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