Terms in English Big Words
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| Word | Meaning | Context |
|---|---|---|
| obstreperous | noisy, loud | |
| contumacious | insubordinate, rebellious | |
| mettlesome | courageous, high-spirited. | |
| cadge | to beg, to get by begging | betteln |
| pith | heart of the matter | |
| supine | lying on the back. Also slow to act, passive. | |
| remonstrate | to protest, object | |
| inveigh | to attack verbally, denounce, deprecate | |
| precepts | rules establishing standards of conduct | |
| impute | to attribute to a cause or source, ascribe | |
| feckless | lacking purpose or vitality, ineffective | |
| decorum | propriety, properness. | |
| penchant | strong inclination, a liking. | |
| appropriate | take for one\'s own use, acquire, set aside. | |
| truculence | aggressiveness, ferocity | |
| garrulity | talkativeness | |
| arabesque | a complex, ornate design. Also a dance position. | |
| beatify | to bless, make happy, or ascribe a virtue to. | |
| forbearance | patience, willingness to wait. | |
| veritable | unquestionable, true. | |
| pragmatic | practical, favoring utility. | |
| arrant | in every way, being completely such. | |
| consequential | pompous, self important. Also having consequence, | |
| malinger | to fake illness or injury, in order to shirk a dut | |
| paucity | scarcity, a lacking of | |
| striated | striped, grooved, or banded. Having stripes. | |
| seminal | like a seed | constituting a source, originative. |
| attenuate | make thin. weaken, enervate. | |
| precarious | uncertain, risky, dangerous. | |
| enervate | weaken, deprive of strength, attenuate. | |
| partisan | one-sided, committed to a party, biased or prejudi | |
| equivocate | lie, mislead, conceal the truth. | |
| assiduous | diligent, hard-working, sedulous. | |
| anachronism | something out of place for its time | |
| lassitude | weariness, tiredness | |
| phlegmatic | calm, sluggish temperament | unemotional |
| sycophant | flatterer, parasite, a suck-up | |
| perfunctory | superficial, listless, not thorough | |
| impair | worsen, diminish in value | |
| transient | temporary, fleeting | |
| qualify | to limit | |
| quixotic | extravagantly chivalrous, romantically idealistic, | |
| reprobate | person hardened in sin | one devoid of decency |
| libertine | immoral person | |
| tractable | easily influenced, obedient, docile | |
| craven | cowardly | |
| picaresque | involving clever rogues or adventurers. | |
| sedulous | diligent, assiduous, devoted to a task | |
| aver | affirm, assert, prove, justify | |
| intrepid | fearless, brave, undaunted | |
| impassive | without feeling, not affected by pain | He was totally impassive at the funeral |
| salient | conspicuous, highly relevant, prominent | |
| morose | gloomy, sullen | |
| raffish | low, vulgar, base, tawdry | |
| loquacious | talkative, garrulous | |
| piquant | agreeably pungent, stimulating | |
| demur | to hesitate, raise objections | |
| equipoise | equal distribution of weight | equilibrium |
| abysmal | extreme | low, like an abyss |
| tawdry | cheap, gaudy, showy, tacky | |
| dross | waste product, sludge | something worthless, common, or trivial |
| ardor | warm interest, passion, enthusiasm, zeal | |
| insouciant | unconcerned, carefree | |
| volubility | fluency, verbosity, easy use of spoken language | |
| dulcet | melodious, harmonious | |
| mellifluous | sweetly flowing | usually used to describe use of words (sweetly flowing words, as when the speech is characterized by high volubility. |
| desiccate | to dry up, dehydrate | |
| harrow | to distress, create stress or torment | |
| pellucid | transparent, easy to understand | |
| pariah | an outcast, a rejected and despised person | |
| taciturn | untalkative, silent | |
| pique | resentment at being slighted | |
| turgid | excessively ornate | swollen or bloated |
| ]pillory | to punish, hold up to public scorn | |
| adamant | hard and inflexible | unyielding |
| multifarious | varied, motley, greatly diversified | |
| torpor | lethargy, sluggishness, dormancy | |
| imprecation | an invocation of evil | a curse |
| audacious | daring | bold |
| hirsute | hairy, shaggy | |
| tenacity | firmness, persistency, adhesiveness, tending to ha | |
| apostate | one who abandons long-held religious or political | |
| lachrymose | causing tears, tearful | |
| welter | turmoil | a bewildering jumble |
| discomfit | to defeat, put down | |
| laconic | brief, to the point, terse | |
| venal | corruptible, bribable, unprincipled | |
| ossify | to turn to bone | to settle rigidly into an idea or practice, become closed-minded |
| disingenuous | sophisticated, artful, trying to deceive, cunning | |
| insensible | unconscious, unresponsive, unaffected | |
| turbid | muddy, having the sediment stirred up | |
| erudite | learned, scholarly | |
| saturnine | gloomy, dark, sullen, morose | |
| abeyance | suspended action | |
| diaphanous | transparent, gauzy | |
| epitome | representative, a summary or abstract, a typical e | |
| squalid | foul, filthy | |
| quiescent | at rest, dormant, torpid |
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