diatribe a bitter abusive denunciation.

encomium a formal eulogy or speech of praise

conflagration a great fire
a lapse, gap or break, as in a fortress wall. To break or break through.ex:
breach
Unfortunately, the club members never forgot his breach of etiquette.
a measure of length (six feet) used in nautical settings. to penetrate to the
fathom depths of something in order to understand it: I couldnt fathom her
reasoning on that issue.
a person or artifact appearing after its own time or out of chronological
anachronism
order (adj: anachronistic)
peccadillo a small sin or fault
eulogy a spoken or written tribute to the deceased (v. eulogize)
savant a very knowledgeable person; a genius
panegyric a writing or speech in praise of a person or thing
ability to be easily managed or controlled: Her mother wished she were
tractable
more tractable. (n: tractability)
ambiguous; unclear; subject to more than one interpretation often
equivocal intentionally so: Republicans complained that Bill Clintons answers were
equivocal. (v. equivocate)
an absence of foresight; a failure to provide for future needs or events:
improvidence
Their improvidence resulted in the loss of their home.
catalyst an agent of change (adj: catalytic; v. catalyze)
tirade (diatribe) an angry speech: His tirade had gone on long enough.
antediluvian ancient; outmoded; (literally,before the flood)
Pulchritudinous beautiful (n: pulchritude)
beginner; person lacking experience in a specific endeavor: They easily
tyro
took advantage of the tyro.
deprecation belittlement. (v. deprecate)
disparaging belittling (n: disparagement. v. disparage)
dispassionate calm; objective; unbiased
capable of dissolving by chemical action; highly critical: His caustic
caustic
remarks spoiled the mood of the party.
cheerful; confident: Her sanguine attitude put everyone at ease.(Sangfroid
sanguine (noun) is a related French word meaning unflappability. Literally, it means
cold blood)
lucid clear; translucent: He made a lucid argument to support his theory.
clever: She developed an ingenious method for testing her hypothesis.(n:
ingenious
ingenuity)
cliff with a vertical or nearly vertical face; a dangerous place from which
precipice
one is likely to fall; metaphorically, a very risky circumstance
imperious commanding
banal commonplace or trite (n: banality)
concerned with facts; practical, as opposed to highly principled or
pragmatic traditional: His pragmatic approach often offended idealists. (n:
pragmatism)
cowardly, timid, or irresolute; petty: The pusillanimous leader soon lost the
pusillanimous
respect of his people.
craven cowardly; a coward
craving or devouring large quantities of food, drink, or other things. She is a
voracious
voracious reader.
chicanery deception by trickery
Word Definitions, Other Forms, and Examples
perfidious deliberately treacherous; dishonest (n: perfidy)
turpitude depravity; baseness: Mr. Castor was fired for moral turpitude.
culpable deserving of blame (n: culpability)
aberrant deviating from normal or correct.
diligent; persevering; persistent: Her sedulous devotion to overcoming her
sedulous
background impressed many. (n: sedulous; sedulousness; adv. sedulously)
easily or frequently annoyed, especially over trivial matters; childishly
petulant
irritable
efficacy effectiveness; capability to produce a desired effect
empty; without contents; without ideas or intelligence:: She flashed a
vacuous
vacuous smile.
enthusiastic devotion to a cause, ideal, or goal (n: zealot; zealotry. adj:
zeal
zealous)
exceeding customary or normal limits, esp. in quantity or price: The cab
exorbitant
fare was exorbitant.
excessively large quantity; overabundance: We received a plethora of
plethora
applications for the position.
temperate exercising moderation and self-denial; calm or mild (n: temperance)
volatile explosive; fickle (n: volatility).
audacious extremely bold; fearless, especially said of human behavior (n: audacity)
wretched extremely pitiful or unfortunate (n: wretch)
extremely pleasing to the senses, divine (as related to the gods) or delicious
ambrosial
(n: ambrosia)
fine cobweb on foliage; fine gauzy fabric; very fine: She wore a gossamer
gossamer
robe.
flushed with a rosy color, as in complexion; very ornate and flowery: florid
florid
prose.
explicit fully and clearly expressed
magnanimity generosity and nobility. (adj: magnanimous)
leviathan giant whale, therefore, something very large
 great respect or reverence: The Chinese traditionally venerated their
venerate ancestors; ancestor worship is merely a popular misnomer for this
tradition. (n: veneration, adj: venerable)
taciturn habitually untalkative or silent (n: taciturnity)
obdurate hardened against influence or feeling; intractable.
harmful, offensive, destructive: The noisome odor of the dump carried for
noisome
miles.
innocuous harmless; having no adverse affect; not likely to provoke strong emotion
saturnine having a gloomy or morose temperament
sagacious having a sharp or powerful intellect or discernment. (n: sagacity).
headfirst; impulsive; hasty. impulsively; hastily; without forethought: They
headlong
rushed headlong into marriage.
heavy; massive; awkward; dull: A ponderous book is better than a sleeping
ponderous
pill.
highly emotional; hot: The partisans displayed a fervent patriotism. (n:
fervid, fervent
fervor)
guileless honest; straightforward (n: guilelessness)
antipathy hostility toward, objection, or aversion to
caprice impulse (adj: capricious)
in an initial or early stage; incomplete; disorganized: The act of writing
inchoate
forces one to clarify inchoate thoughts.
extant in existence, still existing: The only extant representative of that species.
quiescence inactivity; stillness; dormancy (adj: quiescent)
misnomer incorrect name or word for something
implication insinuation or connotation (v. implicate)
intended for or understood by only a few: The esoteric discussion confused
esoteric
some people. (n: esoterica)
lack, scarcity: The prosecutor complained about the dearth of concrete
dearth
evidence against the suspect.
diffident lacking self-confidence, modest (n: diffidence)
insipid lacking zest or excitement; dull
ephemeral lasting for only a brief time, fleeting (n: ephemera)
malicious; evil; having or showing ill will: Some early American colonists
malevolent
saw the wilderness as malevolent and sought to control it.
not capable of being corrected: The school board finally decided the James
incorrigible
was incorrigible and expelled him from school.
phlegmatic not easily excited; cool; sluggish
not transparent or transluscent; dense; difficult to comprehend, as inopaque
opaque
reasoning
insensible numb; unconscious: Wayne was rendered insensible by a blow to the
head. unfeeling; insensitive: They were insensible to the suffering of
 others.:
of or having to do with material, as opposed to spiritual; tangible. (In older
corporeal writings, corporeal could be a synonym for corporal. This usage is no longer
common)
of or pertaining to an island, thus, excessively exclusive: Newcomers
insular
found it difficult to make friends in the insular community.
of the body: corporal punishment. a non-commissioned officer ranked
corporal
between a sergeant and a private.
one who attacks traditional ideas or institutions or one who destroys sacred
iconoclast
images (adj: iconoclastic)
misanthrope one who hates people: He was a true misanthrope and hated even himself.
misogynist one who hates women
only covering the surface: A superficial treatment of the topic was all they
superficial
wanted.
anomalous peculiar; unique, contrary to the norm (n: anomaly)
impecunious penniless; poor
permanent; unerasable; strong: The Queen made an indelible impression
indelible
on her subjects.
bombast pompous speech (adj: bombastic)
laudable praiseworthy; commendable (v. laud)
latent present or potential but not evident or active (n: latency)
prevalent in or native to a certain region, locality, or people: The disease
endemic
was endemic to the region. Dont confuse this word with epidemic.
irascible prone to outbursts of temper, easily angered
enigma puzzle; mystery: Math is an enigma to me. (adj: enigmatic)
rashly wasteful: Americans prodigal devotion to the automobile is
prodigal
unique.
related to being shaped or molded; capable of being molded. (n: plasticity n:
plastic
plastic)
dogmatic relying upon doctrine or dogma, as opposed to evidence
erudite scholarly; displaying deep intensive learning. (n: erudition)
seemingly true but really false; deceptively convincing or attractive: Her
specious
argument, though specious, was readily accepted by many.
selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources:
eclectic
Many modern decorators prefer an eclectic style. (n: eclecticism)
showing a narrow concern for rules or formal book learning; making an
pedantic excessive display of ones own learning: We quickly tired of his pedantic
conversation. (n: pedant, pedantry).
homogenous similar in nature or kind; uniform: a homogeneous society.
guile skillful deceit: He was well known for his guile. (v. bequile; adj:
beguiling. Note, however, that these two words have an additional meaning:
 to charm (v.) or charming (adj:), while the word guile does not generally
have any such positive connotations)
slow moving; highly resistant to flow: Heintz commercials imply that their
viscous
catsup is more viscous than others. (n: viscosity)
emollient softening; something that softens
something (or someone) that precedes another: The assassination of the
precursor
Archduke was a precursor to the war.
blandishment speech or action intended to coax someone into doing something
floundering struggling: We tried to save the floundering business.
stubborn or determined: Her dogged pursuit of the degree eventually paid
dogged
off.
stubborn; immovable; unwilling to change: She was so intransigent we
intransigent
finally gave up trying to convince her. (n: intransigence)
submission or courteous yielding: He held his tongue in deference to his
deference
father. (n: deferential. v. defer)
loquacious talkative
tendency or action for the benefit of others, as in donating money or
philanthropy
property to a charitable organization
reproof the act of censuring, scolding, or rebuking. (v. reprove).
the act of preying upon or plundering: The depredations of the invaders
depredation
demoralized the population.
the quality of flowing out. something that flows out, such as a stream from a
effluent
river (n: effluence)
to annoy; to bother; to perplex; to puzzle; to debate at length: Franklin
vex
vexed his brother with his controversial writings.
to calm or reduce anger by making concessions: The professor tried to
placate
placate his students by postponing the exam.
castigate to chastise or criticize severely
occlude to close or shut off; to obstruct (n: occlusion)
dissemble to conceal ones real motive, to feign
propitiate to conciliate; to appease: They made sacrifices to propitiate angry gods.
aver to declare
to deduce: New genetic evidence led some zoologists to infer that the red
infer
wolf is actually a hybrid of the coyote and the gray wolf.
to demonstrate or prove to be blameless: The evidence tended to exculpate
exculpate
the defendant.(adj: exculpatory)
desiccate to dry out thoroughly (adj: desiccated)
to fall; to fall downward suddenly and dramatically; to bring about or hasten
precipitate the occurrence of something: Old World diseases precipitated a massive
decline in the American Indian population.
disabuse to free a person from falsehood or error: We had to disabuse her of the
 notion that she was invited.
cadge to get something by taking advantage of someone
to give false appearance or impression: He feigned illness to avoid going to
feign
school. (adj: feigned)
to give rise to, to propagate, to cause: His slip of the tounge engendered
engender
much laughter.
burgeon to grow or flourish; a bud or new growth (adj: burgeoning )
waver to hesitate or to tremble
inhibit to hold back, prohibit, forbid, or restrain (n: inhibition, adj: inhibited)
to increase the bitterness or violence of; to aggravate: The decision to
exacerbate
fortify the border exacerbated tensions.
abscond to leave secretly and hide, often to avoid the law.
descry to make clear, to say
aggrandize to make greater, to increase, thus, to exaggerate.
to make less forceful; to become more moderate; to make less harsh or
mitigate undesirable: He was trying to mitigate the damage he had done. (n:
mitigation)
assuage to make less severe; to appease or satisfy
rarefy to make or become thin; to purify or refine (n: rarefaction, adj: rarefied)
obviate to prevent by anticipatory measures; to make unnecessary:
rescind to repeal or annul
sate to satisfy fully or to excess
fawn to seek favor or attention; to act subserviently (n, adj: fawning)
arbitrate to settle a dispute by impulse (n: arbitration)
depict to show, create a picture of.
to speak, plead, or argue for a cause, or in anothers behalf. (n) one who
advocate
advocates.
to stray away from or evade the truth: When we asked him what his
prevaricate
intentions were, he prevaricated.(n: prevarication; prevaricator)
to strengthen or support: The witness corroborted his story. (n:
corroborate
corroboration)
emulate to strive to equal or excel (n: emulation)
to suggest indirectly; to entail: She implied she didnt believe his story. (n:
imply
implication)
buttress to support. a support
amalgamate to unite or mix. (n) amalgamation.
to weaken or destroy the strength or vitality of: The heatenervated
enervate
everyone.
turned to bone; hardened like bone; Inflexible: The ossified culture failed
ossified
to adapt to new economic conditions and died out.
 twisted; excessively complicated: Despite public complaints, tax laws and
tortuous forms have become increasingly tortuous. Note: Dont confuse this with
torturous.
barefaced unconcealed, shameless, or brazen
ineffable inexpressible in words; unspeakable
hapless unfortunate
unsophisticated; artless; straightforward; candid: Wilsons ingenuous
ingenuous
response to the controversial calmed the suspicious listeners.
unspoken: Katie and carmella had a tacit agreement that they would not
tacit
mention the dented fender to their parents.
laconic using few words; terse: a laconic reply.
ambiguous vague; subject to more than one interpretation
garrulous verbose; talkative; rambling: We tried to avoid our garrulous neighbor.
attenuate weaken (adj: attenuated)
weighty, mournful, or gloomy, especially to an excessive degree: Jakes
lugubrious
lugubrious monologues depressed his friends.
nefarious wicked, evil: a nefarious plot.
complaisant willingly compliant or accepting of the status quo (n: complaisance)
wordy: The instructor asked her verbose student make her paper more
verbose
concise. (n: verbosity)