- abrogate: abolish, do away with
- cachinnate: to laugh loudly, immoderately, resoundingly, convulsively
- calumniate: to slander; to say knowingly malicious falsehoods about
- cicerone: a guide who conducts sightseers
- compendium: summary or abstract of a larger work
- compunctious: feeling slight regret
- copse: a hedge
- cudgel: a stout stick used as a weapon
- elemental: of the powers of nature; comparable to a force of nature
- epigraph: an inscription
- frisson: emotional thrill; i.e. anticipatory frisson
- immure: enclose within walls; imprison
- importune: solicit pressingly; solicit for an immoral purpose
- imprecation: a spoken curse
- inscrutable: mysterious; impenatrable
- inveigh: speak or write with strong hostility
- inveterate: habitual, usually a bad habit; long standing; established
- invidious: causing envy or ill feeling
- limpid: transparent
- manifold: having many different parts or applications
- meretricious: pertaining to or resembling a prostitute; attracting attention in a vulgar manner; lacking sincerity
- miscegenous: pertaining to the interbreeding of races, especially white and non-white
- motility: capable of motion
- nihilistic: the rejection of all religious and moral principles; skepticism manintining that nothing has any real existence
- obdurate: hardened against influence, stubborn
- obfuscate: obscure, confuse, stupefy, bewilder
- obloquy: the state of being generally ill spoken of, abuse
- obsequies: funeral rites, a funeral
- obsequious: subservient, fawning, groveling, insincere
- obstreperous: unruly, boisterous, uncontrollably
- obviate: prevent, preclude, take away
- panegyric: a formal eulogistic composition intended as a public compliment; elaborate praise
- parvenu: one suddenly risen in class not yet accepted by others on that level
- pastiche: mixture, patchwork, blend
- pathos: feeling, pity, emotion, sadness, tragedy
- patois: dialect of the common people in a region differing fundamentally from the literary language
- peccadillo: slight flaw, sin or transgression
- pedagogue: a schoolmaster, especially a pedantic one
- pedagogy: the science of teaching
- pellucid: transparant, clear, mentally clear
- persiflage: light or bantering speech
- perspicuous: clearly expressed or presented; easy to comprehend
- piebald: usually describing a horse; having two colors, especially black and white
- piker: a cautious, timid or cheap person
- plaintive: expressing sorrow; mournful
- plutocracy: government by the wealthy; the ruling class
- portentous: serving as a sign of something to come, usually bad; pompously solemn
- postprandial: after dinner or lunch
- presentiment: a vague expectation; especially of misfortune
- punctilious: precisce in behavior, attentive to formality and etiquette
- pusillanimous: lacking courage, timidity
- sang-froid: composure; coolness; especially in dangerous circumstances
- sanguinary: bloody; bloodthirsty
- sanguine: optimistic; confindent
- sarcophagus: stone coffin
- sardonic: grimly jocular; bitterly mocking or cynical
- scabrous: indecent; salacious; behaving licentiously
- specious: deceptive, misleading
- taciturn: not inclined to talk
- talisman: charm, fetish, mascot
- tendentious: marked bya strong implicit point of view; written or spoken to promote a cause; biased
- terra-cotta: unglazed, brownish red earthenware used as ornamental building material; a statuette made of this
- treacle: a syrup produced from refined sugar; molasses; cloying sentimentality or flattery
- vitiate: impair the quality of or effectiveness of; debase
Supercilious Words