Unit 2 Core Academic Vocabulary

absurd

unreasonable or foolish:

acclaim

enthusiastic praise or applause:

aloof

not friendly or interested in other people:

anecdote

a brief story, especially one based on personal accounts rather than research:

arid

having little or no rain; very dry:

commend

to praise someone or something, especially publicly:

cynic

someone who believes that all people are motivated by selfishness:

disdain

a feeling of contempt:

esteem

respect:

hinder

to make it difficult for someone to do something or for something to happen:

hypothesis

an idea or suggestion based on known facts and used as a basis for further reasoning or investigation:

inherent

naturally present as a feature or quality of something or someone:

invoke

(1) to mention someone or something as a reason for doing something; (2) to call on:

nostalgia

a feeling of sadness mixed with pleasure about an earlier, happy period:

persist

to continue despite difficulty:

radiate

(1) to send or spread out in all directions from a central point; (2) to show a particular quality or emotion clearly:

reticent

unwilling to tell people about things:

subjective

based on personal experience or feeling and not from external evidence:

tentative

done or said without certainty that it is right, definite, or final; not confident:

transmit

(1) to send something from one person or place to another