Useful English Words

Front 1

procure

Back 1

to obtain

to obtain or get by care, effort, or the use of special means: to procure evidence.

Front 2

unscrupulous

Back 2

unprincipled

not scrupulous; unrestrained by scruples; conscienceless; unprincipled.

Front 3

scrupulous

Back 3

principled

having scruples; having or showing a strict regard for what one considers right; principled.

Front 4

polyglot

Back 4

multilingual

able to speak or write several languages; multilingual.

a mixture or confusion of languages.

English is a polyglot.

Front 5

tumid

Back 5

pompous or inflated, as language; turgid; bombastic.

swollen, or affected with swelling, as a part of the body.

Front 6

lethargic

Back 6

drowsy

of, pertaining to, or affected with lethargy; drowsy; sluggish.

Front 7

flatulent

Back 7

Pompous; bloated

having unsupported pretensions; inflated and empty; pompous; turgid: a flatulent style.

Front 8

paleo-

Back 8

a combining form meaning “old” or “ancient,” esp. in reference to former geologic time periods, used in the formation of compound words: paleobotany.

Front 9

certitude

Back 9

freedom from doubt, esp. in matters of faith or opinion; certainty.

Front 10

vastitude

Back 10

vastness; immensity: the vastitude of his love for all humankind.

Front 11

desuetude

Back 11

the state of being no longer used or practiced.

Front 12

berate

Back 12

to scold; rebuke: He berated them in public.

Front 13

objurgate

Back 13

to reproach or denounce vehemently; upbraid harshly; berate sharply.

Front 14

upbraid

Back 14

to find fault with or reproach severely; censure: The military tribunal upbraided the soldier for his cowardice.

Front 15

reproach

Back 15

to find fault with (a person, group, etc.); blame; censure.

Front 16

paleolithic

Back 16

Of or relating to the cultural period of the Stone Age beginning with the earliest chipped stone tools, about 750,000 years ago, until the beginning of the Mesolithic Period, about 15,000 years ago.

Front 17

apocryphal

Back 17

of doubtful authorship or authenticity.

The Bible is apocryphal.

Front 18

ken

Back 18

knowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception: an idea beyond one's ken.

Front 19

metacognition

Back 19

awareness and understanding one's thinking and cognitive processes; thinking about thinking

Front 20

diurnal

Back 20

of or pertaining to a day or each day; daily.

of or belonging to the daytime (opposed to nocturnal ).

Front 21

surreptitious

Back 21

obtained, done, made, etc., by stealth; secret or unauthorized; clandestine: a surreptitious glance

acting in a stealthy way.

obtained by subreption; subreptitious.

Front 22

esoteric

Back 22

understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest; recondite: poetry full of esoteric allusions.

belonging to the select few.

private; secret; confidential.

Front 23

sapid

Back 23

having taste or flavor.

agreeable to the taste; palatable.

agreeable, as to the mind; to one's liking.

Front 24

serendipitous

Back 24

come upon or found by accident; fortuitous: serendipitous scientific discoveries.

of, pertaining to, or suggesting serendipity.

good; beneficial; favorable: serendipitous weather for our vacation.

Front 25

serendipity

Back 25

an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

good fortune; luck: the serendipity of getting the first job she applied for.

Front 26

fortuitous

Back 26

happening or produced by chance; accidental: a fortuitous encounter.

lucky; fortunate: a series of fortuitous events that advanced her career.

Front 27

ineluctable

Back 27

incapable of being evaded; inescapable: an ineluctable destiny.

Front 28

soporific

Back 28

causing or tending to cause sleep.

pertaining to or characterized by sleep or sleepiness; sleepy; drowsy.

Front 29

expurgate

Back 29

to purge or cleanse of moral offensiveness.

to amend by removing words, passages, etc., deemed offensive or objectionable: Most children read an expurgated version of Grimms' fairy tales.

To clean up, remove impurities. An expurgated edition of a book has had offensive words or descriptions changed or removed.

Front 30

finagle

Back 30

to trick, swindle, or cheat (a person) (often fol. by out of): He finagled the backers out of a fortune.

to get or achieve (something) by guile, trickery, or manipulation: to finagle an assignment to the Membership Committee.

to practice deception or fraud; scheme.

Front 31

malfeasance

Back 31

Misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by a public official.

Front 32

feasance

Back 32

the doing or performing of an act, as of a condition or duty.

an obligation or duty, the carrying out of such an obligation

Etymology: French faisance 'activity'

Front 33

eclectic

Back 33

selecting or choosing from various sources.

made up of what is selected from different sources.

not following any one system, as of philosophy, medicine, etc., but selecting and using what are considered the best elements of all systems.

Front 34

debacle

Back 34

a complete collapse or failure.

a general breakup or dispersion; sudden downfall or rout: The revolution ended in a debacle.