| A | B |
|---|
| Gregarious | The _ party host had 3 parties a week. |
| Despotic | The _ governor cruelly oppressed his subjects. |
| Peremptory | The teacher's __ answer to her question hurt her feelings. |
| Nascent | Her __ singing career was advanced by her TV appearance. |
| Zenith | There were no shadows at noon when the sun had reached its ____________. |
| Trenchant | The bully’s __ remarks were clever but rude. |
| Deride | The winning team’s decision to ____ the losing one showed poor sportsmanship. |
| Hedonism | College student __ drink & party too much & study too little. |
| Prosaic | His essay was too ___ to win an award. |
| Supplant | Calculators ____ed abacuses. |
| Vacuous | His low IQ was evident from his __ remarks. |
| Vindicated | The defendant was __ by the DNA evidence. |
| Abstemious | She lost weight because she was ____. |
| Affluence | The ___ businessman flaunted his pricey sports cars. |
| Aphasia | His __ was caused by a massive stroke. |
| Auspicious | The high SAT score was a/an ____ indicator of his success in college. |
| Fallacious | His __ reasoning resulted in an F on the essay. |
| Holistic | A ____ doctor treats mind, body & soul. |
| Parsimonious | The miser was __ to his children but generous with his wife. |
| Pragmatic | He was too __ to major in philosphy. |
| Prolific | Picasso was an exceptionally __ painter. |
| Reclusive | The ____ author always refused visitors. |
| Rescinding | The newly-elected President angered his constituents by ____ the bill. |
| Taciturn | The nervous 5-year-old was very ____ on her first day of school & never spoke. |
| Verbatim | He repeated what she said ____. |
| Voracious | The ____ lions devoured 500 pounds of meat. |
| Brevity | Good writing requires __. Never use 2 words when 1 will do. |
| Jocularity | The comedian’s __ proved infectious when the entire audience laughed |
| Proselytized | The missionaries __successfully, making thousands of converts. |
| Obviated | The winning lottery ticket _ John’s financial problems. |
| Advent | In 1946, the U. of Penn.’s Electronic Numerical Integrator & Calculator, ENIAC for short, marked the _ the computer age. |
| Timorous | The __ man showed his nervousness by glancing repeatedly from side to side. |
| Dearth | A ___ of positive economic news is really hurting the stock market. |
| Spate | A recent ___ of foreclosures has devastated home prices in that town. |
| Ambiguous | The teacher’s grading system was so ___ that no one could understand it. |
| Indicted | The career criminal was finally ___ in court after 20 years on the run. |
| Exculpated | DNA tests successfully ___ dozens of innocent death row inmates. |
| Rescinded | The student’s study abroad visa was ___ after he was caught breaking the law. |
| Tacit | Children understand __ly what a noun or a verb is in their native language. |
| Amalgamation | A governing coalition is a(n) _________ of several cooperating political parties. |
| Bourgeois | Karl Marx criticized the ________ for frequently oppressing factory workers and laborers. |
| Circumspect | A good chess player is always _______ and never rushes the next move. |
| Deleterious | Constantly neglecting sleep and exercise is ________ to one’s health. |
| Diaphanous | The silk kimono seemed ________ with the geisha’s body almost visible through it. |
| Ennervate | Tom Brady’s football skills seemed to ________ after spending a season on the bench. |
| Fortuitous | A ________ lottery ticket made that homeless man a millionaire overnight. |
| Fluctuate | Your political opinions _____ so frequently that I never know who you’re supporting. |
| Impecunious | The woman’s tattered shirt and threadbare jacket testified to her ________ situation. |
| Incisive | The comedian’s ______ joke really cut too close to home for the audience – no one laughed. |
| Nebulous | The mystery surrounding the museum heist is still quite _____; police have no leads. |
| Peregrinate | During the Middle Ages, devout pilgrims were expected to ______ to the Holy Land. |
| Pithy | The saying “short and sweet” is often used to describe a particularly _____ phrase. |
| Quotidian | The earthquake forced relief agencies to increase their _____ food aid in Haiti. |
| Sedentary | A _____ and inactive lifestyle is a primary cause of obesity. |
| Surfeit | A _____ of nerves prevented the Olympic athlete from completing the course. |
| Travesty | This disco-themed reproduction of “Romeo & Juliet” is a _____ of Shakespearean theater. |
| Undulate | Radio waves _____ in a longer wavelength than x-rays. |
| Vacillated | The undecided voter _____ repeatedly between the candidates during the campaign. |
| Whetted | Skipping lunch and breakfast has really ______ my appetite for your 4-course meal. |
| Abase | The deposed king refused to _____ himself by surrendering to his conqueror. |
| Cogent | The prosecutor’s ______ summary secured a quick guilty verdict. |
| Fabulist | You say ‘fortune-teller’ but I say _____; she’s told us nothing but a pack of lies. |
| Irascible | The _____ Red Sox fan soon responded to the insults by throwing punches. |
| Laud | Being bipartisanship requires the ability to ____ some ideas of one’s political foes. |
| Pulchritude | The _____ of Fashion Week models is second to none; they are very beautiful. |
| Sacrosanct | Native Americans have many _____ places where they do not want developers to build. |
| Sanguine | Bob is a _____ person who feels hopeful about the future instead of fearing it. |
| Veracious | The news writer’s lack of _____ articles soon got him blacklisted from the industry. |
| Vicissitudes | The _____ of life are unbelievable that millionaire was homeless only yesterday! |
| Alacrity | The ready smile and friendly manner of the flight attendant demonstrated her _____. |
| Cacophony | The ______ caused by fingernails on the blackboard finally quieted the class. |
| Elocution | The debate team is looking to recruit students with a strong track record in _____. |
| Galled | The arrogance of the politician’s pat answers about bribery allegations really _____ his critics. |
| Impugned | The journalist _____ the car crash victim by suggesting she may have caused the accident. |
| Iniquity | The _____ of a lawyer violating his client’s trust is a grave offense against the legal profession. |
| Juxtaposing | The avant garde theatrical group created controversy by _____ Shakespeare and Milton. |
| Puerile | The _____ style and grammar errors of the high school student’s paper resulted in an F. |
| Saccharine | The fake cheer of the secretary’s _____ smile was immediately apparent to visitors. |
| Trite | The phrase “work smarter, not harder” is completely _____; no one pays it any attention anymore. |
| Aberration | An extra finger or toe is a natural ____. |
| Abrogated | The Minister of Labour has ____ his responsibility as chief conciliator under the law. |
| Exigent | Emergency responders frequently intervene in _____ circumstances. |
| Lithe | The Olympic athlete’s _____ movements were a testament to her physical conditioning. |
| Maudlin | The TV show Desperate Housewives is ______ week after week, but the show is still very popular. |
| Ostracizing | Several religious groups punish wayward members by _____ them from the community. |
| Petulance | The kindergartener’s _____ and whining about missing the movie really vexed his family. |
| Physiognomy | There’s an entire discipline called _____ devoted to the study of people’s faces. |
| Profaned | The Romans _____ the Jewish temple in 67 CE when they ransacked and burned it. |
| Terse | The secretary’s _____ and curt manner made the patient feel like he wasn’t welcome. |
| Coalesce | The divergent political parties finally began to _____ after the elections. |
| Confluence | The _____ of the Blue Nile & White Nile rivers occurs at the city of Khartoum in Sudan. |
| Diaphanous | The _____ characteristics of silk such as its weightlessness and softness have made it very valuable. |
| Inundated | The tsumani _____ the defenseless coastal city with little warning, killing hundreds. |
| Judicious | The family court judge was praised for his _____ decision that satisfied both estranged parents. |
| Lethargy | College students frequently exhibit _____ in early morning classes due to late-night activities. |
| Magnanimous | Gandhi is remembered for his _____ yet firm opposition to British rule in India. |
| Mediate | The Northern Ireland Peace Accords required many overseas diplomats to _____ the dispute. |
| Modicum | That student has never turned in an assignment on time; he lacks even a ____ of work ethic. |
| Torrid | Decades of drought in the American Southwest have created a _____ environment for locals. |
| Convalescence | The cancer survivor’s long battle against her illness required a lengthy ______ afterward. |
| Disparaged | The shift supervisor _____ the earnest efforts of his new employee, criticizing her endlessly. |
| Elucidate | People often look to philosophers & theologians to _____ ideas about morality. |
| Morose | Death row prisoners are often characterized by their _____, gloomy behavior. |
| Obdurate | The disciplinarian’s _____ , unyielding approach to misbehavior earned him the students’ resentment. |
| Precarious | Our spies have warned us we are in a _____ position; the enemy is surrounding us! |
| Preponderance | Jurors should vote with the _____ of the evidence rather than with their feelings. |
| Presaged | The ominous storm clouds _____ the fury of the approaching hurricane. |
| Strife | Families should not let arguments turn into _____; the saying goes ‘a house divided cannot stand.’ |
| Surmise | Many people _____ future events based on rumors or wishful thinking. |
| Adumbrate | The coach _____d a game plan, but none of the players knew precisely what to do. |
| Aspersions | The rival politicians repeatedly cast _____ on each others’ integrity. |
| Boon | The good weather has been a _____ for many businesses located near the beach. |
| Cupidity | His _____ made him enter the abandoned gold mine despite the obvious dangers. |
| Dilatory | The Battle of Thermopylae was a(n) _____ engagement intended to buy time for the Greeks. |
| Disseminate | Satellites now _____ all types of media around the world very rapidly. |
| Flippant | The class clown’s _____ remarks quickly turned into tears when he was denied recess. |
| Inveterate | The lazy student’s _____ habit of turning in work late was no surprise to his teachers. |
| Pecuniary | Some investors are so obsessed with _____ matters that they have no personal lives. |
| Spurious | Spreading _____ gossip is total social suicide; no one likes a liar. |
| Abject | The _____ groveling of the slave was an indication of his helplessness. |
| Antithesis | White is the _____ of black. |
| Cavorting | The kindergarteners spent the play rehearsal _____ all over the stage instead of practicing. |
| Conciliatory | The peace agreement required both sides to adopt a(n) _____ attitude. |
| Derelict | That _____ ship has spent decades rotting in the harbor after its owner died. |
| Expeditious | Henry Ford's assembly line was so ________ that it revolutionized the auto industry. |
| Harrowed | The assault victim felt _____ by being asked to repeatedly tell her story. |
| Invective | The newscaster’s libertarian opinions resulted in a torrent of _____ over federal deficits. |
| Libel | Most people think printed lies are called “slander,” but in fact they are referred to as _____. |
| Mercurial | The psychiatric patient’s _____ mood swings were moderated by his new medication. |
| Aggregated | The iron filings slowly _____ under the electromagnet. |
| Allayed | The recent court ruling upholding freedom of speech has _____ the fears of libertarians. |
| Cynical | My lawyer is so _____ that he doesn’t believe I’m innocent even though I have an alibi! |
| Deluged | The dam collapse _____ the city downriver with major flooding. |
| Fetters | Slaves are frequently forced to work wearing _____ to keep them from running away. |
| Hedonist | My boss is a(n) _____ who doesn’t help out at the office & takes every Friday off. |
| Grandiose | Donald Trump still has his _____ plans to own real estate even though he’s bankrupt again. |
| Intrinsic | My father’s work ethic was so ____ to his lifestyle that he never slept in, even on days off! |
| Prolific | My aunt’s dogs are _____ breeders -- she has 3 litters of them underfoot right now! |
| Proponent | Many doctors are _____ of health care reform because they don’t like the current system. |
