Vocab List

Acumen - (noun) a tapering point; shrewdness shown by keen insight

-The man had an incredible acumen in business matters.
Adjudicate - (verb) bring to an end; settle conclusively; put on trial or hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of
-My dad always has to adjudicate disagreements between my brother and I.
Anachronism - (noun) an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age; something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred
-The caveman from the car insurance commercial is an anachronism.
Apocryphal - (adj.) being of questionable authenticity; of or belonging to the Apocrypha
-When the man traded in gold for some food, the gold was very apocryphal.
Disparity - (noun) inequality or difference in some respect
-Freshman are treated with disparity compared to seniors.
Dissimulate - (verb) hide (feelings) from other people
-Sometimes, when people dissimulate, they will eventually explode.
Empirical - (adj.) derived from experiment and observation rather than theory; relying on medical quackery
-In physics, we always find empirical results.
Flamboyant - (adj.) richly and brilliantly colorful; elaborately or excessively ornamented; noun showy tropical tree or shrub native to Madagascar; widely planted in tropical regions for its immense racemes of scarlet and orange flowers; sometimes placed in genus Poinciana
-My Christmas tree last year was so flamboyant.
Fulsome - (adj.) unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech
-There is a fulsome student in one of my classes that nobody likes to talk to.
Immolate - (verb) offer as a sacrifice by killing or by giving up to destruction
-Some religions immolate lambs to their god.
Imperceptible - (adj.) impossible or difficult to perceive by the mind or senses
-Batman is imperceptible when he is in stealth.
Lackey - (noun) a male servant (especially a footman); a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
-Every villain has their own lackey.
Liaison - (noun) a channel for communication between groups; a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship
- You should never have a liaison with close friends.

Monolithic - (adj.) characterized by massiveness and rigidity and total uniformity; imposing in size or bulk or solidity

-The redcoats were so much more monolithic compared to the rebels.
Mot juste - (noun) the appropriate word or expression
-My mom always has the perfect mot juste when we argue and ends up winning the quarrel.
Nihilism - (noun) a revolutionary doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system for its own sake; complete denial of all established authority and institutions; the delusion that things (or everything, including the self) do not exist; a sense that everything is unreal
-Nihilism would cause chaos because there would be no laws or law enforcement.
Patrician - (adj.) of the hereditary aristocracy or ruling class of ancient Rome or medieval Europe; of honorary nobility in the Byzantine empire; belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy; noun a person of refined upbringing and manners; a member of the aristocracy
-A patrician was always treated with great respect.
Propitiate - (verb) make peace with
- After 5 years, my sister finally propitiated my dad.
Sic -(adv.)intentionally so written (used after a printed word or phrase);(verb) urge a dog to attack someone
- I love to sic my dog on people.
Sublimate - (adj.) made pure; noun the product of vaporization of a solid; (verb) direct energy or urges into useful activities; vaporize and then condense right back again; change or cause to change directly from a solid into a vapor without first melting; remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation; make more subtle or refined
-I had to sublimate the lake water before I could drink it.