Study English Final 2 semester vocabulary Flash Cards

 
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English Final 2 semester vocabulary

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Officious
, adj.; overly eager in offering unwanted or unneeded advice or help, meddlesome; “Tucker’s officious behavior – always offering to clean the whiteboard and pick the staples out of the carpet – rubbed Mr. Jawbone the wrong way and made him actually think badly of Tucker, rather than favorably.”
Transmute,
verb; to change from one form into another; “Dracula, as we will see, often transmutes between the forms of a human and that of a bat.”
Benefactors,
noun; people or groups who help or give aid; “The homeless shelter had many generous benefactors, including several wealthy people and companies.”
Dispensation,
noun; special permission or a release from obligation; “Because Tom was suffering from anemia, we granted him a dispensation so he wouldn’t have to take the
Sanitarium,
noun; an institution for the treatment of long-term diseases or mental illness; “After six months or rest and treatment, most of Dracula’s victims are able to leave the sanitarium completely cured.”
Anemia,
noun; a blood disease that leaves its victims pale and weak; “Many people bitten by vampires – resulting in a sallow complexion and drooping posture – wind up suffering from anemia.”
Incisive, a
dj.; sharp or penetrating in intellectual or observational matters; “Tucker’s incisive comments about the state of the nation demonstrated a deep awareness of social and political conditions.”
Lair,
noun; the den or resting place of a wild beast; “I watched in absolute fright as Big Foot climbed up the mountain and disappeared into his lair, a dark cave situated between two boulders.”
Medieval,
adj.; the period in European history, often associated with barbarity, dating from the years 476 to 1450, also known as the Middle Ages; “Many devices of torture, such as “The Rack,” were widely used in medieval England.”
Quintessential
, adj.; the quality of being the most pure or typical essence of something; “The quintessential moment of Christmas morning for most small children is that split second when they sprint into the living room and see all the gifts piled up around the tree.”
Assiduous,
adj.; done with constant and careful attention; “Tina studied in such an assiduous manner that she refused to come out of her room for dinner until every last scrap of homework was done.”
Hypochondriac,
noun; a person preoccupied with health and prone to disease; “Tucker is such a hypochondriac that he thinks he’s going to get sick if he comes within 10 feet of a person who has a cough or the sniffles.”
Curmudgeon
noun; a grouch or mean-spirited person; “The curmudgeon who lived down the block gave out no candy at Halloween.”
Picayune
adj.; of little value or importance, trivial; “Giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction."
Prototype
, noun; a model, typically the original version; “When Henry Ford designed his prototype Model T in 1912, it served as the foundation for the most popular car ever built in the United States.”
Onerous,
adjective; burdensome, laborious; “Digging ditches in hard soil is one of the most onerous jobs on the face of the Earth.”
Demure
adjective; modest in manner, reserved; “Tina’s demure manner – never bragging, always quietly complimenting others – hardly made her the life of the party, but it did make people think highly of her.”
Pretentious,
adjective; extravagantly showy, claiming distinction or merit when unjustified; “Tucker’s display in the end zone after scoring a touchdown – dancing around and taunting the opposing team – was very pretentious.”
Inaudible,
adjective; cannot be heard; “Tina’s voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible.”
Non sequitur,
noun; a conclusion or remark that does not follow or has no bearing on what preceded it; “Tucker’s answer, “Blue,” to my question, “How many brothers and sisters do you have?” was a complete non sequitur.”
Product placement,
noun; the concept of paying a movie or TV show to prominently display a company's product on screen. “American Idol has been infiltrated by so much product placement that the show itself is nothing more than one big advertisement.”
claim
noun; a statement of fact that sounds dubious or could be called into question. “By the time he was 15 years old, Tucker had been bombarded by so many advertising claims that he no longer believe any advertising.”
Pathos,
noun; a method of persuasion based on emotion; “An advertisement showing a happy, loving family gathered around a dinner table eating Baja Fresh fajitas is an example of an ad based on pathos.”
Logos,
noun; a method of persuasion based on logic; “An advertisement telling you that 4 out of 5 drivers prefer State Farm automobile insurance is an example of an ad based on ethos.”
Ethos,
noun; a method of persuasion based on credibility or other strategy that gives you faith in the product; “Using a celebrity to sell your products – Michael Jordan to sell basketball shoes – is an example of ethos.”
Logo,
noun: a graphic design associated with a product or company; “The Nike ‘swoosh’ is one of the most recognizable logos in American business.”
Jingle,
noun; a catchy, simple tune, often repetitious, used to identify a product; “As an advertiser, you know you’ve hit the jackpot when your jingle is sung by people when they’re not even talking about your product.”
Slogan,
noun; a catch phrase or motto used to advertise a product (the best of them become part of our lexicon – “a Kodak moment;” “Although a bit dated these days, one of the successful slogans of all time was Timex watch’s, “It keeps a licking, and keeps on ticking.”
Icon,
noun; the image of some living creature that is used to sell a product – Tony the Tiger, the Aflac duck; “One of the most enduring icons in the world of advertising is Ronald McDonald.”
Marketing,
noun; the entire strategy – sales, packaging, advertising, etc. - by which a product or service is sold; “Advertising is merely one way in which Tucker’s company went about marketing it new energy drink.”
Nemesis
noun; an enemy or rival; “Whether it’s academics or sports, Gunn’s archrival, or nemesis, is Paly.”
Sycophant
noun; one who flatters for personal gain; “Tucker was a real sycophant – always trying to kiss up to the teacher for a better grade.”
Despot
noun; one who has total power and rules brutally; “Hitler and Stalin are two of history’s most notorious despots.”
Coy
adj.; flirtatiously shy, non-committal; “The coy look on Carol’s face told Tucker that she wanted to go to the dance with him but wanted to string him along for awhile.”
Altruistic,
adj.; concerned for the welfare of others, unselfish; “It was very altruistic of Carol to devote her tutorial time to helping students who were struggling academically.”
Rescind,
verb; to take back, to repeal; “Tucker’s admission to Stanford was rescinded after the university found out he had plagiarized an essay at Gunn.”
Innocuous,
adj.; harmless, not offensive; “The boxer’s left hooks proved to be totally innocuous against the much bigger fighter, who flicked them off like they were gnats.”
Esoteric,
Esoteric, adj.; understood by only a few, beyond the understanding of most people; “The novels of James Joyce – Finnegans Wake, Ulysses – are so dense and convoluted that they often considered very esoteric literature.”
Anomaly,
noun; something that does not fit into the normal order or is out of place; “It was truly an anomaly when Carol, who usually aced every test, failed last Friday’s vocab quiz.”
Vicarious,
adj.; performed or experienced by one person in place of another; “Tucker was too scared to go on the Giant Dipper at the Boardwalk, but he got a vicarious thrill by just watching the roller coaster.”
Invective
noun; harsh, cruel language; “Gunn’s football coach spewed invective at his players after the team lost the championship game by 40 points.”
Ad nauseum,
adj; to a sickening or excessive degree; “Carol speech on weather patterns in the northern Gobi desert went into the subject in such ad nauseum detail that by the time she was done, nearly half of her audience was snoring.”
Ingratiate, verb; to get in the good graces of someone else; “Tucker denied it, but everybody knew he was a brown-noser, always trying to ingratiate himself to all his teachers.”
verb; to get in the good graces of someone else; “Tucker denied it, but everybody knew he was a brown-noser, always trying to ingratiate himself to all his teachers.”
Impassive
adjective; not showing any emotion or pain, usually used to describe facial expressions or reactions. “The impassive look on Carol’s face told me she was utterly unaffected by Tucker’s humiliating defeat during the student elections.”
Hauteur
noun; disdainful pride, snobbery; “Tucker and Carol, both rich aristocrats, viewed the poor peasants with hauteur.”
Extraneous
adjective; not belonging, irrelevant; “While panning for gold, Carol had to sift through lots of extraneous material – gravel, dirt – before she found any gold.”
Parse
verb; to separate into parts; “After he lost the sophomore class election, Tucker parsed the ballots into three piles – those voting for him, those voting against him, and those telling him to shrivel up and die.”
Recalcitrant
adjective; refusing to obey authority, stubbornly defiant; “Tucker, a recalcitrant student, refused to leave the classroom, so he was stuffed in the closet instead.”
Virtuoso
noun; a person displaying great skill, particularly in the arts; “With her magnificent concert performance, Carol once again proved herself a virtuoso on the piano.”
Prevarication
noun; a nice way of saying “lie,” an evasion of the truth; “Tucker, who was running for Gunn’s sophomore class president, didn’t want to say his opponent’s promise to improve cafeteria food was a lie, so instead he said it was a prevarication.”
Omniscient
adj.; all-knowing; “The student in the front row who always raised his hand whenever the teacher asked a questions was irritatingly omniscient.”
Wizened
adj.; dry, shrunken, wrinkled; “Tucker always froze in fright when the old lady reached out for him with her wizened hands.”
Dearth
noun; a shortage or lack; “There always seems to be a dearth of tissues in most of the classrooms at Gunn.”
Aloof
adj.; distant or reserved in manner or social relations; “Carol remained aloof while all the others partied over at the swimming pool.”
Commandeer
verb; to seize control or take without asking; “After robbing the Wells Fargo, the masked bandit commandeered a car from a little old lady in the parking lot.”
Hiatus
noun; a gap, interruption or break in the action or time; “Because of this country’s agricultural roots, schools typically take a hiatus during the summer.”
Pragmatic
adj.; practical in approach or outlook, concerned with the facts or actual occurrences; “Tucker took the pragmatic approach in his decision over whether to fight the 800-pound gorilla; he turned and ran.”
Emulate
verb; to copy or imitate; “Many of the art students tried to emulate Carol’s masterful skills at pottery, but none of them could come close.”
Verbose
adj.; wordy, long-winded; “The teacher’s explanation was so verbose that none of the students could remember what it was even about.”
Callous
adj.; harsh, cold, unfeeling; “Carol’s callous remarks about Tucker’s poor sense of fashion gave him a serious inferiority complex.”
Wane
verb; to diminish or decline; “Carol’s interest in swimming began to wane after she discovered that she was allergic to water.”
Charlatan
noun; a faker or a fraud; “Back in the early days of the 20th Century, many charlatans used to prey on the sick and elderly, promising health and youth through magic potions.”
Trite
adj.; unoriginal, commonplace; “Tucker’s a good public speaker, but everything he says is so trite, it’s as if I’ve heard it all a thousand times before.”
Ubiquitous,
adj.; seemingly everywhere at once; “At the height of the summer in the Amazon jungle, the mosquitoes were so ubiquitous that when you slapped at one you killed five.”
Conciliatory
adj.; peace-making, calming; “After Tucker won $10 million in the lottery, he decided to make a conciliatory gesture by donating $1 million to charity.”
Accost
verb; to confront verbally; “While walking down the street, Tucker was accosted by a bully who said, “Hey, you. Get out of my way, or else.”
Relish
verb; to enjoy or savor; “Tucker relished bacon cheeseburgers above all other food.”
Xenophobia,
noun; fear or hatred of foreigners, strangers or anyone different; “Xenophobia was so common in the country of Modocia that immigrants were never allowed in.”
Curt,
adj.; abrupt or brief to the point of rudeness; “Carol’s curt reply, “Get lost,” clearly told Tucker that he better stay away from her all day.”
Behemoth
noun; something of tremendous size or power; “Brutus, a 280-pound senior, was the behemoth of the Gunn wrestling team.”
Millstone,
noun; a burden; “Carol often felt that caring for her sick mother was a millstone that prevented her from enjoying life.”
Debutante,
noun; a young woman making a formal debut into society; “The dance was attended by several debutantes, all announcing they were available for courtship.”
Pedant,
noun; an intellectual show-off; “Tucker bragged so often about how smart he was that people called him a pedant behind his back.”
Diffident
adj.; lacking self-confidence, timid; “Carol, a diffident young girl, stood against the wall at the dance and didn’t make eye contact with anyone.”
Pauper
noun; a person who is extremely poor, especially one on public charity; “Hurricane Katrina reduced many who lived in New Orleans to the status of paupers.”
Misogynist
noun; a woman hater; “Henry Higgins, the male lead in the play Pygmalion, is a misogynist; he has no respect for women and, frankly, no use for them, either.”
Scullery
noun; a room adjoining a kitchen for dishwashing and other menial chores; “In Victorian England, the people who worked in the scullery performed tasks like peeling potatoes and scraping food off plates.”
Deprecate
verb; to belittle, to make fun of; “Tucker used to deprecate his little brother by calling him a baby and a squirt.”
Jargon
noun; specialized vocabulary and expressions unique to a particular group of people; “Often, the jargon in legal and medical professions is so specialized that it’s impossible to understand if you’re not a lawyer or a doctor.”
Slang
noun; words and expressions that have a meaning that is hard to understand based on the definitions of their individual parts; “If somebody calls you by the slang term “loose cannon,” you probably know you are not being called a large weapon that fires huge projectiles and is no longer secured to its foundation.”
Dialect
noun; the form of spoken language found in particular geographical regions; “The Deep South of the United States is well known for a dialect that’s hard to understand in other areas of the country.”
Colloquial
adj.; having the quality of conversational English, rather than its written, more formal tone; “When Tucker used words like “hecka” and “stuff” in his essay, Mr. Igler commented that he should use less colloquial language in formal writing.”
Rancor
noun; extreme hatred; “Brutus, the schoolyard bully, had such rancor in his eyes that all the kids stayed away from him during recess.”
Sovereign
adjective; the quality of being independent and self-governing; “After it broke free from England, the United States became a sovereign nation.”
Zenith
noun; the highest point; “On the other hand, the zenith of Tucker’s high school career was the A+ he received in Iglish.”
Nadir
noun; the lowest point; “The nadir of Tucker’s high school career was the D- he earned in Auto Shop.”
Inundate
verb; to flood or overwhelm; “When Carol drove into the parking lot in her new BMW, she was inundated with compliments from people who wanted a ride.”
Legerdemain
noun; deception, trickery; “Tucker always wanted to be an international spy, a job that would allow him many opportunities for legerdemain.”
Laconic
adj.; brief in speech or writing; “When the police officer asked Tucker whether he knew he had just run a red light, Tucker gave the laconic reply, “Yes.”
Hyperbole
noun; deliberate exaggeration – done for effect, not be taken literally; “When Tucker said, ‘I’m so tired I could sleep for a year,’ he was using hyperbole.”
Quagmire
noun; a messy, difficult situation; “Carol knew she was in a quagmire when she got a call slip that told her to report to the principal’s office at once.”
Vixen
noun; a fierce-tempered, mean-spirited woman; “Her habit of throwing temper tantrums and dishing out cruel insults quickly earned Carol the reputation of a vixen.”
Precocious
adj.; advanced for one’s age, mature; “Tucker’s high IQ and smooth social skills clearly made him a precocious young man.”
Circumvent
verb; to get around, to sidestep; “Tucker managed to circumvent Gunn’s graduation requirements by bribing several teachers, as well as the principal.”
Stigmatize
verb; to brand as disgraceful, to label; “Because he was late a few times at the start of the semester, Tucker was quickly stigmatized for tardiness.”
Resolute
adjective; determined, unwavering; “Trudy was so resolute in her decision to become an architect that she did a schematic drawing of her entire house.”
Punctiliousness
noun; the quality of being fussy, detail-obsessed; “Grandpa Tucker set the Thanksgiving table with great punctiliousness, making sure all the forks and plates were in precisely the right places.”
Pseudonym
noun; a fictitious name, often used by writers to conceal their identity; “Samuel Clemens used the pseudonym Mark Twain.”
Barb
noun; an insult or highly cutting remark; Tucker was normally a pretty nice guy, but often his barbs went to far and left people in tears.”
Stalwart
adjective; strong, sturdy; “Most police officers are stalwart individuals, both in personality and physique
Malady
noun; a sickness or disorder; “Mark Twain said the two maladies he fear the most were stage fright and seasickness.”
Anecdote
noun; a short, entertaining story, often told to illustrate a point; “A good teacher will always have plenty of anecdotes to help bring alive the points they want students to remember.”
Compulsion
noun; the act of forcing; “Igler found he often had to use compulsion to get students to read their Shakespeare.”
Folksy
adjective; informal, casual; “His speaking style – one that featured lots of jokes and funny stories - was very folksy."
impromptu
adjective; without preparation, on the spot; “In Mr. Igler’s Communications class, one of the trickiest skills to learn was the impromptu speech, in which you really have to be able to think on your feet.”
Raconteur
noun; a skilled storyteller; “Around the campfire, we were entertained with ghost stories told by our counselor, who was a great raconteur.”
Oratory
adj.; the aspect of public speaking dealing with words and how they are projected; “Trudy’s oratory is quite skillful, but her body language could use a bit of work.”
Anecdote
noun; a short story used to illustrate a point, oftentimes humorous or touching; “During his “3 Things” presentation, Tucker told a funny anecdote about how he got the moon-shaped scar on his left gluteus.”
Upstage/downstage
noun; movement away or toward the audience from the perspective of the speaker; “At one point during her presentation, Trudy lost her concentration and moved so far downstage that she actually fell into the audience.”
Stage left/stage right
noun; movement to the left or right on stage from the perspective of the speaker; “While giving his presentation, Tucker took three steps stage right, moving to his right.”
Aside
noun; a short digression or change of topic in a longer speech; “In Trudy’s presentation on all the weird members of her family, she included several asides on the peculiarities of her little brother.”
Inflection
noun; change in tone, pacing or pitch of voice; “Good public speakers know their speeches must be delivered with inflection, or members of the audience may fall asleep.”
Shtick
noun; a routine or gimmick associated with a certain speaker or performer; “Tucker always used the same shtick when it was his turn to recite Shakespeare in class; he’d come in that day wearing cute, little lavender tights.”
Enunciate
verb; to pronounce words clearly and distinctly; “After mumbling her way through her presentation, Trudy was told she simply had to enunciate more effectively.”
Articulate
verb; to explain something clearly and smoothly; “Tucker tried for more than 20 minutes, but he was unable to articulate Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.”
Gesticulate
verb; to forcefully or dramatically gesture; “Trudy’s habit of gesticulating during her speeches – waving her arms and stomping her feet as if she were being seized by invisible forces – proved a bit too distracting for her audience.”
Impromptu/Extemporaneous
adj. without preparation; “Tucker’s favorite part of Igler’s Communications class was the impromptu/extemporaneous speeches because they really tested his ability to think on his feet.”
Elocution
noun; the art of public speaking; “Unlike other English classes at Gunn, Communications emphasizes elocution over reading and writing.”
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