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301 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Abscond |
to depart clandestinely; to steal off and hide |
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Abberant |
deviating from the norm |
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Alacrity |
eager and enthusiastic willingness |
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Anomaly |
deviation from the normal order; abnormality |
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Approbation |
an expression of approval or praise |
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Arduous |
strenuous; taxing |
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Assuage |
soothe; ease; lessen |
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Audacious |
daring and fearless; recklessly bold |
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Austere |
without adornment; bare; severely simple |
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Axiomatic |
taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth |
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Canonical |
following or in agreement with accepted traditional standards |
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Capricious |
erratic, unpredictable |
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Censure |
to criticize severely; officially rebuke |
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Chicanery |
trickery |
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Connoisseur |
an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert |
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Convoluted |
complex |
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Disabuse |
to set right |
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Discordant |
conflicting; discord; dissonant or harsh in sound |
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Disparate |
fundamentally distinct; different |
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Effrontery |
extreme boldness; insolent; presumptuous |
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Eloquent |
well-spoken
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Enervate |
to weaken; reduce in vitality/energy |
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Ennui |
boredom |
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Equivocate |
to use ambiguous language with a deceptive intent, concealing true end-goal |
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Erudite |
very learned; scholarly |
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Exculpate |
exonerate; to clear of blame |
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Exigent |
urgent; pressing |
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Extemporaneous |
improvised; done without preparation |
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Filibuster |
intentional obstruction |
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Fulminate |
to loudly attack or denounce (thunderously) |
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Ingenuous |
artless; frank and candid; childlike noble innocence |
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Inured |
accustomed to accepting something undesirable; conditioned |
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Irascible |
irritable |
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Laud |
praise |
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Lucid |
clear to understand |
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Magnanimity
|
generously noble in mind and heart |
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Martial |
associated with war |
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Mundane |
of the world; concerned with the ordinary |
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Nascent |
coming into being |
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Nebulous |
vague; cloudy; hazy |
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Neologism |
coined phrase; new word |
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Noxious |
toxic |
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Obtuse |
painfully slow to learn |
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Obviate |
to anticipate and make unnecessary |
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Onerous |
burdensome |
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Paean |
hymn of praise |
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Parody |
satire |
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Perennial |
recurrent throughout the year/many years |
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Perfidy |
intentional breach of faith |
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Perfunctory |
cursory |
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Perspicacious |
acutely perceptive |
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Prattle |
babble |
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Precipitate |
acting with impulse/haste |
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Predilection |
to happen before anticipated
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Prescience |
foreknowledge of certain events |
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Prevaricate |
to deliberately avoid the truth |
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Qualms |
fears |
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Recant |
renounce |
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Refute |
to disprove |
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Relegate |
to forcibly assign |
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Reticent |
quiet |
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Solicitous |
concerned and attentive; eager |
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Sordid |
filthy, grime |
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Sporadic |
occurring only occasionally; infrequent |
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Squander |
waste |
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Static |
not moving |
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Stupefy |
to stun |
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Stymie |
to block; thwart |
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Synthesis |
the combination of parts to make a whole |
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Torque |
a force that causes rotation |
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Tortuous |
excessively complicated |
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Truculent |
aggressive |
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Veracity |
truthfulness |
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Virulent |
hostile |
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Voracious |
insatiable appetite; ravenous |
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Waver |
to sway; to be unsettled in opinion |
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Abate |
to lessen in intensity |
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Accolade |
an expression of praise |
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Adulation |
excessive praise |
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Aesthetic |
appreciative of beauty/art |
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Ameliorate |
to ease; make tolerable |
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Ascetic |
one who practice rigid self-denial, as an act of religious devotion |
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Avarice |
greed |
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Axiom |
universally recognized priniciple |
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Burgeon |
to grow rapidly |
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Bucolic |
rustic, pastoral |
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Cacophony |
harsh, jarring sounds |
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Canon |
an established set of principles |
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Castigation |
severe criticism |
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Catalyst |
substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction(without changing itself) |
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Caustic |
burning or stinging |
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Chary |
wary |
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Cogent |
appealing forcible to the mind; convincing |
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Complaisance |
willingness to comply with the wishes of others |
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Contentious |
argumentative |
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Contrite |
regretful |
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Culpable |
deserving blame |
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Dearth |
scarcity |
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Demur |
to question/oppose |
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Didactic |
intended to teach |
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Discretion |
reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions |
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Disinterested |
impartial |
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Dogmatic |
expressing a rigid opinion based on unproved principles |
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Ebullience |
the quality of lively expression of thoughts/feelings |
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Eclectic |
composed of elements drawn from various sources |
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Elegy |
mournful poem |
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Emollient |
soothing (to the skin) |
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Empirical |
based on observation or experiment |
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Enigmatic |
mysterious |
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Ephemeral |
brief |
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Esoteric |
intended to be understood by few people |
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Eulogy |
speech honoring the dead |
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Exonerate |
remove from blame |
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Facetious |
playful |
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Fallacy |
mistaken belief |
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Furtive |
marked by stealth |
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Gregarious |
sociable |
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Harangue |
to deliver a pompous speech |
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Heretical |
violating convention |
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Hyperbole |
exaggerated statement |
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Impecunious |
lacking funds |
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Incipient |
beginning to come into or being apparent |
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Inert |
unmoving; sluggish |
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Innocuous |
harmless |
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Intransigent |
refusing to compromise |
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Inveigle |
to obtain by deception |
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Morose |
sad; sullen |
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Odious |
intense dislike |
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Opaque |
impenetrable by light |
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Oscillation |
uninterrupted rythm |
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Penurious |
excessively thrifty |
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Pernicious |
extremely harmful in a way not noticed |
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Peruse |
to examine with great care |
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Pious |
extremely reverent, devout |
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Precursor |
one that precedes, announces another |
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Preen |
to dress up |
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Prodigious |
abundant in size |
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Prolific |
producing large amounts; productive |
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Putrefy |
to rot |
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Quaff |
to drink deeply |
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Quiescience |
stillness |
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Redoutable |
worthy of honor |
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Sanction |
authoritative permission |
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Satire |
literary work that ridicules human vice |
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Squalid |
sordid |
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Stoic |
steadfast; calm |
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Supplant |
to take the place of |
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Torpid |
lethargic |
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Ubiquitous |
seemingly everywhere |
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Urbane |
sophisticated |
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Vilify |
to defame |
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Viscous |
thick |
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Acumen |
keen, accurate judgment or insight |
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Adulterate |
to reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients |
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Amalgamate |
to combine several elements into a whole |
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Archaic |
outdated
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Aver |
to state as a fact |
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Bolster |
to provide support/reinforcement |
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Bombastic |
pompous |
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Diatribe |
a harsh denunciation |
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Dissemble |
to disguise or conceal; to mislead |
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Eccentric |
departing from norms |
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Endemic |
characteristic often found in a particular locality |
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Evanescent |
tending to disappear like vapor |
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Exacerbate |
to make worse |
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Fervent |
greatly emotional/zealous |
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Fortuitous |
happening by accident or chance |
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Germane |
relevant to the subject at hand |
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Grandiloquence |
pompous speech or expression |
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Hackneyed |
rendered trite or commonplace by frequent usage |
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Halcyon |
calm and peaceful |
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Hedonsim |
devotion to pleasurable pusuits |
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Hegemony |
the consistent dominance of one state or group over others |
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Iconoclast |
one who attacks or undermines traditional conventions |
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Idolatrous |
given to intense or excessive devotion to something |
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Impassive |
revealing no emotion |
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Imperturbable |
marked by extreme calm |
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Implacable |
not capable of being appeased or significantly changed |
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Impunity |
immunity from punishment or penalty |
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Inchoate |
in an initial stage |
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Infelicitous |
unfortunate |
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Insipid |
lacking in qualities that interest |
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Loquacious |
extremely talkative |
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Luminous |
characterized by brightness and the emission of light |
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Malevolent |
having or showing often vicious ill will |
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Malleable |
capable of being shaped/formed |
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Mendactiy |
the condition of being untruthful |
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Meticulous |
characterized by extreme care and precision |
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Misanthrope |
one who hates all other humans |
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Mitigate |
to make or become less severe; to moderate |
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Obdurate |
unyielding |
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Obsequious |
exhibiting a fawning attentiveness |
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Occlude |
to obstruct
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Opprobrium |
disgrace |
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Pedagogy |
the profession or principles of teaching
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Pedantic |
overly concerned with the trivial details of learning or education |
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Penury |
poverty |
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Pervasive |
tendency to permeate or spread throughout |
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Pine |
to yearn intensely |
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Pirate |
to illegally use/reproduce |
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Pith |
the essential part |
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Pithy |
precise and brief |
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Placate |
to appease |
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Platitude |
a superficial remark |
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Plummet |
to plunge/drop |
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Polemical |
controversial |
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Prodigal |
recklessly wasteful |
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Profuse |
given or coming forth |
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Proliferate |
to grow or increase swiftly |
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Queries |
questions |
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Querulous |
prone to complaining |
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Rancorous |
characterized by bitter, long-lasting resentment |
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Recalcitrant |
obstinately defiant of authority |
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Repudiate |
to refuse to have anything to do with; to disown |
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Rescind
|
to invalidate |
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Reverent |
marked by, feeling or expressing a feeling of profound awe and resepect |
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Rhetoric |
the art of effective use of language for communication and persuasion |
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Salubrious |
promoting health or well-being |
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Solvent |
able to meet financial obligations |
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Specious |
seeming true, but actually being fallacious; misleadingly attractive |
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Spurious |
lacking authenticity |
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Subpoena |
a court order requiring appearance |
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Succinct |
brief; concise |
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Superfluous |
exceeding what is sufficient or necessary |
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Surfeit |
an overabundant supply
|
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Tenacity |
the quality of adherence or persistence to something valued |
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Tenuous |
having little substance or strength |
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Tirade |
a long and extremely critical speech; a harsh denunciation |
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Transient |
fleeting |
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Zealous |
fervent; ardent; impassioned |
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Acerbic |
having a sour or bitter taste or character; sharp; biting |
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Aggrandize |
to increase in intensity, power, influence |
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Alchemy |
a medieval science aimed at the transmutation of metals, esp. base metals into gold
|
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Amenable |
agreeable |
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Anachronism |
something or someone out of place |
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Astringent |
having a tightening effect on living tissue |
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Contiguous |
sharing a border |
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Convention |
a generally agreed-upon practice |
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Credulous |
tending to believe too readily |
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Cynicism |
an attitude or quality of belief that all people are motivated by selfishness |
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Decorum |
polite or appropriate behavior |
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Derision |
scorn, ridicule |
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Desiccate |
to dry out |
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Dilettante |
one with an amateurish interest in the arts |
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Disparage |
to slight |
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Divulge |
to disclose something secret |
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Fawn |
to flatter |
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Flout |
to show contempt for |
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Garrulous |
pointlessly talkative |
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Glib |
marked by ease or informality; nonchalant |
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Hubris |
overbearing presumption or pride |
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Imminent |
about to happen |
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Immutable |
not capable of change |
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Impetuous |
hastily or rashly energetic |
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Indifferent |
having no interest or concern |
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Inimical |
damaging |
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Intractable |
not easily managed or directed |
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Intrepid |
steadfast and courageous |
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Laconic |
using few words; terse |
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Maverick |
an independent individual who does not go along with the party |
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Mercurial |
characterized by rapid and unpredictable change in mood |
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Mollify |
to calm |
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Neophyte |
a recent convert |
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Obfuscate |
to deliberately obscure |
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Obstinate |
stubborn |
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Ostentatious |
characterized by or given to pretentious display |
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Pervade |
to permeate |
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Phlegmatic |
calm |
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Plethora |
an overabundance |
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Pragmatic |
practical rather than idealistic |
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Presumptuous |
overstepping due bounds |
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Pristine |
pure |
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Probity |
adherence to highest principles |
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Proclivity |
a natural predisposition |
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Profligate |
excessively wasteful |
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Propensity |
a natural inclination or tendancy |
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Prosaic |
dull |
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Pungent |
strong, sharp smell or taste |
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Quixotic |
foolishly impractical |
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Quotidian |
occurring or recurring daily |
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Rarefy |
to make or become thin |
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Recondite |
hidden |
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Refulgent |
radiant |
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Renege |
to fail to honor a commitment |
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Sedulous |
diligent |
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Shard |
a piece of broken pottery of glass |
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Soporific |
causing drowsiness |
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sparse |
thin, not dense |
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Spendthrift |
one who spends money wastefully |
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Subtle |
not obvious |
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Tacit |
implied |
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Tout |
to publicly praise, promote |
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Trenchant |
sharlpy perceptive |
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Unfeigned |
genuine |
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Untenable |
indefensible |
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Vacillate |
to waver indecisively |
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Variegated |
multicolored |
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Vexation |
annoyance |
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Vigilant |
alertly watchful |
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Vituperate |
to use harsh condemnatory language |
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Volatile |
readily changing to a vapor |