Vocabulary, Part II

1. Enervate (verb) – to weaken; to reduce in vitality
2. Ennui (noun) – dissatisfaction and restlessness resulting from boredom or apathy
3. Equivocate (verb) – to use ambiguous language with a deceptive intent (adj. form: equivocal)
4. Erudite (adj.) – very learned; scholarly
5. Exculpate (verb) – exonerate; to clear of blame
6. Exigent (adj.) – urgent, pressing; requiring immediate action or attention
7. Extemporaneous (adj.) – improvised; done without preparation
8. Fulminate (verb) – to loudly attack or denounce
9. Ingenuous (adj.) – artless; frank and candid; lacking in sophistication
10. Inured (adj.) – accustomed to accepting something undesirable
11. Irascible (adj.) – easily angered; prone to temperamental outbursts
12. Laud (verb) – to praise highly
13. Lucid (adj.) – clear; easily understood
14. Magnanimity (noun) – the quality of being generously noble in mind and heart, especially in forgiving
15. Nascent (adj.) – coming into being; in early developmental stages
16. Nebulous (adj.) – vague; cloudy; lacking clearly defined form
17. Neologism (noun) – a new word, expression, or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses
18. Noxious (adj.) – harmful, injurious
19. Obviate (verb) – to anticipate and make unnecessary
20. Onerous (adj.) – troubling; burdensome

Okay, folks, there you have them: all 20 words. Let’s create a story together this week (you may also use Vocabulary, Part I‘s terms). I’ll start. Let’s each do a paragraph (about 5 or so sentences).

Here goes:

“Mary, are you here? Mary!” Frederick, face flushed the lovely shade of crimson, burst through the front door of his and Mary’s home, almost running to find her, excitement lending a smile he hadn’t been able to stop for a solid twenty minutes now. After searching his wife’s study, the living room, their bedroom, and the kitchen, Fred finally caught a glimpse of her as she was coming in from the backyard. The onerous look on Marianne’s face halted him in his step, his extemporaneous effort to reveal exigent, good news abruptly ending.

Vocabulary, Part I

It’s with humility and embarrassment that I reveal that the test results from the GRE I took in February weren’t that great. In fact, I only scored 136 for the Quantitative Reasoning section, and a 152 for the Verbal Reasoning section. Keep in mind the scale is from 130 to 170. So, that math one, to put it bluntly, sucks. I was disappointed and more embarrassed, though, about the Verbal Reasoning score. I’m an English major and I would say about 70% of the vocabulary on the test in the VR section was either new to me or words that I’ve seen but don’t know the definition of.

In order to score higher on the next GRE (which I will take in about a month), I have been studying. I’ve gotten to the vocabulary section of the 2015 edition of The Princeton Review’s Cracking the GRE, and in order to help me remember the words I study so that I’ll have a better chance at success on the future GRE I take – and because I love learning new words, just because – I’m going to post 20 each week. Please join me in learning these words. Let’s use them together – shall we write a story as a team? Form our own sentences and then post them? Create our own stories and then post them? It’s up to you.

Here are the first 20 words:

Abscond (verb) – to depart secretly; to steal off and hide

Aberrant (adj.) – deviating from the norm

Alacrity (noun) – eager and enthusiastic willingness

Anomaly (noun) – deviation from the normal order, form, or rule; abnormality

Approbation (noun) – an expression of approval or praise

Arduous (adj.) – strenuous, taxing; requiring significant effort

Assuage (verb) – to ease or lessen; to appease or pacify

Audacious (adj.) – daring and fearless; recklessly bold

Austere (adj.) – without adornment; bare; severely simple; ascetic

Axiomatic (adj.) – taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth

Canonical (adj.) – following or in agreement with accepted, traditional standards

Capricious (adj.) – inclined to change one’s mind impulsively; erratic, unpredictable

Censure (verb) – to criticize severely; to officially rebuke

Chicanery (noun) – trickery or subterfuge

Connoisseur (noun) – an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert

Convoluted (adj.) – complex or complicated

Disabuse (verb) – to undeceive; to set right

Discordant (adj.) – conflicting; dissonant or harsh in sound

Disparate (adj.) – fundamentally distinct or dissimilar

Effrontery (noun) – extreme boldness; presumptuousness

Okay, that is 20. Let’s have some fun – what would you like to do, if anything?