Vocabulary Building: 50+ Essential Words Defined

Posted on Jan 24, 2025 in Latin

A

  • Accentuate (v): To emphasize
  • Anticlimax (n): A disappointing end to an exciting or impressive series of events
  • Apathetic (adj): Marked by a lack of interest
  • Assertion (n): A confident and forceful statement of fact or belief

C

  • Complacent (n): Self-satisfied; smug
  • Conspire (v): To plan together secretly
  • Contiguous (adj): Side by side, touching; near; adjacent in time
  • Cordial (adj): Warm and friendly
  • Corpulent (adj): Large or bulky of body; portly; stout; fat

D

  • Deftly (adv): Quickly and skillfully
  • Denizen (n): A person who regularly frequents a place
  • Desolate (adj): Deserted and lonely
  • Dilatory (adj): Intending to cause delay; procrastinating
  • Discreetly (adv): Unobtrusively; with restraint; not calling for attention

E

  • Effeminate (adj): Having womanly traits
  • Erroneous (adj): Incorrect, containing mistakes
  • Euphemism (n): The substitution of a mild, indirect or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt

F

  • Fortuitously (adv): Happening or produced by chance; accidentally
  • Fractious (adj): Unruly, quarrelsome, irritable

G

  • Garrulous (adj): Pointlessly or annoyingly talkative
  • Grail (n): A thing that is being earnestly pursued or sought after

H

  • Haughty (adj): Used to describe an obnoxious display of overbearing pride and superiority over others

I

  • Immoderate (adj): Beyond reasonable limits; overboard; excessive
  • Impassioned (adj): Filled with or showing great emotion
  • Incredulous (adj): Disbelieving, skeptical
  • Ineffable (adj): Unutterable, indescribable
  • Innuendo (n): A hint, indirect suggestion, or reference
  • Irreverent (adj): Disrespectful

L

  • Languid (adj): Lacking liveliness or energy; weak or faint
  • Levity (n): Lack of seriousness

M

  • Magnanimous (adj): Generous in forgiving, above small meanness
  • Malevolence (n): Ill will; malice; hatred
  • Mar (v): To spoil, damage, injure
  • Meretricious (adj): Tawdrily and falsely attractive, pretentious, gaudy
  • Monopolize (v): To use or take so as to prevent others from using or taking

P

  • Parcel (v): To divide into parts and distribute
  • Peremptory (adj): Admitting of no contradiction, often characterized by arrogant self-assurance
  • Permeate (v): To spread through, penetrate, soak through
  • Privy (to) (adj): Sharing in the knowledge of (something secret or private)
  • Provincial (adj): Limited in outlook, narrow; unsophisticated
  • Punctilious (adj): Strict or exact in the observance of the formalities or amenities of conduct or actions

R

  • Rancor (n): A feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
  • Reproach (v): To find fault with, blame

S

  • Saunter (v): To stroll; walk in an easy, leisurely way; (n.) a stroll
  • Somnambulate (v): To sleepwalk
  • Sporadic (adj): Occurring irregularly
  • Strident (adj): Unpleasantly loud and harsh; grating
  • Supercilious (adj): Arrogant, contemptuous
  • Superfluous (adj): Exceeding what is sufficient or required, excess

T

  • Truculent (adj): Cruel, savage, deadly, destructive; belligerent

V

  • Vacuous (adj): Marked by a lack of ideas or intelligence; devoid of serious occupation
  • Vehemently (adv): Intensely, forcefully, powerfully
  • Vicariously (adj): Indirectly, as, by, or through a substitute
  • Vulnerable (adj): Open to attack; capable of being wounded or damaged; unprotected

W

  • Wistful (adj): Vaguely longing, sadly thoughtful