- abash: To make ashamed; to embarrass
- abate: To subside; to reduce
- abdicate: To step down from a position of power or responsibility
- aberration: Something not typical; a deviation from the standard
- abhor: To hate very very much; to detest
- abject: Hopeless; extremely sad and servile; defeated; utterly bummed out
- abnegate: To deny oneself things; to reject; to renounce
- abortive: Unsuccessful
- abridge: To shorten; to condense
- absolute: Total; unlimited; perfect
- absolve: To forgive or free from blame; to free from sin; to free from an obligation
- abstinent: Abstaining; voluntarily not doing something especially something pleasant that is bad for you or has a bad reputation
- abstract: Theoretical; impersonal
- abstruse: Hard to understand
- abysmal: Extremely hopeless or wretched; bottomless
- accolade: An award; an honor
- accost: To approach and speak to someone
- acerbic: Bitter; sour; severe
- acquiesce: To comply passively; to accept; to assent; to agree
- acrid: Harsh; like acid
- acrimonious: Full of spite; bitter; nasty
- acumen: Keenness of judgment; mental sharpness
- acute: Sharp; shrewd
- adamant: Stubborn; unyielding; completely inflexible
- address: To speak to; to direct ones attention to
- adherent: Follower; supporter; believer
- admonish: To scold gently; to warn
- adroit: Skillful; dexterous; clever; shrewd; socially at ease
- adulation: Wild or excessive admiration; flattery
- adulterate: To contaminate; to make impure
- adverse: Unfavorable; antagonistic
- aesthetic: Having to do with artistic beauty; artistic
- affable: Easy to talk to; friendly
- affectation: Unnatural or artificial behavior usually intended to impress
- affinity: Sympathy; attraction; kinship; similarity
- affluent: Rich; prosperous
- agenda: Program; the things to be done
- aggregate: Sum total; a collection of separate things mixed together
- agnostic: One who believes that the existence of a god can be neither proven nor disproven
- agrarian: Relating to land; relating to the management or farming of land
- alacrity: Cheerful eagerness or readiness to respond
- allege: To assert without proof
- alleviate: To relieve usually temporarily or incompletely; to make bearable; to lessen
- allocate: To distribute; to assign; to allot
- alloy: A combination of two or more things usually metals
- allusion: An indirect reference often to a literary work; a hint hint
- aloof: Uninvolved; standing off; keeping ones distance
- altruism: Selflessness; generosity; devotion to the interests of others
- ambiance: Atmosphere; mood; feeling mood
- ambiguous: Unclear in meaning; confusing; capable of being interpreted in different ways
- ambivalent: Undecided; neutral; wishy-washy
- ameliorate: To make better or more tolerable ;
- amenable: Obedient; willing to give in to the wishes of another; agreeable
- amenity: Pleasantness; attractive or comfortable feature
- amiable: Friendly; agreeable
- amnesty: An official pardon for a group of people who have violated a law or policy
- amoral: Lacking a sense of right and wrong; neither good nor bad neither moral nor immoral; without moral feelings
- amorous: Feeling loving especially in a sexual sense; in love relating to love
- amorphous: Shapeless; without a regular or stable shape
- anachronism: Something out of place in time or history; an incongruity
- analogy: A comparison of one thing to another; similarity similarity
- anarchy: Absence of government or control; lawlessness; disorder
- anecdote: A short account of a humorous or revealing incident
- anguish: Agonizing physical or mental pain
- animosity: Resentment; hostility; ill will
- anomaly: An aberration; an irregularity; a deviation ;
- antecedent: Someone or something that went before; something that provides a model for something that came after it
- antipathy: Firm dislike; a dislike ↔sympathy ;
- antithesis: The direct opposite
- apartheid: The abhorrent policy of racial segregation and oppression in the Repubic of South Africa
- apathy: Lack of interest; lack of feeling
- aphorism: A brief often witty saying; a proverb
- apocalypse: A prophetic revelation especially one concerning the end of the world
- apocryphal: Of dubious authenticity; fictitious; spurious
- apotheosis: Elevation to divine status; the perfect example of something
- appease: To soothe; to pacify by giving in to
- appreciate: To increase in value
- apprehensive: Worried; anxious
- approbation: Approval; praise
- appropriate: To take without permission; to set aside for a particular use
- aptitude: Capacity for learning; natural ability
- arbiter: One who decides; a judge
- arbitrary: Random; capricious random
- arcane: Mysterious; known only to a select few mysterious
- archaic: Extremely old; ancient; outdated
- archetype: An original model or pattern
- ardent: Passionate half-hearted
- arduous: Hard; difficult
- aristocratic: Of noble birth; snobbish
- artful: Wily; sly ; =crafty
- artifice: A clever trick; cunning ;
- ascendancy: Supremacy; domination
- ascetic: Hermit like; practicing self-denial
- assiduous: Hardworking; busy; quite diligent
- assimilate: To take in; to absorb; to learn thoroughly
- assuage: To soothe; to pacify; to ease the pain of; to relieve
- astute: Shrewd; keen in judgment ;
- attrition: Gradual wearing away weakening or loss; a natural or expected decrease in numbers of size
- audacity: Boldness; reckless daring; impertinence ;
- augment: To make bigger; to add to; to increase ;
- auspicious: Favorable; promising; pointing to a good result
- austere: Unadorned; stern; forbidding; without excess
- autocratic: Ruling with absolute authority; extremely bossy
- autonomous: Acting independently
- avarice: Greed; excessive love of riches
- avow: To claim; to declare boldly; to admit
- avuncular: Like an uncle especially a nice uncle ;
- awry: Off course; twisted to one side ;
- axiom: Self-evident rule or truth; a widely accepted saying
- banal: Unoriginal; ordinary
- bane: Poison; torment; cause of harm
- bastion: Stronghold; fortress; fortified place
- beget: To give birth to; to create; to lead to; to cause
- belabor: To go over repeatedly or to an absurd extent
- beleaguer: To surround; to besiege; to harass
- belie: To give a false impression of; to contradict
- belittle: To make to seem little; to put someone down
- belligerent: Combative; quarrelsome; waging war
- bemused: Confused; bewildered
- benefactor: One who provides help especially in the form of a gift or donation
- benevolent: Generous; kind; doing good deeds
- benign: Gentle; not harmful; kind; mild
- bequest: Something left to someone in a will
- bereaved: Deprived or left desolate especially through death
- beset: Harass; to surround
- blasphemy: Irreverence; an insult to something held sacred; profanity
- blatant: Unpleasantly or offensively noisy; glaring
- blight: Disease in plants; anything that injures or destroys
- blithe: Carefree; cheerful
- bourgeois: Middle class usually in a pejorative sense; boringly conventional
- bovine: Cow related; cow like cf canine equine feline pis cine porcine ursine
- brevity: Briefness
- broach: To open up a subject for discussion often a delicate subject
- bucolic: Charmingly rural; rustic; country like
- bureaucracy: A system of government administration consisting of numerous bureaus or offices especially one run according to inflexible and inefficient rules; any large administrative system characterized by inefficiency lots of rules and red tape
- burgeon: To expand; to flourish
- burlesque: A ludicrous mocking or exaggerated imitation
- cacophony: Harsh-sounding mixture of words voices or sounds
- cadence: Rhythm the rise and fall of sounds
- cajole: To persuade someone to do something he or she doesn't want to do
- callow: Immature
- candor: Truthfulness; sincere honesty
- Capitalism: Free enterprise
- capitulate: To surrender; to give up or give in
- capricious: Unpredictable; like to change at any moment
- caricature: A portrait or description that is purposely distorted or exaggerated often to prove some point about its subject
- castigate: To criticize severely; to chastise
- catalyst: In chemistry~; anyone or anything that makes something happen without being directly involved in it
- categorical: Unconditional; absolute
- catharsis: Purification that brings emotional relief or renewal
- catholic: Universal; embracing everything
- caustic: Like acid; corrosive
- celibacy: Abstinence from sex
- censure: To condemn severely for doing something bad
- cerebral: Brainy; intellectually refined
- chagrin: Humiliation; embarrassed disappointment
- charisma: A magical-seeming ability to attract followers or inspire loyalty
- charlatan: Fraud; quack; con man
- chasm: A deep gaping hole; a gorge
- chastise: To inflict punishment on; to discipline
- chicanery: Trickery; deceitfulness; artifice; especially legal or political
- chimera: An illusion; a foolish fancy
- choleric: Hot-tempered; quick to anger
- chronic: Constant; lasting a long time; inveterate
- chronicle: A record of events in order of time; a history