Vocab Notebook

Facetious

joking or jesting often inappropriately (adj.)

Contrite

feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for improper or objectionable behavior, actions, etc. (adj.)

Inundate

to overwhelm; flood (v.)

Sagacious

of keen and farsighted penetration and judgement (adj.)

Jargon

the technical terminology of a special activity or group

degenerate

to pass from a higher to a lower type of condition

philanthropist

one who makes an active effort to promote human welfare

forbearance

a refraining from the enforcement of something (such as a debt, right, or obligation that is due)

unscrupulous

lacking moral principles

malignity

an instance of malignant or malicious behavior or nature

adroitness

having or showing skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations

fetid

having a heavy offensive smell

alembic

an apparatus used in distillation

emulation

ambition or endeavor to equal or excelothers (as in achievement)

caricature

exaggeration by means of often ludicrous distortion of parts or characteristics

creed

a brief authoritative formula of religious belief

heathen

a person who is not religious or whose religion is not Judaism, Islam, or especially Christianity

Pulpit

an elevated platform or high reading desk used in preaching or conducting a worship service

Providence

God conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny

Trepidation

a nervous or fearful feeling of uncertain agitation

Snivel

to speak or act in a whining, sniffling, tearful, or weakly emotional manner

Prodigious

causing amazement or wonder

Discomfit

to put into a state of perplexity and embarrassment

Compact

to make up by connecting or combining

Magistrate

an official entrusted with administration of the laws

pallor

deficiency of color especially of the face; paleness

abrogation

abolition by authoritative action

crabwise

in a sidling or cautiously indirect manner

specious

having a false look of truth or genuineness; sophistic

exhortation

language intended to incite and encourage

Klatch

a gathering characterized usually by informal conversation

spectral

of, relating to, or suggesting a specter; ghostly

Circularity

being or involving reasoning that uses in the argument or proof a conclusion to be proved or one of it unproved consequences

primeval

of or relating to the earliest ages (as of the world or human history)

suffuse

to speak over or through in the manner of fluid or light

Faustian

made or done for present gain without regard for future cost or consequences

consecrate

to make or declare sacred

importune

to beg, urge, or solicit persistently with troublesome persistence

raiment

clothing, garments

rudiment

a basic principle or element of a fundamental skill

haughty

blatantly and disdainfully proud; having or showing an attitude of superiority and contempt

languid

drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion

telegraphic

concise; terse

grandiose

characterized by affectation of grandeur or splendor or by absurd exaggeration

utilitarian

an advocate or adherent of utilitarianism (a doctrine that the useful is the good and that the determining consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of its consequences)

harness

to utilize

pseudoscience

a system of theories, assumptions, and methods erroneously regarded as scientific

rejuvenation

restoration of youthful vigor

trumpet

to sound or proclaim on or as if on a trumpet

clamor

to become loudly insistent

curtail

to make less by or as if by cutting off or away some part

amorphous

having no definite form, being without definite character, or nature

haggard

wild in appearance

epiphany

a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something

opulence

wealth, affluence

besiege

to cause worry or distress to

whorl

something that whirls, coils, or spirals or whose form suggests such movement

augury

omen, portent

irrevocable

not possible to revoke; unalterable

implausible

provoking disbelief

antiseptic

coldly impersonal

color-blind

not influenced by differences of race

ambivalent

having or showing simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward something or someone

ethnic

of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background

flux

change, fluctuation

monolithic

constituting a massive undifferentiated and often rigid whole

parse

to examine in a minute way : analyze critically

institutionalize

to incorporate into a structured and often highly formalized system

pidgin

a simplified speech used for communication between people with different languages

lexicon

: the vocabulary of a language, an individual speaker or group of speakers, or a subject

fragmentation

the act or process of being broken off, detached, or incomplete

agency

the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power

commemorate

to call to remembrance

circulation

passage or transmission from person to person or place to place

mythos

a pattern of beliefs expressing often symbolically the characteristic or prevalent attitudes in a group or culture

innocuous

producing no injury : harmless

chronicle

to present a record of in or as if in a chronicle

pervasive

existing in or spreading through every part of something

contemplation

an act of considering with attention

ramification

consequence, outgrowth

feminist

a person who advocates for gender equality

ostensible

intended for display; open to view

socialization

the process beginning during childhood by which individuals acquire the values, habits, and attitudes of a society

pretense

a claim made or implied

resistance

an opposing or impeding force

deprive

marked by the withholding of the necessities of life or of healthful environmental influences

reclaim

to recall from wrong or improper conduct; reform

continuity

uninterrupted connection, succession, or union

notorious

generally known and talked of

bristle

to take on an aggressively defensive attitude

feign

to give a false appearance of

excursion

a going out or forth; expedition

bungalow

a one-storied house with a low-pitched roof

conviction

a strong persuasion or belief

arresting

catching the attention

epigram

a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event

turbulence

great commotion or agitation

supercilious

coolly and patronizingly haughty

leverage

power, effectiveness

tribute

something given or contributed voluntarily as due or deserved