Monday, May 28, 2007

Important Words For High Schoolers....Again

People will surely think we are crazy after this post but if the words are so important we should probably know there definitions...right? So here they are, definitions for the "very" important one hundred words.
If you still can't understand the words, don't worry at all. Hopefully this is very fun to read and (in most cases) learn.

abjure - to renounce, repudiate
abrogate - to abolish by formal or official means
abstemious - paring or moderate in eating and drinking
acumen - shrewdness
antebellum - before the war, esp. the Civil War
auspicious - promising success
belie - contradict
bellicose - aggressively hostile
bowdlerize - to censor passages in a written work
chicanery - trickery by quibbling or sophistry
chromosome - bodies that carry genes
churlish - boorish; rude
circumlocution - roundabout way of speaking
circumnavigate - to navigate a circuit
deciduous - transitory
deleterious - harmful
diffident - reserved in manner
enervate - to destroy vigor
enfranchise - to endow with rights
epiphany - a revelation or sudden perception
equinox - astronomical start of autumn and spring
euro - new European currency
evanescent - vanishing; fading away
expurgate - to purge of moral offensiveness
facetious - lacking serious intent
fatuous - foolish
feckless - incompetent
fiduciary - trustee or relating to a trustee
filibuster - impeding legislation by monopolizing the floor
gamete - a mature reproductive cell (sperm or egg)
gauche - lacking social grace
gerrymander - to finagle election districts to give a political party an advantage
hegemony - society that seeks to exert dominance
hemoglobin - oxygen carrying part of blood
homogeneous - containing the same quality or property everywhere
hubris - excessive pride
hypotenuse - side of right triange opposite right angle
impeach - to accuse
incognito - concealed identity
incontrovertible - indisputable
inculcate - to teach persistently
infrastructure - underlying framework
interpolate - to estimate/insert between two points
irony - meaning contradictory to that expressed
jejune - juvenile/dull
kinetic - of motion
kowtow - to show deference
laissez faire - noninterference (esp of govt)
lexicon - dictionary
loquacious - chatty
lugubrious - mournful
metamorphosis - complete change of form
mitosis - normal cell division
moiety - half, or indefinite share
nanotechnology - nanometer-scale technology
nihilism - anarchy or denial of any real existence
nomenclature - system of names
nonsectarian - no specific religious affiliation
notarize - to legally witness and certify
obsequious - complete deference
oligarchy - government by the few
omnipotent - infinite power
orthography - correct writing and spelling
oxidize - to combine oxygen or remove electrons
parabola - pattern formed by intersection of plane parallel with a cone
paradigm - a model or set of forms
parameter - a constant or variable
pecuniary - pertaining to money
photosynthesis - producing organic materials using light
plagiarize - to steal another's thoughts and words
plasma - ionized gas, liquid part of blood without suspended elements
polymer - using smaller molecules to build a complex molecular compound
precipitous - extremely steep
quasar - hyper-distant, hyper-old primordial soup of galaxies
quotidian - recurring daily, customary
recapitulate - summarize
reciprocal - mutual, or 1 divided by a number
reparation - amends
respiration - process of providing oxygent to tissues
sanguine - hopeful
soliloquy - talking as if alone
subjugate - enslave
suffragist - one who advocates giving a right to vote
supercilious - contemptuous
tautology - needless repetition
taxonomy - science of classification
tectonic - of construction, of earth's crust
tempestuous - turbulent
thermodynamics - of heat and energy
totalitarian - authoritarian, no tolerance
unctuous - excessive piousness, oily
usurp - to use or serve wrongfully
vacuous - without contents
vehement - zealous
vortex - a whirling mass
winnow - to separate impurities
wrought - that which has been worked on
xenophobe - fearing outsiders
yeoman - clerical naval officer, farmer owning own land
ziggurat - pyramidal Sumerian temple

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These definitions still don't help. I give up...I can't learn all these words - why is this soo tough? I love your control panel