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614 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
abate
v., to decrease; reduce

"NASA announced that it would delay the launch of the manned spacecraft until the radiation from the solar flares abated."
abdicate
v., to give up a position, right, or power

"The appeals judge has abdicated his responsibility to review the findings of the high court."
aberrant
adj., deviating from what is normal

"When a person's behavior becomes aberrant, his or her peers may become concerned that the individual is becoming a deviant."
abeyance
n., temporary suppression or suspension

"A good judge must hold his or her judgment in abeyance until all the facts in a case have been presented."
abject
adj., miserable; pitiful

"John Steinbeck's novel 'The Grapes of Wrath' portrays the abject poverty of many people during the Great Depression."
abjure
v., to reject; abandon formally

"For a foreigner to become a US citizen, he or she must take an oath abjuring allegiance to any other country and pledging to take up arms to defend the United States."
abscission
n., the act of cutting; the natural separation of a leaf or other part of a plant

"Two scientists have hypothesized that premature leaf abscission is an adaptive plant response to herbivorous attack."
abscond
v., to depart secretly

"A warrant is out for the arrest of a person believed to have absconded with three million dollars."
abstemious
adj., moderate in appetite

"Some research suggests that people with an abstemious lifestyle tend to live longer that people who indulge their appetites."
abstinence
n., the giving up of certain pleasures

"The monk's vow of abstinence includes all intoxicating substances."
abysmal
adj., very bad

"The abysmal failure of the free market system in Russia has led people to argue that the planned economy of the Soviet Union, while not perfect, was better suited to Russia's history and culture than Western-style capitalism."
accretion
n., growth in size or increase in amount

"In the 1960's, the American geophysicist Harry Hess conceived the idea of sea-floor spreading, a process in which the new crust in the ocean is continually generated by igneous processes at the crest of the mid-ocean ridges, causing a steady accretion of the crust."
accrue
v., to accumulate; grow by additions

"Scrooge McDuck began to accrue wealth over time until he was literally swimming in gold."
adamant
adj., uncompromising; unyielding

"Despite widespread opposition to his plan, the political party's leader is adamant that the party must move to the center to appeal to moderate voters."
adjunct
n., something added, attached, or joined

"Speed walking, cross-country running, and marathons are normally regarded as adjuncts of track and field athletics since races in these sports are not normally held on a track."
admonish
v., to caution or reprimand

"The judge admonished the jury to discount the testimony that had been ruled inadmissible."
adulterate
v., to corrupt or make impure

"The unscrupulous company sells an adulterated version of the drug, and doesn't inform consumers that they are getting a less efficacious drug than they think they are getting."
aesthetic
adj., relating to beauty or art

"Members of the English aesthetic movement, such as Oscar Wilde, were proponents of the doctrine of art for art's sake, which is the belief that art cannot and should not be useful for any purpose other than that of creating beauty."
affected
adj., pretentious, phony

"It has been argued that the emphasis on so-called 'proper English' leads to unnatural and affected speech."
affinity
n., fondness; liking; similarity

"The female students in the class felt an affinity for the ancient Greek playwright Euripides because he sympathized with women, slaves, and other despised members of his society."
aggrandize
v., to make larger or greater

"One of the concerns of the framers of the U.S. Constitution was that one branch of the government would try to aggrandize itself at the expense of others."
aggregate
adj., amounting to a whole; total

"The aggregate wealth of a country includes private as well as public resources and possessions."
alacrity
n., cheerful willingness; eagerness; speed

"The football coach was pleased to see the team get to work on the task of improving its tackling skills with alacrity."
alchemy
n., medieval chemical philosophy based on changing metal into gold; a seemingly magical power or process of trasmutation

"Alchemy was the forerunner of the modern science of chemistry."
allay
v., to lessen; ease; soothe

"Improvements in antivirus software have allayed many people's fears of having their computers 'infected' with malicious software."
alleviate
v., to relieve; improve partially

"According to some commentators, one of the weaknesses of capitalism is that, although it is very efficient at increasing absolute wealth, it is not as successful at alleviating relative poverty; thus, a person living in a slum in America may be reasonably well off by historical standards, but he may perceive himself to be poor compared to members of the bourgeoisie, whom he sees regularly buying luxury goods that he is not able to afford."
alloy
n., a combination; a mixture of two or more metals

"Scientists formulate alloys to create properties that are not possessed by natural metals or other substances."
allure
n., the power to entice by charm

"Political groups in the United States often lobby Congress to use the allure of America's vast market as an incentive for countries to pursue policies in accordance with American policies."
amalgamate
v., to combine into a unified whole

"In early 1999, six municipalities were amalgamated into an enlarged city of Toronto, Canada."
ambiguous
adj., unclear or doubtful in meaning

"The gender of the Mahayana Buddhist diety Avalokitesuara, the god of infinite mercy, is ambiguous in both China and Japan, where the god is sometimes called a goddess."
ambivalence
n., the state of having conflicted emotional attitudes

"John felt some ambivalence about getting married before finishing college."
ambrosia
n., something delicious; the food of the gods

"The combination of flavors in the Moroccan baked eggplant was pure ambrosia."
ameliorate
v., to improve

"Knowing they could not stop the spread of a contagion in a few days, health authorities worked to inhibit its spread and to ameliorate its effect by issuing warnings to the public and initiating immunization programs."
amenable
adj., agreeable; cooperative; suited

"The young writer is amenable to suggestions for improving her prose style to make it more interesting."
amenity
n., something that increases comfort

"Many amenities considered normal and necessary by people in developed countries, such as indoor plumbing, were luxuries on a few generations ago."
amulet
n., ornament worn as a charm against evil spirits

"The early Christian Church forbade the use of amulets, which had become common in the Roman Empire at the time the Christian Church began to develop."
anachronism
n., something out of the proper time

"Some experts regard the retirement age of 65 as an anachronism at a time when people in the developed world have much longer life expectancies than previously."
analgesic
n., medication that reduces or eliminates pain

"Aspirin is a powerful analgesic that was introduced in 1899 and is still one of the most effective medicines available to alleviate pain, fever, and inflammation."
analogous
adj., comparable

"The psychology researcher's experiment postulates that the brain is analogous to a digital computer."
anarchy
n., absence of government; state of disorder

"The American philosopher Robert Nozick does not advocate anarchy; rather, he argues for the merits of a minimal state that would not violate the natural rights of individuals."
anodyne
n., something that calms or soothes pain

"Some people use alcohol as an anodyne to numb their emotional pain."
anomalous
adj., irregular; deviating from the norm

"The psychologist discounted the anomalous behavior of the soldier, saying it was merely a short-term effect of the stress of battle."
antecedent
n., something that comes before

"Historical factors, such as increased emphasis on the individual, the invention of printing, and the rise of the bourgeoisie, contributed to make the Reformation, which had its antecedents in the reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church, into a much broader phenomenon that created powerful churches that grew to rival the original church."
antediluvian
adj., prehistoric

"Most of our knowledge of antediluvian times has been built up as a result of one of humanity's grandest collaborative endeavors -- the gathering, identification, dating and categorization of fossils as they are discovered."
antipathy
n., dislike; hostility

"Heathcliff, the protagonist of Emily Bronte's novel 'Wuthering Heights, feels great antipathy for Edgar Linton, the man who marries the woman he loves."
apathy
n., indifference

"Apathy was high in the election because there was no major controversy or issue to arouse voter interest."
apex
n., the highest point

"In English literature, classicism reached its apex in the poetry of Alexander Pope and the other Augustans."
apogee
n., the point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited; the highest point

"The Ottoman Empire reaches its apogee in the seventeenth century, when it controlled a territory running from Budapest to North Africa."
apothegm
n., a terse, witty saying

"One of the best-known political apothegms was written by the British historian Lord Acton: 'Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'"
appease
v., to calm; pacify; placate

Many historians have criticized British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for trying to appease Adolf Hitler in the 1930's."
appellation
n., name

"The discovery of the bones of a person with the appellation Kennewick Man in the state of Washington in 1996 has raised important questions about who the earliest people to populate America were."
apposite
adj., strikingly appropriate and relevant

"The writer searched two dictionaries and a thesaurus before finding the perfectly apposite word he was looking for."
apprise
v., to inform

"Nadine Cohoda's biography of the blues singer Dinah Washington keeps the reader apprised of the racism black Americans had to endure."
approbation
n., praise; approval

"The Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest approbation an American soldier can receive."
appropriate
v., to take possession for one's own use; confiscate

"The invading army appropriated supplies from the houses of the local people."
apropos
adj., relevant

"Apropos of nothing, the speaker declares that the purpose of life is to love."
arabesque
n., ornate design featuring intertwined curves; a ballet position in which one leg is extended in back while the other supports the weight of the body

"The ballerina stunned the audience with her perfectly executed arabesque."
archeology
n., the study of material evidence of past human life

"Carbon-14 dating is of great use in archaeology because it can determine the age of specimens as old as 35,000 years, bit it is of less use in geology because most of the process studied in this field occurred millions of years ago."
ardor
n., great emotion or passion

"The twentieth-century American poet Wallace Stevens said, 'it is the unknown that excites the ardor of scholars, who, in the known alone, would shrivel up with boredom.'"
arduous
adj., extremely difficult; laborious

"The task of writing a research paper is arduous, but if it is broken down into logical steps it becomes less daunting."
argot
n., a specialized vocabulary used by a group

"Writers of crime fiction often use the argot of criminals and detectives to create a realistic atmosphere."
arrest
v., to stop; to seize

"Temporary arrest of the patient's respiration made it easier for the doctor to perform surgery on him."
artifact
n., item made by human craft

"Marxists content that appreciation of art has declined because capitalism has trained people to perceive human artifacts as commodities, and has alienated people from nature, their true humanity, and their creations."
artless
adj., guileless; natural

"The source of the meaning of artless as guileless is the poet John Dryden, who wrote of William Shakespeare in 1672: 'Such artless beauty lies in Shakespeare's wit...'"
ascetic
n., one who practices self-denial

"Muslim ascetics consider the internal battle against human passion a greater jihad than the struggle against infidels."
asperity
n., severity; harshness; irritability

"In his autobiography, Gerald Trywhitt recounts a humorous incident: 'Many years later, when I was sketching in Rome, a grim-looking Englishwoman came up to me and said with some asperity, 'I see you are painting MY view.''"
aspersion
n., slander; false rumor

"The Republic of Singapore is a young democracy, and its leaders often respond strongly to journalists and others who casts aspersions on their integrity."
assiduous
adj., diligent; hard-working

"The assiduous people of Hong Kong live in a territory with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world."
assuage
v., to make less severe

"President Lincoln wrote this in a letter to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, who had lost five sons in battle: 'I pray that our Heavenly father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.'"
astringent
adj., harsh; severe

"Bob tends to nick himself when he shaves, so he uses an astringent aftershave to stop the bleeding."
asylum
n., place of refuge or shelter

"The Stoic, accused of seeking asylum in the consolations of philosophy, rebutted this charge, saying that Stoicism is simply the most prudent and realistic philosophy to follow."
atavism
n., in biology, the reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence; individual or a part that exhibits atavism; return of a trait after a period of absence.

"Some modern political theorists reject nationalism as a tribal atavism."
attenuate
v., to weaken

"Modern digital radio equipment allows even signals that have been greatly attenuated to be transmitted by one station and received by another station."
audacious
adj., bold; daring

"The Germany army commander Erwin Rommel was known as the 'Desert Fox' as a result of his audacious surprise attacks on Allied forces in World War II."
austere
adj., stern, unadorned

"Deism is an austere belief that reflects the predominant philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment: a universe symmetrical and governed by rationality."
autonomous
adj., self-governing; independent

"Some biologists have theorized that our belief in our ability to act as autonomous agents is in conformity with the theory of evolution because it gives us a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives that helps us to survive."
avarice
n., greed

"Successful investment bankers are sometimes accused of avarice; their defenders, however, say that they are simply very good at what they do and should be rewarded accordingly."
aver
v., to affirm; declare to be true

"Yogis aver that everyone has a guru, whether it be a person, God, or the experiences of the world, that helps him or her practice yoga that is in accordance with his or her nature, and assists on the path toward enlightenment."
avocation
n., secondary occupation

"Dan became so proficient at his avocation -- computer programming -- that he is thinking of giving up his job as a teacher to do it full time."
avuncular
adj., like an uncle; benevolent and tolerant

"Walkter Cronkite, who was the anchorman of CBW news during much of the 1970's and 1980's, had an avuncular manner that made him one of America's most trusted personalities."
axiomatic
adj., taken for granted

"In nineteenth-century geology, uniformatarianism was the antithesis of catastrophism, asserting that it was axiomatic that natural law and processes do not fundamentally change, and that what we observe now is essentially the same as what occurred in the past."
bacchanalian
adj., pertaining to riotous or drunken festivity; pertaining to revelry

"For some people, New Year's Eve is an occasion for bacchanalian revelry."
banal
adj., commonplace; trite

"The writer has a gift for making even the most banal observation seem important and original."
banter
n., playful conversation

"The governor engaged in some banter with reporters before getting to the serious business of the news conference."
bard
n., poet

"The great bards of English literature have all been masters of the techniques of verse."
bawdy
adj., obscene

"Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is the story of a group of Christian pilgrims who entertain one another with stories, ranging from the holy to the bawdy, on their journey to Canterbury Cathedral."
beatify
v., to sanctify, to bless, to ascribe a virtue to

"In the year 2000 Pope John Paul II traveled to Fatima in Portugal to beatify two of the three children who said they saw the appearance of the Virgin Mary there in 1917."
bedizen
v., to dress in a vulgar, showy manner

"Paul went to the costume party bedizened as a seventeenth-century French aristocrat."
behemoth
n., huge creature, anything very large and powerful

"In the 1980s and 1990s, the trend in American business was toward increasing privatization of government industries (such as power generation), partly because it was believed that foreign private companies were becoming commercial behemoths, outstripping government-owned companies in competitiveness."
belie
v., to contradict; misrepresent; give a false impression

"The boxer's childlike face belies the ferocity with which he can attack opponents in the ring."
beneficent
adj., kindly; doing good

"The theologian discussed the question of why a beneficent and omnipotent God allows bad things to happen to good people."
bifurcate
v., to divide into two parts

"Contemporary physicists generally bifurcate their discipline into two parts -- classical physics and modern physics; the former are the fields of study that were already well developed before the momentous breakthroughs of the early twentieth century by scientists such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg, which inaugurated the age of modern physics."
blandishment
n., flattery

"Despite the salesperson's blandishments, Donna did not buy the car."
blasé
adj., bored because of frequent indulgence; unconcerned

"We were amazed by John's blasé attitude toward school; he seems to have made it a rule never to open a book."
bolster
v., to give a boost to; prop up; support

"The president has visited the state several times to bolster his sagging popularity there."
bombastic
adj., pompous; using inflated language

"Nearly lost in the senator's long, bombastic speech were several sensible ideas."
boorish
adj., rude; insensitive

"Bob apologized for his boorish behavior at the party, saying he hadn't realized that it was such a formal occasion."
bovine
adj., cowlike

"Following the slow-moving group of students up the long path to the school's entrance, the word 'bovine' popped into the English teacher's mind."
brazen
adj., bold; shameless

"The brazen student irritated his teacher by saying that he could learn more from a day spent 'surfing' the World Wide Web than a day spent in school."
broach
v., to mention for the first time

"Steve's boss knew that she couldn't put off warning him about his poor performance and decided to broach the subject the next time she saw him."
bucolic
adj., characteristic of the countryside; rustic; pastoral

"The south end of Toronto's beautiful High Park is a bucolic expanse of land that is perfect for anyone wanting a quiet walk."
burgeon
v., to flourish

"After World War II, the increased speed of industrialization and the burgeoning world population resulted in such an increase in pollution that it began to be recognized by some people as a threat to the human habitat, Earth."
burnish
v., to polish

"The poet TS Eliot burnished his reputation as one of the master poets of the twentieth century with 'Four Quartets', four long poems published between 1936 and 1942."
buttress
v., to reinforce; support

"Some critics of the American legal system argue that the requirement of proving guilt 'beyond a reasonable doubt' is too difficult a criterion to use, and buttress their case by citing the fact that objective studies suggest that only a very small number of criminals are successfully prosecuted."
cacophonous
adj., unpleasant or harsh-sounding

"The dissonant harmonies of the great jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk might seem cacophonous to some listeners, but to many jazz aficionados, they are sublime."
cadge
v., to beg; sponge

"An enduring image of the Great Depression in America is the out-of-work man cadging money with the line, 'Hey, mister, can you spare a dime for a cup of coffee?'"
callous
adj., thick-skinned; insensitive

"Jim's terrible experiences in the war have made him callous about the suffering of others."
calumny
n., false and malicious accusation; slander

"'Be thou chaste as ice, pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.'" --William Shakespeare, Hamlet
canard
n., false, deliberately misleading story

"Most politicians do not want to be associated with the old canard that big government in Washington can solve all of America's problems."
canon
n., an established principle; a basis or standard for judgment; a group of literary works

"Canons of aesthetic taste vary over the years; the Rococo period, for example, valued ornate art."
cantankerous
adj., irritable; ill-humored

"Many of us have in our mind the stereotype of the cantankerous old man who is constantly complaining about something or other."
capricious
adj., fickle

"The rule of law is regarded by many historians as one of humanity's great achievements because since its inception citizens are no longer subject to capricious decisions and penalties of rulers."
captious
adj., faultfinding; intended to entrap, as in an argument

"The pedantic and captious critic seems incapable of appreciating the merits of even the most highly regarded books."
cardinal
adj., of foremost importance

"The cardinal rule of any weight-loss diet must be limiting the intake of calories."
carnal
adj., of the flesh or body; related to physical appetites

"The yogi's goal is to achieve nirvana through, among other things, the overcoming of carnal desires."
carping
v., to find fault; complain

"Cost-benefit analysis owes much of its origin to utilitarian thought; despite the carping of critics that such analysis is based on faulty premises, the technique has proved useful in many areas."
cartography
n., the science of making maps

"Satellites in Earth orbit take pictures of topography that have greatly aided cartography."
caste
n., any of the hereditary social classes of Hindu society; social stratification

"The dalits, formerly known as untouchables, are at the bottom of thousands of castes that make up Indian society."
castigation
n., punishment; chastisement; criticism

"Many British writers recall with loathing the castigation they received at school."
cant
n., insincere talk; language of a particular group

"Many of the beat artists of the 1950s reacted against what they regarded as the cant of bourgeois society."
cataclysm
n., a violent upheaval that causes great destruction and change

"The French Revolution of 1789 was a cataclysm whose effects are still felt today."
catalyst
n., something causing change

"Among the catalysts of the Romantic movement were the libertarian ideals of the French Revolution."
categorical
adj., absolute; without exception

"Although incest is categorically forbidden by every state, recent evidence that marriage between cousins is no more likely to produce abnormal offspring that 'normal' marriages may allow the constitutionality of bans on marriage between cousins to be challenged."
caucus
n., smaller group within an organization

"The workers formed an informal caucus to discuss their difficulties."
casual
adj., involving a cause

"The philosopher Plato believed there is a casual relationship between income inequality, on the one hand, and political discontent and crime, on the other hand; in his Laws he quantified his argument, contenting that the income of the Rich should be no more than five times that of the poor, and he proposed policies to limit extremes of wealth and poverty."
caustic
adj., sarcastically biting; burning

"The columnist's caustic comments on government policy did not win her any friends among government officials."
celestial
adj., concerning the sky or heavens; sublime

"Astronomers make use of the Doppler effect to measure the velocities and distance from Earth of stars and other celestial objects."
centrifugal
adj., moving away from a center

"As the empire expanded, there was an ever-increasing centrifugal stress as remote colonies sought autonomy."
centripetal
adj., moving or directed toward a center

"Astronomers calculate that the centripetal force exerted by the Earth's gravity on the Moon will keep the Moon in orbit around the Earth for billions of years."
champion
v., to defend or support

"Robin Hood is famous for championing the underdogs of England."
chasten
v., to correct by punishment or reproof; to restrain or subdue

"The child's behavior improved after she had been chastened by punishment."
chicanery
n., trickery; fraud

"The governor ordered an audit to investigate alleged financial chicanery."
chivalry
n., the qualities idealized by knighthood such as bravery and gallantry toward women

"Chivalry was rooted in Christian values, and the knight was bound to be loyal to Christian ideals; the Crusades enhanced this idea, as knights vowed to uphold Christianity against heathens."
churlish
adj., rude, boorish

"According to the chivalric code, a knight was never supposed to be churlish, especially toward noble ladies, to whom he was supposed to be unfailingly gentle and courteous."
circuitous
adj., roundabout

"According to Hindu philosophy, some souls take a circuitous path through many births to reach God."
clairvoyant
n., one who can predict the future; psychic

"Edgar Cayce was a famous clairvoyant who some people believe was able to go into a trance during which he was in touch with a spiritual realm."
clamor
n., noisy outcry

"Over the past 12 years or so the voices clamoring for better protection of the Earth's rain forests have increased dramatically."
clique
n., small, exclusive group

"The principal of the high school is concerned that one clique of students is dominating the student council."
cloister
v., to confide; seclude

"The writer cloistered herself in a country house to finish her novel."
coagulate
v., thicken; congeal

"In normal individuals, blood begins to coagulate about 20 seconds after a wound is sustained, thus preventing further bleeding."
coalesce
v., to cause or become one

"President John F. Kennedy said that Americans must be vigilant so that the interests of business and the military do not coalesce and thus undermine those of society as a whole."
coda
n., concluding part of a literary or musical composition; something that summarizes or concludes

"The coda of the Danish composer Per Norgard's Sixth Symphony seems to return to the serene sounds of the opening."
codify
v., to systematize

"The state of legislature voted to codify regulations governing banking fraud."
cognizant
adj., informed; conscious; aware

"O. Henry's 'The Gift of the Magi' is a simple evocation of a young couple's love for one another, a story in which a husband and wife in straightened circumstances each sacrifices to buy a Christmas present for the other, not cognizant of what the other is doing."
collage
n., artistic compositions of materials pasted over a surface; an assemblage of diverse elements

"The cubist Juan Gris is noted for his use of collage to create trompe l'oeil effects -- the illusion of photographic reality."
commensurate
adj., proportional

"In the United States, malpractice suits have raised the cost of medicine because doctors must pay more for insurance, and thus increase their fees commensurately."
compendium
n., brief, comprehensive summary

"The Mozart Compendium: A Guide to Mozart's Life and Music by HC Robbins Landon is a convenient reference for finding information about the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart."
complacent
adj., self-satisfied

"Although Tom received an A on his midterm exam, Professor Donovan warned him not to become complacent since the work the second term would be harder."
complaisant
adj., overly polite; willing to please; obliging

"Although France and Germany have a close relationship, neither would consider the other a complaisant ally."
complement
n., something that completes or makes up a whole

"Some people envision chess developing into a game played at the highest levels between teams of humans and computers, each complementing the other and providing investigators with insight into the cognitive processes of each."
compliant
adj., yielding

"The young negotiator is trying to learn the skill of being open to proposals by the other side without seeming to compliant."
compunction
n., uneasiness caused by guilt

"The American psychiatrist Frank Pittman said, 'Men who have been raised violently have every reason to believe it is appropriate for them to control others through violence; they feel no compunction over being violent to women, children, and one another.'"
concave
adj., curving inward

"Concave lenses are used in glasses to compensate for myopia (nearsightedness)."
conciliatory
adj., overcoming distrust or hostility

"The leader of the country made conciliatory statements assuring the world that his country did not intend to acquire nuclear weapons."
concoct
v., to invent

"The various human cultures have concocted a great many explanations to describe the beginning of the Earth, life, and humanity."
concomitant
n., existing concurrently

"A rebuttal of the argument that homo sapiens's higher cognitive functions could not be the result solely of evolution is that such abilities arose as concomitants of language, which gave early hominids a tremendous advantage over other species."
condone
v., to overlook voluntarily; forgive

"Mahatma Gandhi believed in the principle of ahimsa and refused to condone violence of any kind, even if used in a just cause."
confound
to baffle; perplex; mix up

"Everyone but astrophysicists seems to be confounded by the question, 'What happened before the Big Bang?'"
congenial
adj., similar in tastes and habits; friendly; suited to

"The physicist Freeman Dyson has expressed his awe at how congenial the universe is to intelligent life and consciousness."
conjugal
adj., pertaining to marriage agreement

"The goal of the Bennett sisters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is to find a suitable man to marry with whom they can live in conjugal happiness."
connoisseur
n., a person possessing expert knowledge or training; a person or informed and discriminating taste

"The art connoisseur selected works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Picasso for the exhibition."
conscript
n., person compulsorily enrolled for military service

"The position of NOW (The National Organization for Women) is that having male-only conscripts violates the principle of gender equality."
consecrate
v., to declare sacred

Israel consecrated Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem as a memorial to the victims who died in the Holocaust.
contend
v., to assert

"One of the most famous philosophers to argue for ethical relativism was the German Friedrich Nietzsche, who contended that the rightness of a particular action is dependent on the circumstances of the time and culture in which it occurs."
contentious
adj., quarrelsome; causing quarrels

"When genetic engineering began in the 1970s, there was a contentious, and somethings acrimonious, debate amount scientists themselves about its danger."
contiguous
adj., touching; neighboring; connecting without a break

"There are 48 contiguous states in the United States of America."
continence
n., self-control; abstention from sexual activity

"Saint Augustine's famous line ' Give me chastity and continence, but now just now' is sometimes used to highlight the idea that action is desirable at some point, but not at present."
contrite
adj., very sorrowful for a wrong

"In sentencing the convicted man to a life sentence, the judge took into consideration the fact that he did not seem to be at all contrite about his crime."
contumacious
adj., disobedient; rebellious

"In the late eighteenth century, Great Britain tried unsuccessfully to put down the uprising against their rule by contumacious Americans, leading eventually to the establishment of a separate nation."
conundrum
n., riddle; puzzle with no solution

"The paradoxical statement 'This statement is false; presents us with a conundrum."
converge
v., to approach; come together; tend to meet

"Although the People's Republic of China and India are rivals in many ways, in certain areas their interests converge."
convex
adj., curved outward

"The term for a lens with one convex and one concave side is 'convex-concave.'"
convivial
adj., sociable

"One of the jobs of an ambassador is to provide a convivial atmosphere for diplomats to meet."
convoluted
adj., twisted; complicated

"Unraveling the convoluted genetic code is one of the great achievements of modern science."
copious
adj., abundant; plentiful

"The copious rainfall was welcomed by farmers in the parched land."
coquette
n., woman who flirts

"After she had played the part of a coquette in the college play, Pam's boyfriend felt that he needed to remind her that real life was quite different from the theater." Pam's boyfriend is an ass.
cornucopia
n., horn overflowing with fruit and grain; state of abundance

"The US economy has produced a cornucopia of employment opportunities." Not anymore.
cosmology
n., study of the universe as a totality; theory of the origin and structure of the universe

"Albert Einstein downplayed the strength of the evidence for quantum theory because a universe governed by laws that are inconsistent in their application was not congruent with his personal cosmology."
covert
adj., hidden; secret

"The CIA gathers information about foreign intelligence through many means, including covert ones."
convention
n., practice widely observed in a group; custom; accepted technique or device

"The work of French artist Henri Rousseau demonstrates a naivete that many people find more attractive than the sophistication of highly complex works that make use of all the conventions of their genre."
covetous
adj., desiring something owned by another

"The astronomer is covetous of the time that his colleague gets for research using the Hubble Space Telescope."
cozen
v., to mislead by trick or fraud; deceive

"The writer HL Mencken pointed out that a common strategy of politicians is to cozen the people by exaggerating the seriousness of a problem and then offering a solution that, conveniently, only they can provide."
craven
adj., cowardly

"In the Hindu epic poent the Bhagavad-Gia, Lord Krishna warns the hero, who is reluctant to fight, that refusing a fight would be a craven act."
credence
n., acceptance of something as true

"One of the lessons in Aesop's fable 'The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf' is that if a person 'cries wolf' too many times without real danger being present (that is, raises too many false alarms) people will be less likely to give credence to future alarms raised by that person."
credo
n., statement of belief or principle; creed

"The credo of Google is 'Don't be evil.'"
daunt
v., to discourage; intimidate; dishearten

"The not let the difficulty of learning the 800 words in Essential Words for the GRE daunt you." haha. Funny.
dearth
n., scarcity

"In his book The Affluent Society, JK Galbraith pointed out that in America affluence is located disproportionately in the private sector, leaving a dearth or resources available for the public sector."
debauchery
n., corruption

"The prince lived a life of debauchery until he discovered a spiritual dimension to life."
decorum
n., proper behavior

"When addressing the nation, the president generally has an air of decorum."
defame
v., to malign; harm someone's reputation

"The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was defamed as a teacher who corrupted the morals of his students."
default
v., to fail to act

"Economists have pointed out that the danger of using government money to help banks in danger of defaulting on a loan: such help might encourage banks to take excessive risks in the future, knowing they will be 'bailed out' by the government." No ******* ****.
deference
n., respect; regard for another's wish

"There was a movement to condemn slavery among some of the writers of the Declaration of Independence, but despite many misgivings, the proposal was dropped in deference to the objections of a number of people."
defunct
adj., no longer existing

"Skeptics have been prognosticating that Moore's Law, which says computer processing power doubles every 18 months, will soon become defunct, but the ingenuity of engineers, coupled with commercial incentives, has so far succeeded in preventing the law from being invalidated."
delineate
b., to represent or depict

"Quantum theory led to the formulation of the uncertainty principle, which was delineated in 1937 by Werner Heisenburg."
demographic
adj., related to population balance

"Demographic trends in many European countries indicate that in the next generation there will be relatively fewer working people to support retired people." Ugh. Don't remind me.
demotic
adj., pertaining to people

"Walt Whitman is considered by many to be a quintessentially American poet, a poet who celebrated the glory of the ordinary person; one critic praised him as a poet who was about to 'make the demotic sing.'"
demur
v., to express doubt

"The Supreme Court's decision was not unanimous; one justice demurred, saying that the majority decision use specious reasoning."
denigrate
n., to slur someone's reputation

"According to a recent biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, the famous leader felt a need to denigrate women." Because he was a patriarchal piece of ****.
denizen
n., an inhabitant; a regular visitor

"The US Census Bureau has the responsibility of collecting information about the denizens of the United States."
denouement
n., outcome; unraveling of the plot of a play or work of literature

"The book tells the story of what was for Europe a rather embarrassing denouement to the Crusades."
deride
v., to mock

"Innovations often requires challenges to orthodox thinking; for example, in the late 1960's, scientists from the US Department of Defense's Advanced "Research Projects Agency presented their idea of a vast network of computers to leading scientists from IBM and AT&T -- companies with innumerable research breakthroughs to their credit -- and were derided as impractical visionaries."
derivative
n., something derived; unoriginal

"The drug morphine -- considered by doctors to be one of the most effective analgesics -- is the principal derivative of opium, which is the juice in the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy."
disiccate
v., the dry completely

"The dry desert air caused the bodies of the dead animals to desiccate quickly."
desuetude
n., state of disuse

"NASA is considering a plan to refurbish booster rockets from the Apollo Program that have fallen into desuetude."
desultory
adj., random; disconnected; rambling

"The jury had difficulty following the witnesses' desultory testimony."
deterrent
n., something that discourages or hinders

"During the Cold War, the United States maintained a large number of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to aggression by the Soviet Union and its allies."
detraction
n., the act of taking away; derogatory comment on a person's character

"The writer responded in a letter to the critic's long list of detractions about his book."
diaphanous
adj., transparent; fine-textured; insubstantial; vague

"In World War II, many soldiers went to war with diaphanous dreams of glory, but found instead horror and death."
diatribe
n., bitter verbal attack

"The speaker launched into a diatribe against what he called the 'evils of technology.'"
dichotomy
n., division into two usually contradictory parts

"The philosopher is a dualist who argues that there is a dichotomy between the mind and physical phenomena."
diffidence
n., shyness; lack of confidence

"As a result of the strength of his opposition to the Vietnam War, Senator Eugene McCarthy overcame his diffidence and ran against President Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic nomination for president."
diffuse
v., to spread out

"The idea of equality and liberty diffused through society after the French Revolution."
digression
n., act of straying from the main point

"The novel 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' by Robert M Pirsig contains many fascinating digressions from the main story that discuss topics such as Platonic philosophy."
dirge
n., funeral hymn

"The music critic described the movement of the symphony portraying the hero's last days as dirgelike."
disabuse
v., to free from a misconception

"The chairman of the Federal Reserve used his testimony before Congress to disabuse his audience of the idea that the business cycle had been eliminated by the unprecedented period of prosperity."
discerning
adj., perceptive; exhibiting keen insight and good judgment

"Discerning movie critics have praised the work of producer Stanley Kubrick, who produced such excellent films as 2001, Dr Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, and Lolita."
discomfit
v., to make uneasy; disconcert

"The young man was discomfited being the only male in the play."
discordant
adj., not in tune

"In a pluralistic society there exists a cacophony of discordant voices, each shouting to be heard."
discredit
v., to dishonor; disgrace; cause to be doubted

"The candidate's attempt to discredit his opponent by spreading damaging rumors about him failed."
discrepancy
n., the difference between

"The book studies the discrepancy in values and outlook between men who fought in the war, whether voluntary or not, and those who remained civilians."
discrete
adj., constituting a separate thing; distinct

"Like the physicist, the abstract artist strives to identify the discrete elements of reality and to understand how they interact."
discretion
n., quality of showing self-restraint in speech or actions; circumspection; freedom to act on one's own

"In nineteenth-century Britain, gentlemen were expected to behave with discretion."
disingenuous
adj., not candid; crafty

"When a person starts a sentence, 'I don't mean to appear disingenuous,' one might be tempted to suspect that the person is being just that."
disinterested
adj., unprejudiced; objective

"The newspaper reporter looked for disinterested witnesses to the event so that she could get an objective account of what had happened."
disjointed
adj., lacking order or coherence; dislocated

"The technique of telling a story through a disjointed narrative is a technique best left to masters of the modern novel such as James Joyce and William Faulkner."
dismiss
v., put away from consideration; reject

"Investigators dismissed the man's account of a visit to another plant aboard an alien spacecraft as the product of an overactive imagination."
disparage
v., to belittle

"Though sometimes disparaged as merely an intellectual game, philosophy provides us with a method for inquiring systematically into problems that arise in areas such as medicine, science, and technology."
disparate
adj., dissimilar

"Many technological projects are interdisciplinary, requiring a knowledge of fields as disparate as physics and biology."
dissemble
v., to pretend; disguise one's motives

"'Miss,' the prosecutor said, 'I believe you are dissembling. I want you to tell me the whole truth about what happened that night."
disseminate
v., to spread; scatter; disperse

"While belief in reincarnation appeared as doctrine first in India and was disseminated throughout Asia by Buddhism, it is interesting that it was accepted by the most influential philosophy of the West, Platonism, and by some early Christian thinkers, such as the theologian Origen."
dissident
n., person who disagrees about beliefs, etc.

"Some of the most notorious concentration camps in history were the Gulag camps used by the Soviet Union to control dissidents."
dissolution
n., disintegration; debauchery

"Some philosophers maintain that the dissolution of the body does not mean the destruction of the mind."
dissonance
n., discord; lack of harmony

"In psychology, the term 'cognitive dissonance' refers to a conflict resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions. For example, a soldier who believes that all killing is immoral but is forced to kill by his superiors might experience cognitive dissonance."
distend
v., to expand; swell out

"People in an advanced stage of starvation often have distended bellies."
distill
v., extract the essential elements

"In his book Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, Bryan Magee manages to distill the essence of leading thinkers such as WV Quine, John Searle, Iris Murdoch, and Noam Chomsky."
distrait
adj., inattentive; preoccupied

"The chairperson became distrait because his secretary was not sitting in her usual position on his right."
diverge
v., to vary; go in different directions from the same point

"A famous line in American poetry is from Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken':
The roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by ..."
divest
v., to strip; deprive; rid

"The candidate for secretary of defense pledged to divest himself of the shares he held in defense-related companies."
divulge
v., to make known something that is secret

"Under the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war cannot be tortured and forced to divulge information."
doctrinaire
adj., relating to a person who cannot compromise about points of a theory or doctrine; dogmatic; unyielding

"The doctrinaire Marxists say that capitalism is merely a temporary phenomenon on the road to socialism."
document
v., to provide with written evidence to support

"The insurance company asked Debbie to document her claim with letters from the doctors who treated her for her condition."
doggerel
n., poor verse

"In his book Poetic Meter and Poetic Form, the literary critic Paul Fussell quotes this bit of doggerel from a US Army latrine during World War II:
Soldiers who wish to be a hero
Are practically zero.
But those who wish to be civilians,
Jesus, they run into millions."
dogmatic
adj., stating opinions without proof

"Since every case is unique, jurists must not be dogmatic in applying precedents to make their decision, but instead must base their decision on a combination of such precedents and the facts of the case at hand."
dormant
adj., inactive

"There is a considerable body of evidence showing that many diseases, such as ulcers, asthma, and hypertension have a large psychological component; the working hypothesis is that they represent manifestations of dormant emotional disturbances."
dross
n., waste worthless matter; trivial matter

"One of the ways the dross among blogs on the Internet are filtered out from the worthwhile ones is through links good blogs provide to other good blogs."
dupe
v., to deceive; trick

"In friendship, as well as in love, the mind is often duped by the heart." (Philip Dormer Stanhope)
ebullient
adj., exhilarated; enthusiastic

"The ebullient candidate for president appeared before his supporters to announce that he had won in a landslide."
eclectic
adj., selecting from various sources

"Neo-Platonism -- an eclectic third century synthesis of Platonic, Pythagorean, Aristotelian, Stoic, and Jewish philosophy -- was an essentially mystical belief that a person can achieve spiritual emancipation through union of the soul with the ultimate source of existence."
effervescence
n., state of high spirits or liveliness; the process of bubbling as gas escapes

"Effervescence occurs when hydrochloric acid is added to a block of limestone."
effete
adj., depleted of vitality; overrefined; decadent

"In 1969, US Vice President Spiro T Agnew denounced people protesting against the Vietnam War: 'A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."
efficacy
n., efficiency; effectiveness

"A cardinal rule of medicine is that the efficacy of a treatment should be measured against the seriousness of its side effects."
effrontery
n., shameless boldness; presumptuousness

"In her essay the student had the effrntery to argue that school is largely a waste of time."
egoism
n., the tendency to see things in relation to oneself

"The beginning of philosophy has been described as a moving away from egoism to an understanding f the larger world."
egotistical
adj., excessively self-centered; conceited

"The critics accused the writer of being egotistical since she wrote only about herself."
elegy
n., poem or song expressing lamentation

"Adonais is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in the spring of 1821 after he learned of the death of his friend and his fellow poet John Keats."
elicit
v., to provoke; draw out

"The Socratic method is designed to responses to guide the student toward understanding."
elixir
n., a substance believed to have the power to cure ills

"The doctor said that her prescription would help to alleviate my condition but I could not expect it to be an elixir."
Elysian
adj., blissful; delightful

"In Book VI of Virgin's Aeneid, the hero Aeneas descends to the Underworld where he meets the soul of his dead father, Anchises, in the Elysian fields and learns from him the future of the Roman race."
emaciated
adj., thin and wasted

"The prisoner was emaciated after being fed only bread and water for three months."
embellish
v., to adorn; decorate; enhance; make more attractive by adding details

"The story he had been told was so powerful that the writer felt no need to embellish it."
emollient
adj., soothing; mollifying

"The politician's speech is filled with emollient phrases to make his message more palatable."
empirical
adj., derived from observation or experiment

"Some people erroneously cite the theory of relatively as support for ethical relativism, whereas in reality the former is a scientific theory, while the latter is a moral issue, and thus by its nature is not subject to empirical verification."
emulate
v., to imitate; copy

"bionics uses technology to emulate nature, but sometimes a similar process occurs in reverse, in which scientists use technology as a heuristic tool to better understand natural processes."
encomium
n., a formal expression of praise

"The prime minister asked her speechwriter to compose an encomium for the retiring general."
endemic
adj., inherent; belonging to an area

"Malaria, once endemic to the area, has now been largely eradicated."
enervate
v., to weaken

"During World War II Russian commanders counted on the bitter cold to enervate German soldiers invading their country."
engender
v., to cause; produce

"Freudians believe that the traumatic events of infancy often engender repression that creates neuroses."
enhance
v., to increase; improve

"Although it is widely believed that the primary objective of the researchers developing the Internet was to secure the American nuclear missile system, in fact their main goal was to foster science by enhancing the ability of technology to disseminate information among scientists."
entomology
n., the scientific study of insects

"Considering that there are approximately 925,000 species of insects (more than all other species combined), entomology is a vast field of study."
enunciate
v., to pronounce clearly

"In everyday speech the sounds of many words are not enunciated clearly."
ephemeral
adj., short-lived; fleeting

"Impressionist painters such as Claude Money share with the Romantics an affinity for nature, but the Impressionists took a more scientific interest in it, attempting to accurately depict ephemeral phenomena such as the play of light on water."
epistemology
n., branch of philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge

"A major question in epistemology is whether the mind can never gain objective knowledge, limited as it is by its narrow range of sense experience."
equable
adj., steady; unvarying; serene

"Throughout the crisis the president remained equable."
equanimity
n., composure; calmness

"Emergency room doctors and nurses are trained to maintain their equanimity when treating patients."
equivocate
v., to intentionally use vague language

"The businessperson has earned a reputation as someone who never equivocates and can be trusted to do exactly what he promises."
errant
adj., mistaken; straying from the propor course

"The pitcher's errant fastball struck the batter on the shoulder."
erudite
adj., learned; scholarly

"Frederick Copleston, author of the nine-volume History of Philosophy, was undoubtedly one of the most erudite people who ever lived."
esoteric
adj., hard to understand; known only to a few

"Epidemiologists, using esoteric statistical analyses, field investigations, and complex laboratory techniques, investigate the cause of a disease, its distribution (geographic, ecological, and ethnic), method of spread, and measures for preventing or controlling it."
essay
b., to make an attempt; subject to a test

"The composer began work on a sonata, a form she had not previously essayed."
estimable
adj., admirable; possible to estimate

Alistair Cooke's book Six Men contains character studies of estimable modern figures including HL Mencken, Humphrey Bogart, and Adlai Stevenson.
ethnocentric
adj., based on the attitude that one's group is superior

"The words 'primitive' and 'savage' reflect an ethnocentric bias in Western culture that regards societies that do not have Western science and technology as inferior because they have not achieved as much material success as Western societies."
etiology
n., causes or origins

"The etiology of mental illness is complex because of the diversity of factors --- social, biological, and psychological -- that contribute to many disorders."
etymology
n., origin and history of a word

"The origin of the word 'barbarian' reflects the ethnocentricism of the ancient Greeks; its etymology is that it comes (through Latin and French words) from the Greek word 'barbaros,' meaning non-Greek, foreign."
eugenics
n., study of factors that influence the hereditary qualities of the human race and ways to improve these qualities.

"The science fiction novel describes a military eugenics program designed to create a race of super-soldiers possessing intelligence, strength, and other qualities far in advance of the ordinary person."
eulogy
n., high praise, especially of a person who has recently died

"After the death of Abraham Lincoln, many eulogies of him appeared in newspapers throughout America."
euphemism
n., use of agreeable or inoffensive language in place of unpleasant or offensive language

"An illustration of the tendency toward euphemism is the change (reflecting the political concerns of the day) in the accepted appellation of poor countries from the unambiguous poor, to undeveloped, to underdeveloped, to less developed, to developing."
euphoria
n., a feeling of extreme happiness

"There was euphoria in the professor's house after it was learned that she had received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry."
euthanasia
n., mercy killing

"Modern medicine's ability to prolong life has raised ethical questions, such as 'Is euthanasia ever morally justifiable?"
evince
v., to show plainly; be an indication of

"The student's response to the teacher's question evinced his ignorance of the subject."
evocative
adj., tending to call to mind or produce a reaction

"Somerset Maugham's short stories are often evocative of exotic places such as Pago-Pago and Gibraltar."
exacerbate
v., to aggravate; make worse

"The release of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels has increased the amount of this gas in the atmosphere, exacerbating the naturally occurring greenhouse effect that has predominated in Earth's recent past."
exact
v., to force the payment of; demand and obtain by authority

"The conquering rulers exacted a tax of 10% from every adult male in the country."
exculpate
v., to clear of blame; vindicate

"The report exculpated the FBI of any wrongdoing in its handling the investigation."
execrable
adj., detestable; abhorrent

"When fold artists such as Bob Dylan began to use rock instruments, many fold music traditionalists considered it an execrable travesty."
exhort
v., to urge by strong appeals

"In 1943 US General George S Patton exhorted American troops about to invade Hitler's Europe, saying that victory was assured because American soldiers were more virile and courageous than their German counterparts."
exigency
n., crisis; urgent requirements

"Astronauts must be prepared for exigencies such as damage to their spacecraft's life support system."
existential
adj., having to do with existence; based on experience; having to do with the philosophy of existentialism

"Existential writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre have argued that human beings are free, but that this freedom entails a burden of responsibility that makes them anxious."
exorcise
v., to expel evil spirits; free from bad influence

"A modern parallel to the shaman is the psychiatrist, who helps the patient exorcise personal demons and guides him toward mental wholeness."
expatiate
v., to speak or write at length

"Every year the book club invites a famous author to come to expatiate on the art of writing."
expatriate
v., to sent into exile

"People seeking asylum in another country are sometimes expatriated."
expiate
v., to atone for

"The pilgrims undertook their long journey to expiate their sins."
explicate
v., to explain; interpret; clarify

"The literature exam requires students to explicate three poems they studied in class and one they have not studied."
expository
adj., explanatory

"There is no one model of expository prose that a student can emulate, since each piece of good writing is unique."
extant
adj., in existence; not lost

"Unfortunately for Bible scholars, there are no extant writings of Jesus Christ."
extemporaneous
adj., unrehearsed

"I enjoyed the speaker's extemporaneous remarks more than her prepared speech, because they gave me insight into her personality that helped me understand the decisions she made during her time as a federal judge."
extirpate
v., to root up; to destroy

"The new federal prosecutor promised voters that he would extirpate corruption in the state."
extraneous
adj., not essential

"The encyclopedia editors worked hard to cut out extraneous material so that readers could find information easily on a given subject."
extrapolation
n., the act of estimation by projecting known information

"The economist's extrapolation suggests that the economy will grow by 4% next year."
extrinsic
adj., no inherent or essential

"The experiment is designed to exclude factors that are extrinsic to the phenomenon."
facetious
adj., humorous

"The comedian's facetious comments about prominent politicians kept the audience amused."
facilitate
v., to make less difficult

"The Internet -- together with the availability of relatively inexpensive personal computers -- has greatly facilitated the ability of ordinary people to conveniently exchange information with one another and large computer systems."
factotum
n., a person who does all sorts of work; a handyman

"In Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, the character Malvolio aspires to become more than merely a factotum in the house of Lady Olivia."
fallacious
adj., based on a false idea or fact; misleading

"The belief of the Nazis that they could create a 'master race' was based on the fallacious premise that some races are inherently superior to others."
fallow
adj., plowed by not sowed; uncultivated

"At the beginning of each school year the teacher looks out at the new students and thinks of a fallow field, ready to be cultivated."
fatuous
adj., foolishly self-satisfied

"The student could not understand why no one took seriously his fatuous comments."
fauna
n., animals of a period or region

"When humans introduce fauna from one habitat into another habitat, the ecological balance is upset."
fawning
adj., seeking favor by flattery

"The boss has a reputation for hiring fawning employees."
felicitous
adj., suitably expressed; appropriate; well-chosen

"The Gettysburg Address is full of felicitous phrases such as 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people.'"
feral
adj., existing in a wild or untamed state

"Feral dogs returning to an untamed state after domestication sometimes form packs, becoming a threat to humans."
fervor
n., warmth and intensity of emotion

"American soldiers were welcomed back to the United States with fervor after the end of World War II."
fetid
adj., having a bad smell

"Many people find the smell of Limburger cheese fetid."
fetter
v., to bind; confine

"The poet William Blake believed that each person creates 'mind-forged manacles,' fettering his or her natural instincts and spirit."
fiat
n., arbitrary order; authorization

"The dictator rules almost entirely by fiat."
fidelity
n., loyalty; exact correspondence

"Monks joining the Franciscan Order pledge fidelity to the ideals and rules of the Order."
filibuster
n., use of obstructive tactics in a legislature to block passage of a law

"The senator threatened that his filibuster would include a full reading of his eight-volume autobiography."
finesse
v., to handle with a deceptive or evasive strategy; to use finesse, that is, refinement in performance

"Engineers decide that the problem could be finessed by using lighter materials."
fissure
n., crevice

"Geologists measure the width of the fissure regularly to monitor lighter materials."
flag
v, to droop; grow weak

"Noticing that the students' attention was flagging, the professor gave them a short break."
fledgling
n., beginner; novice

"The coach said that some of the team's fledglings would play in Saturday's game."
flora
n., plants of a region or era

"Singapore's Botanical Gardens contain an extensive collection of the flora of Southeast Asia."
florid
adj., ruddy; reddish; flowery

"As he grew older, the novelist eschewed the florid, ostentatious style of his youth in favor of a more direct and sparse style."
flourish
n., an embellishment or ornamentation

"The Sophists often gave interminable speeches full of rhetorical flourishes."
flout
v., to treat scornfully

"In his book Poetic Meter and Poetic Form, the distinguished literary critic Paul Fussel discusses the dangers poets face when they flout poetic conventions."
flux
n., flowing; a continuous moving

"In some cultures, time is conceptualized as a flux moving in one direction."
foment
v., to incite; arouse

"The government accused the newspaper of fomenting unrest in the country."
forbearance
n., patience

"The president warned that great courage and forbearance would be required to see the war through to a successful conclusion."
forestall
v., to prevent; delay

"The government took steps to forestall an economic downturn by increasing government spending."
formidable
adj., menacing; threatening

"By the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States had become a formidable economic and military power."
forswear
v., renounce; repudiate

"when she became a US citizen, Julia forswore allegiance to all other countries and pledged to defend the United States if called to do so."
founder
v., to sink; fail; collapse

"Most attempts to create advanced new technology by government fiat founder, probably because of the difficulty in anticipating changes in the fluid world of high technology."
fracas
n., a loud quarrel; brawl

"The police were called in to break up a fracas that had erupted in the bar."
fractious
adj., quarrelsome; unruly; rebellious

"In an effort to unify their divided party, its leaders decided to first placate the party's most fractious elements."
fresco
n., a painting done of plaster

"The Italian Renaissance was the greatest period of fresco paintings as seen in the work of artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael, and Giotto."
frieze
n., ornamental band on a wall

"One of the best-known friezes, on the outer wall of the Parthenon in Athens, is a 525-foot depiction of the Panathenaic procession of honoring Athena."
froward
adj., stubbornly contrary; onstinately disobedient

"The teacher had no choice but to send the froward child to the vice-principal for disciplining."
frugality
n., thrift

"In these days of credit card and installment plan buying, frugality seems to have become a rarely practiced virtue."
fulminate
v., to attack loudly; denounce

"The senator fulminated against what he termed 'foreign meddling in America's business.'"
fulsome
adj., so excessive as to be disgusting

"The actor was embarrassed by the fulsome praise he received after winning the Academy Award for best actor."
fusion
adj., union; synthesis

"A hydrogen bomb requires tremendous heat to trigger the fusion reaction, which is provided by the detonation of a fission bomb."
futile
adj., ineffective; useless; fruitless

"To some non-philosophers, the discipline seems frivolous and futile because it produces no tangible benefits."
gainsay
v., to deny; dispute; oppose

"No one can gainsay the fact that she put great effort into the project."
gambol
v., to frolic; leap playfully

"The children gamboled on the lawn while their parents ate lunch."
garrulous
adj., very talkative; wordy

"The garrulous houseguest made it difficult for us to get much work done on the project."
gauche
adj., course and uncouth; clumsy

"What is considered gauche in one culture might not be considered gauche in another culture; for example, burping is considered rude in America but is acceptable in China."
geniality
n., cheerfulness; kindliness; sociability

"Hosts of television talk shows are generally people who possess a great deal of geniality."
gerrymander
v., to divide an area into voting districts in a way that favors a political party

"An argument against the practice of gerrymandering is that it tends to make it difficult for the party that is out of power to regain power."
glib
adj., fluent in an insincere way; offhand

"Sharon's parents were not satisfied by her glib explanation of why she had not been able to study for the exam."
goad
v., to prod; urge on

"Goaded by his friends into trying out for the football team as a walk-on, Jeff went on to become an all-American linebacker."
gossamer
adj., sheer; light and delicate, like cobwebs

"Some experts in NASA believe that what they call a gigantic 'gossamer spacecraft' could be constructed in space using extremely lightweight materials."
gouge
v., to tear out; scoop out; overcharge

"The store is able to gouge its customers because it is the only store in the area that carries that particular line of merchandise."
grandiloquent
adj., pompous; bombastic

"The orator abandoned grandiloquent phrases and instead uses simple and direct language."
gregarious
adj., sociable

"A recent anthropological theory is that human beings are gregarious creatures that are comfortable living in groups of around 150 individuals."
grouse
v., to complain

"Instead of grousing about the policy, do something about it: write to your congressional representative."
guileless
adj., free of cunning or deceit; artless

"One of the charms of the novel is that the guileless hero manages to defeat the scheming villain."
guise
n., outward appearance; false appearance; pretense

"In Greek mythology, the god Zeus often appeared to mortal women to whom he was attracted in strange guises: as a swan, he made love to Leda of Sparta, with other women he took on the form of a shower of gold, or a bull, or thunder or lightning."
gullible
adj., easily deceived

"Gullible members of the audience believed the young performer's claim that he had composed 'Hey, Jude.'"
gustatory
adj., affecting the sense of taste

"According to scientists, our gustatory sense depends to a large extent on our olfactory sense."
halcyon
adj., calm and peaceful; happy; golden; prosperous

"The movie evokes the halcyon years immediately after World War II when America was at peace and the economy was booming."
hallowed
adj., holy, sacred

"The questioning of scientific and religious orthodoxy by scientists such as Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin lead to stupendous advances in both geology and biology, as these fields freed themselves from the fetters of hallowed, but fallacious, assumptions about the age and development of the Earth and life."
harangue
n., long, pompous speech; tirade

"The football team sat silently listening to their coach's half-time harangue about poor tackling, dropped passes, and lost opportunities to score."
harrowing
adj., extremely distressing; terrifying

"The journey 'inward' to explore the unconscious mind has been described as more harrowing than the most dangerous voyage to explore the Earth."
herbivorous
adj., relating to a herbivore, an animal that feeds mainly on plants

"Most researchers now believe that the common ancestor of apes and humans was a strongly herbivorous animal."
hermetic
adj., tightly sealed; magical

"Scholars have traced many of the hermetic traditions of ancient Greece to Egypt."
heterodox
adj., unorthodox; not widely accepted

"The orthodox view among scientists is that the ancestors of the great apes and humans evolved solely in Africa; however, recently a competing, heterodox view has arisen theorizing that they also many have evolved in Euroasia.
hieroglyphics
n., a system of writing in which pictorial symbols represent meaning or sounds; writing or symbols that are difficult to decipher; the symbols used in advanced mathematics

"The deciphering of hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone in 1822 was a great step forward in understanding hieroglyphics.
hirsute
adj., covered with hair

"One of the most obvious differences between humans and closely related species such as chimpanzees is that the latter hirsute, while the former have relatively little hair."
histrionic
adj., relating to exaggerated emotional behavior calculated for effect; theatrical arts or performances

"Whenever the star of the movie does not get her way on the set, she flies into a histrionic fit."
homeostasis
n., automatic maintenance by an organism of normal temperature, chemical balance, etc. within itself

"An example of homeostasis in mammals is the regulation of glucose levels in the blood, which is done mainly by a liver and insulin secreted by the pancreas."
homily
n., sermon; tedious moralizing lecture; platitude

"The pastor's homilies have been published in an anthology."
homogenous
adj., composed of identical parts; uniform in composition

"Pluralists in America argue that the country's institutions can withstand great diversity, and even be strengthened by it, while those who argue for a more homogenous society believe that such a situation results in unhealthy contention and animosity between groups."
hyperbole
n., purposeful exaggeration for effect

"The American tradition of the tall tale uses hyperbole to depict a world in which the inhabitants and their deeds are larger than life, as befitting a people inhabiting a vast landscape."
iconoclastic
adj., attacking cherished traditions

"The linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky has been described as gleefully iconoclastic because of the zeal with which he attacks many of the central beliefs of American society."
idolatry
n., idol worship; blind or excessive devotion

"During the Protestant Reformation, images in churches were felt to be a form of idolatry and were banned and destroyed."
igneous
adj., produced by fire; volcanic

"The presence of igneous rocks on the beach suggests that there was a volcanic eruption in the area millions of years ago."
imbroglio
n., complicated situation; an entanglement

"The plot of many of Somerset Maugham's stories consists of an unraveling of an imbroglio in which the main character finds himself."
immutable
adj., unchangeable

"If humanity colonizes Mars, it will become a tabula rasa on which we will inscribe our immutable values and beliefs in a new environment."
impair
v., to damage; injure

"Alcohol has been shown to seriously impair the functioning of the brain.
impassive
adj., showing no emotion

"The judge sat, impassive, listening to the man's emotional account of the crime."
impecunious
adj., poor; having no money

"The businessman's biography tells how he went from being an impecunious student in the 1980's to one of the riches people in America."
impede
v., to hinder; block

"The development of the western region of China has been impeded by a lack of trained workers."
impermeable
adj., impossible to penetrate

"The virus protection software is said to be impermeable to attacks by malicious software sent over the Internet."
imperturbable
adj., not easily disturbed

"Buddha counseled that one should try to remain imperturbable through life's vicissitudes."
impervious
adj., impossible to penetrate; incapable of being affected

"We were amazed how Laura could sit in the noisy party studying organic chemistry, impervious to the noise around her."
impinge
v., to strike; encroach

"Scientists have found chimpanzees to be a territorial species; individuals that are not members of a group impinging on the territory of that group are normally met with aggression."
implacable
adj., inflexible; incapable of being pleased

"Once an implacable foe of capitalism, the People's Republic of China in recent years seems, in practice if not in principle, to have embraced it."
implausible
adj., unlikely; unbelievable

"To say that Napoleon Bonaparte achieved what he did merely because he was compensating for his shortness is simplistic, reductionist, and implausible."
implicit
adj., implied; understood but not stated

"Implicit in the review is the idea that the writing of serious literature is a moral undertaking."
implode
v., collapse inward violently

"The building was imploded in order to make way for the construction of a new apartment complex."
imprecation
n., curse

"The convicted man was taken away by court officers, uttering imprecations against the jury that had found him guilty."
impute
v., to relate to a particular cause or source; attribute the fault to; assign as a characteristic

"Primatologists generally impute relatively high intelligence to chimpanzees based on, among other things, the ability of chimpanzees to recognize themselves in a mirror."
inadvertently
adv., carelessly; unintentionally

"The songwriter says that it is easy to inadvertently use the melody of another song when composing."
incarnate
adj., having bodily form

"Christians believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate."
inchoate
adj., imperfectly formed or formulated

"In his book Chronicles, Bob Dylan describes the process of how some of his songs went from an inchoate state to finished, well-produced songs."
incongruity
n., state of not fitting

"There is an incongruity between the poem's solemn tone and its light-hearted theme."
inconsequential
adj., insignificant; unimportant

"The meeting of the two women seemed inconsequential at the time, but in retrospect it led to one of literature's great collaborations."
incorporate
v., introduce something into another thing already in existence; combine

"According to Bob Dylan in his autobiography, Chronicles, he systematically tried to incorporate what he learned about life and music into the songs he wrote."
incursion
n., sudden invasion

"At first, the Native Americans were not too concerned about the incursions of European settlers, but their anxiety grew with the relentless flow of people, until, finally, calamitous wars were fought between two sides."
indeterminate
adj., uncertain; indefinite

"The novel describes the main character as 'being of an indeterminate age, somewhere between 50 and 60.'"
indigence
n., poverty

"Most economists believe that the best way to prevent indigence is to expand employment opportunities."
indolent
adj., habitually lazy; idle

"An argument against welfare is that it encourages people to be indolent."
ineluctable
adj., not to be avoided or escaped; inevitable

"No one can escape the ineluctable truth that every creature that is born will one day die."
inert
adj., unable to movie; sluggish

"The teacher was frustrated by his inability to get an answer to his question from his inert class."
ingenuous
adj., naive and trusted; lacking sophistication

"The conman could not bring himself to take advantage of the ingenuous boy."
inherent
adj., firmly established by nature or habit

"Some studies of random numbers generated by computers suggest that an inherent order exists in nature, since certain pattern appear that one would not expect in a random system, but skeptics dismiss such patterns as either artifacts of impoerfectly designed experiments, or as the attempt of the human mind to impose a pattern where there is no intrinsic order."
innocuous
adj., harmless

"The bodyguard looked innocuous enough, but under his jacket were several weapons that could kill an attacker in seconds."
insensible
adj., unconscious; unresponsive

"The gas is intended to render enemy soldiers insensible."
insinuate
v., to suggest; say indirectly; imply

"If you read his speech carefully you will see that the senator is insinuating that his party has taken the wrong path."
insipid
adj., lacking in flavor; dull

"Ironically, the book about how to write lively, engaging prose is an insipid piece of writing."
insouciant
adj., indifferent; lacking concern or care

"Considering the gravity of the situation, Nancy's colleagues could not understand her insouciant attitude."
insularity
n., narrow-mindedness; isolation

"The insularity of many tribes in New Guinea allows anthropologists to study cultures that have been relatively uninfluenced by the modern world."
insuperable
adj., insurmountable; unconquerable

"Attempts by the United States to develop and anti-ballistic missile system have been met with limited success because of the almost insuperable difficulties presented by the speed of the approaching warhead that must be intercepted."
intangible
adj., not material

"When considering what occupation to pursue it is prudent to consider intangible rewards as well as financial ones."
interdict
adj., to forbid; prohibit; to confront and halt the activities, advance, or entry of

"Under US law, interdicted goods can be seized by customs officials."
internecine
adj., deadly to both sides

"The US Civil War (1861-1865) was an internecine conflict that lead to the deaths of 620,000 soldiers out of the 2.4 million who fought in the war."
interpolate
v., to insert; change by adding new words or material

"The book The Five Gospels was produced by having leading Bible scholars vote on which sayings of Jesus they believe to be authentic and which they believe to have been interpolated by other writers."
interregnum
n., interval between reigns; gap in continuity

"Those who believe that Western culture represents the culmination of history are not disheartened by considering the fall of previous dominant civilizations, believing that these were merely interregnums in the march of humanity from the cave to a united world founded on Western principles."
intimate
adj., marked by close acquaintance

"During the 1990s, Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia became good, though not intimate, friends."
intractable
adj., not easily managed

"General practitioners are equipped to deal with most psychosomatic disorders, but in intractable cases a psychiatrist is consulted."
intransigence
n., stubbornness; refusal to compromise

"Each side in the negotiations accused the other of intransigence, so talks broke down."
introspective
adj., contemplating one's own thoughts and feelings

"In many ways William Wordsworth's great poem The Prelude is an introspective work, retrospectively exploring his thoughts and feelings as he matured."
inundate
v., to cover with water; overwhelm

"Farmers in the arid areas called for the government to build a damn to provide water to irrigate their crops and provide hydroelectric power; hower, this plan was opposde by environmentalists, who dislike inundation of land because it would have an adverse effect on wildlife."
inured
v., hardened; accustomed; used to

"After 20 years in the army, the chaplain had not become inured to the sight of men dying in the battlefield."
invective
n., verbal abuse

"The debate judge cautioned participants not to engage in invective, but rather in reasoned and decorous discourse."
inveigh
v., to disapprove; protest vehemently

"The conservative writer inveighed against the school board's decision to exclude moral education from the curriculum."
inveigle
v., to win over by flattery or coaxing

"The students inveigled their professor into postponing the test for a week."
inveterate
adj., confirmed; long-standing; deeply rooted

"The columnist is an inveterate iconoclast who continually questions conventional wisdom."
invidious
adj., likely to provoke ill will; offensive

"Must publications in the United States prohibit their writers from making invidious comparisons between racial groups."
irascible
adj., easily angered

"The irascible old man complains every time someone makes a little man."
irresolute
adj., unsure of how to act; weak

"The president admonished Congress, saying that although it faced difficult choices it must not be irresolute."
itinerant
adj., wandering from place to place; unsettled

"According to state law, companies hiring itinerant workers must provide adequate housing for them."
itinerary
n., route of a traveler's journey

"We planned our itinerary to be flexible so that if we especially enjoyed a particular place, we could stay there longer."
jaundiced
adj., having a yellowish discoloration of the skin; affected by envy, resentment, or hostility

"Norman's experience as an infantryman during the war has given him a jaundiced view of human nature."
jibe
v., to be in agreement

"The auditor checked the company's account books to make sure that they jibed with the tax return it filed."
jocose
adj., fond of joking; jocular; playful

"TAriel's jocose manner often led people to say she should become a stand-up comedian."
juggernaut
n., huge force destroying everything in its path

"Some people in Britain regard American English as a juggernaut sweeping through the British Isles, destroying British English."
junta
n., group of people united in political intrigue

"The country's ruling junta consists of a general, an admiral, and the major or the capital city."
juxtapose
v., place side by side

"To illustrate their case, opponents of functionalism juxtapose the products of modern architecture and those of classical architecture, such as the Parthenon, or those of medieval architecture, such as the Cathedral of Notre-Dame."
kudos
n., fame; glory; honor

"Kudos won by Bob Dylan include an honorary doctorate in music from Princeton University."
labile
adj., likely to change

"Blood pressure in human beings is, to varying degrees, labile."
laconic
adj., using few words

"The laconic actor seemed to be a good choice to play the strong, silent hero in the western."
lambaste
v., to thrash verbally or physically

"The critic lambasted the movie in her column, calling it 'the most insipid, jejune film made in our generation.'"
lascivious
adj., lustful

"The court ruled that the movie could be censored because its sole aim was to promote lascivious thoughts."
lassitude
n., lethargy; sluggishness

"After the death of his wife, Steven suffered a three-month period of lassitude and depression."
latent
adj., present but hidden; potential

"Some experts in human psychology believe that we are just beginning to explore the latent powers of the human mind."
laud
v., to praise

"The literary critic lauded Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, calling it a novel that 'explores the tension between a person's life as a social being and his or her individual consciousness.'"
lethargic
adj., inactive

"After the 18-hour flight from New York to Singapore, the passengers were lethargic."
levee
n., an embankment that prevents a river from overflowing

"An extensive system of levees is the only way to prevent the river from flooding the area during periods of heavy rain."
levity
n., light manner or attitude

"The comedian has a gift for finding an element of levity in the most serious of subjects."
liberal
adj., tolerant; broad-minded; generous; lavish

"Bankruptcy laws should not be too stringent, or not enough people will venture their capital; on the other hand, they should not be too liberal, or entrepreneurs will take unreasonable risks and waste capital."
libertine
n., one without moral restraint

"Don Juan is a legendary, archetypal libertine whose story has been told by many poets, such as Lord Byron."
libido
n., sexual desire

"According to psychologists, the libido of human males peaks at around the age of 18."
Lilliputian
adj., extremely small

"Microbiologists study Lilliputian organisms."
limn
v., to draw; describe

"The artist based hims paintings on a sketch he had limned several years earlier."
limpid
adj., clear; transparent

"At the bottom of the limpid pond we could see hundreds of fish swimming."
linguistic
adj., pertaining to language

"Humans are at the acme of their linguistic proficiency in the first several years of life, during which they master thousands of complex grammatical operations."
litany
n., lengthy recitation; repetitive chant

"The student listened intently to his teacher's litany of the grammatical errors committed by the class."
literati
n., scholarly or learned person
litigation
n., legal proceedings

"The radio amateur's neighbor resorted to litigation in an attempt to have her neighbor dismantle his 100-foot-high antenna tower."
log
n., record of a voyage; record of daily activities

"Although no longer required to do so by the Federal Communications Commission, many amateur radio operators nevertheless keep a meticulous record of stations they communicate with, logging the details of each contact."
loquacious
adj., talkative

"Eighty meters is a portion of the radio spectrum where a shortwave listener can often hear loquacious 'hams' chatting ('chewing the rag' in amateur radio parlance) for hours."
lucid
adj., bright; clear; intelligible
lucre
n., money or profits

"Many religions regard the pursuit of lucre for what it can do to help others as laudable."
luminous
adj., bright; brilliant; glowing

"The supernova can suddenly increase its luminosity to as much as a billion times its normal brightness."
lustrous
adj., shining

"On the clear night we gazed up in awe at the lustrous moon."
Machiavellian
adj., crafty; double-dealing

"One theory of the evolution of high intelligence in primates is that it evolved largely as a result of Machiavellian calculations on the part of apes."
machinations
n., plots or schemes

"The mayor resorted to behind-the-scenes machinations to try to win his party's nomination for governor."
maelstrom
n., whirlpool; turmoil

"Nearly everyone in Europe was caught up in the maelstrom that was World War II."
magnanimity
n., generous; nobility

"The senator showed his magnanimity when he conceded defeat to his opponent in the disputed election, saying that further uncertainty would be harmful to public confidence in the political system."
malign
v., to speak evil of

"Lawyers are sometimes maligned as greedy and dishonest."
malinger
v., to feign illness to escape duty

"In order to discourage malingering, the company decided to require employees taking sick leave to produce a doctor's certification of their illness."
malleable
adj., capable of being shaped by pounding; impressionable

"Behaviorists such as BF Skinner believe that human nature is malleable, and that people's behavior can be changed by changing their environment."
maverick
n., dissenter

"Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a reputation as a maverick; he is one of only two members of the United States Congress who is a registered Independent."
megalomania
n., delusions of power or importance

"In his farewell speech the retiring trial judge warned his colleagues to beware of megalomania as they exercise their power in the court room."
menagerie
n., a variety of animals kept together

"Linda seems to take him every abandoned pet in the town; she now has an incredible menagerie of dogs, cats, turtles, rabbits, and other animals."
mendacious
adj., dishonest

"The judge ruled the testimony inadmissible because he considered it mendacious."
mendicant
n., beggar

"In Thailand it is traditional for young men to become monks for a year, a period during which they become mendicants."
meretricious
adj., gaudy; plausible but false; specious

"One of the allures of jargon is that it can make a poor idea appear worthwhile, or something meretricious easier to accept because it is dressed in fancy language."
mesmerize
v., to hypnotize

"The audience sat, mesmerized, listening to the retired soldier's account of hand-to-hand combat against the Japanese in New Guinea during World War II."
metamorphosis
n., change; transformation

"In recent years, many areas of China have been undergoing a metamorphosis, transforming themselves from predominantly agricultural areas to industrial ones."
metaphysics
n., a branch of philosophy that investigates the ultimate nature of reality

"To skeptics, metaphysics is an arbitrary search for a chemical truth."
meteorological
adj., concerned with the weather

"Some experts believe that reports of UFOs are attributable to natural astronomical or meteorological phenomena."
meticulous
adj., very careful; fastidious

"Science is an empirical field of study based on the belief that the laws of nature can be best discovered by meticulous observations and experimentation."
mettle
n., courage; endurance

"In many culture, young men are expected to test their mettle by performing difficult and dangerous tasks."
mettlesome
adj., full of courage and fortitude; spirited

"The mettlesome young officer was well regarded by all the senior officers."
microcosm
n., a small system hanging analogies to a larger system; small world

"For many years the atom was seen as a sort of microcosm of the larger universe, with electrons -- analogous to the planets of a solar system -- orbiting the nucleus, or 'sun.'"
militate
v., to work against

"The manager asked all of his employees to think of any factors that might militate against the project's success."
minatory
adj., threatening; menacing

"Intelligence information suggest minatory troop concentrations on the border."
minutia
n., petty details

"President Ronald Reagan said that a president should concentrate on the formulation and execution of broad policy and leave the minutia of running the country to subordinates."
misanthrope
n., one who hates humanity

"One of the most famous misanthropes in literature is the protagonist of the seventeenth century French writer Moliere's play Le Misanthrope.
miniscule
adj., very small

"Ancient geological processes are beyond the scope of carbon-14 dating (which is at most 120,000 years) because the amount of carbon-14 in materials from such processes that has not decayed is miniscule."
miscellany
n., mixture of writings on various subjects

"The book is a fascinating miscellany collected from the writer's life work."
miscreant
n., villain; criminal

"The public execution of miscreants was common in Great Britain in the eighteenth century."
misogynist
n., on who hates women

"Some people have called the philosopher Freidrich Nietzche a misogynist because of the numerous negative comments he made about women."
mitigate
v., to cause to become less harsh, severe, or painful; alleviate

"Although the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Warren Burger did not rescind any of the fundamental rulings of the Warren Court that preceded it, its decisions did mitigate the effects of some of the rulings of the Warren Court."
mnemonic
adj., related to memory; assisting memory

"In the introduction to a collection of poetry, By Heart, the British poet Ted Hughes says that 'the more absurd, exaggerated, grotesque,' the images used as a mnemonic device to help remember a poem, the easier it will be to recall."
modicum
n., limited quantity

"The scientist Carl Sagan wrote about astronomy and other scientific subjects in a way that enabled a reader with even a modicum of knowledge of science to understand what he was saying."
mollify
v., to soothe

"The prime minister tried to mollify people protesting the tax increase with a promise that she would order a study of other means to raise revenue."
monolithic
adj., solid and uniform; constituting a single, unified whole

"In the fifteenth century, there was a significant movement to revitalize the Church from within; however, it had become so monolithic over the centuries and contained so many vested interests that piecemeal reform was difficult and ineffective."
morose
adj., ill-humored; sullen

"The assessment of some skeptical critics of existentialism is that it is generally a view of life created by a group of thinkers whose distinguishing characteristic is that they are morose."
motley
adj., many colored; made up of many parts

"The new political party is made up of a motley group of people who are unhappy with the existing parties."
multifarious
adj., diverse

"Modern technology is so complex and multifarious that it requires thousands of specialists to devise and operate; thus, even a brilliant engineer could not buy himself fabricate a sophisticated radio or computer without the help of existing black boxes and expertise."
mundane
adj., worldly as opposed to spiritual; concerned with the ordinary

"Fundamentalists contend that the Bible's account of the creation is literally true, while others believe that it is the retelling of a powerful myth current in the Middle East that sought to explain the mundane in spiritual language."
necromancy
n., black magic

"Television might seem like necromancy to a time traveler from the fifteenth century."
negate
v., to cancel out; nullify

"The solders' poor treatment of the prisoners negated the goodwill they had built up among the population."
neologism
n., new word or expression

"The word 'anesthesia' was the neologism of the American physician and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, who used it in 1846 in a letter to Dr. William Morton, who had recently demonstrated the use of ether; the word is derived from the Latin word anaisthesia, meaning 'lack of sensation.'"
neophyte
n., novice; beginner

"The school provides extensive support and guidance for neophyte publishers."
nexus
n., a means of connection; a connected group of series; a center

"Wall Street is the nexus of America's financial system."
nonplussed
adj., bewildered

"The members of the football team were nonplussed by the presence of a female reporter in the locker room."
nostalgia
n., sentimental longing for a past time

"The product's marketing is centered on nostalgia for the 1950's."
nostrum
n., medicine or remedy of douctful effectiveness; supposed cure

"Although there are many nostrums urged on obese consumers, the only effective remedy for this condition is prosaic but nonetheless valid; eat less and exercise more."
nugatory
adj., trifling; invalid

"The historian has a knack for focusing on information that appears nugatory but that, upon examination, illuminates the central issue."
obdurate
adj., stubborn
"Coach Knight is obdurate about one thing: the offensive line is the heart of his football team."
obsequious
adj., overly submissive

"Tom's tendency to submit meekly to any bullying authority is so great that his wife suggested he overcome this obsequiousness by taking an assertiveness training course."
obsequey
n., funeral ceremony (often used in the plural, obsequies)

"Solemn obsequies were held for President John F Kennedy following his assassination on November 22, 1963."
obviate
v., to make unnecessary; to anticipate and prevent

"An experienced physician can often discern if a patient's symptons are psychosomatic, thus obviating the need for expensive medical test."
occlude
v., to shut; block

"One of the primary uses of solar cells is in spacecraft to provide electric power; this is because space is an environment uniquely suited to these devices since it has no weather to occlude the Sun and it is not susceptible to interruptions in sunlight caused by the rotation of the earth."
occult
adj., relating to practices connected with supernatural phenomena

"In his book Supernature, the biologist Lyell Watson explores what he regards as phenomena on the border between natural and occult phenomena."
odyssey
n., a long, adventurous voyage; a quest

"Steve's quest for englightenment took him on a spiritual odyssey that helped him to gain an understanding of many philosophers and religions."
officious
adj., too helpful; meddlesome

"Some of us on the tour found the guide officious, but others thought she was helpful and courteous."
olfactory
adj., concerning the sense of smell

"Wine connoisseurs say that the olfactory sense play as important a part in appreciating good wine as the sense of taste."
oligarchy
n., form of government in which power belongs to only a few leaders

"In 411BC, democratic government was overthrown in Athens and a conservative oligarchy called the Four Hundred came to power."
onerous
adj., burdensome

"The duty the judge considers most onerous is sentincing convicted criminals."
onomatopoeia
n., formation or use of words that imitate sounds of the actions they refer to

"One theory of the origin of language is that it began as a sort of onomatopoeia as early humans imitated sounds they heard."
opprobrium
n., disgrace; contempt

"It is difficult to imagine the opprobrium heaped on a person who is a traitor to his or her group."
ornithologist
n., scientist who studies birds

"Ornithologists believe that there currently exist only about 20 individuals of a bird called the Balinese sparrow."
oscillate
v., to move back and forth

"The teacher oscillates between a student-centered approach to teaching and a subject-centered approach."
ostentatious
adj., showy; trying to attract attention; pretentious

"A member of the bourgeoisie might purchase a vacation home on Maui or Cape Cod that some would regard as an ostentatious display of wealth, but that the person regards as simply a pleasant place to go on vacation."
overweening
adj., presemptuous; arrogant; overbearing

"The ancient Greeks believed that overweening pride--what they called hubris, would be punished, eventually, by the gods."
paean
n., song of joy or triumph; a fervent expression of joy

"Fundamentally, the poem is a paean of joy, celebrating the coming of democracy to the country."
paleontology
n., study the past geological eras through fossil remains

"Primatology, together with anthropology, paleontology, and several other fields, has given scientists a fairly accurate picture of the evolution of homo sapiens."
pallid
adj., lacking color or liveliness

"Archeological evidence indicates that women have been using makeup to give color to a pallid face for millennia.
panegyric
n., elaborate praise; formal hymn of praise

"Many panegyrics were written to Abraham Lincoln in the years after his death, and he has become one of the most revered figures in American history."
paragon
n., model of excellence or perfection

"The epic poet Homer was regarded by the ancient Greeks as a paragon of literary excellence."
partisan
adj., one-sided; committed to a party, group, or cause; prejudiced

"Supporters of constitutional monarchy believe that while in this system, as it is generally practiced today, virtually all power is vested in popularly elected assemblies, the institution of the monarchy continues to serve a purpose as a focus of national unity above the furor of partisan politics."
pathologica
adj., departing from normal condition

"People sometimes confound psychology and psychiatry; the former is the science that studies cognitive and affective functions, both normal and pathological, in human beings and other animals, whereas the latter is a branch of medicine that deals with mental disorders."
patois
n., a regional dialect; nonstandard speech; jargon

"In Singapore the lingua franca is increasingly becoming Singapore English, widely regarded as a patois."
paucity
n., scarcity

"An argument sometimes advanced for euthanasia is that the amount of money spent on prolonging a person's life for several months is exorbitant in relation to the paucity of funds available for preventive health programs and child health, both of which are highly cost-effective."
pedantic
adj., showing off learning

"The Sophists have acquired a reputation as being learned but rather pedantic entertainers who gave didactic talks on every subject under the Sun; the truth, however, is that some of the Sophist philosophers (notably Protagoras) were very able thinkers."
pellucid
adj., transparent; translucent; easily understood

"Two writers often metnioned as having an admirably pellucid style are Bertrand Russell and George Orwell."
penchant
n., inclination

"Sue has a penchant for science, while her brother is more interested in the arts."
penury
n., extreme poverty

"The autobiography tells the story of the billionaire's journey from penury to riches beyond his imagination."
peregrination
n., a wandering from place to place

"Swami Vivekananda's peregrinations took him all over India."
peremtory
adj., imperative; leaving no choice

"The general's words were spoken in the peremptory tone of a man who is used to having his commands obeyed without question."
perennial
adj., present throughout the years; persistent

"Perennial warfare has left most of the people of the country in poverty."
perfidious
adj., faithless; disloyal; untrustworthy

"The novel tells the story of the hero's perfidious lover."
perfunctory
adj., superficial; not thorough; performed really as a duty

"The perfunctory inspection of the airplane failed to reveal structural faults in the wing."
perigee
n., point in an orbit that is closest to the Earth

"The Earth observation satellite reaches a perigee of 320 miles above the Earth's surface."
permeable
adj., penetrable

"Wetsuits, used by divers in cold water, are permeable to water but designed to retain body heat."
perturb
v., to disturb greatly; make uneasy or anxious; cause a body to deviate from its regular orbit

"The findings that violence is increasing in schools greatly perturbed government officials."
pervasive
adj., spread throughout every part

"It is a plausible hypothesis that the atheistic and materialistic philosophy of Marxism was readily accepted in China because of its similarities with Confucian views on spiritual matters, which had pervasive influence in China for many centuries."
petulant
adj., rude; peevish

"The boy's father worried that his disobedient and petulant child would grow up to be a bitter and annoying man."
phlegmatic
adj., calm in temperature; sluggish

"Phlegmatic natures can be inspired to enthusiasm only by being made into fanatics."
phoenix
n., mythical, immportal bird that lives for 500 years, burns itself to death, and rises from its ashes; anything that is restored after suffering great destruction

"The captain believed the battalion had been destroyed by the enemy and was amazed to see it arise, phoenix-like, its men still fighting valiantly."
physiognomy
n., facial features

"The art teacher assigned her students to make drawings of people with a wide variety of physiognomy."
piety
n., devoutness

"Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was a medieval French monk revered for his piety."
piquant
adj., appealingly stimulating; pleasantly pungent; attractive

"Many of the guests enjoyed the piquant barbecue sauce, but others found it too spicy for their taste."
pique
n., fleeting feeling of hurt pride

"Sally left the restaurant in a fit of pique after her date called to say he couldn't come because he was working late."

v., to provoke or arouse

"The geologist's curiosity was piqued by the unusual appearance of the rock formation."
placate
v., to lesson another's anger, to pacify

"After his team's third consecutive winless season, the Big State football coach opened his address to the irate alumni with a barrage of cliches and euphemisms to try to placate them."
placid
adj., calm

"We were amazed how the monk was able to remain placid despite the fire that was raging through the building."
plaintive
"adj., menlancholy; mournful

"After the battle all that could be heard was the plaintive cries of women who had lost their husbands."
plasticity
n., condition of being able to be shaped or formed; pliability

"The sociologist is continually amazed by the plasticity of social institutions."
platitude
n., stale, overused expression

"Though Sarah's marriage didn't seem to be going well, she took comfort in the platitude that the first six months of a marriage were always the most difficult."
platonic
adj., spiritual; without sensual desire; theoretical

"Gradually what had been a platonic relationship between Tim and Kyoko became a romantic one."
plethora
n., excess; overabundance

"Because it deals with death and grieving, the funeral business has produced a plethora of euphemisms such as "slumber room" for the place where the corpse is placed for viewing."
plumb
v., to determine the depth; to examine deeply

"A recurrent theme of mystical experience is 'the dark night of the soul,' in which a person plumbs the depths of despair before finding a transcendent reality that brings the person closer to what he or she regards as God."
plummet
v., to fall, plunge

"The fighter jet, struck by an enemy missile, plummeted to earth."
plutocracy
n., society ruled by the wealthy

"It has been argued that modern democracies are plutocracies to the extent that wealth allows certain people to have a disproportionately large influence on political decision making."
porous
adj., full of holes; permeable to liquids

"If you go camping, make sure to spend enough money to buy a tent with a roof that is not porous."
poseur
n., person who affects an attitude or identity to impress others

"The critic labeled the writer a poseur who was more interested in getting the public's attention than in writing good books."
pragmatic
adj., practical

"The cult of romantic love was a major factor in making a marriage for love, rather than more pragmatic reasons, a ubiquitous phenomenon in the West by the nineteenth century."
prate
v., to talk idly; chatter

"The 'talk radio' program allows people to call in and prate about their pet peeves."
prattle
n., meaningless, foolish talk

"The sociologist theorizes that what may seem like prattle often has an important social function: what might be labeled 'gossip' is an important means for people to communicate valuable information about themselves and others"
preamble
n., preliminary statement

"The preamble to the Constitution of the United States contains some of the most memorable language in American history."
precarious
adj., uncertain

"The prime minister's precarious hold on power ended up when she lost a vote of confidence in Parliament."
precept
n., priniciple; law

"A good precept to follow in writing is to avoid redundancies such as 'track record' (unless the record was set on a racecourse), 'revert back,' 'free gift,' and 'general consensus.'
precipitate
v., to cause to happen; throw down from a height

"Full-scale American entry into World War II remained unpopular with the vast majority of Americans until a declaration of war was precipitated by the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor."
precipitate
adj., rash; hasty; sudden

"The secretary of state advised the president not to take precipitate action."
precursor
n., forerunner; predecessor

"The precursor to the theory of plate tectonics was the theory of continental drift."
preempt
v., to supersede; appropriate for oneself

"The movie was preempted for the president's emergency address to the nation."
prehensile
adj., capable of grasping

"Many more animals in South America have prehensile tails than those in Southeast Asia and Africa possibly because the greater density of the forest there favored this adaptation over the ability to glide through the trees."
premonition
n., forewarning; presentiment

"Shortly after his reelection in 1864, President Abraham Lincoln had a premonition of his impending death and on April 14, 1865, he was shot and died the next day."
presage
v., to foretell; indicate in advance

"The English poet William Blake believed his work presaged a new age in which people would achieve political, social, psychological, and spiritual freedom."
presumptuous
adj., rude; improperly bold

"The new employee did not offer her advice to her boss because she was afraid he might consider it presumptuous for a recent graduate to make a suggestion to someone with 30 years experience in the field."
preternatural
adj., beyond the normal course of nature; supernatural

"Most scientists believe that putative preternatural phenomena are outside the scope of scientific inquiry."
prevaricate
v., to quibble; evade the truth

"Journalists accused government leaders of prevaricating about the progress of the war."
primordial
adj., original; existing from the beginning

"Scholars are divided as to whether polytheism represents a degeneration from a primordial monotheism, or was a precursor to a more sophisticated view, monotheism."
pristine
adj., untouched; uncorrupted

"The bank's hermetically sealed vault has kept the manuscript in pristine condition for 50 years."
probity
n., honesty; high-mindedness

"No one questioned the probity of the judge being considered for elevation to the US Supreme Court; what was at issue was his controversial views on several important issues."
problematic
adj., posing a problem; doubtful; unsettled

"The idea of the universe originating at a certain point in time seems problematic to many scientists."
prodigal
adj., wasteful; extravagant; lavish

"Betty warned her husband that he must stop his prodigal spending on sports cars and expensive clothing"
profound
adj., deep; not superficial

"There is an adage in philosophy that everyone born is either a Platonist or an Aristotelian, meaning that everyone has a predisposition to believing that either reality is completely 'here and now' or that there exists a more profound, hidden reality."
prohibitive
adj., so high as to prevent the purchase or use of; preventing; forbidding

"Most people in poor countries are unable to purchase a computer because of its prohibitive price."
proliferate
v., to increase rapidly

"With the pervasive influence of American culture, 'fast food' restaurants are proliferating in many countries."
propensity
n., inclination; tendency

"There is a natural propensity to stress the importance of what one is saying by exaggerating it."
propitiate
v., to win over; appease

"MEW Sherwood, an author alive at the time of the US Civil War, eloquently expressed the sacrifice made by soldiers on both sides of that great conflict: 'But for your years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood of the North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what cost!"
propriety
n., correct conduct; fitness

"Judges are expected to conduct themselves with propriety, especially in the courtroom."
proscribe
v., to condemn; forbid; outlaw

"The expert in English believes that since the tendency to use byperbole is natural ad often enriches the language, it should not be proscribed."
provident
adj., providing for future needs; frugal

"Most people have heard the story of the prodigal grasshopper and the provident ant that spends the summer saving food for the winter."
puissant
adj., powerful

"The article analyzes the similarities and differences between the Roman Empire and the British Empire when each was at its most puissant."
punctilious
adj., careful in observing rules of behavior or ceremony

"The prime minister reminded his staff that they must be punctilious in following protocol during the visit by the foreign head of state."
pungent
adj., strong or sharp in smell or taste; penetrating; caustic; to the point

"Slang frequently expresses an idea succinctly and pungently."
purport
v., to profess; suppose; claim

"The US is generally considered to be a secular society in which church and state are separate; however, religion plays a large role, since nearly everyone purports to believe in God and many people are members of churches."
pusillanimous
adj., cowardly

"Traditionally, a ship captain is considered pusillanimous if he abandons his ship before everyone else has."
quagmire
n., marsh; difficult situation

"The federal government's antitrust suit in the 1990's against Microsoft created a legal quagmire."