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50 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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acumen; noun
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quick, keen, or accurate knowledge or insight
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the detective, with a high degree of acumen, figured the case out in a couple of hours
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adulterate; verb
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to reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients
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Someone adulterated the sugar, there's rat poison mixed in.
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Archaic; adj
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outdated; associated with an earlier, perhaps more primitive time
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The C64 is an archaic gaming machine… I haven't seen one in twenty years!
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aver; verb
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t ostate as a fact; to confirm or support
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Over and over the witnesses aver that she was there; it must be the truth
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dissemble; verb
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to disguise or conceal; to mislead
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I will not dissemble my happiness to appease you; just because you're sad doesn't mean I have to pretend to be.
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eccentric; adj
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departing form norms or conventions; having an axis other than the geometric center
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The old woman was considered eccentric, never actually fitting in or conforming, she chose to live far from the city center.
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endemic; adj
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characteristic of or often found in a particular locality; region, or people; native to a region
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Endemic diseases of the tropics are rare in northern, developed countries.
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evanescent; adj
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tending to disappear like vapor; vanishing
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The magician, evanescent in his departure, seemed to just poof away.
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exacerbate; verb
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to make worse or more severe
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Don't itch the bite, you'll only exacerbate it!
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grandiloquence; noun
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pompous speech or expression
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The pompous executive spoke in grandiloquence every time he began a staff meeting.
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hackneyed; adj
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rendered trite or commonplace by frequent usage
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His hackneyed phrases didn't phase me anymore; they became so trite and trivial, they lost any meaning.
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hedonism; noun
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devotion to pleasurable pursuits; esp. to the pleasures of the senses
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Always doing what you want and never doing what you have to do is just plain hedonism; grow up!
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hegemony; noun
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the consistent dominance of one state or ideology over others
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The dictator was proud of his hegemony- he wanted supreme power since birth.
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iconoclast; noun
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one who attacks or undermines traditional conventions or institutions
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The neophyte proved to be an iconoclast- destroying our traditional ideas and institution.
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impassive; adj
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revealing no emotion
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Don't be so impassive, smile or laugh or something!
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impunity; noun
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immunity from punishment or penalty
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The judge granted him impunity; he'll never be punished for his picketing.
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inchoate; adj
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in an initial stage; not fully formed
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It's only a vague, inchoate idea. I've only just started thinking of it.
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Infelicitous; adj
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unfortunate; inappropriate; unhappy
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The infelicitous child sulked in the corner, unhappy he didn't get cake.
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insipid; adj
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without taste or flavor; lacking in spirit; bland
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Sip after sip, the drink remained insipid; the flu rendered all foods bland and tasteless.
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loquacious; adj
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extremely talkative
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what a loquacious child; does she ever shut up?
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luminous; adj
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characterized by brightness and the emission of light; intelligent & inspiring
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The house was luminous through the windows, indicating someone was home
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malevolent; adj
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having or showing often vicious ill will, spite, or hatred
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Maleficent, the witch in Sleeping Beauty, was malevolent- wanting the princess to die.
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misantrhope; noun
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one who hates all other humans
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the misanthrope remained recluse in the hills away from everyone else
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mitigate; verb
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to make or become less severe or intense; to moderate
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The brother served to mitigate the fight between the two sisters, easing their tensions.
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occlude; verb
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to obstruct or block
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If you eat a high fat diet and don't exercise, you're bound to occlude your coronary arteries
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pedagogy; noun
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the art or profession of training, teaching or instructing
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In order to be proficient in pedagogy, one must be taught the art of teaching.
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penury; noun
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poverty; destitution
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After the Great Depression, many families were in a state of penury having lost everything.
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pine; verb
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to yearn intensely; to languish; to lose vigor
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I'll pine for my lost lover under that pine tree and pine away till I die of loneliness.
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pith; noun
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the essential or central part
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Without divulging too much detail, they understood the pith of the idea.
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pithy; adj
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precise and brief
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Please be pithy and just give me the pith without the detail.
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placate; verb
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to appease; to calm by making concessions
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just placate the customer- give her a discount so she can stop complaining.
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platitude; noun
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a superficial remark, esp. one offered as meaningful; banality
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don't accept platitude from them, they just say what you want to hear, when it is really superficial and trite
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plummet; verb
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to plunge or drop straight down
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the plump plum plummeted to the ground perfectly ripe to the push.
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prodigal; adj
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recklessly wasteful; extravagant profuse; lavish
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our prodigal obsession for oil is an unnecessary lavish and wasteful characteristic
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profuse; adj
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givin or coming forth abundantly; extravagant
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I apologized profusely, until she finally accepted.
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proliferate; verb
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to grow or increase swiftly and abundantly
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nuclear weapons proliferated during the cold war, and now we have enough to obliterate five planets
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queries; noun
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questions; inquiries; doubts in the mind; reservations
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I have a few queries, do you have a few moments to answer them?
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querulous; adj
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prone to complaining or grumgling; quarrelsome
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After a night of no sleep, my sister complained of everything aching in a querulous voice
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recalcitrant; adj
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obstinately defiant of authority; difficult to manage
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the recalcitrant teenager would always break curfew
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rescind; verb
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to invalidate; to repeal to retract
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The governor tried to rescind his own comments, but it was too late to take them back, the woman was offended
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reverent; adj
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marked by, feeling or expressing a feeling of profound awe or respect
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The audience maintained a reverent silence while during the minute of observance for the deceased.
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specious; adj
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seemingly true, but actually being fallacious; misleadingly attractive
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the contest was to choose the true story out of the specious ones backed by pseudoscience
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succinct; adj
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brief, concise
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it was a succint report, adhering only to the main points of the investigation
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superfluous; adj
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exceeding what is necessary or sufficient
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the extra gadgets were superfluous, but I just had to have the best car around
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surfeit; noun (can be verb)
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excess; overindulgence
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in sheer surfeit, she ate the box of chocolates to her hearts content
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tenacity; adj
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the quality of adherence or persistence to something valued
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the li'l dog bit with tenacity, only letting go when a steak was set down next to him
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tenuous; adj
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having little substance or strength; weak; flimsy
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it was a tenuous argument, the defense bulldozed right over it with more strength and substance
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tirade; noun
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a long and extremely critical speech; a harsh denunciation
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Off on a tirade, the drunkard criticized everything from the government to the liquour he was drinking
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transient; adj
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fleeting; brief; passing quickly
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the particle has a transient existence in the vacuum, so it is deemed a "virtual particle"
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zealous; adj
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fervent; ardent; impassioned
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he's a bit over zealous about the Rangers; he's even got wall-paper dedicated to the team
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