Vocabulary Expansion: Uncommon Words and Definitions

Posted on Feb 23, 2025 in Arts and Humanities

Uncommon Words and Their Definitions

  • Singular – Exceptional; unique; unusual
  • Skirmish – A fight between small numbers of troops; a brief conflict
  • Skittish – Nervous; easily startled; jumpy
  • Slake – To quench; to satisfy; to assuage
  • Solace – Consolation; comfort
  • Solidarity – Sense of unity; a sense of sharing a common goal or attitude
  • Sophomoric – Juvenile; childishly goofy
  • Sordid – Morally vile; filthy; squalid
  • Sovereign – Supreme ruler; monarch
  • Spate – A sudden outpouring
  • Specious – Something that seems correct or appropriate but that lacks real worth; deceptive; misleading; not genuine
  • Specter – Ghost; phantom
  • Spectrum – A broad sequence or range of different but related things or ideas
  • Spurn – To reject disdainfully; to scorn
  • Stalwart – Sturdily built; robust; valiant; unwavering
  • Stark – Utter; unmitigated; harsh; desolate
  • Stint – To restrict or hold back on; to be frugal
  • Stipend – Income; allowance; salary
  • Stolid – Not easily roused to emotion; impassive; apathetic; phlegmatic
  • Stout – Plump; stocky; substantial
  • Stratagem – A maneuver designed to outwit an enemy; a scheme; a ruse
  • Stupendous – Remarkable; extraordinary; remarkably large or extraordinarily gigantic
  • Stupor – A stunned condition; near-unconsciousness; apathy; inertia
  • Subside – To sink or settle; to diminish; to lessen
  • Subsidiary – Supplemental; additional; secondary or subordinate
  • Subsidize – To provide financial aid; to make a financial contribution
  • Substantiate – To prove; to verify; to confirm
  • Subterfuge – Artifice; a trick or stratagem; a ruse
  • Suffice – To be sufficient; to be enough
  • Suffrage – The right to vote
  • Suffuse – To cover; to overspread; to saturate
  • Sumptuous – Luxurious; splendid; lavish
  • Supersede – To take the place of; to supplant; to make obsolete
  • Supine – Lying on one’s back
  • Supplication – Humble prayer; earnest entreaty
  • Suppress – To overpower; to subdue; to quash
  • Surmise – To conjecture; to guess
  • Surreal – Having an unreal, fantastic quality; hallucinatory; dreamlike
  • Susceptible – Capable of being influenced by something
  • Sweeping – Far-reaching; extensive; wide-ranging
  • Syntax – The patterns or rules governing the way grammatical sentences are formed in a given language
  • Systemic – Affecting the entire system, especially the entire body
  • Tactical – Having to do with tactics
  • Taint – Contaminant; a trace of something spoiled
  • Tedium – Dullness; monotony; boredom
  • Teem – To swarm to be inundated; to overrun
  • Temporal – Pertaining to time; pertaining to life; earthly existence; noneternal; short-lived
  • Temporize – To stall; to cause delay through indecision
  • Tepid – Lukewarm; halfhearted
  • Thesis – A theory to be proven; a subject for a composition; a formal paper using original research on a subject
  • Thorny – Full of difficulties; tough; painful
  • Threshold – A house’s or building’s entrance; any point of beginning or entering
  • Extensive – Covering or affecting a large area
  • Paltry – Small or meager; petty; trivial
  • Ponderous – Slow and clumsy because of great weight; dull, laborious, or excessively solemn
  • Turpitude – Depravity; weakness
  • Utter – To say
  • Shrine – A place regarded as holy
  • Surreptitious – Kept secret, especially because it would not be approved of.
  • Impose – Force to be accepted or put in place; take advantage of someone by demanding their attention or commitment