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| Vocabulaire | |
| Useful words for a richer vocabulary. | |
| abductive / a form of logical inference which starts with an observation or set of observations then seeks to find the simplest and most likely explanation for the observations. Yields plausible conclusion, but does not prove it. | |
| abeyance / let their talents slide into abeyance | |
| abstruse / adjective: difficult to understand | |
| accreted / grow by accumulation or coalescence | |
| acerbic / | |
| acquiesce / | |
| adduction / | |
| adumbration / report or represent in outline, indicate faintly, foreshadow or symbolise, overshadow | |
| adversarial / | |
| adroit | |
| alliteration / | |
| ameliorate / | |
| analogous / | |
| analogue / | |
| antecedents / | |
| aphorism / a pithy observation that contains a general truth | |
| apogee / | |
| apposed opposed / | |
| apposite / | |
| approbation / approval or praise | |
| arcane | |
| arrogate / verb: take or claim (something) for oneself without justification | |
| assiduous / showing great care and perseverance | |
| autodidactic | |
| axiom / | |
| belligerent / | |
| boffin | |
| bromide | |
| cabal / | |
| canonical | |
| cavalcade / | |
| centripetal & centrifugal | |
| chiaroscuro / bright & dark, a technique in drawing & painting | |
| clan / family | |
| clemency | |
| cloying | |
| clergy / | |
| coalescence / | |
| cognitive dissonance / psychology: attempting to hold two contradictory ideas simultaneously | |
| comity / courtesy and considerate behaviour toward others / an association of nations for their mutual benefit | |
| concise / | |
| concomitant / adjective: naturally accompanying or associated / noun: a phenomenon that naturally accompanies or follows something | |
| conflation / | |
| congeries / disorderly collection, piles | |
| contemporaneous | |
| contiguous | |
| convocation / | |
| contrition | |
| copacetic / in excellent order | |
| corollary | |
| coterie / small group of folk with shared interests | |
| debilitating | |
| declaim / utter or deliver words or a speech in a rhetorical or impassioned way, as if to an audience | |
| declarative / computing: | |
| defenestration / to throw out of a window | |
| deleterious / damaging | |
| deracinate / tear up by roots | |
| derisory / | |
| desiderata / | |
| desultory / | |
| dichotomy / | |
| draconian | |
| eccentric | |
| effervescence | |
| effusive | |
| egregious / | |
| emendation / alteration made to correct (text) or improve | |
| emetic | |
| emollient / 'he took a more emollient line' | |
| enervating / | |
| ennui / listlessness due to lack of occupation or excitement | |
| epochal | |
| equivocal | |
| erudite | |
| erudition / | |
| eschew | |
| etiolated / having lost vigour or substance; feeble | |
| etymology | |
| exculpate / verb: show or declare that (someone) is not guilty of wrongdoing | |
| expropriate / taking away, dispossessing property from owner (esp. by state) | |
| exigency / an urgent need or demand | |
| extirpate / root out and destroy completely | |
| fiefdom / sphere of control / feudal, estate of land | |
| fulminating / express vehement protest, explode violently or flash like lightning | |
| germane / | |
| gerund / | |
| gestalt / form, organised whole (greater than sum of parts), emphasis on whole | |
| gloaming / noun / twilight – dusk | |
| gregarious / | |
| hegemony / leadership or dominance | |
| hermeneutic / | |
| heuristic / | |
| hubris / excessive pride / Greek: "to intentionally diminish another's honour." | |
| idiosyncratic / | |
| imbroglio / an extremely confused, complicated, or embarrassing situation / a confused heap | |
| impeach / | |
| impeccable / | |
| imperative / | |
| inchoate / just begun thus undeveloped | |
| incise / | |
| incisive / | |
| incivism / lack of civism i.e. patriotism | |
| incorrigible / not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed | |
| ineluctable / unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable: the ineluctable facts of history. | |
| inimical / tending to obstruct or harm | |
| interdict / prohibition / (military) impede | |
| interstice / | |
| intractable / | |
| intransigent / | |
| irascible / | |
| laity / | |
| largesse | |
| listlessness | |
| littoral / situated on the shore | |
| longitudinal | |
| loquacious / talkative | |
| lustration / purify by expiatory sacrifice, ceremonial washing, or some other ritual action / removal of communist influence in post soviet states | |
| malapropism / the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one | |
| mellifluous | |
| miniscule - lower case | |
| modicum / a small quantity of a particular thing (esp. valuable) | |
| multifarious | |
| nugatory / of no value or importance, useless or futile | |
| neologism | |
| nexus | |
| normative | |
| obfuscation / | |
| obtrude / become noticeable in an unwelcome or intrusive way (latin: push toward) | |
| obverse / the Flip Side, opposite or counterpart of something | |
| ontology / noun: the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being | |
| opine | |
| palaver / fuss | |
| parenthetical | |
| parsimonious / frugal | |
| paternoster | |
| patibulary / of or pertaining to the gallows, or to execution | |
| pejorative | |
| penumbra | |
| perambulation | |
| peregrination | |
| peripatetic | |
| perspicacious | |
| perspicuity / clearly expressed and easily understood | |
| plenary | |
| plethora / a large or excessive amount of something | |
| polemic | |
| poste & riposte | |
| predicate | |
| preponderance / being greater in number | |
| prescient / showing knowledge of events before they take place | |
| prinky p342 | |
| proclivity / noun: a tendency to choose or do something regularly; an inclination or predisposition toward a particular thing | |
| propensity / noun: an inclination or natural tendency to behave in a particular way | |
| protean | |
| provost / chief | |
| proxy / a representative on behalf of | |
| pugilistic | |
| pugnacious / | |
| putative / reputed / thought to be | |
| pyrrhic / a metrical foot of two short or unaccented syllables || a victory won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor | |
| quotidian | |
| reciprocating / a corresponding response || moving forwards and backwards in a straight line | |
| recursive / computing: a function which calls itself, eg to traverse a tree topology | |
| refactor code | |
| requisite | |
| rubric / a (was once red) heading | |
| sagacious | |
| salience | |
| scrofulous / not a useful or nice word, the exterior physical effects of tuberculosis | |
| scurrilous | |
| secede / withdraw from membership | |
| semantic | |
| semiology | |
| semiotics | |
| sic | |
| sigil / $var prefix | |
| simony / sale of ecclesiastical privileges | |
| skeuomorph | |
| solipsistic | |
| squinch / a straight or arched structure across an interior angle of a square tower to carry a superstructure such as a dome. | |
| steganography / | |
| stentorian / loud and powerful | |
| subjunctive / | |
| succour / noun & verb: assistance and support in times of hardship and distress | |
| supererogatory / noun: the performance of more work than duty requires | |
| superfluous / | |
| syllogism / | |
| symbiotic / | |
| synecdoche / | |
| synergy / | |
| synonymous / | |
| syzygy / a conjunction or opposition, esp. of the moon with the sun || a pair of connected or corresponding things | |
| tautological / the saying of the same thing twice in different words, and thus a fault of style, || a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form | |
| tautology | |
| tectonic / | |
| tendentious / expressing or intending to promote a particular cause or point of view, esp. a controversial one | |
| tenet / a principle or belief held, esp. an underpinning one (from, to hold) | |
| tenured professor | |
| tepuis | |
| threnody | |
| topology / | |
| torrid | |
| trenchant / | |
| trope / metaphorical expression / a Turn of phrase | |
| truculent | |
| turpitude / depravity - wickedness | |
| unctuous / oily, excessively or ingratiatingly flattering | |
| urbane / adjective / suave, courteous, refined in manner | |
| valedictory | |
| vapid | |
| variegated / | |
| veracious / speaking or representing the truth | |
| veracity | |
| verbatim / | |
| verbose | |
| verisimilitude | |
| vertiginous / causing vertigo | |
| vicarious / | |
| vicissitude / unhappy change in fortune / circumstance | |
| victuals / | |
| visceral / | |
| vituperation / bitter and abusive language | |
| vociferous / | |
| volition / | |
| voluble / speaking or spoken incessantly and fluently | |
| voracious / wanting or devouring great quantities of food |
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