Essential Vocabulary List: Definitions and Meanings

Comprehensive Vocabulary Glossary

• Wheedle: To coax by using sly persuasion or insincere praise.
• Detract: To take away, especially from the value, beauty, or importance of.
• Emancipate: To set free from slavery; to liberate.
• Insuperable: Incapable of being overcome or defeated.
• Intermittent: Not continuous; happening at intervals.
• Obligatory: Required or demanded.
• Vagabond: A person who wanders from place to place.
• Bewail: To express deep regret or sorrow over.
• Destitute: Without resources or possessions, especially the necessities of life; lacking; devoid of.
• Extol: To praise highly.
• Flamboyant: Excessively showy; unrestrained.
• Impetus: A driving force; anything that causes an action.
• Maxim: A general truth or rule of conduct; a short saying.
• Plumb: To measure the depth of water; to understand by examining closely; to solve; straight up and down; vertical.
• Visage: A face, especially one that expresses feelings.

Alphabetical Word Reference

• Alacrity: Promptness in responding; eagerness.
• Array: A large group of people or things; to place in order.
• Deduce: To draw a conclusion from given facts.
• Encumber: To weigh down or burden; to impede the action of.
• Fraught: Full of or accompanied by (usually followed by with).
• Haphazard: Marked by a lack of plan, order, or direction.
• Incontrovertible: Impossible to dispute; unquestionable.
• Inexplicable: Hard to explain or impossible to understand.
• Ingenious: Marked by imagination, resourcefulness, or cleverness.
• Laggard: One who falls behind others because of moving slowly or loitering; a straggler.
• Sustenance: Something that provides nourishment; food needed to live.
• Torrid: Intensely hot and dry.
• Traverse: To pass over, across, or through.
• Ubiquitous: Appearing to be present in large numbers or in many different places.
• Zenith: The highest point; the peak.

Advanced Terminology

• Allude: To refer to in an indirect way (used with to).
• Consecrate: To set apart as holy; to dedicate to a cause; to devote.
• Disseminate: To scatter or spread widely.
• Dote: To show excessive fondness for (used with on or upon).
• Exhort: To urge strongly; to warn or appeal.
• Feckless: Careless or irresponsible.
• Implicate: To show to be involved with something, especially something dishonest or illegal.
• Lament: To feel or express grief.
• Monetary: Of or relating to money or currency.
• Pensive: Deep in thought; dreamily thoughtful.
• Pomp: A showy or dignified display.
• Stilted: Artificially stiff or formal in manner.
• Subjugate: To bring under control; to conquer.
• Trauma: A severe bodily injury; emotional shock.
• Wanton: Ignoring what is right; excessive or unrestrained; playful or frolicsome.