 | Term | Definition |
| |
abash |
To make ashamed; to embarrass |
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abate |
To subside; to reduce |
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abdicate |
To step down from a position of power or responsibility |
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aberration |
Something not typical; a deviation from the standard |
| |
abhor |
To hate very very much; to detest |
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abject |
Hopeless; extremely sad and servile; defeated; utterly bummed out |
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abnegate |
To deny oneself things; to reject; to renounce |
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abortive |
Unsuccessful |
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abridge |
To shorten; to condense |
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absolute |
Total; unlimited; perfect |
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absolve |
To forgive or free from blame; to free from sin; to free from an obligation |
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abstinent |
Abstaining; voluntarily not doing something especially something pleasant that is bad for you or has a bad reputation |
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abstract |
Theoretical; impersonal |
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abstruse |
Hard to understand |
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abysmal |
Extremely hopeless or wretched; bottomless |
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accolade |
An award; an honor |
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accost |
To approach and speak to someone |
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acerbic |
Bitter; sour; severe |
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acquiesce |
To comply passively; to accept; to assent; to agree |
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acrid |
Harsh; like acid |
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acrimonious |
Full of spite; bitter; nasty |
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acumen |
Keenness of judgment; mental sharpness |
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acute |
Sharp; shrewd |
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adamant |
Stubborn; unyielding; completely inflexible |
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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 |
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adverse |
Unfavorable; antagonistic |
| |
aesthetic |
Having to do with artistic beauty; artistic |
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affable |
Easy to talk to; friendly |
| |
affectation |
Unnatural or artificial behavior usually intended to impress |
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affinity |
Sympathy; attraction; kinship; similarity |
| |
affluent |
Rich; prosperous |
| |
agenda |
Program; the things to be done |
| |
agrarian |
Relating to land; relating to the management or farming of land |
| |
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 |
| |
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 |
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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 |
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analogy |
A comparison of one thing to another; similarity similarity |
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anarchy |
Absence of government or control; lawlessness; disorder |
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anecdote |
A short account of a humorous or revealing incident |
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anguish |
Agonizing physical or mental pain |
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animosity |
Resentment; hostility; ill will |
| |
anomaly |
An aberration; an irregularity; a deviation ; |
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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 |
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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 |
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appease |
To soothe; to pacify by giving in to |
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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 |
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artful |
Wily; sly ; =crafty |
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artifice |
A clever trick; cunning ; |
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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 |
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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 ; |
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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 |
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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 |
