Word Smart 4Th Edition (Set 10)

Front 1

DERIDE (di RYDE) v

Back 1

to ridicule; to laugh at contemptuously

Geraldo derided Diana’s driving ability after their hair-raising trip down the twisting mountain road.

Front 2

DEROGATORY (dih RAHG uh tor ee) adj

Back 2

disapproving; degrading

Stephen could never seem to think of anything nice to say about any one; virtually all of his comments were derogatory.

Front 3

DESICCATE (DES uh kayt) v

Back 3

to dry out

The hot wind desiccated the few grapes remaining on the vine; after a day or two, they looked like raisins.

Front 4

DESPONDENT (dih SPAHN dunt) adj

Back 4

extremely depressed; full of despair

The cook became despondent when the wedding cake exploded fifteen minutes before the reception.

Front 5

DESPOT (DES puht) n

Back 5

an absolute ruler; an autocrat

Stephen was a despot; workers who disagreed with him were fired.

Front 6

DESTITUTE (DES tuh toot) adj

Back 6

extremely poor; utterly lacking

To be left destitute is to be left without money or property. The word can also be used figuratively. A teacher might accuse her students of being destitute of brains, or intellectually destitute.

Front 7

DESULTORY (DES ul tor ee) adj

Back 7

without a plan or purpose; disconnected; random

Aadi made a few desultory attempts to start a garden, but nothing came of them.

Front 8

DEXTROUS (DEX trus) adj

Back 8

skillful; adroit

Though not imposing in stature, Rashid was the most dextrous basketball player on the court; he often beat taller competitors with his nimble management of the ball.

Front 9

DIALECTICAL (dye uh LEK ti kul) adj

Back 9

relating to discussions; relating to the rules and methods of reasoning; approaching truth in the middle of opposing extremes

The game of Twenty Questions is dialectical, in that the participants attempt to narrow down a chosen object by asking a series of ever more specific questions.

Front 10

DICTUM (DIK tum) n

Back 10

an authoritative saying; an adage; a maxim; a proverb

“No pain, no gain” is a hackneyed dictum of sadistic coaches every where.

Front 11

DIDACTIC (dye DAK tik) adj

Back 11

intended to teach; morally in structive; pedantic

Luther’s seemingly amusing talk had a didactic purpose; he was trying to show his listeners the difference between right and wrong.

Front 12

DIFFIDENT (DIF i dunt) adj

Back 12

timid; lacking in self-confidence

Diffident and confident are opposites.

The diffident student never made a single comment in class.

Front 13

DIGRESS (dye GRES) v

Back 13

to stray from the main subject

When a speaker digresses, he departs from the main topic and tells a story only distantly related to it.

Front 14

DILETTANTE (DIL uh tahnt) n

Back 14

someone with superficial knowledge of the arts; an amateur; a dabbler

Reginald said he was an artist, but he was merely a dilettante; he didn’t know a pencil from a paintbrush.

Front 15

DISCERN (dih SURN) v

Back 15

to have insight; to see things clearly; to discriminate; to differentiate

The ill-mannered people at Tisha’s party proved that she had little discernment when it came to choosing friends.

Front 16

DISCREET (dih SKREET) adj

Back 16

prudent; judiciously reserved

The psychiatrist was very discreet; no matter how much we pestered him, he wouldn’t gossip about the problems of his famous patients.

Front 17

DISCRETE (dih SKREET) adj

Back 17

unconnected; separate; distinct

Do not confuse discrete with discreet.

The drop in the stock market was not the result of any single force but of many discrete trends.

Front 18

DISCRIMINATE (dih SKRIM uh nayt) v

Back 18

to notice or point out the difference between two or more things; to discern; to differentiate

A person with a refined aesthetic sense is able to discriminate subtle differences where a less observant person would see nothing.

Front 19

DISDAIN (dis DAYN) n

Back 19

arrogant scorn; contempt

Bertram viewed the hot dog with disdain, believing that to eat such a disgusting food was beneath him.

Front 20

DISINTERESTED (dis IN truh stid) adj

Back 20

not taking sides; unbiased

Disinterested should not be used to mean uninterested.

A referee should be disinterested. He or she should not be rooting for one of the competing teams.

Front 21

DISPARAGE (dih SPAR ij) v

Back 21

to belittle; to say uncomplimentary things about, usually in a somewhat indirect way

The mayor disparaged our efforts to beautify the town square by saying that the flower bed we had planted looked somewhat worse than the bed of weeds it had replaced.

Front 22

DISPARATE (DIS pur it) adj

Back 22

different; incompatible; unequal

Our interests were disparate: Cathy liked to play with dolls and I liked to throw her dolls out the window.

Front 23

DISSEMINATE (dih SEM uh nayt) v

Back 23

to spread the seeds of something; to scatter; to make widely known

News is disseminated through many media: radio, television, news-papers, magazines, and gossips.

Front 24

DISSIPATE (DIS uh payt) v

Back 24

to thin out, drift away, or dissolve; to cause to thin out, drift away, or dissolve; to waste or squander

The smoke dissipated as soon as we opened the windows.

Front 25

DISSOLUTION (dis uh LOO shun) n

Back 25

the breaking up or dissolving of something into parts; disintegration

Nothing could prevent the dissolution of the Jesse Ventura Fan Club after he retired to seek a political career.

Front 26

DISTEND (di STEND) v

Back 26

to swell; to extend a great deal

The tire distended alarmingly as the forgetful gas station attendant kept pumping more and more air into it.

Front 27

DISTINGUISH (di STING gwish) v

Back 27

to tell apart; to cause to stand out

I studied and studied but I was never able to distinguish between discrete and discreet.

Front 28

DOCILE (DAHS ul) adj

Back 28

easily taught; obedient; easy to handle

The docile students quietly memorized all the lessons their teacher told them.

Front 29

DOCTRINAIRE (dahk truh NAYR) adj

Back 29

inflexibly committed to a doctrine or theory without regard to its practicality; dogmatic

A doctrinaire supporter of manned space flights to Pluto would be someone who supported such space flights even though it might be shown that such lengthy journeys could never be undertaken.

Front 30

DOGMATIC (dawg MAT ik) adj

Back 30

arrogantly assertive of unproven ideas; stubbornly claiming that something (often a system of beliefs) is beyond dispute

Marty is dogmatic on the subject of the creation of the world; he sneers at anyone whose views are not identical to his.

Front 31

DOMESTIC (duh MES tik) adj

Back 31

having to do with the household or family; not foreign

To be domestic is to enjoy being at home or to be skillful at doing things around the house.

Front 32

DORMANT (DOR munt) adj

Back 32

inactive; as though asleep; asleep

Mt. Vesuvius erupted violently and then fell dormant for several hundred years.

Front 33

DUBIOUS (DOO bee us) adj

Back 33

full of doubt; uncertain

I was fairly certain that I would be able to fly if I could merely flap my arms hard enough, but Mary was dubious; she said I’d better flap my legs as well.

Front 34

DUPLICITY (doo PLIS uh tee) n

Back 34

the act of being two-faced; double-dealing; deception

Liars engage in duplicity all the time; they say one thing and do another.

Front 35

EBULLIENT (ih BUL yunt) adj

Back 35

boiling; bubbling with excitement; exuberant

Cammie was ebullient when her fairy godmother said she could use one of her three wishes to wish for three more wishes.

A boiling liquid can be called ebullient. More often, though, this word describes excited or enthusiastic people.