Grade 10 College Vocabulary, Week 10

Definition: To speak or recite in an impassioned, rhetorical way.

From the reading: "Cicero reports that Demosthenes declaimed against the noise of the waves so that his voice could later master a noisy assembly." (the lesson)

Synonyms:

recite, inveigh

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin declamare; de- + clamare to cry out: compare French déclamer. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Characterized by great caution and wariness.

From the reading: "This will I keep as chary as my life." (Doctor Faustus)

Synonyms:

cagey, cagy, cautious

Antonyms:

incautious

Root:Old English (Anglo-Saxon) cearig careful, from cearu care. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Gaiety and fun; laughter and lighthearted joy.

From the reading: "Well, I'm content to compass then some sport, And by their folly make us merriment." (Doctor Faustus)

Synonyms:

gaiety, fun, playfulness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:English merry (Old English myrige, pleasant) + -ment, the state of: the state of being merry.

Definition: A ritual recitation of words or sounds believed to have a magical effect.

From the reading: "Thanks, Mephistophilis: yet fain would I have a book wherein I might behold all spells and incantations, that I might raise up spirits when I please." (Doctor Faustus)

Synonyms:

conjuration

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin incantatio, from incantare to chant a magic formula over one: compare French incantation. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To become or make more intense.

From the reading: "“I believe it looks kind of nubby,” encouraged the Angel, backing away, with her face all screwed into a twist in an effort to intensify her vision." (Freckles)

Synonyms:

escalate, compound, heighten

Antonyms:

de-escalate

Root:Intense + -fly. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Relating to soil or sand deposited by flowing rivers or floods.

From the reading: "Here is also a nugget or ingot, and here are some small pieces gathered out of certain alluvial soils in Brazil, Mexico, California, and the Uralian districts of Russia." (The Chemical History of a Candle)

Synonyms:

(none exact)

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Cf. French alluvial. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The state of demanding notice or attention; continual and persistent demands.

From the reading: "But now, what with the fame of the Doones, and my own recollections, and Uncle Ben's insistence, all my attention was called forth, and the end was simple astonishment." (Lorna Doone)

Synonyms:

insisting, imperativeness, insistency

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin insistere, to stand upon, from in-, on + sistere, to stand: standing firm on a demand.

Definition: A judgment of not guilty.

From the reading: "After the acquittal she disappeared, and thus he lost the child and the child’s mother.” “I want to ask—” “A moment, my dear boy, and I have done." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

exoneration, clearing, release

Antonyms:

conviction

Root:Old French aquiter, to settle a debt, from a-, to + quite, free (Latin quietus, at rest): a setting free from a charge.

Definition: A chaotic din caused by a crowd of people.

From the reading: "Such a hubbub in the nests, Such a bustle and squeak!" (In the Bleak Mid-Winter)

Synonyms:

uproar, din, commotion

Antonyms:

quiet, calm

Root:Cf. Whoobub, Whoop, Hoop, v. i. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A requirement of etiquette or custom; a manner that strictly observes all forms and ceremonies.

From the reading: "Miss Havisham?” “Which I say, sir,” replied Joe, with an air of legal formality, as if he were making his will, “Miss A., or otherways Havisham." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

formalities, formalness

Antonyms:

informality

Root:Cf. French formalité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The act of consummating something (a desire or promise etc); a feeling of satisfaction at having achieved your desires.

From the reading: "It is not unlikely that he might, after all, have intended to forgive them, and have given the Queen the grace of obtaining their pardon, so as to excuse himself from the fulfillment of some over-hasty threat." (A Book of Golden Deeds)

Synonyms:

fulfilment

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Written also fulfilment. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A solemn religious rite, such as baptism or the Lord's Supper, regarded as an outward sign of inward grace.

From the reading: "Now, will ye send for a priest, that we may receive our sacrament, and receive the blessed body of our Lord Jesus Christ?" (Le Morte d'Arthur, selected)

Synonyms:

religious ceremony, religious ritual

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin sacramentum an oath, a sacred thing, a mystery, a sacrament, from sacrare to declare as sacred, sacer sacred: compare French sacrament. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Unrestrained merrymaking.

From the reading: "But at night came his revelry: at night he closed his shutters, and made fast his doors, and drew forth his gold." (Silas Marner)

Synonyms:

revel

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A condition in which everything is regular and unvarying; the quality of lacking diversity or variation (even to the point of boredom).

From the reading: "Of Building HOUSES are built to live in, and not to look on; therefore let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had." (Essays)

Synonyms:

uniformness

Antonyms:

nonuniformity

Root:Latin uniformitas: compare French uniformité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The desertion of one's country or cause in favor of an opposing one.

From the reading: "Kitty and Lydia take his defection much more to heart than I do." (Pride and Prejudice)

Synonyms:

desertion, betrayal, abandonment

Antonyms:

loyalty

Root:Latin defectio: compare French défection. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: An unhealthy preoccupation with gloomy or unpleasant subjects, especially death.

From the reading: "Quinton was a genius, if a morbid one; and even his morbidity appeared more in his life than in his work." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

morbidness, unwholesomeness

Antonyms:

wholesomeness

Root:Latin morbidus, diseased, from morbus, disease: an unhealthy or diseased state of mind.

Definition: Ambition to equal or excel; effort to equal or surpass another.

From the reading: "Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies," (Galatians 5:20)

Synonyms:

ambition, aspiration

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin aemulatio: compare French émulation. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The cancellation of a debt or penalty; forgiveness of sins; a lessening in the intensity of a disease.

From the reading: "John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." (Mark 1:4)

Synonyms:

forgiveness, pardon; abatement

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French rémission, Latin remissio. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Wealth regarded as an evil influence or false object of worship, as in the words of Christ that one cannot serve God and mammon.

From the reading: "And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." (Luke 16:9)

Synonyms:

Mammon

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin mammona, Greek mam; compare Heb. matm a hiding place, subterranean storehouse, treasury, from taman to hide. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: An instance of oratory.

From the reading: "And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them." (Acts 12:21)

Synonyms:

oratory

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin oratio, from orare to speak, utter, pray. (Webster, 1913)