Sadlier-Oxford Workshop Unit 5

Acuity

(n.) sharpness (particularly of the mind or senses)

Ex. The acuity of most people’s hearing diminishes as they grow older.

Synonyms: keenness, acuteness

Antonyms: dullness, obtuseness

Delineate

(v.) to portray, sketch, or describe in accurate and vivid detail;

to represent pictorially

Ex. The architects will delineate the main features of their plan at the

next client meeting.

Synonyms: depict, picture, render

Depraved

(adj.) marked by evil and corruption, devoid of moral principles

Ex. Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is about a depraved

man whose portrait reveals his wickedness.

Synonyms: perverted, degenerate, vicious, corrupt

Antonyms: moral, virtuous, upright, uncorrupted

Enervate

(v.) to weaken or lessen the mental, oral, or physical vigor of; enfeeble,

hamstring

Ex. Unfortunately, the great musician’s mind was enervated by disease

in the last decade of her life.

Synonyms: impair, cripple, paralyze

Antonyms: invigorate, strengthen, buttress

Esoteric

(adj.) intended for or understood by only a select few, private, secret

Ex. The fraternity developed a set of esoteric rites that had to be

performed by anyone seeking membership.

Synonyms: occult, cryptic, arcane, recondite

Antonyms: accessible, comprehensible, intelligible

Fecund

(adj.) fruitful in offspring or vegetation; intellectually productive

Ex. The remarkably fecund mind of Albert Einstein produced theories

that revolutionized the science of physics.

Synonyms: fertile, teeming, prolific

Antonyms: infertile, barren, unproductive

Fiat

(n.) an arbitrary order or decree; a command or act of will or

consciousness

Ex. The ruler instituted several new fiats.

Synonyms: edict, dictum, ukase

Figment

(n.) a fabrication of the mind; an arbitrary notion

Ex. The silhouette of a man on the porch was a mere figment of your

overheated imagination.

Synonyms: creation, invention, fancy

Garner

(v.) to acquire as the result of effort; to gather and store away as for

future use

Ex. Over the years, the writer was able to garner some wisdom that she

passed on to others in her books.

Synonyms: collect, accumulate, accrue

Antonyms: scatter, squander, waste, dissipate

Hallow

(v.) to set apart as holy or sacred, sanctify, consecrate, to honor greatly,

revere

Ex. In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln hallowed the battlefield on which

the Union soldiers fought and died.

Synonyms: venerate, bless

Antonyms: desecrate, defile, profane

Idiosyncrasy

(n.) a peculiarity that serves to distinguish or identify

Ex. The fact that the plurals of some nouns are formed irregularly is an

idiosyncrasy of English grammar.

Synonyms: eccentricity, quirk, mannerism

Ignominy

(n.) shame and disgrace

Ex. He went from glory to ignominy.

Synonyms: dishonor, humiliation, disrepute, odium

Antonyms: honor, glory acclaim

Mundane

(adj.) earthly, worldly, relating to practical and material affairs;

concerned with what is ordinary

Ex. The painter left all mundane concerns to her sister while she single-

mindedly pursued her artistic goals.

Synonyms: prosaic, humdrum, routine, sublunary

Antonyms: heavenly, unworldly, spiritual, transcendental

Nuance

(n.) a subtle or slight variation (as in color, meaning, quality), delicate

gradation or shade of difference

Ex. In his writing, the poet paid close attention to every nuance of

meaning in the words he chose.

Synonyms: shade, nicety, refinement

Overweening

(adj.) conceited, presumptuous; excessive, immoderate

Ex. It was the overweening confidence of the candidate that prevented

her from acknowledging her weakness.

Synonyms: arrogant, unbridled, inflated

Antonyms: restrained, understated, modest, meek

Penchant

(n.) a strong attraction or inclination

Ex. A teacher with a penchant for belaboring the obvious is bound to be

boring.

Synonyms: proclivity, propensity, predilection

Antonyms: disinclination, aversion

Reputed

(adj.) according to reputation or general belief; having widespread

acceptance and good reputation; (part) alleged

Ex. Although he is the reputed head of a crime syndicate, he has never

spent time in jail.

Synonyms: putative, reputable, supposed

Antonyms: proven, corroborated, authenticated

Sophistry

(n.) reasoning that seems plausible but is actually unsound; a fallacy

Ex. The couple was beguiled into buying a bigger house than they

needed by the clever sophistry of the broker.

Synonyms: specious reasoning

Sumptuous

(adj.) costly, rich, magnificent

Ex. The sumptuous feast honoring the king’s birthday was followed by

musical entertainment.

Synonyms: lavish, munificent, opulent, splendid

Antonyms: skimpy, meager, stingy, Spartan

Ubiquitous

(adj.) present or existing everywhere

Ex. The ubiquitous eye of the TV camera threatens to rob citizens of any

sense of privacy.

Synonyms: omnipresent, pervasive, universal

Antonyms: restricted, limited, rare, scarce