- Acrid: sharp; pungent (used of smells and tastes)
- Acrophobia: fear of heights
- Acuity: sharpness (mental or visual)
- Adamant: forceful; inflexible
- Adroit: skilful
- Adulation: strong admiration; worship
- Adversity: hardship
- Advocate: support
- Aesthetic: concerning art or beauty
- Affable: friendly; social; easygoing
- Boorish: ill-mannered
- Bourgeois: middle class
- Braggart: someone who boasts
- Brawny: muscular
- Brevity: being brief
- Bristle: to show irritation
- Broach: start to discuss; approach
- Brusque: blunt; abrupt
- Bulwark: fortification; barricade; wall
- Bureaucracy: officialdom
- Cynical: believing that people act only out of selfish motives
- Debility: weakness; incapacity
- Debunking: exposing false claims or myths
- Decathlon: an athletic competition with ten events
- Decorum: dignified, correct behavior [decorous (a)]
- Decoy: lure; trap; trick
- Deference: respect
- Defoliate: cause leaves to fall off
- Defunct: no longer in existence
- Degradation: deprivation; poverty; debasement
- Epistle: a letter (form of communication)
- Epistolary: concerned with letters; through correspondence
- Epitomized: typified; characterized; personified
- Equivocate: speak ambiguously; avoid telling the truth
- Err: make a mistake
- Erratic: wandering; irregular
- Esoteric: obscure and difficult to understand
- Espouse: promote; take up; support
- Etymology: the study of word origins
- Eulogy: praise
- Heresy: against orthodox opinion
- Hiatus: interruption; pause
- Hidebound: rigid in opinions
- Hieroglyphics: 1. picture writing; 2. writing which is difficult to read or enigmatic
- Hinder: obstruct
- Histrionic: theatrical; exaggerated
- Hoary: old
- Hone: sharpen; increase; whet
- Hyperbole: grossly exaggerated speech
- Hypochondriac: a person obsessed with health; having imaginary illnesses
- Lance: spear; spike; javelin
- Languid: tired; slow
- Languish: decay; fade away; get weaker
- Larceny: theft; robbery; stealing
- Largess: generosity
- Laud: praise
- Lavish: on a grand scale; wasteful
- Lax: careless; not strict
- Legend: 1. key to map; 2. myth or story
- Legion: in large numbers
- Obscure: difficult to understand; partially hidden
- Obscured: hidden; covered; buried
- Obsequious: servile; submissive
- Obsession: a dominating concern
- Obsolete: no longer valid
- Obstreperous: noisy and boisterous
- Obtuse: mentally dull
- Obviate: avoid; make unnecessary
- Odious: hateful
- Officious: domineering; intrusive; meddlesome
- Poignant: deeply moving; strongly affecting the emotions
- Poised: calm; collected; self-possessed
- Polemical: causing debate or argument
- Ponderous: weighty; slow and heavy
- Pontificate: speak pompously or dogmatically
- Portend: foretell
- Portent: a warning sign; omen
- Poseur: someone who puts on an act
- Posterity: future generations
- Posthumous: after death
- Respite: a break; intermission
- Resplendent: shining; glowing
- Restorative: a tonic
- Retention: preservation; withholding
- Reticent: restrained; holding something back; uncommunicative
- Retraction: withdrawal; cancellation of a statement
- Revere: worship
- Riddled: full of (usually full of holes)
- Rife: common
- Rigor: thoroughness
- Terse: concise; to the point
- Therapeutic: medicinal; curative
- Thwart: prevent; frustrate
- Timorous: cowardly; fearful
- Tirade: stream of verbal abuse
- Titter: giggle quietly
- Tome: large book
- Torpid: inactive; lazy; stagnant
- Torpor: dormancy; sluggishness; inactivity
- Totter: walk unsteadily