| Term | Definition |
|---|
| abase | To lower in position, estimation, or the like; degrade |
| abbess | The lady superior of a nunnery |
| abbey | The group of buildings which collectively form the dwelling-place of a society of monks or nuns |
| abbot | The superior of a community of monks |
| abdicate | To give up (royal power or the like) |
| abdomen | In mammals, the visceral cavity between the diaphragm and the pelvic floor; the belly |
| abdominal | Of, pertaining to, or situated on the abdomen |
| abduction | A carrying away of a person against his will, or illegally |
| abed | In bed; on a bed |
| aberration | Deviation from a right, customary, or prescribed course |
| abet | To aid, promote, or encourage the commission of (an offense) |
| abeyance | A state of suspension or temporary inaction |
| abhorrence | The act of detesting extremely |
| abhorrent | Very repugnant; hateful |
| abidance | An abiding |
| abject | Sunk to a low condition |
| abjure | To recant, renounce, repudiate under oath |
| able-bodied | Competent for physical service |
| ablution | A washing or cleansing, especially of the body |
| abnegate | To renounce (a right or privilege) |
| abnormal | Not conformed to the ordinary rule or standard |
| abominable | Very hateful |
| abominate | To hate violently |
| abomination | A very detestable act or practice |
| aboriginal | Primitive; unsophisticated |
| aborigines | The original of earliest known inhabitants of a country |
| aboveboard | Without concealment, fraud, or trickery |
| abrade | To wear away the surface or some part of by friction |
| abrasion | That which is rubbed off |
| abridge | To make shorter in words, keeping the essential features, leaning out minor particles |
| abridgment | A condensed form as of a book or play |
| abrogate | To abolish, repeal |
| abrupt | Beginning, ending, or changing suddenly or with a break |
| abscess | A Collection of pus in a cavity formed within some tissue of the body |
| abscission | The act of cutting off, as in a surgical operation |
| abscond | To depart suddenly and secretly, as for the purpose of escaping arrest |
| absence | The fact of not being present or available |
| absent-minded | Lacking in attention to immediate surroundings or business |
| absolution | Forgiveness, or passing over of offenses |
| absolve | To free from sin or its penalties |
| absorb | To drink in or suck up, as a sponge absorbs water |
| absorption | The act or process of absorbing |
| abstain | To keep oneself back (from doing or using something) |
| abstemious | Characterized by self denial or abstinence, as in the use of drink, food |
| abstinence | Self denial |
| abstruse | Dealing with matters difficult to be understood |
| absurd | Inconsistent with reason or common sense |
| abundant | Plentiful |
| abusive | Employing harsh words or ill treatment |
| abut | To touch at the end or boundary line |
| abyss | Bottomless gulf |
| academic | Of or pertaining to an academy, college, or university |
| academician | A member of an academy of literature, art, or science |
| academy | Any institution where the higher branches of learning are taught |
| accede | To agree |
| accelerate | To move faster |
| accept | To take when offered |
| access | A way of approach or entrance; passage |
| accessible | Approachable |
| accession | Induction or elevation, as to dignity, office, or government |
| accessory | A person or thing that aids the principal agent |
| acclaim | To utter with a shout |
| accommodate | To furnish something as a kindness or favor |
| accompaniment | A subordinate part or parts, enriching or supporting the leading part |
| accompanist | One who or that which accompanies |
| accompany | To go with, or be associated with, as a companion |
| accomplice | An associate in wrong-doing |
| accomplish | To bring to pass |
| accost | To speak to |
| account | A record or statement of receipts and expenditures, or of business transactions |
| accouter | To dress |
| accredit | To give credit or authority to |
| accumulate | To become greater in quantity or number |
| accuracy | Exactness |
| accurate | Conforming exactly to truth or to a standard |
| accursed | Doomed to evil, misery, or misfortune |
| accusation | A charge of crime, misdemeanor, or error |
| accusatory | Of, pertaining to, or involving an accusation |
| accuse | To charge with wrong doing, misconduct, or error |
| accustom | To make familiar by use |
| acerbity | Sourness, with bitterness and astringency |
| acetate | A salt of acetic acid |
| acetic | Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of vinegar |
| ache | To be in pain or distress |
| Achillean | Invulnerable |
| achromatic | Colorless, |
| acid | A sour substance |
| acidify | To change into acid |
| acknowledge | To recognize; to admit the genuineness or validity of |
| acknowledgment | Recognition |
| acme | The highest point, or summit |
| acoustic | Pertaining to the act or sense of hearing |
| acquaint | To make familiar or conversant |
| acquiesce | To comply; submit |
| acquiescence | Passive consent |
| acquire | To get as one's own |
| acquisition | Anything gained, or made one's own, usually by effort or labor |
| acquit | To free or clear, as from accusation |
| acquittal | A discharge from accusation by judicial action |
| acquittance | Release or discharge from indebtedness, obligation, or responsibility |
| acreage | Quantity or extent of land, especially of cultivated land |
| acrid | Harshly pungent or bitter |
| acrimonious | Full of bitterness |
| acrimony | Sharpness or bitterness of speech or temper |
| actionable | Affording cause for instituting an action, as trespass, slanderous words |
| actuality | Any reality |
| actuary | An officer, as of an insurance company, who calculates and states the risks and premiums |
| actuate | To move or incite to action |
| acumen | Quickness of intellectual insight, or discernment; keenness of discrimination |
| acute | Having fine and penetrating discernment |
| adamant | Any substance of exceeding hardness or impenetrability |
| addendum | Something added, or to be added |
| addle | To make inefficient or worthless; muddle |
| adduce | To bring forward or name for consideration |
| adhere | To stick fast or together |
| adherence | Attachment |
| adherent | Clinging or sticking fast |
| adhesion | The state of being attached or joined |
| adieu | inte Good-by; farewell |
| adjacency | The state of being adjacent |
| adjacent | That which is near or bordering upon |
| adjudge | To award or bestow by formal decision |
| adjunct | Something joined to or connected with another thing, but holding a subordinate place |
| adjuration | A vehement appeal |
| adjutant | Auxiliary |
| administrator | One who manages affairs of any kind |
| admissible | Having the right or privilege of entry |
| admittance | Entrance, or the right or permission to enter |
| admonish | To warn of a fault |
| admonition | Gentle reproof |
| ado | unnecessary activity or ceremony |
| adoration | Profound devotion |
| adroit | Having skill in the use of the bodily or mental powers |
| adulterant | An adulterating substance |
| adulterate | To make impure by the admixture of other or baser ingredients |
| adumbrate | To represent beforehand in outline or by emblem |
| advent | The coming or arrival, as of any important change, event, state, or personage |
| adverse | Opposing or opposed |
| adversity | Misfortune |
| advert | To refer incidentally |
| advertiser | One who advertises, especially in newspapers |
| advisory | Not mandatory |
| advocacy | The act of pleading a cause |
| advocate | One who pleads the cause of another, as in a legal or ecclesiastical court |
| aerial | Of, pertaining to, or like the air |
| aeronaut | One who navigates the air, a balloonist |
| aeronautics | the art or practice of flying aircraft |
| aerostat | A balloon or other apparatus floating in or sustained by the air |
| aerostatics | The branch of pneumatics that treats of the equilibrium, pressure, and mechanical properties |
| affable | Easy to approach |
| affect | To act upon |
| affectation | A studied or ostentatious pretense or attempt |
| affiliate | Some auxiliary person or thing |
| affirmative | Answering yes; to a question at issue |
| affix | To fasten |
| affluence | A profuse or abundant supply of riches |
| affront | An open insult or indignity |
| afire | ad On fire, literally or figuratively |
| afoot | ad In progress |
| aforesaid | Said in a preceding part or before |
| afresh | ad Once more, after rest or interval |
| afterthought | A thought that comes later than its appropriate or expected time |
| agglomerate | To pile or heap together |
| aggrandize | To cause to appear greatly |
| aggravate | To make heavier, worse, or more burdensome |
| aggravation | The fact of being made heavier or more heinous, as a crime , offense, misfortune, etc |
| aggregate | The entire number, sum, mass, or quantity of something |
| aggress | To make the first attack |
| aggression | An unprovoked attack |
| aggrieve | To give grief or sorrow to |
| aghast | Struck with terror and amazement |
| agile | Able to move or act quickly, physically, or mentally |
| agitate | To move or excite (the feelings or thoughts) |
| agrarian | Pertaining to land, especially agricultural land |
| aide-de-camp | An officer who receives and transmits the orders of the general |
| ailment | Slight sickness |
| airy | Delicate, ethereal |
| akin | Of similar nature or qualities |
| alabaster | A white or delicately tinted fine-grained gypsum |
| alacrity | Cheerful willingness |
| albeit | Even though |
| albino | A person with milky white skin and hair, and eyes with bright red pupil and usually pink iris |
| album | A book whose leaves are so made to form paper frames for holding photographs or the like |
| alchemy | Chemistry of the middle ages, characterized by the pursuit of changing base metals to gold |
| alcohol | A volatile, inflammable, colorless liquid of a penetrating odor and burning taste |
| alcoholism | A condition resulting from the inordinate or persistent use of alcoholic beverages |
| alcove | A covered recess connected with or at the side of a larger room |
| alder | Any shrub or small tree of the genus Alumnus, of the oak family |
| alderman | A member of a municipal legislative body, who usually exercises also certain judicial functions |
| alias | An assumed name |
| alien | One who owes allegiance to a foreign government |
| alienable | Capable of being aliened or alienated, as lands |
| alienate | To cause to turn away |
| alienation | Estrangement |
| aliment | That which nourishes |
| alkali | Anything that will neutralize an acid, as lime, magnesia, etc |
| allay | To calm the violence or reduce the intensity of; mitigate |
| allege | To assert to be true, especially in a formal manner, as in court |
| allegory | The setting forth of a subject under the guise of another subject of aptly suggestive likeness |
| alleviate | To make less burdensome or less hard to bear |
| alley | A narrow street, garden path, walk, or the like |
| alliance | Any combination or union for some common purpose |
| allot | To assign a definite thing or part to a certain person |
| allotment | Portion |
| allude | To refer incidentally, or by suggestion |
| allusion | An indirect and incidental reference to something without definite mention of it |
| alluvion | Flood |
| ally | A person or thing connected with another, usually in some relation of helpfulness |
| almanac | A series of tables giving the days of the week together with certain astronomical information |
| aloof | ad Not in sympathy with or desiring to associate with others |
| altar | Any raised place or structure on which sacrifices may be offered or incense burned |
| alter | To make change in |
| alteration | Change or modification |
| altercate | To contend angrily or zealously in words |
| alternate | One chosen to act in place of another, in case of the absence or incapacity of that other |
| alternative | Something that may or must exist, be taken or chosen, or done instead of something else |
| altitude | Vertical distance or elevation above any point or base-level, as the sea |
| alto | The lowest or deepest female voice or part |
| altruism | Benevolence to others on subordination to self-interest |
| altruist | One who advocates or practices altruism |
| amalgam | An alloy or union of mercury with another metal |
| amalgamate | To mix or blend together in a homogeneous body |
| amateur | Practicing an art or occupation for the love of it, but not as a profession |
| amatory | Designed to excite love |
| ambidextrous | Having the ability of using both hands with equal skill or ease |
| ambiguous | Having a double meaning |
| ambitious | Eagerly desirous and aspiring |
| ambrosial | Divinely sweet, fragrant, or delicious |
| ambulance | A vehicle fitted for conveying the sick and wounded |
| ambulate | To walk about |
| ambush | The act or state of lying concealed for the purpose of surprising or attacking the enemy |
| ameliorate | To relieve, as from pain or hardship |
| amenable | Willing and ready to submit |
| Americanism | A peculiar sense in which an English word or phrase is used in the United States |
| amicable | Done in a friendly spirit |
| amity | Friendship |
| amorous | Having a propensity for falling in love |
| amorphous | Without determinate shape |
| amour | A love-affair, especially one of an illicit nature |
| ampere | The practical unit of electric-current strength |
| ampersand | The character &; and |
| amphibious | Living both on land and in water |
| amphitheater | An edifice of elliptical shape, constructed about a central open space or arena |
| amplitude | Largeness |
| amply | ad Sufficiently |
| amputate | To remove by cutting, as a limb or some portion of the body |
| amusement | Diversion |
| anachronism | Anything occurring or existing out of its proper time |
| anagram | The letters of a word or phrase so transposed as to make a different word or phrase |
| analogous | Corresponding (to some other) in certain respects, as in form, proportion, relations |
| analogy | Reasoning in which from certain and known relations or resemblance others are formed |
| analyst | One who analyzes or makes use of the analytical method |
| analyze | To examine minutely or critically |
| anarchy | Absence or utter disregard of government |
| anathema | Anything forbidden, as by social usage |
| anatomy | That branch of morphology which treats of the structure of organisms |
| ancestry | One's ancestors collectively |
| anecdote | A brief account of some interesting event or incident |
| anemia | Deficiency of blood or red corpuscles |
| anemic | Affected with anemia |
| anemometer | An instrument for measuring the force or velocity of wind |
| anesthetic | Pertaining to or producing loss of sensation |
| anew | Once more |
| angelic | Saintly |
| Anglophobia | Hatred or dread of England or of what is English |
| Anglo-Saxon | The entire English race wherever found, as in Europe, the United States, or India |
| angular | Sharp-cornered |
| anhydrous | Withered |
| animadversion | The utterance of criticism or censure |
| animadvert | To pass criticism or censure |
| animalcule | An animal of microscopic smallness |
| animate | To make alive |
| animosity | Hatred |
| annalist | Historian |
| annals | A record of events in their chronological order, year by year |
| annex | To add or affix at the end |
| annihilate | To destroy absolutely |
| annotate | To make explanatory or critical notes on or upon |
| annual | Occurring every year |
| annuity | An annual allowance, payment, or income |
| annunciation | Proclamation |
| anode | The point where or path by which a voltaic current enters an electrolyte or the like |
| anonymous | Of unknown authorship |
| antagonism | Mutual opposition or resistance of counteracting forces, principles, or persons |
| Antarctic | Pertaining to the south pole or the regions near it |
| ante | In the game of poker, to put up a stake before the cards are dealt |
| antecede | To precede |
| antecedent | One who or that which precedes or goes before, as in time, place, rank, order, or causality |
| antechamber | A waiting room for those who seek audience |
| antedate | To assign or affix a date to earlier than the actual one |
| antediluvian | Of or pertaining to the times, things, events before the great flood in the days of Noah |
| antemundane | Pertaining to time before the world's creation |
| antenatal | Occurring or existing before birth |
| anterior | Prior |
| anteroom | A room situated before and opening into another, usually larger |
| anthology | A collection of extracts from the writings of various authors |
| anthracite | Hard coal |
| anthropology | The science of man in general |
| anthropomorphous | Having or resembling human form |
| antic | A grotesque, ludicrous, or fantastic action |
| Antichrist | Any opponent or enemy of Christ, whether a person or a power |
| anticlimax | A gradual or sudden decrease in the importance or impressiveness of what is said |
| anticyclone | An atmospheric condition of high central pressure, with currents flowing outward |
| antidote | Anything that will counteract or remove the effects of poison, disease, or the like |
| antilogy | Inconsistency or contradiction in terms or ideas |
| antipathize | To show or feel a feeling of antagonism, aversion, or dislike |
| antiphon | A response or alteration of responses, generally musical |
| antiphony | An anthem or other composition sung responsively |
| antipodes | A place or region on the opposite side of the earth |
| antiquary | One who collects and examines old things, as coins, books, medals, weapons, etc |
| antiquate | To make old or out of date |
| antique | Pertaining to ancient times |
| antiseptic | Anything that destroys or restrains the growth of putrefactive micro-organisms |
| antislavery | Opposed to human slavery |
| antispasmodic | Tending to prevent or relieve non-inflammatory spasmodic affections |
| antistrophe | The inversion of terms in successive classes, as in "the home of joy and the joy of home" |
| antitoxin | A substance which neutralizes the poisonous products of micro-organisms |
| antonym | A word directly opposed to another in meaning |
| anxious | Distressed in mind respecting some uncertain matter |
| apathy | Insensibility to emotion or passionate feeling |
| aperture | Hole |
| apex | The highest point, as of a mountain |
| aphorism | Proverb |
| apiary | A place where bees are kept |
| apogee | The climax |
| apology | A disclaimer of intentional error or offense |
| apostasy | A total departure from one's faith or religion |
| apostate | False |
| apostle | Any messenger commissioned by or as by divine authority |
| apothecary | One who keeps drugs for sale and puts up prescriptions |
| apotheosis | Deification |
| appall | To fill with dismay or horror |
| apparent | Easily understood |
| apparition | Ghost |
| appease | To soothe by quieting anger or indignation |
| appellate | Capable of being appealed to |
| appellation | The name or title by which a particular person, class, or thing is called |
| append | To add or attach, as something accessory, subordinate, or supplementary |
| appertain | To belong, as by right, fitness, association, classification, possession, or natural relation |
| apposite | Appropriate |
| apposition | The act of placing side by side, together, or in contact |
| appraise | To estimate the money value of |
| appreciable | Capable of being discerned by the senses or intellect |
| apprehend | To make a prisoner of (a person) in the name of the law |
| apprehensible | Capable of being conceived |
| approbation | Sanction |
| appropriate | Suitable for the purpose and circumstances |
| aqueduct | A water-conduit, particularly one for supplying a community from a distance |
| aqueous | Of, pertaining to, or containing water |
| arbiter | One chosen or appointed, by mutual consent of parties in dispute, to decide matters |
| arbitrary | Fixed or done capriciously |
| arbitrate | To act or give judgment as umpire |
| arbor | A tree |
| arboreal | Of or pertaining to a tree or trees |
| arborescent | Having the nature of a tree |
| arboretum | A botanical garden or place devoted to the cultivation of trees or shrubs |
| arboriculture | The cultivation of trees or shrubs |
| arcade | A vaulted passageway or street; a roofed passageway having shops, etc, opening from it |
| archaic | Antiquated |
| archaism | Obsolescence |
| archangel | An angel of high rank |
| archbishop | The chief of the bishops of an ecclesiastical province in the Greek, Roman, and Anglican church |
| archaeology | The branch of anthropology concerned with the systematic investigation of the relics of man |
| archetype | A prototype |
| archipelago | Any large body of water studded with islands, or the islands collectively themselves |
| ardent | Burning with passion |
| ardor | Intensity of passion or affection |
| arid | Very dry |
| aristocracy | A hereditary nobility |
| aristocrat | A hereditary noble or one nearly connected with nobility |
| armada | A fleet of war-vessels |
| armful | As much as can be held in the arm or arms |
| armory | An arsenal |
| aroma | An agreeable odor |
| arraign | To call into court, as a person indicted for crime, and demand whether he pleads guilty or not |
| arrangement | The act of putting in proper order, or the state of being put in order |
| arrant | Notoriously bad |
| arrear | Something overdue and unpaid |
| arrival | A coming to stopping-place or destination |
| arrogant | Unduly or excessively proud, as of wealth, station, learning, etc |
| arrogate | To take, demand, or claim, especially presumptuously or without reasons or grounds |
| Artesian | well A very deep bored well water rises due to underground pressure |
| artful | Characterized by craft or cunning |
| Arthurian | Pertaining to King Arthur, the real or legendary hero of British poetic story |
| artifice | Trickery |
| artless | Ingenuous |
| ascendant | Dominant |
| ascension | The act of rising |
| ascent | A rising, soaring, or climbing |
| ascetic | Given to severe self-denial and practicing excessive abstinence and devotion |
| ascribe | To assign as a quality or attribute |
| asexual | Having no distinct sexual organs |
| ashen | Pale |
| askance | ad With a side or indirect glance or meaning |
| asperity | Harshness or roughness of temper |
| aspirant | One who seeks earnestly, as for advancement, honors, place |
| aspiration | An earnest wish for that which is above one's present reach |
| aspire | To have an earnest desire, wish, or longing, as for something high and good, not yet attained |
| assailant | One who attacks |
| assassin | One who kills, or tries to kill, treacherously or secretly |
| assassinate | To kill, as by surprise or secret assault, especially the killing of some eminent person |
| assassination | Murderer, as by secret assault or treachery |
| assay | The chemical analysis or testing of an alloy ore |
| assent | To express agreement with a statement or matter of opinion |
| assess | To determine the amount of (a tax or other sum to be paid) |
| assessor | An officer whose duty it is to assess taxes |
| assets | Property in general, regarded as applicable to the payment of debts |
| assiduous | Diligent |
| assignee | One who is appointed to act for another in the management of certain property and interests |
| assimilate | To adapt |
| assonance | Resemblance or correspondence in sound |
| assonant | Having resemblance of sound |
| assonate | To accord in sound, especially vowel sound |
| assuage | To cause to be less harsh, violent, or severe, as excitement, appetite, pain, or disease |
| astringent | Harsh in disposition or character |
| astute | Keen in discernment |
| atheism | The denial of the existence of God |
| athirst | Wanting water |
| athwart | ad From side to side |
| atomizer | An apparatus for reducing a liquid to a fine spray, as for disinfection, inhalation, etc |
| atone | To make amends for |
| atonement | Amends, reparation, or expiation made from wrong or injury |
| atrocious | Outrageously or wantonly wicked, criminal, vile, or cruel |
| atrocity | Great cruelty or reckless wickedness |
| attache | A subordinate member of a diplomatic embassy |
| attest | To certify as accurate, genuine, or true |
| attorney-general | The chief law-officer of a government |
| auburn | Reddish-brown, said usually of the hair |
| audacious | Fearless |
| audible | Loud enough to be heard |
| audition | The act or sensation of hearing |
| auditory | Of or pertaining to hearing or the organs or sense of hearing |
| augment | To make bigger |
| augur | To predict |
| Augustinian | Pertaining to St Augustine, his doctrines, or the religious orders called after him |
| aura | Pervasive psychic influence supposed to emanate from persons |
| aural | Of or pertaining to the ear |
| auricle | One of the two chambers of the heart which receives the blood from the veins |
| auricular | Of or pertaining to the ear, its auricle, or the sense of hearing |
| auriferous | Containing gold |
| aurora | A luminous phenomenon in the upper regions of the atmosphere |
| auspice | favoring, protecting, or propitious influence or guidance |
| austere | Severely simple; unadorned |
| autarchy | Unrestricted power |
| authentic | Of undisputed origin |
| authenticity | The state or quality of being genuine, or of the origin and authorship claimed |
| autobiography | The story of one's life written by himself |
| autocracy | Absolute government |
| autocrat | Any one who claims or wields unrestricted or undisputed authority or influence |
| automaton | Any living being whose actions are or appear to be involuntary or mechanical |
| autonomous | Self-governing |
| autonomy | Self-government |
| autopsy | The examination of a dead body by dissection to ascertain the cause of death |
| autumnal | Of or pertaining to autumn |
| auxiliary | One who or that which aids or helps, especially when regarded as subsidiary or accessory |
| avalanche | The fall or sliding of a mass of snow or ice down a mountain-slope, often bearing with it rock |
| aver | To assert as a fact |
| averse | Reluctant |
| aversion | A mental condition of fixed opposition to or dislike of some particular thing |
| avert | To turn away or aside |
| aviary | A spacious cage or enclosure in which live birds are kept |
| avidity | Greediness |
| avocation | Diversion |
| avow | To declare openly |
| awaken | To arouse, as emotion, interest, or the like |
| awry | ad Out of the proper form, direction, or position |
| aye | ad An expression of assent |
| azalea | A flowering shrub |
| azure | The color of the sky |
| Baconian | Of or pertaining to Lord Bacon or his system of philosophy |
| bacterium | A microbe |
| badger | To pester |
| baffle | To foil or frustrate |
| bailiff | An officer of court having custody of prisoners under arraignment |
| baize | A single-colored napped woolen fabric used for table-covers, curtains, etc |
| bale | A large package prepared for transportation or storage |
| baleful | Malignant |
| ballad | Any popular narrative poem, often with epic subject and usually in lyric form |
| balsam | A medical preparation, aromatic and oily, used for healing |
| banal | Commonplace |
| barcarole | A boat-song of Venetian gondoliers |
| barograph | An instrument that registers graphically and continuously the atmospheric pressure |
| barometer | An instrument for indicating the atmospheric pressure per unit of surface |
| barring | pre Apart from |
| baritone | Having a register higher than bass and lower than tenor |
| bask | To make warm by genial heat |
| bass | Low in tone or compass |
| baste | To cover with melted fat, gravy, while cooking |
| baton | An official staff borne either as a weapon or as an emblem of authority or privilege |
| battalion | A body of infantry composed of two or more companies, forming a part of a regiment |
| batten | A narrow strip of wood |
| batter | A thick liquid mixture of two or more materials beaten together, to be used in cookery |
| bauble | A trinket |
| bawl | To proclaim by outcry |
| beatify | To make supremely happy |
| beatitude | Any state of great happiness |
| beau | An escort or lover |
| becalm | To make quiet |
| beck | To give a signal to, by nod or gesture |
| bedaub | To smear over, as with something oily or sticky |
| bedeck | To cover with ornament |
| bedlam | Madhouse |
| befog | To confuse |
| befriend | To be a friend to, especially when in need |
| beget | To produce by sexual generation |
| begrudge | To envy one of the possession of |
| belate | To delay past the proper hour |
| belay | To make fast, as a rope, by winding round a cleat |
| belie | To misrepresent |
| believe | To accept as true on the testimony or authority of others |
| belittle | To disparage |
| belle | A woman who is a center of attraction because of her beauty, accomplishments, etc |
| bellicose | Warlike |
| belligerent | Manifesting a warlike spirit |
| bemoan | To lament |
| benediction | a solemn invocation of the divine blessing |
| benefactor | A doer of kindly and charitable acts |
| benefice | A church office endowed with funds or property for the maintenance of divine service |
| beneficent | Characterized by charity and kindness |
| beneficial | Helpful |
| beneficiary | One who is lawfully entitled to the profits and proceeds of an estate or property |
| benefit | Helpful result |
| benevolence | Any act of kindness or well-doing |
| benevolent | Loving others and actively desirous of their well-being |
| benign | Good and kind of heart |
| benignant | Benevolent in feeling, character, or aspect |
| benignity | Kindness of feeling, disposition, or manner |
| benison | Blessing |
| bequeath | To give by will |
| bereave | To make desolate with loneliness and grief |
| berth | A bunk or bed in a vessel, sleeping-car, etc |
| beseech | To implore |
| beset | To attack on all sides |
| besmear | To smear over, as with any oily or sticky substance |
| bestial | Animal |
| bestrew | To sprinkle or cover with things strewn |
| bestride | To get or sit upon astride, as a horse |
| bethink | To remind oneself |
| betide | To happen to or befall |
| betimes | ad In good season or time |
| betroth | To engage to marry |
| betrothal | Engagement to marry |
| bevel | Any inclination of two surfaces other than 90 degrees |
| bewilder | To confuse the perceptions or judgment of |
| bibliomania | The passion for collecting books |
| bibliography | A list of the words of an author, or the literature bearing on a particular subject |
| bibliophile | One who loves books |
| bibulous | Fond of drinking |
| bide | To await |
| biennial | A plant that produces leaves and roots the first year and flowers and fruit the second |
| bier | A horizontal framework with two handles at each end for carrying a corpse to the grave |
| bigamist | One who has two spouses at the same time |
| bigamy | The crime of marrying any other person while having a legal spouse living |
| bight | A slightly receding bay between headlands, formed by a long curve of a coast-line |
| bilateral | Two-sided |
| bilingual | Speaking two languages |
| biograph | A bibliographical sketch or notice |
| biography | A written account of one's life, actions, and character |
| biology | The science of life or living organisms |
| biped | An animal having two feet |
| birthright | A privilege or possession into which one is born |
| bitterness | Acridity, as to the taste |
| blase | Sated with pleasure |
| blaspheme | To indulge in profane oaths |
| blatant | Noisily or offensively loud or clamorous |
| blaze | A vivid glowing flame |
| blazon | To make widely or generally known |
| bleak | Desolate |
| blemish | A mark that mars beauty |
| blithe | Joyous |
| blithesome | Cheerful |
| blockade | The shutting up of a town, a frontier, or a line of coast by hostile forces |
| boatswain | A subordinate officer of a vessel, who has general charge of the rigging, anchors, etc |
| bodice | A women's ornamental corset-shaped laced waist |
| bodily | Corporeal |
| boisterous | Unchecked merriment or animal spirits |
| bole | The trunk or body of a tree |
| bolero | A Spanish dance, illustrative of the passion of love, accompanied by caste nets and singing |
| boll | A round pod or seed-capsule, as a flax or cotton |
| bolster | To support, as something wrong |
| bomb | A hollow projectile containing an explosive material |
| bombard | To assail with any missile or with abusive speech |
| bombardier | A person who has charge of mortars, bombs, and shells |
| bombast | Inflated or extravagant language, especially on unimportant subjects |
| boorish | Rude |
| bore | To weary by tediousness or dullness |
| borough | An incorporated village or town |
| bosom | The breast or the upper front of the thorax of a human being, especially of a woman |
| botanical | Connected with the study or cultivation of plants |
| botanize | To study plant-life |
| botany | The science that treats of plants |
| bountiful | Showing abundance |
| Bowdlerize | To expurgate in editing (a literary composition) by omitting words or passages |
| bowler | In cricket, the player who delivers the ball |
| boycott | To place the products or merchandise of under a ban |
| brae | Hillside |
| braggart | A vain boaster |
| brandish | To wave, shake, or flourish triumphantly or defiantly, as a sword or spear |
| bravado | An aggressive display of boldness |
| bravo | Well done |
| bray | A loud harsh sound, as the cry of an ass or the blast of a horn |
| braze | To make of or ornament with brass |
| brazier | An open pan or basin for holding live coals |
| breach | The violation of official duty, lawful right, or a legal obligation |
| breaker | One who trains horses, dogs, etc |
| breech | The buttocks |
| brethren | Members of a brotherhood, gild, profession, association, or the like |
| brevity | Shortness of duration |
| bric-a-brac | Objects of curiosity or for decoration |
| bridle | The head-harness of a horse consisting of a head-stall, a bit, and the reins |
| brigade | A body of troops consisting of two or more regiments |
| brigadier | General officer who commands a brigade, ranking between a colonel and a major-general |
| brigand | One who lives by robbery and plunder |
| brimstone | Sulfur |
| brine | Water saturated with salt |
| bristle | One of the coarse, stiff hairs of swine: used in brush-making, etc |
| Britannia | The United Kingdom of Great Britain |
| Briticism | A word, idiom, or phrase characteristic of Great Britain or the British |
| brittle | Fragile |
| broach | To mention, for the first time |
| broadcast | Disseminated far and wide |
| brogan | A coarse, heavy shoe |
| brogue | Any dialectic pronunciation of English, especially that of the Irish people |
| brokerage | The business of making sales and purchases for a commission; a broker |
| bromine | A dark reddish-brown, non-metallic liquid element with a suffocating odor |
| bronchitis | Inflammation of the bronchial tubes |
| bronchus | Either of the two subdivisions of the trachea conveying air into the lungs |
| brooch | An article of jewelry fastened by a hinged pin and hook on the underside |
| brotherhood | Spiritual or social fellowship or solidarity |
| browbeat | To overwhelm, or attempt to do so, by stern, haughty, or rude address or manner |
| brusque | Somewhat rough or rude in manner or speech |
| buffoon | A clown |
| buffoonery | Low drollery, coarse jokes, etc |
| bulbous | Of, or pertaining to, or like a bulb |
| bullock | An ox |
| bulrush | Any one of various tall rush-like plants growing in damp ground or water |
| bulwark | Anything that gives security or defense |
| bumper | A cup or glass filled to the brim, especially one to be drunk as a toast or health |
| bumptious | Full of offensive and aggressive self-conceit |
| bungle | To execute clumsily |
| buoyancy | Power or tendency to float on or in a liquid or gas |
| buoyant | Having the power or tendency to float or keep afloat |
| bureau | A chest of drawers for clothing, etc |
| bureaucracy | Government by departments of men transacting particular branches of public business |
| burgess | In colonial times, a member of the lower house of the legislature of Maryland or Virginia |
| burgher | An inhabitant, citizen or freeman of a borough burgh, or corporate town |
| burnish | To make brilliant or shining |
| bursar | A treasurer |
| bustle | To hurry |
| butt | To strike with or as with the head, or horns |
| butte | A conspicuous hill, low mountain, or natural turret, generally isolated |
| buttress | Any support or prop |
| by-law | A rule or law adopted by an association, a corporation, or the like |
| cabal | A number of persons secretly united for effecting by intrigue some private purpose |
| cabalism | Superstitious devotion to one's religion |
| cabinet | The body of men constituting the official advisors of the executive head of a nation |
| cacophony | A disagreeable, harsh, or discordant sound or combination of sounds or tones |
| cadaverous | Resembling a corpse |
| cadence | Rhythmical or measured flow or movement, as in poetry or the time and pace of marching troops |
| cadenza | An embellishment or flourish, prepared or improvised, for a solo voice or instrument |
| caitiff | Cowardly |
| cajole | To impose on or dupe by flattering speech |
| cajolery | Delusive speech |
| calculable | That may be estimated by reckoning |
| calculus | A concretion formed in various parts of the body resembling a pebble in hardness |
| callosity | The state of being hard and insensible |
| callow | Without experience of the world |
| calorie | Amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water 1 degree centigrade |
| calumny | Slander |
| Calvary | The place where Christ was crucified |
| Calvinism | The system of doctrine taught by John Calvin |
| Calvinize | To teach or imbue with the doctrines of Calvinism |
| came | A leaden sash-bar or grooved strip for fastening panes in stained-glass windows |
| cameo | Any small engraved or carved work in relief |
| campaign | A complete series of connected military operations |
| Canaanite | A member of one of the three tribes that dwelt in the land of Canaan, or western Palestine |
| canary | Of a bright but delicate yellow |
| candid | Straightforward |
| candor | The quality of frankness or outspokenness |
| canine | Characteristic of a dog |
| canon | Any rule or law |
| cant | To talk in a singsong, preaching tone with affected solemnity |
| cantata | A choral composition |
| canto | One of the divisions of an extended poem |
| cantonment | The part of the town or district in which the troops are quartered |
| capacious | Roomy |
| capillary | A minute vessel having walls composed of a single layer of cells |
| capitulate | To surrender or stipulate terms |
| caprice | A whim |
| caption | A heading, as of a chapter, section, document, etc |
| captious | Hypercritical |
| captivate | To fascinate, as by excellence eloquence, or beauty |
| carcass | The dead body of an animal |
| cardiac | Pertaining to the heart |
| cardinal | Of prime or special importance |
| caret | A sign (^) placed below a line, indicating where omitted words, etc, should be inserted |
| caricature | a picture or description in which natural characteristics are exaggerated or distorted |
| carnage | Massacre |
| carnal | Sensual |
| carnivorous | Eating or living on flesh |
| carouse | To drink deeply and in boisterous or jovial manner |
| carrion | Dead and putrefying flesh |
| cartilage | An elastic animal tissue of firm consistence |
| cartridge | A charge for a firearm, or for blasting |
| caste | The division of society on artificial grounds |
| castigate | To punish |
| casual | Accidental, by chance |
| casualty | A fatal or serious accident or disaster |
| cataclysm | Any overwhelming flood of water |
| cataract | Opacity of the lens of the eye resulting in complete or partial blindness |
| catastrophe | Any great and sudden misfortune or calamity |
| cathode | The negative pole or electrode of a galvanic battery |
| Catholicism | The system, doctrine, and practice of the Roman Catholic Church |
| catholicity | Universal prevalence or acceptance |
| cat-o-nine-tails | An instrument consisting of nine pieces of cord, formerly used for flogging in the army and navy |
| caucus | A private meeting of members of a political party to select candidates |
| causal | Indicating or expressing a cause |
| caustic | Sarcastic and severe |
| cauterize | To burn or sear as with a heated iron |
| cede | To pass title to |
| censor | An official examiner of manuscripts empowered to prohibit their publication |
| censorious | Judging severely or harshly |
| census | An official numbering of the people of a country or district |
| centenary | Pertaining to a hundred years or a period of a hundred years |
| centiliter | A hundredth of a liter |
| centimeter | A length of one hundredth of a meter |
| centurion | A captain of a company of one hundred infantry in the ancient Roman army |
| cereal | Pertaining to edible grain or farinaceous seeds |
| ceremonial | Characterized by outward form or ceremony |
| ceremonious | Observant of ritual |
| cessation | Discontinuance, as of action or motion |
| cession | Surrender, as of possessions or rights |
| chagrin | Keen vexation, annoyance, or mortification, as at one's failures or errors |
| chameleon | Changeable in appearance |
| chancery | A court of equity, as distinguished from a common-law court |
| chaos | Any condition of which the elements or parts are in utter disorder and confusion |
| characteristic | A distinctive feature |
| characterize | To describe by distinctive marks or peculiarities |
| charlatan | A quack |
| chasm | A yawning hollow, as in the earth's surface |
| chasten | To purify by affliction |
| chastise | To subject to punitive measures |
| chastity | Sexual or moral purity |
| chateau | A castle or manor-house |
| chattel | Any article of personal property |
| check | To hold back |
| chiffon | A very thin gauze used for trimmings, evening dress, etc |
| chivalry | The knightly system of feudal times with its code, usages and practices |
| cholera | An acute epidemic disease |
| choleric | Easily provoked to anger |
| choral | Pertaining to, intended for, or performed by a chorus or choir |
| Christ | A title of Jesus |
| christen | To name in baptism |
| Christendom | That part of the world where Christianity is generally professed |
| chromatic | Belonging, relating to, or abounding in color |
| chronology | The science that treats of computation of time or of investigation and arrangement of events |
| chronometer | A portable timekeeper of the highest attainable precision |
| cipher | To calculate arithmetically (also a noun meaning zero or nothing) |
| circulate | To disseminate |
| circumference | The boundary-line of a circle |
| circumlocution | Indirect or roundabout expression |
| circumnavigate | To sail quite around |
| circumscribe | To confine within bounds |
| circumspect | Showing watchfulness, caution, or careful consideration |
| citadel | Any strong fortress |
| cite | To refer to specifically |
| claimant | One who makes a claim or demand, as of right |
| clairvoyance | Intuitive sagacity or perception |
| clamorous | Urgent in complaint or demand |
| clan | A tribe |
| clandestine | Surreptitious |
| clangor | Clanking or a ringing, as of arms, chains, or bells; clamor |
| clarify | To render intelligible |
| clarion | A small shrill trumpet or bugle |
| classify | To arrange in a class or classes on the basis of observed resemblance?ÇÖs and differences |
| clearance | A certificate from the proper authorities that a vessel has complied with the law and may sail |
| clemency | Mercy |
| clement | Compassionate |
| close-hauled | Having the sails set for sailing as close to the wind as possible |
| clothier | One who makes or sells cloth or clothing |
| clumsy | Awkward of movement |
| coagulate | To change into a clot or a jelly, as by heat, by chemical action, or by a ferment |
| coagulant | Producing coagulation |
| coalescence | The act or process of coming together so as to form one body, combination, or product |
| coalition | Combination in a body or mass |
| coddle | To treat as a baby or an invalid |
| codicil | A supplement adding to, revoking, or explaining in the body of a will |
| coerce | To force |
| coercion | Forcible constraint or restraint, moral or physical |
| coercive | Serving or tending to force |
| cogent | Appealing strongly to the reason or conscience |
| cognate | Akin |
| cognizant | Taking notice |
| cohere | To stick together |
| cohesion | Consistency |
| cohesive | Having the property of consistency |
| coincide | To correspond |
| coincidence | A circumstance so agreeing with another: often implying accident |
| coincident | Taking place at the same time |
| collaborate | To labor or cooperate with another or others, especially in literary or scientific pursuits |
| collapse | To cause to shrink, fall in, or fail |
| collapsible | That may or can collapse |
| colleague | An associate in professional employment |
| collective | Consisting of a number of persons or objects considered as gathered into a mass, or sum |
| collector | One who makes a collection, as of objects of art, books, or the like |
| collegian | A college student |
| collide | To meet and strike violently |
| collier | One who works in a coal-mine |
| collision | Violent contact |
| colloquial | Pertaining or peculiar to common speech as distinguished from literary |
| colloquialism | Form of speech used only or chiefly in conversation |
| colloquy | Conversation |
| collusion | A secret agreement for a wrongful purpose |
| colossus | Any strikingly great person or object |
| comely | Handsome |
| comestible | Fit to be eaten |
| comical | Funny |
| commemorate | To serve as a remembrance of |
| commentary | A series of illustrative or explanatory notes on any important work |
| commingle | To blend |
| commissariat | The department of an army charged with the provision of its food and water and daily needs |
| commission | To empower |
| commitment | The act or process of entrusting or consigning for safe-keeping |
| committal | The act, fact, or result of committing, or the state of being |
| commodity | Something that is bought and sold |
| commotion | A disturbance or violent agitation |
| commute | To put something, especially something less severe, in place of |
| comparable | Fit to be compared |
| comparative | Relative |
| comparison | Examination of two or more objects with reference to their likeness or unlikeness |
| compensate | To remunerate |
| competence | Adequate qualification or capacity |
| competent | Qualified |
| competitive | characterized by rivalry |
| competitor | A rival |
| complacence | Satisfaction with one's acts or surroundings |
| complacent | Pleased or satisfied with oneself |
| complaisance | Politeness |
| complaisant | Agreeable |
| complement | To make complete |
| complex | Complicated |
| compliant | Yielding |
| complicate | To make complex, difficult, or hard to deal with |
| complication | An intermingling or combination of things or parts, especially in a perplexing manner |
| complicity | Participation or partnership, as in wrong-doing or with a wrong-doer |
| compliment | To address or gratify with expressions of delicate praise |
| component | A constituent element or part |
| comport | To conduct or behave (oneself) |
| composure | Calmness |
| comprehensible | Intelligible |
| comprehension | Ability to know |
| comprehensive | Large in scope or content |
| compress | To press together or into smaller space |
| compressible | Capable of being pressed into smaller compass |
| compression | Constraint, as by force or authority |
| comprise | To consist of |
| compulsion | Coercion |
| compulsory | Forced |
| compunction | Remorseful feeling |
| compute | To ascertain by mathematical calculation |
| concede | To surrender |
| conceit | Self-flattering opinion |
| conceive | To form an idea, mental image or thought of |
| concerto | A musical composition |
| concession | Anything granted or yielded, or admitted in response to a demand, petition, or claim |
| conciliate | To obtain the friendship of |
| conciliatory | Tending to reconcile |
| conclusive | Sufficient to convince or decide |
| concord | Harmony |
| concordance | Harmony |
| concur | To agree |
| concurrence | Agreement |
| concurrent | Occurring or acting together |
| concussion | A violent shock to some organ by a fall or a sudden blow |
| condensation | The act or process of making dense or denser |
| condense | To abridge |
| condescend | To come down voluntarily to equal terms with inferiors |
| condolence | Expression of sympathy with a person in pain, sorrow, or misfortune |
| conduce | To bring about |
| conducive | Contributing to an end |
| conductible | Capable of being conducted or transmitted |
| conduit | A means for conducting something, particularly a tube, pipe, or passageway for a fluid |
| confectionery | The candy collectively that a confectioner makes or sells, as candy |
| confederacy | A number of states or persons in compact or league with each other, as for mutual aid |
| confederate | One who is united with others in a league, compact, or agreement |
| confer | To bestow |
| conferee | A person with whom another confers |
| confessor | A spiritual advisor |
| confidant | One to whom secrets are entrusted |
| confide | To reveal in trust or confidence |
| confidence | The state or feeling of trust in or reliance upon another |
| confident | Assured |
| confinement | Restriction within limits or boundaries |
| confiscate | To appropriate (private property) as forfeited to the public use or treasury |
| conflagration | A great fire, as of many buildings, a forest, or the like |
| confluence | The place where streams meet |
| confluent | A stream that unites with another |
| conformance | The act or state or conforming |
| conformable | Harmonious |
| conformation | General structure, form, or outline |
| conformity | Correspondence in form, manner, or use |
| confront | To encounter, as difficulties or obstacles |
| congeal | To coagulate |
| congenial | Having kindred character or tastes |
| congest | To collect into a mass |
| congregate | To bring together into a crowd |
| coniferous | Cone-bearing trees |
| conjecture | A guess |
| conjoin | To unite |
| conjugal | Pertaining to marriage, marital rights, or married persons |
| conjugate | Joined together in pairs |
| conjugation | The state or condition of being joined together |
| conjunction | The state of being joined together, or the things so joined |
| connive | To be in collusion |
| connoisseur | A critical judge of art, especially one with thorough knowledge and sound judgment of art |
| connote | To mean; signify |
| connubial | Pertaining to marriage or matrimony |
| conquer | To overcome by force |
| consanguineous | Descended from the same parent or ancestor |
| conscience | The faculty in man by which he distinguishes between right and wrong in character and conduct |
| conscientious | Governed by moral standard |
| conscious | Aware that one lives, feels, and thinks |
| conscript | To force into military service |
| consecrate | To set apart as sacred |
| consecutive | Following in uninterrupted succession |
| consensus | A collective unanimous opinion of a number of persons |
| conservatism | Tendency to adhere to the existing order of things |
| conservative | Adhering to the existing order of things |
| conservatory | An institution for instruction and training in music and declamation |
| consign | To entrust |
| consignee | A person to whom goods or other property has been entrusted |
| consignor | One who entrusts |
| consistency | A state of permanence |
| console | To comfort |
| consolidate | To combine into one body or system |
| consonance | The state or quality of being in accord with |
| consonant | Being in agreement or harmony with |
| consort | A companion or associate |
| conspicuous | Clearly visible |
| conspirator | One who agrees with others to cooperate in accomplishing some unlawful purpose |
| conspire | To plot |
| constable | An officer whose duty is to maintain the peace |
| constellation | An arbitrary assemblage or group of stars |
| consternation | Panic |
| constituency | The inhabitants or voters in a district represented in a legislative body |
| constituent | One who has the right to vote at an election |
| constrict | To bind |
| consul | An officer appointed to reside in a foreign city, chiefly to represent his country |
| consulate | The place in which a consul transacts official business |
| consummate | To bring to completion |
| consumption | Gradual destruction, as by burning, eating, etc, or by using up, wearing out, etc |
| consumptive | Designed for gradual destruction |
| contagion | The communication of disease from person to person |
| contagious | Transmitting disease |
| contaminate | To pollute |
| contemplate | To consider thoughtfully |
| contemporaneous | Living, occurring, or existing at the same time |
| contemporary | Living or existing at the same time |
| contemptible | Worthy of scorn or disdain |
| contemptuous | Disdainful |
| contender | One who exerts oneself in opposition or rivalry |
| contiguity | Proximity |
| contiguous | Touching or joining at the edge or boundary |
| continence | Self-restraint with respect to desires, appetites, and passion |
| contingency | Possibility of happening |
| contingent | Not predictable |
| continuance | Permanence |
| continuation | Prolongation |
| continuity | Uninterrupted connection in space, time, operation, or development |
| continuous | Connected, extended, or prolonged without separation or interruption of sequence |
| contort | To twist into a misshapen form |
| contraband | Trade forbidden by law or treaty |
| contradiction | The assertion of the opposite of that which has been said |
| contradictory | Inconsistent with itself |
| contraposition | A placing opposite |
| contravene | To prevent or obstruct the operation of |
| contribution | The act of giving for a common purpose |
| contributor | One who gives or furnishes, in common with others, for a common purpose |
| contrite | Broken in spirit because of a sense of sin |
| contrivance | The act planning, devising, inventing, or adapting something to or for a special purpose |
| contrive | To manage or carry through by some device or scheme |
| control | To exercise a directing, restraining, or governing influence over |
| controller | One who or that which regulates or directs |
| contumacious | Rebellious |
| contumacy | Contemptuous disregard of the requirements of rightful authority |
| contuse | To bruise by a blow, either with or without the breaking of the skin |
| contusion | A bruise |
| convalesce | To recover after a sickness |
| convalescence | The state of progressive restoration to health and strength after the cessation of disease |
| convalescent | Recovering health after sickness |
| convene | To summon or cause to assemble |
| convenience | Fitness, as of time or place |
| converge | To cause to incline and approach nearer together |
| convergent | Tending to one point |
| conversant | Thoroughly informed |
| conversion | Change from one state or position to another, or from one form to another |
| convertible | Interchangeable |
| convex | Curving like the segment of the globe or of the surface of a circle |
| conveyance | That by which anything is transported |
| convivial | Devoted to feasting, or to good-fellowship in eating or drinking |
| convolution | A winding motion |
| convolve | To move with a circling or winding motion |
| convoy | A protecting force accompanying property in course of transportation |
| convulse | To cause spasms in |
| convulsion | A violent and abnormal muscular contraction of the body |
| copious | Plenteous |
| coquette | A flirt |
| cornice | An ornamental molding running round the walls of a room close to the ceiling |
| cornucopia | The horn of plenty, symbolizing peace and prosperity |
| corollary | A proposition following so obviously from another that it requires little demonstration |
| coronation | The act or ceremony of crowning a monarch |
| coronet | Inferior crown denoting, according to its form, various degrees of noble rank less than sovereign |
| corporate | Belonging to a corporation |
| corporeal | Of a material nature; physical |
| corps | A number or body of persons in some way associated or acting together |
| corpse | A dead body |
| corpulent | Obese |
| corpuscle | A minute particle of matter |
| correlate | To put in some relation of connection or correspondence |
| correlative | Mutually involving or implying one another |
| corrigible | Capable of reformation |
| corroborate | To strengthen, as proof or conviction |
| corroboration | Confirmation |
| corrode | To ruin or destroy little by little |
| corrosion | Gradual decay by crumbling or surface disintegration |
| corrosive | That which causes gradual decay by crumbling or surface disintegration |
| corruptible | Open to bribery |
| corruption | Loss of purity or integrity |
| cosmetic | Pertaining to the art of beautifying, especially the complexion |
| cosmic | Pertaining to the universe |
| cosmogony | A doctrine of creation or of the origin of the universe |
| cosmography | The science that describes the universe, including astronomy, geography, and geology |
| cosmology | The general science of the universe |
| cosmopolitan | Common to all the world |
| cosmopolitanism | A cosmopolitan character |
| cosmos | The world or universe considered as a system, perfect in order and arrangement |
| counter-claim | A cross-demand alleged by a defendant in his favor against the plaintiff |
| counteract | To act in opposition to |
| counterbalance | To oppose with an equal force |
| countercharge | To accuse in return |
| counterfeit | Made to resemble something else |
| counterpart | Something taken with another for the completion of either |
| countervail | To offset |
| counting-house | A house or office used for transacting business, bookkeeping, correspondence, etc |
| countryman | A rustic |
| courageous | Brave |
| course | Line of motion or direction |
| courser | A fleet and spirited horse |
| courtesy | Politeness originating in kindness and exercised habitually |
| covenant | An agreement entered into by two or more persons or parties |
| covert | Concealed, especially for an evil purpose |
| covey | A flock of quails or partridges |
| cower | To crouch down tremblingly, as through fear or shame |
| coxswain | One who steers a rowboat, or one who has charge of a ship's boat and its crew under an officer |
| crag | A rugged, rocky projection on a cliff or ledge |
| cranium | The skull of an animal, especially that part enclosing the brain |
| crass | Coarse or thick in nature or structure, as opposed to thin or fine |
| craving | A vehement desire |
| creak | A sharp, harsh, squeaking sound |
| creamery | A butter-making establishment |
| creamy | Resembling or containing cream |
| credence | Belief |
| credible | Believable |
| credulous | Easily deceived |
| creed | A formal summary of fundamental points of religious belief |
| crematory | A place for cremating dead bodies |
| crevasse | A deep crack or fissure in the ice of a glacier |
| crevice | A small fissure, as between two contiguous surfaces |
| criterion | A standard by which to determine the correctness of a judgment or conclusion |
| critique | A criticism or critical review |
| crockery | Earthenware made from baked clay |
| crucible | A trying and purifying test or agency |
| crusade | Any concerted movement, vigorously prosecuted, in behalf of an idea or principle |
| crustacean | Pertaining to a division of arthropods, containing lobsters, crabs, crawfish, etc |
| crustaceous | Having a crust-like shell |
| cryptogram | Anything written in characters that are secret or so arranged as to have hidden meaning |
| crystallize | To bring together or give fixed shape to |
| cudgel | A short thick stick used as a club |
| culinary | Of or pertaining to cooking or the kitchen |
| cull | To pick or sort out from the rest |
| culpable | Guilty |
| culprit | A guilty person |
| culvert | Any artificial covered channel for the passage of water through a bank or under a road, canal |
| cupidity | Avarice |
| curable | Capable of being remedied or corrected |
| curator | A person having charge as of a library or museum |
| curio | A piece of bric-a-brac |
| cursive | Writing in which the letters are joined together |
| cursory | Rapid and superficial |
| curt | Concise, compressed, and abrupt in act or expression |
| curtail | To cut off or cut short |
| curtsy | A downward movement of the body by bending the knees |
| cycloid | Like a circle |
| cygnet | A young swan |
| cynical | Exhibiting moral skepticism |
| cynicism | Contempt for the opinions of others and of what others value |
| cynosure | That to which general interest or attention is directed |
| daring | Brave |
| darkling | ad Blindly |
| Darwinism | The doctrine that natural selection has been the prime cause of evolution of higher forms |
| dastard | A base coward |
| datum | A premise, starting-point, or given fact |
| dauntless | Fearless |
| day-man | A day-laborer |
| dead-heat | A race in which two or more competitors come out even, and there is no winner |
| dearth | Scarcity, as of something customary, essential ,or desirable |
| death's-head | A human skull as a symbol of death |
| debase | To lower in character or virtue |
| debatable | Subject to contention or dispute |
| debonair | Having gentle or courteous bearing or manner |
| debut | A first appearance in society or on the stage |
| decagon | A figure with ten sides and ten angles |
| decagram | A weight of 10 grams |
| decaliter | A liquid and dry measure of 10 liters |
| decalogue | The ten commandments |
| Decameron | A volume consisting of ten parts or books |
| decameter | A length of ten meters |
| decamp | To leave suddenly or unexpectedly |
| decapitate | To behead |
| decapod | Ten-footed or ten-armed |
| decasyllable | A line of ten syllables |
| deceit | Falsehood |
| deceitful | Fraudulent |
| deceive | To mislead by or as by falsehood |
| decency | Moral fitness |
| decent | Characterized by propriety of conduct, speech, manners, or dress |
| deciduous | Falling off at maturity as petals after flowering, fruit when ripe, etc |
| decimal | Founded on the number 10 |
| decimate | To destroy a measurable or large proportion of |
| decipher | To find out the true words or meaning of, as something hardly legible |
| decisive | a Conclusive |
| declamation | A speech recited or intended for recitation from memory in public |
| declamatory | A full and formal style of utterance |
| declarative | Containing a formal, positive, or explicit statement or affirmation |
| declension | The change of endings in nouns and adj to express their different relations of gender |
| decorate | To embellish |
| decorous | Suitable for the occasion or circumstances |
| decoy | Anything that allures, or is intended to allures into danger or temptation |
| decrepit | Enfeebled, as by old age or some chronic infirmity |
| dedication | The voluntary consecration or relinquishment of something to an end or cause |
| deduce | To derive or draw as a conclusion by reasoning from given premises or principles |
| deface | To mar or disfigure the face or external surface of |
| defalcate | To cut off or take away, as a part of something |
| defamation | Malicious and groundless injury done to the reputation or good name of another |
| defame | To slander |
| default | The neglect or omission of a legal requirement |
| defendant | A person against whom a suit is brought |
| defensible | Capable of being maintained or justified |
| defensive | Carried on in resistance to aggression |
| defer | To delay or put off to some other time |
| deference | Respectful submission or yielding, as to another's opinion, wishes, or judgment |
| defiant | Characterized by bold or insolent opposition |
| deficiency | Lack or insufficiency |
| deficient | Not having an adequate or proper supply or amount |
| definite | Having an exact signification or positive meaning |
| deflect | To cause to turn aside or downward |
| deforest | To clear of forests |
| deform | To disfigure |
| deformity | A disfigurement |
| defraud | To deprive of something dishonestly |
| defray | To make payment for |
| degeneracy | A becoming worse |
| degenerate | To become worse or inferior |
| degradation | Diminution, as of strength or magnitude |
| degrade | To take away honors or position from |
| dehydrate | To deprive of water |
| deify | To regard or worship as a god |
| deign | To deem worthy of notice or account |
| deist | One who believes in God, but denies supernatural revelation |
| deity | A god, goddess, or divine person |
| deject | To dishearten |
| dejection | Melancholy |
| delectable | Delightful to the taste or to the senses |
| delectation | Delight |
| deleterious | Hurtful, morally or physically |
| delicacy | That which is agreeable to a fine taste |
| delineate | To represent by sketch or diagram |
| deliquesce | To dissolve gradually and become liquid by absorption of moisture from the air |
| delirious | Raving |
| delude | To mislead the mind or judgment of |
| deluge | To overwhelm with a flood of water |
| delusion | Mistaken conviction, especially when more or less enduring |
| demagnetize | To deprive (a magnet) of magnetism |
| demagogue | An unprincipled politician |
| demeanor | Deportment |
| demented | Insane |
| demerit | A mark for failure or bad conduct |
| demise | Death |
| demobilize | To disband, as troops |
| demolish | To annihilate |
| demonstrable | Capable of positive proof |
| demonstrate | To prove indubitably |
| demonstrative | Inclined to strong exhibition or expression of feeling or thoughts |
| demonstrator | One who proves in a convincing and conclusive manner |
| demulcent | Any application soothing to an irritable surface |
| demurrage | the detention of a vessel beyond the specified time of sailing |
| dendroid | Like a tree |
| dendrology | The natural history of trees |
| denizen | Inhabitant |
| denominate | To give a name or epithet to |
| denomination | A body of Christians united by a common faith and form of worship and discipline |
| denominator | Part of a fraction which expresses the number of equal parts into which the unit is divided |
| denote | To designate by word or mark |
| denouement | That part of a play or story in which the mystery is cleared up |
| denounce | To point out or publicly accuse as deserving of punishment, censure, or odium |
| dentifrice | Any preparation used for cleaning the teeth |
| denude | To strip the covering from |
| denunciation | The act of declaring an action or person worthy of reprobation or punishment |
| deplete | To reduce or lessen, as by use, exhaustion, or waste |
| deplorable | Contemptible |
| deplore | To regard with grief or sorrow |
| deponent | Laying down |
| depopulate | To remove the inhabitants from |
| deport | To take or send away forcibly, as to a penal colony |
| deportment | Demeanor |
| deposition | Testimony legally taken on interrogatories and reduced to writing, for use as evidence in court |
| depository | A place where anything is kept in safety |
| deprave | To render bad, especially morally bad |
| deprecate | To express disapproval or regret for, with hope for the opposite |
| depreciate | To lessen the worth of |
| depreciation | A lowering in value or an underrating in worth |
| depress | To press down |
| depression | A falling of the spirits |
| depth | Deepness |
| derelict | Neglectful of obligation |
| deride | To ridicule |
| derisible | Open to ridicule |
| derision | Ridicule |
| derivation | That process by which a word is traced from its original root or primitive form and meaning |
| derivative | Coming or acquired from some origin |
| derive | To deduce, as from a premise |
| dermatology | The branch of medical science which relates to the skin and its diseases |
| derrick | An apparatus for hoisting and swinging great weights |
| descendant | One who is descended lineally from another, as a child, grandchild, etc |
| descendent | Proceeding downward |
| descent | The act of moving or going downward |
| descry | To discern |
| desert | To abandon without regard to the welfare of the abandoned |
| designate | To select or appoint, as by authority |
| desist | To cease from action |
| desistance | Cessation |
| despair | Utter hopelessness and despondency |
| desperado | One without regard for law or life |
| desperate | Resorted to in a last extremity, or as if prompted by utter despair |
| despicable | Contemptible |
| despite | pre In spite of |
| despond | To lose spirit, courage, or hope |
| despondent | Disheartened |
| despot | An absolute and irresponsible monarch |
| despotism | Any severe and strict rule in which the judgment of the governed has little or no part |
| destitute | Poverty-stricken |
| desultory | Not connected with what precedes |
| deter | To frighten away |
| deteriorate | To grow worse |
| determinate | Definitely limited or fixed |
| determination | The act of deciding |
| deterrent | Hindering from action through fear |
| detest | To dislike or hate with intensity |
| detract | To take away in such manner as to lessen value or estimation |
| detriment | Something that causes damage, depreciation, or loss |
| detrude | To push down forcibly |
| deviate | To take a different course |
| devilry | Malicious mischief |
| deviltry | Wanton and malicious mischief |
| devious | Out of the common or regular track |
| devise | To invent |
| devout | Religious |
| dexterity | Readiness, precision, efficiency, and ease in any physical activity or in any mechanical work |
| diacritical | Marking a difference |
| diagnose | To distinguish, as a disease, by its characteristic phenomena |
| diagnosis | Determination of the distinctive nature of a disease |
| dialect | Forms of speech collectively that are peculiar to the people of a particular district |
| dialectician | A logician |
| dialogue | A formal conversation in which two or more take part |
| diaphanous | Transparent |
| diatomic | Containing only two atoms |
| diatribe | A bitter or malicious criticism |
| dictum | A positive utterance |
| didactic | Pertaining to teaching |
| difference | Dissimilarity in any respect |
| differentia | Any essential characteristic of a species by reason of which it differs from other species |
| differential | Distinctive |
| differentiate | To acquire a distinct and separate character |
| diffidence | Self-distrust |
| diffident | Affected or possessed with self-distrust |
| diffusible | Spreading rapidly through the system and acting quickly |
| diffusion | Dispersion |
| dignitary | One who holds high rank |
| digraph | A union of two characters representing a single sound |
| digress | To turn aside from the main subject and for a time dwell on some incidental matter |
| dilapidated | p Fallen into decay or partial ruin |
| dilate | To enlarge in all directions |
| dilatory | Tending to cause delay |
| dilemma | A situation in which a choice between opposing modes of conduct is necessary |
| dilettante | A superficial amateur |
| diligence | Careful and persevering effort to accomplish what is undertaken |
| dilute | To make more fluid or less concentrated by admixture with something |
| diminution | Reduction |
| dimly | ad Obscurely |
| diphthong | The sound produced by combining two vowels in to a single syllable or running together the sounds |
| diplomacy | Tact, shrewdness, or skill in conducting any kind of negotiations or in social matters |
| diplomat | A representative of one sovereign state at the capital or court of another |
| diplomatic | Characterized by special tact in negotiations |
| diplomatist | One remarkable for tact and shrewd management |
| disagree | To be opposite in opinion |
| disallow | To withhold permission or sanction |
| disappear | To cease to exist, either actually or for the time being |
| disappoint | To fail to fulfill the expectation, hope, wish, or desire of |
| disapprove | To regard with blame |
| disarm | To deprive of weapons |
| disarrange | To throw out of order |
| disavow | To disclaim responsibility for |
| disavowal | Denial |
| disbeliever | One who refuses to believe |
| disburden | To disencumber |
| disburse | To pay out or expend, as money from a fund |
| discard | To reject |
| discernible | Perceivable |
| disciple | One who believes the teaching of another, or who adopts and follows some doctrine |
| disciplinary | Having the nature of systematic training or subjection to authority |
| discipline | To train to obedience |
| disclaim | To disavow any claim to, connection with, or responsibility to |
| discolor | To stain |
| discomfit | To put to confusion |
| discomfort | The state of being positively uncomfortable |
| disconnect | To undo or dissolve the connection or association of |
| disconsolate | Grief-stricken |
| discontinuance | Interruption or intermission |
| discord | Absence of harmoniousness |
| discountenance | To look upon with disfavor |
| discover | To get first sight or knowledge of, as something previously unknown or unperceived |
| discredit | To injure the reputation of |
| discreet | Judicious |
| discrepant | Opposite |
| discriminate | To draw a distinction |
| discursive | Passing from one subject to another |
| discussion | Debate |
| disenfranchise | To deprive of any right privilege or power |
| disengage | To become detached |
| disfavor | Disregard |
| disfigure | To impair or injure the beauty, symmetry, or appearance of |
| dishabille | Undress or negligent attire |
| dishonest | Untrustworthy |
| disillusion | To disenchant |
| disinfect | To remove or destroy the poison of infectious or contagious diseases |
| disinfectant | A substance used to destroy the germs of infectious diseases |
| disinherit | To deprive of an inheritance |
| disinterested | Impartial |
| disjunctive | Helping or serving to disconnect or separate |
| dislocate | To put out of proper place or order |
| dismissal | Displacement by authority from an office or an employment |
| dismount | To throw down, push off, or otherwise remove from a horse or the like |
| disobedience | Neglect or refusal to comply with an authoritative injunction |
| disobedient | Neglecting or refusing to obey |
| disown | To refuse to acknowledge as one's own or as connected with oneself |
| disparage | To regard or speak of slightingly |
| disparity | Inequality |
| dispel | To drive away by or as by scattering in different directions |
| dispensation | That which is bestowed on or appointed to one from a higher power |
| displace | To put out of the proper or accustomed place |
| dispossess | To deprive of actual occupancy, especially of real estate |
| disputation | Verbal controversy |
| disqualify | To debar |
| disquiet | To deprive of peace or tranquillity |
| disreputable | Dishonorable or disgraceful |
| disrepute | A bad name or character |
| disrobe | To unclothe |
| disrupt | To burst or break asunder |
| dissatisfy | To displease |
| dissect | To cut apart or to pieces |
| dissection | The act or operation of cutting in pieces, specifically of a plant or an animal |
| dissemble | To hide by pretending something different |
| disseminate | To sow or scatter abroad, as seed is sown |
| dissension | Angry or violent difference of opinion |
| dissent | Disagreement |
| dissentient | One who disagrees |
| dissentious | Contentious |
| dissertation | Thesis |
| disservice | An ill turn |
| dissever | To divide |
| dissimilar | Different |
| dissipate | To disperse or disappear |
| dissipation | The state of being dispersed or scattered |
| dissolute | Lewd |
| dissolution | A breaking up of a union of persons |
| dissolve | To liquefy or soften, as by heat or moisture |
| dissonance | Discord |
| dissonant | Harsh or disagreeable in sound |
| dissuade | To change the purpose or alter the plans of by persuasion, counsel, or pleading |
| dissuasion | The act of changing the purpose of or altering the plans of through persuasion, or pleading |
| disyllable | A word of two syllables |
| distemper | A disease or malady |
| distend | To stretch out or expand in every direction |
| distensible | Capable of being stretched out or expanded in every direction |
| distention | Expansion |
| distill | To extract or produce by vaporization and condensation |
| distillation | Separation of the more volatile parts of a substance from those less volatile |
| distiller | One occupied in the business of distilling alcoholic liquors |
| distinction | A note or designation of honor, officially recognizing superiority or success in studies |
| distort | To twist into an unnatural or irregular form |
| distrain | To subject a person to distress |
| distrainor | One who subjects a person to distress |
| distraught | Bewildered |
| distrust | Lack of confidence in the power, wisdom, or good intent of any person |
| disunion | Separation of relations or interests |
| diurnal | Daily |
| divagation | Digression |
| divergent | Tending in different directions |
| diverse | Capable of various forms |
| diversion | Pastime |
| diversity | Dissimilitude |
| divert | To turn from the accustomed course or a line of action already established |
| divertible | Able to be turned from the accustomed course or a line of action already established |
| divest | To strip, specifically of clothes, ornaments, or accouterments or disinvestment |
| divination | The pretended forecast of future events or discovery of what is lost or hidden |
| divinity | The quality or character of being godlike |
| divisible | Capable of being separated into parts |
| divisor | That by which a number or quantity is divided |
| divulge | To tell or make known, as something previously private or secret |
| divulgence | A divulging |
| docile | Easy to manage |
| docket | The registry of judgments of a court |
| doe | The female of the deer |
| dogma | A statement of religious faith or duty formulated by a body claiming authority |
| dogmatic | Making statements without argument or evidence |
| dogmatize | To make positive assertions without supporting them by argument or evidence |
| doleful | Melancholy |
| dolesome | Melancholy |
| dolor | Lamentation |
| dolorous | Expressing or causing sorrow or pain |
| domain | A sphere or field of action or interest |
| domesticity | Life in or fondness for one's home and family |
| domicile | The place where one lives |
| dominance | Ascendancy |
| dominant | Conspicuously prominent |
| dominate | To influence controllingly |
| domination | Control by the exercise of power or constituted authority |
| domineer | To rule with insolence or unnecessary annoyance |
| donate | To bestow as a gift, especially for a worthy cause |
| donator | One who makes a donation or present |
| donee | A person to whom a donation is made |
| donor | One who makes a donation or present |
| dormant | Being in a state of or resembling sleep |
| doublet | One of a pair of like things |
| doubly | ad In twofold degree or extent |
| dowry | The property which a wife brings to her husband in marriage |
| drachma | A modern and an ancient Greek coin |
| dragnet | A net to be drawn along the bottom of the water |
| dragoon | In the British army, a cavalryman |
| drainage | The means of draining collectively, as a system of conduits, trenches, pipes, etc |
| dramatist | One who writes plays |
| dramatize | To relate or represent in a dramatic or theatrical manner |
| drastic | Acting vigorously |
| drought | Dry weather, especially when so long continued as to cause vegetation to wither |
| drowsy | Heavy with sleepiness |
| drudgery | Hard and constant work in any menial or dull occupation |
| dubious | Doubtful |
| duckling | A young duck |
| ductile | Capable of being drawn out, as into wire or a thread |
| duet | A composition for two voices or instruments |
| dun | To make a demand or repeated demands on for payment |
| duplex | Having two parts |
| duplicity | Double-dealing |
| durance | Confinement |
| duration | The period of time during which anything lasts |
| duteous | Showing submission to natural superiors |
| dutiable | Subject to a duty, especially a customs duty |
| dutiful | Obedient |
| dwindle | To diminish or become less |
| dyne | The force which, applied to a mass of one gram for 1 second, would give it a velocity of 1 cm/s |
| earnest | Ardent in spirit and speech |
| earthenware | Anything made of clay and baked in a kiln or dried in the sun |
| eatable | Edible |
| ebullient | Showing enthusiasm or exhilaration of feeling |
| eccentric | Peculiar |
| eccentricity | Idiosyncrasy |
| eclipse | The obstruction of a heavenly body by its entering into the shadow of another body |
| economize | To spend sparingly |
| ecstasy | Rapturous excitement or exaltation |
| ecstatic | Enraptured |
| edible | Suitable to be eaten |
| edict | That which is uttered or proclaimed by authority as a rule of action |
| edify | To build up, or strengthen, especially in morals or religion |
| editorial | An article in a periodical written by the editor and published as an official argument |
| educe | To draw out |
| efface | To obliterate |
| effect | A consequence |
| effective | Fit for a destined purpose |
| effectual | Efficient |
| effeminacy | Womanishness |
| effeminate | Having womanish traits or qualities |
| effervesce | To bubble up |
| effervescent | Giving off bubbles of gas |
| effete | Exhausted, as having performed its functions |
| efficacious | Effective |
| efficacy | The power to produce an intended effect as shown in the production of it |
| efficiency | The state of possessing adequate skill or knowledge for the performance of a duty |
| efficient | Having and exercising the power to produce effects or results |
| efflorescence | The state of being flowery, or a flowery appearance |
| efflorescent | Opening in flower |
| effluvium | A noxious or ill-smelling exhalation from decaying or putrefying matter |
| effrontery | Unblushing impudence |
| effulgence | Splendor |
| effuse | To pour forth |
| effusion | an outpouring |
| egoism | The theory that places man's chief good in the completeness of self |
| egoist | One who advocates or practices egoism |
| egotism | Self-conceit |
| egotist | One given to self-mention or who is constantly telling of his own views and experiences |
| egregious | Extreme |
| egress | Any place of exit |
| eject | To expel |
| elapse | To quietly terminate: said of time |
| elasticity | That property of matter by which a body tends to return to a former shape after being changed |
| electrolysis | The process of decomposing a chemical compound by the passage of an electric current |
| electrotype | A metallic copy of any surface, as a coin |
| elegy | A lyric poem lamenting the dead |
| element | A component or essential part |
| elicit | To educe or extract gradually or without violence |
| eligible | Qualified for selection |
| eliminate | To separate and cast aside |
| Elizabethan | Relating to Elizabeth, queen of England, or to her era |
| elocution | The art of correct intonation, inflection, and gesture in public speaking or reading |
| eloquent | Having the ability to express emotion or feeling in lofty and impassioned speech |
| elucidate | To bring out more clearly the facts concerning |
| elude | To evade the search or pursuit of by dexterity or artifice |
| elusion | Evasion |
| emaciate | To waste away in flesh |
| emanate | To flow forth or proceed, as from some source |
| emancipate | To release from bondage |
| embargo | Authoritative stoppage of foreign commerce or of any special trade |
| embark | To make a beginning in some occupation or scheme |
| embarrass | To render flustered or agitated |
| embellish | To make beautiful or elegant by adding attractive or ornamental features |
| embezzle | To misappropriate secretly |
| emblazon | To set forth publicly or in glowing terms |
| emblem | A symbol |
| embody | To express, formulate, or exemplify in a concrete, compact or visible form |
| embolden | To give courage to |
| embolism | An obstruction or plugging up of an artery or other blood-vessel |
| embroil | To involve in dissension or strife |
| emerge | To come into view or into existence |
| emergence | A coming into view |
| emergent | Coming into view |
| emeritus | Retired from active service but retained to an honorary position |
| emigrant | One who moves from one place to settle in another |
| emigrate | To go from one country, state, or region for the purpose of settling or residing in another |
| eminence | An elevated position with respect to rank, place, character, condition, etc |
| eminent | High in station, merit, or esteem |
| emit | To send or give out |
| emphasis | Any special impressiveness added to an utterance or act, or stress laid upon some word |
| emphasize | To articulate or enunciate with special impressiveness upon a word, or a group of words |
| emphatic | Spoken with any special impressiveness laid upon an act, word, or set of words |
| employee | One who works for wages or a salary |
| employer | One who uses or engages the services of other persons for pay |
| emporium | A bazaar or shop |
| empower | To delegate authority to |
| emulate | To imitate with intent to equal or surpass |
| enact | To make into law, as by legislative act |
| enamor | To inspire with ardent love |
| encamp | To pitch tents for a resting-place |
| encomium | A formal or discriminating expression of praise |
| encompass | To encircle |
| encore | The call for a repetition, as of some part of a play or performance |
| encourage | To inspire with courage, hope, or strength of mind |
| encroach | To invade partially or insidiously and appropriate the possessions of another |
| encumber | To impede with obstacles |
| encyclical | Intended for general circulation |
| encyclopedia | A work containing information on subjects, or exhaustive of one subject |
| endanger | To expose to peril |
| endear | To cause to be loved |
| endemic | Peculiar to some specified country or people |
| endue | To endow with some quality, gift, or grace, usually spiritual |
| endurable | Tolerable |
| endurance | The ability to suffer pain, distress, hardship, or stress of any kind without succumbing |
| energetic | Working vigorously |
| enervate | To render ineffective or inoperative |
| enfeeble | To debilitate |
| enfranchise | To endow with a privilege, especially with the right to vote |
| engender | To produce |
| engrave | To cut or carve in or upon some surface |
| engross | To occupy completely |
| enhance | To intensify |
| enigma | A riddle |
| enjoin | To command |
| enkindle | To set on fire |
| enlighten | To cause to see clearly |
| enlist | To enter voluntarily the military service by formal enrollment |
| enmity | Hatred |
| ennoble | To dignify |
| enormity | Immensity |
| enormous | Gigantic |
| enrage | To infuriate |
| enrapture | To delight extravagantly or intensely |
| enshrine | To keep sacred |
| ensnare | To entrap |
| entail | To involve; necessitate |
| entangle | To involve in difficulties, confusion, or complications |
| enthrall | To bring or hold under any overmastering influence |
| enthrone | To invest with sovereign power |
| enthuse | To yield to or display intense and rapturous feeling |
| enthusiastic | Full of zeal and fervor |
| entirety | A complete thing |
| entomology | The branch of zoology that treats of insects |
| entrails | The internal parts of an animal |
| entreaty | An earnest request |
| entree | The act of entering |
| entrench | To fortify or protect, as with a trench or ditch and wall |
| entwine | To interweave |
| enumerate | To name one by one |
| epic | A poem celebrating in formal verse the mythical achievements of great personages, heroes, etc |
| epicure | One who cultivates a delicate taste for eating and drinking |
| Epicurean | Indulging, ministering, or pertaining to daintiness of appetite |
| epicycle | A circle that rolls upon the external or internal circumference of another circle |
| epicycloid | A curve traced by a point on the circumference of a circle which rolls upon another circle |
| epidemic | Wide-spread occurrence of a disease in a certain region |
| epidermis | The outer skin |
| epigram | A pithy phrasing of a shrewd observation |
| epilogue | The close of a narrative or dramatic poem |
| epiphany | Any appearance or bodily manifestation of a deity |
| episode | An incident or story in a literary work, separable from yet growing out of it |
| epitaph | An inscription on a tomb or monument in honor or in memory of the dead |
| epithet | Word used adjectivally to describe some quality or attribute of is objects, as in "Father Aeneas" |
| epizootic | Prevailing among animals |
| epoch | A interval of time, memorable for extraordinary events |
| epode | A species of lyric poems |
| equalize | To render uniform |
| equanimity | Evenness of mind or temper |
| equestrian | Pertaining to horses or horsemanship |
| equilibrium | A state of balance |
| equitable | Characterized by fairness |
| equity | Fairness or impartiality |
| equivalent | Equal in value, force, meaning, or the like |
| equivocal | Ambiguous |
| equivocate | To use words of double meaning |
| eradicate | To destroy thoroughly |
| errant | Roving or wandering, as in search of adventure or opportunity for gallant deeds |
| erratic | Irregular |
| erroneous | Incorrect |
| erudite | Very-learned |
| erudition | Extensive knowledge of literature, history, language, etc |
| eschew | To keep clear of |
| espy | To keep close watch |
| esquire | A title of dignity, office, or courtesy |
| essence | That which makes a thing to be what it is |
| esthetic | Pertaining to beauty, taste, or the fine arts |
| estimable | Worthy of respect |
| estrange | To alienate |
| estuary | A wide lower part of a tidal river |
| et | cetera Lati And so forth |
| eugenic | Relating to the development and improvement of race |
| eulogize | To speak or write a laudation of a person's life or character |
| eulogy | A spoken or written laudation of a person's life or character |
| euphemism | A figure of speech by which a phrase less offensive is substituted |
| euphonious | Characterized by agreeableness of sound |
| euphony | Agreeableness of sound |
| eureka | Gree I have found it |
| evade | To avoid by artifice |
| evanesce | To vanish gradually |
| evanescent | Fleeting |
| evangelical | Seeking the conversion of sinners |
| evangelist | A preacher who goes from place to place holding services |
| evasion | Escape |
| eventual | Ultimate |
| evert | To turn inside out |
| evict | To dispossess pursuant to judicial decree |
| evidential | Indicative |
| evince | To make manifest or evident |
| evoke | To call or summon forth |
| evolution | Development or growth |
| evolve | To unfold or expand |
| exacerbate | To make more sharp, severe, or virulent |
| exaggerate | To overstate |
| exasperate | To excite great anger in |
| excavate | To remove by digging or scooping out |
| exceed | To go beyond, as in measure, quality, value, action, power, skill, etc |
| excel | To be superior or distinguished |
| excellence | Possession of eminently or unusually good qualities |
| excellency | A title of honor bestowed upon various high officials |
| excellent | Possessing distinguished merit |
| excerpt | An extract or selection from written or printed matter |
| excess | That which passes the ordinary, proper, or required limit, measure, or experience |
| excitable | Nervously high-strung |
| excitation | Intensified emotion or action |
| exclamation | An abrupt or emphatic expression of thought or of feeling |
| exclude | To shut out purposely or forcibly |
| exclusion | Non-admission |
| excrescence | Any unnatural addition, outgrowth, or development |
| excretion | The getting rid of waste matter |
| excruciate | To inflict severe pain or agony upon |
| excursion | A journey |
| excusable | Justifiable |
| execrable | Abominable |
| execration | An accursed thing |
| executor | A person nominated by the will of another to execute the will |
| exegesis | Biblical exposition or interpretation |
| exemplar | A model, pattern, or original to be copied or imitated |
| exemplary | Fitted to serve as a model or example worthy of imitation |
| exemplify | To show by example |
| exempt | Free, clear, or released, as from some liability, or restriction affecting others |
| exert | To make an effort |
| exhale | To breathe forth |
| exhaust | To empty by draining off the contents |
| exhaustible | Causing or tending to cause exhaustion |
| exhaustion | Deprivation of strength or energy |
| exhaustive | Thorough and complete in execution |
| exhilarate | To fill with high or cheerful spirits |
| exhume | To dig out of the earth (what has been buried) |
| exigency | A critical period or condition |
| exigent | Urgent |
| existence | Possession or continuance of being |
| exit | A way or passage out |
| exodus | A going forth or departure from a place or country, especially of many people |
| exonerate | To relieve or vindicate from accusation, imputation, or blame |
| exorbitance | Extravagance or enormity |
| exorbitant | Going beyond usual and proper limits |
| exorcise | To cast or drive out by religious or magical means |
| exotic | Foreign |
| expand | To increase in range or scope |
| expanse | A continuous area or stretch |
| expansion | Increase of amount, size, scope, or the like |
| expatriate | To drive from one's own country |
| expect | To look forward to as certain or probable |
| expectancy | The act or state of looking forward to as certain or probable |
| expectorate | To cough up and spit forth |
| expediency | Fitness to meet the requirements of a particular case |
| expedient | Contributing to personal advantage |
| expedite | To hasten the movement or progress of |
| expeditious | Speedy |
| expend | To spend |
| expense | The laying out or expending or money or other resources, as time or strength |
| expiate | To make satisfaction or amends for |
| explicate | To clear from involvement |
| explicit | Definite |
| explode | To cause to burst in pieces by force from within |
| explosion | A sudden and violent outbreak |
| explosive | Pertaining to a sudden and violent outbreak |
| exposition | Formal presentation |
| expository | Pertaining to a formal presentation |
| expostulate | To discuss |
| exposure | An open situation or position in relation to the sun, elements, or points of the compass |
| expressive | Full of meaning |
| expulsion | Forcible ejection |
| extant | Still existing and known |
| extemporaneous | Done or made without much or any preparation |
| extempore | ad Without studied or special preparation |
| extensible | Capable of being thrust out |
| extension | A reaching or stretching out, as in space, time or scope |
| extensive | Extended widely in space, time, or scope |
| extensor | A muscle that causes extension |
| extenuate | To diminish the gravity or importance of |
| exterior | That which is outside |
| external | Anything relating or belonging to the outside |
| extinct | Being no longer in existence |
| extinguish | To render extinct |
| extol | To praise in the highest terms |
| extort | To obtain by violence, threats, compulsion, or the subjection of another to some necessity |
| extortion | The practice of obtaining by violence or compulsion |
| extradite | To surrender the custody of |
| extradition | The surrender by a government of a person accused of crime to the justice of another government |
| extrajudicial | Happening out of court |
| extraneous | Having no essential relation to a subject |
| extraordinary | Unusual |
| extravagance | Undue expenditure of money |
| extravagant | Needlessly free or lavish in expenditure |
| extremist | One who supports extreme measures or holds extreme views |
| extremity | The utmost point, side, or border, or that farthest removed from a mean position |
| extricate | Disentangle |
| extrude | To drive out or away |
| exuberance | Rich supply |
| exuberant | Marked by great plentifulness |
| fabricate | To invent fancifully or falsely |
| fabulous | Incredible |
| facet | One of the small triangular plane surfaces of a diamond or other gem |
| facetious | Amusing |
| facial | Pertaining to the face |
| facile | Not difficult to do |
| facilitate | To make more easy |
| facility | Ease |
| facsimile | An exact copy or reproduction |
| faction | A number of persons combined for a common purpose |
| factious | Turbulent |
| fallacious | Illogical |
| fallacy | Any unsound or delusive mode of reasoning, or anything based on such reasoning |
| fallible | Capable of erring |
| fallow | Land broken up and left to become mellow or to rest |
| famish | To suffer extremity of hunger or thirst |
| fanatic | A religious zealot |
| fancier | One having a taste for or interest in special objects |
| fanciless | Unimaginative |
| fastidious | Hard to please |
| fathom | A measure of length, 6 feet |
| fatuous | Idiotic |
| faulty | Imperfect |
| faun | One of a class of deities of the woods and herds represented as half human, with goats feet |
| fawn | A young deer |
| fealty | Loyalty |
| feasible | That may be done, performed, or effected; practicable |
| federate | To league together |
| feint | Any sham, pretense, or deceptive movement |
| felicitate | To wish joy or happiness to, especially in view of a coming event |
| felicity | A state of well-founded happiness |
| felon | A criminal or depraved person |
| felonious | Showing criminal or evil purpose |
| felony | One of the highest class of offenses, and punishable with death or imprisonment |
| feminine | Characteristic of woman or womankind |
| fernery | A place in which ferns are grown |
| ferocious | Of a wild, fierce, and savage nature |
| ferocity | Savageness |
| fervent | Ardent in feeling |
| fervid | Intense |
| fervor | Ardor or intensity of feeling |
| festal | Joyous |
| festive | Merry |
| fete | A festival or feast |
| fetus | The young in the womb or in the egg |
| feudal | Pertaining to the relation of lord and vassal |
| feudalism | The feudal system |
| fez | A brimless felt cap in the shape of a truncated cone, usually red with a black tassel |
| fiasco | A complete or humiliating failure |
| fickle | Unduly changeable in feeling, judgment, or purpose |
| fictitious | Created or formed by the imagination |
| fidelity | Loyalty |
| fiducial | Indicative of faith or trust |
| fief | A landed estate held under feudal tenure |
| filibuster | One who attempts to obstruct legislation |
| finale | Concluding performance |
| finality | The state or quality of being final or complete |
| finally | ad At last |
| financial | Monetary |
| financier | One skilled in or occupied with financial affairs or operations |
| finery | That which is used to decorate the person or dress |
| finesse | Subtle contrivance used to gain a point |
| finite | Limited |
| fiscal | Pertaining to the treasury or public finances of a government |
| fishmonger | One who sells fish |
| fissure | A crack or crack-like depression |
| fitful | Spasmodic |
| fixture | One who or that which is expected to remain permanently in its position |
| flag-officer | The captain of a flag-ship |
| flagrant | Openly scandalous |
| flamboyant | Characterized by extravagance and in general by want of good taste |
| flatulence | Accumulation of gas in the stomach and bowels |
| flection | The act of bending |
| fledgling | A young bird |
| flexible | Pliable |
| flimsy | Thin and weak |
| flippant | Having a light, pert, trifling disposition |
| floe | A collection of tabular masses of floating polar ice |
| flora | The aggregate of plants growing without cultivation in a district |
| floral | Pertaining to flowers |
| florid | Flushed with red |
| florist | A dealer in flowers |
| fluctuate | To pass backward and forward irregularly from one state or degree to another |
| fluctuation | Frequent irregular change back and forth from one state or degree to another |
| flue | A smoke-duct in a chimney |
| fluent | Having a ready or easy flow of words or ideas |
| fluential | Pertaining to streams |
| flux | A state of constant movement, change, or renewal |
| foggy | Obscure |
| foible | A personal weakness or failing |
| foist | To palm off |
| foliage | Any growth of leaves |
| folio | A sheet of paper folded once, or of a size adapted to folding once |
| folk-lore | The traditions, beliefs, and customs of the common people |
| fondle | To handle tenderly and lovingly |
| foolery | Folly |
| foot-note | A note of explanation or comment at the foot of a page or column |
| foppery | Dandyism |
| foppish | Characteristic of one who is unduly devoted to dress and the niceties of manners |
| forbearance | Patient endurance or toleration of offenses |
| forby | ad Besides |
| forcible | Violent |
| forecourt | A court opening directly from the street |
| forejudge | To judge of before hearing evidence |
| forepeak | The extreme forward part of a ship's hold, under the lowest deck |
| foreshore | That part of a shore uncovered at low tide |
| forebode | To be an omen or warning sign of, especially of evil |
| forecast | To predict |
| forecastle | That part of the upper deck of a ship forward of the after fore-shrouds |
| foreclose | To bar by judicial proceedings the equitable right of a mortgagor to redeem property |
| forefather | An ancestor |
| forego | To deny oneself the pleasure or profit of |
| foreground | That part of a landscape or picture situated or represented as nearest the spectator |
| forehead | The upper part of the face, between the eyes and the hair |
| foreign | Belonging to, situated in, or derived from another country |
| foreigner | A citizen of a foreign country |
| foreknowledge | Prescience |
| foreman | The head man |
| foreordain | To predetermine |
| foreordination | Predestination |
| forerun | To go before as introducing or ushering in |
| foresail | A square sail |
| foresee | To discern beforehand |
| foresight | Provision against harm or need |
| foretell | To predict |
| forethought | Premeditation |
| forfeit | To lose possession of through failure to fulfill some obligation |
| forfend | To ward off |
| forgery | Counterfeiting |
| forgo | To deny oneself |
| formation | Relative disposition of parts |
| formidable | Difficult to accomplish |
| formula | Fixed rule or set form |
| forswear | To renounce upon oath |
| forte | A strong point |
| forth | ad Into notice or view |
| forthright | ad With directness |
| fortify | To provide with defensive works |
| fortitude | Patient courage |
| foursome | Consisting of four |
| fracture | A break |
| fragile | Easily broken |
| frailty | Liability to be broken or destroyed |
| fragile | Capable of being broken |
| frankincense | A gum or resin which on burning yields aromatic fumes |
| frantic | Frenzied |
| fraternal | Brotherly |
| fraudulence | Deceitfulness |
| fraudulent | Counterfeit |
| fray | To fret at the edge so as to loosen or break the threads |
| freemason | A member of an ancient secret fraternity originally confined to skilled artisans |
| freethinker | One who rejects authority or inspiration in religion |
| free | trade Commerce unrestricted by tariff or customs |
| frequency | The comparative number of any kind of occurrences within a given time or space |
| fresco | The art of painting on a surface of plaster, particularly on walls and ceilings |
| freshness | The state, quality, or degree of being fresh |
| fretful | Disposed to peevishness |
| frightful | Apt to induce terror or alarm |
| frigid | Lacking warmth |
| frigidarium | A room kept at a low temperature for preserving fruits, meat, etc |
| frivolity | A trifling act, thought, saying, or practice |
| frivolous | Trivial |
| frizz | To give a crinkled, fluffy appearance to |
| frizzle | To cause to crinkle or curl, as the hair |
| frolicsome | Prankish |
| frontier | The part of a nation's territory that abuts upon another country |
| frowzy | Slovenly in appearance |
| frugal | Economical |
| fruition | Fulfillment |
| fugacious | Fleeting |
| fulcrum | The support on or against which a lever rests, or the point about which it turns |
| fulminate | To cause to explode |
| fulsome | Offensive from excess of praise or commendation |
| fumigate | To subject to the action of smoke or fumes, especially for disinfection |
| functionary | An official |
| fundamental | Basal |
| fungible | That may be measured, counted, or weighed |
| fungous | Spongy |
| fungus | A plant destitute of chlorophyll, as a mushroom |
| furbish | To restore brightness or beauty to |
| furlong | A measure, one-eighth of a mile |
| furlough | A temporary absence of a soldier or sailor by permission of the commanding officer |
| furrier | A dealer in or maker of fur goods |
| further | More distant or advanced |
| furtherance | Advancement |
| furtive | Stealthy or sly, like the actions of a thief |
| fuse | To unite or blend as by melting together |
| fusible | Capable of being melted by heat |
| futile | Of no avail or effect |
| futurist | A person of expectant temperament |
| gauge | An instrument for measuring |
| gaiety | Festivity |
| gaily | ad Merrily |
| gait | Carriage of the body in going |
| gallant | Possessing a brave or chivalrous spirit |
| galore | Abundant |
| galvanic | Pertaining or relating to electricity produced by chemical action |
| galvanism | Current electricity, especially that arising from chemical action |
| galvanize | To imbue with life or animation |
| gamble | To risk money or other possession on an event, chance, or contingency |
| gambol | Playful leaping or frisking |
| gamester | A gambler |
| gamut | The whole range or sequence |
| garnish | In cookery, to surround with additions for embellishment |
| garrison | The military force stationed in a fort, town, or other place for its defense |
| garrote | To execute by strangling |
| garrulous | Given to constant trivial talking |
| gaseous | Light and unsubstantial |
| gastric | Of, pertaining to, or near the stomach |
| gastritis | Inflammation of the stomach |
| gastronomy | The art of preparing and serving appetizing food |
| gendarme | In continental Europe, particularly in France, a uniformed and armed police officer |
| genealogy | A list, in the order of succession, of ancestors and their descendants |
| genealogist | A tracer of pedigrees |
| generality | The principal portion |
| generalize | To draw general inferences |
| generally | ad Ordinarily |
| generate | To produce or cause to be |
| generic | Noting a genus or kind; opposed to specific |
| generosity | A disposition to give liberally or to bestow favors heartily |
| genesis | Creation |
| geniality | Warmth and kindliness of disposition |
| genital | Of or pertaining to the animal reproductive organs |
| genitive | Indicating source, origin, possession, or the like |
| genteel | Well-bred or refined |
| gentile | Belonging to a people not Jewish |
| geology | The department of natural science that treats of the constitution and structure of the earth |
| germane | Relevant |
| germinate | To begin to develop into an embryo or higher form |
| gestation | Pregnancy |
| gesticulate | To make gestures or motions, as in speaking, or in place of speech |
| gesture | A movement or action of the hands or face, expressive of some idea or emotion |
| ghastly | Hideous |
| gibe | To utter taunts or reproaches |
| giddy | Affected with a whirling or swimming sensation in the head |
| gigantic | Tremendous |
| giver | One who gives, in any sense |
| glacial | Icy, or icily cold |
| glacier | A field or stream of ice |
| gladden | To make joyous |
| glazier | One who cuts and fits panes of glass, as for windows |
| glimmer | A faint, wavering, unsteady light |
| glimpse | A momentary look |
| globose | Spherical |
| globular | Spherical |
| glorious | Of excellence and splendor |
| glutinous | Sticky |
| gluttonous | Given to excess in eating |
| gnash | To grind or strike the teeth together, as from rage |
| Gordian | knot Any difficulty the only issue out of which is by bold or unusual manners |
| gourmand | A connoisseur in the delicacies of the table |
| gosling | A young goose |
| gossamer | Flimsy |
| gourd | A melon, pumpkin, squash, or some similar fruit having a hard rind |
| graceless | Ungracious |
| gradation | A step, degree, rank, or relative position in an order or series |
| gradient | Moving or advancing by steps |
| granary | A storehouse for grain after it is thrashed or husked |
| grandeur | The quality of being grand or admirably great |
| grandiloquent | Speaking in or characterized by a pompous or bombastic style |
| grandiose | Having an imposing style or effect |
| grantee | The person to whom property is transferred by deed |
| grantor | The maker of a deed |
| granular | Composed of small grains or particles |
| granulate | To form into grains or small particles |
| granule | A small grain or particle |
| grapple | To take hold of |
| gratification | Satisfaction |
| gratify | To please, as by satisfying a physical or mental desire or need |
| gratuitous | Voluntarily |
| gratuity | That which is given without demand or claim Tip |
| gravity | Seriousness |
| gregarious | Not habitually solitary or living alone |
| grenadier | A member of a regiment composed of men of great stature |
| grief | Sorrow |
| grievance | That which oppresses, injures, or causes grief and at the same time a sense of wrong |
| grievous | Creating affliction |
| grimace | A distortion of the features, occasioned by some feeling of pain, disgust, etc |
| grindstone | A flat circular stone, used for sharpening tools |
| grisly | Fear-inspiring |
| grotesque | Incongruously composed or ill-proportioned |
| grotto | A small cavern |
| ground | A pavement or floor or any supporting surface on which one may walk |
| guess | Surmise |
| guile | Duplicity |
| guileless | Frank |
| guinea | An English monetary unit |
| guise | The external appearance as produced by garb or costume |
| gullible | Credulous |
| gumption | Common sense |
| gusto | Keen enjoyment |
| guy | Stay-rope |
| guzzle | To swallow greedily or hastily; gulp |
| gynecocracy | Female supremacy |
| gynecology | The science that treats of the functions and diseases peculiar to women |
| gyrate | To revolve |
| gyroscope | An instrument for illustrating the laws of rotation |
| habitable | Fit to be dwelt in |
| habitant | Dweller |
| habitual | According to usual practice |
| habitude | Customary relation or association |
| hackney | To make stale or trite by repetition |
| haggard | Worn and gaunt in appearance |
| halcyon | Calm |
| hale | Of sound and vigorous health |
| handwriting | Penmanship |
| hanger-on | A parasite |
| happy-go-lucky | Improvident |
| harangue | A tirade |
| harass | To trouble with importunities, cares, or annoyances |
| harbinger | One who or that which foreruns and announces the coming of any person or thing |
| hard-hearted | Lacking pity or sympathy |
| hardihood | Foolish daring |
| harmonious | Concordant in sound |
| havoc | Devastation |
| hawthorn | A thorny shrub much used in England for hedges |
| hazard | Risk |
| head | first ad Precipitately, as in diving |
| head | foremost ad Precipitately, as in diving |
| heartrending | Very depressing |
| heathenish | Irreligious |
| heedless | Thoughtless |
| heifer | A young cow |
| heinous | Odiously sinful |
| hemorrhage | Discharge of blood from a ruptured or wounded blood-vessel |
| hemorrhoids | Tumors composed of enlarged and thickened blood-vessels, at the lower end of the rectum |
| henchman | A servile assistant and subordinate |
| henpeck | To worry or harass by ill temper and petty annoyances |
| heptagon | A figure having seven sides and seven angles |
| heptarchy | A group of seven governments |
| herbaceous | Having the character of a herb |
| herbarium | A collection of dried plants scientifically arranged for study |
| herbivorous | Feeding on herbs or other vegetable matter, as animals |
| hereditary | Passing naturally from parent to child |
| heredity | Transmission of physical or mental qualities, diseases, etc, from parent to offspring |
| heresy | An opinion or doctrine subversive of settled beliefs or accepted principles |
| heretic | One who holds opinions contrary to the recognized standards or tenets of any philosophy |
| heritage | Birthright |
| hernia | Protrusion of any internal organ in whole or in part from its normal position |
| hesitancy | A pausing to consider |
| hesitant | Vacillating |
| hesitation | Vacillation |
| heterodox | At variance with any commonly accepted doctrine or opinion |
| heterogeneity | Unlikeness of constituent parts |
| heterogeneous | Consisting of dissimilar elements or ingredients of different kinds |
| heteromorphic | Deviating from the normal form or standard type |
| hexangular | Having six angles |
| hexapod | Having six feet |
| hexagon | A figure with six angles |
| hiatus | A break or vacancy where something necessary to supply the connection is wanting |
| hibernal | Pertaining to winter |
| Hibernian | Pertaining to Ireland, or its people |
| hideous | Appalling |
| hilarious | Boisterously merry |
| hillock | A small hill or mound |
| hinder | To obstruct |
| hindmost | Farthest from the front |
| hindrance | An obstacle |
| hirsute | Having a hairy covering |
| hoard | To gather and store away for the sake of accumulation |
| hoarse | Having the voice harsh or rough, as from a cold or fatigue |
| homage | Reverential regard or worship |
| homogeneity | Congruity of the members or elements or parts |
| homogeneous | Made up of similar parts or elements |
| homologous | Identical in nature, make-up, or relation |
| homonym | A word agreeing in sound with but different in meaning from another |
| homophone | A word agreeing in sound with but different in meaning from another |
| honorarium | A token fee or payment to a professional man for services |
| hoodwink | To deceive |
| horde | A gathered multitude of human beings |
| hosiery | A stocking |
| hospitable | Disposed to treat strangers or guests with generous kindness |
| hospitality | The practice of receiving and entertaining strangers and guests with kindness |
| hostility | Enmity |
| huckster | One who retails small wares |
| humane | Compassionate |
| humanitarian | A philanthropist |
| humanize | To make gentle or refined |
| humbug | Anything intended or calculated to deceive or mislead |
| humiliate | To put to shame |
| hussar | A light-horse trooper armed with saber and carbine |
| hustle | To move with haste and promptness |
| hybrid | Cross-bred |
| hydra | The seven- or nine-headed water-serpent slain by Hercules |
| hydraulic | Involving the moving of water, of the force exerted by water in motion |
| hydrodynamics | The branch of mechanics that treats of the dynamics of fluids |
| hydroelectric | Pertaining to electricity developed water or steam |
| hydromechanics | The mechanics of fluids |
| hydrometer | An instrument for determining the density of solids and liquids by flotation |
| hydrostatics | The branch of science that treats of the pressure and equilibrium of fluids |
| hydrous | Watery |
| hygiene | The branch of medical science that relates to improving health |
| hypercritical | Faultfinding |
| hypnosis | An artificial trance-sleep |
| hypnotic | Tending to produce sleep |
| hypnotism | An artificially induced somnambulistic state in which the mind readily acts on suggestion |
| hypnotize | To produce a somnambulistic state in which the mind readily acts on suggestions |
| hypocrisy | Extreme insincerity |
| hypocrite | One who makes false professions of his views or beliefs |
| hypodermic | Pertaining to the area under the skin |
| hypotenuse | The side of a right-angled triangle opposite the right angle |
| hypothesis | A proposition taken for granted as a premise from which to reach a conclusion |
| hysteria | A nervous affection occurring typically in paroxysms of laughing and crying |
| ichthyic | Fish-like |
| ichthyology | The branch of zoology that treats of fishes |
| ichthyosaurs | A fossil reptile |
| icily | ad Frigidly |
| iciness | The state of being icy |
| icon | An image or likeness |
| iconoclast | An image-breaker |
| idealize | To make to conform to some mental or imaginary standard |
| idiom | A use of words peculiar to a particular language |
| idiosyncrasy | A mental quality or habit peculiar to an individual |
| idolize | To regard with inordinate love or admiration |
| ignoble | Low in character or purpose |
| ignominious | Shameful |
| Iliad | A Greek epic poem describing scenes from the siege of Troy |
| illegal | Not according to law |
| illegible | Undecipherable |
| illegitimate | Unlawfully begotten |
| illiberal | Stingy |
| illicit | Unlawful |
| illimitable | Boundless |
| illiterate | Having little or no book-learning |
| ill-natured | Surly |
| illogical | Contrary to the rules of sound thought |
| illuminant | That which may be used to produce light |
| illuminate | To supply with light |
| illumine | To make bright or clear |
| illusion | An unreal image presented to the senses |
| illusive | Deceptive |
| illusory | Deceiving or tending to deceive, as by false appearance |
| imaginable | That can be imagined or conceived in the mind |
| imaginary | Fancied |
| imbibe | To drink or take in |
| imbroglio | A misunderstanding attended by ill feeling, perplexity, or strife |
| imbrue | To wet or moisten |
| imitation | That which is made as a likeness or copy |
| imitator | One who makes in imitation |
| immaculate | Without spot or blemish |
| immaterial | Of no essential consequence |
| immature | Not full-grown |
| immeasurable | Indefinitely extensive |
| immense | Very great in degree, extent, size, or quantity |
| immerse | To plunge or dip entirely under water or other fluid |
| immersion | The act of plunging or dipping entirely under water or another fluid |
| immigrant | A foreigner who enters a country to settle there |
| immigrate | To come into a country or region from a former habitat |
| imminence | Impending evil or danger |
| imminent | Dangerous and close at hand |
| immiscible | Separating, as oil and water |
| immoral | Habitually engaged in licentious or lewd practices |
| immortalize | To cause to last or to be known or remembered throughout a great or indefinite length of time |
| immovable | Steadfast |
| immune | Exempt, as from disease |
| immutable | Unchangeable |
| impair | To cause to become less or worse |
| impalpable | Imperceptible to the touch |
| impartial | Unbiased |
| impassable | That can not be passed through or over |
| impassible | Not moved or affected by feeling |
| impassive | Unmoved by or not exhibiting feeling |
| impatience | Unwillingness to brook delays or wait the natural course of things |
| impeccable | Blameless |
| impecunious | Having no money |
| impede | To be an obstacle or to place obstacles in the way of |
| impel | To drive or urge forward |
| impend | To be imminent |
| imperative | Obligatory |
| imperceptible | Indiscernible |
| imperfectible | That can not be perfected |
| imperil | To endanger |
| imperious | Insisting on obedience |
| impermissible | Not permissible |
| impersonal | Not relating to a particular person or thing |
| impersonate | To appear or act in the character of |
| impersuadable | Unyielding |
| impertinence | Rudeness |
| imperturbable | Calm |
| impervious | Impenetrable |
| impetuosity | Rashness |
| impetuous | Impulsive |
| impetus | Any impulse or incentive |
| impiety | Irreverence toward God |
| impious | Characterized by irreverence or irreligion |
| implausible | Not plausible |
| impliable | Capable of being inferred |
| implicate | To show or prove to be involved in or concerned |
| implicit | Implied |
| imply | To signify |
| impolitic | Inexpedient |
| importation | The act or practice of bringing from one country into another |
| importunate | Urgent in character, request, or demand |
| importune | To harass with persistent demands or entreaties |
| impotent | Destitute of or lacking in power, physical, moral, or intellectual |
| impoverish | To make indigent or poor |
| impracticable | Not feasible |
| impregnable | That can not be taken by assault |
| impregnate | To make pregnant |
| impromptu | Anything done or said on the impulse of the moment |
| improper | Not appropriate, suitable, or becoming |
| impropriety | The state or quality of being unfit, unseemly, or inappropriate |
| improvident | Lacking foresight or thrift |
| improvise | To do anything extemporaneously or offhand |
| imprudent | Heedless |
| impudence | Insolent disrespect |
| impugn | To assail with arguments, insinuations, or accusations |
| impulsion | Impetus |
| impulsive | Unpremeditated |
| impunity | Freedom from punishment |
| impure | Tainted |
| impute | To attribute |
| inaccessible | Difficult of approach |
| inaccurate | Not exactly according to the facts |
| inactive | Inert |
| inadequate | Insufficient |
| inadmissible | Not to be approved, considered, or allowed, as testimony |
| inadvertent | Accidental |
| inadvisable | Unadvisable |
| inane | Silly |
| inanimate | Destitute of animal life |
| inapprehensible | Not to be understood |
| inapt | Awkward or slow |
| inarticulate | Speechless |
| inaudible | That can not be heard |
| inborn | Implanted by nature |
| inbred | Innate |
| incandescence | The state of being white or glowing with heat |
| incandescent | White or glowing with heat |
| incapacitate | To deprive of power, capacity, competency, or qualification |
| incapacity | Want of power to apprehend, understand, and manage |
| incarcerate | To imprison |
| incendiary | Chemical or person who starts a fire-literally or figuratively |
| incentive | That which moves the mind or inflames the passions |
| inception | The beginning |
| inceptive | Beginning |
| incessant | Unceasing |
| inchmeal | ad Piecemeal |
| inchoate | Incipient |
| inchoative | That which begins, or expresses beginning |
| incidence | Casual occurrence |
| incident | A happening in general, especially one of little importance |
| incidentally | ad Without intention |
| incinerate | To reduce to ashes |
| incipience | Beginning |
| incipient | Initial |
| incisor | A front or cutting tooth |
| incite | To rouse to a particular action |
| incitement | That which moves to action, or serves as an incentive or stimulus |
| incoercible | Incapable of being forced, constrained, or compelled |
| incoherence | Want of connection, or agreement, as of parts or ideas in thought, speech, etc |
| incoherent | Not logically coordinated, as to parts, elements, or details |
| incombustible | That can not be burned |
| incomparable | Matchless |
| incompatible | Discordant |
| incompetence | General lack of capacity or fitness |
| incompetent | Not having the abilities desired or necessary for any purpose |
| incomplete | Lacking some element, part, or adjunct necessary or required |
| incomprehensible | Not understandable |
| incompressible | Resisting all attempts to reduce volume by pressure |
| inconceivable | Incomprehensible |
| incongruous | Unsuitable for the time, place, or occasion |
| inconsequential | Valueless |
| inconsiderable | Small in quantity or importance |
| inconsistent | Contradictory |
| inconstant | Changeable |
| incontrovertible | Indisputable |
| inconvenient | Interfering with comfort or progress |
| indefensible | Untenable |
| indefinitely | ad In a vague or uncertain way |
| indelible | That can not be blotted out, effaced, destroyed, or removed |
| indescribable | That can not be described |
| indestructible | That can not be destroyed |
| indicant | That which points out |
| indicator | One who or that which points out |
| indict | To find and declare chargeable with crime |
| indigence | Poverty |
| indigenous | Native |
| indigent | Poor |
| indigestible | Not digestible, or difficult to digest |
| indigestion | Difficulty or failure in the alimentary canal in changing food into absorptive nutriment |
| indignant | Having such anger and scorn as is aroused by meanness or wickedness |
| indignity | Unmerited contemptuous conduct or treatment |
| indiscernible | Not perceptible |
| indiscreet | Lacking wise judgment |
| indiscriminate | Promiscuous |
| indispensable | Necessary or requisite for the purpose |
| indistinct | Vague |
| indivertible | That can not be turned aside |
| indivisible | Not separable into parts |
| indolence | Laziness |
| indolent | Habitually inactive or idle |
| indomitable | Unconquerable |
| induct | To bring in |
| indulgence | The yielding to inclination, passion, desire, or propensity in oneself or another |
| indulgent | Yielding to the desires or humor of oneself or those under one's care |
| inebriate | To intoxicate |
| inedible | Not good for food |
| ineffable | Unutterable |
| inefficient | Not accomplishing an intended purpose |
| inefficiency | That which does not accomplish an intended purpose |
| ineligible | Not suitable to be selected or chosen |
| inept | Not fit or suitable |
| inert | Inanimate |
| inestimable | Above price |
| inevitable | Unavoidable |
| inexcusable | Not to be justified |
| inexhaustible | So large or furnishing so great a supply as not to be emptied, wasted, or spent |
| inexorable | Unrelenting |
| inexpedient | Unadvisable |
| inexpensive | Low-priced |
| inexperience | Lack of or deficiency in experience |
| inexplicable | Such as can not be made plain |
| inexpressible | Unutterable |
| inextensible | Of unchangeable length or area |
| infallible | Exempt from error of judgment, as in opinion or statement |
| infamous | Publicly branded or notorious, as for vice, or crime |
| infamy | Total loss or destitution of honor or reputation |
| inference | The derivation of a judgment from any given material of knowledge on the ground of law |
| infernal | Akin to or befitting hell or its occupants |
| infest | To be present in such numbers as to be a source of annoyance, trouble, or danger |
| infidel | One who denies the existence of God |
| infidelity | Disloyalty |
| infinite | Measureless |
| infinity | Boundless or immeasurable extension or duration |
| infirm | Lacking in bodily or mental strength |
| infirmary | A place for the reception or treatment of the sick |
| infirmity | A physical, mental, or moral weakness or flaw |
| inflammable | Easily set on fire or excited |
| inflammation | A morbid process in some part of the body characterized by heat, swelling, and pain |
| inflexible | That can not be altered or varied |
| influence | Ability to sway the will of another |
| influential | Having the power to sway the will of another |
| influx | Infusion |
| infrequence | Rareness |
| infrequent | Uncommon |
| infringe | To trespass upon |
| infuse | To instill, introduce, or inculcate, as principles or qualities |
| infusion | The act of imbuing, or pouring in |
| ingenious | Evincing skill, originality, or cleverness, as in contrivance or arrangement |
| ingenuity | Cleverness in contriving, combining, or originating |
| ingenuous | Candid, frank, or open in character or quality |
| inglorious | Shameful |
| ingraft | To set or implant deeply and firmly |
| ingratiate | To win confidence or good graces for oneself |
| ingratitude | Insensibility to kindness |
| ingredient | Component |
| inherence | The state of being permanently existing in something |
| inherent | Intrinsic |
| inhibit | To hold back or in |
| inhospitable | Not disposed to entertain strangers gratuitously |
| inhuman | Savage |
| inhume | To place in the earth, as a dead body |
| inimical | Adverse |
| iniquity | Gross wrong or injustice |
| initiate | To perform the first act or rite |
| inject | To introduce, as a fluid, by injection |
| injunction | Mandate |
| inkling | A hint |
| inland | Remote from the sea |
| inlet | A small body of water leading into a larger |
| inmost | Deepest within |
| innocuous | Harmless |
| innovate | To introduce or strive to introduce new things |
| innuendo | Insinuation |
| innumerable | Countless |
| inoffensive | Causing nothing displeasing or disturbing |
| inopportune | Unsuitable or inconvenient, especially as to time |
| inquire | To ask information about |
| inquisition | A court or tribunal for examination and punishment of heretics |
| inquisitive | Given to questioning, especially out of curiosity |
| inquisitor | One who makes an investigation |
| inroad | Forcible encroachment or trespass |
| insatiable | That desires or craves immoderately or unappeasably |
| inscribe | To enter in a book, or on a list, roll, or document, by writing |
| inscrutable | Impenetrably mysterious or profound |
| insecure | Not assured of safety |
| insensible | Imperceptible |
| insentient | Lacking the power of feeling or perceiving |
| inseparable | That can not be separated |
| insidious | Working ill by slow and stealthy means |
| insight | Intellectual discernment |
| insignificance | Lack of import or of importance |
| insignificant | Without importance, force, or influence |
| insinuate | To imply |
| insipid | Tasteless |
| insistence | Urgency |
| insistent | Urgent |
| insolence | Pride or haughtiness exhibited in contemptuous and overbearing treatment of others |
| insolent | Impudent |
| insomnia | Sleeplessness |
| inspector | An official appointed to examine or oversee any matter of public interest or importance |
| instance | A single occurrence or happening of a given kind |
| instant | A very brief portion of time |
| instantaneous | Done without perceptible lapse of time |
| instigate | To provoke |
| instigator | One who incites to evil |
| instill | To infuse |
| instructive | Conveying knowledge |
| insufficiency | Inadequacy |
| insufficient | Inadequate for some need, purpose, or use |
| insular | Pertaining to an island |
| insulate | To place in a detached state or situation |
| insuperable | Invincible |
| insuppressible | Incapable of being concealed |
| insurgence | Uprising |
| insurgent | One who takes part in forcible opposition to the constituted authorities of a place |
| insurrection | The state of being in active resistance to authority |
| intangible | Not perceptible to the touch |
| integrity | Uprightness of character and soundness of moral principle |
| intellect | The faculty of perception or thought |
| intellectual | Characterized by intelligence |
| intelligence | Capacity to know or understand |
| intelligible | Comprehensible |
| intemperance | Immoderate action or indulgence, as of the appetites |
| intension | The act of stringing or stretching, or state of being strained |
| intensive | Adding emphasis or force |
| intention | That upon which the mind is set |
| interact | To act reciprocally |
| intercede | To mediate between persons |
| intercept | To interrupt the course of |
| intercession | Entreaty in behalf of others |
| intercessor | A mediator |
| interdict | Authoritative act of prohibition |
| interim | Time between acts or periods |
| interlocutor | One who takes part in a conversation or oral discussion |
| interlude | An action or event considered as coming between others of greater length |
| intermediate | Being in a middle place or degree or between extremes |
| interminable | Having no limit or end |
| intermission | A recess |
| intermit | To cause to cease temporarily |
| intermittent | A temporary discontinuance |
| interpolation | Verbal interference |
| interpose | To come between other things or persons |
| interposition | A coming between |
| interpreter | A person who makes intelligible the speech of a foreigner by oral translation |
| interrogate | To examine formally by questioning |
| interrogative | Having the nature or form of a question |
| interrogatory | A question or inquiry |
| interrupt | To stop while in progress |
| intersect | To cut through or into so as to divide |
| intervale | A low tract of land between hills, especially along a river |
| intervene | To interfere for some end |
| intestacy | The condition resulting from one's dying not having made a valid will |
| intestate | Not having made a valid will |
| intestine | That part of the digestive tube below or behind the stomach, extending to the anus |
| intimacy | Close or confidential friendship |
| intimidate | To cause to become frightened |
| intolerable | Insufferable |
| intolerance | Inability or unwillingness to bear or endure |
| intolerant | Bigoted |
| intoxicant | Anything that unduly exhilarates or excites |
| intoxicate | To make drunk |
| intracellular | Occurring or situated within a cell |
| intramural | Situated within the walls of a city |
| intrepid | Fearless and bold |
| intricacy | Perplexity |
| intricate | Difficult to follow or understand |
| intrigue | A plot or scheme, usually complicated and intended to accomplish something by secret ways |
| intrinsic | Inherent |
| introductory | Preliminary |
| introgression | Entrance |
| intromit | To insert |
| introspect | To look into |
| introspection | The act of observing and analyzing one's own thoughts and feelings |
| introversion | The act of turning or directing inward, physically or mentally |
| introvert | To turn within |
| intrude | To come in without leave or license |
| intrusion | The act of entering without warrant or invitation; encroachment |
| intuition | Instinctive knowledge or feeling |
| inundate | To fill with an overflowing abundance |
| inundation | Flood |
| inure | To harden or toughen by use, exercise, or exposure |
| invalid | Having no force, weight, or cogency |
| invalid | One who is disabled by illness or injury |
| invalidate | To render of no force or effect |
| invaluable | Exceedingly precious |
| invariable | Unchangeable |
| invasion | Encroachment, as by an act of intrusion or trespass |
| invective | An utterance intended to cast censure, or reproach |
| inveigh | To utter vehement censure or invective |
| inventive | Quick at contrivance |
| inverse | Contrary in tendency or direction |
| inversion | Change of order so that the first shall become last and the last first |
| invert | To turn inside out, upside down, or in opposite direction |
| investigator | One who investigates |
| investor | One who invests money |
| inveterate | Habitual |
| invidious | Showing or feeling envy |
| invigorate | To animate |
| invincible | Not to be conquered, subdued, or overcome |
| inviolable | Incapable of being injured or disturbed |
| invoke | To call on for assistance or protection |
| involuntary | Unwilling |
| involution | Complication |
| involve | To draw into entanglement, literally or figuratively |
| invulnerable | That can not be wounded or hurt |
| inwardly | ad With no outward manifestation |
| iota | A small or insignificant mark or part |
| irascible | Prone to anger |
| irate | Moved to anger |
| ire | Wrath |
| iridescence | A many-colored appearance |
| iridescent | Exhibiting changing rainbow-colors due to the interference of the light |
| irk | To afflict with pain, vexation, or fatigue |
| irksome | Wearisome |
| irony | Censure or ridicule under cover of praise or compliment |
| irradiance | Luster |
| irradiate | To render clear and intelligible |
| irrational | Not possessed of reasoning powers or understanding |
| irreducible | That can not be lessened |
| irrefragable | That can not be refuted or disproved |
| irrefrangible | That can not be broken or violated |
| irrelevant | Inapplicable |
| irreligious | Indifferent or opposed to religion |
| irreparable | That can not be rectified or made amends for |
| irrepressible | That can not be restrained or kept down |
| irresistible | That can not be successfully withstood or opposed |
| irresponsible | Careless of or unable to meet responsibilities |
| irreverence | The quality showing or expressing a deficiency of veneration, especially for sacred things |
| irreverent | Showing or expressing a deficiency of veneration, especially for sacred things |
| irreverential | Showing or expressing a deficiency of veneration, especially for sacred things |
| irreversible | Irrevocable |
| irrigant | Serving to water lands by artificial means |
| irrigate | To water, as land, by ditches or other artificial means |
| irritable | Showing impatience or ill temper on little provocation |
| irritancy | The quality of producing vexation |
| irritant | A mechanical, chemical, or pathological agent of inflammation, pain, or tension |
| irritate | To excite ill temper or impatience in |
| irruption | Sudden invasion |
| isle | An island |
| islet | A little island |
| isobar | A line joining points at which the barometric pressure is the same at a specified moment |
| isochronous | Relating to or denoting equal intervals of time |
| isolate | To separate from others of its kind |
| isothermal | Having or marking equality of temperature |
| itinerant | Wandering |
| itinerary | A detailed account or diary of a journey |
| itinerate | To wander from place to place |
| jargon | Confused, unintelligible speech or highly technical speech |
| jaundice | A morbid condition, due to obstructed excretion of bile or characterized by yellowing of the skin |
| Jingo | One of a party in Great Britain in favor of spirited and demonstrative foreign policy |
| jocose | Done or made in jest |
| jocular | Inclined to joke |
| joggle | A sudden irregular shake or a push causing such a shake |
| journalize | To keep a diary |
| jovial | Merry |
| jubilation | Exultation |
| judgment | The faculty by the exercise of which a deliberate conclusion is reached |
| judicature | Distribution and administration of justice by trial and judgment |
| judicial | Pertaining to the administration of justice |
| judiciary | That department of government which administers the law relating to civil and criminal justice |
| judicious | Prudent |
| juggle | To play tricks of sleight of hand |
| jugglery | The art or practice of sleight of hand |
| jugular | Pertaining to the throat |
| juicy | Succulent |
| junction | The condition of being joined |
| juncture | An articulation, joint, or seam |
| junta | A council or assembly that deliberates in secret upon the affairs of government |
| juridical | Assumed by law to exist |
| jurisdiction | Lawful power or right to exercise official authority |
| jurisprudence | The science of rights in accordance with positive law |
| juror | One who serves on a jury or is sworn in for jury duty in a court of justice |
| joust | To engage in a tilt with lances on horseback |
| justification | Vindication |
| juvenile | Characteristic of youth |
| juxtapose | To place close together |
| keepsake | Anything kept or given to be kept for the sake of the giver |
| kerchief | A square of linen, silk, or other material, used as a covering for the head or neck |
| kernel | A grain or seed |
| kiln | An oven or furnace for baking, burning, or drying industrial products |
| kiloliter | One thousand liters |
| kilometer | A length of 1,000 meters |
| kilowatt | One thousand watts |
| kimono | A loose robe, fastening with a sash, the principal outer garment in Japan |
| kind-hearted | Having a kind and sympathetic nature |
| kingling | A petty king |
| kingship | Royal state |
| kinsfolk | Relatives |
| knavery | Deceitfulness in dealing |
| knead | To mix and work into a homogeneous mass, especially with the hands |
| knickknack | A small article, more for ornament that use |
| knight | errant One of the wandering knights who in the middle ages went forth in search of adventure |
| knighthood | Chivalry |
| laborious | Toilsome |
| labyrinth | A maze |
| lacerate | To tear rudely or raggedly |
| lackadaisical | Listless |
| lactation | The secretion of milk |
| lacteal | Milky |
| lactic | Pertaining to milk |
| laddie | A lad |
| ladle | A cup-shaped vessel with a long handle, intended for dipping up and pouring liquids |
| laggard | Falling behind |
| landholder | Landowner |
| landlord | A man who owns and lets a tenement or tenements |
| landmark | A familiar object in the landscape serving as a guide to an area otherwise easily lost track of |
| landscape | A rural view, especially one of picturesque effect, as seen from a distance or an elevation |
| languid | Relaxed |
| languor | Lassitude of body or depression |
| lapse | A slight deviation from what is right, proper, or just |
| lascivious | Lustful |
| lassie | A little lass |
| latent | Dormant |
| latency | The state of being dormant |
| later | ad At a subsequent time |
| lateral | Directed toward the side |
| latish | Rather late |
| lattice | Openwork of metal or wood, formed by crossing or interlacing strips or bars |
| laud | To praise in words or song |
| laudable | Praiseworthy |
| laudation | High praise |
| laudatory | Pertaining to, expressing, or containing praise |
| laundress | Washerwoman |
| laureate | Crowned with laurel, as a mark of distinction |
| lave | To wash or bathe |
| lawgiver | A legislator |
| lawmaker | A legislator |
| lax | Not stringent or energetic |
| laxative | Having power to open or loosen the bowels |
| lea | A field |
| leaflet | A little leaf or a booklet |
| leaven | To make light by fermentation, as dough |
| leeward | That side or direction toward which the wind blows |
| left-handed | Using the left hand or arm more dexterously than the right |
| legacy | A bequest |
| legalize | To give the authority of law to |
| legging | A covering for the leg |
| legible | That may be read with ease |
| legionary | A member of an ancient Roman legion or of the modern French Legion of Honor |
| legislate | To make or enact a law or laws |
| legislative | That makes or enacts laws |
| legislator | A lawgiver |
| legitimacy | Accordance with law |
| legitimate | Having the sanction of law or established custom |
| leisure | Spare time |
| leniency | Forbearance |
| lenient | Not harsh |
| leonine | Like a lion |
| lethargy | Prolonged sluggishness of body or mind |
| levee | An embankment beside a river or stream or an arm of the sea, to prevent overflow |
| lever | That which exerts, or through which one may exert great power |
| leviathan | Any large animal, as a whale |
| levity | Frivolity |
| levy | To impose and collect by force or threat of force |
| lewd | Characterized by lust or lasciviousness |
| lexicographer | One who makes dictionaries |
| lexicography | The making of dictionaries |
| lexicon | A dictionary |
| liable | Justly or legally responsible |
| libel | Defamation |
| liberalism | Opposition to conservatism |
| liberate | To set free or release from bondage |
| licentious | Wanton |
| licit | Lawful |
| liege | Sovereign |
| lien | A legal claim or hold on property, as security for a debt or charge |
| lieu | Stead |
| lifelike | Realistic |
| lifelong | Lasting or continuous through life |
| lifetime | The time that life continues |
| ligament | That which binds objects together |
| ligature | Anything that constricts, or serves for binding or tying |
| light-hearted | Free from care |
| ligneous | Having the texture of appearance of wood |
| likelihood | A probability |
| likely | Plausible |
| liking | Fondness |
| limitation | A restriction |
| linear | Of the nature of a line |
| liner | A vessel belonging to a steamship-line |
| lingo | Language |
| lingua | The tongue |
| lingual | Pertaining to the use of the tongue in utterance |
| linguist | One who is acquainted with several languages |
| linguistics | The science of languages, or of the origin, history, and significance of words |
| liniment | A liquid preparation for rubbing on the skin in cases of bruises, inflammation, etc |
| liquefacient | Possessing a liquefying nature or power |
| liquefy | To convert into a liquid or into liquid form |
| liqueur | An alcoholic cordial sweetened and flavored with aromatic substances |
| liquidate | To deliver the amount or value of |
| liquor | Any alcoholic or intoxicating liquid |
| listless | Inattentive |
| literacy | The state or condition of knowing how to read and write |
| literal | Following the exact words |
| literature | The written or printed productions of the human mind collectively |
| lithe | Supple |
| lithesome | Nimble |
| lithograph | A print made by printing from stone |
| lithotype | In engraving, an etched stone surface for printing |
| litigant | A party to a lawsuit |
| litigate | To cause to become the subject-matter of a suit at law |
| litigious | Quarrelsome |
| littoral | Of, pertaining to, or living on a shore |
| liturgy | A ritual |
| livelihood | Means of subsistence |
| livid | Black-and-blue, as contused flesh |
| loam | A non-coherent mixture of sand and clay |
| loath | Averse |
| loathe | To abominate |
| locative | Indicating place, or the place where or wherein an action occurs |
| loch | A lake |
| locomotion | The act or power of moving from one place to another |
| lode | A somewhat continuous unstratified metal- bearing vein |
| lodgment | The act of furnishing with temporary quarters |
| logic | The science of correct thinking |
| logical | Capable of or characterized by clear reasoning |
| logician | An expert reasoner |
| loiterer | One who consumes time idly |
| loneliness | Solitude |
| longevity | Unusually prolonged life |
| loot | To plunder |
| loquacious | Talkative |
| lordling | A little lord |
| lough | A lake or loch |
| louse | A small insect parasitic on and sucking the blood of mammals |
| lovable | Amiable |
| low-spirited | Despondent |
| lowly | ad Rudely |
| lucid | Mentally sound |
| lucrative | Highly profitable |
| ludicrous | Laughable |
| luminary | One of the heavenly bodies as a source of light |
| luminescent | Showing increase of light |
| luminescence | Showing increase |
| luminosity | The quality of giving or radiating light |
| luminous | Giving or radiating light |
| lunacy | Mental unsoundness |
| lunar | Pertaining to the moon |
| lunatic | An insane person |
| lune | The moon |
| lurid | Ghastly and sensational |
| luscious | Rich, sweet, and delicious |
| lustrous | Shining |
| luxuriance | Excessive or superfluous growth or quantity |
| luxuriant | Abundant or superabundant in growth |
| luxuriate | To live sumptuously |
| lying | Untruthfulness |
| lyre | One of the most ancient of stringed instruments of the harp class |
| lyric | Fitted for expression in song |
| macadamize | To cover or pave, as a path or roadway, with small broken stone |
| machinery | The parts of a machine or engine, taken collectively |
| machinist | One who makes or repairs machines, or uses metal-working tools |
| macrocosm | The whole of any sphere or department of nature or knowledge to which man is related |
| madden | To inflame with passion |
| Madonna | A painted or sculptured representation of the Virgin, usually with the infant Jesus |
| magician | A sorcerer |
| magisterial | Having an air of authority |
| magistracy | The office or dignity of a magistrate |
| magnanimous | Generous in treating or judging others |
| magnate | A person of rank or importance |
| magnet | A body possessing that peculiar form of polarity found in nature in the lodestone |
| magnetize | To make a magnet of, permanently, or temporarily |
| magnificence | The exhibition of greatness of action, character, intellect, wealth, or power |
| magnificent | Grand or majestic in appearance, quality, or action |
| magnitude | Importance |
| maharaja | A great Hindu prince |
| maidenhood | Virginity |
| maintain | To hold or preserve in any particular state or condition |
| maintenance | That which supports or sustains |
| maize | Indian corn: usually in the United States called simply corn |
| makeup | The arrangements or combination of the parts of which anything is composed |
| malady | Any physical disease or disorder, especially a chronic or deep-seated one |
| malaria | A fever characterized by alternating chills, fever, and sweating |
| malcontent | One who is dissatisfied with the existing state of affairs |
| malediction | The calling down of a curse or curses |
| malefactor | One who injures another |
| maleficent | Mischievous |
| malevolence | Ill will |
| malevolent | Wishing evil to others |
| malign | To speak evil of, especially to do so falsely and severely |
| malignant | Evil in nature or tending to do great harm or mischief |
| malleable | Pliant |
| mallet | A wooden hammer |
| maltreat | To treat ill, unkindly, roughly, or abusively |
| man-trap | A place or structure dangerous to human life |
| mandate | A command |
| mandatory | Expressive of positive command, as distinguished from merely directory |
| mane | The long hair growing upon and about the neck of certain animals, as the horse and the lion |
| man-eater | An animal that devours human beings |
| maneuver | To make adroit or artful moves: manage affairs by strategy |
| mania | Insanity |
| maniac | a person raving with madness |
| manifesto | A public declaration, making announcement, explanation or defense of intentions, or motives |
| manlike | Like a man |
| manliness | The qualities characteristic of a true man, as bravery, resolution, etc |
| mannerism | Constant or excessive adherence to one manner, style, or peculiarity, as of action or conduct |
| manor | The landed estate of a lord or nobleman |
| mantel | The facing, sometimes richly ornamented, about a fireplace, including the usual shelf above it |
| mantle | A cloak |
| manufacturer | A person engaged in manufacturing as a business |
| manumission | Emancipation |
| manumit | To set free from bondage |
| marine | Of or pertaining to the sea or matters connected with the sea |
| maritime | Situated on or near the sea |
| maroon | To put ashore and abandon (a person) on a desolate coast or island |
| martial | Pertaining to war or military operations |
| Martian | Pertaining to Mars, either the Roman god of war or the planet |
| martyrdom | Submission to death or persecution for the sake of faith or principle |
| marvel | To be astonished and perplexed because of (something) |
| masonry | The art or work of constructing, as buildings, walls, etc, with regularly arranged stones |
| masquerade | A social party composed of persons masked and costumed so as to be disguised |
| massacre | The unnecessary and indiscriminate killing of human beings |
| massive | Of considerable bulk and weight |
| masterpiece | A superior production |
| mastery | The attainment of superior skill |
| material | That of which anything is composed or may be constructed |
| materialize | To take perceptible or substantial form |
| maternal | Pertaining or peculiar to a mother or to motherhood |
| matinee | An entertainment (especially theatrical) held in the daytime |
| matricide | The killing, especially the murdering, of one's mother |
| matrimony | The union of a man and a woman in marriage |
| matrix | That which contains and gives shape or form to anything |
| matter | of fact Something that has actual and undeniable existence or reality |
| maudlin | Foolishly and tearfully affectionate |
| mausoleum | A tomb of more than ordinary size or architectural pretensions |
| mawkish | Sickening or insipid |
| maxim | A principle accepted as true and acted on as a rule or guide |
| maze | A labyrinth |
| mead | A meadow |
| meager | scanty |
| mealy-mouthed | Afraid to express facts or opinions plainly |
| meander | To wind and turn while proceeding in a course |
| mechanics | The branch of physics that treats the phenomena caused by the action of forces |
| medallion | A large medal |
| meddlesome | Interfering |
| medial | Of or pertaining to the middle |
| mediate | To effect by negotiating as an agent between parties |
| medicine | A substance possessing or reputed to possess curative or remedial properties |
| medieval | Belonging or relating to or descriptive of the middle ages |
| mediocre | Ordinary |
| meditation | The turning or revolving of a subject in the mind |
| medley | A composition of different songs or parts of songs arranged to run as a continuous whole |
| meliorate | To make better or improve, as in quality or social or physical condition |
| mellifluous | Sweetly or smoothly flowing |
| melodious | Characterized by a sweet succession of sounds |
| melodrama | A drama with a romantic story or plot and sensational situation and incidents |
| memento | A souvenir |
| memorable | Noteworthy |
| menace | A threat |
| menagerie | A collection of wild animals, especially when kept for exhibition |
| mendacious | Untrue |
| mendicant | A beggar |
| mentality | Intellectuality |
| mentor | A wise and faithful teacher, guide, and friend |
| mercantile | Conducted or acting on business principles; commercial |
| mercenary | Greedy |
| merciful | Disposed to pity and forgive |
| merciless | Cruel |
| meretricious | Alluring by false or gaudy show |
| mesmerize | To hypnotize |
| messieurs | Gentlemen |
| metal | An element that forms a base by combining with oxygen, is usually hard, heavy, and lustrous |
| metallurgy | The art or science of extracting a metal from ores, as by smelting |
| metamorphosis | A passing from one form or shape into another |
| metaphor | A figure of speech in which one object is likened to another, by speaking as if the other |
| metaphysical | Philosophical |
| metaphysician | One skilled in metaphysics |
| metaphysics | The principles of philosophy as applied to explain the methods of any particular science |
| mete | To apportion |
| metempsychosis | Transition of the soul of a human being at death into another body, whether human or beast |
| meticulous | Over-cautious |
| metonymy | A figure of speech that consists in the naming of a thing by one of its attributes |
| metric | Relating to measurement |
| metronome | An instrument for indicating and marking exact time in music |
| metropolis | A chief city, either the capital or the largest or most important city of a state |
| metropolitan | Pertaining to a chief city |
| mettle | Courage |
| mettlesome | Having courage or spirit |
| microcosm | The world or universe on a small scale |
| micrometer | An instrument for measuring very small angles or dimensions |
| microphone | An apparatus for magnifying faint sounds |
| microscope | An instrument for assisting the eye in the vision of minute objects or features of objects |
| microscopic | Adapted to or characterized by minute observation |
| microscopy | The art of examing objects with the microscope |
| midsummer | The middle of the summer |
| midwife | A woman who makes a business of assisting at childbirth |
| mien | The external appearance or manner of a person |
| migrant | Wandering |
| migrate | To remove or pass from one country, region, or habitat to another |
| migratory | Wandering |
| mileage | A distance in miles |
| militant | Of a warlike or combative disposition or tendency |
| militarism | A policy of maintaining great standing armies |
| militate | To have weight or influence (in determining a question) |
| militia | Those citizens, collectively, who are enrolled and drilled in temporary military organizations |
| Milky | Way The galaxy |
| millet | A grass cultivated for forage and cereal |
| mimic | To imitate the speech or actions of |
| miniature | Much smaller than reality or that the normal size |
| minimize | To reduce to the smallest possible amount or degree |
| minion | A servile favorite |
| ministration | Any religious ceremonial |
| ministry | A service |
| minority | The smaller in number of two portions into which a number or a group is divided |
| minute | Exceedingly small in extent or quantity |
| minutia | A small or unimportant particular or detail |
| mirage | An optical effect looking like a sheet of water in the desert |
| misadventure | An unlucky accident |
| misanthropic | Hating mankind |
| misanthropy | Hatred of mankind |
| misapprehend | To misunderstand |
| misbehave | To behave ill |
| misbehavior | Ill or improper behavior |
| mischievous | Fond of tricks |
| miscount | To make a mistake in counting |
| miscreant | A villain |
| misdeed | A wrong or improper act |
| misdemeanor | Evil conduct, small crime |
| miser | A person given to saving and hoarding unduly |
| mishap | Misfortune |
| misinterpret | To misunderstand |
| mislay | To misplace |
| mismanage | To manage badly, improperly, or unskillfully |
| misnomer | A name wrongly or mistakenly applied |
| misogamy | Hatred of marriage |
| misogyny | Hatred of women |
| misplace | To put into a wrong place |
| misrepresent | To give a wrong impression |
| misrule | To misgovern |
| missal | The book containing the service for the celebration of mass |
| missile | Any object, especially a weapon, thrown or intended to be thrown |
| missive | A message in writing |
| mistrust | To regard with suspicion or jealousy |
| misty | Lacking clearness |
| misunderstand | To Take in a wrong sense |
| misuse | To maltreat |
| mite | A very small amount, portion, or particle |
| miter | The junction of two bodies at an equally divided angle |
| mitigate | To make milder or more endurable |
| mnemonics | A system of principles and formulas designed to assist the recollection in certain instances |
| moat | A ditch on the outside of a fortress wall |
| mobocracy | Lawless control of public affairs by the mob or populace |
| moccasin | A foot-covering made of soft leather or buckskin |
| mockery | Ridicule |
| moderation | Temperance |
| moderator | The presiding officer of a meeting |
| modernity | The state or character of being modern |
| modernize | To make characteristic of the present or of recent times |
| modification | A change |
| modify | To make somewhat different |
| modish | Fashionable |
| modulate | To vary in tone, inflection, pitch or other quality of sound |
| mollify | To soothe |
| molt | To cast off, as hair, feathers, etc |
| momentary | Lasting but a short time |
| momentous | Very significant |
| momentum | An impetus |
| monarchy | Government by a single, sovereign ruler |
| monastery | A dwelling-place occupied in common by persons under religious vows of seclusion |
| monetary | Financial |
| mongrel | The progeny resulting from the crossing of different breeds or varieties |
| monition | Friendly counsel given by way of warning and implying caution or reproof |
| monitory | Admonition or warning |
| monocracy | Government by a single person |
| monogamy | The habit of pairing, or having but one mate |
| monogram | A character consisting of two or more letters interwoven into one, usually initials of a name |
| monograph | A treatise discussing a single subject or branch of a subject |
| monolith | Any structure or sculpture in stone formed of a single piece |
| monologue | A story or drama told or performed by one person |
| monomania | The unreasonable pursuit of one idea |
| monopoly | The control of a thing, as a commodity, to enable a person to raise its price |
| monosyllable | A word of one syllable |
| monotone | The sameness or monotony of utterance |
| monotonous | Unchanging and tedious |
| monotony | A lack of variety |
| monsieur | A French title of respect, equivalent to Mr and sir |
| monstrosity | Anything unnaturally huge or distorted |
| moonbeam | A ray of moonlight |
| morale | A state of mind with reference to confidence, courage, zeal, and the like |
| moralist | A writer on ethics |
| morality | Virtue |
| moralize | To render virtuous |
| moratorium | An emergency legislation authorizing a government suspend some action temporarily |
| morbid | Caused by or denoting a diseased or unsound condition of body or mind |
| mordacious | Biting or giving to biting |
| mordant | Biting |
| moribund | On the point of dying |
| morose | Gloomy |
| morphology | the science of organic forms |
| motley | Composed of heterogeneous or inharmonious elements |
| motto | An expressive word or pithy sentence enunciating some guiding rule of life, or faith |
| mountaineer | One who travels among or climbs mountains for pleasure or exercise |
| mountainous | Full of or abounding in mountains |
| mouthful | As much as can be or is usually put into the or exercise |
| muddle | To confuse or becloud, especially with or as with drink |
| muffle | To deaden the sound of, as by wraps |
| mulatto | The offspring of a white person and a black person |
| muleteer | A mule-driver |
| multiform | Having many shapes, or appearances |
| multiplicity | the condition of being manifold or very various |
| mundane | Worldly, as opposed to spiritual or celestial |
| municipal | Of or pertaining to a town or city, or to its corporate or local government |
| municipality | A district enjoying municipal government |
| munificence | A giving characterized by generous motives and extraordinary liberality |
| munificent | Extraordinarily generous |
| muster | An assemblage or review of troops for parade or inspection, or for numbering off |
| mutation | The act or process of change |
| mutilate | To disfigure |
| mutiny | Rebellion against lawful or constituted authority |
| myriad | A vast indefinite number |
| mystic | One who professes direct divine illumination, or relies upon meditation to acquire truth |
| mystification | The act of artfully perplexing |
| myth | A fictitious narrative presented as historical, but without any basis of fact |
| mythology | The whole body of legends cherished by a race concerning gods and heroes |
| nameless | Having no fame or reputation |
| naphtha | A light, colorless, volatile, inflammable oil used as a solvent, as in manufacture of paints |
| Narcissus | The son of the Athenian river-god Cephisus, fabled to have fallen in love with his reflection |
| narration | The act of recounting the particulars of an event in the order of time or occurrence |
| narrative | An orderly continuous account of the successive particulars of an event |
| narrator | One who narrates anything |
| narrow-minded | Characterized by illiberal views or sentiments |
| nasal | Pertaining to the nose |
| natal | Pertaining to one's birth |
| nationality | A connection with a particular nation |
| naturally | ad According to the usual order of things |
| nausea | An affection of the stomach producing dizziness and usually an impulse to vomit |
| nauseate | To cause to loathe |
| nauseous | Loathsome |
| nautical | Pertaining to ships, seamen, or navigation |
| naval | Pertaining to ships |
| navel | The depression on the abdomen where the umbilical cord of the fetus was attached |
| navigable | Capable of commercial navigation |
| navigate | To traverse by ship |
| nebula | A gaseous body of unorganized stellar substance |
| necessary | Indispensably requisite or absolutely needed to accomplish a desired result |
| necessitate | To render indispensable |
| necessity | That which is indispensably requisite to an end desired |
| necrology | A list of persons who have died in a certain place or time |
| necromancer | One who practices the art of foretelling the future by means of communication with the dead |
| necropolis | A city of the dead |
| necrosis | the death of part of the body |
| nectar | Any especially sweet and delicious drink |
| nectarine | A variety of the peach |
| needlework | Embroidery |
| needy | Being in need, want, or poverty |
| nefarious | Wicked in the extreme |
| negate | To deny |
| negation | The act of denying or of asserting the falsity of a proposition |
| neglectful | Exhibiting or indicating omission |
| negligee | A loose gown worn by women |
| negligence | Omission of that which ought to be done |
| negligent | Apt to omit what ought to be done |
| negligible | Transferable by assignment, endorsement, or delivery |
| negotiable | To bargain with others for an agreement, as for a treaty or transfer of property |
| Nemesis | A goddess; divinity of chastisement and vengeance |
| neocracy | Government administered by new or untried persons |
| neo-Darwinsim | Darwinism as modified and extended by more recent students |
| neo-Latin | Modernized Latin |
| neopaganism | A new or revived paganism |
| Neolithic | Pertaining to the later stone age |
| neology | The coining or using of new words or new meanings of words |
| neophyte | Having the character of a beginner |
| nestle | To adjust cozily in snug quarters |
| nestling | Recently hatched |
| nettle | To excite sensations of uneasiness or displeasure in |
| network | Anything that presents a system of cross- lines |
| neural | Pertaining to the nerves or nervous system |
| neurology | The science of the nervous system |
| neuter | Neither masculine nor feminine |
| neutral | Belonging to or under control of neither of two contestants |
| nevertheless | c Notwithstanding |
| Newtonian | Of or pertaining to Sir Isaac Newton, the English philosopher |
| niggardly | Stingy (no longer acceptable to use) |
| nihilist | An advocate of the doctrine that nothing either exists or can be known |
| nil | Nothing |
| nimble | Light and quick in motion or action |
| nit | The egg of a louse or some other insect |
| nocturnal | Of or pertaining to the night |
| noiseless | Silent |
| noisome | Very offensive, particularly to the sense of smell |
| noisy | Clamorous |
| nomad | Having no fixed abode |
| nomic | Usual or customary |
| nominal | Trivial |
| nominate | To designate as a candidate for any office |
| nomination | The act or ceremony of naming a man or woman for office |
| nominee | One who receives a nomination |
| non-existent | That which does not exist |
| non-resident | Not residing within a given jurisdiction |
| nonchalance | A state of mind indicating lack of interest |
| non-combatant | One attached to the army or navy, but having duties other than that of fighting |
| nondescript | Indescribable |
| nonentity | A person or thing of little or no account |
| nonpareil | One who or that which is of unequaled excellence |
| norm | A model |
| normalcy | The state of being normal |
| Norman | Of or peculiar to Normandy, in northern France |
| nostrum | Any scheme or recipe of a charlatan character |
| noticeable | Perceptible |
| notorious | Unfavorably known to the general public |
| novellette | A short novel |
| novice | A beginner in any business or occupation |
| nowadays | ad In the present time or age |
| nowhere | ad In no place or state |
| noxious | Hurtful |
| nuance | A slight degree of difference in anything perceptible to the sense of the mind |
| nucleus | A central point or part about which matter is aggregated |
| nude | Naked |
| nugatory | Having no power or force |
| nuisance | That which annoys, vexes, or irritates |
| numeration | The act or art of reading or naming numbers |
| numerical | Of or pertaining to number |
| nunnery | A convent for nuns |
| nuptial | Of or pertaining to marriage, especially to the marriage ceremony |
| nurture | The process of fostering or promoting growth |
| nutriment | That which nourishes |
| nutritive | Having nutritious properties |
| oaken | Made of or from oak |
| oakum | Hemp-fiber obtained by untwisting and picking out loosely the yarns of old hemp rope |
| obdurate | Impassive to feelings of humanity or pity |
| obelisk | A square shaft with pyramidal top, usually monumental or commemorative |
| obese | Exceedingly fat |
| obesity | Excessive fatness |
| obituary | A published notice of a death |
| objective | Grasping and representing facts as they are |
| objector | One who objects, as to a proposition, measure, or ruling |
| obligate | To hold to the fulfillment of duty |
| obligatory | Binding in law or conscience |
| oblique | Slanting; said of lines |
| obliterate | To cause to disappear |
| oblivion | The state of having passed out of the memory or of being utterly forgotten |
| oblong | Longer than broad: applied most commonly to rectangular objects considerably elongated |
| obnoxious | Detestable |
| obsequies | Funeral rites |
| obsequious | Showing a servile readiness to fall in with the wishes or will of another |
| observance | A traditional form or customary act |
| observant | Quick to notice |
| observatory | A building designed for systematic astronomical observations |
| obsolescence | The condition or process of gradually falling into disuse |
| obsolescent | Passing out of use, as a word |
| obsolete | No longer practiced or accepted |
| obstetrician | A practitioner of midwifery |
| obstetrics | The branch of medical science concerned with the treatment and care of women during pregnancy |
| obstinacy | Stubborn adherence to opinion, arising from conceit or the desire to have one's own way |
| obstreperous | Boisterous |
| obstruct | To fill with impediments so as to prevent passage, either wholly or in part |
| obstruction | Hindrance |
| obtrude | To be pushed or to push oneself into undue prominence |
| obtrusive | Tending to be pushed or to push oneself into undue prominence |
| obvert | To turn the front or principal side of (a thing) toward any person or object |
| obviate | To clear away or provide for, as an objection or difficulty |
| occasion | An important event or celebration |
| Occident | The countries lying west of Asia and the Turkish dominions |
| occlude | To absorb, as a gas by a metal |
| occult | Existing but not immediately perceptible |
| occupant | A tenant in possession of property, as distinguished from the actual owner |
| occurrence | A happening |
| octagon | A figure with eight sides and eight angles |
| octave | A note at this interval above or below any other, considered in relation to that other |
| octavo | A book, or collection of paper in which the sheets are so folded as to make eight leaves |
| octogenarian | A person of between eighty and ninety years |
| ocular | Of or pertaining to the eye |
| oculist | One versed or skilled in treating diseases of the eye |
| oddity | An eccentricity |
| ode | The form of lyric poetry anciently intended to be sung |
| odious | Hateful |
| odium | A feeling of extreme repugnance, or of dislike and disgust |
| odoriferous | Having or diffusing an odor or scent, especially an agreeable one |
| odorous | Having an odor, especially a fragrant one |
| off | Farther or more distant |
| offhand | ad Without preparation |
| officiate | To act as an officer or leader |
| officious | Intermeddling with what is not one's concern |
| offshoot | Something that branches off from the parent stock |
| ogre | A demon or monster that was supposed to devour human beings |
| ointment | A fatty preparation with a butter-like consistency in which a medicinal substance exists |
| olive-branch | A branch of the olive-tree, as an emblem of peace |
| ominous | Portentous |
| omission | Exclusion |
| omnipotence | Unlimited and universal power |
| Omnipotent | Possessed of unlimited and universal power |
| omniscience | Unlimited or infinite knowledge |
| omniscient | Characterized by unlimited or infinite knowledge |
| omnivorous | Eating or living upon food of all kinds indiscriminately |
| onerous | Burdensome or oppressive |
| onrush | Onset |
| onset | An assault, especially of troops, upon an enemy or fortification |
| onslaught | A violent onset |
| onus | A burden or responsibility |
| opalescence | The property of combined refraction and reflection of light, resulting in smoky tints |
| opaque | Impervious to light |
| operate | To put in action and supervise the working of |
| operative | Active |
| operator | One who works with or controls some machine or scientific apparatus |
| operetta | A humorous play in dialogue and music, of more than one act |
| opinion | A conclusion or judgment held with confidence, but falling short of positive knowledge |
| opponent | One who supports the opposite side in a debate, discussion, struggle, or sport |
| opportune | Especially fit as occurring, said, or done at the right moment |
| opportunist | One who takes advantage of circumstances to gain his ends |
| opportunity | Favorable or advantageous chance or opening |
| opposite | Radically different or contrary in action or movement |
| opprobrium | The state of being scornfully reproached or accused of evil |
| optic | Pertaining to the eye or vision |
| optician | One who makes or deals in optical instruments or eye-glasses |
| optics | The science that treats of light and vision, and all that is connected with sight |
| optimism | The view that everything in nature and the history of mankind is ordered for the best |
| option | The right, power, or liberty of choosing |
| optometry | Measurement of the powers of vision |
| opulence | Affluence |
| opulent | Wealthy |
| oral | Uttered through the mouth |
| orate | To deliver an elaborate or formal public speech |
| oration | An elaborate or formal public speech |
| orator | One who delivers an elaborate or formal speech |
| oratorio | A composition for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, generally taken from the Scriptures |
| oratory | The art of public speaking |
| ordeal | Anything that severely tests courage, strength, patience, conscience, etc |
| ordinal | That form of the numeral that shows the order of anything in a series, as first, second, third |
| ordination | A consecration to the ministry |
| ordnance | A general name for all kinds of weapons and their appliances used in war |
| orgies | Wild or wanton revelry |
| origin | The beginning of that which becomes or is made to be |
| original | Not copied nor produced by imitation |
| originate | To cause or constitute the beginning or first stage of the existence of |
| ornate | Ornamented to a marked degree |
| orthodox | Holding the commonly accepted faith |
| orthodoxy | Acceptance of the common faith |
| orthogonal | Having or determined by right angles |
| orthopedic | Relating to the correcting or preventing of deformity |
| orthopedist | One who practices the correcting or preventing of deformity |
| oscillate | To swing back and forth |
| osculate | To kiss |
| ossify | to convert into bone |
| ostentation | A display dictated by vanity and intended to invite applause or flattery |
| ostracism | Exclusion from intercourse or favor, as in society or politics |
| ostracize | To exclude from public or private favor |
| ought | To be under moral obligation to be or do |
| oust | To eject |
| out-and-out | ad Genuinely |
| outbreak | A sudden and violent breaking forth, as of something that has been pent up or restrained |
| outburst | A violent issue, especially of passion in an individual |
| outcast | One rejected and despised, especially socially |
| outcry | A vehement or loud cry or clamor |
| outdo | To surpass |
| outlandish | Of barbarous, uncouth, and unfamiliar aspect or action |
| outlast | To last longer than |
| outlaw | A habitual lawbreaker |
| outlive | To continue to exist after |
| out-of-the-way | Remotely situated |
| outpost | A detachment of troops stationed at a distance from the main body to guard against surprise |
| outrage | A gross infringement of morality or decency |
| outrageous | Shocking in conduct |
| outreach | To reach or go beyond |
| outride | To ride faster than |
| outrigger | A part built or arranged to project beyond a natural outline for support |
| outright | ad Entirely |
| outskirt | A border region |
| outstretch | To extend |
| outstrip | To go beyond |
| outweigh | To surpass in importance or excellence |
| overdo | To overtax the strength of |
| overdose | An excessive dose, usually so large a dose of a medicine that its effect is toxic |
| overeat | To eat to excess |
| overhang | A portion of a structure which projects or hangs over |
| overleap | To leap beyond |
| overlord | One who holds supremacy over another |
| overpass | To pass across or over, as a river |
| overpay | To pay or reward in excess |
| overpower | To gain supremacy or victory over by superior power |
| overproduction | Excessive production |
| overreach | To stretch out too far |
| overrun | To infest or ravage |
| oversee | To superintend |
| overseer | A supervisor |
| overshadow | To cast into the shade or render insignificant by comparison |
| overstride | To step beyond |
| overthrow | To vanquish an established ruler or government |
| overtone | A harmonic |
| overture | An instrumental prelude to an opera, oratorio, or ballet |
| overweight | Preponderance |
| pacify | To bring into a peaceful state |
| packet | A bundle, as of letters |
| pact | A covenant |
| pagan | A worshiper of false gods |
| pageant | A dramatic representation, especially a spectacular one |
| palate | The roof of the mouth |
| palatial | Magnificent |
| paleontology | The branch of biology that treats of ancient life and fossil organisms |
| palette | A thin tablet, with a hole for the thumb, upon which artists lay their colors for painting |
| palinode | A retraction |
| pall | To make dull by satiety |
| palliate | To cause to appear less guilty |
| pallid | Of a pale or wan appearance |
| palpable | perceptible by feeling or touch |
| palsy | Paralysis |
| paly | Lacking color or brilliancy |
| pamphlet | A brief treatise or essay, usually on a subject of current interest |
| pamphleteer | To compose or issue pamphlets, especially controversial ones |
| panacea | A remedy or medicine proposed for or professing to cure all diseases |
| Pan-American | Including or pertaining to the whole of America, both North and South |
| pandemic | Affecting a whole people or all classes, as a disease |
| pandemonium | A fiendish or riotous uproar |
| panegyric | A formal and elaborate eulogy, written or spoken, of a person or of an act |
| panel | A rectangular piece set in or as in a frame |
| panic | A sudden, unreasonable, overpowering fear |
| panoply | A full set of armor |
| panorama | A series of large pictures representing a continuous scene |
| pantheism | The worship of nature for itself or its beauty |
| Pantheon | A circular temple at Rome with a fine Corinthian portico and a great domed roof |
| pantomime | Sign-language |
| pantoscope | A very wide-angled photographic lens |
| papacy | The official head of the Roman Catholic Church |
| papyrus | The writing-paper of the ancient Egyptians, and later of the Romans |
| parable | A brief narrative founded on real scenes or events usually with a moral |
| paradox | A statement or doctrine seemingly in contradiction to the received belief |
| paragon | A model of excellence |
| parallel | To cause to correspond or lie in the same direction and equidistant in all parts |
| parallelism | Essential likeness |
| paralysis | Loss of the power of contractility in the voluntary or involuntary muscles |
| paralyze | To deprive of the power to act |
| paramount | Supreme in authority |
| paramour | One who is unlawfully and immorally a lover or a mistress |
| paraphernalia | Miscellaneous articles of equipment or adornment |
| paraphrase | Translate freely |
| pare | To cut, shave, or remove (the outside) from anything |
| parentage | The relation of parent to child, of the producer to the produced, or of cause to effect |
| Pariah | A member of a degraded class; a social outcast |
| parish | The ecclesiastical district in charge of a pastor |
| Parisian | Of or pertaining to the city of Paris |
| parity | Equality, as of condition or rank |
| parlance | Mode of speech |
| parley | To converse in |
| parliament | A legislative body |
| parlor | A room for reception of callers or entertainment of guests |
| parody | To render ludicrous by imitating the language of |
| paronymous | Derived from the same root or primitive word |
| paroxysm | A sudden outburst of any kind of activity |
| parricide | The murder of a parent |
| parse | To describe, as a sentence, by separating it into its elements and describing each word |
| parsimonious | Unduly sparing in the use or expenditure of money |
| partible | Separable |
| participant | One having a share or part |
| participate | To receive or have a part or share of |
| partition | That which separates anything into distinct parts |
| partisan | Characterized by or exhibiting undue or unreasoning devotion to a party |
| passible | Capable of feeling of suffering |
| passive | Unresponsive |
| pastoral | Having the spirit or sentiment of rural life |
| paternal | Fatherly |
| paternity | Fatherhood |
| pathos | The quality in any form of representation that rouses emotion or sympathy |
| patriarch | The chief of a tribe or race who rules by paternal right |
| patrician | Of senatorial or noble rank |
| patrimony | An inheritance from an ancestor, especially from one's father |
| patriotism | Love and devotion to one's country |
| patronize | To exercise an arrogant condescension toward |
| patronymic | Formed after one's father's name |
| patter | To mumble something over and over |
| paucity | Fewness |
| pauper | One without means of support |
| pauperism | Dependence on charity |
| pavilion | An open structure for temporary shelter |
| payee | A person to whom money has been or is to be paid |
| peaceable | Tranquil |
| peaceful | Tranquil |
| peccable | Capable of sinning |
| peccadillo | A small breach of propriety or principle |
| peccant | Guilty |
| pectoral | Pertaining to the breast or thorax |
| pecuniary | Consisting of money |
| pedagogics | The science and art of teaching |
| pedagogue | A schoolmaster |
| pedagogy | The science and art of teaching |
| pedal | A lever for the foot usually applied only to musical instruments, cycles, and other machines |
| pedant | A scholar who makes needless and inopportune display of his learning |
| peddle | To go about with a small stock of goods to sell |
| pedestal | A base or support as for a column, statue, or vase |
| pedestrian | One who journeys on foot |
| pediatrics | The department of medical science that relates to the treatment of diseases of childhood |
| pedigree | One's line of ancestors |
| peddler | One who travels from house to house with an assortment of goods for retail |
| peerage | The nobility |
| peerless | Of unequaled excellence or worth |
| peevish | Petulant (irritable) |
| pellucid | Translucent |
| penalty | The consequences that follow the transgression of natural or divine law |
| penance | Punishment to which one voluntarily submits or subjects himself as an expression of penitence |
| penchant | A bias in favor of something |
| pendant | Anything that hangs from something else, either for ornament or for use |
| pendulous | Hanging, especially so as to swing by an attached end or part |
| pendulum | A weight hung on a rod, serving by its oscillation to regulate the rate of a clock |
| penetrable | That may be pierced by physical, moral, or intellectual force |
| penetrate | To enter or force a way into the interior parts of |
| penetration | Discernment |
| peninsular | Pertaining to a piece of land almost surrounded by water |
| penitence | Sorrow for sin with desire to amend and to atone |
| penitential | Pertaining to sorrow for sin with desire to amend and to atone |
| pennant | A small flag |
| pension | A periodical allowance to an individual on account of past service done by him/her |
| pentagram | A figure having five points or lobes |
| pentavalent | Quinqeuvalent |
| pentad | The number five |
| pentagon | A figure, especially, with five angles and five sides |
| pentahedron | A solid bounded by five plane faces |
| pentameter | In prosody, a line of verse containing five units or feet |
| pentathlon | The contest of five associated exercises in the great games and the same contestants |
| penultimate | A syllable or member of a series that is last but one |
| penurious | Excessively sparing in the use of money |
| penury | Indigence |
| perambulate | To walk about |
| perceive | To have knowledge of, or receive impressions concerning, through the medium of the body senses |
| perception | Knowledge through the senses of the existence and properties of matter or the external world |
| percipience | The act of perceiving |
| percipient | One who or that which perceives |
| percolate | To filter |
| percolator | A filter |
| percussion | The sharp striking of one body against another |
| peremptory | Precluding question or appeal |
| perennial | Continuing though the year or through many years |
| perfectible | Capable of being made perfect |
| perfidy | Treachery |
| perforate | To make a hole or holes through |
| perform | To accomplish |
| perfumery | The preparation of perfumes |
| perfunctory | Half-hearted |
| perhaps | ad Possibly |
| perigee | The point in the orbit of the moon when it is nearest the earth |
| periodicity | The habit or characteristic of recurrence at regular intervals |
| peripatetic | Walking about |
| perjure | To swear falsely to |
| perjury | A solemn assertion of a falsity |
| permanence | A continuance in the same state, or without any change that destroys the essential form or nature |
| permeate | To pervade |
| permissible | That may be allowed |
| permutation | Reciprocal change, different ordering of same items |
| pernicious | Tending to kill or hurt |
| perpendicular | Straight up and down |
| perpetrator | The doer of a wrong or a criminal act |
| perpetuate | To preserve from extinction or oblivion |
| perquisite | Any profit from service beyond the amount fixed as salary or wages |
| persecution | Harsh or malignant oppression |
| perseverance | A persistence in purpose and effort |
| persevere | To continue striving in spite of discouragements |
| persiflage | Banter |
| persist | To continue steadfast against opposition |
| persistence | A fixed adherence to a resolve, course of conduct, or the like |
| personage | A man or woman as an individual, especially one of rank or high station |
| personal | Not general or public |
| personality | The attributes, taken collectively, that make up the character and nature of an individual |
| personnel | The force of persons collectively employed in some service |
| perspective | The relative importance of facts or matters from any special point of view |
| perspicacious | Astute |
| perspicacity | Acuteness or discernment |
| perspicuous | Lucid |
| perspiration | Sweat |
| perspire | To excrete through the pores of the skin |
| persuade | To win the mind of by argument, eloquence, evidence, or reflection |
| persuadable | capable of influencing to action by entreaty, statement, or anything that moves the feelings |
| pertinacious | Persistent or unyielding |
| pertinacity | Unyielding adherence |
| pertinent | Relevant |
| perturb | To disturb greatly |
| perturbation | Mental excitement or confusion |
| perusal | The act of reading carefully or thoughtfully |
| pervade | To pass or spread through every part |
| pervasion | The state of spreading through every part |
| pervasive | Thoroughly penetrating or permeating |
| perverse | Unreasonable |
| perversion | Diversion from the true meaning or proper purpose |
| perversity | Wickedness |
| pervert | One who has forsaken a doctrine regarded as true for one esteemed false |
| pervious | Admitting the entrance or passage of another substance |
| pestilence | A raging epidemic |
| pestilent | Having a malign influence or effect |
| pestilential | having the nature of or breeding pestilence |
| peter | To fail or lose power, efficiency, or value |
| petrify | To convert into a substance of stony hardness and character |
| petulance | The character or condition of being impatient, capricious or petulant |
| petulant | Displaying impatience |
| pharmacopoeia | A book containing the formulas and methods of preparation of medicines for the use of druggists |
| phenomenal | Extraordinary or marvelous |
| phenomenon | Any unusual occurrence |
| philander | To play at courtship with a woman |
| philanthropic | Benevolent |
| philanthropist | One who endeavors to help his fellow men |
| philanthropy | Active humanitarianism |
| philately | The study and collection of stamps |
| philogynist | One who is fond of women |
| philologist | An expert in linguistics |
| philology | The study of language in connection with history and literature |
| philosophize | To seek ultimate causes and principles |
| philosophy | The general principles, laws, or causes that furnish the rational explanation of anything |
| phlegmatic | Not easily roused to feeling or action |
| phonetic | Representing articulate sounds or speech |
| phonic | Pertaining to the nature of sound |
| phonogram | A graphic character symbolizing an articulate sound |
| phonology | The science of human vocal sounds |
| phosphorescence | The property of emitting light |
| photoelectric | Pertaining to the combined action of light and electricity |
| photometer | Any instrument for measuring the intensity of light or comparing the intensity of two lights |
| photometry | The art of measuring the intensity of light |
| physicist | A specialist in the science that treats of the phenomena associated with matter and energy |
| physics | The science that treats of the phenomena associated with matter and energy |
| physiocracy | The doctrine that land and its products are the only true wealth |
| physiognomy | The external appearance merely |
| physiography | Description of nature |
| physiology | The science of organic functions |
| physique | The physical structure or organization of a person |
| picayune | Of small value |
| piccolo | A small flute |
| piece | A loose or separated part, as distinguished from the whole or the mass |
| piecemeal | ad Gradually |
| pillage | Open robbery, as in war |
| pillory | A wooden framework in which an offender is fastened to boards and is exposed to public scorn |
| pinchers | An instrument having two jaws working on a pivot |
| pinnacle | A high or topmost point, as a mountain-peak |
| pioneer | One among the first to explore a country |
| pious | Religious |
| pique | To excite a slight degree of anger in |
| piteous | Compassionate |
| pitiable | Contemptible |
| pitiful | Wretched |
| pitiless | Hard-hearted |
| pittance | Any small portion or meager allowance |
| placate | To bring from a state of angry or hostile feeling to one of patience or friendliness |
| placid | Serene |
| plagiarism | The stealing of passages from the writings of another and publishing them as one's own |
| planisphere | A polar projection of the heavens on a chart |
| plasticity | The property of some substances through which the form of the mass can readily be changed |
| platitude | A written or spoken statement that is flat, dull, or commonplace |
| plaudit | An expression of applause |
| plausible | Seeming likely to be true, though open to doubt |
| playful | Frolicsome |
| playwright | A maker of plays for the stage |
| plea | An argument to obtain some desired action |
| pleasant | Agreeable |
| pleasurable | Affording gratification |
| plebeian | Common |
| pledgee | The person to whom anything is pledged |
| pledgeor | One who gives a pledge |
| plenary | Entire |
| plenipotentiary | A person fully empowered to transact any business |
| plenitude | Abundance |
| plenteous | Abundant |
| plumb | A weight suspended by a line to test the verticality of something |
| plummet | A piece of lead for making soundings, adjusting walls to the vertical |
| pluperfect | Expressing past time or action prior to some other past time or action |
| plural | Containing or consisting of more than one |
| plurality | A majority |
| plutocracy | A wealthy class in a political community who control the government by means of their money |
| pneumatic | Pertaining to or consisting of air or gas |
| poesy | Poetry |
| poetaster | An inferior poet |
| poetic | Pertaining to poetry |
| poetics | The rules and principles of poetry |
| poignancy | Severity or acuteness, especially of pain or grief |
| poignant | Severely painful or acute to the spirit |
| poise | Equilibrium |
| polar | Pertaining to the poles of a sphere, especially of the earth |
| polemics | The art of controversy or disputation |
| pollen | The fine dust-like grains or powder formed within the anther of a flowering plant |
| pollute | To contaminate |
| polyarchy | Government by several or many persons of what- ever class |
| polycracy | The rule of many |
| polygamy | the fact or condition of having more than one wife or husband at once |
| polyglot | Speaking several tongues |
| polygon | A figure having many angles |
| polyhedron | A solid bounded by plane faces, especially by more than four |
| polysyllable | Having several syllables, especially more than three syllables |
| polytechnic | Pertaining to, embracing, or practicing many arts |
| polytheism | The doctrine or belief that there are more gods than one |
| pommel | To beat with something thick or bulky |
| pomposity | The quality of being marked by an assumed stateliness and impressiveness of manner |
| pompous | Marked by an assumed stateliness and impressiveness of manner |
| ponder | To meditate or reflect upon |
| ponderous | Unusually weighty or forcible |
| pontiff | The Pope |
| populace | The common people |
| populous | Containing many inhabitants, especially in proportion to the territory |
| portend | To indicate as being about to happen, especially by previous signs |
| portent | Anything that indicates what is to happen |
| portfolio | A portable case for holding writing-materials, drawings, etc |
| posit | To present in an orderly manner |
| position | The manner in which a thing is placed |
| positive | Free from doubt or hesitation |
| posse | A force of men |
| possess | To own |
| possession | The having, holding, or detention of property in one's power or command |
| possessive | Pertaining to the having, holding, or detention of property in one's power or command |
| possessor | One who owns, enjoys, or controls anything, as property |
| possible | Being not beyond the reach of power natural, moral, or supernatural |
| postdate | To make the date of any writing later than the real date |
| posterior | The hinder part |
| postgraduate | Pertaining to studies that are pursued after receiving a degree |
| postscript | Something added to a letter after the writer's signature |
| potency | Power |
| potent | Physically powerful |
| potentate | One possessed of great power or sway |
| potential | Anything that may be possible |
| potion | A dose of liquid medicine |
| powerless | Impotent |
| practicable | Feasible |
| prate | To talk about vainly or foolishly |
| prattle | To utter in simple or childish talk |
| preamble | A statement introductory to and explanatory of what follows |
| precarious | Perilous |
| precaution | A provision made in advance for some possible emergency or danger |
| precede | To happen first |
| precedence | Priority in place, time, or rank |
| precedent | An instance that may serve as a guide or basis for a rule |
| precedential | Of the nature of an instance that may serve as a guide or basis for a rule |
| precession | The act of going forward |
| precipice | A high and very steep or approximately vertical cliff |
| precipitant | Moving onward quickly and heedlessly |
| precipitate | To force forward prematurely |
| precise | Exact |
| precision | Accuracy of limitation, definition, or adjustment |
| preclude | To prevent |
| precocious | Having the mental faculties prematurely developed |
| precursor | A forerunner or herald |
| predatory | Prone to pillaging |
| predecessor | An incumbent of a given office previous to another |
| predicament | A difficult, trying situation or plight |
| predicate | To state as belonging to something |
| predict | To foretell |
| prediction | A prophecy |
| predominance | Ascendancy or preponderance |
| predominant | Superior in power, influence, effectiveness, number, or degree |
| predominate | To be chief in importance, quantity, or degree |
| preeminence | Special eminence |
| preempt | To secure the right of preference in the purchase of public land |
| preemption | The right or act of purchasing before others |
| preengage | To preoccupy |
| preestablish | To settle or arrange beforehand |
| preexist | To exist at a period or in a state earlier than something else |
| preexistence | Existence antecedent to something |
| preface | A brief explanation or address to the reader, at the beginning of a book |
| prefatory | Pertaining to a brief explanation to the reader at the beginning of a book |
| prefer | To hold in higher estimation |
| preferable | More desirable than others |
| preference | An object of favor or choice |
| preferential | Possessing, giving, or constituting preference or priority |
| preferment | Preference |
| prefix | To attach at the beginning |
| prehensible | Capable of being grasped |
| prehensile | Adapted for grasping or holding |
| prehension | The act of laying hold of or grasping |
| prejudice | A judgment or opinion formed without due examination of the facts |
| prelacy | A system of church government |
| prelate | One of a higher order of clergy having direct authority over other clergy |
| prelude | An introductory or opening performance |
| premature | Coming too soon |
| premier | First in rank or position |
| premise | A judgment as a conclusion |
| premonition | Foreboding |
| preoccupation | The state of having the mind, attention, or inclination preoccupied |
| preoccupy | To fill the mind of a person to the exclusion of other subjects |
| preordain | To foreordain |
| preparation | An act or proceeding designed to bring about some event |
| preparatory | Having to do with what is preliminary |
| preponderant | Prevalent |
| preponderate | To exceed in influence or power |
| prepossession | A preconceived liking |
| preposterous | Utterly ridiculous or absurd |
| prerogative | Having superior rank or precedence |
| presage | To foretell |
| prescience | Knowledge of events before they take place |
| prescient | Foreknowing |
| prescript | Prescribed as a rule or model |
| prescriptible | Derived from authoritative direction |
| prescription | An authoritative direction |
| presentient | Perceiving or feeling beforehand |
| presentiment | Foreboding |
| presentment | Semblance |
| preservation | Conservation |
| presumption | That which may be logically assumed to be true until disproved |
| presumptuous | Assuming too much |
| pretension | A bold or presumptuous assertion |
| pretentious | Marked by pretense, conceit, or display |
| preternatural | Extraordinary |
| pretext | A fictitious reason or motive |
| prevalence | Frequency |
| prevalent | Of wide extent or frequent occurrence |
| prevaricate | To use ambiguous or evasive language for the purpose of deceiving or diverting attention |
| prevention | Thwarting |
| prickle | To puncture slightly with fine, sharp points |
| priggish | Conceited |
| prim | Stiffly proper |
| prima | First |
| primer | An elementary reading-book for children |
| primeval | Belonging to the first ages |
| primitive | Pertaining to the beginning or early times |
| principal | Most important |
| principality | The territory of a reigning prince |
| principle | A general truth or proposition |
| priory | A monastic house |
| pristine | Primitive |
| privateer | A vessel owned and officered by private persons, but carrying on maritime war |
| privilege | A right or immunity not enjoyed by all, or that may be enjoyed only under special conditions |
| privity | Knowledge shared with another or others regarding a private matter |
| privy | Participating with another or others in the knowledge of a secret transaction |
| probate | Relating to making proof, as of a will |
| probation | Any proceeding designed to ascertain or test character, qualification, or the like |
| probe | To search through and through |
| probity | Virtue or integrity tested and confirmed |
| procedure | A manner or method of acting |
| proceed | To renew motion or action, as after rest or interruption |
| proclamation | Any announcement made in a public manner |
| procrastinate | To put off till tomorrow or till a future time |
| procrastination | Delay |
| proctor | An agent acting for another |
| prodigal | One wasteful or extravagant, especially in the use of money or property |
| prodigious | Immense |
| prodigy | A person or thing of very remarkable gifts or qualities |
| productive | Yielding in abundance |
| profession | Any calling or occupation involving special mental or other special disciplines |
| professor | A public teacher of the highest grade in a university or college |
| proffer | To offer to another for acceptance |
| proficiency | An advanced state of acquirement, as in some knowledge, art, or science |
| proficient | Possessing ample and ready knowledge or of skill in any art, science, or industry |
| profile | An outline or contour |
| profiteer | One who profits |
| profligacy | Shameless viciousness |
| profligate | Abandoned to vice |
| profuse | Produced or displayed in overabundance |
| progeny | Offspring |
| progression | A moving forward or proceeding in course |
| prohibition | A decree or an order forbidding something |
| prohibitionist | One who favors the prohibition by law of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages |
| prohibitory | Involving or equivalent to prohibition, especially of the sale of alcoholic beverages |
| projection | A prominence |
| proletarian | A person of the lowest or poorest class |
| prolific | Producing offspring or fruit |
| prolix | Verbose |
| prologue | A prefatory statement or explanation to a poem, discourse, or performance |
| prolong | To extend in time or duration |
| promenade | To walk for amusement or exercise |
| prominence | The quality of being noticeable or distinguished |
| prominent | Conspicuous in position, character, or importance |
| promiscuous | Brought together without order, distinction, or design (for sex) |
| promissory | Expressing an engagement to pay |
| promontory | A high point of land extending outward from the coastline into the sea |
| promoter | A furtherer, forwarder, or encourager |
| promulgate | To proclaim |
| propaganda | Any institution or systematic scheme for propagating a doctrine or system |
| propagate | To spread abroad or from person to person |
| propel | To drive or urge forward |
| propellant | Propelling |
| propeller | One who or that which propels |
| prophecy | Any prediction or foretelling |
| prophesy | To predict or foretell, especially under divine inspiration and guidance |
| propitious | Kindly disposed |
| proportionate | Being in proportion |
| propriety | Accordance with recognized usage, custom, or principles |
| propulsion | A driving onward or forward |
| prosaic | Unimaginative |
| proscenium | That part of the stage between the curtain and the orchestra |
| proscribe | To reject, as a teaching or a practice, with condemnation or denunciation |
| proscription | Any act of condemnation and rejection from favor and privilege |
| proselyte | One who has been won over from one religious belief to another |
| prosody | The science of poetical forms |
| prospector | One who makes exploration, search, or examination, especially for minerals |
| prospectus | A paper or pamphlet containing information of a proposed undertaking |
| prostrate | Lying prone, or with the head to the ground |
| protagonist | A leader in any enterprise or contest |
| protection | Preservation from harm, danger, annoyance, or any other evil |
| protective | Sheltering |
| protector | A defender |
| protege | One specially cared for and favored by another usually older person |
| Protestant | A Christian who denies the authority of the Pope and holds the right of special judgment |
| protomartyr | The earliest victim in any cause |
| protocol | A declaration or memorandum of agreement less solemn and formal than a treaty |
| protoplasm | The substance that forms the principal portion of an animal or vegetable cell |
| prototype | A work, original in character, afterward imitated in form or spirit |
| protract | To prolong |
| protrude | To push out or thrust forth |
| protrusion | The act of protruding |
| protuberance | Something that swells out from a surrounding surface |
| protuberant | Bulging |
| protuberate | To swell or bulge beyond the surrounding surface |
| proverb | A brief, pithy saying, condensing in witty or striking form the wisdom of experience |
| provident | Anticipating and making ready for future wants or emergencies |
| providential | Effected by divine guidance |
| provincial | Uncultured in thought and manner |
| proviso | A clause in a contract, will, etc, by which its operation is rendered conditional |
| provocation | An action or mode of conduct that excites resentment |
| prowess | Strength, skill, and intrepidity in battle |
| proximately | ad Immediately |
| proxy | A person who is empowered by another to represent him or her in a given matter |
| prudence | Caution |
| prudential | Proceeding or marked by caution |
| prudery | An undue display of modesty or delicacy |
| prurient | Inclined to lascivious thoughts and desires |
| pseudapostle | A pretended or false apostle |
| pseudonym | A fictitious name, especially when assumed by a writer |
| pseudonymity | The state or character of using a fictitious name |
| psychiatry | The branch of medicine that relates to mental disease |
| psychic | Pertaining to the mind or soul |
| psychopathic | Morally irresponsible |
| psychotherapy | The treatment of mental disease |
| pudgy | Small and fat |
| puerile | Childish |
| pugnacious | Quarrelsome |
| puissant | Possessing strength |
| pulmonary | Pertaining to the lungs |
| punctilious | Strictly observant of the rules or forms prescribed by law or custom |
| punctual | Observant and exact in points of time |
| pungent | Affecting the sense of smell |
| pungency | The quality of affecting the sense of smell |
| punitive | Pertaining to punishment |
| pupilage | The state or period of being a student |
| purgatory | An intermediate state where souls are made fit for paradise or heaven by expiatory suffering |
| purl | To cause to whirl, as in an eddy |
| purloin | To steal |
| purport | Intent |
| purveyor | one who supplies |
| pusillanimous | Without spirit or bravery |
| putrescent | Undergoing decomposition of animal or vegetable matter accompanied by fetid odors |
| pyre | A heap of combustibles arranged for burning a dead body |
| pyromania | An insane propensity to set things on fire |
| pyrotechnic | Pertaining to fireworks or their manufacture |
| pyx | A vessel or casket, usually of precious metal, in which the host is preserved |
| quackery | Charlatanry |
| quadrate | To divide into quarters |
| quadruple | To multiply by four |
| qualification | A requisite for an employment, position, right, or privilege |
| qualify | To endow or furnish with requisite ability, character, knowledge, skill, or possessions |
| qualm | A fit of nausea |
| quandary | A puzzling predicament |
| quantity | Magnitude |
| quarantine | The enforced isolation of any person or place infected with contagious disease |
| quarrelsome | Irascible |
| quarter | One of four equal parts into which anything is or may be divided |
| quarterly | Occurring or made at intervals of three months |
| quartet | A composition for four voices or four instruments |
| quarto | An eight-page newspaper of any size |
| quay | A wharf or artificial landing-place on the shore of a harbor or projecting into it |
| querulous | Habitually complaining |
| query | To make inquiry |
| queue | A file of persons waiting in order of their arrival, as for admittance |
| quibble | An utterly trivial distinction or objection |
| quiescence | Quiet |
| quiescent | Being in a state of repose or inaction |
| quiet | Making no noise |
| quietus | A silencing, suppressing, or ending |
| quintessence | The most essential part of anything |
| quintet | Musical composition arranged for five voices or instruments |
| quite | ad Fully |
| Quixotic | Chivalrous or romantic to a ridiculous or extravagant degree |
| rabid | Affected with rabies or hydrophobia |
| racy | Exciting or exhilarating to the mind |
| radiance | Brilliant or sparkling luster |
| radiate | To extend in all directions, as from a source or focus |
| radical | One who holds extreme views or advocates extreme measures |
| radix | That from or on which something is developed |
| raillery | Good-humored satire |
| ramify | To divide or subdivide into branches or subdivisions |
| ramose | Branch-like |
| rampant | Growing, climbing, or running without check or restraint |
| rampart | A bulwark or construction to oppose assault or hostile entry |
| rancor | Malice |
| rankle | To produce irritation or festering |
| rapacious | Disposed to seize by violence or by unlawful or greedy methods |
| rapid | Having great speed |
| rapine | The act of seizing and carrying off property by superior force, as in war |
| rapt | Enraptured |
| raptorial | Seizing and devouring living prey |
| ration | To provide with a fixed allowance or portion, especially of food |
| rationalism | The formation of opinions by relying upon reason alone, independently of authority |
| raucous | Harsh |
| ravage | To lay waste by pillage, rapine, devouring, or other destructive methods |
| ravenous | Furiously voracious or hungry |
| ravine | A deep gorge or hollow, especially one worn by a stream or flow of water |
| reaction | Tendency towards a former, or opposite state of things, as after reform, revolution, or inflation |
| readily | ad Without objection or reluctance |
| readjust | To put in order after disarrangement |
| ready | In a state of preparedness for any given purpose or occasion |
| realism | The principle and practice of depicting persons and scenes as they are believed really to exist |
| rearrange | To arrange again or in a different order |
| reassure | To give new confidence |
| rebellious | Insubordinate |
| rebuff | A peremptory or unexpected rejection of advances or approaches |
| rebuild | To build again or anew |
| rebut | To oppose by argument or a sufficient answer |
| recant | To withdraw formally one's belief (in something previously believed or maintained) |
| recapitulate | To repeat again the principal points of |
| recapture | To capture again |
| recede | To move back or away |
| receivable | Capable of being or fit to be received - often money |
| receptive | Having the capacity, quality, or ability of receiving, as truths or impressions |
| recessive | Having a tendency to go back |
| recidivist | A confirmed criminal |
| reciprocal | Mutually interchangeable or convertible |
| reciprocate | To give and take mutually |
| reciprocity | Equal mutual rights and benefits granted and enjoyed |
| recitation | The act of reciting or repeating, especially in public and from memory |
| reck | To have a care or thought for |
| reckless | Foolishly headless of danger |
| reclaim | To demand or to obtain the return or restoration of |
| recline | To cause to assume a leaning or recumbent attitude or position |
| recluse | One who lives in retirement or seclusion |
| reclusory | A hermitage |
| recognizance | An acknowledgment entered into before a court with condition to do some particular act |
| recognize | To recall the identity of (a person or thing) |
| recoil | To start back as in dismay, loathing, or dread |
| recollect | To recall the knowledge of |
| reconcilable | Capable of being adjusted or harmonized |
| reconnoiter | To make a preliminary examination of for military, surveying, or geological purposes |
| reconsider | To review with care, especially with a view to a reversal of previous action |
| reconstruct | To rebuild |
| recourse | Resort to or application for help in exigency or trouble |
| recover | To regain |
| recreant | A cowardly or faithless person |
| recreate | To refresh after labor |
| recrudescence | The state of becoming raw or sore again |
| recrudescent | Becoming raw or sore again |
| recruit | To enlist men for military or naval service |
| rectify | To correct |
| rectitude | The quality of being upright in principles and conduct |
| recuperate | To recover |
| recur | To happen again or repeatedly, especially at regular intervals |
| recure | To cure again |
| recurrent | Returning from time to time, especially at regular or stated intervals |
| redemption | The recovery of what is mortgaged or pledged, by paying the debt |
| redolent | Smelling sweet and agreeable |
| redolence | Smelling sweet and agreeable |
| redoubtable | Formidable |
| redound | Rebound |
| redress | To set right, as a wrong by compensation or the punishment of the wrong-doer |
| reducible | That may be reduced |
| redundance | Excess |
| redundant | Constituting an excess |
| reestablish | To restore |
| refer | To direct or send for information or other purpose |
| referrer | One who refers |
| referable | Ascribable |
| referee | An umpire |
| refinery | A place where some crude material, as sugar or petroleum, is purified |
| reflectible | Capable of being turned back |
| reflection | The throwing off or back of light, heat, sound, or any form of energy that travels in waves |
| reflector | A mirror, as of metal, for reflecting light, heat, or sound in a particular direction |
| reflexible | Capable of being reflected |
| reform | Change for the better |
| reformer | One who carries out a reform |
| refract | To bend or turn from a direct course |
| refractory | Not amenable to control |
| refragable | Capable of being refuted |
| refringency | Power to refract |
| refringent | Having the power to refract |
| refusal | Denial of what is asked |
| refute | To prove to be wrong |
| regale | To give unusual pleasure |
| regalia | The emblems of royalty |
| regality | Royalty |
| regenerate | To reproduce |
| regent | One who is lawfully deputized to administer the government for the time being in the name of the ruler |
| regime | Particular conduct or administration of affairs |
| regimen | A systematized order or course of living with reference to food, clothing and personal habits |
| regiment | A body of soldiers |
| regnant | Exercising royal authority in one's own right |
| regress | To return to a former place or condition |
| regretful | Feeling, expressive of, or full of regret |
| rehabilitate | To restore to a former status, capacity, right rank, or privilege |
| reign | To hold and exercise sovereign power |
| reimburse | To pay back as an equivalent of what has been expended |
| rein | A step attached to the bit for controlling a horse or other draft-animal |
| reinstate | To restore to a former state, station, or authority |
| reiterate | To say or do again and again |
| rejoin | To reunite after separation |
| rejuvenate | To restore to youth |
| rejuvenescence | A renewal of youth |
| relapse | To suffer a return of a disease after partial recovery |
| relegate | To send off or consign, as to an obscure position or remote destination |
| relent | To yield |
| relevant | Bearing upon the matter in hand |
| reliance | Dependence |
| reliant | Having confidence |
| relinquish | To give up using or having |
| reliquary | A casket, coffer, or repository in which relics are kept |
| relish | To like the taste or savor of |
| reluctance | Unwillingness |
| reluctant | Unwilling |
| remembrance | Recollection |
| reminiscence | The calling to mind of incidents within the range of personal knowledge or experience |
| reminiscent | Pertaining to the recollection of matters of personal interest |
| remiss | Negligent |
| remission | Temporary diminution of a disease |
| remodel | Reconstruct |
| remonstrance | Reproof |
| remonstrant | Having the character of a reproof |
| remonstrate | To present a verbal or written protest to those who have power to right or prevent a wrong |
| remunerate | To pay or pay for |
| remuneration | Compensation |
| Renaissance | The revival of letters, and then of art, which marks the transition from medieval to modern time |
| rendition | Interpretation |
| renovate | To restore after deterioration, as a building |
| renunciation | An explicit disclaimer of a right or privilege |
| reorganize | To change to a more satisfactory form of organization |
| reparable | Capable of repair |
| reparation | The act of making amends, as for an injury, loss, or wrong |
| repartee | A ready, witty, or apt reply |
| repeal | To render of no further effect |
| repel | To force or keep back in a manner, physically or mentally |
| repellent | Having power to force back in a manner, physically or mentally |
| repentance | Sorrow for something done or left undone, with desire to make things right by undoing the wrong |
| repertory | A place where things are stored or gathered together |
| repetition | The act of repeating |
| repine | To indulge in fretfulness and faultfinding |
| replenish | To fill again, as something that has been emptied |
| replete | Full to the uttermost |
| replica | A duplicate executed by the artist himself, and regarded, equally with the first, as an original |
| repository | A place in which goods are stored |
| reprehend | To find fault with |
| reprehensible | Censurable |
| reprehension | Expression of blame |
| repress | To keep under restraint or control |
| repressible | Able to be kept under restraint or control |
| reprieve | To grant a respite from punishment to |
| reprimand | To chide or rebuke for a fault |
| reprisal | Any infliction or act by way of retaliation on an enemy |
| reprobate | One abandoned to depravity and sin |
| reproduce | To make a copy of |
| reproduction | The process by which an animal or plant gives rise to another of its kind |
| reproof | An expression of disapproval or blame personally addressed to one censured |
| repudiate | To refuse to have anything to do with |
| repugnance | Thorough dislike |
| repugnant | Offensive to taste and feeling |
| repulse | The act of beating or driving back, as an attacking or advancing enemy |
| repulsive | Grossly offensive |
| repute | To hold in general opinion |
| requiem | A solemn mass sung for the repose of the souls of the dead |
| requisite | Necessary |
| requital | Adequate return for good or ill |
| requite | To repay either good or evil to, as to a person |
| rescind | To make void, as an act, by the enacting authority or a superior authority |
| reseat | To place in position of office again |
| resemblance | Similarity in quality or form |
| resent | To be indignant at, as an injury or insult |
| reservoir | A receptacle where a quantity of some material, especially of a liquid or gas, may be kept |
| residue | A remainder or surplus after a part has been separated or otherwise treated |
| resilience | The power of springing back to a former position |
| resilient | Having the quality of springing back to a former position |
| resistance | The exertion of opposite effort or effect |
| resistant | Offering or tending to produce resistance |
| resistive | Having or exercising the power of resistance |
| resistless | Powerless |
| resonance | The quality of being able to reinforce sound by sympathetic vibrations |
| resonance | Able to reinforce sound by sympathetic vibrations |
| resonate | To have or produce resonance |
| resource | That which is restored to, relied upon, or made available for aid or support |
| respite | Interval of rest |
| resplendent | Very bright |
| respondent | Answering |
| restitution | Restoration of anything to the one to whom it properly belongs |
| resumption | The act of taking back, or taking again |
| resurgent | Surging back or again |
| resurrection | A return from death to life |
| resuscitate | To restore from apparent death |
| retaliate | To repay evil with a similar evil |
| retch | To make an effort to vomit |
| retention | The keeping of a thing within one's power or possession |
| reticence | The quality of habitually keeping silent or being reserved in utterance |
| reticent | Habitually keeping silent or being reserved in utterance |
| retinue | The body of persons who attend a person of importance in travel or public appearance |
| retort | A retaliatory speech |
| retouch | To modify the details of |
| retrace | To follow backward or toward the place of beginning, as a track or marking |
| retract | To recall or take back (something that one has said) |
| retrench | To cut down or reduce in extent or quantity |
| retrieve | To recover something by searching |
| retroactive | Operative on, affecting, or having reference to past events, transactions, responsibilities |
| retrograde | To cause to deteriorate or to move backward |
| retrogression | A going or moving backward or in a reverse direction |
| retrospect | A view or contemplation of something past |
| retrospective | Looking back on the past |
| reunite | To unite or join again, as after separation |
| revelation | A disclosing, discovering, or making known of what was before secret, private, or unknown |
| revere | To regard with worshipful veneration |
| reverent | Humble |
| reversion | A return to or toward some former state or condition |
| revert | To return, or turn or look back, as toward a former position or the like |
| revile | To heap approach or abuse upon |
| revisal | Revision |
| revise | To examine for the correction of errors, or for the purpose of making changes |
| revocation | Repeal |
| revoke | To rescind |
| rhapsody | Rapt or rapturous utterance |
| rhetoric | The art of discourse |
| rhetorician | A showy writer or speaker |
| ribald | Indulging in or manifesting coarse indecency or obscenity |
| riddance | The act or ridding or delivering from something undesirable |
| ridicule | Looks or acts expressing amused contempt |
| ridiculous | Laughable and contemptible |
| rife | Abundant |
| righteousness | Rectitude |
| rightful | Conformed to a just claim according to established laws or usage |
| rigmarole | Nonsense |
| rigor | Inflexibility |
| rigorous | Uncompromising |
| ripplet | A small ripple, as of water |
| risible | capable of exciting laughter |
| rivulet | A small stream or brook |
| robust | Characterized by great strength or power of endurance |
| rondo | A musical composition during which the first part or subject is repeated several times |
| rookery | A place where crows congregate to breed |
| rotary | Turning around its axis, like a wheel, or so constructed as to turn thus |
| rotate | To cause to turn on or as on its axis, as a wheel |
| rote | Repetition of words or sounds as a means of learning them, with slight attention |
| rotund | Round from fullness or plumpness |
| rudimentary | Being in an initial, early, or incomplete stage of development |
| rue | To regret extremely |
| ruffian | A lawless or recklessly brutal fellow |
| ruminant | Chewing the cud |
| ruminate | To chew over again, as food previously swallowed and regurgitated |
| rupture | To separate the parts of by violence |
| rustic | Characteristic of dwelling in the country |
| ruth | Sorrow for another's misery |
| sacrifice | To make an offering of to deity, especially by presenting on an altar |
| sacrificial | Offering or offered as an atonement for sin |
| sacrilege | The act of violating or profaning anything sacred |
| sacrilegious | Impious |
| safeguard | To protect |
| sagacious | Able to discern and distinguish with wise perception |
| salacious | Having strong sexual desires |
| salience | The condition of standing out distinctly |
| salient | Standing out prominently |
| saline | Constituting or consisting of salt |
| salutary | Beneficial |
| salutation | Any form of greeting, hailing, or welcome, whether by word or act |
| salutatory | The opening oration at the commencement in American colleges |
| salvage | Any act of saving property |
| salvo | A salute given by firing all the guns, as at the funeral of an officer |
| sanctimonious | Making an ostentatious display or hypocritical pretense of holiness or piety |
| sanction | To approve authoritatively |
| sanctity | Holiness |
| sanguinary | Bloody |
| sanguine | Having the color of blood |
| sanguineous | Consisting of blood |
| sapid | Affecting the sense of taste |
| sapience | Deep wisdom or knowledge |
| sapient | Possessing wisdom |
| sapiential | Possessing wisdom |
| saponaceous | Having the nature or quality of soap |
| sarcasm | Cutting and reproachful language |
| sarcophagus | A stone coffin or a chest-like tomb |
| sardonic | Scornfully or bitterly sarcastic |
| satiate | To satisfy fully the appetite or desire of |
| satire | The employment of sarcasm, irony, or keenness of wit in ridiculing vices |
| satiric | Resembling poetry, in which vice, incapacity ,or corruption is held up to ridicule |
| satirize | To treat with sarcasm or derisive wit |
| satyr | A very lascivious person |
| savage | A wild and uncivilized human being |
| savor | To perceive by taste or smell |
| scabbard | The sheath of a sword or similar bladed weapon |
| scarcity | Insufficiency of supply for needs or ordinary demands |
| scholarly | Characteristic of an erudite person |
| scholastic | Pertaining to education or schools |
| scintilla | The faintest ray |
| scintillate | To emit or send forth sparks or little flashes of light |
| scope | A range of action or view |
| scoundrel | A man without principle |
| scribble | Hasty, careless writing |
| scribe | One who writes or is skilled in writing |
| script | Writing or handwriting of the ordinary cursive form |
| Scriptural | Pertaining to, contained in, or warranted by the Holy Scriptures |
| scruple | Doubt or uncertainty regarding a question of moral right or duty |
| scrupulous | Cautious in action for fear of doing wrong |
| scurrilous | Grossly indecent or vulgar |
| scuttle | To sink (a ship) by making holes in the bottom |
| scythe | A long curved blade for mowing, reaping, etc |
| seance | A meeting of spirituals for consulting spirits |
| sear | To burn on the surface |
| sebaceous | Pertaining to or appearing like fat |
| secant | Cutting, especially into two parts |
| secede | To withdraw from union or association, especially from a political or religious body |
| secession | Voluntary withdrawal from fellowship, especially from political or religious bodies |
| seclude | To place, keep, or withdraw from the companionship of others |
| seclusion | Solitude |
| secondary | Less important or effective than that which is primary |
| secondly | ad In the second place in order or succession |
| second-rate | Second in quality, size, rank, importance, etc |
| secrecy | Concealment |
| secretary | One who attends to correspondence, keeps records or does other writing for others |
| secretive | Having a tendency to conceal |
| sedate | Even-tempered |
| sedentary | Involving or requiring much sitting |
| sediment | Matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid |
| sedition | Conduct directed against public order and the tranquillity of the state |
| seditious | Promotive of conduct directed against public order and the tranquillity of the state |
| seduce | To entice to surrender chastity |
| sedulous | Persevering in effort or endeavor |
| seer | A prophet |
| seethe | To be violently excited or agitated |
| seignior | A title of honor or respectful address, equivalent to sir |
| seismograph | An instrument for recording the phenomena of earthquakes |
| seize | To catch or take hold of suddenly and forcibly |
| selective | Having the power of choice |
| self-respect | Rational self-esteem |
| semblance | Outward appearance |
| semicivilized | Half-civilized |
| semiconscious | Partially conscious |
| semiannual | Recurring at intervals of six months |
| semicircle | A half-circle |
| seminar | Any assemblage of pupils for real research in some specific study under a teacher |
| seminary | A special school, as of theology or pedagogics |
| senile | Peculiar to or proceeding from the weakness or infirmity of old age |
| sensation | A condition of mind resulting from spiritual or inherent feeling |
| sense | The signification conveyed by some word, phrase, or action |
| sensibility | Power to perceive or feel |
| sensitive | Easily affected by outside operations or influences |
| sensorium | The sensory apparatus |
| sensual | Pertaining to the body or the physical senses |
| sensuous | Having a warm appreciation of the beautiful or of the refinements of luxury |
| sentence | A related group of words containing a subject and a predicate and expressing a complete thought |
| sentient | Possessing the power of sense or sense-perception |
| sentinel | Any guard or watch stationed for protection |
| separable | Capable of being disjoined or divided |
| separate | To take apart |
| separatist | A seceder |
| septennial | Recurring every seven years |
| sepulcher | A burial-place |
| sequacious | Ready to be led |
| sequel | That which follows in consequence of what has previously happened |
| sequence | The order in which a number or persons, things, or events follow one another in space or time |
| sequent | Following in the order of time |
| sequester | To cause to withdraw or retire, as from society or public life |
| sequestrate | To confiscate |
| sergeant | A non-commissioned military officer ranking next above a corporal |
| sergeant-at-arms | An executive officer in legislative bodies who enforces the orders of the presiding officer |
| sergeant-major | The highest non-commissioned officer in a regiment |
| service | Any work done for the benefit of another |
| serviceable | Durable |
| servitude | Slavery |
| severance | Separation |
| severely | ad Extremely |
| sextet | A band of six singers or players |
| sextuple | Multiplied by six |
| sheer | Absolute |
| shiftless | Wanting in resource, energy, or executive ability |
| shrewd | Characterized by skill at understanding and profiting by circumstances |
| shriek | A sharp, shrill outcry or scream, caused by agony or terror |
| shrinkage | A contraction of any material into less bulk or dimension |
| shrivel | To draw or be drawn into wrinkles |
| shuffle | A mixing or changing the order of things |
| sibilance | A hissing sound |
| sibilant | Made with a hissing sound |
| sibilate | To give a hissing sound to, as in pronouncing the letter s |
| sidelong | Inclining or tending to one side |
| sidereal | Pertaining to stars or constellations |
| siege | A beleaguerment |
| significance | Importance |
| significant | Important, especially as pointing something out |
| signification | The meaning conveyed by language, actions, or signs |
| similar | Bearing resemblance to one another or to something else |
| simile | A comparison which directs the mind to the representative object itself |
| similitude | Similarity |
| simplify | To make less complex or difficult |
| simulate | Imitate |
| simultaneous | Occurring, done, or existing at the same time |
| sinecure | Any position having emoluments with few or no duties |
| singe | To burn slightly or superficially |
| sinister | Evil |
| sinuosity | The quality of curving in and out |
| sinuous | Curving in and out |
| sinus | An opening or cavity |
| siren | A sea-nymph, described by Homer as dwelling between the island of Circe and Scylla |
| sirocco | hot winds from Africa |
| sisterhood | A body of sisters united by some bond of sympathy or by a religious vow |
| skeptic | One who doubts any statements |
| skepticism | The entertainment of doubt concerning something |
| skiff | Usually, a small light boat propelled by oars |
| skirmish | Desultory fighting between advanced detachments of two armies |
| sleight | A trick or feat so deftly done that the manner of performance escapes observation |
| slight | Of a small importance or significance |
| slothful | Lazy |
| sluggard | A person habitually lazy or idle |
| sociable | Inclined to seek company |
| socialism | A theory of civil polity that aims to secure the reconstruction of society |
| socialist | One who advocates reconstruction of society by collective ownership of land and capital |
| sociology | The philosophical study of society |
| Sol | The sun |
| solace | Comfort in grief, trouble, or calamity |
| solar | Pertaining to the sun |
| solder | A fusible alloy used for joining metallic surfaces or margins |
| soldier | A person engaged in military service |
| solecism | Any violation of established rules or customs |
| solicitor | One who represents a client in court of justice; an attorney |
| solicitude | Uneasiness of mind occasioned by desire, anxiety, or fear |
| soliloquy | A monologue |
| solstice | The time of year when the sun is at its greatest declination |
| soluble | Capable of being dissolved, as in a fluid |
| solvent | Having sufficient funds to pay all debts |
| somber | Gloomy |
| somniferous | Tending to produce sleep |
| somnolence | Oppressive drowsiness |
| somnolent | Sleepy |
| sonata | An instrumental composition |
| sonnet | A poem of fourteen decasyllabic or octosyllabiclines expressing two successive phrases |
| sonorous | Resonant |
| soothsayer | One who claims to have supernatural insight or foresight |
| sophism | A false argument understood to be such by the reasoner himself and intentionally used to deceive |
| sophisticate | To deprive of simplicity of mind or manner |
| sophistry | Reasoning sound in appearance only, especially when designedly deceptive |
| soprano | A woman's or boy's voice of high range |
| sorcery | Witchcraft |
| sordid | Of degraded character or nature |
| souvenir | A token of remembrance |
| sparse | Thinly diffused |
| Spartan | Exceptionally brave; rigorously severe |
| spasmodic | Convulsive |
| specialize | To assume an individual or specific character, or adopt a singular or special course |
| specialty | An employment limited to one particular line of work |
| specie | A coin or coins of gold, silver, copper, or other metal |
| species | A classificatory group of animals or plants subordinate to a genus |
| specimen | One of a class of persons or things regarded as representative of the class |
| specious | Plausible |
| spectator | One who beholds or looks on |
| specter | Apparition |
| spectrum | An image formed by rays of light or other radiant energy |
| speculate | To pursue inquiries and form conjectures |
| speculator | One who makes an investment that involves a risk of loss, but also a chance of profit |
| sphericity | The state or condition of being a sphere |
| spheroid | A body having nearly the form of a sphere |
| spherometer | An instrument for measuring curvature or radii of spherical surfaces |
| spinous | Having spines |
| spinster | A woman who has never been married |
| spontaneous | Arising from inherent qualities or tendencies without external efficient cause |
| sprightly | Vivacious |
| spurious | Not genuine |
| squabble | To quarrel |
| squalid | Having a dirty, mean, poverty-stricken appearance |
| squatter | One who settles on land without permission or right |
| stagnant | Not flowing: said of water, as in a pool |
| stagnate | To become dull or inert |
| stagnation | The condition of not flowing or not changing |
| stagy | Having a theatrical manner |
| staid | Of a steady and sober character |
| stallion | An uncastrated male horse, commonly one kept for breeding |
| stanchion | A vertical bar, or a pair of bars, used to confine cattle in a stall |
| stanza | A group of rimed lines, usually forming one of a series of similar divisions in a poem |
| statecraft | The art of conducting state affairs |
| static | Pertaining to or designating bodies at rest or forces in equilibrium |
| statics | The branch of mechanics that treats of the relations that subsist among forces in order |
| stationary | Not moving |
| statistician | One who is skilled in collecting and tabulating numerical facts |
| statuesque | Having the grace, pose, or quietude of a statue |
| statuette | A figurine |
| stature | The natural height of an animal body |
| statute | Any authoritatively declared rule, ordinance, decree, or law |
| stealth | A concealed manner of acting |
| stellar | Pertaining to the stars |
| steppe | One of the extensive plains in Russia and Siberia |
| sterling | Genuine |
| stifle | To smother |
| stigma | A mark of infamy or token of disgrace attaching to a person as the result of evil-doing |
| stiletto | A small dagger |
| stimulant | Anything that rouses to activity or to quickened action |
| stimulate | To rouse to activity or to quickened action |
| stimulus | Incentive |
| stingy | Cheap, unwilling to spend money |
| stipend | A definite amount paid at stated periods in compensation for services or as an allowance |
| Stoicism | The principles or the practice of the Stoics-being very even tempered in success and failure |
| stolid | Expressing no power of feeling or perceiving |
| strait | A narrow passage of water connecting two larger bodies of water |
| stratagem | Any clever trick or device for obtaining an advantage |
| stratum | A natural or artificial layer, bed, or thickness of any substance or material |
| streamlet | Rivulet |
| stringency | Strictness |
| stringent | Rigid |
| stripling | A mere youth |
| studious | Having or showing devotion to the acquisition of knowledge |
| stultify | To give an appearance of foolishness to |
| stupendous | Of prodigious size, bulk, or degree |
| stupor | Profound lethargy |
| suasion | The act of persuading |
| suave | Smooth and pleasant in manner |
| subacid | Somewhat sharp or biting |
| subaquatic | Being, formed, or operating under water |
| subconscious | Being or occurring in the mind, but without attendant consciousness or conscious perception |
| subjacent | Situated directly underneath |
| subjection | The act of bringing into a state of submission |
| subjugate | To conquer |
| subliminal | Being beneath the threshold of consciousness |
| sublingual | Situated beneath the tongue |
| submarine | Existing, done, or operating beneath the surface of the sea |
| submerge | To place or plunge under water |
| submergence | The act of submerging |
| submersible | Capable of being put underwater |
| submersion | The act of submerging |
| submission | A yielding to the power or authority of another |
| submittal | The act of submitting |
| subordinate | Belonging to an inferior order in a classification |
| subsequent | Following in time |
| subservience | The quality, character, or condition of being servilely following another's behests |
| subservient | Servilely following another's behests |
| subside | To relapse into a state of repose and tranquillity |
| subsist | To be maintained or sustained |
| subsistence | Sustenance |
| substantive | Solid |
| subtend | To extend opposite to |
| subterfuge | Evasion |
| subterranean | Situated or occurring below the surface of the earth |
| subtle | Discriminating |
| subtrahend | That which is to be subtracted |
| subversion | An overthrow, as from the foundation |
| subvert | To bring to ruin |
| succeed | To accomplish what is attempted or intended |
| success | A favorable or prosperous course or termination of anything attempted |
| successful | Having reached a high degree of worldly prosperity |
| successor | One who or that which takes the place of a predecessor or preceding thing |
| succinct | Concise |
| succulent | Juicy |
| succumb | To cease to resist |
| sufferance | Toleration |
| sufficiency | An ample or adequate supply |
| suffrage | The right or privilege of voting |
| suffuse | To cover or fill the surface of |
| suggestible | That can be suggested |
| suggestive | Stimulating to thought or reflection |
| summary | An abstract |
| sumptuous | Rich and costly |
| superabundance | An excessive amount |
| superadd | To add in addition to what has been added |
| superannuate | To become deteriorated or incapacitated by long service |
| superb | Sumptuously elegant |
| supercilious | Exhibiting haughty and careless contempt |
| superficial | Knowing and understanding only the ordinary and the obvious |
| superfluity | That part of anything that is in excess of what is needed |
| superfluous | Being more than is needed |
| superheat | To heat to excess |
| superintend | To have the charge and direction of, especially of some work or movement |
| superintendence | Direction and management |
| superintendent | One who has the charge and direction of, especially of some work or movement |
| superlative | That which is of the highest possible excellence or eminence |
| supernatural | Caused miraculously or by the immediate exercise of divine power |
| supernumerary | Superfluous |
| supersede | To displace |
| supine | Lying on the back |
| supplant | To take the place of |
| supple | Easily bent |
| supplementary | Being an addition to |
| supplicant | One who asks humbly and earnestly |
| supplicate | To beg |
| supposition | Conjecture |
| suppress | To prevent from being disclosed or punished |
| suppressible | Capable of being suppressed |
| suppression | A forcible putting or keeping down |
| supramundane | Supernatural |
| surcharge | An additional amount charged |
| surety | Security for payment or performance |
| surfeit | To feed to fullness or to satiety |
| surmise | To conjecture |
| surmount | To overcome by force of will |
| surreptitious | Clandestine |
| surrogate | One who or that which is substituted for or appointed to act in place of another |
| surround | To encircle |
| surveyor | A land-measurer |
| susceptibility | A specific capability of feeling or emotion |
| susceptible | Easily under a specified power or influence |
| suspense | Uncertainty |
| suspension | A hanging from a support |
| suspicious | Inclined to doubt or mistrust |
| sustenance | Food |
| swarthy | Having a dark hue, especially a dark or sunburned complexion |
| Sybarite | A luxurious person |
| sycophant | A servile flatterer, especially of those in authority or influence |
| syllabic | Consisting of that which is uttered in a single vocal impulse |
| syllabication | Division of words into that which is uttered in a single vocal impulse |
| syllable | That which is uttered in a single vocal impulse |
| syllabus | Outline of a subject, course, lecture, or treatise |
| sylph | A slender, graceful young woman or girl |
| symmetrical | Well-balanced |
| symmetry | Relative proportion and harmony |
| sympathetic | Having a fellow-feeling for or like feelings with another or others |
| sympathize | To share the sentiments or mental states of another |
| symphonic | Characterized by a harmonious or agreeable mingling of sounds |
| symphonious | Marked by a harmonious or agreeable mingling of sounds |
| symphony | A harmonious or agreeable mingling of sounds |
| synchronism | Simultaneousness |
| syndicate | An association of individuals united for the prosecution of some enterprise |
| syneresis | The coalescence of two vowels or syllables, as e'er for ever |
| synod | An ecclesiastical council |
| synonym | A word having the same or almost the same meaning as some other |
| synopsis | A syllabus or summary |
| systematic | Methodical |
| tableau | An arrangement of inanimate figures representing a scene from real life |
| tacit | Understood |
| taciturn | Disinclined to conversation |
| tack | A small sharp-pointed nail |
| tact | Fine or ready mental discernment shown in saying or doing the proper thing |
| tactician | One who directs affairs with skill and shrewdness |
| tactics | Any maneuvering or adroit management for effecting an object |
| tangency | The state of touching |
| tangent | Touching |
| tangible | Perceptible by touch |
| tannery | A place where leather is tanned |
| tantalize | To tease |
| tantamount | Having equal or equivalent value, effect, or import |
| tapestry | A fabric to which a pattern is applied with a needle, designed for ornamental hangings |
| tarnish | To lessen or destroy the luster of in any way |
| taut | Stretched tight |
| taxation | A levy, by government, of a fixed contribution |
| taxidermy | The art or process of preserving dead animals or parts of them |
| technic | Technical |
| technicality | Something peculiar to a particular art, trade, or the like |
| technique | Manner of performance |
| technography | The scientific description or study of human arts and industries in their historic development |
| teem | To be full to overflowing |
| telepathy | Thought-transference |
| telephony | The art or process of communicating by telephone |
| telescope | To drive together so that one slides into the another like the sections of a spy-glass |
| telltale | That gives warning or information |
| temerity | Recklessness |
| temporal | Pertaining to or concerned with the affairs of the present life |
| temporary | Lasting for a short time only |
| temporize | To pursue a policy of delay |
| tempt | To offer to (somebody) an inducement to do wrong |
| tempter | An allurer or enticer to evil |
| tenacious | Unyielding |
| tenant | An occupant |
| tendency | Direction or inclination, as toward some objector end |
| tenet | Any opinion, principle, dogma, or doctrine that a person believes or maintains as true |
| tenor | A settled course or manner of progress |
| tense | Strained to stiffness |
| tentative | Done as an experiment |
| tenure | The term during which a thing is held |
| tercentenary | Pertaining to a period of 300 years |
| termagant | Violently abusive and quarrelsome |
| terminal | Pertaining to or creative of a boundary, limit |
| terminate | To put an end or stop to |
| termination | The act of ending or concluding |
| terminus | The final point or goal |
| terrify | To fill with extreme fear |
| territorial | Pertaining to the domain over which a sovereign state exercises jurisdiction |
| terse | Pithy |
| testament | A will |
| testator | The maker of a will |
| testimonial | A formal token of regard, often presented in public |
| thearchy | Government by a supreme deity |
| theism | Belief in God |
| theocracy | A government administered by ecclesiastics |
| theocrasy | The mixed worship of polytheism |
| theologian | A professor of divinity |
| theological | Based on or growing out of divine revelation |
| theology | The branch of theological science that treats of God |
| theoretical | Directed toward knowledge for its own sake without respect to applications |
| theorist | One given to speculating |
| theorize | To speculate |
| thereabout | ad Near that number, quantity, degree, place, or time, approximately |
| therefor | ad For that or this |
| thermal | Of or pertaining to heat |
| thermoelectric | Denoting electricity produced by heat |
| thermoelectricity | Electricity generated by differences of temperature, |
| thesis | An essay or treatise on a particular subject |
| thoroughbred | Bred from the best or purest blood or stock |
| thoroughfare | A public street or road |
| thrall | One controlled by an appetite or a passion |
| tilth | Cultivation |
| timbre | The quality of a tone, as distinguished from intensity and pitch |
| timorous | Lacking courage |
| tincture | A solution, usually alcoholic, of some principle used in medicine |
| tinge | A faint trace of color |
| tipsy | Befuddled with drinks |
| tirade | Harangue |
| tireless | Untiring |
| tiresome | Wearisome |
| Titanic | Of vast size or strength |
| toilsome | Laborious |
| tolerable | Moderately good |
| tolerance | Forbearance in judging of the acts or opinions of others |
| tolerant | Indulgent |
| tolerate | To passively permit or put up with |
| toleration | A spirit of charitable leniency |
| topography | The art of representing on a map the physical features of any locality or region with accuracy |
| torpor | Apathy |
| torrid | Excessively hot |
| tortious | Wrongful |
| tortuous | Abounding in irregular bends or turns |
| torturous | Marked by extreme suffering |
| tractable | Easily led or controlled |
| trait | A distinguishing feature or quality |
| trajectory | The path described by a projectile moving under given forces |
| trammel | An impediment |
| tranquil | Calm |
| tranquilize | To soothe |
| tranquility | Calmness |
| transalpine | Situated on the other side of the Alps |
| transact | To do business |
| transatlantic | Situated beyond or on the other side of the Atlantic |
| transcend | To surpass |
| transcendent | Surpassing |
| transcontinental | Extending or passing across a continent |
| transcribe | To write over again (something already written) |
| transcript | A copy made directly from an original |
| transfer | To convey, remove, or cause to pass from one person or place to another |
| transferable | Capable of being conveyed from one person or place to another |
| transferee | The person to whom a transfer is made |
| transference | The act of conveying from one person or place to another |
| transferrer | One who or that which conveys from one person or place to another |
| transfigure | To give an exalted meaning or glorified appearance to |
| transfuse | To pour or cause to pass, as a fluid, from one vessel to another |
| transfusible | Capable of being poured from one vessel to another |
| transfusion | The act of pouring from one vessel to another |
| transgress | To break a law |
| transience | Something that is of short duration |
| transient | One who or that which is only of temporary existence |
| transition | Passage from one place, condition, or action to another |
| transitory | Existing for a short time only |
| translate | To give the sense or equivalent of in another language or dialect |
| translator | An interpreter |
| translucence | The property or state of allowing the passage of light |
| translucent | Allowing the passage of light |
| transmissible | That may e sent through or across |
| transmission | The act of sending through or across |
| transmit | To send trough or across |
| transmute | To change in nature, substance, or form |
| transparent | Easy to see through or understand |
| transpire | To come to pass |
| transplant | To remove and plant in another place |
| transposition | The act of reversing the order or changing the place of |
| transverse | Lying or being across or in a crosswise direction |
| travail | Hard or agonizing labor |
| travesty | A grotesque imitation |
| treacherous | Perfidious |
| treachery | Violation of allegiance, confidence, or plighted faith |
| treasonable | Of the nature of betrayal, treachery, or breech of allegiance |
| treatise | An elaborate literary composition presenting a subject in all its parts |
| treble | Multiplied by three |
| trebly | ad Triply |
| tremendous | Awe-inspiring |
| tremor | An involuntary trembling or shivering |
| tremulous | Characterized by quivering or unsteadiness |
| trenchant | Cutting deeply and quickly |
| trepidation | Nervous uncertainty of feeling |
| trestle | An open braced framework for supporting the horizontal stringers of a railway-bridge |
| triad | A group of three persons of things |
| tribune | Any champion of the rights and liberties of the people: often used as the name for a newspaper |
| trickery | Artifice |
| tricolor | Of three colors |
| tricycle | A three-wheeled vehicle |
| trident | The three-pronged fork that was the emblem of Neptune |
| triennial | Taking place every third year |
| trimness | Neatness |
| trinity | A threefold personality existing in the one divine being or substance |
| trio | Three things grouped or associated together |
| triple | Threefold |
| triplicate | Composed of or pertaining to three related things or parts |
| triplicity | The state of being triple or threefold |
| tripod | A three-legged stand, usually hinged near the top, for supporting some instrument |
| trisect | To divide into three parts, especially into three equal parts |
| trite | Made commonplace by frequent repetition |
| triumvir | One of three men united coordinately in public office or authority |
| trivial | Of little importance or value |
| troublesome | Burdensome |
| truculence | Ferocity |
| truculent | Having the character or the spirit of a savage |
| truism | A statement so plainly true as hardly to require statement or proof |
| truthful | Veracious |
| turgid | Swollen |
| turpitude | Depravity |
| tutelage | The act of training or the state of being under instruction |
| tutelar | Protective |
| tutorship | The office of a guardian |
| twinge | A darting momentary local pain |
| typical | Characteristic |
| typify | To serve as a characteristic example of |
| typographical | Pertaining to typography or printing |
| typography | The arrangement of composed type, or the appearance of printed matter |
| tyrannical | Despotic |
| tyranny | Absolute power arbitrarily or unjustly administrated |
| tyro | One slightly skilled in or acquainted with any trade or profession |
| ubiquitous | Being present everywhere |
| ulterior | Not so pertinent as something else to the matter spoken of |
| ultimate | Beyond which there is nothing else |
| ultimatum | A final statement or proposal, as concerning terms or conditions |
| ultramundane | Pertaining to supernatural things or to another life |
| ultramontane | Beyond the mountains, especially beyond the Alps (that is, on their Italian side) |
| umbrage | A sense of injury |
| unaccountable | Inexplicable |
| unaffected | Sincere |
| unanimous | Sharing the same views or sentiments |
| unanimity | The state or quality of being of one mind |
| unavoidable | Inevitable |
| unbearable | Unendurable |
| unbecoming | Unsuited to the wearer, place, or surroundings |
| unbelief | Doubt |
| unbiased | Impartial, as judgment |
| unbridled | Being without restraint |
| uncommon | Rare |
| unconscionable | Ridiculously or unjustly excessive |
| unconscious | Not cognizant of objects, actions, etc |
| unction | The art of anointing as with oil |
| unctuous | Oily |
| undeceive | To free from deception, as by apprising of the real state of affairs |
| undercharge | To make an inadequate charge for |
| underexposed | Insufficiently exposed for proper or full development, as negatives in photography |
| undergarment | A garment to be worn under the ordinary outer garments |
| underman | To equip with less than the full complement of men |
| undersell | To sell at a lower price than |
| undersized | Of less than the customary size |
| underhanded | Clandestinely carried on |
| underlie | To be the ground or support of |
| underling | A subordinate |
| undermine | To subvert in an underhand way |
| underrate | To undervalue |
| understate | To fail to put strongly enough, as a case |
| undervalue | To underestimate |
| underworld | Hades |
| underwrite | To issue or be party to the issue of a policy of insurance |
| undue | More than sufficient |
| undulate | To move like a wave or in waves |
| undulous | Resembling waves |
| unfavorable | Adverse |
| ungainly | Clumsy |
| unguent | Any ointment or lubricant for local application |
| unicellular | Consisting of a single cell |
| univalence | Monovalency |
| unify | To cause to be one |
| unique | Being the only one of its kind |
| unison | A condition of perfect agreement and accord |
| unisonant | Being in a condition of perfect agreement and accord |
| Unitarian | Pertaining to a religious body that rejects the doctrine of the Trinity |
| unlawful | Illegal |
| unlimited | Unconstrained |
| unnatural | Artificial |
| unnecessary | Not essential under the circumstances |
| unsettle | To put into confusion |
| unsophisticated | Showing inexperience |
| unspeakable | Abominable |
| untimely | Unseasonable |
| untoward | Causing annoyance or hindrance |
| unutterable | Inexpressible |
| unwieldy | Moved or managed with difficulty, as from great size or awkward shape |
| unwise | Foolish |
| unyoke | To separate |
| up-keep | Maintenance |
| upbraid | To reproach as deserving blame |
| upcast | A throwing upward |
| upheaval | Overthrow or violent disturbance of established order or condition |
| upheave | To raise or lift with effort |
| uppermost | First in order of precedence |
| uproarious | Noisy |
| uproot | To eradicate |
| upturn | To throw into confusion |
| urban | Of, or pertaining to, or like a city |
| urbanity | Refined or elegant courtesy |
| urchin | A roguish, mischievous boy |
| urgency | The pressure of necessity |
| usage | Treatment |
| usurious | Taking unlawful or exorbitant interest on money loaned |
| usurp | To take possession of by force |
| usury | The demanding for the use of money as a loan, a rate of interest beyond what is allowed by law |
| utilitarianism | The ethical doctrine that actions are right because they are useful or of beneficial tendency |
| utmost | The greatest possible extent |
| vacate | To leave |
| vaccinate | To inoculate with vaccine virus or virus of cowpox |
| vacillate | To waver |
| vacuous | Empty |
| vacuum | A space entirely devoid of matter |
| vagabond | A wanderer |
| vagrant | An idle wanderer |
| vainglory | Excessive, pretentious, and demonstrative vanity |
| vale | Level or low land between hills |
| valediction | A bidding farewell |
| valedictorian | Student who delivers an address at graduating exercises of an educational institution |
| valedictory | A parting address |
| valid | Founded on truth |
| valorous | Courageous |
| vapid | Having lost sparkling quality and flavor |
| vaporizer | An atomizer |
| variable | Having a tendency to change |
| variance | Change |
| variant | A thing that differs from another in form only, being the same in essence or substance |
| variation | Modification |
| variegate | To mark with different shades or colors |
| vassal | A slave or bondman |
| vaudeville | A variety show |
| vegetal | Of or pertaining to plants |
| vegetarian | One who believes in the theory that man's food should be exclusively vegetable |
| vegetate | To live in a monotonous, passive way without exercise of the mental faculties |
| vegetation | Plant-life in the aggregate |
| vegetative | Pertaining to the process of plant-life |
| vehement | Very eager or urgent |
| velocity | Rapid motion |
| velvety | Marked by lightness and softness |
| venal | Mercenary, corrupt |
| vendible | Marketable |
| vendition | The act of selling |
| vendor | A seller |
| veneer | Outside show or elegance |
| venerable | Meriting or commanding high esteem |
| venerate | To cherish reverentially |
| venereal | Pertaining to or proceeding from sexual intercourse |
| venial | That may be pardoned or forgiven, a forgivable sin |
| venison | The flesh of deer |
| venom | The poisonous fluid that certain animals secrete |
| venous | Of, pertaining to, or contained or carried in a vein or veins |
| veracious | Habitually disposed to speak the truth |
| veracity | Truthfulness |
| verbatim | ad Word for word |
| verbiage | Use of many words without necessity |
| verbose | Wordy |
| verdant | Green with vegetation |
| verification | The act of proving to be true, exact, or accurate |
| verify | To prove to be true, exact, or accurate |
| verily | ad In truth |
| verity | Truth |
| vermin | A noxious or troublesome animal |
| vernacular | The language of one's country |
| vernal | Belonging to or suggestive of the spring |
| versatile | Having an aptitude for applying oneself to new and varied tasks or to various subjects |
| version | A description or report of something as modified by one's character or opinion |
| vertex | Apex |
| vertical | Lying or directed perpendicularly to the horizon |
| vertigo | Dizziness |
| vestige | A visible trace, mark, or impression, of something absent, lost, or gone |
| vestment | Clothing or covering |
| veto | The constitutional right in a chief executive of refusing to approve an enactment |
| vicarious | Suffered or done in place of or for the sake of another |
| viceroy | A ruler acting with royal authority in place of the sovereign in a colony or province |
| vicissitude | A change, especially a complete change, of condition or circumstances, as of fortune |
| vie | To contend |
| vigilance | Alert and intent mental watchfulness in guarding against danger |
| vigilant | Being on the alert to discover and ward off danger or insure safety |
| vignette | A picture having a background or that is shaded off gradually |
| vincible | Conquerable |
| vindicate | To prove true, right, or real |
| vindicatory | Punitive |
| vindicative | Revengeful |
| vinery | A greenhouse for grapes |
| viol | A stringed instrument of the violin class |
| viola | A musical instrument somewhat larger than a violin |
| violator | One who transgresses |
| violation | Infringement |
| violoncello | A stringed instrument held between the player's knees |
| virago | A bold, impudent, turbulent woman |
| virile | Masculine |
| virtu | Rare, curious, or beautiful quality |
| virtual | Being in essence or effect, but not in form or appearance |
| virtuoso | A master in the technique of some particular fine art |
| virulence | Extreme poisonousness |
| virulent | Exceedingly noxious or deleterious |
| visage | The face, countenance, or look of a person |
| viscount | In England, a title of nobility, ranking fourth in the order of British peerage |
| vista | A view or prospect |
| visual | Perceptible by sight |
| visualize | To give pictorial vividness to a mental representation |
| vitality | The state or quality of being necessary to existence or continuance |
| vitalize | To endow with life or energy |
| vitiate | To contaminate |
| vituperable | Deserving of censure |
| vivacity | Liveliness |
| vivify | To endue with life |
| vivisection | The dissection of a living animal |
| vocable | a word, especially one regarded in relation merely to its qualities of sound |
| vocative | Of or pertaining to the act of calling |
| vociferance | The quality of making a clamor |
| vociferate | To utter with a loud and vehement voice |
| vociferous | Making a loud outcry |
| vogue | The prevalent way or fashion |
| volant | Flying or able to fly |
| volatile | Changeable |
| volition | An act or exercise of will |
| volitive | Exercising the will |
| voluble | Having great fluency in speaking |
| voluptuous | having fullness of beautiful form, as a woman, with or without sensuous or sensual quality |
| voracious | Eating with greediness or in very large quantities |
| vortex | A mass of rotating or whirling fluid, especially when sucked spirally toward the center |
| votive | Dedicated by a vow |
| vulgarity | Lack of refinement in conduct or speech |
| vulnerable | Capable of receiving injuries |
| waif | A homeless, neglected wanderer |
| waistcoat | A vest |
| waive | To relinquish, especially temporarily, as a right or claim |
| wampum | Beads strung on threads, formerly used among the American Indians as currency |
| wane | To diminish in size and brilliancy |
| wantonness | Recklessness |
| warlike | Belligerent |
| wavelet | A ripple |
| weak-kneed | Without resolute purpose or energy |
| weal | Well-being |
| wean | To transfer (the young) from dependence on mother's milk to another form of nourishment |
| wearisome | Fatiguing |
| wee | Very small |
| well-bred | Of good ancestry |
| well-doer | A performer of moral and social duties |
| well-to-do | In prosperous circumstances |
| whereabouts | The place in or near which a person or thing is |
| whereupon | ad After which |
| wherever | ad In or at whatever place |
| wherewith | The necessary means or resources |
| whet | To make more keen or eager |
| whimsical | Capricious |
| whine | To utter with complaining tone |
| wholly | ad Completely |
| wield | To use, control, or manage, as a weapon, or instrument, especially with full command |
| wile | An act or a means of cunning deception |
| winsome | Attractive |
| wintry | Lacking warmth of manner |
| wiry | Thin, but tough and sinewy |
| witchcraft | Sorcery |
| witless | Foolish, indiscreet, or silly |
| witling | A person who has little understanding |
| witticism | A witty, brilliant, or original saying or sentiment |
| wittingly | ad With knowledge and by design |
| wizen | To become or cause to become withered or dry |
| wizen-faced | Having a shriveled face |
| working-man | One who earns his bread by manual labor |
| workmanlike | Like or befitting a skilled workman |
| workmanship | The art or skill of a workman |
| wrangle | To maintain by noisy argument or dispute |
| wreak | To inflict, as a revenge or punishment |
| wrest | To pull or force away by or as by violent twisting or wringing |
| wretchedness | Extreme misery or unhappiness |
| writhe | To twist the body, face, or limbs or as in pain or distress |
| writing | The act or art of tracing or inscribing on a surface letters or ideographs |
| wry | Deviating from that which is proper or right |
| yearling | A young animal past its first year and not yet two years old |
| zealot | One who espouses a cause or pursues an object in an immoderately partisan manner |
| zeitgeist | The intellectual and moral tendencies that characterize any age or epoch |
| zenith | The culminating-point of prosperity, influence, or greatness |
| zephyr | Any soft, gentle wind |
| zodiac | An imaginary belt encircling the heavens within which are the larger planets |
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