Vocabulary Workshop Level H: Unit 6

Abortive

(adj) failing to accomplish an intended aim or purpose; only partially or imperfectly developed

Synonyms: miscarried, fruitless, premature

Antonyms: successful, realized, consummated

Bruit

(v) to spread news, reports, or unsubstantiated rumors

Synonyms: noise abroad, broadcast, blazon

Antonyms: cover up, conceal, hush up

Contumelious

(adj) insolent or rude in speech or behavior; insultingly abusive; humiliating

Synonyms: vituperative, scurrilous, excoriating

Antonyms: laudatory, commendatory, deferential

Dictum

(n) a short saying; an authoritative statement

Synonyms: maxim, precept, aphorism, axiom

Ensconce

(v) to settle comfortably and firmly in position; to put or hide in a safe place

Iconoclastic

(adj) attacking or seeking to overthrow popular or traditonal beliefs, ideas, or institutions

Synonyms: image-breaking, irreverent, heretical

Antonyms: orthodox, conservative, reverent

In media res

(adv) in or into the middle of a plot; into the middle of things

Internecine

(adj) mutually destructive; characterized by great slaughter and bloodshed

Synonyms: murderous, savage, ruinous

Antonyms: peaceful, harmonious, constructive

Maladroit

(adj) lacking skill or dexterity; lacking tact, perception, or judgment

Synonyms: inept, awkward, clumsy, gauche

Antonyms: skillful, dexterous, deft, tactful

Maudlin

(adj) excessively or effusively sentimental

Synonyms: mushy, mawkish

Modulate

(v) to change or vary the intensity or pitch; to temper or soften; to regulate, adjust

Synonyms: adapt, moderate

Portentous

(adj) foreshadowing an event to come; causing wonder or awe; self-consciously weighty, pompous

Prescience

(n) knowledge of events or actions before they happen; foresight

Synonym: foreknowledge

Antonym: hindsight

Quid pro quo

(n) something given in exchange or return for something

Synonyms: swap, trade

Salubrious

(adj) conducive to health or well-being; wholesome

Synonyms: beneficial, healthy, invigorating

Antonyms: harmful, unhealthy, deleterious, noxious

Saturnalian

(adj) characterized by riotous or unrestrained revelry or licentiousness

Synonyms: dissipated, debauched, orgiastic

Antonyms: sedate,prim, decorous, seemly

Touchstone

(n) a means of testing worth or genuineness

Synonyms: criterion, yardstick, benchmark

Traumatic

(adj) so shocking to the emotions as to cause lasting and substantial psychological damage

Synonyms: jolting

Antonyms: soothing, comforting, agreeable, pleasant

Vitiate

(v) to weaken, debase, or corrupt; to impair the quality or value of

Synonyms: degrade, undermine

Antonyms: purify, fortify, strengthen, enhance

Waggish

(adj) fond of making jokes; characteristic of a joker; playfully humorous or droll

Synonyms: whimsical, jocular

Antonyms: serious, grave, grim,dour,humorless