Victor Prep English Vocabulary Podcast

abstemious

to be sparing or moderate on eating or drinking. eating less greedily Eg: Monks are known to live very abstemious. They don't have sugar in their podrige

luminous

Full of light; bright or shining, especially in the dark shinning; bright; brilliant; radiant; dazzling; glowing; gleaming; lustrous; luminescent Eg: The police man wears luminous green socks so that he could be noticed in the dark as well.

propitiate

Regain the favor of someone else(maybe person, god, spirit) Eg: I tried to propitiate the teacher with an apple after accidentally spilling coffee on his prize puddle.

venerable

refer to person who is little old and respected in their work or career venerated; revered; honored; esteemed; hallowed; august; distinguished

listless

lacking energy and enthusiasm. lifeless; lethargic; spiritless; sluggish; inactive; languorous; enervated

jargon

language or words that are particular to certain zone or job or group of persons - also mean gibberish talk or meaningless talk Eg: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and the author has an engaging style , uncluttered with jargon, lending it to a wide general readership.

kindle

to set fire to or ignite; excite or inspire Eg: I kindled a fire when I was in scout using matchstick, logs and paper. Metaphorically, to rouse emotion or excite Eg: As a cheerleader, I kindled excitement among the team

Flout

to show contempt or scorn at something Eg: If there is a rule of not talking while the teacher is teaching and you think that it's stupid and talked to others. Then you are flouting the rule. My dog is always flouting the rule. He always keeps running on the grass when the sign clearly says no dogs on the grass.

admonish

warn or reprimand someone firmly. less strong compared to castigate reprimand; rebuke; scold; reprove; reproach; upbraid; chastise; Eg: He was severely admonished by his father. to urge someone to do something Eg: She admonished him to drink no more than one glass of wine

Endemic

(adj.) native or confined to a particular region or people; characteristic of or prevalent in a field Eg: Malaria is endemic to African people. Tip En - In demic - like demographic or people

knell

(n.) The sound of a bell ringing slowly usually for a funeral a sound or some sign announcing death of someone or end of something or failure of something toll; tolling; dong; resounding; reverberation CDs were the death knell for radios.

Desiccate

(v) thoroughly dried up, dehydrated Eg: Grapes being desiccated becomes rasin Tip Think like Dessert

Mar

- to damage something or spoil something - (not strong word) like slightly destroy them - describe something that has been damaged and not a physical object Eg: I had image of being perfect and was regarded as good child. But I mared my image when I was caught with fireworks in the park.

ossify

1. turn to bone; 2. become fixed and rigid(inflexible) 3. to seize developing Tip: like bossify: not changing rigid like fossil: bone Eg: I have heard that there is a very unusual and rare disease where the muscle ossify

symbiosis

A close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species. Eg: Both the human and the bacteria in the stomach are benefited by their symbiosis.

paradox

A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. Eg: You can save money by spending it. Hamlet: "I must be cruel to be kind" Animal Farm: "All are equal but some are more equal than others"

molt

Shed or cast off, esp. to regularly shed skin, feathers, etc. (as a snake)

vernal

Spring like; fresh and young; youthful Eg: Of all the vernal plants that I remember from my childhood, the snowdrops are the ones that I remember most fondly. They seem to indicate the end of winter and embody all the hopes of new year.

parley(noun) parleyed(verb)

a conference between opposing sides in a dispute to negotiate or make peace discussed terms, talk, hold talks, deliberate, negotiate Eg: I sat down with one of my bitter enemy for a parley.

antipathy

a deep-seated feeling of dislike; aversion - strong word (hate) Eg: I felt antipathy for the man kicking his dog Tip anti: against pathy: pathetic(pity)

monotony

a lack of variety; tedious; very routine tedium; boredom; repetitiveness; uniformity; tiresomeness sameness in pitch and tone of sound(single sound) Eg: When I was young, I found it hard to bear the monotony of the long car journey. I was always asking my parents,"Are we there yet?".

Aerie

a large nest of a bird of prey, especially an eagle, typically built high in a tree or on a cliff. house that is built high up Tip: airy: it will be airy in aeirie

sardonic

a person who is bitter or scornful mocking or often sarcastic in a nasty way. a person who is intelligent but looks down on others and gives a nasty laugh on their mistakes (there was a plant in sardinia which when eaten produced to convulsive laughter leading to death) Laughter and Death Eg: My cynical coworker distances himself from other with nasty sardonic laughter.

dilettante

a person who is interested in art but does not contribute time or have knowledge amateur; non-professional; layman; layperson Eg: To serious artists, he was merely a dilettante.

polyglot

a person who knows and uses several languages(three or more language) Tip: poly: many glot: comes from glotta which means tongue

panegyric

a public speech or published text in praise of someone or something eulogy; accolade; tribute Tip: pan: all agora: assembly

rococo

a style of architecture and decoration, originating in France about 1720, evolved from Baroque types and distinguished by its elegant refinement in using different materials for a delicate overall effect and by its ornament of shellwork, foliage, etc. a style of art, decoration, or architecture ornate; florid; extravagant; flamboyant; convoluted; elaborate; over decorated; baroque some consider grotesque

debutante

a young woman making debut into high society.(rich way of living) Eg: The young princess was the most beautiful debutante the men at the court have ever seen.

livid

adj. incredibly angry; furious; enraged enraged; very angry; infuriated; irate; incensed; raging;fuming; incandescent; ranting; outraged Tip: vivid: strong and powerful powerful negative word backward sounds like devil Eg: She was livid for long time for the things that I had done to her. I know she deserved better than that but I had to do what I had to do.

sublime

adj. lofty thought or lofty language; beautiful or outstanding; of very great excellence or beauty strong positive word exalted; elevated; noble; lofty; majestic; magnificent; superb; marvelous; glorious; wonderful; splendid

latent

adj. means existing but not yet visible or manifest dormant; unused; untapped; hidden; conceal; invisible; unseen; unrealized That child has latent skills. You can have illness or disease in a latent state.

discerning

adj. showing good judgement or having good judgement If you go to a lots of restaurants, eat lots of food and you have good discerning, you will tend to choose better restaurants. discriminating; judicious; shrewd; clever; astute; intelligent; sharp; sophisticated; tasteful Eg: We have some real treasures for the discerning collector.

felicitous

adj. well chosen or well suited for the circumstances apt, well chosen, fitting, appropriate; suitable, apposite not only cloth but well chosen words also mean pleasing or fortunate Eg: His nickname was particularly felicitous The view is the room's only felicitous feature.

circumspect

adj. worry or unwilling to take risk cautious; weary; careful; guarded If you know that the teacher is very prone to anger, then you will act in circumspect manner in their class. Politicians are known to be circumspect because they are always under observations and there are people who are always listen to the things they say trying to catch them out.

lethargic

adjective: lacking energy; affected by lethargy Synonyms : sluggish; inactivity; inaction; slowness; lifelessness; listlessness;; laziness; sloth; apathy; indolence; tiredness; lassitude Nothing can make a person more lethargic than a big turkey dinner.

decorum

behavior in keeping with good taste or etiquette propriety; seemliness; decency; correctness Before meeting the princess, I worried about how to conduct myself with proper decorum.

quiescent

being quiet or still or rest or dormant or inactive dormant Eg: The strike were headed by a group of workers who had earlier been quiescent.

precipitate

cause (an event or situation, typically one that is bad or undesirable) to happen suddenly, unexpectedly, or prematurely. bring about; spark; give rise to; trigger; provoke The invasion of Poland by Hilter precipitated the start of second world war. Someone running across the road can precipitate another car accident. Lets say you have a girlfriend and she sees you giving flower to another girl. That could look suspicious and could precipitate argue with your girlfriend.

puerile

childishly silly or trivial; immature or infantile childish; immature; infantile; juvenile; babyish Most of the jokes on the movie Dumb and Dumber were puerile.

pithy

concise; express meaning clearly using few words vigorously expressive succinct; terse; concise; compact; short; crisp; brief; condensed antonym: verbose(use more word than necessary)

vim

energy, enthusiasm Eg: When we are young, we are often full of vim. Like: vigorous Tip: vi: associates with life, energy(vitality)

Idiosyncrasy

everyone knows someone that has peculiar characteristic.(Maybe crazy laugh or something that is unique to that person) Not necessarily bad or good thing Eg: I once had a friend who had idiosyncrasy of clicking fingers vigorously while trying to remember something.

Intrepid

fearless; dauntless; someone who can go to tough hard situations and don't run away Eg: We went to a jungle as intrepid explora. But as we we went deep into the jungle we felt less intrepid. It kind of got scarier so we returned without going further. Tip In - opposite of which comes next trepidation - feeling fear

precis

french word a concise summary digest; abstract; condensation

solecism

grammatical mistake ungrammatical usage breached good manner error or mistake Eg: President Bush made a famous solecism when he said, "Is our children learning?" instead of "Are our children learning?".

dyspeptic

having indigestion; irritability or depression or gloomy or moody or pessimistic used to describe people Eg: I am quite cheerful but when i am short of sleep or hungry, then I become dyspeptic

Multifarious

having may parts or diverse Eg: Leonardo da Vinci had multifarious talent. Carbon has multifarious forms. Tip multi: many

ambivalence

having mixed feeling or contradictory ideas about something or someone doubt; hesitancy; uncertainty; unsure Tip: bi: two things Sometime you think a person is great and funny whereas sometimes you feel that he is a bit creepy and has a darker side. You are not sure whether you like that person or not. Then you are ambivalent about that person.

inert

having no action; doesn't do anything; inactive no power to produce change Eg: The doctor gave the sugar pills to hypochondriac patient and it was totally inert.

Euphamism

indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant or harsh Like: Instead of saying died, we say passed away.(Instead of had sex, slept together)(Instead of saying going to bathroom, going to freshen up) Tip Eu - means something good like in euphoria(sense of great happiness) or eulogy(saying good about something). Phamism - speaking Opposite(Disphamism: substituting worst word for something)

subpoena

legal word used for legal summon for someone to attend the court After chasing too many cats, my puppy was issued a subpoena. However, when he attended the court, the judge found him too cute for sentence and let him off with a caution.

obdurate

like obstinate; stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action stubborn; obstinate; intransigent; inflexible; unyielding; bull-headed; mulish; stiff-necked Tip: ob: in oppositon durate: hard Eg: I argued this point with him, but he was obdurate.

recondite

little known; difficult subject matter; beyond an ordinary persons understanding esoteric little known abstruse Eg: Gandalf, wizard from the middle East often dealt with dark and recondite matters.

monastic

living like a monk; simple life; quiet life Eg: When I was a student, I was broke most of the time. I lived a monastic life at that time.

plastic

looking or tasting artificial artificial; fake; false; superficial Eg: The food looked plastic easily shaped or molded Eg: When we heat the rock, it turns to lava. Lava is plastic and can be easily molded to any shape.

innocuous

not harmful; not offensive; statement that would not offend someone harmless, safe, innocent, non-toxic used for question or statement Tip: like innocent Eg: Often young children who are innocent uses innocuous questions

impermeable

not letting fluid to pass through not liable to be affected by pain or distress person who remains calm no matter what happens Eg: I had a friend Nick in high school who seemed impermeable to pain. He used to get his hand used to smack his fist against the bench but it didn't seem he felt pain.

axiom

noun. self evident truth that does not require proof accepted truth; general truth; dictum; truism; principle The probability of any event will lie between 0 to 1. That is an axiom.

apostate

noun: a person who leaves or renounces their religion or political beliefs or principles defector; dissenter; deserter; traitor; turncoat antonym: follower

bolster

noun: long thick pillow that is placed under other pillows for support verb: to support; to strengthen(strengthening argument) Tip: sounds like holster holster: a holder to carry gun; supporting gun

toady

one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors but in very unpleasant(toad like) and creepy way - Obsequious - Sycophant Eg: My colleague at work is such a toady. He tried to win favor with our boss by deliberately praising his new haircut but it was totally obvious and felt fake

potentate

one who has the power and position to rule over others; monarch Maybe a king or even pope Tip: potentiate: to cause to become powerful

inundate

overwhelm (someone) with things or people to be dealt with; flood someone with too much stuff overwhelm; overrun; overload; swamp; bombard Lets say you are a celebrity, you have been famous. You might be inundated by so much letters form the fans. The professor was inundated by the questions from the students at the end of the class, after teaching very hard subject matter.

Implacable

person that cannot be peaced or calmed down or can't make them forgive you also unstoppable Eg: I did something bad to my friend that she was hurt badly and was very angry with me. Infact she is still implacable till this day Eg: Jagernut in X-men was so huge and strong that he was absolutely implacable Tip Im- anti placable- to soot or calm down someone (not to be placate)

lucid

plain; obvious; understandable; easily understood characterized by clarity of understanding or rational or sane clear or transparent sound; reasonable; understandable; plane; comprehensible; intelligible; limpid(transparent) Eg: That was a very lucid explanation.

pathogenic

producing disease or capable of producing disease infective; morbific This virus is pathogenic. The UV rays kill many pathogenic organisms.

palatial

resembling palace; looks like palace in being spacious and splendid luxurious; deluxe; magnificent; sumptuous; splendid; grand; opulent; lavish; stately; regal Tip: sounds like palace He lives in a palatial house in Mayfair

euphoria

sense of great happiness or well-being

solicitous

showing interest or concern about something or someone; person who is caring and concerned about others considerate; concerned; caring; attentive; thoughtful; interested ; mindful Eg: When I was in the hospital, there was a nurse called Kacy who was very solicitous towards my recovery.

quibble

slight objection or small criticism; to argue or to raise objection to something that is trivial to object to, to complain about, to find fault with Eg: The annoying students kept interrupting the professor with quibble

dilatory

slow to act or intending to cause a delay slow; tardy; sluggish; sluggardly; snail-like, lazy Tip: Time dilation in obstruct sense stalling; procrastinating; time wasting ; filibuster Eg: The politicians are resorted to dilatory tactics to force a postponement of peace talks. Your were dilatory to study for your exam.

bombastic

speech that has high sounding, pompous, inflated, pretentious but has very little meaning, overinflated Eg: I watch the election coverage on TV but I got tired with the bombastic speech given by average politicians.

striated

striped; streaked; furrowed rocks that are marked with lines by glacier(glacier striation) Striated muscles If you saw someone wearing jacket with lines, then you can saw that jacket has striated texture.

turgid

swollen; distended or congested something filled up till bursting point bombastic; pompous swollen; distended; congested; tumescent; engorged; bloated; tumid; Some poet read some turgid verses on the death of prince Albert.

lachrymose

tearful; extremely sad; someone who is weeping or crying or prone to weeping or crying. teary; weeping; weepy; sad; tearful Tip: lacrima: tears in Latin Eg: She gets quite lachrymose at the mention of his name.

relegate(verb)

to place or put in inferior position(lower position) downgrade; lower; put down; move down; Eg: They aim to prevent women from being relegated to secondary role. After a bad performance in the season, United were relegated to division two.

castigate

to punish or criticize severly strong word Eg: Bill Clinton was castigated for this infamous offer with Monica Lewinsky.

euphony(noun) euphonious(adj.)

the quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words. harmony; melody; consonants Tip: eu: something positive(eulogy: loving speech about someone) phony: related to sound Eg: The way Shakespeare uses words and rhyme is euphonious.

obstinate

to be stubborn; refuse to change ones idea, action situation or phenomenon which is very difficult to change stubborn, unyielding, inflexible, unbending, intransigent, intractable, mulish, bullheaded, Children often being obstinate A country had an obstinate problem of unemployment

aggregate

to bring together; Eg: I aggregated together all of the flies in my backyard and tried to make a fly circus. But they would not obey me.

confound

to cause surprise or confusion but has implied meaning of opposite of what was expected to prove theory or expectation wrong to mix up something with something else so that the individual element becomes difficult to distinguish invalidate; counter; contradict; negate; go against; quash; explode; demolish; shoot down The inflation figure confound economic analyst. To nuke is now a cooking technique as now a microwave radiation is confounded with nuclear radiation.

coagulate

to change from a fluid into a thickened mass coagulation of blood(clotting) clot set solidfy thicken Eg: After running and falling down, I observed blood in my wound coagulating and thus, stopping the bleeding.

sully

to dirty; to make impure; to soil or stain used along with reputation Eg: I threw mud to the white sheets hanging off in the garden. I sullied it. My reputation for good behavior was sullied when I was caught smoking.

abscond(verb)

to leave quickly and secretly run away; escape ; bolt; take flight; flee; take off; decamp; Tip: scoundrel: not a good person and does thing Eg: My friend hated Mathematics class so much that he used to abscond just before the Mathematics class everyday. I hated to interact and socialize with people. So I used to abscond from my house whenever any guests give us a visit.

gouge

to make a groove or indentation with a curve blade; to dig or force out with tool to overcharge scoop, hollow, excavate Eg: You are selling apple for much more than it costs. You are clearly gouging people. Eg: I tripped and fell onto a tree branch. It almost gouged my eye out but luckily I got away with cuts and bruises.

assuage

to make less strong; to ease; to make bad less intense; to alleviate Eg: I was afraid of dark when I was a child. My mom tried to assuage my fear by giving me book "A wolf who was afraid of dark"

demur

to make objection to something; to disagree (mainly based on disagreement due to morality) also mean to hesitate Eg: My friends and I were involved in a food fight once. My teacher called me and tried to get me to tell on my friends. But I demurred due my sense of honor.

placate

to make them less angry or less hostile to bring peace pacify; calm; appease; mollify; soothe ; win over; conciliate; to make peace over They attempted to placate the angry students with promises

husband (verb)

to manage with careful economy to preserve, to save, to store, to hoard If you don't have a lot of money, you have husband resources. I needed to husband my remaining strength. During the hard winter, the tribe had to husband their meager resources to ensure that they made it through to spring.

Lumber

to move clumsily or heavily(like walking mummy) Eg: After Christmas dinner, I was so full that I had to lumber back to my room. Tip: lumber means wood and if you had to carry the lumber then you would need to lumber.

delineate(verb)

to sketch or trace the outline of or to represent something in picture or pictorial describe; present; set forth; sketch; represent If you need to explain something complex and you are breaking it down and drawing pictures, diagrams, sketches to explain those things, the you are delineating. Tip: de - out, completely linea - line (to outline) Eg: The law should delineate and prohibit behaviour which is socially abhorrent.

pervade

to spread throughout all parts of something classically used for smell(pervade smell) to diffuse to fill Tip sounds like invade( spreading inside country) Eg: The universe is pervaded by dark-matter.

larceny

to steal personal property burglary; misappropriation; robbery; crime; thieving; stealing; pilfering used as a legal term Eg: I always had my delivery of goods missing from my door and one day ,my creepy neighbor was summoned a subpoena with an accuse of larceny. Maybe he was the one responsible for it.

attenuate

to weaken; to make less strong; to make less in quantity, value Eg: I was quite sick and was admitted to hospital. I felt so attenuated when I did nothing for 3 weeks. All of my muscles were attenuated.

peripatetic

traveling from place to place, especially working or based in various places for relatively short periods of time nomadic; itinerant; traveling; moving; wandering; roaming; migrant; unsettled; roving Eg: The peripatetic nature of military life

diaphanous

used to describe some sort of material or clothing which is light, delicate, translucent fine; delicate; floaty, insubstantial, silken Tip: phantom: ghost(partially see through) The princess was wearing diaphanous dress in light gold color.

derivative

usually negative; art copied form someone else work to come from something imitated; uninventive; unimaginative; unoriginal; uninspired Eg: The pop singer new song sounded unoriginal and derivative

gambol

verb. run or jump about playfully way frolic; frisk; caper; cavort; skip; prance; leap; jump; bounce Imagine a lamb in a vernal field which is very happy and jumping, then the lamb is gamboling.

ingratiate

verb. try and win someone by flattering or doing something win over; to getting good with; to cultivate; to curry favor with Tip: gratitude: grateful in: bring into gratitude of other Eg: There is a person in my office who tried to ingratiate boss by learning how to play golf;

archaic

very old; old fashioned not in every day use but could be used for old flavor obsolete, out of date, antiquated, bygone, antediluvian, behind the time Eg: Prisons are run on archaic methods.