This site is 100% ad supported. Please add an exception to adblock for this site.

Words and Meanings

Terms

undefined, object
copy deck

Approbation 

An expression of warm approval; praise. 2. Official approval.
Bilk
To defraud, cheat, or swindle; To evade payment of; To thwart or frustrate

Clarion

brilliantly clear; loud and clear
Crepuscular - of, relating to, or resembling twilight : DIM; “the period's crepuscula

Duffer

a peddler especially of cheap flashy articles; something counterfeit or worthless;
an incompetent, ineffectual, or clumsy person; especially a mediocre golfer

Eurythmy

Harmony of proportion in architecture. 2. A system of rhythmical body movements performed to a recitation of verse or prose.
Fetid
Having an offensive smell; stinking.  He grew up between the river and the vineyard-covered slopes, between the fetid smell of the tannery and the f

Froward -

Stubbornly contrary and disobedient; obstinate.

Gimcrack

noun: A showy but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw. adjective:
Tastelessly showy; cheap; gaudy.

Gloaming

twilight, dusk

Halcyon

Calm; quiet; peaceful; undisturbed; happy; as, "deep, halcyon repose."
2. Marked by peace and prosperity; as, "halcyon years.

Helot -

A person in servitude; a serf.

Homogolate

sanction, allow; especially : to approve or confirm officially

Mimesis

1. The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art. 2. Biology Mimicry. 3. Medicine The appearance, often caused by hysteria, of sym
Plangent
Loud and resounding: plangent bells. Expressing or suggesting sadness; plaintive: “From a doorway came the plangent sounds of a guitar

Sinecure

A position or office that requires little or no work but provides a salary.  Archaic An ecclesiastical benefice not attached to the spiritual duties of a parish.

Trenchant

Forceful, effective, and vigorous: a trenchant argument. See synonyms at incisive. 2. Caustic; cutting: trenchant criticism. 3.

Tumuli -

Etymology: Latin; akin to Latin tumEre to swell -- more at THUMB: an artificial hillock or mound (as over a grave); <

Edacious 

- Characterized by voracity; devouring.
Nimiety - 
Superfluity; excess.
Effulgent
the state of being bright and radiant

Trencherman -

A hearty eater.  Archaic One who frequents another's table; a hanger-on or parasite.

Neoteny - .

Retention of juvenile characteristics in the adults of a species, as among certain amphibians. 2. The attainment of sexual maturity by an organism still in its larval stage

Beneficence

the practice of doing good

Macerate - 

To make soft by soaking or steeping in a liquid. 2. To separate into constituents by soaking. 3. To cause to become lean, usually by starvation; emaciate.

Sempiternal

everlasting; eternal
Styptic
tending to contract or bind : astringent; especially : tending to check bleeding

Onus:

burden; also, blame; stigma

Distaff - 

A staff that holds on its cleft end the unspun flax, wool, or tow from which thread is drawn in spinning by hand.  An attachment for a spinning wheel that serves this purpose.  Work and concerns traditionally considered
Solferino -
A moderate purplish red.

Fideism

Reliance on faith alone rather than scientific reasoning or philosophy in questions of religion.

Sententious

Terse and energetic in expression; pithy. 2a. Abounding in aphorisms. b. Given to aphoristic utterances. 3a. Abounding in pompous moralizing. b. Given to pompous moralizing.

Malentendu -

A misunderstanding.

Tintinnabulation

1 : the ringing or sounding of bells; a jingling or tinkling sound as if of bells

élan vital - 

The vital force hypothesized by Henri Bergson as a source of efficient causation and evolution in nature. Also called life force.

Pelf

money and riches

Pettifogger

1. A petty, quibbling, unscrupulous lawyer. 2. One who quibbles over trivia.
Argus -
1 : a hundred-eyed monster of Greek mythology 2 : a watchful guardian

Tocsin

warning

Jacobin

A radical or extreme leftist. 2. A radical republican during the French Revolution. 3. A Dominican friar.

Provenience

origin
Doyen
A man who is the eldest or senior member of a group

Orotund -

full in sound; also, bombastic.

Filial

of, relating to, or befitting a son or daughter 2 : having or assuming the relation of a child or offspring

Discursive

Covering a wide field of subjects; rambling.  Proceeding to a conclusion through reason rather than intuition.

Metonymy - 

A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States government or of the sword for military power.

Virago -

an ill-tempered, overbearing woman; also, a woman of great strength and courage. 

Praemunire - 

1. The offense under English law of appealing to or obeying a foreign court or authority, thus challenging the supremacy of the Crown. 2. The writ charging this offense. 3. The penalty for this offense.

Susurrus -

a whispering or rustling sound.

Recondite -

Not easily understood; abstruse. See synonyms at ambiguous. 2. Concerned with or treating something abstruse or obscure: recondite scholarship. 3

Nugatory

1. Of little or no importance; trifling. 2. Having no force; invalid

Jejune

1 : lacking nutritive value 2 : devoid of significance or interest : dull 3 : juvenile, puerile

Catachresis

use of the wrong word for the context 2 : use of a forced and especially paradoxical figure of speech

Zeitgeist -

The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation: “It's easy to see how a student... in the 1940's could imbibe such notions. The Zeitgeist encouraged Philosopher-Kings” (James Atlas).

Temporize -

to draw out discussions or negotiations so as to gain time

Propitious -

presenting favorable circumstances.

Vulnerary -

used for or useful in healing wounds

Ossify - 

To change into bone; become bony.  To become set in a rigidly conventional pattern: “The central ideas of liberalism have ossified” (Jeffrey Hart).

Carceral - 

of, relating to, or suggesting a jail or prison

Puissant

Powerful; strong; mighty; as, a puissant prince or empire

Afflatus -

A strong creative impulse, especially as a result of divine inspiration

Chatoyant -

having a changeable luster or color with an undulating narrow band of white light
Sabulous
gritty, sandy


Hebetude -
Dullness of mind; mental lethargy

Polymath -

a person of encyclopedic learning

Splenetic -

marked by bad temper, malevolence, or spite

Abulia

abnormal lack of ability to act or to make decisions

Ensurient –

hungry, greedy
Martinet  
Etymology: Jean Martinet, 17th century French army officer
1 : a strict disciplinarian
2 : a person who stresses a rigid adherence to the details of forms and methods
alfresco
taking place or located in the open air : outdoor, outdoors
rebarbative
repellent, irritating
clepsydra 
water clock
ex parte

1 : On or from one side or party only -- used of legal proceedings

2 : from a one-sided or partisan point of view

Longanimity
a disposition to bear injuries patiently : forbearance
Pluvial
a : of or relating to rain
*b : characterized by abundant rain
2 of a geologic change : resulting from
Nonage
*1 : minority
2 a : a period of youth
b : lack of maturity
Churlish
It is easy to understand how "churlish" has come to mean "vulgar," "surly," and "intractable" if you know your English history. In Anglo-Saxon England a churl, or ceorl, was a freeman of the lowest
Overweening
1 : arrogant, presumptuous
*2 : immoderate, exaggerated
Rutilant
having a reddish glow
Riparian
relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater
Opusculum
a minor work (as of literature)
Mythomania
an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating
Wowser
an obtrusively puritanical person
Internecine
1 : marked by slaughter : deadly; especially : mutually destructive
*2 : of, relating to, or involving confl
Usance
1 : firmly established and generally accepted practice or procedure : usage
2 : use, employment
Camarilla
a group of unofficial often secret and scheming advisers; also : cabal
sprachgefuhl
an intuitive sense of what is linguistically appropriate
Prehensile
*1 : adapted for seizing or grasping especially by wrapping around
2 : gifted with mental grasp or moral or aesthetic perception
atrabilious
1 : given to or marked by melancholy : gloomy
*2 : ill-natured, peevish
roustabout
1 a : deckhand
b : longshoreman
2 : an unskilled or semiskilled laborer especially in an oil field or refinery
inkhorn
ostentatiously learned : pedantic
corybantic
Cybele (According to Oriental and Greco-Roman mythology, she was the mother of it all: gods, humans, animals . . . even nature itself. The Corybants were Cybele's attendants and priests, and they worshipped her with an unrestrained f
Fulminate
to send forth censures or invectives
jackanapes
1 : monkey, ape
2 a : an impudent or conceited fellow
*b : a saucy or mischievous child
henotheism
the worship of one god without denying the existence of other gods
Prothalamion
a song in celebration of a marriage
entelechy
1. In the philosophy of Aristotle, the condition of a thing whose essence is fully realized; actuality. 2. In some philosophical systems, a vital force that directs an organism toward self-fulfillment.
aver
to declare
blandishment
speech or action intended to coax someone into doing something
cadge
to get something by taking advantage of someone
depradation
the act of preying upon or plundering
emollient
Something that softens
extant
In existence, still existing
impecunious
penniless, poor
improvidence
Absence of foresight, failure to provide for future needs or events
intransigent
Stubborn, unwilling to move or change
noisome
harmful, defensive, destructive
pecadillo
a small sin or fault
perfidious
deliberately treacherous
pulchritudinous
Beautiful
pusillanimous
Cowardly, timid, or irresolute; petty
rarefy
to make or become thin; to purify or refine
specious
seemingly true but false
turpitude
depravity, baseness
accede  
agree
acclivity
sharp upslope of a hill
evince
1 : to constitute outward evidence of
2 : to display clearly : REVEAL