Home Page    Back to Vocab Page

01  02  03  04  05  06  07  08  09  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30

Vocab 15

agenda            n            a formal list of things to do or tasks to accomplish, esp. at the beginning of a meeting / also a personal preference or bias The president called the meeting to order and promised us a short one, as there were only two items on the agenda. / I know he suddenly changed parties and now vows allegiance to the Democrats, but I can’t help but feel he has a personal agenda which makes it expedient to change at this time.

blatant adj            very obvious, almost shockingly so. I have never seen such a blatant disregard for the law as when he ran a red light right in front of that policeman and then made an insulting gesture as he drove by.

concede            v            to yield or give up, especially as a point in an argument. When I saw that my opponent had won 89% of the vote, I was forced to concede the election to her.

consensus            n            the general opinion of the majority of people, general agreement If it is the consensus of the people that racial segregation is moral, that means only that the majority of the people are idiots, not that segregation is right.

defunct            adj            no longer in use, extinct or out of date Where once one could get a good job manufacturing slide rules or running a linotype machine, the computer age has made both of those industries defunct.

frugal              adj            tending to save money and to be thrifty I am not a miser by any means, but by practicing frugal habits and using things up instead of throwing them away, I have saved a lot of money.

memoir            n            the recorded memories of events and places, something like a biography, but more vague and less exact If I were to write an autobiography, I would have to be precise about all the dates and places, but my memoirs permit me to simply record the happy and sad memories without regard to accuracy.

obtuse             adj            dull, thickheaded and stupid (also, in geometry, an angle greater than 90 degrees) Jasper was just about as obtuse as a chunk of wood; he never could understand that when you lean on a hot stove it gets uncomfortable right quick.

promulgate            v            to promote or to spread about, such as information. Though the Surgeon General has promulgated the evils of smoking since the early 1960s, that doesn’t stop the idiots among us from taking up the habit.

succinct            adj            brief and to the point, full of meaning but not words You have praised her for her brilliant mind and her great intellect and her supreme knowledge, but you could have been more succinct; just say she’s a genius.