Studied by 18 people
aesthetic (adj.)
relating or pertaining to a sense of beauty or art.
ex: He is considered to have aesthetic tastes because he loves beauty and the arts.
aloof (adj.)
apart, indifferent (at a distance emotionally.)
ex: The woman remained aloof during the party, separating herself from everyone else.
archaic (adj.)
antiquated, old, out of use.
ex: Words such as “thou”, which are no longer part of normal vocabulary, are archaic.
assuage (v.)
to ease, to mitigate, to make less painful or burdensome, to calm.
ex: Your kind words should assuage her suffering. The medicine should assuage his pain.
belie (v.)
to contradict, to give a false impression.
ex: Her first words appeared to belie wall the wonderful things I had heard about her.
contentious (adj.)
quarrelsome, stirring controversy (always ready to argue.)
ex: My contentious child will not listen to any form of reason.
daunt (v.)
to intimidate, to dismay.
ex: ed I am not daunted by your threats.
debilitate (v.)
to weaken, to enfeeble.
ex: I was debilitated by my bout with pneumonia.
discord (n.)
lack of agreement, tension, strife.
ex: There is a lot of discord in the nation over the issue of politics.
dissemination (n.)
the act of spreading widely; scattering.
ex: The dissemination of these ideas can best be achieved through television.
dogmatic (adj.)
strongly opinionated in an unwarranted manner (arrogant with opinion.)
ex: He was so dogmatic that having an intelligent conversation was impossible.
duplicity (n.)
double-dealing, hypocrisy (deceitfulness.)
ex: His duplicity was exposed when the girl he was seeing found out he was married.
egocentric (adj.)
self-centered, selfish.
ex: Egocentric people rarely show any concern for others.
euphemism (n.)
substitution of an inoffensive term for one that is offensive (a nice way to say it.)
ex: People frequently use a euphemism for the word “died.” They common say someone “passed away.”
gluttonous (adj.)
greedy for food and drink (wanting too much.)
ex: I am so gluttonous that I would have great difficulty dieting.
mundane (adj.)
ordinary, commonplace (unimaginative.)
ex: After I take care of these mundane matters, we can do something exciting.
ominous (adj.
threatening (foreshadowing evil.)
ex: The ominous clouds were harbingers of the tornado.
petulance (n.)
unreasonable touchiness for irritability.
ex: Petulance is sometimes the trait of a child who is not getting his way.
pompous (adj.)
exaggerated show of dignity or self-importance bombastic.
ex: It is very pompous to believe that his ideas should always receive the first consideration.
precocious (adj.)
exceptionally early in development or occurrence (unusually talented.)
ex: A child prodigy is a young person who is very precocious.
slothful (adj.)
lazy, indolent.
ex: That student is so slothful that he has never done any of his homework assignments.
trivia (n.)
insignificant matters (something unimportant.)
ex: The English teacher is looking for substance, not trivia, in themes.
verbose (adj.)
wordy, very talkative.
ex: That professor is so verbose that it takes him an hour to cover material that should take fifteen minutes.
virulent (adj.)
extremely poisonous; hateful (hostile.)
ex: The doctor prescribed a lot of medication to arrest the virulent infection.
volatile (adj.)
quickly changeable, easily vaporized (easily turned to violence.)
ex: Because of his volatile temper, one must use caution in dealing with him.
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