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 |