| Term | Definition |
| abate | subside or moderate |
| aberrant | abnormal or deviant |
| abeyance | suspended action |
| abscond | depart secretly and hide |
| abstemious | sparing in eating/drinking; temperate |
| admonish | warn |
| adulterate | make impure by adding inferiour substances |
| aesthetic | artistic |
| aggregate | gather |
| alacrity | eagerness |
| alleviate | relieve |
| amalgamate | combine |
| ambiguous | unclear in meaning |
| ambivalence | conflicting emotional attitudes |
| ameliorate | improve |
| anachronism | misplaced in time |
| analogous | comparable |
| anarchy | state of disorder |
| anomalous | abnormal |
| antipathy | dislike; aversion |
| apathy | lack of caring |
| appease | pacify |
| apprise | inform |
| approbation | approval |
| appropriate | acquire |
| arduous | hard |
| artless | without guile; open and honest |
| ascetic | practicing self-denial; austere |
| assiduous | diligent |
| assuage | ease or lesson; satisfy hunger; soothe anger |
| attenuate | make tinner; weaken; lessen |
| audacious | daring |
| austere | stern |
| autonomous | self-governing |
| aver | assert confidently or declare; law term |
| banal | commonplace; trite |
| belie | contradict |
| beneficent | kindly; doing good |
| bolster | support |
| bombastic | pompous |
| boorish | rude |
| burgeon | go forth; send out buds |
| burnish | polish |
| buttress | support |
| cacophonous | inharmonious |
| capricious | unpredictable |
| castignation | punishment |
| catalyst | influences chemical reaction |
| caustic | burning; biting |
| chicanery | deception |
| coagulate | congeal |
| coda | end of music or literary composition; concludes |
| cogent | convincing |
| commensurate | proportionate |
| compendium | brief |
| complaisant | trying to please |
| complaint | yielding |
| conciliatory | reconciling |
| condone | forgive |
| confound | confuse |
| connoisseur | competent to act as judge |
| contention | claim |
| contentious | quarrelsome |
| contrite | penitent |
| conundrum | riddle |
| converge | approach |
| convoluted | intricate |
| craven | cowardly |
| daunt | intimidate |
| decorum | good taste in manners |
| default | failure to act |
| deference | courteous regard for another's wish |
| delineate | portray |
| denigrate | blacken |
| deride | ridicule |
| derivative | unoriginal; from other source |
| desiccate | dry up |
| desultory | aimless |
| deterrent | discourages |
| diatribe | bitter scolding |
| dichotomy | split in two |
| diffidence | shyness |
| diffuse | wordy; spread out |
| digression | wandering away from the subject |
| dirge | lament with music |
| disabuse | correct a false impression |
| discerning | mentally quick and observant |
| discordant | conflicting |
| discredit | defame |
| discrepancy | difference |
| discrete | separate, unconnected |
| disingenuous | insincere |
| disjointed | lacking coherence |
| disparage | belittle |
| disparate | unrelated |
| dissemble | disguise; pretend |
| dissolution | looseness in morals |
| dissonance | opposite of harmony |
| distend | swell out |
| distill | purify |
| diverge | go in different ways |
| divest | strip; deprive |
| document | provide written evidence |
| dogmatic | opinionated |
| dormant | sleeping |
| dupe | easily fooled |
| ebullient | showing excitement |
| eclectic | selective; different sources |
| efficacy | power to produce desired effect |
| effrontery | shameless boldness |
| elegy | poem or song in lamentation |
| elicit | drawn out by discussion |
| embellish | enhance |
| empirical | based on experience |
| emulate | imitate |
| endemic | prevailing amoung a group of people in an area |
| enervate | weaken |
| engender | cause |
| ephemeral | short-lived |
| equanimity | calmness of temperment |
| eqivocate | lie |
| erudite | learned; scholarly |
| esoteric | hard to understand |
| eulogy | expression of praise; funeral |
| eqphemism | mild expression rather than unplesant one |
| exacerbate | worsen |
| exculpate | clear from blame |
| exigency | urgent situation |
| extrapolation | projection |
| facetious | joking |
| rallacious | false; misleading |
| fatuous | brainless |
| fawning | trying to please by flattery |
| felicitous | apt |
| fervor | intensity of feeling |
| flag | droop; grow feeble |
| flout | reject |
| forestall | prevent taking action in advance |
| forment | stir up |
| gainsay | deny |
| garrulous | wordy |
| goad | urge on |
| grandiloquent | using high sounding language |
| gregarious | sociable |
| gouge | overcharge |
| guileless | without deceit |
| harrangue | long speech |
| iconoclastic | attacking cherished traditions |
| immutable | unchangeable |
| impair | hurt |
| impassive | without feeling |
| imperturbable | calm |
| implacable | not capable of being pacified |
| implode | burst inward |
| inchorate | recently begun |
| incongruity | lack of harmony; absurdity |
| indigence | poverty |
| indolent | lazy |
| inert | inactive |
| ingenuous | `naive and trusting |
| inherent | firmly est. by nature or habit |
| insensible | unconscious |
| insipid | lack flavor; dull |
| insularity | narrow-minded; isolation |
| intractable | unruly; stubborn |
| intransigence | refusal of any compromise |
| inundate | overwhelm |
| inured | accustomed |
| invective | abuse |
| irascile | irritable |
| irresolute | uncertain how to act; weak |
| laconic | brief and to the point |
| lassitude | weariness; languor |
| latent | potential but undevloped |
| laud | praise |
| levity | lack of seriousness |
| loquacious | talkative |
| lucid | easy to understand |
| magnanimity | generously |
| malingere | fakes illness to escape duty |
| malleable | capable of being shaped; impressionable |
| maverick | rebel |
| mendacious | lying |
| misanthrope | one who hates mankind |
| mitigate | moderate |
| mollify | soothe |
| morose | sullen |
| neophyte | recent convert; beginner |
| obdurate | stubborn |
| obsequious | slavishly attentive |
| obviate | make unecessary |
| occlude | shut; close |
| officious | meddlesome |
| onerous | burdensome |
| opprobrium | infamy; villification |
| partisan | one-sided; commited to a party |
| pathological | pertaining to disease |
| paucity | scarcity |
| pedantic | showing off learning; bookish |
| penury | severe poverty |
| perennial | long-lasting |
| perfidious | treacherous; disloyal |
| perfunctory | superficial |
| permeable | porous; allow liquids/gas to pass through |
| phlegmatic | calm |
| piety | devoutness |
| plasticity | ability to be molded |
| platitude | trite remark |
| precipitate | rash; premature |
| prevaricate | lie |
| pristine | unspoiled |
| probity | uprightnes |
| prodigal | wasteful |
| proliferate | grow rapidly |
| propitiate | appease |
| propriety | correct conduct |
| proscribe | banish; outlaw |
| pungent | sharp in taste or smell |
| quiescent | at rest |
| rarefied | made less dense (gas) |
| recalcitrant | determined to resist authority |
| recondite | profound; secret |
| refractory | stubborn |
| refute | disprove |
| relegate | banish to inferior position |
| reproach | express disapproval |
| reprobate | person hardened in sin; no decency |
| repudiate | disown |
| rescind | cancel |
| reticent | reserved; inclined to silence |
| salubrious | healthful |
| satiate | satisfy fully |
| solicitous | worried |
| soporific | sleep-causing |
| specious | seeming reasonable but incorrect |
| stint | thrifty; set limits |
| stolid | dull |
| striated | parallel bands; grooved |
| strut | supporting bar |
| supersede | cause to be set aside |
| supposition | hypothesis |
| tacit | understood but not put in words |
| tangential | only slightly connected |
| torpor | sluggishness |
| tractable | docile |
| truculence | aggressiveness |
| vacillate | waver; fluctuate |
| venerate | revere |
| veracious | truthful |
| viable | workable |
| viscous | skicky, gluey |
| vituperative | abusive; scolding |
| welter | turmoil |