Unit 14 vocab

Beatific

(adj.) blissful; rendering or making blessed

Sentence: "The sleeping baby had a beatific smile on her face"

Behemoth

(n.) a creature of enormous size, power, or appearance

Sentence: "The new cruise ship was a behemoth that towered over the entire harbor."

Blandishment

(n., often pl.) anything designed to flatter or coax; sweet talk

Sentence: "He used every blandishment he could think of to convince his manager to give him a promotion."

Cacophonous

(adj.) harsh-sounding, raucous, discordant, dissonant

Sentence: "The cacophonous sound of car horns and construction filled the busy city street."

Chicanery

(n.) trickery, deceptive practices or tactics, double-dealing

Sentence: "The student was caught using academic chicanery to cheat on her final exam."

Consign

(v.) to give over to another's care, charge, or control; to entrust, deliver; to set apart for a special use

Sentence: "The teacher decided to consign the old, outdated textbooks to the recycling bin."

Febrile

(adj.) feverish; pertaining to or marked by fever; frenetic

Sentence: "The doctor monitored the febrile patient closely as the fever continued to rise."

Gainsay

(v.) to deny, contradict, controvert; to dispute, oppose

Sentence: "No one could gainsay the fact that the company’s profits had doubled over the last year."

Imminent

(adj.) about to happen, threatening

Sentence: "The dark, heavy clouds over the stadium made it clear that a storm was imminent.”

Innate

(adj.) natural, inborn, inherent; built-in

Sentence: "From a very young age, the child showed an innate talent for playing the piano."

Loath

(adj.) unwilling, reluctant, disinclined

Sentence: "The tired hiker was loath to get out of his warm sleeping bag and face the freezing morning air."

Manifest

(adj.) clear, evident to the eyes or mind; (v.) to show plainly, exhibit, evince; (n.) a list of cargo and/or passengers

Sentence: "The symptoms of the flu began to manifest as a sore throat and a high fever."

Minutiae

(pl. n) small or trivial details, trifling matters

Sentence: "Instead of focusing on the big concepts for the history test, he got bogged down in the minutiae of exact dates and footnotes."

Moratorium

(n.) a suspension of activity; an official waiting period; an authorized period of delay

Sentence: "The two friends agreed to a moratorium on texting each other about politics so they wouldn't ruin their weekend trip."

Nostrum

(n.) an alleged cure-all; a remedy or scheme of questionable effectiveness

Sentence: "The salesman traveled from town to town, selling a herbal nostrum that he claimed could cure any disease."

Pariah

(n.) one who is rejected by a social group or organization

Sentence: "After he was caught leaking company secrets to a rival, he became a pariah in the business community." [1]

Visionary (n.)

one given to far-fetched ideas; a dreamer or seer characterized by vision or foresight

Sentence: "Steve Jobs was celebrated as a visionary who completely transformed the personal technology industry." [1]

Visionary (adj.)

not practical, lacking in realism; having the nature of a fantasy or dream;

Sentence: "The company succeeded because of the CEO's visionary leadership during the tech boom."

Wizened

(adj., part) dry, shrunken, and wrinkled (often as the result of aging)

Sentence: "The wizened old man smiled warmly, his face lined with a lifetime of stories."