Chapter 3. Listening, Big Set

stigma

In the 1950s, bearing a child out of wedlock was severely stigmatized, but today in many social circles, there is no stigma whatsoever to unmarried parents having a child.

synoptic

The movie studio had interns read screenplays and write up synoptic outlines for the executives to review.

vicissitude

While she scrubbed pots and pans, she pondered the vicissitudes of life—she once had a house full of servants, and now was a maid herself.

hobnob

to associate familiarly; mix socially; He loves to hobnob with celebrities. those two have been hobnobbing together since freshman year

Expansive

Communicative; talking in a sociable manner;

chic [adj]

elegant and stylish; The management of this chic Fifth Avenue fashion store had dared to rearrange the artist's installation.

cringe [v]

to shrink, bend, or crouch, esp. in fear or servility; The boy cringed away but remained defiant, his anger driving the fear out of him. He cringed away from Arun, eyes wide, then blinked and appeared to recognize the trapper.

sully

The senator did win his campaign for re-election, but his reputation was sullied when he was photographed shaking hands with the tobacco executives who apparently bankrolled his campaign.

timely

Your arrival is quite timely—we were just mulling over a question we're sure you can answer! / His timely departure prevented him from having to do any work.

Syncretic

any amalgam of different schools of thought

tempestuous

stormy; agitated

Ecclesiastical

of or relating to the church

strife

bitter conflict

dole

distribute shares of something

necropolis

graveyard

provenance

(place of) origin

optimum

...

Kowtow

Acting in a subservient or sycophantic manner

refulgent

Her new engagement ring was refulgent—she was so happy with it. I'll bet she polished it every night.

labyrinth[n]

bhul-bhulaiya; Most are simply lost in the labyrinth of leaves. —Scientific American (Jul 28, 2012)

shifty

characterized by insincerity or deceit

contingent [adj]

dependent; possible; In theory, Lane could approve the plan, contingent on the merger going ahead. —Reuters (Aug 15, 2013)

detract

diminish the worth or value of (a quality or achievement)

faux

fake, imitation;

imprimatur

formal and explicit approval

spur

incite or stimulate

spasmodically

irregularly, occurring in spells and often abruptly

litigious

litigate + ous -- adj form

forlorn

lonely and unhappy; uncared for

feverish

marked by intense agitation or emotion; His landslide victory sparked feverish speculation that he will go for an early referendum to dump the Pound.

uncanny

suggesting the operation of supernatural influences

servile

too ready to obey others; lacking independence

True or false: listening too hard can be problematic for audience members.

true

proverbial

well-known, widely known and spoken of

diffident

Lacking confidence, shy Natasha was so diffident that she never believed her comments could be worth anything in class, even when she knew the answer.

moreover

You are fired. Moreover, the police are coming to arrest you for theft.

crotchety [adj]

bad-tempered; Papa has always been a crotchety, grouchy, grumpy yet extremely lovable old coot.

ravenous

very hungry

atone [v]

turn away from sin or do penitence; make amends for; This, they hold, gives the man a chance to atone for any hasty decision he might have taken.

apophasis [n]

mentioning something by saying it will not be mentioned;

vitriol

After another embarrassing loss, the team's shortstop was full of vitriol for the coach who had led them to their worst season in history.

wary

Be wary of anyone who tells you that "anyone" can get rich with some special plan or scheme.

enigma

Puzzle, mystery, riddle; mysterious or contradictory person The enormous rock sculptures in Stonehenge are truly an enigma—were they created as part of a religious observance, or in deference to a great ruler? We may never know.

disinterested

Unbiased, impartial; not interested Let's settle this argument once and for all! We'll get a disinterested observer to judge who can sing the highest note!

tax

use to the limit

brevity[n]

briefness Following are excerpts, edited for brevity and clarity. —New York Times (Jan 18, 2013)

revelry

noisy celebrations; revels

warped

twisted

gall

(n.) impudence; resentment; (v.) to make sb feel upset and angry, esp. because sth is unfair

flippant

not showing sufficient respect or seriousness

entice

try to tempt or persuade sb, usu by offering sth pleasant or a reward

tame

very restrained or quiet

effete

weak; without the power that it once had; (of a man) effeminate; the soft, effete society that marked the final years of the Roman empire. the authority of an effete aristocracy began to dwindle he chatted away, exercising his rather effete charm

waggish

witty or joking

orthodox

I appreciate that the new dentist thinks that my oral health can be improved through yoga, but I really prefer a more orthodox approach to dental care.

exponent

Person who expounds or explains; champion, advocate, or representative An exponent of clean fuel, he petitioned the state government to commit to replacing conventional energy with solar and wind energy where possible.

punitive [adj]

inflicting or intended as punishment The federal government will take punitive action against the company that polluted the river. Lobbyists complain that the bill would impose punitive taxes on the industry.

venial

not serious; excusable

Hound

to pursue relentlessly;

quash

reject (by legal procedure) as not valid; declare (sth) not to be enforceable by law

exult[v]

rejoice; celebrate; The crowd exults, waving party flags to loud drumming. —Time (May 2, 2013)

obtrusive

very noticeable or obvious; inclined to obtrude

interpolate

~ sth (fml ) make (a remark, etc) which interrupts a conversation, speech, etc

fallacious

Containing a fallacy, or mistake in logic; logically unsound; deceptive The formal study of logic can enable a student to more easily identify fallacious reasoning and, furthermore, to point out its fallacies.

propensity

He was an introvert with a propensity for solitary brooding, and thus was considered a bit strange or unfriendly by the others in his dorm.

sacrosanct

In our house, family dinners were sacrosanct—if being in the school play meant you would miss dinner, then you just couldn't be in the school play.

Retiring

Reserved; shy; Withdrawing from contact with others

tenuous

Your argument is quite tenuous—it depends on our accepting the results of a 1955 study published in an obscure medical journal not subject to peer review.

visage

a person's face

agog[adj]

highly excited Mary came running down the stairs, agog with excitement, and manifestly curious. —Young, F.E. Mills

Stipend

A regular allowance

Jaundice

To be biased against as a result of envy or prejudice

oxymoron

a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (e.g. cruel kindness) The phrase "Broadway rock musical" is an oxymoron. Broadway doesn't have the nerve to let the really hard stuff in the house.

presentiment

a feeling of evil to come

quiescent

After hours of moaning and shaking from his illness, the child finally exhausted himself and grew quiescent.

probity

After losing the last election when their candidate's string of mistresses came to light, this time, the party would only nominate a candidate whose probity was beyond any doubt.

salubrious

After spending her twenties smoking and drinking, Jessica recognized the necessity of adopting a more salubrious lifestyle, but found it difficult to cut back.

partial

Although I grew up in New York, I've always been partial to country music. / His lawyers are appealing on the grounds that the judge was partial to the plaintiff, even playing golf with the plaintiff during the trial.

lacerate

to cause sharp mental or emotional pain to; tear or rend roughly;

glean

to gather bit by bit

meander

wander aimlessly;

rogue[n]

a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel The Met Police comments came as MPs step up inquiries into claims that firms used rogue private investigators. —BBC (Jul 30, 2013)

hale

hale and `hearty (esp of an old person) strong and healthy

usher

to conduct to a place; introduce; He ushered them to their seats. A nurse ushered us into the hospital room

recrudescent

The recrudescence of his psoriasis came at the worst possible time. "Oh, great," he said, "Now I'm going to be shedding skin flakes all over my new coworkers on the first day of work."

polarized

The school board was used to rationally discussing issues, but when it came to the teaching of evolution in schools, the board was polarized, immediately splitting into two camps, with the discussion devolving into a shouting match within minutes.

fizzle

to fail or end feebly especially after a promising start; make a hissing or bubbling sound; Computer viruses usually fizzle out quickly if they gain widespread publicity, as users gain awareness. Her mother should bite her lip and let the romance fizzle out naturally.

belabor [v]

to go over repeatedly or to an absurd extent; I've had employees belabor every possible aspect of a decision, but in the end it wasted some serious time. He concentrated on the detached word "inferior" and belabored it with untiring fury. He inwardly belabored himself for having allowed his mind to be so taken up with the image of a married woman.

tout[v]

to praise highly; to brag publicly about; The initiative will tout about four new up-and-coming Republicans every three months. —Time (Aug 20, 2013)

whimsical [adj]

unusual in a playful or amusing way; Alice in Wonderland is a famously whimsical story in which a little girl falls down a rabbit hole and finds a strange and at times absurd world. She enjoyed a whimsical day at the seashore—no plan, just wandering around and making sand castles as the mood struck.

redound

"Cramming" vocabulary words probably won't be very effective, but studying a little every day will redound to your success.

dissonance

Harsh, inharmonious sound; cacophony; disagreement After allowing her sixth-grader's heavy metal band to practice in her living room, Mrs. Rosen decided she'd better get used to dissonance.

symbiosis

In biology, one example of symbiosis is when a small creature feeds off bugs that live on a larger creature—thus protecting the larger creature from discomfort and possibly disease. / Although some celebrities complain about paparazzi, many have a symbiotic relationship with those same intrusive photographers—the paparazzi need to get paid, and the celebs need the photos to stay in the news.

amuck [adv, adj]

Run about frenzied; Like so many invasive species that now run amuck on islands around the world, mongooses were intentionally introduced to Hawaii.

crevasse [n]

a deep fissure; On good days they could travel no more than 15 miles, and they had to be ever vigilant of the deep crevasses opening up beneath their feet when the snow melted.

deluge [n]

a flood; an inundation; He then allowed general questions and, quickly deluged by scandal queries, snapped at a reporter inquiring about his chances.

timid

easily frightened; shy

petulant[adj]

easily irritated or annoyed His petulant storms of ego in victory speeches can be amusing or embarrassing. —BusinessWeek (Feb 10, 2012)

manacle

handcuff; something used as a restraint; manacles prevented the bear from roaming beyond a very small area the warring groups need to shake off the manacle of their troubled past and learn to live with one another in peace

squeamish

oversensitive, priggish, excessively fastidious and easily disgusted

provocative

tending or intended to arouse anger, annoyance, controversy, etc

Nabob

A wealthy, influential person

dénouement

the outcome of a complex sequence of events

arch [adj]

deliberately teasing; chief or principal "In our culture, baseball is a very popular sport," he said, arching an eyebrow and laughing.

verging

Bordering on; coming close to

jingoism

Excessive, loud patriotism and aggressive, warlike foreign policy He is such a jingoist that he's always yelling at the TV, calling even the most conservative commentators "wimps" for failing to suggest that we simply nuke, burn, pillage, and otherwise extirpate our so-called enemies.

pillage

(esp formerly) stealing or damaging of property, esp by soldiers in war ,

potentate

62-year-old Prince Charles has certainly waited long enough to become potentate of England; his mother, Elizabeth II, has been ruling for his entire life.

obviate

Adding protective heel taps to your dress shoes can obviate the need to take them to the shoe repair store later, once the heels have worn down.

vernal

Alma's favorite part of gardening was the vernal reawakening that followed a frozen winter.

stipulate

Before taking the job, Owen stipulated in his contract that he would be able to leave early on Fridays to attend religious services.

bilious [adj]

Constantly irritable and ready to bite somebody's head off; So if there are any splenetic motorists or bilious cyclists out there thinking of penning an angry letter to the Evening Press, listen up.

divine

Discover through divination or supernatural means; perceive by insight I've been poring over these quarterly reports all day, trying to divine whether I should buy or sell this stock.

furtive

Done secretly; stealthy, sly, shifty As a spokesperson for a popular diet plan, the actress had to be quite furtive about eating junk food, even hiding her M&Ms in a breath mint container lest the paparazzi snap photos of the inside of her car.

siphoning

Drain off, remove, withdrawl

aerie [n]

Dwelling or fortress built on a high place; the nest of a bird of prey, such as an eagle or hawk, built on a mountain or cliff The billionaire smoked a cigar out his window and watched the riots in the streets below, safe in the aerie of his penthouse apartment.

volatile

Following the sudden revolution, the political environment in the country was so volatile that anything could have started a riot. / Stock prices are by nature volatile—if you want a "safe and steady" investment, try mutual funds.

stratum

From overhearing his rich and powerful passengers' conversations, the chauffeur grew to despise the upper stratum of society. / I love this dish—it's like a lasagna, but with strata made of bread, eggs, and pancetta! Oh, look at the menu—it's actually called a strata! That makes perfect sense.

ingenuous

Genuine, sincere, not holding back; naive Multilevel marketing scams prey on the ingenuous, those who really think there's someone out there who just wants to help them get rich.

adumbrate [v]

Give a rough outline of; foreshadow; reveal only partially; obscure When I took on the lead role in the movie, I agreed not to give away the plot, but I suppose I could give a brief adumbration of the premise.

pellucid

He decided that the cove's pellucid waters were an excellent place to teach his daughter to swim, reasoning that, if she started to sink, he would easily be able to see where she was.

vintage

He didn't want just any vintage Darth Vader action figure—he wanted a particular vintage, the 1978 telescoping lightsaber one. / She special-ordered her favorite vintage of the Côtes du Rhône, then turned to her George Clooney-lookalike husband and joked that she liked men of a certain vintage as well.

vociferous

He has always been a vociferous opponent of the estate tax, appearing on numerous news programs to rail against "double taxation."

nettle

His first year in college, my little brother failed gym. How is that even possible? I always remind him about it just to nettle him. Of course, he usually strikes back by reminding me of that time I crashed an amusement park's go-cart.

respectively

His poems "An Ode to the Blossoms of Sheffield" and "An Entreaty to Ladies All Too Prim" were written in 1756 and 1758, respectively.

baying [v]

Howling in a deep way, like a dog or wolf The lonely dog bayed all night. The mob bayed for the so-called traitors to be put to death.

erratic

Inconsistent, wandering, having no fixed course When someone engages in erratic behavior, family members often suspect drug use or mental illness. However, sometimes the person is just building a top-secret invention in the garage!

Saturnine

Morose

recluse

That show about "hoarders" featured a recluse who hadn't left her house in six years.

seraphic

The gospel choir looked seraphic in their shimmering white robes.

normative

The reason we are not understanding each other in this argument about grammar is that you are arguing normatively, telling me how people should talk, and I am simply reporting and analyzing how people actually talk.

penury

The young model married an elderly billionaire thinking she'd be set for life, but she ended up living in penury after her husband died and his middle-aged children held up the probate case for years, keeping her from receiving any money whatsoever.

Wane

To decrease in power, strength, importance, etc

Lagniappe

Unexpected gift

laconic

Using few words, concise The boss was famously laconic; after allowing his employees to present their new plan for an entire hour, he finally responded, "Confirmed."

manifesto[n]

a public declaration of intentions (as issued by a political party or government) McQuaid has already described Cookson's election manifesto as "half-baked, fundamentally flawed and financially impractical". —Reuters (Aug 16, 2013)

pandemonium

a state of extreme confusion and disorder

semblance

an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading

reprehensible[adj]

bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure Using cats as weapons is cruel, though no more or less morally reprehensible than using any other animal. Americans have long viewed drug use as reprehensible.

venal[adj]

capable of being corrupted But Lula, a former labor union leader, was oft accused of turning a blind eye to the venal doings of his allies. —Time (Oct 11, 2012)

palpable[adj]

capable of being perceived; especially capable of being handled or touched or felt With palpable heartbreak, Ms. Cogen recently announced that the store will close in September. —New York Times (Jul 26, 2013)

ennobled

confer dignity or honor upon

perpetual

continuing indefinitely; permanent

preposterous

contrary to reason or common sense; absurd or outrageous The whole idea is preposterous! the idea that extraterrestrials built the pyramids is preposterous

mangle

damage greatly, (almost) beyond recognition; mutilate

baleful [adj]

deadly or sinister; threatening harm; If it's possible to cast a baleful glance with one eye shut, then she did it.

scabrous

dealing with salacious or indecent material

pensive[adj]

deeply or seriously thoughtful; Appearing pensive and contrite, Mr. Espada briefly described how he had lied on his taxes, but he never directly apologized. —New York Times (Oct 13, 2012)

languishing

existing in a state of sadness or depression, become feeble

derelict

failing in what duty requires

impinge

have an effect, especially a negative one; Asked if his tax policy was final, Mr Howard said he would ``have some things to say that impinge on tax ' during the campaign. But if built, the road would either impinge on the dam or come within a metre of swamp orchids on an adjoining property.

vignette

illustration, esp on the title-page of a book, but not in a definite border

inimitable

impossible to imitate; too good, clever, etc to imitate

enjoin

issue an injunction

pusillanimous [adj]

lacking courage and resolution; He was so pusillanimous that not only was he afraid to ask his boss for a raise, he was even afraid to tell the waitress that he didn't like sugar in his tea.

hubbub

loud confused noise, eg of many voices; din ;

beguile [v]

mislead by means of pleasant or alluring methods; Her smile beguiled Paul, and for a very brief second he forgot what he was supposed to do.

civil [n]

polite; civilized; courteous; The point of being polite or civil to another human being is not to demonstrate superiority, it is to demonstrate respect.

expletive

profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger; (of words) space filler; Angry expletives filled the air. Expletives were deleted from the transcript of their conversation.

Temporize

stall for time

schmooze

talk idly or casually and in a friendly way

ennui

weariness of mind caused by lack of anything interesting or exciting to do; feeling of boredom

pronounced

Aunt Shirley claimed we would never know that her "secret recipe" for brownies involved lots of healthy vegetables, but the brownies had a pronounced asparagus flavor.

politic

Celebrities have to watch what they say, as even an offhand comment can end up splashed across the covers of magazines. When the starlet was asked what she thought of her ex-husband marrying the swimsuit model he left her for, she gave the politic reply, "I wish both of them the best."

coterie [n]

Close or exclusive group, clique; The pop star never traveled anywhere without a coterie of assistants and managers.

providential

Every time their religious sister ran out of money, help always arrived! She viewed this as God's providential hand, but her family members viewed it as their always having to bail her out, and it was getting annoying.

placid

Famed Spanish tenor Placido Domingo has an unusual name—literally, "Peaceful Sunday." It's certainly not a coincidence that Placido looks so much like placid.

garner

Gather and store; amass, collect The publisher sent copies of the soon-to-be-published manuscript to reviewers, hoping to garner acclaim and publicity for the book.

flag

Get tired, lose enthusiasm; hang limply or droop Our grandmother is so physically fit that she was ready to make the rounds of the entire amusement park again after lunch, while most of us were flagging and just wanted to sit.

accretion [n]

Gradual increase; an added part or addition Accretion of money in his portfolio. Some charitable funds keep the principal in their accounts untouched and use only the accretion for philanthropic purposes.

desultory

Lacking consistency or order, disconnected, sporadic; going off topic Lulu said she'd been studying for the GRE for a year, but she had been doing so in only the most desultory way—a few vocab words here and there, then nothing for a month, and practice tests whenever she felt like it, which was rarely. / Don't mind my daughter—there's no need to let a toddler's desultory remarks pull an adult conversation off track.

Moment

Significant and important;

Embroiled

To become caught up in a scandal

genial

diffusing warmth and friendliness

prying

inquisitive in an annoying, officious, and meddlesome way

discourse

lengthy and serious treatment of a subject in speech or writing

dicey

unpredictable; risky; uncertain

apportion [v]

divide up and share out; Samples taken during their site visits will be tested in various European laboratories to see whether an attack took place and what form it took, but the inspectors' mandate does not involve apportioning blame for the attacks.

quirk

habit or action that is peculiar to sb/sth

mortify[adj]

humiliate Somewhere right now, Catherine Zeta-Jones is accepting the "My husband just said the most mortifying thing EVER" award from Jennifer Garner. —Salon (Jun 3, 2013)

skirt

Melissa spent all of Thanksgiving skirting the issue of who she was dating and when she might get married and make her mother a grandmother. It was exhausting changing the subject two dozen times! / The creek skirts our property on the west, so it's easy to tell where our farm ends.

allege [v]

to assert without proof; The alleged graft at Ferrominera alone reportedly involved schemes possibly totaling some $1.2 billion, according to local media.

ranks

Among the ranks of our alumni are two senators and many famous authors.

aloof [adj, adv]

Distant physically or emotionally; reserved; indifferent Perceiving her parents as cold and aloof, the child was naturally drawn to her warm, genial aunt.

disquieting

Disturbing, causing anxiety Mr. Peters' lack of emotion at his wife's death was disquieting—so much so, in fact, that even his own family began to suspect he'd had something to do with it. / He was deeply disquieted by the racism he encountered in his new neighborhood.

disingenuous

Insincere, not genuine Christine used the fact that her mother spoke limited English as an opportunity to be disingenuous. When her mother asked, "Will there be boys at this sleepover?" she replied "There won't not be boys there!"

posthumous

Ernest Hemingway died in 1961. His novel The Garden of Eden was published posthumously in 1986.

Imbroglio

A confusing, and potentially embarrassing, situation

mitigate

Sadly, his illness could not be cured, but the nurses made every effort to mitigate the symptoms.

plethora

She had a plethora of excuses, but there is simply no justification for arriving to class drunk.

restive

The company was purchased by a larger competitor, and the employees grew restive as the new bosses curtailed their freedoms and put a hold on their projects.

impede

hold back, obstruct the progress of I didn't realize business school would be entirely group work—sadly, there's always at least one person in every group who impedes the group's progress more than helps it.

lackey

sycophant;

allure [n, v]

tempt or attract (sb) by the expectation of gaining sth; But this self-reflectiveness does not account for the full extent of the book's value, nor for its allure.

bleat [v, n]

the sound of sheep or goats (or any sound resembling this); make a characteristic weak, wavering cry; Flies buzzed, cockerels crowed, goats bleated and a chorus of dogs was howling furiously. How many times have we heard the supermarkets bleating on about 'it is customer demand' when challenged about their imports of meat, poultry, milk and other produce that they could have bought local?

albeit []

Although, even though The village leader was illiterate albeit highly intelligent. The trip was exciting, albeit brief.

abreast [adj, adv]

Side-by-side. The more common "abreast of" means keeping up with, staying aware of, or remaining equal in progress with. As the professor walked abreast down the street with her mentor, she was amazed that the old man, long since retired, still kept abreast of all the latest developments in neurobiology.

conflate [v]

mix together different elements; We have the difficult task of fighting them, while protecting innocents in a war where the enemy deliberately and cynically conflates the two.

spurned

shunned; rejected with contempt

inherent

Existing as permanent, essential quality; intrinsic New research seems to support the idea that humans have an inherent sense of justice—even babies become upset at puppet shows depicting unfairness, and are gratified at seeing the "bad" puppets punished.

polyglot

New York's public service announcements often take the form of polyglot posters in the subway, suggesting in six languages that readers give up their seats for pregnant women or those with disabilities.

adjure [v]

Urge or request (someone) solemnly or earnestly to do something; Some thirty-five years ago, when I was a newcomer to the United States, an American friend adjured me to respect the meaning of the word as humbug and not to confuse it with the word for nonsense.

ardent [adj]

Very passionate, devoted, or enthusiastic He was an ardent heavy metal lover and became offended anytime someone referred to Poison as a "hair band." They were so in love that not even meeting each other's awful relatives could dampen their ardor.

unassuming[adj]

not arrogant or presuming Sitting in a downtown Beirut hotel following a hazardous nighttime road trip from Damascus, Cousin comes across as unassuming and passionate about her job. —Newsweek (Jul 11, 2013)

expedite[v]

process fast and efficiently Last July, Mr. Obama signed an executive order that helped expedite federal review and permitting on seven infrastructure projects, including two at Jaxport. —New York Times (Jul 26, 2013)

disapprobation

strong disapproval, typically on moral grounds; she braved her mother's disapprobation and slipped out to enjoy herself there was widespread disapprobation of their mixed marriage in that narrow-minded community

searchingly

"I'm fired?" said Ron, looking searchingly at his boss. "I thought I was like a son to you." / Breaking up is hard to do, but the searching look of her brokenhearted soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend was just too much.

propagate

Hackers can take down a large computer system in days or even minutes as a virus propagates and infects all of the machines on a network.

multifarious

Last year's jewelry line was all metal and neutrals, but this year's presents a multifarious array of brilliant colors.

polemic

Laura Kipnis's 2003 book Against Love: A Polemic has been called "shocking" and "scathing," Perhaps Kipnis used the word polemic in the title to indicate that she's making an extreme argument as a means of starting a debate. After all, who's really against love?

lethargic

Lazy, drowsy, or sluggish I do love the Golden Corral's reasonably priced buffet, but I feel so lethargic after I eat my weight in mac-and-cheese and hand-carved turkey.

sallow

(of a person's skin or complexion) yellowish

assiduous [adj]

Persevering, diligent, constant Through assiduous effort over a substantial period of time, anyone can develop a prodigious vocabulary.

veneer

an attractive, ultimately misleading outward show; thin layer

equitable

fair, equal, just As the university president was heavily biased towards the sciences, faculty in the liberal arts felt they had to fight to get an equitable share of funding for their departments.

stereotypical

lacking spontaneity, originality or individuality

Untoward

not favorable, inconvenient, inauspicious

Fell

(of a person) terribly evil; cut down a tree;

Imponderable

Impossible to estimate, fathom or figure out

elusive

tending to escape or disappear; difficult to capture

mar

The interior designer's secret was to buy furnishings and fixtures that had been marred on the shop floor and therefore were sold at steep discounts; she would then fix the defects herself or add additional aging effects to the pieces.

coffer [n]

Chest for storing valuables; financial resources, a treasury; The dishonest employee called it "dipping into the company coffers," but the arresting officer called it "embezzlement." Rather than rent a safety-deposit box, I keep my priceless antique coins in a coffer here at home.

arrogate [v]

Claim or take presumptuously or without the right to do so In order to build the oil pipeline, the government arrogated the land of many small farmers who are still fighting for compensation. The bride's mother arrogated the right to decide on the venue, the food, and even the wedding dress!

limpid [adj]

Clear, transparent; completely calm; Hawaii was amazing! The water was crystal clear—so limpid that when you were scuba diving, you could see ahead for what seemed like miles! After two years meditating in religious seclusion, he had a totally limpid attitude, affected by nothing from the outside world.

obsequious

Sammy thought he could get ahead by being obsequious, but instead, his boss gave a promotion to someone he viewed as more of a peer; truthfully, he thought Sammy's sucking up was pretty pathetic.

repast

After a light repast in a country inn, the men got back on their horses and rode away.

propitious

After having to postpone the game earlier in the week due to rain, the officials were pleased to see the propitious weather forecast. "We'll get this game in after all," one of them exclaimed.

sedition

Amnesty International regularly fights for the release of political prisoners imprisoned for sedition. While inciting violence is illegal in most of the world, what is considered sedition under many restrictive governments is what Americans consider a normal exercise of freedom of speech—for instance, writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper criticizing the government's policies.

standing

As he had feared, his divorce greatly reduced his standing as a relationship expert. / I'm disappointed that you don't want to leave your current job, but I want you to know that you have a standing invitation—as long as I'm the boss, you have a job here anytime you want one. / While the U.S. has a standing army (that is, an army that is not disbanded in times of peace), Costa Rica's constitution actually forbids a standing military.

slew

As soon as we switched software packages, we encountered a whole slew of problems.

proffered

Presented for acceptance

larceny

Theft The department store employs a security officer whose job it is to prevent larceny.

When business managers are asked to rank the communication skills that are most crucial to their jobs, which do they usually rank as number one? A. communicating by email B. public speaking C. conflict avoidance D. listening

D. listening

invasively

aggressively

smoulder

burn slowly with smoke but no flame

cogitate [v]

consider carefully and deeply; reflect upon; turn over in one's mind And waking at midnight and cogitating, good thoughts came down to me, and sudden my heart was enlightened.

saturnine [adj]

gloomy; Perrault's 'Bluebeard' is the story of a rich, middle-aged gentleman, named for his swarthy chin and saturnine manner, who marries a young woman.

undergird

lend moral support to

reparation[n]

paying back; making amends; compensation; Mr. Papoulias said he had broached the reparations issue with German authorities when he was foreign minister in 1995, without success. —New York Times (Jul 18, 2013)

crusader [n]

person who fights for a cause; CNN entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson is investigating Senator Patrick Leahy's fascination with the caped crusader.

privy

private; secret

uncouth

rough, awkward or ill-mannered; not refined ,

abscond [v]

Depart suddenly and secretively A robber absconds with stolen goods. People who eat in a restaurant and run out without paying—or criminals who jump bail—could also be said to be absconding.

gibe

(at sb/sth) jeer at or mock sb/sth; make fun of sb/sth

plaudit

(fml ) applause, praise or some other sign of approval

stint

After a stint in combat, Jared was used to eating whatever he was given, and being sparing with the few condiments available. After watching him stint on ketchup, his wife said, "Honey, seriously, here you can use all you want!"

vituperate

All couples fight, but your girlfriend vituperates you so severely that I'm not sure she loves you at all. Verbal abuse is actually a pretty good reason to break up.

librettist

Dramatist who writes the libretto, or text, of an opera.

prodigal

If you're going to leave a trust fund for your children, you should raise them not to be prodigal, or they'll blow through all the cash the minute they get their hands on it. / The prodigal land produced larger crops than the people could even consume.

quibble

Look, I am telling you some of the serious consequences of global warming, as predicted by the scientific establishment—I think you're just quibbling to complain that I said "carbon monoxide" when I meant "carbon dioxide."

recondite

Professor Ryan's office is full of books, every single one of which is more than 400 years old, and many of them in ancient Greek. He deals in some seriously recondite information.

mollify

The cellular company's billing practices were so infuriating to customers that the customer service representatives spent every workday mollifying angry customers.

vestige

They hadn't officially broken up, but she felt their relationship was running on fumes—that only vestiges of their former affection remained.

Hector

To bully or intimidate

Spendthrift

a person who spends extravagantly or wastefully; prodigal

smattering

a slight or superficial understanding of a subject

apartheid [n]

a social policy of racial segregation; The 95-year-old spent 27 years in prison after taking up arms to fight apartheid.

tranquility

a state of peace and quiet

legion

a very large number : multitude

intervening

coming in between so as to hinder or modify

friable

easily crumbled;

amorous [adj]

inclined toward or displaying love; In another, females engineered to produce the pheromone kept the amorous males at bay, even though the females had not mated.

infinitesimal[adj]

infinitely or immeasurably small Because 3D printers work by producing infinitesimal layers of hot plastic, there are certain constraints on poses. —New York Times (Aug 4, 2013)

poignant[adj]

keenly distressing to the mind or feelings Pasquale's ensuing humiliation is more poignant than funny - age his greatest fault. —The Guardian (Jul 21, 2013)

provoke

make (sb) angry or annoyed

dementia

mental deterioration of organic or functional origin; This patient suffers from dementia.

peruse

read (sth), esp carefully or thoroughly

veritable

rightly named or called; real

bellow [v]

shout loudly and without restraint; make a loud noise, as of animal; Slamming doors, banging walls, bellowing strangers and whistling neighbors were the bane of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's existence.

libidinous

showing excessive sexual drive; lustful;

suave

smoothly agreeable and courteous with a degree of sophistication

smear

spread a greasy or sticky substance; slanderous defamation

felicitous

Admirably appropriate, very well-suited for the occasion; pleasant, fortunate, marked by happiness "What a felicitous occasion!" said the new grandfather, arriving at the hospital with an "It's a Girl!" balloon. The new father found the balloon remarkably felicitous, especially since the baby's gender had been announced less than an hour ago.

penitent

After being "separated" from the college for plagiarism, she wrote a letter to the Dean expressing her deep regret and penitence and hoping to be readmitted.

oblique

After the fifteenth oblique reference that Bella made to George or George made to Bella, everyone in the office figured out that they were dating. / The serial killer loved to talk to interrogators, but gave only oblique answers that were useless in finding the bodies.

Panglossian

Blind optimism, especially in the face of adversity

Effective note-takers tend to do which of the following? Select all that apply. A. take notes only when the speaker says something interesting B. try to race the speaker so their notes keep up with what's being said C. listen for and record main points and evidence D. write down most everything a speaker says E. focus on the speaker's appearance

C. listen for and record main points and evidence

declivity [n]

Downward slope; Not just any declivity can serve as a wheelchair ramp—I'm pretty sure this thing is too steep to pass regulations.

paradigm

Far from being atypically bawdy, this limerick is a paradigm of the form—nearly all of them rely on off-color jokes.

posit

For thousands of years, philosophers have thought of the self as a unified entity, but neuroscientists today posit the existence of a modular brain—a self that is a mix of different brain parts, with no central "coordinator."

abdicate [v]

Formally give up the throne (or some other power or responsibility) King Edward VIII of England famously abdicated the throne in order to marry an American divorcée. Parents can be charged with neglect for abdicating their responsibilities towards their children.

uninhibitedly

Free from traditional, social or moral constraints.

patent

Her resume was full of patent lies: anyone could check to see that she had never been president of UNICEF.

irascible

Irritable, easily angered "I spent my entire childhood tiptoeing around so as not to anger my irascible mother," Joe told his therapist.

inchoate

Just begun, undeveloped, unorganized The first few weeks of language class went well, but her inchoate French was all but useless when she found herself at an academic conference in Quebec.

facilitate

Make easier, help the progress of A good meeting facilitator lets everyone be heard while still keeping the meeting focused. / As a midwife, my goal is simply to facilitate a natural process.

clinch [v]

Make final or settle conclusively; to fasten or hold together; When their best player was benched, the team fell behind, but once he was allowed back in the game, the team was able to clinch the win. These two pieces have been clinched together with a clamp while the glue dries.

indifferent

Not caring, having no interest; unbiased, impartial Do whatever you want—I'm indifferent. I won't even notice.

eccentric

Peculiar, off, deviating from the norm esp. in a whimsical way The old woman was harmless but eccentric—not many senior citizens wear a train conductor's uniform and carry a boom box. / The eccentricity of a planet's orbit is the amount by which it deviates from a perfect circle; in general, comets are far more eccentric than known planets.

elegy

Song or poem of sorrow, esp. for a deceased person While composing an elegy is certainly old-fashioned, the poet felt that it was a fitting way for her to honor her father at his funeral.

acerbic [adj]

Sour; harsh or severe Lemons are acerbic. Harsh comments are also acerbic, like putting lemon juice on a wound.

Extant

Still in existence; Not destroyed or lost

forsake[v]

abandon; renounce; relinquish; As Mr. Ng forges roads back to Singapore's locavore cuisine, chefs and diners are discovering heirloom vegetables, fruits and long forsaken herbs. —New York Times (Jul 10, 2013)

serendipity[n]

accidental good fortune; discovering good things without looking for them; Because potential customers are most engaged when they are fired up by the excitement of discovering something new, serendipity can produce some remarkable conversion scores. "India's ascent has been fueled by serendipity," he writes.

Pyrrhic

achieved at excessive cost a Pyrrhic victory

gustatory

affecting the sense of taste

unimpeachable

blameless

meld

blend; combine; Australia's winemakers have melded modern science with traditional art

gilded

covered with a thin layer of gold; superficially good;

strain

difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension

mete

dispense or allot justice, a punishment, or harsh treatment; he denounced the maltreatment meted out to minorities

balkanize [v]

divide (a region or body) into smaller mutually hostile states or groups; But they also Balkanised the research, dividing it up into many different journals, most of which charge for access.

dubious

doubtful, questionable, suspect This applicant's resume is filled with dubious qualifications—this is a marketing position, and this resume is mostly about whitewater rafting.

immure

enclose or confine (someone) against their will; scientists at the research station in Alaska are immured by the frozen wastelands that surround them immured by a controlling, possessive mother, the young woman had no outside social life

puritanical [adj]

exaggeratedly proper More violence took place in northern Yemen also on Thursday when five Salafis followers of puritanical Sunni Islam, were killed in an ambush by Shi'ites.

assay [v]

examine, analyze, judge; We assay variation in a natural population to assess whether microsatellite markers can be informative for future studies in this species. The bank is to set up a separate unit, SBI Gold and Precious Metals, to assay the gold and jewellery brought in as deposits.

mawkish

excessively and objectionably sentimental; having a mildly sickening flavor;

sweltering

excessively hot and humid or marked by sweating and faintness

superfluous[adj]

extra; unnecessary; redundant; She brings out dancers, but really they're superfluous - nobody is looking at them. —The Guardian (Apr 15, 2013)

jubilant

feeling or expressing great happiness and triumph; He's jubilant at his acceptance into the golf club ahead of his Catholic boss.

peremptory[adj]

final; categorical; dictatorial; Indeed, her peremptory manner with her own colleagues attracted the attention of Britain's inspired satirical TV puppetry show, Spitting Image. —Time (Apr 8, 2013)

indict

formally accuse of or charge with a crime; indictment(n.) -- act of indicting his former manager was indicted for fraud But the conventions also don't mean much unless the Security Council agrees to act. It is an indictment of the current state of international law that there is no universally recognized basis to intervene.

appurtenant [adj]

furnishing added support; The second was the peril to the Chinese polity, the danger that China might become politically appurtenant to some foreign power of group of powers.

explicate

give a detailed explanation of; analyze logically; an essay explicating a theory the physicist did his best to explicate the wave theory of light for the audience of laymen

gavel

hammerlike tool; mallet(wooden hammer) used by a presiding officer or an auctioneer;

accommodating [adj]

helpful, obliging, polite; His son, Abdullah II faces the task of maintaining stability while accommodating calls for reform.

fitful

intermittently stopping and starting; not regular or steady He had a few fitful hours of sleep. Several fitful attempts at negotiation have failed.

lynch

kill without legal sanction; The blood-thirsty mob lynched the alleged killer of the child.

ebb [v]

move away from the land(as in tides); recede; gradually decrease; Rather, as employment in routine jobs has ebbed, employment has risen both in high-wage managerial, professional and technical occupations and in low-wage, in-person service occupations.

improvident

not preparing for future needs; wasteful

expound

present and explain (a theory or idea) in detail; he was expounding a powerful argument. The article expounds the virtues of a healthy diet. When asked to expound, he had no comment.

discreet[adj]

prudent; judiciously reserved; Despite repeated discreet approaches, she said, there had been "no substantive or practical response" from Beijing. —BBC (Aug 12, 2013)

dialectical[adj]

relating to the logical discussion of ideas and opinion They illustrate a certain dialectical process which belongs to all human life and which plays its part in the whole history of religion. —Royce, Josiah

efface[v]

remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing Her rich beauty was wiped out as an acid-soaked sponge might efface a portrait. —Terhune, Albert Payson

fetter[v]

restrain; hamper; The prison wall was not finished, and he found means of secreting himself, breaking off his fetters, and effecting his escape. —Reynolds, John N.

penultimate

second last; Belle was the penultimate person to die, just hours before a slave, fifty-three-year-old Alba, wandered in delirium away from his cabin and sat down to death in front of Carlyle's airing-out cottage.

obloquy

shame, disapproval, or verbal abuse esp. by the public or a group;

incriminating

showing guilt

astute [adj]

shrewd; keen in judgement; Abraham Lincoln was, on balance, an astute judge of character, but now and then he made a mistake. Brady also gives a detailed, astute account of Lear's mental/physical decline.

inane[adj]

silly; senseless Employees can always stop following colleagues who post inane comments about their lunch, or they can quit groups in which they are no longer involved. —New York Times (Jun 27, 2011)

stupendous

so great in size, force or extent as to elicit awe

evocative

sth that evokes or is able to evoke memories, feelings, etc (of sth)

eerie

strange and frightening; The flames cast an eerie glow. a land of eerie beauty an eerie green glow in the sky

fortitude

strength of mind that enables one to endure adversity with courage

oeuvre

the complete work of an artist

wherewithal

the necessary means (especially financial means)

excruciate

torment (someone) physically or mentally But of all animal emotions, jealousy is the purest excruciation. It is watching as someone else enjoys what you most desire on earth.

hitch-hike

travel by getting free lifts in passing vehicles; Her car broke down, so she had to hitchhike back home. He hitchhiked his way across the country last summer.

adept [adj]

very skilled or proficient at something; These workers will adeptly combine technical skills with interpersonal interaction, flexibility and adaptability to offer services that are uniquely human.

sordid[adj]

vile; filthy; squalid; The drug dealers had turned a once-pretty neighbourhood into a sordid outpost of despair and crime.

debilitate[v]

weaken; cripple; One result is a debilitating struggle between empowered Islamists and fractured secularists that is playing out in Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia and just about everywhere else. Even as the debilitating recession slashed household budgets, the adult toy industry grew in size as consumers spent more time at home.

unheralded

without warning or announcement

subside

When her terror subsided, she realized that the house wasn't really haunted. / It is a chronic illness—symptoms will flare up and subside over one's lifetime.

pedestrian

It was so amazing when you had us over to dinner and made that rack of lamb! I'm afraid neither of us is a professional chef like you are, though, so we hope you won't mind that we've made something more pedestrian: hot dogs and French fries.

tangential

It's hard to get a quick answer out of Noah—ask him any question, and you'll get a wide range of tangential remarks before you can find a polite way to move on.

antagonize [v]

Make hostile or unfriendly "Josie! Stop antagonizing your little brother! Give him back that firetruck and tell him you're sorry for pulling his hair!"

diabolical

extremely evil or cruel; diabolical sorcerers under the influence of devils the police quickly mobilized to track down the diabolical serial killer

abysmal [adj]

extremely hopeless or wretched; bottomless; "Any chance of survival was diminished by the Zoo's abysmal emergency response plan, which included blank and useless tranquilizer darts," he said.

fatuous

Foolish, silly, esp. in a smug or complacent manner Sadly, every philosophy class seems to have one person who responds to every discussion, from metaphysics to ethics, with the fatuous question, "But what if we don't really exist?"

toady

Look at that toady, sucking up and offering to do the boss's Christmas shopping for his kids. Gross.

erroneous

Mistaken, in error; improper, morally incorrect Hilda was completely unable to assemble her new desk chair after the instructions erroneously instructed her to screw the left armrest onto a small lever on the bottom of the seat.

Maintain

To assert; affirm; declare

fulsome

complimentary or flattering to an excessive degree; of large size or quantity; generous or abundant; the player's fulsome praise for the coach showed just how hard he was trying to be named captain of the team grateful survivors who were fulsome in their praise of the rescue team

orthography

conventional spelling system of a language

ignominy[n]

deep disgrace; Rangers FC last week suffered the ignominy of being booted out of the Scottish Premier League. Women involved in sex scandals live in ignominy, while the men are forgiven their sexual transgressions.

litigate[v]

engage in legal proceedings He joined his father's law firm where he litigated malpractice cases. Among Rwanda's strongest defenders, Bill Clinton: "Well first of all... the matter has not been fully litigated," says Mr Clinton.

consecrate [v]

give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause; make/declare sacred The trip at once consecrated a friendship and defined it around shared goals. The guest speaker will be Bishop Samuel Lawrence Green Sr., 125th elected and consecrated bishop.

attrition[n]

gradual wearing away; weakening or loss; Before 2006, however, diplomatic attrition rates were no more than 5 percent, he said. —New York Times (Jul 13, 2013)

appalling [adj]

horrifying; shocking; The cat suffered appalling injuries during the attack.

exhilarate

make (someone) feel very happy, animated, or elated; the exhilarating feeling of flying that hang gliding offers the climactic moment of commencement ceremonies usually exhilarates graduates and proud parents alike

parochial[adj]

narrowly restricted in outlook or scope ; Leaders often exploit tribal loyalty to advance personal gain, parochial interests, patronage, and cronyism. Australian television always seems more parochial, undeveloped - frankly a little cheap.

concomitant [adj]

naturally accompanying or associated; The expression of this gene is associated with concomitant changes in cysteine protease activity of the petals.

unseasoned

not tried or tested by experience

pander

pander to sth/sb (derog ) try to satisfy (a vulgar, weak or immoral desire, or sb having this); gratify sth/sb

complicity [n]

participation in wrongdoing; the act of being an accomplice; In Russia, it said, an estimated one million people are subjected to forced labor in many industries, including construction, with the complicity of officials. French prosecutors are separately investigating UBS France — and three executives — for complicity in illegal business dealings.

parlance

particular way of speaking or use of words; phraseology

feeble[adj]

pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness Recent attempts to fix its finances have been thwarted by a feeble economy, a shrinking population and rapidly increasing legacy costs. —Economist (Jul 25, 2013)

medley

piece of music made up of passages from other musical works

apocalypse [n]

prophetic revelation, esp. concerning end of the world So bond investors might face apocalypse, but predicting timing is tricky. But as food ran short and talk turned to apocalypse, there was no choice but to take decisive action.

forbear[v]

refrain from doing; abstain; I have always noticed that the bravest and best fighting officers are the kindest and most forbearing toward their men. The German raised his eyebrows, but forbore to elicit further information concerning Jaures' motives.

cognate [adj]

related in nature; connected; having same linguistic mother; Pagel and his co-workers took a first step by building a statistical model based on Indo-European cognates. For example, they looked at cognates, words derived from ancestral words.

anecdote [n]

short account of an incident; Each chapter includes anecdotes about Woods's diet plan and walking regimen, her battles with cravings and her training as a nurse. Anecdotes about spikes in the ratings credited to Twitter chatter have given producers and advertisers new hopes of assembling mass audiences.

myrmidon

sycophant;

deceit [n]

trick; deception; a rise to power that was marked by treachery and deceit she's completely free of deceit

vanquish

trounce

Desecrate

willfully violates or destroys any sacred place (not used with people)

askance [adv]

with suspicion or disapproval; The reformers looked askance at the mystical tradition.

disparate

Belittle, put down; bring shame upon, discredit He chose the college for two disparate reasons: the strength of the computer science program, and the excellence of the hip-hop dance squad.

explicit

Direct, clear, fully revealed; clearly depicting sex or nudity The goal of my motivational talk is to make explicit the connection between staying in school and avoiding a life of crime.

fulminate

Explode, detonate; attack verbally in a vehement, thunderous way Please don't bring up anything related to gun control around my family, or my dad will fulminate for hours about the Second Amendment.

indigence

Extreme poverty The city government has several agencies that provide shelter, food, and other assistance to the indigent.

Pollyannaish

Extremely optimistic

aggregate [v, adj]

Gather together, amount to (verb); constituting a whole made up of constituent parts (adj) While some of the company's divisions did better than others, in aggregate, we made a profit. Concrete is created when crushed rock or glass is aggregated with cement; in aggregate, concrete is stronger than cement alone.

largess or largesse

Generosity, the giving of money or gifts (esp. with the implication that the giver is a bit superior to the recipient) While I did attend a tony private school, my parents were actually quite poor—I was at that school through the largesse of my grandfather.

construe [v]

Interpret or translate; I don't know how you construed my comment as an insult. All I said was, "Wow, I never knew you could sing."

levity

Lightness (of mind, spirit, or mood) or lack of seriousness sometimes in an inappropriate way My late uncle Bill loved practical jokes and absolutely would have approved of the iPod mix my aunt played at the wake, which added a little levity by segueing from "Amazing Grace" to the party anthem "Let's Get It Started."

Gerrymander

Manipulation of boundaries to favor a certain group

scurvy

Our neighbor is so scurvy that he deliberately broke my little brother's bicycle because, as he said, "You kids are too loud!"

impasse

Position or road from which there is no escape; deadlock If the union won't budge on its demands and the transit authority won't raise salaries, then we are at an impasse.

sycophant

Stop being such a sycophant. I don't need you to compliment my tie or get me coffee; I just need you to do your job without bothering me.

proliferate

The book alleged that terrorist cells are proliferating across the United States faster than law enforcement can keep up.

unbidden

Without being asked, not invited

jester

a professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the middle ages

felony

a serious crime, such as murder or arson; felon - one who has committed felony

Doldrums

a state of inactivity (in business or art etc); the team had been in the doldrums ever since losing the championship

Screed

an abusive rant that has since become tedious and hackneyed

quagmire

area of soft wet ground; bog or marsh

coalesce [v]

Come together, unite, fuse together; While at first everyone on the team was jockeying for power and recognition, eventually, the group coalesced and everyone was happy to share credit for a job well-done. East and West Germany coalesced into a single country in 1990.

consonant [adj]

harmonious; in agreement; He found ancient prayers and visions completely consonant with electronic sound. —New York Times (Dec 7, 2012)

torpor

Sam had hoped to be able to play in the game after having his wisdom teeth out, but the anesthesia left him in such torpor that he obviously couldn't play soccer.

Schadenfreude

Taking pleasure in the misfortune of others

garrulous

Talkative, wordy, rambling Uncle Bill is so garrulous that our dinner conversation lasted three hours—and the only person who said more than ten words was Uncle Bill.

denigrate

Belittle, attack the reputation of Many jokes in the Meet the Parents trilogy come from Robert De Niro's character denigrating Ben Stiller's character for being a male nurse.

surly

This diner is terrible. My eggs are overcooked, and our surly waitress actually told me, "If you don't like it, scram."

gawk

(infml ) stare impolitely or stupidly;

rhapsody

(often in titles ) romantic composition in irregular form

Expunge

To wipe out or remove any trace off

elated

Very happy, in high spirits I am elated that you flew my twin brother in from Australia to surprise me at my birthday party!

flummox

confuse an actor who's easily flummoxed by any changes in the script

willful[adj]

done deliberately; insistent on having one's way; He has shown a willful disregard for other people's feelings.

queasy

having a tendency to feel sick; feeling sick

feign

pretend

shenanigans

secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering; the chairman was accused of financial shenanigans

premise

a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn

moratorium

a temporary prohibition of an activity; Whale populations are mostly recovering thanks to a moratorium on commercial whaling.

counterintuitive [adj]

Against what one would intuitively expect; Although it seems counterintuitive, for some extreme dieters, eating more can actually help them to lose weight, since the body is reassured that it is not facing a period of prolonged starvation.

posterity [n]

All future generations of people; York's year of Millennium celebrations are to be captured on videotape for posterity for present and future generations. His influence as a composer was much greater than posterity has generally recognized.

slack

As the product of slack parenting, I never learned good time management skills—Mom and Dad never checked my homework or made me go to bed at a certain time. / The holidays represent a lull or slack in work at many companies.

requite

Ashley felt that her unrequited love for George would surely kill her. George barely noticed her—he cared about nothing but requiting his father's death.

droll

Funny in an odd way The play was a droll production—not laugh-out-loud hilarious, but funny especially because it was so strange. Who's ever seen a fairy be mistaken for a block of cheese?

indolent

Lazy, slothful Having worked all his life, the CEO was constantly frustrated with his indolent son, who used his inherited wealth as an excuse to sunbathe and party.

ignoble

Not noble; having mean, base, low motives; low quality What you have done may not be illegal, but it surely is ignoble—people who don't read the user agreement surely do not expect that, by clicking "I Agree," they have signed up for a Jelly of the Month club!

austere [adj]

Severe in manner or appearance; very self-disciplined, ascetic; without luxury or ease; sober or serious Her design sense was so minimalist as to be austere; all-white walls, hard, wooden furniture, not a single picture, throw pillow, or cozy comfort anywhere. The graduation speaker delivered an austere message: the economy is bad, and academic success alone isn't enough to succeed in the job market.

antinomian [adj,n]

one who rejects a socially established morality; Their exclusiveness in practice, neglect of education for the ministry, and the antinomian tendency of their doctrine contributed to their dissolution.

exalt[v]

praise, glorify, or honor The defendant, Yale Academy, with locations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, can make no such exalted claims — at least not yet. —New York Times (Jul 3, 2013)

formidable

extremely impressive in strength or excellence; inspiring fear

gumption

fortitude and determination

irrevocable[adj]

irreversible; He could have set up separate legal entities to hold assets, like royalties from "The Sopranos," or put other assets in irrevocable trusts long ago. —New York Times (Jul 19, 2013)

rubric

a title or heading that is printed in red or in a special type

apprehensive [adj]

worried; anxious; Still, people living in the area appear to be growing increasingly apprehensive as the storm approaches. I was a little apprehensive about investing the required funds towards training and setting up my business.

likewise

Also, in addition to; similarly, in the same way Chip was baffled by all the silverware set before him, so when his host began eating salad with the smallest, leftmost fork, Chip did likewise.

abjure [v]

Give up, renounce; repudiate, recant, or shun (especially formally or under oath) To become a citizen of the United States, you must abjure loyalty to the nation of your birth. Since enrolling in that nutrition class, she has abjured sugar and saturated fats.

refractory

No matter how much job training the city gives them, refractory ex-criminals are simply unemployable.

insurrection

Rebellion or revolt against a government or similarly established authority Due to frequent insurrections, the nation has had six governments in just five years. / The principal prepared for insurrection as she announced that all teachers were to spend the rest of the year exclusively preparing for standardized tests.

penumbra

The Constitution doesn't specifically mention a right to privacy, but some experts consider this to exist in the penumbra of the Constitution, as a guarantee of privacy is needed in order to exercise the rights that are enumerated. / The rent in Chicago was too high, so they moved to a suburb in the penumbra of the city.

pariah

After the schoolteacher was fired for participating in what some called a "hate rally," he became a pariah in his own town, glared at in the grocery store—even his longtime barber refused him a haircut.

egress

An exit or the action of exiting It is against the fire code to put those boxes there—you can't block a primary or secondary egress from the building.

stolid

Dad is so stolid that we can't get a rise out of him no matter what we do—Jody got a tattoo, Max declared himself a communist, and Helen won a Rhodes Scholarship. No response! Dad just nods and says "Alright, then."

stasis

Edie felt that her career was in stasis: her boss made it clear she wasn't getting promoted, but she also couldn't leave because of her health insurance situation.

prospective

Everyone had a hard time correctly saying the name of the seminar, "Perspectives for Prospective Doctors." Even the prospective doctors—college students hoping to be admitted to medical school—were a bit confused.

fanatical

Excessively devoted, enthusiastic, or zealous in an uncritical way We avoid our neighbors—they're fanatics who can't go five minutes without trying to convert you to their beliefs. / Mrs. Becker was fanatical about grammar, once deducting 15 points from a student's paper for a misused semicolon—and it was a physics class!

harrow

Farming tool that breaks up soil (noun); painfully disturb or distress (verb) Let's start our garden together—you harrow, and I'll follow behind you planting the seeds. / The bus ride across Siberia was a harrowing experience—the roads were all ice, and the ancient, barely heated vehicle seemed to be lacking both headlights and brakes.

virtual

The Tamagotchi is a handheld virtual pet made in Japan—you have to "care" for it by performing various actions with the device, but in the end, your "pet" still looks very much like a keychain.

jocular

Joking or given to joking all the time, jolly, playful He's certainly a jocular fellow—if we were friends, I'm sure I'd find his antics amusing, but as his professor, I do wish he'd contribute some serious comments to the class discussion instead of his constant stream of jocular comments.

lament

Mourn, express grief, sorrow, or regret (verb); an expression of grief, esp. as a song of poem (noun) Silda said she couldn't make it to the party—she's still lamenting the death of her cat. In fact, she wrote a poem: "A Lament on the Topic of Buttons McFlufferton." Lamentably, Silda is a very bad poet.

lugubrious

Mournful, gloomy (sometimes in an exaggerated way) Helen was having a good time at the Irish pub until the Traditional Music Hour started, and the lugubrious tunes made her cry into her Guinness.

judicious

Using judgement; wise, sensible In his will, the old titan of industry left little to his hard-partying younger son, and left the bulk of his estate to the more judicious older son, with instructions that the older son see that the rest of the family was taken care of.

articulate [adj, v]

Using language in a clear fluent way (adj); speak distinctly or give clarity to an idea (verb) She's so articulate that I'm sure she'll make a good lawyer. / The group voted on who would be the best spokesperson, able to articulate their needs to the panel.

chasm [n]

a deep, gaping hole; In the real world, there can be a chasm in training and experience.

passel

a large group of people or things; reporters had a whole passel of questions for the new basketball coach the young couple had a passel of babies in the span of a few years

pastoral

a literary work idealizing the rural life (especially the life of shepherds)

demure[adj]

affectedly modest, reserved, or serious; She was wearing a demure gray suit. the demure charm of the cottage So even if you think you've moved past your reputation as The Rebel, two minutes after getting together with your more demure sister, you're likely to fall back into that hell-raiser role.

Palimpsest

anything that has been changed numerous times but which traces of former instantiations can still be seen

stultifying

causing to be useless

nonplussed

confused and unsure how to react; She expected him to ask for a scotch and was rather nonplussed when he asked for a martini and lemonade.

paltry[adj]

contemptibly small in amount After the financial crisis, many of these markets became attractive to investors seeking higher returns in the face of paltry interest rates. —New York Times (Jun 21, 2013)

subversive[adj]

corrupting; overthrowing; undermining; insurging; In a totalitarian regime, dreaming has been declared a subversive activity. —The Guardian (May 12, 2013)

perjury[n]

criminal offense of making false statements under oath He found only six people who had been convicted of perjury or related charges in relation to Congress, going back to the 1940s. —Reuters (May 23, 2013)

factious

dissenting (especially dissenting with the majority opinion) I recall letting slip some factious remark at our end of the table at dinner, and I caught the full force of her personality. The USA seems to have involved itself in a factious civil war with no end in sight - and to greater cost than gain.

connive [v]

encourage or assent to illegally or criminally; I believe that most public servants like their jobs, believe that they're acting in the public interest, would not consciously assist in or connive in something that was clearly morally wrong, let alone criminal.

Overweening

excessive or immoderate; presumptuously arrogant;

censure [v]

express severe disapproval of (someone or something), official reprimand; The senator was censured by the Senate for campaign fund improprieties—in fact, he narrowly avoided being expelled from office.

zeal [n]

great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective; Whether you agree with their views or not, you have to admit that the employees of PETA have great zeal for animal rights—most work for less than $25,000 a year, and often participate in protests that get them shouted at or even arrested.

cursory [adj]

hasty; superficial; This meant proving misconduct required overwhelming evidence, while exonerating cops only needed a far more cursory investigation. Based on my cursory observation, there is nothing but house building going on, so who is kidding whom?

intricate

having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate

ineffable[adj]

incapable of being expressed or described; effable - expressible He's one of the people moving hip-hop culture forward in ineffable ways, who before the Internet might have been untraceable. —New York Times (Jan 25, 2013)

proletariat[n]

industrial working class; Facing long hours, rising costs, indifferent managers, and often late pay, workers are beginning to sound like true proletariat. —Time (Mar 25, 2013)

vapid[adj]

lacking significance, liveliness or spirit Personally, I would ten thousand times rather read a book written by Vladimir Nabokov than by a vapid genre hack. —Scientific American (Jun 28, 2012)

rile

make (someone) annoyed or irritated; make (water) turbulent or muddy New Delhi's decision to cut subsidy on cooking gas and kerosene came right in the middle of Bhutan's second parliamentary elections fuelling speculation that India was trying to influence the outcome, riled as it was with Tobgay's predecessor Jigme Thinley for pursuing policies not in her interests.

divulge

make known (sth secret)

raffish

marked by a careless unconventionality

amoral [adj]

neither moral nor immoral; lacking a sense of right or wrong; Depending on your perspective, the movies have been agents of wantonness and amorality or upholders of old-fashioned, even outmoded values.

jittery

nervous or unable to relax; I always get jittery when I have to give a speech. The latest economic news has made some investors jittery.

callous [adj]

not caring about other people's feelings or suffering; Do violent video games make people more callous and less likely to help others? —Time (Jul 9, 2013)

unkempt[adj]

not properly maintained or cared for Worse, the unkempt upper bunk bore rumpled sheets. He was wearing dark clothing and possibly had an unkempt appearance. One morning in 1997, while Mr. Mathew was wandering about, he spotted a deranged man with unkempt hair, a thick beard and dirty clothes.

amend [v]

set straight or right; to make better The 1949 legislation is known as "permanent law" because all subsequent farms bills simply amend it every five years.

exhume

take from the ground (for examination)

pauper

very poor person

exiguous [adj]

very small in size or amount; My, you gave me an exiguous amount of time to answer that! Given these exiguous resources, Faulkner's political achievements down to the end of 1973 were not inconsiderable.

rotund

(of a person) rounded; plump; fat

wan

Are you okay? You're looking wan. / Bryan's wan attempt at asking for a raise was easily brushed off by his boss.

extrapolate

Conjecture about an unknown by projecting information about something known; predict by projecting past experience No, I've never been to Bryn Mawr, but I've visited several small, private women's colleges in the Northeast, so I think I can extrapolate.

bogus [adj]

Fake, fraudulent The back of this bodybuilding magazine is just full of ads for bogus products—this one promises 22-inch biceps just from wearing magnetic armbands!

monotony

The monotony of working on a factory assembly line made her feel as though she would go insane from boredom.

phalanx

To even enter the embassy, the diplomats had to make their way through a phalanx of protestors.

arduous [adj]

Very difficult, strenuous; severe, hard to endure The arduous hike up rocky terrain was all worth it once the hikers reached the summit. It was an arduous winter on the prairie; the family barely survived.

parry

When asked by a reporter if rumors of his infidelity were true, the candidate parried, answering that he had always supported legislation bolstering the sanctity of marriage.

sine qua non [n]

an essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary; Adopt these strategies for putting the sine qua non of job search success - networking - to the test.

swindle

deprive of by deceit; He swindled me out of my inheritance

besmirch [v]

dishonour (sb/sth); slander; The case has shown how easy it is for a hard-working and respected professional to have their name and reputation besmirched by one wild accusation.

spurious[adj]

false; fake; claimed that the governor's election-year enthusiasm for conservation was spurious, since he had cut funding for state parks.

cornerstone [n]

foundation; Yoga will continue to remain an important cornerstone, but I really need to make more time for weight training.

capitalism [n]

free enterprise; an economic system; The same rules which had long underpinned political propaganda started being applied to sell cars, TVs and other trappings of capitalism.

abstruse [adj]

hard to understand; He was well versed in seamanship of all kinds, and used his experience habitually to throw light on abstruse problems of dynamics.

nary

hardly, (used with singular count nouns) colloquial for 'not a' or 'not one' or 'never a'

acrid [adj]

harsh; like acid; Barricades of rubble blocked other streets leading to the square and the acrid smell of tear gas hung in the air.

entail

have as a logical consequence

titular

having a certain title

percipient

having good insight or understanding; perceptive; he is a percipient interpreter of the public mood

bellicose [adj]

having or showing a ready disposition to fight Brotherhood leaders, for their part, have sounded increasingly isolated, defiant and bellicose.

skulk

hide or move around as if one is ashamed; trying to hide, esp. when one is planning sth bad

insidious

intended to entrap; proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with very harmful effects; Most people with this insidious disease have no idea that they are infected. sexual harassment is a serious and insidious problem Spin is sometimes dismissed as a simple euphemism for lying. But it's actually something more insidious: indifference to the truth.

brisk [adj]

quick; active; energetic; That done, she departed for the stables at a brisk speedy walk. Navi took a quick break from their brisk walk by leaning against one of the light poles.

obliterate

remove all signs of (sth); rub or blot out

numinous

suggesting the presence of a god; spiritually elevated

declaim [v]

Speak in an impassioned, pompous, or oratorical manner; give a formal speech; After a drink or two, Gabe will declaim all night about campaign finance reform—you won't be able get a word in edgewise in between all his grandstanding and "expertise."

eulogy

Speech of praise or written work of praise, esp. a speech given at a funeral While it was hard for Xing to write a eulogy for his friend, he was pleased to be able to tell others at the funeral some wonderful things about him that they hadn't known. / The review of the book was pure eulogy—usually, this publication runs more balanced articles.

Junta

The aggressive takeover by a group; Council or group in charge after a takeover

fib

a trivial or childish lie I have to admit that I told a fib when I said I enjoyed the movie. Is she telling fibs again?

utopia[n]

an ideal society; But, of course, the open system movement isn't one giant utopia - there are drawbacks. —The Guardian (Jan 14, 2013)

extricate[v]

release from entanglement of difficulty In any case, though, troops are already departing, and military planners are carefully calculating how to extricate the equipment smoothly. —New York Times (Aug 4, 2012)

accede [v]

Agree, give consent; assume power (usually as "accede to") While the Englishman was a strong believer in democracy, he had to accede that watching Prince Charles someday accede to the throne would indeed be exciting.

Picayune

Amount that is trivial or meager; a petty person

assail [v]

Attack violently, assault One strategy for winning in boxing is to simply assail your opponent with so many blows that he becomes disoriented. The debate team assailed the opposition with more evidence than they could respond to.

Focused listeners A. focus on a speaker's appearance B. detect a speaker's main points C. are distracted by external interference D. detect a speaker's organizational patterns E. identify a speaker's supporting evidence

B. detect a speaker's main points D. detect a speaker's organizational patterns E. identify a speaker's supporting evidence

cosmopolitan [adj]

Belonging to the entire world, at home globally; free from local or national prejudices or attachments Trapped in a small town, he dreamed of a more cosmopolitan existence filled with world travel, exotic cuisine, and scintillating parties where he would meet famous authors and other cosmopolites.

diatribe

Bitter, abusive attack or criticism; rant I'd stay out of the living room for a while—Grandpa's on another one of his diatribes about how it's un-American to call a large coffee a "venti." You can hear him ranting from here!

caustic [adj]

Capable of corroding metal or burning the skin; very critical or sarcastic Wait, those chemicals are caustic! You need safety gloves and goggles before performing this experiment, or else you risk not only getting your skin burned off, but also some seriously caustic remarks from our chemistry teacher.

profound

Certain fish that live in the dark, profound depths of the ocean have long since evolved to have sightless eyes. / He was profoundly disappointed when the project he had worked on for 15 years failed.

bilk [v]

Cheat or defraud; The con artist bilked many elderly people out of their savings, promising to cure illnesses from diabetes to cancer with only 36 monthly payments of $99.99—for which the victims received nothing but useless placebo pills.

incorporate

Combine, unite, form a legal corporation; embody, give physical form to When a business incorporates, it becomes a separate legal entity—for instance, the business can declare bankruptcy without the owners doing so. / Local legend has it that ghosts can incorporate on one night of the year and walk among the living.

confound [v]

Confuse, frustrate; mix up or make worse; He was positively confounded by a map that seemed to show "East Bethlehem" as being to the west of "West Bethlehem." He was already a little flummoxed in regards to differential equations, but reading an incorrectly-edited Wikipedia page on the topic only confounded the problem.

collude [v]

Conspire; cooperate for illegal or fraudulent purposes; After two competing software companies doubled their prices on the same day, leaving consumers no lower-priced alternative, the federal government investigated the companies for collusion.

One of the major sources of human interference in the speech communication process is A. listening empathically B. not giving timely feedback to the speaker C. listening appreciatively D. focusing on a speaker's delivery and personal appearance

D. focusing on a speaker's delivery and personal appearance

extemporaneous

Done without preparation (esp. of a speech), or with some preparation but no notes; improvised, done on the spur of the moment The way the Public Affairs Forum works is that the moderator will announce a topic, and then anyone who wishes may speak extemporaneously on that topic for a few minutes—as you can imagine, our members are very well-read. / Lost in the jungle, the hikers fashioned an extemporaneous shelter from palm leaves.

livid

Furiously angry, enraged Diane was livid when she discovered that her daughter had borrowed her wedding dress to wear to an '80s party. "I have never been angrier in my life," she said.

abstain [v]

Hold back, refrain (especially from something bad or unhealthy) ; decline to vote The church board voted on whether to hold an abstinence rally to encourage young people not to become sexually active; while most members voted in favor, one voted against and two abstained, with one abstainer commenting that, as far as she knew, the church's teens were pretty abstemious already.

table

I see we're not going to agree on whether to scrap our entire curriculum and develop a new one, so let's table that discussion and move on to voting on the budget.

interplay

Interaction, reciprocal relationship or influence Bilingual readers will enjoy the interplay of English and Spanish in many of the poems in this anthology of the work of Mexican-American poets.

husband

Manage prudently, sparingly, or economically; conserve As we are dealing with cutbacks, I am calling on you as the office manager to husband our resources, parceling out office supplies and buying new ones only when absolutely necessary.

terrestrial

Mr. and Mrs. Daruza were certain they had seen a UFO, plus aliens running around in the night. What they really saw was an especially dense flock of birds in the air, and some mundane, terrestrial animals on the ground.

ribald

Nearly all limericks are based on ribald humor—hence, the constant rhymes with "Nantucket." / The movie's humor was so ribald that a PG-13 rating was assigned, and Joey's mother covered up his eyes nearly every time a woman was on the screen.

kinetic

Pertaining to motion Marisa told her mother what she had learned in science class: a ball sitting on a table has potential energy, but a ball falling towards the ground has kinetic energy.

feasible

Possible; logical or likely; suitable Your plan to promote our product launch with a parade is just not feasible—we don't have the money or enough time to get the permits.

demur

Show reluctance or object, especially for moral reasons When asked to name her favorite professor in the department, she demurred—she was pretty sure that, if she said anything, it would come back to haunt her.

winnow [v]

Sift, analyze critically, separate the useful part from the worthless part; We got 120 resumes for one job—it's going to take me awhile just to winnow this down to a reasonable stack of people we want to interview.

leery

Suspicious or wary You should be leery of any business opportunity that requires a startup fee and a "sponsor"—you might find yourself sucked into a scam.

balloon [v]

Swell or puff out; increase rapidly During the dot-com bubble, the university's investments ballooned to three times their former value.

esoteric

Understood by or intended for only a few; secret In his first year of university-level physics, he felt he was merely memorizing information found in every textbook on the subject; by his fourth year, he spent his days poring over esoteric journal articles that few people had ever read or understood.

ebullient

Very enthusiastic, lively, excited; bubbling as though being boiled The children were so ebullient upon their arrival at Disneyworld that their parents, while happy to see them so excited, wished that there were a way to forcibly restrain them in case they took off running towards the rides.

tapestry

a wall hanging of heavy handwoven fabric with pictorial designs

mutinous

consisting of or characterized by or inciting to mutiny

salutary[adj]

healthful; remedial; curative; The only two times England won a series in India in the past 80 years provide salutary lessons, however. Here, Mr. James has drawn some other salutary lessons from history: Lesson One: Indecision leads to poor choices and policy paralysis.

impudent

not showing due respect for another person; impertinent; The boy was punished for his impudent behavior. the guest's impudent inquiries about the cost of just about everything we had in the house As in the sixties, being young then was in itself an empowerment; writing under Harding and Coolidge was impudent fun.

mellifluous [adj]

pleasing to the ear Both girls had mellifluous voices and piano training.

silviculture

the branch of forestry dealing with the development and care of forests

cordial [adj]

warm and friendly; strongly felt; I did so hope Dallas would give the Kennedys a warm and very cordial welcome. Could I first of all say a very warm and cordial welcome to you, Mr Justham, and indeed to your colleagues.

callow [adj]

young and inexperienced He is a more accomplished bowler than the callow enthusiast that first bowled in India half a dozen years ago. This team in particular was almost laughably callow.

placate

"It's an interesting business model," said the flower shop owner. "Outside of Valentine's Day, our average customer uses our product to placate an angry partner."

lampoon

A harsh satire (noun); ridicule or satirize (verb) "As a Democrat," said Bob, "I can't say I appreciated watching that comedian in the Obama mask lampoon the State of the Union address."

It is easy to let your thoughts wander when listening to speeches because A. concentrating is a difficult skill to master B. you are listening to hard C. you can process words much faster than they are spoken

A. concentrating is a difficult skill to master C. you can process words much faster than they are spoken

malleable

Able to be bent, shaped, or adapted The more malleable the material, the easier it is to bend into jewelry—and the easier it is to damage that jewelry. / My mother is a little too malleable—she said she liked all the things her first husband liked, and now she says she likes all the things her second husband likes.

anarchy [n]

Absence of law or government; chaos, disorder Once the dictator was assassinated, the country fell into total anarchy, as none of the opposition groups were strong enough to seize power.

opine

After all was said and done, he opined that he wished he had never tried to sail around the world in a canoe, and he was sorry that the rescue effort was so expensive.

Juggernaut

Any large force that cannot be stopped

concur [v]

Approve, agree; John Locke wrote that justice is based on the social contract, and I concur—in fact, my latest book is all about contractual justice.

ersatz

Artificial, synthetic; being an inferior substitute I hate this health food restaurant! I do not want to eat some ersatz meatballs made of textured vegetable protein!

antedate [v]

Be older than, precede in time; assign to an earlier date Dinosaurs antedate the first human beings by about 65 million years. Jamal didn't get around to writing the "Best Vocabulary Words of 2010" blog post until January 3rd, but he antedated the post for December 31st so at least the infrequent readers wouldn't notice.

pernicious

Bullying has a pernicious effect on the learning environment, keeping victims too intimidated to speak up and also silencing others who fear that they could be next.

resurgent

Burlesque has experienced a resurgence in the last decade, as young women dress in old-fashioned finery and perform routines appropriate for the vaudeville halls or nightclubs of previous decades.

peripatetic

He quit his office job to become a peripatetic musician, traveling from town to town playing in bars and sleeping on couches.

covert [adj]

Secret, veiled, undercover The soldier trained to be part of covert operations, moving silently and remaining out of the enemy's sight.

deterrent

Something that restrains or discourages Some argue that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime—that is, the point is not just to punish the guilty, but to frighten other prospective criminals.

primacy

The conservative senator argued that the very fabric of society depended on the primacy of the family, and that legislation was needed to shore up the institution of marriage.

warranted

The pundit's comments don't even warrant a response from our organization—they were mere name-calling, not suitable for public discourse. / Your criticism of Anne is unwarranted—as your assistant, she has done everything you've asked her to do. / He doesn't have his documents with him, but I'll warrant that he is indeed a certified forklift operator.

permeate

Under the Emperor Constantine, Christianity began to permeate every sector of public life.

deface [v]

Vandalize, mar the appearance of; Ernest was charged with three counts of vandalism after being caught defacing a row of townhouses with spraypaint.

missive

While Don was overseas fighting in World War II, he lived for the missives from the wife he had left behind.

grouchy

bad-tempered; tending to complain; peevish; I get grouchy when I'm tired. <a lack of sleep would make anyone grouchy>

tenable[adj]

capable of being held, maintained, or defended; The question is, at what point is selling expensive stand-alone products no longer tenable? —Forbes (Aug 13, 2013)

knotty

full of knots; extremely difficult or complex

lore

knowledge gained through tradition or anecdote

fiscal

pertaining to finances

cede [v]

relinquish possession or control over; We are defending the country by ceding our own powers of self-defense to a set of managers external to ourselves.

niggardly

ungenerous with money, time, etc.; mean; she's a niggardly woman, so don't expect a handout from her> niggardly portions of meat for dinner

repeal

withdraw officially; revoke ;

Stem

To hold back or limit the flow or growth of something

molt

Wow, the special effects in that movie were really cool! The actress grew scales all over her body and then molted, leaving behind a scaly skin covering shaped like an entire woman, and then she looked like herself again.

Dog

to pursue relentlessly;

layperson

A person who is not a member of the clergy or not a member of a particular profession (such as medicine, law, etc.) The actress Jenny McCarthy has written a book about autism. While her experience as a parent is interesting to anyone in a similar situation, it's still important to remember that McCarthy is a layperson, not a doctor.

melange [n]

A varied mixture; mixture of incongruous elements; Each winemaker sees this wine as a personal statement and each blend is a unique melange of the varieties in the vineyards. The author's failure to define clearly these terms and movements makes for a confusing melange that never comes into focus.

taciturn

Because he felt self-conscious about his stutter, Mike had always been taciturn, but after some very good speech therapy, soon he was much more voluble.

decorous [adj]

Behaving with propriety and good taste; polite; Miss Etiquette writes an advice column about decorum. One writer asked, "What's the most decorous way to tell guests exactly what I want for my wedding?" Miss Etiquette replied, "Young lady, there is no decorous way to solicit gifts, and even asking that question is entirely indecorous of you."

credibility [adj]

Believability, trustworthiness; Many famous "experts" with "Dr." before their names are not medical doctors at all. Any television "doctor" who turns out to have a Ph.D. in botany, for instance, ought to suffer a serious drop in credibility.

monastic

Christine decided that the only way she was going to finish her Ph.D. was to live a monastic lifestyle: she broke up with her boyfriend, cancelled her cable service, left the house only when necessary, and ultimately had a draft of her dissertation a few months later.

empirical

Coming from, based on, or able to be verified by experience or experimentation; not purely based on theory The Ancient Greeks philosophized about the nature of matter (concluding, for instance, that everything was made of earth, water, air, and fire) without any empirical evidence—that is, the very idea of conducting experiments hadn't been invented yet. / People always knew empirically that when something is dropped, it falls to the ground; the theory of gravity later explained why.

Anna watched in horror as her friend Leila, wearing a tight-fitting T-shirt and workout pants, presented her final persuasive speech asking for monetary donations for the local children's cancer hospital. Anna's responsibility as an audience member was to A. realize that someone who looked as fit as Leila was probably worth listening to B. leave the situation immediately C. out of loyalty and kindness, "tune out" Leila and forget the speech ever happened D. try to ignore the way Leila was dressed and focus on her message

D. try to ignore the way Leila was dressed and focus on her message

finesse

Extreme delicacy, subtlety, or diplomacy in handling a sensitive situation or in performance or skill (noun); use tact of diplomacy; employ a deceptive strategy (verb) After the prince deeply insulted his hosts, the diplomat was able to finesse the situation, playing it off as a translation error and getting the negotiations back on track.

auspicious [adj]

Favorable; promising success; propitious; opportune; It comes into my life at an auspicious moment, as I will be hitting the road on Sunday.

erstwhile

Former, previous (adj); in the past, formerly (adv) A novelist and erstwhile insurance salesman, he told us his story of the long road to literary success, before he was able to quit his day job.

secular

Forty years ago, American companies wished their employees "Merry Christmas"—even the employees who didn't celebrate Christmas. Today, the secular "Happy Holidays" is common. / Western governments have grown increasingly secular over the last century; many have laws prohibiting religious expression from being sponsored by the government.

digress

Go off-topic when speaking or writing Grandpa digressed quite a bit while you were in the kitchen—he was telling us an old war story, but somehow now he's ranting about how nobody celebrates Arbor Day anymore. That digression could take awhile.

fortuitous

Happening by chance; lucky It was amazingly fortuitous that the exclusive beach resort had a cancellation for exactly the weekend she had wanted to get married, allowing her to have the perfect wedding after all.

haven

Harbor or port, refuge, safe place The relief workers set up the camp as a haven from persecution.

sinecure

It's a wealthy university—it's sort of understood that professors who relocate to campus are rewarded with sinecures for their spouses, whether those spouses have any qualifications or not. / In medieval times, a sinecure was a paying position for a priest but without an attachment to a parish where he would actually have to show up and do something.

obstinate

It's difficult to get an obstinate child to eat food he doesn't want to eat. When Toby realized that his son would rather sit and starve than eat mahi-mahi, he gave in and made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

sobriquet

James Brown, often referred to with the sobriquet "The Godfather of Soul," scored numerous smash hits and was also known for his feverish dancing.

pretentious

Josie found her date's habit of constantly dropping French phrases into conversation to be incredibly pretentious, especially since he knew she didn't speak French. He sure did sound fancy, though.

deem [v]

Judge, consider; "You can take the black belt exam when I deem you ready, and not a moment before," said the karate instructor.

précis

Just as scientific journals publish abstracts of their articles online (and then charge for access to the full version), the entrepreneur decided to publish a précis of her whitepaper online, while charging for access to the full version.

acumen [n]

Keen, quick, accurate insight or judgment His political acumen allowed him to bargain behind the scenes and get bills passed despite being in the minority party.

tyro

Kenneth felt called to work as a missionary, but he was really a tyro in the field, and was unprepared for many of the questions people asked him.

augment [v]

Make larger If you memorize the definitions on all of these flashcards, you will have notably augmented your vocabulary!

optimal or

Many believe that the U.S. Constitution's genius lies in its striking and optimal balance between freedom and order.

converge [v]

Move towards one another or towards a point; unite; I know we're driving to the wedding from different states, but our routes ought to converge when each of us hits I-95—maybe we could converge at a Cracker Barrel for lunch!

impious

Not religious, lacking reverence, ungodly In religious schools, impious behavior is generally prohibited.

Parvenu

Nouveau-riche; a person who has risen socially or economically without refinement of their new level

compliant [adj]

Obeying, submissive; following the requirements; Those who are not compliant with the regulations will be put on probation and possibly expelled. A compliant child, he never gave his parents any trouble.

diurnal

Occurring every day; happening in the daytime (rather than at night) While many Americans rarely have a sit-down family meal, in many other cultures, dining as a family is a diurnal affair. / Wall Street is a diurnal neighborhood—hectic in the day, but quiet once people pile on the rush hour trains to go home.

supersede

Of course, electric washing machines supplanted hand-powered ones many decades ago, but my great-grandmother used her hand-cranked washer until she died in the 1990s.

grandstand

Perform showily in an attempt to impress onlookers I was really passionate about the candidate when he spoke at our school, but now that I think about it, he was just grandstanding. I mean, who could disagree that young people are the future? And doing a cheer for the environment doesn't actually signify a commitment to change any public policies about it.

ford [n, v]

Place where a river or similar body of water is shallow enough to walk or ride a vehicle across (noun); to cross at such a place (verb) The pioneers made camp near the riverbank, waiting for the rains to die down and the river to become fordable again. A week later, the waters were shallow enough to ford the river with their entire caravan—horses, wagons, and all.

fawn

Show affection or try to please in the manner of a dog; try to win favor through flattery and submissive behavior Although he was only president of a chain of grocery stores, he was used to being fawned over like a king or rock star. "You are truly king of the low-priced produce world," said the regional manager. "May I wash your car for you?"

predisposed

Some autoimmune disorders don't kill the patient directly, but rather make the patient predisposed to contracting other, potentially fatal illnesses. / His defense attorney argued that his abusive childhood predisposed him to a life of crime.

elitist

Someone who believes in rule by an elite group

diffuse

Spread widely, disseminate (verb); dispersed, widely spread out, or wordy and going off-topic (adj) The spy attempted to root out the dissenters at the gala, but he was only able to detect a diffuse sense of discontent all around the room. / It will be very difficult to diffuse the power among the people when transitioning from autocracy to democracy.

acme [n]

Summit, peak, highest point; The acme of my vacation was when I finally climbed to the acme of the mountain and enjoyed the gorgeous vista.

distend

Swell, expand, stretch, bloat The emergency room doctor constantly saw people who came in with distended bellies, sure that they had appendicitis; usually, it was just gas.

lachrymose

Tearful, mournful Accustomed to lachrymose occasions, the funeral home kept boxes of tissues near every seat.

truculent

That guy is too truculent to work in customer service—when the customers are already angry, the last thing this store needs is someone prone to blow up at any moment! / The honey badger is a truculent hunter—it can and will eat anything, and sometimes tortures its prey before eating it.

resolution

The city government passed a resolution to support the new monorail. / A few setbacks did not dampen her resolution to complete her Ph.D.—equipped with her new prosthetic leg, she made her way back into the lab and continued her research.

palliate

The doctors said it would be pointless to subject Uncle Al to continued treatments when there was no hope of a cure, so we gave consent for him to be transferred to the palliative care wing where he would be made as comfortable as possible in his final weeks or months.

solidarity

The governor attempted to outlaw collective bargaining by unions, but backed down once he was made aware of the union's solidarity with churches and community groups across the state.

parley

The industry trade show is our chance to parley with our competitors. We do go out for drinks together, but really, we're just hoping someone slips up and tells us about their new product line.

scant

The new intern was scant help at the conference—he disappeared all day to smoke and didn't seem to realize that he was there to assist his coworkers. / The soldiers were always on the verge of hunger, complaining about their scanty rations.

perfidious

The perfidious soldier sold out his comrades, giving secrets to the enemy in exchange for money and protection.

sound

The psychiatrist appointed by the court felt he would need more time to sound the depths of the defendant's tortured mind—clearly, she was mentally ill, but did she know on any level that what she was doing was wrong?

bifurcate [v]

To fork into two branches or divide into two halves The medical student carefully bifurcated the cadaver brain, separating it precisely into right and left hemispheres. The bifurcate tree stood tall, its two massive branches reaching for the sky.

defray [v]

To help pay the cost of, either in part or full; Members were also reminded that a bring and buy sale would take place at the Federation meeting to help defray the cost of the bus to An Grianan. You can even charge for each note to defray the cost of providing this service.

ambivalent [adj]

Uncertain; unable to decide, or wanting to do two contradictory things at once I've been accepted to two amazing graduate programs, one inexpensive and close to home, and one in a big, exciting city. I'm ambivalent—I don't know how I'm going to decide. When I asked you if you thought we'd get married some day, your ambivalence hurt my feelings.

encomium

Warm, glowing praise, esp. a formal expression of praise Just after all the encomia at his retirement party, he received a gold watch. / The first draft of your dissertation is little but an encomium of the works of Christopher Marlowe, whereas I'm afraid that doctoral-level work requires a more nuanced and critical view.

plausible

When three doctors treating crash victims were suddenly stricken with what looked like the effects of nerve gas, hospital officials posited "hysteria" as the culprit—hardly a plausible explanation, as emergency room doctors are accustomed to seeing horrific things every day.

fusillade

a sudden outburst, as of criticism; responded calmly to the fusillade of criticism leveled at his design for the memorial

vaunted

boasted; bragged; highly publicized;

profess[v]

confess one's faith in, or allegiance to The site warns against professed migrant advisers who are "seeking exorbitant amounts of money for the purpose of issuing visas and finding employment." —New York Times (Jun 1, 2013)

morass[n]

dangerous area of low soft wet land; a complicated or confused situation "I guess so," Meg said, but her happiness had fled and she was back in a morass of anger and resentment. she would become lost in a morass of lies and explanations.

exogenous

derived or originating externally; technological changes exogenous to the oil industry

utilitarian[adj]

designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive Measuring the worth of culture using purely utilitarian arithmetic is a tricky path. —The Guardian (Jun 19, 2013)

obstreperous[adj]

noisily and stubbornly defiant If particularly wild, obstinate, or obstreperous, he still keeps breaking away, and refusing to come into camp. —Shields, George O.

rebut[n]

overthrow by argument, evidence, or proof Ms. Ashton rebutted criticism that the timing of publication could undermine Mr. Kerry's initiative, saying the union "fully supports" it. The South Dakota governor's office rebutted NPR's report before it aired.

lucrative

producing a great deal of profit The business has proved to be highly lucrative. the hired gun's mission was to turn the failing store into a lucrative operation Clubs take care of their star and other best players first, paying them lucrative salaries. By the time they get to the bottom half of the roster, they would not have enough money left to pay veterans worthwhile salaries ...

Variance

quality of being different, divergent, or inconsistent

sadism

sexual pleasure obtained by inflicting harm (physical or psychological) on others; delight in cruelty;

marginalize

treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or peripheral The program helps people from marginalized groups. by removing religion from the public space, we marginalize it

bombastic [adj]

(Of speech or writing) far too showy or dramatic than is appropriate; pretentious Professor Knutsen's friends joked that he became quite bombastic after a few drinks, once asking a woman in a bar, "Is your daddy an aesthete? Because you are the epitome of ineffable pulchritude." She replied, "I'm not impressed by your bombast."

impromptu

(adj., adv.) done without being planned or rehearsed None of this was as impromptu as it seemed. an impromptu press conference he spoke impromptu

stodgy

(infml derog , ) (of food) heavy, solid and difficult to digest

fugitive

(n.) a person who flees; (adj.) quick to disappear; fleeting; As he daydreamed, fugitive thoughts passed through his mind. that fugitive trait called artistic creativity But before she faded completely, one last fugitive thought came to him and rested for a moment on his mind before everything stopped.

foil

(n.)a person or thing that gives contrast to another; (v.) defeat; thwart

dissolute

(of a person or a way of life) overindulging in sensual pleasures unfortunately, his heir was feckless and dissolute

pugnacious

Amy had hoped to avoid inviting Uncle Ed to the wedding, as he was a pugnacious fellow—and, sure enough, he managed to start a fistfight with the best man.

inclement

Stormy; harsh;

venerate

The boys were utterly crushed when the baseball player they venerated saw them waiting and refused to sign an autograph.

unsparing

The mother was unsparing in praising her son—so he was in for quite a shock when his new teacher told him his work was substandard.

verbose

Twitter's 140-character limit really forces the verbose to go against their natural tendencies and instead write succinctly.

loath

reluctant; unwilling; She was loath to admit her mistakes. I was loath to accept his claim of having climbed Mount Everest.

downcast

looking downwards

sham [n]

दिखावटी(dikhavati); बनावटी (banavati); कपट (kapat); Are we not offering our children enough opportunities to learn the true nature of the boring, disappointing sham we call real life? If the new security focus is a sham, expect to see more official denial.

trite

The topic of your speech is "Children are the Future"? That's pretty trite. Maybe you should think harder and come up with something original.

innocuous

Harmless, inoffensive While it's quite acrid in here, fortunately the fumes that come from our factory are completely innocuous—you don't need a face mask unless you'd like one.

dogma

A system of principles laid down by an authority; established belief It is part of the dogma of modern education that there are multiple intelligences that are equally valuable; try to suggest that some people just aren't that smart, and you'll find yourself a pariah. / Dogmatic people will never change their minds, even in the face of evidence.

makeshift

A temporary, often improvised substitute (noun); improvised for temporary use (adj) Lost in the woods for over 24 hours, the children were eventually found sleeping under a makeshift tent made from branches and old plastic bags. / I don't have a ladder, but I can stack up some boxes as a makeshift.

Which of the following are part of suspending judgement while listening? A. examining the speaker's evidence B. agreeing with what speakers say before they finish C. trying to understand the speaker's ideas D. assessing the speaker's reasoning

A. examining the speaker's evidence C. trying to understand the speaker's ideas D. assessing the speaker's reasoning

complementary [adj]

Completing; fitting together well; filling mutual needs; "That scarf really complements your outfit," said Elle. "Thanks for the compliment," said Danica. The couple had complementary personalities—when Mark got overwhelmed with the details, Lee took care of everything, and when Lee got too introspective, Mark cheered him up with an insatiable zest for life.

ostentatious

Her ostentatious clothing is simply not appropriate in a business environment—in fact, nothing emblazoned with 2,000 Swarovski crystals is.

reticent

She figured that, to rise to the top, it was best to be reticent about her personal life; thus, even her closest colleagues were left speculating at the water cooler about whether her growing belly actually indicated a pregnancy she simply declined to mention to anyone.

supplicate

She had been estranged from her wealthy father for years, but when she needed money for her daughter's medical care, she supplicated the old man for assistance.

sanguine

She had three papers due in three days, but she maintained her typically sanguine attitude. "Things always just work out for me," she said, happily.

jargon

Vocabulary specific to a group or occupation; convoluted or unintelligible language The information my doctor gave me was so full of medical jargon I couldn't understand it at all! I'm going to look on the Internet for something written for regular people.

minion

a favourite or dependant, esp a servile or fawning one; a servile agent; one of the boss's minions most of the top appointments went to the new governor's personal minions and political cronies

rancor[n]

a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will "The Controversy" — as people simply called the growing dispute — is largely forgotten now, and the intense rancor it inspired might seem improbable. —New York Times (May 24, 2013)

chronological [adj]

arranged in or relating to time order Joey, I'm afraid you've done the assignment wrong—the point of making a timeline is to put the information in chronological order. You've made an alphabetical-order-line instead!

fugacious

lasting a short time savor the fugacious pleasures of life as intensely as the more enduring ones

statute

law passed by Parliament and written down formally

abash [v]

to make ashamed; to embarass; The NC Senate, perhaps abashed to consider such absurdity on World Oceans Day, will discuss the matter further next week.

lurid

Gruesome or excessively vivid; sensational, shocking, unrestrained I do like to keep up with what celebrities are doing, but that tabloid is just too lurid for me—just look at the cover: "Worst Cellulite in Hollywood" and "Exclusive Crash Photos." Truly horrible.

dyspeptic

Grumpy, pessimistic, irritable; suffering from dyspepsia (indigestion) The dyspeptic professor was so angered by a question from a student who hadn't done the homework that he actually stomped out of class.

deleterious [adj]

Harmful, unheathful; The Resident Assistant told the first-year students, "I think you will find not only that drugs are illegal and will result in expulsion, but also that drug abuse will have a deleterious effect on anyone's grades."

tacit

Her parents never told her she could smoke, but they gave their tacit consent when they didn't say anything about the obvious smell coming from her bedroom.

via

We will be flying to Russia via Frankfurt. / Many of the students at our college got here via special programs that assist low-income students in preparing for college.

effusion[n]

a pouring forth effusive - be highly emotional The madman's writing consisted of a steady effusion of nonsense.

edify

Uplift, enlighten, instruct or improve in a spiritual or moral way Look, Son, I'm glad that you're reading, but I really wish you would read something more edifying than that magazine that gives tips for winning at violent video games.

puissance

When people asked the 25-year-old bride what had attracted her to her commanding, 60-year-old CEO husband, she replied that she had always been drawn to puissance. That tended to end conversations as people went to go look up "puissance."

Err

Make an error

hedonist

Person devoted to pleasure A vacation is a fine time to practice hedonism, letting your troubles go and pursuing massages and cocktails as though it's your life mission.

precocious[adj]

exceptionally early in development or occurrence; She was a precocious child who could read before she went to school. A precocious musician, he was giving concerts when he was seven.

lavish

Abundant or giving in abundance; marked by excess (adj); give very generously (verb) Anita wanted to live as she imagined Beyoncé lived, and ran up huge credit card bills pursuing a lavish lifestyle she could scarcely afford. / Although her rich banker boyfriend lavished gifts on her, she didn't want to be with someone she didn't really love.

timorous

An expression describing a timorous person as "quaking in his boots"—that is, a scared person would shake or shiver from fear.

savor

As a parent, it's important to take a step back and really savor the special moments—those children will grow up sooner than you think!

expurgate

Censor; remove objectionable or offensive parts When the girl discovered that her ninth-grade class had been reading an expurgated version of Romeo and Juliet, she immediately checked the original out from the library so she could read all the "forbidden" parts.

counterpoint [n]

Contrasting item, opposite; a complement; the use of contrast or interplay in a work of art; The play's lighthearted, witty narrator provides a welcome counterpoint to the seriousness and grief expressed by the other characters. The hot peppers work in counterpoint to an otherwise sweet dish.

transgression

His transgression was so serious that his family disowned him: no one would be visiting him in prison.

viable

I have three screenplay ideas, but the studio head said only one was commercially viable. Apparently, it's important to have a human lead character and a satisfying ending. / Due to leaps forward in technology, premature babies are considered viable earlier and earlier—currently around 24 weeks.

presumptuous

I would never date that presumptuous jerk! I mean, I thought he was attractive until he walked up to me and said, "We should go out—I looked up your address on Google and I'll pick you up at 8." The nerve!

attune [v]

In harmony; in sympathetic relationship; Research shows that new mothers are keenly attuned to their babies' cries; even those who were formerly heavy sleepers often find that they now wake up immediately when their babies need attention. In the sixth week of Melanie's foreign study program, she finally attuned herself to life on a French farm.

investiture

Investing; formally giving someone a right or title The former dean had her academic robes dry cleaned in preparation for her investiture as university president.

welter

It said "thrift store," but inside it was just a welter of used clothing, draped everywhere and even lying in piles. / By the time the teacher broke up the fight, it was already pretty much over—the loser was weltering on the floor. / They struggled to keep the sailboat afloat on the weltering sea.

spearhead

Lisa agreed to spearhead the "healthy office" initiative, and was instrumental in installing two treadmills and getting healthy food stocked in the vending machines.

trifling

Luis broke up with Cara because she was always obsessed with some trifling matter—he tried to talk about foreign aid dependency, and she changed the subject to what the actress Katie Holmes dressed her daughter Suri in for a shopping trip. / The young heiress was so wealthy that she considered the salary from her internship a mere trifle, and didn't even notice when her paycheck was days late.

manifest

My superstitious aunt claims that she saw a manifestation of our deceased grandfather, who appeared during a thunderstorm to warn us all about our cousin's fiance. / Lupus is difficult to diagnose, but sometimes manifests as muscular weakness or joint pain.

gawky

Physically awkward (esp. of a tall, skinny person, often used to describe teenagers) As a teenager, she thought of herself as gawky and often slouched so as not to seem so much taller than her peers; of course, now that she's a supermodel, no one thinks of her as gawky at all.

contestation [n]

The action or process of disputing or arguing; Hall deals with the process of contestation and what is required to replace embedded ideas, established interests and institutions.

immutable

Unchangeable Studies of the brains of stroke patients have shown that our identities are not fixed and immutable; rather, physical injuries to the brain can drastically change our personalities.

hagiography

a biography that idealizes or idolizes the person (especially a person who is a saint)

sombre

lacking brightness or color; gloomy

meager

lacking in quantity or quality

repress

restrain or suppress (an impulse); check

constrict [v]

squeeze, compress; restrict the freedom of The children strongly disliked being gussied up in constrictive clothing for a formal wedding. Tourism is now allowed in North Korea, but tourists must stay with official tour groups, and their movements are heavily constricted.

remiss

~ (fml ) careless of one's duty; lax

plastic

A young child's mind is quite plastic, and exposure to violent movies and video games can have a much greater effect on children than they typically do on adults.

repudiate

If you receive an erroneous notice from a collections agency, you have 30 days to repudiate the debt by mail. / As part of becoming an American citizen, Mr. Lee repudiated his former citizenship.

raconteur

Miguel was quite the raconteur—the laughing party guests naturally congregated in a cluster around him as he held court.

retrospective

The proposed law is retrospective: anyone who violated the law before the law even existed can be prosecuted.

occlude

This drain guard is here to make sure nothing (like silverware) ends up occluding your garbage disposal. / Don't eat that enormous wad of gum! I'm no doctor, but what if it occludes your intestines or something?

bicker [v]

a quarrel about petty points; 'People expect us to do what we can to work together, at least most of the time,' he added, indicating a bid to stop bickering between rival political factions on the authority.

comity [n]

a state or atmosphere of harmony or mutual civility and respect; Mr. Grown Up: Obama's speech in Tucson resonated because it harnessed an apparent national desire for more comity and civility in politics. In Washington these days, comity between Republicans and Democrats is rare.

aberrant [adj]

abnormal, deviant The teen's aberrant behavior made his family suspect that he was using drugs. Losing rather than gaining weight over the holidays is certainly an aberration.

indignant[adj]

angered at something unjust or wrong; insulted Hasidic leaders contend that the modesty committees are nothing more than self-appointed individuals who, indignant at some perceived infraction, take matters into their own hands. —New York Times (Jan 30, 2013)

fatalist[n]

anyone who submits to the belief that they are powerless to change their destiny He presents himself as a live-and-let-live fatalist who has seen too much of the world to pass judgment on anyone. —New York Times (Mar 8, 2010)

orchestrate

arrange for orchestra; arrange or combine so as to achieve a desired or maximum effect; He recently orchestrated a musical. She orchestrated the entire event. It's still unclear who was responsible for orchestrating the attack. A strike was orchestrated by union members.

sedate

calm and dignified; composed

engender [v]

cause or give rise to (a feeling, situation, or condition); We will build on our strengths and continue to engender a love of learning across all subjects for all our students.

prepossess[v]

cause to be preoccupied The officer who relieved my cross-grained Castilian on the following day seemed of a different nature altogether; his prepossessing countenance pleased me much. —Seingalt Jacques Casanova de

humiliate[v]

cause to feel shame; Egypt erupted in joy, humiliating a man who always posed as a benign, tireless father figure.

chide [v]

censure severely or angrily; He gently chided the organizers of another event, where he gave his talk in front of an empty wall.

berate [v]

censure severely or angrily; She shrieks at her sons, who berate her for not supporting the father, she weeps bitterly, tries to calm them.

inept[adj]

clumsy; incompetent; gauche; For years, my father has been dealing with inept marketing people of publishing houses to keep his selection eclectic. —New York Times (Jun 21, 2013)

intermingle

combine into one

pillory

criticize harshly or violently

derange

disturb the operation or functions of; disarrange; make insane; being stranded at night on a lonely road would derange anyone the storage room had all been deranged by the earthquake, and it took hours to sort out thing

diminutive

extremely or unusually small a radio with a diminutive set of speakers

True or false: listening to your iPod while studying or to your children while you are fixing dinner are good examples of active listening.

false

incisive[adj]

having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions Some of the most incisive writing about neuroscience can be found in the blogosphere. —The Guardian (Jun 30, 2013)

gist

main idea, essence I didn't read the whole book, but I read enough to get the gist.

perpetuate

make (something) continue indefinitely Richard M. Price, a professor at the University of British Columbia and author of The Chemical Weapons Taboo—in which he looks at how we came to see chemical weapons as "particularly abhorrent" and how they "have been successfully institutionalized in international proscriptions" in the context of arms control more broadly—spoke with CBS News recently about what he considers the two factors that perpetuate the taboo of nerve agents

teeter

move or balance unsteadily; sway back and forth; Thousands of species are teetering on the edge of extinction.

unwitting[adj]

not aware or knowing Spanghero has been accused of passing off horsemeat in meals labelled beef, but workers' leaders argued that unwitting staff should not be penalised. The whole process has also been an unwitting experiment in drug policy.

hubris[n]

overbearing pride or presumption For others, the real analogy is King Lear: a powerful leader brought down by hubris. —Newsweek (Apr 8, 2013)

treacly

overly sentimental

dissidence

protest against official policy; the decree's purpose was to suppress the dissidence of the minority tribes in the eastern states

stricture[n]

restriction, limitation; negative criticism; However, he became infuriated by his pay and trading strictures. Religious strictures on charging interest on loans creates particular economic conditions for Muslim businesses.

churlish [adj]

rude and boorish; Once you turn 30, if you chase someone to repay the tenner you lent them, you look mean-spirited and churlish.

macabre[adj]

shockingly repellent; inspiring horror; There are macabre attempts at humor, like the compilation of photographs of wounded American soldiers I saw in 2006 under the heading "Jihad Candid Camera." Perhaps he has found rejuvenation in the macabre satisfaction of reading premature rave obituaries from fans around the English-speaking world.

gesticulate[v]

show, express or direct through movement The 24-year-old medical student from the Nile delta spoke confidently, but her worried eyes and gesticulating hands sent a different message. —Reuters (Jul 25, 2013)

addenda [n]

something added, especially a supplement to a book The next two items are not so much updates as addenda.

keepsake

something of sentimental value

delinquent [adj]

tending to commit crime, particularly minor crime; failing in one's duty She had been teaching English in the state school system where she often worked with troubled or delinquent children. Leaflets published outside the country blamed the government, accusing it of being delinquent in carrying out its duties and criticizing the deployment of troops to suppress the uprising.

zeitgeist [n]

the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era; The surprising assertion — Obama's golfing and basketball hobbies are far better known — instantly stirred the political zeitgeist.

progeny[n]

the immediate descendants of a person Powerful men who support the progeny of their mistresses are commonplace in Latin America. —Newsweek (Mar 11, 2013)

squander[v]

to waste; Mr. Morsi squandered numerous opportunities to share power with other groups. The Braves' winning streak reached 11 games as the Nationals squandered a now-or-never chance to gain ground.

precipice

very steep or vertical face of a cliff, mountain or rock

bridle [n, v]

(n.) Headgear of horse for controlling it; (v) to put a bridle on; to restrain, check, or control; Some-one please bridle this infamous brute, before it is too late! These symbols of solidarity circumscribe the Amish world and bridle the forces of assimilation.

stalwart

(of a person) strong and sturdy

discerning

Having good judgement or insight; able to distinguish mentally In an age in which we are bombarded with advertising, it's important to be a discerning consumer. For instance, the term "all natural" is not federally regulated and doesn't have to mean anything at all, so a smart shopper still reads ingredients.

pristine

Having grown up in a rural area, Billy had been in plenty of forests where people regularly left beer cans and shotgun shells behind. So it truly took his breath away, after hiking hours through the Himalayas, to visit a pristine forest, seemingly untouched by humans.

entitlement

Having the right to certain privileges; believing, sometimes without cause, that one deserves or has the right to certain privileges Many bosses complain about young people's sense of entitlement—raised on a steady diet of praise from parents and teachers, these young people are shocked to be expected to "pay their dues" at a new job.

affable [adj]

Warm, friendly, pleasant, approachable The professional wrestler played at belligerence in the ring, but in real life, he was quite an affable fellow—sociable, easy-going, and always ready to lend a hand.

irresolute

Wavering, not sure how to proceed, not firm in one's decision-making If we were voting on the bill this moment, we'd have enough votes to pass it. But many of our supporters are irresolute—we're worried that when lobbyists get to them, they'll quickly change their minds.

saturate

We got married on a rainy beach, and my dress was saturated. Although the pictures were a bit dark, the photographer was able to increase the saturation in Photoshop, making our wedding photos ultimately look quite vivid! / I simply cannot dissolve any more sugar into this iced tea—it's saturated!

locution

a word, phrase, or expression; manner or style of speech or expression We were taught to avoid certain locutions when speaking. in the poet's somewhat affected locution, word order is often reversed and so we have "the sea serene"

averse [adj]

(usually followed by `to') strongly opposed The artist was famously averse to abstract painting, which he considered solely decorative.

subpoena

Lea was served with a subpoena requiring her to testify against her former colleague.

harangue

Long, intense verbal attack, esp. when delivered publicly Look, I'll clean the gutters when I get a free weekend—I don't need you to keep haranguing me about it.

nontrivial

The chief of staff told the assembled doctors, "We all make mistakes. But this mistake was nontrivial, and there is going to be an investigation."

itinerary

Travel schedule; detailed plan for a journey Great, that was the Parthenon! What's next on our itinerary?

augury [n]

Telling the future, such as through supernatural means Value investors such as Warren Buffett (who attempt to buy shares in undervalued companies by analyzing the businesses themselves) consider others' attempts to "time the market" as mere augury, equivalent to trying to predict rain by reading tea leaves.

whitewash [n, v]

A substance used to whiten walls, wood, etc. (noun); deception, covering up of wrongs, errors, misdeeds, etc. (verb) The journalist accused the government of trying to whitewash the scandal, implying that the officials covered up the incident out of concern for national security rather than to protect themselves.

coup de foudre [n]

A sudden unforeseen event, in particular an instance of love at first sight; So it isn't a coup de foudre for him, 1916, in that sense. She mistrusts the coup de foudre - her preference is for relationships that are embedded in networks of friends and family and cushioned by money.

canonical [adj]

Authorized, recognized; pertaining to the canon, or body of accepted rules, standards or artistic works School boards often start controversies when replacing canonical books in the curriculum with modern literature; while many people think students should read works more relevant to their lives, others point out that Moby Dick is part of the canon for a reason.

impute

Credit, attribute; lay blame or responsibility for (sometimes falsely) The ineffectual CEO was nevertheless a master of public relations—he made sure that all successes were imputed to him, and all of the failures were imputed to others.

castigate [v]

Criticize severely; punish in order to correct; At the grocery store, the mother attracted stares when she castigated—rather than merely admonished—her child for throwing a box of instant oatmeal.

plummet

During the first 60 seconds or so of a skydive, the diver plummets towards Earth in freefall; then, he or she activates a parachute and floats down at what seems like a relatively leisurely pace.

affectation [n]

Fake behavior (such as in speech or dress) adopted to give a certain impression I'm annoyed whenever Americans move to England and suddenly start speaking with an affected British accent; such affectations, when practiced by celebrities, are only likely to alienate their fans.

liberal

Favorable to progress or reform, believing in maximum possible individual freedom; tolerant, open-minded; generous (adj); a person with such beliefs or practices (noun) Split pea soup benefits from a liberal application of pepper. / Liberal reformers in Egypt pushed for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly.

gambol

Frolic; skip or leap playfully Watching the children gambol in the park like frisky little lambs, she wondered how they could have so much energy.

net

In one day of trading, my portfolio went up $10,000 and down $8,000, for a net gain of $2,000. / All those weeks of working weekends and playing golf with the boss ought to net her a promotion.

calumny [n]

Malicious lie intended to hurt someone's reputation; the act of telling such lies I've had enough of your calumnious accusations! Admit that you made up all those wicked things about me, or I will see you in court when I sue you for slander!

dupe

Person who is easily fooled or used (noun); to fool or exploit (verb) The dashing rogue used flattery and lies to dupe several old ladies out of their money. "I feel like a total dupe," said Hazel Rosenbaum, 87. "I thought he and I were going to get married, but he really just wanted my Social Security checks."

glacial

Pertaining to glaciers; cold, icy, slow, unsympathetic He had wanted to appear in the singing reality competition his whole young life, but he was not encouraged by the judges' glacial response to his audition. The awkward silence was excruciating as he waited for the stony-faced panel to say anything at all.

eclectic

Selecting the best of everything or from many diverse sources Eclectic taste is helpful in being a DJ—crowds love to hear the latest hip-hop mixed with '80s classics and other unexpected genres of music. / The restaurant features an eclectic menu—if you don't like artisanal pasta or steak frites, try the chow mein!

proxy

She was in the hospital, but certainly didn't want to miss voting on the proposal, so she sent a proxy to the board meeting to vote "yes."

bane [n]

Something that ruins or spoils Mosquitoes are the bane of my existence! They just love me, and by "love" I mean ruin my summer! The closure of the hospital could not have been more baneful to the already strained community.

dispatch

Speed, promptness; send off or deal with in a speedy way So, you want to be a bike messenger? I need messengers who approach every delivery with alacrity, care, and dispatch—if the customers wanted their packages to arrive slowly, they'd use the post office. / Acting with all possible dispatch, emergency services dispatched a rescue squad to the scene.

glower

Stare in an angry, sullen way He couldn't figure out why his girlfriend was glowering at him throughout dinner. "Oh," he finally realized, "Is it your birthday? Oh, and I forgot you hate seafood. Sorry about the fishsticks."

fetid

Stinking; having an offensive smell I hate doing your laundry—it's always full of fetid gym socks.

defection [n]

The desertion of one's country or cause in favour of an opposing one; The costs of defection, for its weaker participants, would assuredly be higher than are the costs of continued compliance. The amnesty was offered after Ieng Sary led a mass defection of thousands of Khmer Rouge forces to the government. A single additional defection could mean losing a vote of no confidence, leading to early elections.

itinerant

Traveling from place to place, esp. as part of a job In rural areas in the 1940s, it was common that a small town would lack its own doctor, instead being seen by an itinerant family physician who made rounds to many such towns.

vainglorious

full of vainglory; conceited and boastful ;

standoffish

lacking cordiality; unfriendly;

genteel[adj]

marked by refinement in taste and manners; aristocratic; Almost every time I saw Donna, it was in very genteel settings. —The Guardian (Dec 23, 2012)

sartorial [adj]

of or relating to a tailor or tailored clothes; Since Daniel was well-known for his impeccable sartorial taste, I asked him for help in upgrading my own wardrobe.

provisional

under terms not final or fully worked out or agreed upon

grouse

Complain or grumble (verb); a reason for complaint (noun) By the end of the trip, everyone was annoyed by Lena's grousing—the bus ride was too bumpy, the food was too spicy, the air conditioning was too dehydrating, etc.... / Don't be offended, but I've got a grouse about the way you're handling this project.

verisimilar

It's a verisimilar story, sure, but where's the proof?

delineate [v]

Mark the outline of; sketch; describe in detail; I do need the cash, but I'm not signing up for this psychological experiment unless you delineate what's going to happen.

savant

The TED conferences feature savants and newsmakers speaking on topics of great importance to the world. / Many people associate autism with being an "autistic savant," but most people who have autism do not actually have the ability to mentally multiply a five-digit number by a five-digit number in five seconds, for instance.

lassitude

Tiredness, weariness, lazy indifference It's so difficult to get anything done in the dead heat of August! I can't seem to shake my lassitude enough to get out of this hammock, much less study for the GRE.

Gloomy

causing or feeling depression or despondency; dark or poorly lit(in a negative way)

delirium [n]

state of violent mental agitation; state of excitement and mental confusion, often accompanied by hallucinations; Schizophrenia is conventionally distinguished from the organic psychoses dementia and delirium by the absence of intellectual compromise. The use of antidepressants, antipsychotics, or anticholinesterase inhibitors for insomnia related to delirium or dementia is also unproved.

perpetuating

to prolong the existence of; lasting for eternity

fledgling

A young bird that has just recently gotten its feathers, an inexperienced person (noun); new or inexperienced (adj) The zoo's EagleCam will hopefully be able to catch the moment the fledglings fly out of the nest for the very first time! / The Society of Engineers is available for Career Day presentations in elementary schools, where we hope to encourage fledgling talents in the applied sciences.

overwrought

By the time her boyfriend met her in the park, she was overwrought, thinking he must have chosen a public place so he could break up with her—turned out, he had just invited her to a picnic. / Accustomed to more spare American churches, Father Smith found the churches of South America a bit overwrought, with enormous, flowery, gold altars and gold-plating on everything imaginable.

coda [n]

Final part of a musical composition; an ending, esp. one that sums up what has come before; "You play this middle section twice, then move to the coda," the music teacher explained to the child. "The coda always comes last." Dropping my purse in a mud puddle right outside my own front door was a fine coda to a horrible evening.

inundate

Flood, cover with water, overwhelm As the city was inundated with water, the mayor feared that many evacuees would have nowhere to go. / I can't go out—I am inundated with homework!

usury

I can't see how that payday lending place is even legal—a person borrowing $100 will end up paying over $150 interest in just a few months! Isn't that usury? I don't know how that place is skirting the law.

maudlin

I had no idea the film was going to be a maudlin affair in which the male lead dies and the female lead has his baby, who then also dies. Half the theater was weeping, and the other half was just shaking their heads at how badly written the movie was.

ephemeral

Lasting only a short time, fleeting "Thank you for this jacket that says 'Eugene's Girl,'" said Marie, "but I fear that your love will prove to be ephemeral—over the last two years, I've seen four other girls in school with the same jacket. Do you buy them in six-packs?"

din

Loud, confused noise, esp. for a long period of time This hotel was described as "near all the hot spots," but I didn't realize that I wouldn't be able to sleep due to the all-night din from partygoers.

discomfit [v]

Make (someone) feel uneasy or embarrassed; His fiancée's family said they were comfortable with the fact that he was of a different religion, but he found their constant probing about his beliefs quite discomfiting. He hates telemarketers so much that he likes to discomfit them by asking them personal questions and suggesting he call them at their homes instead.

pragmatic

Megan and Dave were in love, but Megan decided to be pragmatic—she doubted they'd stay together through a four-year long distance relationship as they attended different colleges, so she figured they might as well end things now.

hodgepodge

Mixture of different kinds of things, jumble The comedian's book wasn't a proper memoir, but more a hodgepodge of old bits, personal stories that went nowhere, random political opinions, and childhood photos.

deride

Mock, scoff at, laugh at contemptuously The manager really thought that deriding his employees as "stupid" or "lazy" would motivate them to work harder; instead, it motivated them to constantly hide his office supplies as an act of revenge.

ambiguous [adj]

Not clear, hard to understand, open to having several meanings or interpretations The meaning of this ancient text is ambiguous—either we are missing some cultural context, or else the writer actually wanted to be mysterious.

analgesia [n]

Pain relief; inability to feel pain While natural-birth advocates decline analgesia in childbirth, many women are very eager to take advantage of modern anesthesia. A disease of the spinal cord can cause analgesia, which can be dangerous because the patient doesn't know when he has injured himself.

offset

Property taxes did go up this year, but the hit to our finances was offset by a reduction in fees paid to our homeowners association.

abrasive [adj]

Rough, suitable for grinding or polishing (such as sandpaper); causing irritation or annoyance Could the inside of this mascot costume be any more abrasive? It's rubbing my skin raw! I have some seriously abrasive remarks for whoever designed this thing.

anoint [v]

Rub or sprinkle oil on, make sacred, such as by a ceremony that includes applying oil to someone After Principal Smitters raised test scores over 60% at her school, it was only a matter of time before she was anointed superintendent by a fawning school board.

boor [n]

Rude, ill-mannered, or insensitive person; a peasant or country bumpkin Milton was such a boor that, when Jane brought him home to meet her parents, he laughed at their garden gnome and made fun of everyone's hairstyles in old family photos. "Don't be so boorish!" said his mortified girlfriend.

canard [n]

Rumor, a false or baseless story The idea that we only use 10% of our brains is a tired, old canard; actually, even the dumbest people use all of their brains.

disseminate

Scatter, spread about, broadcast Many plants use attractive fruits to disseminate their seeds—animals eat the fruit and excrete the seeds, allowing new plants to grow. / In the 1760s, revolutionary ideas were disseminated via pamphlets such as Thomas Paine's "Common Sense."

disperse

Scatter, spread widely, cause to vanish Because the demonstrators didn't have a permit, the police showed up with megaphones, demanding loudly that the crowd disperse. / Get the hose so I can disperse the dirt on our driveway.

sedulous

Sedulous effort is necessary to improve your GRE verbal score—you need to study vocab in a serious way, nearly every day.

legerdemain

Slight-of-hand (magic as performed by a magician); trickery or deception The child was astounded when her uncle pulled out a quarter from behind her ear. Of course, she hadn't actually lost a quarter there; it was just a bit of legerdemain from an amateur magician.

acidulous [adj]

Slightly acid or sour; sharp or caustic Grapefruit juice is acidulous. I'm skipping Thanksgiving this year just to avoid my mother's acidulous comments about what she thinks I ought to be doing with my life.

ponderous

The book assigned by her professor was a ponderous tome, more a reference book than something you could read straight through. She was so bored she thought she would die.

reprobate

The police joked that they had so many mug shots of the old reprobate that they could assemble them into a photography book called, Faces of Petty Crime, 1976-2011.

per se

The policy isn't sexist, per se, but it has had a disproportionate impact on women that deserves further study.

efficacy

The quality of being able to produce the intended effect Extensive trials will be necessary to determine whether the drug's efficacy outweighs the side effects. / I am having trouble cutting my steak with this butter knife; I'm going to ask the waiter for a more efficacious implement.

cosset [v]

Treat as a pet, pamper; The cosseted toddler was lovingly wrapped up in his snow gear, so much so that he could barely even move his arms enough to make his first snowball.

paragon

Unlike his sister, he was a paragon of responsibility, taking in her three children when she went to jail, and even switching jobs so he could be there to pick them up from school.

indefatigable

Untiring, not able to become fatigued The boxer was indefatigable; round after round, he never lost speed or energy, even after he had thoroughly defatigated his opponent.

variegated

Unusually, the bridesmaids' dresses were boldly variegated, having many different colors. The bride reasoned that the dresses could be worn again—"Rainbow goes with anything!" she said. The bridesmaids privately agreed that they would never again wear those dresses as long as they lived.

coup [n]

a brilliant and notable success The student council's greate coup was persuading the Rolling Stones to perform in Saarang.

guffaw[n]

a burst of deep loud hearty laughter If there were canned laughter in real life, this country would resound with deafening guffaws. —New York Times (Jan 30, 2013)

epiphany[n]

a divine manifestation That, and a dark epiphany during a bombing run over Brandenburg, Germany, Garry Davis later wrote, would alter his life's course. —New York Times (Jul 29, 2013)

prerogative[n]

a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right) Mr. Semeta, the European Union tax official, acknowledged that halting such practices is hard because fixing tax rates remains the prerogative of individual European states. —New York Times (May 23, 2013)

sacrilege[n]

a violation of something sacred; blasphemy; Although opinion polls showed few Russians wanted jail terms for the band members, many saw their profanity-laced protest as sacrilege. —Reuters (Feb 21, 2013)

caveat [n]

a warning against certain acts; His investment advice comes with a caveat: that the stock market is impossible to predict with absolute accuracy. We'll add a caveat of our own for parents: After your kids walk through 17,500 gal. of swirling water, they're not going to be satisfied running through the lawn sprinkler.

botch [v]

carry out (a task) badly or carelessly; But with the botched intelligence about Iraq still casting a long shadow over decisions about waging war in the Middle East, the White House faces an American public deeply skeptical about being drawn into the Syrian conflict.

disenchant [v]

cause (someone) to be disappointed; But things went as before and once again the citizens were disenchanted. On the other hand, boys and girls and young men and women are clearly disenchanted with a system that frowns upon spontaneity.

enfranchise[v]

grant privileges of citizenship, esp. right to vote; I had now been enfranchised nearly three hours, and had already used these first moments of liberty in picking a mortal quarrel with Mr. Butler. In the late 1860s, newly enfranchised African Americans began getting appointments as postmasters, clerks and letter carriers, said a 2012 report from the agency's historian.

vindicate[v]

show to be right by providing justification or proof; clear from blame; He denied the allegations and said he would be "vindicated in the end." —New York Times (Jul 17, 2013)

Telling

Significant or revealing of sth else;

incapacitate

injure permanently

adjudicate [v]

judge; arbitrate; In France however, the moral rights and wrongs, I've learned, are adjudicated case-by-case.

specious

"All squares are rectangles, all candy bars are rectangles, therefore all squares are candy bars" is clearly a specious argument.

vim

"I'm old, not dead!" said Grandpa Albert, full of vim and ready for his first bungee jump.

inordinate

Excessive, not within proper limits, unrestrained Students taking practice Computer Adaptive Tests at home often take an inordinate number of breaks—remember, on the real thing, you can't stop just because you're tired or hungry.

vacillate

In need of a good used car, I was vacillating between the Ford and the Hyundai until a recommendation from a friend helped me decide.

poring

direct one's attention on something

officious

Lisa's dinner parties are exhausting. She's an officious host who butts in and runs everyone's conversations, keeps an eye on what everyone is eating, and makes sure you finish your vegetables, and even knocks on the bathroom door to make sure you're "okay in there."

intrigue

a crafty and involved plot to achieve your (usually sinister) ends

winsome [adj]

charming, engaging, esp. in a sweet and innocent way; It's hard for some to believe that Lindsay Lohan was once the winsome young starlet in Freaky Friday.

Sangfroid

Calmness and poise, especially in trying situations

cardinal [n]

Chief, most important; The cardinal rule of Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club.

debunk [v]

Expose, ridicule, or disprove false or exaggerated claims; Galileo spent his last years under house arrest for debunking the widely held idea that the Sun revolved around the Earth. The show MythBusters debunks pseudoscientific claims.

discordant

Harsh or inharmonious in sound; disagreeing, incongruous In a graduation ceremony full of hopeful and congratulatory speeches, the salutatorian's address about the terrible economy struck a discordant note.

soporific

I was excited to take a class with Professor Baria because I had enjoyed her books, but sadly, she is a better writer than speaker—her lectures are soporific. / I was so distressed after the crash that the doctor gave me a soporific—and, sure enough, I was able to think more clearly after sleeping.

rudimentary

My knowledge of Chinese is quite rudimentary—I get the idea of characters, and I can order food, but I really can't read this document you've just given me.

metaphysical

My poetry class has all kinds. In contrast to Gary's poetry about dogs and horses, Neil's poetry is very metaphysical, exploring the relation of mortal humans to a timeless universe. It's a little over Gary's head.

illiberality

Narrow-mindedness, bigotry; strictness or lack of generosity Students protested the illiberality of an admissions policy that made no allowances for those from disadvantaged areas or backgrounds who may not have had access to advanced classes and tutors.

futile

Producing no useful result, ineffective; trivial or unimportant She spent months trying to coax Fluffy to fetch and sit, but it was futile—cats just can't be trained to perform tricks.

imbecile[n]

a person of subnormal intelligence "They were written off as morally deficient, feeble-minded or imbecile." —BBC (May 11, 2013)

skittish

After his first experience working with a skittish horse who nervously jerked around and ended up stepping on his foot, Ernest learned to wear steel-toed boots. / The band began with an audience of 80 college students but could see that they were skittish—there was a whole festival going on outside, and the student were ready to head for the door if the band wasn't that great.

impugn

Attack the truth or integrity of I hate to impugn the motives of the volunteers, but I think that some of them are here for personal gain, not to help.

iconoclast

Attacker of cherished beliefs or institutions A lifelong iconoclast, Ayn Rand wrote a controversial book entitled The Virtue of Selfishness.

fastidious

Excessively particular, difficult to please; painstaking, meticulous, requiring excessive attention to detail Steve was a fastidious housekeeper, fluffing his couch pillows at least twice a day and never allowing the tiniest speck of dust to settle on any exposed surface.

egregious

Extraordinary or conspicuously bad; glaring Your conduct is an egregious violation of our Honor Code—not only did you steal your roommate's paper off his computer and turn it in as your own, you also sold his work to a plagiarism website so other cheaters could purchase it!

distaff

Female, esp. relating to the maternal side of the family; women or women's work; a staff that holds wool or flax for spinning In completing your medical history, please try to remember which illnesses occurred on the distaff side of your family. / Medical studies using all-male study groups may produce results that cannot be replicated in distaff subjects.

bonhomie [n]

Friendliness, open and simple good heartedness; By the end of the summer, the campers were overflowing with bonhomie, vowing to remain Facebook friends forever.

terse

Hoping to talk to her doctor at length about her condition, she was disappointed to be treated so tersely by a doctor who simply renewed her prescription and disappeared.

neophyte

It was totally outrageous of our law firm to send a neophyte into the courtroom to defend our case against a team of experienced attorneys.

sportive [adj]

Playful, merry, joking around, done "in sport" (rather than intended seriously); After Will shot a ball entirely off the pool table, knocking a woman's purse off a bar stool, his friends laughed hysterically and called him "purse-snatcher" all night, but he took it as sportive and bought the next round of drinks.

squalid

Social Services removed the children from the home due to the squalid conditions, including rats running freely in the kitchen and spoiled food all over the house.

anachronism [n]

Something that is not in its correct historical time; a mistake in chronology, such as by assigning a person or event to the wrong time period The Queen of England is a bit of an anachronism, with her old-fashioned pillbox hats. Did you catch the anachronisms in the latest action blockbuster set in ancient Rome? One of the characters was wearing a wristwatch with his toga!

advocate [v, n]

Speak or argue in favor of (verb); a person who pleads for a cause or on behalf of another person (noun) I cannot possibly vote for a candidate who advocates oil drilling in federally protected nature preserves. / Children often have advocates appointed to represent them in court.

forfeit [v]

Surrender or lose as a result of an error, crime, or failure to fulfill an obligation "The rules are clear," said the umpire. "This is a co-ed league, and if your team doesn't have at least three women, you forfeit. Sorry, everybody, no game today!" If you are found guilty of defrauding this casino, the forfeiture of your winnings will be only the first of the consequences coming your way.

secrete

When threatened, skunks secrete an odor that humans consider horrible. / The late-night infomercial offered a pheromone perfume that promised to mimic the "attraction" hormones that humans secrete naturally.

render

When you render your past due payments, we will turn your phone back on. / Only in her second year of Japanese, she was unable to render the classic poem into English. / The judge rendered a verdict that rendered us speechless.

Prude

a person excessively concerned about propriety and decorum; In American culture, we tend to regard sensitivity to noise as a sign of weakness or killjoy prudery.

pivotal[adj]

crucial; Mr. Marcus had previously been chief financial officer, playing a pivotal role in the Time Warner separation. —New York Times (Jul 26, 2013)

schism[n]

division of a group into opposing factions; The church was divided by schism. Rebel forces, drawn largely from Syria's Sunni majority, are far from united, with schisms along religious, geographic, political and economic lines.

arriviste [n]

one that is a new and uncertain arrival (as in social position or artistic endeavor); For the arriviste investor, the projects present a rude visual interruption, an inconvenient thing to walk around, but never through.

drudge

person who has to do long hard boring jobs

blinkered [adj]

to have a limited outlook or understanding; Companies suffer from a provincial and culturally blinkered approach to the repertoire and with dire performance results.

staid

(of people, their appearance, behaviour, tastes, etc) serious, dull and old-fashioned; conservative

hand-wringing

Grasping, squeezing, etc. of the hands as an expression of nervousness, guilt, etc.; extend debate over what to do about an issue There has been much hand-wringing (or wringing of hands) over falling test scores, with so-called experts acting as if the world will end if students do 1% worse in math and science.

bucolic [adj]

Pertaining to shepherds; suggesting a peaceful and pleasant view of rural life; The play was set in a bucolic wonderland—while getting some shepherd's robes for the lead actor was no problem, the stagehands had a hard time bringing in a flock of sheep.

diverge

Differ, deviate; branch off or turn aside as from a path Go five miles until the old post office, then the road diverges—you want the branch that winds off to the left. / The high school sweethearts found that their paths diverged when they were accepted to different colleges.

antithetical [adj]

Directly opposed, opposite; involving antithesis (the rhetorical act of placing two phrases opposite one another for contrast, as in love me or hate me) Partying all night, every night, is antithetical to one's academic performance.

prophetic

While most of the country was consumed with irrational optimism about the economy, this particular journalist possessed an almost prophetic pessimism—not only did she predict the crash, she even predicted the month it actually happened.

Raft

Large number of something

fleeting

Passing quickly, transitory I had assumed our summer romance would be fleeting, so I was very surprised when you proposed marriage!

imbue

Permeate or saturate, as dye in a fabric; influence throughout After shearing the sheep and spinning the yarn, the next step is to imbue the yarn with dye. / His poems are imbued with a sense of longing for a lost homeland.

latent

Potential; existing but not visible or active Certain experts believe that some people have a genetic propensity for addiction; however, if such a person never comes into contact with drugs, the propensity for addiction can remain latent for life.

perfunctory

She did a really perfunctory job on this PowerPoint. Sure, it has a dozen slides, but most of them just say things like "Sales—Ways to Improve" in Times New Roman on a white background. Maybe she's planning to fill in the details later.

static

The anthropologist studied a society in the Amazon that had been deliberately static for hundreds of years—the fiercely proud people disdained change, and viewed all new ideas as inferior to the way of life they had always practiced.

surfeit

The soup kitchen would like to announce that it has a serious surfeit of those cans of jellied cranberries that no one seems to want, but it could still use at least 10 Thanksgiving turkeys.

objective

You cannot be forced to testify against your spouse in a court of law—it's pretty impossible for anyone to be objective about the guilt or innocence of a spouse. / Some philosophers argue that things like "love" and "guilt" don't exist, and that only objective reality—that is, physical matter—is of consequence.

redoubtable[adj]

inspiring fear Accordingly, the redoubtable constable was brought on the scene again. Its redoubtable heroine realises her community is better off outside both official control and heartless modern capitalism.

lucubration[n]

laborious cogitation The true climaxes of my lucubrations were generally avoidedand miserably inadequate compromises adopted in their stead. —Bangs, John Kendrick

humdrum [adj]

lacking excitement or variety; boringly monotonous; It would be nice to go beyond the usual everyday humdrum routine, I should think. What were you reading when I came to take you away from your usually boring, humdrum life for a time?

obtuse[adj]

lacking in insight or discernment "In the early days, my lyrics were more obtuse, partially out of intention, but partially from being 20 years old and wanting to be profound." —Seattle Times (Nov 8, 2012)

bleak [adj]

lacking vegetation and exposed to the elements; offering little or no hope; "The prospects for passing this bill in September are bleak at best, given the vote count on passage that was apparent this afternoon," he said. Some blocks within yards of downtown boast new housing and neighborhood shops; others are bleak and desolate.

concoct [v]

make something by mixing; devise or invent; They fool the simple folk by concocting exciting stories about their receiving messages from the Jinn.

arboreal [adj]

of or relating to or formed by trees; inhabiting or frequenting trees; It is a large arboreal tarantula that had been sighted in Singapore before.

absolute [adj]

total; unlimited; perfect; The dispute has played out in absolute secrecy at a private court for arbitration.

upheaval[n]

violent or sudden change or disruption to something; He spends most of his time monitoring Egypt's political upheaval on television. (earth) the first upheaval produced a hill which was called Roof Mountain. The island was created by an upheaval of the ocean floor.

debauchery[n]

wild living; excessive intemperance "Legalising sex outside marriage is an initiative to promote debauchery," he said recently.

avow [v]

to claim; to declare boldly; to admit; He is an avowed communist who made a lot of money as a technology entrepreneur working for major corporations.

categorical [adj]

unconditional; absolute Once again, his warnings were categorical and dire.

insipid

Dull, stale, lacking taste or interest This is a university-level poetry class, and your insipid drivel just won't cut it here. "Things that are bad always make me sad"? Really? / The restaurant critic called the dish "insipid"—I did think it was bland, but I probably would've been more polite about it.

broach [v]

bring up a topic for discussion Mr. Papoulias said he had broached the reparations issue with German authorities when he was foreign minister in 1995, without success.

apotheosis [n]

model of excellence or perfection of a kind; Wagner, the apotheosis of romanticism, was looking for perfect love but never quite finding it.

operatic

overly dramatic or theatrical

emaciate

Make abnormally thin, cause to physically waste away After 50 days floating on a raft at sea, he was quite emaciated—his family was elated that he was alive, but shocked to see a formerly 165-pound man looking skeletal at just 125 pounds.

endemic

Native, local; natural, specific to, or confined to a particular place Certain diseases—especially those that require a precise mix of environmental conditions and local plant and animal life to thrive—remain endemic to particular regions.

risible [adj]

Provoking laughter through being ludicrous; 'I cannot imagine how any self-respecting female could possibly conceive of doing such a foolish thing, let alone begin to consider entertaining such risible notions myself,' I replied curtly. But, either way, these arguments strike me as risible; dialectics dissolves in giggles.

myopic

To raise prices in a time of crisis is both wrong and deeply myopic—our profits would go up in the short term, but our customers' resentment would simmer for decades. / Myron's myopia is so strong that he cannot be helped by contact lenses and has to wear the heavy glasses he has worn for decades.

lionize [v]

Treat like a celebrity; Being a chef has long been a prestigious profession, but it is only in the last decade or so that "celebrity chefs" have been lionized and given their own television shows.

exacting

Very severe in making demands; requiring precise attention The boxing coach was exacting, analyzing Joey's footwork down to the millimeter and forcing him to repeat movements hundreds of times until they were correct.

simulacrum

representation, often insubstantial or unreal

vex

"Don't vex me," said the nanny. "Behave, or I'll tell your parents." / She was totally vexed by the crossword clue—9 letters, starting with "b," meaning "person whose socks are either scratchy or imbued with magical powers." What?

surrogate

A study found that baby monkeys, once separated from their mothers, preferred a surrogate mother made of cloth to a less comforting, rigid monkey doll, even when induced with treats to change their behavior.

Resisting distractions while listening can be accomplished by A. comparing the speaker's message to what you anticipated that message would be B. paying attention to external interference C. focusing on the speaker's nonverbal behaviors D. jumping to conclusions E. summarizing and making sense of what you just heard

A. comparing the speaker's message to what you anticipated that message would be E. summarizing and making sense of what you just heard

relegate

After the legal associate offended one of the partners, he found himself relegated to working on minor—even unwinnable—cases. / This protest is occurring because we refuse to be relegated to the fringes of society—we demand full inclusion!

besiege [v]

Attack, overwhelm, crowd in on or surround The regiment was besieged by attackers on all sides and finally surrendered. I cannot go out this weekend—I am besieged by homework!

surmise

Based on your rather sad attempt to figure out the tip on our restaurant bill, I would surmise that you actually have no idea how percents work.

exculpate

Clear from guilt or blame The security camera footage showing Mr. Murphy to have been in a casino the entire night turned out to be just the evidence needed to exculpate him of robbing a bank 50 miles away.

lucid

Clear, easy to understand; rational, sane After surgery, it'll take at least an hour until she's lucid—it's nothing to worry about, but patients sometimes talk complete nonsense until the anesthesia wears off and their speech becomes lucid.

anomaly [n]

Deviation from what is common; inconsistency While the cosmetics division of this company has many female executives, it is an anomaly—in the rest of the company, sadly, only 4% of management positions are filled by women.

extraneous

Irrelevant; foreign, coming from without, not belonging This essay would be stronger if you removed extraneous information; this paragraph about the author's life doesn't happen to be relevant to your thesis. / Maize, which originated in the New World, is extraneous to Europe.

peccadillo

I'm going to propose to Melinda tomorrow—sure, she has her peccadillos, like anyone, but she's the perfect woman for me.

rejoinder

In retrospect, I could have come up with a better rejoinder than "I know you are, but what am I?" I always think of the perfect witty comeback hours after I actually needed it.

log

Keep a record of, write down; travel for or at a certain distance or speed (verb); a written record (noun) Lawyers who bill by the hour have to be sure to log all the time they spend on every client's case. / You cannot get your pilot's license until you have logged 40 hours of flight time.

torrid

They had a torrid love affair in the '80s, but split up because a royal was not permitted to marry a commoner. / The wandering refugees were in serious danger in the torrid Sahara.

Protean

Versatile

craven [adj]

Very Cowardly, lacking courage; The nervous soldier feared he would turn craven in his first firefight, but he actually acted quite bravely.

magnate

Very important or influential person, esp. in business Many students pursue MBAs in hopes of becoming wealthy and powerful magnates; some students never quite make it there, instead spending their careers staring at spreadsheets and taking orders from magnates.

precursor

We cannot ignore this warning sign—it is clearly a precursor of larger problems to come. / The new CEO decided to do things differently from his precursors.

tome

When she discovered that the books she needed for her paper were in the university's online system, she ended up lugging some truly impressive tomes back from the library—she actually had to stop and rest twice on the way home.

nevertheless or nonetheless

While losing the P&G account was a serious blow, we nevertheless were able to achieve a new sales goal this month due to the tireless efforts of the sales team in bringing in three new clients. / I really can't stand working with you. Nonetheless, we're stuck on this project together and we're going to have to get along.

dehumanize [v]

divested of human qualities or attributes; He argues that we hear too much about statistics and nothing of the humans involved, thus dehumanizing the victims by depicting them as statistics. According to this reading, the film is concerned with the extent to which the way we live is governed by machines - and cinema is one of them - that dehumanise our human transactions.

exquisite

extremely beautiful or delicate; finely or skilfully made or done

chore [n]

small routine task; Geraldine was doing her home chores when the phone rang for her Evening Press interview.

captious [adj]

tending to find fault or raise petty objections; Through his pen, inanity became animate, and the captious craft of caricature was raised to character study.

bemused [adj]

confused; bewildered; Scientists in the audience were both entertained and bemused; one described it as "lots of fun", another as "excruciatingly long". Cook admits England's players are bemused at the way Hot Spot has worked during the Ashes.

veto

constitutional right to reject a decision or proposal made by a lawmaking body; Are there enough votes in Congress to override the President's veto? The President has the veto over new legislation. The President may choose to exercise his veto.

braggadocio [n]

empty boasting; bragging; a boasting person; With all the flashy braggadocio behaviour and senseless acts of violence, believe it or not, there's also a downside to wrestling.

deprecate[v]

express disapproval of; There are also winners who ooze false modesty, deprecating themselves repeatedly, yet keeping the spotlight bright. —Forbes (Jul 31, 2013)

appraise [v]

consider in a comprehensive way; place a value on; Last year, Mr. Orr's office hired Christie's to appraise a portion of the collection that included many of the museum's masterpieces.

revamp

I have my whole room decorated in Twilight: Eclipse paraphernalia. When Breaking Dawn comes out, I will surely have to revamp my decor.

martinet

It was no fun growing up with a military officer for a dad. He was such a martinet he once made me do 20 pushups for being one minute late to bed—even though the reason I was late was that I wanted to kiss him goodnight.

sagacious

It's important to choose a mentor who is not only successful, but also sagacious—plenty of people are successful through luck and have little insight about how to attack someone else's situation.

mercurial

It's tough being married to someone so mercurial. I do pretty much the same thing every day—some days, she thinks I'm great, and other days, the exact same behaviors make her inexplicably angry.

facetious

Joking, humorous, esp. inappropriately; not serious, concerned with frivolous things When I said, "Sure, you can take anything in my house as a souvenir of this study session," I was being facetious! I would like my nightgown back now. / He's a facetious person—I doubt he will take your offer of a spiritual quest very seriously.

arbiter [n]

Judge, umpire, person empowered to decide matters at hand; Professional mediators arbitrate disputes. The principal said, "As the final arbiter of what is and is not appropriate in the classroom, I demand that you take down that poster of the rapper Ice-T and his scantily-clad wife Coco."

lest

with the intention of preventing (something undesirable); to avoid the risk of he spent whole days in his room, wearing headphones lest he disturb anyone Lest war-weary voters reject his course, though, he promised that he "would not put boots on the ground" and that his attack, while more than a "pinprick", would involve only "modest effort and risk".

trounce

come out better in a competition, race, or conflict

beleaguer [v]

to surround; to besiege; to harass; Yet the woman in charge of getting food rations inside the beleaguered country remains, improbably, optimistic. The Fed's stimulus program has lowered interest rates, spurring growth in the country's beleaguered housing market and boosting car sales.

abortive [adj]

unsuccessful; Complicating matters in the schools have been repeated budget cuts and several abortive attempts to improve teaching standards.

steeped

A person steeped in classic literature probably thinks about almost everything in terms of old, famous books. / The Met's new campaign seeks to answer affirmatively the question of whether music lovers steeped in hip-hop and pop can learn to love opera.

artifact [n]

Any object made by humans, especially those from an earlier time, such as those excavated by archaeologists The archaeologists dug up countless artifacts, from simple pottery shards and coins to complex written tablets. The girl's room was full of the artifacts of modern teenage life: Justin Bieber posters, Twilight books, and a laptop open to Facebook.

alacrity [n]

Cheerful or speedy willingness Any boss wants an employee to respond with alacrity to his or her requests, handling them promptly and with enthusiasm.

apprise [v]

Inform, give notice to I can't believe you failed to apprise me that my child was biting the other children in his preschool class! If I had known, I could've addressed this issue before all the other parents threatened to sue!

inimical [adj]

Hostile, adverse, harmful; Most people think that being shouted at in the freezing rain is inimical to learning; sadly, our boot camp instructor disagreed.

profuse

It didn't mean anything at all to me, giving my old microwave to the family next door, but the woman's profuse thanks made me think that maybe the family was having some financial troubles. / She came home on Valentine's Day to an apartment decorated with a profusion of flowers.

impassive

Not having or not showing physical feeling or emotion Having been in and out of hospitals all his life, he accepted this latest diagnosis impassively—"Whatever happens, happens," he said.

tumultuous

Poland's tumultuous history includes a Nazi invasion, a period of Soviet rule, and, well before that, over 120 years during which it was partitioned by Russia, Prussia, and Austria and simply didn't exist. / She had been enjoying the game, but lost her hat, left earring, and keys in the tumult that resulted when fans went crazy over a referee's call.

quixotic

Prompted by a lesson their teacher devised for election year, the children shared what they would do if elected president. The plans were adorably quixotic, involving housing all the homeless in floating homes on the ocean, or teaching everyone to be nice to each other.

keen

Sharp, piercing; very perceptive or mentally sharp; intense (of a feeling) Dogs have a keen sense of smell. / As homecoming queen, she had experienced the envy of others, but their jealousy only grew more keen when she was selected for a small role in a movie.

bwana [n]

master; The only difference now is that instead of white bwanas there are dark-skinned leeches from our own villages.

brash [adj]

offensively bold; displaying or marked by rude boldness; A noisy, brash American, he never knew he was beaten and gave absolutely everything on every point of every game, no matter how apparently hopeless the cause.

amnesty [n]

officially grant a pardon to; Israelis bereaved or wounded by Palestinian violence have also been angered by the amnesty.

sybarite

The reality show about Beverly Hills "housewives" portrayed wealthy sybarites who actually seemed to be pursuing champagne and Pilates full-time.

nascent

The violin teacher was always very encouraging with children. All children sound terrible the first couple of years, so she offered plenty of praise to encourage nascent talents.

Melee

Wild, confusing fight or struggle

remonstrate[v]

argue in protest or opposition And, without waiting further orders, he took it as she directed, leaving Mrs. Villars vexed and annoyed, but too timid to remonstrate. —Newby, Emma

mordant

having or showing a sharp or critical quality; biting; a writer famous for her mordant humor a mordant review of the movie that compared it to having one's teeth pulled for two hours

conversant [adj]

knowledgeable about or experienced with; For an opera singer, she is unusually conversant in physics—she just explained to everyone the purpose of the Large Hadron Collider.

abnegate [v]

to deny oneself, reject or renounce; The Emperor seemed to appreciate perfectly the charms of this angelic woman, whose gentle and self- abnegating character made a profound impression on me.

avid [adj]

Enthusiastic, dedicated, passionate; excessively desirous; An avid cyclist, she was on her bike every weekend, and even bought the same bike that Lance Armstrong last used in the Tour de France. Avid of power, the young Senator compromised every principle to gain the support—and money—of large corporations.

inveigle

Entice, lure; get something by flattery, cleverness, or offering incentives After Mrs. Kim found out that her son's friends had inveigled him into doing something stupid, she gave him a lecture on standing up to peer pressure.

idolatry

Idol worship; excessive or unthinking devotion or adoration After a year in an education Ph.D. program, she'd had enough with the idolatry of Howard Gardner and his theory of multiple intelligences—"Gardner isn't a god," she would say, "and you simply can't learn calculus through movement or interpersonal skills."

detached

Impartial, disinterested; unconcerned, distant, aloof He found her detached demeanor inappropriate for a funeral. It's fine to politely ask how someone died, but it's not appropriate to coldly question a relative on the medical history of the deceased. / The divorce proceeding was full of anger and recriminations, but the judge was able to make a detached decision.

rift

Olaf's Swedish family was offended when he married a Norwegian girl—so offended that it caused a rift that lasted for decades. / The hikers considered the rift in their path, wondering if it would be possible to leap across.

idyllic

Presenting a positive, peaceful view of rural life (as poetry or prose); pleasant in a natural, simple way An action-packed vacation wasn't their style—for their honeymoon, they enjoyed a quiet idyll in a cabin in the woods, just watching the deer and enjoying nature.

malinger

Pretend to be sick, esp. to get out of work, duties, etc. Joey was sick in class on Monday and was sent to the school nurse to sleep it off. The next day, having realized that illness was a good way to get out of class, Joey said his stomach hurt and spent the afternoon in the nurse's office. By Wednesday, though, the nurse accused him of malingering and sent him back to class.

intransigent

Refusing to compromise, inflexible, having extreme attitudes "Even three detentions and a note home to your parents haven't convinced you to behave yourself in class!" the teacher said to the intransigent child.

august [adj]

Venerable, majestic; inspiring admiration "I welcome you to this august institution, where presidents and Nobel Prize winners have received the fruits of erudition," said the university president (rather bombastically) to the new crop of first-year students.

beget [v]

to give birth to; to create; to lead to; to cause Many Thais believe that calamity can beget good fortune, and that tragedy may give rise to powerful ghosts who offer guidance on winning numbers. In contrast, a more specialized group of stem cells found in the bone marrow generally begets blood cells and immune cells exclusively. In other words, melted sea ice could beget massive sea level rise, thanks to a supposedly unconnected system.

solecism

"I could care less" is a solecism—what the speaker really means to say is "I couldn't care less." / Apparently, Libby had committed a solecism by asking a man if he wanted to dance. "In Lubbock, Texas," said her friend, "we keep things traditional."

exodus

(fml or joc ) departure of many people at one time

mettlesome

(of a person or animal) full of spirit and courage; lively; the mettlesome opening dance number got the audience all jazzed up a mettlesome debate on the teaching of evolution in the schools their horses were beasts of burden, not mettlesome chargers

pantheon

A group of people held in high esteem for their great achievements

demagogue [n]

A leader who lies and gains power by arousing the passions and especially prejudices of the people Political demagogues lie and twist the facts, depending more on their natural charisma and ability to determine exactly what their audience wants to hear than any actual understanding or perspicacity.

mores

An American in Saudi Arabia should study the culture beforehand so as to avoid violating deeply conservative cultural mores.

hedge

Avoid commitment by leaving provisions for withdrawal or changing one's mind; protect a bet by also betting on the other side While he coaxed and cajoled us all into seeing "the best movie ever," he hedged once we were in the theater: "I don't know if you all like this sort of thing," he said. "I mean, you can make up your own minds." / When the professor called on him to take a stand on the issue, he hedged for fear of offending her: "Well, there are valid points on both sides," he said.

treacherous

Betraying one's country for money is the most base of acts—his treachery cost the lives of several soldiers whom he had pledged to fight alongside. / The small boat was capsized in the treacherous waters.

levy

Collect tax from, wage war on, or enlist for military service (verb); act of collecting tax or amount owed, or the drafting of troops into military service (noun) When England levied yet another tax on the colonists, the colonists were pushed one further step towards levying war. Soon, the worried British began to levy troops.

misanthrope or misanthropist

He is such a misanthrope that when some Girl Scouts going door to door asked if he'd like to sponsor a hungry child overseas, he replied, "The fewer people in the world, the better," and shut the door in their faces!

quotidian

He was so involved in his quest for spiritual enlightenment that he regularly forgot more quotidian concerns—sure, he meditated for six hours today, but he hasn't done laundry in weeks.

turgid

His prose was so turgid he used the phrase "synchronous repast" to mean a lunch break. / Jimmy carefully carried the turgid water balloons to the balcony, ready for a serious splash attack on members of the rival fraternity.

Wanting

Lacking

ruminate

Oh, I just don't know about that...let me ruminate on it for a few days and I'll get back to you.

stymie or stymy

Sara feared that her learning disability would stymie her success in college, but the support services offered were excellent, and she was fine academically; the thing that really stymied her college career was poor time management.

bolster [v]

Strengthen or support The general requested reinforcements to bolster the defensive line set up at the border. Many people use alcohol to bolster their confidence before approaching an attractive person in a bar.

engender

Produce, give rise to, cause to exist; procreate The television demagogue was blamed for engendering hate and divisiveness. / Having four wives helped the magnate engender 15 children.

complacent [adj]

Self-satisfied, smug; overly content (and therefore lazy, neglectful, or some other bad quality) The coach gave a pep talk: "I know we've never won a championship before, but we do have an advantage over the six-time state champions we're about to play—they have grown complacent with their success, and now they just assume they'll win without having to sweat."

brandish [v]

Shake, wave, or flourish, as a weapon The Renaissance Fair ended badly, with one drunken fellow brandishing a sword and refusing to leave the ladies' dressing tent.

Wax

To increase in extent, quantity, intensity etc;

dispassionate

Unbiased, not having a selfish or personal motivation; calm, lacking emotion The defendant tearfully described how much her young child needed her at home, but the judge, who dispassionately sentenced her to 10 years for selling drugs, was unmoved.

ingrate

Ungrateful person You ingrate! I have slaved at this laundromat to pay for your college education, and you quit two weeks before graduation to become a Marxist revolutionary, and then you tell me I'm the enemy of the working class?

maelstrom

Violent whirlpool; any chaotic, turbulent situation The Smiths lost their houseboat in a maelstrom, but were at least thankful that they weren't on the boat at the time and thus escaped the violent storm at sea. / After having been homeschooled her whole life, the first week of college was a maelstrom of social events, orientations, and business.

aphorism [n]

a brief, often witty saying; Dogmatic aphorisms don't, however, add up to an argument; nor can one extrapolate universal laws from limited examples. That he also has flowing black hair and is named Wolf makes his aphorisms only more compelling.

melancholy[n]

a feeling of pensive sadness the bleakness of winter sometimes gives me cause for melancholy

putative [adj]

commonly accepted; supposed; reputed; "The arguments for 'The Spanish Tragedy' are better than for most" putative Shakespeare collaborations, Ms. Stern said.

anodyne [n, adj]

capable of relieving pain; While aspirin is a nice analgesic, the construction worker argued that, for sore and tired muscles, nothing beat the anodyne effects of a six-pack of beer.

abominate [v]

feel hatred or disgust for (sth/sb); detest; loathe "I decline the favour, as I abominate the rats, which you know nothing about, and which would certainly get into my bed."

extravagant

going beyond usual bounds; lacking restraint in spending money or using resources; The company has been making extravagant claims about the drug's effectiveness. The film is notable for its extravagant settings and special effects. We're going on a less extravagant vacation this year. Her extravagant spending has to stop.

atrabilious[adj]

irritable as if suffering from indigestion After his conversion he made amends, though he was always the atrabilious faultfinder. —Huneker, James

repine

~ (fml ) feel or show discontent; fret

reckon

~ sb/sth among sth; ~ sb/sth as sth (not used in the continuous tenses ) be of the opinion or consider that sb/sth is as specified

nexus

a connected series or group; connection; link;

glazed

(n.) a glossy finish on a fabric; (adj.) marked by lack of expression she had a glazed look in her eyes

Which of the following demonstrates jumping to conclusions when listening? A. deciding that a speaker's topic is not worth listening to B. listening especially hard to catch all the speech's details C. assuming the speaker's views are misguided because he or she is from a different political party D. putting words in the speaker's mouth E. deciding that a speech will be boring based on its title

A. deciding that a speaker's topic is not worth listening to C. assuming the speaker's views are misguided because he or she is from a different political party D. putting words in the speaker's mouth E. deciding that a speech will be boring based on its title

John and Mia have to report on an outside speaker for public speaking class tomorrow. The only speech that fits their schedules in the time remaining is "Improving Your Study Habits." Since they are both juniors, they roll their eyes and grudgingly attend the presentation. As potential listeners, John and Mia are guilty of A. having poor time management skills B. prematurely rejecting the topic as lacking value C. putting words into the speaker's mouth

B. prematurely rejecting the topic as lacking value

cloying [adj]

Disgustingly or distastefully sweet; I do like visiting our grandmother, but I can't stand those cloying movies she watches—last time it was some heart-tugging story where an orphan saves a suffering pony. I do like cake, but I find that honey-covered angel food cake positively cloying.

platitude

Everyone who knew my mother knows she was an atheist, so I can't imagine why people at her funeral would think we'd enjoy their soppy platitudes about Mom's "being in a better place now."

credulous [adj]

Gullible; prone to believing or trusting too easily or without enough evidence "Did you know you can wash your ears by turning your head on its side in the shower and letting the water run straight through your head?" said the father to his five-year-old daughter. "I'll try that!" said the credulous little girl.

tractable

He's a tractable fellow—when I asked if we could see a different movie than the one we'd come to see, he shrugged and said "Cool." / The clay had hardened overnight, but adding water made it tractable again.

rend

Many figures in the Bible rent their clothing from grief at a loved one's death, an event that can surely rend one's heart as well.

fathom

Measure the depth of (usually of water) as with a sounding line; penetrate and discover the meaning of, understand I cannot even remotely fathom how you interpreted an invitation to sleep on my couch as permission to take my car on a six-hour joyride!

redress

My client was an innocent victim of medical malpractice. As would anyone who had the wrong leg amputated in surgery, he is seeking financial redress.

peripheral

My main goal is to get into a good grad school. Whether it has good fitness facilities is really a peripheral concern.

fracas

Noisy disturbance or fight; brawl Rugby is one of the most aggressive of sports—when the players rush to pile on top of the person with the ball, bones can easily be broken in the fracas.

implacable

Not able to be appeased, calmed, or satisfied After the dog groomer misunderstood and shaved the family Weimaraner totally bald, Mr. Garcia was implacable; neither an offer of a free gift certificate nor a complimentary doggie sweater would reduce his fury.

egalitarian

Related to the belief of the equality of all people, esp. in political economic, or social spheres After moving to a more liberal part of the country, the couple was pleased to have neighbors who shared their views of egalitarian marriage—for instance, men and women could be found in equal proportions downshifting to part-time work to make time for childcare.

incentive

Something that encourages greater action or effort, such as a reward A controversial program in a failing school system uses cash payments as an incentive for students to stay in school.

hoodwink

Trick, deceive Pretending to be the building's landlord, the shyster was able to hoodwink 11 people into paying deposits on a vacant apartment—of course, he absconded with the money, leaving the victims without their money or a place to live.

dastardly [adj]

Wicked and cruel; The debt recovery agency that carried out the dastardly deed is not expected to have its contract renewed. Can they be so dastardly and despicable as to attack the president during a presidential campaign?

frenetic [adj]

Wildly excited, frantic, distracted; The advice in the expert's time management book struck many as unrealistic, as not everyone can handle the frenetic lifestyle the author espouses: getting up before dawn to begin work before spending quality time with the kids over breakfast, taking conference calls from the treadmill, etc.

beatific [adj]

blissful; saintly; radiating bliss as if blessed; he smile that spread across Nicholas' face was beatific, full of happiness and relief. And she looked at me with kind of beatific smile and said, 'Yes, it's his sense of noblesse oblige.'

nihilism[n]

complete denial of all established authority and institutions At such points, Stanhope's despairing idealism slumps into nihilism, while the many parties worthy of his furious, filthy comedy get off scot-free. —The Guardian (Apr 5, 2011)

pithy

concise and full of meaning; terse

plaintive[adj]

expressing sorrow He sounded almost plaintive in wishing he had more ability to advance his agenda. —New York Times (May 16, 2013)

hideous

extremely ugly; morally offensive; Nerve gas was hideous then. Chemical weapons are hideous now. While as a nation we wait for that, let's talk about hideousness—what John Kerry yesterday called "moral obscenity."

founder[v]

fail; collapse; sink; The ship foundered shortly after it's hull collapsed.

charlatan [n]

fraud; quack; conman Indeed, securities experts say each year individual investors -- even sophisticated ones who should seemingly know better -- lose hundreds of millions of dollars to financial charlatans.

dysphoric

generalized feeling of distress

feckless[adj]

generally incompetent and ineffectual In Syria and Iran, either the United States becomes embroiled in dangerous confrontations or Mr. Obama is seen as a feckless wimp. —New York Times (Jun 23, 2013)

giddy

having the feeling that everything is turning round and that one is going to fall

Proximate

immediately preceding or following; very near; The proximate cause of the disaster appeared to be human error, but the ultimate fault lay with the company's lax safety policies. And while Detroit's corruption-ridden city government and unfunded pension-fund liabilities are the proximate cause of the Michigan city's bankruptcy, the root causes are far deeper.

Nonpartisan

impartial, not controlled by a political party

flimsy

insubstantial and easily damaged; a flimsy piece of material They have only the flimsiest of evidence against him. a movie with a flimsy plot

defiance [n]

open resistance; bold disobedience; The workers acted in defiance of a Labor Ministry order for mandatory conciliation. For one fleeting moment the world has acted together in defiance of the group, whose isolation is now exposed for all to see.

enunciate

say or pronounce clearly

celerity [n]

swiftness; rapidity of motion or action; An individual's crime calculus is influenced by three factors: certainty, severity, and celerity of punishment.

synthesis[n]

the combination of ideas into a complex whole In Mr. Foster's view it was in drawing that Hopper synthesized his vision, a synthesis of observed reality, memory and imagination. —New York Times (Jun 7, 2013)

enormity[n]

the quality of extreme wickedness Then, as its enormities went on getting more and more enormous in every line, the book seemed something titanic, gigantic, awe-inspiring. —Slate (Jan 23, 2013)

zenith [n]

the time at which something is most powerful or successful; At the zenith of her career, the actress could command $5 million per film. Now, she is mostly seen in made-for-TV movies.

solipsism

the view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist

baffle [v]

totally bewilder or perplex; restrain or regulate (a fluid, sound, etc.); Many critics doubted the wisdom in signing the Celtic player at all, but they were totally baffled at the decision to hose him with money. Access is via exterior galleries along the street frontages, with bathrooms and kitchens placed here to baffle the street noise.

qualm

uneasiness about the fitness of an action; a mild state of nausea

underscore

"You're not going to mess with Joey anymore," said Joey. His new bodyguards stepped forward threatening, as though to underscore Joey's point.

petty

(derogatory) small or trivial; unimportant

blandishment [n]

(fml ) flattering or coaxing words and actions; Despite all his blandishments, threats and persuasion, he did not get his heart's desire.

remit

(fml ) refrain from inflicting (a punishment, etc)

paean

(fml) song of praise or triumph

bequest[n]

(law) a gift of personal property by will He said that the parties involved had decided that the Qatari bequest would be better used to stoke the broader economy. The amounts of money that could be spent on air fares and hotels for grandstanding dignitaries may yet exceed Alfred Nobel's bequest.

stilted

(of a manner of talking, writing, behaving, etc) stiff and unnatural; artificial

circadian [adj]

(of biological processes) recurring naturally on a twenty-four-hour cycle, even in the absence of light fluctuations; While discussing the mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms, it would be well worth mentioning their genetic basis.

condign [adj]

(of punishment, etc) severe and well deserved; I may pity him, and even understand his motives, but a murderer is still deserving of condign punishment

sly

(often derog.) having or showing a cunning and deceitful nature

renege

(on sth) fail to keep a promise, one's word, etc

forswear

(promise to) give up (sth); renounce

affront [n, v]

(to sb/sth) deliberately insulting or disrespectful remark, action, etc, esp in public And Obama has reciprocated by acknowledging many emotional issues that Iranians have seen in the past as an affront to their dignity. It was an affront to the world's deaf community, they said.

dissuade

(try to) stop sb by advice or persuasion

compunction [n]

(usu in negative sentences ) feeling of guilt or regret for one's action; If the ancient human habit of taking what we want without understanding, without compassion, and without compunction continues unrestricted, it will lead us to extinction.

stave

(~ sth in)break or force (a hole) into something; (~ sth off)avert or delay something bad or dangerous; the door was staved in. Returning this keystone(wooly mammoth) species to the tundras could stave off some effects of warming.

soapbox [n]

A box or crate used as a makeshift stand by a public speaker; First, these protests allowed workers to express their political views; as already noted, in this respect they might be seen as similar to the soapbox speakers and the cafeterias which lined the Square.

malediction

A curse Sheila thought the fortune teller was her friend, but when she didn't pay her bill, the fortune teller cast a hex on her, a malediction intended to cause terrible things to befall her.

dirge

A funeral or mourning song or poem It was supposed to be a wedding march, but when the organist started playing, the reluctant bride thought the song sounded more like a dirge for her former, carefree life.

perspicacious

A good detective is shrewd and perspicacious, judging when someone is lying, noticing things the rest of us would ignore, and making connections that allow an investigation to move forward.

occult

A group of religious parents demanded that a popular series of young adult vampire novels be banned in schools because it promoted the occult. / During a solar eclipse, the moon occults the sun, and it is momentarily dark in the middle of the day.

echelon

A level, rank or grade; the people at that level Obtaining a job on Wall Street doesn't guarantee access to the upper echelon of executives, where multimillion dollar bonuses are the norm. / I'm not sure I'm cut out to analyze poetry; I find it hard to dig beyond the most accessible echelon of meaning.

hallmark

A mark indicating quality, purity, genuineness, etc.; any distinguishing characteristic Signature red soles are the hallmark of Christian Louboutin's shoes. / Fast-paced rhymes, an angry tenor, and personal attacks on celebrities are hallmarks of Eminem's music.

nominal

A notary public will certify a document for a nominal fee, usually under $3. / The country has a nominal president, but his detractors say he's just a puppet leader for the more powerful countries providing foreign aid.

disposition

A person;s general or natural mood; tendency She was possessed of a kind and helpful disposition—she wouldn't just help you move, she'd bring home-baked muffins to the affair. / I could really use some help in the kitchen, if you are so disposed.

phlegmatic

A phlegmatic child, he declined to participate in the youth soccer league. He preferred to stay at home, mostly sitting outside poking at dirt with a stick, and occasionally stopping for naptime.

gradation

A progression, a process taking place gradually, in stages; one of these stages The hill's gradation was so gradual that even those on crutches were able to enjoy the nature trail. / The short story's language graded from the vernacular to the erudite so gradually that you practically didn't realize until the end that the speaker had become educated almost before your eyes.

hierarchy

A ranked series; a classification of people according to rank, ability, etc. a ruling body The activist, accustomed to groups ruled by consensus, was quite surprised to find that the Eco-Action Coalition was led by a strict hierarchy—members followed orders from district leaders, district leaders from regional leaders, and regional leaders from the national head.

homily [n]

A religious discourse which is intended primarily for spiritual edification rather than doctrinal instruction; A tedious moralizing lecture; The next day the Chancellor went to the Mansion House, probably in the same creased suit, and delivered his annual homily on the state of the economy.

sardonic

A sardonic movie critic is one thing, but a sardonic film professor is another—I really wish Professor Dahl wouldn't sarcastically cut down his students the way he does cheesy horror films. / Dorothy Parker wrote sardonically, "If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people he gave it to."

melodrama [n]

A sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions; Greta Garbo played tragic lovers, exotic temptresses and steely heroines, anchoring many mediocre melodramas and haughty period pieces like a pro.

solicitous

A solicitous host, Derek not only asked each person how he or she was doing, but asked by name about everyone's spouses and kids. / Solicitous of fame, she would do anything to get near celebrities.

repose [n]

A state of rest, sleep, or tranquillity; Thousands of people lined up to see the prime minister's body lying in repose in the capital building. After working the last two weekends, Myrna was perfectly happy spending her day off in repose in her living room armchair with a cup of tea and a good book.

spectrum

A test showed she was partially colorblind—she did see blues and greens, but was unable to perceive some other colors on the spectrum. / A "dialect continuum" is a spectrum of dialects of a language where speakers in different dialect groups can understand some, but not all, of the other groups—for instance, people in the west can understand people in the middle, and people in the middle can understand people in the east, but people in the west and the east cannot talk to one another.

interregnum

A time in between two reigns or regimes during which there is no ruler; a period during which government does not function; any period of freedom from authority or break or interruption in a series When the king died with no heir, his ministers ruled in the interregnum as the nobles argued over which of the king's nephews should rule next. / In the interregnum between Madonna and Lady Gaga, there was no single female pop star who commanded such titanic audiences.

spartan

A young soldier in the spartan environment of boot camp can really long for a home-cooked meal or even just a comfortable couch to sit on. / Her apartment was so spartan that she couldn't even serve us both soup—she only had one bowl and one spoon. Instead, we sat in hard-backed chairs and drank water.

intelligible

Able to be understood, clear You are doing a disservice to all music by listening through those horrible speakers! None of the lyrics are even intelligible! I'll bet you have no idea what this song is even about!

ascetic [adj,n]

Abstinent or austere in lifestyle (adj); a person who leads an austere and simple life without material pleasures, esp. someone who does this for religious reasons Ascetics such as monks actually take vows of poverty. The graduate student lived an ascetic existence, her apartment containing only a futon couch and a single bowl and set of chopsticks, which she used to eat ramen noodles every night.

dither

Act indecisively (verb); a state of fear or trembling excitement "Stop dithering," said the mother to her daughter. "Pick which sweater you want so I can pay for it and we can get out of here." / The haunted house brought the children to a dither from which it was difficult for their parents to calm them down.

spate

After a brief spate of post-exam partying, Lola is ready for classes to begin again. / He was so furious that a spate of expletives just flew out of his mouth.

palatial

After a career spent in budget hotels, she was thrilled when the client put her up in a palatial room at a five-star hotel. She raided the minibar and then promptly fell asleep on the 600-thread-count duvet.

peddle

After an unsuccessful year spent peddling cutlery door-to-door, he turned to peddling drugs, thus landing himself in jail. / "I don't want these people peddling lies to our children," said Mrs. Hoffman, protesting an event in which fringe political candidates were invited to speak to kids.

peregrinate

After college, he took a year off to peregrinate across the country, visiting friends and seeing the forty-odd states he had never before had the chance to see.

remedial

After harassment occurs in the workplace, it is important that the company take remedial action right away, warning or firing the offender as appropriate, and making sure the complainant's concerns are addressed. / For those who need remedial reading help, we offer a summer school program that aims to help students read at grade level.

proclivity

After his therapist pointed out that he had a natural proclivity to judge people prematurely, he tried to work on that by imagining things from the other person's point of view.

temperance

After the end of the Civil War, economic change led to an increase in alcohol problems and the birth of the Temperance Movement, which ultimately led to Prohibition. / Grandma is a model of temperance—she drinks red wine every night, but only the 1/3 of a glass that she read was conducive to preventing heart attacks.

succeeding

After the sale of the company, you will receive 5% of the profits from the current year, and 1% in all succeeding years. / In 1797, George Washington was succeeded by John Adams.

hermetic

Airtight, sealed, isolated; reclusive; pertaining to alchemy, occult These packaged meals are hermetically sealed—they'll last years in storage, but once opened, you need to finish the contents within a couple of days. / While writing hundreds of vocabulary flashcards, the GRE instructor lived a hermetic lifestyle, her skin growing pallid and her social network drastically shrinking.

dismiss

Allow to disperse or leave; fire from a job; put aside or reject especially after only a brief consideration "Before I dismiss class," said the teacher, "I want to remind you of the importance of dismissing biases in your research by ruling out or adjusting for factors other than the variable you are testing that may have led to your results."

unequivocal

Although Chuck denied he had a problem, his family was unequivocal in demanding that he check into rehab. Chuck knew there was no getting around it this time. / Mark equivocated, going back and forth on the issue, but his brother Ben was unequivocal—he knew what he wanted and went and got it.

rococo

Although Dot Von Derian was born in Ohio as Melissa Worshowski, she insisted on being called "Madame Von D," and bought herself a mansion she furnished in the most rococo style imaginable—it was gilded cherubs and gold leafing as far as the eye could see.

mannered

Although he grew up in rural Ohio, sometime before he got his own makeover show on television he adopted a mannered way of speaking, as though he had grown up in some very odd corner of Victorian England.

rarefied

Among the rarefied ranks of conference attendees, she counted two Nobel Prize Winners, a MacArthur Genius Grant winner, and Bill Gates—and that was just at one lunch table!

thwarting

An act of hindering someone's plans or efforts

disparage

An ad hominem attack is a logical fallacy in which the arguer disparages his opponent rather than addressing the opponent's ideas. / Your shoplifting arrest has disparaged this family!

Powwow

Any informal discussion or colloquy

byzantine [adj]

Anything that is extremely intricate and complex (negative connotation); And because of a Byzantine system for handling receipts, it's difficult to track specific expenses.

meticulous

As a surgeon, of course Mom needs to be highly meticulous in her work—she gets things right down to a fraction of a millimeter. But this also means that when it's her night to cook, she's sometimes a little too meticulous—no one really needs a meatloaf to be sculpted into an absolutely perfect rectangular prism.

recalcitrant

As an aspiring kindergarten teacher, she had imagined days filled with giggles and singing songs about friendship—she was not prepared for a roomful of 20 recalcitrant children who wouldn't even sit down, much less learn the words to "Holding Hands around the World."

dormant

Asleep, inactive, on a break Some famous writers' skills have lain dormant until quite late in life; Laura Ingalls Wilder didn't publish Little House on the Prairie until she was 65.

ascribe [v]

Assign or credit to a certain cause or source He ascribed his good grades to diligent studying. The young boy ascribed to his imaginary friend all the powers he wished he had himself—being able to fly, having dozens of friends, and never having to eat his broccoli.

reverent

Ayn Rand is a controversial figure, but critical views are not welcome at the local Objectivist Club meeting, where everyone expresses a reverent view of the author.

At times we miss a speaker's main points because A. we are listening appreciatively B. we listen for too many details C. we are listening empathically

B. we listen for too many details

curmudgeon [n]

Bad-tempered, difficult person; grouch; The college students' party was hampered by constant complaints from a curmudgeonly neighbor who insisted that making noise after 8pm was unreasonable, and called the police over a single beer can on his lawn.

denote

Be a name or symbol for The company's brand denotes quality; the marketing team has done a fantastic job of associating the company's image with fine service. / There's nothing in the denotation of "crotchety" (grumpy, having strong and irrational preferences) that indicates any particular group of people, but due to the expression "crotchety old man," the word connotes, for many people, an image of an especially unpleasant male senior citizen.

intrinsic

Belonging to the essential nature of a thing Despite all this high-tech safety equipment, skydiving is an intrinsically dangerous proposition. / Communication is intrinsic to a healthy relationship.

notoriety

Bill was notorious for being late to everything—after awhile, his friends just stopped inviting him to the movies. / Some countries ban convicted criminals from capitalizing on their notoriety by writing books from prison or selling rights to movies about their lives.

stingy

Billionaire industrialist J. Paul Getty was so famously stingy that he installed pay phones in his mansion for guests to use. When his grandson was kidnapped, he refused to pay ransom and only changed his mind when the kidnappers cut off the boy's ear. This famous cheapskate then demanded that his son (the boy's father) pay him back! What a miser.

incarnadine

Blood red or flesh-colored The police took the body to the morgue; all that was left at the murder scene was an incarnadine stain on a pillow.

semantic

Bob said plastic surgery should be covered under the health care plan, and Marion said it shouldn't, but it turns out that their disagreement was purely semantic—what Bob meant was reconstructive surgery and what Marion meant was cosmetic surgery.

hardy

Bold, brave, capable of withstanding hardship, fatigue, cold, etc. While the entire family enjoyed the trip to South America, only the hardier members even attempted to hike to the top of Ecuador's tallest volcano.

inter

Bury (a dead body) or place in a tomb After the funeral, the body will be interred in the cemetery. / Occasionally, a criminal investigation requires disinterring, or exhuming, a body for autopsy; this can be upsetting to family members who have already buried their loved one.

elicit

Call forth, bring out, evoke The touchdown elicited wild cheers from the crowd. / While the death of Ellen's elderly cat was indeed sad, Ellen's constant, mournful looks whenever anyone mentioned any animal at all were nothing but a play to elicit sympathy.

convoke [v]

Call together, as to a meeting; The dean has convoked this gathering to discuss the Honor Code.

halcyon

Calm and peaceful, carefree; prosperous, successful, happy Installing drywall wasn't the career he'd planned for—every day he reminisced about the halcyon days of his high school football career, when he was treated like a god, and he had not a care in the world other than the next big game.

imperturbable

Calm, not able to be upset or agitated Having seen pretty much everything, the kindergarten teacher was truly imperturbable: a morning containing a discipline problem, two bathroom accidents, one fight, and one temper tantrum didn't bother her in the least.

coagulate [v]

Cause a liquid to become solid or semisolid; Hemophilia is a medical condition in which the blood doesn't coagulate, meaning that a hemophiliac can easily bleed to death from a small wound. When making jam, use pectin to get the fruit to coagulate.

deflect [v]

Cause to curve; turn aside, esp. from a straight course; avoid; The purpose of a shield is to deflect arrows or bullets from an enemy. Every time he was asked a difficult question, Senator Warrington deflected by changing the topic, saying he'd answer later, or even—insincerely, it seemed—calling for a moment of prayer.

catalyst [n]

Causer of change The young manager was a catalyst at the stodgy old company—once he introduced employee laptops, telecommuting, and mobile workstations, even the most conventional of employees totally changed the way they worked. Reaching 500 pounds on the scale was a catalyst for Marcus to really change his lifestyle.

grievous

Causing grief or suffering; very serious, grave; flagrant, outrageous While people certainly do injure themselves on hot stoves, such burns rarely compare to the grievous injuries sustained by people who do not observe safety procedures with twelve-gallon deep fryers.

circumspect [adj]

Cautious, prudent; careful to consider the circumstances and consequences; Luann immediately forked over an initiation fee to become a vitamin distributor, but her more circumspect brother had a list of at least 20 questions he wanted answered before he would consider joining.

archaic [adj]

Characteristic of an earlier period, ancient, primitive The school's archaic computer system predated even floppy disks—it stored records on tape drives! Sometimes, when you look a word up in the dictionary, certain definitions are marked "archaic"—unless you are a Shakespeare scholar, you can safely ignore those archaisms.

idiosyncrasy

Characteristic or habit peculiar to an individual; peculiar quality, quirk Sometimes, the richer people get, the more idiosyncratic they become. After he made his first billion, he began traveling with a pet iguana, sleeping in an oxygen chamber, and, oddly, speaking with a slight Dutch accent.

exonerate

Clear from blame or accusation; free from a responsibility When the defendant was exonerated after a long trial, his family wept for joy.

guile

Clever deceit, cunning, craftiness The game of poker is all about guile, manipulating your own body language and patter to lead other players to erroneous conclusions about the cards you're holding.

clamber [v]

Climb awkwardly or with difficulty, scramble; The hiker had spent the last hour plodding lethargically up the side of the mountain, but when she caught sight of the summit, she excitedly began to clamber up even the steepest inclines.

imperious

Commanding, domineering; acting like a high-ranking person; urgent Her friend were peeved by her imperious attitude and talked about her while she was in the ladies' room: "Who does she think she is, not only picking the bar and the meeting time but also telling us where to sit?"

analogous [adj]

Comparable, corresponding in some particular way (making good analogy) In the U.S., whenever opponents of a war want to suggest that the war is unwinnable, they point out all the ways in which the war is analogous to the Vietnam War.

arrant [adj]

Complete and utter (usually negative) He has, however, proved himself to be a faithless friend and an arrant rogue.

Involved

Complicated, and difficult to comprehend

equanimity

Composure, evenness of mind; mental or emotional stability, esp. under stress Having worked for many years in mental hospitals, her equanimity was unparalleled—you could throw a chair or a bowl of spaghetti at her, and she would just say, "Settle down, now."

exhaustive

Comprehensive, thorough, exhausting a topic or subject, accounting for all possibilities; draining, tending to exhaust The Standard Book of British Birds provides an exhaustive treatment of the subject—you will find that not a single British bird has been omitted. / The rebels finally surrendered after an exhaustive siege that left them without ammunition or even food.

aesthetic [adj, n]

Concerning the appreciation of beauty or good taste, pertaining to the science of what is beautiful (adj); a sense of beauty and taste of a particular time and place (noun) The twins were so different—one possessed a truly baroque aesthetic, preferring golden, gilded decor. The other lived in a world of pure logic, untouched by any aesthetic sense whatsoever; art did not move him, his house was bare, and he married his wife solely because she was a master of calculus.

compendium [n]

Concise but complete summary; a list or collection; I could hardly bring my whole collection of poetry books on vacation, so instead, I brought a lightweight poetry compendium containing a few selections each from 30 or so poets thought to represent various styles and eras. This movie review is unusually compendious—although a scant 500 words, it tells every single thing that happens in the entire film.

confer [v]

Consult, compare views, bestow or give; A Ph.D. confers upon a person the right to be addressed as "Doctor" as well as eligibility to pursue a tenure-track professorship. / Excuse me for a moment to make a call—I can't buy this car until I confer with my spouse.

belie [v]

Contradict or misrepresent The actress's public persona as a perky "girl next door" belied her private penchant for abusing her assistants and demanding that her trailer be filled with ridiculous luxury goods. The data belie the accepted theory—either we've made a mistake, or we have an amazing new discovery on our hands!

emulate

Copy in an attempt to equal or be better than The ardent Star Trek fan emulated Captain Kirk in every way possible—his brash and confident leadership might have gotten him somewhere, but the women he tried to impress weren't so impressed.

enumerate

Count or list; specify one-by-one The Bill of Rights enumerates the basic rights held by every citizen of the United States. / I don't have time to enumerate all the steps involved in baking a cake—just find a recipe on the internet!

machination or machinations

Crafty schemes or plots It's cute to think that teen idols became famous because their talent was simply so great that the music industry reached out to them, but usually, any teen idol is the product of intense coaching and parental machinations.

grovel

Creep or crawl with one's face to the ground, prostrate oneself as a token of subservience, degrade or abase oneself Most of the laid-off employees packed their things and left the building—only one was seen groveling, literally on his knees asking his boss not to fire him and even offering to wash the boss's car.

juncture

Critical point in time, such as crisis or a time when a decision is necessary; a place where two things are joined together We are at a critical juncture in the history of this organization: either we can remain a nonprofit, or we can register as a political action committee and try to expand our influence. / The little canoe started to sink when it split at the juncture between the old wood and the new material used to repair it.

artful [adj]

Cunning and wily; And we were delighted to discover that the PBS series is an intelligent, artful, and quite faithful adaptation.

crafty [adj]

Cunning, skillful in deception or underhanded schemes; A crafty play in basketball is the "head-fake"—moving the head in one direction slightly prior to running in the other direction, to try to get a tiny head start on a disoriented pursuer.

imprecation

Curse; prayer for harm to come to someone The haunted house features a "wicked witch" chanting imprecations at all who pass through.

aspersions [n]

Damaging remarks, defamation, slander He could no longer work with his duplicitous business partner, who acted friendly to his face but then spewed aspersions about him behind his back. If you asperse me one more time, I will sue you for libel!

negate

Darling, if you add "I promise to try to work things out for at least a couple of weeks before giving up" to our wedding vows, it would kind of negate the part where you promise to love, honor, and cherish me "until death do us part." / The debate coach reminded the students that they had to negate each one of their opponents' major points in order to win.

duplicity

Deceit, double-dealing, acting in two different ways for the purpose of deception The campaign worker's duplicity finally came to light when it was discovered that, despite rising to a trusted position within the local Workers Party, he was actually a registered National Party member and was feeding information back to his cronies.

gainsay

Declare false, deny; oppose The professor is quite doctrinaire—she's been known to lower the grade of any student who dares gainsay her.

aver [v]

Declare or affirm with confidence; "Despite your insistence that ethics are completely situational," said the philosophy professor, "I aver that the existence of natural rights inevitably leads to certain immutable ethical boundaries."

embellish

Decorate, add ornamentation; enhance (a story) with fictional or fanciful details Every time she tells that story, she embellishes it quite a bit—at first, she was lost in the woods, and then she was found. The part with the grizzly bear was added later. / The Christmas sweater was embellished with festive jingle bells!

ingrained

Deep-rooted, forming part of the very essence; worked into the fiber Religious observance had been ingrained in him since birth; he could not remember a time when he didn't pray five times a day.

counterproductive [adj]

Defeating the purpose; preventing the intended goal; The candidate's attempt to win swing votes in Ohio was actually counterproductive—following his speech in Toledo, his poll numbers actually went down 5%.

debase [v]

Degrade; lower in quality, value, rank, etc.; lower in moral quality You have debased yourself by accepting bribes. Members of the mainstream church argued that the fringe sect was practicing a debased version of the religion, twisting around its precepts and missing the point. I can tell from the weight that this isn't pure gold, but rather some debased mixed metal.

forestall [v]

Delay, hinder, prevent by taking action beforehand Our research has been forestalled by a lack of funding; we're all just biding our time while we wait for the university to approve our grant proposal.

hyberbole

Deliberate exaggeration for effect Oh, come on. Saying "That movie was so bad it made me puke" was surely hyperbole. I strongly doubt that you actually vomited during or following The Back-Up Plan.

stoic or stoical

Della was not only calm but positively stoic, thanking her family for driving her home from chemotherapy, and then simply never mentioning it until it was time to go again.

divest

Deprive or strip of a rank, title, etc., or of clothing or gear; to sell of holdings opposite of invest When she found out that the most profitable stock in her portfolio was that of a company that tested products on animals, she immediately divested by telling her broker to sell the stock. / Once his deception was exposed, he was divested of his position on the Board.

derivative

Derived from something else; not original The singer's first album was a disappointment, derivative of several hit albums from the previous year, as though a management team had simply picked out the elements from other popular songs that they thought would make the most money.

abhor [v]

Detest, regard with disgust "Go out with you?" she replied. "I abhor you! I would rather stab myself with a rusty bread knife than be your girlfriend!"

discrepancy

Difference or inconsistency When there is a discrepancy between a store's receipts and the amount of money in the register, the cashier's behavior is generally called into question.

heterogeneous

Different in type, incongruous; composed of different types of elements Rather than build the wall with plain brick, we used a heterogeneous mixture of stones—they are not only different colors, but a variety of sizes as well.

intractable

Difficult to control, manage, or manipulate; hard to cure; stubborn That student is positively intractable! Last week, we talked about the importance of staying in your seat during the lesson—this week, she not only got up mid-class, but she actually scrambled on top of a bookcase and refused to come down! / Back injuries often result in intractable pain; despite treatment, patients never feel fully cured.

whet

Dinner will take another 20 minutes, but maybe this cheese plate can whet your appetite?

dissent

Disagree or take an opposing view, esp. in relation to a formal body such as a government, political party, or church; such a view Judge Antonin Scalia cast the only dissenting vote, explaining in his written decision why he thought all the other justices had it wrong. / Not every country has a right to free speech (and thus to dissent), although nations that throw dissenters in jail are condemned by the international community at large.

jettison

Discard, cast off; throw items overboard in order to lighten a ship in an emergency We got so tired while hiking the Appalachian Trail that we jettisoned some of our fancy camping supplies just so we could drag ourselves to a place where we could get medical attention.

disjointed

Disconnected, not coherent, jerky; having the joints separated The novel seemed disjointed, as though whole chunks of it were missing, or as though the author had tried to stitch together drafts of several different stories. / To begin the recipe, you'll need a whole chicken that has been disjointed.

daunt [v]

Discourage, dishearten, lesson the courage of; Amazingly undaunted after his accident, Devon vowed to complete a marathon in his wheelchair. Not even a dented rim on mile 19 could daunt him—he dauntlessly completed the race anyway.

blight [n, v]

Disease that kills plants rapidly, or any cause of decay or destruction (noun); ruin or cause to wither (verb) Many potato farmers have fallen into poverty as a result of blight killing their crops. Gang violence is a blight on our school system, causing innocent students to fear even attending classes. Violence has blighted our town.

dissolution

Dissolving, the state of having been dissolved; breaking bonds or breaking up of a group of people; death, disintegration; sinking into extreme hedonism, vice, and degradation Raoul went from garden-variety hedonism to utter dissolution—his three-day drug benders cost him his job and may land him in jail. / Following the dissolution of the corporation and the liquidation of our assets, each investor will receive a cash payment proportional to his or her shareholding in the company.

dichotomy

Division into two parts or into two contradictory groups There is a dichotomy in the sciences between theoretical or "pure" sciences such as physics and chemistry, and the life sciences, which often deal more with classifying than with theorizing.

onerous

Doctors are often faced with the onerous task of telling waiting families that their loved one has died.

beneficent [adj]

Doing good The billionaire had been a mean and stingy fellow, but after his death, his beneficent widow gave all his money to charity, even accompanying the donations with handwritten notes thanking the charities for all the good work they did.

hegemony

Domination, authority; influence by one country over others socially, culturally, economically, etc. The discovery of oil by a previously poor nation disrupted the larger, richer nation's hegemony in the region—suddenly, the hegemon had a competitor.

mundane

Dominique had been excited to visit France for the first time, but she was soon disappointed at how mundane the stay with her relatives was: they shopped at the market, cooked dinner, chatted with one another, and occasionally went shopping.

principled

Donna was only an intern, but she was also quite principled—although she knew it would kill her shot at a full-time job, she was the one who alerted the authorities when asked to violate federal law via corrupt accounting practices.

languid

Drooping from exhaustion, sluggish, slow; lacking in spirit We signed up for a fitness boot camp, but after a single hour of exercise in the heat, we all felt so overcome with languor that we refused to go on. Turns out the reason we need a fitness boot camp in the first place is that we're pretty languid people.

People who listen effectively ____. A. write down most of what a speaker says B. avoid taking notes C. are born that way D. jump to conclusions to save time E. work at listening F. do not need to practice listening

E. work at listening

complaisant [adj]

Eager to please; cheerfully complying; Coming from a more uptight corporate background, Chris found the soup kitchen volunteers remarkably complaisant—when he asked the greeters to sweep the floor and the cooks to wash dishes, everyone happily moved to their new positions.

frugal

Economical, thrifty, not wasteful with money; inexpensive It wasn't terribly surprising when Lea—who was so frugal in restaurants that she always drank water, ate salad, and requested a separate check—said she had never tried lobster.

noisome

Everyone knows that smoking is deadly, but even "herbal" cigarettes are a noisome habit—and noisome to your health!

connoisseur [n]

Expert, especially in the fine arts; person of educated, refined taste; A chocolate connoisseur, Mom eschews grocery store brands and will only eat 80% -cocoa-or-higher artisanal chocolate that is less than a week old.

default [n, v]

Failure to act, neglect (noun); fail to fulfill an obligation, especially a financial one (verb) The government is cracking down on for-profit colleges where a large percentage of the graduates cannot use their degrees to gain employment and end up defaulting on their student loans. You must elect a new health plan by December 31st or by default you will be re-enrolled in the plan you selected last year.

fidelity

Faithfulness, loyalty; strict observance of duty; accuracy in reproducing a sound or image Wedding vows typically include a promise of fidelity—such as by "forsaking all others as long as I may live."

benighted [adj]

Fall into a state of ignorance; overtaken by darkness; Indeed, there's reason to hope that even the most benighted moral equivocators may come to realize that the message is the exact opposite of the one they've been preaching. A pair of climbers were benighted in a storm at the top of Royal Arches without overnight gear.

intrepid

Fearless, brave, enduring in the face of adversity Intrepid explorers Lewis and Clark led the first U.S. expedition to the West Coast, facing bitter winters and rough terrain.

plucky

Feminist critics have commented that today's romantic comedies tend to feature passive, helpless female leads, whereas the romantic comedies of the 1940s featured plucky heroines who took the lead in cleverly solving problems. / While the police hit a dead end, a band of plucky children was able to find the stolen bicycle.

inconstancy

Fickleness, unreliability; the state of changing without good reason Old-fashioned poems often praised a lover's constancy; the poet would likely be shocked by any inconstancy from his lady, such as if she were receiving poems from other poets.

perennial

Fighting over the bathroom is a perennial problem in our house—there are eight of us, and we're homeschooled, so we're all pretty much always here.

ascertain [v]

Find out with certainty Hopefully, the investigation will allow us to ascertain who is at fault here.

prosaic

Finding his friends' bar mitzvahs at the local synagogue a bit prosaic, Justin instead asked his dad to rent out the local laser tag center.

delimit [v]

Fix, mark, or define the boundaries of; The role of an executive coach is delimited by our code of conduct—we may not counsel people for psychological conditions, for instance.

lissome

Flexible, supple, agile The actress exercised and stretched every day, but was ultimately told by the casting director that she wasn't lissome enough to play a ballet dancer. The actress had to agree—"I walk like an ogre," she said.

recant

For saying that the Sun and not the Earth was the center of the universe, Galileo was brought on trial for heresy, forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Of course, a forced recantation doesn't say much about whether the person really abjures his former views.

rustic

For their honeymoon, they eschewed fancy hotels and instead chose a rustic cabin in the woods. / Grandpa was a true rustic—I was happy to have him visit, but not so happy to find him urinating outside in a bucket when we have several perfectly nice bathrooms.

dictum

Formal or authoritative pronouncement; saying or proverb "A stitch in time saves nine" is an old dictum meaning that it's easier to solve a problem before it gets too big. / The king's dictum stated that each feudal lord must provide a certain number of soldiers within three weeks' time.

aseptic [adj]

Free from germs It is very important to perform surgery in an aseptic environment, lest a patient contract sepsis (a systemic infection) and die.

disabuse

Free someone from a mistake in thinking Do you really believe that toilets flush one way in the Northern hemisphere and another way in the Southern? Any physicist would be happy to disabuse you of that silly notion.

fecund

Fruitful, fertile; capable of abundantly producing offspring, vegetation, or creative or intellectual work Rabbits are quite fecund; if you've got two, you'll soon have forty. / While some novelists seem to return to the same themes over and over, Bredlaw's fecund mind produced whole new universes for every story he wrote.

bureaucracy [n]

Government characterized by many bureaus and petty administrators or by excessive, seemingly meaningless requirements; Some nations have a worse reputation for bureaucracy than others—in order to get a visa, he had to file papers with four different agencies, wait for hours in three different waiting rooms, and, weeks later, follow up with some petty bureaucrat who complained that the original application should've been filed in triplicate.

amortize [v]

Gradually pay off a debt, or gradually write off an asset A mortgage is a common form of amortized debt—spreading the payments out over as long as 30 years is not uncommon. On his company balance sheet, Joe amortized the value of his patent, estimating that the patent's value as an asset would decline steadily over the course of the year as competitors patented competing products.

cupidity [adj]

Greed, great or excessive desire; The doctor's medical license was revoked after it was discovered that, out of sheer cupidity, he had diagnosed people with illnesses they didn't have and pocketed insurance money for performing procedures they didn't need.

bevy [n]

Group of birds or other animals that stay close together; any large group The bar owner cringed when a bevy of women in plastic tiaras came in—"Another drunken bachelorette party," he sighed.

faction

Group or clique within a larger organization; party strife and dissension The opposition movement was once large enough to have a chance at succeeding, but it has since broken into numerous, squabbling factions, each too small to have much impact. / The caucus began in a spirit of unity but now, sadly, is marked by faction and petty squabbles.

burgeon [v]

Grow or flourish rapidly; put forth buds or shoots (of a plant); The dictator was concerned about the people's burgeoning discontent and redoubled his personal security. Spending an hour a day on vocabulary studies will soon cause your lexicon to burgeon.

benign [adj]

Harmless; favorable; kindly, gentle or beneficial; not cancerous He was relieved when the biopsy results came back, informing him that the growth was benign. He's a benign fellow. I'm sure having him assigned to your team at work will be perfectly pleasant, without changing the way you do things.

cacophony [n]

Harsh, discordant, or meaningless mixture of sounds The first day of elementary school marching band practice was nothing but cacophony, as students who hadn't learned to play their instruments at all nevertheless banged on or puffed air into them.

invidious

Hateful, offensive, injurious School bullying has become a serious problem, with ongoing invidious behavior driving students to suicide.

slake

Having been lost for hours, the weary hikers were more than willing to slake their thirst in a mountain stream. / The teacher's harsh, demanding attitude soon slaked the girls' enthusiasm for the ballet class.

verdant

Having grown up in Ethiopia, Dabir loved the lushness of the verdant forests in rainy Oregon. / The first-year associate was a little too verdant to be assigned to the big case.

mendicant

Having joined a mendicant order, the friar had vowed not to own property, and instead to subsist on the donations of the faithful.

quandary

He knew it sounded like the plot of a cheesy movie, but he really had accidentally asked two girls to the prom, and now he was in quite a quandary.

reap

He worked night and day in the strange new country, never stopping to rest, for he knew he would reap his reward when his family greeted him as a hero for all the money he had sent back home.

magnanimous

High-minded, noble, lofty; generous in forgiving others, free of resentment The twins were so different from one another—while Andrea was petty and vengeful and would hold a grudge for years, Marina was quite magnanimous, easily forgiving insults or slights, and simply rising above the petty bickering and cliquish behavior of our high school.

apposite [adj]

Highly appropriate, suitable, or relevant He searched his brain for an apposite word to describe wealthy Americans' addiction to consumer goods, until he discovered the neologism "affluenza."

insinuate

Hint, suggest slyly; introduce (an idea) into someone's mind in a subtle, artful way "Where's your boyfriend? You didn't leave him home alone, did you?" asked Ming. "Are you insinuating something?" asked Helen. "If you have something to say, just say it."

homage

Honor or respect demonstrated publicly This structure I built in the backyard is not just a skateboard ramp; it is an homage to my hero Tony Hawk. I have dubbed it the "Tony Hawk Rocks Western Pennsylvania Skateboard Ramp." / I'm not copying Madonna's song—I am referencing it in my own song as an homage to her work.

token

I am starting to realize that this law firm hired me to be its token woman. There I am, smiling in all the ads—but I never actually get to work on important cases. / Hollywood movies are often guilty of tokenism—many have exactly one black character (the "token minority"), often present to give advice to the (usually white) main characters. / I am giving you this "Best Friends Forever" necklace as a token of our friendship.

pith

I can only stay at this meeting for a minute—can you get to the pith of the issue now, and discuss the details after I leave? / This presentation has no pith—there's no central point and nothing I didn't already know.

tirade

I hate that television show where that commentator goes on angry tirades about all the liberal conspiracies taking over America. Even my conservative friends find his ranting embarrassing.

pedant

I hate when pedants interrupt you to correct your grammar, especially if what you're saying is important—and in my opinion, almost anything is more important than pedantic quibbles over whether it's okay to end a sentence with a preposition.

veracity

I question the veracity of your story—I just don't think you've been to outer space. / She was known for her veracity only because she had no choice—she was a terrible liar.

sap

I really thought that if I clicked on that Facebook ad and entered all my information, I would get a free iPad to test and keep! I feel like such a sap. / In order to make maple syrup, you must drain sap from a sugar maple tree—they call this "sapping" the tree, which I can understand, because I feel pretty sapped doing it! Fortunately, it's just a metaphor.

ossify

I remember having many broad-ranging discussions with him back in college, but since then, his opinions have ossified—sadly, he is now the most close-minded person I know.

plebian

I toured a luxury apartment building, and I laughed when I saw that the apartments had luxurious walk-in closets and whirlpool bathtubs—but hilariously tiny ovens. Because, of course, the wealthy would never do something so plebian as cook their own food.

satiate or sate

I usually just eat a tiny salad or something while I'm at work, but since I had a half day off, I went to the Indian buffet and stayed for a whole hour! I've never been more satiated (or sated) in my life. / To maintain a healthy weight, stop eating before you reach the point of satiety.

naïve

I was a little naïve during the hiring process—the HR rep asked for my acceptable salary range, and I answered honestly. Of course I got an offer for the very lowest number in the range! Now I know I should have tried to get a number from her first, or named a higher number so I could negotiate down.

prohibitive

I was admitted to NYU, but it was prohibitively expensive, so I ended up at state school instead. / My parents installed a high fence as a prohibitive barrier against the neighborhood hooligans.

offhand

I was pretty happy with my salary until my coworker Deena mentioned offhandedly that she was thinking about buying a house now that she made six figures.

oscillate

I wish we had air conditioning, but at least I replaced our old fan with this oscillating one that swings side to side and blows air on the whole room. / Stop oscillating and pick a restaurant! Seriously—Indian or Thai?

skeptic

I wish you'd be more of a skeptic—I can't believe you spent money on a pet psychic so we can "talk" to our dearly departed shih tzu. / Descartes was a great skeptic, famously declaring that we cannot truly be sure of anything except our own existence—hence, "I think, therefore I am."

reproach

I'm not really enjoying my foreign study program. My host mom reproached me in Spanish—it sounded really harsh, but I couldn't really understand her, and I have no idea what I did wrong!

patronizing

I'm not surprised that Professor McDougal used to teach kindergarten. His patronizing tone has been driving me crazy. Not only does he assume we can barely add or subtract, he also makes us put our heads down and have a moment of silence.

upbraid

I'm not surprised they got divorced—you can't upbraid someone every time he forgets to put a water glass in the sink and then expect him to stick around.

pejorative

I'm open to constructive criticism, but I think my supervisor's remarks are inappropriately pejorative—it's never okay to call an employee a "sniveling dullard." / Although these insults wouldn't be understood by most, "poetaster" and "mathematicaster" are pejoratives for minor, incompetent poets and mathematicians, respectively.

recapitulate

I'm sorry I had to leave your presentation to take a call—I only have a minute, but can you recapitulate what you're proposing?

tortuous

If I can follow your tortuous logic, you're saying that people who want the new law protecting the environment are actually hurting the environment because the majority of people deliberately do the opposite of laws? What? / The children found the tortuous path of the roller coaster both terrifying and exciting.

kindle

Ignite, cause to begin burning; incite, arouse, inflame It's hard to kindle a campfire when it's so damp out. / Although they were apart, the lovers' passion was only further kindled by the love letters they wrote to one another.

impermeable

Impassable, not allowing passage through (such as by a liquid) A good raincoat is totally impermeable to water.

impervious

Impenetrable, not able to be harmed or emotionally disturbed The problem with arrogant people is that they are impervious to criticism of their arrogance; anything you say to them just rolls right off.

hotly

In an intense, fiery, or heated way The issue of how evolution should be taught in schools was hotly disputed by members of the school board, religious leaders, and parent groups.

modicum

In her first five years in Hollywood, she experienced only a modicum of success as an actress, appearing twice in commercials and once as a waitress onDesperate Housewives.

supposition

In order to test our supposition that customers will buy our product if they associate it with celebrities, let's send free samples to some popular young starlets, track mentions in the press, and see if our sales increase accordingly.

supplant

In the 1950s, many people took cod liver oil as a health supplement. Today, fish oil capsules and flaxseed oil have supplanted the smelly old standby our grandparents used. / He did achieve his dream of becoming CEO, but only after supplanting our previous CEO by wresting control while she was battling cancer.

inert

Inactive; having little or no power to move "All of the missiles at the military museum are inert, Timmy," said the tour guide, answering the question children always asked. "They're not going to blow up." / When she saw her father's inert body on the floor, she thought the worst, but fortunately he was just practicing very slow yoga.

infallible

Incapable of error; certain No good scientist thinks he or she is infallible—it is fundamental to the scientific method that every theory is open to revision based on new evidence.

insensible

Incapable of feeling; unconscious, unaware Very intoxicated people can be insensible to pain, leading to serious problems as they injure themselves and don't realize it. / I cannot believe that, while I was insensible after the operation, you put funny hats on me and took pictures! You are insensible to shame!

foment [v]

Incite, instigate, stir up, promote the growth of; apply medicated liquid to a body part The revolutionary group was quietly fomenting a rebellion, galvanizing student radicals, leading unions in revolutionary songs, and anonymously pasting incendiary posters in every quarter of the city.

foreshadow [v]

Indicate or suggest beforehand, presage You didn't know this was a horror movie? I thought it was pretty clear that the children's ghost story around the campfire was meant to foreshadow the horrible things that would happen to them years later as teenagers at a motel in the middle of the woods.

discredit

Injure the reputation of, destroy credibility of or confidence in Congresswoman Huffman's opponent tried to use her friendship with a certain radical extremist to discredit her, even though the congresswoman hadn't seen this so-called extremist since sixth grade summer camp.

iniquity

Injustice, wickedness, sin The preacher's sermon about loving your neighbor was regarded by some as a welcome departure from his usual fiery homilies railing against iniquity. / Iniquitous corporations, such as those that spill oil into our oceans, must be punished.

avarice [n]

Insatiable greed; a miserly desire to hoard wealth; It is hard to fathom the sheer avarice of a company that would fraudulently overcharge a struggling school system for new computers.

graft

Insert part of a plant into another plant, where it continues to grow; join living tissue (such as skin) to part of the body where it will continue to live and grow; attach as if by grafting (verb); the part so grafted (as in a graft of skin); the act of acquiring money or other benefits through illegal means, esp. by abusing one's power (noun) The part of the book describing the financial crisis is good, but the "What You Can Do" section seems grafted on, almost as though written by a different author. / It's not cool for your boss to pressure you into buying Girl Scout cookies from his daughter. If she were selling something larger, we'd call that graft.

inconsequential

Insignificant, unimportant, illogical You wrote a bestselling book and got a stellar review in the New York Times—whatever your cousin has to say about it is simply inconsequential. / Given that your entire essay is about Hamlet's relationship with his mother, your thesis that Hamlet's relationship with Laertes drives the plot is inconsequential—that is, it does not follow as a consequence of the evidence you've provided.

inform

Inspire, animate, give substance, essence, or context to; be the characteristic quality of Her work as an art historian is informed by a background in drama; where others see a static tableau, she sees a protagonist, a conflict, a denouement. / Marjorie's desire to work in forensics is informed by a family history in the police department.

didactic

Intended to instruct; teaching, or teaching a moral lesson She might have been Teacher of the Year at work, but at home, her husband wished she would turn off her didactic personality. "Honey," he said, "I really don't need you to use everything as a learning opportunity." / The child was disappointed when the storybook turned didactic in the end, with the teddy bears—and the reader—being admonished never to lie.

grating

Irritating; harsh or discordant (of a noise); scraping Folding jeans at the mall finally became unbearable when her kindly old supervisor was replaced with a young woman whose grating tone made commands like "Fold faster and then clean up this display!" sound like nails on a chalkboard.

simultaneous

It is rare in a duel that the two shooters draw their guns simultaneously and actually kill each other in an instant.

unconscionable

It is unconscionable that you would deny your sister a bone marrow transplant knowing that you're the only person in the family who's a match.

partisan

It is unconscionable to engage in partisan politics in a time of crisis. People are trapped in the rubble of an earthquake, and you suggest that we vote for your tax bill in exchange for your voting for our relief bill?

prattle

It was infuriating to listen to the boss prattle on about some new restaurant in town when everyone was just waiting to find out if they'd been laid off.

nadir

It was only when Ming reached her absolute nadir—what her recovery program called "rock bottom"—that she admitted she had a problem and checked herself into rehab.

tendentious

It's hard to become absorbed in the world of a fantasy novel when the author is so tendentious—the planet of Xerxon is clearly meant to mimic the United States, and the author's politics intrude on the story on every page.

dovetail

Join or fit together When the neuroscientist married an exercise physiologist, neither thought they'd end up working together, but when Dr. Marion Ansel received a grant to study how exercise improves brain function and Dr. Jim Ansel was assigned to her team, the two found that their careers dovetailed nicely.

blithe [adj]

Joyous, merry; excessively carefree (so as to ignore more important concerns) Delighted about making the cheerleading team, she blithely skipped across the street without looking, and just narrowly avoided being hit by a bus.

discriminating

Judicious, discerning, having good judgment or insight He is a man of discriminating tastes—all his suits are handmade in Italy, and I once saw him send back an entree when he complained that black truffle oil had been substituted for white. The chef was astounded. / You can tell a real Prada bag by the discriminating mark on the inside.

incipient

Just beginning; in a very early stage The movie producer was devastated when, due to legal trouble over the screenplay, the incipient project was crushed before it had even begun shooting.

prudent

Katie's friends blew all kinds of money on spring break, but Katie prudently kept to her usual spending habits: she'd drink one of whatever was least expensive, and then watch her friends get stupid while she checked her bank balances on her phone and dreamed about the day she'd have a full-time job and a 401K.

paradox

Kayla was always bothering the youth minister with her paradoxes, like "If God is all-powerful, can He make a burrito so big He can't eat it?"

wanton

Kids do like to play pranks on Halloween, but driving an SUV into people's mailboxes isn't a prank—it's wanton destruction of property. / Many hip-hip videos depict a wanton lifestyle that is attractive to some, but unattainable (and possibly illegal!). / During my grandmother's adolescence in Ireland, a girl might be sent off to a convent as punishment for "wanton ways," such as being alone with boys.

arcane [adj]

Known or understood by only a few; obscure, secret To win at Jeopardy, you must be full of arcane knowledge. The wizard's shop was full of arcana, from Latin-to-Ancient Greek dictionaries to entire books on magic spells relating only to elephants.

banal [adj]

Lacking freshness and originality; cliché The drama professor despaired at reading another banal play from his uninspired students. "Oh look," he said sarcastically, "yet another young person has decided to write a play about a young person breaking free of society's constraints. Can you see me yawning?"

fallow

Left unplanted (of land); not in use Crop yields were increased substantially when the villagers discovered that leaving a portion of their fields lie fallow allowed that unused part of the land to become renewed with minerals. / It is terribly important that we make college affordable for underprivileged students, lest great minds lie fallow, and the world never benefit from their genius.

inquest

Legal or judicial inquiry, especially before a jury and especially made by a coroner into the cause of someone's death; the results of such an inquiry The family waited nervously for the results of the inquest, which finally returned a verdict of misadventure; that is, their grandfather had not been murdered, but rather died in a freak accident of his own doing.

console [v, n]

Lesson the suffering or grief of (verb); a control panel, or small table or cabinet (noun) I was unable to console Tina after she fell asleep at the console of her airplane and thereby failed her pilot's exam.

penchant [n]

Liking or inclination (usually penchant for) He seems like a mild-mannered accountant, but twice a year he jets off to Australia to satisfy his penchant for adventure sports.

panegyric

Lincoln enthusiasts were excited that a new biography was to be published, and many hoped that new light would be cast on certain controversies. However, the book was pure panegyric, nothing but heroic tales, uncritically presented.

hearken

Listen, pay attention to Hearken, students!" said the old-fashioned music teacher. "We are going to practice 'Hark, the Herald Angels Sing."

strut

Looking out the window of the small biplane, Maureen could see the struts, the vertical connectors between the lower and upper sets of wings.

ingratiate [v]

Make an effort to gain favor with; Ryan's attempts to ingratiate himself with the boss were quite transparent—no one really believes that a 25 year old loves the same cigars, classic rock, and AARP crosswords as the 65 year old company president.

aggrandize [v]

Make greater; exaggerate I can't stand when my coworker aggrandizes her role in our group projects. Stop it with your constant self-aggrandizing—we don't care how many automobiles you own!

assuage [v]

Make milder, relieve, soothe, pacify, or calm After losing a million-dollar account, he tried to assuage his furious boss by pointing out that he was close to winning a new account worth at least as much.

exacerbate

Make worse (more violent, severe), inflame; irritate or embitter (a person) Allowing your band to practice in our garage has greatly exacerbated my headache.

pathogenic

Many common and legal food additives are pathogenic, known to lead to diabetes or even cancer.

status quo

Many opposed the establishment of a needle-exchange program, but others reasoned that the plan would be an improvement on the status quo, in which disease spread rapidly through certain communities.

metamorphosis

Many reality show competitions are based on the idea of a contestant undergoing a metamorphosis, such as through dieting, exercise, life coaching, rehab, or plastic surgery—or all of the above.

philanthropy

Many wealthy people turn to philanthropy as a way to create social good, and many others turn to it as a way to hobnob with the rich and famous.

cartography [n]

Mapmaking The invention of better navigation tools had major effects on cartography—the more ships knew precisely where they were sailing, the better the world could be mapped.

pulchritude

Marilyn Monroe's mystique is based not only on her obvious pulchritude, but also on her mysterious death and likely dalliance with JFK.

prescient

Mariposa swears she's prescient—she thinks she sees the future in her dreams. / The science fiction novel, published in 1955, was strangely prescient—it pictures the year 2000 as having no flying cars, but a communication system known as the "interconnect," used largely for online shopping and wasting time.

eloquent

Marked by forceful, fluid, apt speech; expressive, emotionally moving Wow, he's such an eloquent speaker, he could sell snow to Antarcticans! / When Mom suggested that everyone might enjoy a museum instead of the beach, she was met with the children's eloquent looks of disgust.

prevaricate

Maryanne had been shoplifting—when her mother asked where her new clothes had come from, she prevaricated, vaguely suggesting that a rich friend had bought them for her.

annul [n, adj]

Medicine that relieves pain (noun); soothing, relieving pain (adj) Make void or null, cancel, abolish (usually of laws or other established rules) Can we appreciate the art of a murderer? For many, the value of these paintings is annulled by the artist's crimes.

figurative

Metaphorical, based on figures of speech; containing many figures of speech (as fancy-sounding writing); related to portraying human or animal figures The painter was renowned for his figurative art, including many portraits—he had been known to say that abstract artists were just people who had never learned to draw. / Highly figurative language can be difficult for English language learners—for instance, to "throw the baby out with the bath water" refers to being too hasty and unwisely getting rid of the good with the bad.

admonish [v]

Mildly scorn; caution, advise, or remind to do something She was an exacting boss who upbraided an employee for jamming the copier, yet she merely admonished her five-year-old for the same offense.

mired

Mired in her predecessor's mess and mistakes, the new CEO found it difficult to take the company in a new direction.

dissemble

Mislead, conceal the truth, put on a false appearance of Roxanne was used to dissembling in job interviews; when asked about the gap on her resume from 1999-2003, she would say, "Oh, I was out of the workforce fulfilling some obligations"—a somewhat misleading way to describe a prison stint. / He won so much money at pool halls by dissembling inexperience, pretending at first that he had no idea how to even hold a pool cue; once bets were placed, he handily defeated his opponents.

Malapropism

Mixing up words with similar sounds

base [adj]

Morally low, mean, dishonorable, of little or no value, crude and unrefined, counterfeit His philanthropy was underlied by truly base motives—he not only craved the fawning publicity his donations brought, but he was actually funneling drug money through the Children's Defense Fund! The supposed "gold bricks" were really base metals covered in a very thin layer of real gold.

libertine

Morally or sexually unrestrained person; freethinker (regarding religion) A famed libertine, the sitcom star was constantly in the news for cavorting with women of dubious occupations and overdosing on drugs often enough to regularly hold up production of his popular television show.

maverick

Most cop movies feature heroes who are maverick police officers, breaking all the rules, blowing things up, and getting their guns confiscated by the chief—but ultimately saving the day.

rue

Movie or cartoon villains sometimes say, "You'll rue the day!" What they mean is,"I will make you regret that you did what you just did." / The couple broke up in high school for a foolish reason, and each hastily married another person. Twenty years later, they were still full of endless rue over having lost each other.

precipitate

Mr. and Mrs. Rosen had been considering a move to Florida for years, but the sudden destruction of their house in a hurricane precipitated their decision to finally make the move. / "Stay away from the precipice!" said the mother to her child. "I wouldn't want my darling son to be precipitated to his doom!"

maxim

My favorite maxim is "seize the day!" How much would it cost to get that on a tattoo? How much more for "curiosity killed the cat"?

prolix

My mother is incredibly verbose. She'll tell a boring, prolix story for five whole minutes, and at the end, it turns out that the point was that she got a 50 cent discount on a box of spaghetti at the store.

furrows

Narrow groove made in the ground by a plow

subjective

Naturally, anyone's experience of a movie is subjective, and some will enjoy this picture despite its flaws; however, it is an objective fact that the cinematography is very bad. / We can give names to colors, but we can never quite convey the subjective experience of them—what if my "red" is different from your "red"?

deft [adj]

Neatly skilful and quick in one's movements; Then, with a quick and deft movement, Viktor slapped Erik hard across the face. We were even regaled by a lovely Thai dancer whose deft hand movements and graceful demeanour enthralled the group.

querulous

Norma had been happy to be a grandmother, but was somewhat less happy when a querulous child was dropped off on her doorstep—"I don't want to come inside," "I don't like sandwiches," "It's too cold in the bathroom." Would the whining and moaning ever stop?

indeterminate

Not fixed or determined, indefinite, vague The results of the drug trial were indeterminate; further trials will be needed to ascertain whether the drug can be released. / The lottery can have an indeterminate number of winners—the prize is simply divided among them.

panache

Not only did he quit, but he did so with panache, actually delivering a PowerPoint presentation that we thought would be about the budget, but which turned out to be quite obscene. He then pulled out a flask, guzzled its contents, and walked out. That guy's kind of a legend.

lackluster

Not shiny, dull, mediocre; lacking brilliance or vitality Many young people today are so accustomed to being praised by parents and adults that they are shocked when a lackluster effort in the workplace receives the indifference or mild disapproval it deserves.

lax

Not strict; careless, loose, slack My parents were really lax about homework—they never checked to see if I did it or not. Sadly, this legacy of laxity is not serving me well while studying for the GRE.

mirth

Nothing could beat the mirth of the office holiday party—once everyone had heard how fat their bonuses would be, the delighted staff formed a conga line and drank and danced the night away.

syntax

Now that my linguistics class is studying syntax, it makes a little more sense when my computer flashes "SYNTAX ERROR" at me. / Anyone learning a language is bound to make syntactical mistakes—even if he or she knows the appropriate vocabulary, it is still difficult to assemble the words perfectly.

landmark

Object (such as a building) that stands out and can be used to navigate by; a very important place, event, etc. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark in the battle for equality. / In Lebanon, many roads are unmarked, and people navigate by landmarks—for instance, "third house down from the water tower."

sporadic [adj]

Occasional, happening irregularly or in scattered locations; Her attendance was sporadic at best, so when she flounced into class after a two-session absence, she discovered that not only was everyone working on group projects, but that the professor hadn't even thought to assign her to a group.

fringe

On the margin, periphery (adj); the people in a group who hold the most extreme views (noun) In America, reincarnation is a fringe belief, but in primarily Hindu countries, the belief is quite mainstream. / Stacey and Mark liked to say they lived on the fringe of the big city, but really they had just moved to the suburbs.

repertorial

One theater observer noted that repertorial community theater can tie together different plays for a repeat audience: seeing the same actor as Hamlet one night and Romeo another prompts interesting parallels between the two plays.

candid [adj]

Open, sincere, honest Allow me to be candid: you do look rather portly in those pants, and I think you should wear something else. You have been really secretive about where you've been going after work; we could use a little more candor in this relationship.

adverse [adj]

Opposing, harmful Pioneer women persevered despite adverse circumstances, even when fording a river—baby in one arm, leading a horse with the other—against an adverse current.

ostensible or ostensive

Ostensibly, she came to volunteer out of the goodness of her heart. However, I think she's really here because she has a crush on one of the other volunteers. / He's an ostensive candidate for the job, but we need to check these references before we move further.

panoply

Our old cafeteria had only premade salads, but the new cafeteria has a salad bar with a panoply of toppings.

outstrip

Our sales figures this quarter have outstripped those of any other quarter in the company's history.

paucity

Our school has such a disgraceful paucity of textbooks that the students are sharing, and so cannot even count on being able to take the books home to do homework.

incongruous

Out of place, inappropriate, not harmonious Among the student artwork posted in the halls, Angelina's submission was incongruous, a dark, gruesome, and even worldly work amidst the happy family portraits and other childish drawings.

condone [v]

Overlook, tolerate, regard as harmless; While underage drinking is illegal, at many universities, it is tacitly condoned by administrations that neglect to enforce antidrinking policies.

impetuous

Passionately impulsive, marked by sudden, hasty emotion; forceful, violent Reflecting on her most recent breakup, Heather decided that next time she would like to date someone less impetuous; a man who quits his job on a whim and suggests moving together to Utah and raising llamas was just a little too impulsive for her tastes.

nuance

People with certain cognitive disabilities cannot understand the nuances of nonliteral speech. For instance, "You can come if you want to, but it's really going to be mostly family" means that you shouldn't try to come.

doctrinaire

Person who applies doctrine in an impractical or rigid and close-minded way (noun); merely theoretical, impractical, or fanatical about other people accepting one's ideas (adj) The old science professor was so doctrinaire that he refused to even consider any evidence that flew in the face of his own research, and thereby failed to recognize when his graduate students made an exciting new discovery. / Don't be a doctrinaire—try actually considering the views of those you disagree with!

apostate [n, adj]

Person who deserts a party, cause, religion, etc. Many people considered "freedom fighters" by some are considered apostates by others; some women's rights leaders in very conservative nations receive death threats from religious leaders who consider them apostate.

dilettante

Person who takes up an art or activity for amusement only or in a superficial way The "arts center" in the rich neighborhood was populated by dilettantes—a sculpture here, a bit of music appreciation there, two weeks of painting class until they got bored and quit.

epicure

Person with cultivated, refined tastes, esp. in food and wine A true epicure, he served only the finest wines, and bragged about how the pancetta was imported from Italy and the Stilton cheese from the English countryside.

bent [adj]

Personal inclination or tendency He had a pedantic bent—he was just naturally inclined to correct people's grammar and otherwise act like an imperious schoolmaster. Even a vow of silence couldn't dampen the nun's garrulous bent—even her prayers were verbose!

insular

Pertaining to an island; detached, standing alone; narrow-minded, provincial The young actress couldn't wait to escape the insularity of her small town, where life revolved around high school football and Taco Bell was considered exotic international cuisine.

phony

Phony Louis Vuitton bags are easily purchased in Chinatown, but they are illegal—selling them can land a vendor in jail, and the counterfeit bags are often made with child labor. / She's such a phony person, pretending to befriend people and then talking about them behind their backs.

apostle [n]

Pioneer of a reform movement (originally, an early follower of Jesus) In the 1980's, when low-fat diets were all the rage, Dr. Rubens became an apostle of the Mediterranean diet, high in healthy fats, and traveled the world proselytizing to groups of physicians and nutritionists.

contextualize [v]

Place in context, such as giving the background or circumstances; Virginia Woolf's feminism is hard to truly understand unless contextualized within the mores of the highly restrained, upper-class English society of her time.

juxtapose

Place side by side (either physically or in a metaphorical way, such as to make a comparison) Making a decision between two engagement rings from two different stores was difficult, he noted—it would be much easier if he could juxtapose them and compare them directly.

euphony

Pleasing or sweet sound, especially as formed by a harmonious use of words Poetry in translation can keep its meaning, but often loses the euphony the poet worked so laboriously to create.

burnish [v]

Polish, make smooth and lustrous; Mr. Hoffenstotter replaced all of the rustic wood doorknobs with newer models made of burnished steel. "So shiny," said his delighted wife.

pervasive

Poverty is pervasive in our school system; 65% of students receive free or reduced-price lunch.

approbation [n]

Praise or approval, especially formal approval; In her speech for class president, she won the approbation of her peers by promising not only to save the prom, but to raise enough money to make it free for everyone.

kudos

Praise, honor, congratulations "Kudos on your amazing GRE score!" said the teacher. / While the critics weren't impressed, the play received plentiful kudos from the audience.

gestation

Pregnancy; the period from conception until birth of an animal or (metaphorically) of an idea or plan The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months, more than twice as long as that of humans!

sanction

Professional boxers may only fight in sanctioned matches—fighting outside the ring is prohibited. / America's sanctions on Cuba mean that it is illegal for Americans to do business with Cuban companies.

eminent

Prominent, distinguished, of high rank The undergraduate shocked everyone by asking the eminent old professor, "Really? What makes you such an expert?" / "Your Eminence!" said the bishop to the Pope, "Don't forget this copy of your speech!"

pugilism

Pugilism has been called "the sweet science" by some, but others feel that hitting other people in the head until they can't get up isn't much of a sport.

distill

Purify; extract the essential elements of While traveling in certain countries, it is important to only drink distilled water so you don't get sick. / Bob, it's not necessary to read your entire PowerPoint presentation to us—can you just distill it down to the main point?

virulent

Racism is a virulent force that corrupts schools, workplaces, and the basic machinery of democracy. / Discipline in the classroom is one thing, but the teacher's virulence towards misbehaving students was enough to get her suspended from teaching.

enhance

Raise to a higher value, desirability, etc. The cosmetics industry stays in business because so many people want to enhance their appearances.

elevate

Raise, lift up; lift the spirits of; move up to a higher rank or status or raise up to a higher spiritual or intellectual plane After a year getting coffee and making copies, he hoped to be promoted to a more elevated position suitable for a law school graduate. / Our goal here at Morality Publishing is not just to sell books, but to elevate our readers.

undermine

Rather than searching impartially for the truth, these pharmaceutical company "scientists" willfully ignored any evidence that undermined the conclusion they were being paid to produce. / You are nice to my face, but you are undermining me behind my back, suggesting to others in the office that I am making mistakes in my work and that you have been fixing them!

imminent

Ready to occur, impending In the face of imminent war, the nation looked to FDR for reassurance. / Everyone was excited and nervous; Madonna's arrival was imminent!

contumacious [adj]

Rebellious; stubbornly disobedient; The psychologist's book Dealing With Your Contumacious Teenager would have sold many more copies to parents of rude and rebellious youth if only people knew what contumacious meant.

precarious

Recognizing that his position at the company was precarious, Sanjay requested that his bonus structure be formally written down as a contract, rather than dangled over him as a mere verbal promise.

conciliatory [adj]

Reconciling, appeasing, attempting to make the peace The hotel manager was horrified at how the guest had been treated, and approached him in a conciliatory manner, offering him numerous freebies and apologizing repeatedly.

florid

Reddish or rosy; flowery, showy, or excessively fancy His writing was so florid that it was hard for modern readers to understand, and unintentionally humorous when they did. He once called a woman in a hoop skirt a "confection of gossamer-clad ephemerality, the bounty of her raiment ringing in my turgid heart like the tintinnabulation of so many church bells."

grandiloquent [adj]

Relating to lofty speech, esp. to the point of being pompous, overblown, bombastic After memorizing 1,000 vocabulary flashcards for the GRE, Derek couldn't help but become a little grandiloquent, declaring his desire to "abscond from my familial domicile and satisfy my penchant for erudition." "You can do that later," said his mother, "but now it's your turn to do the dishes."

inexorable

Relentless, unyielding; not moved by pleading Many people fled Europe in the face of Hitler's inexorable march across the continent.

germane [adj]

Relevant and appropriate, on-topic; This is a business meeting, not a social club—let's keep our comments germane to the issue of the new campaign.

contrite [adj]

Remorseful; feeling sorry for one's offenses or sins; He would have punished his son more severely for breaking his car's windshield in a "rock throwing contest," but the boy seemed truly contrite.

rife

Reports of financial corruption are rife.

effigy

Representation or image of a person, esp. a crude facsimile used to mock a hated person The dictator was disturbed to look out the palace window and see himself being burned in effigy. "That paper mache dummy doesn't even look like me!" he said.

deference [n]

Respectful submission; yielding to the authority or opinion of another; In many cultures, young people are expected to show deference to older people at all times. I'm not an expert in databases—I'll defer to our programmers on that decision. Ingrid deferred her college admissions for a year so she could travel the world.

conundrum [n]

Riddle, the answer to which involves a play on words; any mystery; A classic conundrum is "What's black and white and red all over?" The answer, of course, is a newspaper. How to count the entire population accurately—including those without fixed addresses—is a bit of a conundrum.

asperity [n]

Rigor, severity; harshness or sharpness of tone; roughness of surface Used to a more lax school environment, the freshman at military school was shocked by the asperity of punishments meted out for even the most minor offenses, as well as the asperity with which his drill sergeant bossed him around. The asperity of her cheap, scratchy sweater made her wish she could afford cashmere.

erudite

Scholarly, knowledgeable; possessing deep, often systematic knowledge Some have said that Americans dislike erudite leaders; while German leaders frequently have Ph.D.'s, even speaking a foreign language is considered pretentious by many American voters.

gouge

Scooping or digging tool, like a chisel, or a hole made with such a tool (noun); cut or scoop out; force out a person's eye with one's thumb; swindle, extort money from (verb) I was happy with this new video game console for a day or two, until I saw it advertised all over town for half the price and realized I'd been gouged. / He loves gory horror films, where people's eyes are gouged out and gross stuff like that.

shard

Seeing her broken plate-glass window, Mrs. Chadhury bravely grabbed a shard of glass to defend herself against a possible burglar.

axiom [n]

Self-evident truth requiring no proof; universally or generally accepted principle Given the last decade of research into the brain—as well as our own experience trying to function while deprived of sleep or food—we must take as axiomatic that the brain is influenced by the body.

autonomous [adj]

Self-governing, independent As leader of an autonomous region, the newly-elected president was received as a peer by some world leaders, although he was not entitled to send a representative to the United Nations. It is normal for young people to desire greater autonomy as they grow up.

discrete

Separate, distinct, detached, existing as individual parts Be sure to use quotation marks and citations as appropriate in your paper in order to keep your ideas discrete from those of the experts you are quoting. / The advertising agency pitched us not on one campaign, but on three discrete ideas.

appropriate [v]

Set aside or authorize (such as money) for a particular purpose; take for one's own use The school board appropriated money for new textbooks. In putting together the perfect outfit for Career Day at her high school, Mackenzie appropriated her mother's stethoscope and her little brother's stuffed pig, making it clear to everyone that she wanted to be a veterinarian.

licentious

Sexually unrestrained; immoral; ignoring the rules The licentious behavior Joe was accustomed to practicing at the local strip club was enough to get him thrown out of a nice restaurant and fired from his new job.

effrontery

Shameless boldness Mr. Jackson thought his daughter's boyfriend guilty of the worst effrontery when he asked for her hand in marriage—and, as soon as Mr. Jackson gave his blessing, followed up by asking for a job at Mr. Jackson's company.

morose

She had always been a happy child, but once she hit high school and decided to become a goth, she adopted a morose attitude to match her all-black clothing.

predilection

She has completed teacher training allowing her to teach grades K-6, but she discovered that she really has a predilection for teaching kindergarten.

obsolete

She kept her old laptop so long that it was obsolete—she couldn't sell it on Craigslist, and the local elementary school didn't even want it as a donation. / When you look up a word in the dictionary and see "Archaic" next to a definition, that means that definition is obsolete—people don't use the word that way anymore, although you might want to know that meaning if you're reading old texts.

sublime

She loved visiting Gothic churches, which truly filled even a nonbeliever with a sense of the sublime. / It was sublime idiocy that caused him to invest all his money in the market without doing any research. / This dinner is sublime! I will leave a glowing review on Yelp!

pathological

She thought her skin darkening was simply a result of the sun, but it was actually pathological, the result of a serious disease. / I can't believe you stole from the Make a Wish Foundation—you're pathological!

overshadow

She was a straight-A student who excelled at field hockey, but she still felt overshadowed by her older sister, who won a national science competition for her work on cancer in mice, and also had time to become a pole vaulting champion and model who walked in Fashion Week.

resolve

She was resolved to find a marrow donor for her son, and led a stunningly successful drive to get people to sign up for a national donor registry. Even when no match was found for her son in the first year, her resolve was undampened.

mendacious

She was so mendacious that, when she broke the television, she blamed it on her little brother, even though he was in a wheelchair and could hardly have tipped over a piece of furniture. Her mendacity knows no bounds!

slight

She was very sensitive, always holding a grudge against her coworkers for a variety of slights, both real and imagined. / Natalie Portman has always been slight, but she became even thinner to portray a ballerina in Black Swan. / I felt slighted when my husband told you about his promotion before he told me.

refute

She's not a very valuable member of the debate team, actually—she loves making speeches, but she's not very good at refuting opponents' arguments.

luminous

Shining, radiant, well-lit; brilliant or enlightening Use our new light-reflecting shimmer blush for a luminous complexion! / We are conferring this honorary degree on the author in appreciation for sharing his luminous intellect with the world. He is truly a luminary.

eschew

Shun, avoid, abstain from As a vegan, he eschewed not only meat and dairy but also anything made of leather.

dilatory

Slow, late; procrastinating or stalling for time Jack was supposed to start his presentation 10 minutes ago and he isn't even here? I'm not surprised—he's a dilatory fellow.

hackneyed

So commonplace as to be stale; not fresh or original This screenplay is so hackneyed—the leading lady has a quirky, artsy job in the city and has a minor problem early in the movie from which the male lead rescues her, and they get together but then break up due to a misunderstanding, and then they end up together anyway, all while the female lead's "sassy" friend gives advice. Ugh. I'll bet they're auditioning Jennifer Aniston right now.

gregarious

Sociable, pertaining to a flock or crowd "We need to be a little more productive and a little less gregarious," said the chemistry teacher when he saw that the two-person lab groups had devolved into clusters of five and six students standing around talking and laughing.

pious

Some matrimonial websites catering to conservative religious groups contain listings for young women that feature testimonials from the woman's relatives about her piety. Naturally, only similarly pious suitors need apply.

opprobrium

Some young starlets seem to think a DUI offense isn't such a big deal, but drunk driving deserves opprobrium—driving under the influence maims and kills innocent people every year.

buffer [n]

Something that shields, protects, absorbs shock, or cushions; During the colonial era, England wanted Georgia as a buffer between its original colonies and Spanish Florida. A railroad car has a buffer (similar to a bumper on a car) to absorb shock in case of contact with other cars. When Joel came out to his family, he used his mother as a buffer—he knew she would be supportive, so he allowed her to relay the news to everyone else, and to relay their responses back to him.

lull

Soothe or cause to fall asleep (as in a lullaby); quiet down; make to feel secure, sometimes falsely (verb); a period of calm or quiet (noun) Tisha always tried to be polite—if she had to slip out of class to use the bathroom, she waited for a lull in the action so as not to attract too much attention. / Grandma's singing lulled the baby to sleep—much as, in her work as a spy during World War II, Grandma used her beauty and charm to lull foreign dignitaries into giving up their secrets.

listless

Spiritless, lacking interest or energy I'm too tired to care about homework," mumbled the listless child, staring blankly at the wall. "Maybe if someone brought me a glass of milk and a cookie...

crescendo [n]

Steady increase in force, intensity, or the loudness of a musical passage; a climactic moment or peak Mrs. Higgins did love the symphony, but she was also coming down with a migraine—by the time the music reached its towering crescendo, her head was pounding. The administration tried to ignore the protest, but finally had to address the issue when the demonstration reached a crescendo.

fortify

Strengthen, invigorate, encourage The white bread found in American grocery stores has been stripped of all the nutrients naturally found in wheat, and then artificially fortified with vitamins and minerals. / The general called for reinforcements to fortify the defenses around the capital.

circumscribe [v]

Strictly limit a role, range of activity, or area; in math, to be constructed around so as to touch as many points as possible; Suki's parent circumscribed her after-school activities; she was permitted only to study and to join organizations directly related to academic subjects. A square circumscribed in a circle has all four of its vertices on the circle's circumference. Our land is circumscribed by hedges and fences.

hew

Strike, chop, or hack (as with an axe, sword. etc.); make or shape something (such as a statue) with a cutting tool The pioneer had to hew his own way through the brush in order to proceed westward. / She preferred rustic furniture; her dining room chairs were little more than stumps roughly hewn into stools.

fluke

Stroke of luck, something accidentally successful It's amazing that I won the prize during halftime, but I guarantee you, it was just a fluke that I made that basket—if I tried a thousand more times, I'm sure I couldn't do it again.

euphemism

Substitution of a mild, inoffensive, or indirect expression for one that is considered offensive or too direct Many euphemisms surround death and disease; rather than "Joe died of cancer," many people feel better saying "Joe's suffering is finally over." / When potty training their children, some parents use hilarious euphemisms for body parts.

brook [v]

Suffer or tolerate; "You will do your homework every night before you go anywhere, you will do your chores, and you will be home by 9 p.m. I will brook no disobeying of these rules, young man!"

connote [v]

Suggest or imply in addition to the precise, literal meaning; The word "titanic" simply means large or majestic, but because of the word's association with the sunken ship, "titanic" has a negative connotation to many people.

expedient

Suitable, proper; effective, often at the expense of ethics or other considerations "I need this report by 2pm, and I don't care what you have to do to make that happen," said the boss. "I expect you to deal with it expediently." / When invited to a wedding you cannot attend, it is expedient to send a gift.

buttress [v, n]

Support or encourage (verb); a support or prop esp. projecting from and supporting the wall of a building (noun) A self-defense class really helped to buttress Elaine's confidence. David used his Ph.D. as a buttress against criticism. "I have a doctorate," he would say. "I just don't think you can understand."

document

Support with evidence, cite sources in a detailed way, create documentary evidence of Journalists embedded with military units are able to document a war as it happens. / It's hard to deny her conclusion when her book is so well documented—she cites a relevant scientific study on practically every page.

Fleece

Swindle or dupe; to deprive of money or belongings by fraud, hoax

doff

Take off (such as clothes), put aside; remove one's hat as a gesture Before the spring break revelers could consider doffing their clothes, they saw the sign: "No skinny dipping." / In my grandfather's day, it was considered polite to doff your hat when a lady entered the room; to us today, lifting your hat a few inches off your head and then putting it right back seems to some like a silly way to show respect.

loquacious

Talkative, wordy The loquacious professor spoke at a million miles an hour and still regularly talked past the scheduled end time of the class.

tawdry

Tara modeled her prom look after something she saw in a Pussycat Dolls video. Her mom didn't care for it, but her grandmother found it downright tawdry.

inculcate

Teach persistently, implant (an idea) in a person Parents spend years trying to inculcate morality in their children, constantly teaching and correcting them.

abeyance [n]

Temporary suspension, inactivity The baseball player's contract negotiations are in abeyance while doctors try to determine whether his injuries will heal in time for the season.

travesty

That Saturday Night Live sketch was a pretty good travesty of the election scandal. / You call that a sales presentation? What you just did in front of our clients was a travesty! I can't believe you lost what was supposed to be an easy sale.

unearth

The ACLU's Prison Project works tirelessly to unearth evidence from old cases that might exonerate innocent people who have spent years or even decades in prison. / The archaeologist unearthed what appears to be the world's oldest known gravesite, showing that the earliest humans cared for their deceased loved ones.

prodigious

The Great Wall of China consists of a prodigious series of fortifications stretching over 5,000 miles! / If we don't double our sales with this new product, we will have to declare bankruptcy—we have a prodigious task ahead.

preamble

The Preamble to the Constitution is a brief introduction that begins, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union..." / The unusual outfit the pop star wore to her first awards ceremony was a mere preamble to a career of full-blown crazy dressing.

unseemly

The activist really did want to get the candidate's support for the equal-rights measure, so she did what the candidate's aides asked—but she found it very unseemly that they suggested a specific dollar amount for the "donation" she was asked to make in order to get a meeting.

orotund

The actor James Earl Jones has long been sought after for voiceover work as well as acting jobs because of his dignified, orotund voice.

rhetoric

The ancient Greeks used to study rhetoric as a major academic subject. Today, if you want to improve your rhetorical skills, you will probably have to hunt down a public speaking class or join Toastmasters. / The politician's blather is all rhetoric and no substance.

propitiate

The ancient Greeks would often attempt to propitiate angry gods by sacrificing animals to them.

salient

The attack on our organization was mostly just partisan bickering, but it did have a few salient points that I think we should respond to. / The windowless prison's side wall had only one salient feature, a sculpture of the state bird jutting out from the building.

profligate

The billionaire software developer was so disgusted with his profligate daughter's spending that he cut her off—she had bought champagne for an entire nightclub full of strangers one too many times.

ethos

The character, personality, or moral values specific to a person, group, time period, etc. At the prep school, the young man happily settled into an ethos of hard work and rigorous athletic competition.

gamut [n]

The complete range or scope of something; Anger, jealousy, possessiveness, suspicion, aggression - Harry experiences a whole gamut of human emotions, but seems to able to control them much better that he did in The Phoenix.

stark

The designer's work is appreciated for its stark beauty, but most people prefer to live in a cozier, more welcoming home—the kind with carpets and pillows, for instance. / She is stark raving mad! / The stark reality is that we will have to begin burning our furniture for warmth if we are to survive.

presumptive

The dictator's favorite nephew is the presumptive heir to power, but anything could happen. / He's the presumptive winner of the election—we haven't counted all the votes, but at this point it's almost mathematically impossible for the other guy to win.

munificent

The elderly titan of industry was notoriously miserly, sometimes called "the cheapest man alive." But his wife was quite munificent, and after his death, she used his fortune to support numerous charities and to buy a house for their longtime maid.

obdurate

The first mate reported that there was some fuzzy shape on the horizon, but the captain insisted that the instruments showed no such object, and obdurately sailed straight ahead—right into an iceberg. / This obdurate criminal should never be let out on parole—he simply cannot be reformed.

rescind

The governor rescinded his proclamation making September 10th "Pastafarian Day" once someone told him it wasn't a real religion.

voluble

The journalist's new book is a voluble tome, covering three centuries of history with numerous flowing, almost conversational asides into the scientific discoveries and cultural advances of various time periods.

ridden

The neighborhood was ridden with crime. / In this corruption-ridden nation, you simply have to pay bribes if you want anything to get done.

pungent

The new assistant chef received some rather pungent criticism from the head chef for her idea to make feta cheese soup, which the customers found much too pungent.

prologue

The novel's prologue gives some historical background so that the main story can be better understood in context.

eclipse

The obscuring of one thing by another, such as the sun by the moon or a person by a more famous or talented person (noun); to obscure, darken, make less important (verb) During a solar eclipse, the moon eclipses the Sun. / Billy Ray Cyrus, who had a hit song, "Achy Breaky Heart," in the '90s, has long since found his fame eclipsed by that of his daughter, Miley.

propriety

The parent questioned the propriety of the punishment meted out to her son—sitting in a corner all day seemed a little harsh for using the pencil sharpener at the wrong time. / Saying the accounting firm was complicit in "financial impropriety" was a rather polite way to refer to the fraud it committed against its investors.

stratagem

The party's stratagem was to dig up a scandal on their candidate's opponent, and then release the photos the day before the election, leaving the opponent no time to defend himself before voters took to the polls.

untempered

The report was an untempered condemnation of the company's practices—the investigators didn't have a single good thing to say.

modest

The reporter was surprised that the celebrity lived in such a modest house, one that looked just like every other plain, two-story house on the block. / Her first job out of college was a rude awakening—her modest salary was barely enough for rent, much less going out and having fun.

squelch

The repressive government squelched the rebellion immediately. / Ew, I just squelched a slug in my bare feet!

puerile

The retiring film critic decried the puerile humor common in so many modern American movies, pointing out that the classic comedies of the '40s were so much smarter and less reliant on jokes about bodily functions.

commensurate [adj]

The same in size, extent, etc. equivalent; proportional; According to the course catalog, you may take Advanced Japanese following Japanese III or commensurate experience with the language.

opaque

The school dress code required opaque tights under skirts—the rules specified that sheer stockings were unacceptable. / Rena was tragically opaque—when her boyfriend said "I want to see other people," she thought he meant he needed glasses.

scathing

The school superintendant gave a scathing criticism of the education bill, calling it "an attack on our community's children that will surely do down in infamy." / How is it possible that she flew off her bicycle like that and walked away unscathed?

trenchant

The school's trenchant new antitruancy policy immediately increased class attendance by a noticeable margin. / Claudia would have gone on making excuses for hours had Juan not trenchantly stepped in and said, "You want to quit, right?" "Yes!" she said, quite relieved.

qualified

The scientist gave her qualified endorsement to the book, pointing out that, while it posed a credible theory, more research was still needed before the theory could be applied.

meretricious

The singer performed her concert draped in what looked from far away like precious jewels. Up close, though, the fan could see that the accessories were just meretricious plastic, glittery junk, like what little girls buy at the mall.

pastiche

The slickly-produced boy band's first album was deeply unimaginative, just a pastiche of every other boy band album ever produced.

knell

The sound made by a bell for a funeral, or any sad sound or signal of a failure, death, ending, etc. (noun); to make such a sound (verb) The Senate minority leader's speech was a death knell for the bill; all hope of bipartisan cooperation was lost.

synchronous

The sound of that bell is a signal for the dancers to make perfectly synchronous entrances from opposite sides of the stage. / The two nearby churches have synchronous church bells—if you stand halfway between the buildings as the bells chime out the hour, it sounds really cool!

pre-empt

The speaker attempted to preempt an excessively long Q&A session by handing out a "Frequently Asked Questions" packet at the beginning of the seminar.

stentorian

The substitute teacher had a hard time calling the rowdy class to order. He poked his head into the hallway and flagged down the football coach walking by, who shut down the chaos immediately with a stentorian "Sit down and shut up!"

reactant

The two men had been rivals since high school; when both were elected to the city council, they became reactants in the worsening deadlock of an already-polarized city government.

plutocracy

There have always been rich and poor people, of course, but some argue that the U.S. is becoming a plutocracy, with the richest 10% controlling two-thirds of the nation's wealth and nearly half of our Congressional representatives being millionaires.

cynical [adj]

Thinking the worst of others' motivations; bitterly pessimistic; Shilpa was so cynical that even when her friends threw her a surprise party, she figured that they only did it so they wouldn't feel so guilty about all the mean things they must be saying behind her back.

ubiquitous

Thirty years ago, women would lie about coloring their hair, considering the admission embarrassing. Today, blatantly fake hair color—not to mention fake tans and unnaturally white teeth—are ubiquitous, not only on starlets, but even on the checkers at the local grocery store. / Maggie learned in Sunday school that God was ubiquitous, leading to the question nearly all children ask when they hear this: "Does that mean God sees me in the bathroom?"

replete

This essay is replete with errors—I don't think you even bothered to use spellcheck, much less carefully edit your work.

desiccate

Thoroughly dried up, dehydrated The key to maintaining odor-free shoes is to desiccate the insole by placing a drying agent, such as a small pouch of baking soda, inside the shoe between wears. / Beef jerky is a desiccated meat product.

sentient

Tia became a vegan because she refused to eat any sentient creature. / Look at the mold in your fridge! Let it grow any more, it might become sentient!

dilate

To become wider or make wider, cause to expand; to speak or write at length, elaborate upon The doctor gave her eye drops to make her pupils dilate. / These dinners at Professor Hwang's house usually run rather late—after the meal, he'll typically dilate on his latest research for at least an hour.

Galvanize

To excite to action or spur on;

Tender

To offer something, usually formally

Start

To suddenly move or dart in a particular direction

Underwrite

To support financially

Mulct

To swindle or defraud; to fine someone

Flush

To turn red; To be in abundance; To drive out of hiding;

inure

Toughen up; accustom or habituate to pain, hardship, etc. Having had over a dozen surgeries before she was 10, spending months at a time in the hospital, she considered herself inured to pain and disappointment.

Quisling

Traitor

flout

Treat with disdain, contempt, or scorn (usually of rules) He flouted the boarding school's curfew so blatantly that, on his way back from a party that lasted past midnight, he actually stopped by the headmaster's house to say hello to his daughter.

chicanery [n]

Trickery, deception by knowingly false arguments The defense lawyer's strategy for getting her client acquitted by knowingly misinterpreting words in an obscure precedent was nothing but chicanery. Nice try, passing off last week's homework as this week's by changing the date at the top. I've had enough of your chicanery, young man!

viscid or viscous

Ugh, what did you spill on this floor? It's too viscous to be absorbed by these paper towels. Is this hair conditioner? / Teaching a troop of Cub Scouts to make maple syrup means cleaning the viscid substance off uniforms, boys, and every other object those boys touch.

consolidate [v]

Unite, combine, solidify, make coherent; She consolidated her student loans so she would only have to make one payment per month. As group leader, Muriel will consolidate all of our research into a single report.

catholic [adj]

Universal, broad-minded Some precursors to the Constitution (such as documents governing the colonies) enumerated the rights of male property holders only. The U.S. Constitution took a more catholic approach, declaring that "All men are created equal." Today, policy writers would probably take catholicism a step further and write "All people."

hapless

Unlucky, unfortunate Hiring this hapless new office manager was a mistake—he's always losing and breaking things, as though bad luck simply follows wherever he goes.

fractious

Unruly, troublemaking; irritable The Students for Progressive Action were a fractious bunch, always fighting with one another over exactly which progressive action should take priority.

goad

Urge on (as cattle) with a pointed or electrically charged stick; spur on, stimulate, encourage He never forgave his friends for goading him into spray-painting the school with them. While the effect was temporarily hilarious, he lost a scholarship over the incident.

equivocate

Use unclear language to deceive or avoid committing to a position Not wanting to lose supporters, the politician equivocated on the issue, tossing out buzzwords related to each side while also claiming more study was needed.

audacious [adj]

Very bold or brave, often in a rude or reckless way; extremely original He audaciously asked for a raise after working at the company for less than two months!

cogent [adj]

Very convincing, logical; Studying logic is an excellent way to improve at formulating cogent arguments. Nurses who work in the Alzheimer's ward must develop skills for communicating with people who are often not cogent.

fervid

Very hot; heated in passion or enthusiasm He is a fervid fan of Virginia Tech football, so much so that we've all gotten used to receiving "Go Hokies!" hats and shirts for every birthday.

hoary

Very old, gray or white as from old age Hoary with age, his white beard making his age obvious even from the top of the bleachers, the old man surprised everyone when he was able to make a free throw. / Dad, I've heard your hoary old college fraternity stories a hundred times.

diaphanous

Very sheer, fine, translucent The wedding dress was a confection of diaphanous silk, made of at least ten layers of the thin fabric, each layer of which was so fine you could see through it.

invective

Violent denunciation; accusations, insults, or verbal abuse Although the money was good, she quit her job after nearly having a nervous breakdown from her boss's invective.

lumber

Walk in a heavy or clumsy way, sometimes due to being weighed down Alicia was a model and was accustomed to walking everywhere as though on a catwalk, so she was quite displeased when she broke her leg and had to lumber around in a cast, thumping the ground everywhere she went.

forage [v]

Wander in search of; rummage, hunt, make a raid It's important to seal your trash cans tightly in this neighborhood, or else you'll get raccoons foraging for food in your backyard.

pare

We need to pare down our budget if we're going to survive on unemployment for a while. / She simplified her life by paring commitments from her schedule.

attenuate [v]

Weaken or thin out When you pull a piece of bubblegum so that it becomes long and thin, you are attenuating it. Sadly, the day care center was so understaffed that the carers' efforts were attenuated, and many of the children barely received any attention at all.

enervate

Weaken, tire After taking the SAT in the morning and playing in a soccer game in the afternoon, Trina was truly enervated before the prom even began. "You dance like a grandmother with osteoporosis," said her date.

pallid

When Eric left the office mid-day, we knew from the pallor that had overtaken him that he really was getting sick. / We need this blog to really hit hard against the special interest groups ruining our country, and your pallid writing isn't doing it—you're going to bore people to death with this wimpy prose.

unprecedented

When Nixon resigned, American bravado was at an all-time low—the resignation of a sitting President was disgraceful and unprecedented.

vanguard

While Google has won the search engine wars, in 1994, Yahoo was on the vanguard of search technology.

preternatural

While Tiger Woods has been mired in scandal, his preternatural golfing talent is still undeniable. / Dad was convinced that the house was haunted, but I doubted that the strange sounds were due to preternatural causes—as it turned out, we had a raccoon in the basement.

transitory

While a few people marry their high school sweethearts, generally, our teenage years are full of transitory crushes.

militate

While his resume was stellar, his speech impediment militated against his performance in job interviews.

somatic

While some depression is caused by outside forces (the death of a loved one, for instance), many cases of depression have a somatic cause—for instance, postpartum depression can be related to hormones and physical changes associated with pregnancy and childbirth.

modish

While some sculptors sought to make their work universal and timeless, Dania sculpted modish creations that captured the pop cultural zeitgeist—for instance, a sculpture of Rihanna with an umbrella, or a three-foot high representation of the latest Alexander McQueen heels.

fanciful

Whimsical, capricious; imaginary; freely imaginative rather than based on reason or reality The play was set in a fanciful version of New York City, one where all the cab drivers spoke perfect English and the Statue of Liberty seemed to be in the middle of the island.

umbrage

With 30 years' experience in the field and quite recent successes on a variety of projects, the executive understandably took umbrage when a coworker suggested that he was good to have around to remind others of "ancient history."

scintilla

With not one scintilla of food in the house, the pioneer woman resorted to desperate means, boiling weeds and even shoe leather to feed her children.

turpitude

Worried about her grandson's turpitude—as evinced by his constant detentions and a three-day stay in a juvenile jail—Mrs. Worthington offered to pay for military school. / It's hard to fathom the kind of turpitude required to make a movie that could get banned in modern-day Europe! When I read the screenplay, I nearly threw up.

estimable

Worthy of esteem, admirable; able to be estimated As the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, Barack Obama presented an estimable resume when he ran for president in 2008. / Riding a roller coaster is safer than driving on the highway, but there is still an estimable risk.

laudable

Worthy of praise When a major discount mart fired several employees for subduing a gunman, most people considered the action a laudable act of heroism, but the discount chain fired the employees for "violating company policies." Nevertheless, the mayor lauded the former employees in a medal-granting ceremony.

novel

You can make your writing better by eliminating clichés and replacing those clichés with more novel turns of speech. / Smoked salmon on a pizza? That's certainly a novel idea.

substantiate

You say you were at home when the crime occurred two towns over—is there anyone who can substantiate your claim? / Your business ideas are interesting, but you never substantiate them—you haven't put a single plan into action.

neologism

You won't find "fauxhawk" in the dictionary—it's a neologism that describes a fake mohawk (faux means fake and is pronounced "foe") created by sculpting the hair into a mohawk-like crest without actually shaving the sides.

jibe [n, v]

[n] An insulting or mocking remark; a taunt; [v] Be in accord; agree; You don't agree with them, you offer opinions that don't jibe with theirs and you get a target on your back. Now a gaffe by the Highways Agency and the county council has left Lancastrians open to gibes from their Yorkshire neighbours.

touchstone[n]

a basis for comparison; a reference point against which other things can be evaluated As Hopper started thinking about "Easy Rider," an instant counterculture touchstone when it was released in 1969, he turned his lens on biker gangs. —New York Times (May 3, 2013)

bravado [n]

a bold manner or a show of boldness intended to impress or intimidate; Swagger and arrogance is all very well but until that huge European Cup is hoisted aloft it is merely bluster and bravado.

cabal [n]

a clique (often secret) that seeks power usually through intrigue But he also sketched out a darker possibility, in which his son is being held prisoner, politically speaking, by a right-wing cabal.

crony [n]

a close friend or companion; Critics dismissed him as a political crony with little emergency-services experience. All that's needed is the support of a few like-minded political cronies and hey presto!

chum [n]

a close friend; Historians agree Alexander and his beloved Haphaestion were more than battle mates and boyhood chums.

farce[n]

a comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations The polls in Zimbabwe had barely closed when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai characterized the July 31 presidential election as "a huge farce." —Time (Aug 3, 2013)

ramification[n]

a consequence; a branching out; He said: "The ramifications of not returning to the negotiating table are dozens of times weightier than releasing the prisoners." —BBC (Aug 14, 2013)

predicament

a difficult, unpleasant, or embarrassing situation; The governor has gotten himself into quite a predicament. I don't know how to get out of the predicament I'm in. The captain of archers fidgeted and coughed and rolled his eyes at his men, as if such cupidity and dishonor were an inevitable but minor aspect of the human predicament ...

turncoat[n]

a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause, religion, political party or friend etc. In the past such turncoats have felt the full might of the tax haven banking industry come down on them. —The Guardian (May 10, 2013)

mandate[n]

a document giving an official instruction or command The mandate includes not working overtime or rest days, and not performing any additional duties outside their job description and terms and conditions of employment. —BBC (Aug 16, 2013)

libel[n]

a false and malicious publication printed for the purpose of defaming a living person Eberhard resigned under contentious circumstances and later sued Musk for libel. —BusinessWeek (Sep 14, 2012)

xenophobia [n]

a fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers My mother's xenophobia is so great that she refuses to cross the border into Canada, and once told me that she'd rather die than try a mango because those foreign fruits are "sketchy.",

injunction[n]

a formal command or admonition This would include putting up signs on the walls, especially near elevators, with one central injunction: take the stairs. But they have pulled out after Volkswagen's parent company obtained an interim injunction from the British High Court on 25 June.

sobriety[n]

a manner that is serious and solemn "You're going to hell, you're doomed, and your 12 years of sobriety are over." —Washington Post (Aug 16, 2013)

microcosm[n]

a miniature model of something All this, along with the strip club Scores and a few surviving warehouses, makes it a true microcosm of New York City. —New York Times (Aug 31, 2012)

foible[n]

a minor character flaw; Still, some residents said they planned to vote for Mr. Weiner, despite his foibles. —New York Times (Aug 1, 2013)

potpourri

a miscellaneous collection; The festival was a musical potpourri—performances included folk, jazz, blues, and rap music. a potpourri of hit songs from the last 10 years

affinity [n]

a natural attraction or feeling of kinship; Similarly, in mathematics, new teaching strategies can help students discover an affinity for numbers.

respite[n]

a period of rest or relief; Curl up, watch these classics, and enjoy an air-conditioned respite from the actual summer. Back home, talk of the Woods-Shores Little League team is a welcome respite from the daily bankruptcy news coming out of nearby Detroit.

patrician[n]

a person of noble birth; an aristocrat; He was a handsome, breezy, kind-hearted patrician of thirty-four, and considered Trades Unions a damned interfering nuisance. —Hay, Ian

mandarin

a person of standing and influence, as in literary or intellectual circles; the officious mandarins in the motor vehicles department refused to let me renew my license without all of the required forms George Clayton was more than a distinguished academic, he was a mandarin whose advice was heeded by governments on three continents.

anathema [n]

a person or thing detested or loathed; For all those reasons - academic, religious, cultural - mission schools like Fort Hare were anathema to Afrikaner nationalists.

cynosure [n]

a person or thing that is the centre of attention or admiration Soon after entering the room, he became conscious of being under all eyes—both male and female: in short, their cynosure. At small literary reunions he is the cynosure of all eyes.

philistine [n]

a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts; Her date was very handsome, but she decided he was an absolute philistine when he said that documentaries were "boring" and that the "best picture" Oscar should go to Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D.

stalwart

a person who is loyal to their allegiance (especially in times of revolt)

expatriate[n, v]

a person who is voluntarily absent from home or country; (v) expel from a country; The businesses are vital especially for Somali expatriates sending money back home, where banking facilities have collapsed. —BBC (Jul 17, 2013)

charisma [n]

a personal attractiveness or interestingness that enables you to influence others Eland thinks presidential ratings are too easily swayed by charisma, activism and service during a crisis.

confluence [n]

a place where things merge or flow together (especially rivers) In a rare confluence, Roman Polanski was scheduled to show up three times — none in person — at the festival this year. Just as a combination of meteorological forces made for a particularly harsh storm, sports was spared Monday by a confluence of elements.

demarche [n]

a political step or initiative The German demarche thus precipitated this drama's second act which has begun in Ireland. —The Guardian (Nov 25, 2010)

corollary [n]

a practical consequence that follows naturally In places like the U.S. and continental Europe, medical management is about controlling costs, improving patient quality-of-life and, as a natural corollary, elevating treatment outcomes. —Forbes (Feb 8, 2013)

cadence [n]

a recurrent rhythmical series As we talked, I noticed our voices overlapping and moving in cadence together.

reprisal[n]

a retaliatory action against an enemy in wartime "We fear more reprisal attacks in the days to come but will never be intimidated to leave our homeland," Mrs Alexander said. —BBC (Aug 20, 2013)

allegory [n]

a short moral story (often with animal characters);a symbolic representation Mandela, taking back the microphone, then made the link to this allegory more explicit.

bout [n]

a short period of intense activity of a specified kind; an athletic match (as of boxing) To take advantage of this gender difference, challenge your guy to sports that have short to moderate bouts of intense activity broken up by rest periods. Thiamine can help improve your memory and recall, increase muscle control, and increase muscle endurance during short bouts of intense activity.

apothegm [n]

a short pithy instructive saying; He admires the kind of sustaining good humor that, as he writes about Dr. Johnson's apothegms, makes us "hug ourselves with pleasure."

portent[n]

a sign of something about to happen; an omen Beliefs in portents of various kinds, now mere nook and cranny superstitions, were once universal. —Dewey, John

covenant [n]

a signed written agreement between two or more parties After covenants were breached Foxtons' bankers moved in and BC found itself diluted down to minority shareholder status. —The Guardian (Jun 6, 2013)

litany

a sizable series or set; prayer ritual; He has a litany of grievances against his former employer. The team blamed its losses on a litany of injuries.

inkling [n]

a slight knowledge or suspicion; a hint; If she had the slightest inkling of the notion of democratic representation she would never be able to say this. He had it all mapped out and made certain Sally didn't have the slightest inkling that anything was up.

jeopardy[n]

a source of danger; a possibility of incurring loss or misfortune About 500 skilled engineering jobs in Glasgow and Milton Keynes have been put in jeopardy after rail fleet repair firm Railcare went into administration. / jeopardize -- pose a threat to; present a danger to; / Military prosecutors have called the 25-year-old defendant a "traitor" for publicly posting information that the U.S. government said could jeopardize national security and intelligence operations.

logorrhea

a tendency to extreme loquacity; the article suffers from the logorrhea that infects so much academic writing

gimmick[n]

a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or trade Edtech is no longer just a gimmick. and apps are poised to completely restructure the way we think about learning. Sale signs are another good gimmick, although nothing beats a well-executed raffle for free merchandise.

epigram[n]

a witty saying As we are hastily reading books and papers we continually come across maxims, epigrams, and short, pithy sayings that attract us. —McCarty, Louis Philippe

doyenne

a woman who is the senior member of a group

yoke [n]

a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plough or cart that they are to pull; cause (two people or things) to be joined in a close relationship; The speaker argued that humanity had traded the yoke of servitude to kings and tyrants for the yoke of consumerism, which enslaves us just as much in the end.

implication

act of implying or that which is implied; close connection, esp. in an incriminating way When the boss said, "Times are tight around here, I just think you should know," the implication was that maybe we should start looking for new jobs. / She implicated her boyfriend in the robbery after less than 20 minutes of interrogation.

condescending [adj]

acting superior to others; But nothing could be more patronising and condescending than his own view that being a farm labourer is an inadequate occupation.

sapient[adj]

acutely insightful and wise Though it sounds risk laden it is in fact a very sapient approach. Then he took the weed between his thumb and forefinger and delivered himself of this sapient observation: "You'll do, Bob.

encroach[v]

advance beyond the usual limit As he spoke, fights broke out farther up the street, after a car encroached into the march, apparently striking some protesters. Unfortunately, those doorways are precisely where building managers will want to stack sandbags to block encroaching water.

jarred

affect in a disagreeable way; shock physically Netanyahu has been jarred by Bennett's chipping away at his Likud party's support.

congenial [adj]

agreeably suitable; pleasant; Professor Brown, who studied the Egyptian judiciary and met with Mr. Mansour on several occasions, described him as pleasant, smiling and congenial, but very reserved. Over the remaining three hours, the scene became a congenial social gathering, the audience increasingly vociferous in its contributions.

despot[n]

an absolute ruler; an autocrat; This remains the single reason why brazenly corrupt and despot governments still hold sway in these African nations. —BBC (Jun 18, 2013)

bastardization

an act that debases or corrupts (a language, art form, etc.), typically by adding new elements; Please stop bastardising the language and GET YOUR GRAMMAR RIGHT. The low status of pidgin and Creole languages is generally a consequence of the fact that they have not been regarded as fully-fledged languages, but as corrupt and bastardized versions of some other language.

innuendo[n]

an allusive or oblique remark or hint, typically a suggestive or disparaging one; His reputation has been damaged by innuendos about his drinking and gambling. His reputation has been damaged by innuendo. The movie relies on sexual innuendo for its humor.

rampart[n]

an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes The white cliffs of England are beautiful and impressive as they show like gleaming ramparts defending green fields and fruitful valleys. The whole top of the hill is surrounded by a mighty rampart of earth, four hundred yards in diameter, that encloses over twenty acres. The business community once again took to the ramparts and collectively said "no" to being tied to their desktops. We're just wondering why you are so often alone out there on the ramparts.

wont [n]

an established custom; The Zimbabwean leader, for instance, is said to admire Britain's royal family, and is wont to use the regal "we" in speaking of himself. she paced about the room, as she is wont to do whenever she is agitated

exegesis

an explanation or critical interpretation (especially of the Bible) a psychobiography that purports to be the definitive exegesis of the late president's character

chimera [n]

an illusion; a foolish fancy; So to raid their college funds and her partner's savings account for the chimera of the perfect wedding is grotesque.

perquisite[n]

an incidental benefit awarded for certain types of employment (especially if it is regarded as a right) Other companies are more closely and publicly aligning pay for performance as well and shedding executive perquisites that may be considered unseemly. —Chicago Tribune (Apr 1, 2011)

foray [v]

an initial attempt (especially outside your usual areas of competence); briefly enter enemy territory or raid; A longtime reporter remembers his first foray into reporting on that a historic day, and mourns the movement's unfinished business.

binge [n]

an occasion for excessive eating or drinking; They can't do the student thing either - no all night drinking binges, no booze runs to France on the ferry, no freedom.

adage [adj]

an old saying; a familiar bit of wisdom; At this time every year market pundits trot out the old adage about selling in May and going away.

gambit

an opening remark intended to secure an advantage for the speaker; By seeming to slow any hint of a rush to war, the diplomatic gambit may make it easier to get some sort of motion through the Senate.

archetype [n]

an original model or pattern; Ms. Lumley in particular created an archetype that has often been copied, without going quite as far. He slowly got better at comedy, never lost sight of his goals, and eventually became his own archetype.

vagary [n]

an unexpected and inexplicable change in a situation or in someone's behaviour; We have always felt somewhat vulnerable to the vagaries of political change. The problem is that security in old age depends increasingly on the vagaries of the stock market. And even then the tournament fell victim to the vagaries of the British weather when the final was rained off for three days.

Embezzle

appropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use

becoming [adj]

appropriate; matching nicely; She did always wear a becoming light blue dress that seemed to be tailor made down to the seams.

marshal[v]

arrange in order; make ready for action or use; Jordan is expected to play a key role in marshaling Arab support for Middle East talks. —Washington Post (May 9, 2013)

hauteur

arrogance; haughtiness;

insolent[adj]

arrogant; insulting; He got up in a bad temper, and left the room, murmuring some insolent expressions. A tall, rangy teenager stood before the soldiers, an insolent grin spreading across his face.

contrived [adj]

artificial; labored; Even so, the Picker scenario feels decidedly more contrived than the parts of the movie that are vaguely based on reality.

factitious

artificially created or developed; presumably the statue is of factitious marble, because for that price you're not going to get the real stuff the factitious friendliness shown by the beauty-pageant contestants to one another

beset [v]

assail or attack on all sides; "The zebra was beset by leopards." In recent years, strikes and social unrest have erupted in Vietnam, which is beset by inflation, land rights abuses and venality. The city's government has been beset by corruption cases over the years.

sacerdotal

associated with the priesthood or priests

dumbfound

astonish

quaint [adj]

attractively unusual or old-fashioned; From the vantage point of our own auditory world, with its jets, jackhammers, HVAC systems, truck traffic, cellphones, horns, decibel-bloated restaurants and gyms on acoustical steroids, Schopenhauer's mid-19th century complaints sound almost quaint.

shirk

avoid doing (work, one's duty, etc) through laziness, cowardice, etc

cognizant [adj]

aware; conscious; Leaders must be cognizant about how they show up to the workplace every day.

Sullen

bad tempered and not speaking; (of weather) dark and unpleasant

cantankerous [adj]

bad-tempered; quarrelsome ; When the cantankerous old miller dies of a heart attack, he bequeaths his property to his eldest son, his donkey to the second, and the mill cat to his youngest son Mark.

bereave [v]

be deprived of a close relation or friend through their death; Many families have been bereaved following the deaths of men doing an honest day's work.

inhabit

be present in, live, stay

deplore

be shocked or offended by (sth); condemn Some people criticized anesthesia as a "needless luxury"; clergymen deplored its use to reduce pain during childbirth as a frustration of the Almighty's designs.

flounder

behave awkwardly; have difficulties

demeanor [n]

behavior toward others; He said his demeanour and attitude during questioning was not that of a man who had something to hide. Both men are renowned for their friendly demeanour and reassuring manner.

piety

being pious

brazen[adj]

bold and without shame Our correspondent says the brazen kidnapping took place just outside the airport, a few metres away from an army checkpoint. A brazen assault by Taliban militants on Tuesday cast doubt on attempts at peace talks. "We believe his brazen conduct spoke volumes about his disregard for the educational system," Mr. Stanton said.

gaunt

bony and emaciated in appearance; (of places) bleak or desolate; He left the hospital looking tired and gaunt. a gaunt factory on the edge of town

cerebral [adj]

brainy; intellectually refined At times, it also poses a moral quandary the highly cerebral professor isn't prepared for.

degenerate[v]

breakdown; deteriorate; Syria's two-year revolt began as peaceful protests but, under a fierce security force crackdown, degenerated into civil war. —Reuters (Jul 8, 2013)

incandescent[adj]

brilliant; giving off heat or light; Roth was in his first four features and starred incandescently in All About My Mother. Then came Thomas Edison and the incandescent light bulb and everything changed, including our sleeping habits.

spawn[v]

bring forth; produce a large number Players will find themselves in a world where NPC decisions are based on core values, not dictated by static spawn points. —Forbes (Aug 3, 2013)

crestfallen [adj]

brought low in spirit; Week after week, he roamed the streets of New York, looking for work, and every night returned to Hoboken, crestfallen and disappointed.

implode

burst inward The startup struggled for years before it simply imploded—the management team broke into factions, all the clients were scared off, and employees who hadn't been paid in weeks began taking the office computers home with them in retribution.

solvent[adj]

capable of meeting financial obligations The only means of paying wages to more employees in the private sector is enough solvent customers regularly buying the goods produced and services provided. —BBC (May 28, 2013)

rakish

careless

endear

cause to be loved or liked; Flora's spirit and character endeared her to everyone who met her.

grisly

causing horror or disgust The jurors saw grisly photos of the crime scene. recounted the visit to the murder scene in grisly detail

ludicrous

causing laughter; ridiculous; absurd

chastise [n]

censure severely He also chastised Congress, saying it was impeding economic growth.

fickle

changeable, liable to sudden unpredictable change

conscientious [adj]

characterized by extreme care and great effort; Nadine was one of the most thorough and conscientious editors I've ever known.

elliptical[adj]

characterized by extreme economy of expression or omission of superfluous elements An elliptical response such as "With pleasure" is so standard that it has been used by Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, E.M. —Salon (Apr 18, 2013)

chary [adj]

characterized by great caution; Progress now happens but even so I am chary of believing the guest property (nearest the camera) will be ready for our mid-September holiday.

grim

characterized by hopelessness

ethereal [adj]

characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air The new songs are weightless, ethereal, strangely transportive affairs with intriguing themes.

monolithic[adj]

characterized by massiveness and rigidity and total uniformity But analysts say that the military establishment is turning out to be less monolithic than often perceived. —New York Times (Mar 21, 2012)

turbulent

characterized by unrest, disorder or insubordination; instability

belligerent [adj]

combative; quarrelsome; waging war; North Korea's public response has been belligerent, threatening military action against the United States. He can be belligerent and has not handled the pressure of international cricket as well as he might have done. We play football in all perturbed countries, not just where there are belligerent situations like Syria and Afghanistan.

indemnify

compensate (someone) for harm or loss; the company generously indemnifies workers who are injured on the job Again, let's look at auto insurance, which indemnifies the holder against loss. If a policy-holder's car is wrecked, the insurance company sends him a check for the value of the car

inveigh[v]

complain bitterly; He noted that Mrs. Clinton had stopped raising funds, making endorsements or, for the most part, inveighing on political debates of any sort. All Europe's big political institutions have inveighed against sports corruption.

emblazon

conspicuously inscribe or display a design on; T-shirts emblazoned with the names of baseball teams

speculate [v]

contemplate; make a guess or educated guess about; engage in a risky business transaction, gamble; During the Gold Rush, speculators bought up land, sometimes with borrowed funds, expecting to prospect the land for gold and get rich quickly. She speculated that, in zero gravity, showers would have to exist as closed rooms in which a giant bubble of water formed, and a person got inside it.

contumely [n]

contemptuous treatment or a humiliating insult; They helped us understand what we were up against: the proud man's contumely, the insolence of office. You're never going to please everybody, but my feeling is there seems to have been less contumely than might have been expected, because we have taken people with us.

excoriate

criticize (someone) severely; This establishment, excoriated in an inspectors' report this week, was a perfect example of the flaws in the Conservative-led government's policy of allowing "free schools" with weak supervision: by making that argument, Mr Hunt will please some citizens and alienate others, including Pakistani-born voters who have reacted defensively to criticism of the school. The candidates have publicly excoriated each other throughout the campaign.

reprove[v]

criticize mildly; Still at intervals he could be heard, encouraging, reproving, exhorting, but without the same glad confident ring in his tones. —Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)

moot

debatable; disputed; deprived of practical significance

subterfuge[n]

deceit used in order to achieve one's goal; The anonymous, endlessly mutating New York collective relies on rumour, subterfuge, fictional characters and avatars. Developing global trade needs trust and cannot be sustained with subterfuge and coercion. This is such a potent subterfuge that Republicans use it too, at least when talking about military spending.

delude [v]

deceive; He stared in wonder, thinking that he might be helping them by watching, deluding himself into seeing the impossible-possible.

spite

deliberately hurt, annoy, or offend

despicable [adj]

deserving hatred and contempt; The attacks are a despicable crime that will horrify anyone with any shred of decency or humanity.

circuitous [adj]

deviating from a straight course; Brooklyn Rider's circuitous approach grew, in part, from its participation in Yo-Yo Ma's ongoing Silk Road Project, which encourages multicultural exchange between artists. He said that reducing the range to two hours would force Japanese airlines to fly more circuitous routes, burning up more fuel and cutting efficiency.

dissipate[v]

disappear or cause to disappear Cyclones are common at this time of year in the South China Sea, picking up strength from the warm waters and dissipating over land. After the protests dissipated, Karachi Electricity Supply's next problem was making customers pay.

amiable [adj]

disposed to please; There's precedent in believing the government might place priority on keeping relations amiable.

recuse

disqualify oneself (as a judge, for example) in a particular case;

perturb

disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed

deign [v]

do something that one considers to be below one's dignity; There is a third, rather stupid, tax distributional question, concerned with the impact of any such tax, but since I think the proposal out of court in principal, I will not deign to even consider this. He is the ultimate rage freak, glorying in the heat of his negative reviews while rarely deigning to actually consider the positive.

indiscriminate

done at random or without careful judgement; They participated in the indiscriminate slaughter of countless innocent victims. He objects to the indiscriminate use of pesticides. She has been indiscriminate in choosing her friends.

precipitous[adj]

done with very great haste and without due deliberation; steep; Fixed-income funds are where investors have traditionally looked for safety and low volatility, unlike stocks, and such precipitous moves are rare. —New York Times (Jun 7, 2013)

dispel

drive (sth) away; cause to vanish

moribund[adj]

dying Bulldozers are rumbling near Moscow, at work on the Skolkovo Innovation Centre, an ambitious, multibillion-dollar scheme to boost Russia's moribund innovation system. —Nature (Aug 14, 2013)

precedent

earlier decision, case, event, etc that is regarded as an example or rule for what comes later

pliable

easily bent, shaped or twisted; flexible

levee

embankment built to prevent the overflow of a river

headstrong [adj]

energetically willful and determined; She was a determined and headstrong girl; she wouldn't accept my lack of an explanation.

confabulate [v]

engage in conversation; talk; Since the story broke, six staffers, including two senior editors, have spent more than 6,000 man hours attending commission hearings, and confabulating with as many as 12 lawyers. Chances are, you can get a large percentage of your family members confabulating with you on something that simply couldn't have happened, given that Bugs Bunny is a Warner Brothers character.

gusto

enjoyment and enthusiasm in doing something; I don't have the gusto to go on a strenuous hike right now. Hawkins tucked into his breakfast with gusto

matriculate[v]

enroll as a student When his father went to London, Moore matriculated at Eton College — Britain's most prestigious secondary school. —Forbes (Oct 4, 2012)

begrudge [v]

envy (someone) the possession or enjoyment of (something); give reluctantly or resentfully; There can be few who begrudged her the personal happiness she seems to have obtained following her marriage to Commander, now Commodore, Laurence. I begrudge every penny of taxpayers' cash going to athletes while people are forced to wait for hip operations or cancer treatment.

meek

evidencing little spirit or courage

ostracize

exclude from public favor; ban

muckrake

explore and expose misconduct and scandals concerning public figures This reporter was well-known for his muckraking

decry [v]

express strong disapproval of; Publicly denounce; Then she's at a public hearing, decrying the woman who dared to take her husband to task for sexually abusing their daughters. He decried it as an attack on the international working class, and encouraged all workers to refuse to go.

sententious

expressing pompous moral judgements

bowdlerize [v]

expurgate; Other books were bowdlerized, including Boccaccio's Decameron and Castiglione's The Courtier.

anguish [n]

extreme distress of body or mind; But for him the greatest anguish has been being deprived of watching his son - now aged nine - grow up. Logan is anguished and conflicted, the most agonized character in the Marvel movie universe.

obnoxious

extremely unpleasant; He said some really obnoxious things about his ex-girlfriend at the party. Some teenagers were being loud and obnoxious. Let's get right into it. The title of your book, Why We Suck, is pretty obnoxious. Are we really that bad?

vile[adj]

extremely unpleasant; What is that vile odor? His comments were positively vile. She has a vile temper.

Hawkish

favoring conflict and war over compromise

nepotism[n]

favoritism shown to relatives or close friends by those in power (as by giving them jobs) Along with nepotism, corruption and organised crime, it is also one reason why Albania has so far failed to join the European Union. —BBC (Jul 27, 2013)

temerity[n]

fearless daring Only his unshaken confidence in divine protection could have inspired him with such temerity. —Dinet, Etienne

loathe

feel intense dislike or disgust for They were rivals who truly loathed each other. I loathe having to do this. It was a habit his wife loathed. In fact, he was an energetic walker his whole life, but he loathed fresh-air fiends and he was rather stuck on the idea of being dissolute.

febrile

feverish; characterized by a great deal of nervous excitement or energy; the febrile atmosphere of the city

replenish[v]

fill something that had previously been emptied Crude oil imports, on the other hand, were likely lifted by refiners replenishing stocks after a three-month lull and as some new refineries started business. That, in turn, is allowing states to replenish reserves, a key factor in determining their credit quality.

glib [adj]

fluent and easy in a way that suggests superficiality or insincerity; She was the worst teacher he had ever encountered, giving glib responses to every question. "Can you help me with this algebra problem?" he asked. "Oh, just solve for x," she said, and walked away.

facile[adj]

fluent; skillful in a superficial way; easy; The overly facile message here is: Trying new things is good. —Seattle Times (Mar 19, 2013)

disputatious

fond of arguing; inclined to argue ;

coerce [n]

force someone to do or not to do something; Mr. Collins's conviction was overturned after he provided evidence that prosecutors had coerced testimony. —New York Times (Jul 3, 2013)

solemn[]

formal and dignified; characterized by deep sincerity And one solemn interlocutor asked Man Ray what, looking back on his life, satisfied him most. —The Guardian (May 11, 2013)

fiat

formal authorization, order or decree

genial

friendly and cheerful; Being Guy Sebastian is a big business - but the man himself is as genial , honest and straight-forward as ever.

prolific[adj]

fruitful or fertile; intellectually productive; Facts: Yellow perch are one of the most prolific fish species in this huge 21,500-acre urban watershed. Probably the most prolific documentary filmmaker on the planet, Gibney always has several projects going at once.

wily [adj]

full of clever tricks; The wily criminal stole eight laptops by simply walking into a branch of a large company, introducing himself as the laptop repairman, and waiting for people to hand him their computers. / She was quite offended when her coworker suggested that she use her "feminine wiles" to make the sale.

exuberant

full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness; His exuberant personality makes him fun to be around. exuberant crowds rushed to greet the returning national champions in collegiate basketball

gleeful

full of high-spirited delight

bland [adj]

gentle or casual in manner; showing no strong emotions; suave; The current station is far from perfect, but at least it has character, which this bland, uninspired new design fails to achieve.

invigorate

give strength or energy to; A brisk walk in the cool morning air always invigorates me. He was invigorated by the positive feedback. The mayor has plans to invigorate the downtown economy.

relinquish

give up or cease to practise, feel, etc (sth); abandon

aplomb [n]

great coolness and composure under strain; Watching him command a practice and a podium with equal aplomb, it appears likely his dreams will eventually be fulfilled.

profundity

great depth of insight or knowledge; the profundity of his thoughts Her books are a mixture of playfulness and profundity. the depth and profundity of her feelings

preeminent[adj]

greatest in importance, degree, significance or achievement; So is America playing catch up - with China usurping America as the preeminent power in Africa? —BBC (Aug 12, 2013)

rapacious[adj]

greedy; plundering; avaricious; There are doubtless parallels, for example, between the despoiling, warring powers depicted in Altai and the rapacious nation states of today. —The Guardian (Jun 1, 2013)

profane[adj]

grossly irreverent toward what is held to be sacred; not relating to that which is sacred or religious; secular; Certain words and images, whether obvious or suggested, spoken or written on clothing, are considered profane and can offend many people." —Salon (May 23, 2013)

concord [n]

harmony; agreement It is stated that when passing one day near a forge, he noticed that the hammers gave out very accurate musical concords. When their crossing paths merged in glowing concords, the effect was magical.

orgulous [adj]

haughty; When she read out the title of a book in her orgulous Scottish husk: 'Why The Whales Came', I listened and could picture both voiceless labio-velar fricatives blossom perfectly.

debonair [adj]

having a cheerful, lively, and self-confident air; He's debonair, smooth, handsome and slim like Moore. More often than not, Michael Douglas is known for playing suave, debonair men.

Kafkaesque

having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality; Kafkaesque bureaucratic delays

piquant [adj]

having a pleasantly sharp taste or appetizing flavour; Herbs and spices add a piquant taste that ketchup can't match. This cheese usually has tangy, piquant, spicy and peppery flavor.

redolent[adj]

having a strong pleasant odor; serving to bring to mind; noticeably odorous; Here, he visits Thailand to see a "trash fish" processing plant in action, with scenes redolent of Mr Burns's Animal Slurry manufacturing concern. They are also redolent of a lost world, providing glimpses of other ways of living and seeing.

conceited [adj]

having an overly high opinion of oneself or one's appearance; He is not alone in saying that some American lawyers and accountants are conceited and arrogant about what they think is a superior system.

amorphous [adj]

having no definite form or distinct shape; Although "coolness" remains, at best, an amorphous concept, consumer perceptions are pivotal in determining the longevity of products, particularly in the fast-moving consumer electronics industry. There's way too much focus on amorphous concepts like leadership and entrepreneurship these days. I was spinning alone in my own cold orbit, propelled by an amorphous, ever-present sense of dread.

canny [adj]

having or showing a practical cleverness or judgment; Scotland has a reputation for canny money management, and frequently outsmarts London's high-flyers. The canny acumen of business donors leads to inevitable speculation about the tax breaks linked to such donations.

peevish

having or showing an irritable disposition; peevish patients in the doctor's waiting room I would rather figure things out on my own than ask that peevish librarian for help.

vain

having too high an opinion of one's looks, abilities, etc; conceited ;

hobble

held back; stopped; the uneven manner of walking that results from an injured leg

choleric [n]

hot-tempered; quick to anger; Jonathan, choleric with indignation, stood by his desk, clenching his hands. —Mills, Weymer Jay

panacea[n]

hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases; He suggested that those pushing legalization were seeking a panacea. —New York Times (Jun 7, 2013)

implicit

implied, not stated directly; involved in the very essence of something, unquestionable He didn't have to be told to resign; it was implicit in his not getting the promotion that he had no future at the company. / I enjoy ice climbing with my father because, in such a dangerous situation, it's important to have a partner you trust implicitly.

slapdash

in a careless and hasty way

feral

in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication; They led a feral existence. animal experts discourage homeowners from trying to adopt feral animals as pets

inasmuch

in like manner, considering that (contraction of "in as much," generally followed by "as") Inasmuch as you missed my birthday party to do the Walk for the Cure, I am not angry at all. Good for you for doing that! / Normally, a student would graduate in four years, but inasmuch as you failed several courses in your first two semesters, that will now be impossible for you.

enamored

in love with; infatuated;

Lascivious

inclined to lustfulness; wanton; lewd

allusion [n]

indirect reference; a hint; In an allusion to tax measures that scared foreign investors earlier this year, Singh promised "to leave no stone unturned" to bring in fresh money.

cajole [v]

influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering Just days away from the general election, the various candidates were pounding piazzas across the nation—promising, cajoling, or winking at the crowd. Ms. Ashton played a critical role, pushing both sides to cast aside envoys in favor of face-to-face talks and cajoling former sworn enemies to compromise.

denizen[n]

inhabitant; Unsurprisingly, a few denizens of Silicon Valley have engaged in digital bomb-throwing. —New York Times (Aug 11, 2012)

concuss [v]

injure the brain; shake violently; The injury to the back of his head may have stunned or concussed him but was not responsible for his death.

ardor [n]

intense feeling of love; Shares have tripled since March 2009, loving life alone in an airline sector that has the ardor of investors.

agony [n]

intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain Young men writhed in agony on shabby mattresses in corridors. Returning in agony, he said he was refused further treatmen

impertinent

irrelevant; not showing proper respect; rude; She asked a few impertinent questions. the impertinent child had a smart answer for everything

blasphemy [n]

irreverence; the act of depriving something of its sacred character Allegations of blasphemy and desecration of holy texts have frequently led to alleged offenders being killed by lynch mobs in Pakistan. Apostasy, the act of changing religious affiliation, carries an automatic death sentence in Saudi Arabia, along with other crimes including blasphemy.

jejune[adj]

lacking interest, significance, or impact One explanation is that the campaign has exposed them not just as jejune but also as lacking in judgment. —The Guardian (Apr 26, 2010)

flaccid

lacking vigor or force; not firm or stiff And if that doesn't work, Billy is fully prepared to drive a four inch flathead screw through his flaccid member. So why does this flaccid film get the bonus of three AFF screenings?

trope

language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense

edifice

large or imposing building

tardy

late

bequeath [v]

leave (property) to a person or other beneficiary by a will; She bequeathed all her property equally among her children. Hurricane Katrina 'is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.'

indulgent[adj]

lenient; yielding to the wishes of someone I am more indulgent of late summer nights kicking balls, "fishing" in the tiny pond or watching the Stanley Cup finals. —New York Times (Jun 26, 2013)

peppy

lively and high-spirited;

burlesque [n]

ludicrous mocking or exaggerated imitation; It was one of the earliest of English dramatic burlesques, and was much performed during the 18th cent., during which period the genre developed to one of its highest points in Sheridan's The Critic.

supine

lying flat on the back with face upwards

allay [v]

make (sth) less; relieve; So far issuance has been driven by Asian companies, especially from China, where authorities are putting in regulatory reforms to allay concerns about overpricing.

emend

make corrections and revisions to (a text); the first printout quickly revealed that our computer program needed to be emended

exasperate[v]

make furious; annoy thoroughly; try the patience of; Sounding exasperated, Obama also lamented the resistance of House Republicans to passing an immigration reform bill. —Time (Aug 10, 2013)

preclude[v]

make impossible, especially beforehand Ms. Isaacs succeeds Hawk Koch, who served for only one year but was precluded by an elaborate term-limits system from running again. —New York Times (Jul 31, 2013)

vitiate[v]

make impure; pollute; His achievements in historical writing are vastly inferior, and vitiated by personal aims and his preoccupation to gain the royal favour. The new blood, however, instead of redeeming the tainted stock, itself became vitiated.

hamstring

make ineffective or powerless The mayor tried to hamstring our efforts by cutting the budget. The company claims it is being hamstrung by government regulations.

clamor [v]

make loud demands; As soon as a scent of scandal emerged, the press was clamoring for details. The mayor couldn't even make herself heard over the clamor of the protestors.

remunerate[v]

make payment to; compensate; the negligent landlord must remunerate those made homeless by the fire by finding new housing for them at his own expense. "The new wave of financial regulation means teams are adopting more intelligent ways of assessing performance and remunerating players," Wooster says.

subjugate[v]

make subservient; force to submit or subdue; to enslave; President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive decree that freed slaves then still subjugated in the rebellious South. —Time (Jan 1, 2013)

incense[v]

make very angry; Incensed by rampant corruption and a rigged parliamentary election, people power swept away the old guard. —BBC (Jul 10, 2013)

impair

make worse, weaken Playing in a rock band without earplugs will almost certainly impair your hearing over time.

checkered [adj]

marked by alternation or contrast of fortune; He has had a checkered career with many ups and downs.

fraught

marked by distress; filled with; We discussed the ways immigrant parents model artistry for their children in their struggle to survive, and how the decision to choose a creative discipline can be fraught for the subsequent generation. And so, for children of immigrants, the creative path is fraught with added risk: There's so much more at stake if you fail.

steadfast[adj]

marked by firm determination or resolution; loyal; faithful; Collins remained steadfast in his belief that the Mets' tactics would make a difference, even as they lost six straight. Although Mr. Croxall sounded confident, he was steadfast in his refusal to release any funding details.

unfaltering[adj]

marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable For fifteen years he pursued his object with unfaltering perseverance. —Kite, Elizabeth S.

infatuated[adj]

marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness She soon becomes infatuated by one of Kenya's Beach Boys, young men who service the needs of white European "sugar mamas". —BBC (May 19, 2012)

effervescent

marked by high spirits or excitement; (of a liquid) giving off bubbles an effervescent mixture of cheap wine, fruit flavours, sugar, and carbon dioxide effervescent young people

acrimonious [adj]

marked by strong resentment or cynicism; The political stakes in meeting these challenges are circumscribed by the long, acrimonious debate that has occurred within the nation's polarized political culture.

bourgeois [adj]

middle-class; boringly conventional; Commentators were dumbfounded by her apparent transformation from permissive free spirit to doting bourgeois housewife, with critics divided between suspicion and disappointment. Chairman Mao Zedong banned the game in 1949 for being too bourgeois.

sway[n]

move back and forth or sideways control or influence (a person or course of action) he's easily swayed by other people. Buildings swayed for around a minute in Mexico City, and several offices evacuated staff.

recrimination[n]

mutual accusations Attempts to restart government dialogue between North and South Korea collapsed in mutual recriminations earlier this month and their relations remain chilly. —New York Times (Jun 27, 2013)

rambunctious[adj]

noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline; She was busy enough, organizing charity balls, herding two rambunctious children about town and making her own clothes. "He was just saturated with ethnic feeling, and rambunctious in his pride."

unflappable

not easily perturbed, excited or upset

visceral

obtained through intuition rather than from reasoning or observation

inscrutable[adj]

of an obscure nature; not readily investigated, interpreted, or understood; The umpire's inscrutable expression gave no hint as to what his ruling would be. They made an inscrutable, wordless art movie called Daft Punk's Electroma.

aristocratic [adj]

of noble birth; snobbish; Over the years, the aristocratic families have faded from prominence, and thoroughbred racing has become democratized. As Hazleton notes, covering up was once a practice more commonly favored by aristocratic women to display their high status.

provincial[adj]

of or associated with a province; limited in outlook to ones own small corner of the world; narrow; New Yorkers have a reputation of being very sophisticated, but most of them are very provincial.

apocryphal [adj]

of questionable authenticity; false; I'm sorry, but this putative letter from George Washington that you found at a garage sale is clearly apocryphal—it is riddled with anachronisms (for instance, Washington was long dead by the time silent films were invented), and also, Washington most certainly didn't refer to Martha Washington as "hey baby."

homogeneous

of the same kind; uniform throughout While Sweden seems to have solved many of its social ills, critics point out that Sweden's largely homogeneous population doesn't present the challenges extant in a more diverse nation with many cultures and languages.

awry [adj]

off course; twisted to one side The same issue featured a cool science fiction short story in, which one woman faces a tough choice when teleportation goes awry.

abolish [v]

officially end a law, system or institution etc. Abolishing the tax would mainly benefit the rich, he said. Ataturk abolished the Sultanate and established a new civil code, based on European precedents.

fabulist

one who makes up stories (fables)

histrionic[adj]

overly dramatic; theatrical; In his case, the results are histrionic, formulaic and possibly ironic; in all entertaining but bankrupt signs of the times. —New York Times (Aug 16, 2013)

saccharine[adj]

overly sweet Tastes, too, are maturing, with singer-songwriters and alternative bands making inroads into markets traditionally dominated by saccharine pop. —Time (Aug 2, 2013)

extenuate

partially excusing or justifying; make sb thin; hunger and poverty are not treated by the courts as extenuating circumstances drawings of extenuated figures

amicable [adj]

peaceable, friendly; The marriage did not last very long and the couple made an amicable split.

amenity[n]

pleasantness resulting from agreeable conditions; Amenities may include a helicopter landing pad, exotic garden and a rooftop seawater swimming pool. Despite its unadorned appearance, the scaffolding has become a temporary amenity for Mr. Bloomberg's security detail, which stands sentry outside his building at all hours.

copious [adj]

plentiful, bountiful; Although she took copious notes in class, she found that she was missing a big picture that would have tied all the information together. The fertile, copious land yielded a rich harvest.

impecunious [adj]

poor, without money; Having grown up with impecunious parents who could barely keep the electricity on in the house, she was now obsessed with wealth and security.

imperil

pose a threat to

decant [v]

pour out; Just decant the wine by pouring it into a clean jug or decanter.

extol[v]

praise, glorify, or honor Rodriguez extolled his hard work, going back to his Seattle days, then gave his opinion on the growing steroids scandal. —New York Times (Aug 17, 2013)

masquerade

pretend to be someone one is not a journalist masquerading as a man in distress She could not keep up the masquerade any longer. although she was deeply bored, she maintained a masquerade of polite interest as her guest droned on

sanctimonious[adj]

pretending to be devout; affecting religious feeling; He accused his party leaders of making sanctimonious promises to students before the election and then letting them down. As Thayer Evans writes on Foxsports.com, Drew can stop taking such a sanctimonious tone about such things.

promulgate[v]

promote or make widely known (an idea or cause); put a law into effect by formal declaration Mullah Omar has, for instance, promulgated a code of conduct that among other things warns fighters not to put civilians in harm's way. Moreover, even the relatively modest rules the agency has promulgated under the act on less pervasive pollutants than carbon dioxide have sparked endless lawsuits.

provident[adj]

providing carefully for the future For now, India doesn't allow mutual funds to develop pension plans, instead using a state-managed provident fund that invests mainly in government bonds. —Reuters (Nov 6, 2012)

catharsis [n]

purification that brings emotional relief or renewal; Throughout the day, spontaneous public gatherings were organized across the country, characterized more by catharsis than celebration.

subdued

quiet; inhibited; repressed; put down by force or intimidation

acquiescent [adj]

ready to accept something without protest, or to do what someone else wants; The better-off refuse payment for services they accept while their victims are so servile and acquiescent that they make no protest. His anxiety proneness seems less pronounced now than it was in 1985, but in spite of this he proved to be abnormally suggestible, compliant and acquiescent.

cutback [n]

reductions made (mostly in order to save money); Other companies that previously raised money have made cutbacks to reduce costs. Because direct taxes will not rise, any shortfall will be clawed back through cutbacks.

sidelined

remove from the center of activity or attention; place into an inferior position

extirpate

remove or destroy (sth) completely

deposition[n]

removing a powerful person from a position or office "Enough is at stake to justify the deposition of an apex witness like Mr. Watson." —Reuters (May 8, 2013)

tautological[adj]

repetition of same sense in different words Subjective elements of an immunity or safe harbor, such as the requirement that the defendant act in "good faith" or "innocently," are tautological. —Forbes (Apr 11, 2013)

caricature [n]

represent a person with comic exaggeration; What amazes and pleases me is that the organisation listened to this complaint in a spirit of actual intellectual engagement, rather than just ignoring or caricaturing their critics.

exigent [adj]

requiring immediate attention, action, or aid; excessively demanding; My boss said she would take me out to lunch and "mentor" me, but that idea always gets tossed aside in favor of more exigent matters.

precept[n]

rule of personal conduct To Hollywood acquaintances he once sent acrylic desktop stand-up plaques outlining Scientology's basic behavioral precepts. In the end, the $20.5 billion rescue package will protect small depositors' savings, thus respecting deposit insurance, a precept of a modern banking system.

autocratic [adj]

ruling with absolute authority; extremely bossy; He criticized the practices of autocratic governments without ever singling out Egypt, saying they rigged elections and controlled the news media using "outright intimidation."

purported [adj]

rumored; claimed Two people firing weapons at unarmed aggressors purportedly in self-defense.

traduce

say damaging untrue things about (sb/sth); slander or defame;

vindictive[adj]

seeking revenge; "He was an angry, bitter, vindictive person," Holland said in an interview. —Washington Post (May 21, 2013)

sequester[v]

set or keep apart from others The sequestered jury of six women had been deliberating two hours when the question came in. —Reuters (Jul 13, 2013)

incendiary

setting on fire, pertaining to arson; arousing strife, rebellion, etc.; "inflaming" the senses The college suspended him for creating an incendiary website, encouraging sit-ins and protests, but the ACLU defended his right to freedom of speech. / It is illegal to bring incendiaries on a plane—there are many good reasons why you may not have a stick of dynamite in your carry-on.

insouciant

showing a casual lack of concern; wandered into the meeting with complete insouciance to the fact that she was late

wistful [adj]

showing pensive sadness He looked wistful as he spoke of camps past, but he understood reality as well. —New York Times (Aug 6, 2013)

abject [adj]

showing utter resignation or hopelessness; extremely sad and servile; defeated; By contrast, Mr. Summers's detractors have expressed abject shock that he might be considered for the position.

yokel [n]

simple-minded country person; bumpkin; People like you preach tolerance and openmindedness all the time but when it comes to middle America you think we're all evil and stupid country yokels who need your political alignment.

figment

something invented or imaginary

bereft [adj]

sorrowful through loss or deprivation He received his primary school education underneath a tree in a town that was bereft of electricity and paved roads. The possibilities are not an abstraction; we can envision the house or its contents damaged, destroyed, or stolen leaving us bereft.

drawl

speak slowly with vowels greatly prolonged; "Well, hello there," she drawled. He drawled his name in a Southern accent.

bloviating [v]

speaking in a pompous manner; But that is nothing compared to the 4-page bio on her shameless web site, which bloviates at length about, among other things, her 'honorary degree'.

check [v]

stop or restrain growth; Seafarers believe that the Government has to take drastic steps to check the flow of workers from Indian ships to foreign vessels.

peculiar

strange or unusual; particular; special

scrupulous[adj]

strict; careful; hesitant for ethical reasons; Beware slow moving newsrooms: On this metric, you'll be competing against more agile, maybe less scrupulous staffs that "publish first, verify later". One also wonders if the same technology could be employed by less scrupulous marketers?

stringent[adj]

strict; restrictive; "All prisoners working in call centres are risk-assessed and stringent security measures are in place, with calls supervised and recorded." —BBC (Aug 21, 2013)

swathe

strip of grass or other plants cut by a mower, scythe, etc

chagrin [n]

strong feelings of embarrassment Congress was outraged, the administration chagrined, and the media in hog heaven. His winning number, "Raise the Kaffiyeh," was often played for Mr. Arafat and gave a spiritual boost to Fatah, only adding to Hamas's chagrin.

bastion [n]

stronghold; fortress; fortified place; In Port Said, a bastion of anti-Islamist sentiment, police had suspected an accident but later said a device exploded among protesters. "Madison Avenue is increasingly a bastion of geeks: computer programmers, data heads and quantitative analysts," The Wall Street Journal reported today.

exhort

strongly encourage or urge (someone) to do something; He exhorted his people to take back their land. She exhorted her listeners to support the proposition.

besotted [adj]

strongly infatuated; Ever since her childhood in York - she was an only child - she has been besotted with the uses of enchantment in fairy stories.

tenacious[adj]

stubbornly unyielding; not letting go; "You have to be quite tenacious and keep going back and checking that things are actually happening." Sporting, under Coach Peter Vermes, is known for its tenacious style using high pressure to keep possession and create chances in the opposition's defensive zone.

capricious [adj]

sudden or unaccountable changes of mood/behaviour, erratic; The headmaster's punishments were capricious—break the rules one day, you get a warning; break them another day, you get expelled. / Who needs a plan? A date is more fun with a little caprice—let's just start driving and see what we find!

glut[n]

supply with an excess of This reserve accumulation contributed to a global savings glut, and the resulting low interest rates encouraged heavy public and private borrowing in the rich world. —Economist (Jul 25, 2013)

underpin

support with evidence or authority; make more certain or confirm

corroborate [v]

support, add evidence to You're telling me you were 30 miles away riding a roller coaster when the school was vandalized? I have a hard time believing that—is there anyone who can corroborate your story?

ascendancy [n]

supremacy; domination; The Egyptian philosophy, that soon after acquired an ascendancy in Europe, anticipated still more closely the monastic ideal. The opposition complains that harsh judgments are being handed down in courts and security services remain heavy-handed, both signals, they say, of hardliner ascendancy.

consternation [n]

surprise and anxiety; great dismay; One person will find his stimulant in an emergency while another may feel anxiety and consternation.

gauche

tactless, lacking social grace, awkward, crude It is terribly gauche to put ketchup on your steak and then talk with your mouth full as you eat it. That's the last time I ever bring you to a nice place.

tedium

tediousness; boredom

goosebumps

the "bumps" created by hairs standing up on the skin in response to cold, fear, etc. That detective novel is hard to put down! I've got goosebumps just waiting to find out what happens next! / You've got goosebumps—why don't you borrow my jacket?

bootlegging [v]

the act of selling illegally or without permission; Trading standards bosses at North Yorkshire County Council say that over the past year, they have discovered a number of pubs putting bootlegged whisky, vodka and rum in popular branded bottles.

capitulate [v]

the act of surrendering (usually under agreed conditions); The various forces converged in April 1945, and the Berlin garrison commander capitulated on 2 May.

vernacular[n]

the everyday speech of the people (as distinguished from literary language) "I won't use the vernacular I used because there are ladies here," Mr. Ruvo said, motioning toward two Cleveland Clinic public rel —BBC (Jun 7, 2013)s-party-for-a-brain-center.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">New York Times (Apr 20, 2013)

apogee [n]

the highest or most distant point; If the additional firing on Tuesday can successfully bridge the gap, a final midnight manoeuvre on 16 November will boost the apogee to 192,000km.

milieu [n]

the physical or social setting in which something occurs or develops, environment; Becoming a priest in the anything-goes milieu of the 1960s gave Father Bryant an interesting perspective on two contrasting philosophies. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a milieu of crushing poverty, yet hopeful aspiration, existed in the former satellite state.

muse

the source of an artist's inspiration

wizen [v]

to become dry, shrunken, and wrinkled often as a result of aging or of failing vitality; Fortunately, the wizened heads for sale at the Ecuadorian market weren't really shrunken heads—just souvenirs for tourists. The wizened old man still possessed a remarkably sharp mind.

anathematize [v]

to curse; The Waldenses and all other heretics anathematized by the Church are ordered, as public enemies, to quit his dominions by the day after All-Saints'. The Roman Church anathematized, in the council of Trent, all the distinctive doctrines of the Protestant Reformation.

execrate

to declare to be evil or detestable; to detest utterly; She came to execrate the hypocritical values of her upper-class upbringing. leaders from around the world execrated the terrorists responsible for the bomb blast

transcend[v]

to go beyond or above; to surpass; In the end, however, "Eleven Days" somehow transcends its copious flaws. —New York Times (Jun 13, 2013)

succor

to go to the aid of

badger [v]

to pester repeatedly; Is the News of the World suggesting that the BBC should have released his name sooner so that other journalists could start badgering him earlier over the affair?

protract[v]

to prolong; But several media analysts suggested the standoff might be protracted, with predictions ranging from about 10 days to as long as six weeks. Working out the uncertainties involved in developing cutting-edge lasers has required protracted negotiations with laboratories.

vilify[v]

to say vile things about; spread negative information about He and his supporters say he is being vilified — potentially ruined — for unmasking Chevron's questionable environmental record.

Ferret

to search for something persistently

mushroom

to spring up suddenly or multiply rapidly

gab [v]

to talk a lot in an informal way usually about things that are not important or serious; They get easily crestfallen, and a leader must have the gift of the gab with a sense of humor to shake them out of their despondence. Our leaders, unfortunately, our "so-called" leaders, definitely have the gift of the gab, but they have no sense of humor.

brood [v]

to think anxiously or gloomily about; A severe attack usually coincides with a stinking hangover and can start as early as midday, from whence I will spend the rest of the weekend brooding on the inevitability of Monday morning.

regurgitate[v]

to throw or pour back; The bird regurgitates food to feed its young. She memorized the historical dates only to regurgitate them on the exam. The speaker was just regurgitating facts and figures. But, I'll regurgitate some of the speculation going around about current price fluctuations anyways.

cow [v]

to use intimidation to make someone give in; But we have reached a frightening turning point if artists are cowed into silence by violence and threats.

coddle [v]

treat tenderly or indulgently; Being the baby of the family he was coddled and treated like glass, as if he would break.

verity

truth (of a statement, etc)

candor [n]

truthfulness; sincere honesty; Her sometimes bracing candor on the campaign trail at times made Mr. Kerry's aides uncomfortable. With scathing wit and bold candor, "Trouble in Mind" stakes out territory where few playwrights, today or nearly 50 years ago, have dared to tread.

convoluted [adj]

twisted; very complicated; Your argument is so convoluted that I'm not even able to understand it enough to start critiquing it. To get from the hotel room to the pool requires following a convoluted path up two staircases and down two others—to get to someplace on the same floor we started on!

impartial

unbiased, fair Judge Gonzales removed himself from the case because, having a personal connection to the school where the shooting took place, he did not think he could be appropriately impartial.

unremitting[adj]

unceasing; unabated; relentless; Such unremitting negativity does not mean we are talking about a man struggling to retain his card, never mind win on tour. Bees have always battled numerous pathogens, but never before have they had to combat so many unremitting threats all at once.

inadvertent

unintentional; characterized by a lack of attention, careless In attempting to perfect his science project, he inadvertently blew a fuse and plunged his family's home into darkness.

singular[adj]

unique; superior; exceptional strange; Hospitalised in Cairo he demonstrated a singular determination that marked out his later life, mastering crutches within nine days and drawing caricatures for fellow patients. While Egypt was once seen as the singular strategic player in the region, today other countries play a larger role.

gratuitous[adj]

unnecessary and unwarranted; given freely; Rather than cutting weight and engine size to boost fuel economy, some luxury automakers are pushing models with gratuitous power. "Rwanda is making gratuitous accusations to justify the attacks they are carrying out at the moment."

unctuous[adj]

unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech College girls are never profoundly impressed by unctuous platitudes, or by theological combat. —Smith, William Robert Lee

nebulous[adj]

vague; hazy; indistinct; That wavering, in some ways the most interesting plot thread, is also the least developed, and Stan's dilemma remains frustratingly nebulous. —New York Times (Aug 16, 2013)

insufferable

very difficult to put up with, used of persons or their behavior

distraught

very troubled in mind with grief or worry

debacle[n]

violent breakdown; sudden overthrow; Britain, supported only by Sweden, vetoed plans to launch two "working groups" on the espionage debacle with the Americans. —The Guardian (Jul 5, 2013)

hindsight

wisdom about an event after it has occurred

covet [v]

wish, long, or crave for (something, especially the property of another person) Many arrived at Citi Field before noon to be first in line to stake out one of the coveted spots along various railings. Of Western countries, the United States was the most coveted destination, and that made Americans as desirable as movie stars.

sanguinary

with much bloodshed; bloody

blatant [adj]

without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, accused both Laos and China of showing blatant disregard for the group's welfare by returning them to North Korea. He questioned why Congress would still target Southern states when widespread blatant racial discrimination had ended.

despondent[adj]

without or almost without hope At one point, he became so despondent that he attempted suicide.

evenhanded

without partiality

relish

~ great enjoyment of food, etc; zest

impeach

~ sb accuse (a public official or politician) of committing a serious crime, esp one against the State

effeminate

बायल्या (baylya); unmanly; he lisps and his handshake is effeminate. He had a high and somewhat effeminate voice. a comedian deliberately affecting effeminate mannerisms

abyss [n]

A deep and vast space or cavity; anything profound or infinite Walking a tightrope over an active volcano, the acrobat was terrified of falling into the abyss. Now recovering, the patient remembered her experience with clinical depression as an abyss of hopelessness.

Effective listening requires that you ask which of the following about a speaker's evidence? A. Is there enough? B. Is it relevant? C. Is it accurate? D. Is it delivered in a polished style? E. Is it objective?

A. Is there enough? B. Is it relevant? C. Is it accurate? E. Is it objective?

Good listening skills A. are important in order to avoid repeating to others what you misunderstood someone say B. are important in order to evaluate the messages of others effectively C. are not as important as before because you can now record what people say with your Smart phone or just look things up on the Internet D. remain important in this information age in order to absorb information quickly and accurately

A. are important in order to avoid repeating to others what you misunderstood someone say B. are important in order to evaluate the messages of others effectively D. remain important in this information age in order to absorb information quickly and accurately

Active listeners A. give the speaker their undivided attention B. do not allow themselves to be distracted C. do not prejudge the speaker D. argue mentally with speakers to prevent themselves from being persuaded

A. give the speaker their undivided attention B. do not allow themselves to be distracted C. do not prejudge the speaker

Focusing on a person's unique accent or manner of speaking can cause a listener to A. judge the speaker's message unfairly B. judge the speaker's intellect C. lose the point of the message

A. judge the speaker's message unfairly B. judge the speaker's intellect C. lose the point of the message

Concentration takes special effort when listening because A. spare "brain time" allows us to think about other things B. most people speak faster than the audience can listen C. speakers talk more slowly than listeners process information

A. spare "brain time" allows us to think about other things C. speakers talk more slowly than listeners process information

amalgamate [v]

Blend, merge, or unite The Amalgamated Transit Union is so called because it contains many local unions of bus operators, subway operators, baggage handlers, etc. When turning her life story into a memoir, she amalgamated two important relatives into a single character, even amalgamating their names (Mary and Rose) into the character "Aunt Mary Rose."

Suspending judgement while listening involves A. making up your mind during the speech B. resisting distractions C. considering the worth of an idea you do not agree with D. evaluating only the ideas you agree with E. putting words in the speaker's mouth

C. considering the worth of an idea you do not agree with

When Rachel leaves her speech classroom, she is always disappointed that she remembers very little of what the teacher said and even less about her classmate's speeches. She has a page full of notes, but nothing makes sense. What would you advise Rachel to do? A. write notes only when the speaker says something interesting B. speed up listening by making quick judgments before the speaker finishes C. make serious effort to improve her listening skills since these can get better with practice D. focus harder on every detail of the speech

C. make serious effort to improve her listening skills since these can get better with practice

abscission [n]

Cutting off; sudden termination; the separation of leaves, petals, or other parts from a plant or animal The abscission of leaves from the trees is normal in fall. An inflamed appendix calls for an immediate surgical abscission.

The key-word outline method of note-taking A. is not used what skilled listeners use B. is a great way to write down everything that the speaker says C. requires a laptop rather than pen and paper D. focuses on main points and supporting evidence

D. focuses on main points and supporting evidence

Resisting distractions while listening is difficult because A. concentration does not improve with effort B. we think much slower than a speaker can talk C. note-taking does not help us follow the speaker's ideas D. we think much faster than a speaker can talk

D. we think much faster than a speaker can talk

abase [v]

Degrade or humble; to lower in rank, status, or esteem; After messing up at work, the man faced a thorough abasement from his boss; when he realized he had forgotten his own wedding anniversary, he further abased himself in front of his wife.

ameliorate [v]

Improve; make better or more bearable If you spill water on your computer keyboard, you can ameliorate the damage by leaving the keyboard upside down to dry—it may still be ruined, but that's still the best chance you've got of saving it.

alleviate [v]

Lesson, make easier to endure; The stimulus package has alleviated the pangs of the Great Recession, but times are still tough.

adulterate [v]

Make impure by adding inappropriate or inferior ingredients Some bars adulterate top-shelf liquor by pouring cheaper brands into the more expensive brands' bottles.

abridge [v]

Reduce or lesson; shorten by omitting parts throughout while retaining the main idea Our romantic vacation was abridged when the babysitter called to say that the kids were sick and we should come home. Audio books are almost always abridged, since few people want to listen to a 200-hour book.

activism [n]

The practice of pursuing political or other goals through vigorous action, often including protests and demonstrations Lindsay's parents had a hard time accepting that, after incurring $100,000 in student loans, their daughter had decided to enter the low-paying field of environmental activism.

accost [v]

approach and speak to someone; Speaking of Boyd ... while he is accosting well-to-do strangers in Clover Hill, Raylan is at least doing some detective work.

abet [v]

assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoing The report expresses deep concerns over the chance that rogue elements within the ISI abetted bin Laden during his stay in Pakistan. The jurors also determined he had aided and abetted an alleged fraud by Goldman.

abrogate [v]

cancel, repeal or annul (sth) He believes calling themselves technology firms allows them to abrogate responsibility for the editorial content on their sites. A law that he ultimately abrogated, but which you right now cannot.

agitate [v]

cause anxiety to (a person, his feelings, etc); disturb; excite Nida Butt is clearly agitated and it looks like she has had enough. When Romanians were agitating for independence in the 19th Century, Transylvanian shepherds were seen as the rugged pioneers of the nationalist movement.

amenable [adj]

disposed or willing to comply; It found that younger consumers are the most amenable to using mobile wallets. In this scenario, solar power panels have become a commodity amenable to economy-of-scale mass production, which is bound to push prices down even further.

absolve [v]

free from blame, sin or an obligation; Opposition parties said his statement "absolved the Pakistani army" from the attack.

acquit [v]

pronounce not guilty of criminal charges; behave in a certain manner His former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, also received a life sentence, but the security chiefs were acquitted. The goalkeeper acquitted himself well.

abate [v]

reduce; diminish; But there is little sign of coherent negotiating positions or of violence abating. Over the past three decades, Mrs. Sen did not give any public appearances, but the public's fascination with her did not abate.

agrarian [adj]

relating to rural matters, fields, lands, farmers; The two sides, which are working through a five-point agenda, have only reached partial agreement on agrarian reform.

akin [adj]

similar or related in quality or character; "It was more akin to some of the awful footage you saw at the end of the war," he said.

While listening to John's thoroughly cited speech advocating a constitutional ban on gay marriage, Francisco realized that John's supporting materials were based on documents more than 10 years old and might therefore be unreliable. As a result of his critical listening skills, Francisco had trouble accepting John's argument. Practice in critical LISTENING often results in the skill of critical ____.

thinking

acquiesce [v]

to agree or express agreement; Instead of appealing the decision, which Morsy could have done, he surprised observers by acquiescing.

aboveboard [adj, adv]

without concealment or deception; honest; Open information, Johnson said, gives rise to "a great army of unpaid scrutineers and invigilators" who help keep city politicians aboveboard. Quick tempers and excitable natures do not arouse mistrust, as they are at least "clear and aboveboard."

Pittance

An inadequate amount of money

proscribe

Plagiarism is proscribed by every college's code of conduct.

Mesmerize

To hold spellbound

Errant

Wandering, not sticking to a circumscribed path

prurient

having or showing excessive interest in sexual matters

frivolous

not having any serious purpose or value

thrall

the state of being under the control of another person