- abrogate: annul, revoke
- ambient: completely surrounding, encompassing
- asperity: rigor, harshness
- burnish: shine, buff
- cabal: clique, ring, gang, plot, conspiracy
- delectable: delicious, scrumptious
- deprecate: deplore, frown upon
- detritus: debris, wreckage, ruins, rubble
- ebullient: exhilarated, elated, exuberant
- eclectic: selective, synthetic, pick-and-choose
- flaccid: soft, flabby
- impecunious: penniless, impoverished, indigent
- inexorable: inescapable, ineluctable, obdurate
- moribund: obsolescent
- necromancer: sorcerer, conjurer
- onerous: oppressive, weighty
- rife: common, prevalent, widespread, happening often; full, abounding; plentiful, abundant, replete
- rudiments: fundamentals, basics
- sequester: seclude, segregate, isolate, closet
- winnow: sift, strain, filter, sort