 | Term | Definition |
| |
abash |
To make ashamed; to embarrass |
| |
abate |
To subside; to reduce |
| |
abdicate |
To step down from a position of power or responsibility |
| |
aberration |
Something not typical; a deviation from the standard |
| |
abhor |
To hate very very much; to detest |
| |
abject |
Hopeless; extremely sad and servile; defeated; utterly bummed out |
| |
abnegate |
To deny oneself things; to reject; to renounce |
| |
abortive |
Unsuccessful |
| |
abridge |
To shorten; to condense |
| |
absolute |
Total; unlimited; perfect |
| |
absolve |
To forgive or free from blame; to free from sin; to free from an obligation |
| |
abstinent |
Abstaining; voluntarily not doing something especially something pleasant that is bad for you or has a bad reputation |
| |
abstract |
Theoretical; impersonal |
| |
abstruse |
Hard to understand |
| |
abysmal |
Extremely hopeless or wretched; bottomless |
| |
accolade |
An award; an honor |
| |
accost |
To approach and speak to someone |
| |
acerbic |
Bitter; sour; severe |
| |
acquiesce |
To comply passively; to accept; to assent; to agree |
| |
acrid |
Harsh; like acid |
| |
acrimonious |
Full of spite; bitter; nasty |
| |
acumen |
Keenness of judgment; mental sharpness |
| |
acute |
Sharp; shrewd |
| |
adamant |
Stubborn; unyielding; completely inflexible |
| |
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 |
| |
adverse |
Unfavorable; antagonistic |
| |
aesthetic |
Having to do with artistic beauty; artistic |
| |
affable |
Easy to talk to; friendly |
| |
affectation |
Unnatural or artificial behavior usually intended to impress |
| |
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 |
| |
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 |
| |
analogy |
A comparison of one thing to another; similarity 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 ↔sympathy ; |
| |
antithesis |
The direct opposite |
| |
apartheid |
The abhorrent policy of racial segregation and oppression in the Repubic 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 giving in to |
| |
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 |
| |
artful |
Wily; sly ; =crafty |
| |
artifice |
A clever trick; cunning ; |
| |
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 |
| |
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 ; |
| |
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 |
| |
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 |
| |
circuitous |
Round about; not following a direct path |
| |
circumlocution |
An indirect expression; use of wordy or evasive language |
| |
circumscribe |
To draw a line around; to set the limits; to define; to restrict. |
| |
circumspect |
Cautious |
| |
circumvent |
To frustrate as though by surrounding |
| |
civil |
Polite; civilized; courteous |
| |
clemency |
Mercy; forgiveness; mildness |
| |
cliche |
An overused saying or idea |
| |
clique |
An exclusive group bound together by some shared quality or interest |
| |
coalesce |
To come together as one; to fuse; to unite ; |
| |
coerce |
To force someone to do or not to do something |
| |
cogent |
Powerfully convincing |
| |
cognitive |
Dealing with how we know the world around us through our senses; mental |
| |
cognizant |
Aware; conscious |
| |
coherent |
Holding together; making sense |
| |
colloquial |
Conversational; informal in language |
| |
collusion |
Conspiracy; secret cooperation |
| |
commensurate |
Equal; proportionate |
| |
compelling |
Forceful; causing to yield |
| |
compendium |
A summary; an abridgment |
| |
complacent |
Self-satisfied; overly pleased with oneself; contented to a fault |
| |
complement |
To complete or fill up; to be the perfect counterpart |
| |
complicity |
Participation in wrongdoing; the act of being an accomplice |
| |
comprehensive |
Covering or including everything |
| |
comprise |
To consist of; to be composed of cf constitute compose |
| |
conciliatory |
Making peace; attempting to resolve a dispute through goodwill |
| |
concise |
Brief and to the point; succinct |
| |
concord |
Harmony; agreement |
| |
concurrent |
Happening at the same time; parallel |
| |
condescend |
To stoop to someone else level usually in an offensive way; to patronize |
| |
condone |
To overlook; to permit to happen |
| |
conducive |
Promoting |
| |
confluence |
A flowing together especially of rivers; place where they begin to flow together |
| |
congenial |
Agreeably suitable; pleasant |
| |
congenital |
A trait or condition acquired between conception and birth; innate |
| |
conjecture |
To guess; to deduce or infer on slight evidence |
| |
conjure |
To summon or bring into being as if by magic |
| |
connoisseur |
An expert particularly in matter of art or taste |
| |
consecrate |
To make or declare sacred |
| |
consensus |
Unanimity or general agreement |
| |
consonant |
Harmonious; in agreement |
| |
construe |
To interpret |
| |
consummate |
Perfect; complete; supremely skillful |
| |
contentious |
Argumentative; quarrelsome |
| |
contiguous |
Side by side; adjoining |
| |
contingent |
Dependent; possible |
| |
contrite |
Admitting guilt; especially feeling remorseful |
| |
contrived |
Artificial; labored |
| |
conventional |
common; customary; unexceptional |
| |
convivial |
Fond of partying; festive |
| |
copious |
Abundant; plentiful |
| |
corollary |
something that follows; a natural consequence |
| |
corroborate |
to confirm; to back up with evidence |
| |
cosmopolitan |
at home in many places or situations; internationally sophisticated |
| |
countenance |
face; facial expression especially an encouraging one |
| |
coup |
a brilliant victory or accomplishment; the violent overthrow of a government by a small internal group ; |
| |
covenant |
a solemn agreement; a contract; a pledge |
| |
covert |
secret; hidden |
| |
covet |
to wish for enviously |
| |
credulous |
eager to believe; gullible |
| |
criterion |
standard; basis for judgment |
| |
cryptic |
mysterious; mystifying; clandestine mysterious; |
| |
culinary |
relating to cooking or the kitchen |
| |
culminate |
to climax; to reach full effect |
| |
culpable |
deserving blame; guilty |
| |
cursory |
hasty; superficial |
| |
curtail |
to shorten; to cut short ... |
| |
cynic |
one who deeply distrusts human nature; one who believes humans are motivated only by selfishness |
| |
daunt |
to make fearful; to intimidate |
| |
dearth |
lack; scarcity |
| |
debacle |
violent breakdown; sudden overthrow; overwhelming defeat |
| |
debauchery |
wild living; excessive intemperance |
| |
debilitate |
to weaken; to cripple |
| |
decadent |
decaying or decayed especially in terms of morals |
| |
decimate |
to kill or destroy a large part of 10:1 |
| |
decorous |
proper; in good taste; orderly |
| |
deduce |
to conclude from evidence; to infer |
| |
defame |
to libel or slander; to ruin the good name of |
| |
deference |
submission to another's will; respect; courtesy |
| |
definitive |
conclusive; providing the last word |
| |
degenerate |
to break down; to deteriorate |
| |
deleterious |
harmful |
| |
delineate |
to describe accurately; to draw in outline |
| |
delude |
to deceive |
| |
deluge |
a flood; an inundation |
| |
demagogue |
a leader of the people but more a rabble rouser |
| |
denizen |
inhabitant |
| |
depravity |
extreme wickedness or corruption |
| |
deprecate |
to express disapproval of |
| |
deride |
to ridicule; to laugh at contemptuously |
| |
derogatory |
disapproving; degrading |
| |
desiccate |
to dry out |
| |
despondent |
extremely depressed; full of despair |
| |
despot |
an absolute ruler; an autocrat |
| |
destitute |
extremely poor; utterly lacking |
| |
desultory |
without a plan or purpose; disconnected; random |
| |
dialectical |
relating to discussions; relating to the rules and methods of reasoning; approaching truth in the middle of opposing extremes |
| |
dictum |
an authoritative saying; an adage; a maxim; a proverb |
| |
didactic |
intended to teach; morally instructive; pedantic |
| |
diffident |
timid; lacking in self-confidence |
| |
digress |
to stray from the main subject |
| |
dilettante |
someone with superficial knowledge of the arts; an amateur; a dabbler |
| |
discern |
to have insight; to see things clearly to discriminate; to differentiate |
| |
discreet |
prudent; judiciously reserved |
| |
discrete |
unconnected; separate; distinct |
| |
discriminate |
to notice or point out the difference between two or more things; to discern; to differentiate ; |
| |
disdain |
arrogant scorn; contempt |
| |
disinterested |
not taking sides; unbiased |
| |
disparage |
to belittle; to say uncomplimentary things about usually in a somewhat indirect way |
| |
disparate |
different; incompatible; unequal |
| |
disseminate |
to spread the seeds of something; to scatter; to make widely known |
| |
dissipate |
to thin out drift away or dissolve; to cause to thin out drift away or dissolve; to waste or squander |
| |
dissolution |
the breaking up or dissolving of something into parts; disintegration |
| |
distend |
to swell; to extend a great deal |
| |
distinguish |
to tell apart; to cause to stand out |
| |
docile |
easily taught; obedient; easy to handle |
| |
doctrinaire |
inflexibly committed to a doctrine or theory without regard to its practicality; dogmatic |
| |
dogmatic |
arrogantly assertive of unproven ideas; stubbornly claiming that something often a system of beliefs is beyond dispute |
| |
domestic |
having to do with the household or family; not foreign |
| |
dormant |
A inactive; as though asleep; asleep ~volcano ~window |
| |
dubious |
A full of doubt; uncertain a ~ friend be ~ about cf dubitable |
| |
duplicity |
N the act of being two-faced; double-dealing; deception cf duplication duplicate a n v |
| |
ebullient |
A boiling; bubbling with excitement; exuberant; n ebullience-cy n ebullition |
| |
eccentric |
A not conventional; a little kooky; irregular |
| |
eclectic |
A choosing the best from many sources; drawn from many sources n cf eclecticism |
| |
edify |
Vt to enlighten; to instruct especially in moral or religious matters; cfedifying |
| |
efface |
Vt to erase; to rub away the features of eclipse Cf effaceable effacement |
| |
effusion |
N a pouring forth Effuse v Effusive a |
| |
egalitarian |
A believing in the social and economic equality of all people |
| |
egocentric |
A selfish; believing that one is the center of everything n egoism egoistic -tical |
| |
egregious |
A extremely bad; flagrant |
| |
elicit |
Vt to bring out; to call forth ~a laugh from ~a reply elicitation n |
| |
elliptical |
Adj oval; missing a word or words; obscure |
| |
Ellipsis |
ellipsoid |
| |
elusive |
Adj hard to pin down; evasive elude V elusion |
| |
emigrate |
V to move to a new country; to move a new place to live; to expatriate |
| |
emigrant |
a n immigrate |
| |
empirical |
Adj relying on experience or observation; not merely theoretical ; ~philosophy Empiricism |
| |
emulate |
Vt to strive to equal or excel usually through imitation emulator emulation emulous be emulous of |
| |
encroach |
Vi to make gradual or stealthy inroads into; to trespass on upon |
| |
endemic |
A native; restricted to a particular region or era; indigenous n endemicity |
| |
enervate |
V to reduce the strength or energy of especially to do so gradually |
| |
enfranchise |
V to grant the privileges of citizenship especially the right to vote |
| |
engender |
V to bring into existence; to create; to cause produce ment |
| |
enigma |
N a mystery riddle |
| |
enormity |
N extreme evil; a hideous offense; immensity |
| |
ephemeral |
A lasting a very short time |
| |
epigram |
N a brief and usually witty or satirical saying |
| |
epitome |
N a brief summary that captures the meaning of the whole; the perfect example of something; a paradigm ; |
| |
equanimity |
N composure; calm |
| |
equitable |
Adj fair |
| |
equivocal |
Adj ambiguous; intentionally confusing; capable of being interpreted in more than one way |
| |
erudite |
Adj scholarly; deeply learned ; |
| |
esoteric |
Adj hard to understand; understood by only a select few; peculiar |
| |
espouse |
V to support; to advocate |
| |
ethereal |
Adj heavenly as light and insubstantial as a gas or ether heavenly |
| |
euphemism |
N a pleasant or inoffensive expression used in place of an unpleasant or offensive one |
| |
evanescent |
Adj fleeting; vanishing; happening for only the briefest period |
| |
exacerbate |
V to make worse ; |
| |
exacting |
Adj extremely demanding; difficult; requiring great skill or care |
| |
exalt |
V to raise high; to glorify |
| |
exasperate |
V to annoy thoroughly; to make very angry; to try the patience of |
| |
exemplify |
V to illustrate by example; to serve as a good example |
| |
exhaustive |
Adj thorough; rigorous; complete; painstaking |
| |
exhort |
V to urge strongly; to give a serious warning to |
| |
fabrication |
N a lie; something made up |
| |
facetious |
Adj humorous; not serious; clumsily humorous |
| |
facile |
Adj fluent; skillful in a superficial way; easy |
| |
faction |
N a group usually a small part of a larger group united around some cause; disagreement within an organization |
| |
farcical |
Adj absurd; ludicrous |
| |
fastidious |
Adj meticulous; demanding; finicky |
| |
fatalist |
N someone who believes that future events are already determined and that humans are powerless to change them |
| |
fatuous |
Adj foolish; silly; idiotic ; |
| |
fauna |
N animals cf flora animal |
| |
fecund |
Adj fertile; productive |
| |
felicity |
N happiness; skillfulness especially at expressing things; adeptness |
| |
fervor |
N great warmth or earnestness; ardor; zeal ardor |
| |
fetter |
V to restrain; to hamper |
| |
fidelity |
N faithfulness; loyalty |
| |
figurative |
Adj based on figures of speech; expressing something in terms usually for something else; metaphorical |
| |
finesse |
N skillful maneuvering; subtlety; craftiness |
| |
flagrant |
Adj glaringly bad; notorious; scandalous |
| |
flaunt |
V show off; to display ostentatiously |
| |
flout |
V to disregard something out of disrespect |
| |
foible |
N a minor character flaw |
| |
foment |
V to stir up; to instigate |
| |
forbear |
v to refrain from ; to abstain |
| |
forgo |
v to do without ; to forbear |
| |
forsake |
v to abandon ; to renounce ; to relinquish |
| |
fortuitous |
a accidental ; occurring by chance |
| |
founder |
v to fail ; to collapse ; to sink |
| |
fraternal |
a like brothers |
| |
frenetic |
a frantic ; frenzied |
| |
frugal |
a economical ; penny-pinching |
| |
furtive |
a secretive ; sly |
| |
futile |
a useless ; hopeless ; |
| |
garrulous |
a talkative; chatty |
| |
genre |
n a type or category especially of art or writing |
|
