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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, esp.as an act of religious devotion avarice greed, esp. for wealth axiom a universally recognized 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 rigid opinion based on unproved or unprovable principles ebullience the quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thought 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; an agent that softens or smooths 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 deliver a pompous speech or tirade; a long; pompous speech heretical violating excepted 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 giver permission or authority to satire a literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision squalid sordid; wretched and dirty as from neglect stoic indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain; steadfast supplant to take 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