Word Smart 4Th Edition (Set 11)

Front 1

ECCENTRIC (ek SEN trik) adj

Back 1

not conventional; a little kooky; irregular

The eccentric inventor spent all his waking hours fiddling with what he said was a time machine but was actually just an old telephone booth.

Front 2

ECLECTIC (ih KLEK tik) adj

Back 2

choosing the best from many sources; drawn from many sources

Adolfo’s taste in art was eclectic. He liked the Old Masters, the Impressionists, and Walt Disney.

Front 3

EDIFY (ED uh fye) v

Back 3

to enlighten; to instruct, especially in moral or religious matters

We found the pastor’s sermon on the importance of not eating beans to be most edifying.

Front 4

EFFACE (ih FAYS) v

Back 4

to erase; to rub away the features of

The inscription on the tombstone had been effaced by centuries of weather.

To be self-effacing is to be modest.

Front 5

EFFUSION (ih FYOO zhun) n

Back 5

a pouring forth

When the child was rescued from the well, there was an in tense effusion of emotion from the crowd that had gathered around the hole.

To be effusive is to be highly emotional.

Front 6

EGALITARIAN (ih gal uh TAYR ee un) adj

Back 6

believing in the social and economic equality of all people

People often lose interest in egalitarian measures when such measures interfere with their own interests.

Front 7

EGOCENTRIC (ee goh SEN trik) adj

Back 7

selfish; believing that one is the center of everything

It never occurred to the egocentric musician that his audiences might like to hear someone else’s songs every once in a while.

An egotist is another type of egocentric. An egotist is an egoist who tells everyone how wonderful he is.

Front 8

EGREGIOUS (ih GREE jus) adj

Back 8

extremely bad; flagrant

The mother’s egregious neglect was responsible for her child’s accidental cross-country ride on the freight train.

Front 9

ELICIT (ih LIS it) v

Back 9

to bring out; to call forth

The defendant tried to elicit the sympathy of the jury by appearing at the trial in a wheelchair, but the jury convicted him anyway.

Don’t confuse this word with illicit.

Front 10

ELLIPTICAL (ih LIP ti kul) adj

Back 10

oval; missing a word or words; obscure

(This word has several meanings.)

The orbit of the earth is not perfectly round; it is elliptical.

The announcement from the State Department was purposely elliptical—the government didn’t really want reporters to know what was going on.

Front 11

ELUSIVE (ih LOO siv) adj

Back 11

hard to pin down; evasive

To be elusive is to elude, which means to avoid, evade, or escape.

The answer to the problem was elusive; every time the mathematician thought he was close, he discovered another error. (Or, one could say that the answer to the problem eluded the mathematician.)

Front 12

EMIGRATE (EM uh grayt) v

Back 12

to leave a country permanently; to expatriate

The Soviet dissidents were persecuted by the secret police, so they sought permission to emigrate.

Front 13

EMINENT (EM uh nunt) adj

Back 13

well-known and respected; standing out from all others in quality or accomplishment; outstanding

The visiting poet was so eminent that our English teacher fell to the ground before him and licked his shoes. Our English teacher thought the poet was preeminent in his field.

Don’t confuse this word with imminent

Front 14

EMPIRICAL (em PIR uh kul) adj

Back 14

relying on experience or observation; not merely theoretical

The apple-dropping experiment gave the scientists empirical evidence that gravity exists.

Front 15

EMULATE (EM yuh layt) v

Back 15

to strive to equal or excel, usually through imitation

The American company emulated its successful Japanese competitor but never quite managed to do as well.

Front 16

ENCROACH (en KROHCH) v

Back 16

to make gradual or stealthy inroads into; to trespass

My neighbor encroached on my yard by building his new stockade fence a few feet on my side of the property line.

Front 17

ENDEMIC (en DEM ik) adj

Back 17

native; restricted to a particular region or era; indigenous

You won’t find that kind of tree in California; it’s endemic to our part of the country.

Front 18

ENERVATE (EN ur vayt) v

Back 18

to reduce the strength or energy of, especially to do so gradually

Life itself seemed to enervate the old man. He grew weaker and paler with every breath he drew.

Front 19

ENFRANCHISE (en FRAN chyze) v

Back 19

to grant the privileges of citizenship, especially the right to vote

In the United States, citizens become enfranchised on their eighteenth birthdays. American women were not enfranchised until the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, which gave them the right to vote.

To disfranchise (or disenfranchise) someone is to take away the privileges of citizenship or take away the right to vote.

Front 20

ENGENDER (en JEN dur) v

Back 20

to bring into existence; to create; to cause

My winning lottery ticket engendered a great deal of envy among my co-workers; they all wished that they had won.

Front 21

ENIGMA (uh NIG muh) n

Back 21

a mystery

Ben is an enigma; he never does any homework but he always gets good grades.

Front 22

ENORMITY (i NOR muh tee) n

Back 22

extreme evil; a hideous offense; immensity

Hitler’s soldiers stormed through the village, committing one enormity after another.

“Hugeness” or “great size” is not the main meaning of enormity. When you want to talk about the gigantic size of something, use immensity instead.

Front 23

EPHEMERAL (i FEM ur al) adj

Back 23

lasting a very short time

Youth and flowers are both ephemeral. They’re gone before you know it.

The tread on those used tires will probably turn out to be ephemeral.

Front 24

EPIGRAM (EP uh gram) n

Back 24

a brief and usually witty or satirical saying

People often find it difficult to remember the difference between an epigram and an:
epigraph: an apt quotation placed at the beginning of a book or essay epitaph: a commemorative inscription on a grave
epithet: a term used to characterize the nature of something; sometimes a disparaging term used to describe a person.

Front 25

EPITOME (i PIT uh mee) n

Back 25

a brief summary that captures the meaning of the whole; the perfect example of something; a paradigm

The first paragraph of the new novel is an epitome of the entire book; you could read it and understand what the author was trying to get across. It epitomized the entire work.

Front 26

EQUANIMITY (ek wuh NIM uh tee) n

Back 26

composure; calm

John’s mother looked at the broken glass on the floor with equanimity; at least he didn’t hurt himself when he knocked over the vase.

Front 27

EQUITABLE (EK wuh tuh bul) adj

Back 27

fair

King Solomon’s decision was certainly equitable; each mother would receive half the child.

Equity is fairness; inequity is unfairness. Iniquity and inequity both mean unfair, but iniquity implies wickedness as well.

Front 28

EQUIVOCAL (ih KWIV uh kul) adj

Back 28

ambiguous; intentionally confusing; capable of being interpreted in more than one way

Joe’s response was equivocal; we couldn’t tell whether he meant yes or no, which is precisely what Joe wanted.

Front 29

ERUDITE (ER yoo dyte) adj

Back 29

scholarly; deeply learned

The professor said such erudite things that none of us had the slightest idea of what he was saying.

Front 30

ESOTERIC (es uh TER ik) adj

Back 30

hard to understand; understood by only a select few; peculiar

The author’s books were so esoteric that not even his mother bought any of them.

Front 31

ESPOUSE (eh SPOWZ) v

Back 31

to support; to advocate

The Mormons used to espouse bigamy, or marriage to more than one woman.

Front 32

ETHEREAL (ih THIR ee ul) adj

Back 32

heavenly; as light and insubstantial as a gas or ether

The ethereal music we heard turned out to be not angels plucking on their harps but the wind blowing past our satellite-television antenna.

Front 33

EUPHEMISM (YOO fuh miz um) n

Back 33

a pleasant or inoffensive expression used in place of an unpleasant or offensive one

Aunt Angie, who couldn’t bring herself to say the word death, said that Uncle George had taken the big bus uptown. “Taking the big bus uptown” was her euphemism for dying.

Front 34

EVANESCENT (ev uh NES unt) adj

Back 34

fleeting; vanishing; happening for only the briefest period

Meteors are evanescent: They last so briefly that it is hard to tell whether one has actually appeared.

Front 35

EXACERBATE (ig ZAS ur bayt) v

Back 35

to make worse

The fender-bender was exacerbated when a line of twenty-five cars plowed into the back of Margaret’s car.