| cacophony | harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonance |
| cadge | sponge, beg, or mooch |
| cajole | to inveigle, coax, wheedle, sweet talk |
| calumniate (n: calumny) | to slander, make false accusation (n: slander, aspersion) |
| canon (a: canonical) | established set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature (a: following traditional standards) |
| capricious | inclined to change one's mind impulsively; erratic; unpredictable |
| cardinal | of basic importance or consequence |
| carnality | something relating to the body or flesh |
| carnage | physical remains |
| castigation | sever criticism or punishment |
| catalyst | a substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without itself changing; a person or thing that causes change |
| causality | the relationship between cause and effect |
| caustic | burning or stinging; causing corrosion |
| censure (a: censorious) | criticize severely; to officially rebuke |
| chaos | a condition of confusion or unpredictability |
| chary (CHAR ee) | wary; cautious; sparing |
| chasten (CHAY sun) | to chastise or correct; subdue |
| chauvinist | one blindly devoted to a group of which one is a member |
| chic | stylish and fashionable; sophisticated in dress |
| chicanery | trickery or subterfuge |
| chimera | an illusion |
| choleric | tending toward anger |
| churlish | boorish, vulgar, loutish; difficult and intractable |
| coalesce | to come together; to fuse or unite |
| coda | concluding section to a musical or literary piece, something that concludes or completes |
| cogent | appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing |
| color | to change as if by dyeing, influence, distort, or gloss over |
| commensurate | matching, corresponding, or proportionate in degree, size, amount or other property |
| complaisance | the willingness to comply with the wishes of others |
| complacent | self-satisfied |
| confound | to cause to be confused; to frustrate |
| connoisseur | an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert |
| consequential | pompous, self-important |
| contemn | to scorn or despise |
| contentious | argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement |
| contiguous | sharing a border; touching; adjacent |
| contrite | regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness |
| convention | a generally agreed-upon practice or attitude |
| convoluted | complex or complicated |
| corrigible | capable of being set right, correctable, reparable |
| countenance (n:) | to approve of or tolerate (mien, face, composure) |
| cozen | to deceive, beguile, hoodwink |
| craven | contemptibly fainthearted, pusillanimous, lacking any courage |
| credulous | tending to believe too readily; gullible |
| crescendo | a gradual increase in intensity, particularly in music |
| culpable | deserving blame |
| cynicism | an attitude or quality of belief that all people are motivated by selfishness |
| coquette | a women who tries to attract men purely to please her vanity; a flirt |
| contumacious | insubordinate, rebellious |
| cupidity | extreme greed for material wealth |
| canard | a deliberately misleading fabrication |
| cabal | a clique (often secret) that seeks power usually through intrigue |
| cosset | to treat with excessive indulgence; to pamper. |
| coterie | an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose |
| corroborate | (v.) to confirm, make more certain, bolster, substantiate, verify. |
| curmudgeon | a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas |
| bevy | a group especially a group of girls or women; a flock of birds especially a flock of quail |
| cloying | distasteful; excessively sweet or sentimental |
| contumacious | stubborn and disobedient; resisting authority (esp. disobedient to an order made by a court) |