Challenging Words

Front 1

apophatic

Back 1

Obtained through negation.

Front 2

apodictic

Back 2

Clearly established, beyond dispute.

Front 3

noetic

Back 3

Of or relating to mental activity or the intellect.

Front 4

targum

Back 4

From Aramaic for interpretation. Ancient Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Bible.

Front 5

pleonastic

Back 5

The use of more words than are necessary to convey meaning.

Front 6

encomium

Back 6

A speech or piece of writing that praises something or someone.

Front 7

diacritic

Back 7

(1) Mark, as in naïve, to distinguish a separate syllable.

(2) Natural Break...end of foot coincides with end of line.

Front 8

somatic

Back 8

Of or relating to the body as distinct from the mind.

Antonym: noetic.

Front 9

adventitious

Back 9

Occurring by chance, accidental, fortuitous.

Front 10

homologies

Back 10

From homologous, having the same relation, relative position, or structure.

Front 11

comtumacious

Back 11

Stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority.

Front 12

epicene

Back 12

Androgynous, or indeterminate sex.

Front 13

magniloquence

Back 13

High flown, bombastic language.

Front 14

apothegmatic

Back 14

Aphoristic.

Front 15

frangible

Back 15

Fragile, brittle.

Front 16

deictic

Back 16

Only understood in context.

Front 17

nimbus

Back 17

Luminous cloud or rainbow.

Front 18

declension

Back 18

Congugation.

Front 19

epigoni

Back 19

Imitators.

Front 20

demotic

Back 20

Vernacular, colloquial.

Front 21

hypostasize

Back 21

Treat or represent as concrete reality.

Front 22

lapidary

Back 22

Engraved or suitable for engraving on stone.

Front 23

feint

Back 23

Deceptive blow, thrust, maneuver.

Front 24

imbricate

Back 24

Arrange so as to overlap, like roof tiles.

Front 25

chiliastic

Back 25

Millenarian; once a millenium.

Front 26

aspersions

Back 26

An attack on the reputation or integrity of someone.

Front 27

labile

Back 27

Liable to change, easily altered.

Front 28

scabrous

Back 28

(1) Rough, covered with scabs.

(2) Indecent, salacious.

Front 29

polysemous

Back 29

Coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase.

Front 30

anomie

Back 30

Lack of usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group.

Front 31

imprimatur

Back 31

Official license by Catholic Church to print religious book; guarantee or worth.

Front 32

abrogate

Back 32

Repeal or do away with.

Front 33

epithalamium

Back 33

A song or poem celebrating a marriage.

Front 34

proleptic

Back 34

(1) Anticipation and answering of argument in speech.

(2) Representing something before it happens.

Front 35

layette

Back 35

Set of clothing, linens for newborn child.

Front 36

parturition

Back 36

Action of giving birth to young.

Front 37

manumit

Back 37

Release from slavery, set free.

Front 38

rictus

Back 38

A fixed grimace or grin.

Front 39

surd

Back 39

1 Mathematics (of a number) irrational. 2 Phonetics (of a speech sound) uttered with the breath and not the voice (e.g., f, k, p, s, t).

noun 1 Mathematics a surd number, esp. the irrational root of an integer. 2 Phonetics a surd consonant.

Front 40

motile

Back 40

1 Zoology & Botany (of cells, gametes, and single-celled organisms) capable of motion. 2 Psychology of, relating to, or characterized by responses that involve muscular rather than audiovisual sensations.

Front 41

scop

Back 41

A scop (pronounced /ʃɒp/) was an Old English poet, the Anglo-Saxon counterpart of the Old Norse skald.

There were differences. As far as we can tell from what has been preserved, the art of the scop was directed mostly towards epic poetry; the surviving verse in Old English consists of the epic Beowulf, religious verse in epic formats such as the Dream of the Rood, heroic lays of battle, and stern meditations on mortality and the transience of earthly glory. By contrast, the verse preserved from the skalds consists mostly of poems in praise of kings and incidental verse preserved in the sagas, often done up in the elaborate dróttkvætt meter, and the ballad-like forms that form most of the corpus of the Poetic Edda. (See also: skaldic poetry) Both, of course, wrote within the Germanic tradition of alliterative verse. The scop was a performer as well as a poet; he recited or sang his verses, usually accompanying himself on a harp or a similar stringed instrument.

Front 42

palimpset

Back 42

a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain. • figurative something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form : Sutton Place is a palimpsest of the taste of successive owners.

Front 43

gestalt

Back 43

an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

Front 44

flagitious

Back 44

1. Disgracefully or shamefully criminal; grossly wicked; scandalous; -- said of acts, crimes, etc.
2. Guilty of enormous crimes; corrupt; profligate; -- said of persons.