Grade 10 College Vocabulary, Week 31

Definition: The act of competing as for profit or a prize.

From the reading: "There is no folly so besotted that the idiotic rivalries of society, the prurience, the rashness, the blindness of youth, will not hurry a man to its commission." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

competition, contention

Antonyms:

cooperation

Root:Latin rivalis, one who uses the same stream, from rivus, a brook + -ry: competition, as between neighbors sharing a stream.

Definition: The act of calling on God in prayer; a prayer at the opening of a service.

From the reading: "We are true to those who trust us; and we have heard the invocations of thy father, the sage Mithrasp, who wisely worships not alone the Origin of Good, but that which is called the Source of Evil." (The Talisman)

Synonyms:

prayer, supplication, petition

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French invocation, Latin invocatio. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A small or minor detail.

From the reading: "It should be remembered, however, that heraldry had only its first rude origin during the crusades, and that all the minutiae of its fantastic science were the work of time, and introduced at a much later period." (Ivanhoe)

Synonyms:

detail, item

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin, from minutus small, minute. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: An ostentatious and inappropriate display of learning.

From the reading: "His gentleness was never tinged by dogmatism, and his instructions were given with an air of frankness and good nature that banished every idea of pedantry." (Frankenstein)

Synonyms:

pedantism, hairsplitting, bookishness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

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

Definition: A certain degree of unwillingness; a feeling of diffidence and indecision about doing something.

From the reading: "To have secret plottings of this sort going on in our midst was a very serious business, of course, and the knights asked Joan’s permission to hang the plotters, but she refused without hesitancy." (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc)

Synonyms:

hesitance, reluctance, hesitation

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin haesitantia a stammering. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A state of extreme confusion and disorder.

From the reading: "He could not see whether the dreaded snakes were on the trail, or, in the pandemonium, hear the rattle for which McLean had cautioned him to listen." (Freckles)

Synonyms:

chaos, bedlam, uproar

Antonyms:

order, calm

Root:Greek pan, all + daimon, demon, coined by Milton in Paradise Lost as the capital of hell: a place or state of wild uproar.

Definition: Everyone being of one mind.

From the reading: "Or will you use the solemn procession, adopted for the reparation of your honour and establishment of unanimity amongst the discording princes, as the means of again finding out new cause of offence, or reviving ancient quarrels?" (The Talisman)

Synonyms:

agreement, accord

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin unanimitas: compare French unanimité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The property of being multiple; a large number.

From the reading: "A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses." (Frankenstein)

Synonyms:

numerousness, numerosity

Antonyms:

(none exact)

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

Definition: A scale or series of successive changes or degrees.

From the reading: "Yet soon after, it advanced nearer, and I could see the sides of it encompassed with several gradations of galleries, and stairs, at certain intervals, to descend from one to the other." (Gulliver's Travels, Parts I-II)

Synonyms:

step, grade, graduation

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin gradatio: compare French gradation. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Uneasiness about the fitness of an action; a mild state of nausea.

From the reading: "His cunning was fresh with the day, and his qualms were gone with the night--in which particulars it is not improbable that he had compeers in Fleet-street and the City of London, that fine morning." (A Tale of Two Cities)

Synonyms:

scruple, misgiving, queasiness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English (Anglo-Saxon) cwealm death, slaughter, pestilence, akin to OS. & OHG. qualm. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The state of being cancelled or annulled; the act (by someone having the authority) of annulling something previously done.

From the reading: "If any thought that now, in that solemn hour when all transgressors repent and confess, she would revoke her revocation and say her great deeds had been evil deeds and Satan and his fiends their source, they erred." (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc)

Synonyms:

annulment

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin revocatio: compare French révocation. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: An inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others; an exaggerated opinion of your own importance.

From the reading: "As a punishment for your egotism, that portion must be given to our faithful dogs." (The Swiss Family Robinson)

Synonyms:

self-importance, ego

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin ego I + ending -tism for -ism, prob. influenced by other English words in -tism from the Greek, where t is not part of the ending, as baptism. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The humanistic study of language and literature.

From the reading: "As for the philology of them, that is but a circle of tales, and therefore not fit for this writing." (Essays)

Synonyms:

linguistics

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin philologia love of learning, interpretation, philology, Greek philologie. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Unrighteousness by virtue of lacking respect for a god.

From the reading: "In his view, nevertheless, it was not an impiety to look for the beautiful in the Grove of Daphne." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

impiousness

Antonyms:

piety

Root:Latin impietas, from impius impious; compare French impiété. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The state of being lax; looseness, especially of moral standards or discipline.

From the reading: "Yet this may have been from no ill will; but simply that having fallen under suspicion of laxity, they were compelled, in self-defence, now to be over-zealous." (Lorna Doone)

Synonyms:

laxness, remissness, slackness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin laxitas, from laxus, loose: looseness.

Definition: A violation or infringement of a law or agreement.

From the reading: "A rose lay beside her, and if she now and then glanced at the flower, it was with no infraction of her usual preoccupied air." (A Tale of Two Cities)

Synonyms:

misdemeanor, misdemeanour, violation

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin infractio: compare French infraction. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A short sentence sung or recited before or after a psalm or canticle; a verse sung in response.

From the reading: "And what could be finer than the setting he gives to the antiphon, O Oriens Splendor, at the end of the second act?" (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play)

Synonyms:

antiphony

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Late Latin antiphona, from Greek Anthem. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The state of being banished or ostracized (excluded from society by general consent); the act of excluding someone from society by general consent.

From the reading: "For public envy, is as an ostracism, that eclipseth men, when they grow too great." (Essays)

Synonyms:

banishment, Coventry

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek Ostracize. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Assistance in time of difficulty.

From the reading: "How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?" (2 Corinthians 3:8)

Synonyms:

relief, succor, succour

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin ministratio, from ministrare. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Reckless lack of restraint; willful cruelty.

From the reading: "For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error." (2 Peter 2:18)

Synonyms:

abandon, unconstraint, licentiousness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Middle English wan-, lacking + towen, trained or brought up (Old English togen, drawn): undisciplined; reckless lack of restraint.