| Term | Definition |
|---|
| phial | small bottle |
| philander | make love lightly; flirt |
| philology | study of language |
| phlegmatic | calm; not easily disturbed |
| pibroch | bagpipe music |
| pillory | punish by placing in wood frame and subjecting to ridicule |
| pinion | restrain |
| piquant | pleasantly tart-tasting; stimulating |
| piscatorial | pertaining to fishing |
| plaint | lamentation |
| plangent | plaintive; resounding sadly |
| plastron | breastplate |
| plenary | complete; full |
| plumose | heaving feathers or plumes |
| pluton | igneous rock |
| poltroon | coward |
| porphyry | igneous rock containing feldspar or quartz crystals |
| postprandial | after dinner |
| poultice | soothing application applied to sore and inflamed portions of the body |
| prate | speak foolishly |
| precept | practical rule guiding conduct |
| prefatory | introductory |
| prefigure | speech |
| prehensile | capable of holding or grasping |
| prepossessing | attractive; something that is engaging |
| proem | preface |
| profligate | dissipated; wasteful; licentious |
| profusion | lavish expenditure |
| prolix | verbose; drawn out |
| promontory | headland |
| propitiate | appease |
| prorogue | dismiss parliament; end officially |
| prosaic | commonplace; dull |
| proscenium | part of stage in front of curtain |
| prosencephalon | forebrain |
| protean | changeable in shape or form |
| provenance | origin or source of something |
| provender | dry food; fodder |
| provident | displaying foresight; thrifty; preparing for emergencies |
| prurient | based on lascivious thoughts |
| puissant | powerful; strong; potent |
| purblind | dim-sighted; obtuse |
| quay | dock; landing place |
| querulous | fretful; whining |
| qui vive | wide awake; expectant |
| quiescent | at rest; dormant |
| quintessence | purest and highest embodiment |
| quizzical | bantering; comical; humorously serious |
| raconteur | person who is skilled in relating stories or anecdotes interestingly |
| raiment | clothing |
| ramify | divide into branches or subdivisions |
| rarefied | made less dense (of a gas) |
| ratiocination | reasoning; act of drawing conclusions from premises |
| ravening | rapacious; seeking prey |
| recherche | choice, sought after; rare |
| recondite | abstruse; profound; secret |
| recreant | coward; betrayer of faith |
| recrudescence | reopening of a wound or sore |
| recusant | person who refuses to comply |
| redolent | fragrant; odorous |
| refraction | bending of a ray of light |
| refractory | stubborn; unmanageable |
| refulgent | radiant |
| remonstrate | protest |
| remuneration | compesation; reward |
| rend | split; tear apart |
| repartee | clever reply |
| reprobate | person hardened in sin, devoid of a sense of decency |
| requiem | mass for the dead |
| requite | repay; revenge |
| rescission | abrogation; annulment |
| reticulated | covered with a network; having the appearance of a mesh |
| retrogade | going backwards; degenerating |
| rheumy | pertaining to a discharge from nose and eyes |
| rime | white frost |
| risible | inclined to laugh; ludicrous |
| roan | brown mixed with gray or white |
| rubicund | having a healthy reddish color |
| rugose | wrinkled |
| ruminant | contemplative; marked with deep thoughts; meditative |
| sacerdotal | priestly |
| saffron | orange-colored; colored like the autumn crocus |
| salacious | lustful or lecherous |
| sallet | medieval helmet |
| saltatory | relating to leaping |
| salubrious | healthful |
| salutary | tending to improve; beneficial; wholesome |
| salver | tray |
| sangfroid | coolness in a trying situation |
| sapid | savory; tasty |
| sapient | wise; shrewd |
| satiety | condition of being crammed full; glutted state; repletion |
| satrap | petty ruler working for a superior despot |
| savant | scholar |
| scarify | make sleight incisions in; scratch |
| sciolism | quackery; superficial information |
| scour | to clean by hard rubbing; to clean using a detergent or other harsh agent |
| scrappy | disconnected; fragmented |
| screed | long, tiresome language |
| scrim | curtain fabric |
| sedentary | requiring sitting |
| sedulous | diligent |
| senescence | state of growing old |
| senescent | growing old |
| sententious | terse; concise; aphoristic; self-rightous |
| sere | withered |
| serendipity | an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident; good fortune or luck |
| serried | standing shoulder to shoulder; crowded |
| shibboleth | watchword; slogan |
| shoat | piglet |
| sinuous | winding; bending in and out; not morally honest |
| sirocco | warm, sultry wind blown from Africa to southern Europe |
| slake | quench; sate |
| sleight | dexterity |
| sluice | artificial channel for directing or controlling the flow of water |
| solecism | a nonstandard or outdated grammatical construction |
| solicitous | worried; concerned |
| somatic | pertaining to the body; physical |
| somite | body segment |
| soupcon | suggestion; hint; taste |
| spangle | small metallic piece sewn into clothing for ornamentation |
| spanner | wrench |
| specious | seemingly reasonable but incorrect |
| splenetic | spiteful; irritable; peevish |
| spoliation | pillaging; depredation |
| spume | froth; foam |
| squab | young fledgling pigeon |
| stanch | check flow of blood |
| stentorian | extremely loud |
| stertorous | having a snoring sound |
| stipple | to engrave, draw or paint by small dots or small motions |
| stratagem | deceptive scheme |
| striated | marked with parallel bands |
| stultify | cause to appear foolish or inconsistent |
| stygian | gloomy |
| sub rosa | in strict confidence; privately |
| sudorific | pertaining to perspiration |
| suffuse | spread over |
| sumptuary | limiting or regulating expenditures |
| sundry | various |
| superannuated | retired on pension because of age |
| supercillium | eyebrow |
| supernal | heavnly; celestial |
| supernumerary | person or thing in excess of what is necessary |
| supine | lying on back |
| suppliant | entreating; beseeching |
| supposititious | assumed; counterfeit; hypothetical |
| suppurate | create pus; to form or give out; to deteriorate; to break |
| surah | soft twilled silk |
| surcease | cessation |
| surtout | overcoat |
| susurration | whispher |
| sybarite | a person devoted to luxury and pleasure |
| syllogism | logical formula utilizing a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion |
| sylvan | pertaining to the woods; rustic |
| synchronous | similarly timed; simultaneous with |
| synoptic | providing an overview or summary |
| tactile | pertaining to the organs or sense of touch |
| tarn | small mountain lake |
| tatterdemalion | ragged fellow |
| tautological | needlessly repetitious |
| tautology | unnecessary repetition |
| teleology | belief that a final purpose or design exists for the presence of individual beings or of the universe itself |
| temerarious | rash |
| tendentious | having or showing a definite tendency, bias, or purpose |
| tenebrous | dark; gloomy |
| tenon | to join; fasten securely |
| tenuity | slenderness |
| tergiversation | evasion; fickleness |
| termagant | shrew; scolding, brawling woman |
| terminus | last stop of railroad |
| terrapin | American marsh tortoise |
| tertiary | third |
| tesselated | inlaid; mosaic |
| testator | maker of a will |
| thaumaturgist | miracle worker; magician |
| thrall | slave; bondage |
| threnody | song of lamentation; dirge |
| throttle | to strangle; to choke; to suffocate |
| timorous | fearful; demonstrating fear |
| tipple | drink (alcholical beverages) frequently |
| tocsin | alarm bell |
| tonsure | shaving of the head, especially by a person entering a religious order |
| torpid | dormant; dull; lethargic |
| tortuous | winding; full of curves |
| touchstone | stone used to test the fineness of gold alloys; criterion |
| tractable | docile; when applied to building materials, it means flexible |
| traduce | expose to slander |
| translucent | partly transparent |
| travail | painful labor |
| treacle | syrup obtained in refined sugar |
| treacly | cloying |
| tribulation | distress; suffering |
| trice | instant |
| triolet | eight-line stanza with rhyme scheme a b aaa b a b |
| trope | figure of speech |
| troth | pledge of good faith especially in betrothal |
| truckle | curry favor |
| truculent | aggressive; savage |
| trumpery | objects that are showy, valueless, deceptive |
| tureen | deep table dish for holding soup |
| turnkey | jailer |
| turpitude | depravity |
| tussock | a tuft of growing grass or the like |
| tutelary | protective; pertaining to a guardianship |
| tyro | beginner; novice |
| ukase | official decree, usually Russian |
| unbridled | violent |
| unction | the act of anoining with oil |
| unctuous | oily; bland; insincerely suave |
| undulate | move with a wavelike motion |
| unguent | ointment |
| unwonted | unaccustomed |
| vagary | caprice; whim |
| valance | short drapery hanging above window frame |
| valedictory | pertaining to farewell |
| valetudinarian | invalid |
| variegated | many-colored |
| variorum | edition with notes |
| vegetate | live in a monotonous way |
| vellum | parchment |
| venal | capable of being bribed |
| venial | forgivable; trivial |
| verdant | green; fresh |
| verdigris | a green coating on copper which has been exposed to the weather |
| verity | truth; reality |
| vermicular | pertaining to a worm |
| vernal | pertaining to spring |
| verrucose | warty |
| vertiginous | giddy; causing dizziness |
| verucca | wart |
| viand | food |
| vicinal | local |
| vicissitude | change of fortune |
| virago | shrew |
| visage | face; appearance |
| viscid | sticky; adhesive |
| vitiate | spoil the effect of; make inoperative |
| vitreous | glassy |
| vitreous | pertaining to or resembling glass |
| vitrify | make into glass |
| votary | follower of a cult |
| vouchsafe | grant condescendingly; guarantee |
| wain | farm wagon |
| wangle | to acquire by cleverness or deception; to trick |
| wapiti | elk |
| wastrel | profligate |
| welkin | sky |
| welter | a confused mass; a jumble or muddle |
| welter | wallow |
| wheal | welt |
| wheedle | cajole; coax; deceive by flattery |
| white | smallest peck |
| whorl | ring of leaves around stem; ring |
| wont | custom; habitual procedure |
| wroth | angry |
| zephyr | gentle breeze; west wind |
| ziggurat | ancient temple |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace