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60 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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alacrity
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eager and enthusiastic willingness
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"Right away!"
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approbation
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expression of approval or praise
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syn, panegyric
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axiomatic
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taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth
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"Well, duh!"
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capricious
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inclined to change one's mind impulsively; erratic, unpredictable
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99% of celebrities are this
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chicanery
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trickery or subterfuge
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While it was annoying, no one was really surprised that she employed chicanery to get her promotion.
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effrontery
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extreme boldness; presumptuousness
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audacity
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enervate
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to weaken; to reduce in vitality
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His presence enervated her.
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equivocate
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to use ambiguous language with a deceptive intent (adj, equivocal)
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The constituency is getting really tired of politicians' equivocal statements.
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exculpate
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to exonerate; to clear of blame
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Lord Peter Wimsey exculpates the wrongly accused in many of Dorothy Sayers' mysteries.
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exigent
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urgent, pressing; requiring immediate action or attention
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He called an ambulance because of his younger brother's exigent injury.
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extemporaneous
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improvised; done without preparation
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ex-outside of; temp-time
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filibuster
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intentional obstruction, especially using prolonged speechmaking to delay legislative action
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The Senate's constant filibusters are getting a little ridiculous.
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fulminate
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to loudly attack or denounce
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When the boss was fulminated by several employees, the district manager had to get involved.
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ingenuous
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artless; frank and candid; lacking in sophistication; disingenuous: withholding information or insincere
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His manner may be ingenuous, but his poetry is sublime.
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inured
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accustomed to accepting something undesirable
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Though she wanted a better life, she was inured to her codependent relationship.
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irascible
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easily angered; prone to tempermental outbursts
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We were glad when he went into the navy because of his irascible temperament.
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magnanimity
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the quality of being generously noble in mind and heart, especially in forgiving
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The author Robin Hardy creates memorable characters who are often marked by their touching magnanimity.
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nascent
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coming into being; in early developmental stages
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It is always exciting to see the nascent phase of a worthwile project.
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neologism
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a new word, expression or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses
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neo-new; logos-word; ism-the state of
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noxious
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harmful, injurious
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The entertainment turned into a noxious disaster.
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obtuse
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lacking sharpness of intellect; not clear or precise in thought or expression.
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Martha remarked: "She's a little obtuse, no?"
Billy glanced at Martha momentarily, and then brightened. "Oh, you mean she' no' the brightes' cray-on in the box, now, donchye?" |
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obviate
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to anticipate and make unnecessary
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Because she was suspicious of the dilapidated vehicle, she stayed well away from it and in doing so obviated any braking or swerving.
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perennial
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recurrent through the year or many years; happening repeatedly
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Terri was getting sick of her perennial illnesses.
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perfidy
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intentional breach of faith; treachery
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His signing the contract with no intention of paying was an act of perfidy.
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perspicacious
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acutely perceptive; having keen discernment (noun: perspicacity)
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Because Elena warned the manager that the patron was carrying a weapon, they were able to alert the police. When asked how she knew, Elena described his manner, proving her amazingly perspicacious.
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predilection
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preference
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My predilection is Mexican food and small, limited government.
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prescience
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foreknowledge of events; knowing of events prior to their occuring (adj: prescient)
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While weather prediction is getting better, it's still a long shot from anything resembling prescient.
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solicitous
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concerned and attentive; eager
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Her solicitous manner really annoyed him.
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stymie
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to block or thwart
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Where are all the good TV shows, where the hero would stymie the criminal before anything bad could happen?
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torque
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a force that causes rotation
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If you take a physics class, you will learn all about the torque force.
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tortuous
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winding, twisting; excessively complicated
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My grad school application is a tortuous nine-step process, replete with no less than three separate essays, a GRE score, a long application, two recommendations, all transcripts of any college ever attended, a quasi-optional interview and, of course, a check.
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truculent
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fierce and cruel; eager to fight
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His issues with his father made him a very truculent little boy.
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veracity
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truthfulness, honesty
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Veracity is relatively easy to establish in most cases.
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avarice
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greed
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His avarice is affecting every aspect of his life.
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bucolic
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rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants
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While the bucolic countryside was not anything unexpected, it did still suprise Stacie with its pleasantness.
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castigation
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severe criticism or punishment
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censure
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caustic
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burning or stinging; causing corrosion
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Her caustic remarks came near to ending the two-year relationship.
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chary
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wary; cautious; sparing
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Her chary nature saved her a lot of trouble, but it also made her hard to get close to anyone.
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cogent
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appearing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing
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Will's cogent arguments could not simply be ignored. Everyone agreed that he deserved an answer.
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complaisance
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the willingness to comply wiht the wishes of others
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Her complaisant nature made her very popular.
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demur
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to delay; to question or oppose (not to be confused with demure: affectedly shy)
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I demurred the issue of student taxes.
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emollient
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soothing, especially to the skin
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His touch was an emollient to my hand, but it was even more so to my heart.
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empirical
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based on observation or experiment
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I have a professor who is trying to bring sociology up to an empirical science.
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ephemeral
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fleeting
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So many aspects of life are ephemeral that it is sometimes hard to find what lasts.
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gregarious
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social, outgoing
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From a very young age, she has always had a gregarious personality.
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impecunious
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lacking funds; without money
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She wouldn't always be in such an impecunious state if she would just exercise a little self-discipline.
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incipient
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beginning to come into being or to become apparent
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similar to nascent
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intransigent
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refusing to compromise
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The intransigent state of opposing political parties is becoming warisome to everybody.
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inveigle
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to obtain by deception or flattery
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While we would like to think that most businesses are honest, the FTC and BBB are finding that more and more companies are inveigling profits at the expense of their customers as well as their employees.
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penurious
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penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous
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As a server at a restaurant frequented by seniors, it was sometimes hard to remember that bad tips were not an insult--it was from a penurious Depression-era generation that didn't know it needed to change.
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pernicious
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extremely harmful; potentially causing death
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"How many experimental drugs are pernicious?" Alice asked, eyeing the advertisement for a diabetes study.
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prodigious
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abundant in size, force or extent; extraordinary
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His intellect was prodigious, as he was accepted into a Korean physics university program at age eight.
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quaff
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to drink deeply
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Beowulf and football games have one (of many) things in common: they both involve quaffing large amounts of beer.
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quiescence
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stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest
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Her quiescence indicated something was wrong.
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redoubtable
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awe-inspiring; worthy of honor
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It had been a long time since anyone in that town saw such a redoubtable action.
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torpid
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lethargic; sluggish; dormant
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"Why is he so torpid?" Kim frowned. "Did you see how much beer he drank?" Jimmy replied. "Oh."
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ubiquitous
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existing everywhere at the same time; constantly encountered; wide-spread
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The recession was not local; it was a ubiquitous phenomenon.
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urbane
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sophisticated; refined; elegant
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Darcy put off an urbane air.
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viscous
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thick; sticky
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The viscosity of the play-dough made Marie wonder what she did wrong.
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acumen
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keen, accurate judgment or insight
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Some people say I have an acumen with literature, but I'm not so sure about that.
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