Vocab week 9

Question 1

Abate

Answer 1

(v.) to reduce, lessen (The rain poured down for a while, then abated.)

Question 2

Accentuate

Answer 2

(v.) to stress, highlight (Psychologists agree that those people who are
happiest accentuate the positive in life.)

Question 3

Bourgeois

Answer 3

(n.) a middle-class person, capitalist (Many businessmen receive criticism for their bourgeois approach to life.)

Question 4

Cleave

Answer 4

(v.) to divide into parts (Following the scandalous disgrace of their leader, the entire political party cleaved into warring factions.) 2. (v.) to stick together firmly (After resolving their marital problems, Junior and Rosa cleaved to one another all the more tightly.)

Question 5

Delineate

Answer 5

(v.) to describe, outline, shed light on (She neatly delineated her reasons for canceling the project’s funding.)

Question 6

Edict

Answer 6

(n.) an order, decree (The ruler issued an edict requiring all of his subjects to bow down before him.)

Question 7

Fastidious

Answer 7

(adj.) meticulous, demanding, having high and often unattainable standards (Mark is so fastidious that he is never able to finish a project because it always seems
imperfect to him.)

perfectionist, nitpicky

Question 8

Impecunious

Answer 8

(adj.) poor (“I fear he’s too impecunious to take me out tonight,” the bratty girl whined.)

Question 9

Largess

Answer 9

(n.) the generous giving of lavish gifts (My boss demonstrated great largess by giving me a new car.)

Question 10

Mundane

Answer 10

(adj.) concerned with the world rather than with heaven, commonplace (He is more concerned with the mundane issues of day-to-day life than with spiritual
topics.)

Question 11

Nuance

Answer 11

(n.) a slight variation in meaning, tone, expression (The nuances of the poem were not obvious to the casual reader, but the professor was able to point them out.)

Question 12

Onerous

Answer 12

(adj.) burdensome (My parents lamented that the pleasures of living in a beautiful country estate no longer outweighed the onerous mortgage payments

Question 13

Poignant

Answer 13

(adj.) deeply affecting, moving (My teacher actually cried after reading to us the poignant final chapter of the novel.)

Question 14

Rancor

Answer 14

(n.) deep, bitter resentment (When Eileen challenged me to a fight, I could see
the rancor in her eyes.)

Question 15

Sanguine

Answer 15

(adj.) optimistic, cheery (Polly reacted to any bad news with a sanguine smile
and the chirpy cry, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!”)

Question 16

Stoic

Answer 16

(adj.) unaffected by passion or feeling (Penelope’s faithfulness to Odysseus required that she be stoic and put off her many suitors.)

Question 17

Transgress

Answer 17

(v.) to violate, go over a limit (The criminal’s actions transgressed morality and human decency.)

Question 18

Undulate

Answer 18

(v.) to move in waves (As the storm began to brew, the placid ocean began to undulate to an increasing degree.)

Question 19

Vehemently

Answer 19

(adv.) marked by intense force or emotion (The candidate vehemently opposed cutting back on Social Security funding.)

Question 20

Wallow

Answer 20

(v.) to roll oneself indolently; to become or remain helpless (My roommate can’t get over her breakup with her boyfriend and now just wallows in self-pity.)