Honors English Vocab Words

Acerbic ( uh-serb-ick )

Ex: The new student in my Math class has a very acerbic Russian accent.

Sour, sharp, bitter

Diffident (diff-a-dent)

Ex: A kid at the daycare I volunteer at was diffident when I offered him my jellybeans.

Shy, lacking in confidence

Gregarious (Greh- gar- e- us)

Ex: A gregarious butterfly flew around me and stuck with me for the rest of my short walk.

Sociable, fond of company

Quiescent (kwee-s-cent)

Ex: My sister didn’t have a quiescent winter break. She needed to study for her midterms.

Inactive, at rest

Mellifluous (mel-if-flew-us)

Ex: The consistency of Tanghulu candy at first is mellifluous before crystallizing.

Smoothly flowing, sweet

Guise (guys)

Assumed appearance; disguise

Acquiesce ( ak-we-s )

Passively consent, or agree to; tapping out/ peer pressure

Discursive ( dis-curse-iv )

Rambling from subject to subject

Nascent ( nuh-cent )

Just beginning to come into existence; developing

Rapacious ( ruh-pay-shus )

Greedy, grasping

Ambiguous ( am - big- you - us )

Unclear; capable of having more than one meaning

Egregious ( e - gree - shus )

Glaringly bad (obvious mistakes, noticeable badness)

Heinous ( hay - nus )

Excessively evil

Obstreperous ( on - strep - er - us )

Unruly and boisterous (noisy + uncontrollable)

Rhetoric ( ret - or - rick )

The act of using language effectively

Sanguine ( sang- gween )

Confidently hopeful, optimistic

Omniscient ( om- nish- ent )

Knowing everything (ex. wisdom)

Ignominy ( ig- nom- uh- knee )

Dishonorable conduct; disgrace from a shameful act

Erudite ( air- e - uh- dite )

Scholarly; learned

Antithesis ( ann- tith- a - sis )

Direct opposite

Audacious (aw-day-shus)

Insolently daring; foolishly bold

Ethereal (eh-thear-real)

Light, delicate, airy

Implacable (Im-plack-able)

Relentless ; unable to be pacified

Ostensible (o-sten-sible)

Seems to be one thing while concealing another

Temerity (tuh-mare-a-tea)

Rashness; reckless lack of fear

Banal ( ba-nal )

Boring, common place, uninspired, mundane

Exculpate ( x-skull-pate )

To free from blame

Ineffable ( in-f-uh-ble )

Inexpressible, indescribable, complex

Pejorative (puh-jor-a-tive )

Belittling

Tumultuous ( tuh-mul-chew-us )

Marked by violent upheaval, aggressive, acting out