obdurate: hardened in wrongdoing or wickedness; not giving in to persuasion | obfuscate: confuse; muddle; cause confusion; make needlessly complex |
oblique: having slanting or sloping direction, course, or position; inclined | obsequious: slavishly attentive; attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery |
obstreperous: noisily aggressive; making great noise or outcry | obtuse: lacking in insight or discernment; stupid |
odious: hateful; arousing strong dislike, aversion, or intense displeasure | officious: marked by excessive eagerness in offering unwanted services or advice to others |
ostensible: put forth or held out as real, actual, or intended; proper or intended to be shown | palliate: lessen violence of disease; moderate intensity; gloss over with excuses |
pallid: abnormally pale; lacking intensity of color or luminousness | panacea: remedy for all diseases, evils, or difficulties; a cure-all |
paragon: model of excellence or perfection; peerless example | pariah: social outcast; person who is rejected from society or home |
parsimony: extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily | pathos: tender sorrow; pity; quality in art or literature that produces these feelings |
paucity: scarcity; smallness of number; fewness | pejorative: tending to make or become worse; disparaging or belittling |
pellucid: transparent; limpid; easy to understand | perfidious: tending to betray; disloyal; faithless |
perfunctory: done routinely and with little interest or care; acting with indifference; showing little interest or care | pernicious: very destructive; tending to cause death or serious injury; deadly |
pertinacious: stubbornly or perversely persistent; unyielding; obstinate | pithy: precisely meaningful; forceful and brief |
platitude: dullness; insipidity of thought; commonplace statement; lack of originality | plethora: excess; over-fullness in any respect; superabundance |
portent: omen; forewarning; something that portends an event about to occur, especially unfortunate or evil event | precocious: advanced in development; appearing or developing early |
primeval: ancient; primitive; belonging to the first or earliest age; original or ancient | proclivity: inclination; natural tendency; readiness; facility of learning |
promulgate: proclaim doctrine or law; make known by official publication | propensity: natural inclination; tendency or preference; predilection |
propitious: presenting favorable circumstances; fortunate; advantageous | prosaic: dull and unimaginative; matter-of-fact; factual |
proscribe: command against; banish; outlaw | protean: versatile; able to take on many shapes; readily taking on varied shapes |
prurient: having or causing lustful thoughts and desires; having eager desire for something | puerile: childish; belonging to childhood; immature |
pulchritude: great physical beauty and appeal; attractive moral excellence; moral beauty | punctilious: marked by precise accordance with details |
quagmire: soft wet boggy land; complex or dangerous situation from which it is difficult to free oneself | querulous: habitually complaining; expressing complaint or grievance |
quixotic: idealistic without regard to practicality | rancor: bitter, long-lasting resentment; deep-seated ill will; hatred |
rebuke: scold harshly; criticize severely | recalcitrant: obstinately stubborn; determined to resist authority |
rectitude: uprightness; moral virtue; correctness of judgment | replete: filled to brim or to point of being stuffed; abundantly supplied |
reprobate: person hardened in sin; person without moral scruples | reprove: voice or convey disapproval of; rebuke; find fault with |
repudiate: disown; refuse to acknowledge; reject validity or authority of | rescind: cancel; make void; repeal or annul |
restive: impatient under restraint or opposition; resisting control; difficult to control | ribald: coarse or indecent; humorously vulgar or offensive |
rife: excessively abundant or numerous; in widespread existence, practice, or use | ruse: trick; use of artifice or trickery; deceptive maneuver, especially to avoid capture |
sacrosanct: regarded as sacred and inviolable | sagacity: quality of being sagacious; quickness or acuteness of sense perceptions; keenness of discernment; shrewdness |
salient: prominent or protruding; projecting outwardly; moving by leaps or springs | sanctimonious: excessively or hypocritically pious; possessing sanctity; sacred; holy; saintly; religious |
sanguine: cheerfully confident; optimistic; of healthy reddish color; ruddy | scurrilous: obscene; indecent; expressing offensive reproach |
serendipity: gift for finding valuable or desirable things by accident; accidental good fortune or luck | servile: slavish; suitable to slave or servant; relating to servitude or forced labor |
solicitous: worried or concerned; full of desire; expressing care or concern | somnolent: half asleep; inclined to drowsiness; tending to induce sleep |
spurious: false; counterfeit; forged; illogical | staid: sober; serious, organized, and professional; characterized by dignity and propriety |
stolid: dull; impassive; having or revealing little emotion or sensibility | stupefy: make senseless or dizzy; be mystery or bewildering to |
surfeit: eat until excessively full; be more than full; feed someone to excess | surmise: guess; infer something without sufficiently conclusive evidence |
surreptitious: secret; done or made by stealth, or without proper authority; made or introduced fraudulently | sycophant: one who attempts to win favor by flattering influential people; bootlicker; yes man |
tacit: indicated or understood without expressed directly; not speaking; silent | taciturn: silent or reserved in speech; saying little; not inclined to speak or converse |
tantamount: equivalent in effect or value | temerity: boldness; rashness; foolhardy disregard of danger |
tenuous: long and thin; slender; having little substance | timorous: fearful; demonstrating fear; weakly hesitant |
torpid: having lost motion, or the power of exertion and feeling; numb; benumbed | tractable: easily managed or controlled; governable; easily handled or worked; docile |
transient: momentary; temporary; staying for short time | transmute: change from one form, nature, substance, or state into another; transform |
trenchant: forceful, effective, and vigorous; sharp or keen | truculent: disposed to fight; belligerent; aggressively hostile |
turgid: swollen; distended; excessively ornate or complex in style or language | turpitude: depravity; corrupt, depraved, or degenerate act |
ubiquitous: being or existing everywhere; omnipresent | unctuous: oily; composed of oil or fat; characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness |
upbraid: severely criticize; reprimand; reprove sharply | usurp: seize and hold power or rights of another by force or without legal authority |
vacillate: sway unsteadily from one side to the other; oscillate | vacuous: empty; showing lack of thought or intelligence; vacant |
vapid: dull and unimaginative; lacking taste or flavor | variegated: streaked, spotted, or marked with a variety of color; very colorful |
venerate: treat with great respect and deference; consider hallowed or be in awe of | veracity: truthfulness; unwillingness to tell lies |
verdant: green; full of juice in vegetation | vex: annoy; disturb, especially by minor irritations; be a mystery or bewildering to |
vicarious: acting as substitute; done by deputy; experienced at secondhand | vicissitude: change, especially in one's life or fortunes; regular change or succession of one thing to another; alternation |
vilify: debase; degrade; spread negative information about | viscous: sticky; gluey; having high resistance to flow |
vitriolic: harsh or corrosive in tone; sarcastic; bitterly scathing | wanton: unrestrained; willfully malicious; immoral or unchaste |
winsome: agreeable; gracious; charming, often in childlike or naive way | wistful: full of wishful yearning or longing; sadly thoughtful |
zenith: point directly overhead in sky; summit | zephyr: gentle breeze; west wind; any of various soft light fabrics, yarns, or garments |
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