100 Vocab Terms for AP Lang

Unrequited

Adj; not returned not reciprocated (mostly used with love)

Juxtapose

V;  putting two things side by side for comparison however they are opposed

Anachronism

N; something in the wrong time period

Non sequitur

N; a random statement that doesn’t follow the conversation

Sangfroid

N;  coolness under pressure (you have…) (Means cold blood in French)

Gauche

Adj; socially akward

Facetious

Adj; jokingly sarcastic 

Polarizing

V; to push into 2 opposing sides/directions (based on opinions)

Tenet

N; a belief held by a community or society 

Persona non grata

N; an unwelcome person (a … be…)

Vicarious

Adj; experienced through someone else (a vicarious thrill: a thrill that you experienced because someone else experienced it)

Clandestine

Adj; secret or hidden (like a meeting)

Machiavellian

Adj; Doing whatever it takes to obtain power (comes from Nicolo Machiavellian wrote a book about a prince who did everything he could to get power)

Acquiesce

V; to agree to do (acquiesce to doing something) to agree to do) (ing)

Cumbersome

Adj; awkward to carry (something or writing)

Debacle

N; a planned situation going totally wrong (like fiasco but more embarrassing because the situation was planned vs. not planned) 

Auspicious

Adj; promising good things (an auspicious beginning) 

Euphemism

N;  a nicer way of saying something not so nice, adjective (euphemistic), adverb (euphemistically)

Tacit

Adj;  unspoken (a tacit agreement or understanding)

Freudian Slip

N; a slip of the tongue that might reveal what you were secretly thinking (came from Freud) 

Yahoo

N; an uncultured person, like a Hick (comes from Gulliver’s Travels)

Aficionado

N; an avid fan of something cultured; elevated (Spanish)

Caveat

N; a warning (Latin)

Precarious

Adj; dangerously unstable; could be physical or not “in a precarious position”

Double Entendre

N; Something that is said that has a surface meaning and an underlining meaning that is dirty or naughty (Entendre means to hear in French)

Ephemeral

Adj; fleeting, lasting for a brief time (refers to emotions)

Circuitous

Adj; describes a path that you take but is roundabout or indirect (can be physical or not)

Catch-22

N; a situation with 2 options where both options are equally bad (comes from a novel called catch-22, the main character does not want to fight in the war and he is put in a hospital but he can’t leave unless he goes and fights in the war)

Joie de vivre

N;  a zest for life “you have…” (French; joy of living) 

Zeitgeist

N; spirit of the times (In German Zeit means time and geist means ghost) Ex: “The Great Gatsby captures the Zeitgeist of the 1920s (every big thing from the 1920s is in this book)

Entre Nous

Prep Phrase; between us, implying a secret (French and use at the beginning of a sentence)

Loquacious

Adj;  talkative (comes from the Latin root loquor that means to speak)

Verboten

Adj; taboo; frowned upon (in german means forbidden)

Hobnob

V; socialize with people on a high social status

Assiduous

Adj; hardworking

Disconcerting

Adj; upsetting in a disturbing way

Respite

N; a pause or a quick break

Antithesis

N;  contradicting opposite (the Nazis were the antithesis of all that is good in the world) (Antithetically is adjective form)

Superfluous

Adj; extra or not needed (superfluous pie crust or words)

Crossing the Rubicon

Verb Phrase;  passing the point of no return (comes from Juiluis Casear if he crossed the Rubicon he would have evoked a war)

Exacerbate

V; to make something worse (exacerbate the situation) 

Disseminate

V; to spread or scatter (like gossip or news) (root “sem” meaning seed) (Dissemination as a noun)

Hegemony

N; Power that a country has over other countries

Ad Nauseam

Adv; over and over, causing annoy (you do something…) (in Latin it means toured nausea)

Incommunicado

Adj; out of touch or out of reach (literally) (Italian)

Subvert

V; to overturn (customs, norms, gender roles) (Latin sub meaning under and vert meaning vertical) (noun is subversion)A

Averse

Adj; opposed or against (averse to doing something) (noun is aversion)

Ennui

N; sophisticated boredom

Ubiquitous

Adj; appearing everywhere

C’est La Vie

Expression; things happen (French means that’s life)

Snafu

N; A glitch (acronym for situation normal all F’ed Up)

Multifaceted

Adj; multidimensional, good at a lot of things (helped Ms. Handelsman get into college because of an interview for what she would describe herself as in one word)

Banter

N or V;  to converse back and forth in conversation 

Behoove

V;  to benefit/be to one's advantage (it would behoove you too…)

Ergo

Conj; another way to say, therefore (__; ergo,____)

Quack

N; a fake doctor

Duplicitous

Adj; two-faced (root dup meaning 2)

Touche

Exp; We used it to mean good comeback (French) (literally means touched, comes from fencing)

En masse

Adv; as a group (French) (you do something en masse)

Modus Operandi (M.O.)

N; the thing you always do to achieve a goal but that goal is bad (Latin for method of operating)

Carte Blanche

N;  free rein (horse who has been given free privilege) (given … or had …) (literally blank/white card in French)

Smitten

Adj; in like with (past participle of smite → to strike down) (like cupid's arrow striking your heart)

Juggernaut

N; Unstoppable force (literal or figurative)

Incognito

Adj or Adv; indisguise(French comes from Latin root cogn which means to know)

Comprise

V; to be made up of (of can not follow comprise, the whole comprises the parts, ex: an atom comprises the neutrons, protons, and electrons)

Kibosh

N; a stop or the brakes (to put the kibosh on…)

Extemporaneous

Adj; unplanned (like a speech, only used with speaking) (Comes from Latin root temps which means time)

Salacious

Adj;  Juicy (like with gossip, news, information)

Quibble

V;  Argue over insignificant things (dumb argument)

Doppelganger

N; look alike; looks actually of you (German, like all German words el and not le)

Malign

V; Insult but they when they are not there

Reticent

Adj; quiet (don’t talk a lot) (Noun form - Reticence)

Sadistic

Adj;  taking pleasure in the pain of others (Noun form - sadism)

Inadvertent

Adj;  unintentional or accidental

Prima donna

N; spoiled star or a diva (prima means first and donna means lady

Confidant(“e” only for feminine)

N; someone you can tell your secrets to

Dear John (Both Letters Capitalized)

N; a break up letter

Diatribe

N;  a bitter formal attack (to launch a diatribe) (go off on a thing not a person)

Fortuitous

Adj;  conveniently lucky (does not describe a person, a thing is)

Yes man

N;  someone who agrees with anything you say (comes from politics) (plural is yes men)

Innocuous

Adj; Harmless (like a fly or the common cold)(doesn’t describe people but things)

Misconstrue

V;  to misunderstand or twist someone's meaning (most of the time unintentional)

Schelp

N or V;  to carry like a burden (yiddish)

Feign

V; to fake (a sickness, interest, etc.)

Gratuitous

Adj; superfluous but bad

Hubris

N; excessive pride (one of the great Greek tragic flaws) (you have…)

Draconian

Adj; excessively harsh (deals with law) (comes from Draco who had a set of laws named after him that were harsh)

Remiss

Adj; neglectful, wrong (I would be remiss not to…)

Quintessential

Adj; representing the best example of something

Kowtow

V; to bow down; blindly obey because your afraid (too) (comes from Chinese and means to physically bow)

Psychosomatic

Adj;  (Greek) (comes from mind and body) describing illness or symptoms brought by the mind 

Inopportune

Adj; Inconvenient and ill time(...moment)

Mitigate

V; To lessen (you mitigate the of )

Quixotic

Adj; Unrealistic and dreamy (comes from Don Quixote guy with midlife crisis who becomes knight to go on quests)

Narcissistic

Adj;  In love with one’s self extremely vain (noun is narcissism or narcissist)

Inherent

Adj; Naturally belonging to

Finagle

V; to weasel or worm your way out of something (yiddish) (finagle your way out of…)

Simpatico

Adj; On good terms with

Penultimate

Adj; Next to last

Je ne sais quoi

N; that indefinable characteristic, x factor (I don’t know what literally in French) (that certain …)