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Advent

arrival; coming; beginning

Adventitious

accidental; connected to but nonetheless unrelated; irrelevant

Adverse

unfavorable; antagonistic

Advocate

a person who argues in favor of a position

Aesthetic

having to do with artistic beauty; artistic

Affable

easy to talk to; friendly

Affectation

unnatural or artificial behavior, usually intended to impress

Affidavit

a sworn written statement made before an official

Affiliate

to become closely associated with

Affinity

sympathy; attraction; kinship; similarity

Affliction

misery; illness; great suffering; a source of misery, illness, or great suffering

Affluent

rich; prosperous

Afford

to give; to supply; to confer upon

Affront

insult; a deliberate act of disrspect

Aftermath

consequence; events following some occurrence or calamity

Agenda

program; the things to be done

Aggrandize

to exaggerate; to cause to appear greater; to increase (something) in power, reputation, wealth, etc.

Aggregate

sum total; a collection of separate things mixed together

Aggrieve

to mistreat; to do grievous injury to; to distress

Aghast

terrified; shocked

Agnostic

one who believes that the existence of a god can be neither proven nor disproven

Agrarian

relating to land; relating to the management or farming of land

Alacrity

cheerful eagerness or readiness to respond

Alchemy

a seemingly magical process of transformation

Alienate

to estrange; to cause to feel unwelcome or unloved; to make hostile

Allege

to assert without proof

Allegiance

loyalty

Allegory

a story in which the characters are symbols with moral or spiritual meanings

Alleviate

to relieve, usually temporarily or incompletely; to make bearable; to lessen

Allocate

to distribute; to assign; to allot

Allot

to apportion, allocate, or assign

Alloy

a combination of two or more things, usually metals

Allusion

an indirect reference (often to a literary work); a hint

Aloof

uninvolved; standing off; keeping one's distance

Altercation

a heated fight, argument, or quarrel

Altruism

selflessness; generosity; devotion to the interests of others

Amass

to pile up; to accumulate; to collect for one's own use

Ambience

atmosphere; mood; feeling

Ambiguous

unclear in meaning; confusing; capable of being interpreted in different ways

Ambivalent

undecided; having opposed feelings simultameously

Ameliorate

to make better or more tolerable

Amenable

obedient; willing to give in to the wishes of another; agreeable

Amenity

pleasantness; attractive or comfortable feature

Amiable

friendly; agreeable

Amid

in the middle of

Amnesty

an official pardon for a group of people who have violated a law or policy

Amoral

lacking in a sense of right or wrong; neither good nor bad, neither moral nor immoral; without moral feelings

Amorous

feeling love, especially in a sexual sense; in love; relating to love

Amorphous

shapeless; without a regular or stable shape; bloblike

Anachronism

something out of place in time or history; an incongruity

Analogy

a comparison of one thing to another; similarity

Anarchy

absence of government or control; lawlessness; disorder

Anathema

something or someone loathed or detested