Vocabulary Study List

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards covering the terms, parts of speech, and definitions provided across both pages of lecture notes.

Acquisitive

Able to get and retain ideas or information; concerned with acquiring wealth or property.

Arrogate

To claim or take without right.

Banal

Hackneyed, trite, commonplace.

Belabor

To work excessively; to thrash soundly.

Carping

Tending to find fault, especially in a petty, nasty, or hairsplitting way; (n.) petty, nagging criticism.

Coherent

Holding or sticking together; making a logical whole; comprehensible, meaningful.

Congeal

To change from liquid to solid, thicken; to make inflexible or rigid.

Emulate

To imitate with the intent of equaling or surpassing the model.

Encomium

A formal expression of praise, a lavish tribute.

Eschew

To avoid, shun, keep away from.

Germane

Relevant, appropriate, apropos, fitting.

Insatiable

So great or demanding as not to be satisfied.

Intransigent

Refusing to compromise, irreconcilable.

Invidious

Offensive, hateful; tending to cause bitterness and resentment.

Largesse

Generosity in giving; lavish or bountiful contributions.

Reconnaissance

A survey made for military purposes; any kind of preliminary inspection or examination.

Substantiate

To establish by evidence, prove; to give concrete or substantial form to.

Taciturn

Habitually silent or quiet, inclined to talk very little.

Temporize

To stall or act evasively in order to gain time, avoid a confrontation, or postpone a decision; to compromise.

Tenable

Capable of being held or defended.

Accost

To approach and speak to first; to confront in a challenging or aggressive way.

Animadversion

A comment indicating strong criticism or disapproval.

Avid

Desirous of something to the point of greed; intensely eager.

Brackish

Having a salty taste and unpleasant to drink.

Celerity

Swiftness, rapidity of motion or action.

Devious

Straying or wandering from a straight or direct course; done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way.

Gambit

In chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain a later advantage; any opening move of this type.

Halcyon

A legendary bird identified with the kingfisher; (adj.) of or relating to the halcyon; calm, peaceful; happy, golden; prosperous, affluent.

Histrionic

Pertaining to actors and their techniques; theatrical, artificial, melodramatic.

Incendiary

Deliberately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up strife or rebellion; (n.) one who deliberately sets fires, arsonist; one who causes strife.

Maelstrom

A whirlpool of great size and violence; a situation resembling a whirlpool in violence and destruction.

Myopic

Nearsighted; lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment.

Overt

Open, not hidden, expressed or revealed in a way that is easily recognized.

Pejorative

Tending to make worse; expressing disapproval or disparagement, derogatory, deprecatory, belittling.

Propriety

The state of being proper, appropriateness; (pl.) standards of what is proper or socially acceptable.

Sacrilege

Improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred.

Summarily

Without delay or formality; briefly, concisely.

Suppliant

Asking humbly and earnestly; (n.) one who makes a request humbly and earnestly, a petitioner, suitor.

Talisman

An object that serves as a charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish.

Undulate

To move in waves or with a wavelike motion; to have a wavelike appearance or form.

Cavort

To romp or prance around exuberantly; to make merry.

Credence

Belief, mental acceptance.

Decry

To condemn, express strong disapproval; to officially depreciate.

Dissemble

To disguise or conceal, deliberately give a false impression.

Distraught

Very much agitated or upset as a result of emotion or mental conflict.

Eulogy

A formal statement of commendation; high praise.

Evince

To display clearly, to make evident, to provoke.

Exhume

To remove from a grave; to bring to light.

Feckless

Lacking in spirit and strength; ineffective, weak; irresponsible, unreliable.

Murky

Dark and gloomy, obscure; lacking in clarity and precision.

Nefarious

Wicked, depraved, devoid of moral standards.

Piquant

Stimulating to the taste or mind; spicy, pungent; appealingly provocative.

Primordial

Developed or created at the very beginning; going back to the most ancient times or earliest stage; fundamental, basic.

Propinquity

Nearness in place or time; kinship.

Substantive

Real, having a solid basis; considerable in number or amount; meaningful and on topic.

Unwonted

Not usual or expected; not in character.

Utopian

Founded upon or involving a visionary view of an ideal world; impractical.

Verbiage

Language that is too wordy or inflated in proportion to the sense or content, wordiness; a manner of expression.

Verdant

Green in tint or color; immature in experience or judgment.

Viscous

Having a gelatinous or gluey quality, lacking in easy movement or fluidity.