Search Vocabulary – Schreiner
Book G, Unit # 3
Word List
1. articulate – (v) to pronounce distinctly; to express well in words; to connect by a joint or joints; (adj)
expressed clearly and forcefully; able to employ language clearly and forcefully; jointed
2. cavort(ed) – (v) to romp or prance around exuberantly
3. credence – (n) belief, mental acceptance
4. decry – (v) to dondemn, express strong disapproval; to officially depreciate
5. derogatory – (adj) designed to belittle or degrade; disparaging
6. dissemble – (v) to disguise or conceal, deliberately give a false impression
7. distraught – (adj) very much agitated or upset as a result of emotion or mental conflict
8. eulogy – (n) a formal statement of commendation; high praise
9. evince – (v) to display clearly, to make evident; to provoke
10. exhume – (v) to remove from a grave; to bring to light
11. feckless – (adj) lacking in spirit and strength; ineffective, weak; irresponsible, unreliable
12. intractable – (adj) hard to manage, stubborn, not responsive to discipline
13. murky – (adj) dark and gloomy, obscure; lacking in clarity and precision
14. nefarious – (adj) wicked, depraved, devoid of moral standards
15. piquant – (adj)stimulating to the taste or mind; spicy, pungent; appealingly provocative
16. primordial – (adj) developed or created at the very beginning; going back to the most ancient times or
earliest stage; fundamental, basic
17. propinquity – (n) nearness in place or time; kinship
18. unwonted – (adj) not usual or expected ; not in character
19. utopian – (adj) founded upon or involving a visionary view of an ideal world; impractical
20. verbiage – (n) language that is too wordy or inflated in proportion to the sense or content, wordiness; a
manner of expression
21. verdant – (adj) green in tint or color; immature in experience or judgment
22. viscous – (adj) having a gelatinous or gluey quality, lacking in easy movement or fluidity
Vocabulary Assignment Book G, Unit # 3
Filling in the Blanks
Choose the word from this unit that best completes each sentence.
1. For as far as the eye could see, _________________ fields of unripe corn swayed gently in
the morning breeze.
2. How could we draw any clear ideas from a talk that was so disorganized, confused in
language, and generally ________________?
3. Some students are as docile as lambs; others are as ________________ as mules.
4. An educated citizenry will not give _________________ to wild charges of extremists
seeking to undermine our political and economic system.
5. When news of the school fire ran through town, ______________ parents rushed to the
scene of the blaze.
6. The assembly speaker couldn’t be understood because he mumbled his words instead of
________________ them clearly.
7. Though diesel fuels are not as thick as motor oil, they are a good deal more ___________
than regular gasoline.
8. I have always regarded the man as something of a daredevil, but on this occasion he
approached the problem with _____________ caution.
9. Since my apartment is in such close ________________ to my office, I usually walk to
work.
10. When Bill was told that he had made the varsity wrestling team, he began to
______________ around the gym like a young colt.
11. The new chairman _______________ what she called the “deplorable tendency of so many
Americans to try to get something for nothing”.
12. In the hands of our hopelessly _______________ producer, what should have been a surefire
hit turned into a resounding fiasco.
13. The NCAA has in recent years cracked down hard on such ______________ practices as
“shaving points”.
14. Such spices as red pepper make many of the sauces used in Cajun cooking delightfully
_________________.
15. Though I prefer to be as open and aboveboard as possible, I have learned that it is sometimes
wiser or more tactful to __________________.
16. He clothes his puny ideas in such highfalutin ______________ that they resemble gnats in
top hats and tails.
17. Sadly, the ______________ schemes of high-minded idealists usually founder on the rocks
of practical realities.
18. When new evidence turned dup in the case, the court ordered the coroner to ___________
the victim’s body and reexamine it.
19. Every Memorial Day, the Mayor delivers a(n) ______________ extolling the selfless
devotion of those who have died in defense of this country.
20. You cannot hope to conceal the shortcomings in your own abilities by making
______________ remarks about the abilities of others.
21. I believe there is an overall design to the universe that has been visible ever since the first
living thing crawled out of the ________________ ooze.
22. Even at an early age, my sister ________________ a strong interest in studying medicine.
Synonyms
Choose the word from this unit that is most nearly the same in meaning as the groups of expressions.
1. proximity, nearness; kinship, similarity
2. verbosity, prolixity; diction, jargon
3. feeble, helpless, incompetent, ineffectual
4. green; artless, naïve, immature
5. to dissimulate, disguise, mask, feign
6. idealistic, visionary, pie-in-the-sky
7. belief, credit, trust, confidence
8. original, primeval, primal, fundamental
9. agitated, frantic, distracted
10. unusual, uncommon, unexpected, atypical
11. gummy, sticky, thick, gelatinous
12. to pronounce; to elucidate; eloquent
13. dark, dim, obscure, cloudy, unclear
14. to cut capers, prance, gambol, romp
15. wicked, iniquitous, reprehensible
16. pejorative, disparaging
17. to disinter, unearth, uncover
18. to condemn, denounce; to devalue
19. pungent, spicy, tangy, zestful
20. unruly, refractory unmanageable
21. to exhibit, evidence, manifest; to occasion
22. a panegyric, encomium, tribute, testimonial
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Antonyms
Choose the word from this unit that is most nearly the opposite in meaning as the groups of
expressions.
1. to tout, commend, extol, laud, praise
2. bland, insipid, tasteless, mild
3. runny, watery, aqueous
4. disbelief, skepticism, incredulity
5. a philippic, diatribe, invective
6. realistic, pragmatic, down-to-earth
7. tongue-tied, halting; to mumble, slur
8. calm, composed, collected
9. competent, capable, effective
10. virtuous, honorable; praiseworthy, meritorious
11. customary, usual, typical
12. complimentary, laudatory
13. to bury, inter
14. scorched, sere, barren, arid
15. remoteness, distance
16. clear, transparent, lucid, limpid
17. docile, obedient, submissive
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Choosing the Right Word
Encircle the boldface word that more satisfactorily completes each sentence.
1. His (viscous, unwonted) interest in the state of my finances strengthened my suspicions that
he was about to ask for a loan.
2. The United States is cooperating with the other nations of the world in an effort to check the
(intractable, nefarious) trade in narcotics.
3. Far from being unpleasant, her slight foreign accent added an extra dash of spice to her
already (primordial, piquant) personality.
4. (Exhumed, Distraught) with grief, they sat motionless for hours, staring blankly into space.
5. Trying to read your (viscous, utopian) prose is just like trying to swim upstream through
custard.
6. One of the duties of a President is to (cavort, articulate) the policies and programs of his
administration in a forceful and convincing way.
7. An accomplished hypocrite usually finds it very easy to (dissemble, decry) his or her true
feelings as circumstance dictates.
8. Despite all the reports of “miraculous” cures, you would be well advised to withhold
(verbiage, credence) until the drug has been fully tested.
9. The new Mayor is a curious mixture of the hardheaded pragmatist and the (utopian, murky)
reformer.
10. The (credence, propinquity) of our ideas on handling the problem made it very easy for my
colleague and me to produce the report in record time.
11. The book has an interesting plot, but the author has practically smothered it in endless
(verbiage, eulogy).
12. When life was easy he was all dash and confidence, but in times of trouble his essentially
(piquant, feckless) character come to the fore.
13. Though the work hadn’t seen the light of day for over a century, a daring impresario
(cavorted, exhumed) and staged it to great public acclaim.
14. The behavior of armies in wartime often evinces the (murky, primordial) blood lust that
civilized people have not yet fully overcome.
15. After repeated efforts to appeal to his better nature had proved completely fruitless, I decided
he was utterly (derogatory, intractable).
16. Not surprisingly, the address was a notably evenhanded affair in which the speaker had
cleverly mixed (eulogy, verbiage) with admonition.
17. From the bridge, the rescue team could just make out the blurred image of a car beneath the
(murky, unwonted) waters of the river.
18. The investigating committee (decried, dissembled) the use of substandard materials and
slovenly workmanship in the housing project.
19. Unfortunately, the (nefarious, verdant) hopes and aspirations of my youth have been
somewhat blighted by the icy blasts of reality.
20. The extraordinary musical talents of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (evinced, dissembled)
themselves at an amazingly early age.
21. The public will not readily accept an intensive investigation designed to turn up (derogatory,
feckless) information about so popular a figure.
22. From the deck of our luxury liner, we occasionally caught sight of schools of porpoises
(cavorting, evincing) playfully in the waves.