Shusta Vocab
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66 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 riotous | characterized by wild and uncontrolled behavior |
| supercilious | behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others |
| viscid | having a glutinous consistency; sticky, adhesive |
| mettle | courage and fortitude |
| compulsion | the action or state of forcing or being forced to do something; constraint |
| timorous | full of fear; timid |
| haughtily | arrogantly superior and disdainful |
| sumptuous | splendid and expensive looking |
| nebulous | hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused |
| punctilious | careful, finicky |
| vilipend | to regard or treat as of little value or account or to vilify, depreciate |
| sporadic | occurring at irregular intervals or only in a few places; scattered or isolated |
| denizen | an inhabitant or occupant of a particular place |
| Melodious | producing or having a pleasant tune |
| Bandy | to pass from one to another or back and forth; give and take |
| Altruistic | unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others |
| Lucent | shining |
| Copse | a thicket of small trees or bushes; a small wood |
| Cleave | to adhere closely; stick; cling |
| Spires | a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, typically a church tower. |
| Disconcerting | causing one to feel unsettled. |
| Retribution | punishment that is considered to be morally right and fully deserved |
| Wan | pale and giving the impression of illness or exhaustion |
| Transcendent | going beyond ordinary means |
| Benediction | the utterance or bestowing of a blessing, esp. at the end of a religious service |
| Defer | to yield or submit to |
| Ethereal | extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world |
| Sagacious | having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgment |
| Denotation | the literal meaning of a word |
| Connotation | the implied or associative meaning of a word |
| Euphemism | an indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant |
| Allusion | a reference to something literary, mythological, or historical |
| Syntax | the manner in which words are arranged by a writer into sentences |
| Apostrophe | the act of speaking directly to an absent or imaginary person, or to some abstraction. |
| Invective | an intensely vehement, highly emotional verbal attack |
| Aphorism | a concise statement which expresses succinctly a general truth or idea, often using rhyme or balance |
| Didactic | Something which has as its primary purpose to teach or instinct |
| Litotes | a type of understatement in which something affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite |
| Tone | the attitude of a writer, usually implied, toward the subject or audience |
| Allegory | a sustained metaphor continued throughout a piece or dialogue |
| Antithesis | juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas (often, although not always, in parallel structure) |
| Dilemma | offering to an opponent a choice between 2 unfavorable alternatives |
| Enigma | Obscuring one's meaning by presenting it within a riddle or by means of metaphors that purposefully challenge the reader or listener to understand |
| Hyperbole | Rhetorical exaggeration. Often accomplished via comparisons, similes, and metaphors |
| Isocolon | A series of similarly structured elements having the same length. A kind of parallelism |
| Oxymoron | placing two ordinary opposing terms adjacent to one another. A compressed paradox |
| Parallelism | Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses |
| Polysyndeton | Employing many conjunctions between clauses, often slowing the tempo or rhythm |
| Proverb | One of several terms describing short pithy sayings |
| Sarcasm | Use of mockery, verbal taunts, or bitter irony |
| Tapinosis | giving a name to something which diminishes it in importance |
| Appeal to Flattery | Person A is flattered by person B. Person B makes claim X. Therefore X is true. |
| Post Hoc | A occurs before B. Therefore A is the cause of B. |
| Appeal to Fear | Y is presented (a claim that is intended to produce fear). Therefore claim X is true (a claim that is generally, but need not be, related to Y in some manner). |
| Begging the Question | Premises in which the truth of the conclusion is claimed or the truth of the conclusion is assumed (either directly or indirectly). Claim C (the conclusion) is true. |
| False Dilemma | Either claim X is true or claim Y is true (when X and Y could both be false). Claim Y is false. Therefore claim X is true. |
| Red Herring | Topic A is under discussion. Topic B is introduced under the guise of being relevant to topic A (when topic B is actually not relevant to topic A). Topic A is abandoned. |
| Slippery Slope | Event X has occurred (or will or might occur). Therefore event Y will inevitably happen. |
| Bandwagon | Person P is pressured by his/her peers or threatened with rejection. Therefore person P's claim X is false |
| Poisoning the Well | Unfavorable information (be it true or false) about person A is presented. Therefore any claims person A makes will be false |
| Hasty Generalization | Sample S, which is too small, is taken from population P. Conclusion C is drawn about Population P based on S. |
| Peremptorily | insisting on immediate attention or obedience |
| Ad Hominem Tu Quoque | Person A makes claim X. Person B asserts that A's action or past claims are inconsistent with the truth of claim X. Therefore X is false. |
| Ad Hominem | Person A makes claim X. Person B makes an attack on person A. Therefore A's claim is false |
| Restrictio | making an execution to a previously made statement. Restricting or limiting what has already been said |
| straw man | weak counter argument thats easy to prove wrong |
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