Vocabulary Quiz on Word Meanings

Vocabulary List

• Abandon: To give up completely
• Abate: To lessen
• Abject: Completely lacking pride or dignity
• Aberration: Deviation from the norm
• Abjure: To renounce a belief, cause, or claim
• Abnegation: Renouncing or rejecting something
• Abrogate: To do away with a law, right, or responsibility
• Abscond: To flee
• Abstruse: Dense or obscure
• Abysmal: Terrible
• Accede: To agree to a demand
• Acumen: Ability to make good judgments
• Adamant: Stubborn
• Adapt: To modify
• Admonish: To reprimand someone
• Advantageous: Beneficial circumstances
• Affluent: Wealthy
• Alacrity: Brisk eagerness
• Ambivalence: State of uncertainty
• Anomaly: Deviation from what's normal or expected
• Antipathy: Strong dislike
• Antiseptic: Clean or pure
• Apt: Accurate or appropriate
• Assertion: Statement
• Assiduous: Showing great care
• Bane: Source of distress or harm
• Beguile: To charm or enchant
• Beneficial: Helpful
• Berate: To scold or criticize
• Bereft: Deprived or lacking
• Blandishment: Flattering statement used to persuade
• Bias: Prejudice
• Bolster: To support
• Bombastic: Inflated
• Bovine: Cow-like
• Braggart: Someone who boasts
• Brevity: Concise
• Cacophony: Discordant mixture of sounds
• Cajole: To persuade someone via flattery
• Callous: Cruel disregard for others
• Calumny: Slander
• Camaraderie: Friendship
• Candid: Truthful
• Candor: Quality of being honest
• Carouse: To drink and party in a lively way
• Carp: To complain about trivial matters
• Catastrophic: Involving large-scale damage
• Cavort: To dance around excitedly
• Censorious: Critical of others
• Circumlocution: Using many words in an evasive way
• Circumscribe: To restrict within limits
• Clamor: Loud and confused noise
• Clout: Influence or power
• Cognizant: Having knowledge of
• Commensurate: Equal to
• Comparable: Similar to another
• Complement: To add to or make complete
• Compunction: Feeling of guilt
• Concomitant: Naturally accompanying
• Conducive: Helps produce positive results
• Conduit: Vessel or channel for transporting
• Conflagration: Large fire
• Connive: To trick; conspire
• Consign: To assign or deliver something
• Constituent: Being part of a whole
• Constructive: Helpful, useful
• Construe: To interpret
• Contend: To reckon with; struggle against
• Contusion: A bruise
• Contrite: Feeling remorse or guilt
• Contentious: Likely to cause an argument
• Contravene: Violate the order of; conflict
• Convivial: Friendly and cheerful environment
• Corpulence: Obesity; fatness
• Covet: To want greatly
• Cupidity: Greed for money
• Dearth: Lack of something
• Debacle: A fiasco or failure
• Debauch: Ruin or debase, particularly morally
• Defunct: No longer working
• Demagogue: Political leader appealing to people's prejudices
• Demur: To show reluctance; raise objections
• Denigrate: To disparage
• Despot: A tyrant
• Diaphanous: Light and translucent
• Dirge: Song of lament for the dead
• Discomfit: To make someone uncomfortable
• Disparate: Different from each other
• Disrepute: State of disgrace
• Duplicity: Deceitfulness
• Duress: Intimidation or coercion to force
• Eclectic: Wide-ranging
• Edict: Official order
• Ebullient: Cheerful and lively
• Efficacious: Having power to achieve a result
• Effluvia: Unpleasant odor
• Egregious: Outstandingly bad
• Elegy: Poem of reflection, typically a lament
• Elicit: To evoke or draw out
• Eloquent: Well-spoken
• Elude: To escape one’s grasp
• Emollient: Soothing
• Empirical: Based on evidence
• Emulate: To imitate
• Enervate: To weaken; drain of energy
• Engender: To bring about
• Ephemeral: Short-lived
• Equanimity: Mental calmness
• Equivocal: Ambiguous
• Evanescent: Fading quickly from sight
• Evince: To reveal the presence of
• Exacerbate: To make worse
• Exhort: Strongly encourage someone to do something
• Execrable: Extremely bad or unpleasant
• Exigent: Pressing, demanding
• Expedient: Convenient, though possibly improper
• Expiate: To atone for guilt or sin
• Expunge: To get rid of
• Extraneous: Irrelevant
• Extol: To praise
• Facilitate: To make easier, guide forward
• Fallacious: False; based on mistaken belief
• Fatuous: Silly and pointless
• Flagrant: Obviously offensive
• Forbearance: Restraint; self-control
• Fortuitous: Happening by chance
• Fractious: Irritable and difficult to control
• Garrulous: Talkative
• Grandiloquent: Pompous or extravagant in language
• Grapple: Wrestle, physically or mentally
• Gratuitous: Uncalled for; unnecessary
• Hapless: Unfortunate
• Hegemony: Leadership or dominance, especially of a country
• Heterogenous: Not uniform; varied
• Iconoclast: Person who veers from norms; attacks cherished beliefs
• Impecunious: Having little money; penniless
• Imped: To prevent or hold back
• Impetuous: Acting without care
• Impinge: To encroach on
• Impute: To attribute to
• Inane: Ridiculous
• Inchoate: Just beginning; not fully formed
• Inconvertible: Unable to be denied
• Inexorable: Impossible to prevent
• Inimical: Tending to harm; unfriendly
• Injunction: Authoritative order
• Innocuous: Benign, not harmful
• Inoculate: To immunize against
• Insidious: Harmful
• Instigate: To bring about; incite
• Insurgent: Rebel or revolutionary
• Interlocutor: Someone engaged in conversation
• Inure: To become accustomed to something
• Intransigent: Stubborn; unwilling to change
• Inveterate: Long-established, unlikely to change
• Irreverence: Lack of respect
• Largesse: Generosity in bestowing money or gifts
• Licentious: Promiscuous
• Litigant: Person involved in a lawsuit
• Maelstrom: Powerful storm; turmoil
• Maudin: Overly sentimental; self-pitying
• Maverick: Independent-minded person; nonconformist
• Mawkish: Sentimental in a sweet or sickly way
• Maxim: Short, pithy statement of truth
• Mendacious: Lying
• Meretricious: Appearing attractive but of little value
• Modicum: Small quantity of something
• Momentous: Important or significant
• Morass: Mess; complicated situation
• Munificent: Generous
• Nadir: Lowest point
• Negligent: Failing to do something
• Neophyte: Person new to a subject, skill, or belief
• Noisome: Disagreeable; having offensive smell
• Noxious: Poisonous; harmful
• Obdurate: Stubborn
• Obfuscate: Render unclear; bewilder someone
• Obstreperous: Noisy and difficult to control; disorderly
• Officious: Self-assertive, overbearing
• Onerous: Involving many obligations or effort
• Ostensible: Seemingly so
• Ostracism: Exclusion from a group
• Palliate: Make less severe
• Panacea: Remedy for all diseases
• Paradigm: Typical example or pattern
• Pariah: An outcast
• Paucity: Lack of; scarcity
• Pejorative: Expressing contempt or disapproval
• Penchant: Habitual liking for something; tendency toward
• Penurious: Poverty-stricken
• Pert: Attractive; impudent or saucy
• Pernicious: Having a harmful effect on
• Pertinacious: Holding firmly to a course; determined
• Phlegmatic: Self-controlled; calm and stoic
• Philanthropic: Generous, particularly financially
• Pithy: Concise and expressive
• Plaudit: Expression of praise
• Plenitude: Abundance; full or complete
• Plethora: Abundance of
• Polar: Directly opposite
• Postulate: To assume as true
• Potentate: Monarch or ruler
• Pragmatic: Realistic, sensible
• Preclude: To prevent from taking place
• Predilection: Preference or liking for something
• Probity: Honesty; integrity
• Proclivity: Tendency toward
• Profligate: Recklessly extravagant
• Profound: Showing deep knowledge or insight
• Promulgate: To promote widely
• Proscribe: To forbid by law
• Protean: Able to change easily
• Prurient: Overly sexual
• Puerile: Childishly silly
• Pugnacious: Quick to fight
• Punctilious: Paying attention to detail
• Quaint: Old-fashioned
• Quixotic: Idealistic
• Quandary: State of perplexity; a dilemma
• Recalcitrant: Uncooperative
• Relegate: Cast to a lower rank or role
• Remiss: Negligent
• Reprieve: Cancellation or postponement of punishment
• Reprobate: Unprincipled person
• Rescind: To take back
• Ribald: Improper; lewd
• Rife: Filled with; widespread
• Sanctimonious: Being morally superior
• Sanguine: Optimistic
• Scurrilous: Spreading disparaging claims; slanderous
• Serendipity: Chance or good luck
• Solicitous: Attentive to
• Spurious: Statement that appears truthful but is false
• Staid: Sedate, respectable
• Stolid: Calm and dependable
• Substantial: Large in size, amount, or importance
• Supercilious: Behaving in a haughty manner
• Supposition: Assumption without proof
• Surfeit: Excessive amount
• Surmise: Guess without proof
• Surreptitious: Kept secret
• Tangential: Peripheral to the central matter
• Tenable: Reasonable, maintainable
• Terse: Brief
• Torpid: Lethargic; inactive
• Travesty: False representation of something
• Trenchant: Vigorous in expression; sharp
• Trance: To defeat heavily
• Truculent: Eager to argue or fight
• Turpitude: Depravity, wickedness
• Ubiquitous: Present everywhere
• Umbrage: Offense, to take umbrage at
• Unconventional: To act outside of the norm
• Undulate: Move in a wave-like pattern
• Unmitigated: Not lessened; absolute
• Unveil: To reveal
• Upbraid: To scold or find fault
• Upshot: The outcome or result
• Usury: Unethical money lending
• Validate: Support the truth or value of
• Veracity: Truth or accuracy
• Vestige: Trace or remnant
• Viability: Ability to work successfully
• Vicissitude: Change of circumstances
• Vilify: Speak about in a disparaging manner
• Virtuoso: Highly skilled person, particularly in the arts
• Vital: Necessary
• Vitriolic: Filled with hatred
• Vituperate: Blame or insult strongly
• Vociferous: Outspoken
• Wanton: Deliberate and unprovoked; sexually unrestrained
• Winsome: Attractive or charming
• Yield: Surrender, give way to pressure
• Yoke: Tie two things together
• Zenith: The peak