Vocabularies Flashcards
abate
v. to decrease; reduce
NASA announced that it would delay the launch of the manned spacecraft until the radiation from the solar flares abated.
abdicate
v. to give up a position, right, or power
Romulus Augustus, the last Western Roman emperor, was forced to abdicate the throne in 476 A.D., and the Germanic chieftain Odovacar became the de facto ruler of Italy.
The appeals judge has abdicated his responsibility to review the findings of the high court.
aberrant
adj. deviating from what is normal
When a person’s behavior becomes aberrant, his or her peers may become concerned that the individual is becoming a deviant.
aberration n. something different from the usual or normal
For centuries, solar eclipses were regarded as serious aberrations in the natural order.
abeyance
n. temporary suppression or suspension
A good judge must hold his or her judgement in abeyance until all the facts in a case have been presented.
abject
adj. miserable; pitiful
John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath portrays the abject poverty of many people during the Great Depression.
abjure
v. to reject; abandon formally
Most members of the Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers or Friends) abjure the use of violence to settle disputes between nations.
For a foreigner to become a U.S. citizen, he or she must take an oath abjuring allegiance to any other country and pledging to take up arms to defend the United States.
abscission
n. the act of cutting; the natural separation of a leaf or other parts of a plant
Two scientists, Alan G. Williams and Thomas G. Whitham, have hypothesized that premature leaf abscission is an adaptive plant response to herbivorous attack.
abscise v. to cut off or away
The surgeon abscised a small growth on the patient’s hand.
abscond
v. to depart secretly
A warrant is out for the arrest of a person believed to have absconded with three million dollars.
abstemious
adj. moderate in appetite
Some researches suggests that people with an abstemious lifestyle tend to live longer than people who indulge their appetites.
abstinence
n. the giving up of certain pleasures
The monk’s vow of abstinence includes all intoxicating substances.
abysmal
adj. very bad
The abysmal failure of the free market system in Russia has led some people to argue that the planned economy of the soviet Union, while not perfect, was better suited to Russia’s history and culture than Western-style capitalism.
accretion
n. growth in size or increase in amount
In the 1960s, the American geophysicist Harry Hess conceived the idea of sea-floor spreading, a process in which the new crust in the ocean is continually generated by igneous processes at the crest of the mid-oceanic ridges, causing a steady accretion of the crust.
accrue
v. to accumulate; grow by additions
Regulating the growth of large companies when they begin to become monopolistic is a difficult task for government in a capitalist country; if it limits monopolies too much, the nation’s firms could become less competitive than foreign companies that enjoy the advantages accruing from greater monopolies.
adamant
adj. uncompromising; unyielding
Despite widespread opposition to his plan, the political party’s leader is adament that the party must move to the center to appeal to moderate voters.
adjunct
n. something added, attached, or joined
Speed walking, cross-country running, and marathons are normally regarded as adjuncts of track and field athletics since races in these sports are not normally held on a track.
admonish
v. to caution or reprimand
The judge admonished the jury to discount testimony that had been ruled inadmissible.
adulterate
v. to corrupt or make impure
The unscrupulous company sells an adulterated version of the drug, and doesn’t inform consumers that they are getting a less efficacious drug than they think they are getting.
aesthetic
adj. relating to beauty or art
Members of the English aesthetic movement, such as Oscar Wilde, were proponents of the doctrine of art for art’s sake, which is the belief that art cannot and should not be useful for any purpose other than that of creating beauty.
aesthetic n. a conception of what is artistically beautiful
The Gothic aesthetic dominated European art and architecture for approximately the twelfth to the fifteenth century.
aesthetics n. the conception of what is beautiful; it is also a branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and art, and standards in judging them
aesthete n. someone who cultivates a special sensitivity to beauty; often the word refers to a person whose interest in beauty and art is regarded as excessive or superficial
affected
adj. pretentious, phony
It has been argues that the emphasis on so-called “proper English” leads to unnatural and affected speech.
affinity
n. fondness; liking; similarity
The female students in the class felt an affinity for the ancient Greek playwright Euripides because he sympathized with women, slaves, and other despised members of his society.
aggrandize
v. to make larger or greater
One of the concerns of the framers of the U.S. Constitution was that one branch of government would try to aggrandize itself at the expense of the others.
aggregate
adj. amounting to a whole; total
The aggregate wealth of a country includes private as well as public resources and possessions.
aggregate v. to collect into a mess
Portals are Web sites designed to aggregate information and are used as a starting point on the Web.
aggregate n. collective mass or sum
alacrity
n. cheerful willingness; eagerness; speed
The football coach was pleased to see the team get to work on the task of improving its tackling skills with alacrity.
alchemy
n. medieval chemical philosophy based in changing metal into gold; a seemingly magical power or process of transmutation
Alchemy was the forerunner of the modern science of chemistry.
None of their friends could understand the mysterious alchemy that caused two people as different from one another as Rob and Barbara to fall in love.
allay
v. to lessen; ease; soothe
Improvements in antivirus software have allayed many people’s fears of having their computers “infected” with malicious software.
alleviate
v. to relieve; improve partially
According to come commentators, one of the weaknesses of capitalism is that, although it is very efficient at increasing absolute wealth, it is not as successful at alleviating relative poverty; thus, a person living in a slum in America may be reasonably well off by historical standards, but he might perceive himself to be poor compared to members of the bourgeoisie, whom he sees regularly buying luxury goods that he is not able to afford.
alloy
n. a combination; a mixture of two or more metals
Scientists formulate alloys to create properties that are not possessed by hy natural metals or other substances
allure
n. the power to entice by charm
Political groups in the United States often lobby Congress to use the allure of America’s vast market as an incentive for counties to pursue policies in accordance with American policies.
allure v. to entice by charm
alluring adj.
The idea of a clockwork universe is very alluring to some people because it explains how the universe was created, yet allows human beings to live in it without believing in supernatural intervention.
amalgamate
v. to combine into a unified whole
In early 1999, six municipalities were amalgamated into an enlarged city of Toronto, Canada.
ambiguous
adj. unclear or doubtful in meaning
The gender of the Mahayana Buddhist deity Avalokitesuara, the god of infinity mercy, is ambiguous in both China and Japan, where the god is sometimes called a goddess.
ambivalence
n. the state of having conflicting emotional attitudes.
John felt some ambivalence about getting married before finishing college.
ambivalent adj.
In public opinion survey in the United States, scientists rank second only to physicians in public esteem, yet much of the public is increasingly ambivalent about some of the implications for society of “Big Science” and its related technology.
ambrosia
n. something delicious; the food of the gods
The combination of flavors in the Moroccan baked eggplant was pure ambrosia.
ambrosial adj.
The food critic praised the chef for preparing what he called an “ambrosial meal.”
ameliorate
v. to improve
Knowing they could not stop the spread of a contagion in a few days, health authorities worked to inhibit its spread and to ameliorate its effects by issuing warnings to the public and initiating immunization programs.
amenable
adj. agreeable; cooperative; suited
The young writer is amenable to suggestions for improving her prose style to make it more interesting.
amenity
n. something that increases comfort
Many amenities considered normal and necessary by people in developed countries, such as indoor plumbing, were luxuries only a few generations ago.
amulet
n. ornament worn as a charm against evil spirits
The early Christian Church forbade the use of amulets, which had become common in the Roman Empire at the time the Christian Church began to develop.
anachronism
n. something out of the proper time
Some experts regard the retirement age of 65 as an anachronism at a time when people in the developed world have much longer lift expediencies than previously.
analgesic
n. medication that reduces or eliminates pain
Aspirin (the trade mark of the drug acetylsalicylic acid) is a powerful analgesic that was introduced in 1899 and is still one of the most effective medicines available to alleviate pain, fever, and inflammation.
analogous
adj. comparable
The psychology researcher’s experiment postulated that the brain is analogous to a digital computer.
analogy n. a similarity in some ways between things that are otherwise dissimilar.
The idea of evolution in nature is sometimes misconstrued and applied by analogy to other areas in which there is scant evidence for its existence; a notable example of this is Social Darwinism, in which it is argues that society is like nature, and thus people, like animals are competing for survival, with those who are generically superior at surviving and reproducing.
analog n. something that is comparable to something else.
Some commentators have posited the existence of an analog to the Protestant work ethic in Chinese culture, which they call the “Confucian work ethic,” to explain the economic success of some countries with large Chinese populations.
anarchy
n. absence of government; state of disorder
The american philosopher Robert Nozick does not advocate anarchy; rather, he argues for the merits of a minimal state that would not violate the natural rights of individuals.
anarchic adj. lacking order or control
The student of mythology speculated that Dionysos was created as a projection of the pleasure_loving, anarchic aspect of human nature.
anodyne
n. something that calms or soothes pain
Some people use alcohol as an anodyne to numb their emotional pain.
anodyne adj. relaxing, or capable of soothing pain
The public relations officer is remarkably anodyne; all he does is mouth comforting, politically correct platitudes, saying nothing of substance.
anomalous
adj. irregular; deviating from the norm
The psychologist discounted the anomalous behavior of the soldier, saying it was merely a short-term effect of the stress of battle.
anomaly n.
A moral dilemma that arises with humanity’s ability to clone is posed in the following hypothetical scenario: a pig that produces much more meat than a normal pig can be cloned, but the pig’s life span would be cut n half because of anomalies in the cloning process: Is it right to clone such an animal?
antecedent
n. something that comes before
Historical factors, such as the increased emphasis on the individual, the invention of printing, and the rise of the bourgeoisie, contributed to make the Reformation, which had its antecedents in the reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church, into a much broader phenomenon that created powerful churches that grew to rival the original church.
antediluvian
adj. prehistoric
Most of our knowledge of antediluvian times has been built up as a result of one of humanity’s grandest collaborative endeavors – the gathering, identification, dating, and categorization of fossils as they are discovered.
antipathy
n. dislike; hostility
Heathcliff, the protagonist of Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, feels great antipathy for Edgar Linton, the man who marries the woman he loves.
apathy
n. indifference
Apathy was high in the election because there was no major controversy or issue to arouse voter interest.
apathetic adj.
One criticism of the welfare state is that it makes people overly reliant on government, with the result that democracy is gradually weakened as citizens take a more apathetic and detached view of politics.
apex
n. the highest point
In English literature, classicism reached its apex in the poetry of Alexander Pope and the other Augustans.
apogee
n. the point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited; the highest point
The Ottoman Empire reached its apogee in the seventeenth century, when it controlled a territory running from Budapest to North Africa.
apothegm
n. a terse, witty saying (pronounced AP-uh-them and also spelled apophthegm)
One of the best-known political apothegms was written by the British historian Load Acton: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
appease
v. to calm; pacify; placate
Many historians have criticized British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for trying to appease Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
appellation
n. name
The discovery of the bones of a person with the appellation Kennewick Man in the state of Washington in 1996 has raised important questions about who the earliest people to populate America were.
apposite
adj. strikingly appropriate and relevant
The writer searched two dictionaries and a thesaurus before finding the perfectly apposite word he was looking for.
apprise
v. to inform
Nadine Cohodas’s biography of the blues singer Dinah Washington keeps the reader apprised of the racism black Americans had to endure.
approbation
n. praise; approval
The Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest approbation an American soldier can receive.
appropriate
v. to take possession for one’s own use; confiscate
(uh-PROH-pree-ayt)
The invading army appropriated supplies form the houses of the local people.
appropriate adj.
(uh-PROH-pree-it)
apropos
adj. relevant
Apropos of nothing, the speaker declared that the purpose of life is to love.
arabesque
n. ornate design featuring intertwined curves; a ballet position in which one leg is extended in back while the other supports the weight of the body
The ballerina stunned the audience with her perfectly executed arabesque.
archeology
n. the study of material evidence of past human life
Carbon-14 dating is of great use in archeology because it can determine the age of specimens as old as 35,000 years, but it is of less use in geology because most of the processes studied in this field occurred millions of years ago.
ardor
n. great emotion or passion
The twentieth-century American poet Wallace Stevens said, “It is the unknown that excites the ardor of scholars, who in the known alone, would shrivel up with boredom.
arduous
adj. extremely difficult; laborious
The task of writing a research paper is arduous, but if it is broken down to logical steps it becomes less daunting.
argot
n. a specialized vocabulary used by a group
Writers of crime fiction often use the argot of criminals and detectives to create a realistic atmosphere.
arrest
v. to stop; to seize
Temporary arrest of the patient’s respiration made it easier for the doctor to perform surgery on him.
artifact
n. item made by human craft
Marxists contend that appreciation of art has declined because capitalism has trained people to perceive human artifacts as commodities, and has alienated people from nature, their true humanity, and their creations.
artless
adj. guileless; natural
The source of the meaning of artless as guileless is the poet John Dryden, who wrote of William Shakespeare in 1672: “Such artless beauty lies in Shakespeare’s wit….”
ascetic
n. one who practices self-denial
Muslim ascetics consider the internal battle against human passions a greater jihad than the struggle against infidels.
ascetic adj. self-denying or austere
The writer’s ascetic lifestyle helped her to concentrate on finishing her novel.
asceticism n.
One tradition of asceticism derives from the belief that the body is fundamentally bad and must be subjugated to the soul.
asperity
n. severity; harshness; irritability
In his autobiography Gerald Trywhitt, the British writer, composer, artist, and aesthete, recounts a humorous incident: “Many years later, when I was sketching in Rome, a grim-looking Englishwoman came up to me and said with some asperity, ‘I see you are painting MY view.’”
aspersion
n. slander; false rumor
The Republic of Singapore is a young democracy, and its leaders often respond strongly to journalists and others who cast aspersions on their integrity.
assiduous
adj. diligent; hard-working
The assiduous people of Hong Kong live in a territory with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world.
assuage
v. to make less severe
On November 21, 1864, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln wrote the following in a letter to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, who had lost five sons in battle: “I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
astringent
adj. harsh; severe
Bob tends to nick himself when he shaves, so he uses an astringent aftershave to stop the bleeding.
asylum
n. place of refuge or shelter
The Stoic, accused of seeking asylum in the consolations of philosophy, rebutted this charge, saying that Stoicism is simply the most prudent and realistic philosophy to follow.
atavism
n. in biology, the reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence; individual or a part that exhibits atavism; return of a trait after a period of absence
Some modern political theorists reject nationalism as a tribal atavism.
attenuate
v. to weaken
Modern digital radio equipment allows even signals that have been greatly attenuated to be transmitted by one station and received by another station.
audacious
adj. bold; daring
The German army commander Erwin Rommel was known as the “Desert Fox” as a result of his audacious surprise attacks on Allied forces in World War II.
austere
adj. stern; unadorned
Deism is an austere belief that reflects the predominant philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment: a universe symmetrical and governed by rationality.
autonomous
adj. self-governing; independent
Some biologists have theorized that our belief in our ability to act as autonomous agents is in conformity with the theory of evolution because it gives us a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives that helps us to survive.
avarice
n. greed
Successful investment bankers are sometimes accused of avarice; their defenders, however, say that they are simply very good at what they do and should be rewarded accordingly.
aver
v. to affirm; declare to be true
Yogis aver that everyone has a guru, whether it be a person, God, or the experiences of the world, that helps him or her practice the yoga that is in accordance with his or her nature, and assists on the path toward enlightenment.
avocation
n. secondary occupation
Dan became so proficient at his avocation – computer programming – that he is thinking of giving up his job as a teacher to do it full time.
avuncular
adj. like an uncle, benevolent and tolerant
Walter Cronkite, who was the anchorman of CBS News during much of the 1970s and 1980s, had a avuncular manner that made his one of America’s most trusted personalities.
axiomatic
adj. taken for granted
In nineteenth-century geology, uniformitarianism was the antithesis of catastrophism, asserting that it was axiomatic that natural law and processes do not fundamentally change, and that was we observe now is essentially the same as what occurred in the past.
bacchanalian
adj. pertaining to riotous or drunken festivity; pertaining to revelry
For some people New Years’ Eve is an occasion for bacchanalian revelry.
banal
adj. commonplace; trite
The writer has a gift for making even the most banal observation seem important and original.
banter
n. playful conversation
The governor engaged in some banter with reporters before getting to the serious business of the news conference.
bard
n. poet
The great bards of English literature have all been masters of the techniques of verse.
bawdy
adj. obscene
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is the story of a group of Christian pilgrims who entertain one another with stories, ranging from the holy to the bawdy, on their journey to Canterbury Cathedral.
beatify
v. to sanctify; to bless; to ascribe a virtue to
In the year 2000 Pope John Paul II traveled to Fatima in Portugal to beatify two of the three children who said they saw the appearance of the Virgin Mary there in 1917.
beatification n.
Beatification is the second and next to last step on the path to sainthood
bedizen
v. to dress in a vulgar, showy manner
Paul went to the costume party bedizened as a seventeenth-century French aristocrat.
behemoth
n. huge creature; anything very large and powerful
In the 1980s and the 1990s, the trend in American business was toward increased privatization of government industries (such as power generation), partly because it was believed that private industry is more efficient and partly because foreign private companies were becoming commercial behemoths,, outstripping government-owned companies in competitiveness.
belie
v. to contradict; misrepresent; give a false impression
The boxer’s childlike face belies the ferocity with which he can attack opponents in the ring.
beneficent
adj. kindly; doing good
The theologian discussed the question of why a beneficent and omnipotent God allows bad things to happen to good people.
bifurcate
v. to divide into two parts
Contemporary physicists generally bifurcate their discipline into two parts – classical physics and modern physics; the former are the fields of study that were already well developed before the momentous breakthroughs of the early twentieth century by scientists such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg, which inaugurated the age of modern physics.
bifurcation n.
Some people regard the Hindu-Buddhist philosophy on animals as more in accordance with the modern scientific view than the traditional Western view, since it does not posit a radical bifurcation of man and nature.
blandishment
n. flattery
Despite the salesperson’s blandishments, Donna did not buy the car.
blandish v. coax with flattery
blasé
adj. bored because of frequent indulgence; unconcerned
We were amazed by John’s blasé attitude toward school; he seems to have made it a rule never to open a book.
bolster
v. to give a boost to; prop up; support
The president has visited the state several times to bolster his sagging popularity there.
bombastic
adj. pompous; using inflated language
Nearly lost in the senators long, bombastic speech were several sensible ideas.
boorish
adj. rude; insensitive
Bob apologized for his boorish behavior at the party, saying he hadn’t realized that it was such a formal occasion.
bovine
adj. cowlike
Following the slow-moving group of students up the long path to the school’s entrance, the word “bovine” popped into the English teacher’s mind.
brazen
adj. bold; shameless
The brazen student irritated his teacher by saying that he could learn more from a day spent “surfing” the World Wide Web than a day spent in school.
broach
v. to mention for the first time
Steve’s boss knew that she could’t put off warning him about his poor performance and decided to broach the subject the next time she saw him.
bucolic
adj. characteristic of the countryside; rustic; pastoral
The south end of Toronto’s beautiful High Park is a bucolic expanse of land that is perfect for anyone wanting a quiet walk.
burgeon
v. to flourish
After World War II, the increased speed of industrialization and the burgeoning world population resulted in such an increase in pollution that it began to be recognized by some people as a threat to the human habitat, Earth.
burnish
v. to polish
The poet T. S. Eliot burnished his reputation as one of the master poets of the twentieth century with Four Quartets, four long poems published between 1936 and 1942.
buttress
v. to reinforce; support
Some critics of the American legal system argue that the requirement of proving guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt” is too difficult a criterion to use, and buttress their case by citing the fact that objective studies suggest that only a very small number of the criminals are successfully prosecuted.
cacophonous
adj. unpleasant or harsh-sounding
The dissonant harmonies of the great jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk might seem cacophonous to some listeners, but to many jazz aficionados they are sublime.
A cacophony is a jarring, unpleasant noise.
cadge
v. to beg; sponge
An enduring image of the Great Depression in America is the out-of-work man cadging money with the line, “Hey, mister, can you spare a dime for a cup of coffee?”
callous
adj. thick-skinned; insensitive
Jim’s terrible experiences in the war have made him callous about the suffering of others.
calumny
n. false and malicious accusation; slander
“Be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.”
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet Act III, Scene 1 (Hamlet addressing Ophelia)
canard
n. false, deliberately misleading story
Most politicians do not want to be associated with the old canard that big government in Washington can solve all of America’s problems.
canon
n. an established principle; a basis or standard for judgment; a group of literary works
Canons of aesthetic taste vary over the years; the Rococo period, for example, valued ornate art.
The sixty-volume Great Books of the Western World is an attempt to gather the central canon of Western civilization into one collection.
canon adj.
The system of civil law originated in the Roman Empire and was kept alive in the Middle Ages int eh canon law of the Church.
canonical adj. belonging to a group of literary works
The English professor is trying to persuade the chairperson of her department to let her teach some writers that are not canonical.
cant
n. insincere talk; language of a particular group
Many of the beat artists of the 1950s reacted against what they regarded as the cant of bourgeois society.
cantankerous
adj. irritable; ill-humored
Many of us have in our mind the stereotype of the cantankerous old man who is constantly complaining about something or other.
capricious
adj. fickle
The rule of law is regarded by many historians as one of humanity’s great achievements because since its inception citizens are no longer subject to capricious decisions and penalties of rulers.
caprice n. an inclination to change one’s mind compulsively
Styles in high fashion seem governed by caprice as much as anything else.
captious
adj. faultfinding; intended to entrap, as in an argument
The pedantic and captious critic seems incapable of appreciating the merits of even the most highly regarded books.
cardinal
adj. of foremost importance
The cardinal rule of any weight=loss diet must be limiting the intake of calories.
carnal
adj. of the flesh or body; related to physical appetites
The yogi’s goal is to achieve nirvana through, among other things, the overcoming of carnal desires.
carp
v. to find fault; complain
Cost-benefit analysis owes much of its origin to utilitarian thought; despite the carping of critics that such analysis is based on faulty premises, the technique has proved useful in many areas.
cartography
n. science of making maps
Satellites in Earth orbit take pictures of topography that have greatly aided cartography.
caste
n. any of the hereditary social classes of Hindu society; social stratification
The dalits, formerly knows as untouchables, are at the bottom of the thousands of castes that make of Indian society.
caste adj.
Most modern corporations employ a sort of caste system, with senior executives at the top and ordinary workers at the bottom.
castigation
n. punishment; chastisement; criticism
Many British writers recall with loathing the castigation they received at school.
cataclysm
n. a violent upheaval that causes great destruction and change
The French Revolution of 1789 was a cataclysm whose effects are still felt today.
catalyst
n. something causing change
Among the catalysts of the Romantic movement were the libertarian ideals of the French Revolution.
categorical
adj. absolute; without exception
Although incest is categorically forbidden by every state, recent evidence that marriage between cousins is no more likely to produce abnormal offspring than “normal” marriages may allow the constitutionality of ans on marriage between cousins to be challenged.
caucus
n. smaller group within an organization
The workers formed an informal caucus to discuss their difficulties.
causal
adj. involving a cause
The philosopher Plato believed there is a causal relationship between income inequality, on the one hand, and political discontent and crime, on the other hand: in his Laws he quantified his argument, contending that the income of the rich should be no more than five times that of the poor, and he proposed policies to limit extremes of wealth and poverty.
caustic
adj. sarcastically biting; burning
The columnist’s caustic comments on government policy did not win her any friends among government officials.
celestial
adj. concerning the sky or heavens; sublime
Astronomers make use of the Doppler effect to measure the velocities and distance from Earth of stars and other celestial objects.
centrifugal
adj. moving away from a center
As the empire expanded, there was an ever-increasing centrifugal stress as remote colonies sought autonomy.
centripetal
adj. moving or directed toward a center
Astronomers calculated that the centripetal force exerted by the Earth’s gravity on the Moon will keep the Moon in orbit around the Earth for billions of years.
champion
v. to defend or support
Robin Hood is famous for championing the underdogs of England.
chasten
v. to correct by punishment or reproof; to restrain or subdue
The child’s behavior improved after she had been chastened by punishment.
chicanery
n. trickery; fraud
The governor ordered an audit to investigate alleged financial chicanery.
chivalry
n. the qualities idealized by knighthood such as bravery and gallantry toward women.
Chivalry was rooted in Christian values, and the knight was bound to be loyal to Christian ideals; the Crusades enhanced this idea, as knights vowed to uphold Christianity against heathens.
churlish
adj. rude; boorish
According to the chivalric code, a knight was never supposed to be churlish, especially toward noble ladies, to whom he was supposed to be unfailingly gentle and courteous.
circuitous
adj. roundabout
According to Hindu philosophy, some souls take a circuitous path through many births to reach God.
clairvoyant
n. one who can predict the future; psychic
Edgar Cayce was a famous clairvoyant who some people believe was able to go into a trance during which he was in touch with a spiritual realm.
clamor
n. noisy outcry
Over the past 12 years or so the clamor for better protection of the Earth’s rain forests has increased dramatically.
clamor v. to cry out noisily
The crowd clamored their disapproval of the plan.
clique
n. a small, exclusive group
The principal of the high school is concerned that one clique of students in dominating the student council.
cloister
v. to confine; seclude
The writer cloistered herself in a country house to finish her novel.
cloistered adj. shut away from the world
The journalist described the large American philanthropic foundations as arrogant, elitist, and cloistered.
cloister n. a monastery or convent
coagulate
v. thicken; congeal
In normal individuals, blood begins to coagulate about 20 seconds after a wound is sustained, thus preventing further bleeding.
coalesce
v. to cause to become one
President John F. Kennedy said that Americans must be vigilant so that the interests of business and the military do not coalesce and thus undermine those of society as a whole.
coda
n. concluding part of a literary or musical composition; something that summarizes or concludes
The coda of the Danish composer Per Norgard’s Sixth Symphony seems to return to the serene sounds of the opening.
codify
v. to systematize
The state legislature voted to codify regulations governing banking fraud.
codification n.
The most influential codification of civil law was the Napoleonic Code in France, which became the paradigm for law in the non-English-speaking countries of Europe and had a generally civilizing influence on most of the countries in which it was enacted.
codified adj.
Common law is the system of laws that originated in England; it is based on curt decisions and on customs rater than on codified written laws.
cognizant
adj. informed; conscious; aware
O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” is a simple evocation of a young couple’s love for one another, a story in which a husband and wife in straitened circumstances each sacrifices to buy a Christmas present for the other, not cognizant of what the other is doing.
collage
n. artistic composition of materials pasted over a surface; an assemblage of diverse elements
The cubist Juan Gris is noted for his use of collage to create trompe l’oeil effects – the illusion of photographic reality.
commensurate
adj. proportional
In the United States, malpractice suits have raised the cost of medicine because doctors must pay more for insurance, and thus increase their fees commensurately.
compendium
n. brief, comprehensive summary
The Mozart Compendium: A guide to Mozart’s Life and Music by H. C. Robbins Landon is a convenient reference for finding information about the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
complacent
adj. self-satisfied
Although Tom received an “A” on his midterm exam, Professor Donovan warned him not to become complacent since the work in the second term would be harder.
complaisant
adj. overly polite; willing to please; obliging
Although France and Germany have a close relationship, neither would consider the other a complaisant ally.
complement
n. something that completes or makes up a whole
Some people envision chess developing into a game between teams of humans and computers, each complementing the other and providing investigators with insight into the cognitive processes of each.
compliant
adj. yielding
The young negotiator is trying to learn the skill of being open to proposals by the other side without seeming too compliant.
compunction
n. uneasiness caused by guilt
The American psychiatrist Frank Pittman said, “Men who have been raised violently have every reason to believe it is appropriate for them to control others through violence; they feel no compunction over being violent to women, children, and one another.”
concave
adj. curving inward
Concave lenses are used in glasses to compensate for myopia (Nearsightedness).
conciliatory
adj. overcoming distrust or hostility
The leader of the country made conciliatory statements assuring the world that his country did not intend to acquire nuclear weapons.
concoct
v. to invent
The various human cultures have concocted a great many explanations to describe the beginning of the Earth, life, and humanity.
concomitant
n. existing concurrently
A rebuttal of the argument that homo sapiens’s higher cognitive functions could not be the result solely of evolution is that such abilities arose as concomitants of language, which gave early hominids a tremendous advantage over other species.
condone
v. to overlook voluntarily; forgive
Mahatma Gandhi believed in the principle of ahimsa and refused to condone violence of any kind, even if used in a just cause.
confound
v. to baffle; perplex; mix up
Everyone but astrophysicists seems to be confounded by the question, “What happened before the Big Bang?”
congenial
adj. similar in tastes and habits; friendly; suited to
The physicist Freeman Dyson has expressed his awe at how congenial the universe is to intelligent life and consciousness.
conjugal
adj. pertaining to marriage agreement
The goal of the Bennett sisters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is to find a suitable man to marry with whom they can live in conjugal happiness.
connoisseur
n. a person possessing expert knowledge or training; a person of informed and discriminating taste
The art connoisseur selected works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Picasso for the exhibition.
conscript
n. person compulsorily enrolled for military service
The position of NOW (The National Organization for Women) is that have male-only conscripts violates the principle of gender equality.
conscript v. to enroll a person for military service
he French writer Andre Breton was conscripted into the artillery and had to put his medical studies in abeyance for the duration of World War I.
conscription n.
During the War of 1812, American political leaders considered national conscription to augment state militias, but Daniel Webster successfully argued before Congress that such a measure would be unconstitutional and thus the proposal was rejected.
consecrate
v. to declare sacred
In his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln said of the soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863: “We have come to dedicate a portion of the field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live… But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
contend
v. to assert
One of the most famous philosophers to argue for ethical relativism was the German Friedrich Nietzsche, who contended that the rightness of a particular action is dependent on the circumstances of the time and culture in which it occurs.
contention n. an assertion
The study’s contention is that obesity is America’s biggest health problem.
contentious
adj. quarrelsome; causing quarrels
When genetic engineering began in the 1970s, there was a contentious, and sometimes acrimonious, debate among scientists themselves about its dangers.
contiguous
adj. touching; neighboring; connecting without a break
There are forty-eight contiguous states in the United States of America.
continence
n. self-control; abstention from sexual activity
Saint Augustine’s famous line “Give me chastity and continence ,but not just now” is sometimes used to highlight the idea that action is desirable at some point, but not at present.
contrite
adj. very sorrowful for a wrong
In sentencing the convicted man to a life sentence, the judge took into consideration the fact that he did not seem to be at all contrite about his crime.
contumacious
adj. disobedient; rebellious
In the late eighteenth century, Great Britain tried unsuccessfully to put down the uprising against their rule by contumacious Americans, leading eventually to the establishment of a separate nation.
conundrum
n. riddle; puzzle with no solution
The paradoxical statement “This statement is false” presents us with a conundrum.
convention
n. practice widely observed in a group; custom; accepted technique or device
The work of French artist Henri Rousseau demonstrates a naiveté that many people find more attractive than the sophistication of highly complex works that make use of all the conventions of their genre.
conventional adj. customary or commonplace
Guerrilla war presents a dilemma for framers of rules of war: should guerrilla fighters be subject to the same rules as those imposed on soldiers who fight conventional wars?
converge
v. to approach; come together; tend to meet
Although the People’s Republic of China and India are rivals in many ways, in certain areas their interests converge.
convex
adj. curved outward
The term for a lens with one convex and one concave side is “convex-concave.”
convivial
adj. sociable
One of the jobs of an ambassador is to provide a convivial atmosphere for diplomats to meet.
convoluted
adj. twisted; complicated
Unraveling the convoluted genetic code is one of the great achievements of modern science.
copious
adj. abundant; plentiful
The copious rainfall was welcomed by farmers in the parched land.
conquette
n. woman who flirts
After she had played the part of a coquette in the college play, Pam’s boyfriend felt that he needed to remind her that real life was quite different from the theater.
cornucopia
n. horn overflowing with fruit and grain; state of abundance
The U.S. economy has produced a cornucopia of employment opportunities.
cosmology
n .study of the universe as a totality; theory of the origin and structure of the universe
Albert Einstein downplayed the strength of the evidence for quantum theory because a universe governed by laws that are inconsistent in their application was not congruent with his personal cosmology.
cosmos n. the physical universe regarded as a totality
Shakespeare embodies the incredible confidence and vitality of Renaissance artists and writers, depicting the entire cosmos, not intimidated by its vastness.
cosmic adj. relating to the physical universe, especially as distinct from Earth, and suggests infinite vastness
The gods of ancient Greece were concerned not only with cosmic events, but also with the ordinary events of everyday life.
covert
adj. hidden; secret
The CIA gathers information about foreign intelligence through many means, including covert ones.
covetous
adj. desiring something owned by another
The astronomer is covetous of the time that his colleague gets for research using the Hubble Space Telescope.
covet v.
The latest model cell phone is designed to make people covet it so much that they go out and buy it even though their present phone is perfectly adequate.
cozen
v. to mislead by trick or fraud; deceive
The writer H. L. Mencken pointed out that a common strategy of politicians is to cozen the people by exaggerating the seriousness of a problem and then offering a solution that, conveniently, only they can provide.
craven
adj. cowardly
In the Hindu epic poem the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna warns the hero, who is reluctant to fight, that refusing to fight would be a craven act.
credence
n. acceptance of something as true
One of the lessons in Aesop’s fable “The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf” is that if a person “cries wolf” too many times without real danger being present (that is, raise too many false alarms) people will be less likely to give credence to future alarms raised by that person.
credo
n. statement of belief or principle; creed
The credo of Google is “Don’t be evil.”
daunt
v. to discourage; intimidate; dishearten
Do not let the difficulty of learning the 800 words in Essential Words for the GRE daunt you.
daunting adj. discouraging or disheartening
Earning a Ph.D. is a daunting task, but it can be done.
dauntless adj. fearless
dearth
n. scarcity
In his book The Affluent Society, published in 1958, the economist J. K. Galbraith pointed out that in America affluence is located disproportionately in the private sector, leaving a dearth of resources available for the public sector.
debauchery
n. corruption
The prince lived a life of debauchery until he discovered a spiritual dimension to life.
decorum
n. proper behavior
When addressing the nation, the president generally has an air of decorum.
decorous adj.
defame
v. to malign; harm someone’s reputation
The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was defamed as a teacher who corrupted the morals of his students.
default
v. to fail to act
Economists have pointed out the danger of using government money to help banks in danger of defaulting on a loan: such help might encourage banks to take excessive risks on the future, knowing they will be “bailed out” by the government.
deference
n. respect; regard for another’s wish
There was a movement to condemn slavery among some of the writers of the Declaration of Independence, but despite many misgivings, the proposal was dropped in deference to the objections of a number of people.
defer v. to submit to the wishes of another due to respect or recognition of the person’s authority or knowledge
The young lawyer deferred to the view of the senior partner in the law firm.
defunct
adj. no longer existing
Skeptics have been prognosticating that Moore’s Law, which says computer processing power doubles every 18 months, will soon become defunct, but the ingenuity of engineers, coupled with commercial incentives, has so far succeeded in preventing the law from being invalidated.
delineate
v. to represent or depict
Quantum theory led to the formulation of the uncertainty principle, which was delineated in 1937 by Werner Heisenberg.
demographic
adj. related to population balance
Demographic trends in many European countries indicate that n the next generation there will be relatively fewer working people to support retired people.
demography n. the study of human population
Demography makes use of the knowledge of other fields such as geography and statistics.
demographer n. one who studies human population
If, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, many governments in the world had not taken steps to promote birth control among their citizens, causing a diminution in the birth rate, demographers say the world would now have a much greater population than it does.
demotic
adj. pertaining to people
Walt Whitman is considered by many to be a quintessentially American poet, a poet who celebrated the glory of the ordinary person; one critic praised him as a poet who was able to “make the demotic sing.”
demur
v. to express doubt
The Supreme Court’s decision was not unanimous, one justice demurred, saying that the majority decision used specious reasons.
denigrate
v. to slur someone’s reputation
According to a recent biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, the famous leader felt a need to denigrate women.
denizen
n. an inhabitant; a regular visitor
The U.S. Census Bureau has the responsibility of collecting information about the denizens of the United States.
denouement
n. outcome; unraveling of the plot of a play or work of literature
The book tells the story of what was for Europe a rather embarrassing denouement to the Crusades.
deride
v. to mock
Innovation often required challenges to orthodox thinking; for example, in the late 1960s, scientists from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency presented their idea of a vast network of computers to leading scientists from IBM and AT&T – companies with innumerable research breakthroughs to their credit – and were derided as impractical visionaries.
derivative
n. something derived; unoriginal
The drug morphine – considered by doctors to be one of the most effective analgesics – is the principle derivative of opium, which is the juice in the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy.
derivative adj.
The critic dismissed the new novel as dull and derivative.
derive v. obtain from another source
One of the attempts to create a lingua franca resulted in Esperanto, a synthetic language whose vocabulary is created by adding various affixes to individual roots and is derived from Latin and Greek, as well as Germanic and Romance languages.
desiccate
v. to dry completely
The dry desert air caused the bodies of the dead animals to desiccate quickly.
desuetude
n. state of disuse
NASA is considering a plan to refurbish booster rockets form the Apollo Program that have fallen into desuetude.
desultory
adj. random; disconnected; rambling
The jury had difficulty following the witnesses’ desultory testimony.
deterrent
n. something that discourages or hinders
During the Cold War, the United States maintained a large number of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to aggression by the Soviet Union and its allies.
detraction
n. the act of taking away; derogatory comment on a person’s character
The writer responded in a letter to the critic’s long list of detraction about his book.
diaphanous
adj. transparent; fine-textured; insubstantial; vague
In World War II, many soldiers went to war with diaphanous dreams of glory, but found instead horror and death.
diatribe
n. bitter verbal attack
The speaker launched into a diatribe against what he called “the evils of technology..”
dichotomy
n. division into two usually contradictory parts
The philosopher is a dualist who argues that there is a dichotomy between the mind and physical phenomena.
diffidence
n. shyness; lack of confidence
As a result of the strength of his opposition to the Vietnam War Senator Eugene McCarthy overcame his diffidence and ran against President Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic nomination for president.
diffuse
v. to spread out
The idea of equality and liberty diffused through society after the French Revolution.
diffuse adj. wordy; rambling; spread out
This essay is so diffuse it is difficult to follow its central argument.
digression
n. act of straying from the main point
The novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig contains many fascinating digressions from the main story that discuss topics such as Platonic philosophy.
dirge
n. funeral hymn
The music critic described the movement of the symphony portraying the hero’s last days as “dirgelike.”
disabuse
v. to free from a misconception
The chairman of the Federal Reserve used his testimony before Congress to disabuse his audience of the idea that the business cycle had been eliminated by the unprecedented period of prosperity.
discerning
adj. perceptive; exhibiting keen insight and good judgment
Discerning moving critics have praised the work of producer Stanley Kubrick, who produced such excellent films as 2001, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, and Lolita.
discern v. to perceive something obscure
Superficially, expressionism can appear to be unrealistic because of its extreme distortion of reality, but upon closer examination, an inner psychological reality can often be discerned.
discomfit
v. to make uneasy; disconcert
The young man was discomfited being the only male in the play.
discordant
adj. not in tune
In a pluralistic society there exists a cacophony of discordant voices, each shouting to be heard.
discredit
v. to dishonor; disgrace; cause to be doubted
The candidate’s attempt to discredit his opponent by spreading damaging rumors about him failed.
discrepancy
n. difference between
The book studies the discrepancy in values and outlook between men who fought in the war, whether voluntarily or not, and those who remained civilians.
discrete
adj. constituting a separate thing; distinct
Like the physicist, the abstract artist strives to identify the discrete elements of reality and to understand how they interact.
discretion
n. quality of showing self-restraint in speech or actions; circumspection; freedom to act on one’s own
In nineteenth-century Britain gentlemen were expected to behave with discretion.
disingenuous
adj. not candid; crafty
When a person starts a sentence, “I don’t mean to appear disingenuous,” one might be tempted to suspect that the person is being just that.
disinterested
adj. unprejudiced; objective
The newspaper reporter looked for disinterested witnesses to the events so that she could get an objective account of what had happened.
disjointed
adj. lacking order or coherence; dislocated
The technique of telling a story through a disjointed narrative is a technique best left to masters of the modern novel such a s James Joyce and William Faulkner.
dismiss
v. put away from consideration; reject
Investigators dismissed the man’s account of a visit to another planet aboard an alien spacecraft as the product of an overactive imagination.
disparage
v. to belittle
Through sometimes disparaged as merely an intellectual game, philosophy provides us with a method for inquiring systematically into problems that arise in areas such as medicine, science, and technology.
disparate
adj. dissimilar
May technological projects are interdisciplinary, requiring a knowledge of fields as disparate as physics and biology.
disparity n. the condition of being unequal or unlike
The huge income disparity in the world is clearly illustrated by the fact that the asset of the world’s two hundred richest people exceed the combined income of 41 percent of the world’s population.
dissemble
v. to pretend; disguise one’s motives
“Miss,” the prosecutor said, “I believe you are dissembling. I want you to tell me the whole truth about what happened that night.
disseminate
v. to spread; scatter; disperse
While belief in reincarnation appeared as doctrine first in India and was disseminated throughout Asia by Buddhism, it is interesting that it was accepted by the most influential philosophy of the West, Platonism, and by some important early Christian thinkers, such as the theologian Origen.
dissident
n. person who disagrees about beliefs, etc.
Some of the most notorious concentration camps in history were the Gulag camps used by the Soviet Unions to control dissidents.
dissolution
n. disintegration; debauchery
Some philosophers maintain that the dissolution of the body does not mean the destruction of the mind.
dissonance
n. discord; lack of harmony
In psychology, the term “cognitive dissonance” refers to a conflict resulting from inconsistency between one’s beliefs and one’s actions. For example, a soldier who believes that all killing is immortal but is forced to kill by his superiors might experience cognitive dissonance.
distend
v. to expand; swell out
People in an advanced stage of starvation often have distended bellies.
distill
v. extract the essential elements
In his book Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, Bryan Magee manages to distill the essence of leading thinkers such as W. V. Quine, John Searle, Iris Murdoch, and Noam Chomsky.
distrait
adj. inattentive; preoccupied
The chairperson became distrait because his secretary was not sitting in her usual position on his right.
diverge
v. to vary; g in different directions from the same point
A famous line in American poetry is from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by …
divergence n.
psychological tests show that there is a wide divergence between citizens of different countries in how much importance they place on the virtue of justice, on the one hand, and the virtue of mercy, on the other hand.
divest
v. to strip; deprive; rid
The candidate for secretary of defense pledged to divest himself of the shares he held in defense-related companies.
divulge
v. to make known something that is secret
Under the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war cannot be tortured and forced to divulge information.
doctrinaire
adj. relating to a person who cannot compromise about points of a theory or doctrine; dogmatic; unyielding
The doctrinaire Marxists say the capitalism is merely a temporary phenomenon on the road to socialism.
document
v. to provide with written evidence to support
The insurance company asked Debbie to document her claim with letters from the doctors who treated her for her condition.
doggerel
n. poor verse
In his book Poetic Meter and Poetic Form, the literary critic Paul Fussell quotes this bit of doggerel from a U.S. Army latrine during World War II: Soldiers who wish to be a hero Are practically zero. But those who wish to be civilians, Jesus, they run into millions.
dogmatic
adj. stating opinions without proof
Since every case is unique, jurists must not be dogmatic in applying precedents to make their decision, but instead must base their decision on a combination of such precedents and the facts of the case at hand.
dogma n. a belief asserted on authority without evidence
Religions whose dogma specifies a time of the creation of the world have found difficulty in reconciling their view of creation with that of modern science.
dormant
adj. inactive
There is a considerable body of evidence showing that many diseases, such as ulcers, asthma, and hypertension have a large psychological component; the working hypothesis is that they represent manifestations of dormant emotional disturbances.
dross
n. waste; worthless matter; trivial matter
One of the ways the dross among blogs on the Internet are filtered out from the worthwhile ones is through links good blogs provide to other good blogs.
dupe
v. to deceive; trick
“In friendship, as well as in love, the mind is often duped by the heart.” (Philip Dormer Stanhope)
ebullient
adj. exhilarated; enthusiastic
The ebullient candidate for president appeared before his supporters to announce that he had won in a landslide.
eclectic
adj. selecting from various sources
Neo-Platonism – an eclectic third-century synthesis of Platonic, Pythagorean, Aristotelian, Stoic, and Jewish philosophy – was an essentially mystical belief that a person can achieve spiritual emancipation through union of the soul with the ultimate source of existence.
effervescence
n. state of high spirits or liveliness; the process of bubbling as gas escapes
Effervescence occurs when hydrochloric acid is added to a block of limestone.
effervescent adj.
A person who believes himself to be physically unattractive might develop an effervescent personality as a compensation for his perceived deficiency.
effete
adj. depleted of vitality; overrefined; decadent
In 1969, U.S. vice President Spiro T. Agnew denounced people protesting against the Vietnam War: “A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.”
efficacy
n. efficiency; effectiveness
A cardinal rule of medicine is that the efficacy of a treatment should be measured against the seriousness of its side effects.
efficacious adj.
In a situation where some subjects are benefiting while others are not, a researcher is likely to have ambivalent feelings, since he or she is in a “no-win” situation. In such a situation, the experimenter must choose between, on the one hand, getting more conclusive results by continuing the experiment and, on the other hand, stopping it and administering the drug that has proven efficacious to those who have not received it.
effrontery
n. shameless boldness; presumptuousness
In her essay the student has the effrontery to argue that school is largely a waste of time.
egoism
n. the tendency to see things in relation to oneself; self-centeredness
The beginning of philosophy has been described as a moving away from egoism to an understanding of the larger world.
egotistical
adj. excessively self-centered; conceited
The critics accused the writer of being egotistical since she wrote only about herself.
elegy
n. poem or song expressing lamentation
Adonais is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in the spring of 1821 after he learned of the death of his friend and fellow poet John Keats.
elicit
v. to provoke; draw out
The Socratic method is designed to elicit responses that guide the student toward understanding.
elixir
n. a substance believed to have the power to cure ills
The doctor said that her prescription would help to alleviate my condition but that could not expect it to be an elixir.
Elysian
adj. blissful; delightful
In Book VI of Virgil’s Aeneid, the hero Aeneas descends to the Underworld where he meets the soul of his dead father, Anchises, in the Elysian fields and learns from him the future of the Roman race.
emaciated
adj. thin and wasted
The prisoner was emaciated after being fed only bread and water for three months.
embellish
v. to adorn; decorate; enhance; make more attractive by adding details
The story he had been told was so powerful that the writer felt no need to embellish it.
emollient
adj. soothing; mollifying
The politician’s speech is filled with emollient phrases to make his message more palatable.
emollient n. an agent that soothes or makes more acceptable.
empirical
adj. derived from observations or experiment
Some people erroneously cite the theory of relativity as support for ethical relativism, whereas in reality the former is a scientific theory, while the latter is a moral issue, and thus by its nature is not subject to empirical verification.
Empiricism n. the view that experience is the only source of knowledge. It can also mean the employment of empirical methods, as in science.
emulate
v. to imitate; copy
Bionics uses technology to emulate nature, but sometimes a similar process occurs in reverse, in which scientists use technology as a heuristic tool to better understand natural processes.
encomium
n. a formal expression of praise
The prime minister asked her speechwriter to compose an encomium for the retiring general.
endemic
adj. inherent; belonging to an area
Malaria, once endemic to the area, has now been largely eradicated.
enervate
v. to weaken
During World War II Russian commanders counted on the bitter cold to enervate German soldiers invading their country.
engender
v. to cause; produce
Freudians believe that the traumatic events of infancy often repression that creates neuroses.
enhance
v. to increase; improve
Although it is widely believed that the primary objective of the researchers developing the Internet was to secure the American nuclear missile system, in fact their main goal was to foster science by enhancing the ability of technology to disseminate information among scientists.
entomology
n. the scientific study of insects
Considering that there are approximately 925,000 species of insects (more than all other species combined), entomology is a vast field of study.
enunciate
v. to pronounce clearly
In everyday speech the sounds of many words are not enunciated clearly.
ephemeral
adj. short-lived; fleeting
Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet share with the Romantics an affinity for nature, but the Impressionists took a more scientific interest in it, attempting to accurately depict ephemeral phenomena such as the play of light on water.
epistemology
n. branch of philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge
A major question in epistemology is whether the mind can ever gain objective knowledge, limited as it is by its narrow range of sense experience.
equable
adj. steady; unvarying; serene
Throughout the crisis the president remained equable.
equanimity
n. composure; calmness
Emergency room doctors and nurses are trained to maintain their equanimity when treating patients.
equivocate
v. to intentionally use vague language
The businessperson has earned a reputation as someone who never equivocates and can be trusted to do exactly what he promises.
equivocation n.
The saying “It’s a matter of semantics” is often used to indicate that the real meaning of something is being lost in verbiage, often with the implication that there is obfuscation or equivocation.
errant
adj. mistaken; straying form the proper course
The pitcher’s errant fastball struck the batter on the shoulder.
erudite
adj. learned; scholarly
Frederick Copleston, author of the nine-volume History of Philosophy, was undoubtedly one of the most erudite people who ever lived.
erudition n.
Great erudition does not necessarily mean that person is sagacious.
esoteric
adj. hard to understand; known only to a few
Epidemiologists, using esoteric statistical analyses, field investigations, and complex laboratory techniques, investigate the cause of a disease, its distribution (geographic, ecological, and ethnic), method of spread, and measures for preventing or controlling it.
essay
v. to make an attempt; subject to a test
The composer began work on a sonata, a form she had not previously essayed.
estimable
adj. admirable; possible to estimate
Alistair Cooke’s book Six Men contains character studies of estimable modern figures including H. L. Mencken, Humphrey Bogart, and Adlai Stevenson.
ethnocentric
adj. based on the attitude that one’s group is superior
The words “primitive” and “savage” reflect an ethnocentric bias in Western culture that regards societies that do not have Western science and technology as inferior because they have not achieved as much material success as Western societies.
ethnocentrism n.
During certain periods of Chinese history, foreigners were considered to be “barbarians”; perhaps this ethnocentrism made it difficult for the Chinese to accept innovations from other countries.
etiology
n. causes or origins
The etiology of mental illness is complex because of the diversity of factors – social, biological, genetic, and psychological – that contribute to many disorders.
etymology
n. origin and history of a word
The origin of the word “barbarian” reflects the ethnocentrism of the ancient Greeks; its etymology is that it comes (through Latin and French words) from he Greet word barbaros, meaning non-Greek, foreign.
eugenic
n. study of factors that influence the hereditary qualities of the human race and ways to improve these qualities
The science fiction novel describes a military eugenics program designed to create a race of ““super-soldiers” possessing intelligence, strength, and other qualities far in advance of the ordinary person.
eulogy
n. high praise, especially of a person who had recently died
After the death of Abraham Lincoln, many eulogies of him appeared in newspapers throughout America.
euphemism
n . use of agreeable or inoffensive language in place of unpleasant or offensive language
An illustration of the tendency toward euphemism is the change (reflecting the political concerns of the day) in the accepted appellation of poor countries from the unambiguous poor, to undeveloped, to underdeveloped, to less developed, to developing.
euphoria
n. a feeling of extreme happiness
There was euphoria in the professor’s house after it was learned that she had received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
euthanasia
n. mercy killing
Modern medicine’s ability to prolong life has raised ethical questions, such as “Is euthanasia ever morally justifiable?”
evince
v. to show plainly; be an indication of
The student’s response to the teacher’s question evinces his ignorance of the subject.
evocative
adj. tending to call to mind or produce a reaction
Somerset Maugham’s short stories are often evocative of exotic places such as Pago-Pago and Gibraltar.
evocation n.
Some literary critics believe that Charles Dickens’ use of caricature makes his characters one-dimensional, but others see these characters as evocations of universal human types that resonate powerfully with readers’ experience of real people.
evoke v.
The terms “loaded language” and “charged language” are used to specify language that has so many connotations for most readers that it is difficult for a writer to sue it without evoking myriad associations, which will distract attention from the topic under discussion.
exacerbate
v. to aggravate; make worse
The release of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels has increased the amount of this gas in the atmosphere, exacerbating the naturally occuring “greenhouse effect” that has predominated in Earth’s recent past.
exact
v. to force the payment of; demand and obtain by authority
The conquering rulers exacted a tax of 10% from every adult male in the country.
exacting adj. extremely demanding
Early in his career the English writer Aldous Huxley made this comment: “What occupation is pleasanter, what less exacting, than the absorption of curious literary information?”
exculpate
v. to clear of blame; vindicate
The report exculpated the FBI of any wrongdoing in its handling of the investigation.
execrable
adj. detestable; abhorrent
When folk artists such as Bob Dylan began to use rock instruments, many folk music traditionalists considered it an execrable travesty.
exhort
v. to urge by strong appeals
In 1943 U.S. General George S. Patton exhorted American troops about to invade Hitler’s Europe, saying that victory was assured because American soldiers were more virile and courageous than their German counterparts.
exigency
n. crisis; urgent requirements
Astronauts must be prepared for exigencies such as damage to their spacecraft’s life support system.
existential
adj. having to do with existence; based on experience; having to do with the philosophy of existentialism
Existential writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre have argued that human beings are free, but that this freedom entails a burden of responsibility that makes them anxious.
exorcise
v. to expel evil spirits; free from bad influences
A modern parallel to the shaman is the psychiatrist, who helps the patient exorcise personal demons and guides him toward mental wholeness.
expatiate
v. to speak or write at length
Every year the book club invites a famous author to come to expatiate on the art of writing.
expatriate
v. to send into exile
(ek-SPAY-tree-ayt)
People seeking asylum in another country are sometimes expatriated.
expatriate n. a person living outside his or her own land
(ek-SPAY-tree-it)
expatriate adj.
expiate
v. to atone for
The pilgrims undertook their long journey to expiate their sins.
expiation n.
explicate
v. to explain; interpret; clarify
The literature exam requires students to explicate three poems they studied in class and one they have not studied.
explication n.
expository
adj. explanatory
There is no one model of expository prose that a student can emulate, since each piece of good writing is unique.
extant
adj. in existence; not lost
Unfortunately for Bible scholars, there are no extant writings of Jesus Christ.
extemporaneous
adj. unrehearsed
I enjoyed the speaker’s extemporaneous remarks more than her prepared speech, because they gave me insight into her personality that helped me understand the decisions she made during her time as a federal judge.
extirpate
v. to root up; to destroy
The new federal prosecutor promised voters that he would extirpate corruption int he state.
extraneous
adj. not essential
The encyclopedia editors worked hard to cut out extraneous material so that readers could find information easily on a given subject
extrapolation
n. the act of estimation by projecting known information
The economist’s extrapolation suggests that the economy will grow by 4 percent next year.
extrapolate v.
Strict determinists believe that it is possible, at least theoretically, to extrapolate the future movement of every atom in the universe based on present conditions.
extrinsic
adj. not inherent or essential
The experiment is designed to exclude factors that are extrinsic to the phenomenon.
facetious
adj. humorous
The comedian’s facetious comments about prominent politicians kept the audience amused.
facilitate
v. to make less difficult
The Internet – together with the availability of relatively inexpensive personal computers – has greatly facilitated the ability of ordinary people to conveniently exchange information with one another and with large computer systems.
factotum
n. a person who does all sorts of work; a handyman
In Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, the character Malvolio aspires to become more than merely a factotum in the house of Lady Olivia.
fallacious
adj. based on a false idea or fact; misleading
The belief of the Nazis that they could create a “master race” was based on the fallacious premise that some races are inherently superior to others.
fallacy n. an incorrect idea
Critics of the “strong” anthropic principle argue that its proponents are guilty of logical fallacy: on the basis of one known case of intelligent life, they extrapolate the existence of a multitude of such cases.
fallow
adj. plowed but not sowed; uncultivated
At the beginning of each school year the teacher looks out at the new students and thinks of a fallow field, ready to be cultivated.
fatuous
adj. foolishly self-satisfied
The student could not understand why no one took seriously his fatuous comments.
fauna
n. animals of a period or region
When humans introduce fauna from one habitat into another habitat, the ecological balance is upset.
fawning
adj. seeking favor by flattering
The boss has a reputation for hiring fawning employees.
felicitous
adj. suitable expressed; appropriate; well-chosen
The Gettysburg Address is full of felicitous phrases such as “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
feral
adj. existing in a wild or untamed state
Feral dogs returning to an untamed state after domestication sometimes form packs, becoming a thread to humans.
