a. powerful; mighty; strong; vigorous; forcible
E.g. His memoir was full of descriptions of puissant military heroics, but most were exaggerations or outright lies.
n. great physical beauty and appeal; attractive moral excellence; moral beauty
E.g. I do not envy the judges who have to select this year's Miss America from this collection of female pulchritude.
v. pound, crush, or grind to powder or dust
E.g. Before sprinkling the dried herbs into the stew, they first pulverize them into a fine powder.
a. marked by precise accordance with details
E.g. Percy is punctilious about observing the rules of etiquette whenever Miss Manners invites him to stay.
n. authority on a subject; learned person; expert
E.g. The author who writes about SAT I as if he is pundit actually knows very little about the test.
v. steal, often in violation of trust; put away; remove
E.g. The amateur detective Dupin saw him purloin the letter for which the police had search in vain.
n. design or tendency; meaning; import; disguise; covering
E.g. The purport of what he said is that he is right.
a. cowardly; lacking strength and firmness of mind
E.g. You should be ashamed of your pusillanimous conduct during this dispute.
n. person with insane desire to set things on fire
E.g. The detectives searched the area for the pyromania who had set these costly fires.
v. drink with relish; swallow hurriedly or greedily
E.g. As we quaff our ale, we listen to the lively songs of the students in the tavern.
n. sudden feeling of sickness or faintness; sudden attack of illness
E.g. My main qualm is the lack of consistency and logical plotting.
a. habitually complaining; expressing complaint or grievance
E.g. Even the most agreeable toddlers can begin to act querulous if they miss their nap.
a. at rest; dormant; temporarily inactive
E.g. After the great eruption, fear of Mount Etna was great; people did not return to cultivate its rich hillside lands until the volcano had been quiescent for a full two years.
n. pure, highly concentrated essence of a thing
E.g. In these times of strictest economy, it would perhaps be interesting to go deeper into the ways of those untiring thrifty ants who seem to know how "To cut a centime in four" and extract the quintessence from a bone.
a. idealistic without regard to practicality
E.g. Constantly coming up with quixotic, unworkable schemes to save the world, Simon has his heart in the right place, but his head somewhere in the clouds.
a. suggesting puzzlement; mocking; curious
E.g. When the skinny teenager tripped over his own feet stepping into the bullpen, Coach raised one quizzical eyebrow, shook his head, and said, "Okay, kid. You're here, let's see what you've got.".
n. storyteller; one who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit
E.g. My father was a gifted raconteur with an unlimited supply of anecdotes.
v. spread out; effuse; issue or emerge in rays or waves
E.g. You can fell heat is going to radiate from the metal box.
n. rafts man; originally, any rough and somewhat heavy piece of timber
E.g. The big rafter is visible in this room.
n. pleasantry or slight satire; banter; jesting language; satirical merriment
E.g. Excitement instantly seized the whole party: a running fire of raillery and jests was proceeding when Sam returned.
n. clothing; garments; dress; garb; costume
E.g. "How can I go to the ball?" asked Cinderella. "I have no raiment fit to wear.".
n. act or process of branching out or dividing into branches; subdivision or branch
E.g. We must examine every ramification of this problem.
v. divide into branches or subdivisions; subordinate branchlike parts
E.g. When the plant begins to ramify, it is advisable to nip off most of the new branches.
n. something defends from assault or secures safety; defense
E.g. Perhaps the tower is part of the rampart of the city.
n. bitter, long-lasting resentment; deep-seated ill will; hatred
E.g. Thirty years after the war, she could not let go of the past but was still consumed with rancor against the foe.
v. grow worse; cause persistent irritation or resentment
E.g. The memory of having been jilted would rankle him for years.
a. excessively greedy; predatory; taking by force; plundering
E.g. The ruins of the resort are now covered in rapacious island vegetation creeping in from the jungle.
a. absorbed; deeply moved or delighted
E.g. Caught up in the wonder of the storyteller's tale, the rapt listeners sat motionless, hanging on his every word.
n. reasoning; act of drawing conclusions from premises
E.g. While Watson was a man of average intelligence, Holmes was a genius, whose gift for ratiocination made him a superb detective.
a. harsh and rough-sounding; disturbing public peace; loud and rough
E.g. The raucous crowd of New Year's Eve revelers got progressively noisier as midnight drew near.
v. offer sudden or harsh resistance; turn down or shut out; repel or drive back
E.g. You rebuff his invitation so smoothly that he does not realize he is snubbed.
v. scold harshly; criticize severely
E.g. No matter how sharply I rebuke Huck for his misconduct, he never talks back but just stand there like a stump.
a. obstinately stubborn; determined to resist authority
E.g. Which animal do you think is more recalcitrant, a pig or a mule?.
v. summarize; repeat in concise form
E.g. Let us recapitulate what has been said thus far before going ahead.
v. move back; retreat; withdraw a claim or pretension
E.g. His hair is beginning to recede from his forehead.
n. habitual return to crime; committing new offenses after being punished for crime
E.g. Prison reformers in the United States are disturbed by the high rate of recidivism; the number of men serving second and third terms in prison indicates the failure of prisons to rehabilitate the inmates.
v. render an equivalent to, for service, loss; requite; remunerate; compensate; give in return; pay back
E.g. The insurance company will recompense his loss.
n. uprightness; moral virtue; correctness of judgment
E.g. The Eagle Scout was a model of rectitude.
a. reclining; lying down completely or in part
E.g. The command "AT EASE" does not permit you to take a recumbent position.
n. act of recurring, or state of being recurrent; return
E.g. I did not like this iteration of one idea -- this strange recurrence of one image, and I grew nervous as bedtime approached and the hour of the vision drew near.