Set #4: 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

Acumen

Quickness and keenness of judgment or insight

Bellicose

Warlike or hostile in personality

Churlish

Boorish or vulgar; having a bad disposition; surly

Deleterious

Having a harmful effect; injurious

Epiphany

A Christian feast on Jan. 6 OR a revelation of meaning

Expurgate

To remove objectionable material from a book

Fiduciary

Holding something in trust for another; a trustee

Gerrymander

To divide into voting districts so as to give an unfair advantage to one party in elections

Hubris

Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance

Incontrovertible

Impossible to dispute; unquestionable

Irony

A difference between what is expected and what actually occurs

Laissez-faire

Economic policy that opposes government regulation; noninterference in the affairs of others

Metamorphosis

A change in appearance or character; a transformation

Nihilism

A philosophy that denies existence is real; nothing can be known for sure; no morals or values

Obsequious

Showing servile compliance; fawning

Oxidize

To combine with oxygen

Pecuniary

Of or relating to money; requiring payment of money

Polymer

Natural or synthetic compound consisting of repeated linked units

Recapitulate

To repeat in concise form

Sanguine

Cheerfully confident; optimistic; of the color of blood; red

Supercilious

Feeling or showing haughty disdain

Tempestuous

Characterized by violent emotions or actions; tumultuous; stormy

Usurp

To seize and hold by force and without legal authority; to take over or occupy without right

Winnow

To separate the outer hull from grain by means of a current of air; to examine closely in order to separate the good from the bad; sift

Ziggurat

A step pyramid; a temple tower of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians