| Term | Definition |
|---|
| assertion | a declaration or statement |
| clarity | clearness in thought or expression |
| cogent | convincing; reasonable |
| coherent | logically connected |
| cohesive | condition of sticking together |
| didactic | intended to instruct |
| discourse | verbal expression or exchange; conversation |
| eloquence | the ability to speak vividly or persuasively |
| emphasize | to give special attention to something, to stress |
| fluid | easily flowing |
| implication | the act of suggesting or hinting |
| lucid | easily understood; clear |
| pundit | an authority who expresses his/her opinions |
| rhetoric | the art of using language effectively and persuasively |
| arbiter | a judge who decides a disputed issue |
| biased | prejudiced |
| exculpate | to free from guilt or blame |
| impartial | not in favor of one side or the other, unbiased |
| incontrovertible | indisputable; not open to question |
| integrity | trustworthiness; completeness |
| jurisprudence | the philosophy or science of law |
| objectivity | treating facts without influence from personal feelings or prejudices |
| penitent | expressing remorse for one's misdeeds |
| substantiated | supported with proof or evidence; verified |
| vindicated | freed from blame |
| condescending | treating people as weak or inferior |
| contemptuous | feeling hatred; scornful |
| despotic | exercising absolute power; tyrannical |
| dictatorial | domineering; oppressively overbearing |
| disdain | (n.) contempt, scorn (v.) to regard or treat with contempt; to look down on |
| haughty | arrogant; vainly proud |
| imperious | arrogantly domineering or overbearing |
| patronizing | treating in a condescending manner |
| convoluted | intricate; complex |
| cryptic | difficult to comprehend |
| futile | having no useful purpose; pointless |
| impede | to slow the progress of |
| obscure | (adj.) relatively unknown (v.) to conceal or make indistinct |
| quandary | a state of uncertainty or perplexity |
| dilatory | habitually late |
| indolent | lazy |
| insipid | uninteresting; unchallenging |
| listless | lacking energy |
| torpor | laziness; inactivity; dullness |
| alienated | removed or disassociated from (friends, family or homeland) |
| alliance | a union of two or more groups |
| disparity | inequality in age, rank, or degree; difference |
| servile | submissive; like a servant |
| suppressed | subdued; kept from being circulated |
| embellish | to make beautiful by ornamenting; to decorate |
| florid | describing flowery or elaborate speech |
| opulent | exhibiting a display of great wealth |
| ornate | elaborately decorated |
| ostentatious | describing a showy or pretentious display |
| poignant | profoundly moving; touching |
| ebullience | intense enthusiasm |
| effusive | emotionally unrestrained; gushy |
| egregious | conspicuously bad or offensive |
| flagrant | extremely or deliberately shocking or noticeable |
| frenetic | wildly excited or active |
| gratuitous | given freely; unearned; unwarranted |
| superfluous | extra; unnecessary |
| alleviate | to ease a pain or a burden |
| asylum | a place of retreat or security |
| auspicious | favorable; promising |
| benevolent | well-meaning; generous |
| benign | kind and gentle |
| emollient | (adj.) softening and soothing (n.) something that softens or soothes |
| mollify | to calm or soothe |
| reclamation | the act of making something useful again |
| sanction | to give official authorization or approval |
| dubious | doubtful; of unlikely authenticity |
| fabricated | made; concocted in order to deceive |
| hypocrisy | the practice of pretending to be something one is not; insincerity |
| slander | false charges and malicious oral statements about someone |
| spurious | not genuine; false, counterfeit |
| astute | shrewd; clever |
| camouflage | to hide by blending in with surroundings |
| clandestine | secretive |
| coup | a brilliantly executed plan |
| disingenuous | not straightforward; crafty |
| ruse | a crafty trick |
| stratagem | a clever trick used to deceive or outwit |
| surreptitiously | dine by secretive means |
| wary | on guard; watchful |
| wily | cunning |
| ambiguous | open to more than one interpretation |
| ambivalent | simultaneously having opposing feelings; uncertain |
| apathetic | feeling or showing little emotion |
| arbitrary | determined by impulse rather than reason |
| capricious | impulsive and unpredictable |
| equivocate | to avoid making a definite statement |
| indifferent | not caring one way or the other |
| spontaneous | unplanned; naturally occurring |
| whimsical | subject to erratic behavior; unpredictable |
| inconsequential | unimportant |
| superficial | concerned only with what is on the surface or obvious; shallow |
| tenuous | having little substance or strength; shaky; unsure, weak |
| trivial | of little importance or significance |
| assiduous | hard-working |
| compelling | forceful; urgently demanding attention |
| diligent | marked by painstaking effort; hard-working |
| dogged | stubbornly persevering |
| endure | to put up with to survive a hardship |
| intrepid | courageous; fearless |
| maverick | one who is independent and resists adherence to a group |
| obdurate | stubborn; inflexible |
| obstinate | stubbornly adhering to an opinion or course of action |
| proliferate | to grow or increase rapidly |
| tenacity | persistence |
| vitality | energy; power to survive |
| assimilation | to absorb; to make similar |
| consensus | general agreement |
| context | circumstances of a situation; environment |
| derived | copied or adapted from a source |
| incumbent | imposed as a duty; obligatory |
| inevitable | certain to happen, unavoidable |
| malleable | easily shaped or formed; easily influenced |
| subdue | to restrain; to hold back |
| acquired | developed or learned; not naturally occurring |
| conception | the ability to form or understand an idea |
| conviction | a fixed or strong belief |
| dogmatic | stubbornly adhering to insufficiently proved beliefs |
| enlightening | informative; contributing the one's awareness |
| impression | a feeling or understanding resulting from an experience |
| intuition | the power of knowing things without thinking; sharp insight |
| misconception | an incorrect understanding or interpretation |
| perception | awareness; insight |
| perspective | point of view |
| profound | having great depth or seriousness |
| inherent | inborn; built-in |
| innate | possessed at birth; inborn |
| inveterate | long established; deep-rooted; habitual |
| omnipotent | all-powerful |
| proximity | closeness |
| elusive | difficult to capture, as in something actually fleeting |
| emigrate | to leave one country or region and settle in another |
| transient | passing away with time; passing from one place to another |
| transitory | short-lived or temporary |
| affable | easy-going; friendly |
| amenable | responsive; agreeable |
| camaraderie | goodwill between friends |
| cordial | friendly; sincere |
| facetious | playfully humorous |
| impinge | hinder; interfere with |
| lament | express grief for; mourn |
| melancholy | sadness; depression |
| sanction | (n.) an economic or military measure put in place to punish another country |
| truncated | shortened; cut off |
| aesthetic | having to do with the appreciation of beauty |
| anthology | a collection of literary pieces |
| contemporary | current, modern; from the same time |
| dilettante | one with an amateurish or superficial understanding of a field of knowledge |
| eclectic | made up of a variety of sources or styles |
| excerpt | a selected part of a passage or scene |
| genre | describing a category of artistic endeavor |
| medley | an assortment or a mixture, especially of musical pieces |
| mural | a large painting applied directly to a wall or ceiling surface |
| narrative | (adj.) characterized by the telling of a story (n.) a story |
| parody | an artistic work that imitates the style of another work for comic effect |
| realism | artistic representation that aims for visual accuracy |
| virtuoso | a tremendously skilled artist |
| decorous | proper; marked by good taste |
| equanimity | the quality of being calm and even-tempered; composure |
| modest | quiet or humble in manner or appearance |
| propriety | appropriateness of behavior |
| prudent | exercising good judgment or common sense |
| serene | calm |
| staid | unemotional; serious |
| stoic | indifferent to pleasure or pain; impassive |
| condemn | to express strong disapproval of; denounce |
| discredit | to cause to be doubted |
| disparage | to speak of in a slighting way or negatively; to belittle |
| pejorative | describing words or phrases that belittle or speak negatively of someone |
| plagiarism | the act of passing off the ideas or writing of another as one's own |
| vilify | to make vicious statements about |
| brusque | rudely abrupt |
| caustic | biting sarcastic or witty |
| feral | savage; untamed |
| fractious | quarrelsome; unruly |
| incorrigible | unable to be reformed |
| ingrate | an ungrateful person |
| insolent | insulting in manner or speech |
| notorious | known widely and usually unfavorably; infamous |
| pugnacious | combative; belligerent |
| reprehensible | worthy of blame |
| brittle | easily broken when subjected to pressure |
| deleterious | having a harmful effect; injurious |
| enmity | mutual hatred or ill-will |
| heinous | hatefully evil; abominable |
| malfeasance | misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by a public official |
| malice | extreme ill will or spite |
| putrid | rotten |
| rancorous | hateful; marked by deep seated ill-will |
| toxic | poisonous |
| archaic | characteristic of an earlier period; old-fashioned |
| hackneyed | worn-out through overuse; trite |
| medieval | referring to the Middle Ages, old-fashioned |
| obsolete | no longer in use; old-fashioned |
| austere | without decoration; strict |
| mediocrity | the state or quality of being average; of moderate to low quality |
| mundane | commonplace; ordinary |
| ponderous | extremely dull |
| prosaic | unimaginative; dull |
| sedentary | not migratory; settled |
| apprehension | anxiety or fear about the future |
| harbinger | something that indicates what is to come; a forerunner |
| ominous | menacing; threatening |
| premonition | a feeling about the future |
| timorous | timid; fearful about the future |
| trepidation | uncertainty; apprehension |
| innovative | introducing something new |
| naïve | lacking sophistication |
| nascent | coming into existence; emerging |
| novel | strikingly new or unusual |
| novice | a beginner |
| candor | sincerity; openness |
| frank | open and sincere in expression; straightforward |
| arid | describing a dry, rainless climate |
| conflagration | a widespread fire |
| nocturnal | of or occurring in the night |
| sonorous | producing a deep or full sound |
| ample | describing a large amount of something |
| comprehensive | large in scope or content |
| copious | plentiful; having a large quantity |
| permeated | spread or flowing throughout |
| pervasive | dispersed throughout |
| prodigious | enormous |
| replete | abundantly supplied; filled to capacity |
| exemplary | commendable; worthy of imitation |
| idealize | to consider perfect |
| laudatory | giving praise |
| paramount | of chief concern or importance |
| venerated | highly respected |
| catalog | (v.) to make an itemized list of |
| facile | done or achieved with little effort; easy |
| fastidious | possessing careful attention to detail; difficult to please |
| hierarchy | a group organized by rank |
| meticulous | extremely careful and precise |
| pragmatic | practical |
| solvent | able to pay one's debts |
| abstract | not applied to actual objects |
| apparatus | equipment; a group of machines |
| paradigm | an example or model |
| phenomenon | an unusual, observable event |
| rational | logical; motivated by reason rather than feeling |
| theoretical | lacking application or practical application |
| cartographer | one who designs or makes maps |
| vocation | an occupation or profession |
| plausible | seemingly valid or acceptable; credible |
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