English Vocabulary Flashcards
Irony
the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.
Wrought
worked.
elaborated; embellished.
not rough or crude.
produced or shaped by beating with a hammer, as iron or silver articles.
Vehement
zealous; ardent; impassioned: a vehement defense; vehement enthusiasm.
passionate, opinionated
Usurp
to seize and hold (a position, office, power, etc.) by force or without legal right: The pretender tried to usurp the throne.
Impeach
to accuse (a public official) before an appropriate tribunal of misconduct in office.
Pecuniary
of or pertaining to money.
Sanguine
happy; cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident.
Infrastructure
fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools.
Reciprocal
given or felt by each toward the other; MUTUAL
Omnipotent
almighty or infinite in power.
having very great or unlimited authority or power.
Precipitous
Extremely or impassably steep
Diffident
hesitant; unconfident, timid, shy
Subjugate
to make submissive or subservient; enslave.
Inculcate
To implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly
Reparation
the making of amends for wrong or injury done
Belie
to show to be false; contradict:
Metamorphosis
a form resulting from any such change.
Tempestuous
tumultuous; turbulent…characterized by violent emotions or behavior
Facetious
not meant to be taken seriously or literally:
amusing; humorous.
Homogeneous
composed of parts or elements that are all of the same kind; not heterogeneous:
Obsequious
obsequious servants.
obedient; dutiful.
Enfranchise
to grant a franchise to; admit to citizenship, to set free; liberate, as from slavery.
Interpolate
insert words into texts, making it false
Vortex
Whirlpool
Supercilious
arrogant, stuck-up
haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.
Abjure
to renounce, repudiate, or retract, especially with formal solemnity; recant: to abjure one’s errors.
to renounce or give up under oath; forswear: to abjure allegiance.
to avoid or shun. To give up.
Oligarchy
Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.
Those making up such a government.
A state governed by a few persons.
Filibuster
Tactic for delaying or obstructing legislation by making long drawn out speeches
Equinox
the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth’s equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth and occurring about March 21
Fatuous
Foolish or inane. Ditzy.
Lacking intelligence, stupid.
Enervate
Weaken mentally or morally; takes your energy out
Recapitulate
to go back and summarize
Abrogate
formally put an end to,
to abolish by formal or official means; annul by an authoritative act; repeal: to abrogate a law.
to put aside; put an end to.
Nomenclature
a set or system of words, as those used in a particular science or art, by an individual or community.
Evanescent
vanishing; fading away; fleeting.
tending to become imperceptible; scarcely perceptible.
Acumen
keen insight, ability to understand and reason
Lugubrious
mournful, dismal, or gloomy.
Incognito
without revealing one’s identity… in disguise.
Orthography
the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage; correct spelling.
Chromosome
a strand of DNA that carries specific genes
Lexicon
a wordbook or dictionary, the vocabulary of a particular language, field, social class, person, etc
Nihilism
total rejection of established laws and institutions, anarchy.
Totalitarian
of or pertaining to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life.
Unctuous
characterized by excessive piousness or moralistic fervor, especially in an affected manner; excessively smooth, suave, or smug.
winnow
to free (grain) from the lighter particles of chaff, dirt, etc., especially by throwing it into the air and allowing the wind or a forced current of air to blow away impurities.
vacuous
without contents; empty:
Loquacious
talking or tending to talk much or freely; talkative; chattering; babbling; garrulous:
Churlish
like a churl; boorish; rude:
Suffragist
an advocate of the grant or extension of political suffrage, especially to women.
oxidize
to convert (an element) into an oxide; combine with oxygen.
Abstemious
sparing or moderate in eating and drinking; temperate in diet.
Incontrovertible
not controvertible; not open to question or dispute; indisputable:
Parabola
a plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone with a plane parallel to a generator of the cone; the set of points in a plane
Plasma
the liquid part of blood or lymph, as distinguished from the suspended elements.
Deleterious
injurious to health: harmful; injurious:
Circumnavigate
to sail or fly around; make the circuit of by navigation:to go or maneuver around:
Kinetic
pertaining to motion.
Deciduous
shedding the leaves annually, as certain trees and shrubs..
falling off or shed at a particular season, stage of growth, etc., as leaves, horns, or teeth.
not permanent; transitory.
Circumlocution
a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.
Moiety
a half.
an indefinite portion, part, or share.
Bellicose
inclined or eager to fight; aggressively hostile; belligerent; pugnacious.
Hegemony
leadership or predominant influence exercised by one nation over others, as in a confederation.
leadership; predominance.
(especially among smaller nations) aggression or expansionism by large nations in an effort to achieve world domination.
Chicanery
trickery or deception by quibbling or sophistry: He resorted to the worst flattery and chicanery to win the job.
a quibble or subterfuge used to trick, deceive, or evade.
Paradigm
a set of forms all of which contain a particular element, especially the set of all inflected forms based on a single stem or theme.
a display in fixed arrangement of such a set, as boy, boy’s, boys, boys’.
Feckless
ineffective; incompetent; futile: feckless attempts to repair the plumbing.
having no sense of responsibility; indifferent; lazy.
Parameter
a constant or variable term in a function that determines the specific form of the function but not its general nature, as a in f (x ) = ax, where a determines only the slope of the line described by f (x ).
Gauche
lacking social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness; awkward; crude; tactless: Their exquisite manners always make me feel gauche.
Expurgate
to amend by removing words, passages, etc., deemed offensive or objectionable: Most children read an expurgated version of Grimms’ fairy tales.
to purge or cleanse of moral offensiveness.
Fiduciary
a person to whom property or power is entrusted for the benefit of another.
Hubris
excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.
Xenophobia
an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.
Tautology
needless repetition of an idea, especially in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness, as in “widow woman.”.
Polymer
a compound of high molecular weight derived either by the addition of many smaller molecules, as polyethylene, or by the condensation of many smaller molecules with the elimination of water, alcohol, or the like, as nylon.
Taxonomy
the science or technique of classification.
Plagiarize
to take and use ideas, passages, etc., from (another’s work) by plagiarism.
Gerrymander
U.S. Politics. the dividing of a state, county, etc., into election districts so as to give one political party a majority in many districts while concentrating the voting strength of the other party into as few districts as possible.
Hemoglobin
the oxygen-carrying pigment of red blood cells that gives them their red color and serves to convey oxygen to the tissues: occurs in reduced form (deoxyhemoglobin) in venous blood and in combination with oxygen (oxyhemoglobin) in arterial blood.
Antebellum
before or existing before a war, especially the American Civil War; prewar:
Kowtow
to act in an obsequious manner; show servile deference.
Jejune
naive, simplistic, and superficial.