25/1000 Important Words

Front 1

abashed

Back 1

indicates a state of embarrassment; a person abashed feels disconcerted and put to shame.
The graduate who tripped and bashed his knee on the stage felt abashed.

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anthropology

Back 2

the study of mankind, its origins, development, customs, and racial characteristics; Greek anthropos (man) and logia (study)

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beleaguer

Back 3

to besiege, harass, or beset; literally; it means "to surround with military forces"; commonly means to harass in the sense of besetting someone with problems and annoyances. Jonah beleaguers any competitor with annoying comments.

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chimera

Back 4

a figment of the imagination, an illusion; from mythology where a chimera was a fire-breathing monster, part lion, goat, and serpent; commonly used in the expression "dream up a chimera", to describe a vain illusion or utopian wish-dream

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cursory

Back 5

hasty, superficial, without attention to details, opposite of thorough; Latin cursor (runner)

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disdain

Back 6

despise

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enigmatic

Back 7

puzzling and obscure; Greek aenigma (riddle)

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fallacious

Back 8

unsound and misleading

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gentry

Back 9

upper-class people (well-born and well-bred); also used to describe the people of any particular class or group

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imponderable

Back 10

a noun that indicates something difficult to estimate; a matter that cannot be determined by decision

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jejune

Back 11

insipid, dull, bland; literally, unnourishing;

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malign

Back 12

to slander, defame; as an adj., it means harmful or malicious; Latin malignus (ill-disposed, wicked)

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nether

Back 13

lower

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paragon

Back 14

a model of excellence, an ideal example of something; perfection personified; the ideal, the acme of perfection, a standard of comparison for all time; intact from Greek

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tactile

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describes anything pertaining to or using the sense of touch, or anything perceptible to touch, i.e., tangible; Latin tangere

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wag

Back 16

a roguish wit, a person given to droll humor; a scoundrel; waggish is the adj.

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peripheral

Back 17

describes anything touching upon the incidental rather than the essential aspects of a subject; periphery means "external boundary" and by extension, the superficial aspects of a subject; Greek periphereia (circumference)

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privy

Back 18

to participate in the knowledge of something kept secret from the rest; Latin privatus (private)

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query

Back 19

as a noun, can mean either "question" or "mental reservation"; as a verb, can mean "to inquire about" or "to raise a doubt or question about; to challenge as obscure or doubtful" or "to put questions to, to question directly"; Latin quaerere (to seek, to ask)

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riposte

Back 20

a swift, sharp reply, especially to a challenging or insulting question

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slake

Back 21

to quench, and the most common use of the word is in the expression "to slake one's thirst"; generally used to mean "to allay" by doing something that satisfies the situation

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abate

Back 22

to lessen or diminish; Latin abattre (to knock down)

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anthropomorphic

Back 23

ascribes human characteristics to gods, animals, and objects; Greek anthropos (man) and morphe (form)

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bellicose

Back 24

describes hostility and belligerence, the attitude of one eager to do battle; Latin bellum (war)

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churlish

Back 25

a churlish person is a boor; churl, in the medieval English social order was the lowest caste of freeman, and come to mean "peasant" or "rustic", and was then applied to any boorish person; e.g. rude or unmannerly