| Term | Definition |
|---|
| aberrant | deviating from the norm; abnormal, anomalous, atypical, deviant, devious, different, disparate, peculiar, strange, unusual |
| alacrity | eager and enthusiastic willingness; avidity, briskness, celerity, dispatch, eagerness, enthusiasm, fervor, gaiety, nimbleness, rapidity, speed, willingness |
| anomaly | deviation from the normal order, form, or rule; abnormality; |
| approbation | an expression of approval or praise; acceptance; permission; consent |
| assuage | to ease or lessen; to appease or pacify; abate, alleviate, appease, comfort, diminish, ease, fill, lessen, lull, mitigate, modify, mollify, quiet, reduce, relieve, salve, slake, soften, solace, soothe, sweeten, tranquilize; placate, dulcify, conciliate |
| audacious | daring and fearless; recklessly bold; adventurous, arrogant, brash, brazen, courageous, daredevil, daring, defiant, fearless, gutsy, hardy, imprudent, impudent, insolent, presumptuous, reckless, risky, rude, shameless, spirited, unabashed.bold, uncurbed, venturesome, wild; intrepid, mettlesome, plucky, stout, stouthearted, unafraid, undaunted, valiant, valorous |
| capricious | inclined to change one's mind impulsively; erratic; unpredictable; changeable, erratic, fantastic, fantastical, fickle, freakish, inconsistent, inconstant, mercurial, temperamental, ticklish, uncertain, unpredictable, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatile, whimsical; arbitrary, changeable, crotchety, dizzy, doddy, erratic, fanciful, fantastic, fickle, flighty, fluky, iffy, impulsive, inconsistent, inconstant, moody, quirky, unstable, unsteady, vagarious, volatile, wavering, wayward, whimsical |
| censure | to criticize severely; to officially rebuke; abuse, accuse, admonish, animadvert, attack, berate, blame, calumniate, carp, castigate, challenge, charge, chasten, chastise, chew out, chide, condemn, criticize, damn, disallow, disapproval, excoriate, flame, impeach, inveigh against, judge, lambaste, objurgate, rebuff, rebuke, reprehend, reprehension, reprimand, reproach, reprobate, reprove, revile, scarify, scold, stigmatize, tirade, traduce, upbraid, vilify, vituperate; animadversion, blame, calumniation, excoriation, objurgation, reprehension, reprimand, reprobation, reproof, stricture |
| chicanery | trickery or subterfuge; artifice, cheating, chicane, cunning, deceit, deception, dishonesty, fraud, hocus pocus, ploy, ruse, trick, trickery, wile |
| connoisseur | an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert |
| discordant | conflicting; dissonant or harsh in sound; absonant, ajar, at variance, conflicting, contradictory, contrary, discrepant, dissonant, harsh, heterogeneous, hoarse, incompatible, incongruous, inconsistent, inharmonious, jangling, jarring, mismated, quarrelsome, repugnant absonant, unmelodiousstrident, untenable, inconsonant, uncongenial, cacophonous |
| disparate | fundamentally distinct or dissimilar, variant |
| eloquent | well-spoken; expressive; articulate, oratorical, facund, |
| enervate | to weaken; to reduce in vitality; attenuate, debilitate, devitalize, enfeeble, sap, undermine, undo, unnerve, weaken, exhaust, fatigue, sap, drain |
| ennui | boredom, dissatisfaction and restlessness resulting from boredom or apathy; apathy, blues, boredom, dissatisfaction, doldrums, fatigue, languor, lassitude, listlessness, melancholy, tedium, weariness. The monotonous feel of the hospital induced a feeling of ----- |
| equivocate | to use ambiguous language with a deceptive intent; avoid, con, deceive, dodge, elude, escape, evade, fib, hedge, hesitate, lie, palter, parry, prevaricate, pussyfoot, quibble, sidestep, spar, tergiversate, waffle, weasel, euphemize, hedge, shuffle, tergiversate, weasel. [Rejecting the candidate's equivocal comments on the tax reform, the reporters pressed him to state clearly where he stood on the issue.] |
| exculpate | exonerate; to clear of blame; absolve, exonerate, vindicate, acquit |
| exigent | urgent; pressing; requiring immediate action or attention; critical, crucial, demanding, dire, imperative, necessary, pressing, rigorous, taxing, urgent, vital |
| filibuster | intentional obstruction, esp. using prolonged speechmaking to delay legislative action. adventurer, delay, opposition, orate, stonewalling, talkathon, tirade. [We were impressed by his ability to filibuster endlessly to keep an issue from coming to a vote] |
| ingenuous | naive, innocent (lil red riding hood). artless; frank and candid; lacking in sophistication; artless, candid, childlike, frank, guileless, honest, innocent, naif, naive, natural, open, simple, sincere, trustful, unaffected, undisguised |
| inured | accustomed to accepting something undesirable; acclimatize, accustom, adapt, desensitize, discipline, habituate, harden, season, teach, toughen, train, use |
| irascible | easily angered; prone to temperamental outbursts; belligerent, choleric, fretful, hot-tempered, impatient, irate, ireful, passionate, quick-tempered, snappish, snappy, testy, touchy [Irascible temper] |
| laud | to praise highly; approbation, commendation, deification, encomium, eulogy, extolment, laudation, panegyric; acclaim, admire, adore, applaud, approbate, commend, compliment, deify, eulogize, exalt, extol, felicitate, glorify, honor, hymn, panegyrize, praise, praise. praise, revere, song, venerate |
| magnanimity | the quality of being generously noble in mind and heart, esp. in forgiving |
| martial | associated with war and the armed forces; warlike |
| mundane | of the world as opposed to spiritual; typical of or concerned with the ordinary; commonplace, cosmic, everyday, humdrum, ordinary, prosaic, routine, secular, terrestrial, unearthly, worldly |
| nascent | coming into being; in early developmental stages; incipient. If we could identify these revolutionary movements in their nascent stage, we could've stopped it. |
| nebulous | vague; cloudy; lacking clearly defined form; ambiguous, cloudy, foggy, hazy, indefinite, indistinct, misty, murky, obscure, uncertain, unclear, vague |
| neologism | a new word, expression, or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses |
| noxious | harmful; injurious; baneful, dangerous, deadly, destructive, evil, fetid, harmful, hurtful, injurious, lethal, nocent, nocuous, noisome, pernicious, poisonous, putrid, revolting, stinking, toxic, unhealthy, unwholesome, virulent ;pestilent, pestiferous |
| obtuse | lacking sharpness of intellect; not clear or precise in thought or expression; blunt, crass, dense, dull, ignorant, insensitive, opaque, round, stupid,blockheaded, dense, doltish, dumb, hebetudinous, thick-witted, thickheaded |
| obviate | to anticipate and make unnecessary; avert, avoid, circumvent, dodge, forestall, interfere, intervene, preclude, prevent, ward; avert, forestall, forfend, preclude, rule out, stave off, ward. [I hope this contribution will obviate any further collections of funds] |
| onerous | troubling; burdensome; arduous, backbreaking, demanding, difficult, effortful, exacting, exigent, formidable, hard, heavy, laborious, oppressive, rigorous, rough, severe, taxing, tough, trying, weighty [She asked for an assistant becoz her work was too onerous] |
| parody | a humorous imitation intended for ridicule or comic effect, esp. in literature and art; ape, burlesque, caricature, copy, exaggerate, farce, imitate, lampoon, mimic, mock, pastiche, satire, spoof, takeoff, travesty; vaudeville |
| perennial | recurrent through the year or many years; happening repeatedly; changeless, constant, continual, durable, enduring, fixed, geophyte, imperishable, lifelong, permanent, perpetual, plant, recurrent, timeless, unceasing, undying |
| perfunctory | cursory; done without care or interest; automatic, careless, cursory, disinterested, indifferent, lackadaisical, listless, mechanical, passionless, routine, standard, superficial, unthinking. [The auditor's perfunctory inspection of the books overlooked many things] |
| prattle | to babble meaninglessly; to talk in an empty and idle manner; blather, blatherskite, double talk, gabble, gibberish, jabber, jabberwocky, jargon, nonsense, prate, twaddle; parley, wheedle, palaver |
| prescience | foreknowledge of events; knowing of events prior to their occurring; foreknowledge, foresight, omniscience, prediction, presage. [It does not take prescience to foresee problems in their marriage] |
| prevaricate | to deliberately avoid the truth; to mislead; deceive, dodge, equivocate, evade, exaggerate, falsify, fib, lie, mislead, misrepresent, palter; White Lie. |
| refute | to disprove; to successfully argue against; belie, confute, discredit, disprove, rebut, discredit, disclaim |
| relegate | to forcibly assign, esp. to a lower place or position;banish, demote, charge, classify, commit, deport, dismiss, downgrade, entrust, exile, expel, ostracize, remove, shun ["She likes to relegate difficult questions to her colleagues", [Assign: how do we relegate mushrooms/] |
| solicitous | concerned and attentive; eager; anxious, ardent, careful, concerned, considerate, desirous, eager, worried, keen, meticulous, thoughtful, troubled, worried [She was solicitous about her husband's health] |
| sporadic | occurring only occasionally, or in scattered instances; desultory (inconsistent), infrequent, intermittent, irregular, isolated, occasional, periodic, random, rare, scattered |
| static | not moving, active, or in motion; at rest; fixed, immobile, inactive, interference, motionless, noise, quiescent, stagnant, stationary, unchanging |
| stupefy | to stun, baffle, or amaze; amaze, astonish, astound, awe, bemuse, benumb, besot, bewilder, confound, confuse, daunt, daze, dazzle, dull, faze, flabbergast, nonplus, numb, overwhelm, rattle, shock, startle, stun, surprise |
| tortuous | winding; twisting; excessively complicated; anfractuous, bent, circuitous, complex, complicated, convoluted, crooked, curved, deceitful, devious, involved, labyrinthine, meandering, roundabout, sinuate, sinuous, snaky, spiral, twisting, winding, zigzag, flexuous, meandering, convoluted |
| truculent | fierce and cruel; eager to fight; abusive, aggressive, antagonistic, barbarous, bellicose, belligerent, brutal, bullying, combative, cruel, ferocious, fierce, harsh, hostile, intimidating, militant, pugnacious, rough, rude, scathing, scrappy, surly, vituperative |
| voracious | having an insatiable appetite for an activity or pursuit; ravenous; avid, edacious, gluttonous, greedy, omnivorous, rapacious, ravenous, unappeasable |
| waver | to move to and fro; to sway; to be unsettled in opinion; ambivalent, desultory, fitful, inconclusive, indecisive, intermittent, irresolute, pendulous, spasmodic, vacillating, wavering; dither, falter, halt, pause, shilly-shally, stagger, vacillate, wobble |
| abscond | to depart clandestinely; to steal off and hide |
| ameliorate | to make better or more tolerable |
| arduous | strenuous; taxing; requiring significant effort |
| ascetic | one who practices rigid self-denial, esp. as an act of religious devotion |
| austere | without adornment; bare; severely simple; ascetic |
| axiom | a universally recognized principle |
| axiomatic | taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth |
| bucolic | rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants |
| canonical | following or in agreement with accepted, traditional standards |
| contentious | argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement |
| convoluted | complex or complicated |
| culpable | deserving blame |
| disabuse | to undeceive; to set right |
| eclectic | composed of elements drawn from various sources |
| effrontery | extreme boldness; presumptuousness |
| ephemeral | brief; fleeting |
| erudite | very learned; scholarly |
| eulogy | a speech honoring the dead |
| extemporaneous | improvised; done without preparation |
| facetious | playful; humorous |
| fulminate | to loudly attack or denounce |
| hyperbole | an exaggerated statement, often used as a figure of speech |
| lucid | clear; easily understood |
| oscillation | the act or state of swinging back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm |
| paean | a song or hymn of praise and thanksgiving |
| penurious | penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous |
| perfidy | intentional breach of faith; treachery |
| pernicious | extremely harmful; potentially causing death |
| perspicacious | acutely perceptive; having keen discernment |
| pious | extremely reverent or devout; showing strong religious devotion |
| precipitate | acting with excessive haste or impulse |
| precipitate | to cause or happen before anticipated or required |
| precursor | one that precedes and indicates or announces another |
| predilection | a disposition in favor of something; preference |
| prolific | producing large volumes or amounts; productive |
| qualms | misgivings; reservations; causes for hesitancy |
| quiescence | stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest |
| recant | to retract, esp. a previously held belief |
| redoubtable | awe-inspiring; worthy of honor |
| reticent | quiet; reserved; reluctant to express thoughts and feelings |
| satire | a literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision |
| sordid | characterized by filth, grime, or squalor; foul |
| squalid | sordid; wretched and dirty as from neglect |
| squander | to waste by spending or using irresponsibly |
| stoic | indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain; steadfast |
| stymie | to block; thwart |
| supplant | to take the place of; supersede |
| synthesis | the combination of parts to make a whole |
| torpid | lethargic; sluggish; dormant |
| torque | a force that causes rotation |
| ubiquitous | existing everywhere at the same time; constantly encountered; widespread |
| veracity | truthfulness; honesty |
| vilify | to defame; to characterize harshly |
| virulent | extremely harmful or poisonous; bitterly hostile or antagonistic |
| 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 |
| avarice | greed, esp. for wealth |
| burgeon | to grow rapidly or flourish |
| 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 |
| catalyst | 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 |
| contrite | regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness |
| 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 | indifferent; free from self-interest |
| dogmatic | stubbornly opinionated |
| ebullience | the quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts and feelings |
| elegy | a mournful poem, esp. one lamenting the dead |
| emollient | soothing, esp. to the skin; making less harsh |
| empirical | based on observation or experiment |
| enigmatic | mysterious; obscure; difficult to understand |
| esoteric | intended for or understood by a small, specific group |
| exonerate | to remove blame |
| 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 deliver a pompous speech or tirade |
| heretical | violating accepted dogma or convention |
| 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 |
| peruse | to examine with great care |
| preen | to dress up; to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care |
| prodigious | abundant in size, force, or extent; extraordinary |
| putrefy | to rot; to decay and give off a foul odor |
| quaff | to drink deeply |
| sanction | authoritative permission or approval; a penalty intended to enforce compliance |
| urbane | sophisticated; refined; elegant |
| viscous | thick; sticky |
| acerbic | having a sour or bitter taste or character |
| amalgamate | to combine several elements into a whole |
| amenable | agreeable; responsive to suggestion |
| bolster | to provide support or reinforcement |
| bombast | self-important or pompous writing or speech |
| bombastic | pompous; grandiloquent |
| credulous | tending to believe too readily; gullible |
| diatribe | a harsh denunciation |
| fawn | to flatter or praise excessively |
| fervent | greatly emotional or zealous |
| flout | to demonstrate contempt for, as in a rule or convention |
| fortuitous | happening by fortunate accident or chance |
| garrulous | pointlessly talkative; talking too much |
| germane | relevant to the subject at hand; appropriate in subject matter |
| glib | marked by ease or informality; nonchalant; lacking in depth; superficial |
| halcyon | calm and peaceful |
| hubris | arrogant presumption or pride |
| idolatrous | given to intense or excessive devotion to something |
| imminent | about to happen; impending |
| imperturbable | marked by extreme calm, impassivity and steadiness |
| impetuous | hastily or rashly energetic; impulsive and vehement |
| implacable | not capable of being appeased or significantly changed |
| indifferent | having no interest or concern; showing no bias or prejudice |
| intrepid | steadfast and courageous |
| laconic | using few words; terse |
| malleable | capable of being shaped or formed; tractable; pliable |
| maverick | an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party |
| mendacity | the condition of being untruthful; dishonesty |
| mercurial | characterized by rapid and unpredictable change in mood |
| meticulous | characterized by extreme care and precision; attentive to detail |
| mollify | to calm or soothe; to reduce in emotional intensity |
| obdurate | unyielding; hardhearted; intractable |
| obfuscate | to deliberately obscure; to make confusing |
| obsequious | exhibiting a fawning attentiveness |
| obstinate | stubborn; hardheaded; uncompromising |
| opprobrium | disgrace; contempt; scorn |
| ostentatious | characterized by or given to pretentiousness |
| pedantic | the parading of learning; excessive attention to minutiae and formal rules |
| pervade | to permeate throughout |
| pervasive | having the tendency to permeate or spread throughout |
| phlegmatic | calm; sluggish; unemotional |
| pirate | to illegally use or reproduce |
| plethora | an overabundance; a surplus |
| polemical | controversial; argumentative |
| pragmatic | practical rather than idealistic |
| rancorous | characterized by bitter, long-lasting resentment |
| rhetoric | the art or study of effective use of language for communication and persuasion |
| salubrious | promoting health or well-being |
| sedulous | diligent; persistent; hard-working |
| solvent | able to meet financial obligations; able to dissolve another substance |
| soporific | causing drowsiness; tending to induce sleep |
| aggrandize | to increase in intensity, power, or prestige |
| alchemy | a medieval science aimed at the transmutation of metals, esp. base metals into gold |
| anachronism | something or someone out of place in terms of historical or chronological context |
| astringent | having a tightening effect on living tissue; harsh; severe |
| contiguous | sharing a border; touching; adjacent |
| convention | a generally agreed-upon practice or attitude |
| cynicism | an attitude or quality of belief that all people are motivated by selfishness |
| decorum | polite or appropriate conduct or behavior |
| derision | scorn; ridicule; contemptuous treatment |
| desiccate | to dry out or dehydrate; to make dry or dull |
| dilettante | one with an amateurish or superficial interest in the arts or a branch of knowledge |
| disparage | to slight or belittle |
| divulge | to disclose something secret |
| immutable | not capable of change |
| inimical | damaging; harmful; injurious |
| intractable | not easily managed or directed; stubborn; obstinate |
| neophyte | a recent convert; a beginner; novice |
| presumptuous | overstepping due bounds (as of propriety or courtesy); taking liberties |
| pristine | pure; uncorrupted; clean |
| probity | adherence to highest principles; uprightness |
| proclivity | a natural predisposition or inclination |
| profligate | excessively wasteful; recklessly extravagant |
| propensity | a natural inclination or tendency; penchant |
| prosaic | dull; unimaginative |
| pungent | characterized by a strong, sharp smell or taste |
| quixotic | foolishly impractical; marked by lofty romantic ideals |
| quotidian | occurring or recurring daily; commonplace |
| rarefy | to make or become thin, less dense; to refine |
| recondite | hidden; concealed; difficult to understand; obscure |
| refulgent | radiant; shiny; brilliant |
| renege | to fail to honor a commitment; to go back on a promise |
| shard | a piece of broken pottery or glass |
| sparse | thin; not dense; arranged at widely spaced intervals |
| spendthrift | one who spends money wastefully |
| subtle | not obvious; elusive; difficult to discern |
| tacit | implied; not explicitly stated |
| terse | brief and concise in wording |
| tout | to publicly praise or promote |
| trenchant | sharply perceptive; keen; penetrating |
| unfeigned | genuine; not false or hypocritical |
| untenable | indefensible; not viable; uninhabitable |
| vacillate | to waver indecisively between one course of action or opinion and another; to waver |
| variegated | multicolored; characterized by a variety of patches of different color |
| vexation | annoyance; irritation |
| vigilant | alertly watchful |
| vituperate | to use harsh condemnatory language; to abuse or censure severely or abusively; to berate |
| volatile | readily changing to a vapor; changeable; fickle; explosive |
| acumen | quick, keen, or accurate knowledge or insight |
| adulterate | to reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients |
| archaic | outdated; associated with an earlier, perhaps more primitive, time |
| aver | to state as a fact; to confirm or support |
| dissemble | to disguise or conceal; to mislead |
| eccentric | departing from norms or conventions |
| endemic | characteristic of or often found in a particular locality, region, or people |
| evanescent | tending to disappear like vapor; vanishing |
| exacerbate | to make worse or more severe |
| grandiloquence | pompous speech or expression |
| hackneyed | rendered trite or commonplace by frequent usage |
| hedonism | devotion to pleasurable pursuits, esp. to the pleasures of the senses |
| hegemony | the consistent dominance of one state or ideology over others |
| iconoclast | one who attacks or undermines traditional conventions or institutions |
| impassive | revealing no emotion |
| impunity | immunity from punishment or penalty |
| inchoate | in an initial stage; not fully formed |
| infelicitous | unfortunate; inappropriate |
| insipid | without taste or flavor; lacking in spirit; bland |
| loquacious | extremely talkative |
| luminous | characterized by brightness and the emission of light |
| malevolent | having or showing often vicious ill-will, spite, or hatred |
| misanthrope | one who hates all other humans |
| mitigate | to make or become less severe or intense; to moderate |
| occlude | to obstruct or block |
| pedagogy | the art or profession of training, teaching, or instructing |
| penury | poverty; destitution |
| pine | to yearn intensely; to languish; to lose vigor |
| pith | the essential or central part |
| pithy | precise and brief |
| placate | to appease; to calm by making concessions |
| platitude | a superficial remark, esp. one offered as meaningful |
| plummet | to plunge or drop straight down |
| prodigal | recklessly wasteful; extravagant; profuse; lavish |
| profuse | given or coming forth abundantly; extravagant |
| proliferate | to grow or increase swiftly and abundantly |
| queries | questions; inquiries; doubts in the mind; reservations |
| querulous | prone to complaining or grumbling; quarrelsome |
| recalcitrant | obstinately defiant of authority; difficult to manage |
| repudiate | to refuse to have anything to do with; to disown |
| rescind | to invalidate; to repeal; to retract |
| reverent | marked by, feeling, or expressing a feeling of profound awe and respect |
| specious | seeming true, but actually being fallacious; misleadingly attractive |
| spurious | lacking authenticity or validity; false; counterfeit |
| subpoena | a court order requiring appearance and/or testimony |
| succinct | brief; concise |
| superfluous | exceeding what is sufficient or necessary |
| surfeit | excess; overindulgence |
| tenacity | the quality of adherence or persistence to something valued |
| tenuous | having little substance or strength; flimsy; weak |
| tirade | a long and extremely critical speech; a harsh denunciation |
| transient | fleeting; passing quickly; brief |
| zealous | fervent; ardent; impassioned |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace