Magoosh Practice Set 1

Dispatch

To send away with promptness or speed; expedite ("wireless emergency alerts are dispatched during critical situations" ... "Beijing with with impressive dispatch to construct the national stadium, which would have taken other municipalities over five years")

bloviate

To speak at length in a pompous or boastful manner. ("The word bloviate was originally used to describe how American president Warren Harding spoke pompously and at length.")

discriminate

to differentiate; to make a clear distinction Sarah couldn't discriminate between a good wine and a bad wine, so she avoided wine tastings

ineluctable

unavoidable or inevitable In Miami, the rising sea is already an ineluctable part of daily life. While most members hold an adverse opinion about the plan to comply with long avoided yet recently ineluctuble regulations, the board will likely acquiesce the plan.

remission

Partial or complete disappearance of symptoms of disease.

maxim

A concise statement, often offering advice; an adage A maxim is a succinct formulation of a principle, rule, or basic truth about life. Usually clever, maxims are like great sayings everybody knows. Ben Franklin is the author of many, including "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." An overused maxim of real estate is "Location, location, location."

meandering

Winding back and forth; rambling; not direct

mountebank

a flamboyant deceiver, a trickster or swindler; a charlatan A mountebank has a talent for tricking people into buying things, like the mountebank who charms women into buying "magic beauty pills" for hundreds of dollars, though they are just ordinary vitamins you can buy anywhere. The Daily Beast reported last month that Mr. Lee, who is said to be worth around $50 million, was "surrounded by a panoply of Hollywood charlatans and mountebanks" and being "picked apart by vultures."

demagogue

a leader who gains popularity through arousing emotions; a leader who appeals to citizens' emotions to obtain power A demagogue is someone who becomes a leader largely because of skills as a speaker or who appeals to emotions and prejudices. Two of the most famous historical demagogues are said to be Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. I want to argue that there are important lessons to be mined historically regarding how we examine Trump's connections to a number of ruthless dictators and political demagogues.

sybarite

a person devoted to luxury or pleasure If you know someone who's totally addicted to luxurious things and all of life's pleasures, call her a sybarite. Unless she's inviting you over for champagne brunches and showering you with gifts — in which case you should keep your mouth shut. Simple as it is, their moist, flavorful banana bread will please even adamant sybarites.

buffoon

a rude or vulgar fool, clown, goofball A buffoon is someone whose ridiculous behavior is a source of amusement to others. People you might call a buffoon are a political rival or the guy at work who tells silly jokes at office parties. He didn't seem to be outstandingly bright and many of his colleagues considered him little more than "an irritating buffoon."

whit

a very small part or amount If you don't even have a whit of courage, you are most likely a chicken. Whit indicates a bit of something, and usually something abstract like a feeling or emotion. You might feel the last whit of your confidence depart when your teacher hands out the 32-page final exam. Don't confuse whit with wit, meaning mental sharpness or keen sense of humor.

palatable

acceptable; acceptable to the taste or mind Mikey didn't partake much in his friends' conversations, but he found their presence palatable.

chauvinism

activity indicative of belief in the superiority of men over women; fanatical patriotism (jingoism) Vegetarians argue that man is chauvinistic in his belief that animals do not consciously feel the pain we humans do. Chauvinism is most familiar in the sense of male chauvinism. When it's used this way, it means a belief that men are better than women. Chauvinism also means the belief that your country is superior to all others. If you traveled to China and complained about everything that was unfamiliar and talked about how much better things are back home, you'd be guilty of chauvinism.

supererogatory

an action performed beyond what is expected or required; more than is needed or desired Something that is supererogatory is a little too much — more than what you want or need. It could be an extra layer of tinsel on an already flashy Christmas tree or a second lengthy apology after the first one was accepted. Kelly's sacrifice was supererogatory (and above-and-beyond the call); it was not a duty.

exemplar

an example or model, especially an ideal one Lena's homework is on the wall because it is an exemplar of neat, clean, and thoughtful work.

proclivity

an inclination or predisposition This fit the developmental data, but not the fact that many teenagers show no proclivity for risk-taking, says Ted Satterthwaite, a psychiatrist and neuroimaging researcher at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

indignant

angered at something unjust or wrong; incensed, outraged When you're indignant, you're angry about an unfair situation. If you discovered that a teacher gave ten extra points on a test to all students who sat in the front row, you'd be indignant. You may be angry, even furious, if someone shoves you, but you are indignant if the shove is directed at someone weak or helpless. The related noun is indignation, and something that arouses indignation is an indignity.

ostensible

apparent; appearing as such, seemingly When something is ostensible it appears to be the case but might not be. My ostensible reason for calling Brent was to ask about work. The real reason was that I was hoping he might ask me out. Turns out both the ostensible reason and the real reason were true! And as Vladimir Putin's persistent economic failures force him toward deeply unpopular pension reforms, it is even more remarkable how many people attribute this ostensible crisis to Russian cunning and might.

factitious

artificially created or developed; artificial or fake If you create a "diamond" out of plastic, then you've created a factitious diamond, meaning that it's a phony. Factitious means "fake," like a factitious compliment you give the person who cooked you an awful meal — you don't mean it, but you say it anyway, just to be nice.

anachronism

belonging to another time Dressed in 15th Century clothing each day, Edward was a walking anachronism

crestfallen

brought low in spirit; disappointed, discouraged If you are crestfallen, you are dark, depressed, and down in the dumps. You are in need of a pep talk, or at least a hug. I asked Maria on a date and she refused without a moment's thought. I was crestfallen. "I got really excited," she recalled, and then was crestfallen to learn that no such museum existed — in New York or elsewhere.

limpid

calm or without worry, clear and serene The adjective limpid describes something (often liquid) that is clear, serene and bright. Nature calendars often feature glamour shots of a limpid stream or a limpid lake. The adjective limpid may also describe language that is easily understandable. Your teacher might ask you to give an answer in a single limpid sentence.

venality

capable of being brought or bribed Although some suspected that her stodginess and scrupulous probity must be but one side of a split personality, it was not the case that her straight-laced public persona belied some private venality. Venality is the quality of being open to bribery or overly motivated by money. A government worker's venality might lead him to exchange state secrets for cash.

anodyne

capable of soothing or eliminating pain When your back is killing you from helping your friend move furniture into his new apartment, you need to take an anodyne, a painkiller. An anodyne doesn't have to be actual medicine. If the pure joy of helping your friend is soothing enough to make you forget your aching back, that counts as an anodyne too.

economical

careful about spending money or using resources; thrifty He was economical, spending his money thriftily and on items considered essential.

vindicated

clear from accusation If people think you did something wrong, you dream of being vindicated, or found innocent. Some commentators claim that Edwards was vindicated and that his case shows that his alleged activities would not amount to a crime. Daniels said she and Avenatti felt vindicated and look forward to apologies "from the people who claimed we were wrong".

tropes

conventional ideas; language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense Trope refers to different types of figures of speech, such as puns, metaphors, and similes. For example a TV cop show might use the trope of police vs. thieves to talk about larger issues. In regards to the polarity of the nation's political biases, the media peddles the same tired tropes, hoping that the repetition of a conventional idea will lead people to passively accept it.

implicate

convey meaning, imply; to connect or involve in something By saying that some of the guests were uncomfortable, the manager implicated to the hotel staff that it needed to be more diligent. Your cousins might implicate you in the planning of a big party for your grandparents. When you implicate someone, you bring him or her into a group or to pitch in on a project. Implicate can have criminal connotations when it means "to connect in an incriminating manner," like when detectives figure out who drove the getaway car in the bank robbery — that person will be implicated for his or her role in the crime.

incisive

describes something that is sharp, decisive, and direct; having the ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions A comment that cuts right to the bone can be just as incisive as an actual knife. The lawyer had incisive mind, able in a flash to dissect a hopelessly tangled issue and isolate the essential laws at play.

perfunctory

done routinely or hastily, indifferent Perfunctory means done as part of a routine or duty. If you give someone a gift and they look at it like it's roadkill and say nothing about it but a perfunctory "thank you," you might not be giving them another one anytime soon. A person who does something in a perfunctory way shows little enthusiasm or interest in what they are doing. Many of our everyday greetings are perfunctory.

pellucid

easy to understood; transparent The professor had a remarkable ability to make even the most difficult concepts seem pellucid. A sentence that teaches a new vocabulary word should always be pellucid, that is, its style and meaning should be easily understandable so that you can derive the definition from the sentence. Pellucid water is clear, a pellucid sky is a particularly intense shade of blue, pellucid prose is writing that's easy to understand, and pellucid singing is clear and light in tone.

narcissistic

egotistical, conceited; having excessive self-love or admiration If you can't stop talking about yourself and obsess constantly about the way you look, you could be exhibiting narcissistic tendencies, meaning you're obsessed with yourself, especially your outside appearance.

misappropriate

embezzle or steal When you misappropriate something, you steal it, or otherwise use it in a way its owner didn't intend. You might hear the phrase "to misappropriate funds" on the news — usually what this means is that someone who has access to money at work has stolen some of it. A banker might misappropriate money, for example, paying himself a bonus, or the manager of a charity might misappropriate donations, using them to buy herself a new car.

malevolent

evil minded; showing ill will Villains are known for their malevolent nature, oftentimes inflicting cruelty on others just for enjoyment.

cupidity

extreme greed, especially for wealth Remember the saying "greed is good"? It could just as easily be "cupidity is good," though admittedly it doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same way. Cupidity means a burning desire to have more wealth than you need. Khruschev was almost right in his prediction, he just didn't realize the Soviet Union was not going to be the beneficiary of capitalist cupidity.

fallacious

false or misleading; erroneous; based on incorrect reasoning Something fallacious is a mistake that comes from too little information or unsound sources. Predictions that the whole state of California will snap off from the rest of North America and float away have proven to be fallacious — for now, anyway. Within minutes of the report's release, the Indian government rejected the contents, calling them "fallacious, tendentious and motivated." (tendentious means promoting a specific, and controversial, point of view)

jingoism

fanatical patriotism Jingoism is fanatical, over-the-top patriotism. If you refuse to eat, read, wear, or discuss anything that wasn't made in your own country, people might accuse you of jingoism. In a sporting event brimming with jingoism, the United States always looks better in total medals, and that goes directly to the size of its delegation.

adulate

flatter in a obsequious manner To adulate is to flatter someone. A lot. Like, drop-on-your-knees-and-clasp-your-hands-and-say-"you-are-the-greatest-ever-to-walk-the-earth" a lot. Things improved when Russian President Vladimir Putin took power: He visited Pyongyang in 2000 and received adulating praise in North Korean state media. Don't confuse with the word adulterate, which means to make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance.

ill-advised

foolish, risky, imprudent "The effects of this ill-advised action by the U.S. Administration will not only impact Turkey, but will prove detrimental to American companies and workers as well," he added.

amiable

friendly Amy was so amiable that she was twice voted for class president

sententious

given to pompous or aphoristic moralizing; pretentious; tending to use maxims or aphorisms (a short pithy instructive saying) If you speak in sententious phrases, your listeners are probably falling asleep, as your speech is pompous and pretentious, and full of moralistic babble. Video games, for all their newfound cultural hegemony, remain a soft target for sententious conservatives who want to moralise, cost free.

apblomb

great coolness and composure under strain; cool, calm, and collected In retail, it's always a good idea to handle the angry customers with aplomb. Angry at the long lines at the grocery store? Irritated because the driver ahead cut you off? Take a deep breath, and approach life's messes with aplomb.

industrious

hardworking; not lazy Pete was an industrious student, completing every assignment thoroughly and on time.

innocuous

harmless, inoffensive Something that's innocuous isn't harmful or likely to cause injury. You've lost weight!" seems innocuous, but it actually creates an uncomfortable sense that people are surveilling and judging your body. While seemingly innocuous at first glance, Twitter is currently embroiled alongside other social networks and technology companies in a controversy over perceived liberal bias.

misogynist

hater of women; a misanthrope who dislikes women in particular If you're someone who believes women belong in the kitchen and shouldn't be accorded the same respect as men, you might be a misogynist. A misogynist is a person who hates or doesn't trust women. If we can't laugh at misogynist jokes, or racist jokes, or homophobic jokes, or jokes about people with disabilities, than perhaps we can't laugh at all.

amorphous

having no fixed or definite form; shapeless The brothers' personal lives mocked their professions in the sense that the elder, an accountant, led an amorphous, inchoate (not fully formed) life while his artistic junior had constructed a scrupulous, almost meticulous existence.

stodginess

heavy, dull, boring Contrary to its reputation for stodginess, much of the book industry keeps an eagle eye on teen trends.

waggish

humorous in a playful way; witty and joking Waggish is an adjective and actually describes someone who is a wag — the kind of hilarious person who keeps you entertained with witty stories and jokes. Anyone who's watched South Park during its 20 years on the air knows it entertains by harmonizing offensive characters, shocker storylines and waggish writing.

callow

immature; young and inexperienced The interpersonal interactions of adolescents can be perplexing for those unfamiliar with child development; one child chivying another, for example, can actually be a callow way of portraying true physical or emotional need. If you're a rookie or new to something, you could be described as callow — like callow freshmen in high school or the callow receptionist who can't figure out how to transfer a call.

impermeable

impassable, not allowing passage through (such as by a liquid) If you have a waterproof raincoat, you could say that your coat is impermeable to the rain. Something that is impermeable does not allow water or liquid to pass through it. Some gadgets, like waterproof watches and underwater cameras, are designed to be impermeable.

intimated

implied or hinted Admirers of Jane Austen's fiction are familiar with the idea that, in social arenas where opinions cannot be expressed candidly, such thoughts must be intimated through double meanings in regular speech or by other implicit methods often specific to that social group.

insufferable

impossible to bear (unbearable); intolerable Chester always tried to find some area on which he excelled above others; unsurprisingly, his co-workers found him insufferable and chose to exclude him from daily luncheons. If something is insufferable, it's unbearable and impossible, like the insufferable humidity of the "rain forest room" at the zoo on a hot summer day. An egotistic co-worker is insufferable, and so is a blizzard that leaves six-foot drifts against the doors of your house, or insufferable working conditions in many of the factories that produce goods around the world.

oblique

indirect or purposely misleading; evasive In figurative use, oblique means indirect or purposely misleading. "What is two plus two?" "Fish!" as an answer is completely oblique. By correcting the clerk's "Mrs." with "That's Ms. now," the woman made an oblique reference to her change in marital status. His statement represented an acknowledgement, however oblique, that the opposite might be true. Note that this word is different from obloquy, which stands for state of disgrace resulting from public abuse.

intimidation

indirect suggestion

paranoia

irrational fear or distrust of others; a psychological disorder characterized by delusions Something that happens to a person's thinking can lead to paranoia. You may believe that your friends no longer like you, but it's just that your paranoia makes you suspicious of everyone. Someone with paranoia may believe that other people are out to get them or are watching them all the time.

misattribute

misidentify; attribute wrongly I made a mistake: I misattributed Crime and Punishment to Leo Tolstoy when it was actually written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. There's still dispute about this Canadian species, which was originally misattributed to Connecticut.

moot

irrelevant When a point is moot, it's too trivial to think about. If your basketball team loses by 40 points, the bad call by the official in the first quarter is moot: it isn't important. When something is moot, it is no longer an issue. Though moot can mean to debate endlessly without any clear decision or to think about something carefully, it most often describes ideas and arguments that don't really matter. And without a GOP opponent looming on the other side of the primary, the question of how best to win a general election was moot. debatable, questionable The bigger issue is that the specific skills emphasized in moot court are weighted wrongly, namely, the "sounds good" or overstylized advocate versus those who can elucidate the substance and concede weak points.

arcane

known or understood by only a few; requiring secret knowledge to be understood A near synonym is esoteric, as in remote information or knowledge. Experts in academic fields often show off the depth of their knowledge by mentioning some arcane and esoteric fact as if it was common for everyone to know. Through those years, Scott said, he always wanted to help the players flummoxed by the arcane rules, which lawyers in the field of disability benefits call among the most byzantine of any employer.

dissimilitude

lack of resemblance or similarity; dissimilarity evidenced by an absence of likeness Notwithstanding this difference of disposition, the two officers are fast friends; a fact perhaps due to the dissimilitude of their natures.

stentorian

loud and powerful (of a person's voice); loud and booming The adjective stentorian describes a booming voice. If you're teaching a group of unruly kids, you'll need to practice a stentorian voice to be heard above the din. Homer wrote of brazen-voiced Stentor, whose cry was as loud as that of fifty men together.

confabulated

made up through fabrications; talk socially Confabulate is a fancy way of saying "talk." Regular people talk, people wearing tuxedos and beaded evening gowns confabulate. Confabulate means to talk, but it also refers to creating a memory that's unreal, like a fable, without being aware of it. If you suffer from memory loss, you might confabulate to fill in the blanks.

complementary

matching; serving to complete something The head waiter was careful to tell the amateur diners that red wine was complementary with beef, each bringing out subtle taste notes in the other.

laity

members of a religious community who are not clergy The meaning of the word laity is sometimes expanded to refer to non-professionals workers, as opposed to professionals in a field. Volunteers are the laity of elementary education, and if you volunteer at a school, you can make a huge difference in a child's life. Such theories, many say, should be more axiomatic in the minds of the scientific laity

irrevocable

not able to be changed; incapable of being retracted If you're on a diet but eat one tiny piece of chocolate, it might start an irrevocable slide into bad eating. Describe something as irrevocable if it cannot be undone or taken back. Once you enter your plea to the court, it is irrevocable; so think carefully about what you say.

incorrigible

not able to be corrected, improved, or refrormed Even after spending a year in jail, the young man remains incorrigible and unafraid of the law.

impervious

not admitting of passage, not capable of being affected An impervious surface is one that can't be penetrated. The word is often followed by "to," as in "His steely personality made him impervious to jokes about his awful haircut." Things are often described as being impervious to physical assaults like heat, water, bullets, weather, and attack, but just as frequently to less tangible things, like reason, criticism, pain, and pressure. I am not impervious to your insults; they cause me great pain. He is deeply experienced and impervious to distractions.

unviable

not capable of working successfully; not feasible. The commission found the plan to be financially unviable. The plan was obviously unviable considering that it could lead to complete environmental destruction to in the river valley.

incommutable

not subject to alteration or change An incommutable death sentence.

antiquated

old; no longer used or useful (obsolete) Aunt Betty had antiquated notions about marriage, believing that a man should court a woman for at least a kiss a year before receiving a kiss.

auguries

omens or prophecies ("The chartist buys when the auguries look favorable and sells on bad omens")

dissembler

one who conceals his dispositions under a false appearance; a hypocrite, a liar A dissembler is a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives. Never once to mince his words, Antonio was the perfect dissembler; even an outright fabrication was delivered with aplomb (great coolness and composure under strain).

charlatan

one who feigns knowledge or ability; a pretender, impostor, or quack A charlatan is a quack, a person who is trying to deceive you with false claims. Beware of charlatans who try to sell you access to the fountain of youth or to a Ponzi scheme disguised as an exclusive investment fund. Later, he added, "He's a charlatan, a fraud and an opportunist."

indigent

poor and needy enough to need help from others; destitute An indigent person is extremely poor, lacking the basic resources of a normal life. Often the indigent lack not only money but homes. Homeless shelters, soup kitchens, free medical clinics and court-appointed lawyers are all institutions that our society has developed to help indigent people.

preclude

prevent from happening; to make impossible The very agitation that allowed for a change in previous rule often precludes the formation of a viable government. Staying away from water precludes the possibility of drowning, though it also precludes any chance of having fun swimming. The condition sidelined Jansen for 11 days, and it precluded him from traveling with the team to Denver this weekend.

mercenary

profit oriented Perhaps this is because non-fiction invariably sells better than fiction; thus writers who invent facts to spice up their stories are not only being dishonest, but unapologetically mercenary.

retrograde

regressing or moving backwards Retrograde describes moving in a backwards or reverse direction. If you're suddenly told that you can no longer vote because you're a woman, that's a retrograde affront to your civil rights. Retrograde can also describe something that's going from better to worse. The farm's retrograde practice of spraying their crops with harsher and harsher pesticides is causing our health to suffer.

bridle

rein, curb, restrain Even the current downturn and dour outlook for economic growth have been unable to bridle the excessive levels of consumer spending that developed during the most recent period of expansion. The academic, Edward Said, bridled at the attacks on Islam - saying he found it hard to believe any rational person would attack entire cultures on such a scale.

palatial

relating to a palace; magnificent Knowing that the adjective palatial is derived from the same Latin word as palace gives you a good sense of its meaning: magnificent, reminiscent of a home fit for a king. He sips $20,000-a-glass whiskey and imagines that his palatial Manhattan existence is well deserved.

topical

relevant to current events (of interest at the present time); pertaining to the surface of a body part When some information or news is current and of immediate interest, we say it is topical. This might be a news story or a bit of gossip, or just a subject that is of current importance. If it's "now," it's topical, e.g. a topical and timely study of civil liberty. You often hear newscasters refer to the "top" stories of the day—they're current, and that makes them topical.

reproof

reprimand; rebuke; censure severely or angrily Even the nicest kindergarten teacher in the world will give his students a reproof if they won't stop laughing and running around the classroom. An athlete's bad behavior on or off the field might result in a reproof by his coach. And a long-distance bus driver will offer at least a mild reproof if a passenger is continuously talking loudly into her cell phone.

exacting

requiring great care, effort, or attention ("an exacting task")

feral

resembling a wild animal; wild and menacing When animal control finds a feral dog, they have to handle it very carefully because the animal is so wild that it's probably afraid of humans and likely to bite.

undaunted

resolutely courageous; not intimated by difficultly and danger If you're undaunted, you're not afraid or intimidated. As a great surfer, you remain undaunted as you seek out dangerous waters to ride the biggest waves. An undaunted person remains courageous and bold when facing fear, difficulty, and danger. Paramedics and firemen are undaunted when faced with a burning building. Daunted is the opposite and means to show discomposure.

qualify

restrict a statement; to reduce the severity of a statement Chris qualified his love for San Francisco, adding he didn't like the weather there as much as he liked the weather in LA

staid

sedate, respectable, and slightly dull; serious Something that is staid is dignified, respectable — possibly even boring. Something that is staid is sedate, slightly dull, and tends to stay the same. Whether it's a middle-class lifestyle, a conservative law firm, your unadventurous aunt, or an old navy plaid sofa, the word staid can be used to describe anything that maintains a respectable self-restraint and takes no chances.

telling

significant and revealing of another factor Her unbecoming (awkward, indecorous) dress was very telling when it came to her sense of fashion. A telling smile.

diminutive

small Diminutive means small. A diminutive person is short and small. A diminutive word is a "cute" version of a word or name: for example, "duckling" is a diminutive of "duck" and Billy is a diminutive form of the name William. He prefers to be called a diminutive for his name: Bill instead of William.

celerity

speed, rapidness of movement or action While it looks a lot like celery, celerity means something that vegetables are not — fast moving. Gossip often travels with celerity, as do children trying to get to a big plate of cookies. When you see the word celerity, think accelerate, like a car when you step on the gas. ou may want to study for exams with celerity, but using a slower, more methodical approach will often yield better results.

scrimping

subsist on a meager allowance; sparing (avoiding waste) When you scrimp, you get by on very little money. If you scrimp all year long in order to buy tickets to the Stanley Cup finals, you save every last penny to be able to go to those games.

reconnoiter

survey or explore the field When you reconnoiter an area, you're looking around to try to get some kind of feel for the place. It often describes a military action, but you could also reconnoiter the breakroom on the lookout for doughnuts. If you're moving to a new city, you might reconnoiter several neighborhoods — you're sizing them up to see if you might like to live there.

retroactive

taking effect from a date in the past; refers to something happening now that affects the past On the bright side, you might be awarded a salary raise that is retroactive, meaning you'll get paid more for work you did in the past. Retroactive fads in clothing keep vintage clothing stores in business. Sometimes governments pass rulings that are set as if they were in effect before the ruling was even made, and that means they are retroactive.

chivying

the act of pestering or harassing somebody, usually in order to make him or her do something; annoy continually The interpersonal interactions of adolescents can be perplexing for those unfamiliar with child development; one child chivying another, for example, can actually be a callow way of portraying true physical or emotional need. He would routinely chivy his friends into the ring in order to engage in tests of strength.

empiricism

the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation; he doctrine that knowledge derives from experience Empiricism means a method of study relying on empirical evidence, which includes things you've experienced: stuff you can see and touch. Empiricism is based on facts, evidence, and research. Scholars and researchers deal in empiricism. If you believe in the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus, you're out of the realm of empiricism — there are no facts to support those myths

paragon

the best of its kind; a model of excellence or perfection Even with the rise of Lebron James, many still believe that Michael Jordan is the paragon for basketball players.

prevarication

the deliberate act of deviating from the truth; lying; fabricating A boy might use prevarication to avoid telling the whole truth about how the kitchen window got broken.

argumentation

the methodical process of logical reasoning; logical way of discussing or debating an idea When a debater or negotiator follows the rules of argumentation, she backs up her ideas with very systematic, careful reasoning that makes her conclusion strong and believable.

complaisance

the tractability or willingness to comply with the wishes of others; politeness The Count asked me to dine, which I accepted, and was treated with more attention and complaisance than ever, both by him and the Countess.

insolence

the trait of being rude and impertinent ("insolence is what rude and stuck-up people show off every chance they get. They ignore their parents, walk out on dinner bills, elbow old people out of the way, and tell professors their clothes look cheap.")

histrionics

theatrical behavior; a deliberate display of emotion for effect The judge cared not for one whit for histrionics and would berate (chide or scold) any who embellished their testimonies with elaborate, pleading gestures or broke into feigned bouts of sobbing. Histrionics are dramatic, overdone, emotional actions and words that are done to influence someone. It's like putting on a little show to get attention.

meek

timid, shy; modest, humble The adjective meek describes a person who is willing to go along with whatever other people want to do, like a meek classmate who won't speak up, even when he or she is treated unfairly. A meek person can also be humble,

forsake

to abandon, to give up, to renounce

repute

to assign a reputation to; the state of being held in high esteem and honor A person of great or fine repute is someone who's widely known and highly respected. The word has a stuffy feel, so you're better off describing a cellist as being of great repute than, say, a rapper or comedian.

descry

to catch sight of If you spot something, you descry it. It's a good verb to use when you catch a glimpse of a rare bird in the trees. Or when you finally spot Waldo in a "Where's Waldo?" book. Descry is very similar to "see" or "discern," but involves more than just keeping your eyes open. Usually you descry something after observing carefully for a while. Police Chief Murphy Paul descried the footage as "shocking to the conscience," even as he emphasized that it does not "tell the whole story of the investigation."

render

to cause to become; make Render is a synonym of make — technically it means "cause to become." An illness might render you unable to walk, or a shocking site might render you speechless. "Rendered moot any prior misgivings" means "made any prior misgivings moot..." Another basic meaning of the verb render is to give, present, or perform something: to render assistance.

lambaste

to criticize harshly; attack verbally To lambaste is to reprimand or berate someone severely. People lambaste those who have angered or disappointed them. Have you ever watched a basketball game and noticed a coach yelling like a maniac at a referee? That coach is lambasting the referee. A boss might lambaste a worker who is late all the time

mince

to cut into very small pieces; to express something in a gentle way She does mince her words when she talks to shy kindergarteners.

hoodwink

to deceive or trick To hoodwink someone means to trick or mislead them. Beware of fake ATMs that try to hoodwink you into giving over your bank card and your code, only to keep them both and steal all your money. Has your big sister ever hoodwinked you into doing her chores for her? Others will be hoodwinked into the belief that Trump — yes, Trump alone — is somehow changing the terms of the great Atlantic relationship.

dissipate

to disperse or cause to separate and go in different directions; spend frivolously and unwisely (to squander or waste foolishly) Dissipate means "disperse" or "fade away" — as a bad smell will dissipate (usually) if you wait long enough. Dissipate can also mean "spend or use wastefully." If you win the lottery, you might suddenly find yourself with a group of new friends encouraging you to dissipate your money (on them). The recent graduates dissipated their earnings on a trip to Las Vegas.

shirked

to evade, neglect, or avoid To shirk your responsibilities is to avoid dealing with them — like when you watch four consecutive hours of infomercials instead of facing your homework. When Eleanor Roosevelt was asked how she conquered her shyness to become a powerful public figure, she responded, "I faced each problem as it came along. . . . I never tried to shirk.

mesmerize

to fascinate or hypnotize The plot and the characters were so well developed that many viewers were mesmerized, unable to move their eyes from the screen for even a single second.

banish

to get rid of; expel, as if by official decree The most difficult part of the fast was banishing thoughts of food. In this context, banish means to drive away. Banish rhymes with vanish, which is exactly what happens when you banish someone. Suppose a king, angry with some of his subjects, banishes them. They have to leave the kingdom and vanish — not just go home and wait for the king to change his mind. Again, Kavanaugh's testimony was repeatedly hobbled by women, their voices strident but faraway on C-SPAN, which showed security banishing them one by one from the hearing room.

abnegation

to give up or renounce Somewhat uncharacteristic of an equitable system, his frequent abnegation (renounce) of obligations did not deter repeated promotions. When you purposely deny yourself something, especially in favor of the needs of others, you would describe this act as an abnegation.

pith

to kill by cutting the spinal cord; central idea or essence of something (dual meanings)

repose

to lay at rest Repose is a formal or literary term used to mean the act of resting, or the state of being at rest. Repose is also a state of mind: freedom from worry. As a verb, repose means to rest or relax, or to rest on something for support: There she was, reposing on the front porch.

disambiguates

to make clear ("They have very similar names, so I thought it might be useful to disambiguate them")

hallow

to make holy; to respect or revere To hallow is to bless, consecrate, or render holy. He made a promise to himself never to hallow (or venerate) her grave and kept this promise even after he learned of how misguided his beliefs of her maliciousness had been. Madison Square Garden is considered the "Mecca of basketball," and the league's elite are expected to do something special whenever they step on this hallowed ground.

promulgating

to make something widely known During the seven years between the formation of the league and its final triumph, he devoted himself wholly to the work of promulgating his economic doctrines. The Russian government first promulgated an anti-extremism law in 2003, as it was fighting a violent Islamist insurgency, especially in the North Caucasus region of the country.

propound

to offer or set forth for consideration When you propound an idea, you put it forward. If you tell your teacher that listening to music in class would help students do their work, then you propound the idea that music can be a motivator.

palliate

to partially excuse something bad; to reduce the severity of When you palliate something, you try to make something less bad: City leaders tried to palliate effects of the trash haulers' strike by distributing extra large garbage cans with tight-fitting lids. Your dentist might give you pain-killing drugs to palliate the discomfort caused by an impacted molar, but that molar is still there, waiting to cause more trouble.

retrench

to reduce, cut down; economize When times are tight, it's time to retrench. That means rethink your budget, cut back on the spending, and use your pennies wisely. While airline mergers can reduce fares by creating economies of scale, skeptics say the latest merger is far more likely to retrench options for consumers. Companies in the process of retrenching are usually laying off staff or cutting back on employee benefits.

despoil

to sack, plunder, or desecrate You may spoil a dinner party by being late, but we all despoil the earth with pollution and over-consumption. invading armies despoil villages by wrecking their houses and raping, or despoiling, the women in them: robbing both of their beauty and innocence.

squander

to spend foolishly and extravagantly; throw away, waste To squander means to spend extravagantly, thoughtlessly, or wastefully. If you need to save for college, don't squander your income on nightly sushi dinners. You can squander time as well as money. If you have a big deadline but you are chatting away or looking at social networking sites, you are squandering your time. If you have an opportunity to play for a major league baseball team but show up late to tryouts and criticize the coach, you have probably squandered your chance. But after much of the phosphate was plundered, Nauru squandered its wealth on bad investments.

abet

to support an action, especially something illegal To abet is to help someone do something, usually something wrong. If you were the lookout while your older sister swiped cookies from the cookie jar, you abetted her mischief. She was charged with aiding and abetting the burglar because she drove the getaway car.

profane

to treat with irreverence or disrespect The word profane can also describe behavior that's deeply offensive because it shows a lack of respect, especially for someone's religious beliefs. If you take the Lord's name in vain, you've profaned Him and probably made your religious mom pretty angry too.

etiolate

to weaken or drain of vigor To etiolate is to make something, especially a plant, become pale and weak. A lack of sunshine in your back yard might etiolate the roses you planted there. The new herbal supplement, which purported to boost energy in individuals living a sedentary lifestyle, was pulled from health food store shelves because it was found to have the opposite effect; it, in fact, etiolated many of its users.

embryonic

undeveloped; rudimentary; in an early stage of development The board of directors is hoping to launch a new product soon, but planning for the Z7 is in an embryonic stage. The idea for Facebook was still embryonic when its creators agreed to be partners. At that early stage, none of them could have imagined what an enormous company it would become.

misgivings

uneasiness; doubts, uncertainties, or reservations Trying to fall asleep the night before a test, you might have misgivings about having studied so little. As you get closer to the time you actually get on the airplane, you might begin to have misgivings about traveling far away to go to college.

untoward

unexpected and inappropriate; not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper The adjective untoward describes something offensive or inappropriate, like the rumors of untoward behavior that can shatter a Hollywood icon's reputation. Other similar words: indecent, indecorous

derivative

unoriginal; something that comes from another source A movie plot might be described as derivative if it steals from another film — say, if it lifts the tornado, the witch, and the dancing scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. Pasteur succeeded in developing a rabies vaccine, but much of his work was derivative, taken wholesale from the veterinarian Pierre Galtier, whom he failed to credit and who slipped into oblivion.

trenchant

vigorous or incisive in expression or style; having keenness and penetration in thought, expression, or intellect; trenchant distinctions between right and wrong Trenchant refers to commentary that is incisive and sharp, and thus potentially offensive to some. If you're trenchant, it means you think or say smart, sharply worded things that cut right to the heart of the matter. A trenchant observation is one that makes people scratch their chins thoughtfully, or wince with embarrassment for whomever you're talking. about, or both. The salt in the wound of this painfully out-of-touch film is the footage of real L.A. homeless camps and people, as if the film were saying something trenchant about the issue.

martial

warlike; suggesting war or military life Americans tend to remember Abraham Lincoln as kindly and wise, not at all martial, despite the fact that he was involved in the fierce Civil War. About 12,000 mostly goose-stepping soldiers took part in the display of martial might that did not include intercontinental ballistic or medium range missiles.

vitiated

weakened or made ineffective Before long, the extra demands vitiated the entire platoon, all of whom began to fall prey to heat stress. And Obama couldn't budge the Senate and House Republicans, whose brilliant tactic of blanket obstructionism defeated much of his legislation and vitiated the rest.

lethargic

weary; sluggish, languid Nothing can make a person more lethargic than a big turkey dinner. When you feel lethargic, you're sluggish or lacking energy. Being sleepy or hungry can make anyone lethargic.

insensate

without feeling or without sense, understanding, or judgment Insensate is a word to describe something without feelings or consciousness. Cars, computers, and stuffed animals are all insensate (though some of us occasionally project thoughts and personalities onto them). Insensate can also describe individuals who seem to lack the characteristically human emotions of kindness and generosity. A person who tears a stuffed animal out of the hands of a young child might be described as insensate. Another meaning of insensate is "lacking intelligence."