Vocabulary For You

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

abjure \ab-JUR\, transitive verb:

1. To renounce under oath.

2. To renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to reject; repudiate.

3. To abstain from; to shun.

A few years earlier Galileo had been forced by the Inquisition to abjure, on his knees, his heretical views that the Earth moves around the Sun.

ablution \uh-BLOO-shun\, noun:

1. The act of washing or cleansing; specifically, the washing of the body, or some part of it (as in a religious rite).

2. The water used in cleansing.

Worshipers, who have performed their ablutions in the basement before entering the prayer hall, individually prepare themselves for participation in the communal worship.

abominate \uh-BOM-uh-nayt\, transitive verb:

To hate in the highest degree; to detest intensely; to loathe;

to abhor.

I had no wish to study or learn anything, and as for Latin,

I abominated it.

abscond \ab-SKOND\, intransitive verb:

To depart secretly; to steal away and hide oneself -- used

especially of persons who withdraw to avoid arrest or

prosecution.

abstemious \ab-STEE-mee-uhs\, adjective:

1. Sparing in eating and drinking; temperate; abstinent.

2. Sparingly used or consumed; used with temperance or moderation.

3. Marked by or spent in abstinence.

They were healthy and abstemious; their chief pleasure was reading and Oliver was a life member of the London Library.

accede \ak-SEED\, intransitive verb:

1. To agree or assent, as to a proposition, or to terms

proposed by another.

2. To become a party, as to an agreement, treaty, convention,

etc.

3. To attain, as to an office or rank; to enter upon the

duties of an office.

Well, after much blustering and standing and sitting, he acceded to my demand.

acrid \AK-rid\, adjective:

1. Sharp and harsh, or bitter to the taste or smell; pungent.

2. Caustic in language or tone; bitter.

There was burning jet fuel everywhere. Acrid, black smoke billowed across the water.

acumen \uh-KYOO-muhn; AK-yuh-muhn\, noun: Quickness of perception or discernment; shrewdness shown by keen insight.

With Leo's rare combination of editorial acumen and business know-how, he might have become a publishing giant had he not permitted his drinking and gambling to hold him back.

adamant \AD-uh-muhnt\, adjective:

Not capable of being swayed by pleas, appeals, or reason; not

susceptible to persuasion; unyielding.

adventitious \ad-ven-TISH-uhs\, adjective:

1. Added extrinsically; not essentially inherent.

2.   (Biology)   Out   of  the  proper  or  usual  place;  as,  "adventitious buds or roots."

The  snag  is  that  the  play's  inflamed and adventitious topicality may distract people from the timelessness of

its deepest concerns.

aesthete \ES-theet\, noun:

One having or affecting great sensitivity to beauty, as in art or nature.

Beijing, with its stolid, square buildings and wide, straight roads, feels like the plan of a first-year

engineering student, while Shanghai's decorative architecture and snaking, narrow roads feel like the plan of an aesthete.

affable \AF-uh-buhl\, adjective:

1. Easy to speak to; receiving others kindly and conversing

with them in a free and friendly manner.

2. Gracious; benign.

Nonetheless, in view of the fact that Leon stated in the warrant that I was good-looking, cheerful and affable, they exhorted me to make myself appear to be taciturn, melancholy and ugly.

afflatus \uh-FLAY-tuhs\, noun:

A divine imparting of knowledge; inspiration.

Whatever happened to passion and vision and the divine afflatus in poetry?

affray \uh-FRAY\, noun:

A tumultuous assault or quarrel; a brawl.

aggress \uh-GRES\, intransitive verb:
To  commit  the  first act of hostility or offense; to make an  attack.

Nagaraj  can  never bring himself to aggress or fight back, but he is capable of a delicious malice.

agitprop \AJ-it-prop\, noun:

Propaganda, especially pro-communist political propaganda disseminated through literature, drama, music, or art.

algorithm \AL-guh-RITH-uhm\, noun:

A  step-by-step  procedure  for  solving a problem in a finite number   of   steps  that  often  involves  repetition

 of  an operation.

The  notion  of  an  algorithm  is basic to all of computer programming,  so we should begin with a careful analysis

of this concept.

ameliorate \uh-MEEL-yuh-rayt\, transitive verb: To make better; to improve.

intransitive verb: To grow better.

anodyne \AN-uh-dyn\,

adjective: 1. Serving to relieve pain; soothing.

2. Not likely to offend; bland; innocuous.

noun:1. A medicine that relieves pain.

2. Anything that calms, comforts, or soothes disturbed feelings.

But for the most part the British charts were clogged with anodyne ballads.

aplomb \uh-PLOMM\,

noun:Assurance of manner or of action; self-possession; confidence;coolness.

Then, unexpectedly, she picked up a microphone and began to sing. She sang several songs, handling herself with the aplomb of a professional entertainer.

apogee \AP-uh-jee\, noun:

1. The point in the orbit of the moon or of an artificial satellite that is at the greatest distance from the center of the earth.

2. The farthest or highest point; culmination.

apostasy \uh-POS-tuh-see\, noun:

Total desertion or departure from one's faith, principles, or party.

Party loyalty was fierce, political apostasy despised, and breakaway movements and third parties rarely exercised more than temporary influence.

apparition \ap-uh-RISH-uhn\, noun:

1. A ghost; a specter; a phantom.

2. The thing appearing; the sudden or unexpected appearance of something or somebody.

3. The act of becoming visible; appearance.

4. (Astronomy) The first appearance of a star or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; -- opposed to [1]occultation.

Boris staggers into the noblemen's council chamber, shouting at an apparition that only he can see.

apposite \AP-uh-zit\, adjective:

Being of striking appropriateness and relevance; very applicable; apt.

appurtenance \uh-PUR-tn-un(t)s\, noun:

1. An adjunct; an accessory; something added to another, more important thing.

2. [Plural]. Accessory objects; gear; apparatus.

3. [Law]. An incidental right attached to a principal property right for purposes such as passage of title,

conveyance, or inheritance.

The inauguration of presidents, the coronation of monarchs, the celebration of national holidays--these events require everywhere the presence of the soldier as a "ceremonial appurtenance."

arrogate \AIR-uh-gayt\, transitive verb:

1. To claim or seize without right or justification; to

appropriate.

2. To claim on behalf of another; to ascribe.

aspersion \uh-SPUR-zhuhn; -shuhn\, noun:

1. A damaging or derogatory remark; slander.

2. The act of defaming or slandering.

3. A sprinkling with water, especially in religious ceremonies.

asseverate \uh-SEV-uh-rayt\, transitive verb:

To affirm or declare positively or earnestly.

"But of course it is!" asseverates Herman Woodlife.

assiduous \uh-SIJ-oo-uhs\, adjective:

1. Constant in application or attention; devoted; attentive.

2. Performed with constant diligence or attention; unremitting; persistent; as, "assiduous labor."

"I can scarcely find time to write you even a Love Letter," Samuel Adams, an assiduous committeeman, wrote his wife in early 1776.

atelier \at-l-YAY\, noun:

A workshop; a studio.

A  garage  in  [1]Montparnasse served as Leo's atelier, and there  he  labored  on  his  huge  [2]triptychs, mixing

his paints in buckets and applying them with a kitchen mop.

auspicious \aw-SPISH-uhs\, adjective:

1. Giving promise of success, prosperity, or happiness;

predicting good; as, "an auspicious beginning."

2. Prosperous; fortunate; as, "auspicious years."

But as Saturday fell on a very auspicious day in theChinese calendar, every hotel in Nanjing was booked for weddings.

autochthonous \aw-TOCK-thuh-nuhs\, adjective:

1. Aboriginal; indigenous; native.

2. Formed or originating in the place where found.

For cultures are not monoliths. They are fragmentary,

patchworks of autochthonous and foreign elements.

autocrat \AW-tuh-krat\, noun:

An absolute monarch who rules with unlimited authority; by extension, any person with undisputed authority in a relationship or situation.

Octavian -- a bloodthirsty ideologue in the civil wars --was by then well on his way to reinventing himself as Rome's benevolent autocrat, its first (and almost only)'good' Emperor, Augustus.

autodidact \aw-toh-DY-dakt\, noun: One who is self-taught.

He is our ultimate autodidact, a man who made himself from nothing into a lawyer, a legislator -- a president.

aver \uh-VUR\,transitive verb

   [Inflected forms: averred; averring]:

   1. To affirm with confidence; to declare in a positive manner, as in confidence of asserting the truth.

   2. (Law) To assert, claim, or declare as a fact.

Between  us and the bottom of the sea was less than an inch of  wood.  And  yet,  I aver it, and I aver it

again, I was  unafraid.

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badinage \bad-n-AHZH\, noun:

Light, playful talk; banter.

Ken was determined to put the cares of the world behind him and do what he loved best -- having a few celebrity friends round and enjoying an evening of anecdote and badinage over a bottle or two of vintage bubbly and some tasty cheese straws.

bagatelle \bag-uh-TEL\, noun:

1. A trifle; a thing of little or no importance.

2. A short, light musical or literary piece.

3. A game played with a cue and balls on an oblong table having cups or

arches at one end.

Don't worry about that, a mere bagatelle, old boy!

bedizen \bih-DY-zuhn\, transitive verb:

To dress or adorn in gaudy manner.

beholden \bih-HOHL-duhn\, adjective:

Obliged; bound in gratitude; indebted.

bellwether \BEL-wether\, noun:

1.  A  wether, or sheep, which leads the flock, with a bell on  his neck.
2. Hence: A leader of a movement or activity.

"Men  are  for  the most part like sheep, who always follow  the bell-wether." --Lewes

beneficence \buh-NEFF-i-suhns\, noun:

The  practice  of  doing  good;  active goodness, kindness, or charity; bounty springing from purity and goodness.

Lord  Jeffrey  told Dickens that it [A Christmas Carol] had "prompted  more  positive  acts  of beneficence than

can be traced  to all the pulpits and confessionals in Christendom since Christmas 1842."

benignant \bih-NIG-nuhnt\, adjective:

1. Kind; gracious.

2. Beneficial; favorable.

After the captain and ladies had sat down, the autocratic steward rang a second bell, and with a majestic wave of the hand, and a calm, benignant smile, signified his pleasure that we should sit down.

berate \bih-RAYT\, transitive verb:

To scold severely or angrily

She tells of Mr. Hauptmann's great joy when they had a baby son, and of the times she ran up the stairs to berate him for playing the mandolin after the baby was asleep and found him playing the Brahms Lullaby as the baby looked on approvingly.

bete noire \bet-NWAHR\, noun: Something or someone particularly detested or avoided; a bugbear.

Even more regrettable, as far as Dame Edna is concerned, is the presence of her old bete noire, the extravagantly disgusting Sir Les Patterson.

bilious \BIL-yuhs\, adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to bile.

2. Marked by an excess secretion of bile.

3. Pertaining to, characterized by, or affected by gastric

distress caused by a disorder of the liver.

4. Appearing as if affected by such a disorder.

5. Resembling bile, especially in color.

6. Of a peevish disposition; ill-tempered.

Most arresting of all, his normally gray elephant hide has changed to a bilious shade of green.

billingsgate \BIL-ingz-gayt; -git\, noun: Coarsely abusive, foul, or profane language.

Chaney would yell at him in his own particular patois -- an unapologetic stream of billingsgate far more creative than Marine drill instructors or master rappers.

bivouac \BIV-wak, BIV-uh-wak\, noun:

An encampment for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

intransitive verb:

To encamp for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

Rob had made his emergency bivouac just below the South Summit.

blandishment \BLAN-dish-muhnt\, noun:

Speech or action that flatters and tends to coax, entice, or persuade; allurement -- often used in the plural.

bombinate \BOM-buh-nayt\, intransitive verb:

To buzz; to hum; to drone.

He is often drunk. His head hurts. Snatches of

conversation, remembered precepts, prefigured cries of

terror bombinate about his skull.

bonhomie \bah-nuh-MEE\, noun:

Good nature; pleasant and easy manner.

That bonhomie which won the hearts of all who knew him.

booboisie \boob-wah-ZEE\, noun:

A class of people regarded as stupid or foolish.

Until  then,  he'd  dismissed  Hollywood  as  a purveyor of machine-made  fodder  for the booboisie, but he found,

much

to  his  surprise, that the movies weren't nearly as bad as he'd claimed.

bootless \BOOT-lis\, adjective: Unavailing; useless; without advantage or benefit.

I have seen a swan With bootless labour swim against the tide.

boulevardier \boo-luh-var-DYAY; bul-uh-\, noun:

1. A frequenter of city boulevards, especially in Paris.

2. A sophisticated, worldly, and socially active man; a man who frequents

fashionable places; a man-about-town.

Oswald, whose idea of excitement is breakfasting with a penguin, is a boulevardier: Hat cocked precariously on his head, he saunters out into the sunny city.

bouleversement \bool-vair-suh-MAWN\, noun:Complete overthrow; a reversal; a turning upside down.

For the second time in his life Amory had had a complete bouleversement and was hurrying into line with his generation.

bowdlerize \BODE-luh-rise; BOWD-\, transitive verb:

1. To remove or modify the parts (of a book, for example) considered offensive.

2. To modify, as by shortening, simplifying, or distorting in style or content.

The president did not call for bowdlerizing all entertainment, but stressed keeping unsuitable material away from the eyes of children.

bravado \bruh-VAH-doh\, noun plural bravados or bravadoes \bruh-VAH-dohz\A real or pretended show of courage or boldness.

While the popular mood in Belgrade remains defiant, unease beneath the bravado is growing.

brio \BREE-oh\, noun: Enthusiastic vigor; vivacity; liveliness; spirit.

Though my judgment was no doubt affected by all the wine we'd consumed, I remember being elated by our performance that night: our inspired spur-of-the-moment dialogue, the actors fleshing out their roles with such brio.

Brobdingnagian \brob-ding-NAG-ee-uhn\, adjective:

Of extraordinary size; gigantic; enormous.

The venture capital business has a size problem. A monstrous, staggering, stupefying one. Brobdingnagian even.

busker \BUS-kur\, noun:

A person who entertains (as by playing music) in public places.

Jakub is a student of mathematics, a likable but callow young man who seduces a blind busker, Alzbeta, who plays for the tourists in modern Prague.

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cadre \KAD-ree; -ray; KAH-dray; -druh\, noun:

   1.  A  core  or  nucleus  of  trained  or  otherwise qualified personnel around which an organization is formed.

   2.  A  tightly  knit  and  trained  group of dedicated members active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary

         party.

   3. A member of such a group.

   4.  A  framework  upon  which  a larger entity can be built; a scheme.

Trained cadres flowed across the porous border and down the blossoming  supply  trail  through eastern

Laos (the Ho Chi Minh Trail).

caesura \sih-ZHUR-uh; -ZUR-\, noun;

plural caesuras or caesurae \sih-ZHUR-ee; -ZUR-ee\:

1. A break or pause in a line of verse, usually occurring in the middle of a line, and indicated in scanning by a double vertical line; for example, "The proper study || of mankind is man" [Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man].

2. Any break, pause, or interruption.

After an inconclusive day spent discussing the caesura of "Sonnet"'s opening line, Luke and his colleagues went for cocktails at Strabismus.

callow \KAL-oh\, adjective:

Immature; lacking adult perception, experience, or judgment.

Those  who  in later years did me harm I describe as I knew them  then, and I beg any reader to remember that,

although I  was hardly callow, I was not yet wise in the ways of the world.

camarilla \kam-uh-RIL-uh; -REE-yuh\, noun:

A group of secret and often scheming advisers, as of a king; acabal or clique.

Mr Kiselev likened Yeltsin's entourage to a "camarilla"..

canorous \kuh-NOR-us; KAN-or-uhs\, adjective:

Richly melodious; pleasant sounding; musical.

I felt a deep contentment listening to the meadowlark's complex melody as he sat on his bragging post calling for a mate, and the soft canorous whistle of the bobwhite as he whistled his name with intermittent lulls.

capacious \kuh-PAY-shuhs\, adjective:

Able to contain much; roomy; spacious.

Litter was picked up non stop during the week (mostly by that nice governor with the capacious pockets).

captious \KAP-shuhs\, adjective:

   1. Marked by a disposition to find fault or raise objections.

   2. Calculated to entrap or confuse, as in an argument.

The  most  common  among those are captious individuals who  can   find   nothing  wrong  with  their  own

actions  but everything wrong with the actions of everybody else.

carapace \KAIR-uh-pace\, noun:

1. The thick shell that covers the back of the turtle, the crab, and other animals.

2. Something likened to a shell that serves to protect or isolate from external influence.

. . . a gauge for measuring the length of a lobster's carapace from the thorax to the eye socket.

castigate \KAS-tuh-gayt\, transitive verb:

To punish severely; also, to chastise verbally; to rebuke; to criticize severely.

It was not good enough to castigate him for his sins.

cavalcade \kav-uhl-KAYD; KAV-uhl-kayd\, noun:

1. A procession of riders or horse-drawn carriages.

2. Any procession.

3. A sequence; a series.

cavil \KAV-uhl\, intransitive verb:

To raise trivial or frivolous objections; to find fault without good reason.

transitive verb:

To raise trivial objections to.

noun:

A trivial or frivolous objection.

Insiders with their own strong views, after all, tend to cavil about competing ideas and stories they consider less than comprehensive.

celerity \suh-LAIR-uh-tee\, noun:

Rapidity of motion or action; quickness; swiftness.

censorious \sen-SOR-ee-uhs\, adjective:

1. Tending to blame, condemn, or criticize; harshly critical.

2. Implying or expressing harsh criticism or disapproval; as, "censorious remarks."

Another factor is the morally censorious climate in which we live -- a climate that is intolerant of eccentricity,waywardness and general lack of perfection.

chagrin \shuh-GRIN\, noun: Acute vexation, annoyance, or embarrassment, arising from disappointment or failure.

transitive verb: To unsettle or vex by disappointment or humiliation; to mortify.

He ran away to the recruiting office at Ottumwa, a river port where Union soldiers were transported east--how he got to the town, a good half-day journey by wagon, isn't clear--and to his chagrin, he found his father waiting there.

chary \CHAIR-ee\, adjective:

1. Wary; cautious.

2. Not giving or expending freely; sparing.

What do you suppose the Founding Fathers, so chary of overweening government power, would make of a prosecutor with virtually unlimited reach and a staff the size of a small town?

chicanery \shih-KAY-nuh-ree\, noun:

1. The use of trickery or sophistry to deceive (as in matters of law).

2. A trick; a subterfuge.

Wordsworth's paternal grandfather, Richard, had first come to Westmorland from South Yorkshire in 1700, to recoup his fortunes with the then baron Lonsdale, having been done out of his fortune by his own guardian's chicanery.

chimerical \ky-MER-ih-kuhl; -MIR-; kih-\, adjective:

1. Merely imaginary; produced by or as if by a wildly fanciful imagination; fantastic; improbable or unrealistic.

2. Given to or indulging in unrealistic fantasies or fantastic schemes.

But those risks are real, not chimerical.

chthonic (THONE-ik), adjective: dwelling  in  or  under  the  earth;  also,  pertaining to the  underworld

"Driven by dæmonic, chthonic Powers." --T.S. Eliot

circumambient \sur-kuhm-AM-bee-uhnt\, adjective:

Surrounding; being on all sides; encompassing.

The  self  owes  its form and perhaps its very existence to the circumambient social order.

 Facing  reality,  then,  implies  accepting one's essential powerlessness,   yielding  or  adjusting  to

circumambient  forces,  taking  solace in some local pattern or order that one has created and to which one has

become habituated.

circumlocution \sir-kum-lo-KYOO-shun\, noun:

The use of many words to express an idea that might be expressed by few; indirect or roundabout language; a [1]periphrase.

Dickens gave us the classic picture of official heartlessness: the government Circumlocution Office, burial ground of hope in "Little Dorrit."

circumspect \SUR-kuhm-spekt\, adjective:

Marked by attention to all circumstances and probable consequences; cautious; prudent.

When the evidence is plentiful and the theories well confirmed, we can be more confident of the historical scenarios we propose; when theories are weak or evidence scarce, we ought to be more circumspect.

claque \KLACK\, noun:

1. A group hired to applaud at a performance.

2. A group of fawning admirers.

clarion \KLAIR-ee-uhn\, noun:

   1. A kind of trumpet having a clear and shrill note.

   2. The sound of this instrument or a sound similar to it.

 adjective: Sounding like the clarion; loud and clear.

His  voice  and  laugh, which perpetually re-echoed through the  Custom-House,  had nothing of the tremulous

quaver and cackle  of  an old man's utterance; they came strutting out of  his  lungs,  like the crow of a cock, or

the blast of a clarion.

clemency \KLEM-uhn-see\, noun:

1. Disposition to forgive and spare, as offenders; mercy.

2. An act or instance of mercy or leniency.

3. Mildness, especially of weather.

He put in a strong plea for clemency, begging the king to

spare the alchemist's life.

coeval \koh-EE-vuhl\, adjective:

Of the same age; originating or existing during the same period of time -- usually followed by 'with'.

noun: One of the same age; a contemporary.

According to John Paul, this longing for transcendent truth is coeval with human existence: All men and women "shape a comprehensive vision and an answer to the question of life's meaning."

cogent \KOH-juhnt\, adjective:

Having  the  power to compel conviction; appealing to the mind or to reason; convincing.

One  woman,  Adrian  Pomerantz, was so intelligent that the professors  always  lit up when Adrian spoke; her

eloquent, cogent  analyses  forced them not to be lazy, not to repeat themselves.

cogitate \KOJ-uh-tayt\, intransitive verb: To think deeply or intently; to ponder; to meditate.

transitive verb: To think about; to ponder on; to meditate upon; to plan or plot.

Still cogitati