Vocabulary Definitions A-N

Vocabulary Definitions A-N

• Aesthete is someone who appreciates and seeks beauty, art, or pleasure.
• Alacrity means cheerful readiness.
• Aphorism is a wise saying, adage, or maxim.
• Appropriate (verb) means to take another’s property as one’s own.
• Arable describes land able to be cultivated or farmed.
• Arboreal relates to trees.
• Asylum is a safe place to practice one’s religion or follow one’s convictions.
• Auspicious means foretelling well for the future.
• Avant-garde describes something cutting-edge, new, or experimental.
• Behemoth is a huge animal or something of great size or power.
• Bequest is a gift upon one’s death.
• Breadth is a range or scope.
• Brook (verb) means to endure or put up with.
• Bungle means to botch or mess up.
• Byzantine describes something ornate or fancy.
• Celerity means cheerful speed.
• Cerebral means intellectual.
• Chagrin means embarrassment.
• Circumscribed means defined, limited, or isolated.
• Cloying means oversweet or saccharine.
• Confound means to confuse, perplex, or befuddle.
• Conjecture is a guess.
• Constituents are voters.
• Consummate means complete or perfect.
• Convoluted means complicated or complex.
• Crude means rude or lacking refinement.
• Curtail means to cut short or abridge.
• Debased means morally low or base.
• Decorous means having propriety.
• Denuded means made ineffective or infertile.
• Desultory means aimless or lacking a plan or purpose.
• Didactic relates to instruction or lecturing.
• Dilatory means lacking goals or purpose; aimless.
• Din means noise.
• Dirge is a funeral song.
• Discomfited means embarrassed or disconcerted.
• Discretionary means based on personal choice or showing prudence.
• Disingenuous means dishonest or crafty.
• Disposed means behaviorally inclined.
• Divine means heavenly or godly.
• Edifice is a building.
• Effigy is a crude likeness of a loathed person.
• Egregious means blatantly wrong.
• Elusive means hard to grasp, escaping, or evasive.
• Emollient is a soothing lotion.
• Empirical means based on data, evidence, or experiments.
• Enervate means to drain of energy or to weaken.
• Enfranchise means to free from slavery or to bestow the right to vote.
• Epitaph refers to words inscribed on a tomb.
• Espouse means to support.
• Expurgate means to delete obscene or other undesirable material from a text.
• Extant means existing.
• Fabrication is a lie.
• Facile means easy.
• Felicitous means suitable or pleasant.
• Feral means savage or wild.
• Galvanize means to incite or to arouse to action.
• Gaunt means thin or haggard.
• Gingerly means carefully.
• Grovel means to beg or plead, to crawl, or to behave subordinately.
• Hapless means ill-fated, unfortunate, or unlucky.
• Harbinger is a messenger or an omen.
• Hermetic means sealed in an airtight manner.
• Histrionic means over-theatrical or melodramatic.
• Hubris is excessive pride.
• Inanimate means not living.
• Incantation is a calling out for inspiration or guidance; an invocation.
• Inchoate means not fully formed.
• Incisive means harsh, cutting, or vitriolic.
• Incumbent is one who holds political office.
• Indelible means unable to be erased or permanent.
• Ineffable means incapable of expression in words.
• Inexorable means steadfast or resolute.
• Inflammatory means likely to excite rage or disorder.
• Insular means isolated or remote.
• Intemperate means excessive or immoderate.
• Interlocutor is one who participates in conversation or dialogue.
• Intractable means hard to manage or control.
• Jaded means bored from too much pleasure or overindulgence.
• Jingoism is aggressive touting of one’s patriotism.
• Juggernaut is a relentless force.
• Juxtapose means to place things side by side for the sake of comparing.
• Kinetic means relating to motion and energy.
• Legion means a very large number.
• Leviathan is a subaquatic, mythological sea creature or something huge.
• Licentious means morally lax.
• Melee is a hand-to-hand fight involving several participants.
• Milieu means environment.
• Myopic means short-sighted.
• Naivete means lack of experience or sophistication.