English Vocabulary: Semester one
Terms
undefined, object
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- Accord (verb)
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agreemnt, conformity, a formal reaching of agreement
example: he acted in accord with the company's policy - Acute (adjective)
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characterized by sharpness or severity
marked by keen descernment of intellectualy perception especially of sublte distinctions: Penetrating - Allegory (noun)
- a symbolic representation
- Allusion (noun)
- an implied or indirect reference most common in literature
- Ameliorate (verb)
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to make better or more tolerable: to grow better
soften the effect of something
syn IMPROVE
example:The teacher ameliorated our fears by telling us the large test was open note. - Amenable (adjective)
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submit or cooperate
readily brought to yield, submit (not always used in a negative connotation)
example: He was amenable to changing the color of our living room wall - Anathema (noun)
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someone or something intensly disliked; loathed
a vigorous dinunciation: excommuniacation: curse - Approbation (noun)
- Commendation: PRAISE; an act of approving formally of officially
- Barbarity (noun)
- INHUMANITY: an act of onstance of cruelty
- Beneficent (adjective)
- doing or producing good: perfrming an act of kindess of charity: GENEROUS
- Cajole (verb)
- to persuade with flattery or gentle urging: COAX
- Caveat (noun)
- A warning enjoining one from vertain acts or practices
- Conjecture (noun)
- inferenve from defective or presumptive evidence: a conclusion based on surmise or guesswork
- Deference (noun)
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respect and esteem due a superior or elder
HONOR - Deplorable (adjective)
- lamentable: deplorable: deserving censure of contempt
- Desolate (adjective)
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deserted; barren; lifeless; gloomy
the effect of abandonement and neglect: separation - Drivel (noun)
- Nonsense
- Earnest (adjective)
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intence and serious state of mind: grave: important: serious
TRUTHFUL PERSON - Edifice (noun)
- Building
- Emancipate (verb)
- to free from restraint, control, bondage
- Emulate (verb)
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to strive to equal or excel: IMITATE
Her little brother strove to emulate her every action. - Enumerate (verb)
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to ascertain the number of: COUNT: to specify one after another: LIST
Let me enumerate the number of ways in which I honor you. - Evanescent (adjective)
- tending to vanish like vapro: TRANSIENT
- Exult (verb)
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to be extremely jouful: REJOICE
to jump with joy - Hackneyed (adjective)
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unoriginal: lacking in freshness of originality (negative connotation)
usually associated with jouranalism: a hack writer gets payed for writing quickly not for quality - Heterodox (adjective)
- UNORTHODOX: UNCONVENTIONAL: cotrary to or different from the norm
- Impertinent (adjective)
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not restrained within the due or proper bounds
often adults use this adjective to describe children - Incessant (adjective)
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never ceasing: continual: CONSTANT
(can carry a negative connotation)
example: incessant beating; incessant buzzing - Incisive (adjective)
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penetrating; cutting; biting; trenchant; keen; acute (negative connotation)
The teacher's incisive remarks about the student's artwork made her cry. - Inclement (adjective)
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physically severe or stromy (inclement weather)
archaic: severe in temper of action: unmerciful - Indubitable (adjective)
- UNQUESTIONABLE: UNDOUBTFUL
- Infamy (noun)
- famous for the wrong thing: a publicly known criminal act: disgrace
- Inscrutable (adjective)
- mysterious: impossible to scrutinize (discern)
- Invariable (adjective)
- not changing or capable of changing: Constant (not usually negative)
- Lassitude (adjective)
- Fatigue; LETHARGY; lazy
- Lurid (adjective)
- SHOCKING; melodramatic; sensational
- Marrow (noun)
- the inmost, best, or essential part: the core
- Melancholy (adjective)
- sad; depressed; dejection; pensive mood
- Misdemeanor (noun)
- a crime that is less than a felony; misdeed
- Nebulous (adjective)
- INDISTINCT; VAGUE
- Nutirment (noun)
- something that nourishes or promotes grouwth and reparis the wastage of organic life
- Orthodox (adjective)
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conforming to established doctrine: CONVENTIONAL
(commonly a religious connotation) - Pathos (noun)
- an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion: SYMPATHETIC PITY: evoking empathy
- Perverse (adjective)
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doing the exact opposite of what you are told: IMPROPER: INCORRECT: CRANKY: CONTRARY
Pearl, Hester's child in Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" is known to be a very perverse child in her young age. - Physiognomy (noun)
- the facial features held to show the qualities of mind or character: INNER CHARACTER OR QUALITY REVEALED OUTWARDLY
- Plebain (noun)
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one of the common people
plebain status in ancient Rome was a common person - Precocious (adjective)
- Acting older than one's age: exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age (can have a very negative connotation)
- Proclivity (noun)
- having an inclination or predisposition toward something: strong inherent inclination toward something
- Prodigious (adjective)
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HUGE; extrordinary in bulk or quanity: ENORMOUS: MONSTROUS
The Thanksgiving meal is always promised to be very prodigious - Propogate (verb)
- PUBLICIZE: propogando: to cause to pread out and affect a greater number or area
- Propinquity (noun)
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nearness of blood: KINSHIP
nearness of place: PROXIMITY
affinity of nature
nearness of time - Providence (noun)
- diving guidance or care: God conceiced as the power sustainig and guiding human destiny (COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF DEISM)
- Quicken (verb)
- revive, stimulate or hasten, accelerate: to make alive
- Raiment (noun)
- clothing
- Rend (verb)
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to tear apaprt violently; pull apart; wrest (figuritively and litearlly)
They rent the piece evidence apart, positive it would help them to catch the murderer. - Repudiate (verb)
- to refuse to have anything to do with: DISOWN
- Salient (adjective)
- projecting beyond a line: standing out conspiciously: PROMINENT
- Scathing (adjective)
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betterly severe: caustic
example: Scathing comments - Scintillate (verb)
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sparkle: EXCITING
scintillating conversation - Scruple (noun)
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an ethical consideration or peinciple that inhibits action: mental reservation:
set of morals that prohibits certain activities - Simulate (verb)
- Imitate: assume
- Stringent (adjective)
- marked by rigor, strictness, or severity especially with regards to rules or standards
- Sustenance (noun)
- means of support, maintenance: NOURISHMENT (food)
- Tempest (noun)
- strom; tumult; uproar (not always having to do with weather-- can be a mental tempest)
- Throng (noun)
- CROWD
- Toil (noun)
- STRUGGLE; battle; long strenuous fatiguing work
- Transcend (verb)
- to rise above: go beyond the limits of: OVERCOME
- Usury (noun)
- lending money at exorbitant interest rates
- Vagrant (noun)
- one who has no established home; wanderer; wanders idly with no legal place to stay
- Venerable (adjective)
- calling forth respect through age
- Vestment (noun)
- an outer garment
- Vigor (noun)
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active bodily or mental strength or force
she attacked the mystery with vigor - Vitriol (noun)
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literally: a beaker full of acid
figuritively: harsh words (vitriolic speech) - Vivacious (adjective)
- lively in temper, conduct, or spirit
- Wanton (adjectuve)
- no limit in morality: being without check or limitation: undisciplined