Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
78 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
abjure
|
v to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant, to avoid
|
|
adumbrate
|
v to forewhadow vaguely or intimate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow
|
|
anathema
|
n a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing
|
|
anodyne
|
a/n soothing, something that assuages or allays pains or comforts
|
|
apogee
|
n farthest or highest point, culmination, zenith
|
|
apostate
|
n one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions
|
|
apotheosis
|
n deification, glorification to godliness, an exalted example, a model of excellence or perfection
|
|
asperity
|
n severity, rigor, roughness, harshness, acrimony, irritability
|
|
asseverate
|
v to aver, allege, assert
|
|
assiduous
|
a diligent, hard-working, sedulous
|
|
augury
|
n omen, portent
|
|
bellicose
|
a belligerent, pugnacious, warlike
|
|
calumniate
|
v to slander, make a false accusation, calumny means slander, aspersion
|
|
captious
|
a disposed to point out trivial faults, calculated to confuse or entrap in argument
|
|
cavil
|
v to find fault without good reason
|
|
celerity
|
n speed, alacrity, think accelerate
|
|
chimera
|
n an illusion, originally an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster
|
|
contumacious
|
a insubordinate, rebellious, contumely means insult, scorn, aspersion
|
|
debacle
|
n rout, fiasco, complete failure, My first attempt at a souffle was a total debacle
|
|
denouement
|
n an outcome or solution, the unraveling of a plot
|
|
descry
|
v to discriminate or discern
|
|
desuetude
|
n disus, after years of desuetude, my French skills were finally put to use
|
|
desultory
|
a random, aimless, marked by a lack of plan or purpose: her desultory performance impressed no one
|
|
diaphanous
|
a transparent, gauzy
|
|
diffident
|
a reserved, shy, unassuming, lacking in self-confidence; surprisingly, the CEO of the corporation had been a diffident youth
|
|
dirge
|
n soung of grief or lamentation: we listened to the slow, funeral dirge
|
|
encomium
|
n glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy
|
|
eschew
|
v to shun or avoid: she chose to eschew the movie theater, preferring to watch DVDs at home
|
|
excoriate
|
v to censure scathingly, to upbraid
|
|
execrate
|
v denounce, feel loathing for, curse, declare to be evil
|
|
exegesis
|
n critical examination, explication
|
|
expiate
|
v to atone or make amends for: Pia Zadora has expiated her movie career by works of charity
|
|
extirpate
|
v to destroy, exterminate, cut out, exscind
|
|
fatuous
|
a silly, innanely foolish: I would ignore such a fatuous comment
|
|
fractious
|
a quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irratibile
|
|
gainsay
|
v to deny, dispute, contradict, oppose
|
|
heterodox
|
a unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic
|
|
imbroglio
|
n difficult or embarrassing situation
|
|
indefatigable
|
a not easily exaustible, tireless, dogged
|
|
ineluctable
|
a certain, inevitable
|
|
inimitable
|
a one of a kind, peerless
|
|
insouciant
|
a unconcerned, carefree, heedless
|
|
inveterate
|
a deep rooted, ingrained, habitual
|
|
jejune
|
a vapid, uninteresting, nugatory, childish, immature, puerile
|
|
lubricious
|
a lewd, wanton, greasy, slippery
|
|
mendicant
|
n a beggar, supplicant
|
|
meretricious
|
a cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy, attracting by false show
|
|
minatory
|
a menacing, threatening (reminds you of the Minotaur, a threatening creature indeed)
|
|
nadir
|
n low point, perigee
|
|
nonplussed
|
a baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to think or do
|
|
obstreperous
|
a noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous
|
|
ossified
|
a tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age, literally, turned into bone
|
|
palliate
|
v to make something seem less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense
|
|
panegyric
|
n formal praise, eulogy, encomium, panegyrical means expressing elaborate praise
|
|
parsimonious
|
a cheap, miserly: a parsimonious person parses out his money with great difficulty
|
|
pellucid
|
a transparent, easy to understand, limpid
|
|
peroration
|
n the concluding part of a speech, flowery, rhetorical speech
|
|
plangent
|
a pounding, thundering, resounding
|
|
prolix
|
a long-winded, verbose, proxility means verbosity: Michael Gorbachev is famous for his proxility
|
|
propitiate
|
v to appease, to conciliate, propitious means auspicious, favorable
|
|
puerile
|
a childish, immature, jejune, nugatory
|
|
puissance
|
n power, strength, puissant means powerful, strong, the senator deliveres a puissant speech to the convention
|
|
pusillanimous
|
a cowardly, craven
|
|
remonstrate
|
v to protest, object
|
|
sagacious
|
a having sound judgement, perceptive, wise, like a sage
|
|
salacious
|
a lustful, lascivious, bawdy
|
|
salutary
|
a remedial, wholesome, causing improvement
|
|
sanguine
|
a cheerful, confident, optimistic
|
|
saturnine
|
a gloomy, dark, sullen morose
|
|
sententious
|
a aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic, tending to moralize excessively
|
|
stentorian
|
a extremely loud and powerful
|
|
stygian
|
a dark, gloomy
|
|
sycophant
|
n toady, servile, self-seeking flatterer, parasite
|
|
tendentious
|
a biased, showing marked tendencies
|
|
timorous
|
a timid, fearful, diffident
|
|
tyro
|
n novice, greenhorn, rank amateur
|
|
vitiate
|
v to corrupt, debase, spoil, make inefective
|
|
voluble
|
a fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language
|