Vocabulary Workshop Level F: Unit 14

Amenable

(adj.) Willing to follow advice or authority, tractable, submissive; responsive; liable to be held responsible

Synonyms: agreeable, compliant, docile

Antonyms: unresponsive, resistant, relacitrant

Berate

(v.) To scold sharply

Synonyms: chide, rebuke, reprove, reprimand

Antonyms: praise, compliment, pat on the back

Carnage

(n.) Large-scale slaughter or loss of life

Synonyms: butchery, bloodbath, massacre

Credulous

(adj.) Too ready to believe, easily deceived

Synonyms: gullible, trusting

Antonyms: dubious, skeptical

Criterion

(n.) A rule, test; a standard for judgment or evaluation

Synonyms: yardstick, touchstone, gauge, canon

Deplete

(v.) To use up as a result of spending or consumption; to diminish greatly

Synonyms: exhaust, empty, drain, bankrupt

Antonyms: replenish, refill, restock, resupply

Expatiate

(v.) To expand on, write or talk at length or in detail; to move about freely

Synonyms: elaborate, enlarge, descant, wander, roam

Antonyms: sketch roughly, summarize, condense, adumbrate

Extraneous

(adj.) Coming from the outside, foreign; present but not essential, irrelevant

Synonyms: incidental, extrinsic, adventitious

Antonyms: intrinsic, relevant, pertinent, germane

Inception

(n.) The beginning, start, earliest stage of some process, institution, etc.

Synonyms: commencement, inauguration, outset

Antonyms: completion, conclusion, termination

Infirmity

(n.) A weakness or ailment (physical, mental, moral, etc.)

Synonyms: affliction, malady, defect

Jejune

(adj.) Lacking in nutritive value; lacking in interest or substance; immature, juvenile

Synonyms: puerile, childish

Antonyms: stimulating, mature

Obdurate

(adj.) Stubborn, unyielding

Synonyms: obstinate, adamant

Antonyms: tractable, flexible

Potpourri

(n.) A collection of diverse or miscellaneous items; a general mixture; petals mixed with spices for scent

Synonyms: hodgepodge, farrago, medley

Antonyms: homogeneous or uniform group

Precocious

(adj.) Showing unusually early development (especially in talents and mental capacity)

Synonyms: gifted, advanced

Antonyms: backward, slow

Sadistic

(adj.) Delighting in cruelty, excessively cruel

Synonyms: brutal, vicious, inhuman, fiendish

Antonyms: masochistic, clement, humane, merciful

Sententious

(adj.) Self-righteous, characterized by moralizing; given to use of maxims or adages; saying much in few words, pithy

Synonyms: aphoristic, epigrammatic, moralistic

Antonyms: discursive, diffuse, episodic

Supplicate

(v.) To beg earnestly and humbly

Synonyms: plead, petition, implore

Surfeit

(n.) An excess or overindulgence, as in eating or drinking, causing disgust (v.) To feed or supply with anything to excess

Synonyms: (n.) glut; (v.) satiate

Antonyms: (n.) dearth, paucity

Tortuous

(adj.) Winding, twisted, crooked; highly involved, complex; devious

Synonyms: circuitous, serpentine, labyrinthine

Antonyms: direct, straight, straightforward

Turgid

(adj.) Swollen, bloated, filled to excess; overdecorated or excessive in language

Synonyms: inflated, pompous, bombastic

Antonyms: understated, unadorned, austere