1. jejune: barren; flat; dull. The Latin word jejunus means “empty”
2. libidinous: characterized by lust; lewd; lascivious. In psychoanalytic theory, the libido is the driving force behind all human action
3. licentious: morally unrestrained; lascivious. This is derived form an Old French word that meant “license” and referred to an abuse of liberty or undisciplined freedom.
4. mercurial: changeable; volatile. These adjectives are characteristic of the heavy, silver-white metallic element mercury. In Roman mythology the swift messenger of the gods, Mercury was volatile, quick-witted, eloquent, and manually skillful.
5. meretricious: flashy; tawdry; falsely alluring. It is from the Latin word meretricious (“prostitute”)
6.minatory: menacing; threatening
7. mutable: inconstant; fickle; tending to frequent change. In biology, a mutation is a change in some inheritable characteristic.
8. niggardly: stingy; miserly. Niggardly comes from a Norman French word meaning “to rub” or “to pinch.” A pennypincher is niggardly.
9. nonchalant: cool; indifferent; without warmth or animation. It comes from a French root, chaloir (“to care for”)
10. noxious: unwholesome; harmful to health. The Latin nocere means “to hurt”
11. obdurate: hardhearted; inflexible; not easily moved to pity.
12. obtuse: slow to understand; dull.
13. officious: meddlesome; offering unnecessary and unwanted advise.
14. omniscient: having infinite knowledge; knowing all things.
15. pusillanimous: cowardly; fainthearted in Latin, “tiny mind”
Exercises
I. Which Word Comes to Mind?
In each of the following, read the statement, then circle the word that comes to mind.
1. A Chinese fortune cookie accurately predicts your future
(jejune, omniscient, licentious)
2. Eight poker players puffing on cigars in your living room
(noxious, officious, niggardly)
3. You receive an anonymous letter hinting at violence
(libidinous, minatory, nonchalant)
4. Your father absolutely refuses to let you borrow his car
(meretricious, obtuse, obdurate)
5. The Lion in The Wizard of Oz
(pusillanimous, mercurial, mutable)
6. It doesn’t take much to upset James to the point of exasperation
(mutable, mercurial, noxious)
7. Maxine can’t make up her mind about which dress to wear
(jejune, meretricious, mutable)
8. Jose had abandoned five wives, but he was ready to try again
(licentious, pusillanimous, niggardly)
9. Malcolm blames everyone but himself for his failures
(obtuse, licentious, nonchalant)
10. Nothing seems to excite him
(officious, nonchalant, minatory)
II. True or False?
In the space provided, indicate whether each statement is true or false
III. Fill in the Blank
Insert one of the new words in the proper space in each sentence below.
IV. What’s the Antonym?
Which of the new words is most nearly opposite in meaning to the one provided?
Home |
1 |
Jingoist, Lothario, Maverick, Nemesis, Philanderer, Philippic, Procrustean, Protean, Pyrrhic victory, Quixotic, Saturnine, Solecism, Spoonerism, Sybarite, Tawdry | |
2 |
Acidulous, Baleful, Bellicose, Bilious, Bumptious, Captious, Churlish, Complaisant, Contrite, Convivial, Craven, Debonair, Dyspeptic, Lachrymose, Neurasthenic | |
3 |
cabal, camaraderie, caste, cortege, detente, echelon, ecumenical, elite, esprit de corps, freemasonry, genealogy, hierarchy, hobnob, liaison, rapprochement | |
4 |
adagio, andante, arpeggio, bravura, contralto, crescendo, falsetto, fortissimo, imbroglio, intaglio, largo, libretto, salvo, staccato, vendetta | |
5 |
alienist, amanuensis, beadle, cosmetologist, dermatologist, entomologist, farrier, graphologist, internist, lapidary, ophthalmologist, ornithologist, osteopath, pharyngologist, physiologist | |
6 |
Adonis, Bacchanal, Cassandra, Cornucopia, Erotic, Herculean, Hermetic, Hydra, Hymeneal, Iridescent, Narcissism, Odyssey, Olympian, Palladium, Phoenix | |
7 |
aberrant, anthropomorphism, archetype, authoritarian, cathedrals, demography, epidemiology, euthanasia, extrovert, psychic, psychopath, psychotherapy, schizophrenia, subliminal, traums | |
8 |
aficionado, barrio, bonanza, bravado, desperado, flotilla, grandee, hacienda, lariat, machismo, manana, palmetto, renegade, siesta, torero | |
9 |
anachronism, anon, antebellum, antediluvian, atavism, augury, betimes, biennial, diurnal, eon, ephemeral, epoch, generation, score, tercentenary | |
10 |
bane, deign, eke, knell, mete, moot, mulct, plumb, quail, roil, ruck, shunt, svelte, thrall, tryst | |
11 |
abscess, aphasia, arteriosclerosis, biopsy, cadaver, carcinogen, comatose, etiology, malingerer, mastectomy, prosthesis, simian, therapeutic, tumescence, vasectomy | |
12 |
bovine, equine, feline, hircine, leonine, lupine, ophidian, ovine, piscine, porcine, saurian, taurine, ursine, vixen, vulpine | |
13 |
atonement, bicameral, Decalogue, decimate, dichotomy, double-think, millennium, nihilism, penultimate, primeval, protocol, quatrain, quintessence, tessellated, untrammeled | |
14 |
adjudicate, appellate, collusion, deposition, equity, exhume, incommunicado, intestate, ipso facto, lien, litigation, perjury, pettifogger, tort, tribunal | |
15 |
circumspect, demure, dispassionate, dolorous, edacious, effete, feisty, flaccid, flippant, florid, glabrous, imperious, ingenious, intractable, intransigent | |
16 |
alchemy, arcane, conundrum, demonology, exorcise, inscrutable, pallor, phenomenology, polygraph, purloin, ritual, shamus, soothsayer, thaumaturgy, warlock | |
17 |
archaeology, elfin, infinitesimal, Lilliputian, megalopolis, minimize, minutiae, palatial, peccadillo, picayune, simulacrum, soupcon, teeming, titanic, vista | |
18 |
accolade, conclave, dirge, draconian, epicurean, gossamer, immolate, juggernaut, junket, ostracism, proletariat, rigmarole, rubric, Socratic, sycophant | |
19 |
acrophobia, bibliophile, claustrophobia, Francophile, hydrophobia, misanthropy, misogyny, paranoid, philately, Philistine, phylogeny, philology, Russo phobia, triskaidekaphobia, xenophobia | |
20 |
archaeology, cardiology, ecology, endocrinology, gerontology, gynecology, morphology, necrology, neurology, paleontology, pathology, rhinology, seismology, speleology, toxicology | |
21 |
jejune, libidinous, licentious, mercurial, meretricious, minatory, mutable, niggardly, nonchalant, noxious, obdurate, obtuse, officious, omniscient, pusillanimous | |
22 |
amicus curiae, arson, barrister, embezzle, extradition, habeas corpus, immaterial, incarcerate, indeterminate, larceny, litigious, miscreant, perpetrator, plagiarism, probation | |
23 |
avant-garde, bete noire, bot mot, coup de grace, cul-de-sac, dues ex machina, fait accompli, fin de siecle, gauche, junta, laissez-faire, mot juste, non compos mentis, non sequitur, sine qua non | |
24 |
coiffure, demarche, denouement, éclat, élan, entrepreneur, impasse, ingénue, malaise, mélange, repartee, sangfroid, tete-a-tete, tour de force, vignette | |
25 |
acrid, addle, ado, alms, amulet, aperture, askew, bauble, bevy, bilk, blithe, careen, chary, nabob, onus | |
26 |
antaean, argonaut, calliope, cyclopean, gorgon, harpy, Homeric, myrmidon, oracular, paean, plutonian, Promethean, stygian, terpsichorean, thespian | |
27 |
pedantic, pertinacious, pontifical, pretentious, prolix, puerile, quiescent, recalcitrant, restive, ribald, sardonic, sedulous, sleazy, supercilious, voluptuous | |
28 |
a cappella, ad hoc, bon vivant, de facto, gemutlich, leitmotif, nolo contendere, per excellence, parvenu, piece de resistance, postprandlal, quid pro quo, qui vive, savoir faire, sub rosa, vis-à-vis | |
29 |
ambivalent, bucolic, crotchety, dilatory, disconsolate, dudgeon, froward, genteel, jocund, loquacious, splenetic, tendentious, truculent, vacuous, venal | |
30 |
amorphous, gargantuan, iota, lissome, macrocosm, magnitude, magnum opus, microcosm, micrometer, scabrous, scintilla, serpentine, sinuous, smidgen, tenuous | |
31 |
bathos, malapropism, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, panegyric, paradigm, paralipsis, pleonasm, polyglot, semantics, simile, synecdoche, threnody | |
32 |
argot, aspersion, badinage, bombast, braggadocio, censure, countermand, gainsay, gobbledegook, guttural, harangue, jargon, mellifluous, resonant, sententious | |
33 |
canon, hegemony, oligarchy, peonage, pharisaical, plebiscite, plenipotentiary, proxy, recession, regicide, renascent, reprisal, subversion, surrogate, votary | |
34 |
antipodal, cartography, concierge, hegira, hustings, landmark, peripatetic, portmanteau, safari, tandem, transmigrate, traverse, trek, wanderlust, wayfarer | |
35 |
a la carte, assuage, comestible, condiment, cuisine, culinary, gastronomic, gourmand, manna, palatable, piquant, refection, repast, subsistence, viands | |
36 |
antic, beguile, bonhomie, dalliance, divertissement, euphoria, guffaw, insouciance, japery, regale, risible, roguish, roister, squib, waggish | |
37 |
anarchy, bourgeois, bureaucracy, demagogue, ethos, gerrymander, imperialism, Machiavellian,. martial, muckraker, partisan, reactionary, schism, suffrage, totalitarian | |
38 |
abnegation, abscond, affidavit, altercation, battery, bequest, cause celebre, caveat emptor, codicil, contiguous, contraband, contumacious, disenfranchise, injunction, jurisprudence | |
39 |
aphorism, dogma, empirical, epistemology, eschatology, fallacy, hedonism, pragmatism, predestination, ratiocination, syllogism, teleology, tenet, theosophy, utilitarian | |
40 |
agnostic, apocalyptic, apocryphal, apostate, apotheosis, benediction, blasphemy, deist, infidel, mantra, ontology, pantheism, sacrilegious, syncretism, theodicy |
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