Vocab Words Austere to Conflate

AUSTERE

POS: adj. Def: stern or cold in appearance or manner; somber, grave Var: austerity (n.) Syn: severe, grim, rigid Ant: lenient, gentle, indulgent Affixes/roots: not required Sentences: They lived an austere life in the country, without electricity or central heating, or any electronic devices.

CONSCIENTIOUS

POS: adj. Def: very careful about doing what you are supposed to do : concerned with doing the right thing Var: conscientiously Syn: ethical, honest, scrupulous Ant: unconscionable, cutthroat, careless Affix/Roots: -ious = having the qualities of,  an adjective related to "conscience"; "sci" = "to know,"  this word has to do with knowing something; "con" = with  "with knowing" is part of this word, so perhaps, to be aware? (aware of doing right) Sentence: He was conscientious about following the doctor's orders, taking all his pills at exactly the time of day required.

MANIFEST

POS: adj., v., noun Def: Readily perceived by the eye (adj.); displayed in an obvious manner (v.); an official list of goods, as on a plane or boat (n.) Var: manifestation (n.) Syn: blatant, apparent Ant: ambiguous, unclear, blatant Affixes/roots: not required Sentences: The problem with the roof manifest itself when snow started falling in the bedroom. OR It was mainfest that I spelled "manifest" wrong. (Thank you, Ronan!); The ship's manifest listed all the cargo that they had loaded onto the barge.

IMPEDIMENT

POS: n. Def: something that makes it difficult to do or complete something; something that interferes with movement or progress Var: impede (v.) Syn: interference, obstruction, hindrance Ant: impetus, catalyst, incentive Affix/Roots: im = not; ment = state of being,  impediment = the state of being something negative. Sentence: His laziness was an impediment to his success, because he often didn't finish projects because he thought they were too much work.

ALIENATE

POS: v. Def: 1. to make (someone) unfriendly : to cause (someone) to stop being friendly, helpful, etc., towards you; 2. to cause (someone) to feel that she or he no longer belongs in a particular group, society, etc. Var: alienation (n.) Syn: estrange Ant: reconcile, include Affix/Roots: Latin "alias" = in another time/another way,  the state of being not like others, not belonging Sentence: He alienated most of his colleagues with his bad temper; no one wanted to be around him anymore.

CONFLATE

POS: v. Def: to bring together—usually mistakenly—often used to refer to concepts, fuse, confuse Var: conflation (n.) Syn: confuse (v.), mistake (v.) Ant: disjoint, divide, sever Affix/Root: con/com = with,  something combined with something else Sentence: Be careful not to conflate gossip with real news.