| eclectic | all-embracing, assorted, broad, catholic, dilettantish, diverse, diversified, general, heterogeneous, inclusive, liberal, many-sided, mingled, mixed, multifarious, multiform, selective, universal, varied, wide-ranging |
| efficacy | ability, adequacy, capableness, capacity, competence, effect, effectiveness, efficaciousness, efficiency, energy, force, influence, performance, potency, power, productiveness, strength, success, sufficiency, use, vigor, virtue, weight |
| elegy | death song, funeral song, knell, lament, plaint, requiem, threnody |
| eloquent | affecting, ardent, articulate, expressive, facund, fervent, fervid, fluent, forceful, glib, grandiloquent, graphic, impassioned, impressive, indicative, magniloquent, meaningful, moving, outspoken, passionate, persuasive, poignant, potent, powerful, revealing, rhetorical, sententious, significant, silver-tongued*, smooth-spoken*, stirring, suggestive, telling, touching, vivid, vocal, voluble, well-expressed |
| emulate | challenge, compete, compete with, contend, contend with, copy, ditto*, do*, do like*, follow, follow suit*, go like*, imitate, make like*, mimic, mirror, outvie, pattern after*, rival, take after*, vie with |
| enervate | bush, castrate, debilitate, devitalize, disable, emasculate, enfeeble, exhaust, fatigue, incapacitate, jade, paralyze, prostrate, sap, unman, unnerve, unstring, wash out, weaken, wear, wear out, weary |
| engender | arouse, beget, breed, bring about, bring forth, cause, create, develop, excite, father, foment, generate, hatch, incite, induce, instigate, lead to, make, muster, occasion, precipitate, procreate, produce, propagate, provoke, quicken, rouse, sire, spawn, stimulate, stir, work up |
| enigma | bewilderment, cliffhanger, conundrum, crux, cryptogram, grabber*, knot*, mind-boggler*, mystification, parable, perplexity, problem, puzzle, puzzlement, puzzler, question, question mark, riddle, secret, sphinx*, sticker, stickler, stumper, teaser, twister, why* |
| enumerate | add up, calculate, cite, compute, count noses*, detail, figure, identify, inventory, itemize, keep tabs*, list, mention, name, number, particularize, quote, recapitulate, recite, reckon, recount, rehearse, relate, run down, run off*, specialize, specify, spell out, sum, tally, tell, tick off*, tot, total, tote, tote up |
| ephemeral | brief, episodic, evanescent, fleeting, flitting, fugacious, fugitive, impermanent, passing, short, short-lived, temporary, transient, transitory, unenduring, volatile |
| equivocate | bull, cavil, con, cop out*, cover up*, dodge, double-talk, elude, escape, eschew, evade, falsify, fence, fib, flip-flop*, fudge*, hedge, jive*, lie, mince words, palter, parry, pettifog, prevaricate, pussyfoot, quibble, run around, shuck, shuffle, sidestep, stonewall*, tergiversate, tergiverse, waffle*, weasel* |
| erratic | aberrant, abnormal, anomalous, arbitrary, bizarre, capricious, changeable, desultory, devious, dicey, directionless, dubious, eccentric, fitful, flaky*, fluctuant, idiosyncratic, iffy*, incalculable, inconsistent, inconstant, irregular, meandering, mercurial, nomadic, oddball*, peculiar, planetary, rambling, roving, shifting, spasmodic, strange, stray, uncertain, undirected, unnatural, unreliable, unstable, unusual, vagarious, variable, volatile, wayward, weird, whimsical |
| erudite | brainy, cultivated, cultured, educated, highbrow, into*, knowledgeable, learned, lettered, literate, savvy, scholarly, scholastic, studious, well-read, wise to, wised up |
| esoteric | abstruse, acroamatic, arcane, cabalistic, cryptic, deep, heavy, hermetic, hidden, inner, inscrutable, mystic, mystical, obscure, occult, orphic, private, profound, recondite, secret |
| estimable | admirable, admired, appreciable, august, big, big league, big name*, big time*, commendable, decent, deserving, esteemed, excellent, good, high-powered, honored, in limelight*, laudable, major league*, meritable, meritorious, name, noble, palmary, praisable, praiseworthy, reputable, reputed, respectable, respected, sterling, valuable, valued, venerable, well-thought-of*, worthy |
| eulogy | acclaim, acclamation, accolade, adulation, applause, citation, commendation, compliment, encomium, exaltation, glorification, laudation, paean, panegyric, plaudit, salutation, tribute |
| euphemism | delicacy, floridness, grandiloquence, inflation, nice Nelly, ornateness, pomposity, pretense, purism |
| exacerbate | aggravate, annoy, egg on*, embitter, enrage, envenom, exasperate, excite, heat up*, heighten, hit on*, hot up, increase, inflame, intensify, irritate, madden, provoke, vex, worsen |
| exculpate | absolve, acquit, amnesty, clear, condone, discharge, disculpate, dismiss, excuse, exonerate, explain, free, justify, let off*, pardon, rationalize, release, remit, vindicate |
| exigent | acute, burning, clamant, clamorous, constraining, critical, crucial, crying, imperative, importunate, insistent, instant, menacing, necessary, needful, pressing, threatening |
| exonerate | absolve, acquit, disburden, discharge, dismiss, except, exculpate, excuse, exempt, free, justify, let off*, liberate, pardon, release, relieve, sanitize, vindicate, whitewash* |
| explicit | absolute, accurate, categorical, certain, clean-cut, clear, clear-cut, correct, definite, definitive, direct, distinct, exact, express, frank, lucid, obvious, open, outspoken, patent, perspicuous, plain, positive, precise, stated, straightforward, sure, unambiguous, understandable, unequivocal, unqualified, unreserved |
