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104 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Abridge
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to shorten; to condense
- The editor abridged the book by removing the boring parts. |
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Abash
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to make ashamed; to embarrass
- She felt abashed by her inability to remember his birthday. |
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Abate
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to subside; to reduce
- The pain he had in his leg from his fall eventually abated. |
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Abdicate
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to step down from a position of power or responsibility
- She abdicated her responsibilities as class president after she fell ill. |
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Aberration
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something not typical; a deviation of the standard
- A snowstorm in June is an aberration. |
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Abhor
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to hate very, very much; to detest
- I abhor sushi. |
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Abject
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hopeless; extremely sad; defeated
- She felt abject humiliation after her disasterous presentation. |
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Abnegate
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to deny oneself things; to reject; to renounce
- Some religions practice self-abnegation because they believe it will bring them closer to spriritual purity. |
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Abortive
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unsuccessful
- They were abortive in their attempt to climb Mount Everest. |
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Abstract
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theoretical; impersonal
- He like oysters in the abstract, but when he actually tried one he became nauseated. |
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Abstruse
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hard to understand
- The professor's article was abstruse; most students were not able to make sense of it. |
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Abysmal
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extremely hopeless or wretched; bottomless
- The nation's debt crisis was abysmal; there seemed to be no possible solution. |
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Accolade
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an award; an honor
- The dancers received accolades from both critics and fans. |
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Accost
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to approach and speak to someone aggresively
- He accosted the officer who wrote him a ticket. |
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Acerbic
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sour; severe; like acid in temper, mood, or tone
- The teacher read aloud the acerbic comments on my paper. |
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Accost
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to approach and speak to someone aggresively
- She accosted the officer who wrote her a parking ticket. |
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Acerbic
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sour; severe; like acid in temper, mood, or tone
- The student read the acerbic comments her teacher had written on her paper. |
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Acquiesce
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to comply passively; to accept; to assent; to agree
- The bank teller acquiesced with the bank robber's request for money. |
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Acrid
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harshly pungent; bitter
- The chili we had at the party had an acrid taste. |
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Acrimonious
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full of spite; bitter; nasty
- Their discussion of politics turned acrimonious because of their different views. |
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Acumen
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keenness of judgement; mental sharpness
- Donald Trump has a lot of business acumen. |
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Adherent
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follower; supporter; believer
- The king's adherents threw a party to show how much they liked him. |
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Admonish
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to scold gently; to warn
- The boy's mother admonished him not to go outside without a raincoat. |
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Adroit
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skillfull; clever; shrewd; socially at ease
- He is an adroit salesperson; always winning over the customers. |
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Adulterate
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to contaminate; to make impure
- The cheese was adulterated, after it had been left sitting out too long. |
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Aesthetic
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having to do with artistic beauty; artistic
- The art professor had a highly developed aesthetic sense. |
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Affable
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easy to talk to; friendly
- She was very affable; she could talk to almost anyone. |
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Affectation
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unnatural or artifical behavior; usually intended to impress
- Her English accent is an affectation; she she spent only three months in Europe. |
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Affinity
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sympathy; attraction; kinship; similarity
- Ducks have an affinity for water. |
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Agnostic
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one who believes that the existence of a god can be neither proven or disproven
- His reluctance to affirm or discredit a god's existence reflects his agnosticism. |
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Agrarian
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relating to land; relating to the management or farming of land
- The agrarian interests were opposite those of the urban interests. |
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Alacrity
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cheerful eagerness or readiness to respond
- He headed to his first day of work with great alacrity. |
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Alloy
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a combination of two or more things, usually metals
- Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. |
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Allusion
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an indirect reference; a hint
- He alluded to a famous line from Hamlet to make his point. |
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Altruism
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selflessness; generosity; devotion to the interests of others
- The foundation depended on the altruism of the wealthy. |
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Ambiguous
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unclear in meaning; confusing; capable of being intrepreted in many ways
- The weather reporter was ambiguous as to what was going to happen with the weather later that day. |
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Ambivalent
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undecided; having opposed feelings simultaneously
- The boss was ambivalent as to whether or not Tom would make a good employee. |
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Ameliorate
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to make better or more tolerable
- The mood of the tenants was ameliorate once their landlord installed air conditioning in thier building. |
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Amenable
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obedient; willing to give in to the wishes of another; agreeable
The girl was amenable to her mother's request to do homework before watching TV. |
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Amenity
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pleasantness; attractive or comfortable feature.
An amenity was sent to the guest from the hotel manager. |
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Amnesty
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an official pardon for a group of people who have violated a law or policy
- They were granted amnesty after they met with the judge to plead their case. |
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Amoral
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lacking a sense of right and wrong; neither good nor bad
- Very young children are amoral. |
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Amorous
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feeling loving, especially in a sexual sense; in love
- The amorous couple made quite a scene at the movie. |
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Amorphous
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shapeless; without a regular or stable shape
- The town was engulfed in the amorphous blob. |
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Anachronism
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something out of place in time or history; an incongruity
- A family doctor who will visit you at home in this day and age seems like an anachronism. |
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Anecdote
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a short account of a humerous or revealing incident
- The old lady kept her grandkids amused with her daily anecodotes. |
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Anomaly
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an aberration; an irregularity; a deviation
- a house without a roof is an anomaly. |
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Antecedent
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someone or something that went before
- My parents and grandparents are my antecedents. |
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Antipathy
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firm dislike; a dislike
- I have quite a bit of antipathy toward my former employer. |
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Apartheid
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the former policy of racial segregation and oppression in the Republic of South Africa
- Under apartheid in South Africa, blacks were kept separate from whites. |
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Apathy
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lack of interest; lack of feeling
- She was apathetic to the club she had once been so involved in. |
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Aphorism
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a brief, often witty saying; a proverb
- She was fond of aphorisms and used them daily in conversation. |
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Apocryphal
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of dubious authenticity; fictious
- The writer's blog was apocryphal. |
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Apotheosis
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elevation to divine status; the perfect example of something
- A hamburger is the apotheosis of the all American meal. |
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Appreciate
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to increase in value
- Their house appreciated year after year. |
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Approbation
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approval; praise
- The crowd expressed their approbation for the band. |
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Appropriate
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to take without permission; to set aside for a particular use
- He appropriated my lunch when I was not looking, taking it for his own. |
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Arbiter
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one who decides; a judge
- She was an arbiter of fashion, always being the first to set the trends. |
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Arcane
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mysterious; known only to a select few
- The rites of the secret cult were arcane. |
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Archetype
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an original model or pattern
- Plato is the archetype of all philosophers. |
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Ardent
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passionate; enthusiastic
-His ardent interest in math made him a great candidate for a future mathmatician. |
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Arduous
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hard; difficult
- Climbing the mountain was arduous. |
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Aristocratic
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of noble birth; snobbish
The prince is a member of the British arisocrats. |
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Artful
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crafty; witty; sly
- The artful teacher was always pulling one over on his students. |
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Artifice
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a clever trick; cunning
- The Trojan Horse was an aritifice designed to get the soldiers inside the wall. |
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Ascendancy
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supremecy; domination
- Personal computers have been in ascendancy for years. |
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Ascetic
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heritlike; praciticing self-denial
- His dorm room was ascetic, with not even a chair to sit on. |
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Assiduous
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hardworking; busy; quite diligent
- The workmen were assiduous, getting the job done quickly. |
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Assuage
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to soothe; to pacify; to ease the pain of; to relieve
- The manager assuaged the customer's anger. |
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Astute
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shrewd; keen in judgement
- She was an astute judge of character. |
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Attrition
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gradual wearing away; weakening, or loss; natural or expected decrease in number or size
- Most workers were lost due to attrition when they retired or moved away. |
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Augment
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to make bigger; to add to; to increase
- She augmented her CD collection, adding five new CDs. |
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Auspicious
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favorable; promising; pointing to a good result
- A clear sky in the morning is an auspicious sign on the day of a picnic. |
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Austere
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unadorned; stern; forbidding; without excess
- Their house is austere; there is nothing in it. |
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Autocratic
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ruling with absolute authority; extremely bossy
- No one likes an autocratic manager. |
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Autonomous
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acting independently
- The West Coast law office was autonomous to its East Coast counterparts. |
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Avarice
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greed; excessive love of riches
- Paris Hilton is avarice. |
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Avow
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to claim; to decalre boldly; to admit
- She avowed that she had never loved him. |
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Avuncular
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like an uncle, especially a nice uncle
- The professor often gave avuncular advice. |
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Awry
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off course; twisted to one side
- The hunter's bullet went awry. |
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Axiom
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a self-evident rule or truth; a widely accepted saying
- "Everything that goes up, must come down" is an axiom. |
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Banal
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unoriginal; ordinary
- A banal name for a store will likely not attract customers. |
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Bane
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poison; torment; cause of harm
- The burn was baneful. |
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Bastion
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stronghold; fortress; fortified place
- The army escaped to their bastion. |
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Belabor
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to go over repeatedly or to an absurd extent
- The boring speaker belabored his point for about an hour. |
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Beleaguer
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to surround; to besiege; to harass
- No one could leave the beleaguer city. |
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Belie
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to give a false impression of; to contradict
- His smile contradicted the grief he was feeling. |
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Bemused
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confused; bewildered
- I was bemused as to where I had parked my car. |
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Benevolent
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generous; kind; doing good deeds
- The old woman was benevolent, always giving to the poor. |
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Benign
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gentle; not harmful; kind; mild
- The protesters were benign, not acting out in any way. |
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Bequest
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something left to someone in a will
- My aunt bequested that I keep her dog. |
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Bereaved
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deprived or left desolate, espcially through death
- The new widow was still bereaved when we saw her. |
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Beset
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to harrass; to surround
- The little town was beset by robberies, but the town could do nothing. |
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Blatant
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unpleasantly or offensivly noisy; glaring
- The neighbors were blatant during their party. |
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Blight
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a disease in plants; anything that injures or destroys
- An early frost proved a blights for the plants. |
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Blithe
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carefree; cheerful
- The blithe birds outside made a lot of noisy in the early morning. |
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Bourgeois
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middle class; boringly conventional
- The city dweller felt life in the suburbs was too bourgeois. |
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Bovine
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cow related; cowlike
- Eating grass is a bovine concern. |
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Brevity
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briefness
- The brevity of the examples in the book was helpful to the reader. |
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Broach
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to open up a subject for discussion, often a delicate matter
- No one knew how to broach the subject that the bride's gown was hideous. |
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Bucolic
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charmingly rural; rustic; countrylike
- The log cabin was very bucolic. |
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Bureaucracy
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a system of government administration consisting of numerous bureaus or offices, with inflexible or inefficient rules
- The DMV is a bureaucracy. |
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Burgeon
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to expand; to flourish
- The burgeoning weeds in the yard, overwhelmed the grass. |
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Burlesque
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a ludicrous, mocking, lewd imitation
- The comedians performed burlesque shows on the stage. |
