Grade 10 College Vocabulary, Week 11

Definition: An obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority.

Context (original sentence): The mule's recalcitrance delayed the whole caravan.

Synonyms:

defiance, obstinacy, intractability

Antonyms:

compliance, docility

Root:Latin recalcitrare, to kick back.

Definition: The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural); a statement of fundamental facts or principles.

From the reading: "First I'll instruct thee in the rudiments, And then wilt thou be perfecter than I." (Doctor Faustus)

KJV link: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (Colossians 2:8)

Synonyms:

basics, rudiment, alphabet

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin rudimentum, a first attempt, from rudis, unformed or untaught: the first, unformed beginnings of learning.

Definition: The state of being known for some unfavorable act or quality.

From the reading: "They hanged at Tyburn, in those days, so the street outside Newgate had not obtained one infamous notoriety that has since attached to it." (A Tale of Two Cities)

Synonyms:

infamy

Antonyms:

(none exact)

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

Definition: Great merriment.

From the reading: "My own spirits were high, and I bounded along with feelings of unbridled joy and hilarity." (Frankenstein)

Synonyms:

mirth, mirthfulness, glee

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin hilaritas: compare French hilarité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A summary of Christian doctrine in the form of questions and answers, used for teaching.

From the reading: "However my sense of duty kept me, and my knowledge of the catechism, from saying such a thing as that, or even thinking twice of it." (Lorna Doone)

Synonyms:

interrogation, examination

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin catechismus, from Gr. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Uselessness as a consequence of having no practical result.

From the reading: "By the time he was wandering in the mysterious garden again in the colours of the morning the tragic futility of his ordinary mien had fallen from him; he was a man with many reasons for happiness." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

inutility, uselessness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin futilitas: compare French futilité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Belief that union with God or knowledge of spiritual truth may be reached through contemplation; vague or ill-defined religious belief.

From the reading: "His young mind hungered for plain facts of life, after the long course of speculation and of mysticism on which he had been trained." (The White Company)

Synonyms:

religion, faith

Antonyms:

(none exact)

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

Definition: The action or art of imitating someone or something.

From the reading: "For that was just his gift—that and mimicry." (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc)

Synonyms:

apery

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek mimikos, imitative, from mimos, an actor or imitator: the art of imitating.

Definition: Intense brightness of light; exceptional talent or intelligence.

From the reading: "He thought it a torch in some one’s hand; next moment he thought it a meteor; the brilliance grew, however, until it became a star." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

glare, blaze, magnificence

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French briller, to shine, from Italian brillare, perhaps from Latin beryllus, a beryl: shining brightness.

Definition: A sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.

From the reading: "When the general urged them to their chivalric charge he half drew his sword from the scabbard; and then, as if ashamed of such melodrama, thrust it back again." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

sensationalism, theatrics

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek melos, song + drama, action or play, through French mélodrame: a play with music, then any exaggerated drama.

Definition: To remove people from a place of danger; to leave a place; to empty.

From the reading: "Thanks being returned for what we had not got, and a second hymn chanted, the refectory was evacuated for the schoolroom." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

vacate, clear, leave

Antonyms:

occupy

Root:l. evacuatus, past participle of evacuare to empty, nullify; e out + vacuus empty, vacare to be empty. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Of or relating to the process of hearing.

From the reading: "Little need, in presence of that tribunal and that auditory, to show how the Defarges had not made the paper public, with the other captured Bastille memorials borne in procession, and had kept it, biding their time." (A Tale of Two Cities)

Synonyms:

audile, auditive

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin auditorius. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Feeling great rapture or delight.

From the reading: "Pumblechook that I wished to have my new clothes sent to his house, and he was ecstatic on my so distinguishing him." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

enraptured, rapturous, rapt

Antonyms:

joyless

Root:Greek extatique. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Calm, dignified, and unhurried.

From the reading: "Jane looked a little paler than usual, but more sedate than Elizabeth had expected." (Pride and Prejudice)

Synonyms:

staid, decorous, grave

Antonyms:

indecorous, frivolous

Root:Latin sedatus, past participle of sedare, sedatum, to allay, calm, causative of sedere to sit. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Slow to understand; dull; of an angle, greater than ninety degrees.

From the reading: "One had a cat's face, One whisked a tail, One tramped at a rat's pace, One crawled like a snail, One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry, One like a ratel tumbled hurry-scurry." (In the Bleak Mid-Winter)

Synonyms:

slow, dull, dense

Antonyms:

acute, sharp

Root:Latin obtusus, p.p. of obtundere to blunt: compare French obtus. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To tangle or entangle; to unravel or fray.

From the reading: "It was a little past midday when the four-horse stage-coach by which I was a passenger, got into the ravel of traffic frayed out about the Cross Keys, Wood Street, Cheapside, London." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

tangle, snarl, fray

Antonyms:

untangle

Root:ravelen, Dutch rafelen, akin to LG. rebeln, rebbeln, reffeln. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Happening or arising without apparent external cause; said or done without having been planned or written in advance.

From the reading: "All in that region was fire and commotion; the soup and fish were in the last stage of projection, and the cook hung over her crucibles in a frame of mind and body threatening spontaneous combustion." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

self-generated, impulsive, unprompted

Antonyms:

induced, scripted

Root:Latin spontaneus, from sponte of free will, voluntarily. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Deserving hatred and contempt.

From the reading: "All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable." (Frankenstein)

Synonyms:

vile, contemptible, base

Antonyms:

admirable

Root:Latin despicabilis, from despicari to despise; akin to despicere. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To ask for or try to obtain something from someone.

From the reading: "To what strange nations shalt not thou resort, Driv’n to solicit aid at ev’ry court!" (The Aeneid)

Synonyms:

request, seek, petition

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin sollicitare, to agitate.

Definition: To make known private or secret information.

From the reading: "Under the weight of my wicked secret, I pondered whether the Church would be powerful enough to shield me from the vengeance of the terrible young man, if I divulged to that establishment." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

disclose, reveal, betray

Antonyms:

conceal, hide

Root:French divulguer, Latin divulgare; di- = dis- + vulgare to spread among the people, from vulgus the common people. (Webster, 1913)