| ala carte | individual food item |
| abate | to diminish, lessen in intensity |
| abeyance | temporary break, or stopping |
| abject | brought low in condition or status; wretched |
| abrade | to erode |
| abscond | to depart in secrecy, usually for evil purposes |
| abstruse | hard to understand, hidden |
| accede | to give one's consent, usually yielding to the insistence of others |
| accord | agreement |
| accost | to approach and speak to in an openly aggressive or hostile manner |
| accoutrements | equipment, clothing |
| acquiesce | to accept passively without inplying assent or argument |
| acriminous | bitter in behavior, feeling, speech, or disposition; stinging; sharp; biting |
| acumen | great skill or intellectual ability |
| adamant | unyielding |
| adapt | to get used to |
| adjacent | near to; next to, adjoining |
| adulate | to praise too much |
| adulterate | to make impure |
| advent | arrival |
| aesthetic | artistic; of, relating to, or dealing with the beautiful |
| affect | to influence, the verb |
| agglomeration | collection |
| aggrandize | to make great or greater; to praise highly |
| aghast | horrified |
| agile | nimble, flexible |
| agoraphobia | fear of open spaces |
| alacrity | cheerful willingness; readiness; liveliness |
| allay | to calm; to diminish in strength; to subdue or reduce the intensity of; alleviate |
| altercation | a noisy, heated, angry dispute; noisy fight |
| ambidextrous | skilled in using both hands |
| ambiguous | indicating the presence of two or more possible meanings; unclear |
| amenable | submissive, agreeable, responsive; responsible |
| amity | friendship; peaceful relations |
| amorphous | shapeless |
| anachronism | anything that is out of place in time |
| anarchy | absence of rule |
| anathema | a curse or excommunication; one that is cursed or damned; one that is greatly reviled, loathed, or shunned |
| anglophile | lover of england |
| anglophobia | dislike of england |
| annex | to add on |
| annuity | yearly remittance or payment of money |
| anomaly | an aberration; deviation; irregularity |
| anthropoid | resembling man or the highest developed apes |
| anthrophomorphic | attributing human form and characteristics to non-humans, especially gods |
| antipodes | opposite parts of the globe |
| antithesis | the exact opposite |
| apartheid | district racial segregation and discrimination against native Negroes in South Africa |
| aplomb | great poise; imperturbable self-possession |
| apocalypse | a revelation |
| appellation | a name |
| append | to add on |
| appropriate | to take, set aside for a purpose |
| arbitrary | selected at random and without reason |
| arcane | beyond comprehension; mysterious; secret |
| archaic | no longer current or applicable; antiquated; outdated |
| armageddon | final great battle |
| ascetic | shunning pleasures |
| askew | leaning to the side, tilted |
| assiduous | diligent or constant in carrying out a task or doing one's duty; |
| assuage | to ease, soothe |
| astringent | drawing tissues together |
| atheism | state of having no belief in God |
| atrocity | savage cruelty, brutality |
| atrophy | to waste away due to malnourishment or lack of use |
| atypical | not typical |
| audacious | recklessly daring; blatantly bold |
| audacity | arrogant boldness, recklessness; insolence |
| augment | to make greater, increase |
| augur | foretell the future with omens |
| austere | severe or stern; strict or severe in discipline; having no adornment; bare |
| autonomy | independence or self-rule; self-government |
| avarice | greed |
| averise | opposed, against |
| avert | turn away from |
| axiomatic | universally accepted as true |
| ambivalent | having 2 conflicting emotions, vacillating |
| badinage | small talk, palaver |
| baffled | puzzled |
| baleful | foreshadowing evil |
| banal | drearily commonplace and often predictable; trite |
| baneful | deadly, poisonous |
| baroque | over decorated |
| barrister | lawyer |
| bawdy | obscene; showy and flashy in an indecent manner |
| beatific | saintly; bestowing happiness |
| bellicose | having a natural disposition to fight; warlike; pugnacious |
| bemoan | to moan about, to regret |
| benediction | a blessing |
| benefaction | an act of doing good |
| benefactor | person who does good |
| beneficial | good |
| beneficiary | a person who receives the good |
| benevolent | wishing others well; kind, giving |
| bereft | lacking, sadly experiencing loss |
| betroth | to engage for marriage |
| bias | a prejudice |
| bibliophile | a lover of books |
| biennial | occuring every 2 years |
| bigoted | intolerant, prejudiced |
| blight | to ruin |
| blithe | merry, joyful; heedless |
| boisterous | rowdy |
| bona fide | made in good faith, true or real |
| bow | the front of the ship |
| brazen | having no shame; rudely bold |
| brine | salty water |
| broach | to open up a topic for discussion; break a surface |
| brusque | curt |
| bucolic | pastoral, rural |
| bumptious | pushy and offensive |
| burnish | to polish |
| cajole | to try to persuade with flattery and insincere talk |
| callous | unfeeling |
| callow | young and inexperienced; immature |
| calumniate | to slander |
| calumny | a false accusation of crime or offense; maliciously reported to slander another; slander |
| candor | honesty |
| cantankerous | quarrelsome |
| capacious | spacious, roomy |
| capitiulate | to surrender under specified conditions; to give up under pressure or inevitability; to acquiesce |
| capricious | apt to change suddenly; unpredictable |
| carmine | rich red |
| carnivore | a flesh-eating animal |
| carrion | carcass of a dead animal |
| carte blanche | freedom to use one's own judgement |
| cassandra | one who prophesies doom or disaster; pessimist; one who utters unheeded prophecies |
| caste | a rigid social class |
| castigate | to punish |
| cataclysm | a flood, deluge; any violent change involving sudden and extensive alterations of the earth's surface; an upheaval of any kind |
| catharsis | a cleansing, usually emotional; a purging |
| caustic | corrosive; cutting; causing a burning or stinging sensation as from intense emotion; sarcastic |
| cauterize | to burn tissue |
| cavil | to raise trivial questions; to voice petty objections |
| celerity | speed; readiness |
| celibate | unmarried; refraining from sexual relations |
| cerebral | relating to the brain |
| cerebration | a thought |
| chagrin | embarassment |
| chaste | pure in morals; sexually pure |
| chattel | personal property |
| cheeky | saucy, witty |
| choleric | bad-tempered; irascible; irritable or touchy |
| churlish | rude |
| cilia | tiny hairs |
| circumlocution | roundabout speaking |
| circumspect | cautious; prudent; careful to consider all circumstances and possible consequesnces |
| claustrophobia | fear of enclosed spaces |
| cogent | clear, well thought out |
| cogitate | to think about carefully |
| cohesion | force that keeps parts together; unity |
| colloquy | talking together, a conversation |
| commensurate | equal |
| commiserate | to sympathize; to be miserable together |
| complacency | contented self-satisfaction; total lack of concern |
| complacent | self-satisfied |
| complement | to complete; bring to perfection |
| complicity | assistance in crime; being an accomplice in a wrongdoing |
| comport | to behave in a certain way |
| comprehensive | anxiety arising over awareness of guilt; distress of mind over anticipated action or result; a twinge of misgiving |
| concubine | mistress |
| condescend | to stoop to a lower level |
| confidant | one whom secrets are entrusted |
| conflagration | fire or widespread destruction |
| coniferous | bearing cones |
| conjugal | relating to marriage |
| consecrate | to dedicate, to bless |
| constrict | to draw together, bind |
| contemplative | slowly thinking, pondering or considering something |
| contigent | dependant upon something else |
| contradict | to speak against |
| contrite | deeply corry; penitent |
| contrived | planned, devised (sometimes negatively) |
| contumacious | disobedient; rebellious |
| contumely | haughty and contemptuous rudeness; humiliating and insulting treatement or language |
| conundrum | a paradoxical, unsolvable, or difficult problem; a dilema, riddle |
| convalesce | to recuperate |
| converge | to come together |
| convivial | fond of socializing with friends; outgoing, friendly |
| copious | plentiful; abundant; ample |
| corroborate | to confirm; to back up with evidence |
| coterie | set or circle of acquaintences; clique |
| couth | refined in behavior, polite |
| covert | secret; hidden from sight |
| covet | to want enviously |
| covetous | desirous; envious |
| credence | belief or trust |
| credible | believable |
| credulous | gulluible, overly trusting; inclinged to believe |
| creed | principles held, often part of a religous doctrine |
| crestfallen | dejected, sad |
| crux | the most important point |
| cryptic | suggests a puzzling terseness that is often intended to discourage |
| cuisine | style of cooking |
| culpable | worty of blame |
| cupidity | greed |
| curative | curing, healing |
| curt | terse |
| daunt | to discourage, dismay, intimidate |
| daunting | discouraging |
| dearth | a scarcity; shortage; paucity |
| debacle | a total overthrow; devastation |
| debase | to sink to lower status; to put down |
| diaphanous | translucent, sheer |
| decimate | to kill, destroy, eradicate |
| defer | to delay, postpone |
| deferantial | very respectful |
| deflect | to turn away, avert |
| defunct | dead, no longer in use |
| degenerate | to deteriorate |
| deign | to condescend |
| demise | a death |
| demur | to object, refuse |
| denigrate | to defame, ridicule |
| denoument | the final outcome of a plot |
| deplore | to regard as unfortunate, to hate or reject |
| depraved | perverted, morally corrupt |
| depredation | a great loss; state of being deprived of something |
| derisive | mocking, ridiculing, scoffing |
| desecrate | to destroy the beauty or sanctity of a special place |
| desiccate | to dry out completely |
| desist | to stop an action |
| desultory | random, often aimless |
| detriment | injury; damage; a cause of injury or damage. |
| devoid | void, empty |