 | Term | Definition |
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Abate |
v. subside or moderate. (Rather than waiting leaving immediately, they waited for the storm to abate.) |
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Aberrant |
adj. abnormal or deviant.( Given the aberrant nature of the data, we came to doubt the validity of the entire experiment.) |
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Abeyance |
n. suspended action.( The deal was held in abeyance until her arrival.) |
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Abscond |
v. depart secretly and hide.( The teller who absconded with the bonds went uncaptured until someone recognized him from his photograph on America's Most Wanted.) |
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Abstemious |
adj. sparing in eating and drinking; temperate. (Concerned whether her vegetarian son's abstemiousdiet provided him with sufficient protein, the worried mother pressed food on him.) |
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Admonish |
v. warn; reprove.( When her courtiers questioned her religious beliefs, Mary Stuart admonished them, declaring that she would worship as she pleased.) |
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Adulterate |
v. make inpure by adding inferior or tainted substances.( It is a crime to adulterate foods without informing the buyer; when consumers learned that Beechnut had adulterated its apple juiceby mixing the juice with water, they protested vigorously. adulteration, n.) |
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Aesthetic |
adj. artistic; dealing with or capable of appreciating the beautiful.( The beauty of Tiffany's stained glass appealed to Alice's aesthetic sense. aesthete, n.) |
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Aggregate |
v. gather; accumulate.( Before the Wall Street scandals, dealers in so-called junk bonds managed to aggregate great wealth in short periods of time. also adj. aggregation, n.) |
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Alacrity |
n. cheerful promptness; eagerness.( Phil and Dave were raring to get off to the mountains; they packed up their ski gear and climbed into the van with alacrity.) |
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Alleviate |
v. relieve. (This should alleviate the pain; if it does not, we shall have to use stronger drugs.) |
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Amalgamate |
v. combine; unite in one body. (The unions will attempt to amalgamate their groups into one national body.) |
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Ambiguous |
adj. unclear or doubtful in meaning. (His ambiguous instructions misled us; we did not know which road to take. ambiguity, n.) |
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Ambivalence |
n. the state of having contradictory or conflicting emotional attitudes. (Torn between locing her parents one minute and hating them the next, she was confused by the ambivalence of her feelings. ambivalent, adj.) |
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Ameliorate |
v. improve.( Many social workers have attempted to ameliorate the conditions of people living in the slums.) |
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Anachronism |
n. something or someone misplaced in time.(Shakespeare's reference to clocks in Juilius Caesar is an anachronism; no clocks existed in Caesar;s time. anachronistic, adj.) |
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Analogous |
adj. comparable.( She called our attention to the things that had been done in an analogous situation and recommended that we do the same.) |
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Anarchy |
n. absence of governing body; state of disorder.( The assasination of the leaders led to period of anarchy.) |
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Anomalous |
adj. abnormal; irregular.( She was placed in the anomalous position of seeming to apprive procedures that she despised.) |
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Antipathy |
n. aversion, dislike.( Tom's extreme antipathy for disputes keeps him from getting into arguments with his temperamental wife. Noise in any form is antipathetic to him. Among his other antipathies are honking cars, boom boxes, and heavy metal rock.) |
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Apathy |
n. lack of caring; indifference.( A firm believer in democratic government, she could not understand the apathy of people who never bothered to vote. apathetic, adj.) |
