| A | B |
|---|
| abortive | (adj.) failing to accomplish an intended aim or purpose |
| bruit | (v.) to spread news, reports, or unsubstantiated rumors |
| contumelious | (adj.) insolent or rude in speech or behavior; insultingly abusive |
| dictum | (n.) a short saying; an authoritative statement |
| ensconce | (v.) to settle comfortably and firmly in position; to put or hide in a safe place |
| iconoclastic | (adj.) attacking or seeking to overthrow popular of traditional beliefs, ideas, or institutions |
| in medias res | (adv.) in or into the middle of a plot |
| internecine | (adj.) mutually destructive; characterized by great slaughter and bloodshed |
| maladroit | (adj.) lacking skill or dexterity |
| maudlin | (adj.) excessively or effusively |
| modulate | (v.) to change or vary the intensity or pitch |
| portentous | (adj.) foreshadowing an event to come |
| prescience | (n.) knowledge of events or actions before they happen |
| quid pro quo | (n.) something given in exchange or return for something else |
| salubrious | (adj.) conductive to health or well-being; wholesome |
| saturnalian | (adj.) characterized by riotous or unrestrained revelry or licentiousness |
| touchstone | (n.) a means of testing worth or genuineness |
| traumatic | (adj.) so shocking to the emotions as to cause lasting and substantial psychological damage |
| vitiate | (v.) to weaken, debase, or corrupt |
| waggish | (adj.) fond of making jokes; characteristic of a joker |
