AP Seminar Vocabulary List 6-10

Ameliorate

To improve or make better

Amicable

Friendly

Beneficial

Conducive to well-being; helpful or useful

Benign

Kind or mild; having a gentle disposition

Blissful

Joyous; ecstatic

Conciliate

To make peace through reasoning; to appease

Essence

The basic character or quality of a thing

Exemplary

Worthy of imitation; admirable

Extol

To praise highly

Finesse

Delicacy or skill in handling a situation

Genteel

Refined or well-bred

Integrity

Honesty; incorruptibility

Laudatory

Praising or complimentary

Luscious

Delicious; mouth-watering

Munificent

Extremely generous or charitable

Omnipotent

All-powerful

Pulchritude

Physical beauty

Sublime

Lofty; of high intellectual or spiritual worth

Tranquil

Peaceful or calm

Veracious

Truthful

Defame

To slander, libel; or discredit

Defile

To make dirty; to dishonor or corrupt

Depravity

Wickedness or corruption

Desecrate

To defile, violate, or contaminate something sacred

Despicable

Contemptible or worthy of scorn

Flagrant

Outrageous or scandalous

Guile

Deceit or treachery

Hedonistic

Pleasure-loving

Imperil

To endanger or jeopardize

Infernal

Hellish

Insolence

Rudeness; insulting behavior

Lewd

Indecent or obscene

Malevolent

Showing ill will; spiteful

Marauder

A person or animal that makes raids for booty

morbid

Unhealthy or unwholesome; gloomy

Odious

Hateful or offensive

Prodigal

Wasteful; spending too much

Profane

Having no regard for sacred things; vulgar

Revile

To verbally abuse

Subvert

To overthrow or destroy

Boisterous

Noisy, loud, rough

Compassionate

Sympathetic

Confident

Assured, certain, bold

Effusive

Excessively emotional in an unrestrained manner

Elated

Joyful

Exuberant

Elaborate, flowery

Fanciful

Imaginative, whimsical

Genial

Cheerful, friendly

Jocular

Joking, humorous, full of fun

Mirthful

Merry

Nostalgic

Longingly

Optimistic

Positive

Sanguine

Cheerful, confident, optimistic

Whimsical

Full of whimsy, fanciful, out of the ordinary

Wistful

Expressing vague yearnings

Admonitory

Admonishing, warning

Condemnatory

Condemning, declaring guilt

Exacerbated

Intense, angry

Incendiary

Willfully stirring up strife, riot, rebellion

Incensed

Angry, wrathful

Indignant

Scornful, angry

Inflammatory

Rousing excitement, anger, violence

Irate

Angry, wrathful, incensed

Livid

With rage

Pretentious

Affectedly grand, ostentatious, showy

Resentful

Offended

Vexed

Distressed, annoyed

Chagrined

Sorrowful, gloomy

Disconcerted

Frustrated

Foreboding

Warningly of something bad to come

Melancholic

Pensive, sad, gloomy

Mournful

Expressing sorrow, depression

Ominous

Threatening, sinister

Resigned

Submissive, yielding

Sober

Serious, solemn, grave

Solemn

Sacred, formal, somber

Staid

Fixed, settled, sober, sedate

Exhort

To urge by strong argument, advice, or appeal

Exploit

To utilize to greatest advantage, to make use of unethically or selfishly

Expose

To lay open, as to something undesirable or injurious; to make known; to reveal the guilt

Extrapolate

To infer or estimate

Falsify

To give an untruthful account of

Galvanize

To arouse to awareness or action

Invoke

To call on for aid, support, inspiration

Justify

To show or prove to be just or valid

Juxtapose

To place side by side for contrast or comparison

Linger

To delay in quitting or leaving something; tarry

Lure

To attract by temptation or wiles; to entice

Maim

To disable or disfigure, usu. by depriving of limb

Manifest

To show or demonstrate plainly; to reveal

Mitigate

To make or become less severe or intense; moderate

Oppress

To persecute or subjugate by unjust use of force or authority

Orate

To speak in a pompous, oratorical way

Originate

To bring or come into being

Parley

To discuss, debate or confer with another

Proclaim

To announce officially and publicly; to declare

Progress

To proceed; to advance toward a more desirable form

Purport

To have or present the appearance, often false, of being or intending

Rally

To call together for a common purpose; assemble

Rationalize

To devise self-satisfying but incorrect reasons for one's behavior