Monday, September 10, 2012

Vocab List #5



acumen - noun a tapering point; shrewdness shown by keen insight
-The expert shared his acumen with the class so they would have a clearer idea of the subject.

adjudicate - verb bring to an end; settle conclusively; put on trial or hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of
-The discussion was adjudicated in favor of her little brother, who always seemed to get his way.

anachronism - noun an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age; something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred
-The watch tan line was the anachronism for the play set in the Renaissance Era.

apocryphal - adj. being of questionable authenticity; of or belonging to the Apocrypha
-The apocryphal antique didn't sell for very much for the chance of it being a fake.

disparity - noun inequality or difference in some respect
-Minorities are treated with disparity in many cultures.

dissimulate - verb hide (feelings) from other people
-I tend to dissimilate to appear stonger.

empirical - adj. derived from experiment and observation rather than theory; relying on medical quackery
-The empirical result was shocking because it was not the expected outcome.

flamboyant - adj. richly and brilliantly colorful; elaborately or excessively ornamented; noun showy tropical tree or shrub native to Madagascar; widely planted in tropical regions for its immense racemes of scarlet and orange flowers; sometimes placed in genus Poinciana
-The peacock is the most widely known flamboyant bird because of it's tail feathers.

fulsome - adj. unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech
-I don't trust the fulsome; they must be up to no good.

immolate - verb offer as a sacrifice by killing or by giving up to destruction
-The ancient Jews would immolate sheep to protect them from the plagues.

imperceptible - adj. impossible or difficult to perceive by the mind or senses
-Neon light gloves are imperceptible to those on ecstasy.

lackey - noun a male servant (especially a footman); a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
-Lackeys, also referred to as brown nosers, are only wanted by the person in power to do their bidding. All others despise them.

liaison - noun a channel for communication between groups; a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship
-Her husband's liason with his secretary was too much for her to handle; she needed a divorce.

monolithic - adj. characterized by massiveness and rigidity and total uniformity; imposing in size or bulk or solidity
-The monolithic rock was so impressive, people paid to see it.

mot juste - noun the approprite word or expression
-I just can't think of a mot juste to make this sentence sparkle.

nihilism - noun a revolutionary doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system for its own sake; complete denial of all established authority and institutions; the delusion that things (or everything, including the self) do not exist; a sense that everything is unreal
-Believing in nihilism would indicate a lack of will to live, for there would be no point.

patrician - adj. of the hereditary aristocracy or ruling class of ancient Rome or medieval Europe; of honorary nobility in the Byzantine empire; belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy; noun a person of refined upbringing and manners; a member of the aristocracy
-Patriciandom was much more recognized in the olden times than nowadays.


propitiate - verb make peace with
-I propitiated my differences with Tyler, and now we are decent friends.

sic - adv. intentionally so written (used after a printed word or phrase); verb urge a dog to attack someone
-I sicced my dog on my neighbor, once.

sublimate - adj. made pure; noun the product of vaporization of a solid; verb direct energy or urges into useful activities; vaporize and then condense right back again; change or cause to change directly from a solid into a vapor without first melting; remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation; make more subtle or refined
-In Biology, we sublimated ice into gas, than froze back into ice.

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