Spring Vocab

Waif

An abandoned person or an orphan.

Urchin

Mischievous child.

Subterfuge

Deception.

Evocative

Causing a response.

Capricious

Whimsical.

Nexus

Connection.

Astute

1) Perceptive 2) Shrewd.

Serendipity

Good luck.

Sagacity

Wisdom.

Parlance

Language.

Culmination

Full completion of something.

Imbue

Put into.

Sentient

Having consciousness or feeling.

Aesthetic

Having to do with beauty.

Solecism

1) Grammatical error 2) Awkward mistake.

Commiserate

To express sympathy for and with someone.

Stymie

To confuse and defeat.

Stigma

A shameful mark or blemish.

Chaste

Sexually pure.

Zealous

Enthusiastic.

Paradox

An apparent contradiction that is nevertheless true.

Oxymoron

Two-word paradox.

Idiom

A particular pattern of speech.

Exigence

Urgent cause.

Indelible

Cannot be erased.

Meritocracy

A society that rewards achievement.

Mogul

A rich and powerful person.

Parlay

To maneuver to an advantage.

Affluence

Wealth.

Egalitarian

Promoting equality.

Bohemian

Artsy and rebellious.

Bourgeois

Conforming; middle-class; conservative.

Semantics

Study of meaning in language.

Circumscribed

Limited.

In extremis

In great difficulty.

Venerable

Very respectable.

Predilection

A tendency or preference.

Sedentary

Unmoving or seated.

Concomitant

Occurring with.

Deprecate

To criticize.

Axiomatic

Self-evident.