Advanced Vocabulary: Definitions and Usage, Set 1

Acquisitive

adj.): Able to get and retain ideas or information; concerned with acquiring wealth or property.

Arrogate

v.): To claim or take without right.

Banal

adj.): Hackneyed, trite, commonplace.

Belabor

v.): To work excessively; to thrash soundly.

Carping

adj.): Tending to find fault, especially in a petty, nasty, or hairsplitting way; (n.) petty, nagging criticism.

Coherent

adj.): Holding or sticking together; making a logical whole; comprehensible, meaningful.

Congeal

v.): To change from liquid to solid, thicken; to make inflexible or rigid.

Emulate

v.): To imitate with the intent of equaling or surpassing the model.

Encomium

n.): A formal expression of praise, a lavish tribute.

Eschew

v.): To avoid, shun, keep away from.

Germane

adj.): Relevant, appropriate, apropos, fitting.

Insatiable

adj.): So great or demanding as not to be satisfied.

Intransigent

adj.): Refusing to compromise, irreconcilable.

Invidious

adj.): Offensive, hateful; tending to cause bitterness and resentment.

Largesse

n.): Generosity in giving; lavish or bountiful contributions.

Reconnaissance

n.): A survey made for military purposes; any kind of preliminary inspection or examination.

Substantiate

v.): To establish by evidence, prove; to give concrete or substantial form to.

Taciturn

adj.): Habitually silent or quiet, inclined to talk very little.

Temporize

v.): To stall or act evasively in order to gain time, avoid a confrontation, or postpone a decision; to compromise.

Tenable

adj.): Capable of being held or defended.

Accost

v.): To approach and speak to first; to confront in a challenging or aggressive way.

Animadversion

n.): A comment indicating strong criticism or disapproval.

Avid

adj.): Desirous of something to the point of greed; intensely eager.

Brackish

adj.): Having a salty taste and unpleasant to drink.

Celerity

n.): Swiftness, rapidity of motion or action.

Devious

adj.): Straying or wandering from a straight or direct course; done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way.

Gambit

n.): In chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain a later advantage; any opening move of this type.

Halcyon

n.): A legendary bird identified with the kingfisher; (adj.) of or relating to the halcyon; calm, peaceful; happy, golden; prosperous, affluent.

Histrionic

adj.): Pertaining to actors and their techniques; theatrical, artificial, melodramatic.

Incendiary

adj.): Deliberately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up strife or rebellion; (n.) one who deliberately sets fires, arsonist; one who causes strife.

Maelstrom

n.): A whirlpool of great size and violence; a situation resembling a whirlpool in violence and destruction.

Myopic

adj.): Nearsighted; lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment.

Overt

adj.): Open, not hidden, expressed or revealed in a way that is easily recognized.

Pejorative

adj.): Tending to make worse; expressing disapproval or disparagement, derogatory, deprecatory, belittling.

Propriety

n.): The state of being proper, appropriateness; (pl.) standards of what is proper or socially acceptable.

Sacrilege

n.): Improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred.

Summarily

adv.): Without delay or formality; briefly, concisely.

Suppliant

adj.): Asking humbly and earnestly; (n.) one who makes a request humbly and earnestly, a petitioner, suitor.

Talisman

n.): An object that serves as a charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish.

Undulate

v.): To move in waves or with a wavelike motion; to have a wavelike appearance or form.

Cavort

v.): To romp or prance around exuberantly; to make merry.

Credence

n.): Belief, mental acceptance.

Decry

v.): To condemn, express strong disapproval; to officially depreciate.

Dissemble

v.): To disguise or conceal, deliberately give a false impression.

Distraught

adj.): Very much agitated or upset as a result of emotion or mental conflict.

Eulogy

n.): A formal statement of commendation; high praise.

Evince

v.): To display clearly, to make evident, to provoke.

Exhume

v.): To remove from a grave; to bring to light.

Feckless

adj.): Lacking in spirit and strength; ineffective, weak; irresponsible, unreliable.

Murky

adj.): Dark and gloomy, obscure; lacking in clarity and precision.

Nefarious

adj.): Wicked, depraved, devoid of moral standards.

Piquant

adj.): Stimulating to the taste or mind; spicy, pungent; appealingly provocative.

Primordial

adj.): Developed or created at the very beginning; going back to the most ancient times or earliest stage; fundamental, basic.

Propinquity

n.): Nearness in place or time; kinship.

Substantive

adj.): Real, having a solid basis; considerable in number or amount; meaningful and on topic.

Unwonted

adj.): Not usual or expected; not in character.

Utopian

adj.): Founded upon or involving a visionary view of an ideal world; impractical.

Verbiage

n.): Language that is too wordy or inflated in proportion to the sense or content, wordiness; a manner of expression.

Verdant

adj.): Green in tint or color; immature in experience or judgment.

Viscous

adj.): Having a gelatinous or gluey quality, lacking in easy movement or fluidity.