| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Polyarchy | rule by many |
| Ponderous | having great weight; unwieldy from weight or bulk; lacking grace or fluency; labored and dull |
| Pontificate | to act like a pontiff; to speak in a pompous or arrogant manner |
| Portend | to warn; to warn of the future |
| Portentous | warning of evil; ominous |
| Post war | occurring after war |
| Posthumous | occurring after death |
| Precipitous | steep or overly hasty; falling, flowing, or rushing with steep descent |
| Predecessor | someone or something that comes before |
| Predilection | a preference; a prepossession in favor of something; partiality |
| Presage | to forewarn |
| Prescience | foreknowledge of events; foresight; prudence |
| Presentiment | a dreaded fear or foreboding |
| Presumptuous | overstepping due bounds; taking liberties |
| Pretentious | claiming to be important; showing off wealth |
| Prevalent | in general use or acceptance; widespread |
| Prevaricate | to lie; to not tell the truth |
| Prima Donna | a high-strung, vain person; a female lead in a play |
| Procreate | to engender; generate; create new life |
| Procure | to obtain |
| Profligate | given over to indulgence; recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant |
| Prodigy | a marvel, wonder; a person, esp. a child, with extraordinary talent |
| Progeny | descendents, children, offspring |
| Proletarian | a member of the lowest social or economic class of a community; the laboring class |
| Prolific | abundant in productivity or growth |
| Propensity | a natural inclination or tendency |
| Propinquity | a nearness in place; proximity |
| Propitious | favorable |
| Prostrate | to lie flat |
| Protract | to lengthen or extend; to make longer |
| Protrusion | a projection |
| Providential | as if decreed by divine providence |
| Provincial | unsophisticated; rural; from the countryside |
| Prurient | lustful, lewd |
| Pseudo | false |
| Psychopathic | pertaining to mental disease |
| Puerile | childish; immature; juvenile |
| Pulchritude | physical beauty |
| Purloin | to steal |
| Purport | to claim; often falsely |
| Pusillanimous | cowardly |
| Pyrrhic | ruinous; gained at too great a cost |
| Quandary | a dilemma, predicament |
| Quell | to suppress; to pacify; to quiet; to put down forcibly |
| Queue | a line of people |
| Quibble | a minor quarrel |
| Quixotic | overly idealistic and romantic |
| Radical | drastically unorthodox; not in the mainstream of thought |
| Rankle | to cause anger, resentment |
| Rapacious | voracious, full of appetite |
| Ravage | to ruin |
| Raze | to destroy utterly by tearing down; demolish; level to the ground |
| Rebuttal | a reply to a challenge; a refutation |
| Recapitulate | to summarize; repeat briefly |
| Reciprocal | mutual |
| Recrimination | a counter accusation in response to being accused |
| Redolent | sweet smelling; evoking memories |
| Redress | compensation for wrongdoing |
| Redundant | repetitious |
| Reflect | to think |
| Reflective | suggesting careful analytic deliberation, as in reappraising past experiences |
| Refulgent | shining; radiant |
| Regressive | disposed to move backward |
| Reiterate | to repeat |
| Relinquish | to give up |
| Remiss | negligent |
| Remit | to send money due |
| Remunerate | to pay for |
| Rend | to violently tear apart |
| Rendezvous | a meeting; usually secretive |
| Renunciation | a giving up; abandonment |
| Repertoire | a list of works to be performed |
| Repository | a place, room, or container where something is stored; a person to whom something is confided |
| Reprobate | a scoundrel |
| Reprove | to rebuke |
| Requiem | a mass or hymn for a dead person |
| Respite | a temporary pause, rest; a break in work or action |
| Restive | uneasily impatient under restriction or control; resisting control; difficult to control |
| Resurgent | rising again |
| Retentive | holding in, having good memory |
| Retinue | a following; a group of admirers; a coterie |
| Retrogress | to go from better to a worse state |
| Retrospect | a reiew or reflection of past events |
| Revelry | hearty enjoyment; a party |
| Revere | to regard with awe, admire |
| Revile | to slander or disparage; ridicule |
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