Words that start with C

Cacophony

n. harsh-sounding mixture of words, voices, or sounds

The parade’s two marching bands played simultaneously; the resulting ____ drove many spectators to tears.

Cadence

n. rhythm; the rise and fall of sounds

We wished the tone of Irwin’s words would have a more pleasing ____, but he spoke in a dull monotone.

Cajole

v. to persuade someone to do something he or she doesn’t want to do

I didn’t want to give the speech, but Enrique ____ me into doing it by telling me what a good speaker I am. As it turned out, he simply hadn’t been able to find anyone else.

Callow

adj. immature

The patient was alarmed by how ____ the medical staff looked.

Candor

n. truthfulness; sincere honesty

My best friend exhibited ____ when she told me that for many years now she has believed me to be a jerk.

Capitalism

n. an economic system in which buisnesses are owned by private citizens (not by the government) and in which the resulting products and services are sold with relatively little government control

The American economy is an example of _____.

Capitulate

v. to surrender; to give up or give in

On the twentieth day of the strike, the workers ____ and went back to work without a new contact.

Capricious

adj. unpredictable; likely to change at any moment

Arjun was _____. One minute he said his favorite car was a Volkswagen; the next minute he said it was a Toyota.

Caricature

n. a portrait or description that is purposely distorted or exaggerated, often to prove some point about its subject

Khoa sat for a _____ at the end of the marathon, but he wasn’t pleased with the result: the portrait exaggerated his already dominant ache.

Castigate

v. to criticize severely; to chastise

Jose’s mother in law ___ for forgetting to pick her up at the airport.

Catalyst

n. in chemistry, something that changes the rate of a chemical reaction without itself being changed; anyone or anything that makes something happen without being directly involved in it

When the mad scientist dropped a few grains of the ____ into his test tube, the bubbling liquid began to boil furiously.

Categorical

adj. unconditional; absolute

Crooked politicans often make ____ denials of various charges against them. Then they go to jail.

Catharsis

n. purification that brings emotional relief or renewal

To someone with psychological problems, talking to a psychiatrist can lead to a ____.

Catholic

adj. universal; embracing everything

Da Vinci was a ___ genius who excelled at everything he did.

Caustic

adj. like acid; corrosive

Paint remover is a ___ substance; if you spill it on your skin, your skin will burn.

Celibacy

n. abstinence from sex

People who practice ___ don’t practice sex.

Censure

v. to condemn severely for doing something bad

The Senate sometimes ___ senators for breaking laws or engaging in behavior unbecoming to an elected official.

Cerebral

adj. brainy; intellectually refined

Sebastian was too __ to be a baseball announcer; he kept talking about the existentialism of the outfield.

Chagrin

n. humiliation; emberassed disappointment

Much to my ____, I began to giggle during the eulogy at the funeral.

Charisma

n. a magical seeming ability to attract followers or inspire loyalty

The glamorous presidential candidate had a lot of ____; voters didn’t seem to support her so much as be entranced by her.

Charlatan

n. fraud; quack; con man

Buck was selling what he claimed was a cure for cancer, but he was just a ____ (the pills were jelly beans).

Chasm

n. a deep, gaping hole; a gorge

Mark was so stupid that his girlfriend wondered whether wasn’t a ___ where his brain should be.

Chastise

v. to inflict punishment on; to discipline

Mother ____ us for firing our bottle rockets too close to the house.

Chicanery

n. trickery; deceitfullness; artifice, especially legal or political

Political news would be dull were it not for the chicanery of our elected officials.

Chimera

n. an illusion; a follish fancy

JIe’s dream of becoming a movie star was just a ____.

Choleric

adj. hot tempted; quick to anger

The ____ watchdog would sink his teeth into anyone who came within biting distance of his doghouse.

Chronic

adj. constant; lasting a long time; inveterate

Dj’s ___ back pains often kept her from soccer practice.

Chronicle

n. a record of events i order of time; a history

Sally’s diary provided her mother with a detailed ___ of her daughter’s extracurricular activies.

Circuitous

adj. roundabout; not following a direct path

The ___ bus route between the two cities went here, there, and everywhere, and it took an extremely long time to get anywhere.

Circumlocution

n. an indirect expression; use of wordy or evasive language

The lawyer’s ______ left everyone in their courtroom wondering what had been said.

Circumscribe

v. to draw a line around; to set the limits; to define; to restrict

The Constitution clearly ___ the restrictions that can be placed on our personal freedoms.

Circumspect

adj. cautious

As a public speaker, Nick was extremely ___; he always took great care ot to say the wrong thing or give offense.

Circumvent

v. to frustrate as though by surrounding

Our hopes for an early end of the meeting were ____ by the chairperson’s refusal to deal with the items on the agenda.

Civil

adj. polite; civilized; courteous

____ rights are rights established by the law.

Clemency

n. mercy; forgiveness; mildness

The goevrnor commited an act of ___ when he released all the convicts from the state penitentiary.

Cliche

n. an overused saying or idea

The expression “you can’t judge a book by its cover” is a ____, it’s been used so many times that it’s become stale.

Clique

n. an exclusive group bound together by some shared quality or interest.

The high school newspaper staff was a real ___; they all hung out together and wouldn’t talk to anyone else.

Coalesce

v. to come together as one; to fuse; to unite

When the dough ____ into a big blob, we began to wonder whether the cookies would be edible.

Coerce

v. to force someone to do or not to do something

Darth Vader tried to flatter, bribe, and even ___, but he was never able to make Han Solo reveal the hidden rebel base.

Cogent

adj. powerfully convincing

Shaft was ____ in explaining why he needed the confidential files, so we gave them to him.

Cognitive

adj. dealing with how we know the world around us through our senses; mental

Scientists study the ___ apparatus of human beings to pattern how computers should gather information about the world.

Cognizant

adj. aware; conscious

Al was ____ of the dangers of sword swallig, but he tried it anyway and hurt himself quite badly.

Coherent

adj. holding together; making sense

After puzzling over Grace’s disorganized Holy Roman Empire essay for almost an hour, Ms. Fabricius needed only 20 miutes to read Arjun’s ____ paper on the Defenestration of Prague.

Colloquial

adj. conversational; informal in language

A writer with a ___ style is a writer who uses ordinary words and whose writing seems as informal as common speech.

Collusion

n. conspiracy; secret cooperation

The increase in oil prices was the result of ___ by the oil producing nations.

Commensurate

adj. equal; proportionate

Ryan’s salary is ___ with his ability; like his ability, his salary is small.

Compelling

adj. forceful; causing to yield

A ___ argument for buying a security system is one that makes you go out and buy a security system.

Compendium

n. a summary; an abridgement

A yearbook often contains a ____ of the offenses, achievements, and future plans of the members of the senior class.

Complacent

adj. self satifised; overly pleased with oneself; contented to a fault

The ___ camper paid no attention to the poison ivy around his campsite, and ended up going to the hospital.

Complement

v. to complete or fill up; to be the perfect counterpart

The flower arragenment ___ the table decorations.

Complicity

n. participation in wrongdoing; the act of being an accomplice

There was ___ between the bank robber and the dishonest teller. The teller neglected to turn on the alarm, and the robber rewarded him by sharing the loot.

Comprehensive

adj. covering or including everything

The insurance policy was ____; it covered all possible losses.

Comprise

v. to consist of

A football team ___ eleven players on offense and eleven players on defense.

Concilatory

adj. making peace; attempting to resolve a dispute through goodwill

To be ____ is to kiss and make up!

Concise

adj. brief and to the point; succint

The scientist’s explanation was ___; it was brief and it helped us understand the difficult concept.

Concord

n. harmony; agreement

Nations that live in ____ are nations that live together in peace.

Concurrent

adj. happening at the same time; parallel

The criminal was sentenced to two ____ fifteen year sentences; the sentences will run at the same time, and he will be out of jail in 15 years.

Condescend

v. to stoop to someone else’s level, usually in an offensive way; to patronize

I was surprised that the president of the company had ____ to talk with me, a mere temporary employee.

Condone

v. to overlook; to permit to happen

The principal decided to ___ the hoods’ smoking in the bathroom; he simply ignored it.

Conducive

adj. promoting

The chairs in the library are ___ to sleep.

Confluence

n. a flowing together, especially of river; the place where they begin to flow together

The ___ of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers is at St. Louis; that’s the place where they join together.

Congenial

adj. agreeably suitable; pleasant

The little cabin in the woods was ____ to the writer; she was able to get a lot of writing done there.

Congenital

adj. describing a trait or condition acquired between conception and birth; innate

A ____ birth defect is one that is present at birth but was not caused by one’s genes.

Congregate

v. to come together

Protestors were granted permission to ____ peacefully on the plaza.

Conjecture

v. to guess; to deduce or infer on slight evidence

If forced to conjecture, I would say the volcano will erupt in twenty four hours.

Conjure

v. to summon or bring into being as if by magic

The chief ___ a fabulous gourmet meal using nothing more than the meager ingredients in Lucy’s kitchen.

Connoissuer

n. an expert, particularly in matters of art or taste

The artist’s work was popular, but the ____ rejected it was amateurish.

Consecrate

v. to make or declare sacred

The Veteras day speaker said that the battlefield has been ____ by the blood of the soldiers who had died there.

Consensus

n. unanimity or general agreement

When there is a ____, everybody feels the same way.

Consonant

adj. harmonious; in agreement

Our desires were ___ with theirs; we all wanted the same thing.

Construe

v. to interpret

Preston ____ his contract as giving him the right to do anything he wanted.

Consummate

adj. perfect; complete; supremely

A ____ pianist is an extremely good one. Nothing is lacking in the way he or she plays.

Contentious

adj. argumentative; quarrelsome

Liz figured that her _____ style would make her a perfect litigator; after law school, however, the would be trial attorney discovered that passing the bar requires more than a will to argue.

Contigious

adj. side by side; adjoining

Two countries that share a border are ____.

Contingent

adj. dependent; possible

Our agreement to buy their house is _____ upon the seller's finding another house to move into.

Contrite

adj. admitting guilt; especially feeling remorseful

To be ____ is to admit whatever terrible thing you did.

Contrived

adj. artificial; labored

Sam’s acting was ____: no one in the audience believed his character or enjoyed his perfomance

Conventional

adj. common; customary; unexceptional

The architect’s ____ designs didn’t win him awards for orginality.

Convival

adj. fond of partying; festive

A _____ gathering is one in which the people present enjoy eating, drinking, and being together.

Copious

adj. abundant; plentiful

The champagne at the wedding reception was ____ but not very good.

Corollary

n. something that follows; a natural consequence

In mathematics, a ____ is a law that can be deduced without further proof from a law that has already been proven.

Corroborate

v. to confirm; to back up with evidence

The police could find no evidence of theft and thus could not ____ Greg’s claim that he had been robbed.

Cosmopolitan

adj. at home in many places or situations; internationally sophisticated

Marcello’s interests were ______ - he liked Greek wine, German beer, Dutch cheese, Japanese cars, and French fries.

Countenance

n. face; facial expression, especially an encouraing one

Her father’s confident _____ gave Liz the courage to persevere.

Coup

n. a brilliant victory or accomplishment; the violent overthrow of a government by a small internal group

Winning a gold medal at the Olympics was a real ___ for the fifty year old woman.

Covenant

n. a solemn agreement; a contract; a pledge

The warring tribes made a ____ not to fight each other anymore.

Covert

adj. secret; hidden

A ____ military operation is one the public knows nothing about.

Covet

v. to wish for enviously

To ___ cover thy neighbour’s wife is to want thy neighbour’s wife for thyself.

Credulous

adj. eager to believe; gullible

The ___ housewife believed that she had won a million dollars thorugh a email scam.

Criterion

n. standard; basis for judgement

When Norm judges a meal, he has only one ____; is it edible?

Cryptic

adj. mysterious; mystifying

Elaine’s remarks were ____; Jerry was baffled by what she said.

Culinary

adj. relating to cooking or the kitchen

A cooking school is sometimes called a ____ institute.

Culminate

v. to climax; to reach full effect

Connie’s years of practice _____ in a great victory at the international juggling championship.

Culpable

adj. deserving blame; guilty

The accountant’s failure to spot the errors made her ___ in the tax fraud case.

Cursory

adj. hasty; superficial

To give a book a ____ reading is to skim it quickly without comprehending much.

Curtail

v. to shorten; to cut short

Curt had so much homework to do that night that he ___ the amount of television he wanted to watch.