Beyond the Key Terms 2

Question 1

abjure

Answer 1

to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid

Question 2

adumbrate

Answer 2

to foreshadow or initiate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow

Question 3

anathema

Answer 3

a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or throughly loathed person or thing

Question 4

anodyne

Answer 4

soothing; something that assuages or allays pain or comforts

Question 5

apogee

Answer 5

farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith

Question 6

apostate

Answer 6

one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions

Question 7

apotheosis

Answer 7

deification; glorification to godliness; an exalted example; a model of excellence or perfection

Question 8

asperity

Answer 8

severity, rigor; roughness, harshness; acrimony, irritability

Question 9

asseverate

Answer 9

at aver, allege, or assert

Question 10

assiduous

Answer 10

diligent, hard-working, sedulous

Question 11

augury

Answer 11

omen, portent

Question 12

bellicose

Answer 12

belligerent, pugnacious, warlike

Question 13

calumniate

Answer 13

to slander, to make a false accusation; calumny means slander, aspersion

Question 14

captious

Answer 14

disposed to point out trivial faults; calculated to confuse or entrap in argument

Question 15

cavil

Answer 15

to find fault without good reason

Question 16

celerity

Answer 16

speed, alacrity; think accelerate

Question 17

chimera

Answer 17

an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster

Question 18

contumacious

Answer 18

insubordinate, rebellious; contumely means insult, scorn, aspersion

Question 19

debacle

Answer 19

rout, fiasco, complete failure

Question 20

denouement

Answer 20

an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot

Question 21

descry

Answer 21

to catch sight of

Question 22

desuetude

Answer 22

disuse

Question 23

desultory

Answer 23

random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose

Question 24

diaphanous

Answer 24

transparent, gauzy

Question 25

diffident

Answer 25

reserved, shy, unassuming; lacking in self-confidence

Question 26

dirge

Answer 26

a song of grief or lamentation

Question 27

encomium

Answer 27

glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy

Question 28

eschew

Answer 28

to shun or avoid

Question 29

excoriate

Answer 29

to ensure scathingly, to upbraid

Question 30

execrate

Answer 30

to denounce, to feel loathing for, to curse, to declare to be evil

Question 31

exegesis

Answer 31

critical examination, explication

Question 32

expiate

Answer 32

to atone or make amends for

Question 33

extirpate

Answer 33

to destroy, to exterminate, to cut out, to excind

Question 34

fatuous

Answer 34

silly, inanely foolish

Question 35

fractious

Answer 35

quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable

Question 36

gainsay

Answer 36

to deny, to dispute, to contradict, to oppose

Question 37

heterodox

Answer 37

unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic

Question 38

imbroglio

Answer 38

difficult or embarrassing situation

Question 39

indefatigable

Answer 39

not easily exhaustible; tireless, dogged

Question 40

ineluctable

Answer 40

certain, inevitable

Question 41

inimitable

Answer 41

one of a kind, peerless

Question 42

insouciant

Answer 42

unconcerned, carefree, heedless

Question 43

inveterate

Answer 43

deep rooted, ingrained, habitual

Question 44

jejune

Answer 44

vapid, uninteresting, nugatory; childish, immature, puerile

Question 45

lubricious

Answer 45

lewd, wanton, greasy, slippery

Question 46

mendicant

Answer 46

a beggar, supplicant

Question 47

meretricious

Answer 47

cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy; attracting by false show

Question 48

minatory

Answer 48

menacing, threatening (think Minotaur, a threatening creature)

Question 49

nadir

Answer 49

low point, perigee

Question 50

nonplussed

Answer 50

baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think

Question 51

obstreperous

Answer 51

tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age; literally, turned into bone

Question 52

palliate

Answer 52

formal praise, eulogy, encomium; panegyrical means expressing elaborate praise

Question 53

parsimonious

Answer 53

cheap, miserly

Question 54

pellucid

Answer 54

transparent, easy to understand, limpid

Question 55

peroration

Answer 55

the concluding part of a speech; flowery, rhetorical speech

Question 56

plangent

Answer 56

pounding, thundering, resounding

Question 57

prolix

Answer 57

long-winded, verbose; prolixity means verbosity

Question 58

propitiate

Answer 58

to appease, to conciliate; propitious means auspicious, favorable

Question 59

puerile

Answer 59

childish, immature, jejune, nugatory

Question 60

puissance

Answer 60

power, strength; puissant means powerful, strong

Question 61

pusillanimous

Answer 61

cowardly, craven

Question 62

remonstrate

Answer 62

to protest, to object

Question 63

sagacious

Answer 63

having sound judgement; perceptive, wise; like a sage

Question 64

salacious

Answer 64

lustful, lascivious, bawdy

Question 65

salutary

Answer 65

remedial, wholesome, causing improvement

Question 66

sanguine

Answer 66

cheerful, confident, optimistic

Question 67

saturnine

Answer 67

gloomy, dark, sullen, morose

Question 68

sententious

Answer 68

aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic; tending to moralize excessively

Question 69

stentorian

Answer 69

extremely loud and powerful

Question 70

stygian

Answer 70

gloomy, dark

Question 71

sycophant

Answer 71

toady; servile, self-seeking flatterer; parasite

Question 72

tendentious

Answer 72

biased; showing marked tendencies

Question 73

timorous

Answer 73

timid, fearful, diffident

Question 74

tyro

Answer 74

novice, greenhorn, rank amateur

Question 75

vitiate

Answer 75

to corrupt, to debase, to spoil, to make ineffective

Question 76

voluble

Answer 76

fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language