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50 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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chimerical |
absurd; wildly fantastic; impossible |
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effete |
lacking in wholesome vigor or energy; worn-out or exhausted; sterile or unable to produce; out-of-date |
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raillery |
good-humored ridicule; teasing |
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noisome |
offensive or disgusting; foul-smelling; harmful or injurious |
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deracinate |
to pull up by the roots; to root out, uproot, or dislocate; to eliminate all traces of |
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lachrymose |
given to tears or weeping; causing to shed tears; mournful, lugubrious |
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sanguine |
having a ruddy complexion; of a naturally cheerful, confident, or optimistic outlook |
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verisimilitude |
the quality or appearing to be true, real, likely, or probable |
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cozen |
to trick; to cheat or swindle |
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paean |
a song of praise, joy, or triumph |
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pragmatic |
concerned with practical considerations or values; dealing with actions and results rather than with abstract theory; stiff in one's opinions |
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rapacity |
inordinate greed; the disposition to obtain one's desires by force, extortion, or plunder |
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mnemonic |
relating to or designed to assist the memory; a device to aid the memory |
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obloquy |
public abuse indicating strong disapproval or censure; the disgrace resulting from such treatment |
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hoi polloi |
the common people, the masses |
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pundit |
a learned person; one who gives authoritative opinions |
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insouciant |
blithely indifferent or unconcerned; carefree; happy-go-lucky |
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panache |
a confident and stylish manner, dash; a strikingly elaborate or colorful display |
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diaphanous |
very sheer and light; almost completely transparent |
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sacrosanct |
very sacred or holy; inviolable; set apart or immune from questioning or attack |
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in medias res |
in or into the middle of a plot; into the middle of things |
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vitiate |
to weaken, debase, or corrupt; to impair the quality or value of |
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portentous |
foreshadowing an event to come; causing wonder or awe; self-consciously weighty, pompous |
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salubrious |
conducive to health or well-being; wholesome |
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malleable |
capable or being formed into different shapes; capable of being altered, adapted, or influenced |
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eclat |
dazzling or conspicuous success or acclaim; great brilliance (of performance or achievement) |
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fastidious |
overly demanding or hard to please; excessively careful in regard to details; easily disgusted |
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debauch |
to corrupt morally, seduce; to indulge in dissipation; an act or occasion of dissipation or vice |
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empathy |
a sympathetic understanding of or identification with the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of someone or something else |
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peccadillo |
a minor sin or offense; a trifling fault or shortcoming |
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nepotism |
undue favoritism to or excessive patronage of one's relatives |
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mellifluous |
flowing sweetly or smoothly; honeyed |
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kudos |
the acclaim, prestige, or renown that comes as a result of some action or achievement |
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truckle |
to yield or submit tamely or submissively |
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incubus |
a demon or evil spirit supposed to haunt human beings in their bedrooms at night; anything that oppresses or weighs upon one, like a nightmare |
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beatitude |
a state of perfect happiness or blessedness; a blessing |
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acumen |
keenness of insight; quickness or accuracy of judgement |
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disparity
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a difference or inequality in age, rank, degree, amount, or quality; a dissimilarity, unlikeness |
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fulsome |
offensively insincere or excessive; disgusting, sickening |
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immolate |
to kill as a sacrifice, especially by fire; to destroy or renounce for the sake of another |
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dichotomy |
a division in two contradictory or mutually exclusive parts; a branching or forking in an ancestral line |
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non sequitur |
an interference or conclusion that does not follow logically from the facts or premises |
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quagmire |
soft, soggy mud or slush; a difficult or entrapping situation |
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quixotic |
extravagantly or romantically idealistic; visionary without regard to practical considerations |
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narcissism |
excessive self-love; absorption in oneself |
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pastiche |
a dramatic, musical, or literary work made up of bits and pieces from other sources; a hodgepodge |
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precarious |
very uncertain or unsure; dangerous or risky |
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vacuous |
devoid of matter, substance, or meaning; lacking ideas or intelligence; purposeless |
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touchstone |
a means of testing worth or genuineness |
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lagniappe |
an extra or unexpected gift of gratuity |
