Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Index

a
  • abhor
    abhor [ab hôr´]
    present everywhere
    →“I abhor the process of hiring public servants.” Senator Wayne Morse, speech, 4/17/61
  • abjure
    abjure [ab jůr´]
    renounce, abstain from
    →“Galileo was summoned before the inquisition where he was ordered to abjure his theory.” S. F. Mason, Science Digest, 5/98
  • abortive
    abortive [ə bôr´ tiv]
    fruitless,* useless, failing
    →“His company made an abortive attempt to circle the enemy position but they fell back under fire.” Captain Ron Herbert, Keep Your Medals
  • abound
    abound [ə bound´]
    to exist in great numbers
    →"A smart thriller that abounds with suspense and excitement!" Newspaper ad for film The General's Daughter
  • abrogate
    abrogate [ab´ rə gāt]
    abolish
    →“I decided to abrogate the agreement since General Motors was not living up to its part of the bargain.” Paul Sawyer, Seeking Justice
  • abstemious
    abstemious [ab ste´ mē əs]
    moderate in eating or drinking
    →“Be more abstemious Or else, good night your vow.” William Shakespeare, The Tempest
  • absurd
    absurd [ab sėrd´]
    a person who is intolerant of other people or ideas
    →“Many rules in the English language are absurd because they are based on Latin rules.” Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue
  • access
    access [ak´ ses]
    admittance
    →“Everything was simplified, and we were gaining access to infinity: soon the moon, SOON THE MOON!” Editorial, Le Figaro (Paris), 8/14/61
  • accommodate
    accommodate [ə kom´ ə dāt]
    to make fit, adjust to
    →“The awards will be given out at a place that will accommodate C-Span.” James Barron, “Public Lives,” New York Times, 6/10/99
  • accomplice
    accomplice [ə kom´ plis]
    an associate in crime
    →“His chief accomplice was Democratic boss John Dingell, who sold out his party in the dark of night.” Maureen Dowd, “The God Squad,” New York Times, 6/20/99
  • accost
    accost [ə kôst´]
    to approach and speak to
    →Sir Toby: “You mistake, knight: accost is front her, board her, woo her, assail her.” William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
  • acknowledge
    acknowledge [ak nol´ ij]
    admit
    →“They used the Swiss routes and camp sites—which they later acknowledged— and by the end of April were established in full strength at their fifth camp.” James Ramsey Ullman, “Victory on Everest”
  • acme
    acme [ak´ mē]
    peak, pinnacle,* zenith*
    →“He was the acme of a political figure.” John Gunther, Inside U.S.A.
  • acrimonious
    acrimonious [ak´ rə mō´ nē əs]
    bitter
    →“We quickly learn of the acrimonious relationship between the Montagues and the Capulets.” Playbill, Summary of Romeo & Juliet
  • acute
    acute [ə kyüt´]
    sharp, keen, severe
    →“The candidate presented an acute problem for his party because of his independent views.” Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics
  • adamant
    adamant [ad´ ə mant]
    unyielding, inflexible
    →“The candidate was adamant in his refusal to answer an embarrassing question about his early use of drugs.” TIME, 8/12/99
  • adherent
    adherent [ad hir´ ənt]
    backer, supporter
    →“The state employs a flag as a symbol for adherents to the government as presently organized.” U.S. Supreme Court decision, 1943
  • admonish
    admonish [ad mon´ ish]
    to warn, to reprove
    →“A little drummer boy grinned in me face whin I had admonished him wid the buckle av my belt for riotin’ all over the place.” Rudyard Kipling, “The Courting of Dinah Shadd”
  • adroit
    adroit [ə droit´]
    skillful
    →“Amazingly adroit in building model airplanes while he was in junior high, Eric moved on to an aeronautic career in his twenties.” Val Bakker, “Early Decision” [adapted]
  • advent
    advent [ad´ vent]
    the coming of an important event
    →“Industrial canning and the advent of freezing have reduced home canning to a curiosity.” Molly O’Neill, New York Times, 7/18/99
  • adversary
    adversary [ad´ vər ser´ ē]
    opponent, enemy, foe
    →“Both fighters had nothing but kind words to say about their adversaries.” Hal Butler, “The Battle in the Rain”
  • adverse
    adverse [ad´ vėrs]
    unfavorable, harmful
    →“Illogical as it may seem, adverse criticism can be very rewarding.” S. Andhil Fineberg, “Deflating the Professional Bigot”
  • advocate
    advocate [ad´ və kāt]
    to be in favor of, to support
    →“Advocates of marriage classes contend that giving teens these tools could eventually curb the divorce rate.” Jodie Morse, “Hitched in Home Room,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • aegis
    aegis [ē´ jis]
    shield, protection, sponsorship
    →“The Federal Reserve will remain under the aegis of the veteran head who was reappointed by the President yesterday.” New York Times, 1/5/00
  • afflict
    afflict [ə flikt´]
    to trouble greatly, to distress
    →“It afflicted the neighborhood with the stench of slime that was now laid bare.” Edmund Wilson, “The Man Who Shot Snapping Turtles”
  • affluent
    affluent [af´ lü ənt]
    rich
    →“You are affluent when you buy what you want, do what you wish and don’t give a thought to what it costs.” J. P. Morgan, quoted in Crown Treasury of Relevant Quotations
  • alacrity
    alacrity [ə lak´ rə tē]
    briskness, lively action
    →“When the price of A.T.&T. dropped significantly, fund managers moved with alacrity to accumulate more shares.” Ted David, CNBC Financial News
  • allay
    allay [ə lā´]
    calm, soothe
    →“The President’s message was an attempt to allay the fears of senior citizens.” “The Future of Medicare,” Washington Post, 3/16/98
  • alleged
    alleged [ə lejd´]
    reported, supposed
    →“I harvested the intelligence that Ricks was alleged to have laid off all that portion of the State of Florida that has been under water into town lots and sold them to innocent investors.” O’Henry, “The Man Higher Up”
  • alleviate
    alleviate [ə lē´ vē āt]
    make easier, lighten
    →“The report of the transportation division pointed out that the overcrowded highways required immediate attention in order to alleviate the long delays.” The Queens Courier, 1/11/00
  • allude
    allude [ə lüd´]
    hint, suggest
    →“Gertrude Stein’s phrase, ‘A rose, is a rose, is a rose’ alludes to nothing more or less than what she writes.” Alice B. Toklas, Time Capsule, 1933
  • aloof
    aloof [ə lüf´]
    distant, apart, reserved
    →“Greta Garbo held herself so aloof from her co-stars, they felt they had not been introduced.” Alistair Cooke, The Great Movie Stars
  • altruistic
    altruistic [al´ trü is´ tik]
    unselfish
    →“The conflict is between selfishness and altruism.” Former Senator Estes Kefauver, campaign speech
  • ambiguous
    ambiguous [am big´ yü əs]
    vague, undefined, not specific
    →“If you disagree with a friend, be firm, not ambiguous.” Samuel Ornage, The Golden Book
  • ameliorate
    ameliorate [ə mē´ lyə rāt]
    improve, relieve
    →“Our aim should be to ameliorate human affairs.” John Stuart Mill
  • amicable
    amicable [am´ ə kə bəl]
    friendly, peaceful
    →“Their parting is effective Friday, and was described in their joint statement as ‘amicable’.” Bill Carter, “Lou Dobbs Quits CNN,” New York Times, 6/9/99
  • amnesty
    amnesty [am´ nə stē]
    a general pardon
    →“No one is advocating wholesale amnesty for inmates solely because of advancing age.” Tamerlin Drummond, “Cellblock Seniors,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • amorous
    amorous [am´ ər əs]
    full of love
    →“A complete gentleman ought to dress well, dance well, have a genius for love letters, be very amorous but not overconstant.” Sir George Etherege, The Man of Mode
  • analogous
    analogous [ə nal´ ə gəs]
    comparable, similar
    →“Not with the brightness natural to cheerful youth, but with uncertain, eager, doubtful flashes, analogous to the changes on a blind face groping its way.” Charles Dickens, Hard Times
  • anathema
    anathema [ə nath´ ə mə]
    something greatly detested
    →“The founding document of the American Reform movement depicted ritual as anachronistic, even anathema in an enlightened age.” Samuel G. Freedman, “The UnReformation,” New York, 6/21/99
  • annals
    annals [an´ nəlz]
    historical records
    →“He would begin these annals with Columbus, and he would keep on with them until his hand was too palsied to hold a pen.” Catherine Drinker Bowen, Yankee from Olympus
  • anomaly
    anomaly [ə nom´ ə lē]
    irregularity, abnormality
    →“My mother was American, my ancestors were officers in Washington’s army, and I am an anomaly.” Winston Churchill, speech, 1953
  • anthropologist
    anthropologist [an´ thrə pol´ ə jist]
    an expert in the study of the races, beliefs, customs, etc. of mankind
    →“Burning tobacco, anthropologists have found, was a religious practice over 2000 years ago in the Mayan culture.” Journal of Urban Health, 9/99
  • antipathy
    antipathy [an tip´ ə thē]
    dislike, distaste, hate
    →“There is no need to anticipate any antipathy from your future in-laws when you plan a wedding.” “Wedding Guide,” Courier-Life Publications, 7/99
  • antiquated
    antiquated [an´ tə kwā tid]
    out-of-date, obsolete
    →“The custom of throwing rice at a newly married couple is an antiquated one, originally meaning a wish for many children.” “Wedding Guide,” Courier-Life Publications, 7/99
  • antithesis
    antithesis [an tith´ ə sis]
    exact opposite
    →“Drunkenness is the antithesis of dignity.” Bergen Evans, “Now Everyone is Hip About Slang”
  • apathy
    apathy [ap´ ə thē]
    lack of interest, unconcern
    →“The younger generation exhibits apathy toward the issue of freedom of the press.” Herbert Brucker, Journalist
  • appalled
    appalled [ə pôld´]
    dismayed, shocked
    →“A calm and steady temperament deserted him while he stared, appalled, at the contents.” John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle
  • appellation
    appellation [ap´ ə lā´ shən]
    a name
    →“He went under the appellation of ‘Pretty Boy’ but to his victims he was anything but that.” Dexter Holcomb, Did the Roaring Twenties Really Roar? [adapted]
  • arbiter
    arbiter [är´ bə tər]
    judge
    →“Sonja Henie became the supreme arbiter of skating fashions.” Maribel Y. Vinson, “Ice Maiden”
  • arbitrary
    arbitrary [är´ bə trer´ ē]
    poor, needy
    →“My arbitrary decision not to run puts Massachusetts at a disadvantage and probably was a mistake.” Representative Martin Meehan in Newsday, 6/1/99
  • archaic
    archaic [är ka´ ik]
    out of date
    →“Many procedures of the law have long seemed archaic to laymen.” Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, quoted in San Francisco Examiner, 1/4/71
  • ardent
    ardent [ärd´ nt]
    passionate, eager
    →“There is no more ardent performer than Judy Garland as she allows her emotions to shine through.” Penelope Houston, Sight and Sound, 1954
  • array
    array [ə rā´]
    arrangement, system
    →“She arrayed herself in what seemed unbelievably beautiful clothes.” Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio
  • articulate
    articulate [ar tik´ yə lit]
    well-spoken
    →“The senator’s supporters were upset by the adjectives used to describe him: clean and articulate.” Editorial, The New York Times
  • artifact
    artifact [är´ tə fakt]
    lifeless
    →“In caves in Chile, remains of horses have been found along with human artifacts.” A. Hyatt Verrill, The Strange Story of Our Earth
  • artifice
    artifice [är´ tə fis]
    strategy, trickery
    →“The successful advertiser will use any artifice to get his message seen.” E. S. Turner, The Shocking History of Advertising
  • artless
    artless [art´ lis]
    innocent, naive*
    →“Behind the naive, artless manner, there was a woman scheming for success.” John Simon, Reverse Angle
  • ascend
    ascend [ə send´]
    to rise
    →“As he set himself to fan the fire again, his crouching shadow ascended the opposite wall.” James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”
  • ascertain
    ascertain [as´ ər tān´]
    discover, find out about
    →“Scientists have been trying to ascertain why dinosaurs became extinct so suddenly.” A. Hyatt Verrill, The Strange Story of Our Earth
  • ascetic
    ascetic [ə set´ ik]
    one who practices self-denial and devotion
    →“You don’t have to be an ascetic to wonder if there isn’t something a bit manic about the pace of getting and spending in today’s America.” Paul Krugman, “Money Can’t Buy Happiness. Er, Can It?,” New York Times, 6/1/99
  • asinine
    asinine [as´ n īn]
    silly, stupid
    →“We have developed what I believe is an asinine rating system for motion pictures.” Harold Owen, Jr., The Motion Picture
  • asperity
    asperity [a sper´ ə tē]
    harshness of temper
    →“The path of beauty is not soft and smooth, but full of harshness and asperity.” Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life
  • aspirant
    aspirant [əspī´ rənt]
    candidate for high position
    →“A number of playwrights, small aspirants to the big screen, must already be pricing beach houses in Malibu.” Ross Wetzsteon, Introduction to New Plays USA
  • aspire
    aspire [ə spīr´]
    to strive for
    →“To humility indeed it does not even aspire.” John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University
  • asset
    asset [as´ et]
    a valuable thing to have
    →“Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified holding company with assets in manufacturing, insurance, aircraft safety training, etc.” “Warren Buffet’s Fabulous Fund,” Mutual Funds Magazine, 6/99
  • assiduous
    assiduous [ə sij´ ü əs]
    devoted, attentive
    →“Richard Greenberg is aiming here for big laughs at the expense of the generation he so assiduously chronicled in the past.” Peter Marks, “Making Mincemeat of Boomer Values”
  • astute
    astute [ə stüt´ or ə styüt´]
    keen, shrewd
    →“From an astute standpoint, that’s exactly what the ballplayers should do instead of running out to mob the other guy.” Tim McCarver, Baseball for Brain Surgeons
  • atrophy
    atrophy [at´ rə fē]
    waste away
    →“Some people thought that too much reading would atrophy a girl’s brain forever.” Ann McGovern, The Secret Soldier
  • attenuated
    attenuated [ə ten´ yü ā tid]
    weakened, thinned, decreased
    →“The players’ strike resulted in an attenuated and boring season.” Sports Illustrated, 10/96
  • attest
    attest [ə test´]
    to certify
    →“Thousands of satisfied users can attest to the great features such as Voicemail and Caller ID that work the same way wherever you go on our network.” Newspaper ad for Internet company, New York Times, 6/12/99
  • atypical
    atypical [ā tip´ ə kəl]
    nonconforming
    →“He is an atypical candidate, without glamour, fame or wealth.” New York Post, 8/15/99
  • au courant
    au courant [ō´ kü raNt´]
    up-to-date
    →“He seemed to be au courant with everything.” Arnold Bennett, Lord Raingo
  • audacity
    audacity [ô das´ ə tē]
    boldness, daring
    →“Boldness be my friend! Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!” William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
  • augment
    augment [ôg ment´]
    enlarge, increase
    →“The Russian army was augmented by helicopters and rocket-launching tanks in its attack on the defenders.” Newsday, 11/27/99
  • austere
    austere [ô stir´]
    simple, unadorned, hard
    →“New York City was founded by austere puritan colonists who could never imagine the city as it is today.” Moses Riechin, The Promised City
  • automaton
    automaton [ô tom´ ə ton]
    a robot; a mechanical “person”
    →“She’s an automaton; she has every quality in the world, and I’ve often wondered why it is with all that I’m so completely indifferent to her.” W. Somerset Maugham, The Treasure
  • avarice
    avarice [av´ ər is]
    greed, passion for riches
    →“He could not disguise his avarice under a cloak of religion.” Ambrose Bierce
  • aversion
    aversion [ə ver´ zhən]
    strong dislike, opposition
    →“During the last years of his administration the mayor showed an aversion to taking political risks.” Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics
  • avid
    avid [av´ id]
    eager
    →“CUNY will have no more avid and fierce supporter for its mission than himself.” Karen Arenson, “New Vice-Chairman of CUNY,” New York Times, 6/10/99
  • awesome
    awesome [ô´ səm]
    inspiring terror, weird
    →“Africa has some of the most awesome jungles in the world.” John Hersey, Into the Valley
b
  • badger
    badger [baj´ər]
    to pester, nag, annoy persistently
    →“There are other do’s and don’ts: don’t threaten your children, don’t badger them.” Newspaper ad for Partnership for a Drug-Free America, New York Times, 11/4/99
  • bagatelle
    bagatelle [bag´ ə tel´]
    a trifle
    →“He saw the benefits to his people as a mere bagatelle.” Winston Churchill, Great Contemporaries
  • balk
    balk [bôk]
    to refuse to move
    →“She rested on the stair—a young woman of a beauty that should balk even the justice of a poet’s imagination.” O. Henry, “Roads of Destiny”
  • banal
    banal [bā´ nl]
    trivial, meaningless from overuse
    →“Mansfield Park is a bore! What might have been attractive on a TV screen proved to be uninteresting and banal on the big screen.” “Koch Goes To The Movies,” Queens Courier, 1/12/00
  • barometer
    barometer [bə rom´ ə tər]
    instrument for measuring change
    →“We watched carefully to see the ties that Mr. Smythe would wear as they were a sure barometer of the mood he would be in.” Loring Brewster, “Vermont’s Mr. Chips”
  • bedlam
    bedlam [bed´ ləm]
    confusion, uproar
    →“There was bedlam as the crowd awoke to the relief of victory.” Dick Thatcher, Against All Odds
  • begrudge
    begrudge [bi gruj´]
    to be resentful or reluctant
    →“Taxpayers never seem to begrudge the use of their money when spent on local projects important to them.” Newsday, 8/22/99
  • belated
    belated [bi lāt´ tid]
    late, delayed
    →“When he made his belated entrance into the political campaign, he was told he had no chance.” Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics
  • belittle
    belittle [bi lit´ l]
    to make seem less important
    →“To say this is not to belittle subject matter, which is clearly essential to any proper education.” William H. Kilpatrick, “Progressive Education”
  • belligerent
    belligerent [bə lij´ ər ənt]
    warlike
    →“North Korea’s belligerence in planning to test a long-range missile has led to a dramatic change of course for Japan and South Korea.” Howard French, “Two Wary Neighbors Unite,” New York Times, 8/4/99
  • benevolent
    benevolent [bə nev´ ə lənt]
    kindly, charitable
    →“My relationship to this land is purely spiritual: It’s a place of absolute silence, absolute benevolence.” Stephen Trimble, Wilderness
  • bereft
    bereft [bi reft´]
    deprived of
    →“The pictures of the bereft survivors searching for their loved ones are painful to see.” Newsday, 9/19/99
  • besiege
    besiege [bi sēj´]
    to surround, hem in
    →“He felt unable to carry the Confederate lines and settled down to besiege their fortifications.” David Herbert Donald, Lincoln
  • besmirch
    besmirch [bi smė rch´]
    soil, stain, dim the reputation
    →“A primary attack on any witness against your client is an attempt to besmirch his or her character.” Quoted in New York Times Magazine, 9/20/70
  • bias
    bias [bī´ əs]
    prejudice
    →“U.S. SUIT CHARGES BIAS IN NASSAU COUNTY PROPERTY TAXES” Headline, New York Times, 6/15/99
  • bigot
    bigot [big´ ət]
    a narrow-minded, prejudiced person
    →“For only by claiming the limelight can the bigot draw followers and an income.” S. Andhil Fineberg, “Deflating the Professional Bigot”
  • bizarre
    bizarre [bə zär´]
    an object made by hand, rather than a thing as it occurs in nature
    →“The police claim they were responding to the bizarre behavior of the man when they were forced to shoot him.” New York Post, 9/27/99
  • blasé
    blasé [blä zā´]
    indifferent, not responsive to excitement
    →“When he hit the home run that broke the record, he could no longer maintain his previously blasé attitude.” Newsday, 9/8/98
  • blatant
    blatant [blāt´ nt]
    disagreeably loud, very showy
    →“It’s a classic blatant pyramid scheme.” Robert Hanley, “Gifting Club,” New York Times, 6/23/99
  • bliss
    bliss [blis]
    happiness, pleasure
    →“Is there anything to match the bliss on a teenager’s face the day she obtains her license to drive?” Car and Driver, 9/99
  • blunt
    blunt [blunt]
    plain spoken
    →“Managers will put it bluntly: ‘You’ve got to catch the ball.’” Tim McCarver, Baseball for Brain Surgeons
  • bogus
    bogus [bō´ gəs]
    counterfeit, fake
    →“The mayor denied his proposed change in the election law was a bogus attempt to seize more power.” New York Times, 9/25/99
  • bona fide
    bona fide [bō´ nə fīd´]
    genuine
    →“Milosevic, a bona fide villain, will pay for his war crimes—we can be sure of that.” Editorial, Washington Post, 5/28/99
  • brash
    brash [brash]
    impudent
    →“Baker’s brash manner quickly antagonized the other warehouse workers.” Seymour Broock, Labor Meets Its Match
  • brigand
    brigand [brig´ ənd]
    robber, bandit
    →“The history of motion pictures shows that, from the earliest silent films, stories about western brigands would capture a large audience.” John Simon, Reverse Angle
  • bristle
    bristle [bris´ əl]
    stiffen with fear or anger
    →“No sooner had the dog caught sight of him, however, than it began to bristle and growl savagely.” H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man
  • buff
    buff [buf]
    a fan, follower
    →“Grandpa was a stock market buff, hanging around the Dreyfus office most every weekday and following the yo-yo Dow Jones averages.” Eloise Ryan Abernethy, One Family’s Finances [adapted]
  • bulwark
    bulwark [bůl´ wərk]
    protection
    →“That England, hedged in with the main, That water-walled bulwark, still secure And confidant from foreign purposes.” William Shakespeare, King John
  • burgeoned
    burgeoned [bėr´ jənd]
    flourished, grew
    →“In recent years programs on AM, FM, shortwave and low-powered stations have burgeoned.” Carlos Johnston, “Intelligence Report” Summer 1998
c
  • cabal
    cabal [ka bal´]
    secret group of plotters
    →“If a cabal’s secrets are revealed to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.” Kahlil Gibran
  • cache
    cache [kash]
    secret hiding place
    →“Fagin drew from his cache the box which he had unintentionally disclosed to Oliver.” Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
  • cacophony
    cacophony [kə kof´ ə ni]
    discord, harsh sound, dissonance
    →“At his side he had a battery run radio blasting forth a sickening cacophony of noise.” Freeman Tilden, The National Parks
  • cajole
    cajole [kə jōl´]
    coax
    →“We had to cajole tonight’s guest to come on the program because he’s something of a hermit.” Larry King on his CNN TV program, 8/25/99
  • callous
    callous [kal´ əs]
    unfeeling
    →“The movie industry was callous in the way it treated writers who came from New York.” Alex Ross, New Yorker, 2/23/98
  • callow
    callow [kal´ ō]
    youthful, inexperienced
    →“A group of newly arrived callow students followed nervously at the director’s heels.” Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow
  • calumny
    calumny [kal´ əm nē]
    false accusation, slander
    →“Overwhelmed by the calumny heaped upon him for his prejudice, he quickly resigned.” Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics
  • canard
    canard [kə närd´]
    a made-up sensational story
    →“It’s a canard to say I want to be a millionaire: I just want to live like one.” Toots Shor, quoted in Life Magazine, 10/12/69
  • candid
    candid [kan´ did]
    frank, open, honest
    →“Sweepstakes companies must be more candid about the chances of winning a prize.” AARP Bulletin, 9/99
  • candor
    candor [kan´ dər]
    frankness, honesty
    →“He was struck by the candor and self-reliance of the women in these islands.” “Pacific Paradise,” New York Times, 8/9/99
  • cant
    cant [kant]
    insincere or almost meaningless talk
    →“Although we hear much cant about loving one’s neighbor, life provides endless examples of just the opposite.” Paula Love, The Will Rogers Book
  • capitulate
    capitulate [kə pich´ ə lāt]
    surrender, make terms
    →“The embattled leader refused to capitulate to demands for his resignation.” Newsweek, 8/19/99
  • capricious
    capricious [kə prish´ əs]
    fanciful, whimsical*
    →“The snow removal equipment is always ready to face the capricious weather changes during the winter.” Newsday, 12/24/98
  • carnage
    carnage [kär´ nij]
    slaughter
    →“Amid the carnage resulting from the earthquake, many acts of courage can be seen.” New York Times, 9/20/99
  • castigate
    castigate [kas´ tə gāt]
    to correct by punishing
    →“Here is Holofernes commenting upon Armando, a mad wordman who castigates another while himself vocalizes into a fine frenzy.” Harold Bloom, Shakespeare
  • catastrophic
    catastrophic [kat´ ə strof´ ik]
    disastrous
    →“Romeo changes enormously under Juliet’s influence, remains subject to anger and despair, and is as responsible as Mercutio and Tybalt for the catastrophic event.” Harold Bloom, Shakespeare
  • caustic
    caustic [kô´ stik]
    sarcastic, biting
    →“His habitual sullenness, stern disposition and caustic tongue produced a deep impression upon our young minds.” Aleksandr Pushkin, “The Shot”
  • celerity
    celerity [sə ler´ ə tē]
    speed, rapidity
    →“The human mind acts at times with amazing celerity.” Benjamin Cardozo, The Growth of the Law
  • cessation
    cessation [se sā´ shən]
    a stopping
    →“The evolutions of the waltzers were quieted, there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before.” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death”
  • chagrin
    chagrin [shə grin´]
    feeling of disappointment, humiliation
    →“He spent great energy and achieved, to our chagrin, no small amount of success in keeping us away from the people who surrounded us.” James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son
  • charisma
    charisma [kə riz´ mə]
    quality of leadership inspiring enthusiasm
    →“Yali radiated charisma and energy as he led his people.” Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
  • charlatan
    charlatan [shär´ lə tən]
    pretender, fraud
    →“Many of my friends believe in fortune tellers; I think they are charlatans.” Letter to “Dear Abby,” New York Daily News, 5/16/99
  • chicanery
    chicanery [shi kā´ nə r ē]
    trickery, underhandedness
    →“As a profession, lawyers have become associated with chicanery and confusion.” People, 2/4/99
  • chimerical
    chimerical [kə mer´ ə kəl]
    visionary, imaginary, fantastic
    →“His utopia is not a chimerical commonwealth but a practicable improvement on what already exists.” George Santayana, The Sense of Beauty
  • circuitous
    circuitous [sar kyōo´ i təs]
    roundabout
    →“Although it took a cricuitous route, the curveball finally reached the catcher’s mitt.” Red Smith
  • clandestine
    clandestine [klan des´ tən]
    secret, undercover
    →“Mr. DeLay’s plan for another ‘independent’ group is nothing less than a proposal to create a clandestine and corrupt slush fund.” Editorial, New York Times, 6/1/99
  • cliché
    cliché [klē shā´]
    a commonplace phrase
    →“The cliché ‘Politics makes strange bedfellows’ certainly applies in this situation.” Newsweek, 9/20/99
  • clique
    clique [klēk]
    small, exclusive group of people
    →“The tragic event points out the danger of forming cliques in school that shut out many.” Newsday, 5/15/99
  • coerce
    coerce [kō ėrs´]
    to force
    →“The loan sharks sometimes have to coerce people in order to collect the debt.” Peter Kilborn, “Lenders Thrive on Workers in Need,” New York Times, 6/18/99
  • cogent
    cogent [kō´ jənt]
    forceful, convincing, persuasive
    →“This article paints a clear and cogent picture of how to handle blowouts.” Car and Travel, 9/99
  • cognizant
    cognizant [kog´ nə zənt]
    aware
    →“I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states.” Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From Birmingham Jail”
  • comely
    comely [kum´ lē]
    beautiful, handsome
    →“An island peopled by the most comely women to be seen anywhere, Bora Bora is a must.” Travel, 11/99
  • commodious
    commodious [kə mō´ dē əs]
    large, spacious
    →“The new baseball stadium offered a more commodious arena for the fans and players.” Sports Illustrated, 5/11/99
  • compassion
    compassion
    sympathetic feeling, kindness
    →“In addition to professional skills, patients want a physician who is compassionate.” Advertisement for Maimonides Medical Center, 9/25/95
  • compatible
    compatible [kəm pat´ ə bəl]
    harmonious, well-matched
    →“The policies of the party are not compatible with his conservative beliefs.” U.S. News and World Report, 8/25/99
  • compensatory
    compensatory [kəm pen´ sə tô´ rē]
    serving to pay back
    →“The compensatory factor was a new arrival; Anukul had a son born to him.” Rabindramath Tagore, “My Lord, the Baby”
  • complacent
    complacent [kəm plā´ snt]
    self-satisfied
    →“Weather experts warn not to be complacent about the possibility of a dangerous hurricane.” New York, 9/18/95
  • complicity
    complicity [kəm plis´ ə tē]
    partnership in wrongdoing
    →“After 1945, Hitler’s Germans replaced complicity with denial.” Lance Morrow, “Done in the Name of Evil,” TIME, 6/14/99
  • component
    component [kəm pō´ nənt]
    element
    →“The F.B.I. did, in fact, develop a racial component, the profile of serial killers as predominantly white, male loners.” Jeffrey Goldberg, “The Color of Suspicion,” New York Times, 6/20/99
  • compound
    compound [kom pound´]
    to increase or add to
    →“The match between England and Argentina, always a blood feud, was compounded by the memory of the Falklands crisis.” Henry Kissinger, “Pele,” TIME, 6/14/99
  • comprehensive
    comprehensive [kom´ pri hen´ siv]
    thorough
    →“Lecter was built up as a superman, embodying absolute yet comprehensive evil.” Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, “Hannibal Lecter Returns,” New York Times Book Review, 6/10/99
  • concoct
    concoct [kon kokt´]
    devise
    →“I am concocting a seduction; I do not require a pastry chef.” Ben Brantley, New York Times, 6/15/99
  • concomitant
    concomitant [kon kom´ ə tənt]
    accompanying, attending
    →“The doses of the drug were increased with the concomitant result that he quickly became an addict.” Otto Friedrich, Before the Deluge
  • concur
    concur [kən kėr´]
    agree
    →“Dr. Fishbein did not concur with his colleague’s diagnosis and urged the Harper family to seek an opinion from the head of the Urology Department at Columbia Presbyterian.” “Prostate Update,” Prostate Digest, 9/99
  • condescend
    condescend [kon´ di send´]
    stoop, lower oneself
    →“The reviewer treated this important book in the most condescending and dismissing manner.” Letter to New York Times Book Review, 7/25/99
  • condolence
    condolence [kən dō´ ləns]
    pity
    →“Words of condolence seem very poor things and yet they are all one can use to tell of one’s sympathy.” Maisie Ward, Father Maturin
  • condone
    condone [kən dōn´]
    excuse, pardon
    →“He does not condone the actions of any of the participants in the impeachment hearings.” New York Times Book Review, 9/26/99
  • conducive
    conducive [kən dü´ siv]
    leading, helpful
    →“The quiet calm of this garden is conducive to romance or repose.” “The Sophisticated Traveler,” 9/26/99
  • confidant(e)
    confidant(e) [kon´ fə dant´]
    one to whom you confide your secrets
    →“Lecter rents a lavish house not terribly far from the modest duplex of FBI agent Starling, his antagonist/confidant during the period seven years earlier.” Paul Gray, “Dessert Anyone?,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • conflagration
    conflagration [kon´ flə grā´ shən]
    great fire
    →“Did the firing of incendiary tear gas canisters cause or contribute to the conflagration?” New York Times, 9/3/99
  • confront
    confront [kən frunt´]
    come face to face with
    →“When we gaze into a seeming infinity of tomorrows, we face the challenge that any generation confronts when it looks ahead.” Editorial, “2000 and Beyond,” New York Times, 1/1/00
  • congenial
    congenial [kən jē´ nyəl]
    sympathetic, agreeable
    →“Susan’s congenial manner made her a favorite in the rodeo.” Lacey Fosburgh, “All-Girls Rodeos,” New York Times, 8/17/99
  • conjecture
    conjecture [kən jek´ chər]
    guess
    →“We read to understand how to take care of ourselves, to prepare for the unexpected, to conjecture what we would do in similar situations.” Annie Proulx, “They Lived to Tell the Tale”
  • conjugal
    conjugal [kon´ jə gəl]
    relating to marriage
    →Hillary is Our Lady of Perpetual Conjugal Suffering; the patron saint of every woman who’s ever been wronged.” Maureen Dowd, “Rudy in Reverse,” New York Times, 6/6/99
  • connoisseur
    connoisseur [kon´ ə sėr´]
    expert
    →“This is the car for the connoisseur who doesn’t have to think about cost.” Car and Driver, 10/99
  • connubial
    connubial [kə nü´ bē əl]
    related to marriage
    →“I never could imagine connubial bliss until after tea.” W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale
  • consternation
    consternation [kon´ stər nā´ shən]
    dismay
    →“Father and son stared at each other in consternation and neither knew what to do.” Pearl Buck, The Good Earth
  • constrict
    constrict [kən strikt´]
    limit, bind, squeeze
    →“He grew up in slightly less constricted circumstances than his teammates.” Darcy Frey, The Last Shot
  • construe
    construe [kən strü´]
    to make a deduction, to infer
    →“Hemingway’s simple approach was construed as mysticism.” Robert Ruark, “Ernest Was Very Simple”
  • consummate
    consummate [kən sum´ it]
    complete, of the highest degree
    →“Arnold Zweig, a writer of consummate artistry, presents a picture of delicacy and charm that hovers on the brink of disaster.” Roger Goodman, World-Wide Stories
  • contemptuous
    contemptuous [kən temp´ chü əs]
    ridiculous
    →“It is not difficult to feel contemptuous when studying the ugly behavior of some of the powerful figures of motion pictures.” Pauline Kael, I Lost It at the Movies
  • contort
    contort [kən tôrt´]
    twist violently
    →“He is an actor who can contort his face into any number of shapes.” People, 4/15/99
  • controversial
    controversial [kon´ trə ver´]
    debatable
    →“His three-year tenure was controversial and contained charges of racism.” Monte Williams, “Roosevelt Island Chief,” New York Times, 6/10/99
  • cope
    cope [kōp]
    to be a match for, to be able to handle
    →“Every single muscle in the body was strained to the uttermost throughout the watch to cope with the steering.” Thor Heyerdahl, Kon Tiki
  • copious
    copious [ko´ pē əs]
    ample, abundant, plentiful
    →“The wedding reception featured copious amounts of food, drink, and music.” New York Times, 9/26/99
  • corpulent
    corpulent [kôr´ pyə lənt]
    fleshy, obese,* excessively fat
    →“When he squeezed his corpulent body into a chair he seemed to be stuck there forever.” Charles W. Thompson, Presidents I Have Known
  • corroborate
    corroborate [kə rob´ ə rāt]
    confirm, support
    →“Bill corroborated the captain’s statement, hurried back down the glistening ladders to his duty.” Hanson W. Baldwin, “R.M.S. Titanic”
  • coterie
    coterie [kō´ tərē]
    small group having something in common
    →“The aristocratic coterie finally got the upper hand.” Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way
  • countenance
    countenance [koun´ tə nəns]
    tolerate,* approve
    →“Behind a most pleasant countenance, this dictator has maintained a most brutal regime.” Newsweek, 2/21/98
  • coup
    coup [kü]
    revolution
    →“Newt Gingrich was nearly toppled in a coup attempt in the House.” Michael Duffy, “Who Chose George?,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • covert
    covert [kō´ vərt]
    secret, hidden
    →“In a covert manner, Knute traveled abroad that night.” Sinclair Lewis, “Young Man Axelbrod”
  • covet
    covet [kuv´ it]
    want, envy, wish
    →“The moment has arrived for our annual coveted ‘Bloopie’ Awards.” William Safire, New York Times, 7/18/99
  • crave
    crave [krāv]
    to desire
    →“It’s the perfect way for the Clintons to hang on to the power, glamour and excitement they both crave.” Bob Herbert, “It Could Happen,” New York Times, 6/6/99
  • criterion
    criterion [krī tir´ ē ən]
    model, standard, test
    →“This new product is useful, but the major criterion is its safety.” Car and Travel, 10/99
  • cryptic
    cryptic [krip´ tik]
    puzzling
    →“Ms. Bogart, an iconoclastic director known for her cryptic reworkings of everything, turns out to be an ideal interpreter for Gertrude Stein.” Ben Brantley, “Gertrude and Alice,” New York Times, 6/14/99
  • culminate
    culminate [kul´ mə nāt]
    reach the highest point
    →“The years of physical and mental training culminated in the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.” Vim & Vigor, Summer 1998
  • culpable
    culpable [kul´ pə bəl]
    deserving blame
    →“When the jury found Stacy culpable, she collapsed in a state of shock.” Eloise R. Baxter, “Judgment Day”
  • culprit
    culprit [kul´ prit]
    the guilty person
    →“We pointed out the tender age and physical slightness of the little culprit.” Thomas Mann, “Mario and the Magician”
  • cumbersome
    cumbersome [kum´ bər səm]
    unwieldy, burdensome
    →“Grizzly bears may look cumbersome and awkward, but don’t be deceived.” Nature, 2/97
  • cumulative
    cumulative [kyü´ myə lə tiv]
    accumulated
    →“There can be an extraordinary cumulative strength in Mr. Foote’s plays.” Ben Brantley, New York Times, 6/18/99
  • cupidity
    cupidity [kyü pid´ ə tē]
    greed
    →“There is little real humor in this picture of cunning and cupidity as revealed by a petty contest for a paltry sum.” Liam O’Flaherty, “A Shilling”
  • curry
    curry [kėr´ ē]
    to seek favor by flattery
    →“The candidates are visiting many senior centers in an attempt to curry support among the elderly.” AARP Bulletin, 9/99
  • cursory
    cursory [kėr´ sər ē]
    hasty, not thorough
    →“Even a cursory glance at the text of the peace agreement shows that the Yugoslav leader has accepted NATO’s demands in full.” Tim Judah, “What Do We Do With Serbia Now?,” New York Times, 6/4/99
  • curtail
    curtail [kėr tāl´]
    to cut short
    →“A court decision to a freeze on regulations to curtail cross-state pollution was unpopular.” “EPA’s Reduced Standards,” Newsday, 6/15/99
  • cynic
    cynic [sin´ ik]
    pessimist, skeptic
    →“A cynical view of phone calls or mail offering free merchandise or membership is the safest approach.” Newsweek, 6/7/98
d
  • dearth
    dearth [dėrth]
    scarcity, lack
    →“There was no dearth of criticism of his work.” H. L. Mencken, “The Case of Dreiser”
  • debacle
    debacle [dā bä´ kəl]
    one of no importance
    →“After leading the league for most of the season, September brought the debacle that ruined their hopes.” Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer
  • debilitate
    debilitate [di bil´ ə tāt]
    weaken
    →“Exercise can help people overcome debilitating illnesses.” Vim & Vigor, Summer 1998
  • debris
    debris [də brē´]
    bursting out
    →“They continued their support for earthquake victims in the debris of collapsed houses.” New York Daily News, 8/7/99
  • decade
    decade [dek´ ād]
    ten years
    →“Clearly, the first decade of the 21st century will be the ‘e-decade,’ as all forms of ecommerce and e-ways of life continue to grow.” Letter to the editor, New York Times, 1/1/00
  • decadence
    decadence [dek´ ə dəns]
    decay
    →“I said earlier that the decadence of our language is probably curable.” George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
  • decapitate
    decapitate [di kap´ ə tāt]
    behead
    →“The FBI hoped that the arrest of the drug lord would decapitate the illegal organization.” David Denby, Beyond Rangoon
  • declaim
    declaim [di klām´]
    speak loudly
    →“Some of the province’s most illustrious men visited the courthouse and declaimed within its four walls.” Hazel Grinnell, Travel Journal
  • decorum
    decorum [di kôr´ əm]
    politeness, correct behavior
    →“My father’s sense of decorum was shattered by his son’s bad behavior in the restaurant.” Peter Balakian, Black Dog of Fate
  • decrepit
    decrepit [di krep´ it]
    broken down, worn out
    →“Some schools are in such decrepit condition that students will be transferred to safer schools until repairs can be made.” NYC Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew, Newsday, 7/6/99
  • deem
    deem [dēm]
    believe, to judge
    →“You shall stay here as long as the proper authorities deem necessary.” Bernard Malamud, The Fixer
  • defamatory
    defamatory [di fam´ ə tôr ē]
    damaging character by false reports
    →“His defamatory remarks about minorities are transmitted on the Internet.” TIME, 8/30/99
  • degrade
    degrade [di grād´]
    make contemptible, lower
    →“The world is weary of statesmen who have become degraded into politicians.” Benjamin Disraeli
  • deleterious
    deleterious [del´ ə tir´ ē əs]
    bad, harmful
    →“These statutes will have a deleterious effect on the public interest.” Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark, speech, 1960
  • delineation
    delineation [di lin´ ē ā´ shən]
    sketch, description in words
    →“There is no need for an exact delineation of a standard for a permit to hold a street meeting.” Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, decision, 1951
  • delude
    delude [di lüd´]
    to fool
    →“Mrs. Barrows had deluded herself that you visited her last evening and behaved in an unseemly manner.” James Thurber, “The Catbird Seat”
  • deluge
    deluge [del´ yüj]
    to flood
    →“The art exhibit brought a deluge of criticism because of its subject matter.” New York Daily News, 9/28/99
  • delve
    delve [delv]
    dig, do research
    →“We can help you delve deeper into your destination and take you places most travel companies miss.” Grand Circle Travel Booklet
  • demeanor
    demeanor [di mē´ nər]
    conduct, bearing
    →“You could tell by her demeanor that she was more than a bit upset by the unexpected news.” New York Times, 9/7/99
  • demur
    demur [di mėr´]
    to object
    →“At first the Crown Prince would demur, but after being prodded, he would generally choose dictation, which he liked least.” Elizabeth Gray Vining, Windows for the Crown Prince
  • denigrated
    denigrated [den´ i grāt ed]
    defamed
    →“Napoleon’s henchmen denigrated the memory of Voltaire whose name the Emperor abhorred.” Christopher Morley
  • denote
    denote [di nōt´]
    indicate, show, mean
    →“The origins of the letters ‘O.K.’ to denote ‘all right’ are not clear.” Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue
  • denouement
    denouement [dā nōō man´]
    outcome
    →“We all sat awaiting the denouement of the play in silence.” Mayne Reid
  • depict
    depict [di pikt´]
    describe clearly, picture, portray
    →“How can one depict the beauty and impact of Grand Canyon in words or pictures?” Freeman Tilden, The National Parks
  • deplorable
    deplorable [di plôr´ ə bəl]
    sad, pitiable
    →“The troops were amazed at the deplorable conditions in the refugee camp.” Newsweek, 5/12/97
  • deploy
    deploy [di ploi´]
    to position forces according to a plan
    →“Eisenhower expressed the hope that the United States would not be the first to deploy a weapon so horrible.” David McCullough, Truman
  • deprecate
    deprecate [dep´ rə kāt]
    express disapproval
    →“Why do they always deprecate the efforts of a woman press secretary, but rarely a man doing the same job?” New York, 9/25/95
  • deride
    deride [di rīd´]
    to ridicule, scoff* at
    →“He made his living in a vocation so derided it has become a gag phrase: wedding singer.” Joyce Wadler, “Public Lives,” New York Times, 6/15/99
  • derived
    derived [di rīvd´]
    descended from, received from a source
    →“His political success is derived mainly from the public awareness of his prominent family.” TIME, 2/16/98
  • derogatory
    derogatory [di rog´ ə tôr ē]
    belittling*, disparaging*
    →“When a communist father noticed a religious program on TV, he uttered a derogatory statement and turned off the program.” J. Edgar Hoover, “Why Do People Become Communists?”
  • desist
    desist [di zist´]
    cease
    →“My husband kicked me under the table and warned me to desist.” Phyllis Krasilovsky, “Pumpernickel in My Purse,” New York Times, 6/12/99
  • despot
    despot [des´ pət]
    tyrant
    →“The universe is not freindly to despots, and they all perish sooner or later.” Don Marquis, The Almost Perfect State
  • destitution
    destitution [des´ tə tü´ shən]
    extreme poverty
    →“Our Supreme Court has said that any citizen has a Constitutional right to have counsel, and that the court must appoint a lawyer to defend the destitute.” Joseph Welch, “Should a Lawyer Defend a Guilty Man?”
  • desultory
    desultory [des´ əl tôr´ ē]
    occurring by chance, disconnected
    →“Mortimer enters and, distracted by what his aunts are doing, plants a desultory kiss upon Elaine’s cheek.” Joseph Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace
  • deter
    deter [di tėr´]
    hinder, discourage
    →“Concern for his job did not deter him from making public the dangers of smoking.” “Brave Politician,” New York Times, 4/12/99
  • detriment
    detriment [det´ rə mənt]
    injury, damage, hurt
    →“The New York City Board of Education voted not to renew the chancellor’s contract as the majority viewed him as a detriment to improvements in education.” New York Newsday, 1/4/00
  • devout
    devout [di vout´]
    religious, sincere
    →“This author has a devout following among young readers.” New York Times Book Review, 7/25/98
  • dexterity
    dexterity [dek ster´ ə tē]
    mental or physical skill
    →“Ali built his career based on his dexterity, both in the ring and in the use of colorful language.” Boxing, 3/95
  • diatribe
    diatribe [dī´ ə trīb]
    bitter criticism
    →“Rebecca Gilman’s new play could easily have been an easy diatribe against racism.” TIME, 6/7/99
  • dilatory
    dilatory [dil´ ə tor ē]
    delaying
    →“Between dilatory payment and bankruptcy there is a great distance.” Samuel Johnson
  • dilettante
    dilettante [dil ə tänt´]
    one who has great interest, but little knowledge
    →“This art exhibit is not for the dilettante; the subject matter is too shocking.” New York Daily News, 10/3/99
  • diminutive
    diminutive [də min´ yə tiv]
    tiny, small
    →“A giant of a chef, he is a diminutive, modest man.” New York Post, 10/10/99
  • discern
    discern [də zėrn´ or də sėrn´]
    perceive
    →“He could not see that the Justice’s face was kindly nor discern that his voice was troubled.” William Faulkner, “Barn Burning”
  • disciple
    disciple [də sī´ pəl]
    follower
    →“Rick and his disciples dominated the entire summer scene, making it unpleasant for those who were not part of the inner circle.” Ellis R. Sloane, Catskill Idyll [adapted]
  • discreet
    discreet [dis krēt´]
    careful, cautious, prudent*
    →“When questioned about her husband’s illegal activities, she kept a discreet silence.” Newsday, 5/16/99
  • disdain
    disdain [disdān´]
    contempt
    →n “Hillary shows disdain for the idea that matters other than policy are anyone’s business.” Margaret Carlson, “Uh-Oh, the Real First Lady Shows Up,” TIME, 6/7/99
  • disgruntled
    disgruntled [dis grun´ təld]
    unhappy, displeased
    →“The police believe the damage was done by a disgruntled ex-employee.” Newsday, 5/16/99
  • disheveled
    disheveled [də shev´ əld]
    disorderly clothing or hair
    →“The wind tugged at and disheveled her hair.” William Cowper, The Task
  • dismantle
    dismantle [dis man´ tl]
    to strip of covering, take apart
    →“Wayne Huizenga’s move to dismantle the World Series Marlin squad has hurt the Florida team at the box office.” Ralph Kiner, baseball announcer, Fox Sports [adapted]
  • disparage
    disparage [dis par´ ij]
    to discredit, belittle*
    →“It (government control) has been called crackpot, but that doesn’t disparage it for me.” E. B. White, One Man’s Meat
  • disparate
    disparate [dis´ pər it]
    different
    →“At the moment standardized tests have a disparate racial and ethnic impact.” Abigail Thernstrom, “Testing, the Easy Target,” New York Times, 6/10/99
  • dispersed
    dispersed [dis pėrsd´]
    weak, unimportant
    →“The police waded in and dispersed the protesting crowd.” New York Post, 10/23/99
  • disseminate
    disseminate [di sem´ ə nāt]
    spread, scatter
    →“In the history of the world, no other tool has allowed us to disseminate more information than the Internet.” Computer World, 5/99
  • dissent
    dissent [di sent´]
    differ, disagree, protest
    →“In the totalitarian state that utopianism produced, dissent could not be tolerated.” Anthony Lewis, “Abroad at Home,” New York Times, 12/31/99
  • distraught
    distraught [dis trôt´]
    mentally confused, crazed
    →“On the veranda of Banker White’s house Helen was restless and distraught.” Sherwood Anderson, “Sophistication”
  • diversity
    diversity [də vėr´ sə tē]
    variety, change
    →“Mr. Oates said this rare document belonged in Queens because it is the center of ethnic diversity for this country.” New York Times, 1/5/00
  • divulge
    divulge [də vulj´]
    disclose, reveal
    →“The DNA tests divulged enough evidence to free him from death row.” Newsweek, 2/17/98
  • docile
    docile [dos´ əl]
    easy to manage
    →“How long can they remain docile, living under such terrible oppression?” Business Week, 6/16/98
  • doddering
    doddering [dod´ ər ing]
    trembling, shaking
    →“The image of the aged as suffering from memory loss and doddering mobility is far from accurate.” AARP Magazine, 9/99
  • doleful
    doleful [dōl´ fəl]
    sad, melancholy
    →“The patients were left in doleful plight, as the whole country resounded with the consequent cry of ‘hard times’.” Washington Irving, “The Devil and Tom Walker”
  • dolorous
    dolorous [dō la rəs]
    sad
    →“Diabetic patients are constantly tormented by dolorous sensations.” William Roberts
  • domicile
    domicile [dom´ ə sīl]
    home
    →“At night he returned peaceably enough to his lonesome domicile.” Theodore Dreiser, “The Lost Phoebe”
  • dormant
    dormant [dôr´ mənt]
    resting, asleep
    →“The disease may lie dormant for years before becoming active and dangerous.” Johns Hopkins Health Letter, 5/97
  • dregs
    dregs [dregz]
    most worthless part
    →“Some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.” William Shakespeare, Richard III
  • drudgery
    drudgery [druj´ ər ē]
    unpleasant, dull, or hard work
    →“And then she came to find the paralytic aunt—housework—janitor’s drudgery.” Anzia Yezierska, “Hunger”
  • dubious
    dubious [dü´ bē əs]
    doubtful
    →“Many scientists say its experimental merits are dubious.” Margaret Wente, “Fifth Column,” Globe and Mail, Toronto, 5/27/99
  • dulcet
    dulcet [dul´ sit]
    sweet or melodious to the ear
    →“Her dulcet tones and intelligent reading of the story captivated the hearers.” “Our Town,” New York Times, 10/7/99
  • dupe
    dupe [düp]
    a person easily tricked
    →“Barnum knew the American public loved to be duped.” W. L. Phelps, American Entrepreneurs
  • duplicity
    duplicity [dü plis´ ə tē]
    cunning, trickery
    →“The duplicity of which he had been guilty weighed on his spirit.” H. C. Bunner, “Our Aromatic Uncle”
  • duress
    duress [d res´]
    compulsion, force
    →“Under duress she was forced to admit having lied during a 1994 deposition in her breach of contract law suit.” Associated Press report, Newsday, 6/24/99
e
  • edifice
    edifice [ed´ ə fis]
    a building
    →“My love was like a fair house built on another man’s ground so that I have lost my edifice by mistaking the place where I erected it.” William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • efficacy
    efficacy [ef´ ə kə sē]
    power to produce an effect
    →“He runs his office with the greatest efficacy.” Sally Quinn, Chicago Sun Times, 12/9/79
  • effigy
    effigy [ef´ ə jē]
    a likeness (usually of a hated person)
    →“ANGRY SERBS HANG UNCLE SAM IN EFFIGY ” Headline over Associated Press photo, New York Times, 8/23/99
  • effrontery
    effrontery [ə frun´ tər ē]
    calmness, self-control
    →“In view of his personal background, we were astonished at his effrontery in attacking the morals of the candidate.” Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics
  • egotist
    egotist [ē´ gə tist]
    a vain, conceited person
    →“It takes an egotist to believe that nature has provided these beauties as a special act on his behalf.” Freeman Tilden, The National Parks
  • egregious
    egregious [i grē´ jəs]
    remarkably bad
    →“It is mystifying why some women still stick with Bill through so many egregious episodes.” Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 6/2/99
  • elapse
    elapse [i laps´]
    to slip by
    →“True, a decent time had elapsed, and it was not even suggested that Waythorn had supplanted his predecessor.” Edith Wharton, The Descent of Man [adapted]
  • elicit
    elicit [i lis´ it]
    to draw forth
    →“The experimental animal obviously hoped to elicit a reproduction of the pleasurable sensations he had experienced under laboratory conditions.” Loren Eiseley, “Man and Porpoise”
  • elucidate
    elucidate [i lü´ sə dāt]
    to make clear
    →“The Secretary of State tried to elucidate the government’s policies in the troubled Middle East.” New York Times, 5/7/98
  • elusive
    elusive [i lü´ siv]
    hard to grasp
    →“In his appearance there was something attractive and elusive which allured women and disposed them in his favour.” Anton Chekhov, “The Lady with the Dog”
  • emaciated
    emaciated [i mā´ shē ā tid]
    abnormally thin, wasted away
    →“Twiggy, whose fame was related to her emaciated look, is now better known for her singing and dramatic talent.” Play review, New Jersey Star Ledger, 5/12/99
  • emanating
    emanating [em´ ə nā ting]
    coming from
    →“The feudal idea viewed all rights as emanating from a head landlord.” John Stuart Mill
  • embellish
    embellish [em bel´ ish]
    adorn, touch up
    →“The prioress may not have told the correct story in all its details and she may even have embellished the story a little bit to make it more attractive.” Lin Yutang, “The Jade Goddess”
  • eminent
    eminent [em´ ə nənt]
    of high reputation, outstanding
    →"It was unbelievable that a man so eminent would actually sit in our dining room and eat our food." V.S. Pritchett, "The Saint"
  • emissary
    emissary [em´ ə ser´ ē]
    an agent
    →“The mayor sent an emissary to the striking teachers in the hope of starting negotiations.” Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics
  • emit
    emit [i mit´]
    to give off
    →“The smoke that was emitted when the bomb went off made some think it was a firecracker but I thought it was a revolver shot.” Journal of Andre Gide, Vol. I
  • emulate
    emulate [em´ yə lāt]
    rival, strive to equal
    →“Her companions she loved and admired but could not emulate for they knew things she did not.” Rose Macaulay, The World My Wilderness
  • encomium
    encomium [en kō´ mē əm]
    high praise
    →“Isn’t it sad that we receive our highest encomiums after we are gone and unable to enjoy them?” James Farley, quoted in Ruffles and Flourishes
  • encumbrance
    encumbrance
    burden, handicap, load
    →“Maxim decided to dispose of the encumbrance of a whining wife and three disrespectful teenagers by leaving silently in the dead of the night.” Everett Dodds, Greener Pastures [adapted]
  • enervated
    enervated [en´ ər vā tid]
    worn out
    →“I have had one of my many spasms which has almost enervated me.” Lord Nelson, Letters
  • engrossed
    engrossed [en grōst´]
    absorbed
    →“The wasp was engrossed utterly in her task.” Alan Devoe, “The Mad Dauber”
  • enhance
    enhance [in hans´]
    intensify, heighten
    →“Her breadth of experience and determination to enhance her knowledge have increased her value to Con Edison.” Con Edison Report, Producing Excellence, 1998
  • enigma
    enigma [i nig´ mə]
    riddle
    →“He was an enigma—by this I mean that he did not look soldierly nor financial nor artistic nor anything definite at all.” Max Beerbohm, “A.V. Laider”
  • ennui
    ennui [än´ wē]
    boredom
    →“The ennui and utter emptiness of a life of pleasure is fast urging fashionable women to something better.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Newport Convention
  • entourage
    entourage [än´ tü räzh]
    group of attendants
    →“Sinatra was the greatest but I was never a part of his entourage, his rat pack.” Comedian Buddy Hackett to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York Daily News, 7/14/99
  • entreaty
    entreaty [en trē´ tē]
    appeal, plea
    →“The police captain made one more entreaty for the unruly crowd to leave.” New York Post, 10/23/99
  • enunciate
    enunciate [i nun´ sē āt]
    to utter, proclaim
    →“At his press conference, Jerry Springer enunciated his qualifications for a Senate seat in Ohio.” Francis X. Clines, “Springer Considers Race for Senate,” New York Times, 8/4/99
  • epithet
    epithet [ep´ ə thet]
    descriptive name
    →“Four scowling men sat in the dinghy and surpassed records in the invention of epithets.” Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat”
  • epitome
    epitome [i pit´ ə mē]
    person or thing that embodies or represents the best
    →“My community considers a man in uniform to be the living epitome of heroism.” Lucius Garvin, Collected Essays
  • equanimity
    equanimity [ē´ kwə nim´ ə tē]
    evenness of mind, composure
    →“We have to call upon our whole people to stand up with equanimity to the fire of the enemy.” Winston Churchill, speech, 1942
  • eradicate
    eradicate [i rad´ i kāt]
    wipe out
    →“The urologist said that prostate cancer patients shouldn’t hang their hopes on having the vaccine eradicate the disease in the near future.” Associated Press, “Vaccine Fights Prostate Cancer,” Newsday, 10/21/99
  • erudite
    erudite [er´ ů dīt]
    very scholarly
    →“The erudite historian, Prof. Garrett Clark, will speak on ‘Evaluating Democracy’ at our April meeting.” Lancaster Library Bulletin, Spring 2000
  • eruption
    eruption [i rup´ shən]
    ruins, fragments
    →“We have learned about this ancient city, frozen in time by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D.” Grand Circle Travel Booklet, 1999
  • escalation
    escalation [es´ kə lā´ shən]
    an increase, intensification
    →“There is a dangerous escalation in Kashmir as India and Pakistan are engaged in the worst fighting in decades.” Editorial, New York Times, 6/22/99
  • eschew
    eschew [es chü´]
    avoid
    →“When in Rome, we decided to eschew Arithmetic.” Ruth McKinney, “Proof in Nine”
  • ethics
    ethics [eth´ iks]
    code of principles
    →“The vast majority of employees perform in a highly satisfactory manner because good work ethics exist in their kitchens.” Manual for School Food Service Managers in N.Y.C. Public Schools [adapted]
  • euphemism
    euphemism [yü´ fə miz əm]
    a less offensive term
    →“But now he was merely an elder statesman, the euphemism for a politician who no longer has any influence.” Robert Wallace, “Not Him”
  • evaluate
    evaluate [i val´ yü āt]
    appraise, find the value of
    →“Mr. Gooding hopes to find the answer if his mentor gives him the chance to evaluate the prisoner.” Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times, 6/4/99
  • evanescent
    evanescent [ev´ ə nes´ nt]
    fleeting, passing, momentary
    →“The incidents which give excellence to biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind.” Samuel Johnson, “The Rambler” No. 30
  • eventuate
    eventuate [i ven´ chü āt]
    to result finally
    →“Her illness following the chemotherapy eventuated in death.” Terrence Foy, St. Louis Blues
  • evince
    evince [i vins´]
    show plainly, exhibit
    →“The vote on Roe vs. Wade will show whether enough senators evince an interest in overturning the 1973 Supreme Court decision.” Elaine Povich, “Abortion Politics,” Newsday, 10/22/99
  • exacerbate
    exacerbate [eg zas´ ər bāt]
    to irritate, make worse
    →“Jason Isringhausen’s injuries were exacerbated by his immaturity.” Howie Rose, Mets Baseball Announcer, Fox Sports, 6/8/99 [adapted]
  • excoriate
    excoriate [ek skôr´ ē āt]
    criticize severely
    →“Senator Bradley refused to excoriate his opponent, preferring to take the high road in the campaign.” ABC Eyewitness T.V. News, 10/21/99
  • excruciating
    excruciating [ek skrü´ shē ā ting]
    agonizing, torturing
    →“An almost excruciating agitation results when a leaf falls into still water.” Jack London, “To Build a Fire”
  • exhort
    exhort [eg zôrt´]
    urge strongly, advise
    →“There was no reason for me to exhort the guys to play hard because they were already giving me 110%.” Mets Baseball Manager Bobby Valentine on Radio Talk Show WFAN, 10/21/99
  • exonerate
    exonerate [eg zon´ ə rāt´]
    to free from guilt
    →“There is no reason to exonerate him from the ordinary duties of a citizen.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Collected Legal Papers
  • expatriate
    expatriate [ek spā´ trē āt]
    an exile
    →“For months she lived the nocturnal life of an expatriate American tango bum.” Jimmy Scott, “Flirting with the Tango,” New York Times, 6/11/99
  • expedient
    expedient [ek spē´ dē ənt]
    advisable, fit
    →“There exists the age old choice between a moral action and an expedient one.” Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon
  • expedite
    expedite [ek´ spə dīt]
    carry out promptly
    →“There was a pressing need to expedite assistance to those suffering after the earthquake.” Newsday, 8/15/99
  • exploit
    exploit [eks´ ploit]
    profit by, utilize
    →“He has not wanted to exploit his fame as a basketball star for political advantage.” Boston Globe, 7/27/99
  • expunge
    expunge [ek spunj´]
    erase
    →“If the offender made it to adulthood without further problems, everything would be expunged.” James Kilpatrick, “Boy Learns Constitution—the Hard Way,” Burlington Vermont Free Press, 6/12/99
  • expurgate
    expurgate [ek´ spər gāt]
    remove objectionable parts or passages
    →“Lenny resisted any attempt by the law to expurgate his language dealing with personal and private behavior.” “Lenny Bruce, Voice of Shock,” Atlantic Monthly, 5/86
  • extant
    extant [ek´ stənt] or [ek stant´]
    still existing
    →“Rumors are extant that the Federal Reserve members are greatly concerned about the irrational exuberance of investors.” Bloomberg Financial News, 4/12/98
  • extenuating
    extenuating [ik sten´ yōō āt ing]
    elder
    →“In Clive’s case there were many extenuating circumstances.” Dame Rose Macaulay
  • extinct
    extinct [ek stingkt´]
    no longer existing
    →“There are many warnings that loss of habitat will make many species extinct in the near future.” “The Rotunda,” Publication of the American Museum of Natural History, 5/5/98
  • extol
    extol [ek stōl´]
    praise highly
    →“They extol the largely nonexistent virtues of bygone eras.” Artemus Abruzzi, Commonsense
  • extortion
    extortion [ek stôr´ shən]
    getting money by threats
    →“To the prince who goes forth with his army, supporting it by pillage and extortion, this open-handedness is necessary.” Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
  • extraneous
    extraneous [ek strā´ nē əs]
    foreign, not belonging
    →“The ballet struck me as extraneous and out of keeping with the rest of the play.” Wolcott Gibbs, More in Sorrow
  • extrinsic
    extrinsic [ek strin´ sik]
    foreign, coming from outside
    →“Disdaining contributions from extrinsic lobbying groups, the candidate won my admiration and my vote.” Lawrence Burton, “Inside the Polls”
  • exult
    exult [eg zult´]
    rejoice greatly
    →“YANKEES EXULT OVER PETTITTE’S PERFORMANCE” Headline, Sports Section, Newsday, 6/19/99
  • exultation
    exultation [eg´ zul tā´ shən]
    triumphant joy
    →“We face the year 2000 with a combination of concern and exultation.” Newsweek, 12/15/99
f
  • fabricate
    fabricate [fab´ rə kāt]
    to lie; to construct
    →“Perhaps the dialogues that you fabricate are nothing more than monologues.” Miguel Unamuno, “Mist”
  • façade
    façade [fə säd´]
    front, superficial appearance
    →“He hid behind the façade of public servant to work at a private agenda.” H. L. Woods
  • facet
    facet [fas´ it]
    one side or view of person or situation
    →“As soon as one becomes computer-literate, a new technical facet is introduced that challenges us once again.” New York Times, 10/25/99
  • facetious
    facetious [fə sē´ shəs]
    comical, humorous, witty
    →“Politicians must be careful about any facetious comment that can be turned into an opponent’s advantage.” Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics
  • facile
    facile [fas´ əl]
    easily accomplished or attained
    →“We are usually more facile with words we read than with words we use to write or speak.” Charlton Laird, The Miracle of Language
  • factitious
    factitious [fak tish´ əs]
    sham, artificial
    →“The opposition was challenged by a factitious outpouring of what appeared to be popular support for the government.” Robert Kaplan, Balkan Tragedy
  • fallacious
    fallacious [fə lā´ shəs]
    misleading
    →“The demand was plausible, but the more I thought about it, the more fallacious it seemed.” A. D. White, Scams and Schemes [adapted]
  • falter
    falter [fôl´ tər]
    stumble, hesitate, waver
    →“Should we falter in our determination to pursue an honorable solution to the problems of the Middle-East, and face unthinkable consequences?” I. F. Stone, “The Weekly Reader”
  • fastidious
    fastidious [fa stid´ ē əs]
    particular, choosy
    →“A single small elephant tusk took no less than two months of fastidious work to excavate.” Brian Fagan, Time Detectives
  • fatal
    fatal [fā´ tl]
    deadly, disastrous
    →“What caused him to lose the election was his fatal mistake of not raising sufficient funds to publicize himself.” Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics
  • fatuous
    fatuous [fach´ ü əs]
    foolish, silly, inane*
    →“After only a few seconds of silence, speakers of English seem obligated to say something, even making a fatuous comment about the weather.” Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue
  • feasible
    feasible [fē´ zə bəl]
    possible
    →“Everyone who has looked at the smart guns said there is no quick, feasible way of doing this.” Leslie Wayne, “Smart Guns,” New York Times, 6/15/99
  • feint
    feint [fānt]
    a false attack
    →“Young as Oliver was, he had sense enough to make a feint of feeling great regret at going away.” Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
  • felicitous
    felicitous [fə lis´ ə təs]
    happy
    →“The evening of hypnotism was not a felicitous one; we were frightened that we would lose our will or enter into unpleasant acts.” Diary of Anais Nin
  • felon
    felon [fel´ ən]
    a person guilty of a major crime
    →“I was surprised to see this notorious felon become a regular at our bible discussion classes.” Rabbi Myron David, A Chaplain’s Jail Tales [adapted]
  • ferment
    ferment [fər´ ment]
    uproar, agitation, turmoil
    →“She herself yearned for calm, but lived in a neighborhood of ferment and daily chaos.” Alan Lelchuk, American Mischief
  • fervid
    fervid [fėr´ vid]
    intense, enthusiastic, passionate
    →“I’m a mixture of my mother’s determination and my father’s fervid optimism.” Gwen Robyns, Light of A Star
  • fetish
    fetish [fet´ ish]
    an object that is thought to have magic powers
    →“Today the automobile has become a fetish for one’s standing and accomplishments.” Mark Twain, Autobiography
  • fetter
    fetter [fet´ ər]
    to hamper
    →“The cruel fetters of the galley slaves were wet with blood.” Alex Haley, Roots
  • fiasco
    fiasco [fē as´ kō]
    complete failure
    →“Your $25 contribution to our fund will bring you an hilarious tape of the fiasco of an elementary school’s production of ‘Peter Pan.’” Public Broadcasting Announcement, 12/25/98
  • fiat
    fiat [fi´ ət]
    an official order, a decree
    →“Pitching Coach Bob Apodaca’s fiat to Met hurlers was simple: pitch fast, change speeds, throw strikes.” Howie Rose, baseball announcer, Fox Sports, 7/8/99
  • flabbergasted
    flabbergasted [flab´ ər gast əd]
    boldness
    →“The President was flabbergasted when his private office recorded conversations were made public.” Herbert Brucker, Journalist
  • flagrant
    flagrant [flā´ grənt]
    outrageous, glaringly bad
    →“Gene Savoy’s flagrant name dropping doesn’t seem to bother any of the visitors on board.” Brad Wetzler, “Crazy for Adventure,” New York Times, 6/6/99
  • flamboyant
    flamboyant [flam boi´ ənt]
    showy, colorful
    →“Dame Judi Dench is not as flamboyant as the other British theatrical Dames such as Vanessa Redgrave or Maggie Smith.” Playbill, Vol. 9, No. 55
  • flay
    flay [flā]
    strip off skin, scold harshly
    →“There is no shortage of critics who flay the journalists for being sensation seekers rather than news gatherers.” Herbert Brucker, Journalist
  • fledgling
    fledgling [flej´ ling]
    little known, newly developed
    →“Women’s professional basketball, recently a fledgling sport, has taken root and grown into a major spectator event.” Sports, 9/14/99
  • flout
    flout [flout]
    show contempt, scoff*
    →“His ideas frightened the farmers, for he would flout and ridicule their traditional beliefs with a mocking logic that they could not answer.” S. Raja Ratnam, “Drought”
  • fluctuate
    fluctuate [fluk´ chü āt]
    shift, alternate
    →“He fluctuated between mindless talk and endless silence.” Alix Shulman, “Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen”
  • foist
    foist [foist]
    pass off slyly, pass as genuine
    →“Eventually, advertisements began to foist off the use of perfume as a way to snare a man.” E. S. Turner, The Shocking History of Advertising [adapted]
  • foment
    foment [fō ment]
    stir up, instigate
    →“The petitioners were not attempting to foment violence by their peaceful actions.” Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, decision, 1960
  • forebodings
    forebodings [for bo´ dings]
    premonitions, evil omens
    →“We are more disurbed by forebodings of a calamity which threatens us than by one which has befallen us.” John Lancaster Spalding
  • forthwith
    forthwith [fôrth´ with´]
    immediately
    →“Get down to your Toyota dealer forthwith and take advantage of our holiday saleabration.” Toyota advertisement, CBS TV
  • fortuitous
    fortuitous [fô tü´ ə təs]
    accidental
    →“Representative Foley resumed a corridor interview, making a point about the fortuitous beauty of bipartisanship.” Francis X. Clines, “Gun Control Debate,” New York Times, 6/18/99
  • fracas
    fracas [frā´ kəs]
    noisy fight, brawl
    →“Once the will was read, there followed a fracas that involved numerous law suits and lasted years.” Fortune, 2/16/91
  • fractious
    fractious [frak´ shəs]
    quarrelsome
    →“The fractious couple received a tongue lashing from Judge Judy.” Arnold Feigenbaum, “Television Justice?”
  • frail
    frail [frāl]
    delicate, weak
    →“This frail woman has the strength to work where the strong turn away.” “Mother Teresa,” New Republic, 10/16/97
  • fraught
    fraught [frôt]
    filled
    →“Ev’ry sigh comes forth so fraught with sweets, ’Tis incense to be offered to a god.” Nathaniel Lee, The Rival Queens
  • fray
    fray [frā]
    a fight
    →“To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast, Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.” William Shakespeare, Henry IV
  • frenetic
    frenetic [frə net´ ik]
    frantic, frenzied
    →“There is no place more frenetic than a newspaper office when a major story is breaking.” Herbert Brucker, Journalist
  • frenzy
    frenzy [fren´ zē]
    wild fit
    →“They had a sense of the wildest adventure, which mounted to frenzy, when some men rose on the shore and shouted to them, ‘Hello, there! What are you doing with that boat?’ ” William Dean Howells, A Boy’s Town
  • fretful
    fretful [fret´ fəl]
    worrisome, irritable
    →“When Mike Nichols directed ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ Warner Bros. was fretful, worrying about the Legion of Decency.” Liz Smith, “Century’s Choice,” New York Post, 6/23/99
  • frugal
    frugal [frü´ gəl]
    thrifty
    →“He was famously frugal—‘so tight he damn near squeaked’ says a colleague.” Eric Pooley, “How George Got His Groove,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • fruitless
    fruitless [früt´ lis]
    moving, painful to the feelings
    →“Since launching a diplomatic shuttle, the Russian envoy had spent dozens of fruitless hours with the Yugoslav dictator.” Johanna McGeary, “Why He Blinked,” TIME, 6/14/99
  • frustrate
    frustrate [frus´ trāt]
    counteract, foil, thwart*
    →“I will not be frustrated by reality.” Ray Bradbury, Forever and the Earth
  • fulsome
    fulsome [fül´ səm]
    excessive, insincere
    →“I was appreciative of his sincere and fulsome praise.” Ruth McKinney, “A Loud Sneer for Our Feathered Friends”
  • furtive
    furtive [fėr´ tiv]
    secret, stealthy
    →“Hogan directed a furtive glance up and down the alley.” John Steinbeck, “How Mr. Hogan Robbed a Bank”
  • futility
    futility [fyü til´ ə tē]
    uselessness
    →“Resistance to changes in English language rules often ends in futility.” Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue
g
  • galvanize
    galvanize [gal´ və nīz]
    excite or arouse to activity
    →“While he could not galvanize an audience, he could make them think.” George Jean Nathan, House of Satan
  • gamut
    gamut [gam´ ət]
    range
    →“At one end of the gamut of slang’s humor is what Oliver Wendell Holmes called ‘the blank checks of a bankrupt mind.’” Bergen Evans, “Now Everyone is Hip About Slang”
  • garbled
    garbled [gär´ bəld]
    confused, mixed up
    →“A garbled account of the matter that had reached his colleagues led to some gentle ribbing.” H. G. Wells, “The Man Who Could Work Miracles”
  • garrulous
    garrulous [gar´ ə ləs]
    talkative, wordy
    →“The more he drank, the more garrulous he became, until he suddenly seemed to fade out.” Lawrence O’Brien, W. C. Fields
  • gaudy
    gaudy [gô´ dē]
    showy, flashy
    →“This computer drawing program permits children to express themselves in the most gaudy art they can imagine.” Working Mother, 5/96
  • gaunt
    gaunt [gônt]
    thin, haggard
    →“Her gaunt expression was mistaken for weakness of spirit, whereas it told the sad story of her life.” George Eliot, Middle March
  • genocide
    genocide [jen´ ə sīd]
    planned destruction of an entire people
    →“Accounts of the destruction of masses of people recall that genocide is an ancient practice.” Otto Friedrich, Before the Deluge
  • genre
    genre [zhän´ rə]
    a certain form or style in painting or literature
    →“There is a certain difference between a work called a romance and the genre known as the novel.” Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • germane
    germane [jər mān´]
    appropriate, in close relationship to
    →“In assigning ratings to films, is it not germane to consider the nature and extent of violence shown?” The Hollywood Reporter, 5/19/97
  • gesticulate
    gesticulate [je stik´ yə lāt]
    move the arms energetically
    →“‘Three times’ was still all he could say, in his thick, angry voice, gesticulating at the commissaire and glaring at me.” Francis Steegmuller, “The Foreigner”
  • gist
    gist [jist]
    essence, main point
    →“The gist of it is . . . love is a great beautifier.” Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
  • glean
    glean [glēn]
    gather, collect
    →“I gleaned what I could from college, but independent reading soon broadened my horizons.” I. F. Stone, Weekly Reader
  • glib
    glib [glib]
    smooth of speech
    →“It is not glib to maintain that truth can never be contained in one creed.” Mary Augusta Ward, Robert Elsmere
  • glut
    glut [glut]
    oversupply
    →“The world in that age had a glut rather than a famine of saints.” R. S. Fuller, Holy War
  • grandeur
    grandeur [gran´ jər]
    magnificence
    →“I have studied the glories of Greece but am more impressed by the grandeur of Rome.” Rainer Maria Rilke
  • gratuity
    gratuity [grə tü´ ə tē]
    tip
    →“What form of gratuity would compensate his informer’s key bit of information?” Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest
  • gregarious
    gregarious [grə ger´ ē es]
    sociable
    →“We will take with us one thing alone that exists among porpoises as among men; an ingrained gregariousness.” Loren Eiseley, “Man and Porpoise”
  • grimace
    grimace [grə mās´]
    facial expression of disgust
    →“When informed of the death of his best friend, he was unemotional, not a grimace marred his face.” James Jones, The Thin Red Line
  • grotesque
    grotesque [grō tesk´]
    strange, bizarre,* fantastic
    →“Nowadays, men have to work, and women to marry for money; it’s a dreadfully grotesque world.” Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
  • guile
    guile [gīl]
    trickery
    →“Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, And with a virtuous vizard hide foul guile.” Shakespeare, Richard III
  • guise
    guise [gīz]
    manner, appearance, mien*
    →“Freedom is not worth fighting for, if, under its guise, one tries to get as much as he can for himself.” Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Seasoned Timber
  • gullible
    gullible [gul´ ə bəl]
    easily cheated or fooled
    →“‘Charles the horse was wonderful!’ cried a gullible goose.” James Thurber, “What Happened to Charles”
  • gusto
    gusto [gus´ tō]
    enthusiasm, enjoyment, zest
    →“Ali faced each fight with supreme confidence and challenged his opponents with wit and gusto.” “His Greatest Challenge,” Sports Illustrated, 5/5/97
h
  • habitat
    habitat [hab´ ə tat]
    natural environment
    →“Billy begins to be happy about life only in an artificial but cozy habitat on another planet.” William Bly, Barron’s Book Notes, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  • halcyon
    halcyon [hal´ sē ən]
    peaceful, calm
    →“The halcyon days we recall with pleasure had many clouded moments.” Wolcott Gibbs, New Yorker, 4/8/49
  • hapless
    hapless [hap´ lis]
    unfortunate
    →“Parents, too, have an almost irresistible impulse to mold their children in their own image or at least graft a few of their own ambitions onto their hapless offspring.” Arthur Gordon, “The Neglected Art of Being Different”
  • harass
    harass [har´ əs or hə rəs´]
    to trouble, torment
    →“Over the next weeks came more amendments and harassing tactics including a motion to postpone selection of a new capital.” Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years
  • harbinger
    harbinger [här´ bən jər]
    a forerunner, advance notice
    →“It is easy enough to find harbingers of the episode in the early coverage of Mrs. Dole’s candidacy.” TIME, 5/24/99
  • haven
    haven [hā´ vən]
    place of safety
    →“The desire to escape the city has filtered down into every other economic group, and as a result of the suburb’s popularity, that haven of refuge is itself filling up.” Lewis Mumford, “The Roaring Traffic’s Boom”
  • havoc
    havoc [hav´ ək]
    ruin
    →“Excessive sensitiveness plays havoc with children’s nerves.” Guy De Maupassant, “Looking Back”
  • heinous
    heinous [hā´ nəs]
    hatefully evil
    →“All crimes against a whole people are measured by the heinous ones carried out by Hitler.” Civilization, 12/99
  • heresy
    heresy [her´ ə sē]
    unbelief, dissent, lack of faith
    →“Calvin had written that heresy was not an evil, deserving death.” Herbert Brucker, Journalist
  • heterogeneous
    heterogeneous [het´ ər ə jē´ nē əs]
    dissimilar
    →“The family is heterogeneous enough to make quite a good party in itself.” Rose Macauley, The World My Wilderness
  • hirsute
    hirsute [hėr´ süt]
    hairy
    →“The difference between this rock concert and one 10 years earlier is the marked decrease in hirsute young men.” TIME, 8/8/99
  • histrionics
    histrionics [his´ trē on´ iks]
    display of emotions
    →“Bobby Valentine’s histrionics will be irrelevant, because Rule 51 states that any manager who is ejected must remain in the clubhouse until the game is over.” Jack Curry, “Valentine is Suspended and Fined,” New York Times, 6/11/99
  • hoard
    hoard [hôrd]
    hide, store, accumulate
    →“Many people give freely of their affections while you hoard yours.” Joseph Conrad, Victory
  • hoax
    hoax [hōks]
    deception
    →“Frank Spencer, an anthropologist who rummaged through the bones of controversy to theorize about the identity of the mastermind behind the Piltdown Man hoax of 1912, died on Sunday.” Obituary notice, New York Times, 6/12/99
  • homogeneous
    homogeneous [hō mə jē´ ne əs]
    same or uniform
    →“Archaeologists have unearthed evidence showing that the people of ancient Egypt were far from a homogeneous civilization.” Brian Fagan, Time Detective
  • hostile
    hostile [hos´ tl]
    antagonistic, angry
    →“He might commit some hostile act, attempt to strike me or choke me.” Jack London, White Fang
  • humility
    humility [hyü mil´ ə tē]
    humbleness, modesty, meekness
    →“Early in life I had to choose between arrogance and humility; I chose arrogance.” Frank Lloyd Wright
  • hyperbole
    hyperbole [hī pėr´ bə lē]
    exaggerated figure of speech
    →“It is not hyperbole to state that, most terribly, justice and judgment lie often a world apart.” Emmeline Pankhurst, My Own Story
i
  • iconoclast
    iconoclast [ī kon´ ə klast]
    image-breaker, attacker of beliefs
    →“He was an iconoclast about everything, except his love of money.” Garry Wills, syndicated newspaper column, 3/8/79
  • idyllic
    idyllic [ī dil´ ik]
    simple, peaceful
    →“The brilliant Hawaiian sunrise beckons you to a great breakfast as your tour of the idyllic islands begins.” Brochure for Perillo Tours
  • ignominious
    ignominious [ig´ nə min´ ē əs]
    humiliating, disgraceful
    →“Henry Clay had ambition to become president, but he faced an ignominious series of setbacks.” H. Foner, Failed Candidates
  • ilk
    ilk [ilk]
    kind, sort
    →“‘That’s the standard line,’ Ron said, ‘as promoted by some Japanese businessmen and American spokesmen of their ilk.’” Michael Crichton, Rising Sun
  • imbibe
    imbibe [im bīb´]
    drink
    →“I got up and went downstairs and into the kitchen to imbibe my first cup of coffee before going to the barn.” Glenway Wescott, The Breath of Bulls
  • imminent
    imminent [im´ ə nənt]
    likely to happen, threatening
    →“I admired the easy confidence with which my chief loped from side to side of his wheel and trimmed the ship so closely that disaster seemed ceaselessly imminent.” Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
  • impasse
    impasse [im´ pas]
    deadlock
    →“We expect the impasse between Britain and Iran to be resolved this weekend.” United Nations Press Release
  • impeccable
    impeccable [im pek´ ə bəl]
    faultless
    →“That is why the so-called ‘better’ juvenile books, skillfully constructed, morally sanitary, psychologically impeccable—don’t really make much of a dent on the child’s consciousness.” Clifton Fadiman, “My Life is an Open Book”
  • impede
    impede [im pēd´]
    interfere, block, hinder
    →“Judge Jones has become known for her anger at defense lawyers who try to impede executions through legal maneuvers.” David Firestone, “Death Penalty Conference,” New York Times, 8/19/99
  • imperative
    imperative [im per´ ə tiv]
    forbidden by custom or religious practice
    →“But unlike the others, Mrs. Hassan had yet another imperative: her son Huseyin has leukemia and needs blood.” Edmund L. Andrews, “I Cannot Die,” New York Times, 8/19/99
  • imperceptible
    imperceptible [im´ pər sep´ tə bəl]
    extremely slight or gradual
    →“In the two decades since W. Ugams had come to Boston, his status had imperceptibly shifted.” John Updike, New Yorker, 10/22/60
  • imperturbable
    imperturbable [im´ pər tėr´ bə bəl]
    calm, steady, serene
    →“The Prince de Ligne had given the Empress Catherine the name of imperturbable, or immoveable.” Walter Tooke, The Life of Catherine
  • impetuous
    impetuous [im pech´ ü əs]
    impulsive
    →“He displayed the impetuous vivacity of youth.” Samuel Johnson, “The Rambler” No. 27
  • impious
    impious [im´ pē əs]
    lacking respect, irreverent
    →“The Sunis regard the Shias as impious heretics.” Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism
  • implacable
    implacable [im plā´ ke bəl]
    cannot be pacified, inexorable*
    →“It seemed folly for this young man to hope to create a self-supporting farm in such an implacable environment.” Leland Stowe, Crusoe of Lonesome Lake
  • implore
    implore [im plôr´]
    to plead urgently for aid or mercy
    →“No beggars implored Scrooge to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock.” Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
  • importune
    importune [im´ pôr tün´]
    ask urgently
    →“Many businessmen were importuned to come to Washington.” John McDonald, On Capitol Hill
  • impregnable
    impregnable [im preg´ nə bəl]
    incapable of being entered
    →“The Maginot Line, a French system of fortifications, was considered impregnable at the start of World War II. The Columbia Encyclopedia
  • impresario
    impresario [im´ prə sär´ ē ō]
    one who presents cultural series, organizer
    →“He was an egregious impresario of letters who kept a squad of writers churning out copy marketed under his signature.” C. J. Rolo, No Business Like Show Business [adapted]
  • impromptu
    impromptu [im promp´ tü]
    spur of the moment, offhand
    →“At an impromptu airport news conference, Gov. Bush declined to respond directly to questions about his experience with drugs.” Associated Press Report, “Next Question, Please,” 6/5/99
  • imprudent
    imprudent [im prüd´ nt]
    unwise, not careful
    →“We are not so imprudent as to destroy the bees that work for us.” Robert Tanner, Principles of Agriculture
  • impunity
    impunity [im pyū´ nə tē]
    freedom from punishment
    →“Swaraj means that not a single Hindu or Mussulman shall for a moment crush with impunity meek Hindus or Mussulmans.” Mohandas K. Gandhi, “The Untouchables”
  • inadvertent
    inadvertent [in əd vërt´ nt]
    heedless, not attentive
    →“In our report on NASCAR RACING, we inadvertently attributed a quote to Doris O’Bryant.” Correction made by TIME editors, 6/21/99
  • inane
    inane [in ān´]
    foolish
    →“When left with nothing to talk about, people resort to inane remarks about the weather.” Lawrence Kaminer, “A World of Strangers”
  • inanimate
    inanimate [in an´ ə mit]
    odd, peculiar, strange, weird
    →“We assumed that the inanimate body in the rubble was dead but the dog, trained to distinguish between live and dead bodies, knew better.” Stephen Kinzer, “Turkish Earthquake Relief,” New York Times, 8/21/99
  • incapacitated
    incapacitated [in´ kə pas´ ə tāt id]
    disabled, made unfit
    →“His searing empathy for the parents of incapacitated clients is a product of the still-raw pain over the 1980 suicide of his younger brother.” Jan Hoffman, “Public Lives,” New York Times, 6/18/99
  • inchoate
    inchoate [in kō´ it]
    in an early stage
    →“The general plan is inchoate and incoherent and the particular treatments disconnected.” Hillary Corke, Global Economy
  • incipient
    incipient [in sip´ ē ənt]
    just beginning to exist
    →“As columnist Jack Anderson was about to write about the Secretary of State’s incipient departure, Al Haig panicked.” William Safire, “On Language,” New York Times, 6/20/99
  • incisive
    incisive [in sī´ siv]
    acute
    →“Your hands are keen, your mind incisive, your sensitivity deep, your vision well honed.” Thomas A. Dooley, “To a Young Doctor”
  • inclement
    inclement [in klem´ ənt]
    unfavorable, storm
    →“The inclement weather that has given us fits recently is over, and I’m looking for blue skies for all of next week.” Weather forecast from ABC’s Sam Champion, Eyewitness News, 6/23/99
  • incoherent
    incoherent [in´ kō hir´ ənt]
    disjointed
    →“The general plan is inchoate and incoherent and the particular treatments disconnected.” Hillary Corke, Global Economy
  • incompatibility
    incompatibility [in kəm pat´ ə bil´ ə tē]
    quality of being mismated, lack of harmony
    →“Once men tried to reach heaven by building a tower, and I made their formats incompatible.” Garrison Keillor, “Faith at the Speed of Light,” TIME, 6/14/99
  • incongruous
    incongruous [in kong´ grü əs]
    inappropriate
    →“He was clothed with tatters of old ship’s canvas: and this extraordinary patchwork was held together by a system of various and incongruous fastenings.” Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
  • incontrovertible
    incontrovertible [in´ kon trə vėr´ tə bəl]
    undeniable
    →“The Wilsons lived in a universe of words linked into an incontrovertible firmament by two centuries of Calvinist divines.” John Dos Passos, U.S.A.
  • incredulous
    incredulous [in krej´ ə ləs]
    skeptical
    →“The Nazi war on cancer?—other readers may be as incredulous as I was when this book came to my attention.” Michael Sherry, New York Times, 5/23/99
  • incumbent
    incumbent [in kum´ bənt]
    morally required
    →“As a Muslim, the Director of Interfaith Affairs for the Islamic Center said that it is incumbent on him to actively engage others in the service of Allah.” Jioni Palmer, “Vigil to Address Growing Violence,” Newsday, 10/10/99
  • indict
    indict [in dīt´]
    accuse
    →“You can’t indict a whole nation, particularly on such vague grounds as these were.” Robert M. Coates, “The Law”
  • indifference
    indifference [in dif´ ər əns]
    lack of concern
    →“David sees Ham who, although now shows indifference to life, swims out to save people from a shipwreck.” Holly Hughes, Barron’s Book Notes, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  • indigenous
    indigenous [in dij´ ən əs]
    native
    →“A MacArthur Foundation grant was given to Dennis A. Moore for helping to preserve the language and culture of indigenous groups in Brazil.” Announcement of MacArthur Grants, 6/23/99
  • indigent
    indigent [in´ də jənt]
    based on whim, dictatorial
    →“The bill would make modest improvements in the way that counsel is provided for indigent defendants.” Bob Herbert, “Defending the Status Quo,” New York Times, 6/17/99
  • indiscriminate
    indiscriminate [in´ dis krim´ ə nit]
    choosing at random without careful selection
    →"The indiscriminate spraying of pesticides add a new chapter, a new kind of havoc." Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
  • indoctrinate
    indoctrinate [in dok´ trə nāt]
    to teach certain principles
    →“Teachers have indoctrinated students in practical subjects like home ec.” Jodie Morse, “Hitched in Home Room,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • indolent
    indolent [in´ dl ənt]
    lazy
    →“This indolent weather turns a student’s thoughts toward last-minute truancy.” Darcy Frey, “The Last Shot”
  • inebriated
    inebriated [in ē´ brē ā tid]
    drunk, intoxicated
    →“Red Skelton’s inebriated clown who was guzzling Smuggler’s Gin is one of the all-time great comedy sketches.” Paul De Simone, “They Made Us Laugh” [adapted]
  • ineffectual
    ineffectual [in´ ə fek´ chü l]
    not effective
    →“Medicare officials told the White House that the proposed drug plan is unrealistic and would be ineffectual.” Robert Pear, “Drug Plan Worries Democrats,” New York Times, 6/25/99
  • inert
    inert [in ėrt´]
    without power to move
    →“The Japanese drifted inert in his life jacket watching 449 approach until the bow crossed in front of him.” Robert J. Donovan, PT 109
  • inevitable
    inevitable [in ev´ ə tə bəl]
    sure, certain, unavoidable
    →“The ‘High Occupancy Vehicle’ lanes were an attempt to avoid the otherwise inevitable traffic delays on the Expressway.” Newsday, 9/23/99
  • inexorable
    inexorable [in ek´ sər ə bəl]
    inflexible, unrelenting
    →“Note that it is all in one long sentence, developing inexorably like the slow decay of our lives.” Clifton Fadiman, “They Have Their Exits and Their Entrances”
  • infallible
    infallible [in fal´ ə bəl]
    exempt from error, right
    →“He had an infallible ear for the way people spoke, and he imitated them in his writing.” Reader’s Encyclopedia
  • infamous
    infamous [in´ fə məs]
    having a bad reputation
    →“The unsubstantiated computer rumors for which the Internet is infamous began flowing within hours of the arrival of Jan. 1 in Asia.” Barnaby Feder, “Internet’s Cheering Squad Nervously Watches Clock,” New York Times, 1/1/00
  • inflicted
    inflicted [in flikt´ ed]
    imposed upon
    →“Many of the cares that we are inflicted with are but a morbid way of looking at our privileges.” Sir Walter Scott
  • infraction
    infraction [in frak´ shən]
    violation
    →“Order cannot be secured through fear of punishment for an infraction against a political entity.” Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, decision, 10/64
  • ingratiate
    ingratiate [in grā´ shē āt]
    win confidence, charm
    →“This tax was abolished by Richard III to ingratiate himself with the people.” Sir Francis Bacon, Henry VII
  • inherent
    inherent [in hir´ ənt]
    inborn
    →“Harvey lacked graduate degrees but his inherent knowledge of human nature enabled him to be successful as a personnel manager.” “Rungs on the Corporate Ladder,” American Management Association brochure
  • inhibition
    inhibition [in´ ə bish´ ən] or [in´ hi bish´ ən]
    restraint
    →“With all this ‘inhibition’ stuff and Freudian approach and ‘group play,’ you get the distinct impression that people are actually afraid of their kids.” William Michelfelder, The Fun of Doing Nothing
  • iniquity
    iniquity [in ik´ wə tē]
    injustice, wickedness
    →“I lack iniquity Sometime to do me service.” William Shakespeare, Othello
  • initiate
    initiate [i nish´ ē āt]
    start, set going
    →“The Russian army seems ready to initiate a new offensive against the defenders of the capital of Chechnya.” New York Post, 1/10/00
  • innate
    innate [i nāt´ or in´ āt]
    natural
    →“Nothing makes the weak strong or the fearful brave as much as our bodies’ innate drive to stay alive.” William Safire, “Why Die?,” New York Times, 1/1/00
  • innocuous
    innocuous [i nok´ yü əs]
    harmless, mild, innocent
    →“Howell’s seemingly innocuous remark about Tanya’s footware led to a torrent of curses from the petite brunette.” George Sokolsky, “Very Thin Ice”
  • inordinate
    inordinate [in ôrd´ n it]
    excessive
    →“Was it, perhaps, because his back had broken under his inordinate burden?” I. L. Peretz, “Buntcheh the Silent”
  • insatiable
    insatiable [in sā´ shə bəl]
    cannot be satisfied
    →“One needs an insatiable curiosity to succeed in the new technical world-wide spread of information.” Jared Diamond, “Guns, Germs, and Steel”
  • insidious
    insidious [in sid´ ē əs]
    sly, seductive, treacherous
    →“For them, civilization is an insidious but no less sure and deadly poison.” Hernando Bates, Central America
  • insurgent
    insurgent [in sur´ jənt]
    rebellious
    →“The insurgents’ improvised explosive devices killed six more American soldiers yesterday.” Michael Ware, CNN TV Broadcast
  • integral
    integral [in´ tə grəl]
    essential
    →“Let Office 2000 be an integral part of your productivity tools.” Newspaper ad for Microsoft Office 2000
  • interject
    interject [in´ tər]
    insert, interrupt
    →“The accountant interjected, saying that you can buy a better house in New Jersey than on Long Island for the same money.” Ken Moritsugu, “Nowhere to Build,” Newsday, 6/25/99
  • interloper
    interloper [in´ tər lō´ per]
    an unauthorized person
    →“Indeed, the magazine managers are treated as foreign interlopers.” Michael Woolf, “Tribune and Tribulation,” New York, 7/5/99
  • interminable
    interminable [in ter´ mə nə bəl]
    unending
    →“In his clean white shirt and blue jeans, with one hand resting carelessly on the black box, he seemed very proper and important as he talked interminably to Mr. Graves and the Martins.” Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”
  • internecine
    internecine [in´ tər nē´ sn]
    involving conflict within a group, mutually destructive
    →“Eight thousand zealots stabbed each other in internecine massacre.” L. H. Farrar, Early Christians
  • interrogate
    interrogate [in ter´ ə gāt]
    question
    →“The District Attorney of Nassau County is set to interrogate a Malverne police officer who was arrested on shoplifting charges.” Associated Press report, New York Times, 8/20/99
  • intimidate
    intimidate [in tim´ ə dāt]
    to overawe
    →“New language could target loiterers with no apparent purpose other than to intimidate others from entering those areas.” Margaret Hornblower, “Ending the Roundups,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • intrepid
    intrepid [in trep´ id]
    brave
    →“Scientists and support staff began celebrating the new year along with a planeload of tourists and seven intrepid skiers.” Malcolm Browne, “Absence of Midnight Doesn’t Darken Spirits,” New York Times, 1/1/00
  • intrinsic
    intrinsic [in trin´ sik]
    essential, natural, inborn
    →“We appear to have lost the belief that honesty is an intrinsic aspect of political leadership.” Editorial, Christian Science Monitor, 5/17/98
  • introspective
    introspective [in´ trə spek´ tiv]
    looking into one’s own feelings
    →“All had the thin, narrow faces and large, wide-open eyes—introspective eyes.” Ivan Cankar, “Children and Old Folk”
  • inundate
    inundate [in´ un dāt]
    useless
    →“We do know that the moon’s surface has not been eroded by wind or rain or ice or snow and has not been inundated by oceans, lakes or rivers.” Lee A. DuBridge, “Sense and Nonsense About Space”
  • invalidate
    invalidate [în val´ ə dāt]
    to deprive of legal force, to nullify
    →“Some Reagan and Bush appointees have proved far too willing to invalidate decisions made by Congress and the Executive branch.” Cass R. Sunstein, New York Times, 6/2/99
  • invective
    invective [in vek´ tiv]
    insulting, abusive speech
    →“I watched him walk into the clubhouse, kick a bench and break a toe, never once stopping the flow of invective.” Jack Altshul, “Why Should the Other Guy Beat Me?”
  • inveigh
    inveigh [in vā´]
    attack verbally
    →“The County Executive inveighed against scofflaws who owe a total of $60 million.” Television news broadcast, CBS, 6/23/99
  • inveterate
    inveterate [in vet´ ėr it]
    habitual, firmly established
    →“The inveterate Boston Red Sox fan faces seemingly endless disappointment.” Peter Balakian, “Black Dogs of Fate”
  • inviolable
    inviolable [in vī´ ə lə bəl]
    safe (from destruction, etc.)
    →“The coach broke an inviolable rule by striking one of his players.” Don DeLillo, End Zone
  • irascible
    irascible [i ras´ ə bəl]
    irritable
    →“He became so irascible that within six months he lost his wife and half of his office staff.” Herman Wouk, Don’t Stop the Carnival
  • irate
    irate [ī´ rāt or ī rāt´]
    angry, incensed
    →“I got irate because people have been yelling at me my whole life.” Olivia Winslow, “Cop Tells of a Confession,” Newsday, 6/23/99
  • irrational
    irrational [i rash´ ən əl]
    unreasonable, absurd
    →“He became irrational and threatened to commit suicide.” Darcy Frey, “The Last Shot”
  • irrelevant
    irrelevant [i rel´ ə vənt]
    not related to the subject
    →“What has existed in the past seems to him not only not authoritative, but irrelevant, inferior, and outworn.” George Santayana, Character and Opinion in the United States
  • itinerant
    itinerant [ī tin´ ər ənt]
    wandering
    →“Hamlet greeted the group of itinerant actors and made them part of a plan to trap Claudius.” Barron’s Educational Series, Book Notes
j
  • jaunty
    jaunty [jôn´ tē]
    sprightly, gay
    →“The cadet was very trim in his red breeches and blue tunic, his white gloves spotless, his white cockade jaunty, his heart in his mouth.” Alexander Woolcott, “Entrance Fee”
  • jeopardize
    jeopardize [jep´ ər dīz]
    endanger
    →“Cancellation of the event would have jeopardized the financial survival of the organization.” Nat Hentoff, “Picket Lines are Labor’s Free Speech,” Village Voice, 6/15/99
  • jettison
    jettison [jet´ ə sən]
    throw overboard, discard
    →“He refused to jettison any of the manners and behavior that made him seem so odd.” William Connor, Daily Mirror, London, 1956
  • jocose
    jocose [jō kōs´]
    humorous, merry
    →“He caught the sound of jocose talk and ringing laughter from behind the hedges.” George Eliot, Adam Bede
  • jostle
    jostle [jos´ əl]
    to shove hard
    →“When the squeege man jostled him, the police officer said that he feared for his life.” Kit Roane, “Squeege Man Scared Him,” New York Times, 6/25/99
  • jubilant
    jubilant [jü´ bə lənt]
    joyful, in high spirits
    →“When he finally reached Boston, he received a jubilant welcome.” Keith Ayling, “Race Around the World”
  • jurisdiction
    jurisdiction [jür´ is dik´ shən]
    power, range of authority
    →“Lee’s jurisdiction included the monitoring of boxing within New Jersey.” Timothy Smith, “A Sport’s Credibility,” New York Times, 6/20/99
  • juxtapose
    juxtapose [juk stə pōz´]
    to place side by side
    →“Theatrical vignettes are juxtaposed through alternating verses in clever boy-girl counterpoint.” “Hot ’N Cole,” Newsday, 6/4/99
k
  • knell
    knell [nel]
    sound of a bell
    →“Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell / That summons thee to heaven or to hell.” Shakespeare, Macbeth
l
  • labyrinth
    labyrinth [lab´ ə rinth]
    arrangement of winding passages
    →“He himself was so lost in the labyrinth of his own unquiet thoughts that I did not exist.” Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca
  • laceration
    laceration [las ə rā´ shən]
    jagged wound
    →“He pressed only the already tired horse at such speed that his spurs made lacerations in its sides, and at last the poor animal died.” Honore De Balzac, A Passion in the Desert
  • lackluster
    lackluster [lak´ lus´ tər]
    dull
    →“The major reason for the lackluster look in their eyes was their discovery it is now possible to drive across the face of the nation without feeling you’ve been anywhere or that you’ve done anything.” John Keats, “The Call of the Open Road”
  • laconic
    laconic [lə kon´ ik]
    expressing much in few words
    →“The dialogue is clipped, laconic, understated to convey simmering underneath.” John Simon, “The Worst Noël,” New York, 6/21/99
  • lampoon
    lampoon [lam pün´]
    ridicule
    →“Many new TV shows succeed because they lampoon the behavior of teenagers.” John Leonard, New York, 10/15/97
  • landmark
    landmark [land´ märk´]
    historic, turning point of a period
    →“The remarkable trees formed good landmarks by which the place might easily be found again.” Washington Irving, “The Devil and Tom Walker”
  • largess
    largess [lär´ jis]
    gift, gratuity*, liberality
    →“A largess universal like the sun, His liberal eye doth give to every one.” William Shakespeare, Henry IV
  • lassitude
    lassitude [las´ ə tüd]
    weariness, fatigue
    →“To poets it’s vernal lassitude but to us it’s simply spring fever.” Brochure, Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce
  • latent
    latent [lāt´ nt]
    lying hidden
    →“All our latent strength was now alive.” Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour
  • laudable
    laudable [lôd´ ə bəl]
    praiseworthy
    →“American historians, in their eagerness to present facts and their laudable anxiety to tell the truth, have neglected the literary aspects of their craft.” Samuel Eliot Morrison, By Land and by Sea
  • lax
    lax [laks]
    careless, negligent
    →“The fact that his employer was lax on this score was one of many things that he had to condone.” Henry James, “Brooksmith”
  • legerdemain
    legerdemain [lej ər də mān´]
    sleight of hand, deceptive adroitness*
    →“Federal investigators pursuing money-laundering schemes are concerned with alleged acts of legerdemain by Russian banks.” Tim L. O’Brien, “Bank in Laundering Inquiry,” New York Times, 8/20/99
  • legion
    legion [lē´ jən]
    a large number
    →“Though not Hollywood handsome, Tommy’s success with the fair sex was legion.” Janet Murphy, “Babylon on the Hudson”
  • lethal
    lethal [lē´ thəl]
    deadly
    →“By evening we couldn’t even get any more people indoors where they would have had some protection from the lethal fallout.” Florence Moog, “The Bombing of St. Louis”
  • lethargic
    lethargic [lə thär´ jik]
    lazy, indifferent
    →“Ricky Henderson’s lethargic stroll toward second base led the sports reporters to blast him in yesterday’s papers.” Ralph Kiner, baseball announcer, Fox Sports News, 10/4/99
  • levity
    levity [lev´ ə tē]
    lightness of disposition
    →“There was something about the company’s president that made levity seem out of place.” Lloyd Sperling, A Boiler Room Operation
  • libel
    libel [lī´ bəl]
    degradation by writing or publishing
    →“Issues such as freedom of speech and libel are going to have to be rethought as the Internet makes everyone a potential publisher in cyberspace.” Thomas L. Friedman, “Boston E-Party,” New York Times, 1/1/00
  • liquidation
    liquidation [lik´ wə dā´ shən]
    disposal of, killing
    →“Hiding the forty-six comrades who were scheduled for liquidation became much easier.” David Hackett, The Buchenwald Report
  • lithe
    lithe [līŦH]
    graceful
    →“Tasteless headlines screamed ‘Newtie’s Cutie’ to describe the lithe hymn-singing young staff member who inexplicably fell for her portly Newt.” Robert Reno, “Political Garbage,” Newsday, 8/19/99
  • livid
    livid [liv´ id]
    pale
    →“Livid with anger, the poster boy for road rage jumped out of his red convertible and came running toward us.” Letter to the Editor, “Big Road Hazard,” Newsday, 8/19/99
  • loath
    loath [lōth]
    unwilling, reluctant
    →“Still I am loath simply to join the conspiracy.” “The Happy-Parents Conspiracy,” New York Times, 5/23/99
  • loathe
    loathe [lōth]
    to hate
    →“He had braced himself not to become entangled in her loathing for him.” Phillip Roth, American Pastoral
  • longevity
    longevity [lon jev´ ə tē]
    long duration of life
    →“The longevity of metal parts is increased by this new process.” Report, General Motors Corporation
  • lucrative
    lucrative [lü´ krə tiv]
    profitable
    →“Very quickly it became a surprisingly lucrative property.” David McCullough, The Great Bridge
  • lugubrious
    lugubrious [lü gü´ brē əs]
    very sad
    →“Lugubrious notices on the passing of old friends were a feature of the local paper.” TIME, 8/20/99
  • lurid
    lurid [lur´ id]
    sensational
    →“We thought the rookie’s tale was too lurid to be believed, but it turned out to be true.” Chuck Cavanna, Life in the Minors
  • lush
    lush [lush]
    luxurious, elaborate
    →“Can one run for political office without the promise of lush campaign contributions from many sources?” “Steve Forbes; In His Own Debt,” Parade, 9/15/99
m
  • macabre
    macabre [mə ka´ brə]
    gruesome
    →“The Mardi Gras parade featured rowdy celebrants wearing macabre masks and colorful costumes.” Eliza Berman, Let the Good Times Roll
  • machiavellian
    machiavellian [Mak´ ē ə vel ē ən]
    governed by opportunity, not principled
    →“Is there any clearer example of Machiavellian plotting than that of Iago in ‘Othello’?” John Simon, Reverse Angle
  • magnanimous
    magnanimous [mag nan´ ə məs]
    generous, noble
    →“There was no way he was going to be magnanimous and share this prized baseball with anyone who claimed a share of the glory.” Don DeLillo, Underworld
  • maim
    maim [mām]
    disable, cripple
    →“Films in which characters are maimed or destroyed seem to be most popular with today’s youngsters.” Harold Owen, Jr., “The Motion Picture”
  • maladjusted
    maladjusted [mal´ ə jus´ tid]
    poorly adjusted, disturbed
    →“The natural assumption is that the teenage killers at Columbine H.S. were maladjusted youngsters but some neighbors denied that.” Letters to the Editor, Washington Post, 7/14/99
  • malady
    malady [mal´ ə dē]
    disease
    →“Homesickness can be a disease as trivial as a slight cold or it can be a deadly malady.” Z. Libin, “A Sign of Summer”
  • malevolent
    malevolent [mə lev´ ə lənt]
    ill-disposed, ill-intentioned
    →“Our military action against the malevolent head of the Serbian government has finally ended.” Newsweek, 4/8/99
  • malign
    malign [mə līn´]
    abuse, slander
    →“His chosen weapon is the verbal hand grenade by which he can outrage and malign.” Kenneth Tynan, “On Don Rickles,” New Yorker, 2/20/78
  • malignant
    malignant [mə lig´ nənt]
    likely to cause death
    →“The wailing chorus turned into a malignant clamor that swirled into my ears like an icy breeze.” Kenneth Roberts, Oliver Wiswell
  • malleable
    malleable [mal´ ē ə bəl]
    capable of being shaped or formed
    →“Is the mayor able to change from an apparently rigid personality to one more malleable to differences?” Alec Kuczynski, “The Mayor’s Makeover,” New York Times Magazine, 8/1/99
  • malnutrition
    malnutrition [mal´ nü trish´ ən]
    faulty or inadequate diet
    →“The children of the Albanian refugees are suffering from malnutrition, and they need our help.” Red Cross Appeal for Funds
  • mammoth
    mammoth [mam´ əth]
    huge
    →“She began to repair the ravages made by generosity added to love—a tremendous task, dear friends—a mammoth task.” O. Henry, “The Gift of the Magi”
  • mandate
    mandate [man´ dāt]
    an authoritative order or command
    →“With a federal mandate to convert to digital broadcasting by 2003, public TV stations are facing large capital expenditures.” Ellis Bromberg, “Federal Money Vital to Progress of PBS,” The News Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, 10/21/99
  • manifest
    manifest [man´ ə fest]
    evident, obvious
    →“English is one of the great borrowing languages, more manifest in the origin of so many of our words.” Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue
  • manifold
    manifold [man´ ə fōld]
    complex, many
    →“China’s Xinhua News Agency treated manifold claims of procedural error with disbelief.” “Trying to Build Bridges in China,” TIME, 6/28/99
  • martinet
    martinet [märt´ n et´]
    strict disciplinarian
    →“The prospect of having to talk to Sheila’s principal, a real martinet, made him nervous, but he steeled himself to do it.” John Yount, “The Trapper’s Last Shot”
  • masticate
    masticate [mas´ tə kāt]
    to chew up
    →“Trying to masticate a huge hamburger with an open mouth is a no-no.” Advice from Ms. Manners, syndicated columnist, 6/4/98
  • mastiff
    mastiff [mas´ tif]
    large dog
    →“That island of England breeds very valiant creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.” William Shakespeare, Henry V
  • materialism
    materialism [mə tir´ ē ə liz´ əm]
    attention to worldly things and neglect of spiritual needs
    →“Democracy always makes for materialism, because the only kind of equality that you can guarantee to a whole people is physical.” Katherine F. Gerould, Modes and Morals
  • matron
    matron [mā´ trən]
    an older married woman
    →“For ladies they had the family of the American consul and a nice bevy of English girls and matrons, perhaps Lady Hamilton herself.” Edward Everett Hale, The Man Without a Country
  • maudlin
    maudlin [môd´ lən]
    sentimental
    →“Uncle Billy passed rapidly into a state of stupor, the Duchess became maudlin, and Mother Shipton snored.” Bret Harte, “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”
  • megalomania
    megalomania [meg´ ə lō mā´ nēə]
    abnormal desire for wealth and power
    →“Charlie desperately wanted Armaxco to lease space in what so far was the worst mistake of his career, the soaring monster that his megalomania led him to call Croker Concourse.” Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full
  • mendacious
    mendacious [men dā´ shəs]
    lying, untrue
    →“Hillary joined in efforts to dismiss as mendacious tarts all the women who claimed to have been involved with her husband.” Maureen Dowd, “The Boy Can’t Help It,” New York Times, 8/4/99
  • menial
    menial [mē´ nē el]
    humble, degrading
    →“It is difficult to visualize the numbers of menial laborers required to build the famous Egyptian pyramids.” E. A. Wallis Budge, The Mummy
  • mentor
    mentor [men´ tər]
    counselor, coach, tutor
    →“To break into the political life of South Africa, one needed a highly placed mentor.” Nadine Gordimer, Face to Face
  • mercenary
    mercenary [mėr´ sə ner´ ē]
    motivated* by desire for gain, greedy
    →“We all like money . . . but Dickens surpassed most in a mercenary approach to his writings.” G. K. Chesterton, Charles Dickens
  • metamorphosis
    metamorphosis [met´ ə mör´ fə sis]
    change
    →“For nearly a year, the dauber, undergoing metamorphosis, inhabits its silken dung-stoppered cocoon inside the mud cell.” Alan Devoe, “The Mad Dauber”
  • meticulous
    meticulous [mə tik´ yə ləs]
    careful
    →“Even later, in 1992, Barnstead’s meticulous records allowed researchers to put names on six previously unidentified Titanic survivors.” “Titanic and Halifax,” The Nova Scotia Museum
  • mien
    mien [mēn]
    appearance, bearing
    →“He had the mien of a man who has been everywhere and through everything.” Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives Tale
  • milieu
    milieu [mē lyu´]
    environment, setting
    →“In the milieu of a heated baseball championship contest, tickets are being sold at highly inflated prices.” New York Post, 10/10/99
  • miscreant
    miscreant [mis´ krē ənt]
    one who behaves badly
    →“This is the basic measure of damages, and it’s owed by the miscreants to the company and shareholders.” Ben Stein, State of the Union
  • modify
    modify [mod´ ə fī]
    to change
    →“Some schools claimed that the standard test was a lot harder than a modified version.” Ching-Cheng Ni, “Fewer Rumbles on Earth Test,” Newsday, 6/23/99
  • mollify
    mollify [mol´ ə fī]
    pacify, appease
    →“The mayor attempted to mollify his critics by pointing to the increased safety in the city.” New York Daily News, 8/15/99
  • monolithic
    monolithic [mä nə´ li thik]
    massively solid
    →“Gertrude Stein was a stolid, heavy presence, monolithic, unladylike.” Liz Smith, “When Love Was the Adventure,” TIME, 6/14/99
  • moribund
    moribund [môr´ ə bund]
    dying, at the point of death
    →“After being moribund for years, interest in electric automobiles has revived.” Car and Driver, 6/97
  • mortal
    mortal [mor´ tl]
    leading to death
    →“All is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly.” Shakespeare, As You Like It
  • mortality
    mortality [môr tal´ ə tē]
    death
    →“Socrates loves talk of fundamental things, of justice and virtue and wisdom and love and mortality.” Hermann Hagedorn, Socrates—His Life
  • mortify
    mortify [môr´ tə fī]
    embarrass, humiliate
    →“The comparisons between her sister’s beauty and her own no longer would mortify her.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
  • motivate
    motivate [mō´ tə vāt]
    inspire, stimulate, provoke
    →“The loss of our star quarterback seemed to motivate the team to play even harder.” Bill Parcells quoted in Sports Illustrated, 9/12/98
  • mundane
    mundane [mun´ dān]
    worldly
    →“Why bother with mundane musings when you can sit on the lawn and build cities out of grass clippings?” Enid Nemy, “The World is Her Cloister,” New York Times, 6/20/99
  • munificent
    munificent [myü nif´ ə sənt]
    generous
    →“His munificent gift will enable us to place computers in all the elementary schools.” Newsday, 6/20/98
  • murky
    murky [mer kē]
    dark, obscure
    →“Mud dumping from the bottom of Long Island has created a murky picture.” “Fishermen’s Woes,” Newsday, 6/22/99
  • myriad
    myriad [mir´ ē əd]
    countless number
    →“Genius is not born with sight, but blind: it is influenced by a myriad of stimulating exterior circumstances.” Mark Twain, “Saint Joan of Arc”
n
  • nadir
    nadir [nā´ dər]
    lowest point
    →“He knew he had reached the nadir of his baseball career when they sent him to a minor league team.” Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer
  • naive
    naive [nä ēv´]
    unworldly, unsophisticated
    →“Woodrow Wilson was naïve to believe Yugoslavia could be formed after World War I.” Letter to the Editor, New Yorker, 6/26/99
  • nascent
    nascent [nas´ nt]
    beginning to exist or develop
    →“The once nascent Women’s National Basketball Association has arrived and is healthy and prosperous.” New York Times, 7/17/99
  • nebulous
    nebulous [neb´ yə ləs]
    unclear, vague
    →“There is a nebulous line between confidence and over-confidence.” Editorial, Wall Street Journal, 4/8/99
  • nefarious
    nefarious [ni fer´ ē əs]
    villainous, vicious
    →“A nefarious employee can still download secret weapons information to a tape, put it in his pocket and walk out the door.” William Safire, “Culture of Arrogance,” New York Times, 6/17/99
  • negligible
    negligible [neg´ lə jə bəl]
    trifling, inconsiderable
    →“These politicians have voted themselves a big pay raise for the negligible amount of work they do.” The Queens Tribune, 8/6/98
  • neophyte
    neophyte [ne´ ə fīt]
    beginner
    →“The elaborate masked ritual of the courtroom holds attraction only for the neophyte and layman.” David Riesman
  • nepotism
    nepotism [nep´ ə tiz əm]
    favoritism toward relatives
    →“Political allies and family members filled government jobs as nepotism flourished.” Paul Alter, This Windy City
  • nettle
    nettle [net´ l]
    irritate
    →“He was pretty well nettled by this time, and he stood in front of a bureau mirror, brushing his hair with a pair of military brushes.” James Thurber, “More Alarms at Night”
  • neurotic
    neurotic nůrot´ ik
    suffering from a nervous disorder
    →“We shall lose all our power to cope with our problem if we allow ourselves to become a stagnant, neurotic, frightened and suspicious people.” Walter Lippmann, “The Nuclear Age”
  • neutralize
    neutralize [nü´ trə līz]
    to counteract
    →“The quinine that can neutralize his venom is called courage.” Elmer Davis, But We Were Born Free
  • nirvana
    nirvana [nir vä´ nə]
    freedom from care and pain, Buddhist heaven
    →“Nirvana is in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.” Kahlil Gilbran, Sand and Foam
  • noisome
    noisome [noi´ səm]
    foul, unwholesome
    →“The noisome conditions in the refugee camps were a disgrace and a danger.” Newsday, 8/7/99
  • nomadic
    nomadic [nō mad´ ik]
    wandering
    →“After buying the big trailer, they spent a nomadic year visiting national parks out west.” “On the Road Again,” Travel Ideas International
  • nominal
    nominal [nom´ ə nəl]
    slight
    →“As the nominal head of his party, the governor was courted by all the Sunday morning talk shows.” Archer Karnes, “Politics and Poker”
  • nondescript
    nondescript [non´ də skript]
    undistinguished, difficult to describe
    →“Jane Austen can picture ordinary, commonplace and nondescript characters in ways denied to me.” Walter Scott, Journal, 1826
  • nonentity
    nonentity [non en´ tə tē]
    ruin, collapse
    →“With sufficient financial backing, almost any political nonentity could become a national contender.” Washington Post, 6/15/98
  • nostalgia
    nostalgia [no stal´ jə]
    yearning for the past
    →“The various objects one picks up just before leaving a foreign country are apt to acquire an extraordinary souvenir-value, giving one a foretaste of distance and nostalgia.” Corrado Alvaro, “The Ruby”
  • nuance
    nuance [nü äns´]
    slight variation in meaning, tone, etc.
    →“With Minnie Driver adroitly mining each nuance of social primness, Jane is the first Disney cartoon heroine to provide her own comic relief.” Richard Corliss, “Him Tarzan, Him Great,” TIME, 6/14/99
  • nullify
    nullify [nul´ ə fī]
    abolish, cancel
    →“Allowing our parks to decay is a sure way to nullify the beauty given to us by nature.” Freeman Tilden, The National Parks
  • nurture
    nurture [nėr´ chər]
    to nourish, support
    →“The Telecommunications Act of 1996 introduced competition that has nurtured demand for communications generally and for Internet service specifically.” Seth Schessel, “A Chance to Become Really Big,” New York Times, 6/15/99
  • nutritive
    nutritive [nü´ trə tiv]
    having nourishing properties
    →“They searched for anything that had nutritive value, but often found nothing.” “The Irish Famine,” Harpers, 5/73
o
  • obese
    obese [ō bēs´]
    very fat
    →“The rush to lose weight by unproven methods often leads to complications for obese people.” Johns Hopkins Health Letter, Summer 1997
  • obliterate
    obliterate [ə blit´ ə rāt]
    erase, wipe out
    →“They went out to survey the land for a possible railroad, but met with Indians on the warpath and were obliterated.” Freeman Tilden, The National Parks [adapted]
  • obloquy
    obloquy [ob´ lə kwē]
    disgrace, shame, dishonor
    →“Hitler and his Nazis showed how evil a conspiracy could be which was aimed at destroying a race by exposing it to contempt, derision, and obloquy.” Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, decision, 10/52
  • obscure
    obscure [əb sky ůr´]
    unknown, lowly, unclear
    →“This book has serious purpose even if many will find that purpose obscure.” Decision of Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 11/62
  • obsequious
    obsequious [əb sē´ kwē əs]
    seeking favor, fawning
    →“and the survivor bound In filial obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow.” William Shakespeare, Hamlet
  • obsess
    obsess [əb ses´]
    to haunt, preoccupy
    →“To obsess over acquisitions is especially damaging to human felicity.” Llewelyn Powys, Earth Memories
  • obsolescence
    obsolescence [ob´ sə les´ ns]
    process of wearing out
    →“After five centuries of obsolescence, Roman numerals still exert a peculiar fascination over the inquiring mind.” Isaac Asimov, “Nothing Counts”
  • obviate
    obviate [ob´ vē āt]
    do away with, eliminate
    →“Modest pre-emptive acting can obviate the need for more drastic actions at a later date that could destabilize the economy.” Alan Greenspan, quoted in New Jersey Star Ledger, 5/6/99
  • occult
    occult [ə kult´]
    secret, mysterious, supernatural
    →“Somehow, horror films have changed from one main figure who threatens a town or young women, to occult spirits that take over a normal human for unknown reasons.” Pauline Kael, I Lost It at the Movies
  • octogenarian
    octogenarian [ok´ tə jə nār´ i ən]
    person in his or her eighties
    →“Octogenarian film and stage director Elia Kazan received a mixed reception when he came up to collect his Lifetime Achievement Award.” Associated Press report, 4/7/98
  • odious
    odious [o´ dē əs]
    despicable
    →“You told a lie, an odious damned lie.” Shakespeare, Othello
  • ominous
    ominous [om´ ə nəs]
    threatening
    →“There was a Sabbath lull in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous.” Bret Harte, “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”
  • omnipotent
    omnipotent [om nip´ ə tənt]
    almighty, unlimited in power or authority
    →“In those comic strips there was always a cruel and omnipotent villain.” Letter, New York Times, 9/13/99
  • omnivorous
    omnivorous [om niv´ ər əs]
    eating any kind of food
    →“He became an omnivorous reader of the classics.” T. S. Lovering, Child Prodigies
  • opprobrium
    opprobrium [ə prō´ brē əm]
    scorn, insult
    →“General Sherman is still viewed with opprobrium in these parts of the South he once destroyed.” Edmund Wilson, Patriotic Gore
  • opulence
    opulence [op´ yə ləns]
    wealth, riches
    →“Poirot followed him, looking with appreciation at such works of art as were of an opulent and florid nature.” Agatha Christie, “The Dream”
  • originate
    originate [ə rij´ ə nā]
    begin, arise
    →“The early Egyptian rulers, in order to stop the practice of cannibalism, originated the method that protected the dead—mummification.” E. A. Wallis Budge, The Mummy
  • ostensible
    ostensible [o sten´ sə bəl]
    outward, pretended, seeming
    →“The race was ostensibly to test the reliability of the automobiles.” Keith Ayling, The Race Around the World
  • ostentatious
    ostentatious [os´ ten tā´ shəs]
    showy
    →“He affected simplicity, partly because he was ugly, but more because being ostentatious might have irritated those of whom he always spoke of as ‘my fellow citizens.’” Emil Ludwig, Michelangelo
  • oust
    oust [oust]
    to drive out, eject
    →“Politics will still exist as in the Republican campaign to oust Bill Clinton.” James Pinkerton, “Mediocre Pols,” Newsday, 6/17/99
  • overt
    overt [ō´ vėrt]
    open
    →“It is peculiarly shocking that Brutus practices overt self-deception.” Harold Bloom, Shakespeare
p
  • pall
    pall [pôl]
    cease to please, become dull
    →“A pall had descended upon Mr. Timberlake, and I understood why he did not talk to me about the origin of evil.” V. S. Pritchett, “The Saint”
  • palliate
    palliate [pal´ ē āt]
    alleviate, relieve without curing
    →“Reducing the testosterone would palliate the cancer, the oncologist believed, but it wouldn’t be a cure.” Dr. Mervyn Elliot, “Medicine in the News”
  • paltry
    paltry [pôl´ trē]
    of little importance, insignificant
    →“Marvin was baffled by the paltry amount of money the widow was asking for her husband’s elegant Rolls Royce.” Barnett Lesser, “One Man’s Will”
  • panacea
    panacea [pan´ ə sē´ ə]
    cure-all
    →“Mrs. Clinton said that she was in Rochester to listen and learn not to offer panaceas for all civic problems.” Associated Press report, “Pre-Campaign Strategy,” 9/9/99
  • pandemonium
    pandemonium [pan´ də mō´ nē əm]
    disorder, uproar
    →“Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, in pandemonium, a throng of revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment.” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death”
  • parable
    parable [par´ ə bəl]
    a moralistic story
    →“When I had trouble keeping the kindergarten class quiet, I found that telling them a parable (the tortoise and the hare, for example) would get their undivided attention.” Lana L. Grossberg, A Teacher’s True Confessions
  • paradox
    paradox [par´ ə doks]
    a statement that at first seems to be absurd or self-contradictory but which may in fact turn out to be true
    →“Here was a paradox like the stellar universe that fitted one’s mental faults.” Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams
  • paragon
    paragon [par´ ə gon]
    model of excellence
    →“An angel! or, if not An earthly paragon!” William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
  • paramount
    paramount [par´ ə mount]
    supreme, foremost
    →“For him, winning was paramount; coming in second meant he had swum a poor race.” Len Sussman, “Born to Swim”
  • pariah
    pariah [pə rī´ ə]
    social outcast
    →“Apart from the other castes were the outcasts: India’s untouchables, or pariahs.” Barbara Walker, Women’s Encyclopedia
  • paroxysm
    paroxysm [par´ ək siz əm]
    a fit, sudden outburst
    →“The coughing did not even come out in paroxysms, but was just a feeble, dreadful welling up of the juices of organic dissolution.” Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
  • parsimonious
    parsimonious [pär´ sə mō nē əs]
    miserly
    →“His parsimonious thrift was relieved by a few generous impulses.” V. L. Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought
  • passé
    passé [pa sā´]
    outmoded, old-fashioned
    →“Everything old is new again is the theme for the designer’s adoption of passé styles and making them fashionable again.” Sophia Leguizamo, “New From Milan”
  • pathetic
    pathetic [pə thet´ ik]
    sad, pitiful, distressing
    →“He is the latest loser trying to solve his pathetic life behind a gun.” Editorial, New York Post, 7/30/99
  • pathological
    pathological [path´ ə loj i kal]
    disordered in behavior
    →“A pathological liar is one whose lies are suggestive of a mental disorder.” Webster’s Medical Dictionary
  • patriarch
    patriarch [pā trē ark´]
    excusable
    →“If a patriarch wants to put his foot down, the only safe place to do it in these days is in a note-book.” Florida Scott-Maxwell
  • paucity
    paucity [pô´ sə tē]
    scarcity
    →“In the dictator’s best-case scenario, he can hope for continuing control, thanks to a paucity of opponents.” Massimo Calabresi, “Is This the End for Milosevic?,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • pecuniary
    pecuniary [pi kyü´ nē er´ ē]
    financial
    →“The most unpleasant thing of all was that his pecuniary interests should enter into the question of his reconciliation with his wife.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
  • pedagogue
    pedagogue [ped´ ə gog]
    teacher
    →“He is neither bandit nor pedagogue, but, like myself a broken soldier, retired on half pay for some years.” Stephen Vincent Benet, “The Curfew Tolls”
  • penance
    penance [pen´ əns]
    atonement for sin
    →“I have done penance for condemning Love, Whose high imperious thoughts have punished me With bitter fasts, with penitential groans.” William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • penchant
    penchant [pen´ chənt]
    a strong leaning in favor
    →“Annabel had a penchant for silver fox coats but Midge said they were common.” Dorothy Parker, “The Standard of Living”
  • penitent
    penitent [peṅ´ ə tənt]
    regretful, confessing guilt
    →“When father strode into the coal and ice office, he came out, the penitent clerk with him, promising to deliver a block of ice in time for dinner.” Clarence Day, Life with Father
  • pensive
    pensive [pen´ siv]
    thoughtful, reflective
    →“It was only when he found himself alone in his bedroom in a pensive mood that he was able to grapple seriously with his memories of the occurrence.” H. G. Wells, The Man Who Could Work Miracles
  • penury
    penury [pen´ yer ē]
    poverty
    →“Afflicted by penury, it appeared that Putois had joined a gang of thieves who were prowling the countryside.” Anatole France, “Putois”
  • perceive
    perceive [pər sēv´]
    to understand, know, become aware of
    →“The subjects, as you perceive, were alarming but very agreeable.” Anton Chekhov, “A Slander”
  • peregrination
    peregrination [per ə grə nā´ shən]
    travel
    →“Each step he took represented an inward peregrination.” Gretel Ehrlich, “On the Road With God’s Fool”
  • peremptory
    peremptory [pə remp´ tər ē]
    absolute, compulsory, binding
    →“Mr. Greenspan encouraged his fellow Federal Reserve Board members today to undertake a peremptory attack against inflation.” Reuters, “Financial News Letter,” 3/99
  • perfidious
    perfidious [pər fid´ ē əs]
    treacherous, false
    →“Alfred E. Ricks was the perfidious toad’s designation who sold worthless shares in the Blue Gopher Mine.” O. Henry, “The Man Higher Up”
  • perfunctory
    perfunctory [pər fungk´ tər ē]
    done without care, superficial
    →“Doc Martindale made a perfunctory examination and told Eli there was nothing to worry about.” MacKinlay Kantor, “The Grave Grass Quivers”
  • permeate
    permeate [pėr´ mē āt]
    to spread through
    →“The play is permeated with scriptural imagery, notably a Last Supper.” Robert Brustein, New Republic, 6/7/99
  • pernicious
    pernicious [pər nish´ əs]
    harmful, causing injury
    →“This chapter exposes a pernicious obstacle to students and teachers engaging in serious work together.” Robert L. Fried, The Passionate Teacher
  • perpetrate
    perpetrate [pėr´ pə trāt]
    commit
    →“Thanks to Mr. DeLay, we learn that violence perpetrated by gun owners is really the product of larger forces.” Editorial, “Mr. DeLay’s Power Play,” New York Times, 6/20/99
  • perpetuate
    perpetuate [pər pech´ ü āt]
    to cause to continue
    →“The laws would often do no more than perpetuate a legislator’s acts of injustice.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
  • persevere
    persevere [pėr´ sə vir´]
    persist
    →“The Knicks persevered as first Patrick Ewing and then Johnson went down with injuries.” George Vecsey, “Sports of the Times,” New York Times, 6/22/99
  • perspicacious
    perspicacious [pėr´ spə kā´ shəs]
    acutely perceptive, shrewd
    →“Nobody deserves the Lifetime Achievement Award more than Army Archerd, who is not only perspicacious, but a gentleman as well.” Liz Smith, Newsday, 6/2/99
  • pertinent
    pertinent [pėrt´ n ənt]
    to the point
    →“What seems pertinent is to observe that jazz gravitated toward a particular kind of environment in which its existence was probable.” Arnold Sungaard, Jazz, Hot and Cold
  • peruse
    peruse [pə rüz´]
    to read carefully
    →“Stopping to peruse her mail, Raven didn’t notice that the front door was ajar.” Dolores Kent, Instant Gratification
  • perverse
    perverse [pər vers´]
    contrary, persisting in error
    →“There is something contemptible in the prospect of a number of petty states with the appearance only of union, jarring, jealous, and perverse.” Alexander Hamilton, speech, 1782
  • pesky
    pesky [pes´ kē]
    annoying
    →“Oranges down there is like a young man’s whiskers; you enjoy them at first, but they get to be a pesky nuisance.” Ring W. Lardner, “The Golden Honeymoon”
  • phenomenon
    phenomenon [fə nom´ ə non]
    unusual occurrence
    →“This phenomenon is characterized by a temporary reversal of the normal atmospheric conditions, in which the air near the earth is warmer than the air higher up.” Berton Roueché, “The Fog”
  • phlegmatic
    phlegmatic [fleg mat´ ik]
    calm, hard to rouse to action
    →“Duncan had a phlegmatic fourth quarter, dooming the Spurs’ opportunity to humble the New York Knicks.” TV announcer, NBA Finals, 6/22/99
  • phobia
    phobia [fō´ bē ə]
    persistent fear, strong dislike
    →“My phobia was such that the slightest touch produced twinges of pain.” Guy De Maupassant, “Looking Back”
  • pinnacle
    pinnacle [pin´ kəl]
    summit, peak, top, crown
    →“Their little barber-shop quartet reached the pinnacle of their career with a firstplace finish on Major Bowes’ ‘Amateur Hour.’ ” David and Marge Buchanan, “No Business Like You Know What”
  • pique
    pique [pēk]
    fit of resentment
    →“In a fit of pique he raised his pistol to take aim at me but Masha threw herself at his feet.” Aleksandr Pushkin, “The Shot”
  • pittance
    pittance [pit´ ns]
    small amount
    →“To be paid a mere pittance and yet to be suspected of theft; never in her life had she been subjected to such an outrage.” Anton Chekhov, “An Upheaval”
  • placard
    placard [plak´ ärd]
    poster
    →“Yet a mile away at the ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood, wall placards now warn residents not to have Internet-linked computers in their homes.” Thomas Friedman, “All in the Family,” New York Times, 6/22/99
  • plaintiff
    plaintiff [plān´ tif]
    the complaining party, in law
    →“When the attorney for the palsied plaintiff finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in the courtroom.” Rose Axelsohn, “The Defense Rests” [adapted]
  • platitude
    platitude [plat´ ə tüd]
    commonplace or trite saying
    →“The topic was, ‘What Is Life?’ and the students labored at it busily with their platitudes.” Philip Roth, American Pastoral
  • plethora
    plethora [pleth´ ə rə]
    excess
    →“SUFFERERS CONFRONT A PLETHORA OF POLLEN” Headline, New York Times, 6/5/99
  • plight
    plight [plīt]
    predicament, dangerous situation
    →“I had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight.” Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome
  • poignant
    poignant [poi´ nyənt]
    to flood
    →“Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs.” Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
  • polemic
    polemic [pə lem´ ik]
    controversial argument
    →“My greatest problem here, in a polemic-loving America, is my dislike of polemics, of belligerence, of battle.” Anais Nin, The Diaries of Anais Nin
  • ponder
    ponder [pon´ dər]
    to consider carefully
    →“As I made my way back, I pondered the significance of what I’d seen.” Nicholas Kristof, “1492: The Prequel”
  • potent
    potent [pōt´ nt]
    powerful, strong, intense
    →“Those huge differences in income found in our society must have potent causes.” Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
  • potentate
    potentate [pōt´ n tāt]
    ruler
    →“The racing season at Saratoga invited all manner of society—from potentates to paupers.” Lanny Richards, “They’re Off!”
  • potential
    potential [pə ten´ shəl]
    possible
    →“We realized that this system had worked because the potential targets were so many that the Germans could not get a definite idea of where we would strike.” Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was
  • potpourri
    potpourri [pō´ pü rē´]
    medley, mixture
    →“A potpourri of fresh fruits and cool cottage cheese make for a delicious lunch treat when the temperatures rise into the high 90s.” Martha Stewart, CBS News, 5/23/98
  • pragmatic
    pragmatic [prag mat´ ik]
    practical, based on experience
    →“His conservative approach to investing has made millions of dollars for those who share Warren Buffet’s pragmatic philosophy.” “Master of Berkshire-Hathaway,” Profile of Warren Buffet, New York Times
  • precedent
    precedent [pres´ ə dənt]
    custom, model
    →“One can imagine a time when the voters ignore precedent and elect a woman to the office of President of the United States.” Barbara Walker, The Women’s Encyclopedia
  • precipitate
    precipitate [pri sip´ ə tāt]
    hasten
    →“The weight of a finger might precipitate the tragedy, hurl him at once into the dim, gray unknown.” Stephen Crane, “An Episode of War”
  • preclude
    preclude [pri klüd´]
    prevent
    →“I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled—but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk.” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”
  • precocious
    precocious [pri kō´ shəs]
    reaching maturity early
    →“Pediatricians interviewed this week were somewhat divided on the value of TV viewing by precocious children.” Lawrie Miflin, “Tough Rules for TV,” New York Times, 8/4/99
  • prelude
    prelude [prel´ yüd]
    introduction
    →“Bounderby’s prelude to his main point was very well received by Mrs. Sparsit who said, ‘Very sagacious indeed, sir.’” Charles Dickens, Hard Times
  • premise
    premise [prem´ is]
    grounds for a conclusion
    →“That train of reasoning has all the various parts and terms—its major premise and its conclusion.” T. H. Huxley, “We Are All Scientists”
  • premonition
    premonition [prē´ mə nish´ ən]
    forewarning
    →“There seemed to be a gentle stir arising over everything—a very premonition of rest and hush and night.” Mary Wilkens Freeman, “The New England Nun”
  • prerogative
    prerogative [pri rog´ ə tiv]
    an exclusive right or power
    →“Governor Pataki exercised his prerogative as titular head of the party to endorse Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.” Editorial, “Truce Among New York Republicans,” New York Times, 8/7/99
  • prescient
    prescient [pre´ shē ənt]
    able to predict
    →“The Spanish Republic fell in April 1939, and World War II began soon after because those prescient fighters had not been heeded.” Edward Rothstein, Spanish Civil War
  • prestigious
    prestigious [pre stij´ əs]
    illustrious
    →“He had finally reached his present prestigious position of wealth and security, and he felt he was entitled to sit back and enjoy his happiness.” Ronald Byron, “Happy Days for Harrison Gumedi”
  • pretext
    pretext [prē´ tekst]
    an excuse
    →“Our mother had been expressly enjoined by her husband to give Madame Cornouiller some plausible pretext for refusing.” Anatole France, “Putois”
  • prevalent
    prevalent [prev´ ə lənt]
    prevailing, common, general
    →“On the all-news channels the most prevalent images were from a helicopter pursuing the police chase.” New York Post, 7/30/99
  • prevarication
    prevarication [pri var´ ə kā´ shen]
    deviation from the truth, lying
    →“They must honestly swear to this oath without prevarication or reservation.” Supreme Court Justice Byron White, speech, 12/1/64
  • privation
    privation [prī vā´ shən]
    lack of necessities
    →“It aroused a strong response in our hearts when he told about their sufferings and privations.” Selma Lagerlöf, Harvest
  • procrastinate
    procrastinate [prō kras´ tə nāt]
    delay, put off
    →“Mr. Brooksmith procrastinated for several days before accepting my offer.” Henry James, “Brooksmith”
  • prodigious
    prodigious [prə dij´ əs]
    extraordinary, enormous
    →“He knew from the moment he left the ground that it was a prodigious jump.” Joseph N. Bell, “The Olympics Biggest Winner”
  • prodigy
    prodigy [prod´ ə jē]
    marvel, phenomenon
    →“I grant you Clive—Clive was a prodigy, a genius and met the fate of geniuses.” Stephen Vincent Benet, “The Curfew Tolls”
  • proffer
    proffer [prof´ ər]
    offer for acceptance
    →“Orin came to proffer his condolences when, wonder of wonder, he fell in love with the grieving widow.” Terence Cavanaugh, “An Ill Wind”
  • profligate
    profligate [prof´ lə git]
    wasteful
    →“Her innocent appearance had a peculiar attraction for a vicious profligate, who had hitherto admired only the coarser types of feminine beauty.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Käramazov
  • profound
    profound [prə found´]
    deep, intense
    →“So why no profound works on the need for $660 million in tax credits for companies that burn chicken droppings?” Editorial, “Tax-Cut Favors,” New York Times, 8/7/99
  • profuse
    profuse [prə fyüs´]
    overflowing, abundant
    →“He offered profuse apologies for his show of exasperation, and he volunteered to read to her, something in French.” Aldous Huxley, “The Giaconda Smile”
  • progeny
    progeny [proj´ ə nē]
    descendants
    →“First, let me tell you whom you have condemn’d: Not me begotten of a shepherd swain, But issued from the progeny of kings.” William Shakespeare, Henry IV
  • prognosticate
    prognosticate [prog nos´ tə kāt]
    to predict or foretell a future event
    →“Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication I cannot scratch my ear.” William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra
  • prohibition
    prohibition [prō´ ə bish´ ən]
    the act of forbidding certain behavior
    →“The U.S. public is slowly coming around to accepting the idea that a prohibition against the easy access to hand guns is inevitable.” Roger Rosenblatt, “Get Rid of the Damned Things,” TIME, 8/9/99
  • prolific
    prolific [prə lif´ ik]
    producing abundantly
    →“Isaac Asimov was a truly prolific writer, seemingly able to complete a book every two weeks.” Art Nichols, Selling Your Manuscript
  • promulgate
    promulgate [prom´ əl gāt]
    to make known officially
    →“The rules and regulations are promulgated for the guidance of administrative employees, bureau heads, and supervisors.” “Rules and Regulations for Administrative Employees,” NYC Board of Education
  • propagate
    propagate [prop´ ə gāt]
    produce, multiply, spread
    →“The Republican leadership planned to propagate their philosophy for a huge tax cut during the summer recess.” Wolf Blitzer, CNN Nightly News, 7/14/99
  • propensity
    propensity [prə pen´ sə tē]
    disposition, inclination, bent
    →“You had a propensity for telling simple and professional tales before the war.” Joseph Conrad, “The Tale”
  • propinquity
    propinquity [prō ping´ kwə ti]
    nearness in time or place
    →“It occurred to him that Varick might be talking at random to relieve the strain of their propinquity.” Edith Wharton, The Desert of Man
  • propitious
    propitious [prə pish´]
    favorable
    →“Sometime later, I will find a propitious ground and bury you there in the same grave.” Shen Chunlieh, “In Memory of a Child,” 1619
  • propriety
    propriety [prə prī´ ə tē]
    suitability, correctness
    →“There is a propriety and necessity of preventing interference with the course of justice.” Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, decision, 10/28
  • protocol
    protocol [prō´ tə kol]
    forms of ceremony
    →“The most advantageous protocol is very rarely the one I did follow.” Andre Gide
  • proximity
    proximity [prok sim´ ə tē]
    nearness
    →“Stryker had built a small cannery in close proximity to the house where the turtles were raised in shallow tanks.” Edmund Wilson, “The Man Who Shot Snapping Turtles”
  • prudent
    prudent [prüd´ nt]
    wise, cautious
    →“Those who thought the prudent thing to do at the end of 1999 was to stay away from flying resulted in the slowest day of the year for every airline.” TIME, 1/12/00
  • pugnacious
    pugnacious [pug nā´ shəs]
    quarrelsome
    →“Two pugnacious guard dogs in the railyard eliminated the nightly vandalism in a hurry.” Lewis Tumulty, “Civic Pride”
  • puissant
    puissant [pyü´ ə sent] or [pyü is´ nt]
    powerful
    →“The combination of the drugs has become a puissant cocktail in the fight against AIDS.” Medical report, CBS News, 9/20/98
  • pungent
    pungent [pun´ jənt]
    sharply stimulating, biting
    →“The pungent aroma of the cream puffs told Sadie that the man from Goobers had arrived.” Katherine Mansfield, “The Garden Party”
  • puny
    puny [pyü´ nē]
    scattered, spread, broken up
    →“I have said that I am a weak and puny man, and you will have proof of that directly.” Max Beerbohm, “A. V. Laidler”
q
  • qualm
    qualm [kwäm]
    twinge of conscience
    →“The manager had qualms about allowing him to continue playing with an injured hand.” Sports Illustrated, 6/16/98
  • quandary
    quandary [kwon´ dər ē]
    doubt, dilemma
    →“New Year’s Eve presented a quandary for people in China, a country where the observance of non-political Western celebrations is a relatively recent phenomenon.” Elizabeth Rosenthal, “Party? What Party?,” New York Times, 1/1/00
  • quarry
    quarry [kwôr´ ē]
    something hunted or pursued
    →“The state troopers had tracked their quarry to the thickly wooded area near the crime scene.” Newsday, 4/10/98
  • quell
    quell [kwel]
    put an end to
    →“He also did not quell the speculation surrounding Van Gundy’s status as coach.” Mike Wise, New York Times, 5/25/99
  • quip
    quip [kwip]
    joke
    →“The audience screamed and applauded hysterically at every musical number, every quip, every little movement on the stage.” Liz Smith, Newsday, 6/2/99
r
  • rabid
    rabid [rab´ id]
    fanatical, furious, mad
    →“Politicians avoid the appearance of being rabid on issues that seem to be evenly viewed by the voters.” Arthur Willner, “Taking Sides”
  • raconteur
    raconteur [rak´ on tėr´]
    a skilled storyteller
    →“As a popular raconteur, George Jessel was prized as a speaker at award ceremonies.” The Hollywood Reporter, 7/18/96
  • rail
    rail [rāl]
    scold, use abusive language
    →“He cursed and railed, and finally declared he was going to trail the raiders.” Zane Grey, Raiders of the Purple Sage
  • raiment
    raiment [rā´ mənt]
    dress, clothing
    →“No matter what her raiment, Marilyn Monroe looked absolutely fabulous on the screen.” Billy Wilder quoted by Earl Wilson, Chicago Tribune, 2/28/76
  • ramifications
    ramifications [ram´ ə fi kā shəns]
    complications
    →“I don’t live in a laboratory; I have no way of knowing what ramifications my actions will have.” Hugh Prather
  • rampant
    rampant [ram´ pənt]
    going unchecked, widespread
    →“What’s more curious about the determination to end social promotions is that the practice is far from rampant.” Romesh Ratnesar, “Held Back,” TIME, 6/14/99
  • rapacious
    rapacious [ra pā´ shəs]
    greedy, taking by force
    →“Charles V levied fines with rapacious exactness.” James Robertson
  • rash
    rash [rash]
    too hasty, reckless
    →“Thou art as rash as fire to say That she was false.” William Shakespeare, Othello
  • rationalize
    rationalize [rash´ ə nə līz]
    use or give a reason other than the real one
    →“It is the task of the scientist to rationalize the remains of extinct civilizations to discover their histories.” Brian Fagan, Time Detective
  • raucous
    raucous [rô´ kəs]
    harsh, shrill
    →“The 1968 Democratic nominating convention in Chicago was the scene of raucous confrontations.” I. F. Stone, Weekly Reader
  • raze
    raze [rāz]
    destroy
    →“In the gorge, continually razed by the clawing wind, he would probably find his other dog.” Francisco Coloane, “Cururo . . . Sheep Dog”
  • realm
    realm [relm]
    special field of something or someone; kingdom
    →“In all the churches of the realm the Blessed Sacrament is exposed night and day, and tall candles are burning for the recovery of the royal child.” Alphonse Daudet, “The Death of the Dauphin”
  • rebuke
    rebuke [ri byük´]
    criticize, reproach, reprimand
    →“The defeat of the charter revision was viewed as a rebuke of his policies.” Editorial, New York Times, 11/7/99
  • recant
    recant [ri kant´]
    withdraw previous statements
    →“The government’s key witness in the case recanted her testimony, claiming she had been intimidated by prosecutors.” Rob Polner, “Set Back for Prosecutors,” New York Post, 6/23/99
  • recoil
    recoil [ri koil´]
    draw back
    →“It is a gesture of response to my remarks, and it always makes me recoil with a laugh.” Thomas Mann, “A Man and His Dog”
  • recondite
    recondite [rek´ ən dīt]
    secret, hidden, obscure
    →“If it seems too recondite for anyone but dwellers in the groves of Academe, one must consider rhyming slang which originated in the underworld.” Bergen Evans, “Now Everyone Is Hip About Slang”
  • redolent
    redolent [red´ l ənt]
    fragrant
    →“The scene—a decrepit classroom, redolent of moldy books, and the pencil shavings of generations of boys being ground into the hardwood floor.” Jon Robin Baitz, The Film Society
  • redress
    redress [ri dres´]
    to right a wrong, remedy
    →“There has been much discussion about the fairest way to redress centuries of discrimination.” “A Time to Begin,” Readers Digest, 5/92
  • refute
    refute [ri fyüt´]
    prove wrong or false
    →“The tobacco industry has stopped trying to refute the charge that smoking is both dangerous and addictive.” U.S. News and World Report, 2/3/98
  • regimen
    regimen [rej´ ə mən]
    a system of control
    →“I guarantee weight loss when my regimen is followed strictly.” Dr. Robert Atkins
  • relegate
    relegate [rel´ ə gāt]
    assign to an inferior position
    →“They were to be relegated to the outer circle of my life.” Van Wyck Brooks, Helen Keller
  • remiss
    remiss [ri mis´]
    careless, negligent
    →“If the mayor thought that one of his commissioners had been remiss in following instructions, he would fly into a rage and throw his glasses at him.” David Rockefeller on Mayor LaGuardia, New York Times, 10/10/99
  • remote
    remote [ri mōt´]
    distant, hidden away
    →“The pull of the remote stars is so slight as to be obliterated in the vaster moments by which the ocean yields to the moon and sun.” Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us
  • remuneration
    remuneration [ri myü´ nə rā´ shən]
    reward, pay
    →“Please mail your resume along with your expected remuneration to our Director of Personnel.” Want ad, New York Times, 7/7/99
  • repent
    repent [ri pent´]
    regret, desire to make amends
    →“At his court martial, the officer admitted to the charges and repented.” “General Demoted,” Washington Post, 9/2/99
  • repertoire
    repertoire [rep´ ər twär]
    works that an artist is ready to perform
    →“He led a secret life as a forger of paintings, with the most famous as part of his repertoire.” Peter Landesman, New York Times, 7/18/99
  • replenish
    replenish [ri plen´ ish]
    to fill again, to restock
    →“We’ll dip down into our farm system to replenish our stock of left-handed pitchers.” Bobby Valentine, ABC-TV Sports Interview
  • replete
    replete [ri´ plēt´]
    completely filled or supplied with
    →“Edward Francis had steeped himself in the internal mystery of the guinea pig.” Paul De Kruif, Hunger Fighters
  • repose
    repose [ri pōz´]
    state of rest
    →“Good night, good night! as sweet repose and rest Come to thy heart as that within my breast.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
  • reprehensible
    reprehensible [rep´ ri hen´ sə bəl]
    worthy of blame
    →“She thought that the prisoners, no matter how morally reprehensible their crimes, still should have the benefit of pretrial representation.” Jimmy Breslin’s syndicated column, Newsday, 6/15/99
  • repress
    repress [ri pres´]
    to put down
    →“General McClellan repressed his feelings about President Lincoln but he expressed his private anger in letters to his wife.” David Herbert Donald, Lincoln
  • reprimand
    reprimand [rep´ rə mand]
    to show sharp disapproval
    →“The difficulty lay in the fact the man had previously received a reprimand from his employer regarding his easy-going ways with the men under him in his department.” James Thurber, “Let Your Mind Alone”
  • reproach
    reproach [ri prōch´]
    rebuke*, reprimand*
    →“When reminded that he knew little history, Henry Ford reproached his critics by reminding them that history would know him.” Quoted in The Will Rogers Book, Paula Love, editor, 1961
  • repudiate
    repudiate [ri pyü´ dē āt]
    to reject, decline
    →“If upheld, the decision would repudiate one of the Administration’s environmental achievements.” Editorial, New York Times, 5/19/99
  • repugnant
    repugnant [ri pug´ nənt]
    distasteful, repulsive
    →“The behavior of the few rioters at the rock concert was repugnant to the huge, peaceful crowd.” “Woodstock Revisited,” TIME, 6/7/99
  • repulse
    repulse [ri puls´]
    drive back
    →“The cannons were set up to repulse a possible invasion but none was ever attempted.” Col. F. X. Prescott, “History as Our Teacher”
  • reputed
    reputed [ri pyü´ tid]
    thought, supposed, believed
    →“The language of Iceland has changed so little that modern Icelanders are reputed to be able to read sagas written thousands of years ago.” Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue
  • requisite
    requisite [rek´ wə zit]
    requirement
    →“Secrecy is more requisite than ever during the sensitive negotiations over the release of our prisoners.” I. F. Stone, Weekly Reader
  • resourceful
    resourceful [ri sôrs´ fəl]
    able to meet any situation
    →“The crew of the $20 million independent film had to be very resourceful to hold down costs.” Beth L. Kiel, “Allen in Hollywood,” New York, 6/21/99
  • respite
    respite [res´ pit]
    an interval of relief, delay
    →“The plan enabled the oiler and the correspondent to set respite together.” Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat”
  • restrictive
    restrictive [ri strik´ tiv]
    harsh, confining
    →“Mr. el Hage said that the law was too restrictive, claiming that he had nothing to do with violent acts.” Benjamin Weiser, “Terrorism Suspect,” New York Times, 6/23/99
  • reticent
    reticent [ret´ ə sənt]
    silent
    →“He was as inquisitive about the country as he was reticent about his business there.” Frances Gilchrist Woods, “Turkey Red”
  • retort
    retort [ri tôrt´]
    to answer, reply
    →“There is no need to retort to an employee who has written a critique of your original warning letter.” NYC Board of Education’s Food Service Division, Guide for Managers
  • retrospect
    retrospect [ret´ rə spekt]
    looking backward
    →“I shivered in retrospect when I thought of that afternoon meeting in the freezing hall.” Anna L. Strong, The Chinese Conquer China
  • reverberating
    reverberating [ri vėr´ bə rāt´ ing]
    reechoing, resounding
    →“When that putt plunked into the hole yesterday, the 40,000 people exploded in a roar that reverberated through more than a century of U.S. Open history.” Dave Anderson, “Longest Final Putt,” New York Times, 6/21/99
  • revere
    revere [ri vir´]
    honor, respect, admire
    →“Paul McCartney and other celebrities who yet revere the name of rock-and-roll great Buddy Holly will host a tribute to him at the Roseland Ballroom.” Letta Taylor, “Tribute to Buddy,” Newsday, 9/3/99
  • reverie
    reverie [rev´ ər ē]
    dream
    →“All through the ages, people have regarded their reveries as sources of wisdom.” Rollo May
  • revert
    revert [ri vėrt´]
    return
    →“She dreamily reverts to the hour when old age will throw down his frosts upon her head.” Walt Whitman, “Dreams”
  • reviled
    reviled [ri vīld´]
    scolded
    →“Former Haitian President Aristede was reviled by orphanage graduates who claimed that he had lied to them about the promise of jobs.” Associated Press story, “Haiti Gunmen Confront Police,” New York Times, 6/25/99
  • rhetoric
    rhetoric [ret´ ər ik]
    use (sometimes exaggerated) of language
    →“Nothing good can come out of the rhetoric of hatred that will be heard at the rally.” New York Congressman Charles Rangel, ABC TV News, 9/2/99
  • rife
    rife [rīf]
    widespread
    →“Cyberspace is rife with sweatshops but very few people realize it.” Karl Taro Greenfield, “Living the Late Shift,” TIME, 6/28/99
  • rift
    rift [rift]
    a split, an opening
    →“The 1993 tear gas assault on the Branch Dividian cult has created a rift between the FBI and the Attorney General’s office.” Associated Press report, “FBI Video Released,” Newsday, 9/3/99
  • risible
    risible [riz´ ə bəl]
    laughable
    →“He is the most risible misanthrope I ever met with.” Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker
  • romp
    romp [romp]
    to move in a lively manner
    →“She was expected to win the governor’s race in a romp.” Wolf Blitzer, CNN News, 2/2/98
  • roster
    roster [ros´ tər]
    a list of names
    →“The roster of stars for our gala celebration includes Cher, Meatloaf, and Lyle Lovett.” Las Vegas hotel ad
  • rudimentary
    rudimentary [rü´ də men´ tə rē]
    elementary
    →“Some of them were singing, some talking, some engaged in gardening, haymaking, or other rudimentary industries.” “The Other Side of the Hedge,” E. M. Forster
  • rue
    rue [rü]
    regret
    →“When they make a mistake they will rue it.” Randi Feigenbaum, “Realtors’ Deal Irks Lawyers,” Newsday, 9/3/99
  • ruminate
    ruminate [rü´ mə nāt]
    ponder, reflect upon
    →“Lou Gehrig, the great N.Y. Yankee star, ruminated on his career as he left because of an incurable illness: ‘I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.’ ” Speech, 7/4/39
  • rustic
    rustic [rus´ tik]
    countrified, unpolished
    →“This week a rustic setting in the Berkshire Hills was a gathering place for a group that is dedicated to preserving the Yiddish language.” Tina Rosenberg, “Living an American Life in Yiddish,” New York Times, 9/3/99
s
  • saga
    saga [sä´ ga]
    heroic story
    →“The saga of the Kennedy family has enthralled and saddened us.” Barbara Walters, quoted in New York Times, 7/10/99
  • sage
    sage [sāj]
    wise man, philosopher
    →“I am not a visionary, nor am I a sage—I claim to be a practical idealist.” Mohandas Gandhi quoted by John Gunther, Procession, 1965
  • salient
    salient [sā´ lē ənt]
    outstanding, prominent
    →“The salient feature of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 is that it prohibits discrimination against the disabled.” Robert McFadden, “Court Ruling on Disabled Teacher Is Annulled,” New York Times, 6/25/99
  • sally
    sally [sal´ ē]
    suddenly rush forth
    →“The next morning we decided to sally forth to try to find a site for our new home.” Stephen Leacock, “How My Wife and I Built Our Home for $4.90”
  • salubrious
    salubrious [sə lü´ brē əs]
    healthful, wholesome
    →“For my later years there remains the salubrious effects of work: stimulation and satisfaction.” Kathe Kollwitz, Diaries and Letters, 1955
  • salvation
    salvation [sal vā´ shən]
    deliverance from ruin
    →“Maybe it is connected with some terrible sin, with the loss of eternal salvation, with some bargain with the devil.” Aleksandr Pushkin, “The Queen of Spades”
  • sanctimonious
    sanctimonious [sangk´ tə mō´ nē əs]
    hypocritically religious
    →“There has never been a shortage of sanctimonious arguments for starting a war.” Peter Finley Dunne, Mr. Dooley Remembers
  • sanction
    sanction [sangk´ shən]
    endorse, certify
    →“He received his father’s sanction and authority.” George Meredith, Diana of the Crossways
  • sanctuary
    sanctuary [sangk´ chü er´ i]
    shelter
    →“The identity of Rinehart may be a temporary sanctuary for the narrator, but it is another identity he must reject if he is to find himself as a person.” Anthony Abbott, Invisible Man
  • sanguine
    sanguine [sang´ gwən]
    optimistic
    →“I’m not sanguine about the Knicks’ chances to upset the San Antonio Spurs.” Telephone caller to WFAN Sports Radio Program, 6/8/99
  • satiety
    satiety [sə tī´ ə tē]
    excess, overly full, surfeit*
    →“One of the soldiers was given leave to be drunk six weeks, in hopes of curing him by satiety.” William Cowper, Selected Letters
  • saturate
    saturate [sa-chə-rāt]
    soak, fill up completely
    →“Vanilla sweetens the air, ginger spices it; melting nose-tingling odors saturate the kitchen.” Truman Capote, “A Christmas Memory”
  • schism
    schism [siz´ əm]
    split
    →“The schism between the manager and his best pitcher spilled over from the locker room onto the field.” Bob Klapisch, The Worst Team That Money Could Buy
  • scion
    scion [sī´ ən]
    child, descendant
    →“Al Gore is the Good Son, the early achieving scion from Harvard and Tennessee who always thought he would be President.” Maureen Dowd, “Freudian Face-Off,” New York Times, 6/15/99
  • scoff
    scoff [skof]
    to sneer at
    →“No one was injured except the woman who had scoffed at the belief.” Leonard Fineberg, “Fire Walking in Ceylon”
  • scrutinize
    scrutinize [skrüt´ n īz]
    examine closely
    →“The jockey waited with his back to the wall and scrutinized the room with pinched, creepy eyes.” Carson McCullers, “The Jockey”
  • scurrilous
    scurrilous [skėr´ ə ləs]
    coarse
    →“They were infuriated by the scurrilous articles about them that started to crop up in the tabloids.” Charles Blauvelt, Edward and Wally
  • scurry
    scurry [skėr´ ē]
    run hastily
    →“Some small night-bird, flitting noiselessly near the ground on its soft wings, almost flapped against me, only to scurry away in alarm.” Ivan Turgenev, “Bezhin Meadows”
  • sedate
    sedate [si dāt´]
    quiet, still, undisturbed, sober
    →“Few public places maintain a sedate atmosphere equal to the majestic chambers of the Supreme Court.” Milton Konvitz, editor, Bill of Rights Reader
  • sedentary
    sedentary [sed´ n ter´ ē]
    largely inactive, accustomed to sitting
    →“Seeger had seen him relapsing gradually into the small-town hardware merchant he had been before the war, sedentary and a little shy.” Irwin Shaw, “Act of Faith”
  • senile
    senile [sē´ nīl]
    infirm, weak from old age
    →“Being on golf’s Senior Tour doesn’t mean that we’re senile.” Leon Jaroff, “Those Rich Old Pros,” TIME, 9/27/99
  • serenity
    serenity [sə ren´ ə tē]
    peaceful repose
    →“At the top, they planted the crucifix and gathered round, moved by the serenity.” Sontag Orme, “Solemnity and Flash in the Land of Jesus,” New York Times, 1/1/00
  • servile
    servile [sėr´ vəl]
    slavish, submissive
    →“Uriah Heep, so physically repulsive and hypocritically servile, fascinated David at first but later revolted him.” Holly Hughes, Barron’s Book Notes, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  • shibboleth
    shibboleth [shib´ ə lith]
    pet phrase, slogan
    →Dialects are sometimes used as shibboleths to signal the ethnic or social status of the speaker.” Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue
  • sinecure
    sinecure [sī´ nə kyůr]
    soft job
    →“Matthew Arnold’s job was a sinecure, allowing him plenty of time to travel and write lyrics.” Nicholas Jenkins, “A Gift Improvised,” New York Times, 6/20/99
  • singular
    singular [sing´ gye lər]
    extraordinary
    →“The fate that rules in matters of love is often singular, and its ways are inscrutable, as this story will show.” Meyer Goldschmidt, “Henrik and Rosalie”
  • sinister
    sinister [sin´ ə stər]
    evil, ominous
    →“The man had a cordially sinister air.” Hernando Tellez, “Ashes for the Wind”
  • site
    site [sīt]
    location
    →“The site of the bison herd’s destruction was a tall cliff over which they were driven.” Brian Fagan, Time Detectives
  • skirmish
    skirmish [sker´ mish]
    small fight, brief encounter
    →“They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.” William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
  • slovenly
    slovenly [sluv´ ən lē]
    disorderly, carelessly
    →“The twenty-six year old’s slovenly appearance belied the fact that he was one of the Silicon Valley’s brightest stars.” Reuben Cowan, “Today Dot-Com”
  • sojourn
    sojourn [sō´ jėrn]
    temporary stay
    →“He returned from a long sojourn in Europe.” Alan McCulloch, Encyclopedia of Australian Art
  • solace
    solace [sol´ is]
    easing of grief
    →“He read in a Bible that he had neglected for years, but he could gain little solace from it.” Theodore Dreiser, “The Lost Phoebe”
  • solicit
    solicit [sə lis´ it]
    to beg, seek earnestly
    →“The police chief said that Commissioner Safir had not yet solicited his opinion on the question.” “Police Chief Says Officers Deserve Raise,” New York Times, 6/15/99
  • somber
    somber [som´ bər]
    gloomy, sad
    →“There was a somber and moving tribute for his last game at Yankee Stadium.” John Updike, New Yorker, 10/22/94
  • sophistry
    sophistry [sof´ ə strē]
    false reasoning or argument
    →“No amount of sophistry could disguise the obvious fact that the legislation was biased against one particular office holder.” New York Times, 9/2/99
  • sordid
    sordid [sôr´ did]
    dirty, base
    →“The workmen used revolting language; it was disgusting and sordid.” Katherine Mansfield, “The Garden Party”
  • spate
    spate [spāt]
    rush, flood
    →“There has been a spate of tell-all memoirs, destroying the organization’s special status.” Jewish Monthly, 9/99
  • specious
    specious [spē shəs]
    deceptively attractive
    →“It was a specious argument but delivered so effectively that it was convincing.” Murray Bromberg, Wagers of Sin
  • spew
    spew [spyü]
    throw up, vomit, eject
    →“It was obvious as the miles of electronic tape began to spew out the new patterns of American life that the census was to be of historic dimension.” Theodore H. White, The Making of the President
  • spontaneous
    spontaneous [spon tā´ nē əs]
    without preparation, unrehearsed
    →“Professor Einstein burst out in spontaneous candidness.” Thomas Lee Bucky, “Einstein: An Intimate Memoir”
  • sporadic
    sporadic [spə rad´ ik]
    occasional
    →“TROOPS ENCOUNTER SPORADIC VIOLENCE” Headline, Newsday, 6/14/99
  • spurious
    spurious [spyůr´ ē əs]
    false, counterfeit, specious*
    →“The only known picture, albeit a spurious one, had been printed some years earlier.” James Monaghan, Diplomat in Carpet Slippers
  • squeamish
    squeamish [skwē´ mish]
    easily shocked, over sensitive
    →“My brother, who voted for Mr. Mbeki and who has faith in his leadership, is not squeamish.” Mark Mathabane, “South Africa’s Lost Generation”
  • stagnant
    stagnant [stag´ nənt]
    motionless, dull, inactive
    →“The place was small and close, and the long disuse had made the air stagnant and foul.” T. E. Lawrence, The Desert of the Stars
  • staunch
    staunch [stônch]
    strong, trusty, firm
    →“Known as a staunch supporter of the Republican agenda, the young politician astounded us all by his defection.” Monte Halperin, “Party Turncoat?”
  • steeped
    steeped [stēpt]
    soaked, drenched, saturated
    →"Edward Francis had steeped himself in the internal mystery of the guinea pig." Paul De Kruif, Hunger, Fighters
  • stentorian
    stentorian [sten tôr´ ē ən]
    loud
    →“He proclaimed the fact in stentorian tones that were easily heard throughout the auditorium.” A. A. Berle, The 20th Century Capitalist Revolution
  • stereotype
    stereotype [ster´ e ə tīp´]
    unvarying pattern
    →“Treating the most respected leader in the land that way confirms the worst stereotypes and that really hurts us.” Alessandra Stanley, “Asking a Favor of the Pope,” New York Times, 6/12/99
  • stigmatize
    stigmatize [stig´ mə tīz]
    to mark with a disgrace
    →“People who so much as whisper during a performance are stigmatized as barbarians.” Joseph Wechsberg, The Best Things in Life
  • stipulate
    stipulate [stip´ ū lāt]
    to specify a condition
    →“I shall come out from here five minutes before the stipulated term, and thus shall violate the agreement.” Anton Chekhov, “The Bet”
  • strident
    strident [strīd´ nt]
    shrill, harsh, rough
    →“No matter how strident or insulting he became, he was not interrupted by the police.” New York Daily News, 9/5/99
  • strife
    strife [strīf]
    discord, disagreement
    →“Either there is a civil strife, Or else the world, too saucy with the gods, Incenses them to send destruction.” William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
  • stunted
    stunted [stunt´ id]
    checked in natural growth, held back in growth
    →“Their physical and mental development became stunted during childhood.” Roger Pineles, Shame of the Cities
  • stupor
    stupor [stü´ pər]
    daze, insensible condition
    →“If your child watches late night television and comes home from school in a stupor, she’s not getting enough sleep.” “Getting Enough Sleep,” Working Mother, 5/98
  • stymie
    stymie [stī´ mē]
    to hinder, impede
    →“The family has been stymied in its attempt to remove a dead relative from the juror rolls.” Associated Press story, “Jury Duty Summonses Don’t Stop Despite Death,” New York Times, 6/25/99
  • subjugate
    subjugate [sub´ jə gāt]
    conquer
    →“The country had been bitterly divided, so ruthless in its determination to keep the black majority subjugated.” Sheryl McCarthy, “Mandela Was South Africa’s Perfect Choice,” Newsday, 6/17/99
  • subservient
    subservient [səb sėr´ vē ənt]
    servile, obsequious*
    →“From the earliest times, including the Bible, women have been counseled to be subservient to men.” Barbara G. Walker, The Women’s Encyclopedia
  • substantiate
    substantiate [səb stan´ shē āt]
    confirm, ratify
    →“The Queens District Attorney said that there were not enough facts to substantiate the charges against the tour operator so no prosecution would take place.” Queens Courier, 1/18/00
  • subterfuge
    subterfuge [sub´ tər fyüj]
    ruse, trick
    →“He was a free-will agent and he chose to do careful work, and if he failed, he took the responsibility without subterfuge.” Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “A Mother in Mannville”
  • subterranean
    subterranean [sub´ tə rā´ nē ən]
    underground
    →“Another celebrity expected during the three games at Madison Square Garden is Ed Norton—the actor, not the subterranean sanitation professional.” Richard Sandomir, “N.B.A. Finals,” New York Times, 6/21/99
  • succinct
    succinct [sək singkt´]
    brief, concise
    →“In clear and succinct tones, our division head proceeded to tear me to shreds in front of the entire staff.” Elleyn Falk, “They Promised Me a Rose Garden”
  • succulent
    succulent [suk´ yə lənt]
    juicy
    →“Use this coupon to get $1 off on a succulent holiday turkey.” Advertisement, Waldbaum’s Supermarket, 11/99
  • succumb
    succumb [sə kum´]
    to give way, yield
    →“This young gentleman was of an excellent family but had been reduced to such poverty that the energy of his character succumbed beneath it.” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
  • suffrage
    suffrage [suf´ rij]
    right to vote
    →“My successor was chosen by general suffrage.” John Marsden
  • sullen
    sullen [sul´ ən]
    ill-humored, grim
    →“My decision to leave put her into a sullen silence, broken only by a mumble under her breath.” Alan Lelchuk, “American Mischief”
  • sultry
    sultry [sul´ trē]
    extremely hot and moist, torrid
    →“The sun would shine up there in the lengthening spring day and pleasant breezes blow in sultry summer.” Maurice Walsh, The Quiet Man
  • sumptuous
    sumptuous [sump´ chü əs]
    lavish
    →“In the summer the table was set, and the sumptuous meals—well, it makes me cry to think of them.” Mark Twain, Autobiography
  • superficial
    superficial [sü´ pər fish´ əl]
    on the surface, slight
    →“His teachings had only a superficial relationship to the orthodox religion he advocated.” Carl Dreyer, “The Roots of Anti-Semitism”
  • superfluous
    superfluous [sůpėr´ flü əs]
    excessive, surplus
    →“He drove through the beautiful countryside in silence; conversation would have been superfluous.” Travel and Leisure, 10/94
  • supine
    supine [sü pīn´]
    lying on the back
    →“The clergy as a whole were therefore obedient and supine.” G. M. Trevelyan, Carlyle
  • supplication
    supplication [sup´ lə kā´ shən]
    earnest prayer
    →“The last supplication I make of you is that you will believe this of me.” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
  • surfeit
    surfeit [sėr´ fit]
    excess, superabundance
    →“A surfeit of the sweetest things The deepest loathing to the stomach brings.” William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  • surge
    surge [sėrj]
    to rush suddenly
    →“In one wild surge they stormed into a police station, where the bewildered officers tried to maintain order.” James Michener, “The Bridge at Andau”
  • surmise
    surmise [sər mīz´]
    guess
    →“The commanding officer surmised that the other ship in the cove was a coaster.” Joseph Conrad, Tales of Hearsay
  • surreptitious
    surreptitious [sər´ əp tish´ əs]
    stealthy, accomplished by secret
    →“He was surreptitiously negotiating to have 70 percent of the payments turned over to himself.” David C. Johnson, “Tax Evasion Scheme,” New York Times, 1/1/00
  • susceptible
    susceptible [sə sep´ tə bəl]
    easily affected, unusually liable
    →“Wrestling matches are susceptible to being heavily scripted, as ardent fans know.” Edward Wyatt, “Pinning Down a Share Value,” New York Times, 8/4/99
  • symptomatic
    symptomatic [simp´ tə mat´ ik]
    having to do with signs or symptoms, indicative
    →“The widespread dislocation and downsizing in hospitals is symptomatic of relentless cost pressures.” Carol Eisenberg, “Nurses Contend With System’s Ills,” Newsday, 6/22/99
t
  • taboo
    taboo [tə bü´]
    urgent, necessary, compulsory
    →“The modern motion pictures have shown so much that once was considered taboo.” Harold H. Owen, Jr., The Motion Picture
  • tacit
    tacit [tas´ it]
    understood, implied, not stated
    →“There is a tacit agreement in a civil conversation that each avoid making of it a monologue.” Rebecca West, “There Is No Conversation”
  • taint
    taint [tānt]
    contamination, undesirable substance that spoils something
    →“The defense argued that poor police procedures had tainted the evidence.” Newsday, 6/19/98
  • tangible
    tangible [tan´ jə bəl]
    having actual form
    →“I hated it, not because of our one overcrowded closet, but because of intrusions and discomforts of a far less tangible nature.” Mary Ellen Chase, “A Room of My Own”
  • tantalize
    tantalize [tan´ tl īz]
    tease or torment by offering something good, but not deliver
    →“We were tantalized by a glimpse of a brown bear and her cubs in the wood.” Travel and Leisure, 10/97
  • tantamount
    tantamount [tan´ tə mount]
    equivalent, identical
    →“Opponents of the proposed agreement claim it is tantamount to a surrender of holy land.” USA. Today, 1/13/00
  • taut
    taut [tôt]
    tense, keyed up, on edge
    →“His face grew taut as he was questioned about his use of illegal drugs in his youth.” New York Post, 8/19/99
  • technology
    technology [tek nol´ ə jē]
    branch of knowledge dealing with engineering, applied science, etc.
    →"Mr. Greenspan noted that 'history is strewn' with miscalculations about technology developments." Richard Stevenson, "Fed Chief on New-Age Economy," New York Times, 6/15/99
  • temerity
    temerity [tə mer´ ə tē]
    foolish boldness
    →“In the first month of his service in the House, the young Congressman had the temerity to challenge his party’s Speaker; it was a mistake.” Blanche Kassell, Up on the Hill
  • tenable
    tenable [ten´ ə bəl]
    supportable, defendable
    →“He took the tenable position that lawyers should never cross examine a witness without knowing the answer before asking the question.” Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
  • tenacious
    tenacious [ti nā´ shəs]
    tough, stubborn
    →“Their talent and tenacious actions on the court will at last reward them.” Darcy Frey, The Last Shot
  • termagant
    termagant [tėr´ mə gənt]
    a scolding woman, a shrew
    →“This book deals with the matrimonial adventures of an extremely rich and bullying termagant.” Saturday Review, 11/99
  • terminate
    terminate [ter´ mə nāt]
    to end
    →“A continuation of such chronic lateness may lead us to terminate your employment.” Regulations of the NYC Board of Education’s Office of School Food & Nutrition Services
  • terse
    terse [tėrs]
    concise, brief, compact
    →“The mayor sent a terse letter to the school’s chancellor over his cancellation of a meeting.” New York Times, 8/5/99
  • therapy
    therapy [ther´ ə pē]
    healing or curing process
    →“He will have to undergo long-term therapy before considering playing baseball again.” The Washington Post, 7/9/99
  • thespian
    thespian [thes pē ən]
    actor
    →“I regard Liev Schreiber as the outstanding thespian of our times.” Ben Brantley, Theatre Critic, The New York Times
  • throng
    throng [thrông]
    crowd
    →“When the throng had mostly streamed into the porch, the sexton began to toll the bell.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil”
  • thwart
    thwart [thwôrt]
    to hinder, defeat
    →“The man who made up the name for flies must have been thwarted in a life-long desire to have children, and at last found that outlet for his suppressed baby-talk.” Robert Benchley, “The Lure of the Road”
  • timorous
    timorous [tim´ ər əs]
    fearful
    →“He was a timorous incompetent who was lucky to have good men under him.” W. A. Swanberg, Citizen Hearst
  • tinge
    tinge [tinj]
    a trace, smattering, or slight degree
    →“The sermon was tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper’s temperament.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil”
  • tolerate
    tolerate [tol´ ər āt]
    to put up with, to bear
    →“They despise anyone who hasn’t had the luck to be born Masai, but for one reason and another, they tolerated me.” Robert W. Krepps, “Pride of Seven”
  • tortuous
    tortuous [tôr´ chü əs]
    winding
    →“The tortuous descent down the mountain resulted in one additional fatality, this time a sure-footed Sherpa guide.” Winston Adair, “Everest Takes Its Toll”
  • toxic
    toxic [tok´ sik]
    harmful
    →“A hope, if it is not big enough, can prove toxic; for hope is more essentially an irritant than a soporific.” William Bolitho
  • tradition
    tradition [trə dish´ ən]
    custom that has been handed down
    →“The town had a century-old tradition—an eight-hour canoe race.” Brenda Flock, “The Race”
  • tranquil
    tranquil [trang´ kwəl]
    quiet
    →“Over this house, most tranquil and complete, Where no storm ever beat, She was sole mistress.” Phyllis McGinley, “The Doll House”
  • transient
    transient [tran´ shənt]
    passing, short-lived, fleeting
    →“City championships and national tournaments, however thrilling, are transient moments.” Darcy Frey, The Last Shot
  • tremulous
    tremulous [trem´ yə ləs]
    quivering
    →“‘Will Pa get hurt?’ asked Jane in a tremulous voice.” Jessamyn West, “Yes, We’ll Gather at the River”
  • trenchant
    trenchant [tren´ chənt]
    keen, incisive*
    →“Mr. Salinger’s views on celebrity are often funny and trenchant.” Clyde Haberman, “A Recluse Meets His Match,” New York Times, 6/18/99
  • trend
    trend [trend]
    general direction
    →“We should make every effort to reverse the trend in popular music towards violent lyrics.” Portland Oregonian, 8/12/99
  • trivial
    trivial [triv´ ē əl]
    petty, worthless
    →“In the study of past civilizations, nothing is considered as a trivial discovery.” Brian Fagan, Time Detectives
  • truncated
    truncated [trung´ kā tid]
    cut short
    →“It will be much harder if their state (Palestine) is so truncated, so cut up, that it is not viable.” Anthony Lewis, “The Irrelevance of a Palestinian State,” New York Times, 6/20/99
  • turbulent
    turbulent [tėr´ byə lənt]
    unruly, agitated
    →“Up to the turbulent surface came a peculiar-looking craft, risen from the calm but dangerous depth of the ocean.” Lt. Don Walsh, “Our Seven-Mile Dive to the Bottom”
  • turpitude
    turpitude [tėr´ pə tü]
    vileness, evil wickedness
    →“The government must be held responsible for these acts of moral turpitude resulting in so many civilian casualties.” TIME, 8/25/98
  • tussle
    tussle [tus´ əl]
    a rough struggle
    →“It often doesn’t pay to tussle with your child to take music lessons.” Working Mother, 5/96
  • tyro
    tyro [tī rō]
    beginner, novice
    →“The computer training center will soon turn a tyro into a successful user.” Senior News, 9/99
u
  • ubiquitous
    ubiquitous [yü bik´ wə təs]
    being everywhere at the same time
    →“Che Guevera has become ubiquitous; his figure stares out at us from coffee mugs and posters, pops up in rock songs and operas.” Ariel Dorfman, “Che,” TIME, 6/14/99
  • ultimate
    ultimate [ul´ tə mit]
    final
    →“The ultimate possibility for hero and chorus alike is stated in Father Mapple’s sermon, and it is to become a saint.” W. H. Auden, “The Christian Tragic Hero”
  • umbrage
    umbrage [um´ brij]
    resentment, offense
    →“I do not take umbrage when I’m looked over, I do when I’m overlooked.” Mae West, The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West, Joseph Weintraub, Editor
  • unabated
    unabated [un´ ə bāt´ id]
    without subsiding
    →“The summer list of auto fatalities continues unabated as three more Southampton teens are killed in a Sunday crash.” W. Mariano, “A Final Farewell,” Newsday, 6/25/99
  • unconscionable
    unconscionable [un kon´ shə ne bəl]
    without conscience, unreasonable
    →“Viewers of TV’s coverage of disasters find it unconscionable for mourning family members to be shown and interviewed so close up we can see the tears.” John Stephens, New York, 4/16/98
  • unctuous
    unctuous [ungk´ chů əs]
    affectedly emotional
    →“Today’s car salesmen are a far cry from the high-pressured and unctuous ones of the past.” Car and Travel, 9/99
  • underwrite
    underwrite [un´ dər rīt´]
    agree to finance
    →“We are pleased to feature those local businesses who help to underwrite our programs.” Patterns, monthly magazine of WILL, Champaign, Illinois
  • universal
    universal [yü´ nə vėr´ səl]
    to detest, to despise
    →“With the approach of the new millennium we see an almost universal fear of major disruptions.” TIME, 9/19/99
  • unkempt
    unkempt [un kempt´]
    untidy, neglected
    →“Budget cuts have resulted in overcrowded and unkempt camping sites in our parks.” Freeman Tilden, The National Parks
  • unmitigated
    unmitigated [un mit´ ə gā´ tid]
    unrelieved, as bad as can be
    →“The crossword puzzle is the unmitigated sedentary hobby of Americans.” Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue
  • unsavory
    unsavory [un sā´ vər ē]
    disagreeable, offensive, morally bad
    →“Punishing students by assigning them more work, has made education unsavory and unappealing to the average student.” H. C. McKown, “The Three R’s Today”
  • unwieldy
    unwieldy [un wēl´ dē´]
    bulky, difficult to handle
    →“Today’s light weight, compact cameras are a far cry from the unwieldy ones used by early photographers.” Popular Photography, 9/96
  • urbane
    urbane [er bān´]
    polished, witty
    →“Their prose is less ornate, their urbane satire more muted.” Book review, New York Times
  • usurp
    usurp [yü zėrp´]
    seize, annex, grab
    →“There is a constant struggle as one branch of government attempts to usurp some of the powers of the other.” Milton Konvitz, editor, Bill of Rights Reader
  • utopia
    utopia [yü tō´ pē ə]
    place of perfection
    →“I was held spellbound by the middle-class utopia, without a blot, without a tear.” William James, “What Makes Life Significant”
v
  • vacillate
    vacillate [vas´ ə lāt]
    hesitate, fluctuate
    →“In planning for the book I vacillated between a selective, but deeper approach or a general, more limited approach.” Milton Konvitz, editor, Bill of Rights Reader
  • valor
    valor [val´ ər]
    courage
    →“Thrice have the Mexicans before us fled, Their armies broken, their prince in triumph led; Both to thy valor, brave young man, we owe.” Sir Robert Howard & John Dryden, The Indian Queen
  • vapid
    vapid
    uninteresting, dull
    →“The new James Bond movie lacks the excitement of the many before and is a vapid copy.” Newsday, 10/25/98
  • vehemently
    vehemently [vē´ ə ment lē]
    violently, eagerly, passionately
    →“The President spoke vehemently against any large tax cut.” New York Times, 9/16/99
  • veneer
    veneer [və nir´]
    thin covering
    →“Since then, she has frequently tried to crack the veneer of role, surface, and pose.” Mark Stevens, “Spice Girls,” New York, 6/21/99
  • venerable
    venerable [ven´ ər ə bəl]
    respected, worshiped
    →“Despite their huge popularity the most venerable papers refused to accept crossword puzzles as more than a passing fad.” Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue
  • venial
    venial [vē´ nē əl]
    pardonable, forgivable
    →“The coach tried to overlook the venial errors of his players and concentrated on the serious ones.” Sports Illustrated, 5/12/99
  • venom
    venom [ven´ əm]
    poison, spite, malice
    →“The point envenom’d too! Then, venom, do thy work.” William Shakespeare, Hamlet
  • verbatim
    verbatim [vər bā´ tim]
    word for word
    →“Court reporters have to be able to take 250 words a minute in their verbatim accounts.” Court Reporters’ Association Guide
  • vertigo
    vertigo [vėr´ tə gō]
    dizziness
    →“Iron workers on beams, hundreds of feet above Broadway, were immune to periods of vertigo.” Architectural Digest, 1/93
  • vestige
    vestige [ves´ tij]
    trace, evidence
    →“They kept at the rescue efforts as long as there was a vestige of hope for the earthquake victims.” TIME, 8/30/99
  • vexatious
    vexatious [vek sā´ shəs]
    annoying
    →“This vexatious law suit dragged on interminably, becoming a legend in the process.” Charles Dickens, Bleak House
  • viable
    viable [vī´ ə bəl]
    practicable, workable
    →“The organism remains viable in the soil for years.” Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
  • vicissitudes
    vicissitudes [və sis´ ə tüdz]
    difficulties
    →“Her husband was not only faithful but patient in the face of remarkable vicissitudes.” Eliza Jane Berman, Noble Minds
  • vigil
    vigil [vij´ əl]
    wakeful watching
    →“The U.N. peacekeeping troops are keeping a vigil over the disputed area.” New York Times, 9/21/99
  • vigilant
    vigilant [vij´ ə lən]
    watchful
    →“I deny not but that it is of great concernment in the church and commonwealth to have a vigilant eye how looks demean themselves.” John Milton, “Aereopagitica”
  • vilify
    vilify [vil´ ə fī]
    malign,* slander
    →“One who belongs to the most vilified minority in history is not likely to be unaware of the freedoms guaranteed by our constitutions.” Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, decision, October 1943
  • vindicate
    vindicate [vin´ də kāt]
    absolve, justify
    →“His family was certain that his actions would be vindicated when all of the facts became available.” “Pilot Blamed in Crash,” New York Post, 11/26/99
  • virile
    virile [vir´ əl]
    masterful, manly
    →“The danger to our virile economy from weaknesses in the Far East should not be overlooked.” Wall Street Journal, 5/16/98
  • virtuosity
    virtuosity [vėr´ chü os´ ə tē]
    great technical skill
    →“Employing his virtuosity as an orchestrator of suspense, the author puts Lector in Florence, Italy, speaking impeccable Italian.” Paul Grey, “Dessert, Anyone?,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • virulent
    virulent [vir´ yə lent]
    full of hate, harmful
    →“Another part of my hope was for communities of people of colour that, for the most part, have been virulently homophobic.” Mark Haslam, “When Bigotry Kills,” Globe and Mail, Toronto, 3/5/99
  • vitiate
    vitiate [vish´ ē āt]
    destroy the use or value
    →“This act is an attempt to vitiate the separation of powers upon which our democracy is founded.” Justice Earl Warren, Bill of Rights Reader, 1957
  • vitriolic
    vitriolic [vit´ rē ol´ ik]
    biting, burning
    →“The speaker’s vitriolic comments about ethnic and religious groups brought condemnation from the mayor.” New York Daily News, 9/5/98
  • vituperation
    vituperation [vī tü´ pər ā´ shən]
    blame, abuse
    →“To justify his action he used vituperation, calling his enemies ‘detestable pests.’” Barbara G. Walker, The Women’s Encyclopedia
  • vivacious
    vivacious [vī vā´ shəs]
    lively, gay
    →“The performance of this vivacious leading lady made the play a delight.” New York Post, 10/15/98
  • vogue
    vogue [vōg]
    fashion
    →“Examining the private lives of our political leaders is in vogue this election period.” New York, 9/4/99
  • volition
    volition [vō lish´ ən]
    willpower, choice
    →“To prove her innocence, she took a lie detector test of her own volition.” New York Times, 9/21/99
  • voluble
    voluble [vol´ ū bəl]
    talkative
    →“He came to hate Ray Gribble and his voluble companions of the submerged tenth of the class.” Sinclair Lewis, “Young Man Axelbrod”
  • voluminous
    voluminous
    bulky, large
    →“The testimony in the case relating to the President’s actions has become voluminous.” Washington Post, 5/15/99
  • voracious
    voracious [və rā´ shəs]
    desiring or consuming great quantities
    →"We spent a good number of our waking hours feeding voracious stoves." Jean Stafford, "New England Winter"
  • vulnerable
    vulnerable [vul´ nər ə bəl]
    capable of being injured
    →“Any vulnerable area in an otherwise strong person or structure is known as an Achilles heel.” Barbara G. Walker, The Women’s Encyclopedia
w
  • wan
    wan [won]
    sickly pale
    →“Why so pale and wan, fond lover? Prithee, why so pale?” John Suckling, “Encouragement to a Lover”
  • wane
    wane [wān]
    decrease, decline
    →“Japan, once an economic power, has seen its influence wane.” New York Times, 8/1/99
  • wary
    wary [wer´ ē]
    watchful, shrewd
    →“These figures were wary in their movements and perfectly silent afoot.” Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim
  • wheedle
    wheedle [hwē´ dl]
    coax, persuade, cajole*
    →“The first step of a politician is to wheedle the editorial backing of a newspaper.” Frederick Nebel, A Free Press
  • whet
    whet [hwet]
    stimulate, stir up
    →“The accepted purpose of coming attractions in movie theatres is to whet the viewers’ desire to see the film.” John Simon, Reverse Angle
  • whimsical
    whimsical [hwim´ zə kəl]
    humorous, witty
    →“This is not a whimsical idea—it is a serious plan.” Calvin Klein, New York Magazine, 9/15/95
  • wince
    wince [wins]
    draw back, flinch
    →“He took the cruel blow without a wince or a cry.” A. Conan Doyle, The Last Book of Sherlock Holmes
  • wistful
    wistful [wist´ fəl]
    longing, pensive,* wishful
    →“I am sad when I see those wistful ads placed by the lovelorn in the classified columns.” E. B. White, The Essays of E. B. White
  • wrest
    wrest [rest]
    take by force
    →“Their attempt to wrest control of the company was thwarted by the Colonel and his three supporters on the board.” Edmund Ward, Jr., “Bulls and Bears” [adapted]
y
  • yen
    yen [yen]
    strong desire, strong longing
    →“She could not resist the yen to see how her classmates had progressed so she agreed to attend the class reunion.” Woman’s Home Companion, 9/94
z
  • zealous
    zealous [zel´ əs]
    enthusiastic
    → “James I was zealous in prosecuting Scottish sorcerers.” George Lyman Kittredge, Witchcraft in Old and New England
  • zenith
    zenith [zē´ nith]
    summit, top, prime
    →“At the zenith of her fame as a musical star, she was assassinated by a crazed fan.” H. Hudson, People, 7/21/97
Answer Key
Favorite Books
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