 | Term | Definition |
| |
acarpous |
effete; no longer fertile; worn out |
| |
apocryphal |
of dubious authenticity or origin; spurious |
| |
apostate |
one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions |
| |
apotheosis |
deification; glorification to godliness |
| |
apposite |
appropriate; pertinent; relevant; apropos |
| |
arrant |
impudent |
| |
artless |
natural; without artificiality |
| |
asperity |
severity; rigor |
| |
aspersion |
an act of defamation or maligning |
| |
assay |
an analysis; examination |
| |
asseverate |
to aver; to assert |
| |
assiduous |
diligent; hard-working; sedulous |
| |
attenuate |
to rarefy; to weaken or make thinner |
| |
baleful |
sinister; pernicious |
| |
bedizen |
to adorn, especially in a cheap, showy manner; to festoon |
| |
bilge |
bulge; the protuberance of a cask |
| |
blandish |
to toady or fawn |
| |
cachinnate |
to laugh loudly |
| |
cadge |
to sponge or mooch |
| |
calumniate |
to slander; to make false accusation |
| |
calumny |
slander; aspersion |
| |
caparison |
to adorn or bedizen |
| |
captious |
calculated to confuse or entrap in argument; hypercritical; caviling |
| |
cavil |
to find fault without good reason |
| |
coeval |
of the same period; coexisting |
| |
contemn |
to scorn or despise |
| |
contumacious |
insubordinate; rebellious |
| |
countenance |
to approve of or tolerate; face; composure |
| |
cozen |
to deceive, beguile, or hoodwink |
| |
decorous |
correct, formal, marked by decorum |
| |
defalcate |
to embezzle or misappropriate |
| |
denouement |
an outcome or solution; the enraveling of a plot |
| |
deposition |
accretion; depositing; building up layer by layer; official testimony |
| |
depredate |
to plunder, pillage, ravage, or destroy |
| |
descant |
to comment at length |
| |
descry |
to discriminate or discern |
| |
desuetude |
disuse |
| |
dilatory |
causing delay |
| |
disaffect |
to estrange or alienate the affection of |
| |
discomfit |
to defeaet; to put down |
| |
discursive |
digressive; passing from one topic to another |
| |
dissolution |
disintegration; looseness in morals |
| |
distrait |
distracted; absent-minded, especially due to anxiety |
| |
doggerel |
trivial, poorly constructed verse |
| |
dross |
slag, waste, or foreign matter; impurity |
| |
dulcet |
melodious; harmonious; mellifluous |
| |
edacious |
voracious; devouring |
| |
effluvia |
outflow in a stream of particles; a noxious oder or vapor |
| |
egress |
exit |
| |
encomium |
glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric |
| |
enormity |
excessive wickedness; evilness |
| |
episodic |
loosely connected; not flowing logically |
| |
equanimity |
composure; self-possession |
| |
equipoise |
equal distribution of weight |
| |
errant |
traveling; itinerant; peripatetic |
| |
evince |
to show clearly; to indicate |
| |
excoriate |
to censure scathingly; to upbraid |
| |
exegesis |
critical examination; explication |
| |
expatiate |
to descant; to discourse; to discuss or write about at length |
| |
expiate |
to atone or make amends for |
| |
expostulate |
to argue earnestly in order to dissuade, correct, or protest |
| |
expurgate |
to remove obscenity; to purify; to censor |
| |
exscind |
to cut out or extirpate |
| |
extant |
existing; not destroyed or lost |
| |
extirpate |
to destroy; to exterminate |
| |
fallow |
untilled; inactive; dormant |
| |
feckless |
ineffectual; irresponsible |
| |
felicitous |
apt; suitably expressed; well-chosen |
| |
filigree |
an ornamental work, especially of delicate lacelike patterns |
| |
florid |
flowery |
| |
forebearance |
patience; willingness to wait |
| |
fractious |
quarrelsome |
| |
froward |
intractable; not willing to yield or comply |
| |
gainsay |
to deny, dispute, contradict, to oppose |
| |
gauche |
crude; awkward; tasteless |
| |
gossamer |
delicate; insubstantial or tenuous |
| |
guile |
artfulness; trickery; chicanery |
| |
homiletics |
the art of preaching |
| |
homily |
a sermon or morally instructive lecture |
| |
ignominious |
shameful; dishonorable; ignoble |
| |
imperious |
commanding; masterful; arrogant |
| |
importune |
to ask incessantly; to beg; to nag |
| |
impugn |
to attack or assail verbally |
| |
impute |
to attribute to a cause or source |
| |
indolent |
lazy |
| |
ineluctable |
certain; inevitable |
| |
ingenuous |
guileless; trusting; naive |
| |
inimical |
hostile |
