Reading...
Play button
Play button
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;
100 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
abate
|
v. to lessen in intensity or degree.
We realized with great relief that the storm had abated before breaking through the sea wall. |
|
|
abjure
|
v. to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid.
Steve had to abjure all indulgence when he entered the training camp. |
|
|
abrogate
|
v. to abolish or annul by authority; put down.
The court ruling abrogated the defendent's rights to any profit from the sale of the house. |
|
|
abscission
|
n. act of cutting off or removing.
Dr. Carter recommended an immediate abscission of the abscess in order to minimize any further infection. |
|
|
accretion
|
n. growth increase by succesive addition, building up.
Limestone is formed by the accretionof tiny particles from objects such as shells and coral overa very, very long time. |
|
|
acumen
|
n. quick, keen, or accurate knowledge or insight.
Her acumen in anticipating her opponent's strategy is legendary; it's what makes her so hard to beat. |
|
|
adroit
|
adj. adept, dexterous.
Karl had always been an adroit manipulator; even when he was a kid he could get people to do what he wanted. |
|
|
adulation
|
n excessive praise; intense adoration.
Leif Garrett was the object of much adolescent adulation. |
|
|
adulterate
|
v. to reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients.
There was a huge scandal when customers discovered that the health food store had been adulterating the wheat grass juice with clippings from the front lawn. |
|
|
adumbrate
|
v. to foreshadow vaguely, intimate, suggest, or outline sketchily.
The possibilites for futher cooperation between the two parties were adumbrated at the first, private meeting, but nothing was finalized until much later. |
|
|
alacrity
|
n. eager and enthusiastic willingness.
Amy responded to the invitaton to join the planning committee with alacrity, and even volunteered to take on additional responsibilities. |
|
|
alloy
|
v. to comingle; to debase by mixing with something inferior.
Alloying the punch with prune juice turned out not to be such a good idea after all. |
|
|
amalgamate
|
v. to combine several elements into a whole.
Alicia's initial attempts to amalgamate baroque and rap music were not very successful. |
|
|
ameliorate
|
v. to make better or more tolerable.
Jonas was sure that nothing could ameliorate the taste of beets; brussels sprouts on the other hand, could be made quite palatable with the introduction of plenty of butter. |
|
|
anathema
|
n. a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing.
He was anathema to his entire town once it was revealed that he had been a secret police informant. |
|
|
anodyne
|
adj. soothing
Don't you agree that nothing is quite so anodyne as a long soak in a bubble bath? |
|
|
antipathy
|
n. aversion, dislike.
Sam very clearly expresses his antipathy toward certain breakfast foods in the Dr. Seuss classic, Green Eggs and Ham. |
|
|
apogee
|
n. farthest or highest point, culmination; zenith.
No one could have foreseen that receiving the Pulitzer Prize at the age of 18 would be the apogee of his career. |
|
|
apostate
|
n. one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions, a betrayer of a cause.
Jordan was an apostate of modern culture; he renounced all the trappings of modern life that he used to love, and went to live in a cave. |
|
|
apposite
|
adj. appropriate, pertinent, relevant, apropos.
His choice of songs for the opening ceremony was entirely apposite; everyone agreed that it was perfectly suited to the event. |
|
|
approbation
|
n. an expression of approval or praise.
Providing approbation for good behavior is the best way to train puppies; the praise is particularly effective when accompanied by treats. |
|
|
appropriate
|
v. to take for one's own use, confiscate.
Even though he appropriated each of the elements of his design from others, the way in which he combined them was uniquely his own. |
|
|
arabesque
|
n. complex, ornate design.
A beautiful arabesque of fruits and flowers surrounded the central pattern of the print. |
|
|
arduous
|
adj. stenuous, taxing, requiring significant effort.
Learning all these vocab words may seem like an arduous task, but if you just learn a few a day, it will be a piece of cake, I promise. |
|
|
arrant
|
adj. impudent; in every way, being completely such, barefaced, utter.
Don Juan's arrant philandering made him a legend. He seemed to have had the ability to turn many of his admirers into arrant fools. |
|
|
artless
|
adj. completely without guile; natural, without artificiality.
Her artless portrayal of the young ingenue charmed the critics, who all commented on her fresh, unaffected performance. |
|
|
asperity
|
n. severity, rigor; roughness, harshness; acrimony, irritability.
The asperity of a northern winter can lead to serious depression. |
|
|
aspersion
|
n. an act of defamation or maligning.
She had to resort to aspersions when she realized her argument wouldn't hold up against close scrutiny. |
|
|
assiduous
|
adj. diligent, hard-working.
Carla was an assiduous note-taker. She wrote down almost every word of her professor's lectures. |
|
|
assuage
|
v. to ease or lessen; to appease or pacify.
Ken was able to assuage the pain of his headache by lying in a dark room with a damp cloth over his eyes. |
|
|
astringent
|
adj. having a tightening effect on living tissue; harsh; severe.
Although she hadn't intended to be quite so harsh, Kala's astringent remarks apparently made the board drop the proposal altogether. |
|
|
attenuate
|
v. to rarefy, weaken or make thinner, lessen.
The endless discussion attenuated the point until everyone lost interest in it. |
|
|
audacious
|
adj. daring and fearless; recklessly bold.
Liz is an audacious mountain climber who goes where few of her competitors dare to follow. |
|
|
augury
|
n. omen, portent, the reading of omens.
Augury in ancient Rome and other societies was performed largely by interpreting the flight of birds. |
|
|
august
|
adj. majestic, venerable.
The august presence of the pharaohs endures though the millennia, embodied in their massive tombs. |
|
|
auspice
|
n. protection or support, patronage.
As long as we were working under the auspices of the local authorities, the villagers were extremely cooperative; once we headed out on our own, however, we found that no one wanted to talk to us. |
|
|
austere
|
adj. without adornment; bare; severely simple; ascetic.
The building's austere facade gave no indication of the rich ornamentation inside. |
|
|
avarice
|
n. greed, especially for wealth.
King Midas' avarice led him to wish for the power to turn everything he touched to gold. |
|
|
aver
|
v. to state as a fact; to confirm or support.
Although Michelle averred that she would never be late again, her friends remained understandably skeptical. |
|
|
axiom
|
n. a universally recognized principle; a generally accepted or common saying.
|
|
|
axiomatic
|
adj. taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth.
|
|
|
baleful
|
adj. sinister, pernicious, ominous.
The basilisk is a notoriously cranky, albeit mythical, creature whose baleful glare is fatal. |
|
|
bane
|
adj. cause of injury, source of harm; source of persistent frustration.
|
|
|
beatify
|
v. to bless, make happy, or ascribe a virtue to; to regard as saintly.
|
|
|
bedizen
|
v. to adorn, especially in a cheap, showy manner; festoon, caparison.
The speakeasy was bedizened with every manner of tawdry decoration. |
|
|
belie
|
v. to give a false impression of, to misrepresent.
Gabriela's seeming clumsiness belied her true grace as a dancer. |
|
|
bellicose
|
adj. belligerent, pugnacious, warlike.
Ted's bellicose expression warned me that he had discovered I had eaten the last of the ice cream. |
|
|
bent
|
n. leaning, inclination, proclivity, tendency.
Mike's bent for self-destructive behavior worried his friends. |
|
|
blandish
|
v. to coax with flattery, toady or fawn.
The minister was famous for his abilty to blandish his way from obscurity to vicarious power; it seemed as if every ruler was receptive to bootlicking. |
|
|
blithe
|
adj. carefree, merry.
Paul's blithe attitude toward his housecleaning led to a comfortable, if sometimes dusty, clutter. |
|
|
boisterous
|
adj. loud, noisy, rough, lacking restraint.
|
|
|
bolster
|
v. to provide support or reinforcement.
|
|
|
bombastic
|
adj. pompous; grandiloquent.
The self-important leader's speech was so bombastic that even his most loyal followers were rolling their eyes. |
|
|
boor
|
n. a rude or insensitive person; lout; yokel.
|
|
|
broach
|
v. bring up, announce, begin to talk about.
|
|
|
brook
|
v. to tolerate, endure, countenance.
Our drill sergeant made it very clear she would brook no insubordination; even any quiet grumbling would be grounds for endless pushups. |
|
|
bucolic
|
adj. rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants.
|
|
|
burgeon
|
v. to grow rapidly or flourish.
The burgeoning population transformed the town into a bustling metropolis. |
|
|
burnish
|
v. to polish, rub to a shine.
Be careful about burnishing certain old lamps; you never know which one is going to have a genie in it. |
|
|
byzantine
|
adj. labrynthine, complex.
Tom's byzantine explanation of why he missed curfew was confusing even to his parents who were used to his convoluted punishment-avoidance strategies. |
|
|
cadge
|
v. to sponge, beg, or mooch.
He was always cadging change from me, which added up to a lot of money over time. |
|
|
cajole
|
v. to inveigle, coax, wheedle, sweet-talk.
|
|
|
caluminate
|
v. to slander, make a false accusation.
Tom caluminated his rival by accusing him of having been unfaithful, but it backfired because when the truth came out, Tom ended up looking petty and deceitful. |
|
|
capricious
|
adj. inclined to change one's mind impulsively; erratic; unpredictable.
|
|
|
cardinal
|
adj. of basic importance or consequence; primary
|
|
|
caret
|
n. an insertion mark used by editors and proofreaders.
|
|
|
castigation
|
n. severe criticism or punishment.
|
|
|
catalyst
|
n. a substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without itself changing; a person or thing that causes change.
|
|
|
caustic
|
adj. burning or stinging; causing corrosion.
|
|
|
censure
|
v. to critisize severely; to officially rebuke.
n. a judgment involving condemnation; the act of blaming or condemning. |
|
|
chary
|
adj. wary; cautious; sparing.
Claduette was chary with her praise lest it go to Fred's head. |
|
|
chasten
|
v. to chastise or correct; subdue.
The piano teacher knew it would be difficult to chasten the student's rebellious spirit without breaking it. |
|
|
chicanery
|
n. trickery or subterfuge.
|
|
|
chimera
|
n. an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster
|
|
|
churlish
|
adj. boorish, vulgar, loutish; difficult and intractable.
|
|
|
coda
|
n. concluding section to a musical or literary piece, something that concludes or completes.
The presentation of the lifetime achievement award was a fitting coda both to the evening and to his years of work with the organization. |
|
|
color
|
v. to change as if by dyeing, influence, distort, or gloss over.
|
|
|
commensurate
|
adj. matching, corresponding, or proportionate in degree, size, amount or other property.
|
|
|
complaisance
|
n. the willingness to compy with the wishes of others.
A "yes man" is characterized by his complaisance. |
|
|
consequential
|
adj. pompous, self important.
Although he thought himself a respected and well-liked man, his consequential air was intensely annoying to those around him. |
|
|
contemn
|
v. to scorn or despise.
I contemn their attempts to curry favor; nothing is more contemptible than a sycophant. |
|
|
contentious
|
adj. argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement.
|
|
|
contiguous
|
adj. sharing a border; touching; adjacent.
|
|
|
contrite
|
adj. regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness.
Wayne was hardly contrite for the practical joke he pulled; even though he said he was sorry, the twinkle in his eye and barely suppressed grin seemed to indicate otherwise. |
|
|
corrigible
|
adj. capable of being set right, correctable, reparable.
Stuttering is often a highly corrigible speech impediment, which can be corrected through speech therapy. |
|
|
incorrigible
|
adj. not reformable, uncontrollable, recalcitrant.
|
|
|
countenace
|
v. to approve of or tolerate.
I was willing to countenance any level of bickering and dispute as long as everyone agreed with me in the end. |
|
|
cozen
|
v. to deceive, beguile, hoodwink.
The corrupt televangelist cozened millions of dollars out of his viewers by convincing them that he would perform miracles to make them all win the lottery. |
|
|
craven
|
adj. contemptibly fainthearted, pusillanimous, lacking any courage.
Steve lived in craven fear of being found out as a fraud. |
|
|
credulous
|
adj. tending to believe too readily; gullible.
|
|
|
culpable
|
adj. deserving blame.
|
|
|
damp
|
v. to diminish the intensity or check something, such as a sound or feeling.
Her hopes were damped when she checked the mailbox and there was still no letter for the fourth day in a row. |
|
|
daunt
|
v. to intimidate or dismay.
At first, Bilbo was daunted by the task given him. |
|
|
dearth
|
n. smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; lack.
|
|
|
debacle
|
n. rout, fiasco, complete failure.
|
|
|
decorum
|
n. politeness or appropriateness of conduct or behavior.
|
|
|
demur
|
v. to question or oppose.
Bob demurred at the suggestion that he clean the house while we swim. |
|
|
denigrate
|
v. blacken, belittle, sully, defame, disparage.
|
|
|
denoument
|
n. an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot.
Receiving the Nobel Prize was a fitting denoument to his brilliant research. |
|
|
deprecate
|
v. to disparage or belittle.
You can deprecate his work all you want but it won't affect my opinion; I don't care if his writing is sometimes amateurish, I still like it. |
