800 High-Frequency GRE Words

 	

 	
 	UNIT 1
 	abate v. to decrease; reduce

 	NASA announced that it would delay the launch of the manned, spacecraft until the radiation from the solar Jlares abated.

 	abdicate v. to give up a position, right, or power

 	Romulus Augustus, the last Western Roman emperor, was forced to abdicate the throne in 476 a.d., and the Germanic chieftain Odovacar became the de facto ruler of Italy.
 	The appeals judge has abdicated his responsibility to review the findings of the high court.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	de facto: in fact, whether by right or not; exercising power without being legally established (Latin: from the fact)

 	

 	aberrant adj. deviating from what is normal

 	When a person's behavior becomes aberrant, his or her peers may become concerned that the individual is becoming a deviant.
 	Aberration is a noun meaning something different from the usual or normal.

 	For centuries, solar eclipses were regarded as serious aberrations in the natural order.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	deviant: a person whose behavior differs from the accepted standards of society

 	
 	abeyance n. temporary suppression or suspension
 	A good judge must hold his or her judgment in abeyance until all the facts in a case have been presented.
 	
 	abject adj. miserable; pitiful
 	John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath portrays the abject poverty of many people during the Great Depression.
 	
 	abjure v. to reject; abandon formally
 	Most members of the Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers or Friends) abjure the use of violence to settle disputes between nations.
 	For a foreigner to become a U.S. citizen, he or she must take an oath abjuring allegiance to any other country and pledging to take up arms to defend it if required.
 	abscission n. the act of cutting; the natural separation of a leaf or other part of a plant
 	Two scientists, Alan G. Williams and Thomas G. Whitham, have hypothesized that premature leaf abscission is an adaptive plant response to herbivorous attack.
 	The verb abscise means to cut off or away.
 	The surgeon abscised a small growth on the patient's hand.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	hypothesized: form a hypothesis, that is a proposition put forward as a starting point for further investigation
 	adaptive: relating to adaptation, an alteration in structure or habits by which a species improves its condition in relationship to its environment
 	herbivorous: feeding mainly on plants
 	
 	abscond v. to depart secretly
 	A warrant is out for the arrest of a person believed to have absconded with three million dollars.
 	
 	abstemious adj. moderate in appetite
 	Some research suggests that people with an abstemious lifestyle tend to live longer than people who indulge their appetites.

 	

 	abstinence n. the giving up of certain pleasures

 	The monk^fTvoty of abstinence includes all intoxicating substances.
 	REVIEW 1 Matching
 	Match each word with its definition:
 	
   	1.

 	abate
 	a.
 	to abandon formally
 	2.

 	abdicate
 	b.
 	temporary suppression
 	3.

 	aberrant
 	c.
 	to give up a position or power
 	4.

 	abeyance
 	d.
 	giving up of certain pleasures
 	5.

 	abject
 	e.
 	to depart secretly
 	6.

 	abjure
 	f.
 	miserable; pitiful
 	7.

 	abscission
 	g-
 	to decrease
 	8.

 	abscond
 	h.
 	moderate in appetite
 	9.

 	abstemious
 	i.
 	the act of cutting
 	10.

 	abstinence
 	j-
 	deviating from what is normal
 	Fill-ins

 	Choose the best word to fill in the blank in each sentence.
 	abate        abdicated      aberrations    abeyance abject abjured     absconded     abscission      abstemious abstinence

 	1.   The 90-year-old monarch_______________ the throne to allow his son
 	to become king.

 	2.   Psychotherapy relies on psychological rather than physiological
 approaches to curing mental_____________ .
 	3.   Implementation of the new plan has been held in________________ 
 	pending an investigation of its effectiveness to date.

 	4.   Ms. Johnson's______________ lifestyle helped her to amass a fortune.
 	5.   The crew of the vessel waited for the storm to________________ before
 	going on deck to make repairs.

 	6.   The alcoholic's physician recommended total________________ from
 	liquor for her patient.

 	7.   The documentary filmmaker was accused of using misleading
 footage to make it appear that nearly everyone in the country lived
 in_____________ conditions.
 	8.   The judge said he would reduce the convicted woman's sentence if
 she_____________ all association with those convicted of treason.
 	
 	Unit 2
 	abysmal adj. very bad
 	The abysmal failure of the free market system in Russia has led some people to argue that the planned economy of the Soviet Union, while not perfect, was better suited to Russia's history and culture than Western-style capitalism.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	free market: an economic market in which the demand and supply of goods and services is either not regulated or is slightly regulated
 	planned economy: an economic system in which the production, allocation, and consumption of goods and services is planned in advance. Another term for planned economy is "command economy."
 	
 	capitalism: an economic and political system in which a country's industry and trade are controlled by private owners rather than the government

 	
 	accretion n. growth in size or increase in amount
 	In the 1960s, the American geophysicist Harry Hess conceived the idea of sea-floor spreading, a process in which the new crust in the ocean is continually generated by igneous processes at the crests of the mid-oceanic ridges, causing a steady accretion of the crust

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	geophysicist: one who specializes in the physics of the earth and its environment
 	igneous: in geology, relating to the formation of rocks by solidification from a molten state. The word igneous is from Latin ignis (fire).

 	accrue v. to accumulate; grow by additions
 	Regulating the growth of large companies when they begin to become monopolistic is a difficult task for government in a capitalist county; if it limits monopolies too much, the nation's firms could become less competitive than foreign companies that enjoy the advantages accruing from greater monopolies.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	monopolistic: an economic market in which the demand and supply of goods and services is either not regulated or is slightly regulated

 	adamant adj. uncompromising; unyielding
 	Despite widespread opposition to his plan, the party's leader is adamant that it must move to the center to appeal to moderate voters.
 	
 	adjunct n. something added, attached, or joined
 	Speed walking, cross-country running, and marathons are normally regarded as adjuncts of track and field athletics since races in these sports are not normally held on a track.
 	
 	admonish v. to caution or reprimand
 	The judge admonished the jury to discount testimony that had been ruled inadmissible.

 	
 	adulterate v. to corrupt or make impure
 	The unscrupulous company sells an adulterated version of the drug, and doesn't inform consumers that they are getting a less efficacious drug than they think they are getting.
 	
 	aesthetic adj. relating to beauty or art
 	Members of the English aesthetic movement, such as Oscar Wilde, were proponents of the doctrine of art for art's sake, which is the belief that art cannot and should not be useful for any purpose other than that of creating beauty.
 	Aesthetic is also a noun that means a conception of what is artistically beautiful.
 	The Gothic aesthetic dominated European art and architecture from approximately the twelfth to the fifteenth century.
 	Aesthetics is the conception of what is beautiful; it is also a branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and art, and standards in judging them.
 	An aesthete is someone who cultivates a special sensitivity to beauty; often the word refers to a person whose interest in beauty and art is regarded as excessive or superficial.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Gothic: a style of architecture that was very popular in the late Middle Ages characterized by such features as pointed arches, soaring spaces, and light. In literature the term refers to a genre of fiction that was popular in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Gothic novels have an atmosphere of gloom, mystery, and horror.

 	affected adj. pretentious, phony
 	It has been argued that the emphasis on so-called "proper English" leads to unnatural and effected speech.
 	
 	affinity n. fondness; liking; similarity
 	The female students in the class felt an affinity for the ancient Greek playwright Euripides because he sympathized with women, slaves, and other despised members of his society.

 	Unit 3

 	aggrandize v. to make larger or greater
 	One of the concerns of the framers of the U.S. Constitution was that one branch of government would try to aggrandize itself at the expense of the others.
 	
 	aggregate ad/, amounting to a whole; total
 	The aggregate wealth of a country includes private as well as public resources and possessions.
 	Aggregate is also a verb meaning to collect into a mass.
 	Portals are Web sites designed to aggregate information and are used as a starting point on the Web.
 	Aggregate is also a noun meaning collective mass or sum.
 	
 	alacrity n. cheerful willingness; eagerness; speed
 	The football coach was pleased to see the team get to work on the task of improving its tackling skills with alacrity.
 	
 	alchemy n. medieval chemical philosophy based on changing metal into gold; a seemingly magical power or process of transmutation.
 	Alchemy was the forerunner of the modern science of chemistry.
 	None of their friends could understand the mysterious alchemy that caused two people as different from one another as Rob and Barbara to fall in love.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	alchemy: Modern scientists believe alchemy was not a true science since there's no evidence that anyone succeeded in turning a base metal into gold. Interestingly, however, the word for the modern science of "chemistry" is derived directly from the word "alchemy."

 	allay v. to lessen; ease; soothe
 	Improvements in antivirus software have allayed many people's fears of having their computers "infected" with malicious software.
 	
 	alleviate v. to relieve; improve partially
 	According to some commentators, one of the weaknesses of capitalism is that although it is very efficient at increasing absolute wealth, it is not as successful at alleviating relative poverty; thus, a person living in a slum in America may be reasonably well off by historical standards, but he might perceive himself to be poor compared to members of the bourgeoisie, whom he sees regularly buying luxury goods that he is not able to afford.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	bourgeoisie: the social order dominated by the property-owning class. The term is associated with Marxism, the political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, but today it is often used disparagingly to suggest materialism and philistinism (an unenlightened and smug attitude toward culture).

 	alloy n. a combination; a mixture of two or more metals
 	Scientists formulate alloys to create properties that are not possessed by natural metals or other substances.
 	
 	allure n. the power to entice by charm
 	Political groups in the United States often lobby Congress to use the allure of America's vast market as an incentive for countries to pursue policies in accordance with American policies.
 
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	lobby: & group whose members share certain goals and work to bring about the passage, modification, or defeat of laws that affect these goals
 	
 	Allure is also a verb meaning to entice by charm. The adjective is alluring.
 	The idea of a clockwork universe is very alluring to some people because it explains how the universe was created, yet allows human beings to live in it without believing in supernatural intervention.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	clockwork universe: a theory of the origin of the universe that compares the universe to a mechanical clock created by God. According to this theory, once created, the universe continues to run according to the laws of nature and does not require further Divine intervention. This idea was very popular in the Enlightenment, an eighteenth-century philosophical movement that emphasized the use of reason to examine accepted beliefs and traditions.

 	amalgamate v. to combine into a unified whole
 	In early 1999, six municipalities were amalgamated into an enlarged city of Toronto, Canada.
 	
 	ambiguous adj. unclear or doubtful in meaning
 	The gender of the Mahayana Buddhist deity Avalokitesuara, the god of infinite mercy, is ambiguous in both China and Japan, where the god is sometimes called a goddess.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Mahayana Buddhist: one of the three major traditions of Buddhism. It regards the historical Buddha as a manifestation of the celestial Buddha.

 	Unit 4

 	ambivalence n. the state of having conflicting emotional attitudes.
 	John felt some ambivalence about getting married before finishing college.
 	The adjective is ambivalent
 	In public opinion surveys in the United States, scientists rank second only to physicians in public esteem, yet much of the public is increasingly ambivalent about some of the implications for society of "Big Science'' and its related technology.
 	
 	ambrosia n. something delicious; the food of the gods
 	The combination of flavors in the Moroccan baked eggplant was pure ambrosia.
 	The adjective is ambrosial
 	The food critic praised the chef for preparing what he called an "ambrosial meal."

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	In Greek mythology, ambrosia and nektar were the delicious and fragrant food and drink of the gods that gave them immortality. The English word nectar (from Greek nektar) means a sweet liquid secreted by flowers, or a delicious drink.

 	
 	ameliorate v. to improve
 	Knowing they could not stop the spread of a contagion in a few days, health authorities worked to inhibit its spread and to ameliorate its effects by issuing warnings to the public and initiating immunization programs.
 	
 	amenable adj. agreeable; cooperative; suited
 	The young writer is amenable to suggestions for improving her prose style to make it more interesting.
 	
 	amenity n. something that increases comfort
 	Many amenities considered normal and necessary by people in developed countries, such as indoor plumbing, were luxuries only a few generations ago.
 	
 	amulet n. ornament worn as a charm against evil spirits
 	The early Christian Church forbade the use of amulets, which had become common in the Roman Empire at the time the Christian Church began to develop.
 	
 	anachronism n. something out of the proper time
 	Some experts regard the retirement age of 65 as an anachronism at a time when people in the developed world have much longer life expectancies than previously.
 	
 	analgesic n. medication that reduces or eliminates pain
 	Aspirin (the trademark of the drug acetylsalicylic acid) is a powerful analgesic that was introduced in 1899 and is still one of the most effective medicines available to alleviate pain, fever, and inflammation.
 	
 	analogous adj. comparable
 	The psychology researcher's experiment postulates that the brain is analogous to a digital computer.
 	Analogy is a noun meaning a similarity in some ways between things that are otherwise dissimilar.
 	The idea of evolution in nature is sometimes misconstrued and applied by analogy to other areas in which there is scant evidence for its existence; a notable example of this is Social Darwinism, in which it is argued that society is like nature, and thus people, like animals, are competing for survival, with those who are genetically superior at surviving and reproducing.

 	
 	Analog is a noun meaning something that is comparable to something else.
 	Some commentators have posited the existence of an analog to the Protestant work ethic in Chinese culture, which they call the "Confucian work ethic." to explain the economic success of some countries with large Chinese populations.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Social Darwinism: a theory in sociology that individuals or groups achieve advantage over others as the result of genetic or biological superiority
 	Protestant work ethic: a view of life that encourages hard work and a rational view of the world as a way to achieve material success
 	Confucian: a system or ethics based on the teachings of the ancient Chinese sage Confucius. It places a high value on family relationships.
 	
 	anarchy n. absence of government; state of disorder
 	The American philosopher Robert Nozick does not advocate anarchy; rather, he argues for the merits of a minimal state that would not violate the natural rights of individuals.
 	The adjective anarchic means lacking order or control.
 	The student of mythology speculated that Dionysos was created as a projection of the pleasure-loving, anarchic aspect of human nature.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Dionysos: known as Bacchus to the Romans, Dionysos was the son of Zeus and Selene. He was the Greek god of agriculture, fertility, wine, and ecstasy, and later regarded as a patron of the arts. Dionysos was worshipped by an emotional cult that held secret rites called Bacchanalia—wild orgies of frenzied revelry, drunkenness, and debauchery.
 	
 	The noun anarchism refers to the theory that all forms of government are oppressive and should be abolished. It also means the advocacy of this theory or the attempt to bring about anarchism.
 	Most political scientists do not believe anarchism to be a tenable theory of government.

 	Unit 5

 	anodyne n. something that calms or soothes pain
 	Some people use alcohol as an anodyne to numb their emotional pain.
 	Anodyne is an adjective that means relaxing, or capable of soothing pain.
 	The public relations officer is remarkably anodyne; all he does is mouth comforting, politically correct platitudes, saying nothing of substance.
 	
 	anomalous adj. irregular; deviating from the norm
 	The psychologist discounted the anomalous behavior of the soldier, saying it was merely a short-term effect of the stress of battle.
 	The noun is anomaly.
 	A moral dilemma that arises with humanity's ability to clone is posed in the following hypothetical scenario: a pig that produces much more meat than a normal pig can be cloned, but the pig's life span would be cut in half because of anomalies in the cloning process: Is it right to clone such an animal?

 	
 	antecedent n. something that comes before
 	Historical factors, such as the increased emphasis on the individual, the invention of printing, and the rise of the bourgeoisie, contributed to make the Reformation, which had its antecedents in the reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church, into a much broader phenomenon that created powerful churches that grew to rival the original church.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Reformation: a sixteenth-century movement aimed at reforming abuses in the Roman Catholic Church. It led to the establishment of new churches.
 	
 	antediluvian adj. prehistoric
 	Most of our knowledge of antediluvian times has been built up as a result of one of humanity's grandest collaborative endeavors—the gathering, identification, dating, and categorization of fossils as they are discovered.
 	
 	antipathy n. dislike; hostility
 	Heathcliff, the protagonist of Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights, feels great antipathy for Edgar Linton, the man who marries the woman he loves.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	protagonist: the main character in a work of literature
 	
 	apathy n. indifference
 	Apathy was high in the election because there was no major controversy or issue to arouse voter interest.
 	
 	The adjective is apathetic.
 	One criticism of the welfare state is that it makes people overly reliant on government, with the result that democracy is gradually weakened as citizens take a more apathetic and detached view of politics.
 
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Welfare state: the provision of welfare services by the state (that is, the government)
 	
 	apex n. the highest point
 	In English literature, classicism reached its apex in the poetry of Alexander Pope and the other Augustans.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Classicism: an aesthetic tradition that values simplicity, elegance, restraint, and order
 	Augustans: a period of English literature from around 1700 to 1789. Satire was a feature of the writing of many authors of this period. Two notable authors of the Augustan Age were Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.
 	
 	apogee n. the point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited; the highest point
 	The Ottoman Empire reached its apogee in the seventeenth century, when it controlled a territory running from Budapest to North Africa.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Ottoman Empire: an empire that arose in Anatolia (which corresponds to the Asian portion of modern Turkey) in the fourteenth century, destroying the Byzantine Empire. By the early sixteenth century it controlled much of Persia, Arabia, Hungary, the Balkans, Syria, and Egypt.
 	
 	apothegm n. a terse, witty saying (pronounced AP-uh-them and also spelled apophthegm)
 	One of the best-known political apothegms was written by the British historian, Lord Acton: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
 	Appease   v  to calm; pacify; placate
 	Many historians have criticized British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for trying to appease Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
 	
 	Unit 6

 	
 	appellation n. name
 	The discovery of the bones of a person with the appellation Kennewick Man in the state of Washington in 1996 has raised important questions about who the earliest people to populate America were.
 	
 	apposite ad/, strikingly appropriate and relevant
 	The writer searched two dictionaries and a thesaurus before finding the perfectly apposite word he was looking for.
 	
 	apprise v. to inform
 	Nadine Cohodas's biography of the blues singer Dinah Washington keeps the reader apprised of the racism black Americans had to endure.
 	
 	approbation n. praise; approval
 	The Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest approbation an American soldier can receive.

 	
 	appropriate v. to take possession for one's own use; confiscate
 	The pronunciation is uh-PROH-pree ayt. The adjective appropriate is pronounced uh-PROH-pree-it.
 	The invading army appropriated supplies from the houses of the local people.
 	apropos adj. relevant
 	Apropos of nothing, the speaker declared that the purpose of life is to love.
 	arabesque n. ornate design featuring intertwined curves; a ballet position in which one leg is extended in back while the other supports the weight of the body
 	The ballerina stunned the audience with her perfectly executed arabesque.
 	
 	archeology n.  the study of material evidence of past human life
 	Carbon-14 dating is of great use in archeology because it can determine the age of specimens as old as 35,000 years, but it is of less use in geology because most of the processes studied in this field occurred millions of years ago.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	Carbon-14 dating: determining the actual or relative age of an object, of a natural phenomenon, or of a series of events through the use of the isotope carbon-14, which occurs naturally
 	
 	ardor n. great emotion or passion
 	The twentieth-century American poet Wallace Stevens said, "It is the unknown that excites the ardor of scholars, who, in the known alone, would shrivel up with boredom."
 	
 	arduous adj. extremely difficult; laborious
 	The task of writing a research paper is arduous, but if it is broken down into logical steps it becomes less daunting.

 	Unit 7

 	
 	
 	argot n. a specialized vocabulary used by a group
 	Writers of crime fiction often use the argot of criminals and detectives to create a realistic atmosphere.
 	
 	arrest v. to stop; to seize
 	Temporary arrest of the patient's respiration made it easier for the doctor to perform surgery on him.
 	
 	artifact n. item made by human craft
 	Marxists contend that appreciation of art has declined because capitalism has trained people to perceive human artifacts as commodities, and has alienated people from nature, their true humanity, and their creations.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Marxist: a follower of Marxism, the political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In Marxism the concept of class struggle plays a central role in understanding society's inevitable development from bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society.
 	
 	artless adj. guileless; natural
 	The source of the meaning of artless as guileless is the poet John Dryden, who wrote of William Shakespeare in 1672: "Such artless beauty lies in Shakespeare's wit...

 	
 	ascetic n. one who practices self-denial
 	Muslim ascetics consider the internal battle against human passions a greater jihad than the struggle against infidels.
 	Ascetic is also an adjective meaning self-denying or austere.
 	The writer's ascetic lifestyle helped her to concentrate on finishing her novel.
 	The noun is asceticism.
 	One tradition of asceticism derives from the belief that the body is fundamentally bad and must be subjugated to the soul.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	jihad: the religious duty of Muslims to defend their religion (Islam) by war or spiritual struggle against nonbelievers
 	
 	asperity n. severity; harshness; irritability
 	In his autobiography Gerald Trywhitt, the British writer, composer, artist, and aesthete, recounts a humorous incident: "Many years later, When I was sketching in Rome, a grim-looking Englishwoman came up to me and said with some asperity, 7 see you are painting MY view.9*1
 	aspersion n. slander; false rumor
 	The Republic of Singapore is a young democracy, and its leaders often respond strongly to journalists and others who cast aspersions on their integrity.
 	
 	assiduous adj. diligent; hard-working
 	The assiduous people of Hong Kong live in a territory with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world.
 	
 	assuage v. to make less severe
 	On November 21, 1864, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln wrote the following in a letter to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, who had lost five sons in battle: "1 pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.1"

 	
 	astringent. adj- harsh; severe
 	Bob tends to nick himself when he shaves, so he uses an astringent aftershave to stop the bleeding.

 	Unit 8

 	asylum n. place of refuge or shelter
 	The Stoic, accused of seeking asylum in the consolations of philosophy, rebutted this charge, saying that Stoicism is simply the most prudent and realistic philosophy to follow.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Stoic: follower of Stoicism, a pantheistic philosophy emphasizing submission to divine will and freedom from emotion

 	
 	atavism n. in biology, the reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence; individual or a part that exhibits atavism; return of a trait after a period of absence
 	Some modern political theorists reject nationalism as a tribal atavism.
 	
 	attenuate v. to weaken
 	Modern digital radio equipment allows even signals that have been greatly attenuated to be transmitted by one station and received by another station.
 	
 	audacious adj. bold; daring
 	The German army commander Erwin Rommel was known as the "Desert Fox*1 as a result of his audacious surprise attacks on Allied forces in World War II.
 	
 	austere adj. stern; unadorned
 	Deism is an austere belief that reflects the predominant philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment: a universe symmetrical and governed by rationality.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Deism: the belief in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life or natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation
 	Age of Enlightenment: a period in European philosophy during the eighteenth century that emphasized reason

 	autonomous adj. self-governing; independent
 	Some biologists have theorized that our belief in our ability to act as autonomous agents is in conformity with the theory of evolution because it gives us a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives that helps us to survive.
 
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	theory of evolution: the theory that living things originate from other similar organisms and that differences between types of organisms are due to modifications in successive generations. A central tenet of Darwinian evolution is that surviving individuals of a species vary in a way that enables them to live longer and reproduce, thus passing this advantage to future generations (Natural Selection).

 	avarice n. greed
 	Successful investment bankers are sometimes accused of avarice; their defenders, however, say that they are simply very good at what they do and should be rewarded accordingly.
 	
 	aver v. to affirm; declare to be true
 	Yogis aver that everyone has a guru, whether it be a person, God, or the experiences of the world, that helps him or her practice the yoga that is in accordance with his or her nature, and assists on the path toward enlightenment.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	yogis: a yogi is the Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language) name for a man who practices yoga. A woman who practices yoga is a yogini.
 	guru: a personal spiritual teacher. The term is also used to refer to a trusted advisor or an authority.
 	yoga: spiritual practices in the Hindu and Buddhist religions that are believed to help one to attain higher awareness and union with God

 	avocation n. secondary occupation
 	Dan became so proficient at his avocation—computer programming— that he is thinking of giving up his job as a teacher to do it full time.
 	
 	avuncular adj. like an uncle, benevolent and tolerant
 	Walter Cronkite, who was the anchorman of CBS News during much of the 1970s and 1980s, had an avuncular manner that made him one of America's most trusted personalities.
 	
 	UNIT 9

 	axiomatic adj. taken for granted
 	In nineteenth-century geology, uniformitariasm was the antithesis of catastrophism, asserting that it was axiomatic that natural law and processes do not fundamentally change, and that what we observe now is essentially the same as what occurred in the past

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	uniformitarianism: & geological theory popular in the nineteenth century. Uniformitariasm holds that geological processes have slowly shaped the Earth and continue to do so.
 	catastrophism: a theory that was a rival to uniformitariasm. It postulates an Earth formed in a series of unique, catastrophic events.
 	
 	bacchanalian adj. pertaining to riotous or drunken festivity; pertaining to revelry.
 	For some people New Year's Eve is an occasion for bacchanalian revelry.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Bacchus: known as Dionysos to the ancient Greeks, Bacchus was the god of agriculture, fertility, and wine. He was worshipped by an emotional cult that held secret rites called Bacchanalia—wild orgies of frenzied revelry, drunkenness, and debauchery. Bacchanalian is derived from Bacchanalia.

 	banal adj. commonplace; trite
 	The writer has a gift for making even the most banal observation seem important and original.
 	
 	banter n. playful conversation
 	The governor engaged in some banter with reporters before getting to the serious business of the news conference.
 	
 	bard n. poet
 	The great bards of English literature have all been masters of the techniques of verse.
 	
 	bawdy adj. obscene
 	Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is the story of a group of Christian pilgrims who entertain one another with stories, ranging from the holy to the bawdy, on their journey to Canterbury Cathedral
 	
 	beatify v. to sanctify; to bless; to ascribe a virtue to
 	In the year 2000 Pope John Paul II traveled to Fatima in Portugal to beatify two of the three children who said they saw the appearance of the Virgin Mary there in 1917.
 	Beatification is the noun.
 	Beatification is the second and next to last step on the path to sainthood.
 	
 	bedizen v. to dress in a vulgar, showy manner
 	Paul went to the costume party bedizened as a seventeenth-century French aristocrat.
 
 	behemoth n. huge creature; anything very large and powerful
 	In the 1980s and 1990s, the trend in American business was toward increased privatization of government industries (such as power generation), partly because it was believed that private industry is more efficient and partly because foreign private companies were becoming commercial behemoths, outstripping government-owned companies in competitiveness.
 	belie v. . to contradict; misrepresent; give a false impression
 	The boxer's childlike face belies the ferocity with which he can attack opponents in the ring.

 	unit 10
 	beneficent adj. kindly; doing good
 	The theologian discussed the question of why a beneficent and omnipotent God allows bad things to happen to good people.
 	
 	bifurcate u. to divide into two parts
 	Contemporary physicists generally bifurcate their discipline into two parts—classical physics and modern physics; the former are the fields of study that were already well developed before the momentous breakthroughs of the early twentieth century by scientists such

 	as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg, which inaugurated the age of modern physics.
 	Bifurcation is the noun.
 	Some people regard the Hindu-Buddhist philosophy on animals as more in accordance with the modern scientific view than the traditional Western view, since it does not posit a radical bifurcation of man and nature.
 	
 	blandishment n. flattery
 	Despite the salesperson's blandishments, Donna did not buy the car.
 	Blandish is the verb, meaning to coax with flattery.
 	
 	blasé adj.  bored because of frequent indulgence; unconcerned
 	We were amazed by John's blasé attitude toward school; he seems to have made it a rule never to open a book.
 	
 	bolster v. to give a boost to; prop up; support
 	The president has visited the state several times to bolster his sagging popularity there.
 	
 	bombastic adj. pompous; using inflated language
 	Nearly lost in the senator's long, bombastic speech were several sensible ideas.
 	
 	boorish adj. rude; insensitive
 	Bob apologized for his boorish behavior at the party, saying he hadn't realized that it was such a formal occasion.
 	
 	bovine adj. cowlike
 	Following the slow-moving group of students up the long path to the school's entrance, the word "bovine" popped into the English teacher's mind.
 	
 	brazen adj. bold; shameless
 	The brazen student irritated his teacher by saying that he could learn more from a day spent "surfing" the World Wide Web than a day spent in school
 	 
 	broach v. to mention for the first time
 	Steve's boss knew that she couldn't put off warning him about his poor performance and decided to broach the subject the next time she saw him.

 	Unit 11

 	bucolic adj, characteristic of the countryside; rustic; pastoral
 	The south end of Toronto9s beautiful High Park is a bucolic expanse of land that is perfect for anyone wanting a quiet walk.
 	
 	burgeon u. to flourish
 	After World War II, the increased speed of industrialization and the burgeoning world population resulted in such an increase in pollution that it began to be recognized by some people as a threat to the human habitat, Earth.
 	burnish v. to polish
 	The poet T S. Eliot burnished his reputation as one of the master poets of the twentieth century with Four Quartets, four long poems published between 1936 and 1942.

 	
 	buttress v. to reinforce; support
 	Some critics of the American legal system argue that the requirement of proving guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt*1 is too difficult a criterion to use, and buttress their case by citing the fact that objective studies suggest that only a very small number of criminals are successfully prosecuted.
 	
 	cacophonous adj. unpleasant or harsh-sounding
 	The dissonant harmonies of the great jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk might seem cacophonous to some listeners, but to many jazz aficionados they are sublime.
 	A cacophony is a jarring, unpleasant noise.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	aficionados: people who are enthusiastic admirers or followers

 	cadge v. to beg; sponge
 	An enduring image of the Great Depression in America is the out-of-work man cadging money with the line, "Hey, mister, can you spare a dime for a cup of coffee?1*

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Great Depression: a very large economic decline that began in 1929. Major industrial nations such as Great Britain, Japan, and the United States were greatly affected by declines in nearly all measures of economic prosperity (such as employment and profits).

 	callous adj. thick-skinned; insensitive
 	Jim's terrible experiences in the war have made him callous about the suffering of others.
 	
 	calumny n. false and malicious accusation; slander
 	"Be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny."
 	—William Shakespeare, Hamlet Act III, Scene 1 (Hamlet addressing Ophelia)

 	canard n. false, deliberately misleading story
 	Most politicians do not want to be associated with the old canard that big government in Washington can solve all of America's problems.

 	canon  n. an established principle; a basis or standard for judgment; a group of literary works
 	Canons of aesthetic taste vary over the years; the Rococo period, for example, valued ornate art.
 	The 60-volume Great Books of the Western World is an attempt to gather the central canon of Western civilization into one collection.
 	Canon is also an adjective.
 	The system of civil law originated in the Roman Empire and was kept alive in the Middle Ages in the canon law of the Church.
 	Canonical is an adjective meaning belonging to a group of literary works.
 	The English professor is trying to persuade the chairperson of her department to let her teach some writers that are not canonical.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Rococo: refers to a style of architecture in eighteenth-century Europe that made use of elaborate curved forms. The word is often used to refer to something that is excessively ornate.

 	UNIT 12

 	cant n. insincere talk; language of a particular group
 	Many of the beat artists of the 1950s reacted against what they regarded as the cant of bourgeois society.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	bourgeois: both bourgeois and bourgeoisie come from Old French burgeis, citizen of a bourg (town). Bourgeois refers to a person who belongs to the middle class or has middle-class attitudes. It can be used in a neutral way. However, it is frequently used to suggest that someone is not sophisticated.

 	cantankerous adj. irritable; ill-humored
 	Many of us have in our mind the stereotype of the cantankerous old man who is constantly complaining about something or other.
 	
 	capricious adj. fickle
 	The rule of law is regarded by many historians as one of humanity's great achievements because since its inception citizens are no longer subject to capricious decisions and penalties of rulers.
 	Caprice is a noun meaning an inclination to change one's mind compulsively.
 	Styles in high fashion seem governed by caprice as much as anything else.
 	
 	captious adj. faultfinding; intended to entrap, as in an argument
 	The pedantic and captious critic seems incapable of appreciating the merits of even the most highly regarded books.
 	
 	cardinal adj. of foremost importance
 	The cardinal rule of any weight-loss diet must be limiting the intake of calories.
 	
 	carnal adj. of the flesh or body; related to physical appetites
 	The yogi's goal is to achieve nirvana through, among other things, the overcoming of carnal desires.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	nirvana: ideal condition of rest, harmony, or joy. Nirvana is from Sanskrit nirvanam (a blowing out), as in the blowing out of a flame. According to Buddhism and Hinduism, in order to reach nirvana one must extinguish the fire fueled by the ego, which causes suffering, ignorance, delusion, and greed.

 	carping v. to find fault; complain
 	Cost-benefit analysis owes much of its origin to utilitarian thought; despite the carping of critics that such analysis is based on faulty premises, the technique has proved useful in many areas.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Cost-benefit analysis: the process of weighing the total expected costs against the total expected benefits of one or more actions in order to choose the best option
 	utilitarian: the ethical philosophy that human activity should be aimed at achieving the greatest good for the greatest number. Jeremy Bentham was the founder of the theory and his student John Stuart Mill was its most famous proponent. Mill used the theory to argue for social reform and increased democracy.

 	cartography n. science of making maps
 	Satellites in Earth orbit take pictures of topography that have greatly aided cartography.
 	caste n. any of the hereditary social classes of Hindu society; social stratification
 	The dalits, formerly known as untouchables, are at the bottom of the thousands of castes that make up Indian society.
 	Caste is also an adjective.
 	Most modern corporations employ a sort of caste system, with senior executives at the top and ordinary workers at the bottom.
 
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	There are four main castes or heredity groups (and thousands of subcastes) in Hindu society that restrict the occupations of members and limit their interaction with members of other castes. There are four main castes:
 	Brahmans (priests and teachers)
 	Ksatriyas (noblemen)
 	Vaisyas (merchants and traders)
 	Sudras (laborers)
 	A fifth group, called "Harijans" or "untouchables" are considered impure and are discriminated against. They toil in lowly occupations such as cleaning up waste and leatherworking.
 	
 	castigation n. punishment; chastisement; criticism
 	Many British writers recall with loathing the castigation they received at school
 	
 	Unit 13
 	
 	cataclysm n. a violent upheaval that causes great destruction and change
 	The French Revolution of 1789 was a cataclysm whose effects are still felt today.
 	
 	catalyst n. something causing change
 	Among the catalysts of the Romantic movement were the libertarian ideals of the French Revolution.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	Romantic movement: a late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century movement in literature and the arts. The movement was a very varied one, and so is not easily described in a few words. Romanticism was a revolt against classicism and reason and emphasized the individual and the emotional. The Romantics also stressed the inherent goodness of man and nature and valued freedom highly. Important Romantic poets in England include William Blake, John Keats, William Wordsworth, and P. B. Shelley. Famous Romantic composers include Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Frederic Chopin.
 	libertarian: libertarians place great importance on individual freedom. They believe that no limitations should be placed on a person's freedom unless that person's actions limit the freedom of others.
 	French Revolution: a crucial period (1789-1799) in French, and more generally, Western civilization. France's absolute monarchy was replaced by republicanism. It is regarded by most historians as a major turning point in Western civilization, ushering in the era of citizens as the major force in politics.

 	categorical adj. absolute; without exception
 	Although incest is categorically forbidden by every state, recent evidence that marriage between cousins is no more likely to produce abnormal offspring than "normal" marriages may allow the constitutionality of bans on marriage between cousins to be challenged.
 	
 	caucus n. smaller group within an organization
 	The workers formed an informal caucus to discuss their difficulties.

 	 
 	
 	causal adj. involving a cause
 	The philosopher Plato believed there is a causal relationship between income inequality, on the one hand, and political discontent and crime, on the other hand: in his Laws he quantified his argument, contending that the income of the rich should be no more than five times that of the poor, and he proposed policies to limit extremes of wealth and poverty.
 	
 	caustic adj. sarcastically biting; burning
 	The columnist's caustic comments on government policy did not win her any friends among government officials.
 	
 	celestial adj. concerning the sky or heavens; sublime
 	Astronomers make use of the Doppler effect to measure the velocities and distance from Earth of stars and other celestial objects.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Doppler effect: change in the wavelength and frequency of a wave as a result of the motion of either the source or receiver of the waves

 	centrifugal adj. moving away from a center
 	As the empire expanded, there was an ever-increasing centrifugal stress as remote colonies sought autonomy.
 	
 	centripetal adj. moving or directed toward a center
 	Astronomers calculate that the centripetal force exerted by the Earth's gravity on the Moon will keep the Moon in orbit around the Earth for billions of years.
 	
 	champion v. to defend or support
 	Robin Hood is famous for championing the underdogs of England.

 	
 	UNIT14

 	

 	
 	chasten v. to correct by punishment or reproof; to restrain or subdue
 	The child*s behavior improved after she had been chastened by punishment
 	
 	chicanery n. trickery; fraud
 	The governor ordered an audit to investigate alleged financial chicanery.
 	chivalry n. the qualities idealized by knighthood such as bravery and gallantry toward women
 	Chivalry was rooted in Christian values, and the knight was bound to be loyal to Christian ideals; the Crusades enhanced this idea, as knights vowed to uphold Christianity against heathens.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	chivalry: The code of chivalry dictated how a knight should act; this code enjoined the knight to defend the Church, make war against infidels, perform scrupulously feudal duties, and in general champion virtue against evil.
 	Crusades: military expeditions by Christians in the Middle Ages to win the Holy Land from the Muslims

 	
 	churlish adj. rude; boorish
 	According to the chivalric code, a knight was never supposed to be churlish, especially toward noble ladies, to whom he was supposed to be unfailingly gentle and courteous.
 	
 	circuitous adj. roundabout
 	According to Hindu philosophy, some souls take a circuitous path through many births to reach God.
 	
 	clairvoyant n. one who can predict the future; psychic
 	Edgar Cayce was a famous clairvoyant who some people believe was able to go into a trance during which he was in touch with a spiritual realm.
 	
 	clamor n. noisy outcry
 	Over the past 12 years or so the voices clamoring for better protection of the Earth's rain forests have increased dramatically.
 	Clamor is also a verb meaning to cry out noisily.
 	The crowd clamored their disapproval of the plan.
 	
 	clique n. a small, exclusive group
 	The principal of the high school is concerned that one clique of students is dominating the student council.
 	
 	cloister v. to confine; seclude
 	The writer cloistered herself in a country house to finish her novel.
 	The adjective cloistered means shut away from the world.
 	The journalist described the large American philanthropic foundations as arrogant, elitist, and cloistered.
 	The noun cloister means a monastery or convent.
 	
 	coagulate v. thicken; congeal
 	In normal individuals, blood begins to coagulate about 20 seconds after a wound is sustained, thus preventing further bleeding.

 	Unit 15
 	
 	coalesce v. to cause to become one
 	President John F. Kennedy said that Americans must be vigilant so that the interests of business and the military do not coalesce and thus undermine those of society as a whole.
 	coda n. concluding part of a literary or musical composition; something that summarizes or concludes
 	The coda of the Danish composer Per Norgard's Sixth Symphony seems to return to the serene sounds of the opening.
 	
 	codify v. to systematize
 	The state legislature voted to codify regulations governing banking fraud.
 	Codification is the noun.
 	The most influential codification of civil law was the Napoleonic Code in France, which became the paradigm for law in the non-English-speaking countries of Europe and had a generally civilizing influence on most of the countries in which it was enacted.
 	Codified is the adjective.
 	Common law is the system of laws that originated in England; it is based on court decisions and on customs rather than on codified written laws.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	civil law: a system of law developed from Roman law that is used in continental Europe, the U.S. state of Louisiana, and several other places. The basis of civil law is statute rather that custom and precedent, which are the basis of common law.
 	Napoleonic Code: French legal code enacted by Napoleon in 1804. It made uniform the private law of France.
 	common law: body of law that includes many nonstatutory laws based on many years of precedent derived from rulings by judges
 	
 	cognizant adj. informed; conscious; aware
 	O. Henry* s 'The Gift of the Magi" is a simple evocation of a young couple's love for one another, a story in which a husband and wife in straitened circumstances each sacrifices to buy a Christmas present for the other, not cognizant of what the other is doing.
 	collage n. artistic composition of materials pasted over a surface; an assemblage of diverse elements
 	The cubist Juan Gris is noted for his use of collage to create trompe l'oeil effects—the illusion of photographic reality.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	cubist: a movement in art in the twentieth century that represented subjects from severed points of view rather than from a single per-, spective. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques were the two most influential cubist artists.
 	trompe Voeil a French term meaning "deceive the eye." It refers to a style of portraying objects in a way that deceives the observer into believing it is the object itself.

 	commensurate adj. proportional
 	In the United States, malpractice suits have raised the cost of medicine because doctors must pay more for insurance, and thus increase their fees commensurately.
 	
 	compendium n. brief, comprehensive summary
 	The Mozart Compendium: A Guide to Mozart's Life and Music by H. C. Robbins Landon is a convenient reference for finding information about the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
 
 	complacent adj. self-satisfied
 	Although Tom received an "A" on his midterm exam, Professor Donovan warned him not to become complacent since the work in the second term would be harder.
 	
 	complaisant adj. overly polite; willing to please; obliging
 	Although France and Germany have a close relationship, neither would consider the other a complaisant ally.
 	complement n. something that completes or makes up a whole
 	Some people envision chess developing into a game played at the highest levels between teams of humans and computers, each complementing the other and providing investigators with insight into the cognitive processes of each.

 	Unit 16
 	compliant adj. yielding
 	The young negotiator is trying to learn the skill of being open to proposals by the other side without seeming too compliant
 	
 	compunction n. uneasiness caused by guilt
 	The American psychiatrist Frank Pittman said, "Men who have been raised violently have every reason to believe it is appropriate for them to control others through violence; they feel no compunction over being violent to women, children, and one another."
 	
 	concave adj. curving inward
 	Concave lenses are used in glasses to compensate for myopia (nearsightedness).
 	
 	conciliatory adj. overcoming distrust or hostility
 	The leader of the country made conciliatory statements assuring the world that his country did not intend to acquire nuclear weapons.
 	concoct v. to invent
 	The various human cultures have concocted a great many explanations to describe the beginning of the Earth, life, and humanity.
 	
 	concomitant n. existing concurrently
 	A rebuttal of the argument that homo sapiens9s higher cognitive functions could not be the result solely of evolution is that such abilities arose as concomitants of language, which gave early hominids a tremendous advantage over other species.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	hominids: a hominid is any member of the biological family Hominidae (the "great apes"), which include, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and humans.

 	condone v. to overlook voluntarily; forgive
 	Mahatma Gandhi believed in the principle of ahimsa and refused to condone violence of any kind, even if used in a just cause.

 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	Mahatma Gandv twentieth-century Indian political leader who was instrumental in India's gaining independence. Gandi is widely revered for his championing of nonviolence.
 	ahimscu a belief in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism that advocates noninjury to all living beings

 	confound v. to baffle; perplex; mix up
 	Everyone but an astrophysicist seems to be confounded by the question, "What happened before the Big Bang?"

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Big Bang: a model of the origin of the universe stating that it began as infinitely compressed and has been expanding since then

 	congenial adj. similar in tastes and habits; friendly; suited to
 	The physicist Freeman Dyson has expressed his awe at how congenial the universe is to intelligent life and consciousness.
 	condone adj. pertaining to marriage agreement
 	The goal of the Bennett sisters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is to find a suitable man to marry with whom they can live in conjugal happiness.

 	Unit 17 

 	connoisseur n. a person possessing expert knowledge or training; a person of informed and discriminating taste
 	The art connoisseur selected works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Picasso for the exhibition.
 	
 	conscript n. person compulsorily enrolled for military service
 	The position of NOW (The National Organization for Women) is that having male-only conscripts violates the principle of gender equality.
 	Conscript is also a verb meaning to enroll a person for military service
 	The French writer Andre Breton was conscripted into the artillery and had to put his medical studies in abeyance for the duration of World War L
 	Conscription is the noun.
 	During the War of 1812, American political leaders considered national conscription to augment state militias, but Daniel Webster successfully argued before Congress that such a measure would be unconstitutional and thus the proposal was rejected.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	War of 1812: a war fought between the British Empire and the United States from 1812 to 1815. The war ended in a stalemate.
 	conscription: forced enlistment of people in the military. Modern conscription originated during the French Revolution.
 	Daniel Webster: American lawyer and political leader during the period before the Civil War, which he tried to avert

 	consecrate v. to declare sacred
 	In his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln said of the soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863: "We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live...But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract"

 	
 	contend v. to assert
 	One of the most famous philosophers to argue for ethical relativism was the German Friedrich Nietzsche, who contended that the lightness of a particular action is dependent on the circumstances of the time and culture in which it occurs.
 	Contention is a noun meaning an assertion.
 	The study's contention is that obesity is America's biggest health problem.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	ethical relativism: the view that there is no objective truth in issues of what is right or wrong
 	Friedrich Nietzsche: nineteenth-century German philosopher. Nietzsche is best known for his doctrine of "the Superman/ which held that superior people should reject the "slave morality" of traditional Christianity in favor of a new morality centered on the individual.

 	contentious adj. quarrelsome; causing quarrels
 	When genetic engineering began in the 1970s, there was a contentious, and sometimes acrimonious, debate among scientists themselves about its dangers.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	genetic engineering: the use of various methods to manipulate the DNA (genetic material) of cells to change hereditary traits or produce biological products
 	
 	contiguous adj. touching; neighboring; connecting without a break There are 48 contiguous states in the United States of America
 	continence n. self-control; abstention from sexual activity
 	Saint Augustine*s famous line u Give me chastity and continence, but not just now n is sometimes used to highlight the idea that action is desirable at some point, but not at present.
 	
 	contrite adj. very sorrowful for a wrong
 	In sentencing the convicted man to a life sentence, the judge took into consideration the fact that he did not seem to be at all contrite about his crime.
 
 	contumacious adj. disobedient; rebellious
 	In the late eighteenth century, Great Britain tried unsuccessfully to put down the uprising against their rule by contumacious Americans, leading eventually to the establishment of a separate nation.
 	conundrum n. riddle; puzzle with no solution
 	The paradoxical statement "This statement is false" presents us with a conundrum.

 	Unit 18
 	
 	convention n. practice widely observed in a group; custom; accepted technique or device
 	The work of French artist Henri Rousseau demonstrates a naiveté that many people find more attractive than the sophistication of highly complex works that make use of all the conventions of their genre.
 	Conventional is an adjective meaning customary or commonplace
 	Guerilla war presents a dilemma for framers of rules of war: should guerilla fighters be subject to the same rules as those imposed on soldiers who fight conventional wars?

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Henri Rousseau: French painter (1844-1910) famous for his paintings, often of jungles, done in a Primitive manner
 	guerilla war: a war involving small groups of soldiers that are flexible and mobile. In guerilla war there is no front line as there is in conventional war.

 	converge v. to approach; come together; tend to meet
 	Although the People's Republic of China and India are rivals in many ways, in certain areas their interests converge.
 	
 	convex adj. curved outward
 	The term for a lens with one convex and one concave side is "convex-concave."
 	
 	convivial adj. sociable
 	One of the jobs of an ambassador is to provide a convivial atmosphere for diplomats to meet.
 	
 	convoluted adj. twisted; complicated
 	Unraveling the convoluted genetic code is one of the great achievements of modern science.
 	
 	copious adj. abundant; plentiful
 	The copious rainfall was welcomed by farmers in the parched land.
 	coquette n. woman who flirts
 	After she had played the part of a coquette in the college play, Pam's boyfriend felt that he needed to remind her that real life was quite different from the theater.
 	cornucopia n. horn overflowing with fruit and grain; state of abundance
 	The U.S. economy has produced a cornucopia of employment opportunities.
 
 	cosmology n. study of the universe as a totality; theory of the origin and structure of the universe
 	Albert Einstein downplayed the strength of the evidence for quantum theory because a universe governed by laws that are inconsistent in their application was not congruent with his personal cosmology.
 	Cosmos is a noun meaning the physical universe regarded as a totality.
 	Shakespeare embodies the incredible confidence and vitality of Renaissance artists and writers, depicting the entire cosmos, not intimidated by its vastness.
 	Cosmic is an adjective meaning relating to the physical universe, especially as distinct from Earth, and suggests infinite vastness.
 	The gods of ancient Greece were concerned not only with cosmic events, but also with the ordinary events of everyday life.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	quantum theory: a theory in physics based on the principle that matter and energy have the properties of both particles and waves
 	Renaissance: the period of revival in art and learning that occurred in Europe during the fourteenth to the seventeenth century
 	
 	covert adj. hidden; secret
 	The CIA gathers information about foreign intelligence through many means, including covert ones.

 	Unit 19
 	
 	covetous adj. desiring something owned by another
 	The astronomer is covetous of the time that his colleague gets for research using the Hubble Space Telescope.
 	Covet is the verb.
 	The latest model cell phone is designed to make people covet it so much that they go out and buy it even though their present phone is perfectly adequate.
 	cozen v. to mislead by trick or fraud; deceive
 	The writer H. L. Mencken pointed out that a common strategy of politicians is to cozen the people by exaggerating the seriousness of a problem and then offering a solution that, conveniently, only they can provide.
 	
 	craven adj. cowardly
 	In the Hindu epic poem the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna warns the hero, who is reluctant to fight, that refusing to fight would be a craven act.
 	credence n. acceptance of something as true
 	One of the lessons in Aesop's fable The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf is that if a person "cries wolf too many times without real danger being present (that is, raises too many false alarms) people will be less likely to give credence to future alarms raised by that person.
 	credo n. statement of belief or principle; creed The credo of Google is "Don't be evil."
 	daunt v. to discourage; intimidate; dishearten
 	Do not let the difficulty of learning the 800 words in Essential Words for the GRE daunt you.
 	Daunting is an adjective that means discouraging or disheartening. Earning a PhD. is a daunting task, but it can be done.
 	The adjective dauntless means fearless.
 	
 	dearth n. scarcity
 	In his book The Affluent Society, published in 1958, the economist J. K. Galbraith pointed out that in America affluence is located disproportionately in the private sector, leaving a dearth of resources available for the public sector.

 	
 	debauchery n. corruption
 	The prince lived a life of debauchery until he discovered a spiritual dimension to life.
 	
 	decorum n. proper behavior
 	When addressing the nation, the president generally has an air of decorum.
 	The adjective is decorous.
 	defame: v. to malign; harm someone's reputation
 	The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was defamed as a teacher who corrupted the morals of his students.

 	UNIT 20
 	
 	default v. to fail to act
 	Economists have pointed out the danger of using government money to help banks in danger of defaulting on a loan: such help might encourage banks to take excessive risks on the future, knowing they will be "bailed out" by the government.

 	
 	deference n. respect; regard for another's wish
 	There was a movement to condemn slavery among some of the writers of the Declaration of Independence, but despite many misgivings, the proposal was dropped in deference to the objections of a number of people.
 	The verb defer means to submit to the wishes of another due to respect or recognition of the person's authority or knowledge.
 	The young lawyer deferred to the view of the senior partner in the law firm.
 	
 	defunct adj. no longer existing
 	Skeptics have been prognosticating that Moore's Law, which says computer processing power doubles every 18 months, will soon become defunct, but the ingenuity of engineers, coupled with commercial incentives, has so far succeeded in preventing the law from being invalidated.
 	
 	delineate v. to represent or depict
 	Quantum theory led to the formulation of the uncertainty principle, which was delineated in 1937 by Werner Heisenberg.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	uncertainty principle: the statement in quantum mechanics stating that it is impossible to measure accurately two properties of a quantum object, such as its position and momentum

 	demographic adj. related to population balance
 	Demographic trends in many European countries indicate that in the next generation there will be relatively fewer working people to support retired people.
 	Demography is the study of human population.
 	Demography makes use of the knowledge of other fields such as geography and statistics.
 	A demographer is one who studies human population.
 	If, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, many governments in the world had not taken steps to promote birth control among their citizens, causing a diminution in the birth rate, demographers say the world would now have a much greater population than it does.
 
 	demotic adj. pertaining to people
 	Walt Whitman is considered by many to be a quintessentially American poet, a poet who celebrated the glory of the ordinary person; one critic praised him as a poet who was able to "make the demotic sing."
 	
 	demur v. to express doubt
 	The Supreme Court's decision was not unanimous; one justice demurred, saying that the majority decision used specious reasoning.
 	
 	denigrate v. to slur someone's reputation
 	According to a recent biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, the famous leader felt a need to denigrate women.
 	
 	denizen n. an inhabitant; a regular visitor
 	The U.S. Census Bureau has the responsibility of collecting information about the denizens of the United States.
 	denouement n. outcome; unraveling of the plot of a play or work of literature
 	The book tells the story of what was for Europe a rather embarrassing denouement to the Crusades.

 	Unit 21
 	deride v. to mock
 	Innovation often requires challenges to orthodox thinking; for example, in the late 1960s, scientists from the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency presented their idea of a vast network of computers to leading scientists from IBM and AT&T—companies with innumerable research breakthroughs to their credit—and were derided as impractical visionaries.
 	
 	derivative n. something derived; unoriginal
 	The drug morphine—considered by doctors to be one of the most effective analgesics—is the principal derivative of opium, which is the juice in the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy.
 	Derivative is also an adjective.
 	The critic dismissed the new novel as dull and derivative.
 	The verb derive means obtained from another source.
 	One of the attempts to create a lingua franca resulted in Esperanto, a synthetic language whose vocabulary is created by adding various affixes to individual roots and is derived from Latin and Greek, as well as Germanic and Romance languages.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	lingua franca: a language used as a medium of communication between peoples of different languages
 	affixes: word elements that are affixed to the beginning (prefixes) or the end (suffixes) of words to refine the meaning or change the word's grammatical form
 	Romance languages: the Romance languages, or Indo-European languages that descended from Vulgar Latin, include Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, their many dialects, and the pidgins and Creoles (mixed languages) that developed from them.
 	The term "Romance" is from Vulgar Latin romanice loqui (vulgar languages derived from Latin).

 	
 	desiccate v. to dry completely
 	The dry desert air caused the bodies of the dead animals to desiccate quickly.
 	
 	desuetude n. state of disuse
 	NASA is considering a plan to refurbish booster rockets from the Apollo Program that have fallen into desuetude.
 	
 	desultory adj. random; disconnected; rambling
 	The jury had difficulty following the witnesses' desultory testimony.
 	deterrent n. something that discourages or hinders
 	During the Cold War, the United States maintained a large number of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to aggression by the Soviet Union and its allies.
 	detraction n. the act of taking away; derogatory comment on a person's character
 	The writer responded in a letter to the critic's long list of detractions about his book.
 	diaphanous adj. transparent; fine-textured; insubstantial; vague
 	In World War II, many soldiers went to war with diaphanous dreams of glory, but found instead horror and death.
 	
 	diatribe n. bitter verbal attack
 	The speaker launched into a diatribe against what he called "the evils of technology."
 	dichotomy n. division into two usually contradictory parts
 	The philosopher is a dualist who argues that there is a dichotomy between the mind and physical phenomena.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	dualist one who believes in dualism, the theory that two basic entities constitute reality (such as mind and matter or good and evil)

 	Unit 22
 	 
 	diffidence n. shyness; lack of confidence
 	As a result of the strength of his opposition to the Vietnam War Senator Eugene McCarthy overcame his diffidence and ran against President Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic nomination for president.
 	
 	diffuse v. to spread out
 	The idea of equality and liberty diffused through society after the French Revolution.
 	Diffuse is also an adjective meaning wordy; rambling; spread out.
 	This essay is so diffuse it is difficult to follow its central argument.
 	
 	digression n. act of straying from the main point
 	The novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig contains many fascinating digressions from the main story that discuss topics such as Platonic philosophy.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Platonic: refers to the philosophy of Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher who held that both actual things and ideas such as beauty and truth are copies of transcendent ideas
 	The adjective platonic (with a small "p") means spiritual, without sensual desire, or theoretical.

 	
 	dirge n. funeral hymn
 	The music critic described the movement of the symphony portraying the hero's last days as "dirgelike."
 	
 	disabuse v. to free from a misconception
 	The chairman of the Federal Reserve used his testimony before Congress to disabuse his audience of the idea that the business cycle had been eliminated by the unprecedented period of prosperity.
 	
 	discerning adj. perceptive; exhibiting keen insight and good judgment
 	Discerning movie critics have praised the work of producer Stanley Kubrick, who produced such excellent films as 2001, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, and Lolita.
 	Discern is a verb that means to perceive something obscure.
 	Superficially, expressionism can appear to be unrealistic because of its extreme distortion of reality, but upon closer examination, an inner psychological reality can often be discerned.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	expressionism: an artistic style in which the artist expresses emotional experience as opposed to his or her view of the external world. Expressionists often use distortion and exaggeration. El Greco, Van Gogh, and Edward Munch are examples of expressionist artists.
 	
 	discomfit v. to make uneasy; disconcert
 	The young man was discomfited being the only male in the play.
 	discordant adj. not in tune
 	In a pluralistic society there exists a cacophony of discordant voices, each shouting to be heard.
 	discredit v. to dishonor; disgrace; cause to be doubted
 	The candidate's attempt to discredit his opponent by spreading damaging rumors about him failed.
 	discrepancy n. difference between
 	The book studies the discrepancy in values and outlook between men who fought in the war, whether voluntarily or not, and those who remained civilians.
 	Unit 23
 	
 	discrete adj. constituting a separate thing; distinct
 	Like the physicist, the abstract artist strives to identify the discrete elements of reality and to understand how they interact

 	discretion n. quality of showing self-restraint in speech or actions; circumspection; freedom to act on one's own
 	In nineteenth-century Britain gentlemen were expected to behave with discretion.
 	
 	disingenuous adj. not candid; crafty
 	When a person starts a sentence, "I don't mean to appear disingenuous," one might be tempted to suspect that the person is being just that.
 	
 	disinterested adj. unprejudiced; objective
 	The newspaper reporter looked for disinterested witnesses to the events so that she could get an objective account of what had happened.
 	
 	disjointed adj. lacking order or coherence; dislocated
 	The technique of telling a story through a disjointed narrative is a technique best left to masters of the modern novel such as James Joyce and William Faulkner.

 	
 	dismiss v. put away from consideration; reject
 	Investigators dismissed the man's account of a visit to another planet aboard an alien spacecraft as the product of an overactive imagination.
 	
 	disparage v. to belittle
 	Though sometimes disparaged as merely an intellectual game, philosophy provides us with a method for inquiring systematically into problems that arise in areas such as medicine, science, and technology.
 	
 	disparate adj. dissimilar
 	Many technological projects are interdisciplinary, requiring a knowledge of fields as disparate as physics and biology.
 	Disparity is a noun meaning the condition of being unequal or unlike.
 	The huge income disparity in the world is clearly illustrated by the fact that the assets of the world's 200 richest people exceed the combined income of 41% of the world's population.
 	 
 	dissemble v. to pretend; disguise one's motives
 	"Miss," the prosecutor said, "I believe you are dissembling. I want you to tell me the whole truth about what happened that night."
 	
 	Disseminate  D. to spread; scatter; disperse
 	While belief in reincarnation appeared as doctrine first in India and was disseminated throughout Asia by Buddhism, it is interesting that it was accepted by the most influential philosophy of the West, Platonism, and by some important early Christian thinkers, such as the theologian Origen.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	Platonism: the philosophy of Plato, which holds that both actual things and ideas such as beauty and truth are copies of transcendent ideas

 	UNTT 24

 	dissident n. person who disagrees about beliefs, etc.
 	Some of the most notorious concentration camps in history were the Gulag camps used by the Soviet Union to control dissidents.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Gulag: forced-labor prison camps in the Soviet Union. Established in the 1920s, the Gulag system had 476 camps throughout the country used to imprison people considered a threat to the state.

 	dissolution n. disintegration; debauchery
 	Some philosophers maintain that the dissolution of the body does not mean the destruction of the mind.
 	
 	dissonance n. discord; lack of harmony
 	In psychology, the term "cognitive dissonance" refers to a conflict resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions. For example, a soldier who believes that all killing is immoral but is forced to kill by his superiors might experience cognitive dissonance.

 	
 	distend v. to expand; swell out
 	People in an advanced stage of starvation often have distended bellies.
 	
 	distill v. extract the essential elements
 	In his book Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, Bryan Magee manages to distill the essence of leading thinkers such as W.V. Quine, John Searle, Iris Murdoch, and Noam Chomsky.
 	
 	distrait adj. inattentive; preoccupied
 	The chairperson became distrait because his secretary was not sitting in her usual position on his right.
 	diverge v. to vary; go in different directions from the same point
 	A famous line in American poetry is from Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken":
 	Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by ....
 	Divergence is the noun.
 	Psychological tests show that there is a wide divergence between citizens of different countries in how much importance they place on the virtue of justice, on the one hand, and the virtue of mercy, on the other hand.
 	divest v. to strip; deprive; rid
 	The candidate for secretary of defense pledged to divest himself of the shares he held in defense-related companies.
 	divulge v. to make known something that is secret
 	Under the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war cannot be tortured and forced to divulge information.
 	doctrinaire adj. relating to a person who cannot compromise about points of a theory or doctrine; dogmatic; unyielding
 	The doctrinaire Marxists say that capitalism is merely a temporary phenomenon on the road to socialism.

 	Unit 25

 	document v. to provide with written evidence to support
 	The insurance company asked Debbie to document her claim with letters from the doctors who treated her for her condition.
 	
 	doggerel n. poor verse
 	In his book Poetic Meter and Poetic Form, the literary citric Paul Fussell quotes this bit of doggerel from a U.S. Army latrine during World War El
 	Soldiers who wish to be a hero Are practically zero. But those who wish to be civilians, Jesus, they run into millions.
 	
 	dogmatic adj. stating opinions without proof
 	Since every case is unique, jurists must not be dogmatic in applying precedents to make their decision, but instead must base their decision on a combination of such precedents and the facts of the case at hand.

 	
 	Dogma is a noun meaning a belief asserted on authority without evidence
 	Religions whose dogma specifies a time of the creation of the world have found difficulty in reconciling their view of creation with that of modern science.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	The original meaning of dogma was "that which seems good." In Christian theology it came to mean truths known by divine revelation and taught by the Church.

 	dormant adj. inactive
 	There is a considerable body of evidence showing that many diseases, such as ulcers, asthma, and hypertension have a large psychological component; the working hypothesis is that they represent manifestations of dormant emotional disturbances.
 	
 	dross n. waste; worthless matter; trivial matter
 	One of the ways the dross among blogs on the Internet are filtered out from the worthwhile ones is through links good blogs provide to other good blogs.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	blog: short for weblog, an on-line journal

 	dupe v. to deceive; trick
 	"In friendship, as well as in love, the mind is often duped by the heart." (Philip Dormer Stanhope)
 	ebullient adj. exhilarated; enthusiastic
 	The ebullient candidate for president appeared before his supporters to announce that he had won in a landslide.
 	
 	eclectic adj. selecting from various sources
 	Neo-Platonism—an eclectic third-century synthesis of Platonic. Pythagorean, Aristotelian, Stoic, and Jewish philosophy— was an essentially mystical belief that a person can achieve spiritual emancipation through union of the soul with the ultimate source of existence.
 
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Platonic: refers to the philosophy of Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher who held that both actual things and ideas such as beauty and truth are copies of transcendent ideas
 	Pythagorean: refers to the philosophy of Pythagoras, a sixth-century B.C. philosopher and mathematician. Pythagoras described reality in terms of arithmetical relationships.
 	Aristotelian: refers to the philosophy of Aristotle, an ancient Greek scientist and philosopher whose teaching had a great influence on Western thought, especially in the areas of logic, metaphysics, and science
 	Stoic: refers to Stoicism, a philosophy of ancient Greece that taught that the highest good is virtue, which is based on knowledge. The Stoics believed that the wise live in harmony with Divine Reason that governs nature and are indifferent to suffering and the changing fortunes of life.
 	mystical: related to mysticism, the practice of putting oneself into direct relation with God, the absolute, or any unifying principle of life

 	effervescence n. state of high spirits or liveliness; the process of bubbling as gas escapes
 	Effervescence occurs when hydrochloric acid is added to a block of limestone.
 	The adjective is effervescent.
 	A person who believes himself to be physically unattractive might develop an effervescent personality as a compensation for his perceived deficiency.
 	effete adj. depleted of vitality; overrefined; decadent
 	In 1969, U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew denounced people protesting against the Vietnam War: "A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."
 	UNIT 26
 	efficacy n. efficiency; effectiveness
 	A cardinal rule of medicine is that the efficacy of a treatment should be measured against the seriousness of its side effects.
 	The adjective is efficacious.
 	In a situation where some subjects are benefiting while others are not, a researcher is likely to have ambivalent feelings, since he or she is in a "no-win" situation. In such a situation, the experimenter must choose between, on the one hand, getting more conclusive results by continuing the experiment and, on the other hand, stopping it and administering the drug that has proven efficacious to those who have not received it.
 	
 	effrontery n. shameless boldness; presumptuousness
 	In her essay the student had the effrontery to argue that school is largely a waste of time.
 	egoism n. the tendency to see things in relation to oneself; self-centeredness
 	The beginning of philosophy has been described as a moving away from egoism to an understanding of the larger world.

 	
 	egotistical adj. excessively self-centered; conceited
 	The critics accused the writer of being egotistical since she wrote only about herself.
 	
 	elegy n. poem or song expressing lamentation
 	Adonais is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in the spring of 1821 after he learned of the death of his friend and fellow poet John Keats.
 	
 	elicit v. to provoke; draw out
 	The Socratic method is designed to elicit responses that guide the student toward understanding.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Socratic method: a method of seeking the truth about a subject through systematic questioning. Often it results in the questioning of assumptions. The Socratic method is attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates.

 	elixir n. a substance believed to have the power to cure ills
 	The doctor said that her prescription would help to alleviate my condition but that I could not expect it to be an elixir.
 	
 	Elysian adj. blissful; delightful
 	In Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid, the hero Aeneas descends to the Underworld where he meets the soul of his dead father, Anchises, in the Elysian fields and learns from him the future of the Roman race.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	Elysian fields or Elysium: in Greek and Roman mythology this refers to an otherworld where the spirits of the virtuous and heroic dwell after being transported there without experiencing death
 	Elysium is described in Homer's Odyssey as a place of eternal spring where the souls of heroes and others who are blessed by the gods wander blissfully. Homer placed Elysium at the western edge of the Earth near the stream of Oceanus, while other ancient Greek poets, such as Hesiod and Pindar, placed it in the Isles of the Blessed, or the Fortunate Islands, of the Western Ocean. Later, in the Aeneid, Virgil describes it as being located in the realms of the dead under the Earth.
 
 	emaciated adj. thin and wasted
 	The prisoner was emaciated after being fed only bread and water for three months.
 	embellisa. v. to adorn; decorate; enhance; make more attractive by adding details
 	The story he had been told was so powerful that the writer felt no need to embellish it.

 	Unit 27
 	
 	emollient adj. soothing; mollifying
 	The politician's speech is filled with emollient phrases to make his message more palatable.
 	Emollient is also a noun that means an agent that soothes or makes more acceptable.
 	
 	empirical adj. derived from observation or experiment
 	Some people erroneously cite the theory of relativity as support for ethical relativism, whereas in reality the former is a scientific theory, while the latter is a moral issue, and thus by its nature is not subject to empirical verification.

 	Empiricism is a noun meaning the view that experience is the only source of knowledge. It can also mean the employment of empirical methods, as in science.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	theory of relativity: the theory of the relative as opposed to the absolute character of motion and mass, and the interdependence of matter, space, and time

 	emulate v. to imitate; copy
 	Bionics uses technology to emulate nature, but sometimes a similar process occurs in reverse, in which scientists use technology as a heuristic tool to better understand natural processes.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Bionics: the application of biological principles to the design of electrical or engineering systems
 	heuristic: relating to a speculative formulation guiding the investigation or solution of a problem; educational method in which students learn from their own investigations

 	encomium n. a formal expression of praise
 	The prime minister asked her speechwriter to compose an encomium for the retiring general
 	
 	endemic adj. inherent; belonging to an area
 	Malaria, once endemic to the area, has now been largely eradicated.

 	enervate v. to weaken
 	During World War II Russian commanders counted on the bitter cold to enervate German soldiers invading their country.
 	
 	engender v. to cause; produce
 	Freudians believe that the traumatic events of infancy often engender repression that creates neuroses.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Freudians: followers of Sigmund Freud, the nineteenth-century physician who pioneered the study of the unconscious mind. Some central ideas of Freudian psychology are given below.
 	repression: a psychological process by which desires and impulses are kept out of the conscious mind and kept in the subconscious mind
 	neuroses: a mental disease that causes distress but does not interfere with a person's ability to function in everyday life. In Freudian psychology, a neurosis results from an ineffectual strategy adopted by the *Ego to resolve conflict between the *Id and the *Superego.
 	*Ego: in Freudian psychology, the part of the mind that tries to match the desires of the Id with what is required by reality
 	*Id: in Freudian psychology, the part of the mind that is the source of psychic energy that comes from instinctual drives and needs
 	*Superego: in Freudian psychology, the part of the mind that opposes the desires of the Id. It is based on the childhood process by which a person makes the values of society part of his or her personality.

 	enhance v. to increase; improve
 	Although it is widely believed that the primary objective of the researchers developing the Internet was to secure the American nuclear missile system, in fact their main goal was to foster science by enhancing the ability of technology to disseminate information among scientists.
 	
 	entomology n. the scientific study of insects
 	Considering that there are approximately 925,000 species of insects (more than all other species combined), entomology is a vast field of study.
 	
 	enunciate v. to pronounce clearly
 	In everyday speech the sounds of many words are not enunciated clearly.
 	
 	UNIT 28
 	
 	ephemeral adj. short-lived; fleeting
 	Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet share with the Romantics an affinity for nature, but the Impressionists took a more scientific interest in it, attempting to accurately depict ephemeral phenomena such as the play of light on water.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Impressionist: refers to Impressionism, a movement in art that began in France in the late nineteenth century. Impressionism seeks to portray the visual effects of light reflected on subjects. Claude Monet is one of the most famous Impressionist painters. The term can also be used to refer to literature that tries to convey a general impression of a subject rather than a detailed one and to musical compositions that create impressions and moods.

 	
 	epistemology n. branch of philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge
 	A major question in epistemology is whether the mind can ever gain objective knowledge, limited as it is by its narrow range of sense experience.
 	
 	equable adj. steady; unvarying; serene
 	Throughout the crisis the president remained equable.
 	Do not confuse equable with equitable, which means fair, or just, or impartial.
 	Much of modern economic history can be seen as a dialectic between advocates of laissez-faire policies, who want to leave the market free to create wealth untrammeled by restrictions (believing it will "trickle down" to all members of the society), and exponents of redistribution of wealth, who want to ensure that the fruits of capitalism are shared equitably.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	dialectic: in this context, dialectic refers to the action of opposing forces in society
 	laissez-faire: in economics and politics, doctrine that an economic system functions best when there is no interference by government. It Is based on the belief that the natural economic order tends, when undisturbed by artificial stimulus or regulation, to secure the maximum well-being for the individual and therefore for the community as a whole.

 	equanimity n. composure; calmness
 	Emergency room doctors and nurses are trained to maintain their equanimity when treating patients.
 	
 	equivocate v. to intentionally use vague language
 	The businessperson has earned a reputation as someone who never equivocates and can be trusted to do exactly what he promises.
 	The noun is equivocation.
 	The saying "It's a matter of semantics" is often used to indicate that the real meaning of something is being lost in verbiage, often with the implication that there is obfuscation or equivocation.
 
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	semantics: interpretation of a word, sentence, or other language form

 	errant adj. mistaken; straying from the proper course
 	The pitcher's errant fastball struck the batter on the shoulder.
 	
 	erudite adj. learned; scholarly
 	Frederick Copleston, author of the nine-volume History of Philosophy, was undoubtedly one of the most erudite people who ever lived.
 	The noun is erudition
 	Great erudition does not necessarily mean that a person is sagacious.
 	esoteric adj. hard to understand; known only to a few
 	Epidemiologists, using esoteric statistical analyses, field investigations, and complex laboratory techniques, investigate the cause of a disease, its distribution (geographic, ecological and ethnic), method of spread, and measures for preventing or controlling it

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Epidemiologists: experts in the branch of medicine that deals with the study of the causes, distribution, and control of disease in populations

 	essay v. to make an attempt; subject to a test
 	The composer began work on a sonata, a form she had not previously essayed.
 	
 	Estimable  adj. admirable; possible to estimate
 	Alistair Cooke's book Six Men contains character studies of estimable modern figures including H. L. Mencken, Humphrey Bogart, and Adlai Stevenson

 	Unit 29
 	
 	ethnocentric adj. based on the attitude that one's group is superior
 	The words "primitive'' and "savage" reflect an ethnocentric bias in Western culture that regards societies that do not have Western science and technology as inferior because they have not achieved as much material success as Western societies.
 	The noun is ethnocentrism
 	During certain periods of Chinese history, foreigners were considered to be "barbarians"; perhaps this ethnocentrism made it difficult for the Chinese to accept innovations from other countries.
 	
 	etiology n. causes or origins
 	The etiology of mental illness is complex because of the diversity of factors—social, biological, genetic, and psychological—that contribute to many disorders.
 	
 	etymology n. origin and history of a word
 	The origin of the word "barbarian" reflects the ethnocentrism of the ancient Greeks; its etymology is that it comes (through Latin and French words) from the Greek word barbaros, meaning non-Greek, foreign.

 	
 	eugenics n. study of factors that influence the hereditary qualities of the human race and ways to improve these qualities
 	The science fiction novel describes a military eugenics program designed to create a race of "super-soldiers'' possessing intelligence, strength, and other qualities far in advance of the ordinary person.
 	
 	eulogy n. high praise, especially of a person who has recently died
 	After the death of Abraham Lincoln, many eulogies of him appeared in newspapers throughout America
 	
 	euphemism n. use of agreeable or inoffensive language in place of unpleasant or offensive language
 	An illustration of the tendency toward euphemism is the change (reflecting the political concerns of the day) in the accepted appellation of poor countries from the unambiguous poor, to undeveloped, to underdeveloped, to less developed, to developing.
 	
 	euphoria n. a feeling of extreme happiness
 	There was euphoria in the professor's house after it was learned that she had received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
 	
 	euthanasia n. mercy killing
 	Modern medicine's ability to prolong life has raised ethical questions, such as "Is euthanasia ever morally justifiable?''
 	
 	evince v. to show plainly; be an indication of
 	The student's response to the teacher's question evinced his ignorance of the subject.
 	evocative adj. tending to call to mind or produce a reaction
 	Somerset Maugham's short stories are often evocative of exotic places such as Pago-Pago and Gibraltar.
 	Evocation is the noun.
 	Some literary critics believe that Charles Dickens' use of caricature makes his characters one-dimensional, but others see these characters as evocations of universal human types that resonate powerfully with readers' experiences of real people.
 	The verb is evoke.
 	The terms "loaded language" and "charged language" are used to specify language that has so many connotations for most readers that it is difficult for a writer to use it without evoking myriad associations, which will distract attention from the topic under discussion.
 	UNIT 30
 	exacerbate v. to aggravate; make worse
 	The release of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels has increased the amount of this gas in the atmosphere, exacerbating the naturally occurring "greenhouse effect" that has predominated in Earth's recent past

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	greenhouse effect: the process by which a planet's atmosphere warms the planet

 	
 	exact v. to force the payment of; demand and obtain by authority
 	The conquering rulers exacted a tax of 10% from every adult male in the country.
 	The adjective exacting means extremely demanding.
 	Early in his career the English writer Aldous Huxley made this comment: "What occupation is pleasanter, what less exacting, than the absorption of curious literary information?''
 	
 	exculpate v. to clear of blame; vindicate
 	The report exculpated the FBI of any wrongdoing in its handling of the investigation.
 	
 	execrable adj. detestable; abhorrent
 	When folk artists such as Bob Dylan began to use rock instruments, many folk music traditionalists considered it an execrable travesty.
 	
 	exhort v. to urge by strong appeals
 	In 1943 U.S. General George S. Patton exhorted American troops about to invade Hitler's Europe, saying that victory was assured because American soldiers were more virile and courageous than their German counterparts.
 	
 	exigency n. crisis; urgent requirements
 	Astronauts must be prepared for exigencies such as damage to their spacecraft's life support system
 	existential adj. having to do with existence; based on experience; having to do with the philosophy of existentialism
 	Existential writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre have argued that human beings are free, but that this freedom entails a burden of responsibility that makes them anxious.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	Existentialism is a philosophical movement that stresses individual experience in relation to the world. Existential thought is very varied, but often concerns itself with the ideas of freedom, responsibility, and the isolation of the individual self.
 
 	exorcise v. to expel evil spirits; free from bad influences
 	A modern parallel to the shaman is the psychiatrist, who helps the patient exorcise personal demons and guides him toward mental wholeness.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	shaman: a tribal healer who is believed to be able to enter the world of good and evil spirits. Shamans often enter a trance and practice divination.

 	expatiate v. to speak or write at length
 	Every year the book club invites a famous author to come to expatiate on the art of writing.
 	
 	expatriate v. to send into exile
 	The pronunciation is ek-SPAY-tree-ayt.
 	People seeking asylum in another country are sometimes expatriated.
 	Expatriate is also a noun meaning a person living outside his or her own land.
 	The pronunciation is ek-SPAY-tree-it.
 	The adjective is also expatriate.

 	Unit 31

 	expiate v. to atone for
 	The pilgrims undertook their long journey to expiate their sins. Expiation is the noun.
 	explicate v. to explain; interpret; clarify
 	The literature exam requires students to explicate three poems they studied in class and one they have not studied.
 	Explication is the noun.
 	
 	expository adj. explanatory
 	There is no one model of expository prose that a student can emulate, since each piece of good writing is unique.
 	
 	extant adj. in existence; not lost
 	Unfortunately for Bible scholars, there are no extant writings of Jesus Christ.
 	
 	extemporaneous adj. unrehearsed
 	J enjoyed the speaker's extemporaneous remarks more than her prepared speech, because they gave me insight into her personality that helped me understand the decisions she made during her time as a federal judge.
 	 
 	extirpate v. to root up; to destroy
 	The new federal prosecutor promised voters that he would extirpate corruption in the state.
 	
 	extraneous adj. not essential
 	The encyclopedia editors worked hard to cut out extraneous material so that readers could find information easily on a given subject.
 	
 	extrapolation n. the act of estimation by projecting known information
 	The economist's extrapolation suggests that the economy wUl grow by 4% next year.

 	
 	The verb is extrapolate.
 	Strict determinists believe that it is possible, at least theoretically, to extrapolate the future movement of every atom in the universe based on present conditions.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	determinists: followers of the belief that all events are determined by causes external to the will

 	extrinsic adj. not inherent or essential
 	The experiment is designed to exclude factors that are extrinsic to the phenomenon.
 	
 	facetious adj. humorous
 	The comedian's facetious comments about prominent politicians kept the audience amused.
 	
 	Unit 32
 	facilitate v. to make less difficult
 	The Internet—together with the availability of relatively inexpensive personal computers—has greatly facilitated the ability of ordinary people to conveniently exchange information with one another and with large computer systems.
 	
 	factotum n. a person who does all sorts of work; a handyman
 	In Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, the character Malvolio aspires to become more than merely a factotum in the house of Lady Olivia.
 	
 	fallacious adj. based on a false idea or fact; misleading
 	The belief of the Nazis that they could create a "master race" was based on the fallacious premise that some races are inherently superior to others.
 	The noun fallacy means an incorrect idea.
 	Critics of the "strong" anthropic principle argue that its proponents are guilty of a logical fallacy: on the basis of one known case of intelligent life, they extrapolate the existence of a multitude of such cases.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	anthropic principle: the theory that only a limited number of possible universes are favorable to the creation of life and that of these only some have intelligent observers. Since humankind exists, it follows that the universe is suited to the evolution of intelligence.

 	fallow adj. plowed but not sowed; uncultivated
 	At the beginning of each school year the teacher looks out at the new students and thinks of a fallow field, ready to be cultivated.
 	
 	fatuous adj. foolishly self-satisfied
 	The student could not understand why no one took seriously his fatuous comments.

 	
 	fauna n. animals of a period or region
 	When humans introduce fauna from one habitat into another habitat, the ecological balance is upset
 	
 	fawning adj. seeking favor by flattering
 	The boss has a reputation for hiring fawning employees.
 	
 	felicitous adj. suitably expressed; appropriate; well-chosen
 	The Gettysburg Address is full of felicitous phrases such as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."
 	
 	feral adj. existing in a wild or untamed state
 	Feral dogs returning to an untamed state after domestication sometimes form packs, becoming a threat to humans.
 	fervor n. warmth and intensity of emotion
 	American soldiers were welcomed back to the United States with fervor after the end of World War U.
 	The adjective fervent means full of strong emotion, or impassioned.
 	The fervent libertarian believed that government is a necessary evil that should be constrained from excessive interference in the affairs of individuals.

 	Unit 33
 	fetid adj. having a bad smell
 	Many people find the smell of Limburger cheese fetid.
 	
 	fetter v. to bind; confine
 	The poet William Blake believed that each person creates "mind-forged manacles, "fettering his or her natural instincts and spirit
 	The noun fetter means something that restricts or restrains.
 	The adjective fettered means bound or confined.
 	
 	fiat n. arbitrary order; authorization
 	The dictator rules almost entirely by fiat.
 	
 	fidelity n. loyalty; exact correspondence
 	Monks joining the Franciscan Order pledge fidelity to the ideals and rules of the Order.
 	filibuster n. use of obstructive tactics in a legislature to block passage of a law
 	The senator threatened that his filibuster would include a full reading of his eight-volume autobiography.
 	finesse u. to handle with a deceptive or evasive strategy; to use finesse, that is, refinement in performance
 	Engineers decided that the problem could be finessed by using lighter materials.
 	
 	fissure n. crevice
 	Geologists measure the width of the fissure regularly to monitor movement of the Earth's plates in the area.
 	
 	flag v. to droop; grow weak
 	Noticing that the students' attention was flagging, the professor gave them a short break.
 	
 	fledgling n. beginner; novice
 	The coach said that some of the team's fledglings would play in Saturday's game.
 	The adjective fledgling means immature or inexperienced.

 	
 	flora n. plants of a region or era
 	Singapore's Botanical Gardens contain an extensive collection of the flora of Southeast Asia.

 	Unit 34

 	florid adj. ruddy; reddish; flowery
 	As he grew older, the novelist eschewed the florid, ostentatious style of his youth in favor of a more direct and sparse style.
 	flourish n. an embellishment or ornamentation
 	The Sophists often gave interminable speeches full of rhetorical flourishes.
 	Flourish is also a verb meaning to grow vigorously, or to thrive.
 	Capitalism flourished in the eighteenth century in Europe and the United States as the industrial revolution created a prodigious amount of wealth that, for the first time in history, was in the hands of landowners.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Sophists: fifth-century b.c. Greek philosophers [Sophistes meant expert or deviser) who speculated on theology, science, and metaphysics. Many people came to dislike the Sophists, accusing them of dishonest reasoning. The word sophistry means reasoning that is subtle and seemingly true but is actually incorrect.

 	
 	flout v. to treat scornfully
 	In his book Poetic Meter and Poetic Form the distinguished literary critic Paul Fussel discusses the dangers poets face when they flout poetic conventions.
 	
 	flux n. flowing; a continuous moving
 	In some cultures time is conceptualized as a flux moving in one direction.
 	
 	foment u. to incite; arouse
 	The government accused the newspaper of fomenting unrest in the country.
 	
 	forbearance n. patience
 	The president warned that great courage and forbearance would be required to see the war through to a successful conclusion.
 	
 	forestall v. to prevent; delay
 	The government took steps to forestall an economic downturn by increasing government spending.
 	
 	formidable adj. menacing; threatening
 	By the middle of the nineteenth century the United States had become a formidable economic and military power.
 	
 	forswear v. renounce; repudiate
 	When she became a U.S. citizen, Julia forswore allegiance to all other countries and pledged to defend the United States if called upon to do so.
 	founder  u. to sink; fail; collapse
 	Most attempts to create advanced new technology by government fat founder, probably because of the difficulty in anticipating changes in fluid world of high technology.
 	
 	UNIT 35
 	fracas n. a loud quarrel; brawl
 	The police were called in to break up a fracas that had erupted in the bar.
 	fractious adj. quarrelsome; unruly; rebellious
 	In an effort to unify their divided party, its leaders decided to first placate the party's most fractious elements.
 	
 	fresco n. a painting done on plaster
 	The Italian Renaissance was the greatest period of fresco painting, as seen in the work of artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael and Giotto.
 	frieze n. ornamental band on a wall
 	One of the best-known friezes, on the outer wall of the Parthenon in Athens, is a 525-foot depiction of the Panathenaic procession honoring Athena.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Parthenon: the chief temple of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis in Athens
 	Panathenaic: relating to the Panathenaea, an Athenian festival held in honor of the Greek goddess Athena, the patron goddess of Athens

 	
 	froward adj. stubbornly contrary; obstinately disobedient
 	The teacher had no choice but to send the froward child to the vice-principal for disciplining.
 	
 	frugality n. thrift
 	In these days of credit card and installment plan buying, frugality seems to have become a rarely practiced virtue.
 	
 	fulminate u. to attack loudly; denounce
 	The senator fulminated against what he termed "foreign meddling in America's business."
 	
 	fulsome adj. so excessive as to be disgusting
 	The actor was embarrassed by the fulsome praise he received after winning the Academy Award for best actor.
 	
 	fusion adj. union; synthesis
 	A hydrogen bomb requires tremendous heat to trigger the fusion reaction, which is provided by the detonation of a fission bomb.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	fusion: In physics, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus, resulting in the release of energy.
 	fission: splitting into two parts. In physics, nuclear fission is a process where a large nucleus is split into two smaller nuclei. In biology, binary fission refers to the process whereby a prokaryote (a single-celled organism lacking a membrane-bound nucleus) reproduces by cell division
 	
 	futile adj. ineffective; useless; fruitless
 	To some non-philosophers, the discipline seems frivolous and futile because it produces no tangible benefits.

 	UNIT 36
 	
 	gainsay v. to deny; dispute; oppose
 	No one can gainsay the fact that she put great effort into the project.
 	gambol v. to frolic; leap playfully
 	The children gamboled on the lawn while their parents ate lunch.

 	The noun gambol means frolicking about.
 	
 	garrulous adj. very talkative; wordy
 	The garrulous houseguest made it difficult for us to get much work done on the project.
 	gauche adj. coarse and uncouth; clumsy
 	What is considered gauche in one culture might not be considered gauche in another culture; for example, burping is considered rude in America but is acceptable in China.
 	geniality n. cheerfulness; kindliness; sociability
 	Hosts of television talk shows are generally people who possess a great deal of geniality.
 	The adjective genial means having a pleasant or friendly disposition.

 	
 	gerrymander v. to divide an area into voting districts in a way that favors a political party
 	An argument against the practice of gerrymandering is that it tends to make it difficult for the party that is out of power to regain power.
 	
 	glib adj. fluent in an insincere way; offhand
 	Sharon's parents were not satisfied by her glib explanation of why

 	she had not been able to study for the exam,
 	 
 	goad v. to prod; urge on
 	Goaded by his friends into trying out for the football team as a walk-on, Jeff went on to become an ail-American linebacker.
 	
 	gossamer adj. sheer; light and delicate, like cobwebs
 	Some experts in NASA believe that what they call a gigantic "gossamer spacecraft" could be constructed in space using extremely lightweight materials.
 	 
 	gouge v. to tear out; scoop out; overcharge
 	The store is able to gouge its customers because it is the only store in the area that carries that particular line of merchandise.

 	UNIT 37
 	
 	grandiloquent adj. pompous; bombastic
 	The orator abandoned grandiloquent phrases and instead uses simple and direct language.
 	
 	gregarious adj. sociable
 	A recent anthropological theory is that human beings are gregarious creatures that are comfortable living in groups of around 150 individuals.
 	
 	grouse v. to complain
 	Instead of grousing about the policy, do something about it: write to your congressional representative.
 	Grouse is also a noun.
 	The lieutenant told his men "If you have any grouses, take them to the captain."
 	
 	guileless adj. free of cunning or deceit; artless
 	One of the charms of the novel is that the guileless hero manages to defeat the scheming villain.
 	Guile is a noun meaning deception or trickery.
 	Playing poker well requires guile as well as skill.
 	
 	guise n. outward appearance; false appearance; pretense
 	In Greek mythology, the god Zeus often appeared to mortal women to whom he was attracted in strange guises: as a swan, he made love to Leda of Sparta, with other women he took on the form of a shower of gold, or a bull, or thunder and lightning.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Zeus, known to the Romans as Jupiter, was the head of the Olympian pantheon and the god of weather. An amorous god, his liaisons with goddesses, nymphs, and mortal women produced many offspring, including Perseus, Heracles, Hermes, Ares, the Fates, and the Muses.-. ..^>y nm JbauioIi»ri mo-i^zsuSse
 	Leda was the wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta. Her union with Zeus produced Helen and Polydeuces.

 	
 	gullible adj. easily deceived
 	Gullible members of the audience believed the young performer's claim that he had composed "Hey, Jude."
 	
 	gustatory adj. affecting the sense of taste
 	According to scientists, our gustatory sense depends to a large extent on our olfactory sense.
 	
 	halcyon adj. calm and peaceful; happy; golden; prosperous
 	The movie evokes the halcyon years immediately after World War II when America was at peace and the economy was booming.
 	As a noun, halcyon is a genus of kingfisher. It also is the name of a mythological bird identified with the kingfisher that symbolizes life and renewal.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	In folklore the halcyon (kingfisher) is a bird that brings peace and calm to the ocean waves for several days around the time of winter solstice, when it builds its nest on the sea and lays its eggs there. The expressions halcyon days and halcyon years describes periods of time that are tranquil and happy.
 	The origins of the halcyon myth can be traced back to ancient Greece and the story of the queen Alcyone (Halcyone) who threw herself into the sea when she saw the dead body of her husband Ceyx, the King of Thessaly, who had drowned in a shipwreck. Pitying Alcyone, the gods transformed both her and Ceyx into kingfishers (halcyon), and they remained in the sea where they mated and had young. While Alcyone laid her eggs and brooded over the nest on the sea, Aeolus, keeper of the sea winds, restrained these winds so that the ocean surface would remain calm and peaceful.

 	hallowed adj. holy; sacred
 	The questioning of scientific and religious orthodoxy by scientists such as Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin led to stupendous advances in both geology and biology, as these fields freed themselves from the fetters of hallowed, but fallacious, assumptions about the age and development of the Earth and life.
 	harangue n. long, pompous speech; tirade
 	The football team sat silently listening to their coach's half-time harangue about poor tackling, dropped passes, and lost opportunities to score.

 	UNIT 38

 	harrowing adj. extremely distressing; terrifying
 	The journey "inward" to explore the unconscious mind has been described as more harrowing than the most dangerous voyage to explore the Earth.
 	herbivorous adj. relating to a herbivore, an animal that feeds mainly on plants
 	Most researchers now believe that the common ancestor of apes and humans was a strongly herbivorous animal
 	hermetic adj. tightly sealed; magical
 	Scholars have traced many of the hermetic traditions of ancient Greece to Egypt.
 	 
 	heterodox adj. unorthodox; not widely accepted
 	The orthodox view among scientists is that the ancestors of the great apes and humans evolved solely in Africa; however, recently a competing, heterodox view has arisen theorizing that they also may have evolved in Euroasia.
 	hieroglyphics n. a system of writing in which pictorial symbols represent meaning or sounds; writing or symbols that are difficult to decipher; the symbols used in advanced mathematics
 	The deciphering of hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone in 1822 was a great step forward in understanding hieroglyphics.

 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	Rosetta Stone: a granite stone inscribed with the same passage of writing in two Egyptian languages and one in classical Greek. Comparative translation helped scholars to gain a much better understanding of hieroglyphics.
 	
 	hirsute adj. covered with hair
 	One of the most obvious differences between humans and closely related species such as chimpanzees is that the latter are hirsute, while the former have relatively little hair.
 	histrionic adj. relating to exaggerated emotional behavior calculated for effect; theatrical arts or performances
 	Whenever the star of the movie does not get her way on the set, she flies into a histrionic fit.
 	The noun histrionics means emotional behavior done for effect.
 	"Cut the histrionics and tell me how you really feel," the woman said to her angry husband.
 	homeostasis n. automatic maintenance by an organism of normal temperature, chemical balance, etc. within itself
 	An example of homeostasis in mammals is the regulation of glucose levels in the blood, which is done mainly by the liver and insulin secreted by the pancreas.
 	homily n. sermon; tedious moralizing lecture; platitude
 	The pastor's homilies have been published in an anthology.

 	homogeneous  adj. composed of identical parts; uniform in composition
 	Pluralists in America argue that the country's institutions can withstand great diversity, and even be strengthened by it, while those who argue for a more homogeneous society believe that such a situation results in unhealthy contention and animosity between groups.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Pluralists: followers of pluralism, the belief that it is beneficial to have a variety of distinct ethnic and cultural groups in society

 	UNIT 39
 	
 	hyperbole n. purposeful exaggeration for effect
 	The American tradition of the tall tale uses hyperbole to depict a world in which the inhabitants and their deeds are larger than life, as befitting a people inhabiting a vast landscape.
 	
 	iconoclastic adj. attacking cherished traditions
 	The linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky has been described as gleefully iconoclastic because of the zeal with which he attacks many of the central beliefs of American society.
 	An icon is an image or representation.
 	The internal combustion engine is a ubiquitous feature of modern industrial society, helping the automobile to become an icon of the twentieth century, loved by many people but loathed by environmentalists.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	The icons of the Eastern Orthodox Church are usually portraits of holy men and women that worshipers use as a help to focus their prayers. A person who smashes such an object is an iconoclast, which comes from the Greek word eikonoklastes meaning "breaking of an image." Iconoclastic has come to be used more generally to refer to an attack on any cherished belief.

 	idolatry n. idol worship; blind or excessive devotion
 	During the Protestant Reformation images in churches were felt to be a form of idolatry and were banned and destroyed.
 	
 	igneous adj. produced by fire; volcanic
 	The presence of igneous rocks on the beach suggests that there was a volcanic eruption in the area millions of years ago.
 	
 	imbroglio n. complicated situation; an entanglement
 	The plot of many of Somerset Maugham's stories consists of an unraveling of an imbroglio in which the main character finds himself.
 	
 	immutable adj. unchangeable
 	If humanity colonizes Mars, it will become a tabula rasa on which we will inscribe our immutable values and beliefs in a new environment.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	tabula rasa: something that is new and not marked by external influence. Tabula rasa is from Latin, meaning "scraped tablet" (a tablet from which the writing has been erased).
 	
 	The noun is immutability.
 	The dogma of creation and the immutability of species was endorsed virtually unanimously by the leading anatomists, botanists, and zoologists of Charles Darwin's day.
 	impair v. to damage; injure
 	Alcohol has been shown to seriously impair the functioning of the brain.
 
 	impassive adj. showing no emotion
 	The judge sat, impassive, listening to the man's emotional account of the crime.
 	impecunious adj. poor; having no money
 	The businessman's biography tells how he went from being an impecunious student in the 1980s to one of the richest people in America.
 	impede v. to hinder; block
 	The development of the western region of China has been impeded by a lack of trained workers.

 	UNIT 40
 	
 	impermeable adj. impossible to penetrate
 	The virus protection software is said to be impermeable to attacks by malicious software sent over the Internet.
 	
 	imperturbable adj. not easily disturbed
 	Buddha counseled that one should try to remain imperturbable through life's vicissitudes.
 	
 	impervious adj. impossible to penetrate; incapable of being affected
 	We were amazed how Laura could sit at the noisy party studying organic chemistry, impervious to the noise around her.

 	
 	impinge v. to strike; encroach
 	Scientists have found chimpanzees to be a territorial species; individuals that are not members of a group impinging on the territory of that group are normally met with aggression.
 	
 	implacable adj. inflexible; incapable of being pleased
 	Once an implacable foe of capitalism, the People's Republic of China in recent years seems, in practice if not in principle, to have embraced it.
 	 
 	implausible adj. unlikely; unbelievable
 	To say that Napoleon Bonaparte achieved what he did merely because he was compensating for his shortness is simplistic, reductionistic, and implausible.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	reductionistic: attempting to explain complex phenomena by simple principles

 	implicit adj. implied; understood but not stated
 	Implicit in the review is the idea that the writing of serious literature is a moral undertaking.
 	An implication is that which is hinted at or suggested.
 	The guiding principle of common law is that decisions of previous courts should be followed unless there are compelling reasons for ruling differently, which by implication would invalidate the earlier rulings.
 	
 	implode v. collapse inward violently
 	The building was imploded in order to make way for the construction of a new apartment complex.
 	The noun is implosion.
 	
 	imprecation n. curse
 	The convicted man was taken away by court officers, uttering imprecations against the jury that had found him guilty.
 
 	impute v. to relate to a particular cause or source; attribute the fault to; assign as a characteristic
 	Primatologists generally impute relatively high intelligence to chimpanzees based on, among other things, the ability of chimpanzees to recognize themselves in a mirror.

 	Unit 41
 	
 	inadvertently adv. carelessly; unintentionally
 	The songwriter says that it is easy to inadvertently use the melody of another song when composing.
 	
 	incarnate adj. having bodily form
 	Christians believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate.
 	
 	inchoate adj. imperfectly formed or formulated
 	In his book, Chronicles, Bob Dylan describes the process of how some of his songs went from an inchoate state to finished, well-produced songs.
 	
 	incongruity n. stat e of not fitting
 	There is an incongruity between the poem's solemn tone and its light-hearted theme.

 	
 	The adjective is incongruous.
 	The assumptions underlying Jonathan Swift's definition of literary style—The proper words in the proper order"—recognize that there are many effective styles, but that the effectiveness of each is dependent on the context within which it is found: for example, the rambling, exuberant style of Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself would be incongruous in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, with its dependence on sustained wit and irony.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Jonathan Swift: Anglo-Irish writer (1667-1745) known today mainly for his prose satires such as Gulliver's Travels
 	Walt Whitman: American poet (1819-1892) widely regarded as one of the nation's greatest writers. His most famous work is Leaves of Grass
 	Alexander Pope: English poet (1688-1744) known today mainly for his satirical poetry, most notably The Rape of the Lock

 	inconsequential adj. insignificant; unimportant
 	The meeting of the two women seemed inconsequential at the

 	time, but in retrospect it led to one of literature's great collaborations.

 	incorporate v. introduce something into another thing already in existence; combine
 	According to Bob Dylan in his autobiography, Chronicles, he systematically tried to incorporate what he learned about life and music into the songs he wrote.
 	incursion n. sudden invasion
 	At first, the Native Americans were not too concerned about the incursions of European settlers, but their anxiety grew with the relentless flow of people, until, finally, calamitous wars were fought between the two sides.
 	indeterminate adj. uncertain; indefinite
 	The novel describes the main character as "being of an indeterminate age, somewhere between 50 and 60."
 	indigence n. poverty
 	Most economists believe that the best way to prevent indigence is to expand employment opportunities.
 
 	The adjective is indigent
 	For approximately 20% of the world's population, nearly all of whom are indigent, malnutrition is the main impediment to achieving good health.
 	
 	indolent adj. habitually lazy; idle
 	An argument against welfare is that it encourages people to be indolent.

 	UNIT 42
 	
 	ineluctable adj. not to be avoided or escaped; inevitable
 	No one can escape the ineluctable truth that every creature that is born will one day die.
 	
 	inert adj. unable to move; sluggish
 	The teacher was frustrated by his inability to get an answer to his question from his inert class.
 	The noun is inertia, meaning disinclination to action or change.
 	The fact that industrialization occurred in Europe hundreds of years before it did in China, which had reached a similar level of technology, is perhaps attributable to cultural factors such as bureaucratic inertia in China and a culture that placed a high value on the status quo.

 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	status quo: the existing state of affairs (Latin, state in which)

 	ingenuous adj. naive and trusting; lacking sophistication
 	The conman could not bring himself to take advantage of the ingenuous boy.
 	
 	inherent adj. firmly established by nature or habit
 	Some studies of random numbers generated by computers suggest that an inherent order exists in nature, since certain patterns appear that one would not expect in a random system, but skeptics dismiss such patterns as either artifacts of imperfectly designed experiments, or as the attempt of the human mind to impose a pattern where there is no intrinsic order.
 	
 	innocuous adj. harmless
 	The bodyguard looked innocuous enough, but under his jacket were several weapons that could kill an attacker in seconds.
 	
 	insensible adj. unconscious; unresponsive
 	The gas is intended to render enemy soldiers insensible.
 	
 	insinuate v. to suggest; say indirectly; imply
 	If you read his speech carefully you will see that the senator is insinuating that his party has taken the wrong path.
 	
 	insipid adj. lacking in flavor; dull
 	Ironically, the book about how to write lively, engaging prose is an insipid piece of writing.
 	insouciant adj. indifferent; lacking concern or care
 	Considering the gravity of the situation, Nancy's colleagues could not understand her insouciant attitude.
 	insularity n. narrow-mindedness; isolation
 	The insularity of many tribes in New Guinea allows anthropologists to study cultures that have been relatively uninfluenced by the modern world.

 	UNIT 43
 	
 	insuperable adj. insurmountable; unconquerable
 	Attempts by the United States to develop an antiballistic missile system have met with limited success because of the almost insuperable difficulties presented by the speed of the approaching warhead that must be intercepted.
 	
 	intangible adj. not material
 	When considering what occupation to pursue it is prudent to consider intangible rewards as well as financial ones.
 	interdict v. to forbid; prohibit; to confront and halt the activities, advance, or entry of
 	Under U.S. law, interdicted goods can be seized by customs officials.
 	
 	internecine adj. deadly to both sides
 	The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) was an internecine conflict that lead to the deaths of 620,000 soldiers out of the 2.4 million who fought in the war.
 	
 	interpolate v. to insert; change by adding new words or material
 	The book The Five Gospels was produced by having leading Bible scholars vote on which sayings of Jesus they believe to be authentic and which they believe to have been interpolated by other writers.

 	
 	interregnum n. interval between reigns; gap in continuity
 	Those who believe that Western culture represents the culmination of history are not disheartened by considering the fall of previous dominant civilizations, believing that these were merely interregnums in the march of humanity from the cave to a united world founded on Western principles.
 	
 	intimate adj. marked by close acquaintance
 	Intimate is pronounced IN-tuh-mit.
 	During the 1990s Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia became good, though not intimate, friends.
 	The noun is intimacy.
 	The American artist Grandma Moses, although considered by art experts to be deficient in technique, achieved an admirable intimacy with her subject matter.
 	The verb intimate means to make known subtly and indirectly. It is pronounced IN-tuh-mayt.
 	The editor intimated that substantial changes would have to be made in the book.
 	
 	intractable adj. not easily managed
 	General practitioners are equipped to deal with most psychosomatic disorders, bur in intractable cases a psychiatrist is consulted.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	psychosomatic disorder: a disease with physical symptoms believed to be caused by emotional or psychological factors

 	intransigence n. stubbornness; refusal to compromise
 	Each side in the negotiations accused the other of intransigence, so talks broke down.
 	introspective adj. contemplating one's own thoughts and feelings
 	In many ways William Wordsworth's great poem The Prelude is an introspective work, retrospectively exploring his thoughts and feelings as he matured.

 	
 	
 	UNIT 44
 	
 	inundate v. to cover with water; overwhelm
 	Farmers in the arid areas called for the government to build a dam to provide water to irrigate their crops and provide hydroelectric power; however, this plan was opposed by environmentalists, who dislike inundation of land because it would have an adverse effect on wildlife.
 	
 	inured v. hardened; accustomed; used to
 	After 20 years in the army, the chaplain had not become inured to the sight of men dying in the battlefield.
 	
 	invective n. verbal abuse
 	The debate judge cautioned participants not to engage in invective, but rather in reasoned and decorous discourse.
 	
 	inveigh v. to disapprove; protest vehemently
 	The conservative writer inveighed against the school board's decision to exclude moral education from the curriculum.

 	
 	inveigle v. to win over by flattery or coaxing
 	The students inveigled their professor into postponing the test for a week.
 	
 	inveterate adj. confirmed; long-standing; deeply rooted
 	The columnist is an inveterate iconoclast who continually questions conventional wisdom.
 	
 	invidious adj. likely to provoke ill will; offensive
 	Most publications in the United States prohibit their writers from making invidious comparisons between racial groups.
 	
 	irascible adj. easily angered
 	The irascible old man complains every time someone makes a little noise.
 	
 	irresolute adj. unsure of how to act; weak
 	The president admonished Congress, saying that although it faced difficult choices it must not be irresolute.
 	itinerant adj. wandering from place to place; unsettled
 	According to state law, companies hiring itinerant workers must provide adequate housing for them.
 	
 	Unit 45
 	
 	itinerary n. route of a traveler's journey
 	We planned our itinerary to be flexible, so that if we especially enjoyed a particular place we could stay there longer.
 	jaundiced adj. having a yellowish discoloration of the skin; affected by envy, resentment, or hostility
 	Norman's experience as an infantryman during the war has given him a jaundiced view of human nature.
 	The noun jaundice refers to a medical condition often due to liver disease and characterized by yellowness of the skin.
 	
 	jibe v. to be in agreement
 	The auditor checked the company's account books to make sure that they jibed with the tax return it filed.
 	
 	jocose adj. fond of joking; jocular; playful
 	The English words jocose, jocular, and joke all come from derivatives of the Latin noun jocus, which means "jest" or "joke," but the etymology of the word jocund is unrelated to these. Jocose (fond of joking; jocular; playful) is from Latin jocosus (humorous, merry, sportive), from jocus. Jocular (fond of joking; playful; speaking in jest) is from Latin jocularis (jocular; laughable), also from jocus. Jocund (mirthful; merry; light-hearted; delightful) is from jocundus (pleasant, agreeable), from juvare (to delight).
 	
 	juggernaut n. huge force destroying everything in its path
 	Some people in Britain regard American English as a juggernaut sweeping through the British Isles, destroying British English
 	
 	junta n. group of people united in political intrigue
 	The country's ruling junta consists of a general, an admiral, and the mayor of the capital city.

 	
 	juxtapose v. place side by side
 	To illustrate their case, opponents of functionalism juxtapose the products of modern architecture and those of classical architecture, such as the Parthenon, or those of medieval architecture, such as the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.
 	The noun juxtaposition means a side-by-side placement.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	functionalism: twentieth-century aesthetic doctrine in architecture. Functionalists believe that the outward form of a structure should follow its interior function.

 	kudos n. fame; glory; honor
 	Kudos won by Bob Dylan include an honorary doctorate in music from Princeton University.
 	
 	labile adj. likely to change
 	Blood pressure in human beings is, to varying degrees, labile.
 	
 	laconic j adj. using few words
 	The laconic actor seemed to be a good choice to play the strong, silent hero in the western.

 	UNIT 46

 	lambaste v. to thrash verbally or physically
 	The critic lambasted the movie in her column, coiling it "the most insipid, jejune film made in our generation."
 	
 	lascivious adj. lustful
 	The court ruled that the movie could be censored because its sole aim was to promote lascivious thoughts.
 	
 	lassitude n. lethargy; sluggishness
 	After the death of his wife, Steven suffered a three-month period of lassitude and depression.
 	
 	latent adj. present but hidden; potential
 	Some experts in human psychology believe that we are just beginning to explore the latent powers of the human mind.
 	
 	laud v. to praise
 	The literary critic lauded Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, calling it a novel that "explores the tension between a person's life as a social being and his or her individual consciousness."
 	
 	lethargic adj. inactive
 	After the 18-hour flight from New York to Singapore, the passengers were lethargic.
 	
 	levee n. an embankment that prevents a river from overflowing
 	An extensive system of levees is the only way to prevent the river from flooding the area during periods of heavy rain.
 	
 	levity n. light manner or attitude
 	The comedian has a gift for finding an element of levity in the most serious of subjects.
 	
 	liberal adj. tolerant; broad-minded; generous; lavish
 	Bankruptcy laws should not be too stringent, or not enough people will venture their capital; on the other hand, they should not be too liberal, or entrepreneurs will take unreasonable risks and waste capital

 	
 	libertine n. one without moral restraint
 	Don Juan is a legendary, archetypal libertine whose story has been told by many poets, such as Lord Byron

 	UNIT 47

 	libido n. sexual desire
 	According to psychologists, the libido of human males peaks at around the age of 18.
 	
 	Lilliputian adj. extremely small
 	Microbiologists study Lilliputian organisms.
 	
 	limn v. to draw; describe
 	The artist based his painting on a sketch he had limned several years earlier.
 	
 	limpid adj. clear; transparent
 	At the bottom of the limpid pond we could see hundreds of fish swimming.
 	
 	linguistic adj. pertaining to language
 	Humans are at the acme of their linguistic proficiency in the first several years of life, during which they master thousands of complex grammatical operations.

 	
 	Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
 	A linguist is someone who studies language.
 	Linguists such as Noam Chomsky believe that what people come to know and believe depends on experiences that evoke a part of the cognitive system that is latent in the mind.
 	
 	litany n. lengthy recitation; repetitive chant
 	The student listened intently to his teacher's litany of the grammatical errors committed by the class.
 	
 	literati n. scholarly or learned persons
 	"Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to be squared with the First Amendment. Under that test, juries can censor, suppress, and punish what they don't like, provided the matter relates to 'sexual impurity' or has a tendency 'to excite lustful thoughts.' This is community censorship in one of its worst forms. It creates a regime where in the battle between the literati and the Philistines, the Philistines are certain to win."
 	—U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, dissenting in the case of Roth v. United States, 1957.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	First Amendment: a part of the United States Bill of Rights prohibiting the federal legislature from making laws that establish a state religion or prefer a certain religion, prevent free exercise of religion, infringe the freedom of speech; infringe the freedom of the press; limit the right to assemble peaceably; limit the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances
 	Philistines: people considered to be ignorant of the value of cultures and smug and conventional in their thinking

 	litigation n. legal proceedings
 	The radio amateur's neighbor resorted to litigation in an attempt to have her neighbor dismantle his 100-foot-high antenna tower.
 	
 	log n. record of a voyage; record of daily activities
 	Although no longer required to do so by the Federal Communications Commission, many amateur radio operators nevertheless keep a meticulous record of stations they communicate with, logging the details of each contact.

 	
 	loquacious adj. talkative
 	Eighty meters is a portion, of the radio spectrum where a shortwave listener can often hear loquacious "hams" chatting ("chewing the rag" in amateur radio parlance) for hours.

 	UNIT 48
 	
 	lucid adj. bright; clear; intelligible
 	The eminent surgeon Dr. Christian Barnard, who performed the first human heart-transplant operation in 1967, made his views on euthanasia clear in this lucid injunction: "The prime goal is to alleviate suffering, and not to prolong life. And if your treatment does not alleviate suffering, but only prolongs life, that treatment should be stopped.
 	
 	lucre n. money or profits
 	Many religions regard the pursuit of lucre for what it can do to help others as laudable.
 	
 	luminous adj. bright; brilliant; glowing
 	The Moon is the most luminous object in the night sky.
 	The noun is luminosity.
 	A supernova can suddenly increase its luminosity to as much as a billion times its normal brightness.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	supernova: a rare astronomical event in which most of the material in a star explodes, resulting in the emission of vast amounts of energy for a short period of time

 	lustrous adj. shining
 	On the clear night we gazed up in awe at the lustrous stars.
 	
 	Machiavellian adj. crafty; double-dealing
 	One theory of the evolution of high intelligence in primates is that it evolved largely as a result of Machiavellian calculations on the part of apes.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	MachiavelW Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was an Italian philosopher known for his writings on how a ruler should govern, notably by favoring expediency over principles.

 	machinations n. plots or schemes
 	The mayor resorted to behind-the-scenes machinations to try to win his party's nomination for governor.
 	
 	maelstrom n. whirlpool; turmoil
 	Nearly everyone in Europe was caught up in the maelstrom that was World War II.
 	
 	magnanimity n. generosity; nobility
 	The senator showed his magnanimity when he conceded defeat to his opponent in the disputed election, saying that further uncertainty would be harmful to public confidence in the political system
 	
 	malign v. to speak evil of
 	Lawyers are sometimes maligned as greedy and dishonest.
 	
 	malinger u. to feign illness to escape duty
 	In order to discourage malingering, the company decided to require employees taking sick leave to produce a doctor's certification of their illness.

 	UNIT49

 	malleable adj. capable of being shaped by pounding; impressionable
 	Behaviorists such as B. F. Skinner believe that human nature is malleable, and that people's behavior can be changed by changing their environment

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Behaviorists: followers of behaviorism, the school of psychology that seeks to explain behavior entirely in terms of observable responses to environmental stimuli

 	maverick n. dissenter
 	Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a reputation as a maverick; he is one of only two members of the United States Congress who is independent (that is, not a member of the Republican or Democratic Party).
 	
 	megalomania n. delusions of power or importance
 	In his farewell speech the retiring trial judge warned his colleagues to beware of megalomania as they exercise their power in the courtroom.
 	
 	menagerie n. a variety of animals kept together
 	Linda seems to take home every abandoned pet in the town; she now has an incredible menagerie of dogs, cats, turtles, rabbits, and other animals.

 	
 	mendacious adj. dishonest
 	The judge ruled the testimony inadmissible because he considered it mendacious.
 	
 	mendicant n. beggar
 	In Thailand it is traditional for young men to become monks for a year, a period during which they become mendicants.
 	
 	meretricious adj. gaudy; plausible but false; specious
 	One of the allures of jargon is that it can make a poor idea appear worthwhile, or something meretricious easier to accept because it is dressed infancy language.
 	
 	mesmerize v. to hypnotize
 	The audience sat, mesmerized, listening to the retired soldier's account of hand-to-hand combat against the Japanese in New Guinea during World War U.
 	metamorphosis n. change; transformation
 	In recent years, many areas of China have been undergoing a metamorphosis, transforming themselves from predominantly agricultural areas to industrial ones.
 	metaphysics^ n. a branch of philosophy that investigates the ultimate nature of reality
 	To skeptics, metaphysics is an arbitrary search for a chimerical truth.
 	Metaphysical is an adjective meaning pertaining to metaphysics.
 	Some critics of evolution object to its implication that human thought is reduced to a peripheral phenomenon; they find it implausible that the ability to conceptualize—to write a sonnet, a symphony, a metaphysical treatise—would have evolved in early hominids solely as a secondary effect
 	Metaphysician is a noun meaning a person who is an expert in metaphysics.
 	Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all metaphysicians in the sense that we all have beliefs about what things are the most real; for example, a person who believes in God may believe that God is the "ultimate reality."

 	Unit 50

 	meteorological adj. concerned with the weather
 	Some experts believe that reports of UFOs are attributable to natural astronomical or meteorological phenomena.
 	Meteorology is a science that deals with weather and atmospheric phenomena.
 	Meteorologists are those who study meteorology or forecast weather conditions.
 	The term "butterfly effect" to refer to the process driving chaotic systems was first used in 1979 by meteorologist E. M. Lorenz in an address entitled, "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?"
 	
 	meticulous adj. very careful; fastidious
 	Science is an empirical field of study based on the belief that the laws of nature can best be discovered by meticulous observation and experimentation.
 	mettle n. courage; endurance
 	In many cultures, young men are expected to test their mettle by performing difficult and dangerous tasks.
 	
 	mettlesome adj. full of courage and fortitude; spirited
 	The mettlesome young officer was well regarded by all the senior officers.
 	Do not confuse mettlesome with meddlesome, which means "inclined to interfere."
 	microcosm n. a small system having analogies to a larger system; small world
 	For many years the atom was seen as a sort of microcosm of the larger universe, with electrons—analogous to the planets of a solar system—orbiting the nucleus, or "sun."
 	
 	militate v. to work against
 	The manager asked all of his employees to think of any factors that might militate against the project's success.
 	
 	minatory adj. threatening; menacing
 	Intelligence information suggests minatory troop concentrations on the border.
 	
 	minuscule adj. very small
 	Ancient geological processes are beyond the scope of carbon-14 dating (which is at most 120,000 years) because the amount of carbon-14 in material from such processes that has not decayed is minuscule.
 	
 	minutia n. petty details
 	President Ronald Reagan said that a president should concentrate on the formulation and execution of broad policy and leave the minutia of running the country to subordinates.
 	
 	misanthrope n. one who hates humanity
 	One of the most famous misanthropes in literature is the protagonist of the seventeenth century French writer Moliere's play Le Misanthrope (The Misanthrope).

 	UNTT 51

 	miscellany n. mixture of writings on various subjects
 	The book is a fascinating miscellany collected from the writer's life work.
 	miscreant n. villain; criminal
 	The public execution of miscreants was common in Great Britain in the eighteenth century.
 	misogynist n. one who hates women
 	Some people have called the philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche a misogynist because of the numerous negative comments he made about women.
 	mitigate v. to cause to become less harsh, severe, or painful; alleviate
 	Although the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Warren Burger did not rescind any of the fundamental rulings of the Warren Court that preceded it, its decisions did mitigate the effects of some of the rulings of the Warren Court.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Warren Court: Earl Warren was named chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1953, and served on the Court until 1969. Under his leadership the Supreme Court tended to interpret the Constitution boldly, frequently with the result that disadvantaged people were helped.

 	
 	Mitigation is a noun meaning the act of reducing the severity or painfullness of something.
 	Before sentencing the woman, the judge asked if she had anything to say in mitigation.
 	
 	mnemonic adj. related to memory; assisting memory
 	In the introduction to a collection of poetry, By Heart, the British poet Ted Hughes says that "the more absurd, exaggerated, grotesque" the images used as a mnemonic device to help remember a poem, the easier it will be to recall.
 	Mnemonics is a system that develops and improves the memory.
 	Symbolic languages—the second generation of computer languages— were developed in the early 1950s, making use of mnemonics such as "M" for "multiply," which are translated into machine language by a computer program.
 	
 	modicum n. limited quantity
 	The scientist Carl Sagan wrote about astronomy and other scientific subjects in a way that enabled a reader with even a modicum of knowledge of science to understand what he was saying.
 	
 	mollify v. to soothe
 	The prime minister tried to mollify people protesting the tax increase with a promise that she would order a study of other means to raise revenue.
 	
 	monolithic adj. solid and uniform; constituting a single, unified whole
 	In the fifteenth century, there was a significant movement to revitalize the Church from within; however, it had become so monolithic over the centuries and contained so many vested interests that piecemeal reform was difficult and ineffective.
 	
 	morose adj. ill-humored; sullen
 	The assessment of some skeptical critics of existentialism is that it is generally a view of life created by a group of thinkers whose distinguishing characteristic is that they are morose.
 	
 	motley adj. many colored; made up of many parts
 	The new political party is made up of a motley group of people who are unhappy with the existing parties.

 	Unit 52

 	multifarious adj. diverse
 	Modern technology is so complex and multifarious mat it requires thousands of specialists to devise and operate; thus, even a brilliant engineer could not by himself fabricate a sophisticated radio or computer without the help of existing black boxes and expertise.
 	mundane adj. worldly as opposed to spiritual; concerned with the ordinary
 	Fundamentalists contend that the Bible's account of the creation is literally true, while others believe that it is the retelling of a powerful myth current in the Middle East that sought to explain the mundane in spiritual language.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Fundamentalists: those who stress adherence to a set of basic beliefs, especially in religion. Specifically, fundamentalism refers to the movement in Protestantism stressing a literal interpretation of the Bible.

 	
 	necromancy n. black magic
 	Television might seem like necromancy to a time traveler from the fifteenth century.
 	
 	negate v. to cancel out; nullify
 	The soldiers' poor treatment of the prisoners negated any goodwill they had built up among the population.
 	
 	neologism n. new word or expression
 	The word "anesthesia" was the neologism of the American physician and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, who used it in 1846 in a letter to Dr. William Morton, who had recently demonstrated the use of ether; the word is derived from the Latin word anaisthesia, meaning "lack of sensation."
 	
 	neophyte n. novice; beginner
 	The school provides extensive support and guidance for neophyte teachers.
 	nexus n. a means of connection; a connected group or series; a center Wall Street is the nexus of America's financial system
 	
 	nonplussed adj. bewildered
 	The members of the football team were nonplussed by the presence of a female reporter in the locker room
 	
 	nostalgia n. sentimental longing for a past time
 	The product's marketing is centered on nostalgia for the 1950s.
 	The adjective is nostalgic.
 	The idea of an extended family existing in nineteenth-century America consisting of loving uncles and doting aunts has been shown to be largely a product of a nostalgic and romanticized view of the past.
 	
 	^nostrum^ n. medicine or remedy of doubtful effectiveness; supposed cure
 	Although there are many nostrums urged on obese consumers, the only effective remedy for this condition is prosaic but nonetheless valid: eat less and exercise more.
 	
 	UNIT 53

 	nugatory adj. trifling; invalid
 	The historian has a knack for focusing on information that appears nugatory but that, upon examination, illuminates the central issue.
 	
 	obdurate adj. stubborn
 	Coach Knight is obdurate about one thing: the offensive line is the heart of his football team.
 	
 	obsequious adj. overly submissive
 	Tom's tendency to submit meekly to any bullying authority is so great that his wife suggested he overcome this obsequiousness by taking an assertiveness training course.
 	
 	obsequy n. funeral ceremony (often used in the plural, obsequies)
 	Solemn obsequies were held for President John F. Kennedy following his assassination on November 22, 1963.
 	
 	obviate v. to make unnecessary; to anticipate and prevent
 	An experienced physician can often discern if a patient's symptoms are psychosomatic, thus obviating the need for expensive medical tests.
 	
 	occlude v. to shut; block
 	One of the primary uses of solar cells is in spacecraft to provide electric power; this is because space is an environment uniquely suited to these devices since it has no weather to occlude the Sun and it is not susceptible to interruptions in sunlight caused by the rotation of the Earth.
 	
 	occult adj. relating to practices connected with supernatural phenomena
 	In his book Supernature the biologist Lyell Watson explores what he regards as phenomena on the border between natural and occult phenomena
 	
 	odyssey n. a long, adventurous voyage; a quest
 	Steve's quest for enlightenment took him on a spiritual odyssey that helped him to gain an understanding of many philosophers and religions.
 	
 	officious adj. too helpful; meddlesome
 	Some of us on the tour found the guide officious, but others thought she was helpful and courteous.
 	
 	olfactory adj. concerning the sense of smell
 	Wine connoisseurs say that the olfactory senses play as important a part in appreciating good wine as the sense of taste.

 	Unit 54
 	
 	oligarchy n. form of government in which power belongs to only a few leaders
 	In 411 B.C., democratic government was overthrown in Athens and a conservative oligarchy called the Four Hundred came to power.
 	onerous adj. burdensome
 	The duty the judge considers most onerous is sentencing convicted-criminals.
 	onomatopoeia a. formation or use of words that imitate sounds of the actions they refer to
 	One theory of the origin of language is that it began as a sort of onomatopoeia as early humans imitated sounds they heard.
 	opprobrium n. disgrace; contempt
 	It is difficult to imagine the opprobrium heaped on a person who is a traitor to his or her group.

 	
 	ornithologist n. scientist who studies birds
 	Ornithologists believe that there currently exist only about 20 individuals of a bird called the Balinese sparrow.
 	
 	oscillate v. to move back and forth
 	The teacher oscillates between a student-centered approach to teaching and a subject-centered approach.
 	ostentatious adj. showy; trying to attract attention; pretentious
 	A member of the bourgeoisie might purchase a vacation home on Maui or Cape Cod that some would regard as an ostentatious display of wealth, but that the person regards as simply a pleasant place to go on vacation.
 	overweening adj. presumptuous; arrogant; overbearing
 	The ancient Greeks believed that overweening pride—what they called hubris—would be punished, eventually, by the gods.
 	paean n. song of joy or triumph; a fervent expression of joy
 	Fundamentally, the poem is a paean of joy, celebrating the coming of democracy to the country.
 	paleontology n. study of past geological eras through fossil remains
 	Primatology, together with anthropology, paleontology, and several other fields, has given scientists a fairly accurate picture of the evolution of homo sapiens.
 	A paleontologist is an expert in the field of paleontology.
 	The attempts of the Jesuit priest and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin to reconcile evolution and the Catholic dogma of original sin were regarded by Church authorities as nearly heretical, and he had to abandon his position in 1926.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Primatology: the branch of zoology that deals with the study of primates (that is, mammals belonging to any of the suborders of primates: Anthropoides (humans, great apes, and several others), Prosimi (lemurs and several others), and Tarsiodea. Primates are characterized by a high level of social interaction, flexible behavior, and use of hands.

 	UNIT 55
 	pallid adj. lacking color or liveliness
 	Archeological evidence indicates that women have been using makeup to give color to a pallid face for millennia.
 	
 	panegyric n. elaborate praise; formal hymn of praise
 	Many panegyrics were written to Abraham Lincoln in the years after his death, and he has become one of the most revered figures in American history.
 	
 	paragon n. model of excellence or perfection
 	The epic poet Homer was regarded by the ancient Greeks as a paragon of literary excellence.

 	
 	partisan adj. one-sided; committed to a party, group, or cause; prejudiced
 	Supporters of constitutional monarchy believe that while in this system, as it is generally practiced today, virtually all power is vested in popularly elected assemblies, the institution of the monarchy continues to serve a purpose as a focus of national unity above the furor of partisan politics.
 	
 	pathological adj. departing from normal condition
 	People sometimes confound psychology and psychiatry: the former is the science that studies cognitive and affective functions, both normal and pathological, in human beings and other animals, whereas the latter is a branch of medicine that deals with mental disorders.
 	Pathology is the noun.
 	Some of the most spectacular examples of spin-off in the twentieth century are the advances that have been made in medicine as an unforeseen result of pure biological research; an example of this is diagnostic testing for defective genes that predispose a person to certain pathologies.
 	Pathos is a quality that causes a feeling of pity or sorrow. It is pronounced PAY-thahs.
 	patois n. a regional dialect; nonstandard speech; jargon
 	In Singapore the lingua franca is increasingly becoming Singapore English, widely regarded as a patois.
 	
 	paucity n. scarcity
 	An argument sometimes advanced for euthanasia is that the amount of money spent on prolonging a person's life for several months is exorbitant in relation to the paucity of funds available for preventive health programs and child health, both of which are highly cost-effective.
 	
 	pedantic adj. showing off learning
 	The Sophists have acquired a reputation as being learned but rather pedantic entertainers who gave didactic talks on every subject under the Sun; the truth however, is that some of the Sophist philosophers (notably Protagoras) were very able thinkers.
 	The noun pedant means an uninspired, boring academic.

 	pellucid adj. transparent; translucent; easily understood
 	Two writers often mentioned as having an admirably pellucid style are Bertrand Russell and George Orwell
 	
 	penchant n. inclination
 	Sue has a penchant for science, while her brother is more interested in the arts.

 	UNIT 56

 	penury n. extreme poverty
 	The autobiography tells the story of the billionaire's journey from penury to riches beyond his imagining.
 	peregrination n. a wandering from place to place
 	Swami Vivekananda's peregrinations took him all over India.
 	
 	peremptory adj. imperative; leaving no choice
 	The general's words were spoken in the peremptory tone of a man who is used to having his commands obeyed without question.
 	
 	perennial adj. present throughout the years; persistent
 	Perennial warfare has left most of the people of the country in poverty.
 	
 	perfidious adj. faithless; disloyal; untrustworthy
 	The novel tells the story of the hero's perfidious lover.
 	
 	perfunctory adj. superficial; not thorough; performed really as a duty
 	The perfunctory inspection of the airplane failed to reveal structural faults in the Wing.
 	
 	perigee n. point in an orbit that is closest to the Earth
 	The Earth observation satellite reaches a perigee of320 miles above the Earth's surface.
 	permeable adj. penetrable
 	Wetsuits, used by divers in cold water, are permeable to water but designed to retain body heat
 	perturb u. to disturb greatly; make uneasy or anxious; cause a body to deviate from its regular orbit
 	The findings that violence is increasing in schools greatly perturbed government officials.
 	The noun perturbation means disturbance.
 	Scientists believe that the Earth has undergone alternating periods of relatively cooler and warmer climate, and that this is due largely to fluctuations in the intensity of the greenhouse effect and perturbations in the Earth's orbit around the Sun.
 	pervasive] adj. spread throughout every part
 	It is a plausible hypothesis that the atheistic and materialistic philosophy of Marxism was readily accepted in China because of its similarities with Confucian views on spiritual matters, which had a pervasive influence in China for many centuries.
 	The noun is pervasiveness.
 	An indicator of the pervasiveness of psychotropic drugs in American society is the fact that approximately 50% of adults have used tranquilizers at some time in their lives.
 	The verb is pervade.

 	Unit 57
 	
 	petulant adj. rude; peevish
 	The boy's father worried that his disobedient and petulant child would grow up to be a bitter and annoying man.
 	phlegmatic adj. calm in temperament; sluggish
 	"Phlegmatic natures can be inspired to enthusiasm only by being made into fanatics." (Friedrich Nietzsche)
 	phoenix n. mythical, immortal bird that lives for 500 years, burns itself to death, and rises from its ashes; anything that is restored after suffering great destruction
 	The captain believed the battalion had been destroyed by the

 	enemy and was amazed to see it arise, phoenix-like, its men still
 	fighting valiantly.
 	
 	physiognomy n. facial features
 	The art teacher assigned her students to make drawings of people with a wide variety of physiognomy.
 	
 	piety n. devoutness
 	Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was a medieval French monk revered for his piety.
 	
 	piquant adj. appealingly stimulating; pleasantly pungent; attractive
 	Many of the guests enjoyed the piquant barbecue sauce, but others found it too spicy for their taste.
 	
 	pique n. fleeting feeling of hurt pride
 	Sally left the restaurant in a fit of pique after her date called to say he couldn't come because he was working late.
 	As a verb, pique means to provoke or arouse.
 	The geologist's curiosity was piqued by the unusual appearance of the rock formation.
 	
 	placate v. to lessen another's anger; to pacify
 	After his team's third consecutive winless season, the Big State football coach opened his address to the irate alumni with a barrage of cliches and euphemisms to try to placate them: "Gentlemen, it is not my intention today to pull the wool over your eyes. Heaven only knows I have given my all I have truly made the old college try. Unfortunately, however, by any reasonable criteria we have been less than completely successful in our endeavors, but I assure you that hope springs eternal in the human breast and next year we will rise to the occasion, put our noses to the grindstone and emerge triumphant in the face of adversity. I certainly admit that we have had a run of bad luck but that is nothing that can't be cured by true grit and determination."

 	placid adj. calm
 	We were amazed how the monk was able to remain placid despite the fire that was raging through the building^
 	
 	plaintive adj. melancholy; mournful
 	After the battle all that could be heard was the plaintive cries of women who had lost their husbands.

 	UNIT58

 	
 	plasticity n. condition of being able to be shaped or formed; pliability
 	The sociologist is continually amazed by the plasticity of social institutions.
 	
 	platitude n, stale, overused expression
 	Though Sarah's marriage didn't seem to be going well, she took comfort in the platitude that the first six months of a marriage were always the most difficult.
 	
 	platonic adj. spiritual; without sensual desire; theoretical
 	Gradually what had been a platonic relationship between Tim and Kyoko became a romantic one.
 	
 	plethora n. excess; overabundance
 	Because it deals with death and grieving, the funeral business has produced a plethora of euphemisms such as "slumber room'' for the place where the corpse is placed for viewing.
 	
 	plumb v. to determine the depth; to examine deeply
 	A recurrent theme of mystical experience is "the dark night of the soul" in which a person plumbs the depths of despair before finding a transcendent reality that brings the person closer to what he or she regards as God.
 	The pronunciation of plumb is PLUM. Do not confuse plumb with the verb plume, which means to congratulate oneself in a self-satisfied way.
 	John plumed himself on his ability to read both Sanskrit and Greek.
 	
 	plummet v. to fall; plunge
 	The fighter jet, struck by an enemy missile, plummeted to earth.
 	
 	plutocracy n. society ruled by the wealthy
 	It has been argued that modern democracies are plutocracies to the extent that wealth allows certain people to have a disproportionately large influence on political decision-making.
 	
 	porous adj. full of holes; permeable to liquids
 	If you go camping, make sure to spend enough money to buy a tent with a roof that is not porous.
 	
 	poseur n. person who affects an attitude or identity to impress others
 	The critic labeled the writer a poseur who was more interested in getting the public's attention than in writing good books.
 	pragmatic adj. practical
 	The cult of romantic love was a major factor in making a marriage for love, rather than for more pragmatic reasons, a ubiquitous phenomenon in the West by the nineteenth century.
 	Pragmatism means a practical way of approaching situations or solving problems.
 	Pragmatism is similar to Positivism in rejecting lofty metaphysical conceptions and in asserting that the main role of philosophy is to help clarify phenomena experienced.
 	A pragmatist is someone who approaches situations in a practical way.
 	The word "pragmatist" is often used to refer to someone who is willing to sacrifice his principles to expediency.

 	UNIT 59
 	
 	prate v. to talk idly; chatter
 	The "talk radio" program allows people to call in and prate about their pet peeves.
 	
 	prattle n. meaningless, foolish talk
 	The sociologist theorizes that what may seem like prattle often has an important social Junction: what might be labeled "gossip" is an important means for people to communicate valuable information about themselves and others.
 	
 	preamble n. preliminary statement
 	Along with the opening words of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, the preamble to the Constitution of the United States contains some of the most memorable language in American history: "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
 	
 	precarious adj. uncertain
 	The prime minister's precarious hold on power ended when she lost a vote of confidence in Parliament.
 	
 	precept n. principle; law
 	A good precept to follow in writing is to avoid redundancies such as "track record" (unless the record was set on a racecourse), "revert back," "free gift," and "general consensus."
 	
 	precipitate v. to cause to happen; throw down from a height
 	Full-scale American entry into World War II remained unpopular with the vast majority of Americans until a declaration of war was precipitated by the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, a day that President Roosevelt predicted, in a memorable phrase, would "live in infamy."
 	
 	precipitate adj. rash; hasty; sudden
 	The secretary of state advised the president not to take precipitate

 	action.
 	Precipitous is another adjective meaning hasty; quickly with too little caution.
 	Precipitation is water droplets or ice particles from atmospheric water vapor that falls to Earth.
 	It would be helpful if the atmosphere could be induced to deposit its precipitation more evenly over the Earth's surface, so that some land areas are not inundated while others remain arid.
 	
 	precursor n. forerunner; predecessor
 	The precursor to the theory of plate tectonics was the theory of continental drift.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	plate tectonics: geological theory stating that the outer part of the Earth's interior is composed of two layers, one of which "floats" on the other. According to this theory, which is widely accepted by scientists, ten major plates move in relation to one another, creating such phenomena as earthquakes and mountain building along the boundaries of the plates.
 	continental drift: the theory that the continents shift their positions over time.

 	preempt v. to supersede; appropriate for oneself
 	The movie was preempted for the president's emergency address to the nation.
 	prehensile  adj. capable of grasping
 	Many more animals in South America have prehensile tails than those in Southeast Asia and Africa, possibly because the greater density of the forest there favored this adaptation over the ability to glide through the trees.

 	UNIT60
 	
 	premonition n. forewarning; presentiment
 	Shortly after his reelection in 1864, President Abraham Lincoln had a premonition of his impending death, and on April 14, 1865, he was shot and died the next day.
 	presage v. to foretell; indicate in advance
 	The English poet William Blake believed his work presaged a new age in which people would achieve political, social, psychological and spiritual freedom
 	presumptuous adj. rude; improperly bold
 	  The new employee did not offer her advice to her boss because she was afraid he might consider it presumptuous for a recent graduate to make a suggestion to someone with 30 years experience in the field.

 	
 	The verb is presume.
 	Proponents of the view presume that there exist only two antithetical positions, with no middle ground between their opponent's view and their own (eminently more reasonable) position.
 	The noun is presumption.
 	Anti-Semitism originated in the presumption that Jews were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion, and was responsible for periodic persecutions such as the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.
 	preternatural adj. beyond the normal course of nature; supernatural
 	Most scientists believe that putative preternatural phenomena are outside the scope of scientific inquiry.
 	prevaricate v. to quibble; evade the truth
 	Journalists accused government leaders of prevaricating about the progress of the war.
 	primordial adj. original; existing from the beginning
 	Scholars are divided as to whether polytheism represents a degeneration from a primordial monotheism, or was a precursor to a more sophisticated view, monotheism

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	polytheism: belief in the existence of more than one god
 	monotheism: belief in the existence of one god
 	
 	pristine adj. untouched; uncorrupted
 	The bank's hermetically sealed vault has kept the manuscript in pristine condition for 50 years.
 	
 	probity n. honesty; high-mindedness
 	No one questioned the probity of the judge being considered for elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court; what was at issue was his controversial views on several important issues.
 	
 	problematic adj. posing a problem; doubtful; unsettled
 	The idea of the universe originating at a certain point in time seems problematic to many scientists.
 
 	prodigal adj. wasteful; extravagant; lavish
 	Betty warned her husband that he must stop his prodigal spending on sports cars and expensive clothing.

 	Unit 61

 	
 	profound adj. deep; not superficial
 	There is an adage in philosophy that everyone is born either a Platonist or an 'Aristotelian, meaning that everyone has a predisposition to believing either that reality is completely "here and now," or that there exists a more profound, hidden reality.
 	The noun profundity means the quality of being profound.
 	prohibitive adj. so high as to prevent the purchase or use of; preventing; forbidding
 	Most people in poor countries are unable to purchase a computer because of its prohibitive price.
 	Prohibition is the noun.
 	The word taboo was taken from Polynesia (tabu in Tongan) and broadened to mean any culture's prohibition of a particular object or activity.

 	•Note: Aristotle was Plato's student; in contrast to Plato, he believed that there exist no entities separate from matter.
 	
 	proliferate v. to increase rapidly
 	With the pervasive influence of American culture, "fast-food" restaurants are proliferating in many countries.
 	Proliferation is the noun.
 	A problem with the proliferation of jargon is that it impedes communication between different fields of knowledge.
 	 
 	propensity n. inclination; tendency
 	There is a natural propensity to stress the importance of what one is saying by exaggerating it
 	
 	propitiate u. to win over; appease
 	M.E.W. Sherwood, an author alive at the time of the U.S. Civil War, eloquently expressed the sacrifice made by soldiers on both sides of that great conflict: "But for four years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood of North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what a cost!"
 	
 	propriety n. correct conduct; fitness
 	Judges are expected to conduct themselves with propriety, especially in the courtroom.
 	proscribe v. to condemn; forbid; outlaw
 	The expert in English believes that since the tendency to use hyperbole is natural and often enriches the language, it should not be proscribed.
 	The adjective proscriptive means relating to prohibition.
 	Proponents of the view that dictionaries should be proscriptive, dictating what correct usage is, believe that without such guides the standard of language will decline; however, advocates of descriptive dictionaries argue that dictionary makers have no mandate to dictate usage and therefore should merely record language as it is used.
 	
 	provident adj. providing for future needs; frugal
 	Most people have heard the story of the prodigal grasshopper and the provident ant that spends the summer saving food for the winter.
 	
 	puissant adj. powerful
 	The article analyzes the similarities and differences between the Roman Empire and the British Empire when each was at its most puissant.
 	The noun is puissance.
 	punctilious adj. careful in observing rules of behavior or ceremony.
 	The prime minister reminded his staff that they must be punctilious in following protocol during the visit by the foreign head of state.

 	Unit 62
 	
 	pungent adj. strong or sharp in smell or taste; penetrating; caustic; to the point
 	Slang frequently expresses an idea succinctly and pungently.
 	purport v. to profess; suppose; claim
 	The United States is generally considered to be a secular society in which church and state are separate; however, religion plays a large role, since nearly everyone purports to believe in God and many people are members of churches.
 	Purport is also a noun. Its definition is meaning intended or implied.
 	pusillanimous adj. cowardly
 	Traditionally, a ship captain is considered pusillanimous if he abandons his ship before everyone else has.
 	The noun is pusillanimity, which means cowardice.
 	quagmire n. marsh; difficult situation
 	The federal government's antitrust suit in the 1990s against Microsoft created a legal quagmire.
 	quail v. to cower; lose heart
 	The defendant quailed when the judge entered the room to announce the sentence.
 	*
 	qualified adj. limited; restricted
 	In Indian philosophy a position between monism at one extreme and dualism at the other is qualified nondualism, a philosophy in which reality is considered to have attributes of both dualism and monism.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	monism: the belief that reality is a unified whole consisting of one fundamental principle
 	dualism: the theory that two basic entities constitute reality (e.g. mind and matter or good and evil)

 	Qualification is a noun meaning limitation or restriction.
 	So many qualifications had been added to the agreement that Sue was now reluctant to sign it.
 	The verb qualify means to modify or limit.

 	qualm n. sudden feeling of faintness or nausea; uneasy feeling about the rightness of actions
 	The judge had no qualms about sentencing the thief to five years imprisonment.
 	
 	query v. to question
 	Until widespread industrialization caused massive pollution in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the ability of the biosphere to dissipate and assimilate waste created by human activity was not queried.
 	Query is also a noun meaning a question.
 	The history professor answered the student's interesting query about the influence of Arabic thought on Western civilization.
 	
 	quibble v. to argue over insignificant and irrelevant details
 	The lawyers spent so much time quibbling over details that they made little progress in reaching an agreement on the central issue.
 	Quibble is also a noun.
 	
 	quiescent adj  inactive; still
 	Although malignant tumors may remain quiescent for a period of time, they never become benign.
 	The noun is quiescence.

 	UNIT 63

 	
 	quorum n. number of members necessary to conduct a meeting
 	The U.S. Senate's majority leader asked three members of his party to be available to help form a quorum.
 	
 	raconteur n. witty, skillful storyteller
 	Former president Bill Clinton is known as an accomplished raconteur who can entertain guests with amusing anecdotes about politics all evening.
 	
 	rail v. to scold with bitter or abusive language
 	The critic of globalization railed against its effect on the poor people of the world.
 	
 	raiment n. clothing
 	It took two hours for the princess' handmaidens to help her put on her splendid raiment for her coronation as queen.
 	
 	ramification n. implication; outgrowth; consequence
 	The full ramification of the invention of the laser did not become apparent for many years; now it is used in a great variety of applications, from DVD players to surgery.
 	
 	rarefied adj. refined
 	Many scholars flourish in the rarefied intellectual atmosphere of

 	the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey.
 	
 	The verb rarefy means to make thinner, purer, or more refined.
 	
 	rationale n. fundamental reason
 	The philosophy of "enlightened self-interest" justifies acting in one's own interest by asserting that this is not selfish or motivated by a "beggar thy neighbor" rationale, but is simply the best way to ensure the welfare of the entire community.
 	
 	rebus n. puzzle in which pictures or symbols represent words
 	Egyptian writing uses the principle of the rebus, substituting pictures for words.

 	
 	recalcitrant adj. resisting authority or control
 	The officer had no choice but to recommend that the recalcitrant soldier be court-martialed.
 	
 	recant' v. to retract a statement or opinion
 	The bishop told the theologian that he must recant his heretical teaching or risk excommunication..

 	UNIT 64
 	
 	recluse n. person who lives In seclusion and often in solitude
 	The monk spent three years of his life as a recluse, praying and meditating.
 	The adjective is reclusive.
 	John is a reclusive person who enjoys reading more than anything else.
 	recondite adj. abstruse; profound
 	Many classical and biblical references known to educated nineteenth-century readers are now considered recondite by most readers.

 	
 	redoubtable adj. formidable; arousing fear; worthy of respect
 	As a result of winning 95% of her cases, the prosecutor has earned a reputation as a redoubtable attorney,
 	refractory adj. stubborn; unmanageable; resisting ordinary methods of treatment
 	The general practitioner called in specialists to help determine the cause of the patient's refractory illness.
 	The verb refract means to deflect sound or light.
 	Intermittently the ionosphere refracts radio waves of certain frequencies, allowing transmissions between distant points on the Earth
 	refulgent adj. brightly shining; resplendent
 	On the queen's neck was a necklace of jewels, in the middle of which was a large, refulgent diamond.
 	refute v. to contradict; disprove
 	The eighteenth-century English author Samuel Johnson claimed to have refuted the philosophy of idealism by kicking a large stone.
 	The noun is refutation.
 	Fundamentalism arose in Protestantism as a refutation of the liberal theology of the early twentieth century, which interpreted Christianity in terms of contemporary scientific theories.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	Idealism: the belief that everything that exists is fundamentally mental in nature

 	regale u, to entertain
 	Former U.S. presidents Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and BUI Clinton often regaled visitors with amusing political anecdotes.
 	relegate v. to consign to an inferior position
 	Idealist philosophers are a common target of satire; however, instead of relegating them all to the garbage can, one should reflect that thinkers such as Plato and Kant have given humanity some of its most profound ideas.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Idealist: refers to the followers of Idealism
 	Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): German philosopher who held that the mind shapes the world as it perceives it and that this world takes the form of space and time

 	remonstrate v. to object or protest
 	Minority members of the committee remonstrated with the majority members, saying that the proposal was unjust; nevertheless, it was approved.
 	renege v. to go back on one's word
 	Generally, if one party to an agreement reneges on its contractual obligations, it must provide appropriate compensation to the other party.

 	UNIT 65
 	
 	reparation n. amends; compensation
 	The judge said she would not sentence the man to jail on the condition that he pay full reparation to the family hurt by his crime.

 	
 	repine v. fret; complain
 	The president told the congressional representative he should stop repining over the lost opportunity and join the majority in exploring new ones.
 	reprise n. repetition, especially of a piece of music
 	The standing ovation at the end of the set meant that the band had little choice but to reprise a few of their most popular tunes.
 	
 	reproach v. to find fault with; blame
 	The speaker in Andrew Marvell's poem To His Coy Mistress" reproaches his beloved for ignoring the passing of time and for not being willing to physically express her love for him.
 	Reproach is also a noun.
 	
 	reprobate n. morally unprincipled person
 	The social worker refused to give up hope of reforming the criminal who was generally regarded as a reprobate.
 	
 	repudiate v. to reject as having no authority
 	In the 1960s, many black leaders such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael repudiated integration and nonviolence in favor of black separatism and passive resistance in the fight for civil rights.
 	
 	rescind v. to cancel
 	The salesperson said he would rescind his offer to sell the goods at a 10% discount unless he received full payment within 24 hours.
 	
 	resolution n. determination; resolve
 	Fred's resolution to succeed is unshaken despite the many setbacks he has suffered
 	resolve n. determination; firmness of purpose
 	President Abraham Lincoln displayed remarkable resolve in preventing the Confederate states from seceding.
 	The verb is also resolve.
 
 	reticent adj. not speaking freely; reserved; reluctant
 	Many people in the west are reticent to criticize science, which in the view of many has become a sacred cow.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	sacred cow: something that is so greatly respected that it is beyond question, e.g. The virtue of free trade is a sacred cow of modern economic theory."

 	UNIT 66

 	reverent adj. expressing deep respect; worshipful
 	The biologist Loren Eisely had what could be described as a reverent attitude toward nature.
 	The verb is revere.
 	
 	riposte n. a retaliatory action or retort
 	The commander decided that the enemy attack must be countered with a quick riposte.
 	
 	rococo adj. excessively ornate; highly decorated; style of architecture in eighteenth-century Europe
 	In music, the Rococo period (1730-1780) comes between the preceding Baroque period and the subsequent Classical period. The highly ornamented style of the Rococo period created new forms of dissonance that to listeners in previous eras would have sounded cacophonous.
 	The noted authors Lawrence Durrell and Vladimir Nabokov often wrote in a rich, almost rococo style.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	Rococo: a style of architecture that made use of elaborate curved forms. Examples of the Rococo in architecture are the extremely ornate court and opera buildings of Mannheim and Stuttgart in Germany
 	
 	rubric n. title or heading; category; established mode of procedure or conduct; protocol
 	The data from the experiment was so diverse that the scientist decided to design a new rubric to organize it
 	
 	rue v. to regret
 	The judge told the convicted man that he would come to rue his decision to commit the crime.
 	
 	ruse n. trick; crafty stratagem; subterfuge
 	In July, 1999, a group of Christians from the United Kingdom traveled to various countries in which Crusaders had massacred people to apologize; however, many of the Moslems spurned this overture, believing it to be another Crusade in the form of a ruse.
 	
 	sage adj. wise
 	Samuel Johnson gave this sage, albeit hard advice to writers wishing to improve their style: "Read over your compositions, and whenever you meet with a passage that you think is particularly fine, strike it out."
 	Sage is also a noun meaning a wise older person.
 	
 	salacious adj. lascivious; lustful
 	The school board decided that the book is too salacious to be in the school library.
 	
 	salubrious adj. healthful
 	The salubrious effects of exercise on both physical and mental health have been well documented.
 	Salutary adj. expecting an improvement; favorable to health
 	The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment..."
 	—President Benjamin Harrison, 1892

 	UNIT 67
 	
 	sanction u. to approve; ratify; permit
 	The establishment of the state of Israel from Palestinian territory in 1948 was the realization of a hallowed dream for Zionists, but for many Palestinians it meant the sanctioning of continued domination of their land by Europeans.
 	Sanction is also a noun meaning approval; ratification; permission.
 	In the West, the institution of marriage is traditionally given formal sanction by both the Church and the State, which has the social function of reinforcing its importance and the seriousness of the duties it entails.
 	
 	The noun sanction can also mean penalization.
 	The United Nations has the power to compel obedience to international law by sanctions or even war, but there must be unanimity for such action among the five permanent members of the Security Council.
 	The verb sanction can also mean to penalize.
 	
 	sardonic adj. cynical; scornfully mocking
 	Satire that  is too sardonic often loses its effectiveness.
 	
 	sartorial adj. pertaining to tailors
 	Off-screen, the glamorous actress' sartorial style runs more to jeans and T-shirts than to elaborate gowns.
 	
 	satiate v. to satisfy
 	The bully satiated his fury by pummeling the helpless little boy.
 	
 	saturate v. to soak thoroughly; imbue throughout
 	The writer's recollection of her childhood is saturated with sunshine and laughter.
 	
 	saturnine adj. gloomy
 	When the long list of casualties from the battle were announced, the mood in the room was saturnine.
 	satyr n. a creature that is half-man, half-beast with the horns and legs of a goat; it is a follower of Dionysos; a lecher
 	One of the best-known satyrs is Pan, the god of the woods in Greek mythology.
 	
 	savor v. to enjoy; have a distinctive flavor or smell
 	The coach gave his team a day off practice to savor their big victory.
 	
 	schematic adj. relating to or in the form of an outline or diagram
 	The engineer outlined the workings of the factory in schematic form
 	
 	secrete v. produce and release substance into organism
 	The pancreas gland secretes a fluid that helps fat, carbohydrates, and protein to be digested in the small intestine. 

 	
 	UNIT 68
 	
 	sedition n. behavior prompting rebellion
 	The federal prosecutor argued that the journalist's article could be interpreted as an act of sedition since it strongly suggested that the government should be overturned.
 	
 	sedulous adj. diligent
 	The Nobel Prize-winning scientist attributed his success to what he termed "curiosity, a modicum of intelligence, and sedulous application."
 	
 	seismic adj. relating to earthquakes; earthshaking
 	The study of seismic waves enables scientists to learn about the Earth's structure.
 	sensual adj. relating to the senses; gratifying the physical senses, especially sexual appetites
 	The yogi teaches his students that attachment to sensual pleasure is one of the great hindrances to spiritual advancement.
 	
 	sensuous adj. relating to the senses; operating through the senses
 	The American painter Georgia O'Keeffe is known especially for her sensuous paintings of plants and flowers and for her landscapes.

 	sentient adj. aware: conscious; able to perceive
 	Charles Darwin regarded many animals as being sentient and as having intelligence.
 	The noun is sentience.
 	An analgesic relieves pain but unlike an anesthetic, does not cause loss of sensation or sentience.
 	
 	servile adj. submissive; obedient
 	None of the dictator's servile citizens dared question his decree.
 	
 	sextant n. navigation too! that determines latitude and longitude
 	Because it enabled precise determination of position, the sextant quickly became an essential tool in navigation after its invention in 1731.
 	
 	shard n. a piece of broken glass or pottery
 	Archeologists were able to reconstruct the drinking vessel from shards found around the ancient campsite.
 	
 	sidereal adj. relating to the stars
 	A sidereal year is longer than a solar year by 20 minutes and 23 seconds.

 	Unit 69
 	simian adj. apelike; relating to apes
 	Many people in the nineteenth century denied the evolutionary significance of the simian characteristics of human beings.
 	
 	simile n. comparison of one thing with another using "like" or "as"
 	In his autobiographical book, Chronicle, Volume i, Bob Dylan uses two similes in succession to try to convey the experience of writing a song: "A song is like a dream, and you try to make it come true. They're like strange countries you have to enter."
 	
 	sinecure n. well-paying job or office that requires little or no work
 	The company established the high-paying position of senior advisor as a sinecure for the man who had been instrumental in the company's success for so many years.
 	
 	singular adj. unique; extraordinary; odd
 	The defendant's singular appearance made it easy for the witness to identify him as the person at the scene of the crime.
 	
 	sinuous adj. winding; intricate; complex
 	The students had trouble following the philosopher's sinuous line of reasoning.
 	
 	skeptic n. one who doubts
 	Like the nihilist, a comprehensive philosophic skeptic can be a difficult person to debate: if you tell him you know you exist, he is likely to ask you to prove it—and that can be harder than it first appears.
 	The adjective is skeptical
 	A good scientist is skeptical about inferences made from data; however, he must not be dogmatic about the possible implications the data might have.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	nihilist: one who believes that existence and all traditional values are meaningless
 	
 	sobriety n. seriousness
 	The student approaches her studies with commendable sobriety.
 	sodden adj. thoroughly soaked; saturated
 	The sodden field makes it difficult for the soccer players to move effectively.
 	solicitous adj. concerned; attentive; eager
 	The nurse is extremely solicitous of the health of every patient in the ward
 	soliloquy n. literary or dramatic speech by one character, not addressed to others
 	The nineteenth-century English poet Robert Browning used the dramatic monologue—which is essentially a soliloquy in a poem— successfully in many of his poems.

 	UNIT 70

 	
 	solvent adj. able to meet financial obligations
 	During the financial crisis several large banks had difficulty remaining solvent.
 	
 	somatic adj. relating to or affecting the body; corporeal
 	A psychosomatic disorder is a malady caused by a mental disturbance that adversely affects somatic functioning.
 	
 	soporific adj. sleep producing
 	For some people the best soporific is reading a boring book.
 	
 	sordid adj. filthy; contemptible and corrupt
 	The Monica Lewinsky scandal which led to President Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1998, must certainly rank as one of the most sordid affairs in American history.
 	specious adj. seeming to be logical and sound, but not really so
 	The article systematically rebuts the specious argument advanced by the so-called expert in the field.
 	spectrum n. band of colors produced when sunlight passes through a prism; a broad range of related ideas or objects
 	The political science course deals with the whole spectrum of political ideologies.
 	spendthrift n. person who spends money recklessly
 	A Chinese proverb describes a paradox: Rich spendthrifts never save enough; but the poor always manage to save something.
 	The adjective spendthrift means wasteful and extravagant.
 	Tom's spendthrift habits resulted in his accumulating a huge amount of credit card debt.
 	sporadic adj. irregular
 	Despite the ceasefire, there have been sporadic outbreaks of violence between the warring factions.
 	
 	squalor n. filthy, wretched condition
 	The family lives in squalor in the slums of Mexico City.
 	
 	staccato adj. marked by abrupt, clear-cut sounds
 	We listened to the staccato steps of the woman in high heels running down the street

 	UNIT 71

 	stanch v. to stop or check the flow of
 	The country's government has put controls on currency movement to stanch the flow of money out of the country.
 	
 	stentorian adj. extremely loud
 	The stentorian speaker prefers not to use a microphone so that the audience can appreciate what he calls "the full effect of my powerful oratory."
 	
 	stigma n. mark of disgrace or inferiority
 	A problem with giving formal psychological treatment to a child who is believed to be poorly adjusted to society is that he may acquire a stigma as a result of officially being labeled as deviant, and he may act to corroborate society's expectation.
 	The verb is stigmatize.
 	The civil rights movement helped to stigmatize racism, augmenting legal efforts to desegregate American society.
 	
 	stint v. to be sparing
 	Stinting on funding for education strikes many people as shortsighted.
 	Stint is also a noun meaning a period of time spent doing something Isaac Asimov did a short involuntary stint in the army as a conscript during the 1950s.

 	
 	stipulate v. to specify as an essential condition
 	The president's lawyer stipulated that he would appear before the investigative committee, but would answer only questions directly relevant to the issue at hand.
 	The noun is stipulation.
 	Stipulations in a contract should be clear in order to obviate the need for parties to resort to litigation.
 	
 	stolid adj. having or showing little emotion
 	Behind the professor's stolid appearance is a fun-loving, gregarious character.
 	
 	stratified adj. arranged in layers
 	One of the implications of an increasingly stratified economy for America might be increased social unrest.
 	The noun stratum means a layer.
 	In the English-speaking world many members of the upper classes historically have had a deprecatory attitude toward slang, a form of language they regard as indecorous and thus suitable only for the lowest stratum of society.
 	The plural of stratum is strata.
 	As it matured as a science, geology began to complement biology, a process that helped it to gain a more comprehensive view of the history of life on Earth by allowing fossils to be dated and identified (paleontology), often using knowledge gained from stratigraphy—the study of the deposition, distribution, and age of rock strata.
 	The noun stratification is used in the sociological term social stratification. It refers to the hierarchical arrangement of individuals in a society into classes or castes.
 	
 	striated adj. marked with thin, narrow grooves or channels
 	The striated surface suggested to the geologist that he was walking over an area in which there once had been a torrent of water.
 	Striation is the noun.
 	The geologist examined striations in the rock to learn about the glacier that had made them 10,000 years ago.

 	stricture n. something that restrains; negative criticism
 	As professionals, lawyers are expected to abide by a set of ethical strictures in their practice of the law.
 	strident adj. loud; harsh; unpleasantly noisy
 	Calls for the prime minister's resignation became more strident after it was discovered that he had strong connections to organized crime.

 	UNIT 72

 	strut v. to swagger; display to impress others
 	The star quarterback strutted around campus the entire week after he led his team to a 42-0 win over the county's top-ranked team.
 	
 	stultify u. to impair or reduce to uselessness
 	The professor of education believes that overreliance on rote learning stultifies students' creativity.
 	
 	stupefy v. to dull the senses of; stun; astonish
 	After drinking three glasses of wine, Linda was stupefied.

 	Stygian adj. dark and gloomy; hellish
 	Wilfred Owens's famous poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" describes an unfortunate soldier who was unable to get his gas mask on in time, seen through the Stygian gloom of poison gas:
 	GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of Jumbling,
 	Pitting the clumsy helmets just in time:
 	But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
 	And floundering like a man in fire or lime.—
 	Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
 	As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
 	
 	subpoena n. notice ordering someone to appear in court
 	The judge issued a subpoena for the man but the prosecutor had little hope that he would appear because he was living abroad.
 	
 	subside v. to settle down; grow quiet
 	Army personnel told the civilians to wait for the violence to subside before reentering the town.
 	
 	substantiate v. to support with proof or evidence
 	The validity of fossil identification is substantiated by data from geology and carbon-14 dating.
 	
 	substantive adj. essential; pertaining to the substance
 	The judge cautioned the attorney to present only information that was substantive to the case at hand.
 	subsume v. to include; incorporate
 	The philosopher described his work as an attempt to arrive at a final generalization that will subsume all previous generalizations about the nature of logic.
 	subversive adj. intended to undermine or overthrow, especially an established government
 	Anything that subverts the market mechanism is believed to cause anomalies in prices, making the economy less efficient.
 	Subversive is also a noun meaning a person intending to undermine something.

 	UNIT 73
 	
 	succor n. relief; help in time of distress or want
 	The woman was accused of providing succor to the enemy in the form of food and medical help.
 	
 	suffrage n. the right to vote
 	The pivotal feminist goal of suffrage was not obtained in the United States until 1920, and in Britain not until 1928.
 	
 	sundry adj. various
 	The main character in the novel returns home safely after his sundry adventures.
 	supersede v. to replace, especially to displace as inferior or antiquated
 	Malay was the lingua franca of the Malay peninsula for centuries, but in many parts of that region it is being superseded in that role by a European interloper, English.
 	
 	supine adj. lying on the back; marked by lethargy
 	The captured robbery suspects were held supine on the floor.
 	
 	supplant v. to replace; substitute
 	The "Frankenstein monster" fear of some people is that AI machines will eventually supplant biological life forms, making such life redundant or even subservient.
 	
 	suppliant adj. beseeching
 	The worshippers raised their suppliant voices to God, praying for forgiveness.
 	
 	supplicant n. one who asks humbly and earnestly
 	The mother of the man sentenced to be executed appeared as a supplicant before the governor, asking him to grant her son clemency.
 	
 	supposition n. the act of assuming to be true or real
 	Science proceeds on the supposition that knowledge is possible.
 	syllogism n. a form of deductive reasoning that has a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion
 	The following syllogism is often taught in logic courses: "ARXs are Ys, all Ys are Zs; therefore, all Xs are Zs,"

 	UNIT74
 	sylvan adj. related to the woods or forest
 	The house's sylvan setting provides the family with beauty and tranquility.
 	
 	tacit adj. silently understood; implied
 	During the Cold War, there was a tacit assumption on the part of both the Soviet Union and the United States that neither side would launch an unprovoked nuclear attack against the other side.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Cold War: the ideological, geopolitical, and economic conflict between capitalist nations (led by the United States) and communist nations (led by the Soviet Union) from around 1947 to 1991

 	talisman n. charm to bring good luck and avert misfortune
 	The soldier's mother gave him a talisman to protect him from harm during battle.
 	
 	tangential adj. peripheral; digressing
 	The judge ruled that the evidence had only a tangential bearing on the case and directed the lawyer to present only a brief summary of it.
 	
 	tautology n. unnecessary repetition
 	Unless the phrase "repeat again" is being used to refer to something that has occurred more than twice, it is a tautology.
 	taxonomy n. science of classification; in biology, the process of classifying organisms in categories
 	In the late seventeenth century and the eighteenth century accurate observation of organisms developed, leading to the development of the sciences of taxonomy and morphology (the study of the form and structure of organisms.)
 	
 	tenet n. belief; doctrine
 	In his novel Walden II, the psychologist B. F. Skinner depicts a brave new world based on the tenets of a behavioral psychology that frees human beings from the inhibitions and preconceptions of traditional society.

 	

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	behavioral psychology: the school of psychology that seeks to explain behavior entirely in terms of observable responses to environmental stimuli

 	tenuous adj. weak; insubstantial
 	Study of the historical evidence has shown that there is only a tenuous connection between the country Plato describes in The Republic and the legendary land of Atlantis.
 	
 	terrestrial adj. earthly; commonplace
 	Much of our information about Mars comes from the Mariner 9 spacecraft, which orbited the planet in 1971; Mariner 9, photographing 100% of the planet, uncovered many spectacular geological formations, including a vast Martian canyon that dwarfs the terrestrial Grand Canyon.
 	theocracy n. government by priests representing a god
 	All Islamic fundamentalists are opposed to secularism, and some of them support theocracy.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	secularism: a political movement that advocates making society less religious
 	Secularization is a process by which society gradually changes from close identification with the institutions of religion to a greater separation of religion from the rest of social life.

 	UNIT 75
 	
 	thespian n. an actor or actress
 	Every year the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland gives thespians from around the world the opportunity to perform before a diverse audience.
 	timbre n. the characteristic quality of sound produced by a particular instrument or voice; tone color
 	The audience was delighted by the rich timbre of the singer's

 	soprano.
 	
 	tirade n. long, violent speech; verbal assault
 	The students had no choice but to sit and wait for the principal's tirade about poor discipline to end.
 	
 	toady n. flatterer; hanger-on; yes-man
 	The boss had no respect for the employee because he considered him a toady who would do anything he said.
 	
 	tome n. book, usually large and academic
 	Despite being an abridged edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary consists of two tomes that define over half a million words.
 	
 	torpor n. lethargy; dormancy; sluggishness
 	After returning home from his coast-to-coast trip, the truck driver sank into a peaceful torpor, watching TV and dozing.
 	torque n. a turning or twisting force; the moment of a force; the measure of a force's tendency to produce twisting or turning and rotation around an axis
 	Internal combustion engines produce useful torque over a rather circumscribed range of rotational speeds (normally from about 1,000 rpm to 6,000 rpm)
 	
 	tortuous adj. having many twists and turns; highly complex
 	Only the world's leading mathematicians are able to follow the tortuous line of reasoning used by the English mathematician Andrew Wiles to prove Fermat's Last Theorem via the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture.
 	
 	tout v. to promote or praise energetically
 	The critic touted Moby Dick as the greatest book in American literature.
 	tractable adj. obedient; yielding
 	The country's leader found that the people became more tractable when he made them believe there was a great threat facing them that only he could overcome.

 	UNIT 76
 	
 	transgression n. act of trespassing or violating a law or rule
 	The teacher made it clear on the first day of the term that she would not countenance any transgression of classroom rules.
 	The verb is transgress.
 	Western medicine transgressed Hippocrates' prescriptions for medicine when doctors debilitated patients through the administration of purges and bloodletting.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	Hippocrates: ancient Greek physician who is often called "the father of medicine." He believed that medicine should stress prevention rather than cure of illness and that a regimen of a good diet and a sensible lifestyle is healthy, building a person's ability to withstand disease.

 	transient adj. temporary; short-lived; fleeting
 	A hypothesis to explain the fact that American states in which the population is composed of a large number of recently settled people (California, for example) tend to have high rates of crime, suicide, divorce, and other social problems is that anomie is higher in transient populations than in more stable populations, resulting in more antisocial behavior.

 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	anomie: a social condition marked by a breakdown of social norms

 	translucent adj. partially transparent
 	The architect decided to install a translucent door in the room to allow outside light to shine in.
 	
 	travail n. work, especially arduous work; tribulation; anguish
 	America's early pioneers endured great travail, but persevered and eventually settled much of the vast continent.
 	Travail is also a verb meaning to work strenuously.
 
 	travesty n. parody; exaggerated imitation; caricature
 	The playwright complained that the musical comedy version of his play was a travesty of his work.
 	
 	treatise n. article treating a subject systematically and thoroughly
 	The thesis of the philosopher's treatise is that reality is, ultimately, opaque to human understanding.
 	
 	tremulous adj. trembling; quivering; frugal; timid
 	One of the most famous poems in English literature is Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" in which the speaker listens to the "tremulous cadence slow" of waves on the shore.
 	
 	trepidation n. fear and anxiety
 	John tried to hide his trepidation when he proposed to Susie, the girl he loved.
 	
 	truculence n. aggressiveness; ferocity
 	The principal warned the student that his truculence might one day land him in jail.
 	
 	tryst n. agreement between lovers to meet; rendezvous
 	In his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy describes an ancient Roman amphitheater where lovers often arranged secret trysts.

 	 
 	UNIT 77

 	tumid adj. swollen; distended
 	The prose of writers discussing lofty subjects sometimes becomes tumid.
 	
 	turbid adj. muddy; opaque; in a state of great confusion
 	The poem captures the restless and turbid state of the soldier's mind the night before the decisive battle was set to begin.
 	
 	turgid adj. swollen; bloated; pompous
 	The professor's editor advised him to change his writing style so that it was less pedantic and turgid if he wanted to appeal to a mass audience.
 	
 	tutelary adj. serving as a guardian or protector
 	Most of the people of ancient Rome believed in the existence of tutelary spirits.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences
 	tutelary spirits: gods who are guardians of a particular area or person

 	uncanny adj. mysterious; strange
 	Some people believe that the psychic has an uncanny ability to accurately predict the future.
 	
 	undulating adj. moving in waves
 	The undulating terrain of the area has made it difficult for engineers to build roads there.
 	
 	unfeigned adj. not false; not made up; genuine
 	The child smiled in unfeigned delight when she opened the Christmas present
 	
 	untenable adj. indefensible
 	Skeptics are inclined to regard arguments for God's existence from design as meaningless, since they rely on a logically untenable position that assumes the conclusion of their argument—God's existence.
 	
 	Terms from the Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences

 	design: The argument from design is a philosophical argument for God's existence stating that God must exist because the universe is too complex to have been created any other way.

 	untoward adj. not favorable; troublesome; adverse; unruly
 	Police were called in to investigate whether anything untoward had happened to the missing man.
 	usury n. practice of lending money at exorbitant rates
 	In the 1980s, Delaware Governor Pierre S. Du Pont succeeded in having the state's usury laws liberalized, with the result that many large New York banks set up subsidiaries in Delaware.
 	The adjective is usurious.
 	The consumer advocate's group complained about the bank's usurious interest rates.

 	 
 	
 	UNIT 78
 	
 	vacillate v. to waver; oscillate
 	The senator's position keeps vacillating between remaining neutral and lending his support to the proposal.
 	
 	vacuous adj. empty; void; lacking intelligence; purposeless
 	In Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, the youngest of the Jive Bennett daughters, Lydia, is portrayed as a vacuous young woman with few interests other than having fun.
 	
 	valedictory adj. pertaining to a farewell
 	The 80-year-old actor came out of retirement to give a valedictory performance on Broadway.
 	
 	vapid adj. tasteless; dull
 	To relax in the evening the judge likes to watch vapid situation comedies on TV.
 	
 	variegated adj. varied; marked with different colors
 	Botanists are still working to catalog the variegated species of the tropical rainforest.
 	
 	vaunt v. to boast; brag
 	The head coach warned her players not to vaunt their undefeated record.
 	Vaunted is an adjective meaning boasted about.
 	Since every human activity depends on the integrity and proper functioning of the biological system, its destruction through pollution would cause our vaunted technological and economic systems to founder.
 	
 	venal adj. bribable; mercenary: corruptible
 	The depressing though inescapable conclusion the journalist reached is that the mayor went into politics for motives that were almost entirely venal.
 	vendetta n. prolonged feud marked by bitter hostility
 	The judge warned both families that the vendetta between them had to end at once.
 	
 	venerate v. to adore; honor; respect
 	Mother Theresa is venerated for her compassion for the poor people of India.
 	Venerable is an adjective meaning respected because of age, character, or position.
 	In the plain-language edition of the venerable Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy the original definition of a hangnail—"Acute or chronic inflammation of the periungual tissues"—is transmogrified into "An infection around the edge of a fingernail or toenail."
 	
 	veracious adj. truthful; accurate
 	The witness' testimony appeared to be veracious at first, but under cross-examination, several inconsistencies appeared.

 	UNIT 79
 	
 	verbose adj, wordy
 	The skillful editor cut 20% of the words from the verbose manuscript without appreciably altering its meaning.
 	
 	vertigo n. dizziness
 	The physician diagnosed the patient's vertigo as being caused by an acute anxiety attack.
 	
 	vexation n. irritation; annoyance; confusion; puzzlement
 	Some people have the ability to prosper and live happily despite life's inevitable vexations.
 	
 	viable adj. practicable; capable of developing
 	Since the early 1950s, government planners have faced a dilemma: Spend a great deal of money to keep cities viable by rebuilding decrepit infrastructure, or allow them to decay.
 	The noun is viability.
 	According to the historian Arnold Toynbee, there is a strong relationship between a society's view of itself relative to other societies and its continued viability.
 	
 	vindictive adj. spiteful; vengeful; unforgiving
 	The Treaty of Versailles, which concluded World War I, was deliberately vindictive, imposing tremendous penalties on the defeated nation.
 	
 	virtuoso n. someone with masterly skills; expert musician
 	The British guitar virtuoso John Williams has entertained thou- ' sands of people during his long career.
 	Virtuoso is also the adjective.
 	Raymond is a virtuoso pianist.
 	
 	visage n. countenance; appearance; aspect
 	The infant studied its mother's visage intently.
 	
 	viscous adj. thick, syrupy, and sticky
 	The maple syrup is so viscous we had trouble pouring it.
 	
 	vitiate v. to impair the quality of; corrupt morally; make inoperative
 	Unfortunately, one error in the study's methodology vitiates the entire body of work.
 	
 	Vituperative     adj.- using or containing harsh, abusive censure
 	The young music critic's vituperative comments aroused the wrath of nearly every serious composer.
 	The verb is vituperate.

 	
 	UNIT 80
 	
 	vivisection n. dissection, surgery, or painful experiments performed on a living animal for the purpose of scientific research
 	The book Animal Rights by the philosopher Tom Regan contains a long discussion of vivisection.
 	
 	vogue n. prevailing fashion or practice
 	Although protectionist policies are not in vogue today, great capitalist democracies, such as Great Britain and the United States, flourished for long periods of their histories under protectionist trade policies that were nearly mercantilist—policies that imposed high tariffs on many foreign goods to promote domestic production.
 	
 	volatile adj. tending to vary frequently; fickle
 	Volatility is the noun.
 	Some contemporary economists believe that advances in the understanding of the business cycle virtually preclude a recurrence of the crash of 1929, because governments can take steps to forestall depression. However, others worry that new factors are developing that are, to a significant extent, beyond the control of governments: notably, the ability of investors to quickly switch capital into and out of markets, a situation that could lead to volatility in prices and destabilize markets.
 	
 	vortex n. whirlpool; whirlwind; center of turbulence
 	Inexorably, the country was drawn into the vortex of war.
 	
 	warranted adj. justified
 	The book argues that a new investigation into Marilyn Monroe's death is warranted by new evidence released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act.
 	Warrant is a verb meaning to attest to the accuracy or quality; justify; grant authorization
 	Throughout most of America, procedures in criminal law cases are essentially the same: The government, through a prosecutor, presents its case against a suspect to a grand jury, which decides if there is sufficient evidence to warrant a full trial.
 	
 	wary adj. careful; cautious
 	According to psychologists, human beings are naturally wary of strangers.
 	welter v. to wallow or roll; toss about; be in turmoil The pigs weltered about happily in the mud.
 	
 	whimsical adj. fanciful; unpredictable
 	Many children appreciate Dr. Seuss' whimsical stories.
 	The noun whimsy means a playful or fanciful idea.
 	Despite its rigorous and systematic methodology, there is still considerable room in science for imagination and even whimsy.
 	
 	wistful adj. vaguely longing; sadly thoughtful
 	The poem casts a wistful look back at a way of life that has vanished forever.
 	
 	zealot n. one who is fanatically devoted to a cause
 	The Crusades of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries were conceived of by Christian zealots as a way to drive the Islamic interlopers from the Holy Land.
 	Zealotry is a noun meaning fanaticism.
 	The fact that the judicial branch is relatively undemocratic compared to the other two branches of government is justified by some theorists of democracy on the grounds that it serves as a check not only on the legislative branch and executive branch, but also on democratic zealotry. 
 	The adjective zealous means enthusiastically devoted to a cause.
 	It is heretical to suggest to a zealous capitalist that free enterprise is not the only conceivable realistic economic system