English 30-1 Vocabulary Diploma Exam Part B

Acute

Present or experienced to a severe or intense degree

Affectation

Behavior, speech, or writing that is artificial and designed to impress

Aloof

Not friendly or forthcoming; cool and distant

Altruistic

Showing a disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish

Ambivalence

The state of having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone

Apoplectic

Overcome with anger; extremely indignant

Ascetic

Characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons

Assiduously

with care and persistence

Assuage

Make (an unpleasant feeling) less intense

Atrophy

Waste away, typically due to the degeneration of cells, or become vestigial during evolution

Auspicious

Conducive to success; favorable

Aversion

A strong dislike or disinclination

Circumlocution

The use of many words where fewer would do, esp. in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive

Circumspect

Wary and unwilling to take risks

Commensurate

Corresponding in size or degree; in proportion

Complacency

A feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements

Conceit (n.)

Excessive pride in oneself

Conciliatory

Intended or likely to placate or pacify

Condescending

Acting in a way that betrays a feeling of patronizing superiority

Conflagration

An extensive fire that destroys a great deal of land or property

Congenial

Pleasant because of a personality, qualities, or interests that are similar to one's own

Constancy

The quality of being faithful and dependable

Consternation

Feelings of anxiety or dismay, typically at something unexpected

Cynicism

An inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest; skepticism

Debilitate

Make (someone) weak and infirm

Deleterious

Causing harm or damage

Despondency

A state of low spirits caused by loss of hope or courage

Dilapidated

in deplorable condition

Diminution

the act of decreasing or reducing something

Dingy

depressing in character or appearance

Disconsolate

causing dejection

Discourse

extended verbal expression in speech or writing

Domineer

rule or exercise power over (somebody) in a cruel and autocratic manner

Effusive

extravagantly demonstrative

Elicit

deduce (a principle) or construe (a meaning)

Emaciated

very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold

Emancipated

free from traditional social restraints

Epithet

a defamatory or abusive word or phrase

Ethereal

characterized by lightness and insubstantiality

Expedient

a means to an end

Expedite

process fast and efficiently

Expunge

remove by erasing or crossing out

Extol

praise, glorify, or honor

Extricate

release from entanglement of difficulty

Fallacious

based on an incorrect or misleading notion or information

Fastidious

giving and careful attention to detail

Fawn (v.)

to flatter excessively, seek the favor of

Flagrant

conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible

Flippant

showing inappropriate levity

Forbearing

showing patient and unruffled self-control and restraint under adversity

Frivolous

not serious in content or attitude or behavior

Fruitless

unproductive of success

Furtive

secret and sly or sordid

Gaudy (-iness)

Extravagantly bright or showy, typically so as to be tasteless

Genteel

marked by refinement in taste and manners

Haughtiness

overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors

Heedlessness

the trait of forgetting or ignoring your responsibilities

IDIOTS INCREASES

A mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual

Immoderate

not within reasonable limits

Implausible

having a quality that provokes disbelief

Incongruity

the quality of disagreeing

Indefatigable

showing sustained enthusiastic action with unflagging vitality

Indignation

a feeling of righteous anger

Indolence

inactivity resulting from a dislike of work

Infallibility

the quality of never making an error

Innocuous

unlikely to harm or disturb anyone

Inscrutable

of an obscure nature

Insipid

not pleasing to the sense of taste

Insolvency

the lack of financial resources

Intercede

act between parties with a view to reconciling differences

Intractable

stubborn

Irreverence

a disrespectful act

Languid

lacking spirit or liveliness

Levity

lightness of manner

Litany

a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the priest with responses from the congregation

Loll

be lazy or idle

Malign

speak unfavorably about

Maxim

a saying that widely accepted on its own merits

Melancholy

a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed

Mercurial

liable to sudden unpredictable change

Metamorphoses

great changes

Misgivings

doubts

Mores (n.)

moral attitudes

Obstinate

persist stubbornly

Oration

a public speech for a formal occasion

Pathos

a quality that arouses emotions (especially pity or sorrow)

Petulant

easily irritated or annoyed

Placidity

a feeling of calmness

Prattle

idle or foolish and irrelevant talk

Precocious

appearing or developing early

Profusion

the property of being extremely abundant

Prolific

intellectually productive

Recalcitrant

marked by stubborn resistance to authority

Recluse

one who lives in solitude

Rend (v.)

split; tear apart

Respite

a pause from doing something (as work)

Rotundity

the roundness of a 3-dimensional object

Salve (v.)

to soothe

Sardonic

disdainfully or ironically humorous

Servile

submissive or fawning in attitude or behavior