 | Term | Definition |
| |
admonish |
to scold gently; to warn |
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adroit |
skillful; dexterous; clever; shrewd; socially at ease |
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adulation |
wild or excessive admiration; flattery |
| |
adulterate |
to contaminate; to make impure |
| |
adverse |
unfavorable; antagonistic |
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aesthetic |
having to do with artistic beauty; artistic |
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affable |
easy to talk to; friendly |
| |
affectation |
unnatural or artificial behavior, usually intneded to impress |
| |
affinity |
sympathy; attraction; kinship; similarity |
| |
affluent |
rich; prosperou |
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agenda |
program; the things to be done |
| |
agrarian |
relating to land; relating to the management or farming of land |
| |
agnostic |
one who believes that the existence of a god can be neither proven nor disproven |
| |
aggregate |
sum total; a collection of separate things mixed together |
| |
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 hind |
| |
aloof |
uninvolved; standing off; keeping one's distance |
| |
altruism |
selflessness; generosity; devotion to the interests of others |
| |
ambience |
atmosphere; mood; feeling |
| |
ambiguous |
unclear in meaning; confusing; capable |
| |
ambivalent |
having opposed feelings simultaneously |
| |
ameliorate |
to make better or more tolerable |
| |
amenable |
obedient; willing to give in to the wishes of another; agreeable |
| |
amenity |
pleasantness; attractive or confortable |
| |
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; bloblike |
| |
anachronism |
something out of place in time or history; an incongruity |
| |
analogy |
a comparison of one thing to another, 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 |
| |
antithesis |
the direct opposite |
| |
apartheid |
the abhorrent policy of racial segregation and opression in the Republican 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 iving in to |
| |
apreciate |
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 |
| |
arcane |
mysterious; known only to a select few |
| |
archaic |
exremely old; ancient; outdated |
| |
archetype |
an original model or pattern |
| |
ardent |
passionate; enthusiastic |
| |
arduous |
hard; difficult |
| |
aristocratic |
of noble birth; snobbish |
| |
artful |
crafty; willy; sly |
| |
artifice |
a clever trick; cunning |
| |
ascendancy |
supremacy; domination |
| |
ascetic |
hermitlike; 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 judgement |
| |
attrition |
gradual wearing away, weakining, or loss; a natural or expected decrease in numbers or size |
| |
audacity |
boldness; reckless daring; impertinence |
| |
augment |
to make bigger; to add to; to increase |
| |
auspicious |
favorable; promising; pointing to a good result |
| |
asustere |
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 |
| |
awary |
off course; twisted to one side |
