11_Vocabulary Lessons 1-4

Match the following vocabulary words with their definitions.

• sacrosanct

• to pierce with a pointed object; to spear

• impale

• to stare angrily

• boor

• extremely holy

• glower

• a rude or impolite person

• perfunctory

• done without care; in a routine fashion

Match the following

• extenuate

• to ask persistently; to beg

• optimum

• to lessen seriousness by providing partial excuses

• facetious

• best; most favorable; ideal

• aegis

• a shield; protection

• importune

• comical; jocular; flippant

Match the following

• nihilism

• to improve someone morally

• shard

• to correct; to make right

• rectify

• a fragment

• opulent

• a total rejection of established laws

• edify

• rich, luxurious; wealthy

Match the following

• celibate

• keenness of judgment

• besmirch

• local; narrow; limited

• perspicacity

• a showy but useless thing

• parochial

• to make dirty; to stain

• bauble

• abstaining from intercourse; unmarried

Match the following

• fecund

• mild; tasteless; dull

• bland

• to weaken

• enervate

• to make dirty; to stain

• fortuitous

• happening by chance or accident

• obfuscate

• to confuse; to bewilder

Match the following

• antithesis

• to overwhelm; to surround and attack

• maelstrom

• a complicated network of winding passages; a maze

• besiege

• an exact opposite; an opposite extreme

• labyrinth

• strong disapproval; a bad reputation resulting from public criticism

• obloquy

• a whirlpool; turbulence; an agitated state of mind

Match the following

• pedestrian

• ordinary or dull

• carrion

• lasting only a brief time; short-lived

• hedonism

• a correction

• emendation

• the pursuit of pleasure, especially of the senses

• ephemeral

• decaying flesh

Match the following

• deviate

• very sheer and light

• diaphanous

• to turn aside from a course; to stray

• recapitulate

• shapeless, formless; vague

• imperative

• extremely necessary; vitally important

• amorphous

• to summarize; to repeat briefly