| A | B |
|---|
| abstruse | extremely difficult to understand |
| affront | an open or intentional insuld; a slight; to insult to one's face; to face in defiance, confront |
| canard | a false rumor, fabricated story |
| captious | excessively ready to find fault; given to petty criticism; intended to trap, confuse, or show up |
| cognizant | aware, knowledgeable, informed; having jurisdiction |
| contrite | regretful for some misdeed or sin; plagued by a sense of guilt; thoroughly penitent |
| cynosure | the center of attraction, attention, or interest; something that serves to guide or direct |
| decorous | well behaved, dignified, socially proper |
| deign | to think it appropriate or suitable to one's dignity to do something; to condescend |
| desiccated | thoroughly dried out; divested of spirit or vitality; arid and uninteresting |
| efficacy | the power to produce a desired result |
| engender | to bring into existence, give rise to, produce; to come into existence, assume form |
| ethereal | light, airy, delicate; highly refined; suggesting what is heavenly (rather than earthbound) |
| facade | the front or face of a building; a surface apperance |
| ghoulish | revolting in an unnatural or morbid way; suggestive of someone who robs graves or othewise preys on the dead |
| incongruous | not in keeping, unsuitable, incompatible |
| machination | a crafty, scheming, or underhanded action designed to accomplish some (usually evil) end |
| mesmerize | to hypnotize, entrace; to fascinate, enthrall, bewitch |
| opprobrium | disgrace arising from shameful conduct; contempt, reproach |
| putative | generally regarded as such; reputed; hypothesized, inferred |
