Tracks vocabulary list (AP Lit and Comp)

asunder

(adv.) [literary or archaic] apart, divided. Related word: sunder (v.) to split apart.

asunder SYN

in pieces, into parts.

besotted

(adj.) intoxicated with drink; blindly intoxicated by the charms of another person. Note: sot (v.) means to drink habitually. Sotted is synonymous with besotted.

besotted ANT

temperate, clearheaded, levelheaded.

betroth

(v.) to promise to marry; to give in marriage. Related: become engaged.

complicit

(adj.) responsible for or helping to commit crime or do wrong. Related word: accomplice (n.).

complicit SYN

conspiring, in cahoots (inf.), conniving.

defile

(v.) [with object] to desecrate or mar something; [archaic] to violate the chastity of someone (usu. a woman)

defile SYN

sully, debase, tarnish, ruin

exude

(v.) to discharge steadily (as in an odor or moisture); to display openly (an emotion or attribute)

exude SYN

emit, emanate

fidelity

(n.) the quality of being faithful.

fidelity ANT

disloyalty, perfidy, inconstancy, treachery.

harbinger

(n.) a person or thing that signals the approach of something.

harbinger SYN

herald, portent, bellwether, forerunner, precursor.

helter-skelter

(adj. and adv.) in disorderly haste and confusion.

helter-skelter SYN

(adj.) headlong, pell-mell; (adv.) hastily, heedlessly, recklessly.

impudent

(adj.) showing lack of respect for another person; rude.

impudent SYN

impertinent, insolent, discourteous, ill-mannered.

ministration(s)

(n.) act(s) of providing care or assistance; provision of services; performance of a religious sacrament.

ministration(s) ANT

Usage: generally appears as plural ministrations.

pagan

(n.) a person whose religious beliefs do not conform to those of Christianity; one who does not worship the deity as described in the Bible. Note: archaic, often used pejoratively; however, some modern practitioners of nature-based or pre-Christian religions cheerfully refer to themselves as pagans or neopagans.

pagan SYN

pej.) heathen, idolator, infidel.

penitence

(n.) the feeling or action of showing sorrow or responsibility for wrongdoing.

penitence SYN

repentance, contrition, regret, compunction, self-reproach.

privation

(n.) an act of depriving (oneself); the state of being deprived, especially of what is needed for existence.

privation SYN

rationing, austerity, want, hardship.

ramshackle

(adj.) poorly or carelessly constructed; in a state of disrepair to the point of imminent collapse, appearing on the verge of falling apart.

ramshackle SYN

dilapidated, decrepit, run-down, crumbling.

shrewd

(adj.) having or showing sharp powers of judgment; tending to use wily and artful ways of dealing with others.

shrewd ANT

naïve, ingenuous, guileless, gullible, inexperienced.

stupefy

(v.) to render stupid, groggy, or insensible; to make someone unable to think or feel properly.

stupefy SYN

stun, intoxicate, dumbfound, astound, flabbergast (inf.)

taint

(n.) trace of an undesirable quality or substance; (v.) to pollute something with an undesirable quality or substance.

taint SYN

blemish, stigma, tinge; (v.) adulterate, contaminate, infect, blight.

transfix

( v.) to arrest and hold someone’s attention (to the point that they are unable to move or act); to hold something motionless with a pointed object. Usage: often appears in past participle form as transfixed.

transfix SYN

impale, pierce; captivate, mesmerize, spellbind.

waylay

v.) to accost and detain someone in conversation or otherwise. Usage note: past and past participle appear as waylaid.

waylay SYN

ambush, assail, hold up.