Wednesday, December 16, 2009

DECEMBER - High frequency words

1. Flagrant - Conspicuously bad, offensive, or reprehensible; flaunting, blatant; without shame; extremely obvious or conspicuous
2. Vacillation - The act of vacillating; a moving one way and the other; a wavering; indecision in speech or action; changing location by moving back and forth
3. Obdurate - Hardened in wrongdoing or wickedness; stubbornly impenitent; pig-headed, stubborn; stubborn and unfeeling; completely lacking in compassion
4. Lionize - To look on or treat (a person) as a celebrity; assign great social importance to
5. Obfuscate - To render indistinct or dim; darken; to make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand
6. Apathy - Lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference; lack of emotion or feeling; impassiveness; uncaring attitude, disinterested
7. Abase - To lower in rank, prestige, or esteem; deprive of self-esteem or confidence; degrade; lacking feeling or emotion
8. Accolade - An expression of approval; praise; special acknowledgment; an award; ceremonial embrace, as of greeting or salutation; ceremonial bestowal of knighthood; recognition; ornamental treatment, used over an arch, a door, or a window, composed of two curves meeting in the middle; often a richly decorated molding; approval
9. Adulation - Excessive flattery or admiration; excessive, ingratiating praise; overenthusiastic praise; servile flattery; exaggerated and hypocritical praise
10. Abridge - To reduce the length of (a written text); condense; cut short; curtail; make shorter by using fewer words
11. Ambivalence - The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings, such as love and hate, toward a person, object, or idea; equivocation; state of having conflicting feelings
12. Amorous - Having the ability to fall in love; loving, affectionate
13. Appeasement - The policy of granting concessions to potential enemies to maintain peace; satisfaction; pacification
14. Deft - Quick and skillful; adroit; agile, clever; quick and neat in action; skillful
15. Complacent - Contented to a fault; self-satisfied and unconcerned; contented; contented to a fault
16. Maladroit - Marked by a lack of adroitness; inept; awkward, clumsy; tactless
17. Revile - To assail with abusive language; vituperate; use abusive language; attack with harsh, often insulting language; criticize
18. Sunder - To break or wrench apart; sever; a division or separation; to crack or split into two or more fragments by means of or as a result of force, a blow, or strain
19. Obstruse - ( is an obsolete English spelling of abstruce) Abstruse means difficult to understand; recondite
20. Aplomb - Self-confident assurance; poise; assurance of manner or of action; a firm belief in one's own powers; stable, calm state of the emotions
21. Glean - To gather grain left behind by reapers; to collect (something) bit by bit
22. Asunder - Into separate parts or pieces; apart from each other either in position or in direction; widely separated especially in space
23. Gruffness - A throaty harshness; an abrupt discourteous manner
24. Dab - To spread with a greasy, sticky, or dirty substance; a tiny amount; a person with a high degree of knowledge or skill in a particular field
25. Inkling - A slight hint or indication; a slight understanding or vague idea or notion; a subtle quality underlying or felt to underlie a situation, action, or person
26. Miff - A petulant, bad-tempered mood; a huff; petty quarrel or argument; a tiff; cause to become offended or annoyed; annoy, bewilder; a state of irritation or annoyance; extreme displeasure caused by an insult or slight
27. Petulant - Unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered; peevish; crabby, moody; easily irritated or annoyed
28. Curmudgeon - An ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions; a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas
29. Passe - No longer current or in fashion; out-of-date; old-fashioned; of a style or method formerly in vogue
30. Alibi - The statement of being somewhere else when a crime was committed; make an excuse for oneself; explanation offered to avoid blame or justify action; an excuse
31. Piquant - Pleasantly pungent or tart in taste; spicy; appealingly provocative; charming, interesting, or attractive; flavorful, biting; agreeably pungent; stimulating
32. Tribulation - Great affliction, trial, or distress; suffering; experience that tests one's endurance, patience, or faith; pain, unhappiness; frustrating or catastrophic event
33. Barb - A sharp point that sticks out from something else; pointed comment; sharp point projecting in reverse direction to the main point of a weapon or tool, as on an arrow or fishhook; any of various Old World freshwater fishes; linen covering for a woman's head, throat, and chin worn in medieval times; horse of a breed introduced by the Moors into Spain from northern Africa that resembles the Arabians and is known for its speed and endurance; one of a breed of domestic pigeons that is similar to the carrier and has dark plumage
34. Bellicose - Warlike or hostile in manner or temperament; likely to quarrel or fight; having or showing an eagerness to fight
35. Glutton - A person who eats or consumes immoderate amounts of food and drink; person with an inordinate capacity to receive or withstand something; overeater; person who escapes the evils of moderation by committing dyspepsia
36. Pallid - Having an abnormally pale or wan complexion; lacking intensity of color or luminousness
37. Staid - Characterized by sedate dignity and often a strait-laced sense of propriety; sober; restrained, set; characterized by dignity and propriety
38. Extirpate - To pull up by the roots; destroy totally; exterminate; remove by surgery; destroy; uproot
39. Prodigal - Rashly or wastefully extravagant; giving or given in abundance; lavish or profuse; wasteful; a recklessly extravagant consumer
40. Shoveled - To move or remove with a shovel; convey or throw in a rough or hasty way, as if with a shovel; clear or excavate with or as if with a shovel; dig or work with a shovel
41. Tine - A branch of a deer's antlers; prong on an implement such as a fork or pitchfork; slender pointed end of an instrument; prong on a fork or pitchfork
42. Recondite - Not easily understood; abstruse; concealed; hidden; mysterious, obscure
43. Gadfly - A persistent irritating critic; a nuisance; one that acts as a provocative stimulus; a goad; any of various flies, especially of the family Tabanidae, that bite or annoy livestock and other animals
44. Bummer - A great disappointment or regrettable fact; one who begs habitually or for a living; an experience that is irritating or frustrating or disappointing; a bad reaction to a hallucinogenic drug; beggar; a loafer or idler; one that depresses, frustrates, or disappoints
45. Vile - Very evil; unpleasant; so objectionable as to elicit despisal or deserve condemnation; heavily soiled; very dirty or unclean; extremely unpleasant to the senses or feelings; having or proceeding from low moral standards; offensive, horrible; loathsome; disgusting
46. Motley - Having elements of great variety or incongruity; heterogeneous; parti-colored attire of a court jester; mixed, varied; having many colors; variegated; parti-colored
47. Manumit - To free from slavery or bondage; emancipate; free from slavery or servitude

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

NOVEMBER - High frequency words

1. Burgeon - To put forth new buds, leaves, or greenery; sprout; begin to grow or blossom; grow or develop rapidly; grow or develop rapidly; make or become greater or larger
2. Recluse - A person who withdraws from the world to live in seclusion and often in solitude; person who does not want social contact; person who lives alone and avoids people
3. Quaint - Charmingly odd, especially in an old-fashioned way; unfamiliar or unusual in character; strange; cleverly made; artful; old-fashioned; strange; odd
4. Happenstance - An unexpected random event
5. Antediluvian - Extremely old and antiquated; out-of-date; prehistoric; belonging to, existing, or occurring in times long past; of, existing, or occurring in a distant period; an antique; something of the time before the great flood in the Bible
6. Inter - To place in a grave or tomb; bury; place (a corpse) in or as if in a grave; to entomb or bury
7. Succumb - To submit to an overpowering force or yield to an overwhelming desire; give up or give in; to die; die or surrender; consent reluctantly; be fatally overwhelmed
8. Whiff - A slight, gentle gust of air; a waft; brief, passing odor carried in the air; inhalation, as of air or smoke; be carried in brief gusts; waft; swing at and miss a ball or puck; slight amount or indication; perceive with the olfactory sense; short light gust of air; strikeout resulting from the batter swinging at and missing the ball for the third strike; utter with a puff of air
9. Gust - A strong, abrupt rush of wind; sudden burst, as of rain or smoke; outburst of emotion; sense of taste; personal taste or inclination; liking; rush, eruption
10. Muse - To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in meditation; consider or say thoughtfully; think about, dream; source of an artist's inspiration; reflect deeply on a subject
11. Usury - The practice of lending money and charging the borrower interest, especially at an exorbitant or illegally high rate; excessive or illegally high rate of interest charged on borrowed money; charging of too much interest when lending money
12. Schism - A separation or division into factions; disunion; discord; state of disagreement and disharmony; condition of being divided, as in opinion; interruption in friendly relations
13. Ethereal - Characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; intangible; highly refined; delicate; of the celestial spheres; heavenly; spiritual; so light and insubstantial as to resemble air or a thin film
14. Mitigate - To moderate (a quality or condition) in force or intensity; alleviate; make less severe or more bearable; check, diminish, lighten
15. Somber - Dark and gloomy; sad, depressing; serious, grave
16. Hegemony - The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others; leadership; strong leadership or dominance of one nation or state over another
17. Prehensile - Adapted for seizing, grasping, or holding, especially by wrapping around an object; having keen intellect; insightful; greedy; grasping
18. Fullering - The groove in the ground surface of the horseshoe. The nail holes are punched in it
19. Tepid - Moderately warm; lukewarm; lacking in emotional warmth or enthusiasm; halfhearted; neither hot nor cold
20. Hoarse - Rough or grating in sound; rough quality of the voice
21. Flay - To strip off the skin or outer covering of; strip of money or goods; fleece; whip or lash; assail with stinging criticism; excoriate; criticize harshly and devastatingly; to scold severely
22. Prostrate - To put or throw flat with the face down, as in submission or adoration; cause to lie flat; reduce to extreme weakness or incapacitation; overcome; cause to fall, as from a shot or blow: bring down, cut down; flat, horizontal; helpless; tired, worn; fall on knees; submit; overwhelm; wear out; lying prone, or with the head to the ground
23. Vex - To trouble the nerves or peace of mind of, especially by repeated vexations; distress, bother; disturb or annoy; to cause perplexity in; puzzle; to debate or discuss (a question, for example) at length; to toss about or shake up
24. Tarnish - To dull, stain, or discolor; dirty, corrupt; dull the luster of; discolor, especially by exposure to air or dirt; cast aspersions on; sully; condition of being sullied or tainted
25. Sullen - Showing a brooding ill humor or silent resentment; morose or sulky; gloomy or somber in tone, color, or portent; sluggish; slow; darkened by clouds
26. Gaunt - Thin and bony; angular; emaciated and haggard; drawn; bleak and desolate; barren; skinny, pale; having little flesh or fat on the body; worn and lean, as from hunger or illness
27. Proselyte - A new convert to a doctrine or religion
28. Virile - Of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an adult male; having or showing masculine spirit, strength, vigor, or power; potent; manly
29. Insipid - Lacking flavor or zest; not tasty; lacking qualities that excite, stimulate, or interest; dull
30. Halcyon - Calm and peaceful; tranquil; prosperous; golden; serene; a fabled bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was supposed to have had the power to calm the wind and the waves while it nested on the sea during the winter solstice
31. Inchoate - In an initial or early stage; incipient; imperfectly formed or developed; undeveloped, beginning; partial; unfinished; begun, but not completed; as in a contract not executed by all the parties; having no distinct shape
32. Enfeeble - To deprive of strength; make feeble; make very weak
33. Indigent - Experiencing want or need; impoverished; needy or destitute person; poor; lacking or deficient
34. Avaunt - Hence; away
35. Fraught - Filled with a specified element or elements; charged; marked by or causing distress; emotional; freight; cargo; marked by distress; filled with or attended with
36. Placidity - The quality or state of being placid; calmness; serenity; a feeling of calmness; a quiet and undisturbed feeling; a disposition free from stress or emotion
37. Dank - Disagreeably damp or humid; clammy; slightly wet; unpleasantly damp or cold
38. Bummer - A great disappointment or regrettable fact; one who begs habitually or for a living; an experience that is irritating or frustrating or disappointing; a bad reaction to a hallucinogenic drug; beggar; a loafer or idler; one that depresses, frustrates, or disappoints
39. Swarthy - Having a dark complexion or color; of a complexion tending toward brown or black; dark-complexioned
40. Addle - To muddle; confuse; to become confused; to become rotten, as an egg; to cause to be unclear in mind or intent; mix up or confuse
41. Polemical - Polemic; controversial; disputatious; given to arguing; of or involving dispute or controversy
42. Oaf - A person regarded as stupid or clumsy; large, ungainly, and dull-witted person; person who is clumsy, stupid; awkward person
43. Natatorium - An indoor swimming pool; pool that provides a facility for swimming; building containing a swimming pool; a swimming pool
44. Garner - To gather and store in or as if in a granary; to amass, gather; collect, accumulate; to gather and save or to store up; a granary; collect ripe crops
45. Circumspect - Heedful of circumstances and potential consequences; prudent; trying attentively to avoid danger, risk, or error; cautious, discreet
46. Denude - To divest of covering; make bare; expose (rock strata) by erosion; strip the covering from
47. Galling - Causing extreme irritation or chagrin; vexing;; very upsetting; troubling the nerves or peace of mind, as by repeated vexations
48. Biracial - Of, for, or consisting of members of two races; having parents of two different races
49. Motley - Having elements of great variety or incongruity; heterogeneous; parti-colored attire of a court jester; mixed, varied; having many colors; variegated; parti-colored
50. Exude - To ooze forth; to discharge or emit (a liquid or gas, for example) gradually; to exhibit in abundance; to flow or leak out or emit something slowly; display, emit
51. Penchant - A definite liking; a strong inclination; fondness, strong liking for or bias in favor of something
52. Preponderance - Superiority in weight, force, importance, or influence; great numbers; supremacy; superiority in power or influence; superiority in numbers or amount; exceeding in heaviness; having greater weight
53. Tine - A branch of a deer's antlers; prong on an implement such as a fork or pitchfork; slender pointed end of an instrument; prong on a fork or pitchfork
54. Prong - A thin, pointed, projecting part; branch; a fork; pierce with or as if with a thin, pointed, projecting part; a pointed projection
55. Tinge - A pale or subdued color; shade of a color, especially a pale or delicate variation; slight amount or indication; hint; affect slightly, as with a contrasting quality
56. Hodgepodge - A mixture of dissimilar ingredients; a jumble; mixture, mess; a theory or argument made up of miscellaneous or incongruous ideas; collection of various things
57. Recondite - Not easily understood; abstruse; concealed; hidden; mysterious, obscure
58. Tumultuousness - Characterized by tumult; noisy and disorderly; marked by unrest or disturbance; violently disturbed or agitated, as by storms; confused; in an uproar
59. Beleaguered - To harass; beset; surround with troops; besiege; trouble persistently from or as if from all sides; disturb by repeated attacks; surround with hostile troops
60. Malfeasance - Misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by a public official; inappropriate conduct by a public official
61. Abstruse - Difficult to understand; recondite
62. Vindictive - Disposed to seek revenge; revengeful; resulting from a desire to hurt; spiteful; hateful, revengeful
63. Perplex - To confuse or trouble with uncertainty or doubt; make confusedly intricate; complicate; confuse, mix up; make unsure of what to do; fill with doubt; confuse or puzzle
64. Nervy - Arrogantly impudent; brazen. Showing or requiring courage and fortitude; bold
65. Cajole - To urge with gentle and repeated appeals, teasing, or flattery; wheedle; attempt to coax; flatter
66. Pelf - Wealth or riches, especially when dishonestly acquired
67. Semitic - Of, relating to, or constituting a subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic language group that includes Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, and Aramaic; of or relating to the Semites or their languages or cultures
68. Toothsome - Delicious; luscious; highly pleasing, especially to the sense of taste
69. Jocundity- The state or quality of being jocund; gayety; sportiveness; a feeling facetious merriment; state of joyful exuberance
70. Jocund - Feeling cheerful or jolly; sprightly and lighthearted in disposition, character, or quality; characterized by joyful exuberance; full of or showing high-spirited merriment
71. Plethora - A superabundance; an excess; excess of blood in the circulatory system or in one organ or area; condition of going or being beyond what is needed, desired, or appropriate
72. Badinage - Good-natured teasing; a playful repartee; banter; light, playful remarks
73. Mutative - To change into a different form, substance, or state
74. Banter - Good-humored, playful conversation; speak to in a playful or teasing way; exchange mildly teasing remarks; light teasing repartee; be silly or tease one another
75. Talisman - An object marked with magic signs and believed to confer on its bearer supernatural powers or protection; something that apparently has magic power; small object worn or kept for its supposed magical power; something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects
76. Drake - A male duck; mayfly used as fishing bait
77. Reticent - Inclined to keep one's thoughts, feelings, and personal affairs to oneself; restrained or reserved in style; reluctant; unwilling; secretive, quiet; reserved; quiet; not saying much, especially about one's thoughts
78. Flippancy - The state or quality of being flippant
79. Flippant - Marked by disrespectful levity or casualness; pert; talkative; voluble; irreverent; showing inappropriate levity; having a light, pert, trifling disposition
80. Rambunctiousness - Boisterous and disorderly; loud, energetic; noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline
81. Rudimentary - Of or treating the most basic aspects; basic, fundamental; imperfectly or incompletely developed; embryonic; being in the earliest stages of development; incipient
82. Cogent - Appealing to the intellect or powers of reasoning; convincing; effectiveness
83. Succinct - Characterized by clear, precise expression in few words; concise and terse
84. Gadfly - A persistent irritating critic; a nuisance; one that acts as a provocative stimulus; a goad; any of various flies, especially of the family Tabanidae, that bite or annoy livestock and other animals
85. Detrimental - Causing damage or harm; injurious; damaging, disadvantageous
86. Verbiage - An excess of words for the purpose; wordiness; manner in which something is expressed in words; repetition; use of many words to say very little
87. Whimsical - Determined by, arising from, or marked by whim or caprice; erratic in behavior or degree of unpredictability; playful, fanciful; determined by chance or impulse rather than by necessity or reason
88. Ostracize - To exclude from a group; to exclude from normal social or professional activities; to force to leave a country or place by official decree; exile, banish; to put into public disfavor
89. Garrulous - Given to excessive and often trivial or rambling talk; tiresomely talkative; wordy and rambling; talkative
90. Apostate - One who has abandoned one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause; traitor
91. Profligate - Given over to dissipation; dissolute; wildly extravagant; immoral, corrupt; wasteful; very wicked in character
92. Limp - To walk lamely, especially with irregularity, as if favoring one leg; move or proceed haltingly or unsteadily; not stiff; weak; lopsided or uneven way of walking
93. Augment - To make (something already developed or well under way) greater, as in size, extent, or quantity; make greater; improve; enlarge or make bigger
94. Exude - To ooze forth; to discharge or emit (a liquid or gas, for example) gradually; to exhibit in abundance; to flow or leak out or emit something slowly; display, emit
95. Nonchalance - Casual lack of concern; calmness; trait of remaining calm and seeming not to care
96. Voracious - Consuming or eager to consume great amounts of food; ravenous; very hungry, greedy; eating with greediness or in very large quantities; having an insatiable appetite for an activity or pursuit
97. Deferential - Marked by or exhibiting deference; respectful, considerate; showing a yielding of judgment
98. Cessation - A bringing or coming to an end; discontinuance of an action or motion
99. Alibi - The statement of being somewhere else when a crime was committed; make an excuse for oneself; explanation offered to avoid blame or justify action; an excuse
100. Hubris - Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance
101. Nadir - The lowest point
102. Extol - To praise highly; exalt; pay tribute or homage to; sing the praises of; praise in the highest terms; to honor (a deity) in religious worship
103. Procrastinate - To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness; postpone or delay needlessly; delay, put off doing
104. Chromatic - Relating to colors or color; relating to chords or harmonies based on nonharmonic tones
105. Teem - To be full of things; abound or swarm; be abundant, full; be overflowing; be or become pregnant; bear young; give birth to
106. Abound - To be great in number or amount; overflowing; existing in abundance
107. Cornucopia - Abundant supply; cone-shaped ornament or receptacle;in Greek mythology, magnificent horn that filled itself with whatever meat or drink its owner requested
108. Labyrinthine - Difficult to understand because of intricacy; of, relating to, resembling, or constituting a labyrinth; complicated
109. Sop - To dip, soak, or drench in a liquid; saturate; piece of solid food for dipping in a liquid; a concession given to mollify or placate; give a conciliatory gift or bribe to; be or become thoroughly soaked or saturated with a liquid; mop so as to leave a semi-dry surface, of floors; something yielded to placate or soothe
110. Apostasy - Abandonment of one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause; instance of defecting from or abandoning a cause; defection
111. Disaffected - Resentful and rebellious, especially against authority; alienated, estranged; discontented as toward authority
112. Manumit - To free from slavery or bondage; emancipate; free from slavery or servitude
113. Vile - Very evil; unpleasant; so objectionable as to elicit despisal or deserve condemnation; heavily soiled; very dirty or unclean; extremely unpleasant to the senses or feelings; having or proceeding from low moral standards; offensive, horrible; loathsome; disgusting
114. Ostentation - Pretentious display meant to impress others; boastful showiness; act or an instance of showing; an exhibition; exhibitionism, flashiness; boastful self-importance or display
115. Esoteric - Beyond the understanding of an average mind; mysterious, obscure; not publicly disclosed; confidential; confined to a small group; intended for or understood by only a particular group; of or relating to that which is known by a restricted number of people