile

pliable, pliant, flexible 2) docile, obedient, submissive Ex1) The idea of the body as an unstable, ductile entity is also the subject of a short video animation called "Happy Birthday!!" by the British artist Ed Atkins, projected on a gallery wall. Ex2) Did the ritual use of hallucinogens by many religions in the Americas contribute to this sense of reality as ductile and sometimes disturbingly unstable?

166) Anthropogenic

pollution or harm from humans Ex) The other approximately 3 percent that reject anthropogenic warming? Ex2) A paper published in Nature in 2008 found that "disease emergence is largely a product of anthropogenic and demographic changes, and is a hidden cost of human economic development".

1656) Fustian

pompous or pretentious speech or writing, bombast, pomp Ex) HighÐsounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian. Ex2) He yanked his hat lower: was he remembering his fustian scenes, hard-drinking, quarrelling?

433) Bombastic

pompous, grandiloquent, ostentatious Ex) People are moved to a more euphoric brand of crying with certain music, such as the bigger, bombastic numbers you hear in a Broadway musical or sung by a choir. Ex2) An acolyte of President Trump, Stewart embraced a bombastic, often caustic populist style that attracted right-wing extremists while driving away moderate members of the GOP, whom he once likened to toilet paper.

840) Coup

seizure of power, coup detat, putsch, a sudden violent and illegal seizure of power from a government Ex) For South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the announcement of a meeting between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea marked the biggest coup of his 10-month presidency.

1830) Headlong

reckless, precipitate, precipitious, without deliberation, in a rush, with reckless haste Ex) But plans for the January hearing, and the fate of the board, eventually ran headlong into a case that dealt with the constitutionality of the elections board's design. Ex2) Their demands for a vast array of documents, including tax records related to the president's business, are certain to run headlong into a legal challenge by the administration.

1751) Groundless

baseless, uncorroborated, unproven, unsubstantiated Ex) The regional court in Mannheim dismissed the Qualcomm suit as groundless in an initial verbal decision, saying the patent in question was not violated by the installation of its chips in Apple's smartphones. Ex2) Instead, it looked at whether it was correct for judges to decide arbitrability questions "if the argument that the arbitration agreement applies to the particular dispute is 'wholly groundless.'

304) Balk

1) be unwilling, draw the line at, be reluctant 2) hinder, prevent, stop Ex1) But Senate Democrats balked at the plan, and tried to stop it through a resolution of disapproval. Ex2) For years, pharmaceuticals companies balked at trials of children's cancer drugs, which they viewed as risky and unprofitable, some pediatric-cancer doctors said.

1003) Depreciate

1) decrease in value, lose value, fall in price 2) belittle, disparage, denigrate, decry Ex1) But when the currency depreciates to 7 to the dollar, that $1 flamingo is worth 7 renminbi in sales to you. Ex2) They typically don't own property, and the equipment and fixtures they possess depreciate over time, like cars.

700) Compelling

1) enthralling, captivating, riveting, spellbinding, 2) convincing, persuasive, cogent, irresistible, powerful, strong, weighty, plausible Ex1) And there's its fixation on lessening consumption, grown more compelling as the potential for climate disaster becomes more real every day. Ex2) Smart made a compelling central figure when her trial launched in 1991, tailor-made for a media frenzy.

730) Condescend

1) patronize, talk down to, look down one's nose at, look down on Ex1) Yet Republicans face their own risks if their attacks on her are perceived as sexist or condescending. Ex2) Its skewed depictions often seem careless or condescending, but they stem from a healthy desire to superimpose tension.

1104) Dislocate

1) put out of joint 2) disrupt, disturb, disorganize, upset Ex1) Ms. Larivee is a former investment banker who dislocated vertebrae in a ski accident and was referred to Ms. Auth for acupuncture treatments for pain and, later, for fertility. Ex2) The situation is beyond dire, with hundreds of thousands dislocated and tens of thousands killed, including nearly a generation of children.

472) Brisk

1) quick, rapid, fast, swift, speedy, hurried 2) busy, bustling, lively, hectic 3) fresh, cold, and invigorating Ex) It was Van Alen, a wealthy American, who pushed for brisker, innovative formats — including the tiebreaker — in the 1960s. Ex2) Jones is brisk and decorous, smart and sensitive, though she sometimes leans too heavily into the Brooklyn accent.

33) Accessible

1) reachable, approachable 2) obtainable, attainable, available 3) understandable, comprehensible, intelligible Ex) It also draws you into a social milieu that is both highly specific and intuitively accessible. Ex2) The plots of land the speculators bid on typically sell for such dirt-cheap prices because there is little evidence that much oil or gas is easily accessible.

806) Convey

communicate, impart, relay, transmit Ex) The White House said Mr. Trump had accepted the invitation, and Chung Eui-yong, a South Korea official who conveyed it, told reporters that Mr. Trump would meet with Mr. Kim within two months.

1215) Earthy

direct, uninhibited, rude, crude Ex) His vocabulary is earthy: "big-league", to describe how he would do things, or "schlonged", for someone beaten badly.

1528) Filthy

dirty, grimy, muddy, slimy, unclean Ex1) Natalie Zea and Jason Jones star as the parents in what sort of seems like a family sitcom — but is actually a giddy, filthy and often surprising saga about being on the lam. Ex2) But the challenge facing the District and other cities is ensuring that public bathrooms don't become filthy crime magnets that few want to use.

1939) Ignoble

dishonorable, unworthy, base, shameful, bad, not noble in quality Ex) Grant's detailed account of this ignoble conflict reveals much about his character. Ex2) Like former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt, who resigned in July under similarly ignoble circumstances, Zinke is exiting to cheers of good riddance.

1013) Derogatory

disparaging, deprecatory, disrespectful, demeaning Ex1) We interpreted fairness as a similarly apportioned mix of complimentary and derogatory stories about each contender, no matter how different one contender's qualifications, accomplishments and liabilities were from another's. Ex2) Her specialty is meme warfare — sharing loving tributes to Trump, derogatory takedowns of progressives and broadsides against congressional Republicans.

1559) Flip

flop- u-turn, reversal, turnaround Ex) Never mind that Norwegians are not clamoring to leave what is rated as the happiest nation on earth, and setting aside renewed questions about Mr Trump's fitness, the flip-flop left the issue of immigration more confused than before.

1972) Impel

force, compel, constrain, to drive, force or urge someone to do something Ex) According to a Yale University study published in July, career ambition is not the major factor that impels many women to delay childbearing. Ex2) And that, hopefully, will impel elected officials and candidates to change their approaches to fiscal matters.

1393) Exaggeration

hyperbole, overstatement, overemphasis, magnification, amplification, aggrandizement Ex) But the actresses here inhabit their parts with grounding, defining detail and without comic or tragic exaggeration. Ex2) To wit, Hillary Clinton is still alive, proving that The Enquirer's campaign-year reports of her imminent death were a bit of an exaggeration.

1610) Forthcoming

imminent, impending, coming, upcoming 2) frank, open, candid. Ex) Emily Gould is the author of "And The Heart Says Whatever," "Friendship" and the forthcoming "Perfect Tunes." Ex2) In the proposed spin-off, Helios would distribute a minority of the stock in the forthcoming MoviePass public company to Helios shareholders as a dividend, the company said.

1953) Imminent

impending, close at hand, near, about happening Ex) Trump on Thursday sent Pelosi a letter informing her he was canceling her imminent flight to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Ex2) "Nothing is imminent . . . We return quite a few guys and we're in pretty good shape."

681) Combustible

inflammable, flammable, incendiary Ex1) What all sides need to acknowledge is that identity politics is, of its nature, highly combustible. Ex2) Mariupol is now at the center of a combustible struggle between Russia and the West over the future of Ukraine — and over rules that govern the world's seas.

1606) Formidable

inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense or capable Ex) The Blue Devils' undefeated dual meet record will be tested against a formidable Damascus team this weekend. Ex2) Mr. Lasseter would be a formidable competitor to Disney wherever he landed, but he joins a company with a nascent animation business.

88) Affront

insult, offense, abuse, snub Ex) This extravagance is also an affront to the rules of natural selection. Ex2) Trump says he is using the tariffs to get leverage in the trade negotiations, but the affected nations see them as an affront to their long friendship with the United States.

1670) Garble

mix up, muddle, jumble, confuse, to reproduce a message, sound, or transmission in a confused and distorted way Ex) But when Labaki turns her attention to the trial, her ideas become garbled and unclear. Ex2) Why do they traffic in garbled metaphors and disjointed images?

693) Commodious

roomy, capacious, spacious, ample, sizable Ex1) It was hard not to imagine a giant of yore guzzling draft from its commodious spout. Ex2) The most discerning visitors to Bath will find this five-star hotel most commodious, with neoclassical proportions and sumptuous furnishings.

899) Cynical

skeptical, doubtful, distrustful, suspicious Ex1) Second, everyone loves to root for Bullock, who plays Malorie, a cynical pregnant woman who evolves into a fierce mother and must, among other things, navigate a turbulent river while blindfolded. Ex2) "It's slightly conservative, slightly old-fashioned, but it's not cynical."

1788) Halting

slow and hesitant, especially through lack of confidence; faltering Ex) That means halting all plans to reduce the size of our national monuments and supporting permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Ex2) However, there are other factors at play, and "halting illegal immigration is not a panacea even for the problem of depressed wage rates for low-skilled jobs," the commission found.

1053) Dilatory

slow, tardy, unhurried, sluggish Ex1) This new, less dilatory mode doesn't ask to be understood, but haunts us with a bleakly dead-on, diffident humor about the pain of being alive. Ex2) Last week, Scott's administration challenged a federal judge's order that the state adopt a rights-restoration procedure that is less arbitrary and dilatory.

1858) Heretofore

so far Ex) It imagines that, for some reason, Trump in defeat or disgrace will become a quieter, humbler, more restrained presence on Twitter and Facebook than heretofore. Ex2) With an excellent chance that his Red Sox eventually would win this series regardless of the outcome of Game 3, Cora decided to play double-or-nothing, a strategy that, heretofore, was unknown to the sport.

674) Coin of the realm

something valued or used as if it were money in a particular sphere Ex) Mr. Obama is no fool. He remembers that publication is the coin of the realm.

854) Creep

tiptoe, steal, sneak, slip Ex1) The more precise our attempts to anticipate the future become, he argues, the more data we require, and hence the more likely it is that errors will creep into our analysis. Ex2) Late last year, as air pollution started creeping up to hazardous levels, the government shut the last coal plant near New Delhi and banned some particularly dirty fuel sources.

1728) Graphic

vivid, explicit, expressive, detailed, giving a vivid picture with explicit detail Ex) And the sequences—described in punchy graphics beamed along the crown of each studio's wall and synchronized to music—are easy to follow. Ex2) A graphic showed 12 reporters and producers, not a single one of whom was black.

1068) Disarming

winning, charming, irresistible, persuasive Ex1) He is known for his disarming sense of humor, quick wit and skillful cross-examinations. Ex2) U.S. defense officials said disarming the SDF now would undermine the fight against the last remaining pockets of Islamic State opposition in Syria.

380) Beset

1) beleaguer, besiege, surround 2) persecute, torment, pester Ex) As Apple stumbles in China and is beset by a winter for smartphone sales, opening up may not merely be a means of maintaining Apple's growth but ultimately its survival. Ex2) The party lost the presidency during impeachment proceedings in 2016 as Brazil was beset by a recession, rising violence and a corruption scandal.

732) Condone

1) disregard, turn a blind eye to, overlook, forget 2) forgive, pardon, excuse Ex1) "The Raiders organization nor its Coaching staff does not participate in, support or condone intolerance or unsportsmanlike actions in any forms." Ex2) To Schroeder's camera and in public preaching, he pursues this theme with relentless insistence while denying he condones violence.

420) Blunt

1) dull, obtuse, rounded 2) brusque, abrupt, curt, terse Ex) Citigroup offered a blunt assessment of the pay gap between men and women in its global workforce, saying female employees earn 29 percent less than men do. Ex2) Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee who raised her daughters in the United States, died of blunt force injuries, the Clark County Coroner's Office told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

795) Contrive

1) engineer, manufacture, orchestra, stage-manage, create Ex1) Although interested in the clashing voices of London, of homegrown Grime music, the book itself is as tidy and contrived as a suburb. Ex2) As President John F. Kennedy put it, "The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."

1052) Dilate

1) enlarge, widen, expand, distend 2) to write or speak at length Ex1) For example, multiple babies carried gene mutations thought to cause a heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy, but it's unclear whether they will ever develop heart problems. Ex2) Alcohol, another diuretic, may dilate the blood vessels, thus creating a warming sensation.

682) Comity

1) friendship, comradeship, fellowship 2) politeness, courteousness, good manners Ex1) Chemerinksy said it was plausible to think there was less worry: "The states didn't perceive it necessary because of comity, and they didn't want to restrict their own authority." Ex2) "A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse with comity and mutual respect," he wrote.

546) Cant

1) hypocrisy, sanctimoniousness, sanctimony 2) slang, jargon, idiom, argot Ex) What about "Live and let live"? Our western-centric way of thinking cant seem to allow people to be the way they want. Ex2) With its garish color, canted angles and baroque violence, the first "Suspiria" is still adept at unsettling your equilibrium, which is fitting for a film that renders psychosis into visual style.

481) Bruise

1) injure 2) upset, offend, insult Ex) Accusing the United States of "typical trade bullying," China on Friday imposed $34 billion in retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans, cars and other products, suggesting dim prospects for resolving a potentially bruising trade war between the two economic powerhouses.

419) Blunder

1) make a mistake, err, miscalculate, faux pas Ex) The challenge for the Democrats is to avoid Trump's blunder of creating a headline-grabbing insurgency and, instead, forge a broad governing coalition. Ex2) One day, Mrs. Morris may be joined in the great case studies of near blunders by New York's L train fiasco.

556) Caricature

1) parody, cartoon, satire 2) parody, mock, ridicule Ex) For Dr. Sanneh, the idea that Christianity in Africa was a result of Western imperialism was nothing short of caricature. Ex2) More fundamentally, "Maestro" suffers from the problem of theatrical Great Man-itis: the assumption that someone famous need only show up in faint caricature to be inherently stage-worthy.

746) Congenial

1) personable, agreeable, friendly, pleasant, likable, amiable 2) companionable, sociable, sympathetic, convivial Ex1) The president remained silent on Twitter for much of Wednesday, and Democrats who met with Mr. Trump said they found him to be in a congenial mood. Ex2) He was 2 when his father, an artisan who also became involved in raising cattle, moved the family to Durban, South Africa, hoping to find a home more congenial to Jews.

685) Commend

1) praise, compliment, congratulate, applaud 2) propose, suggest, put forward, 3) entrust, trust, commit Ex1) Our leaders should be commended for resisting pressure to look tough on crime, and instead taking a responsible, serious and research-informed approach. Ex2) While some Weibo users commended the power of the Internet, others lamented that these situations improve only if they attract media attention.

1540) Fix

1) predicament, plight, difficulty 2) dose 2) solution, answer, resolution 4) fraud, swindle, pretense, hoax, trick Ex) Every time the president and GOP go to the Democrats with a fix, they say no, which positions them as obstructionists ignoring the problem, and opening themselves up for major troubles in 2020. Ex2) The search for a quick fix or an enlightened guide is the ground on which Sam Lipsyte's new novel, "Hark," walks.

1487) Favor

1) prefer, lean toward, opt for 2) approve, advocate, support 3) benefit, advantage Ex1) After Meriwether Hunter, an unemployed African-American mechanic and World War II veteran, saves Gabriel Haberlin's life, the 12-year-old tries to return the favor by getting him a job at his father's garage. Ex2) Most of Taiwan's 23 million people are in favor of maintaining the island's de facto independence without taking any formal moves that might bring a military response from China.

1844) Hedge

1) qualify, confine, restrict, limit, hinder, obstruct, impede, constrain, 2) safeguard, protect, shield, guard, cushion Ex) Mr. Ackman, 52, is the founder and chief executive of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund company in New York. Ex2) Pyongyang, at the time, saw the presence of U.S. troops as a geopolitical hedge "that would serve the regime as protection against baleful Chinese and Russian influence," he wrote in an email.

1142) Divert

1) reroute, redirect 2) distract, sidetrack, disturb Ex1) As public pressure intensified, Interior decided to divert user fees to pay for some park services. Ex2) It is fun, and diverting, to "remember" that last year, on this date, we were sitting on a beach.

509) Button up

1) to fasten up 2) to finish a task 3) carefully planned, operated, supervised Ex) It also has a reputation for being more ethically and racially diverse, relaxed and artsy, whereas Natucket is seen as more buttoned-up with a high-octane social scene that lures jet-setting CEO types.

287) Awry

1) wrong, faulty, inappropriate 2) crooked, lopsided, skewed Ex1) When something goes awry with a publication, science is already well prepared for both the detection of problems and the means of dealing with them. Ex2) There is plenty here about tradecraft and risky missions gone awry, but Bergman never loses sight of the ethical questions that arise when a state insists it needs to kill in order to survive.

969) Delegation

a body of representatives, delegates, legation, commission, a deputation, commission Ex) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told a visiting South Korean delegation that he was willing to hold talks with the US about giving up nuclear weapons and normalizing relations with Washington, officials in Seoul said Tuesday.

770) Constituency

a body of voters in a specified area Ex) Ms. Madikizela-Mandela commanded a natural constituency of her own among South Africa's poor and dispossessed, and the post-apartheid leaders who followed Mr. Mandela could never ignore her appeal to a broad segment of society.

1027) Determinant

a factor that affects the nature or outcome Ex1) Some critics believed that any association with Reich represented a betrayal, too, not only of the ni-Vanuatu but of anyone who believed that culture was as powerful a human determinant as the gene. Ex2) They argued against relying on medical certification to establish gender, saying physical indicators are not the sole determinant.

1756) Grudge

a persistent feeling of ill will or resentment resulting from a past insult or injury, animosity, antipathy, antagonism Ex) It is yet another sorry example of a politician making a decision based on a personal grudge, ignoring the vastly superior qualification and experience Ms. Stamos brings to this important position. Ex2) There was a hint of grudging respect in Reid's tone, which he seemed to catch and correct.

875) Crusader

a person who campaigns vigorously for political, social or religious change Ex) None of this will bother the attorney general, a lifelong antidrug crusader who runs the Justice Department like it's 1988, when the war on drugs was at full throttle and the kneejerk political response was to be as punitive as possible.

330) Batches

a quantity or consignment of goods produced at one time Ex) One of the first batches of night-vision equipment for conventional units in southern Afghanistan, part of a monthslong pilot program, was sent to the embattled 215th Corps in Helmand Province in the spring of 2016.

1603) Forgo

abandon, abdicate, abjure, abstain, cede Ex) Be cognizant of what is motivating you to buy those items and consider forgoing a purchase from time to time. Ex2) Being told to stay home — or even to report to work, but indefinitely forgo compensation for their labor — is not just financially painful.

1407) Exempt

acquit, clear, discharge, exculpate Ex1) The governor said he will continue to try to lower taxes for retirees, including exempting 100 percent of retirement income from state taxes — a promise made on the campaign trail. Ex2) In a breakdown of employees deemed essential and exempted from being furloughed, the department described about three-quarters of them as "necessary to protect life and property."

193) Apprehensive

afraid, alarmed, concerned, disquieted Ex) Some sit-down-restaurant owners are nervous that inviting in people who are homeless might alienate other customers, so Borger said he is temporarily prioritizing carryout businesses where management is likely to be less apprehensive. Ex2) Pertrina Thomas was apprehensive when her release from the D.C. jail approached.

1367) Estrange

alienate, antagonize, turn away, drive away, distance Ex1) Feeling estranged from his people, he debates fleeing to Jakarta, where his girlfriend works as a maid. Ex2) A conflict between the new arrivals and her estranged kin forces her into the role of mediator, brokering a hybrid identity for Africa's first republic.

162) Antagonize

alienate, arouse hostility, cause someone to become hostile Ex) But when one defendant decides to cooperate with the government in a plea deal, that defense lawyer typically pulls out rather than antagonize the prosecutors who can influence the client's sentence.

1448) Extrapolate

anticipate, assume, conclude, deduce Ex1) The agency extrapolates its tourist counts from tallies taken at popular attractions like the Empire State Building and from airport traffic and hotel occupancy data. Ex2) I put the word forecast in scare quotes because most of them, professing to divine the future, merely extrapolate the recent past.

195) Approbation

approval, acceptance, endorsement, appreciation, respect, admiration, commendation, praise Ex) The leftist Mr. Ruffin brushed off any suggestion that he would profit politically from Yellow Vest approbation, or even that he wants to. Ex2) Their ascendance from lower stations, palpable need for public approbation, personal tragedies and failings, and, critically, their triumphs over those tragedies and failings affirmed the animating principle of the American Dream.

1387) Evoke

arouse, elicit, provoke, enkindle Ex1) He broaches the topic by evoking the death scene of the writer Bergotte, in a section of "Remembrance" that Proust was editing in the final weeks before he died. Ex2) As a political matter, Mr. Trump's speech seemed designed to play well with his base, a tough-sounding call to a new generation of arms that evoked Ronald Reagan's 1983 "Star Wars" missile defense program.

562) Cast

arrange and present in a specific form or style Ex) While Samsung has at times cast the younger Mr Lee as a strategic thinker who hammers out deals with big foreign partners like Apple and Google, he testified in court this month that he had little knowledge of the details of running the business.

1746) Gripping

arresting, intriguing, enticing, exciting, wholly absorbing or engrossing one's attention Ex) Tom Watson, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, was somber but gripping: "432 to 202," he said, citing the result of the vote in which May's Brexit plan was defeated. Ex2) Ms. Gillibrand appeared nervous as the interview began, gripping Mr. Colbert's hand just before making her announcement.

75) Advent

arrival, appearance, emergence, dawn, birth Ex) With the advent of lean manufacturing that relies more heavily on automation and robotics, compensation is a smaller portion of overall expenditures. Ex2) "I look forward to working even more closely with Robyn as we continue accelerating the advent of sustainable energy."

1912) Hubris

arrogance, conceit, haughtiness, excessive self pride and confidence Ex) With a different, more admirable, hubris we speak of saving nature. Ex2) Liverpool is regularly accused by opponents' supporters of hubris, of habitually leaping to conclusions too early, too eagerly.

1531) Finesse

artful subtlety, sophistication, delicacy, diplomacy Ex1) Many analysts assume Europe and Britain will find a finesse that avoids a border, even if they fail to complete a Brexit deal. Ex2) With a combination of nostalgia, finesse and funk, she breathes new life into ingredients like cured fish, pickled cherries, wild mushrooms, farmer's cheese and pumpernickel bread.

79) Aesthetic

artistic Ex) Designers in both camps haggle over placement and aesthetics. Ex2) I drove past a giant Tin Man, the first indication of the campus's fairy-tale aesthetic, and into guest parking, in one of the campus's few aboveground lots.

103) Aide

assistant, helper, adviser, right-hand man Ex) At a staff meeting on Wednesday, Mr Trump's new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, announced a number of seemingly quotidian internal moves, capped by the appointment of Kirstjen Nielsen- his brusque, no-nonsense longtime aide- as an assistant to the president and his principal deputy.

234) Assail

attack, assault 2) criticize, censure, pillory, revile Ex) But advocacy groups assailed officials at Fordham Prep in 2008 for allowing Mr. O'Brien and Roy Drake, a priest who is now deceased but also on the list, to live on campus. Ex2) Calling the prosecution's case "the best book of fiction I've ever heard in my life," Joseph A. Yanny used part of his closing statements last month to assail the integrity of the A.T.F.

167) Anthropomorphism

attribution of human characteristic to a god, animal, or object Ex) It's not mere anthropomorphism to say that the wolves were smart and kind. Ex2) Like his first one, "Fantastic Mr. Fox," this is both a celebration and sendup of cartoon anthropomorphism.

229) Ascription

attribution, acknowledgement, assignment, credit Ex) This ascription of sinfulness has no ancient textual support, and many Hindus eat beef to the present day- particularly among the lower castes, who cannot afford to be fussy about their food.

628) Chutzpah

audacity, cheek, nerve, boldness Ex) Democrats will complain it is beyond chutzpah for Donald Trump to brand them as divisive or radical after he has spent his presidency polarizing the electorate with his rhetoric and Twitter account.

1204) Duly

authorized- properly, correctly authorized Ex) Was it just a year ago that these same people professed outrage at the supposed "unmasking" of American citizens caught up in duly-authorized surveillance?

635) Circumvent

avoid, get around, get past, evade Ex) Department of Justice to require tech companies to create a back door, circumventing devices' encryption. Ex2) But "solidarity and pity" prove "stronger than tradition" as Stefania finds a way to circumvent the anathema.

1361) Eschew

avoid, give up, abandon, shun, elude Ex1) Always intended for eventual publication, the journal eschews soul-searching and avoids anything overtly confessional. Ex2) The Chronicle's photos show women doing things — voting, surfing, campaigning — that eschew dated stereotypes.

672) Cognizant

aware, acquainted, familiar Ex1) Be cognizant of what is motivating you to buy those items and consider forgoing a purchase from time to time. Ex2) But, said one news-side executive, the White House is "pretty careful not to misuse the office, and they are cognizant of what this means" as far as the networks' business.

658) Clunky

awkwardly solid, heavy, and outdated Ex) In the span of a few decades, the company, once a copycat manufacturer of clunky television sets, surpassed Sony and other global giants in value and reach, offering high-end smartphones, computer chips and flat-panel TVs.

185) Appalling

bad, dreadful, awful Ex) Whatever the motivation, the law is particularly appalling at a time when white supremacists are rallying to the Confederate cause and sowing hate from coast to coast.

1574) Fluster

baffle, bewilder, daze, disorient Ex) Lisa walks in flustered as the participants chat at round tables above the strains of a Christmas soundtrack. Ex2) Maybe Sanchez should be angry, flustered by a career narrative he never got to write himself.

1343) Equilibrium

balance, symmetry, equipoise 2) composure, calm, equanimity, sangfroid, imperturbability, poise Ex1) The next day, Manafort emailed Kilimnik to scheme how to use his role with Trump as a path to recovering his financial equilibrium. Ex2) At equilibrium, the evolutionary race is not only to the big and aggressive, but also to a certain number of the small and sneaky.

1481) Fastness

bastion, castle, fortress 2) fixity, fixture 3) speed, swiftness Ex1) We also use light fastness testers that replicate sunlight to see how fabrics behave when exposed to sun. Ex2) Perhaps these icons of the old American West also started life half a world away in the fastnesses of Tibet.

598) Chafe

be angry, be annoyed, be irritated Ex) And, as has happened with Ms Nielson, some members of the White House have chafed at a woman asserting power- and made her a target for the anger that they cannot express at the chief of staff. Ex2) She derived a vaunted status from their shared struggle, yet she chafed at being defined by him.

504) Burly

beefy, brawny, hefty Ex) Despite its appearance, this burly behemoth was a completely different prehistoric beast: a dicynodont. Ex2) Culver was a close friend of the late Ted Kennedy, his classmate and teammate at Harvard in the 1950s when Culver won accolades as a burly fullback on the football team.

1322) Entrants

beginner, newcomer, freshman, recruit Ex) That weakness reflects the strength of the new entrants.

398) Biting

bitter, angry, rancorous Ex) It is also hurting everyone else by biting into economic growth. Ex2) In October, Apple chief executive Tim Cook delivered a biting critique of Silicon Valley to the European Parliament in Brussels, warning regulators of an emerging "data-industrial complex" and of anti-democratic forces brewing on social media.

260) Audacious

bold, daring, fearless Ex) In 2007, when the city was drawing about 44 million visitors a year, he set the seemingly audacious goal of raising that number to 50 million by 2015. Ex2) Even less explicable: a careening falsetto oooh-oooh solo from lead singer Dan Reynolds during "Thunder" — which felt audacious until you remembered that this is how drunk people sing the guitar solo at karaoke.

460) Brazen

bold, shameless, unashamed Ex) Pelosi's bright fuchsia dress was like the plumage of a brazen bird, one with the audacity not just to fly with the flock but to lead it. Ex2) There's good reason to believe this brazen brutality happened at the crown prince 's direction.

462) Breach

break, contravene, violate, infringe Ex) While seeking to repair the breach with Jewish women, Women's March leaders stopped short of denouncing Farrakhan, who is known for making virulently anti-Semitic remarks. Ex2) "It's very much a breach of trust," said Liz Hitchcock, director of Safer Chemicals Healthy Families.

1556) Fleeting

brief, short, short-lived, quick, momentary Ex) And for a fleeting moment last month, basketball fans in Wisconsin thought he was returning home. Ex2) And all this for a fairly fleeting victory: The winner is only guaranteed to hold the office for a few months.

475) Broach

bring up, raise, introduce Ex) President Trump did not broach the subject of biological weapons during his meeting with Mr. Kim in Singapore, according to American officials. Ex2) In an interview, Stone insisted that the topic of hacked emails was never broached in the Aug. 3 phone call — or in any other communication with Trump.

106) Alacrity

briskness, cheerfulness, eagerness, enthusiasm Ex) Trump's alacrity about closing down parts of our federal apparatus over a piece of absurdist art loved by his rally-goers is one more sign of his utter contempt for the painstaking tasks of governing. Ex2) She handles with alacrity the array of Southern, Italian and French favorites found on the menus of the Stitts' restaurants.

1210) Dysfunctional

broken, debilitated, decayed Ex1) The temptation for Democrats in the age of Trump is to create a mirror image of his dysfunctional party of rage. Ex2) The teens I was seeing in practice weren't from dysfunctional families, which was the script at that time: If a teen was in trouble, the parents were making mistakes.

479) Browbeat

bully, intimidate, coarse Ex) But the Trump administration is trying to browbeat the Vietnamese government into rescinding that accord. Ex2) At a reunion event in 2015 with his college soccer team, he browbeat former team members with racist, sexist conspiracy theories.

1838) Heartless

callous, unfeeling, unsympathetic, unkind, uncaring, displaying a complete lack of feelings or consideration Ex) Trump brought these obligations home over the weekend with his hideously heartless and deceitful tweets seeking partisan advantage from the deaths of two migrant Guatemalan children after their apprehension by federal authorities. Ex2) She got emails accusing her of being heartless.

1517) Fickle

capricious, changeable, variable, volatile Ex1) With over 25,000 restaurants across all five boroughs, staying relevant and popular — while swimming with real estate sharks and fickle consumers — is a serious challenge. Ex2) According to the headlines, we've wreaked carnage across the economy with our fickle, selfish tastes.

1316) Enthrall

captivate, charm, enchant, bewitch Ex1) The hogback is in this stretch, but this time the corners on the road as it descends to the Escalante River and the Calf Creek Recreation Area really enthrall me. Ex2) On Friday, Trump made "The Snake" the focal point of a 75-minute extravaganza of a presidential address that was evidently designed to enthrall his most loyal supporters — and further alienate the rest of the nation.

1297) Engender

cause, give rise to, bring about, occasion Ex1) Hoyer's ability to understand the needs and concerns of members helps explain why he engenders loyalty. Ex2) Not to mention the many, many others abused at lower levels of the organization because of the environment the top man engendered.

927) Debt

ceiling- an upper limit set on the amount of money that a government may borrow Ex) A debt-ceiling increase is nothing more than Congress bailing itself out- at taxpayer expense- because Congress routinely fails to balance the budget," the group wrote.

676) Coincidence

chance, serendipity, fortuity Ex1) The overall sense is of the war as a mass of coincidence rather than one with clear causations. Ex2) Stein appeared to be yet another doomed patient, but his doctors noted an interesting coincidence: Each time he developed a high fever, his tumors began to shrink.

805) Convert

change, turn, transform, metamorphose Ex1) The people familiar with the presentation said Goldman officials used the slide to claim that Mr. Leissner twice converted to Islam in order to impress wealthy Muslim women he was dating. Ex2) And once investors convert to his ethos of simplicity and thrift, it's for life.

551) Capricious

changeable, inconsistent, mercurial, unpredictable Ex) He describes it as "a strange little instinct like something from childhood, a sudden capricious wickedness, a piece of wretched devilment." Ex2) The fashion muse is capricious and inscrutable sometimes, but it always tells us something about ourselves.

1281) Encoded

ciphered, concealed, made secret Ex1) These findings suggest that the element that enables the cells to grow when nutrients are limited is the intron itself, rather than the messenger RNA or the protein encoded by the gene. Ex2) From how touchscreens work to why phone numbers are encoded in "pig latin for numbers", Weingart explores how we get the message.

1529) Finale

climax, culmination, 2) end, finish, close, conclusion Ex1) It's been 20 years since the whopper finale in "The Sixth Sense" created a pop culture phenomenon and generated the need for "spoiler alerts." Ex2) The account of the finale captured all its headlong energy, music at once festive and frenzied.

736) Confidant/confidante

close friend, bosom friend, best friend Ex) Mr. Lee arranged the bribes during three meetings with South Korea's former president, Park Geun-hye, beginning in late 2014, and they were paid to her confidant. Ex2) Ms. Park was removed from office in March by the country's Constitutional Court following her impeachment over accusations that she colluded with her confidante, Choi-Soonsil to extort money from Samsung and other South Korean conglomerate. Ex2) Prosecutors had originally indicted Mr Lee on charges of giving or promising $27 million in bribes to foundations and business entities controlled by Cho Soon-sil, a longtime confidante of Ms Park, to win Ms Park's support for strengthening his control of Samsung, which he is inheriting from his ailing father.

679) Collude

collaborate, connive, intrigue, plot Ex1) In an interview in Mumbai, the bank's chief executive, P. S. Jayakumar, said branch employees did not collude with the Guptas. Ex2) "Lebanon is doing nothing at best, colluding at worst," Netanyahu said in a rare briefing for international reporters in Jerusalem.

1179) Drab

colorless, gray, dull, washed out, lackluster Ex1) Facebook's policies might emerge from well-appointed conference rooms, but they are executed largely by moderators in drab outsourcing offices in distant locations like Morocco and the Philippines. Ex2) Outside, drab low-slung public housing cubes stretched on in Washington Highlands, known here by the name of one notorious street — Condon Terrace.

1955) Immortalize

commemorate, memorialize, eternalize, to confer enduring fame upon Ex) Jesuits, Franciscans, Benedictines, Augustinians: the names are iconic, their founders immortalized by sainthood, their members often bound together by vows of poverty and obedience. Ex2) Newman's report and Johnson's images immortalize Potter's feisty, prickly personality and her body's surreal journey from flesh and bone to something much bigger than a single person.

695) Commune

communicate, speak, talk, converse, interface Ex) They divide their days between therapy sessions, songwriting, communing with horses and climbing through a treetop rope course.

172) Antithesis

complete opposite, converse, contrary, reverse, inverse, observe, other side of the coin Ex) It eventually landed in a newly created family trust called Straight, which Judge Haddon-Cave wryly described in a ruling as "the antithesis of its name." Ex2) If Silicon Valley is marked by a libertarian streak, China's vision offers something of an antithesis, one where tech is meant to reinforce and be guided by the steady hand of the state.

517) Byzantine

complex, intricate, involved, convoluted, tangled, detailed Ex) A Byzantine Empire buff, he said he also might write history books or lecture M.B.A. students. Ex) He finds references in the work to "Greco-Roman statuary and Byzantine Madonnas, weathered dolls and ancient relics."

688) Commiserate

condole, pity, sympathize Ex1) He met with the boys before their release and commiserated with them over the indoctrination many of them recounted receiving at the hands of the Taliban. Ex2) Several of their mothers are relegated to a communal dwelling to commiserate, an act that leads to their ostracism once a mysterious shadow materializes overhead.

828) Corroborate

confirm, verify, endorse, ratify Ex1) A friend of her husband's corroborated that part of her story at the trial. Ex2) The sheriff's office said they identified them as suspects based on a tip from social activist and writer Shaun King that was corroborated by their investigation.

751) Congruent

congruous, compatible, consistent Ex1) Now, judicial elections of all sorts are congruent with today's populist temper — " Vox populi, vox Dei " and all that. Ex2) There's no particular rhyme or reason to the goods on sale at the nearly 50-year-old boutique, yet it all fits a congruent aesthetic: lavish, colorful and playful.

1868) Hidebound

conservative, reactionary, conventional, orthodox, unyielding, unwilling or unable to change because of tradition or convention Ex) What struck me was Reichl's struggle to review nontraditional restaurants in the Gray Lady's hidebound food section, which still embraced a Francophile worldview in the 1990s. Ex2) Only a "revolution from above" held any promise of reforming that traditionalist, hidebound society.

1479) Fashion

construct, build, make, manufacture Ex1) The next six years were spent in New York working as a freelance assistant to fashion and commercial photographers until she shot her first wedding for her twin sister, Jackie, in 1996. Ex2) There's a shift from poetic, humanistic and spiritual themes, which perhaps seem too vague amid the current fashion for "data-driven" thinking.

1110) Dismissive

contemptuous, disdainful, scornful, sneering, negative Ex) Asked if he saw any difference between the two words, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the chamber, was equally dismissive. Ex2) That he was accused of belittling and being dismissive of female employees was significant given that he was brought in to help clean up the firm's culture.

269) Authenticate

corroborate, confirm, verify Ex) Mr. Clark's letter and accompanying résumé, which were authenticated by Mr. Hughes, point to his naïveté and suggest that he was drawn to the Islamic State's promise of building a Muslim-only state. Ex2) The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said it was working to authenticate the video.

979) Demise

death, dying, passing Ex) Though the blackface comments were the impetus for her show's cancellation, the seeds of its demise were planted months earlier. Ex2) In the afterglow of her match with Federer, Williams was caught off-guard by a question about the Hopman Cup's probable demise.

1178) Downturn

decline in economic, business, or other activity Ex) A contest to equip Australia's military with new armored vehicles is emerging as economic battleground for regions hit by mining and manufacturing downturns, with one bidder pledging to revive a pivotal part of the country's former auto industry.

924) Debase

degrade, devalue, demean, cheapen Ex1) On Wednesday, all democratic and transparent nations should band together and use their influence to ensure that Interpol does not debase itself by effectively becoming an arm of the Russian mafia. Ex2) That, too, is Venice: seductively grand, but also sultry, hazy, a little bit debased.

1306) Enrapture

delight, enchant, captivate, charm Ex1) Stimulated from awareness to empathic interest, my kids were enraptured, aware the book was talking about itself, directly to them. Ex2) Candace, the protagonist of Ling Ma's debut novel, "Severance," is frequently enraptured while observing the routines of those around her.

787) Contingent

dependent on, conditional on, subject to Ex1) Harper met with a contingent from the Phillies on Saturday in Las Vegas, and the meeting reportedly went well. Ex2) Senior executives feared that its eight-figure size would spark an investor uproar, especially among the bank's large contingent of individual stockholders, according to a person familiar with executives' thinking.

1002) Deprecate

deplore, abhor, disapprove of Ex1) In the introduction, she deprecated her contribution modestly and prudently, anticipating quibblers. Ex2) He is well mannered, well dressed, self deprecating, confident and aimless.

962) Degenerate

deteriorate, decline, slip, slide Ex) The latest "yellow vest" marches began peacefully but degenerated Saturday afternoon as protesters threw objects at riot police blocking bridges over the Seine. Ex2) The rare intrusion — the last such attack on a government building by protesters was in 1999 — took place on a day of protests throughout France that started peacefully but degenerated into violence.

1012) Derogate

devalue, diminish, reduce, lessen 2) deviate from, diverge from, depart from Ex1) The pressures of adapting the book also were complicated after a lawyer for Lee's estate filed a lawsuit alleging that Sorkin's interpretation derogated the "spirit of the novel." Ex2) The contract the parties signed states that "the Play shall not derogate or depart in any manner from the spirit of the Novel nor alter its characters."

1209) Dwindle

diminish, decrease, reduce Ex1) Even as Gwynn Park's lead dwindled against Oxon Hill, Bowman played with that confidence in the fourth quarter to lead her team to a 71-62 victory. Ex2) That includes keeping an efficient supply chain as the company's store numbers continue to dwindle.

526) Calamity

disaster, catastrophe, tragedy Ex) But just when the Saints were about to advance to the NFC title game, calamity struck for them with the "Minneapolis Miracle" and their last-second playoff loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Ex2) "What we need is immediate action and sincere participation of the people in the communities in times of calamities."

303) Bale

disaster, misfortune, catastrophe Ex) Shooting mostly indoors and at night, the cinematographer William Babcock conjures lighting that you'd typically find in more expensive features, adding a baleful glaze that distracts from the story's soft spots. Ex2) The politicization of the military will be one of Trump's baleful legacies.

1090) Discriminating

discerning, perceptive, astute, shrewd Ex1) A federal appeals court struck down the two-year residency requirement, saying it violated the Constitution by discriminating against newcomers to the state. Ex2) This year, competitive colleges are facing heightened scrutiny because of a federal lawsuit accusing Harvard University of discriminating against Asian Americans.

1146) Divulge

disclose, reveal, tell Ex1) Werth replied, perhaps divulging a personal nickname for Harper, his teammate for six years in Washington. Ex2) After he obtained documents related to a dispute between a resident of Mianyang and local officials, he was accused of divulging secret documents, although they were reportedly given to the petitioner by government officials.

1019) Despondent

discouraged, dispirited, downhearted, downcast Ex1) The majority of priests, nuns and other religious personnel continues to serve the needs of the poor, the despondent, the refugees and other members of the lay community. Ex2) With remarkable precision and emotional weight, these stories depict working-class Glasgow: slummy, rowdy, tribal, drunken, despondent, quixotic and irrepressible.

1125) Disrepute

disgrace, shame, dishonor, infamy Ex1) If all it takes to lose a magazine gig or book deal is to fall into "public disrepute," it won't be only villains whose voices are lost. Ex2) The irony is that, by assigning government tasks likely to fail, the advocates of activist government bring government into disrepute.

1413) Exhume

disinter, dig up, unearth Ex1) Iraqi authorities involved in exhuming mass graves and handling the remains said they hadn't been officially notified of the grave because it lies in Syrian territory. Ex2) They were buried in an American cemetery in the Philippines and remained there until the Department of Defense exhumed them this year and confirmed his identity.

961) Defy

disobey, go against, flout Ex) In the end, Tonia's husband defied her orders and organized dinner at a local restaurant with close friends, who took care of the bill. Ex2) Mr. King's conservatism on abortion and gun rights lines up with a majority of his constituents, as does his reputation as an outsider defying the party establishment.

988) Denigrate

disparage, belittle, depreciate, decry Ex1) The combination of a boss who is denigrating your work and a shutdown with an unknown ending might lead more federal workers to jump ship. Ex2) We found a similar nexus of online activists — Russian, American, German, French, even Polish — working together to denigrate the Swedish political system during their elections too.

357) Belittle

disparage, denigrate, run down, deprecate, depreciate, downgrade Ex) Mr. McConnell belittled the package as a power grab and "a naked attempt to change the rules of American politics to benefit one party." Ex2) She called research by Wu and others "remarkably convincing" and "appalling" evidence that discrimination and belittling of women in economics still exists today.

1021) Detached

dispassionate, disinterested, objective, uninvolved 2) disconnected, separate Ex1) Following many months on the road in support of "Are We There," Van Etten began feeling detached from her music and exhausted by the constant grind of performing heartbreak professionally. Ex2) The Pole remains cynically detached from politics throughout; the movie's real villain is the murderous American dandy played by Jack Palance in a curly black hairpiece.

1499) Feign

dissemble, simulate, fake, sham Ex1) In the early months of Donald Trump's presidency, administration officials were in the habit of feigning indignation when questioned about cases involving family separations. Ex2) Young girls feign illness to avoid going to school while on their period, and women in shelters repurpose toilet paper, socks or diapers because they can't afford feminine hygiene products, she said.

119) Aloof

distant, detached, unfriendly, unsociable, remote, unapproachable, formal, stiff Ex) A flamboyant turn from Isabelle Adjani doesn't hurt either, with the star sending up her own image as an aloof leading lady. Ex2) For weeks, Macron remained largely aloof as protesters blocked roads throughout France and, in particular, wreaked havoc in Paris — burning cars, clashing with riot police and ransacking monuments like the Arc de Triomphe.

1138) Distinctive

distinguishing, characteristic, typical, individual Ex1) She wanted the outfit for her big day to be both memorable and distinctive. Ex2) The most distinctive aspect of the new policy is the location-sharing device that will be installed on each cart or truck.

1634) Fretful

distressed, upset, miserable, unsettled, feeling or expressing distress or irritation Ex) Once seated in his anchorman chair, he is fretful, peevishly checking how much of his shirt cuffs protrude from his jacket. Ex2) She paces in frenzied circles, collapses onto the floor in brooding meditation and folds piece after piece of small paper with fretful, concentrated industry.

984) Demote

downgrade, relegate, declass Ex1) Ms. Walker, on the defensive, soon demoted Dean Cappello, her longtime deputy, who was closely associated with "The Takeaway. Ex2) The suit also accuses the department of unfairly transferring, demoting or firing those who complain of biased treatment, creating an environment that fosters distrust between police and the community.

1162) Doping

drug, administer drugs to XYZ to enhance or inhibit the performance Ex) There is significant evidence that Russia was involved in a sweeping state-sponsored doping program at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

1063) Dirge

elegy, lament Ex1) "The Mortal Remains" brings all these tales together beautifully, by which I mean in a coda that is somber and hauntingly unsettled, like the last note of a dirge. Ex2) Based on a series of novels by Edward St Aubyn, "Patrick Melrose" sounds like an insufferable dirge, following an upper-class addict as he reels from the death of his abusive father in the 1980s.

1181) Drain

empty, void, clear 2) deplete, use up, wipe out Ex1) The F.B.I. director's explicit goals, after all, were to disrupt all the organizing, to drain the movement's influence, to humiliate and destroy King. Ex2) For the past two years, our united Republican government drained money and power from Washington and returned it to states, communities and families.

1900) Hollow

empty, void, unfilled, vacant Ex) Fill the hollow of the avocado with the mixture, piling it into a rounded peak but keeping within the outside shell. Ex2) The title's reference to the intricate interiors of bones — which combine hollow and solid, hard and soft — seems apt.

458) Brave

endure, bear, withstand Ex) One of them braved a hail of bullets while fleeing.

1723) Gourmet

epicure, connoisseur, gourmet 2) glutton, overeater, big eater, a person who enjoys eating Ex) Merchants are seeking new ways to corral shoppers, who may notice that their bank or cable company is offering comfortable seating, gourmet coffee and free WiFi. Ex2) Paul Stamets, a mycologist and owner of a gourmet mushroom company, is the author of "Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World."

1239) Egalitarian

equal, just, fair, equable Ex1) Ostentatious shows of wealth are rare in Norway, and people there are generally proud of the country's egalitarian spirit. Ex2) But the normcore trend--the early-2010s phenomenon that elevated ordinary, egalitarian clothing like Champion sweats and North Face puffers into fashionable curiosities--also conferred new cachet on fleece.

258) Attrition

erosion, weakening, detrition Ex) Through that freeze and natural attrition, she plans to slim down Vice's ranks by between 10% and 15% overall, they said. Ex2) "It's a savings" that allows Walmart to keep labor costs steady, through attrition and better using workers for new tasks, he said.

1470) Fallacious

erroneous, incorrect, illogical 2) deceptive, deluding, delusive Ex1) After the release of the United Nations report, the government called its contents "fallacious, tendentious and motivated." Ex2) In doing so, she drove an absolute stake in the heart of the NCAA's fallacious old reasoning.

925) Debauchery

excessive indulgence in sensual pleasure, dissipation, degeneracy, corruption Ex1) That, plus scenes of excess and debauchery, which was the bigger selling point for the creators of Showtime's new comedy "Black Monday." Ex2) "Like debauchery dressed as asceticism," the waiter thinks.

1553) Flay

excoriate, peel, scalp, skin 2) rail, whip, chastise, castigate, excoriate Ex) For your sins, Bryan Cranston is all but flaying the skin off his body, night after night at the Belasco Theater. Ex2) The first volume of Sylvia Plath's letters, published last year, revealed the young Plath, from summer camp to Smith College, intent on two goals: to flay herself into becoming a writer and to marry.

1431) Exponential

expeditious, lightning, sudden, instantaneous Ex1) That's exponentially more difficult when a filmmaker is creating a naturalistic, "real" world that isn't just adjacent to our lived reality, but of a piece with it. Ex2) Climate change is a full-blown emergency whose threat to lives and property is poised to rise exponentially.

1384) Evict

expel, oust, remove, dislodge Ex1) He asked Judge Elizabeth Dillon to deny Mountain Valley's request for a preliminary injunction the company says it needs to evict the tree-sitters. Ex2) The letters instruct the landlords to use their reserve accounts so that no one is evicted, HUD spokesman Jereon Brown said.

1274) Empirical

experiential, practical, firsthand, hands-on Ex1) The magazine was a policy journal grounded in the concreteness of empirical evidence and asked hard questions about Great Society programs. Ex2) As a secular humanist, I trust in the empirical facts of the natural world, not the leap-of-faith beliefs of the unknowable supernatural world that most religions adhere to.

1452) Extrinsic

external, extraneous, exterior Ex1) Ledecky will be swimming to please corporate sponsors, not just herself, and to elevate the extrinsic worth of a sport that she values for its intrinsic benefits. Ex2) Playful learning means supporting young children's intrinsic motivation to learn and discover, instead of imposing extrinsic motivations like test scores.

1933) Idiocy

extreme folly or stupidity, folly, foolishness Ex) Syndergaard is a fine pitcher and susceptible to the idiocies of the age. Ex2) "It is not ideology," he said, "it is idiocy."

1369) Ethereal

extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world, delicate, exquisite, dainty, elegant Ex1) The music is rich with low end, serving as ballast for ethereal, sometimes claustrophobic synths. Ex2) The antithesis to chowing down on all those chicken wings might be Buffalo's ethereal new vegan cafe Root & Bloom.

507) Bust

fail, collapse, fold Ex) At around the same time, President Trump vowed to find a way to prevent a major Chinese telecommunications company from going bust, even though the company has a history of violating American limits on doing business with countries like Iran and North Korea.

1516) Fiasco

failure, disaster, catastrophe Ex1) As the sides feuded, 800,000 federal workers were going without pay, and government agencies continued to reduce services, part of the cascading effect of a partial shutdown now possibly headed for a fourth week. Ex2) The Middle East carrier is also contending with the effects of a regional economic feud.

923) Debacle

failure, fiasco, catastrophe Ex) Someday this still escalating debacle may form the body of a new industry fable, one with a moral about the dangers of ill-considered direct communication, the swift retribution of the crowd and the hazards of cultural arrogance.

1655) Fussy

fastidious about one's needs or requirements; hard to please, showing excessive or anxious concern about detail, finicky, particular Ex) Dutch children are notably easygoing and less fussy. Ex2) Joy Trejo, senior director of business development at DLH, said fussy babies were easily distracted by the lights and jingle bells.

914) Dauntless

fearless, determined, resolute, indomitable Ex1) But they actually rode on Metro, said Paul Wiedefeld, the dauntless general manager of Metro. Ex2) Mussolini and Hitler, both veterans of World War I, drew their models of leadership from army officers and worked hard to polish their images as dauntless rulers beholden to no one.

1188) Drip

feed- a device for introducing fluid drop by drop into the system Ex) The episode throws light on the peculiar drip-feed way drug companies often disclose the results of clinical trials.

1919) Hunch

feeling, feeling in one's bones, guess, suspicion Ex) Just as better weather forecasting makes us more willing to go out without an umbrella, Mr. Manzi says, AI emboldens companies to test more products, strategies and hunches.

1920) Hunch

feeling, impression, conjecture, an intuitive feeling or a premonition. Ex) Miners work in the pitch black, hunched over, in thousands of these "rat hole" mines — every one of them illegal. Ex2) For one thing, people weren't hunched over, staring at their phones.

1496) Fecund

fertile, fruitful, productive, high-yielding Ex1) The fecund abundance that is insects' singular trait should enable them to recover, but only if they are given the space and the opportunity to do so. Ex2) The tribal ways and shrinking means of that culture were Gurney's abiding subjects during a long and fecund career that began six decades ago.

740) Conflagration

fire, blaze, inferno, firestorm, holocaust Ex) That conflagration helped pave the way for the 2013 shutdown over President Barack Obama's health care law.

1325) Entrench

fixed, set, firm, rooted-well-established Ex1) When platforms become entrenched and harder for users to leave, the secrets they keep are reflected back to them as resentments. Ex2) The Christmas Eve blast in Kabul, which killed 43 people, was the work of Islamic State forces entrenched in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is a telling example of their capabilities.

408) Blazon

flaunt, display, exhibit Ex) Here, saloon doors are blazoned with crosses, villains wear white shawls instead of black hats and freedom fighters shoot peashooters rather than pistols. Ex2) On the Saturday morning that I joined her, she looked surprisingly stylish for the occasion: gold-toned sandals, brilliant white capri pants, fiery nails and a bright orange T-shirt blazoned with the words "New Virginia Majority."

410) Blemish

flaw, defect, defect Ex) The setback was no blemish: a one-point margin at Kansas State. Ex2) The blemishes took Shircore the longest amount of time to create — before those scenes, which are among Elizabeth's most vulnerable, Robbie would sit in the chair for about three hours.

503) Burgeon

flourish, thrive, prosper Ex) In the ultimate sign of burgeoning Date Lab romance, both asked about what the other said in their interviews. Ex2) "Vowels," the poet Rimbaud wrote, "Someday I'll explain your burgeoning births."

1252) Eloquent

fluent, articulate, silver-tongued, persuasive Ex1) Though he soon returned, nothing he explained then was nearly as eloquent as those 45 seconds of silence. Ex2) An eloquent and intellectual priest, McCloskey for many years ran the Catholic Information Center, a bookstore, chapel and meeting center on K Street NW — a hub of Catholic life in the city.

1772) Gust

flurry, blast, puff/ a brief, strong rush of wind Ex) This geological gust was enough to send Earth's magnetic North Pole skittering across the globe. Ex2) There were gusts over 20 miles an hour and heavy rain in the area on Monday night.

1591) Forbear

forbearance, patiently refrain 2) ancestor Ex) Such nostalgia is common to blacks of a certain age and social standing, and rightly so: Their forbears, not more than a generation or two gone, thrived in the face of terrifying odds. Ex2) Presidents sometimes learned the wrong lessons from their forbears.

22) Absolution

forgiveness, pardon, exoneration Ex) Absolution, however, is not what the White House has conferred on the Kushners.

1732) Gratuitous

free, complimentary, voluntary 2) unjustified, uncalled for, unwarranted, unprovoked, lacking good reason Ex) He rounded the whole thing off with a gratuitous mention of Inter, the team he turned into European champions. Ex2) An ambassador to Saudi Arabia was nominated in the middle of the controversy over the Khashoggi murder, handing the regime a gratuitous favor.

1699) Glacial

freezing, cold, icy 2) bitter, biting, unfriendly, hostile, unwelcoming 3) slow, lugubrious, unhurried Ex) First, at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival in the summer, "The Force of Things," her glacial, scary "opera for objects," used harrowing softness — even inaudibility — to evoke the permeating anxiety of our mounting ecological crisis. Ex2) The dam projects are at risk of collapse from earthquakes in this seismically active region and of breach from flood bursts from glacial lakes upstream.

276) Avant

garde- innovative, original, experimental, left-field, inventive, ahead of the times, new, modern Ex) They outfitted it with avant-garde art and offered unlimited wine on tap, craft beers, fresh pastas and rare cuts of Argentine beef. Ex2) The French avant-garde paintings assembled by the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin in the early 1900s were exhibited in the West, specifically Paris, for the first time two years ago.

1672) Garish

gaudy, lurid, loud, harsh, glaring, obtrusively bright and showy Ex) Upon arrival, it appears to be a sweeping development of garish high-rises towering over the beach. Ex2) Too often, the available nonalcoholic cocktails prance in the steps of the Shirley Temple: garish, cloying, its very name suggesting consumption by tiny guests with dimples, ringlets and appetites for animal crackers.

595) Cession

giving up, relinquishment Ex) It was a highly controlled, and easily reversible, cession of partial authority. Ex2) The encroaching Anglo-American settler frontier, greedy slave owners who coveted Cherokee lands, and federal officials who extracted land cessions from Cherokee chiefs through treaty-making slowly but surely dispossessed the Cherokees of their Southeastern homelands.

1007) Derail

go off the rails, to go byway Ex) This time around, smarting from a stinging defeat over the health-care bill, Mr Trump has telegraphed he won't retreat and some conservatives said they were on board with his push. Ex2) The challenge for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, is to keep on track a historic planned meeting between Mr. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that looks increasingly at risk of being derailed. Ex3) The challenge for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, is to keep on track a historic planned meeting between Mr. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that looks increasingly at risk of being derailed.

1753) Grouse

gripe, grumble, complain, protest Ex) But Donald Trump, whom they overwhelmingly supported for the presidency, has provided them with plenty of other reasons to grouse.

870) Crotch

groin, the part of the human body between the legs where they join the torso Ex) But if Donald Trump grabs a white woman by the crotch in a nightclub, it's locker-room high jinks.

1967) Impeachable

guilty, reprehensible, sinful, culpable Ex) It was just a classic game plan and impeccable execution against that zone defense. Ex2) With "their boundless amiability, impeccable activity and angelic faces," he said, "they shamelessly conceal a vicious wolf ready to devour innocent souls."

1842) Heavy

handed- clumsy, awkward, maladroit, unhandy 2) oppressive, overbearing, harsh, stern Ex) The story of a symbol of congressional power and its heavy-handed abusers. Ex2) The police used increasingly heavy-handed tactics to crush dissent.

1790) Ham

handed- clumsy, bungling, clumsy, bungling Ex) "Giving him even more authority is a recipe for more economic chaos," said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, calling Mr. Trump's approach so far "ineffective and ham-handed." Ex2) "Giving him even more authority is a recipe for more economic chaos," said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, calling Mr. Trump's approach so far "ineffective and ham-handed."

907) Dangled

hang down, droop, swing, sway 2) offer an incentive Ex) But many inside and outside government have noted there were no major military exercise between the United States and South Korea scheduled until the spring, so the promise of scaling them back could be dangled. Ex2) Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are studying whether one of Mr. Kushner's daughters dangled White House influence before prospective Chinese investors.

1823) Haunt

hangout, territory, domain, resort, spot, a place frequented by a specified person or group of people 2) recur, prey on, stay with, to inhabit, visit or appear to in the form of a ghost or other supernatural being; to visit often Ex) You'll be compelled, I think, to reflect on your own urge to connect, after Zaraa releases your arm back to you and you consider the picture he's etched from haunted memory, just for you. Ex2) Like the rest of Blake's albums, "Assume Form" opens into haunted, rewarding depths.

416) Blithe

happy, cheerful, jolly 2) casual, indifferent, unconcerned Ex1) Yet such borrowing often happens with a kind of blithe thoughtlessness, a creative entitlement. Ex2) But in these ostensibly blithe stories, Mr. Moran is describing a worldview, as well as a world, that informs every aspect of the story that follows, and it is equally steeped in guilt and wonder.

893) Cursory

hasty, not through, not detailed, perfunctory, desultory, casual Ex1) I went really broad and met a lot of people at a cursory level. Ex2) Laquan's death at first stirred little public outcry and only cursory media coverage.

1825) Hauteur

haughtiness, superciliousness, arrogance, pride, disdainful pride Ex) If as a young man he possessed what Lamster calls an "extravagant hauteur," he was too full of enthusiasm to be merely a cynic. Ex2) "We are not amused," Ms. Dench says with faux hauteur, offering the line associated with Victoria.

1781) Hale

healthy, strong, robust, vigorous, sound, strong and healthy Ex) He is almost two decades older, but — up to the point at which the book begins — hale. Ex2) And if a few extra days of rest now mean that Chapman will be hearty and hale in October, that silver lining may look more like a brass ring.

184) Appall

horrify, shock dismay, distress, outrage Ex) "I spent the last 15 to 20 years being appalled at how readily people surrendered their own privacy," he said. Ex2) She'd stuck with her husband for five decades until he died, and was appalled that young women these days didn't do the same.

299) Bad blood

ill feeling Ex) As the bad blood continued between the president and the speaker, the White House announced a new policy on Friday that banning all official, taxpayer-funded congressional travel for the duration of the shutdown, unless lawmakers had direct approval from Mr. Trump's team.

600) Chain migration

immigrants' ability to bring members of their extended family to the United States after gaining their own legal status; and cancel the diversity visa lottery program. Ex) Laying out conditions that many Democrats view as nonstarters, Mr Trump said the legislation must fortify the nation's borders; end "chain migration," a term used by immigration critics to refer to immigrants' ability to bring members of their extended family to the United States after gaining their own legal status; and cancel the diversity visa lottery program.

918) De facto

in reality, actually Ex) In Massachusetts, the state constitution doesn't spell out an age requirement, but candidates must be registered voters, making 17 the de facto minimum. Ex2) The Armona building sits near the Green Line, which served as the de facto border of the state of Israel from 1949 until the Arab-Israeli War of 1967.

758) Connotes

indicate, signify Ex) For some of the common law is the epitome of legality; for others, the Rule of Law connotes the impartial application of a clearly drafted statue; for others still the Rule of Law is epitomized by a stable constitution that has been embedded for centuries in the politics of a country.

956) Deficiency

insufficiency, lack, shortage 2) defect, fault, flaw Ex) Allen convened stakeholder meetings to consider the best way to proceed, resulting in a proposal to build on the strengths of the act while also addressing any deficiencies. Ex2) Until the deficiencies are addressed, the Air Force said it would withhold as much as $28 million per plane, totaling nearly $1.5 billion over the 52 aircraft included in the initial contract.

1851) Hellbent

intent, determined, set Ex) This administration seems hellbent on replacing a civil service that works for all taxpayers with a political service that serves at its whim.

1539) Fitful

intermittent, sporadic, spasmodic, not regular or steady Ex1) U.S.-China relations are fraying on several fronts despite fitful progress in trade negotiations. Ex2) The impacts of the shutdown were widening after a weekend of fitful staff-level negotiations at the White House yielded no result.

1284) Encroach

invade, intrude on, tress pass on, impinge on Ex) In a pair of statements, Mr. Trump said the bill was seriously flawed because it encroached on White House authority, and called some provisions unconstitutional.

1457) Exultant

jubilant, delighted, exhilarated, happy Ex1) Remember that body image is a social construct, and you don't need to bend to the will of the patriarchy to achieve exultant self-acceptance. Ex2) Over a slow march of a beat, Queen Naija is by turns tender and exultant, the joy here easily outpacing the hurt of her breakthrough hit.

1791) Hammer away

keep attacking someone Ex) For example, Mr. Giluliani said, Mr. Manafort's lawyer Kevin M. Downing told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russians promised to deliver damaging information on Hillary Clinton to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

1874) High

level- at or of a level above that which is normal or average Ex) If high-level talks get under way, a key question will be what North Korea and the U.S. mean when they talk about "denuclearization."

850) Craving

longing, yearning, desire Ex1) These medications soften the cravings without causing euphoria. Ex2) I'm the kind of person who orders takeout just to satisfy a craving for soup.

775) Consulate

ministry, embassy Ex) I was not born in Italy, I have never been to Italy, and, to my knowledge, have never stepped foot in an Italian consulate or embassy," he said.

555) Careen

move swiftly in a specific direction, rush, hurtle, career, streak, shoot Ex) Veterans of diplomacy and national security and specialists on North Korea fear that, whatever their intended result, Mr. Trump's increasingly bellicose threats and public insults of the famously thin-skinned Mr. Kim could cause the United States to careen into a nuclear confrontation driven by personal animosity and bravado.

1447) Extraneous

not essential, not relevant Ex1) All these larded-on extra characters and this extraneous plot leave you with the sense that nobody trusted Momoa to carry more of this thing on his own. Ex2) In addition to that amount, Clean Virginia looked at other Dominion costs that it said were extraneous to the basic monopoly function of generating and delivering power.

1587) Footnote

note, marginal note, annotation Ex) The timetable for moving the embassy became a charged footnote to Mr Trump's landmark decision.

1542) Flabby

obese, corpulent, soft, loose, flaccid 2) weak, ineffective, feeble Ex1) Despite its perennial appeal in coffee shops and on college campuses, socialism fails wherever it steps in to protect flabby enterprises from the lethal winnowing of competition. Ex2) They look like humans in the nude — with wrinkles, freckles, flabby skin, hair, breasts and the like, all captured in exacting detail and creating an eerie experience for those who step into them.

1488) Fawn

obsequious to, sycophantic to, curry favor with, flatter Ex1) Even Finley, who stole the show as a fawning, slimy and startlingly credible Iago, brought his own contemporary touch rather than traditional Italian fireworks. Ex2) Without fawning, she warms Powell up. She places his work in social and intellectual perspective, and briskly lays bare a life rich with friendship and incident.

1671) Gargantuan

of immense size, volume or capacity, gigantic, huge, enormous, vast, gigantic Ex) The gargantuan effort to shield the nation from missile strikes is often said to start in 1983 with Reagan's "Star Wars" program. Ex2) The council's goal was to prevent their Swiss neighbors from claiming the mountain's glory, but there was really no need: It's impossible when you're in Chamonix to ignore the gargantuan, icy beauty that looms overhead.

1170) Double pack

opening two accounts under a customer's name Ex) Some employees in that region created fake email addresses using customers' phone numbers to open banking accounts or opened two accounts for each customer, a practice known as a "double pack."

1154) Dogmatic

opinionated, peremptory, assertive, insistent Ex1) His style is completely different. It's blustering and dogmatic. Ex2) He said his doubts about capitalism were not "dogmatic" but were based on conditions in his Maui district, where the cost of living is high.

352) Behest

order or command Ex) Responding to Mr. Trump's tweets on Saturday, Ms. Cruz said she would not be distracted by small comments and denied that she was attacking the president at the behest of the Democrats.

1276) Enactment

passing legislation Ex) Rule by norms laid down in advance (rather than by retrospective enactments); rule by norms that are made public (not hidden away in the closets of the administration).

1510) Fervor

passion, ardor, intensity, zeal Ex1) They were also demonstrations of the fervor of his core supporters — and implied warnings to Republicans who might cross him. Ex2) Better still, they offered a set of striking interpretive insights into thrice-familiar works: They found the proto-Romantic fervor in Mozart, the Mendelssohnian lightness in Brahms, and the operatic exuberance and scope in Mendelssohn.

209) Ardent

passionate, fervent, zealous, fervid, eager, avid Ex) In all three cases, those decisions disappointed each president's most ardent supporters. Ex2) Yet here it is in Britain, in the thousands, an oddball little convertible with an ardent following and a back story that is even odder.

1734) Gravelly

pebbly, stony, husky, gruff, of a voice deep and rough-sounding. Ex) He wasn't much of a singer, either; but the gravelly renderings of his lyrics gradually attracted a mass audience that seemed more like a cult. Ex2) In rehearsals for the City Center production, Mr. Avian rarely sugarcoated his criticisms, directly delivered in a gravelly voice.

300) Badger

pester, harass, bother Ex) Ms. von Heyl's paintings are usually between six and seven feet tall, and in person they fill your eyes and badger your body. Ex2) Meanwhile, cookies and algorithms weaponize your online queries and badger you into buying.

98) Agitprop

political propaganda in art or literature Ex) It is called agitprop.

1725) Grandioloquent

pompous, bombastic, magniloquent, pretentious, pompous or extravagant in language, style, or manner Ex) This grandiloquent action, an archetypal example of ballet classicism, is a crucial transaction within supported adagio, that singularly momentous idiom: With the man's assistance, a female dancer blooms all the more fully. Ex2) The post-election moment, when victorious candidates wax grandiloquent reaching across the aisle to accomplish important things for the American people, is as evanescent as a rainbow.

971) Deliberate

ponder, consider, contemplate, reflect on Ex) If you like your shows deliberate and educational, try this gently paced British documentary series that goes in hard on art history and sometimes restoration. Ex2) FireEye said the attempted hacking of the D.N.C. in November resembled other recent attacks attributed to Cozy Bear, including in its "deliberate reuse" of old phishing tactics and reliance on a similar list of victims.

950) Defer

postpone, put off, delay 2) yield to, submit to, give way to Ex) After that, instead of sending them to their units, the Coast Guard will defer the costs associated with permanent transfers by temporarily placing the graduates on recruiting assignments while they're home with family, McBride said. Ex2) Japanese prosecutors allege that Mr. Ghosn understated his compensation in Nissan's financial statements by more than $80 million over a period of eight years by failing to report deferred compensation.

168) Anticipate

prefigure Ex) He was more successful than even he anticipated. Ex2) When DIY projects cost more than owners anticipated, the average overrun pushed the final expense to nearly double their original estimate.

1327) Enunciate

pronounce, sound out, articulate 2) vocalize, articulate, state, declare, condemn Ex1) China's approach, of course, is to win wars without fighting, as enunciated 2,500 years ago by master strategist Sun Tzu. Ex2) He talks rapidly, but every word is enunciated, crystal clear and dense with information.

936) Decorous

proper, seemly, decent Ex) Jones is brisk and decorous, smart and sensitive, though she sometimes leans too heavily into the Brooklyn accent. Ex2) When one referred to the "gentleman in the White House," the otherwise decorous group hooted.

208) Archetype

prototype, ideal, original, quintessence, essence, representative, model, embodiment Ex) "Somewhere along the way, being white became seen as 'relatable,' and you started to see people of color only reflected as stereotypes or specific archetypes," Rae, who is black, told The Guardian in 2017. Ex2) An archetype for the "new" American woman, illustrator Howard Chandler Christy's "Christy Girls" dressed up in Naval uniforms and beckoned men to join the fight in World War I.

308) Ballyhoo

publicity, advertising, promotion, marketing, propaganda, fuss Ex) Yet the festival entered this banner year with somewhat subdued ballyhoo, under fire for the gender ratio of the high-profile competition lineup. Ex2) It's one of the most ballyhooed facts in this election: A record number of women are running for Congress.

603) Challenge

question, object to Ex) Of course the 10-year challenge — the posting to social media of two portraits, taken at an interval of 10 years, to show the impact of aging — is a game, perhaps an innocent one. Ex2) The two-year residence requirement is being challenged by a literal mom and pop who moved to Memphis to own a liquor store, as well as by retail giant Total Wine, which is based in Maryland.

1091) Discursive

rambling, digressive, meandering, wandering Ex1) But these biologists believe that there are other forces at work, modes of evolution that are much more mischievous and discursive than natural selection. Ex2) Novelist and essayist Laurens enters the adulatory fray with this volume, which is part historical chronicle, part artfully discursive personal response and part imaginative close reading of the sculpture's past and present.

1512) Fetid

rancid, putrid, rank, rotten, stinking, smelly, foul-smelling Ex1) The swamp he vowed to drain is now fetid with even more lobbyists and rancid with his lies. Ex2) The more fetid the swamp of public life, the more important it became to understand the mesmeric techniques of deception. Ex3) Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp, and here's a seven month progress report: The Washington bog is still as wide and fetid as ever.

1669) Gamut

range, spectrum, span, sweep, compass Ex) But they are a vital and vast network of workers with jobs that run the gamut: a prep cook in an Agriculture Department cafeteria, a dairy farm appraiser, a radar operator who tracks severe storms.

1582) Foolhardy

recklessly bold Ex) "It would be foolhardy to say I wouldn't be interested in a partnership that improves our position," he noted. Ex2) In life, Ms. Najjar was a natural leader whose uncommon bravery struck some peers as foolhardy.

1004) Depreciation

reduction in value of an asset, devaluation, markdown, reduction Ex) The bonds and loans CVS is borrowing for the acquisition would increase its debt load to around 4.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, from 3.2 times in June, according to S&P.

1826) Haven

refuge, retreat, shelter, sanctuary, a port, a place of refuge or rest Ex) It used a common method of shifting profits to a tax haven, according to research published in 2017 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists based on leaked documents known as the Paradise Papers. Ex2) There's no doubt he is capable, and for maximum entertainment, the NFL needs him to keep turning the game into his highlight haven.

248) Asylum

refuge, security, shelter Ex) Undocumented migrants are held initially at Border Patrol and ICE facilities as their claims for asylum are registered. Ex2) Ms. Alqunun spent six nights holed up in a Bangkok airport hotel, opened a new Twitter account and mounted a campaign for asylum.

1718) Good graces

regarded with favor, bad graces- regarded with disfavor Ex) Mr. Cohn found his way back into Mr. Trump's good graces last fall by shepherding the president's tax cut package through Congress, delivering the president his signature legislative accomplishment.

1456) Exult

rejoice, be joyful, be happy, be delighted Ex) It does not dream of an all-white America; it opposes racism and celebrates tolerance and exults in the image of America as 'nation of immigrants.'

143) Amphibious

relating to, living in, or suited for both land and water Ex) Over the next decade, Australia's military will receive new warships, advanced submarines, stealth war plans, and amphibious forces, in part to safeguard South China Sea and Indian Ocean sea routes that carry around one-third of global airtime traffic.

1024) Détente

relaxation of hostility or strained relations Ex) For the White House, however, the budding détente scrambles its strategy of pressuring the North, with sanctions and threats of military actions, to give up its nuclear arsenal. Ex2) Pyongyang last month warned the two allies that going ahead with them would go "against the climate of détente on the Korean Peninsula" and spell the end of the current thaw. Ex3) Others say that it is seeking détente with South Korea to weaken the US alliance structure. Ex4) The back-and-forth between Mr. Trump and the chief of staff suggested that the easing of tensions may be more of a temporary détente than a ironclad peace agreement. Ex5) That is Henry Kissinger, the doyen of cold-war diplomacy and the author of rapprochement with China and détente with the Soviet Union.

794) Contrite

remorseful, repentant, penitent Ex1) Now training for the NFL draft and just one course credit away from a degree in health sciences, Wilkins remains contrite about the play. Ex2) He adopted a contrite tone, in contrast to his tendency to deliver sharp lectures to complaining voters.

1095) Disengage

remove, detach, disentangle Ex1) They found that the more they spoke about him, the more it turned off disengaged voters. Ex2) First, there was an incredibly wan ceremony in March, hosted by a disengaged Jimmy Kimmel.

1105) Dislodge

remove, force out, drive out Ex) Hamas's support of Islamic State infuriated Egyptian President Al Sisi who came to power promising to serve as a regional bulwark against terror but has been unable to dislodge the flourishing Islamic State insurgency in his country's north.

1120) Displace

replace, supplant, supersede, take the place of 2) dislodge, dislocate, move, shift, reposition Ex1) And entry of Turkish-backed opposition forces would likely displace thousands of Kurds, as well as threaten vulnerable Christian communities interspersed in these areas. Ex2) My comment was not in the context of not building housing for millennials — it's not displacing people for building housing for millennials.

1902) Homage

respect, honor, reverence, worship, special honor or respect shown publicly Ex) Everlast 1910 Gloves The name of these classic mitts pays homage to the year the iconic brand was born, but details, like premium leather, a ventilated palm and a flexible fit, are all modern. Ex2) Mr. Trump is lionized and feared despite paying homage to the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville as "very fine people."

265) August

respected, impressive, distinguished, venerable Ex) The letter to members of the Senate from former members of that august body showed a spirit of collegiality not witnessed in this beloved nation of ours in more than two years. Ex2) He was well aware that certain august literary critics — among them, Harold Bloom — thought honoring a popular horror writer was idiotic.

1311) Ensue

result, follow, develop, proceed Ex1) In the face of the ensuing protests, Kerala's governing Communist Party of India offered protection to women who wished to visit the temple. Ex2) His departure and the ensuing chaos blindsided the United States, which for decades relied on Iran and its absolute ruler as Washington's closest Mideast ally.

1077) Disclosure

revelation, declaration, Ex1) Charles M. Elson, a professor and director of the corporate governance center at the University of Delaware, also supports the disclosure of prenuptial agreements. Ex2) The list, published on the order's website, was the latest in a flood of disclosures by Catholic dioceses and religious orders of clergy who face abuse claims.

133) Amend

revise, altar, change, modify, adapt, adjust Ex) Most of the amended complaint focuses on Purdue's marketing and activity starting in 2007, the year the company agreed to pay $600 million to resolve federal charges that it misled consumers. Ex2) On Dec. 13, the newly amended and stronger YRA, passed unanimously by the D.C.

473) Bristle

rise, stand up, stand on end 2) abound, overflow, be full 3) take offense easily Ex) We risk losing the "bristling harmonies," the "cutting yowls" and "multidimensional textures" of classical music at its best when we think of it only as an invention "to address a yawn shortage," Gersten writes. Ex2) The compositional elements bristle against one another, and still they somehow settle into a pancake-flat harmony.

1729) Grass

root- ordinary people regarded as the main body of an organization, the most basic level of organization, basic, popular, bottom up Ex) Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to take back control of the House and are hoping a surge of grass-roots energy, activism and fund-raising at levels unseen since the rise of Barack Obama can help play a crucial role.

1506) Ferret

rummage, feel around, grope around, look around 2) unearth, uncover, discover Ex1) A team of gunmen landed a helicopter inside the prison and ferreted Mr. Faïd away. Ex2) It eats small squid and crustaceans ferreted from the swaying underwater fronds.

1846) Hedge

safeguard, protect, shield, guard, cushion Ex) It isn't clear to what extent Goldman attempted to hedge against possible losses. Ex2) Even in the additional details released on Sunday by South Korean officials, Mr. Kim appeared to hedge his bets, indicating that denuclearizing his country could be a long process that required multiple rounds of negotiations and steps to build trust.

376) Berate

scold, rebuke, reprimand Ex) The president berated congressional Republicans- as a group- for failing to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and some individually for crossing party lines to vote against legislation to replace it.

1480) Fastidious

scrupulous, punctilious, painstaking, meticulous Ex1) In this era of unfolding environmental catastrophe, however, Adams's images — so pristine, fastidious and preposterously hygienic — simply deflect my eyes. Ex2) Her family lived on the second floor of a brick bungalow owned by a prim great-aunt and her fastidious husband.

1005) Deputy

second, second-in-command, number two Ex) At a staff meeting on Wednesday, Mr Trump's new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, announced a number of seemingly quotidian internal moves, capped by the appointment of Kirstjen Nielsen- his brusque, no-nonsense longtime aide- as an assistant to the president and his principal deputy.

653) Clinch

secure, settle, conclude Ex) Devlin's rapid and dramatic reaction to the epilepsy drug clinched the diagnosis. Ex2) It is unclear which candidate the opposition would vote in as prime minister should it clinch a majority of the 300 seats up for grabs in the election.

353) Behold

see, observe, view Ex) That alone is a painful thing to behold as you reflect on recent events, and you'll need some time to recover. Ex2) "Lo and behold, we were put on top of one of the richest natural resources in North America. We end up being in a very lucrative position."

547) Canvass

seek, try to obtain 2) poll, question, ask survey, interview Ex) Ms. Comstock was vice president of corporate communications when many of her subordinates who were canvassed for her 2002 performance evaluation complained she didn't ask for their thoughts in meetings. Ex2) Nearly 85 percent of Filipinos canvassed for a survey by Social Weather Stations, a respected local polling firm, said they opposed the Philippine government's inaction on China's movements in the South China Sea.

1628) Freelance

self-employed, independent, contract Ex) And reporters are working on a freelance basis more and more frequently, not subjected to or sometimes aware of news outlets' ethical guidelines.

274) Autonomy

self-government, self-rule, independence Ex) In return, the Kurds want the Syrian government to grant them a degree of autonomy, allowing them to continue their experiment in self-governance, Muslim said. Ex2) This would require removing the administrative autonomy of the country's 17 regions, granted to them after Spain's return to democracy, and also ending the fiscal privileges gained by some, like the Basques.

1115) Dispatch

send off, post, mail, forward, transmit Ex) Bhutanese soldiers tried to stop the construction, according to India, which said it then dispatched its troops in coordination with Bhutan. Ex2) Mr. Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jung, was dispatched to the Winter Olympics held in South Korea in February.

548) Cap

set a limit on, limit, restrict 2) round off, crown, top off, to climax off Ex) At a staff meeting on Wednesday, Mr Trump's new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, announced a number of seemingly quotidian internal moves, capped by the appointment of Kirstjen Nielsen- his brusque, no-nonsense longtime aide- as an assistant to the president and his principal deputy. Ex2) The arrest of the former officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, capped an intense FBI inquiry that began around 2012, two years after the CIA.

1308) Ensconce

settle in a comfortable place Ex) Once he ensconced himself in the West Wing, Mr. Bolton began talking publicly about the "the Libyan model" of turning over nuclear weapons, a reference to a deal he helped design in 2003 in which Col. Muammar Qaddafi turned over a nascent nuclear program in return for exactly the kinds of economic lures Mr. Trump was talking about. Ex2) On vacation earlier at his private club in Bedminster NJ and now, ensconced again in the White House, he has been watching television- unfettered by any aides- and responding as he always has.

268) Austerity

severity, strictness, seriousness Ex) An aide to Mr. Temer, who has been pushing unpopular austerity measures through Congress, said more lawmakers should support his reform agenda because it will help the economy.

1048) Diffident

shy, bashful, modest, meek, timid Ex1) And it's true that, thanks to both its diffident hero and its resistance to easy romanticism, "First Man" is a surprisingly somber, occasionally inert, sometimes even off-putting enterprise. Ex2) Downstairs, the diffident, intensely self-conscious paintings of Alex Kwartler's "Snowflake" are named after poems by Frank O'Hara and Emily Dickinson, among others, but the poet they made me think of was A.R.

959) Deft

skillful, adept, adroit, dexterous Ex) A deft political showman, Stewart exhibited a zeal for controversy, including raffling off an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle while campaigning for the Senate. Ex2) They studied his college tape, noting his shot-blocking skills, vocal leadership and deft footwork.

703) Complacency

smugness, self-satisfaction, self-congratulation Ex) In the face of complacency from Republicans fearful of what attention to these intrigues might reveal about the Trump campaign's dealings with Russia, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have issued a report that appears to be the most comprehensive public accounting of Russia's war on the West.

1831) Head

snapping- to suddenly and sharply rebuke or insult a person Ex) Keeping diplomatic developments coming at a head-snapping pace, the South Korean government said on Sunday that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, had told President Moon Jae-in that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States agreed to formally end the Korean War and promise not to invade his country.

1187) Drench

soak, saturate, douse Ex1) I'll remember Scherzer, drenched in beer, so determined to enjoy his no-hitter before taking questions that he nearly made me miss deadline. Ex2) The space itself is terrifically grim, drenched in graffiti, including a pre-emptive up-yours to would-be walkouts.

243) Assuage

soothe, alleviate, allay, ease, relieve, moderate, abate Ex) And Tuesday's Senate vote indicated that Mr. Mnuchin's assurances did not assuage doubts among the party's Russia skeptics that the deal with Mr. Deripaska's companies sufficiently decreased his control. Ex2) She made an appointment to see a New York-based rheumatologist, who assuaged her fears.

111) Allay

soothe, alleviate, assuage, ease, relieve, moderate, abate Ex) Last month the European Commission proposed changes to the organization's rules that were drawn up in part to allay American concerns about the panel that adjudicates trade disputes. Ex2) JPMorgan CEO James Dimon got involved personally, speaking with some health-care executives to allay fears that the bank would become their rival, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

1818) Haste

speed, swiftness Ex) "We do hope the deployment begins immediately," Ms. Nielson said. "We're working with all haste."

1373) Ethos

spirit, character, atmosphere, climate, mood, feeling Ex1) The ethos means even more to you, because you're practicing it every moment — even in the pit, even at shows. Ex2) I believe that leaders who read "The Prince" today will discover subtleties that are missing from the current administration's power-at-any-cost ethos.

1049) Diffuse

spread, disseminate, scatter 2) verbose, wordy, prolix, long-winded Ex1) Robert D. McCrie, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a security specialist since 1970, said it also meant that the local law enforcement agencies investigating were more diffuse. Ex2) FRBs are among the few types of signal that interact with the diffuse fog of electrons that exists among galaxies.

1172) Dour

stern, unsmiling, unfriendly Ex1) Here was not the dour, white-haired figure on the dollar bill, nor the black-clad older man with bad dentures depicted in other portraits. Ex2) He added that he was aware of the increasingly dour mood among business executives.

1437) Extant

still existing, in existence, existent Ex1) He beautifully catches the language of Aspen, Davos and the recently extant Clinton Global Initiative, which will doubtless reappear in the newly born Bloomberg initiative. Ex2) Although Franklin Roosevelt failed to pack the Supreme Court with extra jurists to support his New Deal agenda, for instance, he eventually appointed eight new justices to fill extant seats.

1244) Elastic

stretchy, elasticized, stretchable 2) adaptable, flexible, adjustable Ex1) Think of the bright elastic throats of anole lizards, the Fabergé abdomens of peacock spiders and the curling, iridescent, ludicrously long feathers of birds-of-paradise. Ex2) Its tiny form contained an unexpected array of elements: triangular panels; contrast-color stitching; and most distinctively of all, those vibrant elastic straps threaded through loops of crochet.

326) Bash

strike, hit, beat, thump 2) criticize, censure, assail Ex) There's still a big question about whether he has a political strategy that matches his willingness to bash his own party.

911) Dashing

stylish, smart, elegant, chic 2) romantically attractive Ex1) The daily "banzai runs" in Yuma, Ariz., that used to send hundreds of young men dashing across the scarcely marked border to overwhelm a few dozen U.S. agents were already a thing of the past. Ex2) The daily "banzai runs" in Yuma, Ariz., that used to send hundreds of young men dashing across the scarcely marked border to overwhelm a few dozen U.S. agents were already a thing of the past

629) Chyron

subtitle, electronically generated caption superimposed on a television or movie screen Ex) The unexpurgated expletive appeared, in capital letters, on the graphics known as chyrons that dominate the lower portion of the screen on CNN and MSNBC.

64) Adequate

sufficient, enough Ex) But Justice Clarence Thomas, who assigned himself the opinion as the senior justice in the majority, said Florida's law was an adequate fit with the statute and the court's past decisions. Ex2) "Many of the 41 Urban Indian Health Programs that span 22 states are struggling without adequate funds."

1563) Float

suggest, moot, propose, advance Ex) To accomplish the idea he floated on Tuesday, Mr. Trump would have to find a way around the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

395) Bilk

swindle, defraud, cheat Ex) In July, more than 20 people working with call centers in India were sentenced in a large scheme that bilked more than 15,000 Americans of hundreds of millions of dollars over a four-year period. Ex2) The company shut down in May and agreed to pay a settlement of nearly $26 million to resolve a wide-ranging Federal Trade Commission complaint that it bilked customers.

666) Codify

systematize, organize Ex1) "The Republican Senate said, 'You don't need a state law codifying Roe v. Ex2) Representative Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, the retiring chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, accepted the requested changes and this week introduced legislation in the House that would codify them into law.

1816) Hash over

talk about something, discuss something Ex) Deborah VanTrece, a prominent Atlanta chef, hashed over that every question at her restaurant.

422) Bluster

talk loudly and aggressively, rant, rave 2) blast, gust, storm Ex) As we enter 2019, the Grahamster is full of brio and bluster, ready to rush Texas with his own posthole digger. Ex2) They can't compete in the true battlefield of masculinity — genuine self-confidence, not bluster and braggadocio, and the restrained use of power and influence, not the garish flaunting of it.

1006) Deracinate

tear by roots Ex1) This "Yerma" takes place in a London of a willfully progressive, deracinated middle class, which long ago discarded traditional notions of family. Ex2) Yet the citizens of that great deracinated, metrosexual Babylon pay more in work taxes than do those of the next 36 cities combined.

1425) Experimental

temporary, exploratory, investigational, trial, test 2) innovative, innovatory, new, original Ex1) In a separate set, Haley Fohr — best known for her experimental folk outfit Circuit des Yeux — will perform a solo vocal work titled "Wordless Music." Ex2) Two years ago, as a Harvard undergraduate, I started a biotech company with a fellow student to develop an experimental drug for pancreatic cancer.

513) Buyback

the buying back by a company of its own shares Ex) Over the last five years, Apple has returned $233 billion in cash to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.

491) Bull's eye

the center of a target in sports such as archery, shooting and arts Ex) But Facebook noticed Snap's traction and set a bull's eye on it.

1352) Ergonomics

the study of people's efficiency in their working environment Ex) In response, teams are educating players on ergonomics, hiring personal chefs and sending gamers to the gym.

1408) Exhaust

tire out, wear out, overtire 2) deplete, use up, wipe out, eat up Ex1) Fortunately, I'd suffered only minimal heart damage, but enough to leave me exhausted most days. Ex2) I thought about how it's possible to be crushed by something you built, how it's possible to invent a game that exhausts you to play.

1624) Fraternize

to associate or form a friendship with someone when one is not supposed to Ex) She described spending "the night around a campfire with the workers, drinking, singing, fraternizing in a way I'd never done with workers." Ex2) They will be issued a rule book that forbids them from fraternizing with players, and, in some cases, being too opinionated, or chewing gum.

868) Cross lines

to do something wrong, unacceptable, or inappropriate Ex) As someone who spent Bush's presidency as a registered Democrat, Mr Trump had the potential to cross lines, but once inaugurated, he chose a hard-right path of banning visitors from certain Muslim-majority countries, pulling out of a climate change accord and seeking to overturn Mr Obama's health care program.

1708) Gloat

to feel or express great, often malicious, pleasure or self-satisfaction Ex) Several officers said inmates openly gloated on Friday when they received their paychecks for the work they perform at the prison. Ex2) Democrats, for their part, gloated over their newfound political leverage.

1047) Differentiate

to make different Ex1) He was careful to differentiate the idea of a genetic population from the old idea of race, which he agreed was a social rather than biological fact. Ex2) He made his decision, he said, knowing that he wanted to differentiate himself from Pelosi as the political war of divided government begins.

987) Demystify

to make it easier to understand; to clear Ex1) But he praised O'Rourke for his recent efforts to demystify the border and bring attention to immigration issues. Ex2) He and his therapist moved on to demystifying the washing machine and the microwave, using color-coded controls.

1837) Hearten

to make more cheerful or confident, cheer up, encourage, boost, buoy up Ex) It's heartening, I suppose, that fish and chips retains enough cultural cachet for a vegan version to be thought desirable, and even better that it's so good Ex2) That is heartening news for USA Hockey, which must also confront another issue as it seeks to bolster the number of good American goalies.

982) Demonize

to make seem evil, wicked Ex) Republican lawmakers who have demonized the program as welfare for able-bodied adults have long sought to require Medicaid beneficiaries to work.

1663) Gall

to make someone feel annoyed, irritate, annoy, vex, nettle, infuriate 2) a galling Ex) Consumer groups say the efforts to protect utilities are particularly galling because Californians already pay more for power than people in other Western states. Ex2) After gall bladder surgery in 2006, Rico developed a blood clotting disorder that made working difficult.

1598) Foreshadow

to present an indication or a suggestion of beforehand Ex) That ultimate unleashing seems all but assured, thanks to plenty of blunt foreshadowing. Ex2) Consider that second guess a foreshadowing of calamities to follow.

1901) Hollow out

to remove the inside, to make an empty space Ex) The question isn't whether or not the marriage equality decision will be overturned - the threat is they will be hollowed out from underneath by a combination of religious exemptions and state rejection of equal treatment.

1721) Got off on the wrong foot

to start in a bad way Ex) The relationship, though, got off on the wrong foot when Amazon proposed a workaround of a local ordinance that asks companies to hire at least 30% of its workforce from the pool of residents.

1815) Hash out

to talk about to reach an agreement, cut deal, hammer out Ex) One main reason for the pessimistic outlook is that the Senate, for various political and logistical reasons, has essentially given up on the time-honored method of considering individual spending bills on the floor after they have been hashed out in committee. Ex2) They can do anything, lawmakers face a load of time-sensitive fiscal business, hashing out a budget, funding the government and raising the federal debt limit.

1009) Derelict

tramp, vagrant, vagabond Ex1) After a foreclosure around 2000, the privately owned home was abandoned and became derelict. Ex2) Its monolithic ore dock is an everyday reminder of the town's decay, as are the vacancies along Main Street and Virgil's own derelict movie theater.

18) Abreast of

up to date with, in touch with, informed about, acquainted with, knowledgeable about Ex) Bonnie Jacob, also a real estate agent and resident, is also abreast of all the club activities around the property. Ex2) "It's also a great way to stay abreast of any flight notifications on the day of travel," he said.

1412) Exhortation

urging, encouragement, persuasion, pressure Ex) After the slaughter in Las Vegas, Republican leaders in Washington tried to stifle the public's demands for action with the same technique they've deployed after mass shootings in the past: offering up pious exhortations not to "politicize" a tragedy by debating gun controls that might, you know, prevent such mass killings from happening again. Ex2) Mr Trump rejected criticisms that his words had been too inflammatory, repeated his exhortation to North Korea's Kim Jong Un to stop issuing threats and vowed to invest billions of dollars in missile defense.

1921) Husband

use resources economically, conserve, economize on, scrimp Ex) In the end, Tonia's husband defied her orders and organized dinner at a local restaurant with close friends, who took care of the bill. Ex2) My husband pulled the parking brake and slid into the parking lot of a crumbling motel, stopping just shy of hitting its sign.

275) Avail

use, utilize employ 2) help, aid, assist Ex) Moreover, the university said, Mr. Nguyen "repeatedly declined to avail himself of support resources M.I.T. offered.

1043) Dicken

used for emphasis Ex) The problem that we've got is we're trying like the dickens to treat the symptoms without treating the disease.

221) Arsenal

weapons, weaponery, arms, arnament Ex) That authority, along with the decision earlier this year to drop the biggest nonnuclear bomb in the American arsenal on a group of Islamic State fighters who had set up shop in Afghanistan suggests the US is prepared to make a broader military commitment. Ex2) Rarely does a government announce a strategy to assassinate a head of state, but South Korea wants to keep the North on edge and nervous about the consequences of further developing its nuclear arsenal.

1474) Fanatic

zealot, extremist, militant 2) maniac, fervid Ex1) You're far less likely than you were even 15 or 20 years ago to be embarrassed by the company — to face what opera fanatics call, with fascinated disdain, filth. Ex2) The sardonic view is the football fanatics got their team back and the party lights are back on.

1538) Fit

1) be suitable, be good enough, be relevant 2) blow, burst, frenzy Ex1) If floating in the Caribbean Sea is part of your detox dream, easy-to-get-to Jamaica fits the bill. Ex2) As complicated as it was to get healthy, finding a proper fit with the back-to-back champs appeared just as daunting.

501) Buoyant

1) floating, floatable 2) cheerful, lighthearted, carefree Ex) Noname's real gift, though, is making the heaviest burdens seem hopeful and buoyant. Ex2) Heading into 2018, in the days after Mr. Trump's tax cuts were enacted, investors were mostly buoyant about his presidency and tolerant of his unpredictable declarations on Twitter.

1406) Exemplify

1) illustrate, give an example of 2) typify, epitomize, be a typical example of Ex1) This change was intended to exemplify the diversity of the school and the county and provide security for students made uncomfortable by the name in the wake of events such as the Charlottesville protests. Ex2) It's a double-edged sword exemplified by one of Zenify's customers, Google, where Rosenfeld says the drink is offered as an employee perk.

56) Ad hoc

1) impromptu, extempore, extemporary, extemporaneous, expedient, emergency, improvised, rough and ready, makeshift 2) as the need arises, when necessary, when needed Ex) It takes an ad hoc "war room" at Facebook headquarters with dozens of staff members working round-the-clock shifts. Ex2) Robert Pandya, a motorcycle marketing consultant and the founder of an ad hoc advisory group, Give a Shift, pointed to a lack of interest among millennials as a drag on sales.

379) Beret

a round flattish cap of felt or cloth Ex) I still occasionally burst out laughing just thinking of the protagonist's nemesis Bertrand Welch, a pompous pseudo-intellectual who wears a beret and says "You sam" - stretched out version of "You see."

236) Assent

accept, acquiesce, concur Ex) By late afternoon Monday, however, the networks signaled their assent one by one. Ex2) Gambia was among the last African nations to assent to the "One China" policy and cut ties with Taiwan in 2013.

1374) Eulogy

accolade, panegyric, paean, tribute, compliment Ex1) Following Kennedy's death in 2009, Mr. Culver delivered a eulogy at his wake, jokingly describing the senator as a 20th-century "Captain Ahab," after their first sailing adventure was rocked by a sea squall. Ex2) While the tributes poured in, many of them sounding unnecessarily like eulogies marking a great competitor's passing, Franklin sagely wrote, "I choose to look at this as a new beginning."

262) Auditors

accountant, bookkeeper, inspector Ex) Lynn E. Turner, a former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a trustee of the Colorado Public Employee's Retirement Association, said he knew well that many companies hate having auditors assess their internal controls.

259) Attune

accustom, adjust, adapt Ex) As a society, we've all become more attuned to the revelatory nature of fashion. Ex2) But his editorial ethos — curious, skeptical, attuned to the pleasures of consumerism and the anxieties of urban life — permanently reshaped several of the country's most prominent publications.

705) Complaisant

acquiescent, agreeable, amenable Ex1) Onstage, there was absolutely nothing complaisant about her. Ex2) With the help of complaisant council members, they simply changed the law to reward themselves with third terms.

819) Cordial

affable, easygoing, friendly, warm, genial Ex) The people briefed on the matter described the three days of negotiations as cordial and said both sides made progress on issues related to purchases of American goods and services and greater market access. Ex2) While the conversation was cordial, the subtext was clear: Khashoggi no longer lived under Saudi rule, but the country's most powerful royal was monitoring his every word.

1724) Graft

affix, join, insert, splice 2) corruption, bribery 3) transplant, implant Ex) Then, in 1997, a horrific freak accident derailed her life — her clothing caught on fire and left Babitz with third-degree burns on much of her body, skin grafts and months of recovery. Ex2) After the exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui used the platforms to lob graft accusations at top Chinese leaders, Facebook and Twitter suspended his accounts temporarily, citing user complaints and the disclosure of personal information.

342) Bedevil

afflict, torment, beset, assail Ex) Mr. Khashoggi's fate has transfixed official Washington, bedeviled the Saudis, helped revive Mr. Erdogan's international reputation and threated core foreign policy priorities of the Trump administration.

1472) Fallout

aftermath, effect, reverberation, consequence Ex) But back in Washington on Tuesday, his advisers and congressional allies have tried to limit the fallout from his remarks in an Oval Office meeting last week, insisting that he had never described the countries as "shiteholes." Ex2) And the company is still dealing with the fallout from a monthlong probe into its culture after a former software engineer alleged rampant sexism and sexual harassment during her time there.

121) Altercation

a noisy argument or disagreement in public, argument, quarrel, squabble Ex) The Trump Organization, in turn, has accused Mr. Fintiklis of using "thug-like, mob-style tactics" in trying to force his way into the hotel's administrative offices, which prompted the physical and verbal altercations, and of engaging in a "fraudulent scheme" to strip the property of its Trump management and branding.

1867) Hiccup

a temporary setback, difficulty, or problem Ex) Some analysts said Mr. Trump's initial decision to scrap the summit meeting was a hiccup before a return to dialogue.

1160) Doodad

a trivial ornament Ex) Airlines are making bigger bets with premium passengers, offering luxury seats loaded with doodads that could boost the cost of outfitting a plane by millions of dollars.

1774) Gyration

a whirling motion Ex) That carries risks for Mr. Trump, who spent the first year of his presidency as a stock-market cheerleader but in recent months has been mostly silent about the market's gyrations.

1796) Hangdog

abashed, ashamed, guilty-looking, having a dejected or guilty appearance; shamefaced Ex) Mr. Golan's nervous hangdog affect works as well for Ben as it did for the shaky P.O.W. Ex2) Mr. Benson delivered his punch lines with a hangdog expression, an uninflected, matter-of-fact voice and the perfect timing honed by thousands of performances.

136) Amicable

amiable, friendly, cordial, easygoing, affable Ex) In an interview with The New York Times last year, Mr. Pincus said the split was amicable. Ex2) The rehearsal felt amicable, open, with no sense of hierarchy among the three dancers.

821) Cornucopia

an abundance, a profusion, a plentifulness Ex1) That if you dig deeply enough into the events of any random 24 hours, you will find a cornucopia of drama, humor, etc. — what we hacks like to call "the human condition." Ex2) As I waited, I was drawn to the restaurant's enormous, glowing, refrigerated windows, where a cornucopia of tempting food was on display.

1850) Heirloom

antique, be quest, heritage, a possession passed down from one generation to the next. Ex) The masa is made in-house, using corn sourced from two local producers: red corn from Richardson Farms, and heirloom white and green from Barton Springs Mill. Ex2) On the counter was her mise en place: heirloom tomatoes, Granny Smith apples, carrot juice, raisins, brown sugar and duck confit.

769) Consternation

anxiety, dismay, perturbation, distress, disquiet Ex1) Mr. Trump wants to hand the fight against Islamic State to Turkey, to the consternation of Washington's longtime Kurdish allies. Ex2) That's a source of consternation for the $2 billion leafy greens industry, which desperately wants to avoid a repeat of what happened last year and is counting on the FDA for help.

1370) Ethnoburb

area with a lot of minority Ex) The rise of the ethnoburb.

457) Bravado

boldness, swaggering Ex) Now there's "Welfare," a debut novel by Canadian writer Steve Anwyll that similarly eschews the bravado of literary fiction from major publishing houses, chronicling a teenage protagonist's descent into state-sponsored decrepitude. Ex2) "C'mon!" he shouted, rolling up his right shirt sleeve, then thumping his right biceps repeatedly with his left hand, a move that seemed freighted with both bravado and relief.

440) Boon

bonus, great benefit, help Ex) Mr. Trump said that the deal, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, was a boon for American dairy farmers, who would soon face fewer restrictions when selling products into Canada. Ex2) And even at 1,000 miles long, the steel-slatted border wall would still be too small to be a boon for U.S. steelmakers.

293) Backfire

boomerang, comeback, rebound Ex) The post, which apparently sought to undermine the 29-year-old politician by uncovering "The Breakfast Club" tribute, backfired when Ocasio-Cortez posted an updated clip of herself dancing outside her congressional office. Ex2) But he argued that her call to delay Trump's speech was "a major screw-up" and predicted it would backfire.

1159) Domineering

browbeat, bully, intimidate Ex1) Beauty reveals that evolution is neither an iterative chiseling of living organisms by a domineering landscape nor a frenzied collision of chance events. Ex2) War, death, stupidity, cruelty and domineering are tolerable, in the long run, if they serve or at least don't impede the creation and sustenance of such pockets.

211) Arduous

burdensome, exhausting, fatiguing, grueling, harsh, laborious, onerous, hard Ex) Still, the Mirandas' efforts are being widely hailed in the arduous campaign to get the island back on its feet. Ex2) "Smugglers, traffickers, and their own parents put these minors at risk by embarking on the dangerous and arduous journey north."

41) Accrete

coalesce, accumulate, accrue Ex) These were actually accumulating from just early November, and the erosion of earnings took place over a five-week period at Merrill, so they accreted within the organization. Ex2) On the other hand, the rental bikes often seem to be scattered about the city in clumps: a phalanx of bikes accreting outside a Metro station, on a street corner, in a park.

1167) Dot

com collapse- a period from 1997-2001 that some online businesses failed Amazon and Ebay peaked their stock prices Ex) His first high-profile venture was eSamsung, a start-up incubator that went belly-up during the dot-com collapse of the early 2000s.

1530) Fine

comb- to search thoroughly Ex) The events of Charlottesville require any judge, any police chief and any legal group to look at the facts of any white -supremacy protest with a much finer comb.

1873) Highfly -extravagance, pretension, or excessive ambition 2) rising to considerable height Ex) The market's attraction to highflying stocks punished value investors in a similar fashion in the late 1990s during the dot

come bubble.

1745) Gripe

complain, grumble, protest, whine, repine 2) complaint, grumble, grouse, grievance Ex) The decentralized nature of the protests in Arabic-speaking Sudan harks back to the Arab Spring, which also began with economic gripes but morphed into popular discontent against authoritarian leaders. Ex2) "You're not going to get any griping about being a celebrity from me," he said.

659) Coagulate

conceal, clot, thicken, solidify, congeal Ex1) Paraffin wax was better, though on her first try the wax didn't melt completely and coagulated within the straws. Ex2) The blood coagulates on contact with endotoxin, a biochemical component of certain bacteria, including many that cause disease.

1398) Excoriate

condemn, decry, reprobate, denounce Ex1) "Essentially correct," was how former U.S. ambassador Robert S. Ford, who once excoriated the Obama administration for failing to do more in Syria, described Trump's move in a Post op-ed. Ex2) The plan was immediately excoriated by students and others as an expensive shrine to white supremacy.

356) Belie

contradict, be at odds with, disprove, debunk Ex1) The memo itself belies his benign reading of his own words. Ex2) The soothing vibe belies the familiar existential dread in the poetic lyrics.

1112) Disparate

contrasting, different, dissimilar Ex1) Two alternating programs highlight his inspired interpretations of the work of two disparate composers: Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. Ex2) The ensuing collision of their disparate worldviews is every bit as messy — and ultimately revealing — as you might expect.

966) Deject

depress Ex) The developments left a number of lawmakers dejected. Ex2) Rather, it's to imbue dejected Americans with greater feelings of self-worth through an honest paycheck.

179) Apocalyptic

doomsday, doom-laden, ominous, portentous Ex) This was not the apocalyptic world of "Bird Box"; no blindfold required. Ex2) "It looked like I was in some sort of apocalyptic natural disaster movie where people were trying to flee," Mr. Dylewski said.

857) Crestfallen

downhearted, downcast, despondent, disappointed Ex1) For Democrats, their House triumph was particularly redemptive — not only because of how crestfallen they were in the wake of Mrs. Clinton's defeat but due to how they found success this year. Ex2) "So, I didn't do a very good job about that," Keith said, crestfallen.

1978) Imperil

endanger, jeopardize, risk, put in danger Ex) He composed it in 1944, in the shadow of Stalin, and it's pierced with notes of anxiety, and glimpses of a tilted, dark and imperiled world. Ex2) "In its failure to provide protection for these more than two dozen imperiled species, the Trump administration's showing complete contempt for America's endangered wildlife," Noah Greenwald, the Center's endangered species director, said in a statement.

1303) Enmesh

entangle, ensnare, snare, trap Ex) What is also notable - and was true long before the Florida shooting - is how deeply enmeshed American teen and tween culture has become in the twin issues of guns and gun control.

1380) Evanescent

ephemeral, passing, brief, fading Ex1) Certainly it made for a beguiling evening, though so light as to be evanescent, like a soap bubble. Ex2) The post-election moment, when victorious candidates wax grandiloquent reaching across the aisle to accomplish important things for the American people, is as evanescent as a rainbow.

1404) Exemplar

epitome, perfect example, paragon, ideal Ex1) A graduate of Harvard Law School, Bennett cited Bruce Willis's character in "Die Hard" as an exemplar of clarity while pushing confidently for an invasion of Iraq. Ex2) Another exemplar of the Giving Tuesday message is Aaron Dean, who said that his mother, a social worker, taught him the importance of kindness.

687) Commensurate

equivalent, equal, comparable Ex1) Russel noted that in his televised annual New Year's Day address, Kim reiterated demands that the United States agree to remove its nuclear umbrella in defense of South Korea before Pyongyang takes commensurate steps. Ex2) The rarity of Barkley's name would soon be commensurate with his talents on the football field.

1232) Efface

erase, eradicate, expunge, wipe out 2) make oneself inconspicuous, keep out of sight, lie low, keep a low profile, stay low, brim low Ex1) This, Leonhard said, risks effacing some of the differences in how World War I was experienced by those from different countries. Ex2) And, in an anachronistic gesture that was entirely welcome, they receded into the background in traditional fashion, the better to efface their own presence and permit the women around them to shine.

545) Canonical

established, recognized, authoritative Ex) Archbishop Józef Wesolowski, a Polish cleric who was the Vatican's ambassador to the Dominican Republic, was also expelled after a canonical trial for abusing children, and died in 2015 while awaiting a civil trial. Ex2) In canonical code "to avoid a public scandal", means "not giving the opportunity to a sinner to sin again," he said.

415) Bliss

euphoria, ecstasy, felicity Ex) Those of us who grow do so by developing our moral imaginations and expanding our carrying capacities for pain and bliss. Ex2) No, what's odd here is how closely the new movie follows the original's arc without ever capturing its bliss or tapping into its touching delicacy of feeling.

239) Assess

evaluate, judge, gauge, rate, estimate, appraise Ex) They called the ruling "disappointing and unexpected" and said they would analyze it "and assess the appropriate next steps." Ex2) The data that Portland collected allowed the city to assess whether e-scooters live up to their promises of reducing pollution and congestion.

1675) Garrulous

excessively talkative on trivial matters, talkative, loquacious Ex) "The most amazing thing I've done is kept everybody from attacking each other," said Mr. Parscale, a garrulous man who exudes nervous energy. Ex2) And he mines the folksy clichés of Irish archetypes — as garrulous, drink-loving, pugilistic souls — to find the crueler patterns of a centuries-old cycle of violence and vengeance.

1034) Devoid

free of, empty of, vacant of Ex1) "This used to be full of people," he said, pointing at the rows of colorful wooden chairs on the sand, devoid of sunbathers. Ex2) Some schools are salvageable but sit in the middle of vast debris fields devoid of residents.

1093) Disembarrass

free oneself Ex1) The delighted Agnes instantly disembarrassed herself of all out-of-door appurtenances, and Lucy, without saying a word about it, quietly did the same. Ex2) After being disembarrassed of the policeman, he was but too happy to be driven back to the villa in South Bank.

536) Camaraderie

friendship, comradeship, fellowship Ex) That extreme camaraderie may be the most crucial difference between a football locker room and a typical workplace. Ex2) Kristin Duquette, a furloughed employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, savored the camaraderie of her colleagues who also attended the American University event.

1773) Guzzle

gobble, gulp down, swallow, to eat or drink something greedily Ex) Some social drinking is shown, and Robin briefly guzzles from a bottle of whiskey. Ex2) There are also rats, a meanspirited boss, a larcenous employee and of course the customers, who guzzle and chow down while ogling the skimpily dressed waitresses or the blaring TVs.

1653) Furlough

grant a leave of absence to Ex) The shutdown has affected about a quarter of the government, left 800,000 federal workers furloughed or working without pay and on Thursday entered its sixth day. Ex2) Not only do federal employees accept being furloughed or forced to work without wages, they have assured him that they would give up paychecks so that he can stand strong. Ex3) Since Dec. 22, furloughed workers and those working without pay have been living off their savings, credit cards and the last paychecks that landed in their accounts.

1891) Hoary

gray-haired, white-haired, silver-haired 2) dull, arid, commonplace humdrum Ex) Where St. John focused on diversity and folk music, Wu Han is concentrating on that hoariest of classical-music tropes, the city of Vienna. Ex2) Schematic and shallow, it flits from one hoary set piece to the next with all of the insight, surprise and psychological depth of a sanitized "Behind the Music" episode or unironic remake of "Walk Hard."

1360) Escalate

grow, increase, extend, intensify, expand Ex1) Japan's surrender in 1945 brought no respite, as fighting escalated between the ruling Nationalist Party and Mao Zedong's Communist insurgents. Ex2) Those tools include raising tariff rates against a trading partner — and continuing to escalate them should the other country retaliate.

1461) Facetious

humorous, joking, jocular, witty Ex1) Washington: I was going to say the best way to tell was to casually date multiple people, but now it'll just sound facetious. Ex2) During the Roaring Twenties, "it began to appear far more often in tandem with glorifications of wealth," she writes — and therefore took on an ironic, even facetious, dimension among critics of the new dispensation.

1523) Fiery

impassioned, passionate, ardent, fervent Ex1) Crab cakes don't scream Havana, either, but here they are, crusty patties formed from lump and claw meat and made tropical with a fiery mango salsa. Ex2) Other inexpensive items on the menu include a pistachio baklava for $3.90 and a filling koshary dish for $5.90 — made of caramelized onions, lentils, rice, pasta, chickpeas and a very fiery sauce. Ex3) Charming, intelligent, complex, fiery, and eloquent, Ms. Madikizela-Mandela was inevitably known to most of the world through her marriage to the revered Mr. Mandela

1982) Impervious

impermeable, impenetrable, impregnable, waterproof, watertight 2) unaffected by, untouched by, immune to Ex) Ortiz, who initially headed Baker's CountyStat program, said he used data and community outreach to move quickly to meet his goals, including reducing the amount of impervious surfaces in the county. Ex2) No. Five billion dollars for an insulated, redundant grid impervious to attack?

1989) Implicit

implied, hinted at, suggested, insinuated Ex) In his resignation letter last month, Mr. Mattis specifically cited his own commitment to America's alliances in an implicit criticism of Mr. Trump's principles. Ex2) It found that undergraduate students in Chile exhibited more implicit and explicit gender bias after studying economics.

1302) Enlighten

inform, tell, teach, advise Ex1) Surveillance capitalists like to depict themselves as more socially enlightened than their industrial predecessors, but in Zuboff's reckoning they ask for a lot while giving relatively little back. Ex2) Then commentators wrote meta-pieces on all this, many readable or funny or enlightening.

1665) Galvanize

jolt, shock, startle, impel, to arouse to awareness or action; spur Ex) Copper, galvanized steel, lead and traditional tin-plated steel are examples of these fine materials. Ex2) Looking ahead to the 2020 elections, Pelosi and others are concerned that focusing on impeachment too aggressively will galvanize the president's base in districts that Democrats need to hold to keep their majority.

1580) Folly

lack of good sense, foolishness Ex) Yet to supporters of Mr. Sanders and some others on the left, it is folly to assume that voter hunger to defeat Mr. Trump will somehow obviate the need to offer a bold economic agenda. Ex2) It would be folly to throw that advantage away.

1135) Dissonance

lack of harmony among musical notes Ex1) Most numbers are slowed down and set to harmonies that morph from quiet lyricism to frayed dissonances, with Mr. Sorey's subtle percussion work adding a nervous sheen. Ex2) It may be easier for a chief executive to deal with greater dissonance among directors he sees less frequently than among colleagues he sees every day.

447) Botch

mismanage, mishandle Ex) Mr. Kushner has repeatedly botched legally required disclosures of his business assets, and omitted Russian contacts on his security clearance form, asserting that despite the assistance of a cadre of experienced lawyers, he just can't seem to get the paperwork right. Ex2) Mr. Kim has also sent party officials to China to learn its economic policies, and has even admitted to other failures during his supposedly faultless leadership, like a botched satellite launch in 2012.

484) Buccaneer

pirate Ex) These buccaneers don't actually steal, but they do acquire some real gems: sparkling tales of fun and adventure, all submitted by children. Ex2) It's high time the United States instituted a "maximum wage" to stop today's buccaneer capitalists from starving the golden goose of American productive genius.

1798) Haphazard

random, unplanned, unsystematic, unmethodical, lacking any obvious principle or organization Ex) Later military governments oversaw the repression of the 1970s Dirty War but also ever more haphazard economic mismanagement. Ex2) Later military governments oversaw the repression of the 1970s Dirty War but also ever more haphazard economic mismanagement.

1839) Heart

rending- causing great sadness or distress, distressing, upsetting, disturbing Ex) After the attack, Khan offered his singular perspective in a heartrending stream of posts on social media. Ex2) Watching others deliberately endanger their hearing is heartrending to me.

483) Brusque

rudely brief, abrupt, blunt, short Ex) At a staff meeting on Wednesday, Mr Trump's new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, announced a number of seemingly quotidian internal moves, capped by the appointment of Kirstjen Nielsen- his brusque, no-nonsense longtime aide- as an assistant to the president and his principal deputy.

781) Contemptuous

scornful, disdainful, disrespectful, insulting Ex) In contrast to previous White Houses, the first seven-plus months under Mr Trump have been something of a historical outlier- organized around an antiestablishment president contemptuous of precedent and comfortable with spaghetti lines of authority and the resulting chaos. Ex) Summarizing the companies' generally contemptuous point of view, a Chevron spokesman called the suit factually and legally meritless and said it would benefit only special interests.

1833) Headstrong

self-willed and obstinate, willful, strong-willed, stubborn, obstinate Ex) Here, in the person of a headstrong and bighearted child named Marie, petite Lauren Grant plays the part with forthrightness and finesse; this season marks her 22nd year in this central "Hard Nut" role. Ex2) She does not ask a woman the reasons she traveled here with a laundry basket or why Darrell LaFrance, one of the pantry's regulars, sleeps in his truck with Ralph, his headstrong and talkative puppy.

1611) Fortuitous

serendipitous, happening by accident or chance rather than design, unexpected, unanticipated Ex) Benoit's foresight to pack an evacuation box and purchase a hefty insurance policy less than two months before the fire proved fortuitous, but they were temporarily homeless. Ex2) Mr. Krosoczka is a firm believer in transparency and he attributes that to what helped his fortuitous TED Talk at Hampshire College in October 2012.

1780) Halcyon

serene, tranquil, placid, quiet, calm, denoting a period of time in the past that it was idyllically happy and peaceful Ex) The Cup may not mean what it did; its halcyon days may be gone. Ex2) And there is a hope, too, that Ronaldo's decision might prove a harbinger of a return to a halcyon age.

1903) Homily

sermon, tedious moralizing discourse, sermon, lecture Ex) "My hunch is heaven, as perfect as it must be, just got a bit kinder and gentler," the Rev. Dr. Russell J. Levenson Jr., rector of St. Martin's, said on Wednesday in his homily. Ex2) The Rev. Patrick Lewis did not mention the list of abusers in his homily.

1543) Flaccid

soft, loose, flabby Ex1) Reported in 46 states and the District, acute flaccid myelitis, known as AFM, causes muscle weakness and in some cases paralysis in the arms or legs, terrifying parents and puzzling medical researchers. Ex2) Allow a fully cooked chicken to linger under a heat lamp, or sit too long in a holding unit, and its skin is bound to turn flaccid.

1096) Disgorge

spew, pour out, discharge, eject, throw out, emit, expel Ex) everal analysts expect the government to force Goldman to disgorge the roughly $600 million it earned arranging the bond deals. Ex2) Earlier this year, the New York Times disgorged several thousand words alleging Trump played cute with his taxes.

1698) Gird

surround, enclose, encircle Ex) Girding for violence, Israel had almost doubled its forces along the border, deploying snipers, special units and drones, and warning that it would act to prevent any breach of the border fence or violation of Israel's sovereignty.

1637) Friction

the action of one surface or object rubbing against Ex) He prefers, for example, to do his off-season movement drills on a tennis court, rather than indoors as many players do, to better simulate the footing and friction of match conditions. Ex2) If there's any friction to it at all, it resides between the anti-authoritarian platitudes and the virulent melodies.

1668) Gamify

the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts Ex) But what happens when you introduce the elements of exclusivity and scarcity- and then gamify it?

471) Brinkmanship

the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, typically in politics Ex) North Korea's climbdown from its threat to attack Guam was a product of textbook brinkmanship from Pyongyang, amid economic pressure from Beijing, President Trump's bellicose rhetoric and an effort by senior US officials to emphasize the need for diplomacy.

601) Chair

to act as a chairperson of or preside over an organization, meeting, or public event Ex) Hours after his departure from the White House, Breitbart said he chaired the conservative news site's evening editorial meeting.

1601) Forge

to advance gradually but steadily 2) to fashion or reproduce for fraudulent purposes 3) to form by heating in a forge and beating or hammering into shape Ex) U.S. and Chinese trade officials are in talks to reopen China's market to U.S. chicken exports as they seek to forge a new trade deal, according to people familiar with the discussions. Ex2) The challenge for the Democrats is to avoid Trump's blunder of creating a headline-grabbing insurgency and, instead, forge a broad governing coalition.

58) Adamant

unwavering, stalwart, staunch, resolute, resolved, determined, firm, steadfast Ex) Europe is adamant that Britain not be allowed to leave the bloc and keep the benefits of membership: It should not be able to sell its wares unhampered into the Republic while breaching European rules. Ex2) The Modi administration is also adamant about maintaining its hefty subsidies for homegrown agricultural products to court Indian farmers, who are a key voting bloc.

1620) Frail

weak, delicate, feeble, enfeebled, weak and delicate Ex) They celebrated Mexico's indigenous cultures; imbued her frail, damaged body with a powerful aura; and displayed an early grasp of the fluidity of gender and identity. Ex2) Circling the grounds clockwise were half a dozen frail and elderly Bhutanese, some with hunched backs and canes, chanting the six perfections that lead to enlightenment: generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom.

1236) Effete

weak, enfeebled, enervated Ex1) Ian Fried, who performs as Orion Dove, wore fluffy white boots, struck effete poses and used an enormous henchman to do his dirty work. Ex2) If too many contemporary novels strike you as effete and suburban, here's survivalist fiction at its rawest from a novelist who sometimes sounds as bleak as our own Cormac McCarthy.

1497) Feeble

weak, frail, delicate, enfeebled Ex1) "I like to watch," she told him at the time, her final and somewhat feeble plea before being whisked to hair and makeup and gussied up for her star turn. Ex2) Robbery that must overpower a victim's will — even a feeble or weak-willed victim — necessarily involves a physical confrontation and struggle.

1294) Enfeeble

weaken, debilitate, incapacitate, drain Ex1) The public trough is a major factor in why the act, always enfeebled, is now itself endangered. Ex2) In Brazil, WhatsApp is helping outsiders gain power by replacing enfeebled traditional brokers such as unions.

256) Attenuate

weaken, reduce, lower, Ex1) The hourlong composition, resisting its own momentum, breaks into too many disparate pieces, nearly as loose and attenuated as the stuff on the floor. Ex2) The paintings are fantastic and feral, both in execution and in suggested narrative; attenuated, often adolescent, sometimes gnomelike creatures populate them.

1544) Flag

weaken, wilt, droop Ex1) The most recent polling suggests that support for Brexit may be flagging. Ex2) Agents who flagged the issue were not critical of the secretary so much as the lack of training he received on the appropriate use of his security detail, according to the report.

1201) Dug in

work energetically Ex) President Trump dug in on his demand for border wall funding as the partial government shutdown approached its first full week on Friday, threatening again to close the southern border and cut off aid to Central America if Congress continued to deny his administration the money.

46) Acolyte

1) assistant, helper, attendant, aide, altar boy, 2) follow Ex) An acolyte of President Trump, Stewart embraced a bombastic, often caustic populist style that attracted right-wing extremists while driving away moderate members of the GOP, whom he once likened to toilet paper.

1546) Flair

1) aptitude, talent, gift, knack 2) style, panache, verve, dash Ex) President Trump has a flair for hyperbole and rhetoric. Ex2) His music, though, puts the two genres in conversation in a far different way: He uses his turntable as an instrument, going far beyond the flourishes meant to add streetwise flair.

34) Accession

1) acquiescence, agreement 2) attainment Ex) Russia is still grumbling about the name change in nearby Macedonia that should pave the way for its accession to the European Union and NATO, a clear loss in the Balkans for the Kremlin. Ex2) "The use of technology, what we accession, our publications — it's not about the outputs, it's about the impact on people, and that starts with the art."

59) Adapt

1) adjust, acclimate, accommodate, attune 2) modify, alter, change, gear, adjust, revamp Ex) Despite my adaptations to overcome biases, I still try not to judge others based on stereotypes. Ex2) This weekend it released "The Grinch," kicking off the holiday animation season with a film based on the Dr. Seuss standard, the company's second adaptation of the beloved author.

712) Compound

1) aggravate, worsen, make worse, exacerbate 2) compose, make up, constitute, form Ex1) Hartley is one of two mothers of men dead from airborne exposure to the toxic compound who are now suing the EPA to keep that promise. Ex2) TOKYO—Carlos Ghosnis facing many more months in jail after losing a request for release on bail Tuesday, compounding concerns about the 64-year-old's health and a Japanese legal system geared toward pressuring suspects into confessions.

728) Concur

1) agree, be in agreement 2) coincide, be simultaneous, be concurrent, coexist Ex1) Trade representative said he concurred with this statement. Ex2) After describing her feelings of detachment, disorientation and terror, the therapist concurred with her self-diagnosis.

386) Bevy

a large group of people or things of a particular kind Ex) Several US Attorney's offices, as well as a bevy of federal and state regulators, have been investigating Wells Fargo since fall 2016 when the bank disclosed widespread sales practices problems.

516) Byline

a line in a newspaper naming the writer of an article. Ex) Unless you are regularly getting bylines for a major news outlet or somehow become YouTube famous, it won't just come to you- you have to go out and build your own brand.

605) Chaplain

a member of the clergy attached to a private chapel, institution, ship, branch of the armed forces, etc. Ex) What the minimum-security camp at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, N.Y., does offer is a rarity in the federal prison system: a full-time Hasidic chaplain who oversees a congregation of dozens of Jewish inmates who gather for prayer services three times a day.

792) Contretemps

a minor dispute or disagreement, argument, quarrel, disagreement Ex) But the Washington contretemps are just a stand-in for a much weightier debate about the future of the party.

436) Boogeyman

a person or thing that is widely regarded as an object of fear. Ex) Hours later, the president echoed Mr. Dowd's accusations of corruption in the theoretical "deep state" that Mr. Trump has long cast as a boogeyman working to undermine him.

1709) Globalist

a person who advocates the interpretation or planning of economic and foreign policy in relation to events and developments throughout the world. Ex) The globalist were in the ascendancy then, agreed to two 'strategic' dialogues [with China] and nothing got done, just more talk. Ex2) Mr Cohn was part of a globalist wing of the White House that lately has been in retreat.

392) Bigot

a person who is intolerant of others holding different views Ex) Then stop letting bigots such as King and Trump define the party's policies. Ex2) And because it was a rhetorical question, King was assuming that the rest of us — all conservative-thinking people — are bigots as well.

1271) Emigre

a person who left their country Ex) It is hard to imagine that if the developer, a Chinese émigré, has her way, this rural nook in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York might one day become a sprawling complex of residential properties.

1662) Gait

a person's manner of walking, walk, step, stride, pace Ex) Fifty-five, with curly blond hair and a halting gait, she is a lifelong liberal who didn't abandon her politics. Ex2) But at home, leaden legs turned his gait into a shuffle.

1521) Fiefs

a person's sphere of operation or control Ex) But in Mr Trump's White House, where fiefs have been in constant combat and decision-making has often been ill defined, the memos, first reported by Politico, mark a new era.

1991) Implosion

a sudden failure or collapse of an organization or system Ex) Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, whose hallowed place in the pantheon of South Africa's liberators was eroded by scandal over corruption, kidnapping, murder, and the implosion of her fabled marriage to Nelson Mandela, died early Monday in Johannesberg.

437) Bookend

a support to keep the books upright Ex) The irony escaped the president, no doubt, since he was not embarrassed to send his daughter as the bookend of Kim Jong-un's sister, who was dubbed "the Ivanka Trump of North Korea" when she made a splash at the opening ceremony.

1990) Implicitly

absolutely Ex) Another person who has had conversations with both the president and Ms. Hicks in recent weeks, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to divulge private conversations, said that Mr. Trump relied on her and trusted her implicitly, mainly because she had never shown a willingness to put her own agenda ahead of his.

1602) Forgive

absolve, acquit, amnesty, clear Ex) Mr. Mutreb told him he would be "forgiven" if he cooperated, the reporters say. Ex2) Given the quality of your relationship, he'll probably forgive you eventually, though he's reaching an age when you should expect him to share less information with you anyway.

566) Catalyze

activate, animate, accelerate Ex) They'll talk not just about school shootings, which catalyzed the March for Our Lives movement, but also other kinds of mass shootings, suicides, domestic gun violence and urban gun violence. Ex2) Both turns of phrases catalyzed backlashes that shall powerfully impact politics for more than one generation.

149) Ancillary

additional, auxiliary, supporting Ex) But Mr. Bannon's job status seemed to become an ancillary issue on Tuesday after Mr. Trump delivered one of the most combative news conferences of his presidency.

150) Ancillary

additional, auxiliary, supporting, supplementary, accessory, subsidiary Ex) The additions included ancillary functions and buildings—a cinema, full resort-style spa with massage room, sauna and steam bath, game rooms, a bowling alley, full bar, and basketball and racquetball courts. Ex2) She added: "There are no gaps in the District's ability to prosecute illegal possession of firearms. . . . The District does not need new laws for ancillary offenses."

203) Arbitrate

adjudicate, mediate, settle Ex) The judge and an appeals court refused, saying that the usual requirement that arbitrators should decide whether disputes should be arbitrated did not apply when the arguments for arbitration were "wholly groundless." Ex2) Uber Technologies Inc. lost some of its legal clout with contract drivers in Canada's largest province after Ontario's highest court ruled its process for arbitrating disputes were not only unlawful but "unconscionable."

530) Calibrate

adjust, measure, set, correct Ex) He writes, for example, of a storm that scientists failed to predict because the equipment at a single outlying weather monitoring station wasn't calibrated properly. Ex2) In a tightly calibrated 33-minute speech meant as an address to Taiwan on Wednesday, Mr. Xi said differences in political systems can't be used as an excuse to resist unification.

686) Commendable

admirable, praiseworthy, laudable Ex) That's commendable, but they should consider how their comments will be taken by the vast majority of Americans, particularly in a highly politically polarized time.

285) Awe

admiration, respect Ex) That's what it says in the "Grabber" program after the titles of individual plays: a statement of awe at Mr. Trump's accusers for stepping into the media glare. Ex2) This marvelous planet cloaks its works of renewal in spectacle and awe: the cleansing neon wildfire, the volcano oozing new land in blood-red streaks, the foamy tsunami ploughing up tired seafloors.

1364) Espouse

adopt, embrace, take up, accept Ex1) Do you think the rhetoric espoused by President Trump and his supporters is just a continuation of what America was founded on? Ex2) In general, our political culture seems to be increasingly populated by people who espouse outlandish or demonstrably false claims that often align with their political ideology.

1168) Dote

adore, idolize, treasure, cherish Ex1) Never was this more sweetly depicted than in "Open Mic," where David's doting and lovable boyfriend Patrick suggests they throw an open mic night at David's store, to drum up some additional buzz and business. Ex2) Robinson dotes on Amir, who is lanky and tall for his age and obsessed with basketball.

1263) Emblazon

adorn, decorate, ornament, embellish 2) display, depict, show Ex) Neither Mr. Trump, 50, the real-estate developer fond of having his name emblazoned on his holdings, nor Ms. Maples, 33, a model and sometime actress, chose to speak publicly yesterday - a veritable news article in itself - but the future former spouses issued a terse joint statement confirming their decision to separate, which was first reported in The New York Post.

1330) Envoy

ambassador, emissary, diplomat Ex) Mr. Hill, who as envoy to South Korea under George W. Bush was the last American to hold formal talks with the government in Pyongyang, said he and Condoleezza Rice, then the secretary of state, routinely advised Mr. Bush to avoid the personal invectives, "because "they never help." Ex2) Friendliness has its limits, though, and tenacious Dutch reporters showed Peter Hoekstra, America's new envoy, that he could be in for a rough ride. Ex3) But Mr. Chung said Mr. Kim told the envoys from Seoul that North Korea had no need for such arms "as long as the military threat to North Korea is eliminated and the security of the regime is guaranteed," Mr. Chung said. Ex4) Mr. Kim made promises to the South Korean envoys that Seoul hoped would meet conditions set by the United States for starting a dialogue with the North.

589) Centrifugal

ant, centripetal Ex) The centrifugal force of the earth's rotation means that the atmosphere is thin at the poles, where the air is even drier. Ex2) Some of Schumann's most compelling music holds these two forces in tension — centrifugal and centripetal, reaching and enfolding

163) Antecede

antedate, date back, precede, predate Ex) Antoinette Nwandu's solution in this searing drama is to weld the story of two black youths in a city like Chicago to spiritual antecedents including enslaved African-Americans, biblical Israelites and Beckett's hobos Vladimir and Estragon. Ex2) Alienation with mainstream life and culture prompt the new generation of punks to dress in the same ripped clothes covered with band patches and carry the same attitude as their antecedents.

1028) Deterministic

belief that everything happens by causes regardless of the will Ex1) There's a signal lurking in the earthquake noise, he said, and that upends the scientific orthodoxy: "This seems to be a deterministic problem. It's not chaotic." Ex2) There is something entrancing and terrifying about any deterministic theory that predicts the role we are destined to play in society and lets you believe that you understand your opponent better than he understands himself.

1111) Disparage

belittle, denigrate, deprecate, trivialize Ex1) Considering how much criticism L.G.B.T. conservatives face from outside their ranks, I was surprised by how often I heard them disparage one another. Ex2) During that time King made repeated statements disparaging immigrants and minorities, as did other members, but leaders chose not to move against them — fearful that taking harsh action would antagonize the party's conservative base.

361) Belligerent

bellicose, aggressive, hostile Ex) President Trump's belligerent approach to our trading partners worries most economists, including his former economic advisers Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer. Ex2) "The tendency of inexperienced negotiators, often due to their insecurity, is to be too belligerent and inflexible," Mr. Wasserstein, who died in 2009, wrote.

371) Benignant

beneficent, benevolent, benign Ex) His acts were generally great and benignant; only in transports of sudden passion at what he thought base did he ever injure any one. Ex2) Happily, the loyal behaviour of the elder one would be counted as righteousness to the family, by a forgiving and benignant Government.

368) Benevolent

beneficent, charitable, altruistic, generous Ex) Back then, Mr. Naimi was the "benevolent dictator" of the oil market. Ex2) American businessmen and expats flocked to Cuba to benefit from the benevolent business climate and the favor of the Cuban government which quickly grew fat from business profits while the Cuban people were forgotten.

367) Beneficent

benevolent, charitable, altruistic, generous Ex) It would never dawn on them, though, that their beneficent acts precipitated the changes. Ex2) Many see Sheikh Amoudi less as a beneficent local son than a Saudi privateer.

921) Deadpan

blank, expressionless, inexpressive Ex1) Rosa is best known to fans for her anger management issues, deadpan disposition and secrecy. Ex2) He worked her into featured parts in his sitcoms, including "Happy Days," in which Ms. Marshall's deadpan comic style and nasally Bronx accent made her an instantly recognizable television performer.

405) Blare

blast, sound loudly, trumpet Ex) He's creepy, but Procne is too curious about him to hear any blaring alarm bells. Ex2) Week 1296, poems with words new to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary: I put my phone in airplane mode and, much to my surprise, The next two hours it blared the sound of cranky baby cries!

366) Benediction

blessing Ex) Low evidently intended to say with its music what Sparhawk did in his customary farewell benediction: "Peace be with you." Ex2) "Final Follies," which was finished only weeks before his death at 86, is a charming benediction and farewell to the caste whose demise he chronicled so faithfully.

350) Beguile

charm, attract, enchant Ex1) The people of Santa Lora who sleep no more face a choice: struggle to find a way back to themselves or remain in thrall to the beguiling, comforting, sometimes terrifying visions that held them captive. Ex2) Certainly it made for a beguiling evening, though so light as to be evanescent, like a soap bubble.

500) Buoy

cheer up, boost, invigorate Ex) Stocks rose on Monday, buoyed by the efforts of central bankers to ease economic worries, as investors watched for developments in trade talks between the United States and China. Ex2) They are buoyed by populist anger in individual states and a potential — if unpredictable — ally on the issue in the White House.

809) Convivial

cheerful, friendly, jovial Ex) The tone of the Moon-Kim session - broadcast live nationally on South Korean television - was convivial and at times jocular, with Mr. Kim showing surprising honesty about the differences in conditions between the two nations.

762) Console

comfort, solace Ex1) Here, though, the consoling hand of an artist is there to hold you fast. Ex2) But I've found it strangely consoling to encounter these tiny snapshots of my younger self just as I'm about to start a new adventure.

155) Annotate

comment on, gloss Ex) Instead, she spent Thursday packing her research permits, her fossil-collecting supplies, and maps she'd spent weeks compiling and annotating by hand into a FedEx box, which she shipped to a junior colleague on the project. Ex2) "Sally darling," it began, and referred Ms. Wu to attached photos, with measurements and colors annotated.

689) Commission

committee, board, council, panel, group 2) give an order for or authorize the production of something such as a building, piece of equipment or work of art, engage, contract, charge, employ Ex) Jurors acquitted Ms. Salman on charges of aiding and abetting the commission of a terrorist act in the 2016 mass shooting and also found her not guilty of obstructing justice. Ex)2 The transportation department said on Friday that "the responsibility to identify and address life-safety issues and properly communicate them is the sole responsibility of the FIU design-build team," referring to Florida International University, which commissioned the bridge. Ex2) The autopsy- commissioned by the family of Mr. Clark, 22, and conducted by Dr. Bennet Omalu, a private medical examiner- showed that he was shot three times in his lower back, twice near his right shoulder, once in his neck and once under an armpit.

146) Analogous

comparable, parallel, similar, like, akin Ex) Some analysts cite 1998 as analogous to today, when financial crises in Asia and Russia and the near-failure of a giant hedge fund prompted the Fed to cut rates. Ex2) It's analogous to the interest rate on a bond.

1243) Elaborate

complicated, complex, intricate, detailed, painstaking 2) expatiate, expound, flesh out Ex1) Metro declined to elaborate on the letter issued by Wiedefeld, saying the document "speaks for itself." Ex2) There were two blankets and a dirty, crudely cut fragment of a machine-made Persian rug, in a Kashan pattern, with an elaborate floral design, on the concrete floor.

812) Convoluted

complicated, complex, involved Ex1) People hated it, complaining in particular about convolutedplotting, questionable casting and an unrelentingly bleak tone. Ex2) Finally, Senate leaders took charge and crafted a convolutedplan to avoid financial disaster and impose about $1 trillion in fiscal cuts to federal budgets over a decade.

132) Amenable

cooperative, acquiescent, compliant, obliging, receptive, responsive Ex) Apparently, they're amenable: The ultimatum perhaps wasn't so much of an ultimatum after all, and in the end, "We want him to host," DeGeneres says she was told. Ex2) The new health minister recently sacked the government's entire, 30-member science advisory panel, presumably to obtain advice more amenable to populist ideology.

521) Cadre

corps, body, team, group Ex) Mr. Kushner has repeatedly botched legally required disclosures of his business assets, and omitted Russian contacts on his security clearance form, asserting that despite the assistance of a cadre of experienced lawyers, he just can't seem to get the paperwork right. Ex2) A new set of dedicated courts, backed by a cadre of insolvency professionals, is on hand to help banks seize assets and sell them to fresh owners.

859) Cringe

cower, shrink, recoil Ex1) When pop music is that age, we cringe. Ex2) When I see a photo of myself, I cringe.

948) Defector

deserter, traitor, turncoat Ex) The U.S. has been pushing for "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" - something Mr. Kim won't accept, according to the North's highest-level defector in two decades.

1032) Deviate

diverge from, digress from, drift from Ex1) She owns them in a variety of colors — the shearling, the slides, the zip-up boots — and never deviates from the brand. Ex2) Districts would be nearly equal in population but allowed to deviate by up to 0.5 percent for congressional districts and 5 percent for General Assembly districts.

1862) Heterogeneous

diverse, diversified, diverse in character or content Ex) Moreover, Hughes also establishes just how deep the Greek roots of the settlement called Byzantion went, and how heterogenous the Hellenic frontier town of the seventh century B.C. probably was. Ex2) Moreover, Hughes also establishes just how deep the Greek roots of the settlement called Byzantion went, and how heterogenous the Hellenic frontier town of the seventh century B.C. probably was.

1140) Distract

divert, sidetrack, draw away Ex1) And do we read to prepare ourselves for death, as the ancient Egyptians did with the "Book of the Dead," or to distract ourselves from it — to break from the crisis of the present? Ex2) But she was more distracted than I was by Kashmir's misfortune of lying between two rival nations.

421) Blurt

divulge, disclose, reveal Ex) "We're so lazy in the U.S.!" blurted Wesley Chan, a venture capital investor, on the first day of what would be a weeklong journey into the Chinese technology scene. Ex2) Greg excitedly blurted, "He's HERE! I was next to him at the urinals!"

1999) Impressionable

easily influenced, suggestible, susceptible Ex) Portland Trail Blazers guard Evan Turner, in his ninth season in the league, was a young and impressionable player when his former agent, David Falk, shared stories of his client Michael Jordan getting pedicures. Ex2) Barry is a Republican, but he gets the implicit threat that Trump represents to impressionable people: "He would try to drag them down to his level. That's what he did."

766) Conspicuous

easily seen, clear, visible Ex1) Mintel's findings suggest that men find conspicuous aging relatively treacherous, yet only four in 10 considered it socially acceptable to color their hair. Ex2) Prum's indifference to the ultimate source of aesthetic taste leaves a conspicuous gap in his grand theory.

1717) Gobble

eat greedily, eat hungrily Ex) But a janitor making such a move would have his higher salary gobbled up by housing costs equal to 52% of income.

1905) Hone

edge, file, grind, whet 2) accustom, practice Ex) While many high school students enjoyed rest and relaxation over the holiday break, local wrestling programs opted to use the time to hone their skills at tournaments and invitationals. Ex2) He honed his strategy at the "Road Ahead" conference, an annual gathering for progressive ballot initiative activists in Las Vegas.

1638) Fringe

edging, edge, border, trimming Ex) Although an eclipse lasts mere minutes the event offers scientists a rare opportunity to study the sun and its properties, including the corona, the wispy fringe of outer atmosphere normally obscured by the star's blinding brightness. Ex2) A fringe minority of peace activist in South Korea has for decades called for the removal of the 28,5000 U.S. troops in South Korea Ex3) Orthodox inmates were a fringed vests known as zizit under their green prison uniforms.

1416) Exorbitant

excessively high, excessive, prohibitive, outrageous, unreasonable Ex1) Chief executives and board members were the target of harangues over company policies, exorbitant spending and allegations of impropriety, which alternately drew cheers and jeers from her fellow shareholders. Ex2) Another resident, a 30-year-old woman who works at a private distribution company, said by phone that she pays exorbitant amounts on the black market for prescription medicine for her parents.

1694) Giddy

excitable and frivolous, capricious, careless, changeable, erratic 2) having a sensation of whirling and a tendency to fall or stagger, dizzy, unbalanced, unstable, vacillating Ex) A cluster of giddy teenagers huffed and shimmied as their feet tried to keep up with the lighted squares Ex2) Many Republicans are downright giddy at the notion that a self-described democratic socialist is driving Democratic policy discussions.

1987) Implement

execute, apply, put into effect Ex) The shutdown poses a number of challenges in implementing the new tax code. Ex2) He listed changes implemented during his tenure, such as expanding access to mental health counseling, strengthening oversight and swiftly reaching the settlement agreement with Nassar's victims.

411) Bless

express or feel gratitude, thank, appreciate Ex) In California, party activists at the state Democratic Convention last week rejected Senator Dianne Feinstein, a moderate lawmaker, refusing to formally bless her re-election.

832) Couch

express, phrase, word in a specific phrase Ex) Until recently, Mr. Trump has couched the notion of an informant inside his campaign as a hypothetical. Ex2) Apple's announcement, couched as a major investment in the United States instead of a massive financial windfall, followed years of criticism that the company did not do enough for the American economy because it makes most of its products in China and parked its profits abroad.

1394) Exalt

extol, praise, acclaim, esteem, lionize Ex1) It's a well-worn cliche for biographers to bestow exalted epithets on their subjects: Almost every title declares its hero to be the sage of something or the oracle of something else. Ex2) Navy, he flew 58 combat missions during World War II. But his imprint on the nation's history was made equally by an exalted career in politics that spanned the latter half of the 20th century.

1391) Exaction

extortion Ex1) Even more basically, government may not exact property unlawfully, and it must return any property that it acquires through an unlawful exaction. Ex2) They either bend to whatever exactions politicized regulators' demand or they spike their deals.

825) Corpulent

fat, obese, overweight, plump Ex1) As corpulent and as unwieldy as the film's vision of London is — sluggish, lumbering and clumsy — the movie isn't something you savor so much as swallow whole, without tasting it. Ex2) Pictures of him show a corpulent replica of Nikita Khrushchev.

266) Auspicious

favorable, propitious, promising Ex) But after an auspicious start to last season, when he won his first 17 matches, Federer seemed to trail off. Ex2) Though coincidental, the timing of New Horizons' encounter - in the early hours of a new year - is "auspicious," Stern said.

829) Coruscate

glitter, glint, glisten, twinkle, flash, shine, flare, blaze, gleam, glint, sparkle Ex) If "My Year's" plot lags a bit — reading about trying to sleep is about as interesting as trying to — the coruscating aperçus and ancillary characters never do. Ex2) Later works, including "Hurlyburly" in 1984, brought the same coruscating moral vision to bear on other warlike ecosystems, like Hollywood, where he often worked as a screenwriter.

1106) Dismal

gloomy, glum, melancholy, morose Ex1) After suffering through a dismal two-year run of The Government That Goes Wrong, this is the showstopper we deserve. Ex2) Noting that the island's rate of solved crimes was a dismal 23 percent, Puerto Rico's representative in Congress, Jenniffer González-Colón, asked the departments of Justice and Homeland Security on Wednesday for additional resources.

66) Adieu

goodbye, farewell Ex) A smooth-running scoring machine when it won the Cup in 2014, Germany now appears in need of an overhaul after losing, 2-0, to South Korea here on Wednesday and bidding adieu to Russia about three weeks earlier than many expected.

883) Culprit

guilt party, offender, wrongdoer, perpetrator, miscreant Ex) While Flynn was incarcerated, Smart almost made it easy for investigators to finger her as the culprit. Ex2) Runoff from farms and development — washing nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment and other chemicals into the bay — is one of the principal culprits.

882) Culpable

guilty, answerable, accountable Ex1) In "Kintu," the patriarch himself is culpable, and the crime is negligence. Ex2) "We're dealing with the symptoms of the root cause, which is the lack of a rational immigration policy from Washington, and both sides are culpable," said Dee Margo, the mayor of El Paso.

77) Adversity

hardship, misfortune, predicament, plight, quandary, dilemma, pitfall Ex) Yet Greece is the problem that never quite goes away for Europe, and the risks to the country's post-bailout future read like a laundry list of adversities. Ex2) She was the youngest recipient of the Horatio Alger award in recognition of "remarkable achievements accomplished through honesty, hard work, self-reliance and perseverance over adversity."

1031) Detrimental

harmful, damaging, injurious, hurtful Ex1) Over the long term, deficit spending is detrimental to economic growth and national prosperity. Ex2) The stoic male who doesn't express or share his emotions, I see that as being extremely detrimental.

17) Abrasive

harsh Ex) I had never watched a full game of football in my life, but still believed the stereotypes: Players were tough and abrasive.

31) Accelerate

hasten, expedite, precipitate, speed up, quicken Ex) PG&E's current financial troubles accelerated in the days after the Camp Fire tore through an area north of Chico, Calif., in November. Ex2) "We've seen retail sales growth continue to accelerate, some of that from lower taxes but also from pretty solid employment gains and" economic growth, said Keith Parker, chief U.S. equity strategist at UBS. Ex3) The pace accelerated substantially after the explosive grand jury report released in August by the Pennsylvania attorney general's office that detailed the abuse of more than 1,000 people by hundreds of priests.

1586) Footloose

having no attachments or ties; free to do as one please Ex) Once again we're inside the mind of Faye, a footloose British writer, who is divorced and the mother of two sons. Ex2) I zipped past the family-friendly brunch district, footloose and fancy free.

533) Callous

heartless, unfeeling, uncaring Ex) "I rise today in solidarity with the thousands of workers with calloused hands and broken spirits working for no pay." Ex2) To castigate as sinners those who choose to end their suffering when there are no good alternatives is callous.

1328) Envisage

imagine, contemplate, visualize, envision Ex) From the outset, EU officials envisaged two possible types of transition.

718) Conceive

imagine, envisage, visualize Ex) The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it.

1011) Derivative

imitative, unoriginal, uninventive, unimaginative, uninspired, copied Ex) "This new kind of marketplace trades in behavioral futures. It's like a form of derivative. But it's about us." Ex2) Mr. Otsuru accused prosecutors of rushing to judgment over the derivatives contract, saying they ignored an agreement that ensured any losses were borne by Mr. Ghosn.

249) At odds

in conflict, in disagreement, on bad terms Ex) The parties remain at odds over immigration and federal spending levels, a weeks-old standoff that grew more fraught last week after Mr Trump referred to African nations as "shithole countries."

1277) Enamored

in love, infatuated, smitten, captivated Ex1) But even bite-mark evidence, the least trustworthy of all in Humes's opinion, is still being admitted because judges are so enamored of precedent. Ex2) We're less enamored of the governor's continuing penchant for aiming tax deductions at problems and declaring them addressed.

492) Bull

in-chief- Ex) And Mr. Trump was the bull-in-chief, celebrating the record-breaking march as validation of his economic policies.

1936) Idle

inactive, unused, unoccupied, unemployed, not active or in use Ex) For virtually every idled civil servant and essential employee forced to work without compensation, there's a story of personal disruption and inconvenience. Ex2) He said he doesn't expect a rush of idle workers seeking fresh looks for 2019.

747) Congenital

inborn, inherited, hereditary, innate Ex1) So how did an intelligent person trained as a journalist, a self-described congenital skeptic, fall for them? Ex2) Nobles, chief executive of HeartStitch and Nobles Medical Technologies, last year was credited with providing an invention that was used to fix a congenital defect in Falwell's heart.

314) Barb

insult, cutting remark, abuse Ex1) Instead of trading barbs, Democrats and Republicans took turns talking about the nominee's grandson. Ex2) The couple's barbed back-and-forth in "Whitecaps" is overdue, and harrowing to watch.

1561) Flippant

lack of respect or seriousness, frivolous, disrespectful, irreverent, cheeky Ex) Mr. Velazquez said he does not recall making the flippant remark to Ms. Di Lauro and that he took her complaint seriously. Ex2) "You stop being mindful, and you say something flippant. You're not being precise with your words."

1292) Enduring

lasting, long-lasting, durable, continuing, persisting Ex1) He emphasizes five sources of enduring life satisfaction: positive emotion, engagement in fulfilling activities, relationships, meaning and accomplishments. Ex2) Foreign auditors are to meet next week in Greece for a post-bailout review, with talks expected to focus on the enduring problems of Greek banks and their nonperforming loans, as well as taxation.

1608) Forsake

leave, desert, abandon Ex) Even he forsakes this advice as the novel careens toward its savage end. Ex2) He's been writing since he was a teenager, forsaking everything else — work, family, romance — in his single-minded pursuit of literary fame.

152) Animate

lively, spirited, energetic, ebullient, vivacious Ex) "We wanted to touch on this aspect of Trump's public face, without putting Meg in too compromised a position," Appel said of his animated star. Ex2) An internet company founded in 1998, Stan Lee Media, was meant to produce animated video based on its namesake's creations, but filed for bankruptcy under a cloud of controversy two years later.

1964) Impassion

make passionate Ex) Though most of today's undergraduates were in elementary school when he was formally retired, the chief has maintained all his power to impassion and infuriate.

1883) Histrionic

melodramatic, theatrical 2) dramatic, exaggerated, stagy Ex) Over the course of the 70-minute performance his face increasingly shined with sweat and his sculpted hair lost its shape, a serendipitous parallel with the miller's descent into histrionics. Ex2) Many see Brexit as the latest in a long string of indignities, a reckless bit of political histrionics that again puts Ireland in the cross hairs.

1502) Felicity

mirth, bliss, ecstasy, happiness, joy 2) eloquence, aptness, appropriateness, appropriacy Ex1) Verbal felicities, haunting or explosive imagery, the architectonic dazzlements of rhyme and meter — all these are dwarfed by American poetry's reverence for genuineness, for authenticity. Ex2) Presumably, verbal felicity is part of what brought Mr. Birbiglia and Ms. Stein together originally.

1471) Fallacy

misconception, misbelief, delusion Ex1) Mr. Kaminker is not alone in his efforts to ease these tensions over the holiday and some of the fallacies associated with it. Ex2) The fallacy is concluding that if an assertion of a claim is blameworthy, it's no longer binding.

1562) Flit

move swiftly and lightly, dart, skip, play, dash Ex) For Hadley, that process involves the precise observation of conflicting motives flitting across her characters' minds. Ex2) "It's a vulnerable time for all of us as we gather together in groups now," she says, her eyes flitting across the tables to see how people are reacting.

1916) Humdrum

mundane, dull, dreary, boring, lacking variety or excitement Ex) On this occasion, it was a Wilson tale of deep scars nursed in the humdrum surroundings of a humble eatery on the brink of extinction that evinced unexpected emotional depth. Ex2) The film juxtaposes Julia's early days as an ebullient cook in Paris with Julie's humdrum life in Queens more than 50 years later.

1300) Enigmatic

mysterious, inscrutable, puzzling, baffling, perplexing Ex1) Her program drew heavily on settings of quietly enigmatic texts, whether by Symbolist poets like Paul Verlaine or Sanskrit miniatures filtered through the lenses of Western translators. Ex2) These are fast radio bursts, some of the most enigmatic phenomena in astronomy.

1943) Illicit

not sanctioned by custom or law, unlawful, illegitimate Ex) Last May, reports of nude photos circulating at a Falls Church middle school mushroomed into an investigation that found illicit photos of nearly a dozen youths at two schools. Ex2) And he said that Bahrain was working to combat Iran's "illicit maritime activities" in the region.

156) Annul

nullify, invalidate, repeal, rescind, revoke Ex) Massive protests forced the authorities to annul the result and order a new election that Yushchenko won. Ex2) But at other times Einstein described himself as "not an atheist," and the letter does not annul the seemingly spiritual characteristics of his thinking.

1805) Hardheaded

obdurate, dogged, pigheaded, balky, stubborn 2) practical, pragmatic, realistic, sensible Ex) On the contrary, what Mr. Trump presents as hardheaded realism is, in fact, a grave attack on U.S. national interests. Ex2) The final section, concerning foreign affairs and war, features George Washington's failed efforts to preserve some Native American lands from white settlers, as well as the first president's hardheaded mistrust of foreign nations and connections.

985) Demur

object, protest, cavil, dissent Ex1) Asked about the political implications of the game, Saudi Arabia's captain and its coach both demurred, saying those thoughts were for others. Ex2) She ducks questions about a specific agenda for next year, and she demurred when asked if she wanted to advance any issues particularly dear to her.

1022) Detachment

objectivity, disinterest, neutrality, impartiality 2) unit, detail, squad, troop Ex1) When Jackson addresses the anger of masculine conflict, he does so, tellingly, with the detachment of years and a dry scrim of regret. Ex2) It later became a symbol of the Iraqi government's perceived detachment from the needs and concerns of the general public.

144) Anachronistic

obsolete, outdated, ancient, antiquated Ex) The other was an anachronistic spin class that took place in a gym. Ex2) "More and more the notion of a restaurant as fancy people being served by their lessers is anachronistic," Mr. Wolf said.

159) Anomaly

oddity, peculiarity, abnormality Ex) Analysts say this could be an anomaly and STR Inc. figures on hotel rates in the US illustrate growth in the average price per room of more than 2$ in the first half of 2017 from the year-earlier period.

1849) Heinous

odious, wicked, evil, atrocious, monstrous, utterly odious or wicked Ex) No charges were ever brought against anyone for that heinous act. Ex2) What PJ did that day sets off a chain of events that causes Christy, an older man, to commit an even more heinous crime.

281) Avian

of a bird, a bird Ex) As we headed back toward Punta Arenas, one more avian spectacle awaited us. Ex2) The avian world also includes examples of what appears to be play

1915) Humble

of a modest pretensions or dimensions, modest, lowly, mean Ex) Rice and beans are two of the humblest pantry staples. Ex2) "The scores and all that are a little overrated," Virginia Coach Tony Bennett said in his typically humble fashion.

1995) Impostor

one who engages in deception under an assumed name or identity, swindler, charlatan, pretender Ex) "If he kept up this fraudulent deceit for 30 years, and thereby got the highest places in the gift of both parties, he was the most marvelous imposter who ever lived or died." Ex2) In Boston, posters proclaimed: "All Catholics and all persons who favor the Catholic Church are ... vile imposters, liars, villains, and cowardly cutthroats."

1301) Enjoin

order, charge, warn, urge 2) prohibit, bar, ban, forbid Ex1) That policy created logjams and escalating tensions at border stations from Texas to California, though part of it, too, was enjoined by the courts. Ex2) A federal judge in Brownsville, Tex., enjoined the new program, and after an extended legal battle, the Supreme Court split 4 to 4 in 2016, leaving the injunction in place and effectively killing it.

940) Decree

order, edict, command, commandment Ex) The president is expected to sign a decree this week laying out his plan to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum, sparing both Canada and Mexico, after people on both sides of the issue made final pleas to either scuttle the measure or ensure he doesn't back off. Ex) I don't share the conventional view that if Mr. Trump is impeached by the House, the Republican-dominated Senate would never muster the necessary 67 votes to convict him.

1776) Hackneyed

overused, worn out, timeworn, platitudinous, lacking significance through having been overused; unoriginal and trite Ex) But if that's all, just the usual hackneyed, base-pleasing rhetorical points lobbed across the ideological divide, that would be a shame. Ex2) I didn't want him to be hackneyed and boring.

830) Cosset

pamper, indulge, overindulge Ex1) When the vastly unqualified Dell stumbles into a job as Phillip's caregiver, he's rewarded with an eyebrow-raising salary and a depressed patient who needs entertaining more than cosseting. Ex2) The result is a space that evokes alternating feelings of being oppressed and of being cosseted.

140) Amnesty

pardon, reprieve Ex) The push for an immigration deal with Democrats has the potential to alienate the hard-line anti-immigration activists who powered his political rise and helped him win the presidency, many of whom have described it as amnesty for lawbreakers.

302) Baffle

perplex, puzzle, bemuse Ex) When we tell friends about our system, they are often baffled: You leave at ... different times? Ex2) Dennis Blair, a former U.S. director of national intelligence, told the Journal that he was baffled Boeing would proceed with the project.

365) Bemused

perplexed, bewildered, befuddled, flummoxed, discombobulated Ex) The film documents their reaction to paintings by Gauguin, from bemused indifference to pointed remarks about the colonial objectification of the colonized other. Ex2) Asked at one point what they're supposed to believe in, Rummy looks bemused, and then just laughs.

1123) Disquiet

perturb, agitate, upset, disturb Ex1) The apprehensions arise partly from broader disquiet over charges of Chinese, state-sponsored cybertheft of business secrets and hacking of critical U.S. infrastructure such as telecommunications networks. Ex2) The constellation of events disquieted F.B.I. officials who were simultaneously watching as Russia's campaign unfolded to undermine the presidential election by exploiting existing divisions among Americans.

651) Cliché

platitude, hackneyed phrase, commonplace, banality Ex) Yes, it was confusing in the house, too; and yes, it demonstrates one risk of these short-format works: they become especially subject to cliché. Ex2) And so even infinity lost its meaning in the space between two clichés.

837) Counterpoint

playing instrument in conjunction with another instrument Ex1) And a European state that seemed to offer a counterpoint to the turn toward nationalism in much of the democratic West was looking as fragile and conflicted as many of its neighbors. Ex2) The report also offered a sharp counterpoint over all to the portrait offered by security and policing agencies of their successes in foiling terrorist plots.

295) Backroom

politics, campaigning, government. Ex) With an approval rating of just 5%, Mr. Temer has relied on his skills as deft backroom negotiator to survive, luring lawmakers with funds for their cash-strapped states.

1248) Elevate

raise, lift up, hoist 2) promote, upgrade, advance, move up 3) increase, lift, raise, step up, intensify Ex1) The mostly elevated Staten Island Railway runs along the east side of the borough, from St. George in the north to Tottenville in the south. Ex2) Counties receiving such marketing subsequently experienced elevated mortality.

1855) Herald

sign, augur, portend, proclaim, announce, broadcast, to be a sign that something is going to happen. Ex) The announcement was heralded as evidence that the administration was taking a tough stance against Moscow. Ex2) But the 2019 Australian Open, which heralds the tennis season's start in earnest as the first of the four majors, presents one more benchmark.

362) Bellwether

signal, indicator Ex) Pharmacy chain CVS Health Corp. plans to sell about $44 billion of bonds as soon as Tuesday to help pay for its $69 billion acquisition of health insurer Aetna Inc. - the largest corporate bond sale in more than two years and a bellwether for the health of the corporate bond market.

1566) Flounder

stagger, stumble 2) struggle, blunder, labor, muddle Ex) "I'm floundering. My whole purpose and routine is a little off." Ex2) The problem is that most of these professionals flounder for years before getting to that point, if they reach it at all.

114) Alleviate

soothe, allay, assuage, ease, relieve Ex) Spine surgery includes procedures to alleviate the pain, often in the lower back, caused by disks that are herniated or degenerated. Ex2) Mr. Musk's legal problems may now complicate Tesla's efforts to alleviate a potential cash crunch.

47) Acoustics

sound, sound properties, sound transmission Ex) On Tuesday, it announced the installation of an acoustic piano at the Charles Center Metro SubwayLink Station in Baltimore "for transit riders to enjoy." Ex2) I brought along my older brother, who once built his own acoustic guitar and assembled sound effects for electric guitars from kits.

1890) Hoarse

sounding rough and harsh, typically as the result of a sore throat of or shouting Ex) Such songs now form the hoarse, moaning soundtrack to countless movies and television episodes. Ex2) "Look, I don't hate other people," the white man said in a hoarse voice at the end of the video.

1193) Drone

speak boringly, go on and on, talk at length Ex1) While the speakers drone on about their good intentions or latest policy initiatives, Monopoly Man sits just over their shoulder, adjusting a monocle or brandishing a faux $100 bill. Ex2) The U.S. military's unmanned drones, based in Somalia and neighboring countries, conducted 47 strikes in 2018, up from 31 in 2017, according to U.S.

512) Buttress

strengthen, reinforce, fortify, support Ex) A politically awakened Silicon Valley, buttressed by the tech industry's growing economic power, could potentially alter politics long after President Trump has left the scene.

994) Denude

strip, clear, deprive, bereave Ex1) He also used lamps and spotlights to produce a dramatic view of a worker beneath a towering cliff of salt, so denuded and striated it appears almost like a lunar landscape. Ex2) He was walking on Assateague's north end, a patch of bristly pine trunks denuded by a recent pine beetle infestation.

130) Amble

stroll, saunter Ex) Throngs of supporters ambled Sunday in front of the headquarters of Mr. Tshisekedi's party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, rebuilt after the attack two years ago. Ex2) People hiked, strolled, ambled and sauntered, alone or in groups. Ex2) People hiked, strolled, ambled and sauntered, alone or in groups.

1290) Endorse

support, back, agree with, approve of, favor Ex1) A spectator made a loud reference to his appearance last year in a video with comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in which Van Cleave endorsed giving guns to preschoolers. Ex2) The former prosecutor was one of the first House Republicans to endorse Donald Trump for president and he was an informal adviser to the candidate.

181) Apologist

supporter, upholder, advocate, proponent, exponent Ex) And whatever apologists for small government might argue, there is no credible evidence that countries with higher tax rates necessarily grow less. Ex2) That's the unanimous opinion of three respected tax experts I consulted, none of whom is an apologist for Trump.

581) Cede

surrender, concede, relinquish Ex) An accelerated exit of the US from Syria would also raise concerns about ceding the hotly contested country to Iran and Russia.

550) Capitulate

surrender, give up, yield Ex) But our nation's political class is so eager to think that an establishment figure would never capitulate to President Trump that the moment went by with barely a nod. Ex2) Although the shutdown's effects will only increase the longer it continues, many Democrats, even those representing large contingents of federal workers, say they are not feeling pressure thus far to capitulate or compromise with Trump.

1153) Dogged

tenacious, determined, resolute, persistent Ex1) Many Kashmiris don't want either country controlling them: They want independence, and a small, dogged separatist movement operates in Kashmir, attacking police posts and civilians believed to be collaborators. Ex2) A few weeks later, she withdrew from the Rogers Cup in Montreal, eventually citing postpartum depression, a condition that afflicts about 15 percent of all mothers but is often dogged by stigma.

1186) Dregs

the most worthless parts, scum Ex) They are now in shutdown survival mode: opening new credit card accounts to pay off their bills, borrowing from relatives and eating the dregs of their pantries.

142) Amortization

the paying off of debt with a fixed repayment schedule Ex) The bonds and loans CVS is borrowing for the acquisition would increase its debt load to around 4.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, from 3.2 times in June, according to S&P.

624) Choreography

the sequence of planned, calculated moves Ex) When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in April 2017, the president shattered the careful choreography - something that took weeks of international negotiations - surprising the Chinese by immediately seeking a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Xi.

905) Damp

to control, to restrain Ex) To damp Mr. Trump's enthusiasm, Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, would remind him of China's aggressive behavior just before his private meetings, citing concerns ranging from intellectual-property theft to the huge trade deficit, said a person familiar with the conversations.

1882) Hiss

to express by uttering a hiss, fizz, fizzle, jeer Ex) The night is young, the news breaks 24/7, and we've nearly two more years to wonder what Graham will say, growl, hiss, spit, growl, whisper or sing, hallelujah! Ex2). One such scene unfolds in an 11,000-square-foot warehouse in northern New Jersey, where the usual low hum and screeching hiss of an active brewhouse and the musty stench of fermentation wafting outside are absent.

1182) Drain the swamp

to exterminate completely Ex) Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp, and here's a seven month progress report: The Washington bog is still as wide and fetid as ever. Ex2) A sinkhole has formed on the North Lawn of the White House, and predictably, the temptation was too great for many on social media, who filled the void with all the "drain the swamp" jokes and metaphors one could imagine.

1494) Featherbed

to have more filled positions than necessary Ex) The state should also make sure the MTA has a voice in negotiations between contractors and labor unions, to reduce the potential for featherbedding that exists when both sides can pass on costs to the government.

1581) Foment

to instigate or to stir up Ex) He claims that a "Jewish clique" fomented World War I and World War II as well as the Russian Revolution. Ex2) China faces more political risk with the U.S. than with South Korea should the government foment a campaign against buying Apple products.

1741) Grill

to intensely question or interrogate, examine, investigate, query Ex) Take the blackened catfish, which he grills on a flat-top. Ex2) A two-story restaurant on a crowded downtown street, the Palace of Princes served meat grilled over charcoal, rotisserie chicken, shawarma and other dishes that made it a favorite stop for American soldiers on patrol.

1503) Fend off

to push or send away the attacker Ex) Kurdish and some Arab fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have abandoned fighting Islamic State in the middle Euphrates River valley and moved north toward the Syrian cities of Afrin and Manbij to fend off Turkish military advances along the border. Ex2) Brazilian President Michael Temer fended off corruption charges against him in a landmark congressional vote Wednesday, allowing the country's embattled political establishment to preserve its tenuous hold on power.

1594) Foreclose

to take away possessions of mortgaged property Ex) The bank foreclosed on his family's home, and for the past eight years they have lived in a low income housing development, where black rubber tires are strewn around the sand-filled playground, and early model Pontiac Grand Am cars filled the parking lot.

1650) Fumble

to use the hands clumsily while doing or handling something, bungle, err, feel, flounder, mishandle, grope Ex) Too often it's airbrushed and idealized, rather than a fumbling, awkward, slapstick process of trial and erorrs. Ex2) And they started fumbling for keys to unlock the handcuffs and call 911.

1632) Frequent

to visit a place often or habitually Ex) "Our thoughts are with her dedicated family, who were frequent visitors throughout her years in Wellspring Village." Ex2) His serviceable set of neatly sculpted originals only really took off near the end, when the young alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, his frequent collaborator, assumed the lead on Mr. Ross's ballad "Touched by an Angel."

1961) Impartial

unbiased, unprejudiced, neutral, nonpartisan Ex) It hired two law firms, Jones Day and Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP, to focus instead on potential legal challenges to U.S. courts, the only government branch Huawei considers impartial, one of the people said. Ex2) Meng enjoys a full panoply of rights, including legal representation, freedom on bail, and a hearing before an impartial and independent decision-maker.

1114) Dispassionate

unemotional, emotionless, impassive Ex1) I never believed in a social science made by and for academics, a dispassionate account of the world. Ex2) Mr. Dano, who seemed almost too tall to fit into the fake kitchen, was comparatively dispassionate, soft-spoken.

1799) Hapless

unfortunate, unlucky, ill-starred, ill-fated (of a person) Ex) We will persuade people to accept this abuse by explaining that we are utterly incompetent — so hapless that we might just forget your mortgage, so you get a free house. Ex2) "Evelyn is like the court jester, the weirdo on the outside, and I'm the kind of dopey, hapless one who is asking questions and doesn't understand anything."

1081) Disconcert

unsettle, discomfit, rattle, unnerve Ex1) Anticipating a formal printed questionnaire, Jessica is disconcerted to be bombarded with highly personal questions. Ex2) What's disconcerting is the desire to hide information from your own team,

1984) Implacable

unstoppable, inexorable, relentless Ex) Adamson, a scholar at the Yale Center for British Art, wants us to appreciate how the material world — all that implacable, inert stuff we are surrounded by — carries memories and an opportunity for empathy. Ex2) An "implacable enemy of Christianity," Nietzsche was also "an incurably Christian thinker," Gray writes.

1495) Feckless

useless, worthless, incompetent 2) lazy, idle, slothful, indolent Ex1) Later in the movie, Luna remembers her as the station wagon passes the village where she was born, but he says nothing to his feckless companions. Ex2) Any party that wants to govern Britain must embrace the reality that "Leave" voters were right in their dissatisfaction with a feckless, over-bureaucratized E.U. system that's better at delivering rules than results.

1056) Dime a dozen

very common and no particular value Ex) "People who worked in the Obama administration and want to write about presidential power, health care, or criminal-justice reform are a dime a dozen," wrote Scott Hershovitz, a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

552) Captious

very critical, acrimonious, censorious Ex) Still, readers shouldn't be overly captious about this diverting, light entertainment. Ex2) From Tennessee to Birmingham, their captious free-for-all Suggests that I am riding on the Squabash Cannonball.

578) Caveat

warning, caution, admonition Ex) But some caveats remain, he said: It is a trial, it isn't full access and it is likely the 10,0000 places on the trial will be filled. Ex2) In brief remarks to reporters on Saturday night, the president said the lower-level negotiations are "going along very well," though he added his usual caveat: "We'll see what happens." Ex3) There were notable caveats to Mr. Trump's riffs: He has hailed his administration's deregulation push, but made no mention of his pre-rally announcement that Scott Pruitt would resign as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

1908) Hospitable

welcoming, friendly, congenial Ex) So, if she is being kind, thoughtful and hospitable — and you cede the legitimacy of her point — then why is this debatable? Ex2) Monarchs in the western part of the United States migrate for the winter to California, where they gather mostly among fragrant eucalyptus trees, which provide hospitable living conditions.

427) Bog

wet spongy ground with soil composed mainly of decayed vegetable matter Ex) Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp, and here's a seven month progress report: The Washington bog is still as wide and fetid as ever.

1784) Halfhearted

apathetic, cool, impassive, indifferent, without enthusiasm or energy Ex) Hart made a halfhearted apology when he announced he was stepping down as host. Ex2) In speeches near the end of his term, Obama talked of trying to reach across America's growing divide — even if his efforts were sometimes disparaged by critics as halfhearted or insincere.

1884) Hit men

assassin, killer, murderer, gunman Ex) While this plan was more elaborate than most, it is not uncommon for law enforcement officials to hear of someone asking about murder-for-hire and then for them to pose as hit men to make an arrest.

750) Congregate

assemble, gather, collect, come together Ex1) Twice a month, Mr. and Mrs. Fernandez bring items from their personal food pantry rations — specifically extra bread — to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown and distribute it to the many homeless people who congregate there. Ex2) Fortunately, good poems, like good people, do tend to congregate.

1762) Guarded

cautious, careful, circumspect, wary, chary, cautious, restrained Ex) Today it is guarded as a mesmerizing tropical ecosystem, but more than a century ago entrepreneurs and politicians saw it as a useless swamp ripe for development. Ex2) As at other shelters, including state-licensed facilities, the children are not free to leave the site, which is fenced and guarded.

827) Correspond

correlate with, agree with, be in agreement with Ex1) The restaurant must also train staff on D.C. laws regarding gender identity and post signs that "all individuals are allowed to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity or expression," the statement said. Ex2) The main requirement is to endow misfortune with narrative and moral significance, if not always with a corresponding sense of justice or proportion.

257) Attest

corroborate, confirm, verify Ex) "Numerous Department of Correction employees and volunteers attest to her extraordinary personal transformation while incarcerated," Mr. Haslam said, "which will allow her to be a positive influence on the community upon release." Ex2) As their independent auditors attested for more than 50 years, stockholders absorbed all losses as well as gains.

884) Cultivate

court, ingratiate oneself with Ex) Our results strongly suggest that somehow cultivating or promoting our reasoning abilities should be part of the solution to the kinds of partisan misinformation that circulate on social media. Ex2) Former Montgomery County executive Isiah Leggett, a Democrat whom Hogan cultivated as an ally during his first term, is also scheduled to speak in the afternoon ceremony on the State House's lawn.

1771) Gullible

credulous, ingenuous, innocent, naïve, simple, inexperienced, easily persuaded to believe something Ex) To accept Washington as honest or deserving of trust would require a level of fandom or gullible negligence so extreme that you should fear whether such believers are capable of navigating daily life. Ex2) Neither remotely credible nor more than minimally entertaining, Stacy Cochran's New York City romance, "Write When You Get Work," presents rich folk as gullible idiots and blue-collar crooks as heroes.

1536) Fissure

crevice, crack, cleft 2) break, fracture, fault, rift, rupture Ex1) Such are the fissures in British politics over Brexit that officials on both sides increasingly expect that Britain's scheduled departure date of March 29 might be delayed while lawmakers find a path forward. Ex2) Racial fissures over policing were believed to be a problem for the big cities, where blacks and whites live in separate worlds.

1738) Gridlock

deadlock, stalemate, impasse- a situation involving two parties in which no progress can be made Ex) As the gridlock continued, the Trump administration was searching for ways to lessen the pain of the partial shutdown for those affected. Ex2) The roads, skies and railways will be filled to the point of gridlock, warns Mahmood Khan, a professor in Virginia Tech's Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

935) Decode

decipher, decrypt, work out Ex) "The posted prices are fanciful, inflated, difficult to decode and inconsistent, so it's hard to see how an average person would find them useful." Ex2) "The key to memory is paying attention. The brain can't stay focused on the words when it is working overtime to decode the signal."

1261) Embellish

decorate, adorn, ornament 2) elaborate, embroider, expand on Ex1) I sent her inspiration photos and color swatches. I also found another designer who made a beautiful top embellished with 3-D chiffon and Swarovski pearls. Ex2) Cutler, no less catty in his reply, used letterhead from the bank at which he was working, embellished with the image of a Puritan and the motto, "Worthy of Your Trust."

240) Assiduous

diligent, careful, meticulous, thorough, sedulous, attentive, conscientious, punctilious, painstaking Ex) Mukasonga is a master of subtle shifts in register — a skill inherited, perhaps, from the Rwandan traditions of intricate courtesy and assiduous privacy that Stefania maintained. Ex2) The tone grows bitter, dismissing Justice Antonin Scalia's opinion on the Second Amendment as "a prolonged exercise in legalistic legerdemain, or perhaps a tortured display of verbal ingenuity by an overly assiduous Scrabble player."

759) Conscientious

diligent, industrious, punctilious, painstaking Ex1) Within Europe, they found that people from Northern Europe were more conscientious than their peers in Southern Europe. Ex2) During World War II, he was a Quaker peace activist and a conscientious objector.

1122) Dispossessed

divest, strip, rob, cheat out Ex) Ms. Madikizela-Mandela commanded a natural constituency of her own among South Africa's poor and dispossessed, and the post-apartheid leaders who followed Mr. Mandela could never ignore her appeal to a broad segment of society.

1917) Humiliate

embarrass, mortify, shame, to lower the pride Ex) In the aftermath of one of their most humiliating losses of the season, falling 7-2 against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night, the Capitals looked like a team appropriately disappointed and frustrated. Ex2) They insist on paying her, which is at first humiliating and then liberating.

739) Confine

enclose, incarcerate, imprison, intern, keep or restrict someone or something within certain limits of space, scope, quantity or time Ex) They confine the focus of the Rule of Law to formal and procedural aspects of governmental institutions, without regard to the content of the policies they implement.

706) Complement

enhance, complete, accomplish Ex1) All of them complemented their running ability by gaining at least 500 receiving yards. Ex2) While working his way up at Wellington, Mr. Bogle persuaded Mr. Morgan to introduce a new all-equity fund, called the Windsor Fund, to complement Wellington, which invested in both stocks and bonds.

19) Abridge

epitomize, recapitulate, encapsulate 2) abstract, condense, summarize, abbreviate, shorten 3) cut right or privilege Ex1) Acknowledging Virginia's history, districts would not be drawn to abridge minority communities' ability to elect representatives of their choice. Ex2) For example, in 1870 the 15th Amendment barred states from abridging the vote on account of race.

1347) Equivalent

equal, identical, comparable, corresponding Ex1) That's roughly equivalent to a New York City garbage truck full of plastic being dumped into the ocean every minute of every day for an entire year. Ex2) Despite their positioning as a nutrition label for news, they said no one should interpret their work as an endorsement for some kind of media equivalent to the Food and Drug Administration.

1958) Immutable

fixed, set, rigid, inflexible Ex) It postulated that there are immutable truths, that there are laws and fundamental features of nature that do not change and to which we are all subject. Ex2) "Particle and Wave," written by Cash alone and backed by Leventhal, measures a lifetime against the laws of physics, immutable on a scale far larger than mere human existence.

1235) Effervescent

fizzy, bubbling, sparkling, bubbly 2) lively, excited, enthusiastic, sparkling Ex1) This is not to say that England or anybody else is ready to knock Champagne off its effervescent throne. Ex2) This droll customer adds an effervescent splash of comedy that narrator David Shih serves by granting him a genial, quizzical manner.

838) Counterproductive

having the opposite of desired effect Ex1) It "irresponsibly and counterproductively" claims all OxyContin prescriptions are dangerous, Purdue said, "substituting its lawyers' sensational allegations for the expert scientific determinations of the Food and Drug Administration" and ignoring people in chronic pain. Ex2) "My first reaction was, 'That sounds counterproductive," said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute.

1888) Hitherto

heretofore, until now, up to now Ex) When Maia sits down for dictation, a bumbling Mr. Godly timidly reveals his hitherto unspoken desires. Ex2) Lawyers say sanctions are also leading to a shift away from using English law—hitherto the norm in international mergers and acquisitions—in favor of Russian law.

1060) Diplomatic

international relations 2) exactly reproducing an original Ex1) At one of the largest U.S. diplomatic missions in the world, the scene looked fairly normal: Visa seekers lined up in the predawn chill as they do every weekday. Ex2) A British TV news anchor, Matt Frei, suggested that the authentic view of Brexit in Germany might be a little less diplomatic.

1486) Faultfinding

berating, captious, carping, caviling Ex1) The harassment, she said, took the form of faultfinding about her work and sexist comments about her appearance. Ex2) The initial judging will be harsh, full of faultfinding and second-guessing.

52) Acrimonious

bitter, angry, rancorous, hostile Ex) It also started an often acrimonious environmental debate about the potential impacts and trade offs of fracking. Ex2) It's not even the increasingly acrimonious relationship between China and the United States.

1443) Extortion

blackmail, shakedown, practice of obtaining money through force or threats Ex) Bulger had amassed enemy after enemy over a lifetime of murder, extortion, double-crossing and - in a breach of the cardinal rule of his ilk - snitching on rival mobsters.

1305) Ennui

boredom, tedium, listlessness, lethargy Ex1) Oh, my poor, sweet television darlings, I hope you're in the mood for lots of sighing and vague feelings of ennui this fall. Ex2) Her big, round eyes telegraph ennui, and while there are moments of Rudolph's trademark physical zaniness, the show also reveals her particular skill for imbuing small gestures with anguish.

423) Boast

brag, swagger, gloat, show off Ex) Gove laid into Corbyn: "He wants to leave NATO. He wants to get rid of our nuclear deterrent. And recently in a speech he said, 'Why do countries boast about the size of their armies? Ex2) Oenogeeks of all stripes enjoy a terrific bargain, that wine that boasts a high quality-to-price ratio and offers bottled fun no matter the pedigree.

1101) Disintegrate

break up, fall apart, fragment Ex1) She holds one of those unglamorous-but-someone-has-to-do-it roles that keeps an agency with a quarter-million employees from disintegrating on a granular level. Ex2) His marriage subsequently disintegrated and his eldest son cut off contact with him for months, friends and associates said.

523) Cagey

careful, cautious, restrained, discreet Ex) She found herself clearly to the left of Bob, and "I just don't care to do that kind of emotional labor of pretending that your very cagey views are interesting." Ex2) It's a political moment that requires deft skills on the campaign trail — but Ms. Rosen is still a newcomer to politics, neither cagey nor glossy nor particularly electrifying.

1085) Discreet

careful, circumspect, cautious, wary 2) unobtrusive, inconspicuous, subtle, low-key Ex1) You won't be the first — or last — person to walk past Dutch Kills, a speakeasy with discreet signage. Ex2) Instead, Democrats will initially pursue at least two questions — one discreet, the other potentially very complicated — that Republicans in control of the committee would not touch.

1310) Ensnarl

caught up in a complex or difficult situations Ex) And, in a foretaste of the chaos likely to ensnarl the country's transportation networks, hundreds of flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, before a single snowflake had fallen there.

84) Affinity

1) fondness, attractiveness 2) similarity, likeness, analogy Ex) Instead of talks to end the shutdown, the president spent at least part of his weekend defending himself against the suspicions about his affinity for Mr. Putin. Ex2) It may be that the survival of many great things in New York will ultimately depend on the affinities of rich nostalgists.

82) Affidavit

a sworn statement in writing Ex) Benchmark Capital sued Uber Technologies Inc.'s former chief Travis Kalanick in an effort to oust him from the board, exposing a clash between two of the ride-hailing company's most powerful and contentious shareholders during the middle of a CEO search.

23) Absolve

acquit, exculpate, exonerate, pardon, to release from blame, punishment Ex) She said she expressed shame and guilt about it to him during confession and he absolved her. Ex2) "Accusing Iran won't absolve Europe of responsibility for harboring terrorists," he said on Twitter.

83) Affiliate

associate with, ally, confederate, amalgamate, merge, unite, mingle Ex) They often routed such help through affiliated nonprofit programs that helped exacerbate the pain when the housing market crashed, some say. Ex2) Doctors working for the Albany, Ga.-based hospital system's affiliated physician group get regular reports breaking down their referrals to specialists or services.

61) Address

attend to, see to, deal with, confront, undertake, concentrate on, focus on, devote oneself to Ex) She is leading a City Council oversight meeting next Tuesday that will address the new park plans. Ex2) The Jena outfit, evenly split between geneticists, archaeologists and linguists, was set up to address questions of this order, in studies designed to include each discipline's contributors as full partners.

62) Adduce

cite, quote, name, mention, point out, refer to, put forward Ex) His sour first marriage is miraculously erased with the introduction of a second wife, whose beauty and redheadedness are adduced to justify all. Ex2) The shreds of evidence adduced by Berle are not convincing that "a higher law" as yet determines substantially the operations of big business.

94) Aggregate

collect, gather, build up 2) total, combined, overall, as a whole, gathered 3) total, sum, collection, combination, mass Ex) That the Citi gauges are negative suggests data in aggregate are missing economic expectations. Ex2) The university receives more than half its aggregate income from government sources.

11) Abide

comply with, obey, observe, follow Ex) China's Commerce Ministry said Thursday that all members of the World Trade Organization should abide by its rules, and reminded the US that the two economies are intertwined.

92) Aggrandize

exaggerate, advance, promote, intensify, elevate, enlarge, enrich, inflate, dignify, magnify, amplify, augment, exalt, ennoble Ex) All that emphasis on Powhatan as the only native leader of significance — that's because he was the most familiar to the settlers, who tended to aggrandize their own experience, King said. Ex2) This is where this version loosened its grip on me — all that male suffering, abusive back story and choked-up aggrandizing agony.

37) Accolade

honor, privilege, award, tribute Ex) And he's got the accolades to prove it: Last year, locals voted him the city's best lifeguard. Ex2) When new games are reviewed, the most flattering accolade might be "I can't put it down."

90) Afoul

into conflict or difficulty with Ex) Defense lawyers involved in investigations with multiple witnesses often form such alliances so they can share information without running afoul of attorney-client privilege rules.

76) Adversary

opponent rival, enemy, antagonist Ex) Two former government cyber officials are working on a new way for industry to measure whether the Trump administration's surge in offensive hacking operations is successfully deterring U.S. cyber adversaries or just egging them on. Ex2) The adversaries in the shareholder dispute include U.S. venture capitalist Paul Tierney, a former Peace Corps volunteer and former owner of D.C.

51) Acrid

pungent, bitter, sharp, caustic, harsh, irritating, acid, acidic, acetic, acerbic Ex) The acrid smell of resin and paints is the only hint that everything on show is utterly tasteless. Ex2) One of them, Roger Stone, a friend and adviser to Mr. Trump, offered a particularly acrid farewell: "Rot in hell," he wrote on Twitter.

67) Admonish

reprimand, rebuke, scold, reprove, reproach, upbraid Ex) "It's an endorsement of conviction, but not telling you what to believe. They weren't explicitly supporting a certain behavior or admonishing a certain behavior." Ex2) Judge Leon ruled forcefully, approving the deal with nary a concession by AT&T and Time Warner and admonishing the government that it shouldn't seek an emergency stay.

95) Aggrieved

resentful, affronted, indignant, disgruntled, discontented, upset, offended Ex) He won not on breadth of his support, but on its depth in aggrieved pockets of the electorate. Ex2) But contemporary wars are better understood as shared undertakings launched by aggrieved individuals and armed groups that believe they gain more from violence than from winning or losing.

43) Acerbic

sharp, piercing, cutting Ex) By putting Saleh in charge of the national police, Ghani hired a vocal and acerbic critic from the largest opposition party. Ex2) Leon G. Cooperman, the acerbic 73-year-old founder of the hedge fund Omega Partners, made news in September when the Securities and Exchange Commission charged him and his firm with insider trading.

24) Abstain

to deny oneself, desist, refrain Ex) The Organization of American States voted not to recognize Maduro's new term, with 19 nations supporting the motion, six against and eight abstaining. Ex2) A group of liver specialists found that abstaining from alcohol for a month improved liver function, blood pressure and markers associated with cancer.

35) Acclaim

to praise, applaud, cheer, commend, approve Ex) Earlier in his career, he led the 21st Century Fox cable network FX's push into original programming with critically acclaimed dramas "The Shield" and "Nip/Tuck." Ex2) The planned series also breaks ground for FX, a cable network known for critically acclaimed scripted shows like "The Americans" and "Atlanta": It is the network's first foray into unscripted content in some time.

319) Barge

a flat-bottomed boat Ex) For decades, New York City puts its sludge on barges and dumped it in the Atlantic Ocean.

1059) Diocese

a district under bishop Ex) Pope Francis' decision in 2015 to appoint Bishop Juan Barros to a diocese in Chille drew protests because of charges that the bishop had witnessed and failed to report sex abuse by another priest decades earlier.

1103) Disjunction

a lack of correspondence or consistency Ex1) Most commemorations look back on the events with greater patience, showing the disjunction between 1968 in theory and in practice while preserving the hope of its promises. Ex2) The video leaves you free to wonder about both the potential contradictions of activist pop and the queasy disjunction between moral concern and capitalist ambition.

294) Backhoes

a mechanical excavator that draws toward itself a bucket attached to a hinged boom Ex) Residents in Juchitan spent the morning using backhoes and their bare hands to dig through the wreckage of collapsed buildings and pull the injured, and the dead, from the rubble.

424) Bobsled

a mechanically steered and braked sled Ex) Alexander Zubkov, driver of the winning two-and four-man bobsleds at Sochi, was one of the 11 athletes who lost their arbitration appeals.

1616) Fracas

a noisy disturbance or quarrel, brawl, melee, rumpus Ex) The fracas over the cost sharing reductions exemplifies the kind of circus atmosphere that we've seen surrounding the Affordable Care Act since the very beginning.

1898) Holdover

a person holding onto the office or staying in a team for a long time Ex) In his own tweets, Mr. Arpaio thanked Mr Trump and called his conviction a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department.

21) Absentee

a person not present Ex) After 15 weeks, I barely know the absentees or anyone Snapchatting the term away on their iPhones.

1378) Eurosceptic

a person opposed to the European Union Ex) The European Commission fears that next year's elections to the European Parliament are vulnerable to mass Eurosceptic online "disinformation."

560) Cascade

a process of information or knowledge is successively passed on, series Ex) But the huge quantity of China's production and exports has nonetheless caused a cascade effect elsewhere.

610) Chasm

a profound difference between people, viewpoints, feelings, breach, gulf, rift Ex) What are the chasms that seem to separate people in such resolute ways?

1585) Foothold

a progressive position, a secure position from which further progress may be made Ex) The market was worth only about $50 million but it gave Arista a foothold.

450) Boycott

a punitive ban that forbids relations with certain groups, cooperation with a policy, or the handling of goods, ban, veto, embargo, prohibition Ex) Alexi Navalny, the opposition politician who built a following among young people across Russia over the past year but has been barred from running, has called for a boycott of the polls and organized more than 20,000 election observers to help reveal falsifications.

684) Commandos

a soldier specially trained to carry out raids Ex) In the late 1960s, after North Korean commandos tried to ransack the presidential palace in Seoul, South Korea secretly trained misfits plucked from prison or off the streets to sneak into North Korea and slit the throat of its leader, Kim Il-sung.

1415) Exonerate

absolve, clear, acquit, find innocent, discharge Ex1) Mr. Mason said he expects to be exonerated. Ex2) The men, Robinson said, should be exonerated — a legal action that would not just forgive them but explicitly state that they were innocent.

50) Acquit

absolve, clear, exculpate, exonerate, find innocent Ex) He was convicted of insider trading in 2012, but also was acquitted on several counts, muddying the issue of whether the government prevailed. Ex2) She was acquitted in the criminal case, but she sued the agency on false-arrest and other claims.

463) Breakthrough

advance, development, step forward, success, improvement Ex) The promotion codes — "King" and "Carrie" — were an ode to the author and his breakthrough horror novel. Ex2) In a recent interview with reporters and editors at The Washington Post, Northam shared credit for the Medicaid breakthrough.

115) Allocate

allot, designate, assign, distribute, apportion Ex) Because the state allocates money based on how many students show up, the superintendent estimated the district lost about $25 million Monday, but saved $10 million because striking teachers were not getting paid. Ex2) Professor Agrrawal split the hypothetical portfolio into sixths and allocated it equally across these asset classes: United States stocks, European stocks, emerging market stocks, United States bonds, gold and United States real estate.

774) Consular

ambassador, diplomate, envoy, emissary Ex) But the State Department has since settled on a more modest plan to convert an existing consular building in Arizona, a neighborhood in West Jerusalem.

1127) Dissect

anatomize, dismember 2) analyze, examine, study, scrutinize Ex1) In the interim, cable news outlets and other media organizations, including The Washington Post, dissected its possible implications — even as their reporters were unable to independently confirm it. Ex2) Cassius, the way he ran that whole thing, he was like a quarterback dissecting a defense.

466) Brick

and-mortar- a traditional business serving customers in a building Ex) The partnership, announced on Wednesday, is a testament to the mutual threat facing both companies from Amazon.com. Amazon's dominance in online shopping is challenging brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart, while more people are starting web searches for products they might buy on Amazon instead of Google.

1841) Heated

angry, vehement, impassioned, excited, animated, inflamed Ex) Why would anyone choose to be outside on a chilly night when they're steps away from a heated restaurant or bar? Ex2) "There's more respect, more sportsmanship, than if you're playing online. You learn from one another, you get heated and angry. It's just so much more visceral."

153) Animosity

animus, antagonism, antipathy, enmity, hostility, ill will, malevolence, malice, hatred Ex) The political animosity that produced the current stalemate may result in another government shutdown in the near future. Ex2) The game Saturday was buzzing with racial animosity.

599) Chagrin

annoyance, embarrassment, humiliation Ex) Dr. Dragomir was chagrined to then discover a glitch in that part of the data. Ex2) The Obama administration tried to simplify the process for students and shift more of the cost of discharging loans onto schools, much to the chagrin of for-profit colleges that said they were being unfairly targeted.

145) Analgesic

anodyne, painkiller, soother Ex) An April study in the Journal of the American Dental Association found that anti-inflammatory analgesics, such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen, generally work better than opioids at easing acute dental pain. Ex2) One of us leads the FDA's advisory committee on anesthetic and analgesic drug products.

99) Agog

anxious, avid, excited, eager, enthusiastic Ex) Even people paid to satirize politics find themselves agog. Ex2) Beach Modesty for the President By The last time the news media snapped pictures of a shirtless , tabloids, blogs and gossip magazines were agog.

707) Complexion

appearance, perspective, angle, slant, interpretation Ex) How to Keep Your Skin Dewy During the Winter The latest tinted cover-ups deliver deep hydration to smooth your complexion — and not just in the short term. Ex2) For Mr. Thomas, a 42-year-old black artist raised in Manhattan, the pale complexions in Mr. Rockwell's 1943 masterpiece did little to represent his experience of a diverse America.

60) Addendum

appendix, codicil, postscript, an item of additional material Ex) It is Ms Nielson who sends out the emails announcing internal policy and planning meetings that now contain a clipped addendum- "principals only"- with a stern warning that any subordinates who wander in will be immediately ejected.

549) Caparison

bedeck, decorate, embellish, adorn, ornament Ex) The fabric became alive with a "miniature but microscopically detailed battle scene," complete with silken tents of different colors, "gaily caparisoned horses, soldiers on horseback, their armor glinting in the sun, and men with longbows." Ex2) In Kollum, a group calling itself the Pooram-Perunaal Celebration Committee was denied a permit to march 52 elephants in protest; the members dressed a bulldozer in a gold-plated caparison and marched with that instead.

1233) Effect

beget, achieve, accomplish, carry out, realize, manage, bring off, execute, conduct, engineer, perform, do, bring about Ex) The Women's March recently adjusted its programming to feature female federal workers effected by the partial government shutdown that began Dec. 22. Ex2) In Vietnam, a new cybersecurity law which went into effect this year requires internet companies to quickly comply with government demands to remove content it doesn't like.

1225) Eclipse

blocking, obscuring, concealing 2) block, cover, obscure 3) outshine, overshadow Ex1) It marked the first time since 1997 that two backs from the same team eclipsed 100 yards in a playoff game. Ex2) It refers to the moon's tint during a total lunar eclipse, showing a variety of shades from copper to brown to slightly orange.

879) Cudgel

bludgeon, club, beat, batter, bash Ex) Mr. Trump's use of tariffs as a cudgel to revitalize manufacturing in the United States is forcing changes across large multinational companies, though they may not always be the changes the president seeks.

496) Bumbling

blundering, bungling, inept, clumsy, maladroit, awkward Ex) When Maia sits down for dictation, a bumbling Mr. Godly timidly reveals his hitherto unspoken desires. Ex2) It probably doesn't seem like the world needs another show about wealthy white people bumbling their way through the 21st century while trying to navigate a changing media landscape.

202) Arbitrary

capricious, whimsical, random, chance, unpredictable 2) autocratic, dictatorial, undemocratic, despotic, tyrannical Ex) Later Monday, Canada's Foreign Ministry updated its travel advisory for China to include a warning about the "arbitrary enforcement of local laws." Ex2) Furthermore, Canada's foreign ministry said it updated its advisory for Canadians in or traveling to China "due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws."

1759) Gruesome

causing repulsion or horror; grisly, gruesome pictures of dead bodies, grisly, ghastly, frightful, hideous Ex) The second act's curtain parts on the gruesome aftermath, yet Mower's angel whisks away the flames and whirls the strewn bodies back on their feet and into one another's arms. Ex2) But now that he is so unpopular at home and challenged by the anti-Europe "yellow vest" protesters, "the more macabre and gruesome the British situation is, the better given his domestic situation," Mr. Leonard said.

559) Carrot and stick

characterized by both the offer of reward and the threat of punishment Ex) Italy, which has seen 600,000 African and Middle Eastern migrants arrive since the start of 2014, has used a series of carrots and sticks to try to stem the flow- actions officials believe are having an effect.

1925) Hygiene

cleanliness, sanitation, sterility Ex) Not for Blanchot the anodyne distractions of sleep hygiene, which conspire to evade night's presence. Ex2) He hitchhikes to distant factories, drops off job applications and is summarily jeered at for his shabby clothes and poor hygiene.

1067) Disarmament

demilitarization, demobilization, decommissioning Ex) Mr. Trump's threats have drowned `out the more conciliatory rhetoric of Mr. Tillerson, who has said Washington doesn't seek to regime change and wants to pressure North Korea into disarmament talk.

1086) Discrepancy

difference, disparity, variance, variation Ex1) By last summer, it became clear that the discrepancy between the World Magnetic Model and the real-time location of the magnetic North Pole was about to exceed the threshold needed for accurate navigation. Ex2) While mulling over the similarities and discrepancies between Prum's ideas and those of his peers, I kept returning to a passage in his book.

983) Demoralize

dishearten, dispirit, deject Ex1) Tiny little cuts, that were demoralizing them in the long run. Ex2) No team suffered a more demoralizing season than the Jaguars.

1466) Factiousness

divided, split, schismatic, discordant, conflicting, argumentative, disagreeing, disputatious, quarreling Ex) He is relying instead on Mr Trump, his Saudi and Egyptian allies, Israel's army and the fatigue and fractiousness of the Palestinians. Ex2) Those are the characters from "No Exit," the 1944 play by Jean-Paul Sartre that is obviously the structural model for "Discord," folks whose philosophizing fractiousness is much missed here. Ex3) Despite its fractiousness, Pakistan is doing well in some ways.

721) Concierge

doorkeeper, doorman, porter Ex) "Is everything perfect?" he asked, much like an attentive concierge.

1645) Fugitive

escaped, runaway, on the run 2) fleeting, transient, transitory, ephemeral Ex) Marshals, tasked with a range of duties, from protecting judges to apprehending fugitives, are still on the job. Ex2) It also risks conflating phenomena that are as superficially similar but ultimately unrelated as dolphins and sharks; the underlying psychology of fugitive ecoteurs is very different from that of frauds like her ex-fiancé.

1254) Elude

evade, avoid, get away from, dodge Ex) The new development which will increase the number of jobs in the city by at least a third, could help revive a community that has struggled with crime and poverty- and is diverse in a way that has eluded its neighbors, such as Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

569) Categorical

explicit, absolute, direct Ex) The contents consisted of objects whose categorical boundaries — in natural history, zoology, archaeology, ethnography, geology and so on — were not yet firmly established. Ex2) The categorical tone of the new assessments reflects scientists' growing confidence in the ability to detect the role of a changing climate in individual extreme events, such as heat waves and droughts.

813) Convoluted

extremely complex and difficult to follow, complicated, complex, involved Ex) President Bush, President Barack Obama and President Trump have all offered convoluted, incomplete or unconvincing answers to essential questions: Why are we in Afghanistan?

134) Amenity

facility, service, convenience, benefit Ex) Employers competing for the best workers are using outdoor amenities to show they care about their staff's well-being. Ex2) Those amenities include attractions like the Smithsonian Museums and the National Zoo, which she said may be inclined to shorten their hours because fewer people are in the city buying tickets.

945) Default

fail to pay, not pay, renege Ex) A temporary forbearance or deferment would also be tricky for federal workers who are rehabilitating a defaulted student loan. Ex2) Lenders fear defaults and delinquencies; corporate borrowers worry that they won't be able to "roll over" existing loans, while household borrowers fear losing their homes or cars.

852) Credulity

faith, acceptance, belief 2) trustworthiness, reliability, integrity Ex) It strains credulity for the administration to argue that denying health insurance to people on the basis of their employment status meets that test.

430) Bogus

fake, spurious, false Ex) He then submitted bogus takeover bids for two companies, Avon Products and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, in an effort to manipulate their stock prices. Ex2) The newspaper reported that Hacienda HealthCare faced a 2016 criminal investigation for allegedly billing the state more than $4 million for bogus 2014 charges for wages, transportation, housekeeping, maintenance and supplies.

296) Backstop

fence, bar, barbed wire, railing, barricade Ex) Add to this a political class even more corrupt and riven by infighting than the Iraqis in 2014, and it becomes clear that removing the American backstop would likely precipitate a rapid collapse of the Afghan state, former and current Western officials say.

407) Blatant

flagrant, glaring, obvious Ex) These parties claim blatant discrimination against newcomers, which serves no purpose except to protect incumbent businesses — and which therefore violates the Constitution's prohibition against state interference with interstate commerce. Ex2) The government described the attack as "a message of blatant defiance to the international community and outright rejection to peace efforts."

404) Blandish

flatter, cajole, coax Ex) But it seems to me now that Celmins does this not to destroy the illusion, or to reiterate a tired and oft-trod lesson about resisting the blandishments of transparent representation. Ex2) In Trump they saw opportunity, plying him with flattery and blandishments.

1968) Impeccable

flawless, faultless, unblemished, spotless Ex) With "their boundless amiability, impeccable activity and angelic faces," he said, "they shamelessly conceal a vicious wolf ready to devour innocent souls." Ex2) With "their boundless amiability, impeccable activity and angelic faces," he said, "they shamelessly conceal a vicious wolf ready to devour innocent souls."

1455) Exude

give off, release, emit 2) discharge, ooze, weep, emanate, radiate 3) display, show, evince Ex1) In a previous work by Rosenblit, a giant swath of fuchsia felt exuded enough personality that the New York Times critic Gia Kourlas referred to it as a character in itself. Ex2) Even Zachary's funeral is spiked with wit, as his daughter struggles to exude enough grief to catch the eye of a young rock star.

1609) Forswear

give up, renounce, relinquish, reject, forgo, disavow 2) perjure, deceive, delude, equivocate prevaricate Ex) When Ms. Gillibrand forswore corporate PAC money in February, she was following Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren; Mr. Booker joined them within hours. Ex2) The Trump administration on Friday welcomed North Korea's surprise announcement that it would halt further testing of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles and forswear transferring weapons technology to other countries.

1238) Effusive

gushing, gushy, unrestrained, extravagant Ex1) The two sides differed on how Kelly's tenure should be described in the release announcing her departure, with her representatives arguing for a more effusive recognition of her contributions to NBC News. Ex2) She arrived in Washington as a rising star, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, and she quickly won leadership positions and garnered effusive praise from her party leaders.

1880) Hirsute

hairy Ex) About her hirsute new boyfriend, she writes: "Heist was as unmannerly, as dour and self-enclosed, as an emo guitarist packing in after a poorly attended gig at a bar in Greenpoint." Ex2) Houseplants, embraced by hirsute, plaid-draped baby boomers in the 1970s, fell into obscurity before being rescued in this century by millennials.

220) Arrogant

haughty, conceited, self-important, overbearing, pompous, bumptious, presumptuous, imperious Ex) He was arrogant and pushy, and he didn't care that locals thought he was loud and vulgar. Ex2) Still, representatives from rival parties in Parliament said that the visit, which lasted three hours and did not include a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Mahdi, was an arrogant affront.

646) Cleareyed

having clear eyes and vision Ex) And the truth is that on the big strategic questions, Mr. Trump is cleareyed and right.

1944) Illiteracy

ignorance, unawareness, inexperience, state of being uncultured or poorly educated Ex) Poverty around the world is plummeting; half the world is now middle class; and illiteracy, disease and deadly violence are receding. Ex2) At the same time, the party invested in education, expanding access to schools and universities, and all but eliminating illiteracy.

620) Chimera

illusion, fantasy, delusion, dream, daydream Ex) "For almost a decade I lived in that chimera of cosmopolitanism," he told me. Ex2) In my view, r-star is not a beacon in the sky but a chimera in the eye.

534) Callow

immature, inexperienced, juvenile, adolescent, naïve, green, unsophisticated Ex) Oh, youth, it was fast, it was callow, And you doubt if you'll ever see Prague. Ex2) The story portrayed the brothers as merciless takeover artists and "callow youths" whose main business strategy was to dodge taxes.

1998) Impregnable

invulnerable, impenetrable, unassailable, unable to be defeated or destroyed Ex) It also tries, poignantly, to press against the limitations of its own medium, to breach, or at least protest, the impregnable boundary established by the screen itself. Ex2) "Invisible" is not only a personal restoration project; it's the reclamation of a key figure in recent American history whose accomplishments "beat ceaselessly against the artificial but nearly impregnable barriers that whiteness built."

613) Chauvinism

jingoism, excessive patriotism Ex) A new line of slate and wood boards puts urban chauvinism on display. Ex2) She identified the competition for prestige as the ultimate source of piggish chauvinism. Ex3) Every day in the last five weeks of my travels I have comea cross such damaged and wounded people, people who breathe nationalism, sectarianism, without knowing that they are doing so, and people who are deeply chauvinistic and suspicious toward their fellow Iraqis.

1491) Fealty

loyalty, allegiance, fidelity Ex1) Public health authorities said the deal between the two companies would undercut Juul's ability to play the cigarette spoiler and show that that start-up's own fealty is to profit, not public health. Ex2) The author frames authentic thankfulness as part of fealty to God's will, as well as being a helpful daily path.

1835) Headway

make progress, progress, make strides Ex) Backers of the effort to repeal the CFPB rule have said they are making headway in their efforts to kill the rule. Ex2) But a failure by Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim to make headway could lead each side to double down on their demands and perhaps heighten the possibility of conflict.

1156) Doleful

mournful, woeful, sorrowful, sad, unhappy Ex1) He constructed ballads around sparse keyboard chords and his sustained, doleful, androgynous voice, hovering in imaginary space and punctuated by tense silences. Ex2) Hahn sustained an epic sense of line through cycles of harmonic tension and release, driving the music to its ecstatic climaxes with utter inevitability and retreating inward with doleful whispers.

1845) Hedge fund

mutual fund, bond fund, retirement plan Ex) Andrew Hall, a legendary trader who made billions betting an oil's rise, is shutting down his hedge fund after he misjudged the impact of a boom in US production that upended the market. Ex2) But he was arrested and ultimately convicted on charges unrelated to those claims to fame, stemming instead from his management of two hedge funds and a publicly traded pharmaceutical company.

206) Arcane

mysterious, secret, enigmatic, esoteric, cryptic, abstruse, abstruse, recondite Ex) Because of the arcane nature of the case, it is difficult to speculate along political lines what the court will do. Ex2) Paul Evans, a cardigan-clad clerk at Britain's Parliament, spent most of the past four decades diligently studying arcane rules and conventions in the shadows of Westminster Palace.

1679) Gawky

nervously awkward and ungainly, awkward, ungainly, maladroit Ex) Yet Mitch refuses to forget the article, like a supermodel carting around her gawkiest middle-school photo as if to keep herself in check. Ex2) To gauge the psychic distance between gawky Lala Levy and her domineering mother, Boo, consider their way with a telephone.

834) Counter

oppose, dispute, contradict Ex1) But the Pentagon's Babb countered that "the report highlights the climate vulnerabilities of the top 79 mission assurance priority installations. By using this alternative approach, we are able to highlight where there are operational risks." Ex2) And allegations of corruption — even on such a monumental scale — are not that surprising, added Pedro Rodríguez, 28, a marketing executive eating at the same counter.

87) Affluent

opulent, prosperous, rich Ex) The opportunity-zone tax break was designed to attract a range of businesses to less affluent neighborhoods. Ex2) The Trump administration released a report in June proposing to privatize Fannie and Freddie while continuing to subsidize mortgage loans for less affluent home buyers through an existing program operated by the Federal Housing Administration.

311) Bane

plague, blight, curse Ex) And for generations of women who were stereotyped and bullied into polite smiles and reassuring deference, pink was their bane. Ex2) A Chevron commercial about the efficacy of drones gets a shot of adrenaline from that bane of piano students, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee."

246) Astronomical

planetary, stellar, huge, enormous Ex) The trick, then, is to figure out the best overall paths. Sifting through the number of options, which can be astronomical, is daunting.

1376) Euphonious

pleasant-sounding, sweet-sounding, mellow Ex1) In her poem "The Ozark Odes," for instance, one section comprises no more than the curious, euphonious names of Arkansas towns. Ex2) The final section, back in the music room, contained the only real "music" of the afternoon — an extended trio for harp, violin and glockenspiel that was euphonious and hymnlike.

1688) Geopolitics

politics, especially international relations, as influenced by geographical factors Ex) Hopes that Mr Putin's next term could bring decisive structural reforms and reinvigorate the economy have dwindled amid the president's focus on geopolitics and increased infighting among the political elite.

953) Deferment

postponement, deferral, suspension Ex) In his 2010 Senate race, Mr. Blumenthal was criticized for indicating in public appearances that he had served in Vietnam when he was a Marine Corps reservist who stayed in the US during the war. Mr. Trump who was given deferments and didn't serve in Vietnam as repeatedly attacked Mr. Blumenthal over the matter.

575) Caustic

sarcastic, sardonic 2) corrosive, abrasive Ex) An acolyte of President Trump, Stewart embraced a bombastic, often caustic populist style that attracted right-wing extremists while driving away moderate members of the GOP, whom he once likened to toilet paper. Ex2) He incorrectly attributes McKay's critiques to a hardened ideology, rather than a caustic fury that takes widow-making aim at those who abuse power and the public trust.

1731) Grating

scraping, scratching, grinding, rasping, sounding harsh and unpleasant, irritating 2) framework, grid, grate, network Ex) City workers removed more than 2,000 metal gratings, construction barriers and other items to prevent them from being used as weapons or as barricades. Ex2) The soles of her Hermès shoes — as white as the altar's Carrara marble Jesus — faced the grating above the crypt where her deceased husband and his noble family's ancestors lay in polished coffins.

1657) Fusty

smelling stale, damp or stuffy, musty, stale 2) old-fashioned in attitude or style Ex) During the opening statements at Chicago's fusty criminal courthouse, prosecutors said Officer Van Dyke acted recklessly and unreasonably when he fired 16 shots at Laquan on Oct. Ex2) Warning: Dillinger's Cocktails & Kitchen, which was named after the Depression-era gangster and occupies a former 1920s bank, might abscond with your fusty drinking habits.

704) Complacent

smug, self-satisfied, self-congratulatory, gloating Ex1) But Dutch policymakers are nervous that Dutch businesses may still be too complacent. Ex2) It's about not wanting to be complacent, and wanting to continue to be challenged and learn.

1755) Growl

snarl, bark, roar, howl, (of an animal, esp, a dog), to make a low guttural sound of hostility in the throat Ex) The night is young, the news breaks 24/7, and we've nearly two more years to wonder what Graham will say, growl, hiss, spit, growl, whisper or sing, hallelujah! Ex2) When she sang a song in her exaggerated growl, it belonged to her forever; only Louis Armstrong's own growling rendition of "Hello, Dolly!" was a match for hers.

1422) Expedite

speed up, accelerate, hurry, hasten Ex1) He said the decision to expedite Folt's resignation was not punitive, but based on the best interests of the school. Ex2) The suit also requested an expedited hearing "due to the fact that the season is finite and that postseason play in the sport of basketball begins in February of this year."

1501) Feisty

spirited, touchy, active, alive Ex1) Once a feisty upstart, it is now the largest domestic carrier in the United States, with annual revenue approaching $25 billion. Ex2) Newman's report and Johnson's images immortalize Potter's feisty, prickly personality and her body's surreal journey from flesh and bone to something much bigger than a single person.

394) Bilious

spiteful, malicious, bad-tempered Ex) The chance to someday regain a departed client, however slim, may be why agencies usually try not to be too bilious when they are dismissed. Ex2) The most surprising aspect of the evening is its bilious undertone.

665) Coddle

spoil, indulge Ex1) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared in a speech at the American University in Cairo last week that "countries increasingly understand that we must confront the ayatollahs, not coddle them." Ex2) "Countries increasingly understand that we must confront the ayatollahs, not coddle them," he said.

230) Askance

suspiciously, skeptically, cynically, mistrustfully, distrustfully, doubtfully Ex) And while Pelosi was personally against the Iraq War and campaigned against it to win the majority, she was never heard to speak askance of Bush's manhood or any other aspect of his character. Ex2) On streets where the late-October temperature still tops 90 degrees, no one looked askance at head-covered women driving alone in traffic — thanks to another Mohammed change.

3) Abash

to ashame, bewilder, embarrass Ex) She looked abashed and glanced quickly over to her husband, then back to me. Ex2) Movies about the millennial moment are multitudinous, but "Wobble Palace" is special: a sendup of broke-artist types that shimmers with abashed affection.

1189) Drive a wedge between

to cause anger or disagreement between people Ex) For the United States, the fear has been that North Korea's gestures will drive a wedge between it and its ally, South Korea. Ex2) Senior US officials have expressed doubts about the openings as a propaganda ploy meant to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington, but have publicly said they support South Korean efforts to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table. Ex3) His younger brother, Josh, has opposed the Trump presidency, driving a wedge between the men in a family that prizes close ties.

1051) Dilapidated

to cause to ruin or despair Ex1) But they all gathered for summer reunions at their parents' home, a modest one-story house that sits on a lot scattered with broken-down campers, a rusted tractor and dilapidated snowmobiles. Ex2) That includes initial funding for a sweeping plan by Andy Byford, the subway's leader, to fix the system by upgrading dilapidated signals, some of which date to the 1940s.

1195) Drub

to defeat thoroughly in a match or contest Ex) One is that the traditional major parties, both Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats and even more painfully their past partners, the Social Democrats, took a drubbing in the September vote, while xenophobic far-right party entered Parliament for the first time.

6) Abdicate

to give up a right, renounce, abjure, abnegate Ex) A thorough review of the record leads to the necessary conclusion that the Forest Service abdicated its responsibility to preserve national forest resources

310) Banal

trite, hackneyed, cliched, platitudinous Ex) Another passion is digging through peoples' things, "the more banal and the more seemingly unnecessary the better," he said. Ex2) The adjectives were not unusual — coaches usually share friendly and sometimes banal admiration for opponents. Ex3) Ex) Hannah Arendt is famous for her phrase "the banality of evil," but she was also struck by the radicalism of evil—by humankind's ability to be evil in ways that destroy all norms, all expectations, all sense of order.

323) Barren

unproductive, infertile, unfruitful Ex) To help handle the overflow, the government in June opened the camp at Tornillo, Tex., a collection of tents on a barren patch of desert about 35 miles southeast of El Paso. Ex2) Not that the Nets intend to apologize after the barren half-decade they endured in the wake of their disastrous 2014 trade with Boston.

122) Altruistic

unselfish, selfless, compassionate, kind, charitable, benevolent, beneficent, philanthropic, humanitarian Ex) And while it isn't an altruistic investment, he said he hoped the effort creates "more jobs, more wealth, better products and helps our society deal with a lot of jarring employment changes." Ex2) The tips may be small, but Mr. Sullivan's vision is grand: to disrupt the advertising model on the Internet by replacing it with a system of small altruistic micropayments.

306) Balky

unwilling, reluctant, uncooperative Ex) Center Dwight Howard entered the season with a balky lower back, and after several visits to doctors on both coasts, he required spinal surgery at the end of November. Ex2) He was a master at building coalitions, a skilled diplomat who understood how to corral balky allies, like Britain and France, and deal adroitly with failing adversaries, like the Soviet Union.

139) Ammunition

argument, considerations used in debate Ex) And the outcome had substantial political implications, if only in denying Mr. Trump more ammunition for this campaign to discredit Mr. Mueller.

1240) Egregious

shocking, appalling, terrible, awful Ex1) This was a case where the reviewers were making egregious errors. Ex2) Even more egregiously, the legislation dedicates hundreds of pages to federalizing the electoral process.

1190) Drive underground

beneath the surface of the earth Ex) Professors, in seeking to protect themselves from liability, they said, might go overboard in monitoring students, which could drive students underground and dissuade them from talking to anyone about their problems.

1909) Hotbed

breeding ground, den, nest Ex) U.S. and U.N. officials say countless across Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and Vietnam, are other hotbeds of North Korean activities.

1218) Ebbs

diminish, dwindle, wane Ex) The company's financial history is inextricably tied to the country's economic ebbs and flows.

1121) Disposition

1) temperament, nature, character 2) arrangement, placement, configuration Ex1) Rosa is best known to fans for her anger management issues, deadpan disposition and secrecy. Ex2) If his own opinion prevails at some times, he should acquiesce on seeing that of others preponderate at others. Without this mutual disposition we are disjointed individuals, but not a society.

1061) Dire

1) terrible, dreadful, appalling 2) ominous, gloomy, grim, dismal Ex1) I am in Northern Virginia, and we suffer the same dire consequences as those in the District. Ex2) But about a decade ago, Mr. Cifuentes, then in his 40s, was in dire straits, recovering from pancreatic surgery and saddled with a large debt from his recently murdered older brother.

1074) Discernment

1) the ability to judge well 2) perception Ex1) Good writers, accordingly, sift and combine words with the patient discernment of a pharmacist or a pastry chef or a child sorting Legos. Ex2) I think what the pope is saying is we need the deep discernment and the change of heart before we get to the policy.

1334) Epiphany

insight, inspiration Ex) Mr. Sisco, an MBA student in Utah, had his epiphany after inviting friends over to watch the Super Bowl.

768) Constellation

a group or cluster of related things Ex) The constellation of events disquieted FBI officials who were simultaneously watching as Russia's campaign unfolded to undermine the presidential election by exploiting existing divisions among Americans.

1537) Fistful

a handful Ex) They shut down Mr Schiller's slumber parties as he has called them, on grounds that they violated a fistful of municipal regulations, among them ventilation and fire-safety requirements.

1324) Entreaty

a humble request, plea, appeal, request, petition Ex) The escalation began earlier in the week after Pyongyang defied pressure from United Nations sanctions, rejected American entreaties to consider talks and threatened to use nuclear weapons against the US.

1454) Exuberant

abundant, profuse, plentiful 2) enthusiastic, exhilarated, buoyant Ex1) It's written as well with such exuberant ingredients as metallic hues, latex and enamel paint, spray-painted fields and upside-down drips. Ex2) Right now, she's at an age when it's relatively easy to be exuberant, but as children — especially girls — get older, there is pressure to be more reserved, more "poised."

197) Approve

accept, acclaim, admire, applaud, appreciate, approbate Ex) The Senate voted 57 to 42 to approve a motion to proceed to debate on the resolution. Ex2) The settlement, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, must be approved by a judge.

102) Agrarian

agricultural, pastoral, rural, farming Ex) Samsung is arguably South Korea's brightest corporate success story, as the country transformed from a war-torn agrarian economy into a global export powerhouse.

1761) Grumble

complain, mutter, carp, cavil, to complain or protest about something in a bad-tempered but typically muted way Ex) He grumbled about it later on Twitter, writing: "I tried. But alas, the robot within the PM kicked in and she stuck to her script." Ex2) He used to grumble when the parking lots were packed with working government employees because his customers couldn't find open spots.

784) Contentious

controversial, disputable, debatable Ex1) In the most contentious proposal, the report embraced Reagan's Star Wars plan of putting weapons in space to shoot down enemy missiles during ascent. Ex2) This installment of the contentious rivalry known as the Commonwealth Clash featured the only two undefeated programs in the mighty ACC after top-ranked Duke lost in overtime Monday night to visiting Syracuse.

811) Convoke

convene, summon, call together Ex1) The pope convoked all Chilean bishops to Rome for days of intense meetings, at the conclusion of which all 34 offered their resignation, a first. Ex2) He objected to the "procedure used to convoke and elect" the constituent assembly, he explained in a letter he published on Twitter.

1959) Impair

damage, harm, diminish, to weaken or damage Ex) She is already accustomed to often needing to get special school materials created — — on topics from Judaics to math, because they aren't always available for the visually impaired. Ex2) Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, said the devices are a commuting nightmare for the visually impaired and those who get around via wheelchair.

908) Dart

dash, rush, run, bolt Ex1) But it wasn't the promise of coffee that sent him darting inside. Ex2) It hovers around the woman when she is standing still and trails her like a little comet or a gigantic sperm cell when she is darting about.

321) Barrage

deluge, stream, storm Ex) Ageing Gracefully on the front, withstood the barrage of questions, squinting because of the flashing cameras and sometimes struggling to understand because of his hearing loss.

1070) Disavow

deny, disclaim, disown, Ex1) But as a Jewish woman, she finds it "unacceptable" that the national leaders of the march refuse to disavow Farrakhan. Ex2) Though many disavow his behavior yet remain committed to a conservative Supreme Court, they're stuck defying logic and defending the untenable.

428) Bogeymen

fearful person or thing Ex) Shy journalists have their own bogeymen; I always found calling the families of the recently deceased particularly tough.

1683) Genial

friendly and cheerful Ex) In general, the energy was genial but listless — which made the occasional edgy joke startling. Ex2) The patrician pol with a cap of white hair and genial demeanor campaigned for more than 90 hopefuls in 31 states in November's decisive midterms, in which Democrats captured the House majority.

1988) Implicate

incriminate, compromise, inculpate 2) involve, connect, link, embroil Ex) The competitor he's referring to is the National Enquirer, which was known for "catch and kill" operations in support of Trump and which was implicated in the Cohen case in SDNY. Ex2) Mr. Dean implicated himself, top administration officials and the president in a cover-up of the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Ex3) Saddam was careful to implicate as many people as possible: for example, he ordered civilian advisers to serve on firing squads, so that they, too, would have blood on their hands.

354) Beholden

indebted, in someone's debt, obligated, under an obligation Ex) "There were a lot of interested parties beholden to the Chinese who tried to derail the process," Ms. Malac said. Ex2) When the congressional representatives beholden to the Arms Control Association are measured against the congressional representatives beholden to the defense industry, we will no doubt soon be investing billions in hypersonic weapons.

382) Bespeak

indicate, be evidence of, be a sign of Ex) The party's brutal roundup of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang — more than 1 million are now confined in a gulag of reeducation camps — bespeaks a mistrust that may not be sustainable in the long run. Ex2) Others bespeak the eclectic ethnic mix of the community and are filled with Irish and Italian and Polish and Russian tchotchkes and flags.

176) Apathy

indifference, lack of interest, lack of enthusiasm, lack of concern, unconcern uninterestedness, unresponsiveness Ex) "What struck me was the apathy of the national and mainstream media. When someone forwarded me her body's picture, I was horrified,'' Ms. Chatterjee said. Ex2) Now it is charged with trying to combat the mounting apathy and needing to do something to inspire hope.

1951) Immediate

instant, instantaneous, swift, prompt Ex) "If the ELN really wants peace," he said on Friday, "they need to show the country concrete actions, like the immediate return of all kidnapped people and the end of all criminal actions." Ex2) It was a sobering moment, and I did try to be less of a brat, though it was not an immediate transformation.

1126) Disrupt

interrupt by causing problem 2) distort, damage, warp Ex1) The F.B.I. director's explicit goals, after all, were to disrupt all the organizing, to drain the movement's influence, to humiliate and destroy King. Ex2) I am tired of living with the threat of shutdowns disrupting my work.

845) Cow

intimidate, daunt, browbeat, bully Ex1) Democrats, who believe their leverage will only grow when they assume the majority in the House in January, did not appear to be cowed by the tactic. Ex2) "I kept getting these emails from researchers in China, and then I saw the cow," she said, bringing up a photo on her computer screen.

1524) Figment

invention, creation, fabrication Ex) In a twist on ID theft, criminals are deploying figments of their imaginations, in what is often called synthetic-identity fraud.

1268) Embroil

involve, entangle, ensnare Ex) Mr. Carson, a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, has found himself embroiled in recent weeks in a scandal over the purchase of a $31,000 dining room set for his offices and criticism that his agency has pulled back on its mission to end housing discrimination and help lower-income people find stable housing. Ex2) Jared Kushner is embroiled in the special counsel inquiry, including questions about whether he discussed the family's business with foreign officials - a suggestion he has denied.

40) Accountable

liable, obligated, obliged Ex) U.S. bishops debated for days in November how to create a better system for holding top clerics accountable. Ex2) "He was a small-government conservative that some of the moderate Republicans didn't like because when he was at Heritage Action, he held them accountable," said Short, the former legislative affairs director.

944) Defame

libel, slander, malign Ex) "They defamed him. They also revealed private information about him to a large audience." Ex2) The Shin Bet responded with an unusual call in its statement for a halt to what it described as an effort "to defame the organization and its staff and delegitimize its operations."

1191) Drivel

nonsense, gibberish Ex1) It's complete drivel, rubbish, nonsense that somebody in Russia would allow themselves to do such a thing ahead of elections and the World Cup. Ex2) If there is one group that benefits from anti Russian drivel in our media it's Ukrainian fascists.

318) Barefaced

obvious, undisguised, unconcealed Ex) Last October Mr Correa accused The Economist of "barefaced lies" and of acting on behalf of Chevron because of our reporting of the case, allegations that we reject firmly. Ex2) "I would imagine there's a little bit of discomfort" with the prospect of talking business barefaced or in a bathrobe, she said.

1089) Discretionary

optional, voluntary, elective Ex1) The first thing that gets cut in any economic uncertainty is people's discretionary spending. Ex2) Chinese consumers are by no means done with certain discretionary purchases.

1375) Euphemism

polite term, indirect term, circumlocution, substitute Ex1) The tactic is referred to as "knocking on the roof," a euphemism for hitting a building with loud but not terribly destructive munitions before switching to the powerful missiles or bombs meant to level it. Ex2) The remnants of other benefits of the Soviet welfare state — like free health care and education — continue going through "optimization," the preferred Russian euphemism for budget cuts.

1221) Ecclesiastical

priestly, ministerial, clerical Ex1) There is some ecclesiastical flash, in the form of bejeweled crucifixes and gold-plated censers, but this is primarily an exhibition of book illustration, unlike any other medieval manuscript show you're likely to see. Ex2) An independent Ukrainian church — or "autocephalous" in ecclesiastical terms — would mean little in everyday terms for the faithful.

1716) Goad

prod, poke, abet, agitate, to prod or urge with or as if with a long pointed stick Ex) Democrats moved on two fronts Monday to goad Republicans into reopening the federal government, lining up House bills to fund shuttered agencies and preparing to block action in the Senate until the shutdown is resolved. Ex2) They goaded him into admitting as much at a White House meeting this month.

1607) Formulaic

produced in accordance with a slavishly followed rule Ex) "Focus on the human issues because the legal issues — income, property and child support — are formulaic." Ex2) Felicity Jones, 35, who plays Ginsburg, says "On the Basis of Sex" hews closely to the formulaic structure of a sports movie.

1928) Hypnotic

producing hypnosis, sleeping-inducing, exerting a compelling, fascinating, mesmerizing, mesmeric Ex) All the while, Lomax coaxes her charges in a soothing, hypnotic voice. Ex2) The circle of men and women surrounding the combatants are engaged in a hypnotic call-and-response song about an encounter with a dangerous snake.

406) Blasphemy

profanity, sacrilege, irreverence Ex) But she was helped by her strong religious faith when she ran afoul of blasphemy laws often exploited by religious extremists and ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores. Ex2) Indian law prohibits blasphemy only in certain conditions, Ms. Arun said, such as when the speaker intends to inflame violence.

1651) Fungible

replaceable by another identical term; mutually interchangeable, replaceable Ex) Next week, the committee's senators, most of whom are fungible and easily replaceable, should try to minimize the damage their theatrics do to the government's least damaged institution. Ex2) Next week, the committee's senators, most of whom are fungible and easily replaceable, should try to minimize the damage their theatrics do to the government's least damaged institution.

485) Buck

resist, oppose, defy Ex) Party loyalty overwhelmingly explained how most people voted, but Dr. Mutz's statistic analysis focused on those who bucked the trend, switching in their support to the Republican candidate, Mr. Trump, in 2016.

1727) Grandstand

show off, parade, strut, to perform ostentatiously so as to impress an audience Ex) As such, Andrés said, he will institute a policy for any politician who tries to turn the #ChefsforFeds kitchen into a grandstanding opportunity. Ex2) Detractors also accused him of grandstanding after he tried to slap felony charges on 12 activists who toppled a Confederate statue in 2017, days after the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville.

1386) Evince

show, evidence, reveal, establish, express, display Ex1) The work evinces Pontormo's characteristic fineness of gesture and expression, most of all in the meeting eyes and beautiful, gentle hands of the two women. Ex2) "The Jungle" may be agitprop, and its natural constituency may not need to be convinced of the urgency of the need its characters evince for rescue.

1886) Hitch

snag, problem, difficulty, catch Ex) In normal times, such moves would occur without a hitch. Ex2) He sees nothing amiss in hitching his profile to that of a high-luster brand.

1589) Forage

to wander in search of food or provisions Ex) Together, they settled in Provincetown, sometimes feeding themselves by foraging for berries and digging for clams. Ex2) It wasn't some Alice-in-Wonderland-type toadstool but a 1,500-year-old parasitic mold, with growing tentacles that foraged beneath the soil for roots and decaying wood to devour.

1593) Forebode

to warn of or indicate an event, result in advance Ex) A question occupies me today: How to silence the censor inside me when faced with a growing sense of foreboding, even at times fear? Ex2) There's a general sense of foreboding that builds, but what it's building to and which of the nine is and isn't a victim is a perplexing puzzle.

16) Abrade

to wear away, to scrape away by friction or erosion Ex) Arranged in waves and partly abraded, white PVC pipes suggest both bamboo and pipe organs. Ex2) Nearly two dozen of the photographs in the exhibition are vintage prints; another 58 are newly printed from negatives abraded and speckled by time.

833) Countenance

tolerate, permit, allow Ex1) He was almost mythological in his beauty: moss-green wings, a luminescent yellow body and face and a perfectly tailored black hood that made his countenance even brighter by contrast. Ex2) While conceding his Adonis-like countenance, mellifluous voice, quick tongue and sunny demeanor, they didn't see him as a man of mark.

1520) Fiduciary

trusting, in regards to the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary Ex) "By failing to disclose the scheme to purchase and foreclose on the Mortgage through Indian Land, Member A breached the fiduciary duties he owed to Fonville," the counterclaim said. Ex2) The bank's filing also disclosed that it is reviewing fee calculations with certain fiduciary and custody accounts.

369) Benighted

uncivilized, unenlightened, ignorant Ex) And while the show's dialogue, especially, is defined by broad vulgarity, beneath that surface is an experiment in skewering a benighted milieu without indulging in the very things that made it appalling. Ex2) In such a violent and benighted world, apart from registering moral repugnance there is little to be done.

1904) Homogeneous

uniform, identical, unvaried Ex) But their presence sparked an anti-immigrant backlash in ethnically homogenous South Korea. Ex2) In its approach to policy, however, the Fed is rather homogenous.

1338) Epochal

uniquely or highly significant Ex) An epochal contest is underway.

1877) High

water- the state of the tide when at its highest level Ex) When the S.&P. 500 notched its high-water mark of 2872.87 on Jan. 26, it represented a roughly 325 percent increase since the bull market began in March 2009.

1055) Dilute

1) weaken, moderate 2) water down Ex1) I don't think there is a fatigue of team events because it's not something that we think is diluted, and they're all slightly different. Ex2) The red wine was described in the study as "Spanish" and the vodka was blended with lemon juice to dilute it to a similar alcohol level.

710) Comport

accord with, agree with Ex) It isn't clear how Mr. Trump's eagerness to end the US effort in Syria comports with his recent overhaul of his national security team.

347) Befuddle

addle, baffle, bemuse, bewilder, confound, discombobulate, disorient, fuddle, muddle, perplex, puzzle Ex) Those excellent players got befuddled all around the place — riddled by schemes and whooshed past by blurs. Ex2) As the federation enters a phase that may lead to its demise, longtime gymnasts remain befuddled over the mismanaged hiring.

786) Contiguous

adjacent, neighboring, adjoining Ex1) "If it's going to be a contiguous wall across the entire southwest border, you're talking about a massive land seizure of private property," he said. Ex2) The Kurdish ethnic group is spread across a contiguous area that includes portions of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

204) Arbitration

adjudication, judgment, arbitrament, mediation Ex) At issue is a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule approved in July barring fine print requirements that consumers use arbitration to resolve disputes over financial services.

1421) Expedient

advantageous, effective, useful, profitable, fit, politic Ex1) He would be counting, instead, on Democrats embracing a candidate from an ideologically and culturally traditional caste as an expedient for defeating Mr. Trump. Ex2) A sparkling, sublime footwear choice is the most expedient way to demonstrate taste.

135) Amiable

affable, amicable, attractive, benign, cordial, cozy, gracious Ex) What's more, these amiable foxes sported new physical characteristics, including curly tails, mottled fur — and yes, floppy ears. Ex2) Oddball and amiable, "Lodge 49" looked for meaning in sports-bar restaurants and closing aerospace factories, and it found a peculiar magic.

1859) Hermetic

airtight, sealed, impervious, insulated or protected from outside influences 2) esoteric, cryptic Ex) Still, Smith will be forever revered for the hermetic images that she and 1890s occultist A.E. Ex2) "There is this kind of hermetic seal that's placed around you."

429) Boggle

baffle, astonish, astound Ex) His hulking Yale Art and Architecture Building in New Haven, Conn., completed in 1963, put Brutalism on the map in the United States; his houses, with boggling layouts, were the height of Johnson-era chic. Ex2) Nevertheless, visiting these observatories — like my previous visits to particle colliders — boggled my mind.

1572) Flummox

baffle, bewilder, mystify, bemuse, perplex Ex) At Levi's Stadium and on television, they saw a team wearing Alabama colors yet appearing leaky, then flummoxed, then ruffled, then disfigured. Ex2) One take away for the Little Hoyas was the effectiveness of their press, which flummoxed the Vikings in the first half.

1097) Disgruntled

dissatisfied, discontented, aggrieved Ex1) After the disgruntled relatives were able to put the losses in context — and calm down a bit — those running Laird Norton rethought how the company should work, Ms. Brown said. Ex2) He called those who appeared on the documentary "a bunch of disgruntled people who are looking for their 15 minutes of TMZ fame."

1463) Facilitate

ease, assist, help, aid, expedite Ex1) Many of the League's small-business backers rely on European export markets and therefore support a link that would greatly facilitate travel and trade between Italy and its biggest neighbor. Ex2) The government needs to ensure that security forces handle protests in line with the country's international human rights obligations by facilitating and protecting the right to peaceful assembly.

941) Decrepit

feeble, infirm, weak 2) dilapidated, rickety Ex) About halfway through "On the Basis of Sex," the Hollywood version of Ruth Bader Ginsburg takes her daughter Jane to a decrepit building in downtown New York in search of a forgotten hero. Ex2) Naylor's novel, which won a National Book Award in 1983, offers seven interlocking narratives, each centered on a different woman living in a decrepit housing project.

253) Atrocious

ferocious, horrible, brutal 2) appalling, dreadful, terrible, abysmal Ex) I've taken it on the chin for 60 years about my atrocious Cockney accent in the first movie. Ex2) At the same time Mueller and the Angry Democrats aren't even looking at the atrocious, and perhaps subversive, crimes that were committed by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.

1314) Enterprise

a business or company. Ex) We realize that we're embarking on is a terrible enterprise, so we want to believe that it will be easy and short—that the boys will be home for Christmas, as they used to say.

608) Charm offensive

a campaign of flattery and friendliness designed to achieve the support or agreement of others Ex) North Korea, by contrast, appears to have planned its diplomatic overture methodically, starting with Mr. Kim's conciliatory message toward the South in his New Year's Day address, and continuing through the North's charm offensive during the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeonghchang, South Korea.

900) Cynosure

a center of attention or admiration Ex1) The president is silent, away from his bully pulpit, and not the cynosure of attention. Ex2) The cynosure of the room, however, was the artwork.

205) Arbitration clause

a clause in which parties resolve dispute outside of court Ex) In a 5-to-4 vote, split along ideological lines, the court ruled that companies may use arbitration clauses in employment contracts to prevent workers from banding together in lawsuits over workplace disputes.

1319) Entourage

a group of people surrounding an important person, retinue, escort, cortege, train Ex) The heirs to the throne in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates hardly knew each other until they enjoyed a beloved Gulf pastime together- an overnight camping trip in the vast Saudi desert, accompanied by trained falcons and a small entourage. Ex2) On one evening, following a verbal confrontation with Trump employees, he and his entourage of about a dozen people retired to the lobby and had pizza delivered from a restaurant on the property.

818) Copious

abundant, superabundant, plentiful, ample Ex1) Though the goal of such games is usually to get from one area to the next, that framework supports copious possibilities. Ex2) Meanwhile, as if the copious stereo phasing and panning of the original album weren't enough, there's a whole new surround-sound mix.

232) Aspersion

abuse, criticism, calumny, defamation, detraction, invective, obloquy, vituperation Ex) The judge stressed that he was not "casting aspersions on any elected officials," and said that he was encouraging increased security because there was too much suspicion of the process. Ex2) No matter, it is fully understandable that Williams would react to the allusion of the data as aspersion against her accomplishments.

1644) Fruition

accomplishment, actualization, attainment, completion, the realization of a plan or project Ex) His friends and collaborators worked to bring it to fruition. Ex2) "Micron is grateful for the extensive engagement of state and local officials since early this year to help bring our Manassas expansion to fruition," Micron president and chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement.

42) Accrue

accumulate, collect, build up, mount up, grow, increase Ex) Fonville said he was content to let interest payments accrue because he always believed he would be repaid. Ex2) Some of that amount likely included accrued interest on some of the loans, the documents show.

435) Bone spurs in his feet

accumulation of calcium Ex) For the cadets at the academy, the Korean War was less of a focus than the germinating conflict in Vietnam, where some would later serve and others, like Mr. Trump, would avoid through draft deferments - in his case because of his education and bone spurs in his feet.

1569) Flout

affront, deride, disregard, gibe, mock, scoff Ex) These examples, and many more, flout Article 1 of the Constitution, which bans federal officeholders from accepting "emoluments" from any foreign country unless Congress approves the arrangement. Ex2) But three years later, Moon wrote, the prison is continuing to flout the law.

1389) Exacerbate

aggravate, worsen, inflame Ex1) Such a scheme would exacerbate the problems in foreign countries that form the root causes of the migration problem, said Liz Schrayer, president and chief executive of the U.S. Ex2) Western diplomats say there is little agreement between countries in the region on how to pressure Maduro without exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

1399) Excruciating

agonizing, severe, acute, intense, violent Ex1) The boredom may be excruciating at first, but your children will find a way to be creative. Ex2) He writes, in sometimes excruciating detail, about budgets, policy debates, traffic and parking — with links to documents and videos.

1366) Estimable

applaudable, commendable, creditable, laudable Ex1) Smooth and on time, the show mentioned current events only once, and that was an homage to another American of estimable achievement, the 41st president, George H.W. Ex2) He brings his estimable skills to this new story, taking you through it, grim beat by beat.

72) Adulation

applause, blandishment, fawning, flattery, sycophancy, worship Ex) John Coleman, their manager, is conducting the crowd's chanting, soaking in their adulation. Ex2) The swirl of excitement reminded me of the adulation that greeted Mikhail Gorbachev when he first visited New York in 1988 — but Gorbachev was at least striving to be on the right side of history.

639) Claimant

applicant, candidate, supplicant Ex) The Safe Third Country Agreement requires claimants to seek asylum in the first safe country in which they arrive.

346) Befitting

appropriate, fit, suitable Ex) And though she dresses smartly, in clothing befitting a modern architect, the emphasis is on cut and line, not display. Ex2) If Saturday's game does mark the final installment of Georgetown-Syracuse, at least for the foreseeable future, the ending to this one certainly was befitting two of the sport's traditional powers.

1937) Idolatrous

ardent, fanatic, maniac, zealous Ex) "I've always thought naming a holiday after a person was idolatrous." Ex2) His callousness is typical of the people who demonstrate an idolatrous reverence for guns at the expense of the public.

1247) Elemental

basic, primary, fundamental, essential Ex1) Still, Judis would surely wave aside these objections as typical liberal fastidiousness, untuned to the more elemental, raw longings of national identity that liberals need to accommodate fast. Ex2) He made the elemental mistake of neglecting the people at home.

358) Belle

beauty, dream, vision, picture Ex) Only this time the historic studio is not the belle of the Hollywood ball, not even remotely.

1016) Desolate

bleak, stark, bare Ex) The desolate track is evidence that Ms Li has made little progress with her project.

214) Armistice

ceasefire, peace Ex) President Trump attempted a revolutionary approach to North Korea - a gamble that negotiating prowess and deal-making charm in a face-to-face meeting with Kim Jong-un could accomplish what no American president or diplomat had dared to attempt in the 65 years since an uneasy armistices settled over the Korean Peninsula.

1264) Emblematic

characteristic, representative, symbolical, typical Ex1) In a statement, the Indigenous Peoples Movement, which organized Friday's march, called the incident "emblematic of our discourse in Trump's America." Ex2) That they botched this process is emblematic of their inability to run a meeting.

1785) Hallmark

characteristic, sign, emblem, endorsement, indication, a mark indicating quality or excellence Ex) Change, often radical and unforeseeable, is a hallmark of the sector, making most forecasts speculative at best. Ex2) One hallmark is shooting a scene on the street that is then projected in the theater.

652) Clientele

clients collectively Ex) They have the added benefit of building loyalty among prized, ultrawealthy clientele.

124) Amass

collect, compile, garner Ex) Still, his instincts were ultimately validated: Spandex went mainstream, and "Unbreakable," always a critics' favorite, amassed a loyal fan base over the years, not least with the Comic Con set. Ex2) The Fed ultimately amassed a $4.2 trillion portfolio of United States Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities as part of a strategy known as quantitative easing.

1166) Dot

com boom-the dot-com boom refers to the speculative investment bubble that formed around Internet companies between 1995 and 2000 Ex) His first high-profile venture was created in 2000, during the dot-com boom, when he had an incubator set up to fund and support a series of start-up investments through Samsung.

1409) Exhaustive

comprehensive, all-inclusive, complete, full, full-scale Ex1) But following an exhaustive investigation, authorities nearly two years later were able to use DNA evidence to identify him as Cardell Torney Jr. Ex2) The 450-page book went into exhaustive detail explaining the advantages of index funds — in terms of tax exposure, low costs and performance — over stock picking.

742) Confluence

convergence, meeting, junction Ex1) A feather, with its reciprocal structure, embodies the confluence of two powerful and equally important evolutionary forces: utility and beauty. Ex2) Industrial production in Europe's largest economy dropped unexpectedly in November, according to data released Tuesday, the latest reflection of a confluence of headwinds facing the global economy including trade tensions and weakening demand from China.

554) Caravan

convoy, procession, column, train Ex) President Trump on Thursday rebuffed the CIA over its conclusion that the Saudi crown prince was responsible for the killing of Jamal Khashoggie, saying the agency merely had feelings on the matter, and he threatened to close the entire southern border if a caravan that is so far waiting patiently on the Mexican side grows uncontrollable.

1794) Hamstring

cripple, lame, disable, incapacitate, to cripple a person or Ex) Earlier this season, I responded to the Rockets' disappointing start and Chris Paul's ongoing hamstring issues by stopping just short of proclaiming the window to contention closed for James Harden and Co. Ex2) She accused her Democratic colleagues of "a dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress" on health care and other legislation

1023) Detain

delay, keep 2) hold, confine, imprison Ex1) Material witness warrants were used to detain possible witnesses or suspects after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and witnesses were often released soon after their testimony was heard. Ex2) Navy veteran Michael R. White at a prison, making him the first American known to be detained there under President Trump's administration, according to the Associated Press.

1445) Extradite

deport, send, ship, deliver Ex) A Russian man accused of hacking the systems of three American technology companies in 2012, possibly compromising the personal information of more than 100 million users, was extradited to the United States from the Czech Republic on Friday. Ex2) Since Mr Guzman's extradition in January to New York, he has been represented by federal defenders, who are paid for with taxpayer dollars. Ex3) Mr. Bobbitt was arrested in Philadelphia and was being extradited to New Jersey.

272) Autocratic

despotic, tyrannical, dictatorial Ex) Like many other chaebols, Samsung was an early beneficiary of a deal struck between South Korea's autocratic rulers and business leaders after the Korean War to work together to make the country a fast-growing, export-driven economic powerhouse.

1293) Enervate

devitalize, drain, sap, weaken, enfeeble Ex1) We prefer wines that are nimble and energetic, that refresh the palate rather than enervate. Ex2) That was my conclusion after spending the last two weeks of July taking in the offerings of both theaters: nine evenings of Wagner in 12 days, by turns exhilarating and enervating.

1768) Guileless

devoid of guile; innocent and without deception, artless, ingenuous, open, honest Ex) But in 1992 Ms. Marshall confessed to The New York Times Magazine that she wasn't completely guileless. Ex2) Outfitted in a marvelous set of elaborate wigs, Ronan portrays Mary as both gutsy and guileless, an impulsive but disarmingly straightforward leader with a refreshing common touch.

1157) Dolorous

doleful, expressing sorrow or distress Ex1) It's a wintry, melancholic scene made somewhat sadder by the tinkling of some dolorous piano music. Ex2) It's in Beria's every move and there when Malenkov puts on a dolorous face and a corset, setting the timer for his own end.

213) Arid

dry, dried up, shriveled 2) dreary, dull, drab, dry, sterile, colorless, unstimulating, uninspiring, flat, boring Ex) As an exercise in actorly transformation, joyless determination and uncompromising tone, this procedural whodunit set in the city's seediest precincts and arid, desolate outer reaches can't help but inspire admiration. Ex2) Beckett's ruthlessly nihilistic "geriatric farce," "Happy Days," is unconsolingly arid but, perhaps, necessarily corrective.

1234) Effectual

effective, efficacious, operative, successful 2) valid, authentic, bona fide, genuine Ex1) As codas to a highly effectual public career, his current projects seem almost Sisyphean, especially his push for looser immigration laws, which is unlikely to succeed in a Trump administration. Ex2) The Giants, strafed by injuries and mistake prone, were only sporadically effectual.

222) Articulate

eloquent, fluent, effective, persuasive, lucid 2) enunciate, say, speak, utter, pronounce Ex) Several executives pointed to the industry furor last year after Spotify instituted a vaguely articulated "hateful conduct" policy that appeared to largely affect black artists, including Kelly. Ex2) If there is a universal truth about beauty — some concise and elegant concept that encompasses every variety of charm and grace in existence — we do not yet understand enough about nature to articulate it.

1337) Epitomize

embody, typify, exemplify, represent Ex1) The offense was an equal mess, epitomized by a running game so bad that Wilson's total of 586 rushing yards last season was more than double that of any of his running backs. Ex2) Their frustrating and injury-filled season was epitomized by a botched snap in the red zone later in the fourth.

553) Captivate

enthrall, charm, enchant Ex) This week brings a rematch with the Rams of a captivating regular season meeting won by the Saints, 45-35, at the Superdome. Ex2) Jupiter is a Bengal tiger, a Mount Everest, a calving glacier, a Niagara Falls — captivating in its capacity to destroy us, worthy of our awe, admiration and wary respect.

938) Decorum

etiquette, protocol, good form, custom Ex) "It's such a break with the tradition that you unify the country against opposition abroad, and you act with a certain decorum in dealing with opponents at home," said the presidential historian Robert Dallek. Ex2) We embrace 2019 with our annual exhibition of the level of taste and decorum for which The Style Invitational is famed.

1282) Encomium

eulogy, panegyric, paean, accolade, tribute Ex1) A seasoned practitioner of politics, he was more partisan than many of the encomiums to him since his death on Friday would suggest. Ex2) House Speaker Paul D. Ryan's encomium described Bush as "great in his character, leading with decency and integrity."

93) Aggravate

exacerbate, worsen, exasperate 2) make upset, exasperate, vex, provoke, outrage, enrage, infuriate Ex) Cook County Judge Nicholas Ford handed down the sentence to Micheail Ward, 24, on Monday, five months after Ward was convicted of murder and aggravated battery in the killing of Hadiya Pendleton. Ex2) Mr. Ghosn faces a charge of aggravated breach of trust, accused of abusing his executive position at Nissan for personal gain.

1116) Dispel

expel, exorcise, banish, eliminate, drive away, quell Ex) Any successful campaign will need to mind this diversity and prioritize listening to concerns as much as dispelling myths. Ex2) He asked the Security Council to demand Congo's electoral commission publish results from individual polling stations to dispel doubts over the election outcome.

1345) Equitable

fair, just, impartial, evenhanded, unbiased Ex1) He built something bigger than personal wealth: a reasonable way for great masses of people to get a more equitable share of the world's financial pie. Ex2) We remain interested in reaching an agreement that will conclude the case in a way that is fair and equitable for Maryland's college students.

1346) Equity

fairness, justness, impartiality, egalitarianism 2) value, worth, ownership, right Ex1) For the conversion to equity to occur, Tesla's average share price needs to be at $359.87 or higher for 20 consecutive trading days. Ex2) U.S. equities extended a rebound from last year's lows with signs that the United States and China are closing in on a trade truce driving major indexes higher for a fourth consecutive week.

1518) Fidelity

faithfulness, loyalty, constancy, trueheartedness Ex1) Yet some activists want both: fierce resistance to Mr. Trump and unwavering fidelity to the left's catechism of issues. Ex2) Audio engineers look at the car cabin both as a wonderfully controlled space to acoustically tune and a nightmare of reflective surfaces, absorptive materials and constantly changing exterior sounds that obliterate fidelity.

1565) Florid

flowery, aureate, flamboyant, extravagant 2) rosy color, rubicund, ruddy, sanguine Ex) This was in part because Roupenian wrote the story in a dry style that felt more like a piece of web content, a well-written Medium post, as opposed to using florid, architectural prose. Ex2) Season 1 suffered from florid dialogue and stereotyped characters, especially the women — but when it connected, especially in Matthew McConaughey's performance as the haunted Rust Cohle, it was breathtaking.

418) Bludgeon

force, bully Ex) Even college football addicts are likely to need a break after this whirlwind season, which began with coaching turmoil and ended with a surprise bludgeoning of Alabama. Ex2) Artists who ritually engage with cruelty see that engagement as a form of truthfulness — a way to be frank; a way to honor the reader, not to bludgeon her.

1180) Draconian

harsh, severe, strict, extreme Ex1) Draconian regulations kill business and jobs and are essentially just an attempt by "progressive" politicians to impose their Marxist lite dreams to centrally manage the US economy from DC. Ex2) Draconian budget cuts to forecasters, satellites and the research scientists who keep improving the predictions jeopardize an invaluable benefit.

231) Asperity

harshness, sharpness, abrasiveness, roughness, severity, acerbity, astringency Ex) He is not humorless, but he does often wear an expression of some asperity, which I took as his signature combination of German restraint and Japanese restraint. Ex2) She asserts control over her destiny with a brisk asperity that never reveals many glints of warmth, rendering the romantic comedy of the play almost an afterthought.

279) Aversion

hatred, disgust, hostility Ex) Even though the National Weather Service is unionized, there is a strong aversion to speaking openly about their jobs or the organization. Ex2) His aversion persisted even after his sister became a family physician.

1197) Dual

hatted- having two duties Ex) He was more successful in a rare, dual-hatted role that Mr. Trump had given him, overseeing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he scaled back the mission, and in many ways neutered its influence.

1970) Impede

hinder, obstruct, hamper, to delay or prevent Ex) "In turn, underrepresented minority students report feelings of isolation and unfair pressure to represent their race or ethnicity — effects that further impede education." Ex2) Ms. Ginsburg was glad to see the strap taking off around Brooklyn and didn't think that an army of look-alike moms was impeding her look.

1971) Impediment

hindrance, obstruction, obstacle, barrier Ex) There's an emotional nakedness here, almost a reversion to childhood that is both completely understandable and often wrenching, but at times an impediment to really falling into these stories. Ex2) Some engineers and executives, they said, considered the privacy reviews an impediment to quick innovation and growth.

1509) Fervent

impassioned, passionate, intense Ex1) Amateur sleuths pore over details of the case in support of her fervent claims of innocence. Ex2) With popular rage against increasingly dysfunctional institutions swelling, ambitious patricians, determined to outflank their competitors, began to build a fervent base of support by making outsize promises.

147) Anathema

horror, outrage, disgrace, bane, abomination Ex) But "solidarity and pity" prove "stronger than tradition" as Stefania finds a way to circumvent the anathema. Ex2) The wall is an anathema to progressives, and the last thing Pelosi and Schumer want is to sully their fresh start by caving into Trump's demands.

1342) Equestrian

horseriding Ex) Those who have worked with Mr. Lee describe a man well-mannered and relatively soft-spoken. He is an avid golfer despite receiving dispensation from military service for back problems related to an equestrian accident.

1044) Dictatorial

imperious, authoritarian, autocratic, totalitarian Ex) Many Nicaraguans long viewed Mr. Ortega, in office since 2007, as increasingly dictatorial. Ex2) Fred, a dictatorial builder in Brooklyn and Queens from German stock, and Big Tommy, a charming Maryland congressman and mayor of Baltimore from Italian stock, are long gone.

1260) Embed

implant, plant, set, fix Ex1) Stocks rebounded sharply, helping to embed an expectation into the markets that continues today. Ex2) This means, for example, that it's impossible to embed a video that would play on all of the major email apps.

631) Circuitous

indirect, roundabout, oblique, circumlocutory, tortuous Ex) He took a circuitous route to get to a place many expected him to be. Ex2) The driver took a circuitous route to circumvent the human traffic jam engendered by Woods's presence at Ridgewood Country Club.

632) Circumlocution

indirectness, redundancy, wordiness Ex) At the bar that night with Roberta, I got it immediately: These kennings were metaphors of circumlocution, a way to talk around the thing you want to represent. Ex2) And the prime minister . . . in expressing himself before her without circumlocution, calmly invited her to join the rebellion."

217) Arms

length- avoiding intimacy or close contact Ex) Charles Kushner described the loans as arm's length transactions that did not involve his son.

1251) Elongate

lengthen, extend, prolong, protract Ex1) Based on rudimentary pictures snapped just hundreds of thousands of miles before the 12:33 a.m. close approach, Ultima Thule is decidedly elongated, about 22 miles by 9 miles. Ex2) For decades after its discovery in 1930, Pluto remained a small and icy oddity with a tilted, elongated orbit.

673) Coherent

logical, reasoned, reasonable, rational Ex1) She tried to summon something more coherent, but it was too late: The bailiff was tugging at her sleeve. Ex2) Rooney told team officials he stepped back from the door right away and was questioned by security officials, who determined he was not fully coherent.

73) Adulterate

make impure, degrade, debase, spoil, taint, contaminate, corrupt Ex) In 1906 the United States was the only major industrialized nation without strict laws forbidding the sale of contaminated and adulterated food. Ex2) Fabricant said his organization supports the FDA using its authority to bring misdemeanor charges against companies that adulterate supplements with drugs.

724) Concoct

make up, dream up, fabricate, invent, trump up Ex) Interrupting the memory of her mother's folk tales, Mukasonga reflects on the "other stories" invented by white people, "experts" who "concocted a tailor-made race just for us." Ex2) She sings in an airy sustain, raps with calm certainty and concocts electronic tracks that flaunt their repetitiveness even as they stack up additional parts in the mix.

499) Bungle

mishandle, mismanage, mess up Ex) For the Kremlin, however, the bungled killing was quickly seized on as a public-relations opportunity. Ex2) The move, like Pelosi's determination more generally, was informed by the not-unfounded belief that if she didn't lead the Democrats, someone else was apt to bungle the job.

975) Delude

mislead, deceive, fool, trick, dupe Ex) These men and women were found guilty of thought crimes at a time when the Communist Party wanted to consolidate power and achieve a deluded form of ideological purity. Ex2) When given the opportunity to flee the Knicks after their 17-win disaster of a 2014-15 season, he deluded himself into thinking things would quickly improve because he relished being the man in New York.

1918) Humility

modesty, humbleness, meekness Ex) Bush, who he said "showed us the true meaning of honor, integrity, courage and humility," and former U.S. senator John McCain, who broke with his party at key moments to decry partisanship or wrongdoing. Ex2) For instance, in a typically thwarted moment of humility, Lydia "thinks what a selfish person she is, but thinks it luxuriantly."

1229) Edict

official statement, decree, order, command, commandment Ex) Landlords aid the edict, which wasn't publicly announced was communicated by Samuel Smith's in an April memo they said doesn't list unacceptable words.

173) Antithetical

opposed to, contrasting with, contrary to, contradictory to, conflicting with, incompatible with Ex) The A24 deal also seems a little antithetical to Apple's video strategy overall. Ex2) But while most fast food companies introduce new products routinely to get people in the door, such changes are antithetical to the deliberately limited menu that built Chipotle into a $13 billion company.

101) Agony

pain, hurt, suffering, torture, torment, anguish Ex) For the first time since the wealth-destroying agony of the global financial crisis, every major economy was growing in unison. Ex2) I felt more comfortable with the agony I knew and didn't want to risk something worse.

1549) Flap

panic, agitation Ex) The flap over Prof. Moon's essay came just days after U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis appeared to leave the door open on whether a peace treaty would remove the need for U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula. Ex) "Everything I'm doing, I remember seeing my mom do in the '80s," she said on the set, bow flapping as she emphasized her points.

506) Burnish

polish, shine, rub, gloss Ex) Underpinning the evening's musical strength was Gianandrea Noseda, the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, who continues to burnish his stature as a darling of the international music world. Ex2) But the show is "consistently eye-catching, sometimes in burnished, picturesque ways and sometimes disorienting, grotesque ways."

998) Deploy

position, station, post, place Ex1) And once they gained access to a computer network, it was only a matter of hours before they were deploying stealthier hacking tools. Ex2) He deployed three times to the Middle East as a civilian with the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence-gathering operation.

579) Cavil

quibble, carp, nitpick Ex) Inevitably, as in any operatic career, there were critical cavils. Ex2) Still, setting aside any minor cavils, you will certainly enjoy "Presto and Zesto in Limboland" and, if it doesn't seem too static or just plain weird, so will your children.

955) Defiant

resistant, uncooperative, obstinate, intransigent Ex) King remained defiant later Tuesday in an interview with conservative radio host Ed Martin. Ex2) At the start of the 116th Congress, fashion was not merely a footnote, it was a rallying cry, a defiant gesture, a point of cultural pride — a glorious, theatrical declaration of self.

1508) Fertile

rich, lush, fecund 2) fruitful, productive, high-yielding Ex1) That's a setback, but it's not a permanent reduction in economic potential like the less fertile farmland. Ex2) European prisons are fertile recruiting ground for new terrorists despite efforts in France, Belgium and other European countries to isolate dangerous and radicalized suspects in dedicated wards to prevent them from proselytizing.

1552) Flaunt

show off, display ostentatiously, make a great show Ex) The young elite, some with government connections, flaunt their wealth on Instagram and in the streets of the capital, Tehran, sporting designer clothes and flashy cars and vacationing at posh resorts. Ex2) Her bread and butter is recruiting, and the Terps flaunted their talent Tuesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

1462) Facile

simplistic, superficial, oversimplified 2) effortless, easy, undemanding Ex1) He was a facile writer of sentences, an excellent summarizer of ideas and a master architect of the op-ed, which is a notoriously difficult form. Ex2) Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile.

580) Cavort

skip, dance, romp Ex) White's novels are best consumed by just letting them happen to you; inconsistencies and improbabilities fade away as you cavort with Boots, Nilah and their unlikely crew through heist after heist. Ex2) Back in Lhasa, a young, costumed troupe intent on keeping its culture alive performed Tibetan opera and traditional dance, including the best two-man cavorting yak we would see.

1450) Extravaganza

spectacular, display, spectacle Ex) Chinese model being taught to eat sphagetti, pizza, and a cannoli with in advance of a planned extravaganza of a show in Shanghai. Ex2) Some analysts and diplomats said they worried that by agreeing so readily to another meeting, Mr. Trump was inviting the same situation as in Singapore - a press extravaganza that produces little in the way of concrete achievements.

219) Arrest

stop, halt, check, block, hinder, restrict, limit, inhibit, impede, curb 2) attract, capture, engage, absorb Ex) A top aide to Mr. Ghosn, Greg Kelly, was arrested on a related charge and released on bail on Christmas Day after more than a month in jail. Ex2) Nissan's board removed Mr. Ghosn as chairman on Nov. 22, three days after his arrest by Tokyo prosecutors.

798) Contumacious

stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority Ex1) According to the deputy chief justice, Philomena Mwilu, the court was left with no option but to annul the poll because of the "contumacious" approach of the electoral commission. Ex2) During a recent parliamentary inquiry, Andrew Metcalfe, the Immigration and Citizenship Department secretary, accused Iranian detainees of "contumacious behavior, willful disobedience."

1177) Down

the-line- later Ex) Mr. Capuano, who is serving his 20th year in Congress, is a down-the-line progressive, who has drawn no opposition so far from national liberal groups.

1078) Discombobulate

to confuse someone Ex1) And the opening moments of "Network" are as viscerally discombobulating as anything he's done. Ex2) On the contrary, this medieval whodunit miraculously captures the otherworldly, fish-out-of-water, discombobulating experience of being a liberal American today.

1674) Garnish

to decorate or embellish, adorn, ornament Ex) After defaulting another time on his student loans, his Social Security disability benefits were again garnished, leaving him with little. Ex2) The cilantro and lime are not traditionally Cuban, so they're an optional garnish.

1600) Forfeit

to give up a right or possession as a penalty for a mistake or Ex) For what reason are they willing to forfeit the welfare of future lives? Ex2) Mr. Casado agreed as part of his plea to forfeit $26,500, the amount in bribes that the government was able to document.

1242) Eke out

to go further or longer Ex) Americans were able to eke out extra sleep largely by heading to bed sooner and, to a lesser degree, by waking up later, the researchers found.

1742) Grilled at

to intensely question or interrogate Ex) Just hours after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia boasted last week about producing "invincible" new nuclear arms designed to evade American missile defenses, President Trump's nominee to command the nation's military cyberunits was being grilled at a Senate confirmation hearing about another vexing Russian threat. Ex2) He did not testify his own defense, avoiding a grilling about those admissions, but he and his lawyers have insisted that his encounter with Ms. Constand was part of a consensual affair, not an assault.

1583) Foot

to pay for, to cover Ex) In one of his Twitter posts on Thursday, Mr Trump restated his intention that Mexico would foot the bill.

1685) Gentrify

to renovate or innovate house or district for middle-class level, to make middle class Ex) Gentrifying precincts around what was Comiskey Park in the Bridgeport neighborhood are now filled with Wi-Fi-hungry hipsters.

1035) Devolve

to transfer power to lower level, delegate, transfer Ex) In these conditions, democracy devolves into zero-sum group competition—pure political tribalism.

254) Atrophy

wasting, withering, shrinking Ex) Once a world leader, Britain's nuclear industry atrophied after serious accidents in Ukraine and the United States spurred broad resistance to nuclear power. Ex2) Theismann, who adjusted to a broadcasting career after football and whose new movie, "SnowComing," debuts on the Hallmark Channel on Jan 26, says the first thing Smith will face is atrophy in the leg.

387) Bewail

lament, bemoan, mourn 2) lament, bemoan, deplore Ex) Across the country, North and South, Christians gathered in their churches to remember the crucifixion of Christ and to bewail their sins, which made such a sacrifice necessary. Ex2) European leaders who used to bewail French weakness privately express anxiety at the scale of Mr. Macron's ambitions.

1222) Echelon

level, rank, grade, step Ex1) The graft involved senior officials and touched the highest echelon of the department. Ex2) Ms. Yared, one of the few black women in the paper's top echelon, helped with the process of choosing the Crimson president this year.

45) Acme

peak, pinnacle, zenith, high point, crest, summit, top, apex, climax Ex) We tend to think of today as the acme of the sports company/player synergy, but the 1970s heralded the entry of the branded player in more ways than one.

1072) Discern

perceive, detect, recognize Ex1) Though she stops short of wardrobe color-coding, she cannily divides navy from black in her closet to bypass the time-consuming process of discerning between the two in the early morning half-light. Ex2) She also defended her politics, and instead of apologizing for her fashion pursuits, she declared a discerning eye for style, an admirable and valuable skill.

1158) Domicile

permanent home 2) treat as a permanent home Ex1) These Terms and Conditions are in effect immediately after you step over the threshold of our shared domicile and are binding in perpetuity. Ex2) Over the next five days, we floated four different sections of the Bulkley/Morice, rising before dawn and returning to our domicile after dark.

1124) Disquiet

perturb, agitate, upset, disturb, unnerve Ex) The constellation of events disquieted FBI officials who were simultaneously watching as Russia's campaign unfolded to undermine the presidential election by exploiting existing divisions among Americans.

1892) Hoax

practical joke, prank, trick, ruse, deception 2) deceive, mislead, beguile Ex) Mr. Wheeler was asked several times by Democrats if he would denounce Mr. Trump's statement that climate change is a "hoax." Ex2) "Not only did I never work for Russia, I think it's a disgrace that you even asked that question because it's a whole big fat hoax. It's just a hoax."

709) Complimentary

praising or approving Ex) The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump," the president wrote on Twitter.

164) Antedate

precede, predate, come/go before, be earlier than Ex) This selection, which includes several cartoons that antedate the age of Trump, showcases several modes. Ex2) These stones antedate even the long-ago, medieval world in which this "Macbeth" is set.

1132) Dissimulate

pretend, feign, act, conceal one's motives Ex1) After the first day of testimony concluded, Ms. Madrigal said in a televised interview that she thought Mr. Vela was dissimulating a lack of understanding to avoid answering questions in the highly-anticipated court case. Ex2) At one point, he says the late Cardinal Francis George of Chicago "dissimulated," which is to say lied, when he said he found Pope Francis's public statements confusing.

531) Caliphate

the rule or reign of a caliph or chief Muslim ruler.Ex) Thanks to the courage of our armed forces, we have crushed the ISIS caliphate and devastated its capabilities.

1739) Grievous

very severe or serious, serious, severe, grave, bad, critical Ex) No response ever felt right, so I mirrored her sage nods, agreeing with her in a grievous way. Ex2) But the city also witnessed grievous random deaths.

1836) Headwinds

wind from the front Ex) There are still regulatory headwinds to the AT&T-Time Warner, including the Justice Department antitrust chief's empty seat.

785) Contest

1) debate, argue about, dispute 2) oppose, object to, challenge, take a stand against Ex1) The firm promised to contest claims against its transactions with Sears, the spokesman added. Ex2) The company contested the T-Mobile case, but conceded that two employees acted improperly.

55) Acute

1) severe, critical, dire, dreadful, terrible 2) sharp, severe, stabbing, piercing 2) astute, clever, nimble, keen Ex) Town records in Lexington, N.Y., eventually turned up his cause of death: "acute peritonitis," which is an inflammation of the abdominal wall. Ex2) The issue of sourcing is especially acute with diamonds, which change hands many times from mine to showroom.

648) Cleave

1) split, cut, dissect, sever 2) stick, adhere, cling Ex) That might be the whales' response to the loud cleaving of icebergs in the spring and summer. Ex2) The tub itself is cleaved from a single block of granite surrounded by two inches of counter space for whatever iced beverage you are sipping.

824) Corporeal

1) tangible 2) bodily, fleshly, carnal, corporal Ex1) Not the corporeal version but rather his likeness in two dimensions, painted on a wall in Bob Green's home that is reserved for Kansas City sporting luminaries. Ex2) Perhaps because I've been disabled and lost my best friend, I wanted my corporeal self to stay recognizable more than I knew.

1139) Distort

1) twist, deform, malform 2) pervert, twist, misrepresent Ex1) In "The Misinformation Age," two professors of logic break down the mechanics of false beliefs, focusing mainly on ideas held by scientists, to show how even the most well-intentioned beliefs become distorted and spread. Ex2) Jack acknowledged that if index funds became dominant enough, they might distort the marketplace.

1102) Disinterested

1) unbiased, unprejudiced, impartial, neutral 2) uninterested, indifferent, incurious, unconcerned Ex1) Marshall, Martin Balsam, Jack Klugman and Jack Warden played characters ranging from disinterested to frankly bigoted, sifting evidence and blunderingly revealing moral blind spots. Ex2) The public, meanwhile, grows increasingly bored and disinterested in us, ever more ready to turn the page or change the channel.

390) Bezel

a grooved ring holding the glass or plastic cover of a watch face or other instrument in position Ex) The S9's updates include a smaller bezel, brighter screen, faster processor and relocated fingerprint reader.

1212) Dystopian

a place where everything is unpleasant or bad Ex) What may sound like dystopian fiction could become a reality for Amazon warehouse workers around the world.

278) Aver

assert, allege Ex) "People want to talk about what is going on in the world in a non-ironic way," Paul avers. Ex2) "Let's say I was acquainted with a lot of different ladies at that time of my life," the smarmy Nick avers.

1046) Diehard

a person who resists changes, conservative, traditionalist Ex1) We were not diehard, and found sunset to be sufficiently breathtaking. Ex2) Unlike so many of the last decade's biggest horror films, they aren't designed to establish lucrative long-running franchises or to appeal primarily to teenagers and diehard gore fans.

793) Contretemps

argument, quarrel, squabble Ex1) A key issue in the Carlson contretemps is distilled in this line from David French of National Review, one of the monologue's critics: "There are wounds that public policy can't heal. Ex2) When I started covering their contretemps in the 1970s, I was surprised to discover that the Yankees' view of the rivalry was: "With them?"

851) Credence

belief, faith, trust, confidence, reliance Ex1) A "total waste of time," Trump fumed on Twitter, lending credence to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer's accusations that the president is prone to "temper tantrums" when he doesn't get his way. Ex2) White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Friday that by reporting Cohen's claims, the media "is giving credence to a convicted criminal."

1533) Fiscal

budgetary, financial, economic, monetary Ex1) The nearby statue of Byrd — state senator, governor and U.S. senator for more than three decades — extols Byrd's penny-pinching fiscal philosophy. Ex2) Except that after two years of unified government under the party that formerly claimed to care about fiscal facts and rectitude, the nation faces a $1 trillion deficit during brisk growth and full employment.

1030) Detractor

critic, disparager, attacker Ex1) By his comportment, the president benefits his media detractors with serial vindications of their disparagements. Ex2) It was also an exploitation of his position to commandeer a prime-time audience for purely selfish political purposes, his detractors charged.

1813) Harrow

distress, trouble, bother, afflict, to cause distress to, disturb, violate, despoil Ex) She was unable to defend her title last year because she wasn't ready to return to the tour after a harrowing medical ordeal during and after childbirth. Ex2) In one of the more harrowing episodes, a man waved a .22-caliber revolver at a Waymo vehicle and the emergency backup driver at the wheel.

305) Balkanize

divide, separate Ex) A Balkanized and antiquated regulatory system made identifying these risks difficult and provided policymakers with limited authority to respond when the panic erupted. Ex2) MYmta will do what Google Maps and some transit apps already do, but in the Balkanized New York region, it promises a surprisingly unified approach to getting around.

505) Burnish

enhance or perfect something such as a reputation or a skill Ex) That experience, coupled with his extensive US contacts list, has burnished Mr Wang's reputation as Beijings foremost "America hand." Ex2) Mr. Kushner said the Jerusalem decision burnished Mr. Trump's credibility by delivering on a campaign promise. Ex3) The contrast between the two President Bushes - 41 and 43, as they came to call each other - served to burnish the father's reputation in later years.

996) Deplete

exhaust, consume, expend Ex1) But if the standoff in Washington continues much longer, that stopgap money will be depleted. Ex2) The Lions' passing game clicked despite a depleted receiving corps, with Kenny Golladay missing the relatively meaningless game with a chest injury.

841) Court

go out with, pursue, run after 2) invite, attract Ex1) That requires fashion houses to court influencers—people with large online followings—or team up with them to generate buzz. Ex2) Nicole Kaeding, director of federal projects at the Tax Foundation in Washington, said the regulations would likely lead to lawsuits that force courts to determine whether many individual businesses qualify.

1064) Dirt

gossip Ex) Rather than acknowledge the meeting's intended purpose - to obtain political dirt about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government - the statement instead described the meeting as being about an obscure Russian adoption policy.

1714) Glutton

gourmand, overeater, big eater, a person who eats a lot of food Ex) No stadium glutton wants to sit near someone who nibbles on a rotisserie-chickensalad sandwich and roasted almonds with pink Himalayan sea salt between sips of probiotic apple-cider vinegar juice. Ex2) Irony, a glutton for attention, didn't stop there.

174) Antitrust action

government law promoting the fair practice of businesses Ex) Amazon's stock price dropped sharply before rebounding this week after Mr. Trump threatened the company with possible antitrust action.

339) Beatific

happy, ecstatic, seraphic Ex) "I do scold them," she says gently, though it's hard to imagine the soft-spoken, beatific Ms. Kondo ever raising her voice. Ex2) Because of the beads, his white busboy smock and the beatific look on his face, Mr. Romero was misidentified in some early news reports as a priest.

934) Decisive

having or showing the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively, resolute, firm, strong-minded, strong-willed Ex) The Russian leader would see decisive victory as a boost while his defiant stand-off with the west escalate.

1304) Enmity

hostility, animosity, antagonism, antipathy Ex1) The two constantly clashed, and their apparent mutual aggression pact translated into onstage enmity, Norman writes. Ex2) Add to that seven decades of enmity between North Korea and the United States, and five years of disdain between Kim and Xi.

1405) Exemplary

ideal, good, excellent, admirable Ex1) Maryland Athletic Director Damon Evans thanked her for building an exemplary program. Ex2) They were, he said, exemplary in every way, and they formed the foundation for what Boeheim built.

443) Bootleg

illegal, illicit, unlawful Ex) The Indian historian whose book is available in India only in bootleg form due to opposition from Hindu hardliners- writes that animal sacrifice remained a feature of the life of the Indo-Europeans after their migration into India for several centuries.

1974) Impending

imminent, close at hand, near, nearing Ex) Her impending departure, planned before the shutdown began Dec. 22, hurt the agency's ability to anticipate and plan for the closure, according to career and political staffers. Ex2) The impending PG&E filing is emerging as the first major challenge for the new Democratic governor, who took office this month.

1973) Impend

imminent, close at hand, near, nearing Ex) Inside Cisco, a Beat Arista document in January 2014 warned that the impending IP would provide the upstart the cash to strike Cisco's most profitable product lines. Ex2) It was the sort of nightmare that had only ever been real for most people's parents or grandparents- the fear of an impending nuclear attack.

1975) Impenetrable

impervious, impermeable, impassable 2) incomprehensible, unfathomable, inexplicable Ex) With an utterly impenetrable text, something more like my notes than the account I finally published. Ex2) Now he's this imposingly big, impenetrably chill, multiracial, biker type, sheathed in tribal tattoos, with a long, dark mane.

574) Caught up

involved in an activity that you did not want Ex) Was it just a year ago that these same people professed outrage at the supposed "unmasking" of American citizens caught up in duly-authorized surveillance?

677) Collaborate

join forces, team up, band together, work together, ally 2) collude, conspire, fraternize Ex1) Ms. Damrosch's family, along with other fishermen, collaborated with the Nature Conservancy to start the California Groundfish Collective, which shares data among boats to manage the waters more carefully. Ex2) According to an analysis issued by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey last month, North Korea is collaborating with foreign researchers to learn biotechnology skills and build machinery.

282) Avid

keen, eager, enthusiastic Ex) I'm an avid traveler and try to leave the US at least 2-3 times per year but your article only reiterates what I've long felt about so many people. Ex2) In any case, Mr. Button, an avid vintage car collector in his own right, probably won't be an early customer.

1176) Downplay

make appear less important Ex1) The agency sought to downplay the impact of the expired contracts. Ex2) James initially downplayed the severity of the groin strain, but only to now be in his third week in street clothes.

563) Castigate

reprimand, rebuke, admonish, censure Ex) Public officials in the DMV are courting him while the public is castigating him. Ex2) In the fall, the national security adviser, John Bolton, castigated Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela as a "troika of tyranny" and vowed to enact polices that would help bring down their governments.

1315) Enterprising

resourceful, entrepreneurial, imaginative, ingenious Ex1) If you think that hold music represents a great opportunity for an enterprising composer, think again. Ex2) Use the back of a large spoon to push as much liquid through as possible, then discard the pulpy solids, or use them for something else if you're particularly enterprising.

316) Barbiturate

sedative and sleep-inducing drugs Ex) The autopsy report noted that a barbiturate was found in his system.

13) Abjure

to abdicate, renounce, relinquish, reject, forgo, disavow, abandon, deny, repudiate, give up Ex) Are democratic socialists willing to abjure ideological purity and accept a politics that is effective, not merely expressive? Ex2) In the United States, the oath administered to naturalized citizens requires that they "entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty."

1576) Fly in the face

to challenge, to oppose clearly Ex) Representative Mia Love, a Republican of Utah who is of Haitian descent, demanded an apology from the president, saying his comments were unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values.

886) Cumbersome

unwieldy, awkward, unmanageable, clumsy, inconvenient, incommodious Ex) Maneuvering his cumbersome aircraft through a 270-degree roll as if it were a nimble fighter plane, Col. Ex2) Many musicians found the Stratocaster's predecessor, the Telecaster, cumbersome, so Fender simply streamlined the instrument with beveled contours that echoed a player's body — and a classic was created.

1411) Exhort

urge encourage, call on, enjoin, charge, press Ex1) António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, issued a carefully worded statement acknowledging the provisional results and exhorting all Congolese to "refrain from violence." Ex2) Four years after President Xi Jinping exhorted the Communist Party to strengthen the rule of law, international observers say the persecution of legal professionals like Wang shows the party-state moving in the other direction.

1224) Eclectic

wide-ranging, broad-based, extensive Ex1) Claim to fame: Mr. DeSantis is one-third of the Manscapers, a landscape design firm in Brooklyn with an eclectic clientele drawn from the city's cultural fauna. Ex2) The stakes are high for Hammer, 32, steadily rising through the fame ranks with an eclectic career, from big studio pictures to indie films to biopics.

1196) Drumbeat

a constant stroke or pattern of strokes on a drum Ex) He is more likely to hinder than help their agenda, and his constant drumbeat of homemade scandals and unforced errors give them more incentive to speak against him than work with him. Ex2) Ms. Newman used the forum to lash Mr. Lipinski for being out of step with the district, a drumbeat that prompted him to claim she was fomenting "a tea party of the left" that was pushing liberal "fantasies."

596) Cesspool

a disgusting or corrupt place Ex) It's the same old cesspool.

1822) Haul

a distance to be travelled/traversed Ex) Which leads to what even Mr Trump is likely to decide is the fourth certainty: The US is compelled to be in Afghanistan for the long haul.

396) Biosolid

organic matter from sewage Ex) A New York City spokesman said the city sends about 85% of its biosolid waste to landfills in states including Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

1082) Discordant

1) different, contradictory 2) inharmonious, tuneless, off-key, dissonant Ex1) The name, which evokes George Washington and Robert E. Lee, was discordant with the diverse county's values, the board said. Ex2) But lately, he's reacting to the anxieties of the world less by way of guitar playing and more through discordant drones and custom-made instruments.

1994) Imposing

impressive, striking, arresting, eye-catching Ex) The setting is as architecturally imposing as it is quietly symbolic: a steep climb, designed to awe. Ex2) "I don't believe in imposing my political opinions on the activities of our businesses," Mr. Buffett said last year.

1133) Dissipate

1) disappear, vanish, evaporate, dissolve 2) squander, misspend, waste Ex1) The mathematical answer is that it's probably not possible to dissipate a fortune like that by overspending on baubles in a generation or even two. Ex2) Mr. Suarez noted the constant commotions of the news cycle and social media, and made the point that we don't do enough physical activities during the day to dissipate our energies.

1084) Discredit

1) disgrace, dishonor 2) disprove, invalidate, explode, refute Ex1) They worry, as I once did, that their important social justice work will be compromised or discredited by smear campaigns. Ex2) In the real world — the one in which politicians don't need color filters to seem ominous and whistle-blowers are merely discredited or imprisoned — conspiracies are common.

1597) Foreordain

(of God or fate) to appoint or decree something beforehand Ex) She would later write a biography of Franklin's nearly forgotten youngest sister, Jane, yet a career in history was hardly foreordained. Ex2) But when his demo tapes were lost and his application to divinity school was turned down, he sensed that his career in law was foreordained.

165) Antediluvian

1) before the flood, prehistoric, primeval, primordial, primal, earliest, ancient 2) out of date, outdated, outmoded, old-fashioned, antiquated, archaic, antique, superannuated, anachronistic, outworn Ex) CBS probably is not sellable to Comcast or Disney , both of which already own broadcast networks, with their lingering, antediluvian significance in the minds of politicians and regulators. Ex2) That is the movie's big joke, and while it sounds positively antediluvian it also brings to mind news reports that the Trump administration plans to introduce abstinence-only education this summer.

1458) Fabled

1) celebrated, renowned, famed, famous 2) legendary, mythical, mythic Ex) Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, whose hallowed place in the pantheon of South Africa's liberators was eroded by scandal over corruption, kidnapping, murder, and the implosion of her fabled marriage to Nelson Mandela, died early Monday in Johannesberg.

1402) Execrable

1) disgusting, abhorrent, loathsome, odious 2) appalling, atrocious, awful, dreadful Ex1) He might want to be familiar with the term "execrable" - that's a good one for this movie. Ex2) As with a rotting fish, the stench from President Trump's execrable performance in Helsinki only grows more putrid with the passage of time.

1088) Discretion

1) choice, option, preference, disposition 2) circumspection, caution, wariness Ex1) While the law provides presidents with considerable discretion on the public release of presidential records, it does appear certain official records are not being captured as required by law. Ex2) The law poses "a devastating threat" to presidential authority and replaces the prosecutorial discretion of the Justice Department with "the mercenary motives of private bounty hunters," he wrote.

763) Consolidate

1) combine, unite, merge, integrate 2) strengthen, secure, stabilize, reinforce Ex1) Erdogan consolidated power after the coup attempt and launched a crackdown on political dissidents, free expression and press freedom, linking opposition to the government to the Gulenist movement. Ex2) The litigation is consolidated in a Cleveland courtroom, with all documents relating to the case under seal.

754) Conjunction

1) coming together, convergence, union, confluence, combination 2) co-occurrence, concurrence, coincidence, coexistence, concomitance Ex1) For competitors, the Major System, often in conjunction with the memory palace, is the most common way to remember hundreds, or even thousands, of numbers. Ex2) "Paradise Gardens" is being published in conjunction with a new BBC documentary in which the author traveled across the Islamic world to explore what inspires and distinguishes Islamic gardens from the English variety.

1814) Harry

attack, assail, assault, harass, to persistently carry out attacks on; to persistently harass Ex) Online platforms offer us ways to "ease the complexities of our harried lives." Ex2) But for many, music provides the right antidote to anxiety, especially in the first few harried and sleepless months after giving birth.

1419) Expansive

1) communicative, forthcoming, sociable, friendly 2) extensive, sweeping, wide-ranging, broad Ex1) She was, for example, expansive on the subject of new projects, a topic many writers would rather submit to a tax return than discuss. Ex2) With 66 exhibitors from seven countries, it's an expansive display of mostly smallish, textured, densely detailed things — modest-size figurative paintings and drawings dominate — but with a good share of stop-and-stare surprises.

772) Constrain

1) compel, force, drive, impel 2) restrict, limit, curb, check Ex1) 'We should be very, very careful about doing anything that constrains, or seems to constrain, speech.' Ex2) While pork remains by far China's most-consumed protein, U.S. meat industry officials see the chance for chicken to fill any gap left by constrained pork production.

871) Crotchety

bad-tempered, irascible, irritable, grumpy Ex1) Even her crotchety mom started giving her kudos, in her own special way. Ex2) Logan is both a world-class grumbler with a crotchety disdain for what used to be called multiculturalism and a stiletto-sharp stylist with appealing allergies to cant and special pleading.

790) Contradict

1) conflict with, be at odds with, be at variance with 2) deny, rebut, dispute, challenge Ex1) With the unequivocal statement, Mr. Pence seemed to directly contradict the president's claim on Twitter, after his first summit meeting in June, that "there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea." Ex2) The Glomar response, she wrote, "contradicts the purpose of disclosure" under the state Freedom of Information Law.

783) Contention

1) conflict, argument, claim, plea, submission 2) disagreement, dispute, disputation Ex1) The two were among the most-mentioned Twitter accounts surrounding the controversy as they received support from like-minded Twitter users and became the targets of contention from users who approved of Gillette's ad, Brandwatch found. Ex2) Earlier this season, I responded to the Rockets' disappointing start and Chris Paul's ongoing hamstring issues by stopping just short of proclaiming the window to contention closed for James Harden and Co.

823) Corporate

1) corporation 2) shared by all members of a group Ex1) Lenders fear defaults and delinquencies; corporate borrowers worry that they won't be able to "roll over" existing loans, while household borrowers fear losing their homes or cars. Ex2) Dems are putting members who rejected corporate campaign money on a committee overseeing Wall St. All because: 1.

1151) Dodge

1) dart, bolt, dive, lunge Ex1) Every time the repentant Libby raises a topic worth philosophical consideration, it's time for her to run, hide or dodge the violent and vindictive government. Ex2) But many experts see the lack of specificity as a problem, a sign that Trump and Moon are dodging some of the big issues in their desire to declare the talks a success.

717) Concede

1) admit, acknowledge, accept, recognize 2) alienate, cede, yield, surrender, Ex1) The company contested the T-Mobile case, but conceded that two employees acted improperly.Ex2)He conceded, however, that although the Greek Constitution would allow him to continue to govern with a minority government, "politically" there would be a problem.

110) Align

1) ally oneself, affiliate oneself, associate oneself, join, unite 2) line up, put in order, put in rows/columns, straighten, place Ex) Ankara considers those Kurdish forces terrorists aligned with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey's own borders. Ex2) The strike is the continuation of a long-running battle in the state between Democrats who align themselves with unions, and those who back charter operators.

191) Appreciate

1) be grateful, acknowledge 2) prize, cherish, treasure 3) increase, gain, grow, rise Ex) "I was like, Wow, the guy is looking at the women's results as well! He just appreciates good tennis." Ex2) I appreciate his overarching philosophy that the game is the same no matter at which level it is being played. Ex3) "I don't think folks appreciate how much I don't care," Smith said.

74) Adumbrate

1) intimate, suggest, allude, imply, hint at, insinuate 2) foreshadow, augur, presage, portend, prognosticate, foreshow, foretell, indicate, suggest, signal, herald, forewarn, warn of, promise, point to, anticipate Ex) The interpolated notebook entries, meanwhile, adumbrate a serpentine journey through Poland, Budapest, Belgrade, Croatia, Odessa, Sofia and Bucharest. Ex2) The shape of the building was first adumbrated by Jacques Herzog, a principal of the firm that became world famous for the "Bird's Nest" stadium at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

370) Benign

1) kind, warmhearted, good-natured Ex1) The memo itself belies his benign reading of his own words. Ex2) There are benign scenes, like that of a group hanging up laundry outdoors, or one of a Buddhist teaching acolytes, as well as a series of images of women giving birth.

958) Deflate

1) let down, flatten, void 2) subdue, humble, cow, chasten Ex1) Tom starts by passive-aggressively nettling her — he then tries to deflate the tension by pretending he was just kidding — before revealing his irritation at Jerri's ignorance. Ex2) More recently, in Week 14, Mahomes deflated the Ravens with a pass that analysis does no justice.

779) Contemplate

1) look at, view, regard, examine 2) think about, ponder, reflect on Ex1) The prosecutor said she is contemplating leaving government work for something more stable in the private sector. Ex2) Or if onside kicks can't be fixed with further tweaking, is that enough to declare the rules a failure and move on to contemplating prospective alternatives to the kickoff?

1231) Edifying

didactic, instructive, enlightening Ex1) Europe is girding for the return of U.S. nuclear sanctions on Iran next month, and the spectacle in Brussels isn't exactly edifying. Ex2) The conclusion: the vast majority of students found the classes edifying, Education Minister Chen Baosheng told a recent press conference.

726) Concomitant

attendant, accompanying, associated, related, connected Ex) The concomitant challenge to preventing retirements is convincing those lawmakers who lost to run for their old seats. Ex2) "This maneuver allows Power Design to slash costs, evading taxes and costs associated with payroll that are concomitant with a typical employer-employee relationship," the complaint says.

1241) Eject

emit, discharge Ex) In all 27 countries are ejecting more than 150 Russians, including people listed by their embassies and consulates as diplomates, and military and cultural attaches.

400) Black site

a location in which unacknowledged black project is conducted Ex) Many of these men were arrested under questionable circumstances; some were tortured, either at CIA black sites or at Guantanamo itself.

920) Dead

end- a situation offering no prospect of progress or development Ex) Eventually, I'd go to his office just to vent. Once, after I complained about a dead-end job, he recommended me for a position at The New Yorker, jump-starting my career.

727) Concord

agreement, harmony, accord, consensus Ex1) Concord Music earlier this year acquired Tams-Witmark, a musical theater licensing organization with titles including "A Chorus Line," "Cabaret" and "Hello, Dolly!" Ex2) Concord is the sole defendant to appear in court in the indictment of Russian entities under Mueller.

7) Aberrant

atypical, abnormal, deviant Ex) This is but the latest way that Trump's aberrant behavior is prompting reactions that undermine longstanding norms Ex2) Messonnier said the CDC is now also exploring the possibility that the symptoms may be caused by an aberrant immune response to an infection rather than the infection itself.

225) Ascendancy

authority, command, control, dominance Ex) In a well-informed survey of the nationalist ascendancy in Europe, Judis again scolds liberals for being oblivious to nationalism's enduring power. Ex2) Today, chief executives and other elites pay themselves lavishly, jockey for personal advantage and focus on their own ascendancy.

1275) Emulate

imitate, follow, copy, mirror, echo Ex1) When I heard his piece called "Blend," I kind of emulated that for a number of years and was playing with different kinds of open tunings. Ex2) Maybe this time the United States' treatment of her Kurdish allies will provide an example to emulate, not beware.

820) Cordon

a line or circle of police, soldiers, or guards, barrier, line, row, chain 2) close off, shut off, seal off, fence off Ex) But even after his death, the security cordon hasn't lifted. Ex2) On Saturday, soldiers in riot gear had cordoned off the entry of the office of the attorney general, Ms. Ortega, and she fled the scene on the back of a motorbike.

469) Brigade

a subdivision of army, unit, contingent, battalion Ex) Mr. Mattis led an expeditionary brigade there and alter oversaw all American forces in the Middle East. Ex2) Back then, civilian brigades also formed, although they took longer to mobilize and didn't work alongside soldiers.

567) Catchall

a term or category that includes a variety of different possibilities. Ex) If Senator Kamala Harris's book tour is a preview of her likely presidential campaign, the early signs point to a catchall message meant for Democrats across the spectrum.

1430) Exponent

advocate, supporter, proponent, upholder Ex1) This was a real shame, because in between, he delivered some wonderful strong singing in the heroic French tradition of which he is one of the best exponents. Ex2) Nor is he shy about discussing his favorite literary style: modernist experimental and its exponents.

1929) Hypocritical

affected, artificial, assuming, deceptive, insincere Ex) Attacks flew in, citing Steyer's own investments in fossil fuels as hypocritical. Ex2) He will be called hypocritical as often as he is praised for criticizing President Trump.

30) Accede

agree to, consent to, accept, assent to Ex) Several Western businessmen, apparently eager to cozy up to Beijing, lobbied President Trump to accede to China's demands, according to people familiar with the talks. Ex2) While some policymakers and economic analysts argue that the Fed should suspend rate increases, such a pause would now expose the Fed to criticism that it is acceding to Mr. Trump. Ex3) He said that China's economy is struggling while the United States' economy is thriving and that he would scale back penalties only if China accedes to his demands.

760) Consensus

agreement, harmony, accord, concurrence Ex1) But on Thursday, several members of the board noted the consensus of their decision and said it did not involve politics. Ex2) Some in Britain are urging a delay in its scheduled March 29 departure, to allow time for a new consensus, a leadership change or even a second referendum.

1368) Estrangement

alienation, antagonism, antipathy Ex) Ms. Madikizela-Mandela retained a political presence as a member of Parliament, representing the dominant African National Congress, and she insisted on a kind of primacy in Mr. Mandela's life, no matter their estrangement.

107) Albeit

although, despite the fact, even if, even though, granted, notwithstanding

1054) Dilettante

amateur, nonprofessional, nonspecialist, layman, layperson Ex1) She hesitated to use the Hearst name on the label for fear she'd be pigeonholed as a dilettante. Ex2) Please, no more celebrities or inexperienced dilettantes running for high political office.

126) Ambient

ambient Ex) About 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide were linked to ambient, or outdoor, air pollution in 2016, according to the World Health Organization, which put Afghanistan's total for that year at more than 17,000. Ex2) In the 20th century, they began to dissolve the border between scripted silence inside the music — the rests — and the ambient silence of a given acoustic space.

270) Authoritarian

autocratic, dictatorial, despotic Ex) Mr. King tweets agreement with Viktor Orban, Hungary's authoritarian leader: "Mixing cultures will not lead to a higher quality of life but a lower one." Ex2) The country's authoritarian president was inaugurated for a second term amid a collapsing economy and a growing humanitarian crisis.

476) Broker

arrange, organize, orchestrate Ex) Now that the Iran agreement, brokered with world powers, is on the edge of collapse after Mr. Trump withdrew the United States, analysts are worried that the Saudis may be positioning themselves to create their own nuclear program in response.

1460) Facet

aspect, feature, side 2) side, surface Ex1) The sometimes contradictory facets of Chela's personality are revealed through a gradual and elegant kaleidoscopic motion. Ex2) The main performer, Gweneth-Ann Rand, is black, and the other five women are white, giving their relentless persecution of her yet another facet of horror.

782) Contend

assert, maintain, hold, claim 2) take on, embark on, face Ex1) It would be both unfair and unwise to ask Secret Service agents and other officers to protect the VIP-packed event, she contends, while they are not being paid their salaries. Ex2) But opponents of high minimum wages continue to contend that they leave employers no choice but to eliminate jobs.

761) Consign

assign, allocate, place Ex1) The last week of 2018, the Logan Circle location filled six large industrial mesh bags of consigned clothes and accessories; the first week of January, workers filled 16. Ex2) KANAZAWA, Japan—Because demographics are supposed to be destiny, Japan was long ago consigned to stagnation with its aging population and rock-bottom birthrate.

1894) Hobnob

associate, mix, fraternize, socialize, keep company Ex) They hobnob with the likes of John Kerry and the Clintons, not because these are particularly fun people to be around, but because American policy affects their accumulation. Ex2) In an entry from late 1980 in "The Andy Warhol Diaries," published posthumously in 1989, the artist frets about hobnobbing instead of creating.

54) Acumen

astuteness, shrewdness, acuity, canniness, discernment, sagacity, smartness, good judgement Ex) "The American people voted for both a president and an administration that brings common sense and business acumen to Washington, D.C." Ex2) It was a small victory, and a reminder of Mr. Musk's technical acumen.

1175) Downfall

at loss of power, prosperity, or status, ruin Ex) Lee Jae-yong, the third-generation heir to the Samsung empire, was sentenced to five years in prison over a bribery scandal that has already contributed to the downfall of the country's former president and shaken the country's political and economic foundations.

1545) Flagrant

atrocious, awful, brazen, disgraceful Ex) The state claimed that the warehouse was flagrantly, cavalierly dangerous. Ex2) In September I spent several days in a row flagrantly parking at expired meters in downtown Washington, in hopes of earning a pink badge of courage tucked under my windshield wiper.

1396) Exceptionable

censurable, obnoxious, offensive, reprehensible, unacceptable Ex1) His walk too, which in his own unaffected natural gait is not exceptionable, he frequently spoils by a kind of pushing step, at open war with dignity of deportment. Ex2) The really exceptionable provision was that which excluded so large a class of Southern men from public office, and just that class with which a friendly understanding was most desirable.

1332) Epicenter

central point of difficult or unpleasant situation Ex) President Obama and head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee spoke at a political diner in Richmond in June and called Virginia the epicenter of the political universe in 2017. Ex2) Arizona was one epicenter of Wells Fargo's retail-banking sales practices problems.

1333) Epicenter

central, core, heart, hub Ex1) The epicenter of this struggle was the kitchen—in a room with 25-foot high ceilings and open to sitting and dining areas. Ex2) The Northeast brewery quietly became the District's epicenter for loud music this year, hosting semiregular metal shows in their colossal tank room.

593) Certitude

certainty, confidence, sureness Ex) Distinctively, the building literalizes this view, forcing us to look up — delivering circularity rather than conclusion, surprise over certitude. Ex2) In their direct actions, their certitude and their honesty, the journalism students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas are a case study in what to do when things fall apart.

1134) Dissolution

cessation, conclusion, end, termination Ex1) The state board issued a new round of subpoenas in the hours before its dissolution. Ex2) The board, which said it received the motion at 10:15 a.m., took no action before its dissolution at noon.

602) Chairman

chair, chairperson, president, leader Ex) Previously unreported corporate documents reviewed by The New York Times show a closer relationship. PAC is run by the son and younger brother of HNA's co-founder and co-chairman, Chen Feng, and was once controlled by HNA.

120) Alteration

change, adjustment, adaptation Ex) But Mr. Trump's advisers have also pressed for big alterations to the rules governing automobile manufacturing, in an effort to bring more car production back to the United States from Mexico.

734) Conduit

channel, duct, pipe, tube Ex) While Mr. Mandela was held at the Robben Island penal settlement, off Cape Town, where he spent most of his 27 years in jail, Ms. Madikizela-Mandela acted as the main conduit to his followers, who hungered for every clue to his thinking and well-being.

699) Compatriotic

citizen of country Ex) Kim's meeting with the visiting South Korean delegation in glowing terms, saying that the "openhearted" discussion between the two sides "took place in a compatriotic and sincere atmosphere"

644) Clannish

cliquish, insular, exclusive Ex) Mary, already a widow and still in her teens, alights from France as an avatar of worldliness and modernity in a rugged, clannish country. Ex2) Trump's clannish management style is also a factor in the Saudi decision.

1145) Divisive

cause disagreement or hostility, isolating Ex1) But as Glenn Kenny wrote in a review for The New York Times, the film still manages to find hope in young activists who are taking on the country's most divisive issues. Ex2) Dismissing his clients' desire to build a broad coalition, he insists on running a divisive campaign in which the difference will be made by angry Britons who don't usually vote.

634) Circumspect

cautious, wary, careful Ex) If other Catholic clergy members were circumspect about sharing their views, McCloskey didn't hold back. Ex2) "I recognize that as the face of this office, one must be circumspect."

1777) Haggle

cavil, quibble, bargain, negotiate, to dispute or bargain persistently Ex) One is that the "no haggle" claim is false, because TrueCar connects several dealers with each car shopper, which necessitates a negotiation. Ex2) Designers in both camps haggle over placement and aesthetics.

488) Buffoonery

clowning, nonsense, silliness Ex) The day of ceremony was a welcome respite from the mean-spirited buffoonery found at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Ex2) After two years of President Trump's grandiose bluster, bluffing and buffoonery, Americans elected candidates who ran as optimistic, progressive problem-solvers focused on results central to families: health care, work, education and taxes.

237) Assert

claim, declare, maintain, contend, argue Ex) I am partial to garlicky chopped collards, fiery red lentils, scarlet beets and assertive cabbage mounded on a backdrop of tangy injera that doubles as your eating utensil. Ex2) "The American government, whether it's the executive or legislative branch, is looking for leaders around Asia who are clear and assertive in their reacting to China's aggressive behavior in the region," Mr. Feingold said.

1428) Explicit

clear, plain, patent, palpable, straightforward Ex1) The explicit denial by the special counsel's office is likely to provide further ammunition to complaints by Trump and his supporters that press coverage of him is unfair and inaccurate. Ex2) Noting she is the youngest congresswoman in history, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez made explicit the fact that her success is not a story of bootstraps but of a web of support.

1464) Faction

clique, coterie, caucus, cabal 2) dissension, dissent, dispute Ex1) Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, likened the Los Angeles strike to "a gladiator fight" between two factions. Ex2) Last January, a faction of the group claimed responsibility for an attack that killed five police officers and wounded 40 others in a Colombian port city.

957) Definitive

conclusive, final, ultimate 2) authoritative, exhaustive, best Ex) The European Union Wednesday set restrictions on steel imports to manage the fallout from disruptive U.S. trade policies, making temporary measures definitive with the unintended consequence of helping cement President Trump's metals tariffs. Ex2) The company hasn't named a price or nailed down definitive dates, and it flew its New Shepard rocket only twice last year.

991) Denounce

condemn, criticize, attack, censure Ex1) Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected it even before Mr. Trump spoke, and Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, denounced the offer as "not a compromise but more hostage taking. Ex2) It is certainly not in the style of "The Death of Stalin," another black comedy that was denounced by the Russian authorities and banned from theaters.

965) Deign

condescend, stoop, lower oneself Ex) The "communications" office specializes in stonewalling, often not even deigning to issue a "no comment." Ex2) The increasing recognition also parallels increasing disrespect for the old assumption that the enslaved fecklessly waited as passive victims for justice that politicians might eventually deign to bestow.

1388) Evolve

develop, progress, advance Ex) John Kelly, the retired Marine general credited with bringing a measure of discipline to Mr Trump's chaotic White House during his six months as chief of staff, told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that he had educated the president about the issue of immigration, adding that Mr Trump had "evolved" on the wall.

1050) Digress

deviate, go off, drift, stray, wander Ex1) En route back to Greenwood, we digress to the island's southern coast, pulling up to Da Pink Chicken, a sky-blue, concrete-and-plywood bar overlooking a channel where the tide is pushing into a lagoon. Ex2) To place this rich local drama in historical context, Haygood occasionally digresses into summaries of landmark stories that in one way or another set the stage for it, from the Plessy v.

527) Calculated

deliberate, premeditated, planned Ex) S&P Dow Jones Indices calculated that fewer than 30 percent of actively managed core bond funds survived the entire 15 years and beat their target index over that stretch. Ex2) S&P Dow Jones Indices calculated that fewer than 30 percent of actively managed core bond funds survived the entire 15 years and beat their target index over that stretch.

967) Delectable

delicious, mouthwatering, appetizing 2) delightful, pleasant, lovely, captivating Ex) The "Downton Abbey" movie trailer is here, and oh, it's a tantalizing montage of our favorite British mansion in all its delectable primness. Ex2) It's a guide to preparing and using animal fats, indulgently or sparingly, in all sorts of delectable ways.

328) Bask

delight in, take pleasure in, indulge oneself in, wallow in Ex) But with the pizza deliveries, they appeared to bask in their own relative serenity and yet another feel-good moment reaffirming their humanism. Ex2) Holt, the club's owner, does not seek to join them, to bask in their reflected glory.

1863) Heteronormative

denoting or relating to a world view that promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation. Ex) But it sounds like your underlying anxiety is that your daughter has a sexual identity and desires that aren't heteronormative.

1155) Doldrums

depression, melancholy, gloom Ex1) Wages are in the doldrums for all lower-skilled workers; stable work hours and savings accounts will remain a luxury for many of them. Ex2) Some measures of productivity growth appear to be turning upward after long doldrums.

947) Defection

desertion, absconding, decamping Ex) The president said both sides- white nationalists and count protesters- were to blame of the clashes, an assertion that drew criticism from across the political spectrum and set off a rapid set of defections by chief executive officers from a variety of business advisory boards.

844) Covet

desire, yearn for, crave, want Ex1) And a wall of the sort the president covets would do little to deter drugs or criminals, most of which enter the country through legal crossing points. Ex2) But some of the more extreme or coveted goals of Mr. Trump's critics may not be imminent or even feasible.

1577) Foe

enemy, adversary, opponent, rival Ex) The folks at Quebec's Canot a Glacé answer in the affirmative and offer hourlong excursions on the St. Lawrence River, maneuvering around and over the floes. Ex2) There are reminders everywhere: buildings buckling, floes of concrete and brick spilling across sidewalks, familiar streets bifurcated by strands of red and yellow emergency tape and patrolled by soldiers in uniform.

1255) Elusive

difficult to find, evasive, indefinable, intangible Ex1) The half-hour series, which begins Sunday, is clearly meant to satirize something, but the target is elusive. Ex2) There was no plan to deploy space-based interceptors, a key element of the Reagan-era vision that remains technologically elusive 35 years after it was announced.

592) Ceremonious

dignified, majestic, imposing 2) excessively polite, formal Ex) Morocco was considered, but abandoned in the end because Mrs. Trump was wary that the entrance for her that was being talked about might strike some as too grand and ceremonious. Ex2) Service, while overeager at times, avoids both the harried anxiety of cheaper Indian restaurants and the ceremonious pretension of more expensive ones.

1735) Gravitas

dignity, seriousness, or solemnity of manner Ex) Connolly brings gravitas and nuance to his analysis of Lennon's relationship with the much-reviled Yoko Ono, still a polarizing figure at the age of 85. Ex2) Whatever you call it, their food, like their drinks, brings gravitas to a bar concept too easily dismissed as lightweight.

1490) Fealty

formal acknowledgement Ex) The proposed rollbacks of the safety rules governing offshore drilling are no less revealing of this administration's fealty to the oil and gas industry. Ex2) But the battle to define the party is playing out most vividly in overwhelmingly safe House districts around cities like Boston, Chicago, and New York, where younger liberals, often women, people of color or both, are confronting men who are products of a clubhouse politics where fealty to the organization was paramount.

170) Antipathy

hostility, antagonism, animosity, aversion, animus, enmity, hatred, loathing Ex) Scott Clement, the director of The Post's polling unit, explained in an email last night that this may both be a cause and an effect of rising partisan antipathy. Ex2) Answer Man learned of Udall's antipathy while researching last week's column about the Benito Juárez statue across from the Watergate building.

571) Caterwauling

howling, wailing, crying Ex) Mine is not intended as East Coast caterwauling. Ex2) With a mellifluous name suggesting bucolic tranquility, Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, is an unlikely object of the caterwauling recently directed at him and the House Freedom Caucus he leads.

1357) Erstwhile

former, old, past Ex) Thus, as the bearmarket leads to bigger and bigger losses, and a bottom nears, erstwhile believers in buying and holding start genuflecting at the later of market timing. Ex2) But the erstwhile billionair apparently never had that much to begin with and certainly does not have it now.

1358) Erstwhile

former, old, past one-time, sometime, as was Ex1) However, the unmasking of Der Spiegel's erstwhile ace, Claas Relotius, as a phony on Dec. 20, mere days after he collected his fourth German Reporter Prize, shows yet again that my hope was naive. Ex2) I do not understand why anyone - especially Warren's erstwhile supporters on the left - is upset about this, or why they are demanding an apology.

1567) Flourish

grow, thrive, prosper, burgeon, increase Ex) "Indeed," Mr. Manly said in an email, "the enemy was the toxic institutional arrogance at M.S.U. that allowed Nassar to flourish." Ex2) As the company flourished, Ms. Bezos stepped back and focused on her family and her literary ambitions.

1747) Grisly

gruesome, frightful, horrid Ex) He just as suddenly called off the meeting on Thursday morning after North Korean officials failed to show up for a planning meeting in Singapore and issued a statement calling Vice President Mike Pence a "political dummy" for suggesting that Mr. Kim could meet the same grisly fate as Libya's Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi if he did not give up his nuclear weapons.

245) Astringent

harsh, acerbic, stern, harsh Ex) The most recent season of FXX's astringent comedy "You're the Worst" ended, if not with a proposal, at least with a panicked surrender to the idea of marriage. Ex2) This sublime section is written in the third person, from Vidal's vantage point — an act of near-ventriloquism that captures the writer's astringent humor and haughty graciousness.

1969) Impecunious

having little or no money, penniless, poor, impoverished Ex) Almost in her league was Mrs. Bradley-Martin, who inherited an unexpected fortune from her father and shoved her daughter, Cornelia, into a marriage to the impecunious Earl of Craven, who was after her million-dollar dowry. Ex2) Ai spent 12 years in the U.S., including a decade in New York City from 1983 to 1993 as an impecunious art student in the East Village.

537) Camouflage

hide, conceal, mask, disguise Ex) "They aren't terribly expensive, camouflage the inevitable drips and spills, vacuum and clean easily and look gorgeous. Problem solved." Ex2) The soldiers mostly shun camouflage for button-down shirts and khakis.

1770) Gull

hoodwink, fool, dupe, deceive, delude, to fool or deceive someone Ex) Grifters are the ones with flair and ambition, who seem to delight in the con itself — the cleverness of the scheme, the smooth ease with which the marks were gulled.

1018) Despondency

hopelessness, despair, discouragement Ex) Her despondency is shared by other Native students at Wolf Point and across the United States.

1985) Implant

insert, embed, bury, lodge, place Ex) To fix the damaged tooth, she required a dental implant, which cost $1,718.63. Ex2) As the smartphone market matures, startups are racing to predict what's next, and venture-capital firms are spraying money into fields like virtual reality, smart watches and even implants in the brain.

1045) Didactic

instructive, instructional, educational Ex1) The film, written by James Graham and directed by Toby Haynes, is itself a thumping stamp, relying heavily on eureka moments and didactic scenes. Ex2) Things for the waist are at waist height; things for the chest are at chest height. We wanted this first gallery to be an experience rather than a didactic look at jewelry.

1395) Exasperate

infuriate, incense, anger, annoy, irritate Ex1) He does this sort of thing so often that the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, recently felt compelled to tweet, like an exasperated high school teacher, "Enough with the memes." Ex2) At the board meeting, Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, seemed exasperated over the many unanswered questions.

1643) Frugal

living without waste; Ex) They're putting off bills and selling possessions, struggling to be frugal and pleading with creditors to be patient. Ex2) Robert Carlson said he got a good deal, noting his wife was "quite frugal."

660) Coalesce

merge, unite, join together, combine Ex1) In the face of official pressure and rebuffs, Ms. Li and the families of other detained lawyers coalesced into a determined and creative resistance. Ex2) He called on the party last month "to unify thinking and coalesce consensus."

725) Concoction

mixture, brew, preparation Ex) None of the hew heart-not-burn devices which heart real tobacco instead of the nicotine concoction typical in most e-cigarettes are available yet in the US but that may be changing soon. Ex2) Mr. Dowd exhorted Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who oversees the special counsel, to end the inquiry and accused the former FBI director James B. Comey of concocting a baseless investigation.

1339) Eponymous

named after a particular person Ex) Ex-Goldman Sachs Group trader Richard Perry, who made more than $1 billion for clients betting against subprime mortgages during the financial crisis, closed his eponymous hedge fund last year after a stretch of muted returns.

1754) Groveling

obsequious, servile, kowtowing, fawning, acting in an obsequious manner in order to obtain someone's forgiveness or favor; creeping in a prostrate position. Ex) What a beautiful image, encouraging people to aim for the heavens instead of groveling in the shadows, inspiring people to leave a mark that lights up the darkness. Ex2) They should consult me — in my inner cable news channel, my speechwriting always works, and almost always inspires a standing ovation, groveling apology, or both.

1701) Glean

obtain information from various resources; often with difficulty, get, take, draw Ex) The Post shared details about those stays — gleaned from the VIP Arrivals lists and eyewitness accounts — with T-Mobile and the Trump Organization. Ex2) American intelligence agencies were left to glean details about the meeting from surveillance of Russians who talked about it afterward.

946) Defeasible

open to revision, forfeiture, annulment Ex) On this evidence-based approach, scientific knowledge must be seen as defeasible. Ex2) In modern argumentation theories, arguments are regarded as defeasible passages from premises to a conclusion.

1869) Hierarchy

organization by rank, class, or grade, echelon, position, ranking Ex) Only a "revolution from above" held any promise of reforming that traditionalist, hidebound society. Ex2) Royal tradition and colonial race science once afforded the Tutsi minority a superior place in Rwanda's social hierarchy, but Mukasonga grew up in the aftermath of this illusory privilege.

1250) Elliptical

oval, egg-shaped, elliptic, ellipsoidal 2) cryptic, abstruse, ambiguous, oblique, obscure Ex1) His thick snare drum splattered against the bulb tones of Joel Ross's vibraphone patterns, making an elliptical groove. Ex2) For the last part of its mission, Dawn was sent on an elliptical orbit that swooped to within 22 miles of the surface, making one orbit every 27 hours.

1174) Dovish

pacific, peaceful Ex) Catalysts for the rebound included U.S.-China trade talks that were described as "serious" and "in-depth" and perceptions that the Federal Reserve was taking a more dovish tilt. Ex2) It also helped that the dovish message arrived less than two hours after an employment report that showed exceptionally strong job growth in December.

210) Ardor

passion, fervor, zeal, vehemence, intensity, verve, fire, emotion; enthusiasm, eagerness, avidity, gusto, keenness, dedication Ex) Mr. Adjei-Brenyah's own retail experiences were less fraught, only fueling his ardor and sharpening his knack for discerning just what is that his customers want. Ex2) Mr. Elliott tore into the music with heated intensity, his voice a beguiling timbre of mahogany carried by boyish ardor.

1934) Idiosyncrasy

peculiarity, oddity, eccentricity, trait, a distinctive or peculiar feature or character of a individual Ex) "It is one of the idiosyncrasies of this moment that we are in where private companies are hosting public squares," Howard said. Ex2) Ms. Davis displayed her idiosyncrasies not just at shareholders meetings.

1493) Feasible

practicable, practical, workable, achievable Ex1) Unfortunately, none of these are feasible options if the national security threat is the president of the United States. Ex2) It is entirely feasible that, in our dying moments, we are more aware of what is happening around us than previously believed.

244) Assume

presume, suppose, guess, surmise, infer, deduce, reckon 2) affect, simulate, feign, put on 3) acquire, take on Ex) But other people may notice that the country's whole political economy assumes population growth. Ex2) Susann Davis assumed it was a migraine, a seemingly minor annoyance when stacked against the crises she already faced.

1820) Hasty

quick, hurried, fast, swift, rapid, done with excessive speed or urgency, hurried, reckless, without consideration Ex) Last week, the real explanation for McCloskey's hasty exit from Washington was revealed. Ex2) Last week, the real explanation for McCloskey's hasty exit from Washington was revealed.

1590) Foray

raid, attack, assault, incursion Ex) More than a decade ago - long before Mr. Fintiklis come into the picture - the Trumps began their foray into Panama when they teamed up with the developer Roger Khafif and his firm, Newland International Properties, as well as another partner.

198) Apropos

with regard to, with reference to, in terms of, with respect to 2) appropriate, pertinent, relevant, apposite, apt, applicable Ex) And very apropos, I couldn't hear because everyone was so loud. Ex2) A young man approached me and, apropos of nothing, asked if I liked Kolkata. Ex3) Which is apropos, as he devotes much of this shorter audiobook to his evolving spirituality and his current meditation habit.

141) Amorphous

shapeless, formless, indeterminate, indefinite Ex) "That's a very broad statement about what is still an extraordinarily amorphous transaction," Mr. Coffee said. Ex2) But it is also here — in bytes stored on tens of thousands of computer servers tucked inside three well-guarded and ever-expanding buildings — that the amorphous discussion about privacy is made concrete.

1706) Glitter

shine, sparkle, twinkle, glint Ex) The new story could also defuse some criticism of the Trump administration, which has refused to back down from billions of dollars in weapons sales to the kingdom and as of Monday was still planning to attend a glittering Saudi investment forum next week.

753) Conjecture

speculation, supposition, surmise, guess Ex1) Goes to dinner party and doesn't bore guests to death with explanation of Schanuel's conjecture on the transcendence degree of exponentials of linearly independent irrationals, $32,500. Ex2) "The security agencies were very clear that this wasn't a matter of conjecture on their part," said one industry source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversations were confidential.

1129) Disseminate

spread, circulate, distribute, disperse Ex1) Although the Twitter accounts used for disseminating the information were taken down early Friday, several hours later, many of the servers hosting the information remained accessible. Ex2) They've also made it easy to disseminate successful strategies for evading border controls or to recruit new migrants, as the recent migrant caravan from Central America reportedly did, on Facebook and WhatsApp.

196) Appropriate

steal, take, plagiarize, copy, embezzle, misappropriate 2) allocate, assign, allot, apportion Ex) I learned what dishes were appropriate to prepare for which guests, how to serve them and why certain foods were prepared for special occasions or holidays. Ex2) It's appropriate, then, that "Glass," which debuts this weekend, completes another kind of circle.

848) Crass

stupid, insensitive, mindless, thoughtless, ignorant, witless, oafish Ex) That's true in the lofty spiritual sense and in the crass financial one: Other people produce both the economic goods and the tax revenue that sustain the nation. Ex2) Executives were juggling a slew of concerns, some tied to public responsibility and others crassly commercial.

1713) Glut

surplus, excess, surfeit, an excessively abundant supply of something Ex) Not all scrap processors benefit from the glut. Ex2) The media company Slate is well-known for the sheer glut of junk foods served in its Brooklyn office; among the most popular are Pop-Tarts and Slim Jims.

113) Allegorical

symbolic, metaphorical, figurative, representative, emblematic, totomeic Ex) His allegorical 1939 novel, "On the Marble Cliffs," is frequently read as a critique of Hitler. Ex2) "Grey Rock," a simple and somewhat allegorical story, is less overtly political than any of these pieces.

1026) Deteriorate

worsen, decline, degenerate Ex1) The new trade agreement is moving forward. But policymaking is deteriorating in Mexico, with a more populist, left-wing type of government. Ex2) There, his health rapidly deteriorated, according to his daughter, Robin Miskel.

1861) Heterodox

unorthodox, nonconformist, heretical, blasphemous 2) not conforming with accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs Ex) The left-wing activists marching on Sunday were a heterodox group of pro- and anti-Europeans, many drawn by their ties to workers' unions, others by their activism against racism or for the rights of Palestinians. Ex2) This heterodox vision of the Trinity roiled the ancient church for centuries, even after the Council of Nicaea deemed it a heresy in 325.

1014) Desecrate

violate, profane, defile, debase Ex1) The anger reached a fever pitch in Paris last weekend, when protesters burned cars, desecrated historical monuments and clashed with police in violent exchanges unseen since the upheavals of 1968. Ex2) A few days later "the statue was desecrated, broken," recalled Michel Cocotier, who now leads Memories From Overseas and is the principal of a Nantes high school.

1350) Equivocation

the use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself; prevarication Ex) In recent months, tech luminaries have repeatedly clashed with the president, criticizing his executive order on Muslim immigration, his ban on transgender troops, his "many sides" equivocation white supremacists and his Tuesday announcement that he was ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which let young undocumented immigrants remain in the country.

1711) Glove were coming off

there is going to be serious disputes Ex) Ms Ullal was irritated by the exchange and told her staff that Cisco's gloves were coming off, according to the person.

1410) Exhilarate

thrill, excite, elate, delight, enliven, animate Ex1) It was an exhilarating time, with lots of positive press coverage — first in Harvard PR, then in the Daily Beast, Forbes and my hometown newspapers. Ex2) "It is exhilarating," she said, "and it is awesome, and I don't use that word as a throwaway. It is awesome."

1483) Fatigue

tiredness, weariness, sleepiness, drowsiness Ex1) The decision stemmed, he said, from a combination of the network's skittishness over overtly political programming and Trump fatigue among viewers. Ex2) Halfway through the season, the Capitals appear fatigued, perhaps both physically and mentally, after last year's long run to the franchise-first Stanley Cup championship.

1889) Hoard

to amass money or valued objects and hide or store away, to accumulate a supply of something Ex) In the end, I did what any good capitalist would do, and hoarded them, hoping for the best. Ex2) She made her own or scavenged from the hoards of fellow devotees.

1879) Hinge upon

to be contingent on, dependent on Ex) Citizenship, acquired either by birth or by naturalization, was now held as a nearly unassailable right, no longer hinging upon adherence to norms imposed by the state. Ex2) Both novels hinge upon murders motivated by heat-of-the-moment spontaneity and deep-seated resentment born of relentless discrimination.

2) Abase

to degrade, demote, humiliate, demean, to lower Ex) Why do you need to abase and demean me? Ex2) How dare McCain say I am a naïve egotist with a sympathy for autocrats who abjectly abased myself before a tyrant and failed to defend American values?

538) Can

to fire, dismiss, ax, let go Ex) The White House may be wary of canning Mr Koskinene, thinking it would be cast as another high-profile firing.

129) Ambivalent

uncertain, unsure, doubtful, indecisive, inconclusive, wavering, hesitating Ex) It is unclear if any of these men will enter the race — particularly Mr. Biden, who, associates say, is ambivalent about running after over three decades of presidential fits and starts. Ex2) All of these varied experiences helped Mr. Oz create a vivid and ambivalent portrait of his homeland in more than 30 books.

1227) Ecumenical

unifying, universal, non-denominational, representing a number of different Christian churches Ex1) Given Pagels's famously ecumenical approach, it's surprising to hear that her spiritual journey began at a stadium revival preached by Billy Graham. Ex2) Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who as the ecumenical lpatriarch is considered the "first among equals" in church affairs, took several steps last week toward creating an autonomous church in Ukraine.

160) Anonymous

unnamed, unidentified Ex) Humu said its software was built with employee privacy in mind, allowing workers to delete personal data, including anonymous comments made in company surveys. Ex2) Then-Prime Minister David Cameron said British properties were "being bought by people overseas through anonymous shell companies, some with plundered or laundered cash."

337) Bearish

1) resembling a bear such as surly, rough, clumsy 2) falling share prices Ex) It suggested that a period of calm and steadily rising markets had given way to a turbulent new era with a bearish bent. Ex2) That means the market has entered a so-called correction - a term used to indicate that the downward trend is more severe and lasting than simply a few days of bearish trading.

267) Austere

1) severe, stern, strict, harsh 2) ascetic, self-denying, self-disciplined, non-indulgent, frugal, Spartan 3) plain, simple, basic, modest, unadorned, unembellished Ex) Adults, animals and children die in these stories with an austere matter-of-factness. Ex2) By contrast, Jordan Ruiz's crab-and-redfish gumbo at the Munch Factory, his restaurant in the Lower Garden District, is much darker and comparatively austere.

68) Adolescent

1) teenage, youthful, pubescent 2) immature, juvenile, childish Ex) New controls on online games were among Chinese authorities' recommendations for reducing adolescent nearsightedness on Thursday, sending shares in the country's leading game publisher, Tencent, tumbling the next day. Ex2) It is more common in children and adolescents, especially those with generalized epilepsy and a type known as juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, according to the foundation.

619) Chieftains

1) the leader of people or clan 2) a powerful member of an organization Ex) This case once again shows why the South Korean judiciary does not have the people's trust when it comes to cases involving chaebol chieftains.

4) Abate

1) to subside, drop off, to lessen, to ease off decrease, reduce 2) to calm, relieve, calm, tone down Ex1) Meanwhile, despite the potential financial and environmental concerns, the bathroom boom shows no sign of abating. Ex2) FedEx Field erupted with the Eagles fans' cheers, and they seldom abated.

1033) Devious

1) underhanded, deceitful, dishonest, dishonorable 2) longer and less direct, roundabout, indirect, Ex1) The lyrics are tied to particular body parts, while the music flaunts its jazzy chord progressions, devious melodies, odd meters and cleverly interlocking patterns. Ex2) They say your vote matters, which it probably does, but then when they put little trickery like that into play, it's like whoever is the most devious is bound to win.

2000) Improbable

1) unlikely, doubtful, dubious 2) unconvincing, unbelievable, incredible, ridiculous Ex) The improbable story of the Trump Tower Moscow deal was thrust onto center stage again Thursday after Mr. Cohen admitted lying to Congress about his role in the project.

340) Bebop

Ex) The song starts off with a muffled trumpet solo, that is both similarly sad to Holiday, and kind of weird sound with descending bebop lines.

755) Conjure

evoke, summon up Ex1) Drive time, she said, conjures up a lot of feelings. Ex2) That is, the God of the Koran is much closer to the image we commonly conjure as God.

1272) Emir

a chieftain, prince, commander, or head of Islamic countries. Ex) Until recently, he said the Saudi prince got on well with Qatar's ruling emir.

351) Behemoth

a huge or monstrous creature 2) big and powerful organization Ex) Traders and money managers largely attributed the slide to a round of disappointing earnings from companies ranging from big-box retailers to technology behemoths. Ex) Three corporate behemoths - Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase - announced on Tuesday that they would form an independent health care company for their employees in the United States.

25) Abstemious

abstinent, Spartan, moderate, austere, ascetic, restrained, self-denying, temperate Ex) This bright picture of Australian food — packed with fresh and local produce, invitingly global in its flavors, health-conscious but not abstemious — is relatively new Ex2) Many of the more abstemious outfits are at the Cloisters, which we all agreed is the strongest section of the show.

1719) Gorge

abyss, canyon, chasm, gulf 2) stuff, cram, glut, gormandize, sate Ex) Just present him as the high-wire act and car crash that he is; the audience gorges on it. Ex2) As the sun was setting one recent afternoon, he decided he wanted to catch a glimpse of the monastery from across the gorge.

708) Compliant

acquiescent, amenable, tractable Ex1) "He is soft-spoken, polite and compliant with classroom procedures," his teacher wrote. Ex2) We don't really want to change this for reasons above, but we certainly want to be compliant with D.C. law.

604) Champion

advocate, promote, uphold Ex) In the United States, Nissan is facing the consequences of a strategy championed by Mr. Ghosn that focused on winning market share through discounts at the expense of profits. Ex2) The effect of the diminished ranks was on display at President Trump's Monday night buffet of fast food served to the visiting national college football champion team, the Clemson Tigers.

867) Cross