English Honors List Week 1

foreboding: forebodingly, forebodingness, unforeboding

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: a strong inner feeling or notion of a future misfortune, evil, etc.; presentiment.

Sentence: “She read the note with a sense of foreboding.”

Forebear

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: Usually forebears. ancestors; forefathers

Sentence: He cursed his forebears.

Trick: Our ancestors bore the people that lead to us.

Foresight: foresighted, foresightedly, foresightedness, foresightful

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: 1. care or provision for the future; provident care; prudence. 2. the act or power of foreseeing; prevision; prescience. 3. an act of looking forward.

Sentence: He had the foresight to pack an umbrella.

Trick: Sight means sight and fore sounds like before. So before sight.

Misconstrue: misconstrued, misconstruing

Part of Speech: Verb

Definition: to misunderstand the meaning of; take in a wrong sense; misinterpret.

Sentence: So it was just misconstrued and taken way out of context.

Trick: mis-con-strue kind of sounds like confused.

Misnomer

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: 1. a misapplied or inappropriate name or designation. 2. an error in naming a person or thing.

Sentence: "In fact the title of the book is a bit of a misnomer."

Trick: nomer sounds like name, and it is about the name of something. Mis means it is wrong, so its the wrong name for something.

Misgiving: misgivingly, unmisgiving, unmisgivingly

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: Often misgivings. a feeling of doubt, distrust, or apprehension.

Sentence: He had misgivings about climbing aboard the rickety boat.

Overzealous: overzealously, overzealousness

Part of Speech: Adjective

Definition: to be overly zealous (full of, characterized by, or due to zeal; ardently active, devoted, or diligent).

Sentence: "This was just a bad move by some overzealous security guards."

Oversight

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: 1. an omission or error due to carelessness. 2. unintentional failure to notice or consider; lack of proper attention. 3. supervision; watchful care:

Sentence: Owing to my oversight, the letter was sent unsigned.

Affinity: nonaffinity

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: 1. a natural liking for or attraction to a person, thing, idea, etc. 2. a person, thing, idea, etc., for which such a natural liking or attraction is felt. 3. relationship by marriage or by ties other than those of blood. 4. inherent likeness or agreement; close resemblance or connection.

Sentence: I had a affinity for pole vaulting.

Altruistic: altruistically, hyper altruistic, non-altruistic, non-altruistically

Part of Speech: Adjective

Definition: 1. unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others ( egoistic ).

Sentence: "I question how altruistic his motives were"

Animosity

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: a feeling of strong dislike, ill will, or enmity that tends to display itself in action:

Sentence: There was a deep-seated animosity between the sisters.

Eclectic: eclectically, non-eclectic, non-eclectically, un-eclectic, un-eclectically

Part of Speech: Adjective

Definition: 1. selecting or choosing from various sources. 2. made up of what is selected from different sources. 3. not following any one system, as of philosophy, medicine, etc., but selecting and using what are considered the best elements of all systems.

Sentence: The flour arrangement was very eclectic, it had twenty different flours!

Egregious: egregiously, egregiousness, non-egregious, non-egregiousness, non-egregiously, un-egregious, un-egregiously, un-egregiousness

Part of Speech: Adjective

Definition: extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant:

Sentence: He knew he had made an egregious mistake.

Enigma

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: 1. a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation. 2. a person of puzzling or contradictory character. 3. a saying, question, picture, etc., containing a hidden meaning; riddle.

Sentence: His disappearance is an enigma that has given rise to much speculation.

Esoteric: esoterically, non-esoteric, non-esoterically, un-esoteric

Part of Speech: Adjective

Definition: 1. understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest; recondite. 2. belonging to the select few. 3. private; secret; confidential. 4. (of a philosophical doctrine or the like) intended to be revealed only to the initiates of a group.

Sentence: The poetry was full of esoteric allusions.