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

anathema            n            Something hated and widely considered to be scorned. In the early Catholic Church, one who was excommunicated was said to be anathema. I can tolerate and understand a lot of different behaviors, but the child pornography is anathema to me;  people who do it should be put away for life.

brusque               adj          Abrupt or curt in manner or speech, discourteously blunt. One should expect a first-grade teacher to be kind and soft-spoken, but Mr. Snidely's manner was so brusque that the children and even the other teachers were hesitant to approach him.

instigate              v            To begin or initiate, especially trouble. Yes, Jolly Joe is the one who always gets in trouble for breaking up the class, but little Rodney here always instigates the disturbance by whispering a joke that gets Joe hysterical.

motif                   n            A general theme or overall look and sound of a work of art or architecture. In our new Mexican restaurant, we're going to have a Southwestern motif, complete with sagebrush, adobe, and sombreros.

oxymoron            n            A pair of words that, taken together, contradict one another. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo spouts off a string of oxymorons such as "cold fire," "sick health," "feather of lead," and "serious vanity."

scrupulous           adj          Extremely careful to do what is right. 1) An accountant has to be absolutely scrupulous in his bookkeeping; he may be a disorganized slob in his private life, but at work he's got to balance to the penny. One who is "unscrupulous," however, is not disorganized but is lax in matters of morality. 2) Uriah Heep, the unscrupulous car dealer, was not above turning back the odometer and selling the car for more than it was worth.

specious              adj           Having the ring of truth but actually false. The scientists who claimed to have invented cold fusion presented a specious argument to support their results; people were initially fooled but then realized their error.

subversion           n            An act of undermining the character or allegiance, and act of corruption. The revolutionary teachers in the high school who preached the overthrow of the government were found guilty of subversion and fired from their jobs.

temerity              n            Temerity implies a foolhardy flouting of danger: Conducting the premiere of a symphony without a rehearsal requires temerity.

wrangle              v/n          To quarrel noisily or angrily, bicker. My neighbors, the Lockhorns, have been known to wrangle noisily over the last slice of toast. A noisy or angry dispute. Bobby and Heather got into a nasty wrangle at lunchtime over the fact that Bobby dated Cindy while he and Heather were not speaking to one another because Heather had looked romantically at Tyrell while Bobby was out sick.