Vocabulary List #13

English 2 Vocab List 13

1. altruistic; adjective – thoughtful of the welfare of others. Arthur’s natural altruistic affinity endeared him to one and all.

2.  ambiguous; adjective – permitting more than one interpretation; not clearly defined. Listening to Archer’s ambiguous remarks, we weren’t sure whether he was on our side

3. chimerical; adjective – absurd; wildly fanciful. Uncle Dave was chastised by Aunt Pearl for his chimerical proposal.

4. chronic; adjective – lasting a long time; constant. When dad’s cough became chronic we cajoled him into getting a chest x-ray.

5. deter; verb – to discourage; to keep someone from doing something. Nothing could deter Herman from achieving his ambition.

6. devious; adjective – not straightforward; lying; roundabout. Earl was upset because I refused to condone his devious ways.

7. enhance; verb – to add to; to make greater in value. The staff development program was designed to enhance the skills of the company’s executives.

8. enigma; noun – a puzzle; a baffling situation. Why a bright student should make such egregious errors is an enigma.

9. piety; noun – devotion and reverence, especially to god and family. Mrs. Billings is noted for her piety and philanthropy.

10. relic; noun – a thing or part that remains from the past; something kept as sacred because it belonged to a saint. Minna kept a closetful of relics from her family in Kentucky.

11. scrupulous; adjective – very honest and conscientious; careful about claimed expense. The IRS expects each taxpayer to keep a scrupulous record of claimed expenses.

12.  temerity; noun – rashness; foolish or reckless boldness. Jack’s temerity in constantly correcting his superiors cost him his job.

13. unimpeachable; adjective – beyond doubt or reproach; unquestionable. Hector has always been known for his unimpeachable honesty.

14. vicarious; adjective – taking the place of another; experienced through sympathetic participation in the experience of another. The vicarious thrill we get from watching films falls short of the pleasure of first-hand experience

15. incontrovertible; adjective -  not able to be disputed or denied. It's incontrovertible that a settlement of the bitter strike is imminent.

Vocabulary List #12

English 2 Vocab List 12

1. alleviate; verb - to make easier to endure; to relieve; to diminish. Nothing tends to alleviate my headaches better than simple aspirin.

2. censure; verb - to blame; to criticize adversely. Congress agreed to censure the outspoken senator.

3. despot; noun - monarch with unlimited power. My boss calls himself a benevolent despot, but we question the validity of that adjective.

4. engender; verb - to cause; produce; bring into being. Those sneaky actions are sure to engender suspicion.

5. incongruous; adjective - inappropriate; out of place. Seeing the little boy in a room filled with basketball giants struck me as totally incongruous.

6. philistine; adjective - narrow-minded; smugly conventional. Philistine stubbornness should not prevent us from advancing ourselves intellectually.

7. relegate; verb - to put in a less important position; to assign; to banish. The usual procedure is for the chairperson to relegate the work to special committees.

8. scoff; verb - to mock or jeer at; to make fun of. The fable of the fox and the grapes teaches that we tend to scoff at what we cannot attain.

9. tedious; adjective - long or verbose and wearisome; tiresome; boring. I prefer the fast-paced games of football and basketball to baseball with its tedious stretches of waiting for something to happen.

10. ungainly; adjective - clumsy; awkward; hard to handle. Hulk Hogan’s sensitivity about his threadbare garments made him ungainly.

11. viable; adjective - able to live or exist; practicable. Professor Fields agreed to accept a diary as a viable substitute for a short story.

12. writhe; verb - to twist or squirm, as in pain; to suffer from shame or shyness. When the parents saw the child writhe in pain, they decided to rush him to the hospital.

13. zenith; noun - the point in the sky directly above one; the highest point. At noon the sun is at its zenith.

14. aloof; adjective - indifferent; unsympathetic; not interested; apart. She was adamant about remaining aloof from family problems.

15. chastise; verb - to criticize severely. If you chastise Jason, he immediately begins to weep.

Vocabulary List #11

English 2 Vocab List 11

1.  alienate; verb - to turn away the normal feelings of fondness toward anyone; to estrange.  Unwilling to alienate our old neighbors, we put up with their boisterous friends.

2.  celestial; adjective - having to do with the heavens; divine. The new astronauts will be the celestial pioneers of the 21st century.

3. desecrate; verb - to treat with disrespect. The young troublemakers planned to desecrate the cemetery by overturning headstones.

4.  enervate; verb - to weaken; to lessen the strength of. Strenuous dieting will enervate most people.

5.  furtive: adjective - done quickly and with stealth to avoid being noticed; secret. Cynthia's furtive gesture and cryptic remark did not go unnoticed.

6.  incisive; adjective - keen; penetrating. Incisive criticism by the newspaper's film reviewer had led us to a renewal of the movie.

7.  lucid; adjective - easily understood; rational; clear; clear-minded.  The lecturer's lucid explanation left no questions unanswered.

8.  peruse; verb - to study; to read . Margaret tried to peruse the letter when she thought she was not being observed.

9.  rejuvenate; verb - to make young or fresh again.  The half time pep talk rejuvenated the team.

10.  scapegoat; noun - one taking the blame for the mistake and crimes of others.  Billy maliciously made his brother the scapegoat for his setting fire to the gauge.

11.  tawdry; adjective - gaudy and cheap; vulgarly ornamental.  Isabella needed but one glance to rule out the wedding dress as too tawdry for her.

12.  unethical;  adjective - not conforming to approved standards of behavior, a socially accepted code, or professionally endorsed principles and practices.  It is no longer considered unethical for lawyers to advertise their services.

13.  verbose; adjective - wordy; tedious. Craig mistakenly believed that being urbane meant being verbose.

14.  wither; verb - to dry; to shrivel; to cause to lose courage or to be ashamed.  A prolonged drought could wither the crops and throw the economy into a tailspin.

15.  zealot; noun- a person who shows great enthusiasm for a cause.  A zealot for political reform will go to almost any lengths to further his cause.

Vocabulary List #10

English 2 Vocab List 10

1. aggrandizement; noun - to increase in rank or wealth; growth in power. I attributed Paul’s aggressiveness to his need for aggrandizement.

2. caustic; adjective – stinging, biting. Caustic substances should be kept out of the reach of children.

3. derogatory; adjective- tending to lower in estimation; degrading. In a sharp denunciation, filled with derogatory criticism, the dean attacked the faculty rebels.

4. emulate; verb - to try to equal or surpass. When they were in high school, Dudley’s kid brothers always tried to emulate him.

5. fortuitous; adjective – happening by chance. My fortuitous discovery of the cache of valuable stamps enabled me to buy a motorcycle.

6. incipient; adjective - in an early stage. The rookie’s flagrant error spelled doom for his incipient career.

7. listless; adjective - indifferent; marked by a lack of energy or enthusiasm. We had expected him to be full of enthusiasm and were surprised by his listless attitude.

8. peripheral; adjective – external; incidental; tangential. Stick to the facts and don’t waste time on peripheral issues.

9. refurbish; verb – to freshen or polish again; to make like new. The agent promised to refurbish the apartment and put it in move- in condition within one month.

10. savory; adjective – pleasing to the taste or smell; pleasant; morally attractive. Mother could concoct a most savory dish out of the simplest ingredients.

11. tangential; adjective - diverging or digressing; merely touching a subject, not dealing with it at all. The matter of Eleanor’s failure was mentioned at the dinner table only in a tangential way, but it hurt her deeply.

12. unequivocal; adjective – plain; very clear in meaning. Mandy was unequivocal in refusing to join the snobbish sorority.

13. venerate; verb – to regard with respect and reverence; to honor. One way to venerate our parents is to emulate their deeds.

14. whet; verb – to sharpen; to make stronger; to stimulate. Drinking soda in the summer tends to whet my thirst but fails to cool me off.

15. zany; adjective – clownish; foolish; funny; absurd. In hindsight, Karen admitted her zany antics had no place in the classroom.