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28 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Acquiesce (v)
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to comply with or assent to passively, by one's lack of objection or opposition.
"I had to acquiesce in the situation and accept the fact that no major reorganization, reform, or voluntary fiscal restraint would come from Congress duing my first term." --Richard Nixon, R.N. N. Acquiescence "Our next-door neighbors have tacitly sanctioned our use of their driveway by their acquiescence in our using it during the past several months. * A timorous, reticent, or taciturn person (one who is shy or reluctant to speek) might acquiesce in a situation that he actually finds repugnant. A closely related word is accede: to agree or surrender to. |
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Anomaly n.
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deviation from thenorm; abnormality; peculiar or unusual event or phenomenon
*Anamoly is a favorite word amon Star Trek screenwriters: "I've completed my analysis of the anomaly. It appears to be a multiphasic temporal convergence in the space-time continuum....It is, in essence, an eruption of antitime." Data, Star Trek: The Next Generation (final episode) Anomalous adj. "Poverty is an anomaly to rich people. It is very difficlut to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell."--Walter Bagehot *A closely related word is abberration: a deviation from what is normal, common, or morally right. |
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Appease v.
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to pacify or make content; to concede to a beligerant demand in order to bring about peace.
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile--hoping it will eat him last."--Sir Winston Churchill *Similar words iinclude mollify, placate, addle, and conciliate. An implacable person is not capable of being appeased, placated, or pacified. Appease is closely related to please; appeasing others will also please them. |
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Ascetic n.
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one who denies oneself life's material satisfactions and normal pleasures, usually as part of religious belief or discipline
"The ascetic and unpretentious lifesyle of the Hollywood movie mogul seemed an anomaly among his flamboyant industry colleagues and associates." "Asceticism is the secret mother of many a secret sin. God...did not give us fibre to much nor a passion to many."--Theodore Parker *A closely related word is anchorite: a person who has retired to a religious life of solitude and seclusion. |
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Banal adj.
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commonplace; trite; hackneyed; unoriginal
"New jazz music today seems banal and uninspired compared to the music of the bebop era. Banality n. "...he despised the agressive young men of the electronic medial....They just flitted from flower to flowe, intoning resonant banalities."--Spiro T. Agnew, The Caufield Decision *A similar word is insipid. |
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Bane n.
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any cause of ruin or destruction, lasting harm or injury, or woe.
"The woman grew to abhor her vituperative husband; among friends she would refer to him hyperbolically as "the bane of my existence." "Money, though bae of bliss, and source of woe." --Herbert Baneful adj. *A synonym of baneful is pernicious. Do not confuse bane with banal: trite; hackneyed. They are unrelated words. |
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Censure n.
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severe criticism, scolding,or fault-finding.
"All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise and all the reproach of falsehood."--Dr. Samuel Johnson *Aside from criticism, censure does not involve punishment. The word is also used as a verb, but there si no adjective form. Similar words include reproach, reproof, stricture, and pan. Another closely related word is censor; to criticize, object to, and possibly delete, especially on moral grounds. However, censure involves vehement disapproval and thus is a slightly stronger word than censor. |
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Chagrin n.
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irritation marked by dissapointment or humiliation
"His favorite team lost the big game, much to his chagrin since he had bet a large sum of money that his team would win. *The word is often improperly used to refer simply to sadness; while disappointment does tend to suggest sadness, chagrin requires, humiliation, irritation, or annoyance. A closely related word is vexation (irritation, annoyance, provocation), as illustrated in this sentence. "After the spelling bee, the winner's facetious and vexing remark comparing the loser's performance to Dan Quayle's misspelling of "potato" exacerbated the loser's chagrin." |
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Chicanery n.
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trickery or deception, usually used to gain an advatage or to evade
Chicane v. *Similar words include guile, knavery, disingenuousness, and artifice. "Some unscrupulous knaves would resort to any sort of chicanery in order to fleece an unwitting dupe of his last dollar." |
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Choleric adj.
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tempermental; hotheaded; irascible
"Just beneath his affable and disarming veneer lay a choleric and dangerous psychopath." *although choleric is unrelated to caloric, both words involve the notion of heat ( a colorie is a unit of measure for heat). *Similar words include mercurial, peevish, and acrimonious. |
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Churlish adj.
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peasantlike or rustic; crude, crass, or vulgar
Churl n. *The word has two related but distinct meanings, as illustrated by these two sentences; "The Dark Ages were churlish and difficult times to live." "His chulsih and uncivilized demeanor seems more befitting the Dark Ages than this age; I want nothing to do with the churl." *Similar words include boorish, impudent, and insolent. |
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Cipher n.
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nothing, zero, or null; a worthless person or thing; a secret code (of numbers or letters); a distinctive emblem, monogram, or colophone; v. to use numbers arithmetically
*As suggested above, cipher is a very flexible word. In terms of the first meaning, similar words include naught, null, nihil, nonentity, boid, and vacuum. To decipher a scret code is to determine or "crack" the code. The word's flexibility is illustrated in this anecdote: "The jilted husband's incipient autonomy was precipitated by his wife's "Dear John" letter, which she scribbled on her company's letterhead (with the company's cipher printed at the top). Although he had trouble deciphering her writing, he could discern that she referred to him throughout the letter as a 'cipher.'" Do not confused cipher with siphon: to withdraw liquid by suction. |
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Circumspect adj.
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Cautious; wary; watchful; leery
The word's literal meaning is "to look around"--derived from the Latin words circ (round) and spec (see). "Wild animals shoud be circumspect about drinking alone at their favorite watering hole; if they do so, it behooves them to constantly look around for predators." "Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company....To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the the worst there."--Francis Quarles *A related word is qualms; doubts; misgivings. A circumspect person might have qualms about engaging ina capricious course of action. |
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Countervail v.
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to use equal force against
"At the car dealership, I was especially enamored with the Ferrari. As prepossessing as it was, countervailing considerations, not the least of which was the price tag, dissuaded me from purchasing it and saved me from a potential credit debacle." "A good conscience...more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us without." ---Joseph Addison * Here are two similar words: Antagonistic: directly opposed to Conterpoise: a weight that influences or offsets another |
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Credulous adj.
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believing easily; gullible; ingenuous
Credulity n. A credulous perosn could be described as a dupe. "The unctuous real estate agent duped the gullible vacationers into buying a condominium time share without bothering to see the property beforehand; their credulity bought them one week a year in a run-down hovel in the most perilous part of town. A more circumspectattitude would have helped them avoid the chagrin they now feel." "When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous." --Calvin Coolidge *The opposite of credulous is incredulous (skeptical). *Do not confuse credulous with credible: worthy of acceptance, having integrity; believable. |
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Curmudgeon n.
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a person with a rude, irascible attitude
"The character of Scrooge from Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol' is perhaps the archetypal curmedgeon, and a veritable paragon of parsimony. As the story went, though, he turned out not so incorrigibly penurious after all." A curmudgeon might be described as a churl or boor. By the way, Scrooge was not only curmudgeonly, but miserly as well. As the sentence above suggests, synonyms of miserly include penurious and parsimonious. |
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Demagogue n.
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a political agitator and charismatic orator who appeals to emotions and prejudice.
"Hitler was the epitome of demagoguery; this quintessential demagogue ingratiated himself with the masses by inciting passions, quashing an quelling reason, and rewarding jingoism and chauvinism." "The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so that they believe they are as clever as he." ---Karl Kraus. A demagogue engages in demagogy or demagoguery. Demagogic adj. Demagogue is sometimes confused with demigod (a deified mortal), understandably since an effective demagogue might be viewed almost as a god by his or her followers. Do not confuse demagogue with pedagogue: a teacher. A similar word is proselytizer. |
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Deprecate (v.)
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to express diapproval of
"The friends of humanity will deprecate war, wheresoever it may appear." --George Washingtom Deprecation n. Deprecatory adj. Similar words include reprove, reprimand, rebuke, and reprobate. Synonyms of deprecation include disapprobation and reprobation Deprecation does not necessarily involve blame, criticism, or punishment. Herea are similar words that do carry one or more of these meanings: castigate: to punish in order to correct or reform censure; to strongly disapprove, criticize or blame reproach: to find fault with; blame; criticize |
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Dubious adj.
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questionable; of doubtful quality or propreity
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Enigma n.
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a mystery or puzzle; a perplexing or baffling situation, occurance, or person
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Ephermeral adj.
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lasting only a short time; short-lived
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Epitaph n.
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an inscription on a monument in memory of a dead person
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Erudite adj.
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scholarly; learned
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Eschew v.
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to avoid or abstain from
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Expedient adj.
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suitable for a particular purpose; practicable; fitting for one's advantage or interest
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Extricate v.
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to free or release from entanglement or engagement
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Facetious adj.
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frivolously comical; funny; witty amusing
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Halcyon adj.
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calm; peaceful; serene
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