Monday, January 04, 2010

JANUARY - High Frequency Words

1. Skimpy - Inadequate, as in size or fullness, especially through economizing or stinting; containing little excess; sparse, inadequate
2. Friable - Readily crumbled; brittle; fragile; easily damaged; easily crumbled or broken up; easily reduced to powder or easily pulverized
3. Brittle - Easily broken or damaged; fragile; tense; difficult to deal with; snappish; perishable; confection of caramelized sugar to which nuts are added
4. Oblivious - Lacking all memory; forgetful; lacking conscious awareness; unmindful; unable to remember; unaware, ignorant
5. Erudite - Having or showing profound knowledge and scholarship; well-educated, cultured; very learned
6. Bilious - Bitterness of temper; ill humor; irascibility; bitter, alkaline, brownish-yellow or greenish-yellow fluid that is secreted by the liver, stored in the gallbladder, and discharged into the duodenum and aids in the emulsification, digestion, and absorption of fats; Either of two bodily humors, black bile or yellow bile, in ancient and medieval physiology
7. Absolve - To pronounce clear of guilt or blame; relieve of a requirement or obligation; grant a remission of sin to; free from a charge or imputation of guilt; free from responsibility or duty; to say that a person is not to be blamed or is free of sin
8. Earshot - The range within which sound can be heard by the unaided ear; hearing distance; range of audibility; the range within which a voice can be heard
9. Prig - A person who demonstrates an exaggerated conformity or propriety, especially in an irritatingly arrogant or smug manner; petty thief or pickpocket; conceited dandy; a fop; steal or pilfer; self-righteous; a person regarded as arrogant and annoying
10. Straddling - To stand or sit with a leg on each side of; bestride; be on both sides of; extend over or across; fire shots behind and in front of (a target) in order to determine the range; equivocal or a noncommittal position; option to buy or sell a specific asset, such as a block of stock, at a predetermined price before a certain date; spread out in a disorderly way; sprawl; appear to favor both sides of an issue; applied to spokes when they are arranged alternately in two circles in the hub
11. Adroit - Dexterous; deft; skillful and adept under pressing conditions; very able or skilled; lively
12. Deft - Quick and skillful; adroit; agile, clever; quick and neat in action; skillful
13. Court - An area partially or entirely enclosed by walls or buildings; a judicial assembly; behave so as to bring on (danger, for example); attempt to gain the affection of; fawn over, pay attention to; body of directors of an organization, especially of a corporation
14. Rambunctious - Boisterous and disorderly; loud, energetic; noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline
15. Afflatus - A strong creative impulse, especially as a result of divine inspiration; divine guidance and motivation imparted directly; a creative impulse, an inspiration
16. Snarl - A tangle of hairs, thread or traffic; an angry growl; complication, mess; complicate, mess up; grumble; speak angrily or threateningly
17. Inquiline - An animal that characteristically lives commensally in the nest, burrow, or dwelling place of an animal of another species; being or living as an inquiline
18. Incisal - Of, relating to, or being the cutting edge of an incisor or canine tooth
19. Sly - Clever or cunning, especially in the practice of deceit; clever, devious; untrustworthy
20. Vexatious - Causing or creating vexation; annoying; legal action instituted on insufficient grounds and brought solely to annoy the defendant; distressing, bothersome; harassed
21. Gripe - To complain naggingly or petulantly; grumble; pain, annoy; secure (a boat) with gripes
22. Chrome - A hard silver metal that does not easily rust; tan or dye with a chromium compound
23. Exhorted - To urge by strong, often stirring argument, admonition, advice, or appeal; make urgent appeal; try to influence by words or advice
24. Extant - Still in existence; not destroyed, lost, or extinct; standing out; projecting; in existence; occurring or existing in act or fact: actual
25. Intermittent - Stopping and starting at intervals; alternately containing and empty of water; irregular, sporadic; happening or appearing now and then
26. Fathomable - Capable of being readily understood; of depth; capable of being sounded or measured; (of meaning) capable of being penetrated or comprehended
27. Insouciant - Marked by blithe unconcern; nonchalant; easygoing, casual
28. Dire - Warning of or having dreadful or terrible consequences; calamitous; urgent; desperate; terrible, ominous; urgent; crucial
29. Luculent - Easily understood; clear or lucid; (of language) transparently clear; easily understandable
30. Hoodwink - To take in by deceptive means; deceive; trick or mislead; cause to accept what is false, especially by trickery or misrepresentation; influence by slyness; conceal one's true motives from esp. by elaborately feigning good intentions so as to gain an end
31. Callous - Emotionally hardened; unfeeling; having calluses; toughened; completely lacking in compassion; cruel, insensitive; without regard for the feelings or sufferings of others
32. Feisty - Touchy; quarrelsome; full of spirit or pluck; frisky or spunky; showing courage; irritable and looking for trouble
33. 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
34. Ossified - Changed to bone or something resembling bone; hardened by deposits of mineral matter of any kind; -- said of tissues; rigid, unimaginative convention; process of becoming set in a rigidly conventional pattern, as of behavior, habits, or beliefs
35. Sybarite - A person devoted to pleasure and luxury; a voluptuary; native or inhabitant of Sybaris; a person addicted to luxury and pleasures of the senses
36. Fecund - Capable of producing offspring or vegetation; fruitful; mentally active or productive
37. Harangue - A long pompous speech, especially one delivered before a gathering; speech or piece of writing characterized by strong feeling or expression; a tirade; long, violent, or blustering speech, usually of censure or denunciation; speak in a loud, pompous, or prolonged manner; lecture; long passionate speech
38. Thwart - To prevent the occurrence, realization, or attainment of; oppose and defeat the efforts, plans, or ambitions of; seat across a boat on which a rower may sit; prevent from accomplishing a purpose; stop, hinder; obstruct
39. Swarthy - Having a dark complexion or color; of a complexion tending toward brown or black; dark-complexioned
40.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
41. Shard - A piece of broken pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig;; fragment of a brittle substance, as of glass or metal; tough sheath or covering, such as a shell, scale, or plate; piece of a broken pot or ceramic or glass vessel; residual matter
42. Dirge - A funeral hymn or lament; slow, mournful musical composition; song of mourning
43. Inert - Unable to move or act; not moving; lifeless; not readily reactive with other elements; forming few or no chemical compounds; without the ability to act, move, change, or resist
44. Havoc - Widespread destruction; devastation; disorder or chaos; chaotic situation; great damage or destruction; rob of goods by force, especially in time of war
45. Trespass - Unlawful entry or possession of property; invasion, offense; infringe, offend; enter forcibly or illegally: break in; violate a moral or divine law
46. Gossamer - So light and insubstantial as to resemble air or a thin film; gauzy, thin; soft light delicate material
47. Cameo - To make into or like a gem or shell carved in relief; to portray in sharp, delicate relief, as in a literary composition
48. Skirt - The periphery of a city or town; border, edge; avoid; get around; be on the edge; avoid fulfilling or answering completely; garment hanging from the waist and worn by women and girls; lower outer section of a rocket vehicle; flexible strip hanging from the base of an air-cushion vehicle; piece of fabric that extends over or beyond something to afford protection
49. Pusillanimous - Lacking courage; cowardly; without spirit or bravery
50. Lax - Lacking in rigor, strictness, or firmness; not taut, firm, or compact; slack; not strict
51. Remonstrance - An expression of protest, complaint, or reproof, especially a formal statement of grievances; the act of expressing earnest opposition or protest
52. Incantation - Ritual recitation of verbal charms or spells to produce a magic effect; conventionalized utterance repeated without thought or aptness; a formula; charms spoken or sung as part of a ritual
53. Oblivious - Lacking all memory; forgetful; lacking conscious awareness; unmindful; unable to remember; unaware, ignorant
54. Absolve - To pronounce clear of guilt or blame; relieve of a requirement or obligation; grant a remission of sin to; free from a charge or imputation of guilt; free from responsibility or duty; to say that a person is not to be blamed or is free of sin
55. Inert - Unable to move or act; not moving; lifeless; not readily reactive with other elements; forming few or no chemical compounds; without the ability to act, move, change, or resist
56. Gregarious - Seeking and enjoying the company of others; sociable;polite, easygoing, and friendly
57. Jest - To joke about; make jokes; behave playfully; object of amusement or laughter; words or actions intended to excite laughter or amusement; playful or amusing act; a prank; frolicsome or frivolous mood; object of ridicule; a laughingstock; witty remark; utter scoffs; gibe
58. Innocuous - Having no adverse effect; harmless; not likely to offend or provoke to strong emotion; insipid; devoid of hurtful qualities; lacking the qualities requisite for spiritedness and originality
59. Tether - To fasten something with a line or rope; extent or limit of one's resources, abilities, or endurance; rope, chain, or similar restraint for holding one, especially an animal, in place, allowing a short radius in which one can move about
60. Evince - To show or demonstrate clearly; manifest; reveal; show clearly or to indicate
61. Wallow - An indolent or clumsy rolling about; take extravagant pleasure; move about in an indolent or clumsy manner; condition of degradation or baseness; roll the body about indolently or clumsily in or as if in water, snow, or mud; be plentifully supplied; swell or surge forth; billow
62. Dally - To treat lightly or flippantly; dawdle, delay; deal with or treat in a half serious or playful way
63. Mope - To be gloomy or dejected; brood or sulk; move in a leisurely or aimless manner; dawdle; feeling or spell of dismally low spirits; pout
64. Dawdle - To take more time than necessary; move aimlessly or lackadaisically; waste (time) by idling; delay; waste time; take one's time; proceed slowly; hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc
65. Symbiosis - A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence; close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member
66. 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
67. Fatuous - The quality or condition of being stupid; stupid act, remark, or idea; foolishness; lack of intelligence; a poor ability to understand or to profit from experience; a stupid mistake
68. Effrontery - Brazen boldness; presumptuousness; state or quality of being impudent or arrogantly self-confident; nerve, boldness; impudence; arrogance
69. Recommit - To refer (proposed legislation, for example) to a committee again; commit again
70. Exodus - A departure from a place or country, especially of many people; act of leaving; departure from one's native land to settle in another
71. Suppliant - Asking humbly and earnestly; beseeching; one praying humbly for something
72. Jarring - Disagreeable to the sense of hearing; making or causing a harsh and irritating sound; characterized by rough motion
73. Evasive - Intentionally vague or ambiguous; equivocal; inclined or intended to evade; deceitful, tricky; trying to avoid; skillful at eluding capture
74. Irrevocable - Impossible to retract or revoke; fixed, unchangeable
75. Rescind - To make void; repeal or annul; declare void; take back or remove
76. Abet - To approve, encourage, and support (an action or a plan of action); urge and help on; assist, help in wrongdoing; actively encourage or aid (an offense)
77. Impugn - To attack as false or questionable; challenge in argument; criticize, challenge
78. Egalitarian - Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people
79. Ostentatious - Marked by outward, often extravagant display; flashy, showy; overly showy to attract attention; pretentious
80. Distend - To swell out or expand from or as if from internal pressure; cause to expand by or as if by internal pressure; dilate; to extend; bulge, swell
81. Imminent - About to occur; impending; at hand, on the way; expected to happen soon
82. Equivocation - Intentionally vague or ambiguous; falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language; a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth; expression or term liable to more than one interpretation; use or an instance of equivocal language
83. Lambaste - To give a thrashing to; beat; scold sharply; berate; punish, beat with a cane; censure severely or angrily
84. Exodus - A departure from a place or country, especially of many people; act of leaving; departure from one's native land to settle in another
85. Vim - Ebullient vitality and energy; lively, emphatic, eager quality or manner; quality of active mental and physical forcefulness
86. Fawn - To seek favor or attention by flattery and obsequious behavior; to support slavishly every opinion or suggestion of a superior; a young deer, less than one year old; a grayish yellow-brown to moderate reddish brown
87. Obsequious - Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning; excessively eager to serve or obey; groveling, submissive; too ready to serve
88. Condolence - Sympathy with a person who has experienced pain, grief, or misfortune; expression of sorrow or sympathy
89. Pretentious - Claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit, especially when unjustified, snobbish, conceited; trying to seem more important or valuable than is true
90. Intransigence - The quality or state of being stubbornly inflexible; the trait of being intransigent; stubbornly refusing to compromise
91. Brook - To put up with; tolerate; a tiny stream of water
92. Contumacious - Obstinately disobedient or rebellious; insubordinate; marked by defiance; headstrong, obstinate; stubbornly disobedient, rebellious
93. Cosseted - To pamper; pet, especially a pet lamb; treat with excessive indulgence; to treat with too much kindness
94. Stupefy - To dull the senses or faculties of; amaze; astonish; make dull or stupid; to muddle with drunkenness or infatuation; be a mystery or bewildering to; make senseless or dizzy by or as if by a blow
95. Faculty - One of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind; ability, skill; body of teachers and administrators at a school
96. Recalcitrant - Marked by stubborn resistance to and defiance of authority or guidance; disobedient, uncontrollable; stubbornly defiant of authority; unruly
97. Incorruptible - Incapable of being morally corrupted; honest, honorable
98. 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
99. Pontific - Relating to, or consisting of, pontiffs or priests; pertaining to the pope
100. Pontiff - The pope; a bishop; the head of the Roman Catholic Church
101. 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
102. Labyrinthine - Difficult to understand because of intricacy; of, relating to, resembling, or constituting a labyrinth; complicated.
103. Hamstring - To restrict the activity or free movement of; handicap; to destroy or hinder the efficiency of; frustrate; any of the tendons at the rear hollow of the human knee
104. Egregious - Conspicuously bad or offensive; outstandingly bad; outrageous
105. Glean - To gather grain left behind by reapers; to collect (something) bit by bit; gather facts in small quantities
106. Animadversion - Strong criticism; a critical or censorious remark; harsh criticism or disapproval
107. Ballon - To curve outward past the normal or usual limit; stand out, stick out; increase rapidly; swell; a rounded or irregularly shaped outline containing the words that a character in a cartoon is represented to be saying; a flexible bag designed to be inflated with hot air or with a gas, such as helium, that is lighter than the surrounding air, causing it to rise and float in the atmosphere
108. Transience - The state or quality of being transient; temporariness; an impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying; the attribute of being brief or fleeting
109. Evanescent - Lasting or existing only for a short time
110. Repudiate - To refuse to recognize or acknowledge; reject; turn one's back on; disown
111. Stricture - A restraint, limit, or restriction; adverse remark or criticism; censure; abnormal narrowing of a duct or passage; constraint; criticism
112. Extort - To obtain from another by coercion or intimidation; get or cause to become in a difficult or laborious manner
113. Mournful - Feeling or expressing sorrow or grief; sorrowful; causing or suggesting sadness or melancholy; sad; filled with or evoking sadness
114. Appendix - A collection of supplementary material, usually at the end of a book; an appendage; supplementary or accessory part of a bodily organ or structure
115. Obsequy - A funeral rite or ceremony
116. Augment - To make (something already developed or well under way) greater, as in size, extent, or quantity; make greater; improve; enlarge or make bigger
117. Nuance - A subtle or slight degree of difference, as in meaning, feeling, or tone; a gradation; expression or appreciation of subtle shades of meaning, feeling, or tone; slight difference; shading; slight variation between nearly identical entities
118. Truss - A supportive device, usually a pad with a belt, worn to prevent enlargement of a hernia or the return of a reduced hernia; rigid framework, as of wooden beams or metal bars, designed to support a structure, such as a roof; something gathered into a bundle; a pack; iron fitting by which a lower yard is secured to a mast; compact cluster of flowers at the end of a stalk; tie up or bind tightly; bind or skewer the wings or legs of (a fowl) before cooking; support or brace with a truss; tie up (someone) with their arms at their sides
119. 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
120. Cognizant - Fully informed; conscious
121. Congenital - Of or relating to a condition that is present at birth, as a result of either heredity or environmental influences; inborn
122. Furtive - Characterized by stealth; surreptitious; slow, deliberate, and secret as to escape observation; sneaky, secretive
123. Avaricious - Immoderately desirous of wealth or gain; greedy; having a strong urge to obtain or possess something, especially material wealth, in quantity
124. Slipshod - Marked by carelessness; sloppy or slovenly; slovenly in appearance; shabby or seedy; indifferent to correctness, accuracy, or neatness; careless; not well done
125. Slatternly - Slovenly; untidy