GREParole

VERB - To humble; disgrace

(My intention was not to abase the comedian.)

SYN: demean; humiliate

VERB - To reduce in amount, degree, or severity

(As the hurricane's force abated, the winds dropped and the sea became calm.)

SYN: ebb; lapse; let up; moderate; relent; slacken; subside; wane

VERB - To give up a position, right, or power

(With the angry mob clamoring outside the palace, the king abdicated his throne and fled.)

SYN: cede; relinquish; resign; quit; yield

ADJ - Deviating from what is normal and expected

(Since he had been a steady, cheerful worker for many years, his fellow postal workers did not expect his aberrant burst of rage.)

SYN: abnormal; anomalous; deviant; divergent; errant; irregular

NOUN - Temporary suppression or suspension

(The baseball game was held in abeyance while it continued to rain.)

SYN: deferral; delay; dormancy; postponement; remission

VERB - To reject; to abandon formally

(The spy abjured his allegiance to the United States when he defected to Russia.)

SYN: forswear; recall; recant; retract; take back

NOUN - A growth in size; an increase in amount

(The committee's strong fund-raising efforts resulted in an accretion in scholarship money.)

SYN: accumulation; buildup

NOUN - Highest point; summit; the highest level or degree attainable

(Just when he reached the acme of his power, the dictator was overthrown.)

SYN: apex; peak; summit

VERB - To make impure

(The restauranteur made his ketchup last longer by adulterating it with water.)

SYN: debase; doctor; load

ADJ - Phony; artificial

(The affected hairdresser spouted French phrases, though she had never been to France.)

SYN: insincere; pretentious; put-on

VERB - To increase in power, influence, and reputation

(The supervisor sought to aggrandize himself by claiming that the achievements of his staff were actually his own.)

SYN: amplify; apotheosize; augment; dignify; elevate; enlarge; ennoble; exalt; glorify; magnify; swell; uplift; wax

NOUN - Speed or quickness

(The restaurant won a reputation for fine service since the wait staff responded to their clients' requests with alacrity.)

SYN: celerity; dispatch; haste; swiftness

VERB - To make more bearable

(Taking aspirin helps to alleviate a headache.)

SYN: allay; assuage; comfort; ease; lessen; lighten; mitigate; palliate; relieve

NOUN - One who renounces a religious faith

(So that he could divorce his wife, the king scoffed at the church doctrines and declared himself an apostate.)

SYN: defector; deserter; traitor

NOUN - Approval and praise

(The approbation that Jerry Lewis received in France included a medal from the Ministry of Culture.)

SYN: acclaim; adulation; applause; commendation; compliments; exalt; extol; hail; kudos; praise

ADJ - Ancient; old-fashioned

(Her archaic Commodore computer could not run the latest software.)

SYN: ancient; antediluvian; antique; archaic; bygone; dated; dowdy; fusty; obsolete; old-fashioned; outdated; outmoded; passe'; prehistoric; stale; superannuated; superseded; vintage

VERB - To claim without justification; to claim for oneself without right.

(Gretchen watched in astonishment as her boss arrogated the credit for her brilliant work on the project.)

SYN: appropriate; presume; take

VERB - To make something unpleasant less severe.

(Like many people, Philip Larkin used alcohol to assuage his sense of meaninglessness and despair.)

SYN: allay; alleviate; appease; comfort; conciliate; ease; lighten; mitigate; mollify; pacify; palliate; placate; propitiate; relieve; soothe; sweeten

ADJ - Dignified; grandiose

(The august view of the Grand Teton summit took my breath away.)

SYN: admirable; awesome; grand; majestic

ADJ - Predictable; cliched; boring

(His conversation consisted of banal phrases like "Have a nice day" or "Another day, another dollar."

SYN: bland; bromidic; cliched; commonplace; fatuous; hackneyed; innocuous; insipid; jejune; musty; platitudinous; prosaic; quotidian; shopworn; stale; stereotypic; threadbare; timeworn; tired; trite; vapid; worn-out

NOUN - Group

(As predicted, a bevy of teenagers surrounded the rock star's limo.)

SYN: band; bunch; gang; pack; troop

VERB - To divide into two parts

(The large corporation just released a press statement announcing its plans to bifurcate.)

SYN: bisect

ADJ - Pompous in speech and manner

(Mussolini's speeches were mostly bombastic, his boasting and outrageous claims had no basis in fact.)

SYN: bloated; declamatory; fustian; grandiloquent; grandiose; high-flown; magniloquent; orotund; pretentious; rhetorical; self-important

NOUN - good-natured geniality; atmosphere of good cheer

(The aspects of her job that Dana loved the most were the flexible hours and the pleasant bonhomie in the office.)

NOUN - A secret group seeking to overturn something

(The boys on the street formed a cabal to keep girls out of their tree house.)

SYN: camp; circle; clan; clique; coterie; in-group; mafia; mob; ring

NOUN - Harsh, jarring noise

(The junior high orchestra created an almost unbearable cacophony as they tried to tune their instruments.)

SYN: chaos; clamor; din; discord; disharmony; noise

NOUN - A false and malicious accusation; misrepresentation

(The unscrupulous politician used calumny to bring down his opponent in the senatorial race.)

SYN: defamation; libel; slander

NOUN - A lie

(That tabloid's feature story about a goat giving birth to a human child was clearly a canard.)

SYN: falsehood; falsity; fib; misrepresentation; prevarication; tale; untruth

NOUN - Something that brings about a change in something else

(The imposition of harsh taxes was the catalyst that finally brought on the revolution.)

SYN: accelerator; goad; impetus; impulse; incentive; motivation; spur; stimulant

ADJ - Universal; broad and comprehensive

(Hot tea with honey is a catholic remedy for a sore throat.)

SYN: extensive; general

NOUN - Deception by means of craft or guile

(Dishonest used car salesmen often use chicanery to sell their beat-up old cars.)

SYN: artifice; conniving; craftiness; deception; deviousness; misrepresentation; pettifoggery; shadiness; sneakiness; sophistry; subterfuge; underhandedness

ADJ - Sickly sweet; excessive

(When Ann and Jay first started dating, their cloying affection towards one another often made their friends ill.)

SYN: excessive; fulsome

NOUN - Collaboration; complicity; conspiracy

(It came to light that the police chief and the mafia had a collusion in running the numbers racket.)

SYN: connivance; intrigue; machination

ADJ - Rebellious

(The contumacious teenager ran away from home when her parents told her she was grounded.)

SYN: factious; insubordinate; insurgent; mutinous; rebellious; seditious

VERB - To pamper; treat with great care

(Marta just loves to cosset her first and only grandchild.)

SYN: cater to; cuddle; dandle; fondle; love; pamper; pet; spoil

NOUN - An intimate group of persons with a similar purpose

(Angel invited a coterie of fellow stamp enthusiasts to stamp-trading party.)

SYN: clique; set

NOUN - Greed; strong desire

(The thief stared at the shining jewels with cupidity in his gleaming eyes.)

SYN: avarice; covetousness; rapacity

NOUN - Cranky person, usually old

(Ernesto was a notorious curmudgeon who snapped at anyone who disturbed him for any reason.)

SYN: crab; coot; grouch

NOUN - Downward slope

(Because the village was situated on the declivity of the hill, it never flooded.)

SYN: decline; descent; grade; slant; tilt

VERB - To mar the appearance of; vandalize

(After the wall was torn down, the students began to deface the statues of the Communist leaders of the former Eastern Bloc.)

SYN: disfigure; impair; spoil

ADJ - Subtly or unexpectedly harmful

(If only we had known the clocks were defective before putting them on the market, it wouldn't have been quite so deleterious to our reputation.)

SYN: adverse; inimical; injurious; hurtful

VERB - To speak of or treat with contempt; to mock

(The awkward child was often derided by his "cooler" peers.)

SYN: gibe; jeer; mock; ridicule; scoff; sneer; taunt

VERB - To dry out thoroughly

(After a few weeks lying on the desert's baking sands, the cow's carcass became completely desiccated.)

SYN: dehydrate; dry; parch

NOUN - An abusive, condemnatory speech

(The trucker bellowed a diatribe at the drive who had cut him off.)

SYN: fulmination; harangue; invective; jeremiad; malediction; obloquy; tirade

NOUN - Someone with an amateurish and superficial interest in a topic

(Jerry's friends were such dilettantes they seemed to have new jobs and hobbies every week.)

SYN: amateur; dabbler; superficial; tyro

VERB - To set right; free from error

(Galileo's observations disabused scholars of the notion that the sun revolved around the Earth.)

SYN: correct; undeceive

ADJ - Fundamentally different; entirely unlike

(Although the twins are physically identical, their personalities are disparate.)

SYN: different; dissimilar; divergent; diverse; variant; various

NOUN - A harsh and disagreeable combination, especially of sounds

(Cognitive dissonance is the inner conflict produced when long-standing beliefs are contradicted by new evidence.)

SYN: clash; contention; discord; dissension; dissent; dissidence; friction; strife; variance

NOUN - The female branch of a family

(The lazy husband refused to cook dinner for his wife, joking that the duty belongs to the distaff's side.)

SYN: maternal

ADJ - Amusing in a wry, subtle way

(Although the play couldn't be described as hilarious, it was certainly droll.)

SYN: comic; entertaining; funny; risible; witty

ADJ - Rigidly devoted to theories without regard for practicality; dogmatic

(The professor's manner of teaching was considered doctrinaire for such a liberal school.)

SYN: dictatorial; inflexible

ADJ - Suffering from indigestion; gloomy and irritable

(The dyspeptic young man cast a gloom over the party the minute he walked in.)

SYN: acerbic; melancholy; morose; solemn; sour

NOUN - Warm praise

(Georgia's "Encomium to Helen" was written as a tribute to Helen of Troy.)

SYN: citation; eulogy; panegyric; salutation; tribute

VERB - To shun; to avoid (as something wrong or distasteful)

(The filmmaker eschewed artificial light for her actors, resulting in a stark movie style.)

SYN: avoid; bilk; elude; escape; evade; shun; shy

VERB - To clear from blame; prove innocent

(The legal system is intended to convict those who are guilty and exculpate those who are innocent.)

SYN: absolve; acquit; clear; exonerate; vindicate

ADJ - Urgent; requiring immediate action

(The patient was losing blood so rapidly that it was exigent to stop the source of the bleeding.)

SYN: critical; imperative; needed; urgent

ADJ - Clearly stated or shown; forthright in expression

(In Reading Comprehension, questions that ask directly about a detail in the passage are sometimes called Explicit Text questions.)

SYN: candid; clear-cut; definite; definitive; express; frank; specific; straightforward; unambiguous; unequivocal

VERB - To censor

(Government propagandists expurgated all negative references to the dictator from the film.)

SYN: bowdlerize; cut; sanitize

ADJ - Foul-smelling; putrid

(The fetid stench from the outhouse caused Francesca to wrinkle her nose in disgust.)

SYN: funky; malodorous; noisome; rank; stinky

ADJ - Secret; stealthy

(Glenn was furtive when he peered out of the corner of his eye at the stunningly beautiful model.)

SYN: clandestine; covert; shifty; surreptitious; underhand

ADJ - Unfortunate; having bad luck

(I wish someone would give that poor, hapless soul some food and shelter.)

SYN: ill-fated; ill-starred; jinxed; luckless; unlucky

ADJ - Very old; whitish or gray from age

(The old man's hoary beard contrasted starkly to the new stubble of his teenage grandson.)

SYN: ancient; antediluvian; antique; venerable; vintage

ADJ - Of a similar kind

(The class was fairly homogenous since almost all of the students were journalism majors.)

SYN: consistent; standardized; uniform; unvarying

VERB - To manage economically; to use sparingly

(The cyclist paced herself at the start of the race, knowing that if she husbanded her resources she'd have the strength to break out of the pack later on.)

SYN: conserve

ADJ - Having low moral standards; not noble in character; mean

(The photographer was paid a princely sum for the picture of the self-proclaimed ethicist in the ignoble act of pick-pocketing.)

SYN: lowly; vulgar

VERB - To infuse, dye, wet, or moisten

(Marcia struggled to imbue her children with decent values, a difficult task in this day and age.)

SYN: charge; freight; impregnate; permeate; pervade

NOUN - Blocked path; dilemma with no solution

(The rock slide produced an impasse, so no one could proceed further on the road.)

SYN: cul-de-sac; deadlock; stalemate

ADJ - Poor; having no money

(After the stock market crashed, many former millionaires found themselves impecunious.)

SYN: destitute; impoverished; indigent; needy; penniless

ADJ - Not capable of being disturbed.

(The counselor had so much experience dealing with distraught children that she was imperturbable, even when faced with the wildest tantrums.)

SYN: composed; dispassionate; impassive; serene; stoical

ADJ - Impossible to penetrate; incapable of being affected

(A good raincoat will be impervious to moisture.)

SYN: impregnable; resistant

ADJ - Quick to act without thinking

(It isn't good for an investment banker to be impetuous since much thought should be given to all the possible outcomes.)

SYN: impulsive; precipitate; rash; reckless; spontaneous

ADJ - Not fully formed; disorganized

(The ideas expressed in Nietzsche's mature work also appear in an inchoate form in his earliest writing.)

SYN: amorphous; incoherent; incomplete; unorganized

VERB - To teach; impress in the mind

(Most parents inculcate their children with their beliefs and ideas instead of allowing their children to develop their own values.)

SYN: implant; indoctrinate; instill; preach

ADJ - Hostile; unfriendly

(Even though a cease-fire had been in place for months, the two sides were still inimical to each other.)

SYN: adverse; antagonistic; dissident; recalcitrant

ADJ - Harmless

(Some snakes are poisonous, but most species are innocuous and pose no danger to humans.)

SYN: benign; harmless; inoffensive; insipid

NOUN - An investigation; an inquiry

(The police chief ordered an inquest to determine what went wrong.)

SYN: probe; quest; research

ADJ - Not easily managed or manipulated

(Intractable for hours, the wild horse eventually allowed the rider to mount.)

SYN: stubborn; unruly

ADJ - Uncompromising; refusing to be reconciled

(The professor was intransigent on the deadline, insisting that everyone turn the assignment in at the same time.)

SYN: implacable; inexorable; irreconcilable; obdurate; obstinate; remorseless; rigid; unbending; unrelenting; unyielding

VERB - To harden; accustom; become used to

(Eventually, Hassad became inured to the sirens that went off every night and could sleep through them.)

SYN: condition; familiarize; habituate

NOUN - Ceremony conferring authority.

(At Napoleon's investiture, he grabbed the crown from the Pope's hands and placed it on his head himself.)

SYN: inaugural; inauguration; induction; initiation; installation

ADJ - Envious, obnoxious, or offensive; likely to promote ill-will

(It is cruel and invidious for parents to play favorites with their children.)

SYN: discriminatory; insulting; jaundiced; resentful

ADJ - Easily made angry

(Attila the Hun's irascible and violent nature made all who dealt with him fear for their lives.)

SYN: cantankerous; irritable; ornery; testy

NOUN - Nonsensical talk; specialized language

(You need to master technical jargon in order to communicate successfully with engineers.)

SYN: argot; cant; dialect; idiom; slang

NOUN - Belligerent support of one's country

(The professor's jingoism made it difficult for the students to participate in an open political discussion.)

SYN: chauvinism; nationalism

ADJ - Playful; humorous

(The jocular old man entertained his grandchildren for hours.)

SYN: amusing; comical

NOUN - Sound of a funeral bell; omen or death or failure

(When the townspeople heard the knell from the church belfry, they knew that their mayor had died.)

SYN: chime; peal; toll

ADJ - Using few words

(He was the classic laconic native of Maine; he talked as if he were being charged for each word.)

SYN: concise; curt; pithy; taciturn; terse

ADJ - Lacking energy; indifferent; slow

(The languid cat cleaned its fur, ignoring the vicious snarling dog chained a few feet away from it.)

SYN: faineant; lackadaisical; listless; sluggish; weak

ADJ - Relating to precious stones or the art of cutting them

(Most lapidary work today is done with the use of motorized equipment.)

NOUN - Generous giving (as of money) to others who may seem inferior

(She'd always relied on her parent's largess, but after graduation she had to get a job.)

SYN: benevolence; boon; compliment; present; favor

NOUN - A state of diminished energy

(The lack of energy that characterizes patients with anemia makes lassitude one of the primary symptoms of the disease.)

SYN: debilitation; enervation; fatigue; languor; listlessness; tiredness; weariness

VERB - To give praise; to glorify

(Parades and fireworks were staged to laud the success of the rebels.)

SYN: acclaim; applaud; commend; compliment; exalt; extol; hail; praise

ADJ - Immoral; unrestrained by society

(Religious citizens were outraged by the licentious exploits of the free-spirited artists living in town.)

SYN: lewd; wanton

ADJ - Clear; transparent

(Fernando could see all the way to the bottom through the pond's limpid water.)

SYN: lucid; pellucid; serene

ADJ - Easily flexed; limber; agile

(The lissome yoga instructor twisted herself into shapes that her students could only dream of.)

SYN: graceful; lithe; supple

ADJ - Sorrowful; mournful; dismal

(Irish wakes are rousing departure from the lugubrious funeral services to which most people are accustomed.)

SYN: funereal; gloomy; melancholy; somber; woeful

ADJ - Bright; brilliant; glowing

(The park was bathed in luminous sunshine that warmed the bodies and the souls of the visitors.)

SYN: incandescent; lucent; lustrous; radiant; resplendent

VERB - To evade responsibility by pretending to be ill.

(A common way to avoid the draft was by malingering -- pretending to be mentally or physically ill so as to avoid being taken by the army.)

SYN: shirk; slack

ADJ - Capable of being shaped

(Gold is the most malleable of precious metals; it can be easily formed into almost any shape.)

SYN: adaptable; ductile; plastic; pliable; pliant

NOUN - Strict disciplinarian; one who rigidly follows rules

(A complete martinet, the official insisted that Pete fill out all the forms again even though he was already familiar with his case.)

SYN: dictator; stickler; tyrant

ADJ - Overly sentimental

(The mother's death should have been a touching scene, but the movie's treatment of it was so maudlin that, instead of making the audience cry, it made them cringe.)

SYN: bathetic; mawkish; saccharine; weepy

ADJ - Dishonest

(So many of her stories were mendacious that I decided she must be a pathological liar.)

SYN: deceitful; false; lying; untruthful

NOUN - Beggar

("Please, sir, can you spare a dime?" begged the mendicant as the businessman walked past.)

SYN: panhandler; pauper

ADJ - Quick, shrewd, and unpredictable

(Her mercurial personality made it difficult to guess who she would react to the bad news.)

SYN: clever; crafty; volatile; whimsical

ADJ - Gaudy; falsely attractive

(The casino's meretricious decor horrified the cultivated interior designer.)

SYN: flashy; insincere; loud; specious; tawdry

NOUN - Figure of speech comparing two different things

(The metaphor "a sea of troubles" suggests a lot of troubles by comparing their number to the vastness of the sea.)

SYN: allegory; analogy; simile; symbol

NOUN - A person who dislikes others

(The Grinch was such a misanthrope that even the sight of children singing made him angry.)

SYN: curmudgeon

NOUN - A written note or letter

(Priscilla spent hours composing a romantic missive for Elvis.)

SYN: message

VERB - To calm or make less severe

(Their argument was so intense that it was difficult to believe any compromise would mollify them.)

SYN: appease; assuage; conciliate; pacify

VERB - To shed hair, skin, or an outer layer periodically

(The snake molted its skin and left it behind in a crumpled mess.)

SYN: cast; defoliate; desquamate

ADJ - Diverse

(Ken opened the hotel room window, letting in the multifarious noises of the great city.)

SYN: assorted; indiscriminate; heterogeneous; legion; motley; multifold; multiform; multiplex; populous; varied

ADJ - Stinking; putrid

(A dead mouse trapped in your walls produces a noisome odor.)

SYN: disgusting; foul; malodorous

ADJ - Existing in name only; negligible

(A nominal but far from devoted member of the high school yearbook committee, she rarely attends meetings.)

SYN: minimal; titular

NOUN - A subtle expression of meaning or quality

(The scholars argued for hours over tiny nuances in the interpretation of the last line of the poem.)

SYN: gradation; subtlety; tone

NOUN - Coin collecting

(Tomas's passion for numismatics has resulted in an impressive collection of coin from all over the world.)

ADJ - Hardened in feeling; resistant to persuasion

(The president was completely obdurate on the issue, and no amount of persuasion would change his mind.)

SYN: inflexible; intransigent; recalcitrant; tenacious; unyielding

ADJ - Too helpful; meddlesome

(While planning her wedding, Maya discovered how officious her future mother-in-law could be.)

SYN: eager; unwanted; intrusive

ADJ - Troublesome and oppressive; burdensome

(The assignment was so extensive and difficult to manage that it proved onerous to the team in charge of it.)

SYN: arduous; backbreaking; burdensome; cumbersome; difficult; exacting; formidable; hard; laborious; oppressive; rigorous; taxing; trying

NOUN - Public disgrace

(After the scheme to embezzle the elderly was made public, the treasurer resigned in utter opprobrium.)

SYN: discredit; disgrace; dishonor; disrepute; ignominy; infamy; obloquy; shame

ADJ - Pompous

(Roberto soon grew tired of his date's orotund babble about her new job, and decided their first date would probably be their last.)

SYN: aureate; bombastic; declamatory; euphuistic; flowery; grandiloquent; magniloquent; oratorical; overblown; sonorous

VERB - To change into bone; to become hardened or set in a rigidly conventional pattern.

(The forensics expert ascertained the body's age based on the degree to which the facial structure had ossified.)

NOUN - Excessive showiness

(The ostentation of the Sun King's court is evident in the lavish decoration and luxuriousness of his palace of Versailles.)

SYN: conspicuousness; flashiness; pretentiousness; showiness

NOUN - Elaborate praise; formal hymn of praise

(The director's panegyric for the donor who kept his charity going was heart-warming.)

SYN: compliment; homage

NOUN - Impressive array

(Her resume' indicates a panoply of skills and accomplishments.)

SYN: array; display; fanfare; parade; pomp; shine; show

NOUN - Piece of literature or music imitating other works

(The playwright's clever pastiche of the well-known children's story had the audience rolling in the aisles.)

SYN: medley; spoof

NOUN - Minor sin or offense

(Gabriel tends to harp on his brother's peccadilloes and never lets him live them down.)

SYN: failing; fault; lapse; misstep

NOUN - Having bad connotations; disparaging

(The teacher scolded Mark for his unduly pejorative comments about his classmate's presentation.)

SYN: belittling; dismissive; insulting

VERB - To wander from place to place; to travel, especially on foot

(Shivani enjoyed peregrinating the expansive grounds of Central Park.)

SYN: journey; traverse; trek

ADJ - Wandering from place to place, especially on foot

(Eleana's peripatetic meanderings took her all over the countryside in the summer months.)

SYN: itinerant; nomadic; wayfaring

ADJ - Shrewd, astute, or keen-witted

(Inspector Poirot used his perspicacious mind to solve mysteries.)

SYN: insightful; intelligent; sagacious

ADJ - Calm and unemotional in temperament

(Although the bomb could go off at any moment, the phlegmatic demolition expert remained calm and unafraid.)

SYN: apathetic; calm; emotionless; impassive; indifferent; passionless; unemotional

ADJ - Profound or substantial yet concise, succinct, and to the point

(Martha's pithy comments during the interview must have been impressive because she got the job.)

SYN: brief; compact; laconic; terse

ADJ - Courageous; spunky

(The plucky young nurse dove into the foxhole, determined to help the wounded soldier.)

SYN: brave; bold; gutsy

NOUN - Controversy; argument; verbal attack

(The candidate's polemic against his opponent was vicious and small-minded rather than convincing and well-reasoned.)

SYN: denunciation; refutation

ADJ - Shrewd and practical in managing or dealing with things; diplomatic

(She was wise to curb her tongue and was able to explain her problem to the judge in a respectful and politic manner.)

SYN: tactful

NOUN - A speaker of many languages

(Ling's extensive travels have helped her to become a true polyglot.)

NOUN - A monarch or ruler with great power

(Alex was much kinder before he assumed the role of potentate.)

SYN: dominator; leader

NOUN - Short summary of facts

(Farah wrote a precis of her thesis on the epic poem to share with the class.)

SYN: summary

ADJ - Having foresight

(Jonah's decision to sell the apartment seemed to be a prescient one, as its value soon dropped by half.)

SYN: augural; divinatory; mantic; oracular; premonitory

VERB - To lie or deviate from the truth

(Rather than admit that he had overslept again, the employee prevaricated and claimed that heavy traffic had prevented him from arriving to work on time.)

SYN: equivocate; lie; perjure

NOUN - Complete honesty and integrity

(George Washington's reputation for probity is illustrated in the legend about his inability to lie after he chopped down the cherry tree.)

SYN: integrity; morality; rectitude; uprightness; virtue

ADJ - Corrupt; degenerate

(Some historians claim that it was the Romans' decadent, profligate behavior that led to the decline of the Roman Empire.)

SYN: dissolute; extravagant; improvident; prodigal; wasteful

VERB - To conciliate; to appease

(Because their gods were angry and vengeful, the Vikings propitiated them with many sacrifices.)

SYN: appease; conciliate; mollify; pacify; placate

ADJ - Inclined to complain; irritable

(Curtis's complaint letter received prompt attention after the company labeled him a querulous potential troublemaker.)

SYN: peevish; puling; sniveling; whiny

ADJ - Motionless

(Many animals are quiescent over the winter months, minimizing activity in order to conserve energy.)

SYN: dormant; latent

VERB - To make thinner or sparser

(Since the atmosphere rarefies as altitudes increase, the air at the top of very tell mountains is too thin to breathe.)

SYN: attenuate; thin

NOUN - Meal or mealtime

(Ravi prepared a delicious repast of chicken tikka and naan.)

SYN: banquet; feast

ADJ - Impatient, uneasy, or restless

(The passengers became restive after having to wait in line for hours and began to shout complaints to the airline staff.)

SYN: agitated; anxious; fretful

ADJ - Silent; reserved

(Physically small and verbally reticent, Joan Didion often went unnoticed by those she was reporting upon.)

SYN: cool; introverted; laconic; standoffish; taciturn; undemonstrative

ADJ - Humorous in a vulgar way

(The court jester's ribald brand of humor delighted the rather uncouth king.)

SYN: coarse; gross; indelicate; lewd; obscene

ADJ - Very highly ornamented; relating to an 18th century artistic style of elaborate ornamentation

(The ornate furniture in the house reminded Tatiana of the rococo style.)

SYN: intricate; ornate

ADJ - Extremely sacred; beyond criticism

(Many people considered Mother Teresa to be sacrosanct and would not tolerate any criticism of her.)

SYN: holy; inviolable; off-limits

ADJ - Shrewd; wise

(Owls have a reputation for being sagacious, perhaps because of their big eyes, which resemble glasses.)

SYN: astute; judicious; perspicacious; sage; wise

ADJ - Prominent; of notable significance

(His most salient characteristic is his tendency to dominate every conversation.)

SYN: marked; noticeable; outstanding

ADJ - Healthful

(Rundown and sickly, Rita hoped that the fresh mountain air would have a salubrious effect on her health.)

SYN: bracing; curative; medicinal; therapeutic; tonic

NOUN - Trace amount

(This poison is so powerful that no more than a scintilla of it is needed to kill a horse.)

SYN: atom; iota; mote; spark; speck

VERB - To calm down or moderate

(In order to slake his curiosity, Bryan finally took a tour backstage at the theater.)

SYN: moderate; quench; satisfy

NOUN - Nickname

(One of Ronald Reagan's sobriquets was "The Gipper.")

SYN: alias; pseudonym

NOUN - Grammatical mistake; blunder in speech

("I aint' going with you," she said, obviously unaware of her solecism.)

SYN: blooper; faux pas; vulgarism

ADJ - Causing sleep or lethargy

(The movie proved to be so soporific that soon loud snores were heard throughout the cinema.)

SYN: hypnotic; narcotic; slumberous; somnolent

NOUN - A mark of shame or discredit

(In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne was required to wear the letter A on her clothes as a public stigma for her adultery.)

SYN: blemish; blot; opprobrium; stain; taint

NOUN - Temporary irregularity in musical rhythm.

(A jazz enthusiast will appreciate the use of syncopation in this musical genre.)

ADJ - Done without using words

(Although not a word was said, everyone in the room knew that a tacit agreement had been made about what course of action to take.)

SYN: implicit; implied; undeclared; unsaid; unuttered

NOUN - One who flatters in the hope of gaining favors.

(The king was surrounded by toadies who rushed to agree with whatever outrageous thing he said.)

SYN: parasite; sycophant

NOUN - Extreme mental and physical sluggishness

(After surgery, the patient's torpor lasted several hours until the anesthesia wore off.)

SYN: apathy; languor

ADJ - Temporary; lasting a brief time

(The reporter lived a transitory life, staying in one place only long enough to cover the current story.)

SYN: ephemeral; evanescent; fleeting; impermanent; momentary

ADJ - Acute, sharp, or incisive; forceful; effective

(Tyrone's trenchant observations in class made him the professor's favorite student.)

SYN: biting; caustic; cutting; keen

NOUN - Beginner; novice

(An obvious tyro at salsa, Millicent received no invitations to dance.)

SYN: apprentice; fledgling; greenhorn; neophyte; tenderfoot

VERB - To scold sharply

(The teacher upbraided the student for scrawling graffiti all over the walls of the school.)

SYN: berate; chide; rebuke; reproach; tax

NOUN - The practice of lending money at exorbitant rates

(The moneylender was convicted of usury when it was discovered that he charged 50 percent interest on all his loans.)

SYN: loan-sharking

VERB - To physically sway or be indecisive

(The customer held up the line as he vacillated between ordering chocolate-chip or rocky-road ice cream.)

SYN: dither; falter; fluctuate; oscillate; waver

ADJ - varied; marked with different colors

(The variegated foliage of the jungle allows it to support thousands of different animal species.)

SYN: diversified

VERB - To respect deeply

(In a traditional Confucian society, the young venerate their elders, deferring to the elders' wisdom and experience.)

SYN: adore; honor; idolize; revere

NOUN - Filled with truth and accuracy

(She had a reputation for veracity, so everyone trusted her description of events.)

SYN; candor; exactitude; fidelity; probity

NOUN - Powerful or influential person

(The entertainment magnate brought two cable TV stations to add to his collection of magazines and publishing houses.)

SYN: dignitary; luminary; nabob; potentate; tycoon

ADJ - Wordy

(The professor's answer was so verbose that his student forgot what the original question had been.)

SYN: long-winded; loquacious; prolix; superfluous

VERB - To dance or skip around playfully

(From her office, Amy enviously watched the playful puppies gambol around Central Park.)

SYN: caper; cavort; frisk; frolic; rollick; romp

ADJ - Green with vegetation; inexperienced

(He wandered deep into the verdant woods in search of mushrooms and other edible flora.)

SYN: Grassy; leafy; wooded

ADJ - Cowardly; without courage

(The pusillanimous man would not enter the yard where the miniature poodle was barking.)

SYN: cowardly; timid

ADJ - Related to spring; fresh

(Bea basked in the balmy vernal breezes, happy that winter was coming to an end.)

SYN: springlike; youthful

NOUN - Beauty

(The mortals gazed in admiration at Venus, stunned by her incredible pulchritude.)

SYN: comeliness; gorgeousness; handsomeness; loveliness; prettiness

NOUN - A change or variation; ups and downs

(Investors must be prepared for vicissitudes of the stock market.)

SYN: inconstancy; mutability

VERB - To clear of blame

(The fugitive was exonerated when another criminal confessed to committing the crime.)

SYN: absolve; acquit; clear; exculpate; vindicate

NOUN - Vitality and energy

(The vim with which she worked so early in the day explained why she was so productive.)

SYN: force; power

ADJ - Discolored from a bruise; pale; reddened with anger

(Andre' was livid when he discovered that someone had spilled grape juice all over his cashmere coat.)

SYN: ashen; black-and-blue; furious; pallid

ADJ - Thick and adhesive, like a slow-flowing fluid

(Most viscous liquids, like oil or honey, become even thicker as they are cooled down.)

SYN: gelatinous; glutinous; thick

ADJ - Clear and easily understood

(The explanations were written in a simple and lucid manner so that students were immediately able to apply what they had learned.)

SYN: clear; coherent; explicit; intelligible; limpid

VERB - To abuse verbally; berate

(Vituperating someone is never a constructive way to effect change.)

SYN: castigate; reproach; scold

ADJ - talkative; speaking easily; glib

(The voluble man and his reserved wife proved the old saying that opposites attract.)

SYN: loquacious; verbose

ADJ - Causing grief or sorrow; serious and distressing

(Maude and Bertha sobbed loudly throughout the grievous event.)

SYN: dire; dolorous; grave; mournful

ADJ - Clever; deceptive

(Yet again, the wily coyote managed to elude the ranchers who wanted to capture it.)

SYN: crafty; cunning; tricky

NOUN - A person who is guided by materialism and is disdainful of intellectual or artistic values

(The philistine never even glanced at the rare violin in his collection but instead kept an eye on its value and sold it at a profit.)

SYN: boor; bourgeois; capitalist; clown; lout; materialist; vulgarian

ADJ - Charming; happily engaging

(Lenore gave the doorman a winsome smile, and he let her pass to the front of the line.)

SYN: attractive; delightful

ADJ - Having a sharp edge; intellectually sharp; perceptive

(With her keen intelligence, she figured out the puzzle in seconds flat.)

SYN: acute; canny; quick

ADJ - Shriveled; withered; wrinkled

(The wizened old man was told that the plastic surgery necessary to make him look young again would cost more money than he could imagine.)

SYN: atrophied; dessicated; gnarled; wasted

NOUN - Use of an inoffensive word or phrase in place of a more distasteful one

(The funeral director preferred to use the euphemism "sleeping" instead of the word "dead.")

SYN: nice-nellyism

NOUN - A ghost or specter; a ghost of a living person seen just before his or her death

(Gideon thought he saw a wraith late one night as he sat vigil outside his great uncle's bedroom door.)

SYN: apparition; bogeyman; phantasm; shade; spirit

VERB - To join together

(As soon as the farmer had yoked his oxen together, he began to plow the fields.)

SYN: bind; harness; pair

ADJ - Relating to motion; characterized by movement

(The kinetic sculpture moved back and forth, startling the museum visitors.)

SYN: active; dynamic; mobile

NOUN - Passion; excitement

(She brought her typical zeal to the project, sparking enthusiasm in the other team members.)

SYN: ardency; fervor; fire; passion

VERB - To overwhelm; to cover with water

(The tidal wave inundated Atlantis, which was lost beneath the water.)

SYN: deluge; drown; engulf; flood; submerge

NOUN - The point of culmination; peak

(The diva considered her appearance at the Metropolitan Opera to be the zenith of her career.)

SYN: acme; pinnacle

VERB - To damage or deface; spoil

(Telephone poles mar the natural beauty of the countryside.)

SYN: blemish; disfigure; impair; injure; scar