Word Smart 4Th Edition (Set 13)

Front 1

FLAGRANT (FLAY grunt) adj

Back 1

glaringly bad; notorious; scandalous

An example of a flagrant theft would be stealing a car from the parking lot of a police station. A flagrant spelling error is a very noticeable one. See the listing for blatant, as these two words are often confused.

Front 2

FLAUNT (flawnt) v

Back 2

to show off; to display ostentatiously

The brand-new millionaire annoyed all his friends by driving around his old neighborhood to flaunt his new Rolls-Royce.

This word is very often confused with flout.

Front 3

FLOUT (flowt) v

Back 3

to disregard something out of disrespect

A driver flouts the traffic laws by driving through red lights and knocking down pedestrians.

To flaunt success is to make certain everyone knows that you are successful. To flout success is to be contemptuous of success or to act as though it means nothing at all.

Front 4

FOIBLE (FOY bul) n

Back 4

a minor character flaw

Patti’s foibles included a tendency to prefer dogs to people.

Front 5

FOMENT (foh MENT) v

Back 5

to stir up; to instigate

The radicals spread several rumors in an effort to foment rebellion among the peasants.

Front 6

FORBEAR (for BAYR) v

Back 6

to refrain from; to abstain

Stephen told me I could become a millionaire if I joined him in his business, but his company makes me nervous so I decided to forbear.

The noun is forbearance.

A forebear (FOR bayr)—sometimes also spelled forbear—is an an ces tor.

Front 7

FOREGO (for GOH) v

Back 7

to do without; to forbear

We had some of the chocolate cake, some of the chocolate mousse, and some of the chocolate cream pie, but we were worried about our weight so we decided to forego the chocolate-covered potato chips. That is, we forewent them.

Can also be spelled forgo.

Front 8

FORSAKE (for SAYK) v

Back 8

to abandon; to renounce; to relinquish

We urged Buddy to forsake his life with the alien beings and return to his job at the drugstore.

Front 9

FORTUITOUS (for TOO uh tus) adj

Back 9

accidental; occurring by chance

The program’s outcome was not the result of any plan but was entirely fortuitous.

Fortuitous is often misused to mean lucky or serendipitous. Don’t make that same mistake. It means merely accidental.

Front 10

FOUNDER (FOWN dur) v

Back 10

to fail; to collapse; to sink

Zeke successfully struggled through the first part of the course but foundered when the final examination was given.

Front 11

FLOUNDER (FLOWN dur) v

Back 11

to move clumsily or in confusion.

Our field hockey team floundered helplessly around the field while the opposing team scored goal after goal.

Front 12

FRATERNAL (fruh TUR nul) adj

Back 12

like brothers

The fraternal feelings of the group were strengthened by the monthly fishing trips that were planned.

Front 13

FRENETIC (fruh NET ik) adj

Back 13

frantic; frenzied

There was a lot of frenetic activity in the office, but nothing ever seemed to get accomplished.

Front 14

FRUGAL (FROO gul) adj

Back 14

economical; penny-pinching

Laura was so frugal that she even tried to bargain with the check out girl at the supermarket.

Front 15

FURTIVE (FUR tiv) adj

Back 15

secretive; sly

The burglars were furtive, but not furtive enough; the alert policeman grabbed them as they carried the color TV through the Rubenstein’s back door.

Front 16

FUTILE (FYOOT ul) adj

Back 16

useless; hopeless

A D+ average and no extracurricular interests to speak of meant that applying to Harvard was futile, but Lucinda hoped against hope.

Something futile is a futility (fyoo TIL uh tee).

Front 17

GARRULOUS (GAR uh lus) adj

Back 17

talkative; chatty

Gabriella is gregarious and garrulous; she loves to hang out with the gang and gab.

Front 18

GAUCHE (gohsh) adj

Back 18

unskillful; awkward; maladroit

Remember dextrous? Well, gauche is pretty much the exact opposite. It is the French word for left—the connection is that left-handed people were once thought to be clumsy.

Carlos had a poor sense of comic timing, and his gauche attempts to mock his left-handed friends soon left him with none.

Front 19

GENRE (ZHAHN ruh) n

Back 19

a type or category, especially of art or writing

The novel is one literary genre. Poetry is another.

Brian displayed a great talent for a particular genre: the bawdy limerick.

Front 20

GENTEEL (jen TEEL) adj

Back 20

refined; polite; aristocratic; affecting refinement

The ladies at the ball were too genteel to accept our invitation to the wrestling match.

Front 21

GESTICULATE (jes TIK yuh layt) v

Back 21

to make gestures, especially when speaking or in place of speaking

The after-dinner speaker gesticulated in such a strange way that the audience paid more attention to his hands than to his words.

Front 22

GLUT (glut) n

Back 22

surplus; an overabundance

We had a glut of contributions but a dearth, or scarcity, of volunteers; it seemed that people would rather give their money than their time.

Front 23

GRANDILOQUENT (gran DIL uh kwunt) adj

Back 23

pompous; using a lot of big, fancy words in an attempt to sound impressive

The president’s speech was grandiloquent rather than eloquent; there were some six-dollar words and some impressive phrases, but he really had nothing to say.

Front 24

GRANDIOSE (GRAN dee ohs) adj

Back 24

absurdly exaggerated

The scientist’s grandiose plan was to build a huge shopping center on the surface of the moon.

Front 25

GRATUITOUS (gruh TOO uh tus) adj

Back 25

given freely (said of something bad); unjustified; unprovoked; uncalled for

The scathing review of the movie contained several gratuitous remarks about the sex life of the director.

Gratuitous is often misunderstood because it is confused with gratuity. A gratuity is a nice thing. Gratuitous, however, is not nice. Don’t confuse these words.

Front 26

GRAVITY (GRAV uh tee) n

Back 26

seriousness

No one realized the gravity of Myron’s drug addiction until it was much too late to help him.

Gravity is also the force that makes apples fall down instead of up, and also a different sort of weightiness.

Front 27

GREGARIOUS (gruh GAR ee us) adj

Back 27

sociable; enjoying the company of others

Dirk was too gregarious to enjoy the fifty years he spent in solitary confinement.

In biology, gregarious is used to describe animals that live in groups.

Front 28

GUILE (gyle) n

Back 28

cunning; duplicity; artfulness

José used guile, not intelligence, to win the spelling bee; he cheated.

To be guileless is to be innocent or naive.

The word beguile also means to deceive, but in a charming and not always bad way.

Front 29

HACKNEYED (HAK need) adj

Back 29

overused; trite; stale

Michael’s book was full of clichés and hackneyed phrases.

Front 30

HAPLESS (HAP lis) adj

Back 30

unlucky

Joe’s hapless search for fun led him from one disappointment to another.

Front 31

HARBINGER (HAR bin jur) n

Back 31

a forerunner; a signal of

A cloud of bad breath and body odor, which preceded him by several yards everywhere he went, was Harold’s harbinger.

Front 32

HEDONISM (HEED uh niz um) n

Back 32

the pursuit of pleasure as a way of life

Yoshi’s life of hedonism came to an end when his lottery winnings ran out; his massaging armchair and wide-screen TV were repossessed, he had to eat macaroni and cheese instead of champagne and lobster, and he could no longer pay to have Victoria’s Secret models fan him with palm fronds and feed him grapes.

Front 33

HEGEMONY (hi JEM uh nee) n

Back 33

leadership, especially of one nation over an other

America once held an unchallenged nuclear hegemony.

Front 34

HERESY (HER uh see) n

Back 34

any belief that is strongly opposed to established beliefs

Galileo was tried for the heresy of suggesting that the sun did not revolve around Earth.

Front 35

HERMETIC (hur MET ik) adj

Back 35

impervious to external influence; airtight

The president led a hermetic existence in the White House, as his advisers attempted to seal him off from the outside world.