Vocabulary Series 5

Self-righteous (adj)

Feeling or behaving as if what you say or do is always morally right, and other people are wrong.

Ex: Those individuals become self-righteous and claim they are being discriminated against when in fact they are not.

Corruption (n)

Illegal, bad, or dishonest behaviour, especially by people in positions of power.

Remedy (n)

A way of dealing with or improving an unpleasant or difficult situation.

Ex: Naturally, too, when he talks politics, he talks shop. His patent remedy is quack; it is business.

Hindrance (n)

Something that makes it more difficult for you to do something or for something to develop.

Patriotism (n)

The feeling of loving your country more than any others and being proud of it.

Ex: The commercial spirit is the spirit of profit, not patriotism; of credit, not honor; of individual gain, not national prosperity; of trade and dicker-ing, not principle.

Bribe (v)

A sum of money or something valuable that you give or offer to somebody to persuade them to help you.

Beseecing (adj)

Showing that you want something very much.

Ex: A beseeching expression, gesture, or tone of voice suggests that the peerson who has or makes it very much wants someone to do something.

Censorious (adj)

Often criticizing other people.

Ex: We do not see our role to be censorious, and we recognize that authors have just as many rights as do reviewers.

Affair (n)

1. A situation or subject that is being dealt with or considered.

   Ex: She organizes fer financial affairs very efficiently.

2. A matter or situation that causes strong public feeling, usually of moral disapproval

   Ex: The arms-dealing affair has severely damaged the reputation of the governments.

Contemptuous (adj)

Feeling or showing that you have no respect for somebody or something.

Indispenable (adj)

Too important to be without.

Ex: The test becomes a read handbook at this book, indispenable to those working with older adults with a range of difficulties and needs.

Inept (adj)

Not skilled of effective.

Intrigue (v)

To make somebody very interest and want to know more about something.

Ex: The questuon of where “outer” space begins intrigue us because it marks the borderline between a world where we are protected by Earth, and one where we must fend for ourselves.

Terrestrial (adj)

Living on land or on the ground.

Ex: Its boundary lies wherever human feels thay have crossed a threeshold of distance, or protection, or some other radical departure from terrestrial experience,

Zeitgeist (n)

The general set of ideas, beliefs, feelings, etc. that is typical of a particular period in history.

Ex: The cleverest marketing campaigns, like the one behing Baumgartner’s feat, succeed because they tap into the zeitgeist.

Trepidation (n)

Great worry or fear about something unpleasant that may happen.

Solemn (adj)

Serious and without any humor.

Distillation (n)

The process or result of getting the essential meaning, ideas or information from something.

Ex: Perhaps the most concise distillation of opinion came from the world’s first space traveller, Yuri Gagarin, who simply said, “What beauty.”

Tenuous (adj)

So weak or uncertain that it hardly exists.

Primeval (adj)

Ancient; existing at or from a very early time.

Inarticulate (adj)

Not able to express ideas or feelings clearly or easily.

Cease (v)

To stop happening or existing.

Ex: When the voices cease and the steel guitar comes in, it is further still off-mic and features a slow vibrato.