English Vocab Semester 2

loquacious

Adjective Talkative Although my friend may seem shy and quiet, she is actually a loquacious person once you get to know her.

harried

Adjective Persistently harassed, beleaguered, agitated flustered, excessively busy The harried waiters and waitresses were overwhelmed due to the lack of staff.

laborious

Adjective Requiring considerable effort / time, arduous, hard, difficult, strenuous Carrying the Christmas tree up three flights of stairs proved to be a laborious task.

boorish

Adjective Rough, bad-mannered, coarse, rude, impolite The boorish pirates raided the castle, leaving the dining hall completely trashed in their wake.

unctuous

Adjective Smug, excessively / ingratiatingly flattering, false earnestness; artificial, phony Whenever my sister wants to borrow something, she always gives me unctuous praise.

fetid

Adjective Stinking, smelly (hint: feta- like cheese) I plugged my nose when I passed the fetid trash cans.

Asinine

Adjective Stupid, foolish, My mom thinks that tik tok is asinine and does not understand the purpose of it.

mercurial

Adjective Sudden / unpredictable changes of mood & mind, temperamental Because the woman is taking a new medication, her moods have become very mercurial.

expedient

Adjective Suitable to the circumstances; appropriate, Convenient, advantageous, beneficial Since I forgot my homework, the most expedient way for me to finish it was to copy from someone else. .

soporific

Adjective Tending to induce drowsiness and sleep Melatonin is a soporific drug that helps people with insomnia go to sleep.

archaic

Adjective Very old / old fashioned; out-dated, obsolete The historical passage of the SAT is the most challenging part because it is hard to decipher the archaic language.

elegiac

Adjective Wistfully mournful, melancholic, sorrowful, sad Elegiac music played at the funeral.

didactic

Adjective designed / intended to teach, Instructive, educational, informative Although the teacher's lecture was intended to be didactic, it only confused the students even more. Even though my parents drive me crazy, I know they think they are being helpful by giving me didactic advice.

resolute

Adjective determined, unwavering, decided, adamant, persistent With resolute concentration, the girl finished all of her homework in two hours.

salacious

Adjective having inappropriate interest in sexual matters, pornographic, crude vulgar The mom covered her son's eyes during the salacious scene in the movie.

untoward

Adjective inappropriate, socially awkward, unexpected, hard to imagine It would be untoward to show up in pajamas at the job interview

profligate

Adjective recklessly extravagant or wasteful Yvonne is a profligate spender and buys items she never uses from Amazon everyday.

fugacious

Adjective tending to disappear; fleeting, short lived, ephemeral Although I love flowers, I don't like spending a lot of money on things that are so fugacious.

laconic

Adjective using very few words, brief, terse, short The man's laconic reply clearly showed he was uninterested.

recreant

Adjective OR noun Unfaithful / disloyal to a duty / cause, Cowardly The recreant police officer was brought up on charges of disobeying orders.

morass

Noun a complicated / confusing / difficult situation; chaos, muddle, entanglement As soon as the Dad got a phone call from the principal, he knew his teenage son had gotten into yet another morass.

abrogate

Verb To repeal, revoke, overturn, override, abolish Many cities have begun to abrogate smoking in public places because of the dangers of second-hand smoke.

shiftless

Adjective Lazy, without direction / purpose After graduating from college, I reached a shiftless point in my life and did not know what to do next in my career.

diffident

Adjective Modest or shy because of lack of self-confidence; bashful, modest, shy, unconfident, unassertive Because Jovie had never sung in public before, she was diffident about trying out for the talent show.

indolent

Adjective Lazy, idle My indolent brother laid in bed all day and refused to do his chores.

sallow

Adjective Of a person's complexion, an unhealthy yellow / pale brown color; jaundiced, wan, pale, pasty After pulling an all-nighter, the girl looked very sallow and drained the next morning.

portentous

Adjective Ominous, Warning, foreboding, predictive The portentous music played in the haunted house created a scary atmosphere.

ingenuous

Adjective Innocent, unsuspective, naive Sally's ingenuous nature made her an easy target for the con man.

irascible

Adjective Irritable, quick-tempered It does not take much to aggravate my irascible neighbor who is annoyed by any little noise.

incipient

Adjective Just beginning to appear / develop; Developing, growing, impending The best way to stop the disease from spreading is by identifying it while it is in its incipient stages.

surreptitious

Adjective Kept secret (especially because it would not be approved of), secretive, stealthy, sneaky The students surreptitiously passed notes during the test.

vacuous

Adjective Lack of thought / intelligent, mindless, blank. Vacant, inscrutable, empty After trying to brainstorm ideas for the past hour, Sarah's mind was still vacuous and she could not think of any new ideas.

remiss

Adjective Lacking care / attention to duty, negligent, neglectful, careless, irresponsible Because the student was remiss in her studying, she had to cram the night before the test.

insipid

Adjective Lacking flavor / vigor / interest; bland, dull, uninteresting, boring The insipid soup needed more salt and seasoning. I tried not to fall asleep during the insipid school assembly.

acerbic

Adjective (of a style of speaking) sharp, forthright, cutting < sarcastic, bitter, witty, mean spirited humor After hearing my sister's acerbic remarks, I recognized she was in a grumpy mood and stayed away.

pithy

Adjective (of language or style) concise and forcefully expressive; using few words in a clever and effective way, especially powerful, short and sweet, compact The company successfully advertised their product using a pithy but catchy jingle.

opprobrious

Adjective (of language) expressing scorn or criticism; insulting, offensive, derogatory The student was sent to the principal's office after his opprobrious remark to the teacher.

sentient

Adjective Able to perceive / feel things; feelings, aware, responsive My aunt is a vegetarian because she refuses to eat anything that was once sentient. With billions of planets in the universe, it is hard to believe that Earth is the only planet with sentient beings.

moribund

Adjective At the point of death; dying, expiring Without water, the flowers will soon become moribund and wilt. Mor = death

bunglesome

Adjective Awkward, clumsy The little girl felt bunglesome walking in high heels for the first time.

palatable

Adjective Barely satisfactory / suitable The school lunch was surprisingly palpable considering most schools serve nasty food. The teacher attempted in vain to try and make physics palatable.

craven

Adjective Cowardly, lacking courage My craven dog is afraid of everything and even shrunk away from the small kitten.

dogmatic

Adjective Expressing personal opinions / beliefs as if they are facts, opinionated I tried to give my friend dating advice without seeming so dogmatic about my own experiences.

profuse

Adjective Extravagant, bountiful, abundant My neighbors expressed their profuse gratitude after we found their lost cat.

fallacious

Adjective False, untrue, wrong, incorrect Gossip magazines are frequently sued by celebrities for printing fallacious stories about them.

penitent

Adjective Feeling sorrow / regret for having done wrong; regretful, remorseful, sorry After stealing his sister's doll, the penitent brother returned the toy and apologized.

prurient

Adjective Having interest in sexual matters, Salacious, lewd The mom covered her son's eyes during the prurient scene in the movie.

nebulous

Adjective Hazy, vague, unclear (has an intangible concept to it) After the car crash, Dave's memories of the accident were very nebulous.

conflagration

Noun Large disastrous fire OR conflict / war The conflagration between the two countries finally ended when a treaty was signed. Firefighters from around all of the areas were called to put out the forest conflagration.

compunction

Noun Remorse, guilt When my friend was late to class because her car broke down that morning, the teacher showed no compunction over marking her tardy.

peccadillo

Noun Small, relatively unimportant mistake or fault; misdemeanor, error, slip-up, minor offense When I tried to apologize for losing her hair tie, Sally told me that it was just a small peccadillo and nothing to worry about.

Promontory

Noun A high point of a rock or land that juts out into a large body of water; headland, point, capte, overlook, mountian Since the promontory overlooked the bay, it was the perfect spot to watch the sunset.

harangue

Noun A lengthy / aggressive speech, lecture, rant Karen gave the manager a harangue about the restaurant's poor service.

calumny

Noun A misrepresentation / false statement to hurt someone's reputation, gossip (is NOT preceded with "a") The politician ran TV ads filled with calumny against his opponent.

opportunist

Noun A person who exploits circumstances to better their situation (with little regard to principle or consequences) The political opportunist took advantage of the broken community in order to gain more votes.

sycophant

Noun A person who sucks up toward someone important by excessively praising or complimenting them in order to gain advantage; suck-up, flatterer, leech The sycophant brought the teacher coffee every day in hopes of getting a good grade on the test.

platitude

Noun A remark / statement with moral content that has been overused and is not interesting anymore; cliche When I asked my counselor for advice, she was unhelpful and only answered with an empty platitude.

turpitude

Noun Depravity, wickedness, immorality, corruption, a vile act After bullying another student, the teacher punished the boy for his act of turpitude

minutia

Noun Details, subtleties, specifics It is the minutia of the painting that creates the story and makes the artwork come to life.

temerity

Noun Excessive confidence; boldness audacity, effrontery When the student challenged the classroom rules, the teacher scolded him for his temerity.

debacle

Noun Fiasco, disaster, failure, mess The cake turned out to be a debacle after Sally forgot to set a timer on the oven and almost burned the house down.

quiescence

Noun Inactivity, dormancy, lifelessness Although the inactive volcano has been in a state of quiescence for quite some time, scientists predicted it could erupt again very soon. The kitten decided to take a nap and settled into a period of quiescence.

pundit

Noun an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called on to give opinions about it to the public Dr. Fauci is a pundit on infectious diseases and helps the government address matters concerning Covid.

rectitude

Noun morally correct behavior, righteousness, morality, honor, virtue Tom's moral rectitude prevented him from sneaking out after curfew.

iconoclast

Noun nonconformist Harry Styles is an iconoclast who attempts to break social norms by wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue.

zeitgeist

Noun the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time. The artist was inspired by the zeitgeist of the 80s for his next album.

Nadir

Noun the lowest point in the fortunes of a person or organization; all-time low; rock-bottom (both literal and figurative) After losing the last five games, the team's morale has reached a nadir. OR The nadir of the valley.

parley

Noun / verb a conference between opposing sides in a dispute, negotiation, meeting, conference, conversation between enemies / rivals The two countries held a parley after the war to negotiate a treaty.

effluent

Noun or adjective Flow, sewage waste OR flowing The effluent from the factory contaminated the river.

accost

Verb Approach / address someone boldly / aggressively; confront, hail The celebrity had body guards to protect her from the reporters who accost her with questions wherever she goes.

prattle

Verb Chatter, babble The students could not concentrate on their work with the constant prattle around them.

dissemble

Verb Conceal one's true motives / feeling; pretend, deceive, disguise, conceal After losing the contest to her best friend, the girl dissembled her sadness under a smile.

abscond

Verb Leave hurriedly / secretly to avoid punishment / detection of arrest or unlawful action; escape, bolt, flee, run away The thieves absconded with the money before the police arrived.

mitigate

Verb Make less severe, alleviate, reduce, weaken During finals, the teachers gave no homework to try to mitigate the students' stress.

promulgate

Verb Proclaim, publicize, promote, spread, to make known (laws, values, beliefs, ideas, etc.) As a reporter, John's job was to promulgate the news to the public.

spurn

Verb Refuse, decline reject John is a picky eater and spurns any food that is green.

venerate

Verb Regard with great respect; revere, respect, worship My friend is obsessed with One Direction and venerates Louis Tomlinson. Many people attend church services to venerate God.

rebuff

Verb Reject, turn down, refuse John is a picky eater and rebuffs any food that is green.

extrude

Verb Thrust out, force out, squeeze out, eject, release OR to banish / dismiss During the eruption, lava extruded from the volcano.

ossify

Verb To become hardened into bone OR to become inflexible / harden in your ways and opposed to change; harden My father's opinion has started to ossify so I know he won't change his mind. Since the art project is due tomorrow, Peter needs to use glue that will ossify rapidly

enervate

Verb To cause someone to feel drained / tired; exhaust, tire, wear out, drain The 5-year-old son enervated the mom with his interminable energy. The general planned an attack t o enervate and conquer his enemy.

vindicate

Verb To clear someone of blame or suspicion, acquit, absolve The new evidence completely vindicated the woman from her crimes.

reprove

Verb To gently scold / correct; Reprimand, scold, rebuke The mother reproved the children for talking during the movie.

extol

Verb To praise enthusiastically (both religious and secular) After my highschool graduation, my family extolled my achievements. People go to church to extol the virtues of Jesus.

whet

Verb To sharpen something by rubbing it OR to trigger /excite / stimulate / to make desire Before carving the pumpkin, Sally whet the knife. Walking to the house, the smell of my grandma's cooking whet my appetite. Before deciding on a book to buy, I always read the first chapter to see if it whets my interest.

propitiate

Verb To win / regain the favor of someone by doing something that pleases them; appease, placate, pacify After getting into an argument with her parents, the girl propitiated them by making dinner.

lucid

adjective Expressed clearly, easy to understand, comprehensible, straightforward, Cogent, coherent The directions for assembling the complex table were fairly lucid and made it easy to put together.

implacable

adjective Unable to be placated, unappeasable, unforgiving The little boy was implacable when his parents left him alone with the babysitter

indelible

adjective difficult to remove or wash away; incapable of being canceled / forgotten; permanent, lasting, stubborn (Lasts forever) Although the dress left an indelible impression on me as soon as I saw it, I decided not to buy it. Dannie was sad when the tomato sauce left an indelible stain on his shirt.

anemic

adjective lacking in color/vitality/spirit, feeble, weak, pale, exhausted After forgetting to eat breakfast and lunch, the girl felt anemic by the end of the day. Due to anemic attendance at the fundraiser, the next scheduled one was canceled.

Confluence

noun A coming / flowing together, a gathering, meeting, joining, junction (both literal and figurative) They met at the confluence of two rivers. The artist's new music was a confluence of indie and pop. con = with

malefactor

noun Person who commits a crime, criminal, culprit, felon The malefactor was charged with 10 years in prison after attempting to rob a bank.

libertine

noun a person (especially a man) who behaves without moral principles / sense of responsibility (especially in sexual matters); playboy, philanderer, player, adulterer (INSULT) The movie's main character is a libertine who has five girlfriends. liber = free

predilection

noun a preference or special liking for something; a bias in favor of something; preference, inclination, liking, proclivity My friend has a predilection for mac n cheese and thinks it's the best food in the world.

paragon

noun person / thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality; epitome, model, ideal, embodiment The journalists described the actress as a paragon of beauty.

dilettante

noun person with an interest in an area or art without real commitment / knowledge / seriousness; ammateur, nonprofessional (INSULT) Because Harry studied modern art for eight years, he is definitely not a dilettante in this subject.

wrest

verb Forcibly pull something from a person's grasp, wrench, snatch, seize I tried to wrest the shoe out of my dog's mouth.

upbraid

verb Scold, reprimand, rebuke The mother upbraided the children for running inside the house with muddy shoes.

impugn

verb To dispute the truth/validity of a statement, to challenge, to question, to attack as false or questionable When the teenagers tried to illegally buy alcohol from the store, the cashier impugned their age.

galvanize

verb To shock / excite someone into taking action; inspire, stimulate, electrify, motivate, excite, rouse During his speech, the climate activist hoped to galvanize his audience to switch to electric cars.