| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Abate | To Lessen in intensity or degree |
| Accolade | An expression of praise |
| Adulation | Excessive praise; intense adoration |
| Aesthetic | dealing with appreciative of, or responsive to art or the beautiful |
| Ameliorate | To make better or more tolerable |
| Ascetic | One who practices rigid self-denial |
| Avarice | Greed, esp. for wealth |
| Axiom | Universally accepted principle |
| Burgeon | To grow rapidly or flourish |
| Bucolic | Rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants |
| Cacophony | Harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonance |
| Canon | an established set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature |
| Castigation | Severe Criticism or punishment |
| Catalyst | a substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without itself changing; a person or thing that causes change |
| Caustic | Burning or stinging; causing corrosion |
| Chary | Wary; cautious; sparing |
| Cogent | Appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing |
| Complaisance | The willingness to comply with the wishes of others |
| Contentious | argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement |
| Contrite | Regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness |
| Culpable | Deserving blame |
| Dearth | Smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; a lack |
| Demur | to question or oppose |
| Didactic | Intended to teach or instruct |
| Discretion | cautious reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions |
| Disinterested | Free of bias or self-interest |
| Dogmatic | Expressing a reigid opinion based on unproved or unprovable principles |
| Ebullience | The quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts and feelings |
| Eclectic | Composed of elements drawn from various sources |
| Elegy | A mournful poem, esp. one lamenting the dead |
| Emollient | soothing, esp. to the skin; making less harsh; mollifying; and agent that softens or soothes the skin |
| Empirical | Based on observation or experiment |
| Enigmatic | Mysterious; obscure; difficult to understand |
| Ephemeral | Brief; fleeting |
| Esoteric | Intended for or understood by a small, specific group |
| Eulogy | A speech honoring the dead |
| Exonerate | To remove blame |
| Facetious | Playful; humorous |
| Fallacy | An invalid or incorrect notion; a mistaken belief |
| Furtive | Marked by stealth; covert; surreptitious |
| Gregarious | Sociable; outgoing; enjoying the company of other people |
| Harangue | To deliever a pompous speech or tirade; a long, pompous speech |
| Heretical | Violating accepted dogma or convention |
| Hyperbole | An Exaggerated statement, often used as a figure of speech |
| Impecunious | Lacking funds; without money |
| Incipient | Beginning to come into being or to become apparent |
| Inert | Unmoving; lethargic; sluggish |
| Innocuous | Harmless; causing no damage |
| Intransigent | Refusing to compromise |
| inveigle | To obtain by deception or flattery |
| Morose | Sad; sullen; melancholy |
| Odious | Evoking intense aversion or dislike |
| Opaque | Impenetrable by light; not reflecting light |
| Oscillation | The act or state of swinging back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm |
| Penurious | Penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous |
| Pernicious | Extremely harmful; potentially causing death |
| Peruse | To examine with great care |
| Pious | Extremely reverent or devout; showing strong religious devotion |
| Precursor | One that precedes and indicates or announces another |
| Preen | To dress up; to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care |
| Prodigious | Abundant in size, force or extent; extraordinary |
| Prolific | Producing large volumes or amounts; productive |
| Putrefy | to rot; to decay and give off a foul odor |
| Quaff | To drink deeply |
| Quiescence | Stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest |
| Redoubtable | Awe-inspiring; worthy of honor |
| Sanction | Authoritative permission or approval; a penalty intended to enforce compliance; to give permission or authority to |
| Satire | A literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor derision |
| Squalid | Sordid; wretched and dirty as from neglect |
| Stoic | Indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain; steadfast |
| Supplant | to take the place of; supersede |
| Torpid | Lethargic; sluggish; dormant |
| Ubiquitous | Existing everywhere at the same time; constantly encountered; widespread |
| Urbane | Sophisticated; refined; elegant |
| Vilify | To defame; to characterize harshly |
| Viscous | Thick; sticky |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace