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160 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Abate
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To lessen in intensity or degree
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Aberrant
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Deviating from the norm
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Abjure
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To renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; or avoid
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Abrogate
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To abolish or annul by authority; put down
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Abscission
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Act of cutting off or removing
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Abscond
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To depart clandestinely; to steal off and hide
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Accolade
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An expression of praise; an award
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Accretion
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Growth; increase by successive addition, building up
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Acerbic
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Having a sour or bitter taste or character
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Acumen
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Quick, keen, or accurate knowledge or insight
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Admonish
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To reprove; to express warning or dispproval
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Adroit
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adept, dexterous
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Adulation
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excessive praise; intense adoration
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Adulterate
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To reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients
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Adumbate
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to foreshadow vaguely, intimate, suggest, or outline sketchily
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Aesthetic
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dealing with, appreciative of, or responsive to art or the beautiful
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Aggrandize
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to increase in intensity, power, or prestige; to make appear greater
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Alacrity
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eager and enthusiastic willingness
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Alchemy
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A medieval science aimed at the transmutation of metals, especailly base metals into gold; any magical or wonderful transformation
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Alloy
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To commingle; to debase by mixing with something inferior
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Amalgamate
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to combine several elements into a whole
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Ameliorate
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To make better or more tolerable
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Amenable
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Agreeable; responsive to suggestion
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Anachronism
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something or someone out of place in terms of historical or chronological context
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Anathema
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A solemn or ecclesiastical curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing
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Anodyne
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soothing
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Anomaly
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deviation from the normal order, form, or rule; abnormality
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Antipathy
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aversion, dislike
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Antithetical
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diametrically opposed, as in antithesis
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Apocryphal
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of dubious authenticity or origin; spurious
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Apogee
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farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith
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Apostate
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One who abandons long-held religious or political convictions, a betrayer of a cause
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Apotheosis
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Deification, glorification of godliness, the perfect example
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Apposite
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appropriate, pertinent, relevant, apropos
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Apprise
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give notice to, inform
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Approbation
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an expression of approval or praise
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Appropriate
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to take for one's own use, confiscate
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Arabesque
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complex, ornate design
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Arcane
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mysterious, abstruse, esoteric, knowable only to initiates
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Archaic
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outdated; associated with an earlier, perhaps primitive time
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Arduous
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strenuous, taxing, requiring significant effort
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Arrant
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impudent; in every way, being completely such, barefaced, utter
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Arrest
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to suspend; to engage
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Artless
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completely without guile; natural, without artificiality
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Ascetic
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one who practices rigid self-denial, especially as an act of religious devotion
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Asperity
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severity, rigor; roughness, harshness; acrimony, irritability
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Aspersion
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An act of defamation or maligning
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Assiduous
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diligent, hard-working
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Assuage
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to ease or lessen; to appease or pacify
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Astringent
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having a tightening effect on living tissue; harsh; severe
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Attenuate
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to rarefy, weaken or make thinner, lessen
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Audacious
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daring and fearless; recklessly bold
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Augury
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omen, potent, the reading of omens
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August
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majestic, venerable
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Auspice
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protection or support, patronage
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Auspicious
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favorable, propitious, successful, prosperous
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Austere
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without adornment; bare; severely simple; ascetic
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Avarice
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greed, especially for wealth
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Aver
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to state as a fact; to confirm or support
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Axiom
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a universally recognized principle; a generally accepted or common saying
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Axiomatic
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taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth
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Baleful
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sinister, pernicious, ominous
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Bane
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cause of injury, source of harm; source of persistent frustration
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Beatify
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to bless, make happy, or ascribe a virtue to; to regard as saintly
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Bedizen
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to adorn, especially in a cheap, showy manner; festoon, caparison
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Belie
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to give a false impression of, to misrepresent
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Bellicose
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belligerent, pugnacious, warlike
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Bent
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leaning, inclination, proclivity, tendency
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Blandish
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To coax with flattery, toady or fawn
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Blithe
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carefree, merry
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Boisterous
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loud, noisy, rough, lacking restaint
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Bolster
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to provide support or reinforcement
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Bombastic
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pompous; grandiloquent
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Boor
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a rude or insensitive person; lout; yokel
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Broach
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bring up, announce, begin to talk about
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Brook
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to tolerate, endure, countenance
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Bucolic
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rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants
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Burgeon
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To grow rapidly or flourish
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Burgeon
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to grow rapidly or flourish
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Burnish
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to polish, rub to a shine
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Byzantine
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labrynthine, complex
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cacophony
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harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonance
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cadge
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to sponge, beg, or mooch
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cajole
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to inveigle, coax, wheedle, sweet-talk
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calumniate
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to slander, to make a false accusation
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canon
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an established set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature
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chary
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wary; cautious; sparing
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chasten
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to chastise or correct; subdue
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Chauvinist
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one blindly devoted to a group of which one is a member
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Chicanery
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trickery or subterfuge
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Chimera
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an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster
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Churlish
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boorish, vulgar, loutish; difficult and intractable
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Coalesce
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to come together; to fuse or untie
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Coda
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concluding section to a musical or literary piece, something that concludes or completes
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Cogent
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appealing forcibly to the mind or literary piece, something that concludes or completes
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Color
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to change as if by dyeing, influence, distort, or gloss over
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Commensurate
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matching, corresponding, or proportionate in degree, size, amount or other property
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Complaisance
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the willingness to comply with the wishes of others
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Connoisseur
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an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert
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Consequential
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pompous, self-important
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Contemn
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to scorn or despise
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Contentious
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argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement
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Contiguous
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sharing a border; touching; adjacent
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Contrite
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regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness
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Convention
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a generally agreed-upon practice or attitude
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convoluted
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complex or complicated
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corrigible
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capable of being set right, correctable, reparable
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countenance
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to approve of or tolerate
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cozen
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to decieve, beguile, hoodwink
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craven
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contemptibly fainthearted, pusillanimous, lacking any courage
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credulous
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tending to believe too readily; gullible
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Culpable
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deserving blame
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Cynicism
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an attitude or quality of belief that all people are motivated by selfishness
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Capricious
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Inclined to change one's mind impulsively; erratic; unpredictable
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Cardinal
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of basic importance or consequence; primary
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Caret
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an insertaion mark used by editors and proofreaders
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Castigation
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severe criticism or punishment
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Catalyst
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a substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without itself changing; a person or thing that causes change
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Caustic
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burning or stinging; causing corrosion
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censure
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to criticize severely; to officially rebuke
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Damp
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to diminish the intensity or check something, such as a sound or feeling
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Daunt
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to intimidate or dismay
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Dearth
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smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; lack
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Debacle
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rout, fiasco, complete failure
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Decorum
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politeness or appropriateness of conduct or behavior
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Demur
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to question or oppose
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Denigrate
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blacken, belittle, sully, defame, disparage
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Denquement
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an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot
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Deprecate
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to disparage or belittle
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Depredate
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to plunder, pillage, ravage or destroy; to exploit in a predatory manner
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Derision
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scorn, ridicule, contemptuous treatment
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Derivative
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unoriginal, obtained from another source
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Desiccate
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to dry out or dehydrate; to make dry or dull
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Desuetude
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disuse
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Desultory
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random; thoughtless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose
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Detraction
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slandering, verbal attack, aspersion
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Diaphanous
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transparent, gauzy
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Diatribe
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a harsh denunciation
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Didactic
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intended to teach or instruct
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Diffident
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reserved, shy, unassuming; lacking in slef-confidence
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Digress
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to stray from the point; to go off a tangent
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Dilatory
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causing delay, procrastinating
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Dilettante
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one with an amateurish or superficial interest in the arts or a branch of knowledge
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DIn
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loud sustained noise
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Disabuse
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to undeceive; to set right
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Discomfit
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to defeat, put down
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Discordant
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conflicting; dissonant or harsh in sound
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Discretion
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cautious reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions
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Disinterested
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free from self-interest; unbiased
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Disparage
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to slight or belittle
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Disarate
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fundamentally distinct or dissimilar
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Dissemble
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to disguise or conceal; to mislead
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Dissolution
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disintegration, looseness in morals
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Distrait
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distracted; absent-minded, especially due to anxiety
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Divulge
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to disclose something secret
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Doggerel
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trivial, poorly constructed verse
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Dogmatic
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Authoritatively and or arrogantly assertive of principles, which often cannot be proved; stubbornly opinionated
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Dross
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slag, waste or foreign matter, impurity, surface scum
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Dulcet
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melodious, harmonious, mellifluous
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Dynamo
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generator; forceful, energetic person
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