Vocabulary 1-6

Front 1

acquisitive

Back 1

able to get and retain ideas or information; concerned with acquiring wealth or property

Front 2

arrogate

Back 2

to claim or take without right

Front 3

banal

Back 3

hackneyed, trite, commonplace

Front 4

belabor

Back 4

to work on excessively; to thrash soundly

Front 5

carping

Back 5

tending to find fault, especially in a petty, nasty, or hairsplitting way; petty, nagging criticism

Front 6

coherent

Back 6

holding or sticking together; making a logical whole; comprehensible, meaningful

Front 7

congeal

Back 7

to change from liquid to solid, thicken; to make inflexible or rigid

Front 8

emulate

Back 8

to imitate with the intent of equaling or surpassing the model

Front 9

encomium

Back 9

a formal expression of praise, a lavish tribute

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eschew

Back 10

to avoid, shun, keep away from

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germane

Back 11

relevant, apropos, fitting

Front 12

insatiable

Back 12

so great or demanding as not to be satisfied

Front 13

intransigent

Back 13

refusing to compromise, irreconcilable

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invidious

Back 14

offensive, hateful; tending to cause bitterness and resentment

Front 15

largesse

Back 15

generosity in giving; lavish or bountiful contributions

Front 16

reconnaissance

Back 16

a survey made for military purposes; any kind of preliminary inspection or examination

Front 17

substantiate

Back 17

to establish by evidence, prove; to give concrete or substantial form to

Front 18

taciturn

Back 18

habitually silent or quiet, inclined to talk very little

Front 19

temporize

Back 19

to stall or act evasively in order to gain time, avoid a confrontation, or postpone a decision; to compromise

Front 20

tenable

Back 20

capable of being held or defended

Front 21

accost

Back 21

to apporach and speak to first; to confront in a challenging or aggressive way

Front 22

animadiversion

Back 22

a comment indicating strong criticism or disapproval

Front 23

avid

Back 23

desirous of something to the point of greed; intensely eager

Front 24

brackish

Back 24

having a salty taste and unpleasant to drink

Front 25

celerity

Back 25

swiftness, rapidity or motion or action

Front 26

devious

Back 26

straying or wandering from a straight or direct course; done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way

Front 27

gambit

Back 27

in chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain a later advantage; any opening move of this type

Front 28

halcyon

Back 28

a legendary bird identified with the kingfisher; calm, peaceful, happy, golden, prosperous, affluent

Front 29

histrionic

Back 29

pertaining to actors and their techniques; theatrical, artificial; melodramatic

Front 30

incendiary

Back 30

deliberately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up rebellion; arsonist

Front 31

maelstrom

Back 31

a whirpool of great size and violence; a situation resembling a whirpool in violence and destruction

Front 32

myopic

Back 32

nearsighted, lacking a broad realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment

Front 33

overt

Back 33

open, not hidden, expressed or revealed in away that is easily recognized

Front 34

pejorative

Back 34

tending to make worse; expressing disapproval or disparagement, derogatory, deprecatory, belittling

Front 35

propriety

Back 35

the state of being proper, appropriateness; standards of what is proper or socially acceptable

Front 36

sacrilige

Back 36

improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred

Front 37

summarily

Back 37

without delay or formality; briefly, concisely

Front 38

suppliant

Back 38

asking humbly and earnestly; one who makes a request humbly and earnestly, a suitor

Front 39

talisman

Back 39

an object that serves as a charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish

Front 40

undulate

Back 40

to move in waves or with a wavelike motion; to have a wavelike appearance or form

Front 41

articulate

Back 41

to pronounce distinctly; to express well in words; to connect by a joint or joints; expressed clearly and forcefully; able to employ language clearly and forcefully; jointed

Front 42

cavort

Back 42

to romp or prance around exuberantly; to make merry

Front 43

credence

Back 43

belief, mental acceptance

Front 44

decry

Back 44

to condemn, express strong disapproval; to officially depreciate

Front 45

dissemble

Back 45

to disguise or conceal, deliberately give a false impression

Front 46

distraught

Back 46

very much agitated or upset as a result of emotion or mental conflict

Front 47

eulogy

Back 47

formal statement of commendation; high praise

Front 48

evince

Back 48

to display clearly, to make evident, to provoke

Front 49

exhume

Back 49

to remove from a grave; to bring to light

Front 50

feckless

Back 50

lacking in spirit or strength; ineffective, weak, irresponsible, unreliable

Front 51

murky

Back 51

dark and gloomy, obscure; lacking in clarity and precision

Front 52

nefarious

Back 52

wicked, depraved, devoid of moral standards

Front 53

piquant

Back 53

stimulating to the taste or mind; spicy, pungent; appealingly provocative

Front 54

primordial

Back 54

developed or created at the very beginning; going back to the most ancient times or earliest stages; fundamental, basic

Front 55

propinquity

Back 55

nearness in place or time; kinship

Front 56

unwonted

Back 56

not usual or expected, not in character

Front 57

utopian

Back 57

founded upon or involving a visionary view of an ideal world; impratical

Front 58

verbiage

Back 58

language taht is too wordy or inflated in proportion to the sense or content, wordiness; a manner of expression

Front 59

verdant

Back 59

green in tint or color; immature in experience or judgment

Front 60

viscous

Back 60

having a gelatinous or gluey quality, lacking in easy movement or fluidity

Front 61

atrophy

Back 61

the wasting away of a body organ or tissue; any progressive decline or failure; to waste away

Front 62

bastion

Back 62

a fortified place, stronghold

Front 63

concord

Back 63

a state of agreement, harmony, unanimity; a treaty, pact, covenant

Front 64

consummate

Back 64

complete or perfect in the highest degree; to bring to a state of completion or perfection

Front 65

disarray

Back 65

disorder, confusion; to throw into disorder

Front 66

exigency

Back 66

urgency, pressure; urgent demand, pressing need; an emergency

Front 67

flotsam

Back 67

floating debris; homeless, impoverished people

Front 68

frenetic

Back 68

frenzied, highly agitated

Front 69

glean

Back 69

to gather bit by bit; to gather small quantities of grain left in a field by the reapers

Front 70

grouse

Back 70

type of game bird; a complaint; to complain, grumble

Front 71

incarcerate

Back 71

to imprison, confine, jail

Front 72

incumbent

Back 72

obligatory, required; one who holds a specific office at the time spoken of

Front 73

jocular

Back 73

humourous, jesty, jolly, joking

Front 74

ludicrous

Back 74

ridiculous, laughable, absurd

Front 75

mordant

Back 75

biting or caustic in thought, manner, or style; sharply or bitterly harsh

Front 76

nettle

Back 76

a prickly or stinging plant; to arouse displeasure, impatience, or anger; to vex or irritate severely

Front 77

pecuniary

Back 77

consisting of or measured in money; of or related to money

Front 78

pusillanimous

Back 78

contemptibly cowardly or mean-spirited

Front 79

recumbent

Back 79

in a reclining position, lying down, in the posture of one sleeping or resting

Front 80

stratagem

Back 80

a scheme to outwit or deceive an opponent or to gain an end

Front 81

acuity

Back 81

sharpness (particularly of the mind or senses)

Front 82

delineate

Back 82

to portray, sketch, or describe in accurate and vivid detail; to present pictorially

Front 83

depraved

Back 83

marked by evil or corruption, devoid of moral principles

Front 84

enervate

Back 84

to weaken or lessen the mental, moral, or physical vigor of; enfeeble, hamstring

Front 85

esoteric

Back 85

intended for or understood by only a select few, private, secret

Front 86

fecund

Back 86

fruitful in offspring or vegetation; intellectually productive

Front 87

fiat

Back 87

an arbitrary order or decree; a command or act of will or consciousness

Front 88

figment

Back 88

a fabrication of the mind; an arbitrary notion

Front 89

garner

Back 89

to acquireas the result of effort; to gather and store away, as for future use

Front 90

hallow

Back 90

to set apart as holy or sacred, sanctify, consecrate; to honor greatly, revere

Front 91

idiosyncrasy

Back 91

a peculiarity that serves to distinguish or identify

Front 92

ignominy

Back 92

shame and disgrace

Front 93

mundane

Back 93

earthly, worldly, relating to practical and material affairs; concerned with what is ordinary

Front 94

nuance

Back 94

a subtle or slight variation (as in color, meaning, quality), delicate gradutaion or shade of difference

Front 95

overweening

Back 95

conceited, presumptuous; excessive, immoderate

Front 96

penchant

Back 96

a strong attraction or inclination

Front 97

reputed

Back 97

according to reputation or general belief; having widespread acceptance and good reputation; alleged

Front 98

sophistry

Back 98

reasoning that seems plausible but is actually unsound; a fallacy

Front 99

sumptuous

Back 99

costly, rich, magnificent

Front 100

ubiquitous

Back 100

present or existing everywhere

Front 101

abject

Back 101

degraded; base, contemptible; cringing, servile; complete and unrelieved

Front 102

agnostic

Back 102

one who believes that nothing can be known about God; a skeptic; without faith, skeptical

Front 103

complicity

Back 103

involvement in wrongdoing; the state of being an accomplice

Front 104

derelict

Back 104

someone or something that is abandoned or neglected; left abandoned, neglectful of duty

Front 105

diatribe

Back 105

a bitter and prolonged verbal attack

Front 106

effigy

Back 106

a crude image of a despised person

Front 107

equity

Back 107

the state or quality of being just, fair, or impartial; fair and equal treatment; something that is fair; the money value of a property above and beyond any mortgage or other claim

Front 108

inane

Back 108

silly, empty of meaning or value

Front 109

indictment

Back 109

the act of accusing; a formal accusation

Front 110

indubitable

Back 110

certain, not to be doubted or denied

Front 111

intermittent

Back 111

stopping and beginning again, sporadic

Front 112

moot

Back 112

open to discussion and debate, unresolved, to bring up for discussion, hypothetical law case argued by students

Front 113

motif

Back 113

a principal idea, feature, theme, or element; a repeated or dominant figure in a design

Front 114

neophyte

Back 114

a new convert, beginner, novice

Front 115

perspicacity

Back 115

keeness in observing and understanding

Front 116

plenary

Back 116

complete in all aspects or essentials; absolute; attended by all qualified members

Front 117

surveillance

Back 117

a watch kept over a person; careful, close, and disciplined observation

Front 118

sylvan

Back 118

pertaining to or characteristic of forests; living or located in a forest; wooded, woody

Front 119

testy

Back 119

easily irritated; characterized by impatience and exasperation

Front 120

travesty

Back 120

a grotesque or grossly inferior imitation; a disguise, especially the clothing of the opposite sex; to ridicule by imitating in a broad or burlesque fashion