AP Literature Vocabulary

Proscribe (v)

= to prohibit or put outside the law

Debauch (v), Debauchery (n), and Profligacy (n)

= to engage in wild and corruptive living, immorality

Licentious (adj), Prurient (adj), and Salacious (adj)

= immoral lewd, corruptive

Demagogue/Demagoguery (n)

= political leader who seeks support by appealing to desires rather than by using rational argument.

Umbrage (n)

= (to take) offense or annoyance

Travail (n)

= suffering and hardship

Veracity (n) and Veracious (adj)

= (vers, vers in Latin) truth

Voracious (adj), Rapacious (adj), and Rapacity (n)

= greedy, grasping

Encomium (n)

= great praise (used formally, An encomium from the President)

Plaudits (n), Accolades (n), Laudation (n), and Panegyric

= praise or honors (laud = praise)

Banal (adj) and Prosaic (adj)

= ordinary and dull

Dereliction (n)

= failure to preform an official duty or responsibility

Derelict (adj) and Derelict (n)

= in a very poor condition as a result of disuse and neglect / a person without a home, job, or property, failure to perform an official duty or responsibility

Travesty (n)

= a farce

Anathema (n)

= anything forbidden socially

Perfidy (n), Perfidious (adj), Treachery (n), and Treacherous (adj)

= treason or double-dealing

Ignominy (n) and Ignominious (adj)

= disgraceful

Pyrrhic (adj)

= some win or victory accomplished at too great a cost

Surfeit (adj)

= an excess or overabundance

Dour (adj)

= gloomy, solemn

Slothful (adj) and Sloth (n)

= lazy, indolent

Pithy (adj), Terse (adj), and Laconic (adj)

= brief, to the point (in language)

Orotund (adj), Bloviating (adj), and Bombastic (adj)

= wordy, pompous, High sounding, full of himself

Pejorative (adj)

= expressing contempt or disapproval

Nemesis (n)

= a long standing rival; an archenemy

Acquisitive (adj)

= comes from acquire but has a pejorative or negative connotation; greedy or materialistic.

Pariah (n)

= an outcast (from the Hindu caste system)

Paradigm (n)

= an outstandingly clear or typical example, of something. ("The Western paradigm of economic productivity.")

Ebullient (adj) and Ebullience (n)

= buoyant, bubbly, enthusiastic, full of energy

Culpable (adj) and Culpability (n)

= guilt ("She was culpable of the crime of cheating.")

Exculpate (v) and Exonerate (v)

= to free from blame

Recondite (adj)

= little known ("This book is full of recondite information.")

Arcane (adj), Esoteric (adj), Abstruse (adj), Obscure (adj), and Recondite (adj)

= knowledge understood by few, difficult to understand. All of these words mean little-known or highly specialized (ideas, rituals…), so IT IS KNOWLEDGE known/understood only to/by a few, only understood or intended to be known or knowable to a few people.

Peremptory (adj)

= final, irrevocable: His command was final and peremptory. (Relating to law: not open to appeal or challenge; final)

Countermand (v)

= to go against

Pertinacious (adj)

= holding firmly to an opinion or a source of action, from tenacious and persistent.

Lambent (adj)

= (of light or fire) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance

Peccadillo (n)

= a small, relatively unimportant offense or sin

Cupidity (n)

= inordinate desire for wealth

Tawdry (adj) and Meretricious (adj)

= cheap and gaudy in appearance or quality

Meritorious (adj)

= deserving reward or praise

Internecine (adj)

= destructive for everyone involved

Imbroglio (n)

= a confused, complicated mess or situation.

Impetus (n)

= the force that makes something happen or happen more quickly, a push

Perspicacious (adj)

= of acute mental vision or discernment, a ready insight and understanding of things

Confluence (n)

= flowing together

Effluence (n)

= literally means flowing out of. It has come to mean any pollution that flows into water

Simplistic (adj)

= too simple: Her ideas were never carefully considered; they were quick, facile, and simplistic. (Antonym = convoluted, complicated)

Ablutions (n)

= literally a religious word meaning purifying with water, but we say: a man's morning ablutions (showering, shaving, brushing) take longer than a woman's

Abstemious (adj)

= comes from abstain, not self-indulgent, especially when eating and drinking

Amulet (n) and Talisman (n)

= an ornament or small piece of jewelry thought to give protection against evil, danger or disease, lucky charm

Mitigate (v) and Alleviate (v)

= make (suffering, deficiency, or a problem) less severe

Analogous (adj)

= from analogy, comparable in certain respects (Jumping into an unfamiliar lake is analogous to walking into a strange neighborhood at night.)

Apparition (n), Specter (n), and Wraith (n)

= these all mean ghost

Parse (v) and Peruse (v)

= to read carefully, analyze or examine minutely or carefully

Artifice (clever skill), Ruse (n), Machination (n), Stratagem (n), Ploy (n), and Gambit (n)

= all of these mean a clever trick

Atrophy (v) and Atrophy (n)

= a wasting away or diminution, gradual decline in effectiveness due to underuse or neglect- OF THE BODY- usually muscles / muscle atrophy (n) is a decrease in muscle mass often due to extended immobility.

Degeneration (n) and Deterioration (n)

= wasting away or progressive decline

Attenuate (v)

= specifically means to weaken

Guile (n)

= sly or cunning intelligence

Guileless (adj)

= innocent or ingenuous

Disingenuous (adj)

= acting innocent but knowing the truth

Beguile (v)

= to charm someone

Bereft (adj)

= grieving because of loss

Flaccid (adj)

= limp or flabby, as in soft- of the body

Premonition (n)

= a strong feeling that something is about to happen

Presentiment (n)

= an intuitive feeling, foreboding

Prescience (n)

= foreknowledge of events (Pre- means before they happen)

Gourmet (n)

= a connoisseur of good food; a person with a discerning palate

Gourmand (n)

= a person who enjoys eating an often eats too much

Ubiquitous (adj)

= occurring everywhere

Admonish (v)

= to express warning or disapproval to especially in a gentle, earnest, pro solicitous manner

Exhort (exhortation) (v) and Importune (v)

= to urge strongly

Caveat (n)

= a warning or proviso of specific stipulations, conditions, or limitations

Derogate (v)

= to blacken or defame someone (synonyms: denigrate, disparage, malign, impugn / adjective forms: derogatory, disparaging)

Traduce (v) and Pillory (v)

= both words mean to publicly ridicule someone

Cosseted (adj) and Cosset (v)

= to pamper someone or treat him as a pet

Acquiesce (v)

= to give into (Synonyms: capitulated, acceded)

Beleaguered (adj)

= troubled, harassed, besieged (feelings)

Machiavellian (adj)

= ruthless and scheming, usually politically (negative connotation)

Draconian (adj)

= unduly harsh

Extirpate (v), Eradicate (v), and Annihilate (v)

= to wipe out, root out and destroy completely

Decimate (v)

= to means to partially eradicate

Attrition (n)

= the process of gradually reducing the strength of something, the act of weakening or exhausting [ex: a war of attrition (not physical)]

Tangential (adj) and Peripheral (adj)

= both mean around the outside or something, peripheral not germane or relevant to the issue at hand

Germane (adj)

= relevant to the issue at hand

Exacerbate (v)

= to make worse or worsen

Abrogate (v) and Terminate (v)

= to end, to repeal, do away with: a law, an agreement

Truncate (v)

= to shorten by or reduce in size by cutting off

Convoluted (adj) and Convolution (n)

= complicated, complex, and hard to follow

Synergy (n) and Synergistic (adj)

= interaction when combined has a total effect greater than the sum of the individuals; happy cooperation.

Ersatz (adj)

= an inferior or unconventional substitue

Inexorable (adj) and Ineluctable (adj)

= inevitable or bound to happen

Desultory (adj)

= wandering; aimless

Quotidian (adj)

= everyday events, ordinary

Sanctimonious (adj)

= too "holier than thou", used with a person and certainly negative; originally a negative term involving religion but had expanded to any area where someone acts "holier than thou", morally superior.

Sanctimony (n)

= the act of acting sanctimonious, affected or hypocritical holiness

Pontificate (v)

= what a sanctimonious person can do, he pontificates about his ideas, to express ideas in a way considered annoying or pompous. (He acts like a "pontiff" or "preachy".)

Inure (v)

= to become accustomed to (usually something unpleasant)