Word Smart 4Th Edition (Set 12)

Front 1

EXACTING (ig ZAK ting) adj

Back 1

extremely demanding; difficult; requiring great skill or care

The exacting math teacher subtracted points for even the most unimportant errors.

Front 2

EXALT (ig ZAWLT) v

Back 2

to raise high; to glorify

The manager decided to exalt the lowly batboy by asking him to pitch in the opening game of the World Series.

The adjective exalted is used frequently. Being queen of England is an exalted occupation.

Front 3

EXASPERATE (ig ZAS puh rayt) v

Back 3

to annoy thoroughly; to make very angry; to try the patience of

The child’s insistence on hopping backward on one foot exasperated his mother, who was in a hurry.

Front 4

EXEMPLIFY (ig ZEM pluh fye) v

Back 4

to illustrate by example; to serve as a good example

Fred participated in every class discussion and typed all of his papers. His teacher thought Fred exemplified the model student; Fred’s classmates thought he was sycophantic.

Front 5

EXHAUSTIVE (ig ZAWS tiv) adj

Back 5

thorough; rigorous; complete; painstaking

Before you use a parachute, you should examine it exhaustively for defects. Once you jump, your decision is irrevocable.

Front 6

EXHORT (ig ZORT) v

Back 6

to urge strongly; to give a serious warning to

The coach used his bullhorn to exhort us to try harder.

Front 7

EXIGENCY (EK si jen see) n

Back 7

an emergency; an urgency

An academic exigency: You haven’t opened a book all term and the final is tomorrow morning.

Front 8

EXISTENTIAL (eg zis TEN shul) adj

Back 8

having to do with ex ist ence; hav ing to do with the body of thought called existentialism, which basically holds that human beings are responsible for their own actions but is otherwise too complicated to summarize in a single sentence

Front 9

EXONERATE (ig ZAHN uh rayt) v

Back 9

to free completely from blame; to exculpate

The defendant, who had always claimed he wasn’t guilty, expected to be exonerated by the testimony of his best friend.

Front 10

EXPATRIATE (eks PAY tree ayt) v

Back 10

to throw (someone) out of his or her native land; to move away from one’s native land; to emigrate

The rebels were expatriated by the nervous general, who feared that they would cause trouble if they were allowed to remain in the country.

Front 11

EXPEDIENT (ik SPEE dee unt) adj

Back 11

providing an immediate advantage; serving one’s immediate self-interest; practical

Since the basement had nearly filled with water, the plumber felt it would be expedient to clear out the drain.

Front 12

EXPEDITE (EK spi dyte) v

Back 12

to speed up or ease the progress of

Our wait for a table was expedited by a waiter who mistook Angela for a movie star.

Front 13

EXPLICIT (ik SPLIS it) adj

Back 13

clearly and directly expressed

The machine’s instructions were explicit—they told us exactly what to do.

Implicit means indirectly expressed or implied.

Front 14

EXTOL (ik STOHL) v

Back 14

to praise highly; to laud

The millionaire extolled the citizen who returned his gold watch and then rewarded him with a heartfelt handshake.

Front 15

EXTRANEOUS (ik STRAY nee us) adj

Back 15

unnecessary; irrelevant; extra

Extra ice cream would never be extraneous, unless every one had already eaten so much that no one wanted any more.

Front 16

EXTRAPOLATE (ik STRAP uh layt) v

Back 16

to project or deduce from something known; to infer

By extrapolating from a handful of pottery fragments, the archaeologists formed a possible picture of the ancient civilization.

To extrapolate, a scientist uses the facts he has to project to facts outside; to interpolate (in TUR puh layt), he tries to fill the gaps within his data.

Front 17

EXTRICATE (EK struh kayt) v

Back 17

to free from difficulty

It took two and a half days to extricate the little girl from the abandoned well into which she had fallen.

Something that is permanently stuck is inextricable (in EKS tri kuh bul).

Front 18

EXTROVERT (EKS truh vurt) n

Back 18

an open, outgoing person; a person whose attention is focused on others rather than on himself or herself

Maria was quite an extrovert; she walked boldly into the roomful of strange adults and struck up a friendly conversation.

An introvert (IN truh vurt) is a person whose attention is directed inward and who is concerned with little outside himself or herself.

Front 19

EXULT (ig ZULT) v

Back 19

to rejoice; to celebrate

The women’s team exulted in its victory over the men’s team at the badminton finals. They were exultant.

Front 20

FABRICATION (FAB ruh kay shun) n

Back 20

a lie; something made up

The suspected murderer’s alibi turned out to be an elaborate fabrication; in other words, he was lying when he said that he hadn’t killed the victim.

Front 21

FACETIOUS (fuh SEE shus) adj

Back 21

humorous; not serious; clumsily humorous

David was sent to the principal’s office for making a facetious remark about the intelligence of the French teacher.

Front 22

FACILE (FAS il) adj

Back 22

fluent; skillful in a superficial way; easy

Paolo’s poems were facile rather than truly accomplished; if you read them closely, you soon realized they were filled with clichés.

To say that a writer’s style is facile is to say both that it is skillful and that it would be better if the writer exerted himself or herself more. The word facile almost always contains this sense of superficiality.

Front 23

FACTION (FAK shun) n

Back 23

a group, usually a small part of a larger group, united around some cause; disagreement within an organization

The faculty was relatively happy, but there was a faction that called for higher pay.

Front 24

FARCICAL (FARS i kul) adj

Back 24

absurd; ludicrous

The serious play quickly turned farcical when the leading man’s belt broke and his pants fell to his ankles.

Farcical means like a farce, which is a mockery or a ridiculous satire.

Front 25

FASTIDIOUS (fa STID ee us) adj

Back 25

meticulous; demanding; finicky

Mrs. O’Hara was a fastidious housekeeper; she cleaned up our crumbs almost before they hit the floor.

Front 26

FATALIST (FAYT uh list) n

Back 26

someone who believes that future events are already determined and that humans are powerless to change them

The old man was a fatalist about his illness, believing there was no sense in worrying about something over which he had no control.

Fatalist is closely related to the word fate. A fatalist is someone who believes that fate determines everything.

Front 27

FATUOUS (FACH oo us) adj

Back 27

foolish; silly; idiotic

Pauline is so pretty that her suitors are often driven to fatuous acts of devotion. They are infatuated with her.

Front 28

FAUNA (FAW nuh) n

Back 28

animals

We saw little evidence of fauna on our walk through the woods. We did, however, see plenty of flora, or plants.

“Flora and fauna” means plants and animals. The terms are used particularly in describing what lives in a particular region or environment.

Front 29

FECUND (FEE kund) adj

Back 29

fertile; productive

The fecund mother rabbit gave birth to hundreds and hundreds of little rabbits.

Front 30

FELICITY (fuh LIS uh tee) n

Back 30

happiness; skillfulness, especially at expressing things; adeptness

Love was not all felicity for Judy and Steve; they argued all the time. In fact their relationship was characterized by infelicity.

Shakespeare wrote with great felicity. His works are filled with felicitous expressions.

Front 31

FERVOR (FUR vur) n

Back 31

great warmth or earnestness; ardor; zeal

Avid baseball fans frequently display their fervor for the game by throwing food at bad players.

Front 32

FETTER (FET ur) v

Back 32

to restrain; to hamper

In his pursuit of the Nobel Prize for physics, Professor Jenkins was fettered by his near-total ignorance of the subject.

To be unfettered is to be unrestrained or free of hindrances.

A fetter is literally a chain (attached to the foot) that is used to restrain a criminal or, for that matter, an innocent person.

Front 33

FIDELITY (fuh DEL uh tee) n

Back 33

faithfulness; loyalty

The soldiers couldn’t shoot straight, but their fidelity to the cause of freedom was never in question.

Infidelity means faithlessness or disloyalty. Marital infidelity is another way of saying adultery.

Front 34

FIGURATIVE (FIG yur uh tiv) adj

Back 34

based on figures of speech; expressing something in terms usually used for something else; metaphorical

When the mayor said that the housing market had sprouted wings, he was speaking figuratively. The housing market hadn’t really sprouted wings; it had merely risen so rapidly that it had almost seemed to fly.

A figurative meaning of a word is one that is not literal. A literal statement is one in which every word means exactly what it says.

Front 35

FINESSE (fi NES) n

Back 35

skillful maneuvering; subtlety; craftiness

The doctor sewed up the wound with finesse, making stitches so small one could scarcely see them.