| A | B |
|---|
| meticulous | very careful about details; fussy |
| mitigate | to make or become milder or less severe; to moderate |
| morose | gloomy; bad-tempered |
| nomenclature | a systematic naming in an art or science |
| nonchalance | carelessness; lack of interest or concern |
| obliterate | to blot out leaving no traces; to destroy |
| obscure | not clear or distinct; hidden; remote; not well known |
| obsolete | out-of-date |
| officious | meddling; giving unnecessary or unwanted advice or services |
| opportunist | one who takes advantage of any opportunity without regard for moral principles |
| opulent | wealthy; abundant |
| overt | not hidden; open |
| painstaking | very careful; diligent |
| pariah | an outcast |
| parsimonious | too thrifty; stingy |
| partisan | showing a strong support for a party or cause; characteristic of a guerrilla fighter |
| paucity | scarcity; smallness in number or amount |
| peerless | having no equal; better than the rest |
| perceptive | discerning; observant; sensitive |
| perfidy | treachery; betrayal of trust |
| peripheral | external; incidental; tangential |
| peruse | to study; to read |
| philistine | narrow-minded; smugly conventional |
| piety | devotion and reverence, especially to God and family |
| pique | to hurt the feelings of or make resentful; to arose or excite |
| placate | to soothe; to pacify |
| placid | outwardly calm or composed; self-satisfied; peaceful |
| plagiarize | to take ideas or writings from someone else and present them as one's own; to use without giving credit |
| platitude | a thought or remark that is dull, trite, flat, or weak |
| pompous | self-important; stately; magnificent; excessively ornate |
| ponderous | very heavy; bulky; labored and dull or tiresome |
| pragmatic | practical; opinionated; concerned with actual practice rather than with theory or speculation |
| preclude | to make impossible; to shut out; to prevent |
| precocious | having or showing much more ability or knowledge than is usual at such a young age; early or prematurely ripe or developed |
| prestigious | honored; having an illustrious name or reputation |
| pretentious | claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit; showy; self-important |
| procrastinate | to put off doing something until a later time; to delay |
| prodigious | enormous; extraordinary; marvelous |
| profane | secular; not holy; not connected with religion; irreverent |
| profusion | abundance; a great or generous amount; extravagance |
| prolific | producing many offspring; producing much; abundant |
| propensity | a natural leaning or tendency; bent |
| provincial | having the ways and speech of a certain province; of or like country people as apart from city people (unsophisticated); thinking in narrow ways |
| prudent | careful or cautious in a sensible way; wise; frugal |
| pugnacious | eager and ready to fight; quarrelsome |
| quandary | condition of being doubtful or confused |
| querulous | peevish; faultfinding; expressing or suggestive of complaint |
| quixotic | idealistic and utterly impractical |
| raconteur | a person skilled at telling stories or anecdotes |
| rancor | deep spite or malice; strong hate or bitter feeling |
