Essential Vocabulary: 20 Advanced Terms and Antonyms

1. Abortive

Definition: Failing to accomplish an intended objective; fruitless.
Antonyms: Fruitful, successful, effective, achieved.
Synonyms: Futile, ineffective, failing, ineffectual.

2. Bruit

Definition: To spread news of; repeat.
Antonyms: Confirmed facts, hard facts.
Synonyms: Rumor, gossip, repeat, blab.

3. Contumelious

Definition: Rudeness or contempt arising from arrogance; insolence.
Antonyms: Respectful, appreciative, reverent, venerating.
Synonyms: Mean, insolent, obloquious, vituperative.

4. Dictum

Definition: An authoritative statement.
Antonyms: Absurdity, nonsense, paradox.
Synonyms: Decree, declaration, edict, order.

5. Ensconce

Definition: To settle securely or comfortably.
Antonyms: Uncover, reveal, disclose, unveil.
Synonyms: Hide, conceal, stash, bury.

6. Iconoclastic

Definition: Seeking to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.
Antonyms: Pious, devout, religious, godly.
Synonyms: Heretical, revolutionist, dissident, impious.

7. In Medias Res

Definition: In or into the middle of a sequence of events, as in a literary narrative.
Antonyms: Bounding, outside, external, exterior.
Synonyms: Thick, middle, midst, halfway.

8. Internecine

Definition: Mutually destructive; ruinous or fatal to both sides.
Antonyms: Benign, harmless, healthful, innocuous.
Synonyms: Injurious, hurtful, damaging, pernicious.

9. Maladroit

Definition: Marked by one’s ineptitude.
Antonyms: Skillful, dexterous, adept, competent.
Synonyms: Awkward, clumsy, bumbling, ungraceful.

10. Maudlin

Definition: Excessively sentimental.
Antonyms: Unemotional, aloof, apathetic, indifferent.
Synonyms: Overemotional, sentimental, tearful, lachrymose.

11. Modulate

Definition: To vary in tone, inflection, pitch, or other quality of sound.
Antonyms: Hold, remain, stay, continue.
Synonyms: Adjust, regulate, temper, tweak.

12. Portentous

Definition: Ominously indicative or significant, foreshadowing something bad or important to come.
Antonyms: Fortunate, lucky, propitious, fortuitous.
Synonyms: Menacing, threatening, black, unpropitious.

13. Prescience

Definition: Knowledge of events before they take place.
Antonyms: Hindsight, retrospect, afterthought.
Synonyms: Foresight, anticipation, presentiment, outlook.

14. Quid Pro Quo

Definition: An equal exchange or substitution.
Antonyms: Rip-off, hosing, con, swindle.
Synonyms: Eye for an eye, tit for tat, trade-off.

15. Salubrious

Definition: Conducive or favorable to health or well-being.
Antonyms: Unhealthy, harmful, injurious, deleterious.
Synonyms: Beneficial, healthy, salutary, health-giving.

16. Saturnalian

Definition: Of unrestrained and intemperate jollity; riotously merry; dissolute.
Antonyms: Gloomy, sad, grieved, lugubrious.
Synonyms: Immoral, evil, dishonest, reprobate.

17. Touchstone

Definition: An excellent quality or example that is used to test the excellence or genuineness of others.
Antonyms: Atypical, anomalous, irregular, abnormal.
Synonyms: Benchmark, goal, criterion, standard.

18. Traumatic

Definition: Regarding an event or situation that causes great distress and disruption.
Antonyms: Soothing, calming, allaying, relaxing.
Synonyms: Shocking, terrifying, frightful, portentous.

19. Vitiate

Definition: To make faulty or imperfect.
Antonyms: Aid, assist, help.
Synonyms: Cancel, abate, nullify, invalidate.

20. Waggish

Definition: Witty or joking.
Antonyms: Solemn, unfunny, serious, sad.
Synonyms: Comical, witty, amusing, jocular.