Advanced Vocabulary: Definitions and Usage of Key English Words

Abate

To decrease or reduce in force, intensity, amount, or value; to put an end to.

Artless

Lacking art, knowledge, or skill; made without skill or artificiality; free from deceit and sincerely simple.

Cajole

To persuade through flattery or gentle urging; to obtain something through gentle persuasion; to deceive with soothing words or false promises.

Diffident

Hesitant in acting or speaking due to a lack of self-confidence; reserved or unassertive.

Detritus

Loose material resulting from disintegration; debris or miscellaneous remnants.

Enervate (adj)

Lacking physical, mental, or moral vigor.

Enervate (v)

To reduce mental or moral vigor; to lessen vitality or strength.

Fête (n)

A festival or lavish, often outdoor party.

Fête (v)

To honor or commemorate.

Gambol (v)

To skip about in play; frisk or frolic.

Gambol (n)

Skipping or leaping about in play.

Imperturbable

Marked by extreme calm, impassivity, and steadiness; serene.

Implacable

Not capable of being appeased, significantly changed, or mitigated.

Indubitable

Too evident to be doubted; unquestionable.

Inexorable

Not able to be persuaded, moved, or stopped; relentless.

Inveigh

To protest or complain bitterly or vehemently; rail.

Iteration

A version or incarnation; the process of doing or saying something repeatedly.

Parsimony

Carefulness with money or resources; thrift; or the quality of being stingy.

Penultimate

Next to the last; relating to the next-to-last syllable of a word.

Phlegmatic

Calm and unemotional; related to the old concept of phlegm and a cool temperament.

Savoir-faire

The capacity for appropriate action, especially polished confidence in social behavior.

Surly

Menacing or threatening in appearance; irritably sullen and churlish.

Truncate

To shorten by or as if by cutting off.