- Archetype: classic example of
- Archives: collections of old records; place of storage of old documents
- Articulate: clear; lucid; eloquent
- Artifice: deception; trickery
- Artisan: craftsman
- Ascetic: without luxuries; severely simple
- Assiduous: thorough; diligent
- Assuage: to calm
- Astute: perceptive; sharp-witted
- Asylum: place of refuge or safety
- Clemency: mercy
- Cliché: overused expression; something unoriginal
- Clientele: customers
- Coalesce: come together; merge
- Coddle: pamper; fuss over; indulge
- Coercion: force
- Cogent: lucid; well argued
- Cogitate: think over something; ponder
- Collage: picture made from fragments of other pictures
- Collate: arrange in order
- Disinterested: unbiased
- Disparage: criticize; belittle
- Disparity: an inequality
- Dispassionate: neutral; objective
- Disseminating: circulating; broadcasting; spreading (information)
- Diurnal: active in daytime
- Divert: 1. entertain; 2. distract; 3. cause a detour
- Docile: gentle and easily lead
- Dogmatic: having stubbornly held opinions
- Dolt: stupid person
- Flout: defy; reject
- Flustered: worked-up; not calm
- Fly-by-night: unreliable; disreputable
- Forensic: concerned with argument or debate (esp. for legal evidence)
- Fortitude: bravery
- Fortuitous: happening by chance
- Fractious: irritable; difficult to control
- Fraudulent: fake; false
- Frivolous: not serious
- Frugal: economical; not wasting anything
- Ingénue: naïve, unsophisticated person
- Ingrate: ungrateful person
- Inimical: hostile
- Innate: inherited; inborn
- Innocuous: harmless; inoffensive
- Innovate: create; introduce something new
- Inscrutable: mysterious; impenetrable
- Insentient: unfeeling
- Insipid: dull; bland; boring
- Instigate: to start; provoke
- Mendacious: given to lying
- Mercenary: concerned only with money
- Mercurial: volatile; changeable
- Merge: come together
- Metaphorically: symbolically; figuratively
- Meticulous: very careful; painstaking
- Mettle: courage; bravery; valor
- Milieu: environment
- Mire: swamp; muddy ground
- Misanthrope: hater of the rest of mankind
- Paucity: shortage
- Peccadillo: minor weakness; trivial offence
- Pedant: person who insists on strict adherence to rules or narrow learning
- Pedestrian: common; mundane; banal
- Peerless: without equal
- Pejorative: derogatory
- Pellucid: transparently clear
- Pensive: in a thoughtful mood; thinking deeply
- Penury: poverty
- Perceptive: observant
- Protégé: person under protection of, or guided by another
- Protean: changeable
- Protocol: procedure; code of behavior
- Provincial: unsophisticated; narrow-minded
- Prudent: cautious; wise
- Puerile: childish
- Punctilious: paying attention to small details
- Purloin: steal
- Pusillanimous: cowardly
- Pyromania: compulsion to start fires
- Sophomoric: juvenile; immature
- Soporific: inducing sleep
- Sparse: spare; bare; meager
- Specious: false
- Speckled: spotted; freckled; dotted
- Sporadic: not continuous; intermittent
- Spurious: false
- Stagnant: still; not moving
- Staid: dull; sober; serious
- Stanza: section of a poem
- Venal: corrupt; can be bribed
- Veneer: surface coating
- Venerate: revere; worship
- Venial: minor; unimportant
- Veracity: truthfulness
- Verbose: talkative; long-winded; rambling
- Verbosity: using too many words
- Vertigo: dizziness
- Vestigial: not developed
- Vignette: small sketch