Vocabulary List 1 – Useful Words
1. reticent – adjective
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Definition: 1. Disposed to be silent or not to speak freely; reserved. 2. Inclined to keep one’s thoughts,
feelings, and personal affairs to oneself.
Synonyms: reluctant or restrained, taciturn, quiet, uncommunicative.
Antonyms: talkative, voluble.
Example Sentence: Public policy makers are slow or reticent to create policies that reduce or eliminate
smoking in public places.
2. incorrigible – adjective
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Definition: 1. Bad beyond correction or reform; incorrigible behavior; an incorrigible liar. 2. Impervious
to constraints or punishment; an incorrigible child.
Synonyms: intractable, inveterate
Example Sentence: The purpose of this legislation is not to let dangerous or incorrigible people go free.
3. attribute – verb
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Definition: 1. To regard as resulting from a specified cause. 2. To consider as a quality or characteristic
of the person, thing, group, etc;
Synonyms: associate
Example Sentence: 1. She attributed his bad temper to ill health. 2. He attributed intelligence to his
colleagues.
4. augment – verb
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Definition: To make larger; enlarge in size, number, strength, or extent
Synonyms: strengthen, increase
Example Sentence: 1. His salary is augmented by a small inheritance. 2. The amenities are designed
to augment your modern lifestyle.
5. compensation – noun
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Definition: Something given or received as an equivalent for services, debt, loss, injury, suffering, etc.
Synonyms: payment, reparation, satisfaction, recompense
Example Sentence: The insurance company paid him $2000 as compensation for the loss of his car.
6. impervious – adjective
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Definition: 1. Not permitting penetration or passage; impenetrable. 2. Incapable of being injured or
impaired. 3. Incapable of being influenced, persuaded, or affected.
Synonyms: invulnerable, closed
Example Sentence: 1. The coat is impervious to rain. 2. The new economic reality has been jarring for
the country considered not long ago nearly impervious to the global slowdown.
7. emulate – verb
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Definition: 1. To try to equal or excel; imitate with effort to equal or surpass. 2. To rival with some
degree of success.
Synonyms: follow, copy
Example Sentence: 1. It is your job to break down the style, isolating those aspects of it that you want
to emulate in your own writing. 2. Some smaller cities now emulate the major capitals in their cultural
offerings. 3. The child wanted to emulate his father as a concert violinist.
8. satiate – verb
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Definition: 1. To fill or supply beyond capacity or desire, often arousing weariness. 2. To supply to
satisfaction or capacity.
Synonyms: saturate, gratify, indulge
Example Sentence: 1. Eating a few nuts as a snack before your main meal will help satiate you. 2. His
first week’s experience has given him plenty of meat to satiate his hunger for broad social observations.
3. Thunder on thunder exulted, rejoicing to live and to satiate the night’s desire.
9. feasible – adjective
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Definition: Capable of being done, effected, or accomplished; a feasible plan
Synonyms: possible, appropriate
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Example Sentence: Raising cash from their investments through initial public offerings is no longer a
feasible exit route.
10. formulate – verb
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Definition: To express in precise form; to devise or develop, as a method to express in a formula.
Synonyms: articulate, frame, compose, define, specify
Example Sentence: 1. The committee will outline a situation and ask you to formulate a plan that deals
with the problem. 2. Students gain the information necessary to formulate their own opinions on oceanrelated environmental issues.
11. illustrate – verb
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Definition: 1. To furnish (a book, magazine, etc.) with drawings, pictures, or other artwork intended for
explanation, elucidation, or adornment. 2. To make clear or intelligible, as by examples or analogies;
exemplify.
Synonyms: illuminate, delineate, emphasize
Example Sentence: 1. Equally important, it also served to illustrate that the effect of staring-eyes
carries across a range of social behaviors. 2. The point is that jokes can illustrate humor but not explain
it.
12. immeasurable – adjective
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Definition: Incapable of being measured; limitless; the immeasurable vastness of the universe
Synonyms: indefinite, unlimited
Example Sentence: The cost of addressing our community’s social concerns without volunteers would
be immeasurable.
13. pretentious – adjective
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Definition: Characterized by assumption of dignity or importance; making an exaggerated outward
show
Synonyms: pompous, ostentatious, grandiose
Example Sentence: 1. The house has been painted white and has a stately appearance without being
overly decorative or pretentious. 2. Many fans despaired, feeling that rock had become bloated,
pompous and pretentious.
14. ludicrous – adjective
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Definition: Causing laughter because of absurdity; provoking or deserving derision; ridiculous;
laughable; a ludicrous lack of efficiency.
Synonyms: farcical, funny
Example Sentence: 1. Your opinions, in addition to being ludicrous, are inappropriate here. 2. It is
ludicrous to submit academic writing samples for these kinds of jobs.
15. mimic – verb
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Definition: To imitate or copy in action or speech, often playfully or derisively.
Synonyms: follow, impersonate, imitate, copy, simulate
Example Sentence: 1. Our human longing to mimic birds has often proved painful. 2. Once the team
decides exactly which version to mimic, the scientists retreat to their labs.
16. mundane – adjective
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Definition: pertaining to this world as contrasted with heaven; common, ordinary, banal or
unimaginative
Synonyms: secular, temporal, earthly, everyday
Example Sentence: 1. Both are comic writers, properly snagged in the mundane, whose fiction has
often been etherealized out of existence. 2. The practical business writing class is mundane compared
to the class on fiction writing.
17. nonchalant – adjective
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Definition: coolly unconcerned, indifferent, or unexcited; casual
Synonyms: cool, calm, collected, composed
Antonyms: excitable
Example Sentence: The relaxed man enjoying a drink at the bar seems fairly nonchalant for someone
who just lost thousands of dollars at the poker table.
18. notorious – adjective
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Definition: 1. widely and unfavorably known. 2. Publicly or generally known.
Synonyms: infamous, egregious, arrant, disreputable; notable, renowned, celebrated
Example Sentence: 1. Our aversion to book learning is often blamed for this notorious inability to put
two and two together. 2. The government is notorious for its inability to handle natural disasters.
19. pragmatic – adjective
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Definition: pertaining to a practical point of view or usable considerations.
Synonyms: efficient, practical, realistic
Example Sentence: 1. Our politicians have to be pragmatic and vote for what is good for their sponsors,
rather than what is needed for the electorate. 2. Instead, it was a pragmatic acknowledgement of the
reality of the impact health care has on human beings.
20. primitive – adjective
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Definition: 1. Being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world;
primitive forms of life. 2. Unaffected by civilizing influences; uncivilized; savage.
Synonyms: prehistoric, primal, primary, original
Example Sentence: 1. Although these ancient beings were primitive, they clearly resemble modern
humans. 2. The ancient bone shares features with primitive fish fins but also has characteristic of a true
limb bone.
21. sequence – noun
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Definition: The following of one thing after another; succession.
Synonyms: arrangement, outcome, sequence
Example Sentence: 1. The fireworks were lit in a specific sequence, starting with blue and ending with
red. 2. The researchers can then prepare the segment so that a computer can determine its sequence
of base pairs.
22. pungent – adjective
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Definition: 1. Affecting the organs of taste or smell with a sharp acrid sensation. 2. Caustic, biting, or
sharply expressive; pungent remarks.
Synonyms: hot, peppery, sharp, sarcastic, mordant, acrimonious
Antonyms: mild, bland, soothing
Example Sentence: 1. The plant’s strong, pungent odor predominates in many regions after a rain. 2.
Inside the condo, the sweet, pungent odor of insects and rotting food enveloped us.
23. stringent – adjective
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Definition: 1. Rigorously binding or exacting; strict or severe; stringent laws. 2. Compelling,
constraining, or urgent; stringent necessity.
Synonyms: strict, restrictive, forceful, powerful
Antonyms: flexible
Example Sentence: 1. Too low resources will also risk quality because teachers will become less
stringent and motivated. 2. Recently, the stock market tumbled, out of fear of a more stringent policy
adjustment.
24. tangible – adjective
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Definition: 1. Capable of being touched; discernible by the touch; material or substantial. 2. Real or
actual, rather than imaginary or visionary.
Synonyms: palpable, corporeal, certain, genuine, specific
Example Sentence: 1. We need tangible evidence to convict the killer, not just the word of an unreliable
witness. 2. They are writing for tangible improvements in daily life to give them real cause for celebration.
25. versatile – adjective
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Definition: 1. Capable of adapted to various tasks, fields of endeavor; a versatile writer. 2. Capable of
many uses: a versatile tool.
Synonyms: adaptable, all-around, handy
Example Sentence: 1. The seasoning is versatile, used in many different cuisines around the world. 2.
Scientific instrument is versatile, theoretically able to detect a broad range of stresses and pollutants.