Simon 1

Front 1

mentor

(MEN-tor)

Back 1

(n) wise advisor


Without a mentor, many people fail in their first job.

Front 2

mundane

(mun-DANE)

Back 2

(adj) typical of the ordinary (also: wordly as opposed to spiritual)


She is more concerned with the mundane things of life and rarely thinks too deeply.

Front 3

bizarre

(bih-ZAR)

Back 3

(adj) strikingly unusual


His bizarre sense of fashion always caught someone's attention.

Front 4

charlatan

(SHARLA-tin)

Back 4

(n) fake

Some teachers pretend to be very knowledgeable about their subjects, but too often they are just charlatans who waste good students' time.

Front 5

discerning

(di-CERN-ing)

Back 5

(adj) perceptive; showing insight and judgment


She showed a very discerning appreciation of the writer's style.

Front 6

deleterious

(dela-TEARY-us)

Back 6

(adj) harmful


The deleterious effects of the tsunami will plague the island for years to come.

Front 7

morose

(more-OSE))

Back 7

(adj) ill-humored, sullen


Her personality is too morose for her to be a successful kindergarten teacher.

Front 8

aberration

(aba-RAY-shin)

Back 8

(n) something different from the normal or from the usual


The normally ultra-smooth surfaces of the plane now had so many aberrations that the plane could not reach top speed anymore.

Front 9

chicanery

(shi-CANE-ery)

Back 9

(n) trickery or fraud


Stop the chicanery and give me a straight forward answer to my questions.

Front 10

unadulterated

Back 10

(adj) absolutely pure


If you are going to buy your medicines from Mexico, you better be sure they are unadulterated and are what they are supposed to be --- nothing more.

Front 11

sporadically


(spa-RAD-ic-ly)

Back 11

(adj) occurring irregularly


If it didn't snow so sporadically from year to year around here we would know how much salt to buy annually for the city streets.

Front 12

cognition

(cog-NISH-un)

Back 12

(n) mental process by which knowledge is acquired


He had so many cognition deficits that we feared he would never be able to live alone.

Front 13

tedious

(TEED-ee-us)

Back 13

(adj) boring, tiring


The work is so tedious that it drives me insane whenever I have to do it.

Front 14

didactic

(die-DAK-tic)

Back 14

(adj) instructional, teaching


It's the didactic part of college that I enjoy; not the drinking and partying.

Front 15

prodigious

(pro-DIGH-us)

Back 15

(adj) enormous (also, extraordinary)


With one last prodigious effort, he finally made it over the top of the wall.

Front 16

denotation

(DEE-no-TAY-shin)

Back 16

(n) most direct meaning of a word; something that gives direction or meaning

Without a more direct denotaion of your expectations, I'm afraid that I'm going to get more and more lost trying to make sense of this project.

Front 17

lexicon

Back 17

(n) vocabulary


He came to high school with a lexicon so deep that he never had any problem writing quick, but clear and in-depth, answers to essay questions

Front 18

ignominy

(IG-NO-miny)

Back 18

(n) great personal dishonor or humiliation

The ignominy of having been caught cheating on the SATs left him labeled as a sleaze through the rest of his high school years.

Front 19

arcane

Back 19

(adj) known only by a few; obscure


He knew so may arcane facts that many felt him to be a cinch to win the county Knowledge Bowl competition.

Front 20

gargantuan

(gar-GAN-chew-in)

Back 20

(adj) huge


King Kong was some gargantuan movie gorilla.

Front 21

eccentric

Back 21

(adj) odd; deviating from the normal


Scientists, to the uneducated public, sometimes have a reputation of being eccentric weirdoes who are dangerous to society.

Front 22

pedestrian

Back 22

(adj) ordinary; commonplace

(n) someone who is walking

He has nothing but grossly pedestrian interests --- nothing more than sleeping, eating, watching TV, and partying.

Front 23

daunting

Back 23

(adj) intimidating; discouraging, frightening

After its setback at Pearl Harbor in Dccember 1941, the U.S. Navy had a rather daunting task ahead --- the need to utterly defeat the powerful Japanese Navy.

Front 24

explicit

(EX-pli-sit)

Back 24

(adj) very clear; definite


Without explicit directions as to methodology, it is often impossible to accurately recreate scientific experiments and confirm results.

Front 25

saga

(SAH-ga)

Back 25

(n) prose narrative


It was in the Norse and British sagas from about 1500 years ago that the name of the hero Wade was first mentioned --- he was a giant who lived by the sea.