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51 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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Abandon
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total lack of inhibition
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The drunk girl danced with wild abandon.
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Abase
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to humble, disgrace
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Troy abased our family by committing his crime.
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Abatement
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decrease, reduction
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College tuition is too high, let's demand an abatement.
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Abdicate
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To give up a position, right, or, power
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You abdicate your right to silence when you talk to the police.
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Aberration
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something different from the usual or norm
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There was an aberration on the exam results.
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Abet
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to aid, act as an accomplice
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Aiding and abetting a witness.
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Abeyance
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temporary suppression or suspension
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The athlete was held in abeyance until the drug tests came back
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Abhor
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to loathe, detest
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I abhor idiots.
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Abject
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pitiful, miserable
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The dogs at the shelter are abject
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Abjure
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To reject, abandon formally.
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I abjured nursing when I handed in my resignation letter.
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Requisite
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Necessary, indispensable, essential, required by the nature of things.
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The egg is requisite for a chicken to be born.
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Ablution
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act of cleansing
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When one confesses sins, they are practicing ablution.
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Abnegate
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to deny or renounce
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The defendant abnegated the charges when questioned because he was innocent.
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Abolitionist
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One who opposes the practice of slavery.
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MLK was an abolitionist.
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Abortive
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interrupted while incomplete.
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An abortion is an abortive process, meaning it terminates the child before it has completed development.
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Abridge
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to condense, shortened
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An abridged version of a book is much shorter.
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Abrogate
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to abolish or invalidate by authority.
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When the president vetoes a bill, he abrogates it using his authority.
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abscond
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to depart secretly
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The thief absconded from the jewelry burglary
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absolve
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to forgive, free from blame
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The defendant was absolved of all charges when found not guilty.
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Abstemious
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moderate in appetite
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When I eat eggs for breakfast, my appetite is abstemious for the rest of the day.
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abstract
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theoretical, complex, difficult
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Abstract art is complex and difficult.
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Platitude
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The quality of being dull, ordinary, or trite.
An overused remark/statement. |
Funeral goers mean well, but after a while, all the words of comfort come across like worn out platitudes.
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trite
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overused and consequently of little importance. Lacking originality.
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We found it difficult to laugh at his trite jokes we've heard over and over.
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lucidity
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clarity; free from obscurity
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When I quit drinking, I experienced lucidity in a way I never had before.
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obscurity
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difficult to understand
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To avoid such obscurity, I need to be specific.
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foal
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a young hoarse
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Maggie will never have a foal because my parents will not breed her.
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invidious
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unjust; likely to arouse/ incur resentment or anger
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Abortion is perhaps the most invidious topic in our culture today, which is why most people avoid bringing it up at social gatherings.
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Evanescent
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quickly fading/ disappearing
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Her evanescent beauty still showed some traces of what it had been in her youth.
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Rubbish
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waste material
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I don't want to dig through the rubbish in the junk drawer.
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Panegyric
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A public speech/text in praise of someone/something.
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I am very panegyric when talking about my great dog bodhi.
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Polemic
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A strong verbal/written attack on someone; The art of practicing or engaging in controversial debate/dispute.
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He also launched a powerful polemic against the growing movement for U.S. intervention in mexico.
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chimerical
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existing only as the product of unchecked imagination
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At this time, interplanetary space travel remains a chimerical feature of this century.
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verbose
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using or expressed in more words than needed
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The verbose author takes 100 pages to make a single point.
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cavalier
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showing a lack of proper concern; offhand
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She has a cavalier attitude about spending money and that is why she is in so much debt.
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choleric
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Easily moved to often unreasonable or excessive anger; hot tempered
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I get absolutely choleric when telemarketers call during dinner time.
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melancholy
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suggestive or expresive of sadness or depression of mind/spirit
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She was in a melancholy mood.
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phlegmatic
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having or showing a slow and stolid temperment
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Some people are phlegmatic, some are high strung.
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sanguine
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confident, optimistic
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He is sanguine about the company's future.
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juggernaut
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a massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path.
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There will be no escaping the juggernaut of hype for the summer blockbuster.
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maudlin
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drunk enough to be emotionally silly; weakly and effusively sentimental
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He became maudlin and began crying like a child.
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meretricious
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of or relating to a prostitute; superficially significant, pretentious; falsely attractive
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The paradise they found was a piece of meretricious trash.
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Ostracism
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Exclusion by general consent from common privileges or social acceptance.
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The woman feared social ostracism after she slept with her best friends husband.
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laconic
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involving the use of minimal words; concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious.
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He had a reputation for being laconic. He only said enough to get his point across.
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spartan
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A person of great courage and self-discipline; simple, frugal;
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The best warrior is spartan in his life.
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sybaritic
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luxurious
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The author accused Obama of being sybaritic due to his expensive taste in clothes.
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serendipity
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the phenomenon of finding valuable things not sought for.
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The young couple found each other by pure serendipity.
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apocryphal
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of doubtful authenticity
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The apocryphal picasso painting in the poor man's house was extremely dirty.
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behemoth
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something of monstrous size
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The newest SUV is a gas guzzling behemoth, that doesn't even fit in parking spaces.
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cherubic
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innocent looking, usually a rosy and chubby person.
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Alaster has a cherubic face, complete with rosy, chubby cheeks.
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cynic
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a fault-finding critic; one who believes that human conduct is motivated by self interest.
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A cynic might think the governor visited the hospital just to gain votes.
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gargantuan
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tremendous in size, volume, or degree.
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People seem to be buying even more gargantuan vehicles these days.
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