Lit vocab M-P

Macabre

shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

Machination

a crafty and involved plot to achieve your ends

Magnanimous

noble and generous in spirit

Magnitude

the property of relative size or extent

Malaise

a feeling of mild sickness or depression

Malingerer

someone shirking duty by feigning illness or incapacity

Malleable

easily influenced

Maudlin

very sentimental or emotional (mau…)

Mawkish

very sentimental or emotional (maw…)

Mellifluous

pleasing to the ear

Mendacious

intentionally untrue

Meretricious

tastelessly showy

Mien

a person's appearance, manner, or demeanor

Mollify

cause to be more favorably inclined

Moratorium

suspension of an ongoing activity

Munificent

very generous

Nadir

the lowest point of anything

Nascent

being born or beginning

Nefarious

extremely wicked

Nonplussed

filled with bewilderment

Nostrum

medicine whose efficacy is questionable

Obdurate

showing unfeeling resistance to feelings; remorseless

Obeisance

bending the head or body in reverence or submission

Obfuscate

make obscure or unclear

Obsequious

attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner

Obtrusive

undesirably noticeable

Occlude

block passage or sight through

Odious

extremely repulsive or unpleasant

Onerous

burdensome or difficult to endure

Opprobrium

state of disgrace resulting from public abuse

Ossify

make rigid and set into a conventional pattern

Ostensible

appearing as such but not necessarily so

Ostentatious

tawdry or vulgar, showy, overdone

Overweening

presumptuously arrogant

Palliative

moderating pain or sorrow by making it easier to bear

Panacea

hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases

Parsimonious

excessively unwilling to spend

Patrician

befitting a person of noble origin

Paucity

an insufficient quantity or number

Pecuniary

relating to or involving money

Pedantic

marked by a narrow focus on or display of learning

Perfidious

tending to betray

Pernicious

exceedingly harmful

Pithy

concise and full of meaning

Portentous

of momentous or ominous significance

Prescience

the power to foresee the future

Prevaricate

be deliberately ambiguous or unclear

Prodigious

great in size, force, extent, or degree

Puerile

displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity

Pugnacious

ready and able to resort to force or violence