| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Abrogate | to abolish or annul by authority; put down |
| Abscission | act of cutting off or removing |
| Admonish | to reprove; to express warning or disapproval |
| Adumbrate | to foreshadow vaguely, intimate, suggest, or outline sketchily |
| Alloy | to commingle; to debase by mixing with something inferior |
| Amalgamate | to combine several elements into a whole |
| Anathema | a solemn or ecclesiastical curse; accursed or loathed person or thing |
| Apogee | farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith |
| Apostate | one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions, a betrayer of a cause |
| Apotheosis | deification, glorification to godliness, the perfect example |
| Apposite | appropriate, pertinent, relevant, apropos |
| Apprise | give notice to, inform |
| Appropriate | to take for one's own use, confiscate |
| Arabesque | complex, ornate design |
| Arcane | mysterious, abstruse, esoteric, knowable only to initiates |
| Arrant | impudent; in every way, being completely such, bare-faced, utter |
| Arrest | to suspend; to engage |
| Ascetic | one who practices rigid self-denial, especially as an act of religious devotion |
| Asperity | severity, rigor; roughness, harshness; acrimony, irritability |
| Aspersion | an act of defamation or maligning |
| Assiduous | diligent, hard working |
| Astringent | having a tightening effect on living tissue; harsh; severe |
| Auspice | protection or support, patronage |
| Avarice | greed, especially for wealth |
| Aver | to state as fact; to confirm or support |
| Baleful | sinister, pernicious, ominous |
| Bane | cause of injury, source of harm; source of persistent frustration |
| Beatify | to bless, make happy, or ascribe a virtue to; to regard as saintly |
| Bedizen | to adorn, especially in a cheap, showy manner; festoon, caparison |
| Belie | to give a false impression of, to misrepresent |
| Blandish | to coax with flattery, toady or fawn |
| Brook | to tolerate, endure, countenance |
| Bucolic | rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants |
| Byzantine | labyrinthine, complex |
| Cadge | to sponge, beg, or mooch |
| Caret | an insertion mark used by editors and proofreaders |
| Chary | wary; cautious; sparing |
| Chasten | to chastise or correct; subdue |
| Chic | stylish and fashionable; sophistication in dress |
| Chimera | an illusion |
| Choleric | tending toward anger |
| Churlish | boorish, vulgar, loutish; difficult and intractable |
| Coda | concluding section to a musical or literary piece, something that concludes or completes |
| Contemn | to scorn or despise |
| Contrite | regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness |
| Countenance | to approve of or tolerate |
| Cozen | to deceive, beguile, hoodwink |
| Demur | to question or impose |
| Denigrate | blacken, belittle, sully, defame, disparage |
| Denouement | an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot |
| Deprecate | to disparage or belittle |
| Depredate | to plunder, pillage, ravage or destroy; to exploit in a predatory manner |
| Derision | scorn, ridicule, contemptuous treatment |
| Desuetude | disuse |
| Desultory | random; thoughtless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose |
| Die | a tool used for shaping |
| Din | loud sustained noise |
| Dirge | mournful song or poem for the dead |
| Discomfit | to defeat, put down |
| Dissemble | to disguise or conceal; to mislead |
| Distrait | distracted; absent-minded, especially due to anxiety |
| Doggerel | trivial, poorly constructed verse |
| Dross | slag, waste or foreign matter, impurity, surface scum |
| Dulcet | melodious, harmonious, mellifluous |
| Dynamo | generator; forceful, energetic person |
| Edifying | enlightening, informative |
| Egress | exit |
| Elegy | mournful poem, especially one lamenting the dead |
| Emollient | soothing, especially to the skin; making less harsh, mollifying |
| Ennui | dissatisfaction and restlessness resulting from boredom or apathy |
| Enormity | excessive wickedness, evilness |
| Epithet | disparaging word or phrase |
| Equanimity | composure, self-possession |
| Equable | level; not able to be easily disturbed |
| Essay | to test or try; attempt, experiment |
| Evanescent | tending to disappear like vapor; vanishing |
| Evince | to show clearly, to indicate |
| Exact | to demand, call for, require, take |
| Excoriate | to censure scathingly, to upbraid |
| Exhort | to incite, to make urgent appeals |
| Exigent | urgent; pressing; requiring immediate action or attention |
| Expatiate | discuss or write about at length; to range freely |
| Expiate | to atone or make amends for |
| Extemporaneous | improvised; done without preparation |
| Extirpate | to destroy, exterminate, cut out, pull out by the roots |
| Facetious | playful; humorous; not serious |
| Fatuous | silly, inanely foolish |
| Fawn | to flatter or praise excessively |
| Feckless | ineffectual; irresponsible |
| Felicitous | apt; suitably expressed, well chosen, apropos; delightful |
| Fell | a barren or stony hill; an animal's hide |
| Fervent | greatly emotional or zealous |
| Filigree | an ornamental work, especially of delicate lacelike patterns; resembling such a pattern |
| Flag | to sag or droop, to become spiritless, to decline |
| Flip | sarcastic, impertinent |
| Flout | to demonstrate contempt for |
| Froward | intractable, not willing to yield or comply, stubbornly disobedient |
| Fulminate | to attack loudly or denounce |
| Gainsay | to deny, dispute, contradict, oppose |
| Gauche | crude, awkward, tasteless |
| Grouse | to complain or grumble |
| Guy | a rope or cord attached to something as a brace or guide |
| Halcyon | calm and peaceful, prosperous |
| Hallow | to set apart as holy |
| Harangue | to deliver a loud, pompous speech or tirade |
| Harrow | to distress, create stress or torment |
| Hedonism | devotion to pleasurable pursuits, especially to the pleasures of the senses |
| Heretical | violating accepted dogma or convention, unorthodox |
| Hirsute | hairy, shaggy |
| Homily | a sermon or morally instructive lecture, a platitude |
| Idyll | a carefree, light-hearted pastoral or romantic episode or experience; a literary or musical piece describing such |
| Ignominious | shameful, dishonorable, ignoble, undignified, disgraceful |
| Imbroglio | difficult or embarrassing situation |
| Impassive | revealing no emotion or sensibility |
| Importune | ask incessantly, beg |
| Impudent | shamelessly bold; insolent; impertinent |
| Impugn | attack or assail verbally, censure, execrate, deny |
| Impunity | immunity from punishment, penalty or harm |
| Impute | to attribute to a cause or source, ascribe, assign as a characteristic |
| Indolent | lazy, listless, torpid |
| Ineluctable | certain, inevitable |
| Ingenuous | artless, frank and candid, lacking in sophistication |
| Innervate | to supply with nerves, energize |
| Inscrutable | incapable of being discovered or understood, mysterious |
| Insouciant | unconcerned, carefree, nonchalant |
| Interdict | prohibit, forbid, ban, halt |
| Inveigh | to attack verbally, denounce, deprecate |
| Inveigle | to obtain by deception or flattery |
| Inveterate | deep rooted, ingrained, habitual |
| Jejune | vapid, uninteresting; childish, immature; lacking nutrition |
| Jibe | to agree, to be in accord |
| Jocose | given to joking; humorous |
| Labile | readily open to change, unstable |
| Laconic | using few words; terse |
| Lassitude | listlessness, languor, weariness |
| Limn | to draw, outline in detail |
| Limpid | transparent, serene, clear and simple in style, untroubled |
| List | to tilt or lean to one side |
| Maunder | to talk or move aimlessly, mutter |
| Mellifluous | sweetly flowing, usually used to describe words or sounds |
| Mendacity | the condition of being untruthful, dishonesty |
| Mendicant | a beggar, supplicant |
| Mettlesome | courageous, high-spirited |
| Militate | to have weight or bearing on, to argue (against) |
| Minatory | menacing, threatening |
| Mince | pronounce or speak affectedly or too carefully, euphemize, take tiny steps, tiptoe |
| Misogynist | one who hates women |
| Morose | sad, sullen, melancholy |
| Natty | trimly neat and tidy, dapper |
| Nice | exacting, extremely or even excessively precise; done with delicacy or skill |
| Nonplussed | baffled, in a quandary, at a loss for what to say, do or think |
| Nostrum | cure-all, placebo, questionable remedy |
| Noxious | harmful; injurious |
| Obdurate | unyielding, hardhearted, inflexible |
| Obeisance | gesture that expresses deference, such as a bow or curtsy |
| Obstreperous | noisy, loudly stubborn, boisterous |
| Ostensible | seeming, appearing as such, professed |
| Overweening | presumptuously arrogant, overbearing, immoderate |
| Paean | a song or expression of praise and thanksgiving |
| Palliate | to make something appear less serious, gloss over, mitigate |
| Parsimonious | cheap, miserly |
| Paucity | scarcity, a lacking of |
| Pedagogy | the art or profession of training, teaching, or instructing |
| Pedantic | ostentatious display of learning, excessive attention to minutiae and formal rules, unimaginative |
| Penurious | penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous |
| Peremptory | admitting of no contradiction, putting an end to further debate, haughty, imperious |
| Perfidy | intentional breach of faith, treachery |
| Pernicious | extremely harmful, potentially causing death |
| Perspicacious | acutely perceptive, having keen discernment |
| Petrous | like a rock, hard, stony |
| Petulant | impatient, irritable |
| Philistine | a crass individual guided by material rather than intellectual or artistic values |
| Phlegmatic | calm, sluggish, unemotional, stoic |
| Picaresque | involving clever rogues or adventurers |
| Pied | multi-colored, usually in blotches |
| Pillory | to punish, hold up to public scorn |
| Pine | to yearn intensely, to languish, to lose vigor |
| Piquant | agreeably pungent, spicy, stimulating |
| Pique | resentment, feeling of irritation due to hurt pride |
| Pith | the essential or central part |
| Plaintive | mournful, melancholy, sorrowful |
| Plangent | pounding, thundering, resounding |
| Platitude | a superficial or trite remark, especially one offered as meaningful |
| Polemical | controversial, argumentative |
| Prate | chatter, babble |
| Precept | rule establishing standards of conduct, a doctrine that is taught |
| Preempt | to replace, to supersede, to appropriate |
| Preen | to dress up, primp, groom oneself with elaborate care; in animals, to clean fur or feathers |
| Prize | to pry, press or force with a lever |
| Prodigious | abundant in size, force, or extent; extraordinary |
| Prolific | producing large volumes or amounts |
| Prolix | long-winded, verbose |
| Propinquity | nearness in time or place, affinity of nature, kinship |
| Propitiate | to appease or pacify |
| Propitious | auspicious, favorable |
| Proscribe | to outlaw or prohibit |
| Provident | frugal, looking to the future |
| Pugnacious | contentious, quarrelsome, given to fighting, belligerent |
| Punctilious | precise, paying attention to trivialities, especially in regard to etiquette |
| Putrefy | to rot, decay and give off a foul odor, become gangrenous |
| Quaff | to drink deeply |
| Quail | to shrink back in fear, lose courage |
| Qualify | to limit |
| Qualms | misgivings, reservations, causes for hesitancy |
| Quiescence | stillness, motionlessness, quality of being at rest |
| Rail | to complain about bitterly |
| Ramify | to be divided or subdivided, branch out |
| Rancorous | characterized by bitter, long lasting resentment |
| Rapacious | voracious, greedy, plundering, subsisting on prey |
| Rebus | riddle, a presentation of words by pictures or symbols that sound like the words |
| Recalcitrant | obstinately defiant of authority or guidance, difficult ot manage |
| Recapitulate | to summarize, to repeat consisely |
| Recondite | hidden, concealed, difficult to understand, obscure |
| Reconnoiter | to engage in reconnaissance, make a preliminary inspection of |
| Recumbent | leaning, resting, prone |
| Redolent | fragrant, suggestive or evocative |
| Redoubtable | awe-inspiring, worthy of honor |
| Refulgent | radiant, shiny, brilliant |
| Regale | to delight or entertain, feast |
| Remonstrate | to protest, object |
| Renege | to fail to honor a commitment, go back on promise |
| Rent | torn, split apart, pierced as by a sound |
| Repine | to feel or express dejection or discontent, long for |
| Reticent | quiet, reserved, reluctant to express thoughts and feelings |
| Reverent | marked by, feeling, or expressing a feeling of profound awe and respect |
| Risible | hilarious, provoking laughter |
| Rubric | authoritative rule, heading, title, or category |
| Rue | regret, feel remorse |
| Salacious | appealing to or causing sexual desire, bawdy |
| Salutary | remedial, wholesome, causing improvement |
| Sanctimony | self-righteousness, pretended piety |
| Sap | to enervate or weaken the vitality of |
| Saturnine | gloomy, dark, sullen, morose |
| Scurvy | contemptible, despicable |
| Sedulous | diligent, persistent, hard-working |
| Seine | a large net hung out and dragged in to catch fish |
| Sere | withered, arid |
| Simper | to smirk, to say something with a silly, coy smile |
| Singular | exceptional, unusual, odd |
| Sodden | soaked or drenched, unimaginative, dull |
| Solder | to weld, fuse or join, as with a soldering gun |
| Solicitous | concerned and attentive, eager |
| Sophistry | fallacious reasoning; plausible but faulty logic |
| Sordid | characterized by filth, grime, or squalor, foul |
| Spendthrift | one who spends money wastefully |
| Splenetic | bad-tempered, irritable |
| Spurious | lacking authenticity or validity, false, counterfeit |
| Squalid | sordid, wretched and dirty as from neglect |
| Stanch | to stop the flow of a fluid |
| Stentorian | extremely loud and powerful |
| Stint | to restrain, be sparing or frugal |
| Striated | striped, grooved, or banded |
| Strut | structural support used to brace a framework |
| Succor | assistance, relief in time of distress |
| Sundry | various, miscellaneous, separate |
| Supercilious | disdainful, arrogant, haughty, characterized by haughty scorn |
| Supine | inactive, lying on one's back, apathetic, mentally or morally slack |
| Suppliant | asking humbly, beseeching |
| Supplicant | beggar, one who prays or begs for something |
| Table | to remove from consideration |
| Talisman | something believed to have magic power or bestow good luck |
| Tamp | to plug, to drive in or down by a series of blows |
| Tautology | repetition or redundancy, a circular argument |
| Tendentious | biased, showing marked tendencies |
| Tender | to offer formally |
| Terse | brief and concise wording |
| Timorous | timid, fearful, diffident |
| Torpid | lethargic, sluggish, dormant |
| Tractable | docile, obedient, easily led |
| Travesty | mockery, caricature, parody |
| Tumid | swollen |
| Turbid | muddy, having sediment stirred up, clouded to the point of being opaque, in a state of turmoil |
| Turgid | swollen, bloated, pompous, excessively ornate |
| Turpitude | depravity, baseness |
| Untoward | troublesome, unruly, unseemly, adverse |
| Venal | capable of being bought or bribed, mercenary |
| Verisimilitude | appearing true or real |
| Vitiate | to reduce the value of, debase, spoil, make ineffective |
| Vituperate | to use harsh condemnatory language; abuse or censure severely |
| Welter | to writhe, to toss about, to be in turmoil |
| Wend | to go, proceed, walk |
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