#51 infer ~ insatiable

Question 1

infer

/ɪnˈfɜr/

Answer 1

v. to conclude; to deduce
- Raizel said she loved the brownies, but I inferred from the size of the piece left on her plate that she had actually despised them.
- She hadn’t heard the score, but the silence in the locker room led her to infer that we had lost.
An inference is a deduction or conclusion.

Question 2

infinitesimal

/ˌɪnfɪnɪˈtɛsəməl/

Answer 2

adj. very, very, very small; infinitely small
- An infinitesimal bug of some kind crawled into Heather’s ear and bit her in a place she couldn’t scratch.
- Our chances of winning were infinitesimal, but we played our hearts out anyway.

Question 3

ingenuous

/ɪnˈdʒɛnyuəs/

Answer 3

adj. frank; without deception; simple; artless; charmingly naive
- A young child is ingenuous. He doesn’t know much about the ways of the world, and certainly not enough to deceive anyone.
- An ingenue is a somewhat naive young woman, esp. a movie actress or character.

Question 4

disingenuous

/ˌdɪsɪnˈdʒɛnyuəs/

Answer 4

adj. crafty; artful
- The movie producer was being disingenuous when he said, “I don’t care about making money on this movie. I just want every man, woman, and child in the country to see it.”

Question 5

inherent

/ɪnˈhɪərənt, -ˈhɛr-/

Answer 5

adj. part of the essential nature of sth; intrinsic
Wetness is an inherent quality of water. (You could also say that wetness is inherent in water.)
- There is an inherent strength in steel that cardboard lacks.
- The man’s inherent fatness, jolliness, and beardedness made it easy for him to play the part of Santa Claus.

Question 6

injunction

/ɪnˈdʒʌŋkʃən/

Answer 6

n. a commend or order, esp. a court order
- Wendy’s neighbors got a court injunction prohibiting her from playing her radio.
- Herbert, lighting up, disobeyed his doctor’s injunction to stop smoking.

Question 7

innate

/ɪˈneɪt, ˈɪneɪt/

Answer 7

adj. existing since birth; inborn; inherent
- Joseph’s kindness was innate; it was part of his natural character.
- Bill has an apparently innate ability to throw a football. You just can’t teach someone to throw a ball as well as he can.
- There’s nothing innate about good manners; all children have to be taught to say “Please” and “Thank you.”

Question 8

innocuous

/ɪˈnɒkyuəs/

Answer 8

adj. harmless; banal
Innocuous is closely related, in both origin and meaning, to innocent.
- The speaker’s voice was loud but his words were innocuous; there was nothing to get excited about.
- Meredith took offense at Bruce’s innocuous comment about the saltiness of her soup.

Question 9

inordinate

/ɪnˈɔrdnɪt/

Answer 9

adj. excessive; unreasonable
- The math teacher paid an inordinate amount of attention to the grammar rather than algebra.
- The limousine was inordinately large, even for a limousine; there was room for more than a dozen passengers.
- Romeo’s love for Juliet was perhaps a bit inordinate, given the outcome of their relationship.

Question 10

insatiable

/ɪnˈseɪʃəbəl, -ʃiə-/

Answer 10

adj. hard or impossible to satisfy; greedy; avaricious
- Peter had an insatiable appetite for chocolate macadamia ice cream; he could never get enough. Not even a gallon of chocolate macadamia was enough to sate or satiate his craving.
- Peter’s addiction never reached satiety.