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82 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Alacrity
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Eager, enthusiastic, willing. A person with such alacrity should be a cheerleader!
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Approbation
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Approval, praise. You shouldn't need the approbation of others, but it's nice.
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Austere
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Bare, simple. Monks live austere lives.
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Axiomatic
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A given or truth. It's axiomatic that a president isn't thrown out unless..
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Canonical
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Accepted, traditional, standard. It's accepted...it's a canonical book of the New Testament.
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Capricious
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Erratic. The weather is so capricious on the west coast.
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Censure
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Criticize, rebuke. His remarks drew the censure of his employers.
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Chickanery
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Trickery.
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Disabuse
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Undeceive, set right. I'll disabuse him of that faulty notion.
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Effrontery
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Boldness, presumptuous (from French effronterie- shamless). His behavior is an effrontery!
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Enervate
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Weaken. The sickness ennervates the victim...
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Equivocate
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Ambiguous language. Don't equivocate- take a stand!
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Erudite
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Wise, scholarly. Erudite professor
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Exculpate
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Exonerate. Pronounced not guilty
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Exigent
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Demanding attention, urgent. The patient was losing blood so rapidly that it was exigent to stop the source of the bleeding.
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Extemporaneous
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Improvised. I hate extemporaneous speeches.
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Filibuster
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Intentional obstruction.
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Fulminate
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Loudly attack, denounce. He fulminated against the Republicans' plan to cut Medicare
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Ingenuous
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artless, frank, candid, no sophistication. characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not devious; "an ingenuous admission of responsibility"
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Irascible
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Easily angered, prone to outbursts. "a hotheaded commander"
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Neologism
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Newly invented word, expression, senses.
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Obviate
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To anticipate and make unnecessary. A cure for the common cold would obviate the need for shelf after shelf of cold remedies.
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Paean
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Song, hymn of praise, thanksgiving. A paean was written in honor of the victorious warrior.
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Perspicacious
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Acutely perceptive. "much too perspicacious to be taken in by such a spurious argument"
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Precipitate
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Act with haste, impulse. To cause before anticipated. bring about abruptly; "The crisis precipitated by Russia's revolution"
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Prevaricate
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Mislead, avoid truth. I didn't mean to prevaricate so much and get my firends into trouble.
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Truculent
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Fierce, cruel, eager to fight. "a truculent speech against the new government"
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Solicitous
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Concerned, eager. full of anxiety and concern; "solicitous parents"; "solicitous about the future"
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Ascetic
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Self-denial, austere in appearance. Monk led an ascetic life.
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Canon
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Established principles
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Castigation
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Severe criticism
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Chary
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Wary, cautious
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Cogent
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Appealing to mind, reason, convincing. a cogent argument.
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Complaisance
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Willing to comply with this.
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Contrite
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Penitent, rueful, regret for sins. Act of contrition.
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Demur
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To question or oppose. take exception to; "he demurred at my suggestion to work on Saturday"
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Didactic
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Intended to teach, instructive
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Dogmatic
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Rigid opinion based on the unprovable
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Ebullience
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Lively, enthusiastic expression of feelings
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Elegy
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Mournful poem
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Emollient
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Soothing
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Esoteric
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Intended for understanding by a small group only.
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Facetious
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Playful, humorous
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Harangue
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Long pompous speech. deliver a harangue to; address forcefully
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Hyperbole
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Exaggerated statement. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.
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Impecunious
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Lacking funds, hard up.
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Incipient
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Beginning to come into being. only partly in existence; imperfectly formed; "incipient civil disorder"; "an incipient tumor";
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Intransigent
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Refuse to compromise, adamant. "he is adamant in his refusal to change his mind"
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Inveigle
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Obtain by deception or flattery, wheedle.
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Penurious
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Penny-pinching. Unwilling to spend money; stingy. Yielding little; barren: a penurious land. Poverty-stricken; destitute.
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Pernicious
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Extremely harmful, potential death. a pernicious virus
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Peruse
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Examine with great care
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Quiescence
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Stillness, at rest, state of quiet.
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Perfidy
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Treachery
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Acumen
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Keen, accurate judgment
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Aver
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State as a fact, declare, assert
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Dissemble
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Disguise, conceal, mislead
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Evanescent
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Disappear like vapor
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Germane
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Relevant to subject, appropriate
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Hackneyed
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Render trite, common by frequency use
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Halcyon
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Calm, peaceful
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Hedgemony
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Dominance of one state/ideology. the white imperialists rendered their hegemony over the African natives by selling them into slavery.
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Iconoclast
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One who attacks or undermines traditional convention
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Idolatrous
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Excessive devotion
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Inchoate
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Initial stage, not fully formed. Just after the big bang, the universe was an inchoate assemblage of matter.
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Insipid
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Without taste, flavor, spirit. insipid hospital food
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Misanthrope
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Hates other humans
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Obdurate
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Unyielding, hardhearted
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Obsequious
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Exhibit fawning attentiveness. his obsequious behavior toward our boss really irritated me
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Opprobrium
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Disgrace, contempt, scorn. Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct
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Pedagogy
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Principles of teaching
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Pedantic
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Show off re. knowledge, over concerned with trivial detail. emphasizing minutiae
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Penury
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poverty, destitution
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Pith
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Central part
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Pithy
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Precise and brief
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Platitude
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Superficial remark, especially if offered as meaningful. well-meaning platitude, like "Life is what you make of it."
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Polemical
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Controversial, argumentative
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Prodigal
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Recklessly wasteful, lavish (the movie- The Prodigal- wasted money)
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Queries
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Inquiry, doubts, reservations
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Recalcitrant
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stubbornly resistant to authority or control. Difficult
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Repudiate
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Refuse to have anything to do with, disown
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Rhetoric
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Using language effectively to please or persuade
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