Vocabulary Set One

Question 1

Aquiline

Answer 1

Like an eagle

(Of a person’s nose) hooked or curved like an eagle’s beak

Question 2

Houri

Answer 2

A beautiful young woman, esp. one of the virgin companions of the faithful in the Muslim Paradise

Question 3

Volition

Answer 3

The faculty or power of using one’s will

Question 4

Abstruse

Answer 4

Difficult to understand

Question 5

Erudition

Answer 5

The quality of having or showing great knowledge or learning; scholarship

Question 6

Poignant

Answer 6

Evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret.

Archaic: sharp or pungent in taste or smell.

Question 7

Benighted

Answer 7

1. In a state of pitiful or contemptible intellectual or moral ignorance, typically owing to a lack of opportunity.
2. Overtaken by darkness

Question 8

Lambent

Answer 8

Literary: (of light or fire) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance.

Question 9

Effulgent

Answer 9

Literary: shining brightly; radiant

(of a person or their expression) emanating joy or goodness.

Question 10

Peremptory

Answer 10

(esp. of a person’s manner or actions) insisting on immediate attention or obedience, esp. in a brusquely imperious way.

Question 11

Part and parcel

Answer 11

An essential or integral component

Question 12

Rout

Answer 12

1. A disorderly retreat of defeated troops.

2. Archaic: a disorderly or tumultuous crowd of people or a large evening party or reception.

Question 13

Pall

Answer 13

1. A cloth spread over a coffin, hearse, or tomb.
2. A dark cloud or covering of smoke, dust, or similar matter.
3. As a verb, pall means become less appealing or interesting through familiarity.

Question 14

Bedight

Answer 14

Archaic: adorned

Question 15

Trammel

Answer 15

(usually trammels) literary: a restriction or impediment to someone’s freedom of action. As Poe says, “a bounden slave in the trammels of opium.”

Question 16

Censer

Answer 16

A container in which incense is burned, typically during a religious ceremony.

Question 17

Convalescent

Answer 17

(of a person) recovering from an illness or operation.

Question 18

Decanter

Answer 18

A stopper glass container into which wine is decanted. Decant means to gradually pour.

Question 19

Reverie

Answer 19

1. A state of meditation or fanciful musings.
2. A daydream
3. A fantastic, visionary, or impractical idea.

Question 20

Livid

Answer 20

1. Furiously angry.

2. Dark bluish grey in color, as in “livid bruises” or “livid hue.”

Question 21

Charnel

Answer 21

Associated with death

Question 22

Cerement

Answer 22

Waxed cloth for wrapping a corpse

Question 23

Singular

Answer 23

1. Exceptionally good or great; remarkable

2. Strange or eccentric in some respect

Question 24

Dross

Answer 24

Something regarded as worthless; rubbish.

Question 25

Disquisition

Answer 25

A long or elaborate essay or discussion on a particular subject

Question 26

Wan

Answer 26

(Of a person’s complexion or appearance) pale and giving the impression of illness or exhaustion.
Pale; weak.
Literary (of the sea): without luster; dark and gloomy.

Question 27

Pine

Answer 27

Suffer a mental and physical decline, esp. because of a broken heart.
Miss and long for the return of

Question 28

Tenement of clay

Answer 28

Euphemism for a corpse

Question 29

Firmament

Answer 29

Literary: the heavens or the sky, esp. when regarded as a tangible thing.

Question 30

Lustrum

Answer 30

Historical/Literary: a period of five years.