Word Masters Challenge One Vocabulary List
1) chaff – verb
Def – to mock, tease, or jest in a good-natured way; banter
Noun – Def – good-natured ridicule or teasing
Noun – husks of wheat separated when threshing
WiF – chaffingly – adv. “to separate the wheat from the chaff”
2) retract – verb
Def – to draw back within itself or oneself; fold up
WiF – retractable – adj. Able to be pulled back
3) feckless – adj.
Def – ineffective, incompetent, futile, having no sense of responsibility,
indifferent, or lazy
WiF – fecklessly – adv. Feck – noun effect
4) voracity – POS - noun
Def – the condition or quality of being voracious
WiF – voracious – adj to be extremely hungry or eager
5) shroud – noun
Def – cloth or something that conceals, protects, screens, veils, or shelters
Verb – to conceal so something can’t be seen
WiF – shroudless – adj; shrouded – past tense verb
6) virulent – adj.
Def – full of hatred
Def – actively poisonous, intensely noxious, deadly or fatal
WiF – virulently – adv., virus - noun
7) candor – noun
Def – the state or quality of being frank or open; sincere in speech or
expression; freedom from bias, fairness, and impartiality
WiF – candid – adj. frank, outspoken, open, sincere
Candidly- adv.; candidness - noun
8) retaliate – verb
Def – to return like for like (to get back for something negative that was done)
Syn – reciprocate, return
WiF – retaliation - noun
9) bilious – adj.
Def – characterized by an excess secretion of bile; relating to bile
Adj. – peevish, irritable, cranky, or grumpy
Sickeningly unpleasant
WiF – biliously – adv, biliousness – noun, bile - noun
10) curmudgeon – noun
Def – an old, rusty, cranky old man
Syn – complainer, crab, cross-patch
WiF – curmudgeonly - adv
11) parry – verb
Def – to ward off, to turn aside, to dodge
Noun – an act or instance of parrying, especially in fencing (a defensive move)
Syn – block, repel, defend
WiF – parrying - verb
12) credulous – adj.
Def – willing to believe or trust too readily, especially without proper or
adequate evidence; gullible
WiF – credulity – noun, credulously – adv., credulousness – noun
Antonym – incredulous – adj.
13) malice – noun
Def – 1) A desire to harm others or to see others suffer; extreme ill-will or
spite; 2) the intent, without just cause or reason, to commit a wrongful act
that will result in harm to another
Syn – evil, spite
WiF – malicious – adj. - deliberately harmful or spiteful, maliciousness - noun
14) eradicate – verb
Def – to remove or destroy utterly, extirpate (to root up or out, to destroy
wholly or exterminate); to pull up by the roots; to erase by means of a
chemical solvent
WiF – eradicator – noun, eradicating – verb
15) slipshod – adj.
Def – careless, untidy, or slovenly; down at heel, seedy, shabby; wearing
slippers or loose shoes, especially ones worn at the heel
WiF – slipshoe – noun, slipskin – adj. slipstop – noun, slipsole - noun
16) dross – noun
Def – waste matter or refuse; waste material that forms on the surface of
molten metal
Syn – recrement, scabs, scum, trash, waste
Recrement – a bodily secretion that is reabsorbed into the blood
17) expunge – verb
Def – to strike or blot out; to erase or obliterate; to efface or destroy
WiF – expunction – noun, expunger - noun
18) covert – noun
Def - a covering, shelter, or hiding place; concealment or disguise
Adj. Def – concealed, secret, disguised
WiF – covertly – adv, covertness - noun
19) pith – noun
Def – the spongy center tissue in trees
Verb – to remove the pith from trees
WiF – pithy – adj concise, forcefully expressive
20) divulge – verb
Def – to make known (private or sensitive information)
WiF – divulgence – noun, divulgation - noun
21) potent – adj.
Def – powerful, mighty, cogent; persuasive, producing a powerful physical or
chemical effect; having or exercising great power or influence
WiF – potentate – noun, potential – noun, adj – possessing latent ability that
may or may not be developed
Antonym – impotent – adj.
22) crux – noun
Def – basic, central, or critical point or feature; a puzzling or apparently
unsolvable problem; a fancy word for cross
WiF – crucify – verb to kill, crucial – adj. extremely significant or important,
cruciverbalist – noun someone who loves crossword puzzles
23) rescind – verb
Def – to abrogate, annul, revoke, or repeal; to invalidate by a later action or a
higher authority
WiF – rescinder – noun, rescindment – noun, rescindable – adj
Syn – nullify, retract, withdraw, countermand, repeal, veto
24) improbable – adj.
Def – not probable, unlikely to be true or to happen
WiF – improbability – noun – something that is unlikely to happen
Antonym – probable - adj
25) vengeance – noun
Def – infliction of injury, harm, or humiliation on a person by another who has
been harmed by that person; violent revenge
WiF – venge – root to avenge, avenge – verb, revenge - noun