2014-2015 Vocabulary List
English II
Mr. Harris
On this list are 100 vocabulary words. Once every other rotation or so, you will be
given a quiz on ten of these words. The quiz will normally ask you to provide original
sentences for each word and/or to use the word in context in a different manner.
However, the overall aim is vocabulary mastery. This means that each quiz will also
incorporate past vocabulary words. For example, your first quiz will be on words #110. Your second quiz will focus on words #11-20, but will also ask you about some
words from the first list. Your last quiz will focus on words #91-100 but may ask you
about any words studied throughout the year. You will have one test that uses all of
the words. Essentially, you will never just test and move on; you’ll have to keep older
words in mind for the entire year. And if you leave in June without knowing what
“copious” means, well…
In addition, these words come from the book Vocabulary Cartoons II: SAT WORD
POWER from New Monic Books. It’s an older book and you can find it used online
for less than a dollar. The book includes more example sentences as well as cartoons
to help you remember the words. Be advised that if you do get the book that I don’t
always have the words in order, as I’ve picked the words that I think are most helpful.
1. Copious (adj): abundant; plentiful. Professor Lang always gave copious notes in
history class.
2. Tenacious (adj): tough; stubborn; not letting go. The weeds in our lawn are so
tenacious we can never get rid of them.
3. Surreptitious (adj): done or acting in a secret, sly manner. The magician was so
surreptitious during his magic trick that the audience was completely fooled.
4. Voracious (adj): an insatiable appetite for an activity, pursuit, or food. Teenage
boys tend to be voracious eaters.
5. Officious (adj): ready to serve; eager in offering unwanted services or advice.
The officious waitress would not go away even when Jennifer told her that she
only wanted coffee.
6. Spurious (adj): not genuine; false. The politician made spurious claims about his
opponent’s stance on taxes.
7. Onerous (adj): troublesome or oppressive; burdensome. After our truck ran out
of gas, we had the onerous task of pushing it two miles to the nearest gas station.
8. Gregarious (adj): seeking and enjoying the company of others; sociable. Paige
was gregarious and thus hated to be alone.
9. Pious (adj): devout or virtuous; holy. Elizabeth was pious, saying her prayers
every night before bed.
10. Scrupulous (adj): careful of small details; honest. A good interior designer is
scrupulous, making sure everything in the room has a purpose.
11. Pedestrian (adj): ordinary; plain. The right frame can make a pedestrian painting
look like a million bucks.
12. Ambivalence (n): indecision; experiencing contradictory emotions. Jeff’s
ambivalence about which girl to ask to the dance led him to missing out on both
dates.
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13. Lithe (adj): bending easily and gracefully. The dancer was as lithe as a cat as he
leapt across the stage.
14. Aesthetic (adj): having to do with artistic beauty. The aesthetic highlight of the
new building was the beautiful mural in the lobby.
15. Mawkish (adj): excessively and objectionably sentimental. Steve doesn’t care for
mawkish birthday cards; he likes funny ones instead.
16. Raffish (adj): cheaply vulgar in appearance or nature; tawdry; disreputable.
Despite his raffish look, many people find Captain Jack Sparrow to be attractive.
17. Travail (n): strenuous physical or mental labor or effort. Much travail was
required to cross the Oregon Trail.
18. Intrepid (adj): fearless; bold. The bullfighter was intrepid as he stood in the
arena before the fierce bull.
19. Languid (adj): lacking energy; weak; showing little interest in anything. After his
bout with the flu, Joe was languid and unable to exercise for over a week.
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20. Incessant (adj): continuing without interruption; nonstop. The teacher gave them
a detention for their incessant chatter in class.
21. Latent (adj): laying hidden or undeveloped; potential. The superhero did not
realize his latent abilities until he suddenly lifted a car off of a trapped child.
22. Diffident (adj): lacking self-confidence; timid. The diffident kitten didn’t want to
jump down, so she was stuck in the tree for hours.
23. Malcontent (n): one dissatisfied with existing conditions. The malcontent was
mad he wasn’t a starter on the team so he urged everyone to be mean to the
coach.
24. Ebullience (n): enthusiastic; bubbling with excitement. She brimmed with
ebullience as she opened her birthday present.
25. Rhetoric (n): the art or study of using language effectively and persuasively. A
good salesman uses rhetoric to get a customer to buy his product.
26. Dogmatic (adj): characterized by an authoritative, often arrogant, assertion of
opinions. It’s hard to argue with someone who is dogmatic, since they will never
change their minds.
27. Philippic (n): a verbal denunciation characterized by harsh language; a “chew
out.” Rachel unleashed a profanity-laced philippic when her brother broke her
bicycle.
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28. Idyllic (adj): charming in a rustic way; naturally peaceful. Our camping trip was
idyllic; we went for long hikes and didn’t watch TV all weekend.
29. Choleric (adj): hot-tempered; quick to anger. The neighbor’s choleric dog barks
at us whenever we walk by.
30. Peccadillo (n): a slight or trifling sin; a minor offense. Going three miles over the
speed limit is a peccadillo, while crashing your car into a hospital is much more
serious.
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31. Circumspect (adj): cautious; heedful of situations and potential consequences.
The circumspect child always looked both ways before crossing the street.
32. Succinct (adj): brief and to the point; concise; terse. Succinct instructions are
easier to understand than ones that are long and rambling.
33. Palpable (adj): capable of being touched or felt. The smell from the rotten meat
was almost palpable.
34. Ostensible (adj): appearing as such; offered as genuine or real. The ostensible
reason Mike went on the date was because he liked Maya, but he really just
wanted to make Lisa jealous.
35. Adroit (adj): skillful; deft. Many fourth graders are more adroit on the computer
than their parents.
36. Presentiment (n): a sense that something is about to occur. Dreams are
sometimes presentiments of situations that will happen the next day.
37. Corpulent (adj): fat; obese. Some football players look corpulent but are actually
very muscular.
38. Replete (adj): full or supplied to the utmost. The deluxe pizza was replete with
every topping imaginable.
39. Baleful (adj): threatening; hurtful; malignant. Gertrude cast a baleful glance at
her boyfriend when he said she should wear more makeup.
40. Purblind (adj): having poor vision; nearly or partly blind. I’m not blind without
my glasses, but I am purblind when I don’t wear them.
41. Ethereal (adj): very light; airy; delicate; heavenly. An ethereal mist covered the
hill in the morning.
42. Lackadaisical (adj): showing lack of interest; listless. You shouldn’t go to a
lackadaisical surgeon whose mind is on other things while cutting you.
43. Paragon (n): a model or pattern of excellence. Many artists see Michelangelo as
a paragon in the art of painting.
44. Lampoon (n): a light, good-humored satire. The comedy show lampooned recent
political events to the delight of its audience.
45. Boon (n): a timely benefit, a blessing. Winning the lottery right after you lose
your job would be a life-changing boon.
46. Poltroon (n): a coward. In cartoons, the bad guys are often poltroons who run
away screaming.
47. Brazen (adj): bold, shameless; impudent. The other students couldn’t believe
Amanda’s brazen attempt at cheating on the vocabulary test.
48. Conundrum (n): a dilemma; any problem or puzzle. Trying to create a car that
runs on water is quite the conundrum.
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49. Tantalize (v): to excite by exposing something desirable or out of reach. The
bread’s aroma tantalized us, and we couldn’t wait to eat it.
50. Surmise (v): to guess; to infer without sufficient evidence. When everyone began
to laugh, I surmised that I had been the butt of a practical joke.
51. Demise (n): death; the end. Joe’s broken leg led to the demise of his football
career.
52. Hiatus (n): a gap or an interruption in space, time, or continuity. Emily looks to
winter break as a welcome hiatus from the drudgery of school work.
53. Evince (v): to show or demonstrate. The prince wished to evince his love for the
fair maiden.
54. Crux (n): main point; heart of the matter. The mechanic thought the crux of the
car’s problem was in the transmission.
55. Apex (n): the highest point; peak. Christina marked the apex before she finished
the graphing problem.
56. Capitulate (v): to surrender under certain conditions; to give in. After sending a
rose every day for three weeks, Ed finally got Betty to capitulate and go out with
her.
57. Expatriate (v): to exile, banish; leave one’s country. Some American communists
expatriated to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
58. Palliate (v): to make seem less serious; to mitigate. The nurse palliated the
patient’s burns by applying cold, wet bandages to the sensitive area.
59. Elucidate (v): to make clear and explain fully. The teacher hopes that this
sentence elucidates the meaning of the vocabulary word.
60. Inundate (v): to overwhelm with abundance or excess; flood. Taking notes is
hard because sometimes you are inundated with information and can’t sort
through it all.
61. Deprecate (v): to express disapproval of. Nobody enjoys when their boss
deprecates their hard work.
62. Ruminate (v): to ponder; to reflect upon. After losing a friend because she said
mean things about her, Jessica ruminated about how to make it up to her.
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63. Cavalier (adj): casual; carefree and nonchalant; arrogant disregard. Betsy had a
cavalier attitude about money, often buying things that she couldn’t really afford.
64. Mete (v): to distribute as if measured; allot. The lady on the porch meted out
Halloween candy to all the kids.
65. Nullify (v): to make useless; cancel; destroy. Moving to Brazil nullified Jamal’s
need for his new winter coat.
66. Embroil (v): to involve in argument or hostile action; to throw in disorder. Most
of the civilized world was embroiled in conflict during World War II.
67. Waffle (v): To speak or write evasively. The little boy waffled when his mother
asked him if he hit his brother.
68. Ascribe (v): to attribute to a specific cause or source. Kurt ascribed his gold
medal to hard work and dedication.
69. Skullduggery (n): trickery, underhandedness. My grandma avoids talking to
salesmen on the phone because they often perform skullduggery, seeking to get
her to pay them money.
70. Ancillary (adj): helping; providing assistance. Shania couldn’t pay for school on
her own, so she earned an ancillary income raking leaves.
71. Sedentary (adj): Characterized by or requiring much sitting or little exercise.
During the summer, some students have a sedentary life style, playing video
games or watching TV all day long.
72. Cursory (adj): rapid and superficial; performed without attention to detail. If
your studying is only cursory, you probably won’t perform well on the test.
73. Tawdry (adj): gaudy and cheap in appearance. I gave my wife a tawdry necklace,
and I could tell right away that she didn’t like it.
74. Ambulatory (adj): of or for walking; capable of walking. Count yourself lucky if
you get to be 100 years old still ambulatory; life is easier if you can move room to
room on your own.
75. Pecuniary (adj): consisting of or relating to money. Ethics are important in
business, but most of the time all the talk is pecuniary in nature.
76. Paradigm (n): a pattern that serves as a model or example. The student’s essay
was so good that the teacher held it up as a paradigm, passing out copies to the
whole class.
77. Malaise (n): a vague feeling of bodily discomfort, as at the beginning of illness.
Beth’s malaise began when she awoke with a slightly sore throat.
78. Diatribe (n): a bitter verbal attack. The coach’s diatribe went over the top,
causing the team just walked out on him.
79. Lambast (v): to give a thrashing; scold. The fight was very one-sided, the big
bully lambasting the smaller boy for minutes on end.
80. Eschew (v): to avoid or shun. One reason she is so successful is that she eschews
anybody who has a negative attitude.
81. Iconoclast (n): one who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular
ideas or institutions. The iconoclast told everybody that the Beatles were just a
generic bubblegum band and that real music didn’t begin until the 1980s.
82. Mogul (n): a very rich or powerful person. Jay-Z and Taylor Swift are both music
moguls, despite working in different genres.
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83. Supine (adj): lying on the back with the face turned upward. Some people can
only sleep on their front, but others prefer to snooze while supine.
84. Asinine (adj): silly, stupid. Eating raw chicken is generally considered an
asinine idea.
85. Bombastic (adj): high sounding; use of language without real meaning. When
people are losing on argument, they often become bombastic and yell their points,
as if that made them right.
86. Winnow (v): to rid of undesirable parts. Michelle’s social life was getting to be
full, so she winnowed out the people she didn’t like to spend time with.
87. Prodigious (adj): enormous in size, quantity, degree. New York City is
considered the most prodigious city in the United States in terms of population
and culture.
88. Boor (n): a rude person. She stopped talking to the man on the bus because he
was a boor, making crude remarks about her looks.
89. Panache (n): dashing elegance of manner or style. I wish I could enter rooms
with panache and make everyone turn their heads at how glamorous I am.
90. Doleful (adj): sorrowful; melancholy. Those Humane Society commercials work
because the dogs always look so doleful in their cages.
91. Tome (n): a large book. Your back might hurt from carrying so many tomes
around from home to school.
92. Throng (n): A large group of people gathered closely together. On New Year’s
Eve, a throng of revelers gather in Times Square to celebrate.
93. Fetter (v): to retrain; to hamper. The prisoners were fettered by shackles around
their ankles.
94. Torpid (adj): dormant; inactive. Volcanoes may be torpid for centuries and then
suddenly erupt.
95. Torrid (adj): intensely hot, burning, passionate, or rapid. The torrid heat led to
the worst drought in decades.
96. Prattle (v): to babble; to talk meaninglessly. The babies prattled to each other,
and even though we couldn’t understand we thought it was adorable.
97. Balk (v): to stop short and refuse to proceed. If you’re ever forced to walk the
plank, you’ll probably try to balk at least once.
98. Assail (v): to attack violently. The cheetah assailed the gazelle to make sure it
didn’t get away.
99. Quell (v): to extinguish, to put down or suppress by force. When I forgot to do my
chores, I tried to quell my father’s anger by offering to mow the grass.
100.
Disconcert (v): to disturb the composure of; upset; to frustrate. Mark’s
new behaviors are disconcerting; we don’t want them to become a habit.