Week 1 Flashcards
(53 cards)
Inference, guesswork.
Conjecture (At this point, Kimaya’s hypothesis about single-cell biorhythms is still conjecture: She doesn’t have conclusive evidence.)
Completely honest, straightforward.
Candid (Candace’s candidness overwhelmed her business colleagues, who were not used to such honesty.)
Instructive
Didactic (The tapes were entertaining and didactic; they both amused and instructed children.)
Showing excessive emotion; overflowing.
Effusive (Accepting his Oscar for Best Supporting Sound Editor, Ben delivered the most effusive speech in Academy Awards history: he cried, he hugged people, he blew kisses to the audiences, and then he cried some more.
A mild, indirect, or vague term substituting for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term.
Euphemism (“To pass away” is a common euphemism for dying.)
To infer or estimate by extending or or projecting known information.
Extrapolate (Seeing the wrecked bike and his daughter’s skinned knees, Heath extrapolated that she had had a biking accident.
Lacking cohesion or connection.
Incoherent (Maury’s sentences were so incoherent that nobody understood a word.)
To introduce or communicate stealthily.
Insinuate (Sean insinuated that Grace stole the arsenic, but he never came out and said it.)
Very talkative.
Loquacious (I’m not eloquent, so I’ll just come out and say it: Bobby is loquacious and will talk, and talk, and talk.)
Easily understood, clear.
Our teacher provides lucid explanations of even the most difficult concepts so that we can all understand them.)
The art of using language effectively and persuasively.
Rhetoric (Since they are expected to make speeches, most politicians and lawyers are well-versed in that art of rhetoric.)
Quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgement or insight.
Acumen (Judge Ackerman’s legal acumen was so well regarded that he was nicknamed the “Solomon of the South.”)
Dexterous; deft.
Adroit (An android balloon–animal artist, Adriana became popular at children’s parties.)
To find out, as through investigation or experimentation.
Ascertain (the private investigator had long suspected my dog; before long, he ascertained that Toto was indeed the murder.)
Shrewd; clever.
Astute (Stewart is financially astute; he invests wisely and never falls for scams.)
Careful; prudent; discreet.
Circumspect (Ned’s circumspect manner makes him a wise appointment to the diplomatic corps.)
To scatter widely, as in sowing seed.
Disseminate (the news about Dave’s embarrassing moment at the party disseminated quickly through the school; by the end of the day, everyone knew what had happened.)
Deep, extensive learning.
Erudition (Prof. Rudy’s erudition was such that she could answer any question her students put to her.)
Excessively concerned with book learning and formal rules.
Pedantic (Pedro’s pedantic tendencies prompted him to remind us constantly of all the grammatical rules we were breaking.)
Shrewd; clear-sighted,
Perspicacious (Persephone’s perspicacious mom had solved so many cases but the popular private investigator was able to retire.).
Practical.
Pragmatic (never one for wild and unrealistic schemes, Matt told a pragmatic approach to research.)
Exhibiting unusually early intellectual aptitude or maturity.
precocious (Bobby Fisher’s precocious intellect made him one of the world best the chess players before he could even drive.)
Very productive; producing great quantities.
Prolific (Charles Harold St. John Hamilton was the world’s most prolific author; it is estimated he wrote the equivalent of 1000 novels.)
Formal proposal.
Prospectus (before writing my thesis, I had to submit a detailed prospectus to the department for approval.)
