11_Vocabulary Lessons 1-4

Match the following vocabulary words with their definitions.

• perfunctory

• extremely holy

• boor

• done without care; in a routine fashion

• impale

• to stare angrily

• glower

• to pierce with a pointed object; to spear

• sacrosanct

• a rude or impolite person

Match the following

• aegis

• a shield; protection

• facetious

• to ask persistently; to beg

• optimum

• comical; jocular; flippant

• extenuate

• to lessen seriousness by providing partial excuses

• importune

• best; most favorable; ideal

Match the following

• shard

• rich, luxurious; wealthy

• rectify

• a fragment

• opulent

• to improve someone morally

• nihilism

• a total rejection of established laws

• edify

• to correct; to make right

Match the following

• celibate

• local; narrow; limited

• perspicacity

• to make dirty; to stain

• parochial

• keenness of judgment

• bauble

• a showy but useless thing

• besmirch

• abstaining from intercourse; unmarried

Match the following

• fecund

• to make dirty; to stain

• enervate

• to weaken

• bland

• to confuse; to bewilder

• obfuscate

• mild; tasteless; dull

• fortuitous

• happening by chance or accident

Match the following

• antithesis

• a complicated network of winding passages; a maze

• besiege

• to overwhelm; to surround and attack

• labyrinth

• a whirlpool; turbulence; an agitated state of mind

• obloquy

• an exact opposite; an opposite extreme

• maelstrom

• strong disapproval; a bad reputation resulting from public criticism

Match the following

• ephemeral

• the pursuit of pleasure, especially of the senses

• carrion

• ordinary or dull

• pedestrian

• lasting only a brief time; short-lived

• emendation

• a correction

• hedonism

• decaying flesh

Match the following

• deviate

• very sheer and light

• recapitulate

• to summarize; to repeat briefly

• imperative

• extremely necessary; vitally important

• amorphous

• to turn aside from a course; to stray

• diaphanous

• shapeless, formless; vague