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79 Cards in this Set
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- Back
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Abase
"I will not abase myself by admitting that I don't even have basic knowledge of vocabulary," said Paul. |
Lower; Humiliate |
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Abash
Arthur was abashed at a bash when he ate too much and tossed his cookies in the trash. |
To embarrass |
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Abate |
To lesson |
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Abominate |
To loathe; Hate |
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Abstruse |
Profound; Difficult to understand |
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Accentuate |
To stress; Emphasize |
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Acclivity |
Sharp incline of a hill |
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Accolade |
Award; Honor |
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Accost |
To approach and speak to |
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Acne |
Zits |
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Adroit |
Skillful |
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Adulate |
To flatter and so much it's sickening |
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Adulterate |
To make impure |
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Adumberate |
To foreshadow by disclosing only partially |
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Adverse |
Hostile; Opposed; Unfavorable |
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Advocate
Advertisements advocate products. |
To urge; Recommend |
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Aesthetic |
Artistic; Pertaining to a sense of what is beautiful |
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Affected
His affected personality negatively affected our affection. |
Fake (Think: a-fake-ted) |
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Affinity
There was a natural affinity between him and his new Infiniti. |
Attraction |
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Affluent
A flu went around the affluent passengers of the yacht; their diamond tiaras and Rolexes sparkled when they sneered. |
Rich |
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Affray
The frog was afraid to enter affray. |
Public brawl |
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Agape
If you stand agape, there is a gap in your mouth. |
Open-mouthed |
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Aghast
We were aghast when he "passed gas." |
Horrified |
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Agile
Age'll make you less agile. |
Able to move in a quick and easy fashion |
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Alacrity
The empty auditorium was the result of a lack of alacrity among the sleep-deprived students. |
Cheerful promptness |
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Alias
"Your real name was all I asked for; why did you give me an alias?" the reporter said to Jennifer Garner. |
A false name |
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Alimentary
When Watson asked, "What's a ten-letter word meaning, 'supplying nourishment'?" Sherlock replied, "alimentary, my dear Watson." |
Supplying nourishment |
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Allay (See Alleviate)
He allay his parents' fear by getting all A's on his report card. |
To soothe; To make more bearable |
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Alleged
It was alleged that he died falling off a ledge. |
Stated without proof |
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Alleviate (See Appease)
A leaf he ate failed to alleviate his hunger. |
To make more bearble |
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Allude
We can only allude to some of these points. |
To refer indirectly |
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Allusion
A lewd person alludes to salacious behavior. |
To refer to something |
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Altercation
An altercation broke out when, at the alter, Kate said to her groom, "I don't." |
A violent dispute |
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Amass
By publishing this book, we hope to amass a mass of perfect scores for our readers. |
To collect; To get a bunch of |
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Ambulatory
After he was run over by the ambulance, he was no longer ambulatory. |
Able to walk |
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Ameliorate
Amelia rated her social life as having been ameliorated since last year. |
To improve a bad situation |
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Amity
There was amity between the students at M.I.T. and their math professors. |
Peaceful relations; Friendship |
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Amnesia
I forgot the sentence because I have amnesia. |
Loss of memory |
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Amok
The schmuck in the muck got stuck, ran amok, and guess what word he screamed? |
Freaked out and violently pissed off |
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Amorphous
If you take too much morphine, you'll feel like an amorphous blob. |
Shapeless |
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Anthropoid
C-3PO is an anthropoid droid. |
Humanlike |
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Antipathy
By this time you should be developing a strong antipathy to studying these words and their ridiculous definitions. |
Hatred; Aversion; Dislike |
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Apathetic
It's a pathetic thing to be apathetic. |
Indifferent; Showing a lack of interest |
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Apathy
"They found a cure for apathy, but no one showed any interest in it."--George Carlin |
Indifference; Lack of interest |
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Apex
The ape exercised by jumping off the apex off the monkey house in the zoo. |
Tip; Peak; Summit; Way up there |
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Appease (See Assuage)
He appeased his parents by eating a piece of slimy okra. |
To soothe; Placate |
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Arbitrary
If a college rejects you, its admissions process must be arbitrary. |
Chosen at random or with no apparent reason |
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Ardor
With ardor my prom date shouted, "Come in! And if you have to, break down our door." |
Heat; Passion; Zeal |
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Askew
Don't tell us out type is askew. Did we ask you? |
Crooked; Off to one side |
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Assuage
Buying a suede fringed jacket might assuage Donna's compulsive shopping desire to shop. |
To ease; Pacify |
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Astute
A student must be astute to outwit the Evil Testing Serpent. |
Shrewd; Wise; Observing |
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Attribute
In her article on Pamela Anderson, the mean-spirited reporter attributed the actress's most prominent attribute to plastic surgery. |
(n.) A characteristic, usually a good one
(v.) To explain by indicating a cause |
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Atypical
Lady Gaga's face, voice, clothing, and habits are atypical for an earthling.
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Not typical |
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Audacity
Their audacity was evident when they published their odd SAT book. |
Boldness |
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August
When Cleopatra saw Augustus in all his finery, she said, "Aw Gus, you look August." |
Majestic; Awe-inspiring |
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Austerity
His austerity is actually a rarity; severity is not his specialty. |
Severity; Strictness |
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Averse
I was averse to writing my assigned essay. |
Opposed; Unwilling |
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Avuncular
Being so close to my family for years, Thomas is avuncular to me. |
"Like an uncle" |
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Awry
"Waiter, there is something awry with my bread," she complained. |
Twisted; Crooked; Out of whack; Askew; Wrong |
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Bacchanalian
He gave a bacchanalian party to welcome back an alien. |
Orgiastic; Like wild drunken revelry
Bacchus was the Roman god of wine, and the bacchanalia was the festival devoted to him. |
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Baleful
We could see from the proctor's baleful gaze that was going to do something baneful to us. |
Exerts an evil influence; Foreshadowing evil |
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Baneful
We could see from the proctor's baleful gaze that was going to do something baneful to us. |
Poisonous or deadly |
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Barrister
Only the most affluent citizens can afford a high quality barrister. |
A lawyer |
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Bawdy (see Lewd)
Many bawdy jokes have to do with certain parts of the body. |
Obscene; Coarse; Humorous |
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Beatific
"Be terrific," said the Hare Krishna with a beatific smile. |
Displaying or impartingjoy |
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Begrudge
To be holding a grudge for so long against me means that you must begrudge my happy life. |
To envy; To resent |
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Beguile
"The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat the apple." (Genesis 3:13) |
Trick |
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Belated
We sent a belated birthday present and in return got a month-old piece of ice-cream cake. |
Delayed; Late |
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Bellicose
You'll know you're sitting next to a bellicose person if during the test his sharpened number 2 pencil goes into your belly. |
Violent; Warlike |
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Benevolent
Superman may be the benevolent protector of the world, but have you ever noticed that he wears his underpants outside his tights? |
Kind |
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Berate
If you don't get into college, your parents will berate you. If you don't do A work, your teachers will berate you. |
To scold severly |
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Bereft
He felt sad and bereft just thinking about how she didn't love him; now he would be left without her. |
Lacking something needed |
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Betroth
She discovered that he wasn't wearing a tuxedo-she really was betrothed to a penguin. |
To become enganged |
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Biennial
My social life has been reduced to biennial parties. |
Every two years
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Bland
I found the movie about politics of cauliflower rather bland. |
Not stimulating; Dull
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Blandishment
The sycophants obesquiously lavished me with blandishments. |
Flattery
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Blighted
When much of California was blighted by fires, the former govenor tried to drown his feelings of hopelessness in Bud Light. |
Ruined; Destroyed; Withered
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Boisterous
We have male cheerleaders at our school. When they get in front of the crowd, those boys stir us up until we're boisterous. |
Rowdy
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Bombastic
At the end of his long, boring, bombastic speech, the self-satisfied tyrant recieved a bomb basket as a farewell gift. |
Grandiloquent (wordy, pompous) in speech or writing
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