ESL/EFL: Vocabulary – try to use these words in a sentence (
- Syllable:
- Dross (noun)- something that is base, trivial, or inferior
- Pan (verb) – to criticize severely
- Bilk (verb) – to obtain (something) by defrauding someone
- Wax (intransitive verb) – to assume a (specified) characteristic, quality, or state: wax indignant
- Shard (noun) – a piece or fragment of a brittle substance
- Niche (noun) – a specialized market, a place for something
- Scourge (noun) – an instrument of punishment or criticism
- Syllables:
- Fiat (noun) – a command or act of will that creates something without or as if without further effort
- Hubris (noun) – exaggerated pride or self-confidence
- Elan (noun) – vigorous spirit or enthusiasm
- Tacit (adjective) -expressed or carried on without words or speech
- Panache (noun) – dash or flamboyance in style and action
- Acute (adjective) – marked by keen discernment or intellectual perception especially of subtle distinctions
- Obtuse (adjective) – lacking sharpness or quickness of sensibility or intellect
- Astute (adjective) -mentally sharp or clever
- Zeitgeist (noun) – the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era
- Chthonic (adjective) – of or relating to the underworld
- Delta (noun) – the alluvial deposit at the mouth of a river
- Hoary (adjective) – gray or white with or as if with age
- Nuance (noun) – a subtle distinction or variation
- Impasse (noun) – a predicament affording no obvious escape
- Schism (noun) – a formal division in or separation from a church or religious body
- Dilate (intransitive verb) – to become wide
- Latent (adjective) – present and capable of emerging or developing but not now visible, obvious, active
- 3 Syllables:
- Adamant (adjective) – unshakable or insistent especially in maintaining a position or opinion
- Liminal (adjective) – of, relating to, or situated at a sensory threshold: barely perceptible or capable of eliciting a response
- Patina (noun) – a surface appearance of something grown beautiful especially with age or use
- Cavalier (adjective) – marked by or given to offhand and often disdainful dismissal of important matters
- Tenebrous (adjective) – shut off from the light
- Scintilla (noun) – spark or trace
- Acumen (noun) – keenness and depth of perception
- Sagacious (adjective) – keen and farsighted penetration and judgment
- Discerning (adjective) – showing insight and understanding
- Cognizant (adjective) – knowledgeable of something especially through personal experience
- Prescient (noun) – foreknowledge of events
- Prosaic (adjective) – differentiated from poetry; dull unimaginative
- Mnemonic (adjective) – assisting or intended to assist memory
- Didactic (adjective) – designed or intended to teach
- Erudite (adjective) – having or showing knowledge that is gained by studying
- Judicious (adjective) – having, exercising, or characterized by sound judgment
- Tectonics (noun) – a branch of geology concerned with the structure of the crust of a planet, especially with the formation of folds and faults in it
- Libido (noun) – instinctual psychic energy that in psychoanalytic theory is derived from primitive biological urges; sexual energy
- Expiate (verb) – to make amends for
- Mountebank (noun) – a boastful unscrupulous pretender
- Misnomer (noun) – use of a wrong or inappropriate name
- Virago (noun) – a loud overbearing woman; shrew
- Dogmatic (adjective) – characterized by or given to the expression of opinions very strongly or positively as if they were facts
- Abrogate (verb) – to abolish by authoritative action or annul
- Conundrum (noun) – an intricate and difficult problem
- Obfuscate (verb) – to throw into shadow; darken
- Postmodern (adjective) – various movements in reaction to modernism that are typically characterized by a return to traditional materials and forms (as in architecture) or by ironic self-reference and absurdity (as in literature)
- Palimpsest (noun) – writing material (such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased
- Cynosure (noun) – one that serves to direct or guide
- Paradox (noun) – a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true
- Narcissist (noun) – an extremely self-centered person who has an exaggerated sense of self-importance
- Redundant (adjective) – exceeding what is necessary or normal
- Enigma (noun) – something hard to understand or explain
- Visceral (adjective) – felt in or as if in the internal organs of the body
- Inculcate (verb) – to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions
- Dyspeptic (noun) – indigestion; ill humour
- Sobriquet (noun) – a descriptive name or epithet or nickname
- Prescience (noun) – human anticipation of the course of events
- Syllables:
- Assiduous (adjective) – showing great care, attention, and effort
- Apocryphal (adjective) – of doubtful authenticity; spurious
- Ineffable (adjective) – incapable of being expressed in words
- Iridescent (adjective) – having properties of iridescence or a lustrous rainbowlike play of color caused by differential refraction of light waves
- Casuistry (noun) – a resolving of specific cases of conscience, duty, or conduct through an interpretation of ethical principles or religious doctrine
- Lilliputian (adjective) – small or miniature (ref. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
- Symbiotic (adjective) – characterized by, living in, or being a close physical association
- Polysemous (adjective) – having multiple meanings
- Avaricious (adjective) – greedy of gain: excessively acquisitive especially in seeking to hoard riches
- Hermeneutics (noun) – the study of the methodological principles of interpretation
- Empirical (adjective) – originating in or based on observation or experience
- Hortatory (adjective) – urging to some course of conduct or action; exhorting; encouraging
- Concomitant (adjective) – accompanying, especially in a subordinate or incidental way
- Impunity (noun) – exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss
- Hegemony (noun) – influence or authority over others
- Labyrinthine (adjective) – related to a labyrinth: a place constructed of or full of intricate passageways and blind alleys
- Jeremiad (noun) – a prolonged lamentation or complaint
- Microcosm (noun) – a little world
- Attenuate (verb) – to lessen the amount, force, magnitude, or value; to weaken
- Rebarbative (adjective) – repellent or irritating
- Dialectic (noun) – the Socratic techniques of exposing false beliefs and eliciting truth
- Doppelganger (noun) – double; alter ego; a person’s twin
- Oxymoron (noun) – a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (such as cruel kindness
- Ambivalent (adjective) – having or showing simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward something or someone
- Simulacrum (noun) – a representation; an insubstantial form or semblance of something
- Tautology (noun) – needless repetition of an idea, statement, or word
- Ambiguous (adjective) – doubtful or uncertain especially from obscurity or indistinctness
- Reiterate (verb) – to state or do over again or repeatedly sometimes with wearying effect
- Iconoclast (noun) – a person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions
- Exegesis (noun) – explanation, exposition
- Dionysian (adjective) – characteristic of Dionysus or the cult of worship of Dionysus: being of a frenzied or orgiastic character
- Exiguous (adjective) – excessively scanty
- Draconian (adjective) – cruel, severe; a severe code of laws
- Peremptory (adjective) – putting an end to or precluding a right of action, debate, or delay
- Solipsistic (adjective) – extreme egocentricity
- Syllables:
- Inexorable (adjective) – not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped
- Hebetudinous (adjective) – suggestive of a person’s mental dullness, often marked by laziness or torpor
- Apollonian (adjective) – harmonious, measured, ordered, or balanced in character
- Metamorphosis (noun) –
- Supercilious (adjective) – coolly and patronizingly haughty
- Verisimilitude (noun) – the quality or state of being similar to the truth
- Iconographic (adjective) – representing something by pictures or diagrams
- Syllables:
- Indeterminacy (noun) – the quality or state of being indeterminate
- Ratiocination (noun) – the process of exact thinking
- Historiography (noun) – the principles, theory, and history of historical writing
- Infinitesimal (adjective) – immeasurably or incalculably small
- Syllables:
- Epistemological (adjective) – relating to the study of nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge
Use: merriam-webster.com/ for
pronunciation and further definitions of these words.